Category Archives: Politics
Music Nerdism Part 1
The quest to be taken seriously.
When I was a kid, my best friend and I would get together and listen to records, tapes and cds at her tiny Houston, TX suburban home after school. Yes, we did listen to that Iron Butterfly drum solo for “Inagaddadavida.” Yes, we did play Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven“ backwards. We experimented. Music was so important to the shaping of our lives from that point onward. We weren‘t just listening to her dad‘s vintage collection of classic rock vinyls either. Those, my friends, were the fundamentals to music. We were staying up all night to watch MTV back when music was still a basic cable commodity and the internet was the wild west… essentially a burgeoning frontier… But we’ll get to that later.
“Empty-Vee” now differs so much to what used to exist back then. For one, it had plenty of real music programming. Late nights were filled with music of all persuasions ranging from riot grrl, punk, hardcore, avant garde, trip hop and much, much more. King Missile, Green Jello, Sonic Youth, Faith No More, Portishead, Sex Pistols, Built to Spill, Etc. The world of music was rich with opportunity. Now you couldn’t find a music video if your life depended on it. The Buggles wisely warned us of these problems. “Video Killed the Radio Star“, ironically, is covered by one of the shittiest country music singers I’ve ever heard. I won‘t bother to name names in this case, but FUCK! Way to anally rape our revolution and pour sugar down the creative gas tank. The fact that I can‘t escape that music because I’m shopping in the grocery store makes me want to claw the stock boy’s eyes out, screaming obscenities like a crazy cat lady.
Clean Clean by The Buggles.
-DJ Moshi Moshi
Gil Scott-Heron
Hello Friends,
As part of my Remix Culture studies I have compiled a video to complement Gil Scott-Heron‘s classic track The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. The video is made up from old Drive-In theatre advertising film reels, in a nod to the postmodern advertising epidemic that is the subject of this track. The music itself is slightly modified, fragmented and mixed to epitomise the repetition of advertising.
Although I have removed nearly all of the companies from the adverts, one still remains: Winston Cigarettes. This particular advertising brand was saved due to the nature of the commercial, but also because of my affection for cigarettes.
-RTB
Videocracy
Fortunate in that between the 60s-era ‘changeover’ cinematic operation we have on the flagship MIFF site, the Forum; I was able to to catch Erik Gandini‘s documentary in near entirety.
This curiously Swedish film is presented by Lars Von Trier’s Zentropa -the production company that vyed for arthouse supremacy in the early 90s and has since made a resurgence with such titles as The Idiots, the Dogville trilogy and Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself.
Having an awareness of the manic that is politica Italiano, I found myself engaged in this perspective of Silvio Berlusconi‘s grasp of Italian media outlets. The film opens with a summary of erotic cinema; Ron Jeremy at the fore amidst shots of scantily-clad women in both popular ‘underground’ video and shopping malls on the continent, alike.
The film is at times tedious in its depiction of billionaire girls and television production impresarios: namely in its pursuit of t.v. ‘turncoat’ Fabrizio Corona but ultimately frames Berlusconi‘s hard hand on a post-modern propaganda machine that is both daunting and amazing; a description I use without any flattery.
This is a film perhaps best viewed on video but au contraire worth a visit to your supposedly ‘local’ or ‘independent’ cinema.
-Rock The Boat
L’affaire Farewell
Written and directed by Christian Carion (Joyeux Noël), Farewell is set in Moscow 1981, at the apex of Cold war tensions between the USSR and the West. The film is a Hopscotch release and I viewed it at my favourite cinema; the Kino on Collins Street.
In the vein of The Lives Of Others but fortunately lacking the stylism for mass appeal, the film has a brooding foreboding in its narrative. You are not immediately drawn to the plight of French ex-pat Pierre (Parisian teen heart-throb Guillaume Canet) but instead become immersed in Emir Kusturica‘s performance, characterised in his control of the role of disaffected Soviet renegade Sergio. This is an admirable performance; displaying the portrayal of this political matyr in a resplendent manner. I felt that the minor supporting role of CIA agent Feeney was dismal and grossly under-developed; as was Willem Dafoe‘s execution of this role. However, it is the brilliant acting by Kusturica (prominent director and musician himself) that anchors the film in its detached and ominous atmosphere. Well worth a watch.
-Rock The Boat
Zevs
Somewhat like the Invader -whom we featured a few weeks back, Zevs (Schwarz Christophe Arhirre) is a French street artist that gained prominence during the late 90s in Paris.
He takes his moniker from the name of the commuter train ‘Zeus‘. Working with the aforementioned Invader and André; he helped pioneer the French street art scene. Initially targeting the walls of Montmartre with graffiti and ‘shadows’ of the Eiffel Tower, he was also notorious for hitting billboards -with throwies and also defacing and modifying the advertisements.
In the last 5 years, Zevs has moved forward in his approach to the fine arts; implementing new socio-political themes & techniques, including installation pieces. His works are highly sought after and works can cost in the range of $10,ooo. Zevs has recently established a series of productions named “Liquidated Logos” whereby he creates disfigured representations of corporate logos such as Coca-Cola, Chanel, Gucci, Playboy etc. This project comes immediately after his arrest last year in Hong Kong, which was a fitting end to his 7-year “Visual Kidnapping” campaign whereby he would remove, for example: a photo of a model from a huge billboard and demand a ransom to return the image.
He is currently part of the Lazarides artists group that includes greats such as Futura, Mode2, David Choe, Invader, 3D, Banksy, Jonathon Yeo, Reas and Faile.
It’s A Wonderful World
-Rock The Boat
RIP Guru
Vale to the late Guru; reputable MC for Gangstarr and hip hop visionary.
The rapper died a few days ago after a long struggle with cancer. He had been in a coma since late February this year.
Guru stands for Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal; a title that references the Nation of Islam. Guru (or Keith Elam) rocked the East Coast scene, ever since teaming up with DJ Premier and Mark the 45 King in 1985. Their greatest release Hard To Earn is an essential hip hop classic and Premier himself regarded as one of the best hip hop producers of all time.
Featured is a short tribute mix by Los Angeleno Dj Dexxx1.
http://www.youtube.com/dexxxhunt
Earth Hour Bullshit
What irks me about Earth Hour is that it uses more energy. This is for 2 reasons: 1) Electrical devices use less power (and in particular, lighting) when they are constantly on. Whereas, everytime you turn on a light, the striking usurps more power in flicking it on, than if you were to leave the light on for 2-3 hours. I can verify this fact. And, 2) The point at which (concievably) millions of people in the one area, drawing power from the same station, turn on their power after the hour is up, all at once -puts such a strain on the power generation that the output is stressed to the maximum, thus burning many times the energy that these power stations would if the load was more evenly spread.
Think about it. Commonsense would probably enlighten you to these notions. And that’s but 2 examples that I know of personally.
In all, Earth Hour is about “spreading the word” -I believe the word is spread and we need to employ more practical measures that work; as opposed to counter-productive tokenism.
-Rock The Boat
Question Time
The member for Dickson will resume his seat…
This clip features an updated mix of the DeRael + Sideproject release from Theodicy Records.
The mix includes an Exclusive INFX Parliament mash-up from the fat boys up on Capital Hill.
PARLIAMENT vs. DeRAEL
-Rock The Boat
Black Cat White Cat
I recently regained a grubby grip on this film masterpiece. Emir Kusturica‘s depiction of the charm and chaos between a sprawling Balkans family consisting of rival ‘gypsy gangsters‘ never ceases to amaze. The film consistently cements itself in any respectable top 5 favourite film lists. The film opens on the banks of the Danube, with the seminal techno classic ‘(I‘m a) Pit Bull Terrier‘ -a track crafted from the minimalist group Zabranjeno Pusenje, long before downtempo anthems bum-rushed the Eastern European dance music scene. However, this is just an opening sequence.
Do not be fooled by these wanna-be gangster buffoons and their hilarious bumbling bastardry -the plot opens up as the head of the family, Matko Destanov, unites his mob to make sure his daughter is wed and wed in a proper & timely fashion. The outcomes of these endeavours are heartfelt and often ill-concieved but ultimately, when played out on celluloid they will have you retching with laughter. You‘ll be gagging on your incomprehension of the trials and tributaries (yes, waterways) that the wedding party encounter.
And War…
Having been fortunate enough to traverse Bosnia a few years back; Kusturica‘s film is certainly reminiscent of the uneducated madmen that roam the countryside. Somewhat similar to the bogan or twit, this cariacature of clueless peasants from the Balkans is as interesting and humorous as it is sad and disappointing; with Bosnia a country particularly dire in despair. A place that an 80 year old professor who I stayed with in Mostar deemed “it is everyone against Bosnia. They have us land locked and it is each for their own“. Upon asking how he felt about the Croats, Serbs and other socio-political groups: “How do you think I feel when 100,000 people were slaughtered in this very town during a 2-day campaign“. A chilling reminder of the devastation of war. And it was less than 20 years ago. A ‘contemporary‘ war.
Too many Freeways?
As an avid spectator of cartography, admirer of the aesthetics of freeway design and a Melway enthusiast; I am certainly hard-pressed to critique the development of a limited-access road.
However, with VicRoads’ latest release of an Outer Ring Road survey comprising imminent land acquisition, I am in awe of the proposed engineering feat while sceptical as to the worthiness of the project. The freeway, spanning the Donnybrook-Sunbury-Rockbank-Werribee urban sprawl (or chasm) has spurred my thoughts thus: Non-plussed in the extreme.
Certainly, Melbourne’s freeway network is already (and only recently) at its apex? A second Western Ring Road and the accompanied Footscray Westlink tunnel, also coupled with the mooted North-East Link tunnelling below the Greensborough Highway and Heidelberg would turn Melbourne into a cesspit of thoroughfares which would do nothing to complement the social and indeed civic fabric of our revered communities.
VicRoads says: “The Outer Metropolitan Ring / E6 Transport Corridor is being planned to accommodate a 100 kilometre long high-speed transport link” -could 100 km of new freeway with multi-tiered junctions with the M31, M79, M8 and M1 really be justified in the face of chronic public transport crises, as even now the train network is at capacity and severely lacks in maintenance, infrastructure and investment? Surely, the money (as that of the failed Myki card) could be better spent on establishing a rapid transit system; a high-speed underground train network planned entirely from scratch.
Images Courtesy of The Age
In short, too many freeways can be a bad thing. Ask Londoners about their brush with epic Motorway disaster.
Map of the proposed Ring Road here: http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/RoadProjects/PlanningAndProposals/Melbourne/OMRE6DetailedDesignMaps.htm
