nodoctors.com archive january 0007 |
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Hey now it's TANKERTOWN one week per strip / one strip per week
posted by elvis ## THE FORUM FOR CINEMATIC INTELLIGENCE PRESENTS: 3) THE FOUNTAIN / Good Hollywood sci-fi. And crusty skin-i-max sci-fi. It's all good. THE FOUNTAIN looks it because none of the effects are CGI. It’s a movie about meditation, and feels like it. Very swirly. Like good sci-fi it folds into and around itself. If you are the type of geek who likes BARAKA, KOYAANISQUAATSI, and all the 'quattsi films, as well as some Brakhage, you will probably like this. It is not the spiraling high of a good experimental film on the topic, but it is a solid exercise in storytelling and thought on the topic of love and death, and also everlasting life. If you didn’t like REQUIEM because it was too over the top (which I would say was and is) then you may pass on this. Regardless, I found the movie was very effective on first viewing and made me glad to have experienced it. See the above then watch Tarkovsky’s SOLARIS, and next because you are on a science fiction buzz trip, watch the second boner from above, FLESH GORDON & THE COSMIC CHEERLEADERS. I think it’s French. Me and MSG watched this over Christmas break at 3AM trying not to wake up the family. It is definitely better than THE FOUNTAIN and maybe any movie I have ever seen. You know the deal: constant sex jokes (a milk bar with boobies, a vagina hill, etc.). Flesh looks like a rooster Val Kilmer. Ahh bleccch, what the heck, like Ozzy said "try it out!" posted by cansafis ## Elvis's Konspiracy Korner 27 January 0007 1140 CST (to glance a blow at the 9/11 elephant, if I may) The Wikipedia page linked above is, at least as of this sell-by date, a decent definition of the term: an covert operation - usually a violent one - conducted by a government or associated entity that is designed to appear as though it originated from another entity or entities. The non-materialist implications of such a concept are quite interesting in themselves, but let us first turn to some possible materialist illustrations of such tactics in history: Daniele Ganser, in his recently published book NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, and in this associated interview with Silvia Cattori, points toward clandestine armed forces across Western Europe, intentionally created by NATO factions in conjunction with the CIA and MI6 to instigate general as-needed nastiness to be blamed on various leftist groups during the Cold War (WWIII). The cover story at the time was that countries such as Norway were interested in sustaining "Stay Behind" groups to conduct defensive guerilla warfare in the instance of a Soviet invasion. The US was wholeheartedly behind such tactics, although I doubt the European countries needed much convincing after their experience with Nazi occupation during WWII. Still, the notion of US-supported guerilla insurgency in the face of foreign aggression is...timely, to say the least. Such tactics led most notably to the rather gruesome success of Operation Gladio in Italy, as summarized here by Chris Floyd, and here by David Guyatt, who layers some pretty rich Opus Dei frosting on top of everything. Skeptics take note: the US State Department has seen fit to address such konsp-mongering as of January '06. A move like this generally lends additional credence to the alternative narratives, rather than the other way around: convenient half-truths or 'limited hangouts' are most effective when ignored by the state and allowed to bloom, unmolested, in the appropriate petri dishes, whereas somewhat threatening lines of inquiry are ideally choked in the cradle or at least countered in the public record by 'running interference'. Other prominent examples of "False Flag" tactics include the 1933 Reichstag fire, which was most likely cooked up by by prescient PR hacks Joseph Goebbels & Hermann Goring, and was certainly attributed to the Communists and allowed Hitler to pass an Enabling Act within a month that essentially laid the groundwork for his subsequent dictatorship (clearly such tactics are optional now if you possess sufficient "charisma"). Operation Northwoods is another ominous footnote in history's near-misses (near-hits?) and is oft-cited among those who argue a more cynical view of the US government's role in 9/11. In 1962 the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed the instigation of terrorist attacks (including highjacking commercial aircraft) to be blamed on Cuba in the interests of conjuring public support for an invasion of Castro's Cuba. You are welcome to do the nuke math yourself speculating that such tactics had been approved by President Kennedy (whatever happened to him, anyway?). There are numerous other possible examples of such tactics, ranging from 'highly probable' to 'wtf', but I will save those for dedicated discussion at a later date. In the abovementioned interview, Ganser rightly calls attention to the importance of understanding the "strategy of tension" behind these operations. The non-materialist implications of such approaches by a powerful state entity should not be easily dismissed: the state is essentially assuming an active role in deflecting its own terroristic capacities & tendencies onto other targets; of course, the most rational targets to choose would be those that pose a threat to the legitimacy & sustainability of the state. Furthermore, the state is shifting the burden of malaise and confusion that it necessarily produces in its citizenry onto more diffuse actors ("the terrorists") and events that are less than easy to explain or understand (9/11, the '01 anthrax attacks, Madrid & London bombings, seemingly chaotic violence in Iraq, etc.). It is interesting to me that a lot of the legitimate criticism of the 9/11 truth folks is based upon the premise that the state is already inarguably engaged in any number of absolutely reprehensible projects against the human interest that don't require much further investigation or speculation, and that opening up the inquiry to crack such large nuts is counterproductive and even pathological. I certainly don't think this angle to be unsound, but it is worth asking ourselves where exactly the boundaries are drawn re: how far the state will and will not go to put the boot down on what most of us would consider to be sound libertarian principles. I feel silly pointing anyone to Orwell in such times, but there are good reasons that the vast majority of strong dystopian-authoritarian fiction evoke similar currents in the air. In the absence of a decent warrior culture at your disposal, you can at least get by for a good while by jamming the collective radars in a convenient direction. Of course, all of the above could just be tinfoil-armchair speculation, with every terrorist event actually opening & closing per the history books, korp media "journalism", official state narratives, and cranky "left gatekeepers" - all well funded and comfy, at least for now. 'leven' posted by elvis ## (last week's radio segment - catch-up ed.) Elvis's Konspiracy Korner 20 January 0007 1240 CST Having been not begrudgingly yoked into "book-review" mode by the dumpster-diving Drew Colglazier, I will also happily take this opportunity to perform an 100% 'flip-flop' from my previous high-minded admonishments towards the konsp beat. We are talking comprehensive Jesuit konspiracy here, and it is basically rubbernecking from here on out. Mr. Colglazier was prescient enough to retrieve a wacky dumpster book that is available in its entirety online: ladies & gentlemen, Bill Hughes presents The Secret Terrorists. Published by the "Pacific Institute", inexplicably spanning the continent with operations out of both San Diego and Eustis, FL, Hughes's text represents what I would casually shmear as the intellectual end of the Jack Chick crowd. One thing I really appreciate about Hughes's approach (aside from the killer graphic design on the book cover) is that the chapters are the perfect length for this type of material. Walking th' konsp beat I often come across juicy bits that are too superficial to get leads on - all form and no content. Other times I am brick-walled by the sheer volume of a mind affixed, and it is nigh-impenetrable for radio soundbyte purposes. Hughes operates in the perfect middle ground here, gladly offering substantial content to dig into while not repeating himself or pouring it on too-too thick ('too thick' in these cases being the standard modus operandi ). He also charmingly cites many sources, but they are all similar nuts on a similar bent. Refreshingly well played! Hughes's essential angle is simple: the Jesuits have been behind every major event in US history. Beginning with a "black congress" in Vienna in 1814, they have konspired to destroy democracy wherever it may be found in the aims of establishing a single world order under the yoke of the Vatican. Naturally, they put the nascent democracy in the USA firmly in their sights. You may be shocked to discover that none other than Thomas Jefferson and William Morse (inventor of the "Morse code") were hip to their plot. In fact, the Monroe Doctrine was actually aimed at defending against Jesuit aggression, despite what you may have learned in your book-learning. A crucial step in the Jesuits' path toward global domination has been the establishment of a central bank in this country, and when President Jackson briefly obstructed their aims he was duly punished by a close call with an assassin's bullets. Richard Lawrence, the would-be assassin, later bragged about promised protection from "powerful people in Europe". Do the maths! I now realize that I've been aching for a proper konsp angle on the sinking of the Titanic, and it took Mr. Hughes to make me ache: After the Jesuits' central bank schemes were briefly thwarted by Jackson & co., they quickly got back in the saddle and met (like any proper konspirators) on an island off the coast of Georgia. In 1910 on Jekyll Island, GA, representatives of the key players Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Rothschild groups identified a population of super-rich crucial 'movers', 'shakers', & 'gadflies' who would pose a threat to their central banking schemes. They then quickly arranged to entice them all onto to a fantastic cruise. For good measure, they threw into the hull a good amount of emigrating European Catholics (for cover) and Belfast Protestants (to kill them). Please do read Hughes's chapter for the details, but suffice to say that after hood-winking the veteran Sea-Captain Edward Smith, replacing the red emergency flares with white (red="we're sinking", white="we're having a party"), and sinking that motherfucker in 1912, the Federal Reserve was successfully established in 1913, and within a year the Jesuits had funneled enough moneys to kickstart World War I. Then there was World War II, JFK, 9/11, etc, etc. Like I said: all rubbernecking, you can provide the praxis in a "DIY" fashion if you care to. But my principles re: energy in (from the author) and energy out (toward the reader) stand firm. Thank you, Mr. Hughes! 'leven' posted by elvis ## Elvis's Konspiracy Korner Saturday 1/27 1140 CST NEWS DUMP THURSDAY ed. Pig news first, because it's the worst: the top pig in the nation, Attorney General Gonzales, has finally come right out and flatly stated that the US Constitution does not protect the right to go to court and challenge one's imprisonment ("habeas corpus"). Why didn't Bush include that note in his State of the Union speech? Here in CA Republic, the Federal pigs continue to ignore a state's right to draft & enforce its own laws, sporadically raiding 100% legal (per Proposition 215 - 1996) CA facilities related to the production & distribution of medical marijuana. Ooh that makes me mad! But then again, it could be worse, as this interactive map of botched paramilitary police raids from the Cato Institute clearly shows. Fuck tha cops / Grind tha pigs! In other news: here is an easy out for any students involved in the more liberal of arts: The Postmodernism Generator. Meanwhile, the recently updated kevekev.com has made what is perhaps his definitive statement on utilitarianism by emailing me this wacky Bentham link. An handful of cities are making some noise about reviving streetcars in urban centers. This is good news but I'm not getting too excited. Besides, Bush made it clear in his recent speech that we will power our freeways using woodchips and wheatgrass (as well as the remarkably inefficient "ethanol" pork-miracle). Large supermarket korps are starting to flirt with "carbon labeling" indicating the amount of carbon generated from the production, transport, and consumption of various items on the shelf. Interesting, but I'm somewhat skeptical that this will have much of an impact. Regardless, buying local, seasonal, organic produce is still one of the best ethics moves you can make. Also, like Too Short said "Spend my money in the hood, I know it's all good / and you should do the same". Police blotter: I've noticed some korp media outlets starting to smell 'story' in the Los Angeles racial violence mess that the better immigration thinkers on the right have been discussing for a while now. In other gang news: the Hells Angels are taking over the army (kinda). As the Libby trial at long last gets heating up, I guarantee that Mr. Raimondo will be your best one-stop for coverage of what really happens. He has been hobby-horsing this beat since the beginning, and is still one of the best. Also my train was all fucked up this morning due to a couple of ticking gift-wrapped packages on the platform. Of course, the pigs didn't tell any of us this as we casually disembarked the train! I would have put a hustle on it! Then I saw some unexpected sphinxes. "'nuff said" posted by elvis ## 'arts 4 farts' presents
posted by cansafis TANKERTOWN state of th' web comickxs, weekly
posted by elvis A semi-regular bootleg tribute to the th' glory of "Findings", inexplicably paid for by HARPER'S:
posted by elvis “Junebug Atmosphere” Friday night in the icebox posted by chauncey THE FORUM FOR CINEMATIC INTELLIGENCE PRESENTS: 4) THE WITCHES MOUNTAIN / MESSIAH OF EVIL I loved horror movies and being scared so much as a kid, and was so into imagination and totally making up stuff, that I would bike with buddies to weird abandoned areas of town and make up realities about what occurred there and fog my wee little mind. The one that I most remember, as influence behind this film recommendation, was some nonsense about a local covenant of satanic witches and warlocks secretly convening to burn crosses and relics in our local cattail swamp park, conveniently located behind the elementary school I attended. Burned chunks of wood in different spots of the park were placeholders in my mind space for such actions. As w e traded stories and tried to out-spook each other the wind grew violent, the sky grew dark, and a rainstorm approached. The coupling of nature with our monstrous burgeoning id was enough to spook us to bike immediately home in different directions. Gadzooks! Well that magic of half realized childhood dark magick is conjured in both of these films. Good music, a bizarre pacing that smokes you out whether or not you indulge, and actual scary situations will confront the viewer who dares to view. I watched both as background fodder while working on arts. I highly suggest this practice; the art of inspiration through the divine witness of Falk face. These two flicks are part of this movie collection, which is a collection of public domain films. I do suggest highly these collections. They are a cheap and exciting way to see many different movies that mostly rule. The Barbara Steele flicks rock, it has Peter Jackson’s first film, BAD TASTE , as well as some Argento, and some others have many more great reasons for being. My personal favorite is the Horror Classics set, which has NOSFERATU, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and the Elvis-approved CARNIVAL OF SOULS with extra organ creep. All worth seeing and also bonus THE HOUSE ON THE HAUNTED HILL , and THE LAST MAN ON EARTH. Vincent Price is great if you didn’t already know that. Buy one that interests you, or talk to me and I will lend you the horror set. I mean you don’t even need to sit and watch them all, they work as great background to music, art, or writing. These sets are a great placeholder until all the public domain stuff hits the inter-night-net-night-net in free legit quality video. And a cheap way to get caught up on the VEIRD… posted by cansafis ## After a particularly sunny weekend around this fair city, I am compelled to begin the week by showing to you the "Egg War" of 1863. posted by elvis Elvis's Konspiracy Korner Saturday 1/20 1240 CST “Franciscan Equation” The text woven into life; posted by chauncey THE FORUM FOR CINEMATIC INTELLIGENCE PRESENTS: 5) THE WHITE DIAMOND / LESSONS OF DARKNESS / GRIZZLY MAN Wernor Herzog is superhuman. All of his films are fascinating in one way or another. The real world is the most fascinating thing in the…bum bum bum…real world…and therefore the merging of the both yields a most excellent result. Rent these three documentaries and you will not be disappointed. They are so very beautiful to watch and think about, and each deals with the full life to death cycle. Which if you haven’t caught onto yet is a special topic for me. Each has a different arc and different focus at its spiritual core: GRIZZLY MAN is about a modern man’s quest for fame and the way that meshes with the spiritual and natural. THE WHITE DIAMOND about exploring the natural world and improving life, and LESSONS OF DARKNESS is about the destruction of the modern world as seen from an outsider's futuristic and alien perspective. See the three in that order. Also read this mag’s review of my middle recommendation (scroll to the middle of issue 21) and keep visiting his page for some of the best reviews on the intra-planet. Honorable mention is this amazing documentary about this CANUCK fighting a bear in a metal costume he can’t walk in. The montage of this boy in testing throughout the years is maybe the best montage I saw this year. Thank you THE POPE. posted by cansafis ## TANKERTOWN that's comicxks weekly oooh thats dice
posted by elvis Elvis's Konspiracy Korner 13 January 0007 1230 CST Not that there is necessarily some unanticipated & insidious effect to be observed 'after the gas', but rather that it is an interesting population indeed that clamors for non-stop electronic stimulus with at least the pretense of novelty and yet has no problem with "moving on" past minor loose ends like the sloppiest explanation of a truly paradigm-shifting "terrorist attack" the nation has ever seen, the '01 anthrax attack scare, or even such trivia as a blatantly fraudulent & possibly back-breaking imperial war, the undeniable fact that their government now employs torture for "interrogation purposes", or stolen presidential elections, in roughly that order. But I digress, and all of the above is surely more than familiar to you anyway, dear reader. But have you noticed that folks will get nice and worked up of late regarding this "global warming" or as Frank Luntz recommends, "climate change" item? (In other news: women be shoppiiin!!) I want to spend a few words on this because I recently realized that despite my recent disrespect toward the classical Yeti-debunking self-proclaimed "skeptic", the global warming noise as it is generally defined actually lands me pretty squarely on the "skeptical" side myself. The first angle that interests me is whether or not it is even useful at this point in post-capitalist USA to gauge the significance of any given topic by the level of korp-media noise surrounding it. I would say this is open for discussion, but essentially yes, it is useful, simply due to the sheer amount of energy that is generated by these (admittedly painfully predictable) "debates" that cycle through the print-cable-internet-radio bands. Consider, for a moment, the relative seep of such transmissions compared to the theoretical billion small-scale conversations that are most likely not occurring at all. For better or worse, I think it is still worth engaging the larger korp-media narratives and this radio show does it better than most. As the Drudge-line salivates over warm winter weather in New York and I type with cold feet here in unseasonably cold San Francisco, let us consider the fact that perhaps the human race is "close to putting the climate out of our control" through our insidious fossil-fuel burning tendencies. This planet moves in large and small-scale climate fluctuation cycles (some of which we kind of understand) and I have no doubt that the successful project of the human race extracting & burning up the majority of the fossil fuels in ~250 years has had a bit of an impact on these things, but why not look at some of the finer print. The "global warming" narrative, while not exactly an red herring, serves well as a "controversial" distraction technique from much more pressing issues related to sustainable human civilization, most significantly the fact that we need to figure out how the hell we're going to support 6+ billion people without the oil that currently plays a frighteningly crucial role in our food, water, economy & transportation infrastructure. Although Mr. Kunstler seems to re-write his "Peak Oil 101" piece over & again as requested, it is really goddamn good every time and I will once again recommend you look at his latest for a nasty crash course. The fact that there is a predominant korp-media "debate" regarding climate change when there isn't even a modest dialogue on rehabilitating the USA rail system - let alone the finite supply of oil and the inability of the half-assed pipe-dream "alternative fuels" to ever come close to sustaining Cheney's infamous "non-negotiable way of life" - is cause for alarm. Prioritization is never an irrelevant criteria for discussion of such matters, and here it is very relevant indeed. This long-winded Washington Post hatchet piece by Joel Achenbach can serve as an useful example. Achenbach's tortured journalistic prose does the usual disservice to the so-called "global warming skeptics" such as Bill Gray PhD, who dares to question materialist validity of universal allegiance to newly-developed computer modeling systems as opposed to, you know, empirical data. Gray advocates an equal attention to direct observation as well as "doing the numbers" - not a bad approach when you remind yourself that the current hard meteorological data goes back about 100 years and that meteorologists aren't comfortable forecasting two weeks ahead, let alone the recently super-magickal number of "2100" (when the Arctic Ocean is predicted to lose all summer ice coverage). Gray is mocked as an old man who is really passionate about this kind of thing (questionable science wielded as a powerful media, marketing & policy tool), and he even uses the phrase "it's a big can of worms!" repeatedly. How can you take this guy seriously? He is merely Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University and one of the foremost hurricane nerds alive today. Achenbach, on the other hand, has a "degree in politics" and his blog reads like an even more obnoxious Dave Barry. He claims the "news media" is "infatuated with doom" (far from it: if this was the case they would at least be trying to hatchet the Peak Oil heads rather than global warming contrarians. As much as "health care" is purported to be an untouchable topic for US Presidential candidates, let's see one bring up the glaringly elephantine spectre of overpopulation of the planet). He also takes the easy road of conflating such legitimate thought-provoking thinkers as Gray and Richard Lindzen with the transparent oil korp & fed think-tank shills that also argue against human-influenced climate change (and there are many). These "everything is cool" punks are of a totally different stripe than the scientists who are sincerely trying to get a decent broad view of the human race relative to the planet, and the "journalists" who conflate the two embarrass themselves as well as any proposed allegiance to the scientific method. There are also quite a few researchers raising solid questions regarding the extent that the human race can even hope to influence such large-scale shifts in climate. But Achenbach would rather reduce them all to konspiracy-mongering nuts somehow still clinging to tenure. Yes, Achenbach has got it all figured out, you see: There's a certain kind of skeptic who has no patience for the official consensus, especially if it has the imprimatur of a government, or worse, the United Nations. They focus on ambiguities and mysteries and things that just don't add up. They say the Official Story can't possibly be true, because it doesn't explain the [insert inexplicable data point here]. They set a high standard for reality -- it must never be fuzzy around the edges. Ahem. I don't usually jump to cite op-ed pieces in the Wall Street Journal, but the nugget at the end of this recent piece by Lindzen (Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT) is worth looking at: And then there are the peculiar standards in place in scientific journals for articles submitted by those who raise questions about accepted climate wisdom. At Science and Nature, such papers are commonly refused without review as being without interest. However, even when such papers are published, standards shift. When I, with some colleagues at NASA, attempted to determine how clouds behave under varying temperatures, we discovered what we called an "Iris Effect," wherein upper-level cirrus clouds contracted with increased temperature, providing a very strong negative climate feedback sufficient to greatly reduce the response to increasing CO2. Normally, criticism of papers appears in the form of letters to the journal to which the original authors can respond immediately. However, in this case (and others) a flurry of hastily prepared papers appeared, claiming errors in our study, with our responses delayed months and longer. The delay permitted our paper to be commonly referred to as "discredited." Thus the casual dismissal so readily employed by Achenbach and his ilk can be found at the level of prestigious peer-reviewed journals as well. Frankly, the fact that Gray & Lindzen can maintain their academic positions begins to look like quite a testament to the powerful inertia of tenure in the contemporary university system! For a quick example of something close to even-handed coverage of the climate change debate, take a look at Reason's Ronald Bailey (full disclosure: Bailey also has a somewhat stoopid take on Peak Oil - stoopid in that it somehow fits Reason's near-inexplicable definition of libertarianism, but I again digress). One modest jump towards the airport bookstore tenure realm and we find obscenely rich hack Michael Crichton offering some surprisingly enlightening points on the subject. I think his central point questioning the relationship of consensus to science is a nice one to dig into with no clear answer in sight: I am far from a strict materialist, but I still catch the twitch that Crichton alludes to when rational methodology succumbs to consensus notions of "progress" (of course, he brings up the Nazis, which I try not to (it's bad form)). And the piece is worth reading if only for the solid backhand he delivers to uber-skeptic Carl Sagan regarding his hard pimping of "nuclear winter" which quickly ended up about as far away from materialist science as Johnny Carson's career. His notion of a double-blinded source of funding for sponsored research derived from a combination of federal & myriad private sources is certainly worth considering. And of course, he righteously slices at the false-flag "second-hand smoke" propaganda, which will always win my praise, and is perhaps another segment in itself. It's funny: while I've seen the charges of "neo-malthusianism" frequently hurled at the Peak Oil talkers, the global warming folks don't seem to catch the same flack. It's really mostly the same nut to crack, no? Th' bottom line: Don't believe anything you hear slide through NPR or CABLE TV. Crichton not only got the Jurassic Park moneys, but also the ER moneys. Bagge's strips for Reason are undeniably strong. Don't readily legitimize a "movement" that includes noted war criminal & Senator's Son Albert Gore, Jr. Profs. Gray & Lindzen are likely scheming their next strikes and not giving a fuck about their tenured salary & benefits, while Achenbach is probably sweating over his suburban Virginia mortgage and trying to figure out something to say about Nancy Pelosi. And I will finish this modest chianti and get some sleep! 'leven' Elvis's Konspiracy Korner Saturday 1/13 1240 CST “Memories from a wrought-iron penthouse” Back at the whitewall, the spinning flower, The timepiece in the center of it all was unknowable, I was sober as a lightswitch, it was an intriguing But I’ll tell you my tale of infinity: it was the old man after all, He was some sort of a zen dada baboon, They had taken the photos at an awkward point in the relationship, I should have known this was happening, posted by chauncey ## THE FORUM FOR CINEMATIC INTELLIGENCE PRESENTS: 6) THE MARINE I know what you are thinking: "Why, CansaFis, what the fuck is this movie?!" Well dude-a-lude it is the best bad movie I saw in the theaters all last year (including the overrated Snakes on a Plane, which was good, but not as good as geekdom said). This movie on the other hand is a fantastically stupid romp through the mind of the modern day marine, as interpreted by the WWE. You know you love professional wrestling because if you don’t you are crazy. But beautiful. I digress. Listen this guy has to kill because that is all he knows, and that is endearing. We were drunk and laughing and only got shooshed by the serious redneck audience for about the first five minutes, because after the first amazing explosion everyone in the theater realized there is nothing serious about the WWE or the movies it makes, and that you can laugh at garbage like this movie. Revelations! It offers super stupid Phyllis Weaver. Just thinking about the marine's (the one in the title) gigantic square frame makes me laugh. Also the T-2000 is in it, fully plastic surgeried up. Hahaha. Explosion. Body Slam. Hahaha. Seriously this movie is best with drinks, KEVEKEV, and the volume up super loud. Like the marine (the one in the title) said: "Listen. I’m a Marine. I’ll go crazy!" posted by cansafis ## HIGHLY UNORTHODOX TACTICS dept. From the Arizona Daily Star: A Midtown strip mall that should have housed the best of the best served as Corruption Central in Tucson. Two military recruiting stations sit side-by-side there, one run by the Army, the other by the Marines. Between them, a total of seven recruiters were on the take, secretly accepting bribes to transport cocaine, even as most spent their days visiting local high schools. They had help from several more recruiters at an Army National Guard office, where one recruiter was said to be selling cocaine from the trunk of his recruiting vehicle. posted by elvis ## DON'T BELIEVE TH' HYPE dept. I am thanking Mr. Noah Berlatsky today for finally digitizing "In the Shadow of No Talent", his brilliant Comics Journal evisceration of Art Spiegelman's piss-poor 9/11 "think piece" comicxks "In the Shadow of No Towers". I was one of the 'fortunate' few who saw these pages in full size as they were being serialized in 2003 (in the Chicago Reader), and I couldn't believe how sophomoric, dull, and unattractive Spiegelman's take on post-9/11 USA was. I think "Maus" is fantastic and Spiegelman is one of the most important historical & intellectual voices in the medium, and the fact that Berlatsky was (virtually?) the only critical head to give these pages the drubbing they so richly deserve is an unfortunate sign of how stunted the critical dialogue in comicxks is, even as we are currently seeing more high quality comicxks and criticism than ever before. posted by elvis ## THE FORUM FOR CINEMATIC INTELLIGENCE PRESENTS: 7. THE COMPLETE PLANET OF THE APES Every single one of these films has merit. I watched ‘em back to back to back to back to back on a couple of sick days, and it was a tremendous experience. Charlton Heston is so fucking unreal in his movies. The way he talks. His anger. His bizarreness. He almost makes it work all by hisself but the concepts underneath are what kept me interested. And each one is so different than the other: The first one is a straight up science fiction movie, a B movie done so well it is "A" caliber. The second one picks up from there and is the weirdest and most B-B-B movie of the bunch. I hated it at first, but thinking back to it after I saw them all, I liked it much more for its uniqueness. Three is my least favorite, and it should be yours too. It has the unmistakable flair of a bad 70’s made for TV movie, looks the part, and in several montages camps to, and plays for that role. The fourth was actually the first one I saw when I was a kid and it totally rules. Like good bad John Carpenter. And the fifth and final is another keeper. Do yourself a favor and don’t see the Tim Burton remake. Man does Tim Burton suck. He cannot tell a good story. Can someone demote him to art designer where he excels and leave all the movie making up to people actually interested in expressing something more than radical set design and costumes? Your only good movie is PEE WEE dude and Paul Reubens did that for you buster brown. That's right I'm coming over, sittin on your moms. TUD. posted by cansafis ## TANKERTOWN th' big book, in sizeable weeks, one per week
posted by elvis ## Some San Francisco porn, courtesy of the Chronicle's John King. He is correct - the many gorgeous & skewed perspectives you can get around this city are remarkable, and the winter sunlight does tweak it all a bit. A few of the photos are pretty good (they should have let Virgil take some of the photos, he would have set them straight). One of my favorite illusions is when you get up on Twin Peaks and look west and the ocean-sky horizon line is taller than you are - that is some wacky stuff. Over the weekend atop a big abandoned building near Berkeley, we saw a crazy view of the Golden Gate Bridge where it looked like Alcatraz was dead center under the bridge! "Stoned agin!" posted by elvis ## "You're Getting Warmer" ## THE FORUM FOR CINEMATIC INTELLIGENCE PRESENTS: 8. DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON / NEW YORK DOLL Good music makes a good movie. Not a rule, but boy does it rule, when said “said” works. Both of these films are bittersweet looks at aging and making music. Well I guess if there were an overarching arching to my tastes last year it would probably pertain to aging, music, and familial love. 2006 was my sucker year, like a sweety-pop suck `em up. Well these two movies have great songs, interesting looks at people ruined by music and rejuvenated by it the same. Eccentric “geniuses” as they go through life. The best scene in the Daniel Johnston documentary is when he blows a contract and drops his agent because of his fear for signing with the same label as Metallica. Daniel was afraid they would beat him up. That is amazing. I am afraid Metallica is going to beat me up too - beat me up with their incredibly shitty music/covers post black album! NEW YORK DOLL is also bittersweet. Here are videos of the band. I bet WE JAM ECONO is the best, but I never saw it this year, so next year that comes. In this music movie subject I do have honorable mentions. The Butthole Surfers movie, Friends Forever Documentary 2, Here See EYES OF THE MIND compilation, all the you tube videos on the webby-web which I continually will be blogging right here, THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT movie, the rap video on the left side of Adam Boysen's myspace page, HAACK the documentary, and THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON documentary. posted by cansafis ## Portland's weekly rag has a solid profile of the multi-talented misanthrope John Callahan, who is apparently getting the "Crumb treatment" in an upcoming documentary. Callahan has led a remarkable life, having had his well-laid plans to drink himself to death abruptly cut short at 27 by an horrific automobile accident that left him a quadriplegic with serous cartooning skills. He has also apparently developed a talent to attract "interest" from awful "comedians" in optioning his life story (Williams, Crystal & Ritter - ugh what a komedy-killing rogues' gallery that is!).
posted by elvis ## THE FORUM FOR CINEMATIC INTELLIGENCE PRESENTS: 9. NIGHT OF THE DEMON / THE INVISIBLE MAN and its sequels For movie nerds like me it is a great pleasure to be able to access the classics and others at the local library. My number nine is a kudos to that totally sweet experience. Benefits of library rental are: free; one week rental; finite but quality selection forces educated choices (and no accidental drunk and hopefully it sucks so bad that it is good MASTER OF DISGUISE decisions). posted by cansafis ## Not NCAA Football: Current Status Report Caught the Stanford-Cal men's baskets game last night with Fis, and have a few points worth sharing. Pre-game warmup included a glimpse of the LSU-Notre Dame foots game, and that LSU quarterback is a behemoth - keep an eye out! Maples Pavilion is a fine venue to catch a game; our comps had us sitting in the very back row of the upper deck, and the view was still great. Very relaxed environment for a near-pro (ha ha!) sports event, with friendly re-entry and a smokers' view of the impressive swimming facilities outside. The Stanford record at Maples is a wacko 110-15 since 1996, but of course last night they managed to chalk a rare one up in the "loss" column for us. Cal was clearly the quicker team and Oakland's Ayinde Ubaka may be worth watching, but really neither team had serious semi-pro skills on display. The Stanford fans were in heavy attendance and Fis's extra-scary Cardinal-red ski mask fit right in. Although the Stanford band continues to dominate (offering Metallica's classic "Trapped Under Ice" along with the usual numbers), I was shocked and awed to note the lack of a single Stanford cheerleader wtf? The Berkeley ladies were in top form and I give high marks to their ensemble including little gold ballet slippers hey now. When we did college radio on our most recent tour I only felt half-skeezy ogling the undergrads so I would say that ogling cheerleading undergrads is still absolutely acceptable. Also I liked how the Stanford band got the floor while the entire Cal band was relegated to the darkest, highest corner in the upper deck bleachers. That is pretty hard stuff. The big news of the night under the nearly(?) full moon was the appearance of not one but two Stanford players by the name of "Clxpxs": 7-foot tall freshman twin monsters playing in the classic Sobaski style, straight outta Fresno. I am not kidding - the Cardinals are doing it "Slapshot" style, preferring to have both bros. on court simultaneously. They are undeniably tall, but unfortunately are still working out the transition toward college-level "scoring". Still, this pair could be some sort of godsend for a bargain-hunting NBA franchise. Get em while they're cheap! While Stanford athletics may remain in the respectable higher levels of mediocrity, the Stanford Tree mascot still fucking rules. They should feed it extra booze, not try to dry it out! Come on now! Bring on the NFL playoffs! posted by elvis ## THE FORUM FOR CINEMATIC INTELLIGENCE PRESENTS: 10. FORBIDDEN ZONE / VIDEODROME / RICKY OH One of the great joys of 2006 was living at and experiencing Grandma's House. For a little over a year I held fort at that beautiful warehouse in the middle of Oakland and hosted it like a venue, having 2-3 shows a month with 4-5 bands a show. It ended in awful drama, but there was so much life and excitement there for the time it did thrive. Towards its demise one of the great pastimes became watching movies as a household with friends. This didn't hold a candle to the live music in the living room feel of its origins, but it was a good way to get drunk and enjoy oneself. A taste of what went on when GPA was away: FORBIDDEN ZONE is an excellent & bizarre film directed by Danny Elfman's brother. Hopefully you, like me, shudder and convulse at the idea of Danny Elfman, his soundtracks all the same, his singing voice and lyrical work some of the most harmful in the business. If so then you, like I, will be glad to see that he shines here in his small role as Satan, that this film features great weird music, that the mystic knights of oingo boingo were actually some great weirdos, and that consequently this insane movie rules. Thanks to Drew Zigler for bringing this into the household. Thanks to Alex Preiser for the VIDEODROME, which is a movie you should see every year. You can even sleep through the middle if you like. It's short and slow, and then it has one of the best endings of any movie ever. And James Woods is excellent in it as is usual with him (see Scary Movie 2 and Vampires). Thanks to Kelly for bringing to my attention the violent beauty of RICKY OH . This is the goriest Kung Fu movie ever. You may recognize it from the head smashing that ended Craig Kilborn's stint on the Daily Show. This movie is fifty times better than that head smash, and I think that head smash is awesome. So see this movie. Honorable Mentions tip the hat to any video we shot of the GMA's house shows, especially the NED/WARHAMMER48k/ STRIPMALLSEIZURES show. With luck you'll get your tube next year. The whole audience was tripping by the end of it. And the camerawork reflected said experience. Sweet. Also tip to the Here See video collection. Watching OUT FOR JUSTICE with Little Howlin' Wolf should be in the list also. Why won't anyone give him a proper action film deal? During the entire film he described for me how he would fight better than that pussy Seagal, after serving me up some homemade pizza. I loved having Wolf at the house. Special nod also to Nondor Nevai for bringing to my attention the excellent stylings of this cock metal band Yuhnargly! Also an dishonorable mention to Oliver Stone and his shitty collection. His evil dark magick transfixed a voodoo spell over the Clopas and sent him back to the Minnetonka abyss. Stone, may you pass out in “auteur” vomit. Blech. posted by cansafis ## ## Pretty much back in th' saddle for 07. Things should get rolling again through next week. Konsp Korner update by the weekend, as well as Fis mega-movie review wrap-up on the way. And real news as we make it, as usual. Happy new year! posted by elvis ## TANKERTOWN still weekly, still comicxkal.
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