Friday, October 03, 2003

In Defense Of Arnie --- On one level, I don't fault Arnie for the various things he's done which are now being used to flog him in public. For example, his drug use in the 70s (and probably much later): I don't think that should be held against him because drugs should be decriminalized. I'm not sure if I'd include the illegal steroids that gave him his macho body in this decriminalization, but for the sake of argument we'll say maybe. He says he's pro-choice, which means Arnie is a Democrat in my book, although the fact that he's not a woman and therefore does not have to carry a child to term, in my view, renders his view moot (unless he seeks to change the laws). Arnie was a wild womanizer in his pumping iron heyday, going to gang-bangs and using women: again, that was the 70s and I don't care how many sexual partners a person has had. I don't require sexual chastity from my elected officials, and I don't think it is anyone's business what sexual antics Arnie got up to. To sum it up, Arnie is free to do as many drugs and women as he can get away with, and did get away with.
The reasons I don't support Arnie are:
1. I really loathe his film persona
2. his films in the 80s represented the worst of American jingoism
3. he's smug, arrogant, and deeply enamored of himself
4. he treats women like shit, especially on his sets, which is sexual harassment in the worst way
5. the recent comments he made about admiring Hitler... well, do we need to explain this one?
6. I don't believe his conversion to Republican nice guy.
7. I don't accept his economic theories, namely, that tax cuts for the uber-rich are the way to solve budgetary problems.
8. he will appoint Republicans (if elected) who are far more right-wing than he is, just like Bush did, and then he too will become the lapdog of the crazy right wing (again, like Bush)
9. he has argued that unions are un-American and the reason movies cost so much to make, never mind his $25 Million per movie salary
10. as a rich person he doesn't seem to grasp the reality of those who are poor
11. his type of "fix" is exemplified by his non-funded, yet legally binding after school program for kids, which ties the state's hands. It's not a bad program but it needs to be paid for, and those types of programs are paid for by taxes - the very taxes he's trying to cut. It makes no goddamn sense, just like most Republican plans these days.
12. he's a very wealthy person who benefited greatly from the American system. Now, instead of gratitude for the tremendous success he's had, he instead wants to deprive those in the lowest income brackets of some of the basics they need to survive (welfare, school lunches, policing, fire stations, libraries, sports/arts programs --- anything paid for by taxes that are opposed by his party).
Close, But No Cigar --- Courtney Love ODs Again
Love was rushed to a Century City hospital for ODing at 6:10am. Read it here, from This Is London.

Heil Schwarzenegger --- Arnie may have crossed the line when praising Hitler, but who knows, California voters could still be stupid enough to elect him. Read some humanizing comments about Hitler from Arnie, here, from ABC News.

Thursday, October 02, 2003

Arnold Schwarzenegger: What's A Little Ass-grabbing Among Co-workers?
The LA Times finally decided to zip up their trousers and quit being the bitch of the right wingers, and published a story yesterday of Arnie's sexual harassment over the years. Read it here. The full allegations can be read here. The report has Arnie apologizing for "behaving badly" on a "rowdy movie set." Nice fucking try, robot. Arnold grabbed women's breasts, put his hander under skirts, tried removing a woman's bathing suit several times, etc., while they worked on his films and he was married. That's rowdy? Are you sure that isn't "being a fucking asshole" instead? Is there a possibility that the Republican party, now firmly endorsing Arnie, are the biggest bunch of hypocrites ever under one roof? Is there a chance that Arnie really is a loathsome, misogynistic, steroid-pumping meathead with as much qualifications to run California as Governor as Ron Jeremy?

Wednesday, October 01, 2003

All Tomorrow's Parties --- The troubled music festival is on again, this time scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, November 8th and 9th, 2003 , On the Queen Mary and in the Queen Mary Events Park 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach CA 90802. The lineup isn't as stellar as it was the first time it was skedded for this year, but there are still some great acts worth checking out. You should go to this festival. Why? Because LA should be able to host and support a music festival with interesting bands, an antidote to the bullshit KROQ sponsors. Although they are still struggling, ATP will eventually feature some great lineups if they survive. They need your support. Nevermind that a music fest for LA uses as its title a song from the Velvets, the seminal NY band of all time, it's just another example of how transplants to LA are usually clueless morons who can never figure out they aren't still in [insert hometown here]. How about a title taken from an LA band? It's like, "let's have a Californian beach festival and we'll call it The Brooklyn Bridge Festival." Anyway, complete lineup is:

Saturday, November 8th, 2003:

Sonic Youth --- still rad no matter what Bucket says
Built To Spill --- thought they were defunct but guess not
Modest Mouse --- still waiting for that good record...
The Magic Band --- ?
The Shins --- nah
!!! --- get funky
Unknown Hinson --- unknown is right
Spoon --- go for Austin, TX!
The Black Heart Procession --- Nick Cave Lite
Mike Watt/George Hurley - (Minutemen Duet) --- hmm
Deerhoof --- still on Interscope?
Danielson Famile --- who?
Daniel Johnston --- who?
Liarbird --- hoo hoo?
+more TBA

and Sunday,

Iggy & The Stooges --- quick, before he's in a Gap ad... too late.
The Mars Volta --- biggest hair on the biggest poseurs
Elliott Smith --- goddamn don't make him cry onstage
Mission of Burma --- fan-freaking-tastic!
Har Mar Superstar --- so he thinks
James Chance & The Contortions --- ?
Bardo Pond --- hippies or noise merchants? you decide.
Bangs --- original name of the Bangles. lame then, lame now.
Cat Power --- big fucking yawn. $50 if you can stay awake.
American Analog Set --- true underground icons
Carla Bozulich --- I beg your pardon?
Terry Riley and Stefano Scodonibbio --- have fun, jack.
Jackie-O Motherf***er --- I'm a big boy now: it's motherFUCKER.
John Wesley Harding --- didn't Dylan already do this?
Moris Teper --- a teperware party
+more TBA

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Goodbye, Mr. Rove --- the noose tightens around Karl Rove's neck, here. Wilson has come out and named Rove as the one who leaked his wife's name to Newsday columnist Robert Novak, (she was an undercover CIA operative, and exposing her is a Federal crime). Rove's nasty tricks have finally caught up to him.
Red Meat Causes Cancer --- New research confirms what vegetarians have been saying for centuries: red meat is gonna fucking kill you. Read about it here, from the BBC. Here's the other shocking news: white meat ain't so good for you either. Nothing is funnier than people talking about being healthy as they eat meat. It's like someone saying they're going to clean up by smearing dog feces on themself.

What about protein? Read this, here, from PETA. (answer: non-animal foods provide us with plenty).

Only smelly hippies are vegetarians, right? Read this one, jack.
High Crimes & Misdemeanors Redux --- Did the White House illegally leak a CIA agent's name to the press in order to discredit her husband? Such is the current belief, which you can read about, here, from the BBC. Leaking classified info is a Federal crime punishable by 10 years in prison. Someone in the White House should have thought about that before attempting to exact retribution on former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was sent to investigate claims that Iraq sought nuclear materials from Niger. You remember that, don't you? Bush mentioned this as justification for levelling Iraq in his January state of the union address. Wilson then wrote a piece in the New York Times asking why his report, which stated that the Niger purchase was complete fabrication, was not heeded? Many believe that this leak is payback for Wilson embarassing Bush. In other words, Bush lied to us all and got caught because Wilson didn't play lapdog (like George Tenet did). The Justice Department yesterday was involved in a preliminary investigation of the incident, and today has modified their search into a full investigation. Come on Justice Department, follow this one through and nab the bad guys, please, we're rooting for you! How about an Independent Counsel? Remember the $70 Million of taxpayers' money that was blown investigating Clinton? I say it's time for some more payback.
Sugarcult --- U.S. Tour Dates
Sugarcult are about to begin their US Tour. They will be bringing bands like Communique, Death On Wednesday, The Eyeliners, Plain White T's, Story Of The Year, and Jackson (Chris and Scott Shiflett) on the road. Please bring a photo ID to each show if you plan on having sex with Sugarcult: Tim no longer does 17 year olds (so he says).
Dates:

10/24 Los Angeles, CA
10/25 Oakland, CA
10/26 Santa Cruz, CA
10/27 Sacramento, CA
10/28 Bakersfield, CA
10/29 Off
10/30 Los Angeles, CA
10/31 San Bernadino, CA
11/1 Flagstaff, AZ
11/2 Off
11/3 Denver, CO
11/4 Off
11/5 St Louis, MO
11/6 Off
11/7 Pittsburgh, PA
11/8 Philadelphia, PA
11/9 Danbury, CT
11/10 Farmingdale, NY
11/11 New York, NY
11/12 Off
11/13 Washington, DC
11/14 S. Amboy, NJ
11/15 Buffalo, NY
11/16 Off
11/17 Chicago, IL
11/18 Cleveland, OH
11/19 Detroit, MI
11/20 Milwaukee, WI
11/21 Minneapolis, MN
11/22 Off
11/23 Omaha, NE
11/24 Lawrence, KS
11/25 Little Rock, AK
11/26 Off
11/27 Dallas, TX
11/28 Houston, TX
11/29 San Antonio, TX
11/30 Austin, TX
12/1 Off
12/2 El Paso, TX
12/3 Albuquerque, NM
12/4 Off
12/5 Tucson, AZ
12/6 Phoenix, AZ

Monday, September 29, 2003

William Safire Suckin' Some Bush Dick --- NY Times Op/Ed columnist William Safire appears to have had his body and brain taken over by bodysnatchers or worse. In today's column, here, Safire wears himself into a lather beating Bush's war drums. He makes a number of unsupported claims, using as a springboard into specious arguments the discovery of some plundered art objects in Iraq. Safire implies that those who are "gleefully" certain we won't find WMDs in Iraq will be surprised when, like the art object, someone comes forward with the info on where it's hidden. His argument: we found a hidden gold mask, therefore, we will find WMDs, is nonsensical. He then claims that those who have rightly declared that this war in Iraq is pure bullshit are in fact a "legion with a stake in failure." No, we're a legion tired of being lied to by those in the Bush camp who are paying back all their campaign contributors with lucrative defense contracts. Safire then cites a dubious poll saying that 2 out of 3 residents of Baghdad claim they are better off now, without security, electricity, clean water, and with rampant corruption, looting, and crime, than they were under Hussein. Then Safire really starts getting odious with his jingoism: calling the rest of the world "free-riders" whose "best interests" lay in us toppling "this generation's bloodiest tyrant," and then says not even the interests of human rights and a blow in the war on terror will sway any of the naysayers. Firstly, how do you define a generation, Safire? Is Hussein worse than Suharto, PolPot, Kim Il Jong, any of those responsible for the genocides in East Timor, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Eritrea and Sierra Leone? It's also more than a little disgusting to wave the human rights banner while simultaneously supporting the bombing campaign on Baghdad and the 10,000 civilian deaths it incurred. And to reiterate for slow learners: Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11 (which is being used synonymously with terrorism). In other words, Safire, I think you've been sucking some Bush cock and it's affected your ability to think clearly. Why don't you get Bush's balls off your chin and start telling the truth? Just asking.