2017 In Review Part 1: personal, politics and uh, pizza ?

 

I didn't publish one of these last year. 2017 was a trying, fucked up year in many of the same ways 2016 was but on the plus side I got more politically involved with activism. Namely this was via the DSA in the Bay Area. A big part of this was canvassing for Medicare for All which tried but unfortunately failed to get off the ground in California. So much for "liberal Bay Area" but then that typical means "socially liberal/economically eat shit anyone making lower than 100K". However, my comrades & I had a quite a few successes with people signing up to support the cause and even on the hottest day of the year (when it was a gross as hell 110 F in San Jose). 

Additionally, I went to the DSA National Convention and met a lot of comrades who I had only known via Twitter or had met for just the first time ever. It was really great meeting people not just from the chapters I was familiar with SF, C'bus, Middle TN, Portland)  but also ones I didn't know much about (Montana, Houston, Central FL, Anchorage). This was also the first time I got to experience the Chicago that's not O'Hare Airport. It's a great city where I think I could live if it wasn't more pricey & colder than C'bus. But otherwise a good place with a lot of great people. On top of this, I went to a bunch of rad parties which started with a comedy night in a art space hosted by comedian and Street Fight Radio guest, Arish Singh. The next night involved a fun but somewhat confusing wrestling/create a fighter board game with some fine folks from the Gainsville-area, LA and (I think?) suburban Chicago chapters. The process of the convention reminded me of the Music, Metal & Politics Conference I went to in '08 - work stuff during the day and party at night.

The last party I went to was at the In These Times office was wild as fuck as it was held in a seemingly smallish office building but on the inside there were extremely long hallways that snaked around and around. Shortly before I was at the party I was feeling very anxious about seeing some friends who I thought weren't going to be in town the next few days. So dumbass me didn't see a giant crack in the sidewalk and fell on my hands right into front of a music venue across the street. Though at the time I hands had just minor scrape which after the party turned into what I thought was a broken elbow late that night into the morning/early afternoon. Fuuuuuuck! But luckily it was just a big sprain that I thankfully got a sling and painkillers for. Thanks DSA Medical. However, it was real shitty trying to navigate the blue line into O'Hara airport > crowded plane home with 1 useful arm.

Protesting against the Neo-nazis in S.F. was another big event for me. This was in August right after Charlottesville and a few weeks after the National Convention was a huge deal. I had all kinds of fear going up that morning and on into the afternoon. However, we saw exactly one MAGA CHUD dingus with a shield on our way to the park. The only exchange that went on was a an anarchist saying to him "hey, dude  nice shield" and that shied goofus walking away in shame. One of the things that eased the tension was not just the turnout from DSA but the big turnout from other orgs like PSL, ISO, WWP, a few organizations I'm sure I'm forgetting (sorry!), and a bunch of anarchists and quite a few non-organization affiliated people that were marching alongside everyone. The march went from Alamo Square and through part of the upper part of Market Street all the way into 26th Street in the Mission. I also really like that there were people handing out snacks and water along the march. Granted I've not studied a ton of anarchism theory but I believe this was a strong case of mutual aid.

I really wanted to go the next day in Berkeley when shit REALLY went down but I unfortunately was way too exhausted to go but big thanks to everyone who put up a strong front against the Nazis and their supporters. All this was a nice change from the very Democrat-party centered / "The Russians are stealing your mail!" Women's March in San Jose in January aka: Though, cheers to the person off in the distance who had the "Fuck White Feminism" sign. Seriously stop giving support to the FBI and put the fucking breaks on the 2016 election for-ever.

 Another plus was getting involved with Columbus DSA and working with them on promoting Tenants Rights, Medicare for All along with the weekly pizza nights. Speaking of pizza there's seems to be a billion places to get it here and I think they have nearly every kind possible. So, far I've just had the go-to of Donato's (pretty good but I gotta order something else on the menu minus standard veggie & cheese) and Hounddog's which is some of the best I've ever had. Anyway, there's loads more to do in this city and moreso the more I learn about the gentrification and other major issues here.

Also in 2017: I listened to more Hawkwind & got deeper into Japanese psych-rock like Les Rallizes Dénudés. Finally got the fuck outta Swilicon Valley and onward to Central Ohio where things are a bit easier and no more hellcommutes like in San Jose and Mtn. View. Columbus' public transpo situation could suck less  - i.e the buses only go so far into Dublin (the next city north) which is really sucks when you work there. Yet at least most things are 15-20 min. away with not too much traffic. The narrow roads in certain places are something that I'm still getting used to but in general driving here is a lot easier than the anxiety producing ways of the Bay Area.

Work stuff was mostly shit as I had a really good job and good job environment up in San Bruno, CA but this multi-billion dollar company was too fucking cheap to hire me on full-time much less extend my contract or give me benefits. I continue to be a contract worker in C'bus with no healthcare benefits and a giant question mark where I go after this current job is done but on the plus side my rent isn't costing me a fortune and I have more space for less money.

I also watched a lotta college football than I expected. It's sorta hard to avoid when everyone person at Kroger on Saturday has scarlet & grey on but my only real argument is why the fuck did OSU play USC on December 29th instead of New Year's Day? Welp by the time that game rolled around I had lost interest and went to the MUCH more fun Street Fight Radio live show at this place called Tree Bar in the middle of a pretty gnarly snowstorm.

Adjusting to a new city and environment has been a somewhat tough especially doing this entirely on my own. Plus, regretting some of the things I left behind that I unfortunately didn't have space for but would've still helped me a lot in my current apt. situation. Well, someday I'll get that couch and a comfy chair that isn't from on thin legs.  That said Columbus has a million places to eat and I've noticed the bars are a LOT cheaper i.e. - a $4-5 PBR tall boy in S.F. is about $2.50-$3.00 in C'bus. Plus, I again live in a city where there's not just 1 record store but at around 5! This is a big jump from the sad remnants of the Mountain View Rasputin's which closed for good in mid-'17.

I have a bunch of challenges and stuff that I need to still figure out in the first few months of 2018 that I hope don't add to feelings of anxiety, occasional social isolation and depression I've had these past few months (which just carried over from the Bay Area only maybe a bit less intense at times) will be more in control despite it all.

Back from the Dead 

I decided to revise this blog as in the last two years I've been thinking and re-thinking about politics. For starters, I was just looking at some posts I made by in 2011 and I had a quote from Christopher Hitchens re: religion. At the time I was watching a ton of his interviews, debates and lectures. I'm not even sure why I was obsesso about him but at this stage the only thing I really like about him is his obit on Jerry Faldwell and his writings on the famous walking corpse and war criminal Henry Kissinger. Over time, I just couldn't deal with his gross Islamaphobic rants along with his support with the neo-cons during Gulf War II*

Also, if you wanna read a fucking enziguri of a critique - check out Dan O' Sullivan (aka: Gen. Ghandi's) take on the legacy of Hitchens. 

The problem with that "capital A" atheism was the rampant asshole part of it. Namely Sam Harris' excrementally awful endorsement of European fascists Islamaphobia.  "The people who speak most sensibly about the threat that Islam poses to Europe are actually fascists." The doofus "smart scientist guy" Richard Dawkins is just as bad and has attempted to prove how intellectual he is by saying things such as:

I've seen a dog & bitch indulging in full 69. Males of many species including Drosophila lick female genitals before copulation.

(from 'ol Dicky Dawk's own Twitter)

Wow! Professor, do tell us more. No, on 2nd thought just don't! Moreso, this "intellectual titan" as Andrew Brown wrote in the Spectator: "The website suggests that donations of up to $500,000 a year will be accepted for the privilege of eating with him once a year: at this level of contribution you become a member of something called ‘The Magic of Reality Circle’. I don’t think any irony is intended." Well, someone really needs more honeyjars.


Overall, the idea of religion might not be the thing to get me through everyday life. But I understand it is important for a lot of people and it's not really getting every step of my way. Although, it's not what's getting in my way of making a living or having a life. Capitalism and Silicon Valley's Tech-Dystopia cult however, is. And while I'm at it - fuck you blood sucking techno vampire, Peter Thiel! 

I also feel the need to revise this because I've had so much of this shit on my mind and I interact with it everyday on Twitter. Plus, it's important to revise my positions as the last time I really engaged with political writing I was pretty much a Daily Show watching, goofy liberal Democrat. Whereas, now I'm way on left and the Daily Show/Colbert/Bill Maher/Crooks and Liars nexus does nothing for me. Instead, I'm a supporter and fan of podcasts like Street Fight Radio and Chapo Trap House both of whom have a dramatic impact on my thinking as has much their as well as many others analyses via Twitter many of whom I plan on discussing further. It also helps a lot that all these people have great senses of humor and often share many overlapping interests. 

This type of leftism I'm at now is a mix of communism, socialism, and anarcho-syndicalism. What's trippy is I'm now connecting with a lot of people across the country and the world who share these ideas and DON'T buy into the kayfabe of Republican and Democrats (to use a fantastic phrase that Brett and Bryan of Street Fight Radio have often said). In summary, a LOT about the US Election in 2016 made me stay to these positions and not support neither garbage party. Both want war, both want the surveillance state, both want Wall St. & technocracy to rule my life. One does it with an iron fist ** and the other does it with condescending pop culture bullshit. 

Anyway, I'm gonna write more next time about how I got to my current ideas/ideals in my next post and my political history: the good, the bad, and naive. 

ENDNOTE: 
* I "sequel" the Gulf Wars movie-style as I'm old enough to have been aware of the 1st Gulf War and it being the first 24-hour news cycle/cable TV war. The Highway of Death, burning oil fields and incubator killers propaganda back then out did any notions of "cool" trading cards, Super Bowl "rah-rah", or Wayne & Garth talking about it  It was a short war granted but a fucking depressing as hell one. I'll have much more on my experience with this time soon. 
** Not the hella cool Motörhead kind

Written under the influence of: "Litourgiya" by Batushka, vodka, chai tea & $2 PBR. 

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

Laibach on America

"We know that America likes us and we shall therefore come back; nonetheless, we have seen it and we agree that it is that only nation in history which has miraculosly lapsed from barbarism to degeneration without the usual of civilization."

My Music, Metal and Politics paper (from 2008)

You can now (finally) read the paper I presented in Salzburg, Austria last November entitled "Extreme Metal and Extreme Politics - Strange Bedfellows or Fellow Travelers?" The first part was actually written for the non-metal person in mind. Also, considering the use of music sharing/sampling sites such as MySpace & YouTube, it's quite easy for them to investigate what these bands sound like along with the multiple video and additional web sources I've noted. I'm not the most scholarly or academic writer, my speciality is in history-specifically the history of the far ends of the political spectrum as it relates to music. I'm also have included in the 2nd link the handouts which underscore the visual side of the extremity and some of them are regular dude band photos. PLEASE note these are rather big files, so download time might take up to 10 minutes depending on your harddrive (mine's a crappy 2004-era Mac, so I'm sure you have something better/faster/stronger).


Das ist Paper

Das ist Visuals

Enjoy and don't be a lame-oh, leave COMMENTS!

American Porn-in-oia

Top States For Online Porn

"Published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, a report released earlier this year entitled "Red Light States: Who Buys Adult Entertainment" highlights where the revenues for pornographic entertainment on the Internet actually come from. According to AVN Media Network , Internet sales are the second largest piece of the $12.6 billion adult entertainment industry, drawing $2.84 billion in 2006."

It would be interesting to see what types of porn they also consume. For some reason I'm thinking hetero-anal is big in anti-gay marriage states. Seems like that's the what things work in the United States of Hypocrisy.

"We're the Sex Pistols of British politics and we've just scored a number one."

...or so says British National Party head and Hugh Grant lookalike, Nick Griffin. Griffin & the BNP have scored not a number one but a number two. An important number two that signifies the two members of their party are now sitting in the European Union Parliament along with additional national and regional representation in the British Parliament. Despite criticism of UK politics moving to the ultra-right, the BNP itself claims to not be a right-wing party. Daniel Hannan, British Conservative Party (aka: Tory) MEP, writes more about their "fusion politics": (1)

The BNP doesn’t call itself Right-wing, of course. It favours nationalisation, higher taxes, protectionism and (though it keeps quiet about this) republicanism. It markets itself as “the Labour Party your parents voted for”. Its manifesto calls for “the selective exclusion of foreign-made goods from British markets and the reduction of foreign imports,” and promises to “restore our economy and land to British ownership” and “to give workers a stake in the success and prosperity of the enterprises..."

Getting back to music, it's possible that Griffin is invoking Johnny Ramone's idea that "punk should be right wing". However, the BNP isn't just some kind of sarcastic right wing, "shock-punk" band such as The Meatmen or Fear. Nor are they a sarcastic, "small 'l' libertarian group such as the Sex Pistols themselves or Rancid Vat.

While Johnny Ramone believed that punk should be a right-wing thing, his own anti-immigrant and "America, fuck yeah!" politics mirror mainstream dolts like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. "Correct or incorrect" there IS a difference between this thinking (however crazy it may seem) and getting cozy with real fascist political movements and domestic terrorists.

The absurd things that Beck, Limbaugh, and their minions have said about Obama makes them seem like hippies compared to this.

The bigger question is if the BNP really ARE the Sex Pistols of politics then is Griffin the Sid Vicious or Malcom McLaren of the group? And who is their Johnny Rotten, Paul Cook and Steve Jones? Maybe the the National Front's John Tyndal is their Glenn Matlock? If this holds true, it could also mean one of the BNP will end up stabbing his girlfriend in a hotel room and then ODing on heroin. Or maybe as some of these ultra-righters go, will they rot from within?

Griffin's analogy is nothing but absurd. Granted the Sex Pistols wearing swastikas (actually just 1/2 the band) for the shock value is vastly different than the likes of Griffin's right hand man, and EU member from Yorkshire, Andrew Brons. Brons is directly connected with Holocaust denying authors and nail bombers. He has also been seen marching with boneheads shouting "death to Jews".

Big Difference

Swastika Sporting Shock Value Punks (2)
Lydon, Cook & Jonesy taking the piss in Oslo, 1977.

vs.

Swastika-less Fascist Shock Troops Andrew Brons (left) and Nick Griffin (right, holding mic)

Alluding back to the Pistols ideology, if we only look at Johnny Rotten's politics, you'd find he's a more of a cynical-yet-often on the money, small 'l' libertarian. Plus, Rotten unlike Vicious (cliched, rotting) has like Henry Rollins kept himself doing some very interesting things while keeping themselves in the albiet smaller media spotlight.

Ending on a different note, where DID the BNP come up with this shit logo?

BNP design guy: "I gotta great idea, I saw the PBS logo and thought, 'hey let's merge this with a Def Leppard shirt!' It'll be brilliant!"

ENDNOTES:

1. Speaking of these grey areas of the two the poles of extremity, Nick Griffin's background includes a well-known association with the National Front along with a lesser known association with the International Third Position movement. The latter of which according to the London Independent believe in:

advocating a blood-and-soil alternative to communism and capitalism. In it he praised the black separatist Louis Farrakhan, met David Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, travelled to Libya at the expense of Colonel Gaddafi and expressed support for Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini – who also had a strong dislike of Jews, women's rights, homosexuals, liberal democracy, international capitalism, Coca-Cola and McDonald's.

2. For more on punk's appropriation of the swastika, see "Punk and the Swastika" here.

The band (Sex Pistols) wore swastikas as well as upside down crosses, pictures of Karl Marx and (Spanish anarchist) Buenaventura Durruti quotes. Funny how no-one ever asks me if they were communists, maybe that's because that particular form of totalitarianism is more accepted? They also wore a lot of different very explicit homosexual images but I have yet to hear anyone ask about that.

This hodge-podge of ideological and sexual asthetics circles back to Malcom McLaren's earlier experiment with the New York Dolls.

One photo show below shows guitarist Johnny Thunders with a swastika


While the next shows them as red patent leather commies.


Certainly the Dolls were ALL about gender-bending. Not so much on the upside-down crosses. Lastly, I'm utterly fascinated to find more punk bands to did this sort of thing in an anti-religion sort of way before metal made it code de rigueur.

Nasty Ronnie saw the financial future in 2004!

"whatever happened
to my 401 K?
a costly state
no fixed return
that's the plan
the betrayal system"

Also, here's some appropriate lines earlier in the tune for the news I got today when I found out my temp gig just bit the dust:

"Work that job
to earn
your pay
40 hours
another week
the rush
to get there
every day
to punch the clock
its
ticking away
your late my friend
one more time
and not again
12 months
another year
you have fallen
into
the system"

Both from "Betrayal System" via "Psycho Psycho" by Nasty Savage.

I'm not saying I'd go to this guy first for financial advice:


...but I'm just sayin' he'd be a LOT cooler to work with than this tosswad:


Stein, you can have all the money & fame you want BUT were you EVER part of something THIS awesome & legendary?

Antifa Protest against Kroda

Ukrainian Pagan Metallers Kroda were recently attacked by a bunch of Anti-Facist Action activists in Warsaw. The original link regarding Kroda's statement is here. The band makes mention of "telescopic cudgels" which sounds like a band of 60's psych unknowns. Granted, I have way more in common politically with Anti-Fa than with NSBM creeps. However, I don't feel that anti-authoritarian organizations should physically attack a band because they heard some rumors on the fucking Internet. Not to belittle the violent reaction but the protesters did have more than just rumors to go from. (I'm also NOT advocating being passive towards nazis, rather violence towards them only seems to work in self-defense. Attempting to attack them soley because their ideas are absurd (pun intended) is just as dumb as they are. At we can know who these idiots are if they're in public and their patheic, ultra-repetitive slogan will be as boring as they are offensive and really it's best to avoid them directly at all costs.

Back on topic though, Kroda's lyrics are a mixed bag. One forumite on Metal-Archives said that there's apparently some viruently anti-Jewish lyrics in one of their songs. Although, the only things I could find were Ukranian only lyrics that were poorly translated or things that deal with typical but still sketchy nationalism/pride lyrics that a lot of pagan albeit not really fascist or nazi bands use. One such song, "Мак Цвіте (Частина I)", roughly translated as "Mack Crvite Part I" (from the 2005 split with Oprich), falls under this category:
"By our steppes, turks and tartars
On horses like black clouds ride,
And ground breathing burning smell –
Lasso of fires all around,
And hordeman whirls his lasso rope:
He found there living prey – "

Furthermore, the band's statement claims Antifa's ignorance on the topic of NSBM:

"It seems antifa don’t know what is NSBM, if they use this stereotype towards our band. NSBM are bands like DER STURMER or THOR'S HAMMER, for example; i.e. formations where basic themes are political and social aspects, aesthetics of Third Reich etc. But KRODA (even purely stylistics-..wise) is Pagan Metal. In difference from NSBM, in Pagan Metal (just look at the name, it’s obvious) there’s no political component. Lyrical side of Pagan Metal is Antiquity, Traditionalism,.. Ancestral Roots Pride (those able to read – just look at KRODA texts published on our official site). And still we want to say that our group is OUT of modern politics."

Later on, we read:

"Summing up: We call all the listeners, musicians, labels, zines connected with Pagan and Black Metal to answer every antifa boycott of our music and bands with counter boycott. Don’t let them manipulate you! Don’t let them to destroy Pagan Metal subculture and our European traditional culture. Strike them back on psychological and bureaucratic level, as well as by physical action. Gangs of that scum must be recognized as criminal and determined as «outlaw» as they already done it with you for a long time. Guilty will be punished."
That said, their reputation or guilt is directly associated by the fact that bassist/vocalist Ogneslov plays in an NS Black Metal band called Volhv. Kroda also has affiliations with the "NS Heavy Metal/Rock Against Communism" styled group, Seitar from the city of Kyyiv.
Additionally, Kroda is part of Противостояние (or "Opposition), a "union together with Chugaister and the above mentioned Volhv. All three are also aligned with Lut'. All three affiliated bands are White Power/National Socialist. Therefore, it doesn't support their claim that Kroda is "only a pagan metal band". When all your records come out on NSBM labels and all your side bands record NSBM or every bill your on is filled with NSBM/other neo-nazi bands, then it's time to put your waders on 'cause you're knee deep into some brown (shirted) waters.

There's some interesting comments further into Metal-Archives' forum. (See first link). Forumite, Tantalus of the band Caïna said:

"...Kroda are an excellent band, but should keep their mouths shut about this stuff, as it not only makes them look hypocritical...but simply foolish. If you put a huge swastika (albeit one made of flowers) in the tray card of an album that has at least two songs directly referring to how glorious it would be to rid Ukraine of Jews, you haven't really got a leg to stand on. "Oh, we're Pagan nationalists, not Nazis" - pull the other one, it's got a balaclava and pepper spray on."

Later in the thread, forumite, PhantomOTO writes:

"The problem with most of these bands is that they can't seem to advocate "cultural preservation" without also openly or passively advocating racism and oppression and directly or indirectly glorifying Nazism.

Also, an American (or really any member of a group living in a place where that group is in the majority or plurality or has historical "claim" to the area or has simply managed to dominate other groups in the area) claiming society "forces" whites to embrace other cultures is laughable. American society is thoroughly infused with institutional racism and white privilege and you haven't experienced anything other."

Countess Crassory

I don't have too much to say about the blithering idiocy of Sarah Palin and her equally pathetic supporters. However, as I told a friend the other night, letting someone as ignorant (and proud of her massive ignorance) and ill-fitting as her take a job of vice-President or (Odin help us) President is equivalent to calling up a baseball player hitting .200 up to the majors. Sure, he's played the game but he doesn't know how to hit off 80% of the pitchers he faces. As for the "mean spirited, sexist comments" about Palin and her dopey family, it's really no different from the comments that Hillary Clinton (who I think is a slightly less noxious but all too often corporate tool) or really any other female politician in the public eye has received. Didn't the Brits call Thatcher a slag or a cunt? Probably likely. Although, I prefer the works of British anarcho-punk instead of obnoxious Trotskyist wankers

So maybe calling Palin a "cunt" isn't too nice. Although a lady friend of mine called her that and really it's calling Palin, the politician, the opportunist, evolution denying, wolf hunting from a helicopter, right wing Christian/exorcist believin' individual a cunt and NOT all women. The best thing for Palin to be is to go down in history like John Anderson and be a footnote of history - better yet a tiny one. And hell, why is ANYONE giving Palin more than 15 seconds of coverage on the news in the middle of 2009?


"Unleashed men of sin
Hatred hell within
Sinners hate will die
The Exorcist" - Possessed, 1985

Heathen Harvest on the NeoFolk Religion and Concept(s)

Heathen Harvest has put together a good analysis of the neo-folk idea that runs the gamut from the misanthropic noise of Boyd Rice to martial pop Laibach to electronic oddness of Psychic TV and what seems to be countless others. While I haven't read the specific Zizek and Foucault writings, this article does a good job in explaining the ideas as opposed to most academic work that all too often "comment upon other commentors". Namely, Zizek's own annoying obsession on Lacan's critique of Marx critique of well, I dunno what the fuck.

I'll be making most posts/pieces about neo-folk in the upcoming weeks & months.

So far away-eee from making sense

Demoniac was a New Zealand black metal band between 1993-99, 3 members of which went onto power metal wankers and walking Guitar Hero adverts, Dragonforce. Among Demoniac's claims to fame were songs such as “Niggerslut” and "Hatred is Purity" with the lines:

Aliens invade this place, white man stand up for your race
Be proud of your heritage, strong will, all through the ages
Angered but still with pride, show true feelings with nothing to hide

Yet a poorly concocted "Metal Unity" tune hailing German Metal bands called "Myths of Metal" (from 1999's "The Fire And The Wind") was what got them in trouble. "Myths of Metal" features the line "Hitler Metal! Sieg Hail!" Vocalist Demoniac explained this by saying:

(I'm) greatly influenced by the whole German Metal scene, some of our favourities (sic) band being Running Wild, Sodom, Blind Guardian, Kreator, Helloween and Gamma Ray. We exist because of all the great bands. When we wrote the song it reminded us of great German Speed Metal, so we named the song, ‘Myths of Metal’ with the chorus 'Hitler Metal' meaning aggressive German Metal and ‘Sieg heil’ meaning hail victory and hail German Metal. We thought it would be okay because similar bands have had similar lyrics, such as Motorhead with ‘Iron Fist’ and Slayer with ‘Angel of Death’.

With a band make up that’s Asian (guitarist Herman “Shred” Li) and Moari (ingidenous New Zealander) Sam Totman aka: Heimdall. They stated in a Terrorizer interview that “we are neither racist nor associate with any Nazi groups.” The Terrorizer piece also mentions: ‘The Fire and the Wind’ is now on Osmose Productions and is available from all fine Metal retailers. Except German ones.” So maybe Demoniac's greatest crime wasn't their "maybe they are/maybe they're not really white power" lyrics rather their cinder-block smart song titles and lyrics?

Much of this comes from the article “Demoniac Offend Germans”, Terrorizer, Issue 70, 1999

Intro

I decided to split my two blogs. This one is going to be focused on the intersections and non-intersections between Extreme and Underground Music as well as other forms of music and Extreme Politics. Basically anything from National Socialist Black Metal to Bowie's This is an extension of the paper I presented at last year's "Music, Metal and Politics" conference. The paper is posted at the bottom right of this page.

Here's the inspiration for the blog name albeit it's not overtly political it is a great metaphor for many things in life. However, being a big Darkthrone fan and a fan of Fenriz interviews, this made a lot of sense to me.

"The “break the chains!” is fantastic. It was the total message of the ’80s or even the late ’70s hard rock from Germany. It was always about ‘break the chains’ and ‘free yourself."
- Fenriz of Darkthrone from Deciblog interview