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With their new song, “The Saints are Coming,” Green Day and U2 collaborate in this video to envision an alternate history in which the US military comes to rescue New Orleans. Of course the dig is against Bush who couldn’t mobilize the military for peaceful purposes for the obvious reason that soldiers and resources are [...]

Today I walked by the now-closed CBGB’s and was struck by how the storefront shutters have become a bit of a memorial. You can click on the thumbnails to see larger versions. Note the graffiti on the wider shot that reads, “New York is Dead.” There was a U-Haul truck outside and people inside [...]

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You have to hand it to the commodities system for being so effective at absorbing dissent. But also credit the media literacy movement for making the misrepresentation of beauty in commercial media a contentious issue. For over a year now Dove has been running its “Real Beauty” campaign, the above video being its latest salvo. [...]

This is a book everyone should buy! There’s a lot of moanin’ and pissin’ out there, including myself, and these guys have the audacity to think up solutions. Go figure!
Some topics it covers:
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century:
# You (which presents introductory [...]

Be forewarned, a movie about magic employs the principle technique of enchantment: misdirection. Thus any film claiming to be about magic has as its subtext the fact of the film itself, which is a carefully constructed illusion, just as any Hollywood motion picture about spectacle is ultimately self-referential (such as Gladiator being a veiled commentary [...]

These days Martin Luther King Jr. has been so drained of meaning that he is cynically appropriated by parties as diverse as the Republicans and Chevy (some of you may have seen the recent John Mellencamp Chevy ad (click here to view) that argues through its strategic deployment of symbols that Chevy and American dissent [...]

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This is the most devastating documentary about war profiteering I have ever seen, exposing yet another batch of Bush cronies in what should go down as the worse criminal enterprise of the century. You must see it. I warn you, though, it is distressing beyond what a human with a modicum of decency can normally [...]

AdAge has this great chart on media ownership. Check out and download the corporate family tree here. You can also read the article here. The most obvious news is the increasing migration of $$$ to the Internet. Traditional media companies- newspapers and broadcast TV- are not looking so good these days.

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Rock Tours Damaging Environment, Says Radiohead Singer:
The boredom caused by endless hours on the tour bus and a succession of anonymous hotel rooms are well known problems, but rock stars on tour now have something else to grumble about: the environmental impact.
Thom Yorke, singer with Radiohead, yesterday hit out at the “ridiculous” use of energy [...]

Here’s an image from the New York Post editorial: “A Dark Globalism.” It was the featured image in the print version. You have to click through the embedded slide show to get to the picture. It reminds me of the wicked kid trope in recent horror films, as if Muslim children are inherently evil. [...]

Yesterday I had a conversation with someone whose opinion I really respect (Vic!), and basically he disagrees with two major points I’ve made here on the blog. First, he thinks that the closing of CBGB’s is lamentable, and second, it’s not cool to say to people who got into punk after hardcore’s heyday that they [...]

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SNL does CBGB’s 
I was over by CBGBs today and I saw a ton of people taking pictures. Now I know why.
New York club CBGB hosting final concert - Yahoo! News:
NEW YORK - CBGB was to host its final concert Sunday night after a 33-year residence in downtown New York as the iconic, grungy bastion of [...]

I liken hardcore punk to Abstract Expressionism. What punk was to stadium rock, monochrome canvases were to figurative art. Hardcore was sneakers, jeans, T-shirts, crew cuts, and little else. It was sped-up three-chord rock without intros or outros and abbreviated bridges. Songs rarely lasted more than a minute. It was pure gesture, unadulterated aggression. Basically, it was diametrically opposed to Hollywood, so it is ironic that hardcore originally emanated out of Southern California.

I had a chance to see Center for Digital Democracy’s Jeff Chester at the ACME Summit and I think he is way ahead of the curve in understanding what is really happening with the convergence between new digital media technology and mega-media corporations. His talk was chilling and got me to reconsider my participation [...]

José Ignacio López Vigil and the Radio Venceremos crew (nice hair!)

More from the ACME summit. It was fun to reconnect with Jonathan and Susan from Reclaim the Media, folks I met several years ago in New Mexico at the first ACME conference. They are radio and indy media activists who told me of a really [...]

Apparently some homies take the idea of munchies very seriously. (Thanks Dan!)
File under, “Only in New Mexico.” From the AP:
Oct 11, 6:14 PM EDT
Police Find Burgers Sprinkled With Pot
LOS LUNAS, N.M. (AP) — Three workers at a Burger King restaurant were arrested after two Isleta tribal police officers discovered that the hamburgers they ordered were [...]

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(H/T to Steve on the heads-up for the ad!)
Last weekend I was at the ACME media activist conference giving a workshop on eco-media and had a chance to hang out with Mitch Altman, creator of the most awesome stocking stuffer, TV-B-Gone. This week he was also on WBAI’s “Off the Hook” (a hacktivist radio program) [...]

Who could imagine that tanks could be so cute! Assembled by Danish artist Marianne Jørgensen, the tank cosy consists of 3000 pieces made by women from all over the world. Talk about the coalition of the willing! Read more.

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From Teen Vogue (above)
They say they’re gonna fix my brain
Alleviate my suffering and my pain
But by the time they fix my head
Mentally I’ll be dead
I’m not crazy - institutionalized
You’re the one who’s crazy - institutionalized
You’re driving me crazy - institutionalized
They stuck me in an institution
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional [...]