My apologies to those of you who check in here often regarding the light posting lately. Had a bunch of out-of-town company last week, spent this week catching up on firewood and chipping that I should have done during those two rainy weeks.
Leaving for Washington State on Thursday. I'm going to try my best to have a few things posted for you all, and will do my best to check in out there when I can. Gonna try to have another film review up soon, and will hopefully do some photoblogging when possible. Rest assured, when I get back, it will be business as usual here, so be sure to check in from time to time. I just hit 1,400 wisitors recently...thanks for stopping by.
click here for the new...
FIVE BEFORE CHAOS HAS OFFICIALLY MOVED TO A BIGGER AND BETTER PLACE! PLEASE CLICK THE ABOVE BANNER TO GET THERE, AND DON'T FORGET TO BOOKMARK THE NEW LOCATION. THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!
FIVE BEFORE CHAOS HAS OFFICIALLY MOVED TO A BIGGER AND BETTER PLACE! PLEASE CLICK THE ABOVE BANNER TO GET THERE, AND DON'T FORGET TO BOOKMARK THE NEW LOCATION. THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!Monday, June 26, 2006
Blogging light, but stay tuned.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
NEKMF!!!!
Ok, just wanted to let any of you in the northeastern U.S. know about the upcoming 4th Annual Northeast Kingdom Music Festival, not sponsored by Pepsi or affiliated with Ticketmaster or Clear Channel or any of those other corporations that have killed live music. It's a homespun good ol' fashined music festival in the middle of VT's beautiful Northeast Kingdom. My band played the very first one four years ago, withs some noteworthy acts such as The Headhunters and Soulive. Once again there's a diverse lineup. The headliners this year are the Afro-funk NYC band Antibalas and the gypsy-punk Gogol Bordello.
Lots of other genres, too - folk, bluegrass, hip hop, etc, as well as some good Vermont consciousness and Bread and Puppet.
You can get tickets by going to www.nekmf.com, and the festivities are happening August 4th and 5th. It keeps getting bigger every year, so why not help that continue? A splendid time is guaranteed for all.
Sam Harris Quote of the Day
“Tell a devout Christian his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen
yoghurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much
evidence as anybody else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that
you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by
an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he
fails to accept its every incredible claim, and he seems to require no
evidence whatsoever.”
yoghurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much
evidence as anybody else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that
you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by
an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he
fails to accept its every incredible claim, and he seems to require no
evidence whatsoever.”
http://www.samharris.org
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
The Air's Getting a Bit Thick in Here
Getting outraged by the news is a normal occurrence around here... Last night, I had a killer headache and went downstairs to read the paper. This article in the Times Argus got my blood boiling, called 'Air Quality Reached Unhealthy Levels'. Apparently that nasty muggy day we had on Sunday was a bit nastier than I realized.
"Vermont is experiencing its highest levels of highly polluted air in nearly five years... The episode of polluted air was due to a high pressure system that brought in air originally from the Midwest where it was exposed to sulfur dioxide from burning coal. The stagnant hot air allowed possibly dangerous particles to slowly build up over a couple days in all of Vermont and upstate New York. These particles, referred to as pm 2.5 (particles less than 2.5 microns in size) tend to build up under hot conditions."Vermont is, undoubtedly, one of the cleanest states in the country, due to our low population, quantity of trees, and lack of major polluting industries. That's why this burns my britches even more. We're doing things right here and have to breathe the shitty air brought on from coal-fired plants in the Midwest. And it's only going to get worse. As global warming increases, scientists from Harvard believe that it will exacerbate pollution in our area, due to the lack of cooling winds that come down from Canada and blow the nasty stuff away.
"Mickley and colleagues found that the frequency of cold fronts bringing cool, clear air out of Canada during summer months declined about 20 percent. These cold fronts, Mickley said, are responsible for breaking up hot, stagnant air that builds up regularly in summer, generating high levels of ground-level ozone pollution...If this model is correct, global warming would cause an increase in difficult days for those affected by ozone pollution, such as people suffering with respiratory illnesses like asthma and those doing physical labor or exercising outdoors," Mickley says."And Vermont's hilly topography easily creates little pockets of stale air. I don't know why I'm worried, I'm sure the Bush administration is working on the problem with it's 'Clear Skies Initiative' that it touted a few years back. Oh, wait... this is Bushworld here, so expect the opposite of whatever is said. A quick look at it from the Sierra Club shows that, among other things, by the 15th year of the plan, we'll have 450,000 more tons of nitrogen oxide, 1 million more tons of sulfur dioxide, and 9.5 more tons of mercury allowed than under the enforcement of the existing Clean Air Act programs. It gets better: it delays the enforcement of soot and smog standards until 2015, creates loopholes for existing power plants, and most importantly, restricts the power of states to call for an end to pollution from upwind sources from other states. SO, if we can put up with this nasty air for about 10 more years, everything should be just fine.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Farsightedness
I've been having a bit of an email dialogue with one of my friends out in Oakland. We played together in several bands over the years, were in an affinity group a few years ago, and got arrested at the WTO minesterial in Montreal a few years ago (yee ha, we sure threw a cog in the wheel of the New World Order on that one!). He's a great, funny guy, and we've been talking about the goings on in South America, of which he seems to be very hopeful for, although he is aware of the romanticism of it all. He's travelled quite a bit there recently. He doesn't think anything will get better in the world until capitalism is brought down, with all of the misery and such that it brings.
Now, my point of this is I hear this argument (if one could call it that) a lot from some of my more anarchist-socialist leaning buddies, and I agree with them. But here's the kicker. I never hear a plan. Ever. It's as if I were to ramble on about how someday we won't have a need for religion because humanity will finally see through the fictions and stuff and realize one can reach that kind of bliss and be a good person without resorting to belief in fairy tales, but I never talk about how we're going to get rid of such a deeply ingrained belief system. And that's a problem I see with many on the far left. It's like we're at point 'A' in time right now, and they're at point 'Q'. What does point 'B' look like? How do we get anywhere when this belief we espouse isn't even a blip on the radar of most of the public? And that many people like being able to spend $4000 on a television set, and even the ones living in barely-standing mobile homes still manage to find money for their 500 channels of shit every month? And the sad truth that most Americans are so insulated from the effects of their affluence that they wouldn't give enough of a shit to change thier lifestyles even if they did? It's really frustrating, and it really ties into the idealism that ties our hands on the left.
You've heard me rant about it before; we can't seem to really get past talking about the way the world should be enough to have a plan to make it that way. And even if the stuff in Latin America is the real deal, it's not going to work here in that form. America is a different planet. Che was a Stalinist who killed a lot of people, and that's not a right-wing thing, it's just history. Chavez might be alleviating poverty in Venezuela or he might just be another lightweight dictator who talks about it. Get over it.
Stop telling me how it should be. I know that already. Give me some kind of clue that you know how we're going to get us there, because, to be quite honest, I don't think that many of you have any more of a clue than I do. Howzabout how we're going to survive two and a half more years of this asshole president? Do any of you know? If not, then why the hell should I listen to you about what it will be like when the walls of capitalism come crashing down? Do you have a clue as to how thick and titanium-reinforced those walls are? Are we going to even be around long enough to enjoy it?
Is Mexico next?
The leftiness south of the border could be spreading to our doorstep. There is a distinct possibility that the leftist Mexican presidential candidate Manuel Lopez Obrador is gaining in the polls. Now, this is news to me, but from a preliminary peek around, although he has put much emphasis on his campaign in ending poverty, (his slogan is "For the Good of Everyone, the Poor First"), he's no Chavez. There's no talk of nationalization of the natural resources, anti-American rhetoric, and the like. One premise that sounds promising, though is he has talked about renegotiating abysmal trade deals such as NAFTA and such. I'll be following this one. Anything that has the elite class nervous can't be all that bad.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Detroit 9000
Time for an installment of 'a modern white guy's take on '70s black cinema' (for my introduction to the beloved 'blaxplotation' genre, have a read of my review of 'Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song' here). Today it's 1973's 'Detroit 9000'. Now, as I do more of these film reviews, I find that the easy part seems to be the commentary about subtexts, message, moviemaking details and such, and the hard part for me is the summary. Often, I watch these late at night, and I'm not neceessarily taking notes. Here's a quick summary from Blaxploitation.com: $400,000 dollars in donations and jewelry is stolen by a masked gang from a fundraising dinner in honor of black congressman Aubrey Clayton. The case is given to veteran detective Danny Bassett, a complex character who has to support his mentally-ill wife. He is partnered with up-and-coming black detective Jesse Williams, a move that provokes Bassett's resentment as he wants to take the credit for solving the case himself. Williams makes the initial investigation lead to an old acquintance, call girl Roby Harris, who provides crucial information about a homicide victim and a related operation for handling stolen goods. Roby is also in touch with pimp Ferdy, who she alerts that the police are on to him; this leads to her murder as his henchmen catch up with her. Williams arrives too late to prevent the fatal shots but Rody confesses while dying that she provided the vital information for the intial robbery after hearing about the fundraising dinner while turning a trick with Clayton. Bassett discovers that the fence for the goods is holed up in a cruise ship and substitutes himself for the gang member who was supposed to be taking the jewelry to the ship...
Ok, now with that out of the way, some background. This was one of those films that Quentin Tarantino, who has many times stated the influence of the blaxploitation genre on his own films, rereleased under his 'Rolling Thunder Pictures' line. He even gave it a brief cinematic release a few years ago. That would explain the high quality restoration. It is crisp and clear, and looks great.
The film stars Hari Rhodes and Alex Rocco. You'll recognize Rocco as Moe Green, the mobster who got shot in the eye at the end of The Godfather. Now, as I get more into the genre, I seem to see two camps here. There is the over-the-top, super explotative kind of film such as Foxy Brown, replete with tons of stereotypes, T&A, violence, pimps and such, and then there's the straight-ahead crime drama that they put the focus on black characters instead of white ones, and although racial issues are often touched upon, it is not the end-all be all focus of the film. Shaft could easily fall into this category, Shaft in Africa, probably not. And there are varying degrees between the two. Detroit 9000 leans towards the second example. Motivations of the police are always in question, and always framed in terms of race(as in all of these films). In terms of quality, this film is all over the map. Like many in this genre, it was mostly released in theaters targeting black audiences. The acting from the leads is exceptional and professional, the acting in some of the other characters is pretty bad. Lots of really fake looking blood. Not much else to say about the story, other than it was a pretty good crime drama, and the ending was good, because it left you with some questions as to the motivations of the white cop, Bassett, a guy struggling to stay an honest cop in the face of a personal crisis involving his crippled wife.
Now with me, the allure for these films is often the campy factor, as well as satisfying my obsession with time, meaning I really enjoy looking at the look of the period, and Detroit 9000 delivers on that. The gritty, shitty backdrop of early 70's Detroit is often reminiscent of a third-world country (there is a particular chase scene that shows a lot of it in all of its abandoned ugliness). There's the obligatory garishly dressed pimp (although none hold a candle to 'George the Pimp' in Coffy). The music was pretty good, alternating between typical jazz-funk of the period and some really great funk-gospel by a female band. The thing that does set this apart from some of the other in the genre is the lack of over-the-top-exploitation. Every once and a while, it stops feeling like a B-movie. It's worth checking out. Plus, where else can you see a suit like this? -
Smell my aura...
Quick 'what's dumb today' post. Had a friend of a friend go to an interview at some vegan cookie company. Things were going well, until the person was asked what their zodiac sign was. Apparently, it wasn't the right one because they were told they couldn't be hired because their particular sign would 'create conflict' on the job. Is that all that different from "We don't hire Jews/blacks etc?" Idiocy is not limited to Christianity, I guess. I can't imagine wanting to work for a company that is run by people so far removed from reality.
Yep, you were right , Ed. I blogged it.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Rainy Saturday Catblogging
Here's Pooh, with his intense stare. He seems to do this whenever we're cooking. He reminds me of the master chef checking in on the kitchen every now and then:
And here' s the one you haven't seen yet, Miranda, also known as Fanny Mae:
And here' s the one you haven't seen yet, Miranda, also known as Fanny Mae:
Friday, June 9, 2006
Christofascist idiot watch update!
Yep, it' s that time again, people. So much idiocy, so little time before the Rapture, eh?
First up, it's the 'who would Jesus bomb?' category, where police in Maryland have foiled a plan to bomb an abortion clinic. I don't know about you, both nothing to me exemplifies Christian kindness more than this:
"According to an ATF affidavit, Weiler planned to bomb an abortion clinic in Greenbelt and use a .40-caliber handgun he had stolen from a friend to “shoot doctors who provided abortions.”
Apparently this jerkoff got caught when one of his homemade bombs went off in his friend's house. Who knew God had such a sense of humor?
Next up, the single most pressing, important issue to ever face our nation, and no, I don't mean the preservation of Hitler's brain and the upcoming Rise of the Fourth Reich... I'm talkin' 'bout gay marriage. As you probably know by now, the GOP spent a good portion of the week pushing their effort to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage, since apparently everything else in America is just fine. The war in Iraq is over, gas is back down to 1.10 a gallon, the earth is once agin cooling off, and I'm enjoying that new universal healthcare plan they just adopted. You know the story, they're tanking in the polls, and it's time to wave some bloody flesh in front of the knuckle-dragging, pea-brained GOP base. Funny thing is, it might not work this time. But at least we can all rest easy at night knowing that 'there's never been a homosexual relationship in the recorded history' of Senator James Inhofe's family. Whew, I was really worried about that one there.
Now, I must admit to having enjoyed a few ultra-super-violent video games. In fact, I still do. So what. Needless to say, I was thrilled to the gills to hear about 'Left Behind: The Video Game'. As you probably know, the 'Left Behind' series is a series of books written by Tim LaHaye and some other nutjob whose name I can't remember, where all the good Christian sheeple are whisked away in the Rapture, and the remaining ones are stuck on earth to battle it out with the antiChrist or something like that. Scary thing is, these books are ridiculously popular, as in record-breeakingly popular. You can find them at Wal-mart next to other classy literature such as the latest Dr. Phil book. Anyways the point of the game is, according to the people over at Talk to Action, is:
"Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission -- both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state -- especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice."
Sounds like fun to me. Sound like they really got the 'Jesus is the Prince of Peace' vibe down good, dontcha think? The one upside to the game is you can also come back as the anti-Christ and wreak the same terrors on the Christoidiots in the game.
And, finally, for a laugh, check out the 'Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk' Photoshop contest by the funny people at Fark.
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Happenings...
Well, our jazz fest gig was even better than expected. Everyone played really well, and the energy was great. And we got asked back for a weekend instead of a weeknight. So that will be fun. We'll see how that goes. It seems like it could be a low commitment/high fun kinda deal, which is exactly what I want.
Get this... I'm the campaign manager for a VT State Senate campaign. Yup, that's right. It's for the former state rep from my town, smart leftie Democrat, in the good place on the issues. It's been a lot of fun, so far, not always easy. Part of the challenge is winning votes in the blue-collar, more socially conservative towns. I'm hoping that's where my rabid love and knowledge of political strategy will work out. I'm getting to meet a lot of people in the VT political establishment. A few weeks ago we had dinner with Doug Racine, who was the lieutenant governor under Howard Dean. We had a few beers and burgers and got some advice. Last week we met with Democracy for America, the grassroots organization that rose from the Dean presidential campaign. We might do some things with Bernie Sanders as well as some of the statewide Democratic candidates. Now that the cat's out of the bag, I'll keep you all posted as interesting things occur.
In other news, 3 weeks until vacation. Jenni and I are going to Washington state. We're getting into Seattle, then driving the North Cascades Scenic Highway. 2 nights of camping, then we're going to Stehekin. Stehekin is a small community with about 100 permanent residents that can only be reached by trail, horseback or a 55-mile boat ride, which is how we're getting there. No phones. We're going to stay at a lodge for a few nights, then backpack one night, then two more nights at the lodge. While there, we're gonna go boating, horseback riding and mountain biking. Then, it's back to Seattle for the weekend(I have a good longtime friend there). Then, out to the Olympic Peninsula for 2 or 3 more nights. That's kind of open ended, maybe the San Juan islands, or a night in the Olympic Forest and a night in the Hoh River Rainforest. Then back to Seattle for a few more nights, then home. It's gonna be quite the adventure for both of us. I was out there in 2000, when I went to the rainforest and I also climbed Mt. St Helens (which you currently can't do due to volcanic activity). Jenni spent 3 weeks in Italy in '01, but it wasn't a backpacking/camping kind of thing, so this will definitely be a new experience for her. We're both really looking forward to this.
The Stehekin Valley
Some mountain view from the Agnes Gorge trail, where we might backpack.Monday, June 5, 2006
My Name is Nobody
Ok, it's spaghetti western time. Today, it's 1973's 'My Name is Nobody', directed by Tonino Valerii, a former assistant to the man who elevated the Italian western to an art form, Sergio Leone. The film also gives Leone credit for production, and the idea of the film, and he did direct some of the scenes.The film stars the legendary Henry Fonda as Jack Beauregard, an aging expert gunfighter, who is eager to retire, and Terrence Hill (real name Mario Girotti), who 
stars as happy-go-lucky lighning fast shot named 'Nobody', who idolizes Beauregard,and is constantly trying to convince him to go out in a blaze of glory to be in the history books instead of quiet retirement. Nobody, through a few wily implemetations, arranges this to happen.
Now, this film came out in '73. At this point, the Italian Western genre was fading out. The politically charged 'Zapata Westerns' had given way to a more lighthearted, 'comedy western', where this definitely falls into.. Terrence Hill had just struck it big with "They Call Me Trinity', another quite successful comedy western (which, apparently he was chosen for because of his resemblance to the other Italian western star, the then-unavailable Franco Nero). And for me, that is where I wasn't too enamored with it. I have very mixed feelings about this film...
On the positives, there is the Leone-esque breathtaking wide landscape cinematography. There was a particular scene where the 'Wild Bunch', the team of 150 gunfighters that Jack is supposed to take on, are riding through the sand dunes in the desert. Absolutely beautiful scenery, framed just right, and there are a lot of other great wideshots in the film as well. It was filmed in (where else?) Almeria, Spain, as well as New Mexico and Colorado. Henry Fonda was pretty damn good, although nothing for me will ever top his character of Frank, the bad guy in Leone's 'Once Upon A Time in the West'. Terrence Hill goes between charming and kind of annoying, for there doesn't seem to be a single scene where his character is serious, even for a moment (I know, it's a comedy-he's not supposed to be). I've read elewhere that this was Leone's interpretation of some of the American westerns he had seen earlier. If you're looking for a particular message, such as those in his previous films, it is quite hard to find. This film did quite well upon its release, and Terrence Hill has said it was one of his favorite films he's worked in. And it was Henry Fonda's last western.
The score is by Ennio Morricone, who scored all of Leone's films, and I have to say, on this one it kind of sounds like he was ripping himself off. There's one particular theme that sounds almost identical to Frank's theme in Once Upon a Time in the West, and other passages sound a bit too much like his work from Companeros, Giu La Testa, and the Dollars films. Maybe that was intentional. It's still a Morricone spaghetti western score, so I can't complain too much, but it's not his most original.
Now, as funny as I like to think I am, I'm not really a fan of comedic films, and when I do, it's more of the dry British humor type that I tend to like. If you know anything about Italian comedy, it's heavy on the slapstick (even today, I hear). There's plenty of scenes of people falling down, getting hit with things and rolling their eyes as they fall down, and even a few of the 'sped up camera' type of thing going on here. I'm not too fond of that stuff, but many people are, and that said, I think a lot of people looking for a lighthearted laugh will enjoy this movie. SO if you're looking for a movie with some laughs that doesn't take itself too seriously, yet still has many of the trademarks that you love about Italian westerns, check this out. If you're into the more intense, serious variety, this probably won't be your bag.
The original New York Times review here (registration required).
Friday, June 2, 2006
See what I mean?
Good catch by Concordia Dis... apparently those stats on Venezuela were right out of the CIA World facts book. The US propaganda machine hits everywhere. So I don't really know if they should be taken seriously or not. Time for more homework, I guess. Show the brother some love at Concordia Dis.
I don't want to beat the South American politics thing to death for those of you that would rather read about Spaghetti Westerns, the latest Christianist idiocy, or my general pathetic attempts at snarkiness, so I'll move on for a bit, but we're coming back to it.
Thursday, June 1, 2006
More Chavez
More dribbles and drabs... A poster in the last installment posted some statistics about Venezuela, regarding comparisons before and after Chavez. The statistics were cited from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, a Jesuit university in Venezuela. Their site is in Spanish, so I couldn't really get more information about the research behind the stats, so I can't vouch for the the accuracy of them, but they do in many ways mirror what I have read elsewhere. A few:
1998: 49% of the Venezuelan population was poor.
2005: 57.9% of the Venezuelan population is poor.
That is a 8.9% increase in poverty since Chavez took office.
The GDP per head has decreased dramatically:
GDP 1998* *(PPP): US$8.500
GDP 2005 ***(PPP): US$6,500
However, Venezuela made 43% more money in 2005 than it made in 1998.
Venezuela’s revenue for 1998: US$ 35 billion
Venezuela’s oil earnings for 2005: US$ 81 billion.
Population grew, but not in a rate proportional to the revenue increase.
Population 1998: 22,803,409 ******
Population 2006: 25,730,435 *******
Increased 12%
Like I said, I can't verify the accuracy of these but if there's any truth to them, it seems like there may be something to that 'lip service' I mentioned previously, i.e. play the populist card while ripping off the people. The guy who posted the stats has a site called "Need to Know/Latin America", which is not supportive of the Bolivarian revolution, but isn't a super-pro U.S. site either.
And the U.S. thing is what is making this so difficult for me. Shit like this, a new video game where:
...a power-hungry tyrant messes with Venezuela's oil supply, sparking an invasion that turns the country into a warzone... You are a mercenary, and you profit from chaos. Mercenaries 2™ features a slew of potential clients, all willing to pay you to do their dirty work. Dirty deeds, done for exorbitant fees. These are world powers with deep pockets, deep grudges, and enough arms and ammo to start World War III. This is your kind of environment.
Now how much you wanna bet the U.S. State dept had their finger in that one? Now, it's very obvious why the U.S has Chavez a marked man. It's not about democracy or human rights abuses; our foreign policy track record has consistently shown that concern about those are almost always just cover-ups for behaving badly at the behest of the powerful. It's about our monied interests that have been raping Latin America since the dawn of time, and they're not happy with the possibility of not having such a big piece of the pie. Let's just suppose for a second that Chavez was actually on the level(which I don't think he is). Let's say that there really was an open, verifiable democracy in Venezuela, the political opposition could speak freely, and the court wasn't being stacked (more on that later). And let's just say that Chavez was actually using the nationalized oil industry to eradicate or at least dramatically reduce poverty. I don't think the U.S. position would be one bit different than it is now. They'd still be piling on the shit and propaganda, because of the oil thing.
Let me make this clear, and I'll say this with every post on Chavez if I have to. Whether there's truth to the human rights stuff and such to varying degrees or not, I don't support any U.S. intervention in the region, period. We've f-ed up that area so much over the last 150 years or so. Enough is enough. And even if Chavez's anti-imperial America stuff is just something to drum up support (easy enough to do these days-we're not exactly well-liked anymore), there is a lot of truth in what he says. More later.
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