Ready for the Stuffocalypse?

Guardian UK columnist and super-witty TV host/presenter, Charlie Brooker wrote a great article about the daunting amount of stuff he's been dealing with and simulatenously not dealing with.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/05/charlie-brooker-cultural-diet

I can certainly relate to this keeping up with Jones mentality as much as I try to avoid it, it's extremely difficult to avoid. I get on music forums and there's so much emphasis on the 6,500,000 bands I still don't know about - the great, the medicore and the plain awful ones - much less do I need to get every limited edition or even bother downloading this that or the other album in a lot of cases. Both cases only end up taking up space if not harddirve space (which means it's it's somewhere in some file path that goes down about 17 places or buried in 5 days worth of iTunes detirus which you claim is "all great" except for that 25% of "wacky" novelty tunes you'll someday play for your friends). The other is physical space which is more obvious but you know when you've have way too much when it looks like this lady's place:


Is there a difference between this lady's obsession and someone having Bathory yellow goat & original Misfits 7"s? Discuss...

No, Metal is NOT something you can blame the government for

As my favorite Music forum would say "What the fuck is a George Hawley?" I dunno but he sure has some lame ideas about Metal and politics.

http://www.amconmag.com/postright/2009/08/20/in-the-age-of-obama-will-heavy-metal-suck-again/

"I don’t really have a good explanation for why America’s taste in metal seems to change along with the nation’s political trends. One possibility is due to the fact that both heavy metal and the Republican Party are primarily favored by white men (which is not to say that everyone who likes one will also like the other). A Democrat in the White House suggests that the political and cultural power of white guys is on the decline, and the political tastes of American white guys may change accordingly. This results in either efforts to shed a little bit of their “whiteness” (hence the hip-hoppification of metal in the Clinton years), or outright despair (hence the glut of popular songs during that same period that can only be enjoyed by the type of people who cut themselves in the dark). If this is true, however, it seems similar trends should prevail in country music. This does not appear to be the case (though I admit to knowing hardly anything about country). Perhaps this is because country fans are more confident and comfortable in their own, um, skin." 

Alright,  maybe I'm not on the same planet as this guy but I grew up with a small but significant number of Asian, Latino and Black metalheads. And really, how does the above describe the popularity of hip-hop among white teens? I grew up with hip-hop as well as Metal (and Hardcore/Punk not to forget New Wave). I really don't concern myself with Palin or even trying too hard "hip Republican" Mike Huckabee listens to anymore than if centrist-reformist creeps like Dianne Feinstein liked Current 93 song. None of it would make a damn bit of difference of my opinion of her politics. Using the "racial expectation" cliche in 2010 is plenty lame (ok, so this is actually fronm 2009). Plus, his claim that "There has also been a decine in the puerile satanism that once dominated metal lyrics." obviously show he's not up to date on the Nuclear War Now! release schedule.

This reminds me of an earlier odd connection between extreme metal and the neo-cons written by The Exiled's
Mark Ames back in the early days of Iraq War II: Cakewalking into Quagmires which among other things, is a "mash-up" review of   Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind's -  Lords of Chaos and former Bush Administration strategists, David Frum and Richard Perle's - An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror in this NY Press article It's a rather silly "gonzo journalism" stuff written about a guy that doesn't know shit about Metal. Though at times Ames is an amusing writer.

Anyway, if you're looking for Obama or really ANY Administration and thereby the government in general to make Metal suck or not suck - then it's your own fucking fault - take responsibility and quit whining ya poser!

Johnny Rebel pulls the "I'm not racist but..." card

Louisiana racist country musician and occasional foil on Howard Stern's show, C.J. "Johnny Rebel" Trayan  unsurprisingly "black culture" in this 2001 interview with the white power radio show hosted at the white power Chimpout site . What I'm curious about here is:
1) How these attitudes have disseminated through his music and the more general attitude of the white power movement.
2) The strange contradictions both he and the host have when comes to racism. Both seem to only define racism as "someone who activiely promoted hate and violence towards another race." The host says "now you're a racist if there's even things about another culture that you're uncomfortable with." However, Chimpout's sister site Chimptube calls itself: "the multimedia solution for all your niggerbashing entertainment needs." Yeesh!

This link to the interview (2nd one above) includes many segrationalist songs from the late 1800s and early 1900s I wrote about Trayan in my 2008 paper about Extreme Metal and Extreme Politics  which culled the history of a variety of racist and other controversial musics before and during the history of Heavy Metal.

Trayan/Rebel's been making his racist country tunes since 1966 when he released his first singles:
"Lookin' For a Handout / Kajun Klux Klan" and followed that up the same year with "Nigger Hatin' Me / Who Likes A Nigger?" Musically and lyrically this cavalcade of racist crap (which you can hear in the 2nd link above) – is  shocking yet also unremarkably redundant. To put it bluntly, this shit gets old real quick.

Going back  to the interview, Trayan/Rebel claims "they (blacks) deserve all the same rights that Hispanics enjoy, Caucasians enjoy, Asians enjoy, I certainly don't think of them as less than deserving of those rights." On the other hand, he goes on to complain that "they (blacks) shouldn't be able to impose their goddamn crap on us". OK, the host's generalizing makes a little sense "their are aspects of (their culture) that quite frankly are destructive and negative". Although, this is also like saying trailer trash who beat their wives and get fat as an ox off of BBQ and tankards of Coca-Cola is part of "white culture". Strangely, Trayan/Rebel makes the correlation between whites accepting popular black music, the Civil Rights bill and current tolerance for their place in society. "We were the son of bitches that started on this...we started listening to Rhythm and Blues - that was black music...we started listening to the black music and then they figured that everything else could come along - and it did. It eventually it led to the Civil Rights Bill and eventually the Civil Rights Bill led to more and more - and a lotta your whites out there that think blacks are just another person - no different color, no different any thing...and I won't teach my kids that."

He goes on to say "I'm not a racist - I wanna be with my kind" then follows with "the two things I hate is the attitude towards the white man 'cause they think we owe 'em something ...and next they wanna marry fuckin' white people!...That irritates the livin' shit outta me! When I see a black guy with a white girl that turns my stomach." Then finishes with "why do they make so many kids?...they're just a piss poor race." Rebel's songs have been posted all over YouTube and naturally across white-power forums like Stormfront and German-based Thiazi. Additionally, Rebel's music has been sold by white-power record labels such as Resistance Records and Micetrap Distribution. Contrary to rumor, Johnny Rebel's true identity as noted earlier is CJ Trayan and NOT the famous outlaw country artist, David Allan Coe.

Sheik and Destroy: Adnan and Saddam

 "This is what the Arab people want!"

The squared circle (or wrestling ring, if you will) of the 1980s often mirrored the geopolitics of the time. One such character was former wrestler and manager Sheik Adnan Al-Kassiey (real name: Adnan Bin Abdulkareem Ahmed Alkaissy El Farthie). Al-Kassiey was hailed as being from Bagdad, Iraq. Now, even in my own teenage mind I knew somehow, someway that the "no Russian accent having Russian", Krusher Krushev wasn't really from Moscow. Yet, the more I've read about Adnan Al-Kassey the more interested I've become. Kassiey started as the Native American gimmick Billy White Wolf  despite being Middle Eastern in origin. This however was nothing new as  Barry Darsow played the Russian mentioned earlier (in the National Wrestling Alliance), a mountain man (Georgia Championship Wrestling), and a Repo Man (WWF).


Kassiey I knew mostly from the AWA and a little bit of various NWA territories. He managed King Kong Brody (aka: Bruiser Brody), Jerry "The Mountain from Stone Mountain, GA" Blackwell, and Kamala the Ugandan Giant. In 2005, Al-Kaissy published his memroirs, The Sheikh of Baghdad: Tales of Celebrity and Terror from Pro Wrestling's General Adnan. Sports author Ross Bernstein wrote the following in his review:

"Alkaissy returned home to Iraq as a modern day hero of sorts. Meanwhile, Saddam was rising to power in the ruling Baath Party at the time and had big plans for his old friend. With that, Saddam summoned Adnan to his palace and told him that he wanted him to wrestle for Iraq and make him proud. Adnan, who was only home for a visit to see his family, respectfully declined the generous offer. But when Saddam told him it was not an offer, but an order, he realized that his life would never be the same. So, under Saddam´s watchful eye, Alkaissy began promoting his own wrestling matches in Iraq - importing professional grapplers from around the world to compete against him. Literally hundreds of thousands of crazed fans poured into local soccer stadiums to see Adnan emerge as the Middle East Heavyweight Champion of the World, and before long a superstar was born. Adnan was rewarded with his own palace, a fleet of Mercedes complete with chauffeurs, and money beyond his wildest dreams. He was even named as the Director of Youth at the Ministry of Youth, a very coveted and prominent government position. Soon, there were thousands of adoring fans sleeping outside his home at night just hoping to catch a glimpse of their new hero. It was utter insanity. What Adnan didn´t realize, however, was that Saddam was using his old friend as a clever ruse to entertain and occupy the masses while he began his own murderous regime of torture and terror throughout the Middle East. Eight long years later, Alkaissy was fearful of being killed. So, he left everything behind and escaped in the dark of night, leaving his friends and family behind forever. With nowhere to turn to, he came back to America, where he would start over as a professional wrestler - only this time, instead of being an adored national hero, he would be transformed into a villainous Arabian madman named "The Sheikh."

 Bagdad for several years had a wrestling scene. In the book Weird Minnesota, Alkaissy says of his Bagdad match with Canadian grappler George Gordienko, "(we had) probably the biggest crowd ever in the history of wrestling. The stadium in Iraq had over two hundred thousand people watching." The book also says: "the ring was surrounded by armed guards with submachine guns." In 1978, Al-Kaissy helped promote another wrestling event in his birthplace of Bagdad.  It was here that he fought and won against Andre the Giant. When asked about the reality of putting on matches that were worked in a country like Iraq, Al-Kaissy said "If Saddam found out that the wrestling we were doing was fake, you think I'd be alive?" He later found the tortured body of one his colleagues and a friend of his was assassinated after having dinner with Sadaam.  

 High school pals: Saddam Hussein and Sheikh Adnan Al-Kaissy/Ed Farthy. 

Al-Kassiy wrestling as Sheik Adnan  

Despite his dangerous times in Iraq, Al-Kaissy's last major run in wrestling involved playing an Iraqi heel during the the first Gulf War. In 1990, Al-Kaissy became the Arabic spouting General Adnan who managed the now Iraqi supporting Sargent Slaughter in the WWF.  Slaughter went after fan faves such as The Ultimate Warrior and Chump Hogan. After his run in the WWF, Kassiey worked with Tito Santana, Bob Orton Jr. and other big names in the Chicago based AWF. He appeared on Fox News' Hannity (and...Colmes) in 2006. Unfortunately, the video got wiped out from YouTube - possibly in fear of reprisal from Abdullah the Butcher.  Al-Kaissy. currently resides in Hopkins, MN where he participates in the town's annual Raspberry Days Festival. For more on the history of pro wrestling in the Middle East check out this. 

Really, CNN?

Stunningly lame but that's what happens when "news" worships celebrity idiot culture.

Book reviews & Hitchens quotes

Black Collar Crimes – An Encyclopedia of False Profits and Unholy Orders by Michael Newton
Loompanics Unlimited, 1998
One of the better titles in the Loompanics catalog. Loompanics called it quits last year so you’ll have to go here to get some of their titles: http://www.paladin-press.com/loompanics.aspx

Unfortunately, Paladin only bought their survivalist type of books. So, the “fucked up religion/politics/ideas” titles are gonna be harder for you to find. Though Albris and Amazon will probably be the place to find them along with the usual (at least for me) used book stores & garage sales. Which brings me to this – Black Collar Crimes. This is a rogue’s gallery of tax scammers, money launders, murders, anti-abortion zealots, pedophiles, rapists, arsonists, pimps, and adulterers. All of these are based on actual settled cases. While the crimes may vary all these criminals mentioned in the book are all “holier than thou”. All believe that “god was on their side” and thought that there way was the “righteous path”. Everyone from televangelists to Boy Scout leaders to Wicca high priests are here. The book is all done in an alphabetic, encyclopedic form - which makes it easy to follow. Some useful information for your Black/Death Metal or Power Electronics band, nerd-o. Seek it out.

Christopher Hitchens:

Pg 60. “God is NOT Great” (2007)

“The element of the wish for obliteration can be seen without disguise in the millennial sects of our own day, who betray their selfishness as well as their nihilism by announcing how many will be “saved” from the ultimate catastrophe. Here the extreme Protestants are almost as much as to faults as the most hysterical Muslims. In 1844, one of the greatest American religious “revivals” occurred, led by a semiliterate lunatic named George Miller. Mr. Miller managed to crowd the mountaintops of America with credulous fools who *(having sold their belongs cheap) became persuaded that the world would end on October 22 that year. They removed themselves to high ground –what difference did they expect that to make? - or to the roofs of their hovels. When the ultimate failed to arrive, Miller’s choice of terms was highly suggestive. It was, he announced, “The Great Disappointment.” In our own time, Mr. Hal Lindsey, author of the best-selling The Late Great Planet Earth, has betrayed the same thirst for extinction. Indulged by senior American conservatives and respectfully interview on TV, Mr. Lindsey once dated the start of ‘The Tribulation’ - a seven year period of strife and terror – for 1988. “

Pg. 79, ibid

“Well, I too have marveled at the sweet little ears of my female offspring (my daughter), but never without noticing that (a) they always need a bit of a clean out, (b) that they look mass-produced even when set against the inferior ears of other people’s daughers, ( c) that as people get older their ears look more and more absurd from behind, and (d) that much lower animals, such as cats and bats, have much more fascinating and lovely and more potent ears.”

from his “Arguments from Design" chapter

Red Wolves of Stalin - Literally and Metalically

"(British Ambasador to the Soviet Union, Lord) Beaverbrook observed the Soviet leader carefully, even noting that his doodling habit included 'drawing numberless pictures of wolves on paper and filled the background with red pencil."

- Andrew Nagorski in The Greatest Battle: Stalin, Hitler, and the Desperate Struggle for Moscow that Changed the Course of World War II pg. 165, 2007.

"Hiding in the forest
"Or villages nearby
Like the pack they are prowling
And only hunt at night
Lying in the slush
Buried deep in snow
Always facing death
Ready for the blow

Marching, creeping, waiting,
Snipers in the trees
Aiming, shooting, killing
These wolves will have their feast"

Hail of Bullets, "Red Wolves of Stalin", 2008.

The above two concepts are very facinating, since the iconography of wolves with polticial movements often move towards fascist elements. One possible though coincidental explaination is the Adolf in Adolf Hitler means wolf. However, the eagle was and remains a far more popular choice in fascist but also Roman and other historic iconography. Additionally, if we look through Metal-Archives for wolves as the subject matter there's only one band who deliberately have wolves and national socialism as their main themes, Slovakia's Freezing Moon. Other instances include the "Wolves, Nature, Winter, Anti-Satan" lyrical themes of Italian band Shadowolf

Getting back to politics, we find white power terrorist organizations in the UK who have been tied to the Serbian paramilitary group, White Wolves who had a hand in the London Neo-nazi terror bombings of 1999.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/332885.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/328181.stm

Additionally, this article discusses the "cult of the wolf among ancient Slavs - particularily in Serbia.

Going back to the eagle symbol, this Serbian "Rock Against Communism" (R.A.C.)/Hate-Core band , Revolt Bbg -Likely short for Belgrade, makes use of the avian-predator as white power icon. However, oddly, they used a very American looking bald eagle An ironic choice considering the anti-American ideology of fascist European movements.

A separate but related point, I think that there needs should be a study done upon wolf populations. That is, do the "white wolves of Serbian" really care about the black wolves of Bosnia? Wouldn't they just compete for food, howl and fight for mates as usual? Though, they can see in shades of black, white and grey but there seems to be no evidence of them attacking another wolf based on color.