Much like AC/DC

The blog's back in black.

Superego

Here is an excellent short film created for the Ballardian home movie competition.



I can really do little more than add to what was already said. Here on the flat plane of this video we can watch an unconscious battle with Ballard's superego vetoing the demands of his id, what we don't see is the questions asked and the ego rationalising the outcome; that is left to us.

Our new nanny state

...

Mike Fitzsimon created and released this cartoon under a creative commons sharealike attribution licence. Right on.

Dr Benway

The lavatory has been locked for three hours solid, I think they're using for an operating room...

Foreign policy hell

What do you do if you can't work and can't go to school, if you have left behind your country, your community, and your career, to say nothing of your dead? Sadly, the answer is: almost nothing. Life as an Iraqi refugee is one of emptiness bordering on erasure."Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off if I'd died in Iraq," Fata told me. "And sometimes I think I did."

The always interesting Foreign Policy mgazine has published this article about the seemlingly endless war the the Iraqi's have experienced and how the humanitarian crisis (to use a well-worn cliche, which is in itself a well-worn cliche) that 2 million of them face as refugees just drags on, one wonders who thinks this war was worth it? If you include the deprivations of the economoic sanctions imposed since the first 'gulf war' it must be close to an entire generation that has suffered. Its hard to concive of over here, I can't neatly conclude this post, like there is no conclusion for the people interviewed in the article but Britain is currently having an enquiry into why they went to war, unfortunately Australia is unlikely to do so, not enough of us have died.
...
See also High Value Detainee #1

Head on

The blog will be undergoing some changes in the new year I will be lightening up the display theme and writing some longer posts on thinkers, writers and artists who have inspired me and might do the same for you. I might also get round to sharing some music. So again, if you stop by, please comment; don't be scared I wont hunt you down, or try to be your friend, but most importantly don't be lazy, give something back.

Don't be fooled

When you base your business on the value of a celebrity endorsement and not the actual or at least perceived worth of your products, you might one day suffer:

Two US professors have pinned the loss to shareholders from Tiger Woods' marital infidelity at up to $US12 billion ($A13.65 billion).

Ho Ho HO

The blog on which I saw this image already referenced The Wickerman. Click through for the full sequence.

Just in time for x-mass

Christmas shits me. It's particularly absurd here in the southern hemisphere where all the stock images of sleigh bells, ivy-wreaths and heavy red costumes strike a rude contrast with the parched soil and sticky asphalt. Even converting reindeer to kangaroos for the carol six white boomers doesn't mitigate the cognitive dissonance of shopping for brandy pudding in thongs.



Few things annoy me more than shopping centre Santa's, click through for further proof that letting strangers hold your children is not always a good idea.

They live among us... possibly.

Gas Masks, style not fashion

I keep waiting for this guy to use those bolt-cutters...


...
Thurston Moore knows his shit, he hipped me to this performance.
He also really digs Black Metal.

Mutual Autopsy

One has to admire those with the courage of their convictions, especially when it involves a persons very being. In the late 19th century a group of anthropologists in France undertook an attempt to disprove the existence of the soul. These positive scientists were convinced that the key to individuality lay inside the head, and could be determined by comparisons of the brains of people whose traits were well known. The members of this august body (la Société d'autopsie mutuelle) were so convinced of this that they bequeathed their own bodies to the society along with a description of their characters in order that a scientific study could be undertaken.



However it wasn't all serious disinterested studies for the society members (not pictured) they also took on a distinctly performance art-type approach to their endeavour as well. "They held dinners where the food was served on prehistoric pottery or in the cavities of human and, in one case, giraffe skulls, to emphasise that there was nothing special about human remains, that they were no different from animal remains".
...
Victorian student dissection picture found here.
Quote from: Peter Watson (2006) Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud, Harper Perennial: New York, pp 709

On the seventh day God rested

Now this has just gotten out of hand...

Well this attempt to post each day has been a complete failure. I'm not taking it too badly however as frankly I have a life, interact with real live and people don't prioritise the web above this. So in the spirit of living authentically I offer up the Painters & Docker's anthem "Die Yuppie Die".

It's not Thursday...

Who would have thought it so hard to do a post a day? Anyway here's another great local act Eddy Current Supression Ring with their charming film clip for their rockin' song "Which Way To Go". It looks like super8 to me all warm and fuzzy, like the feeling this song leaves me with. I just got around to picking this up. It was an American pressing unfortunately, but an mp3 download was included. Handy 'cos when I try to play records in the car they tend to skip.

I'ts still Wednesday where i'm sitting...

This Is Serious Mum



On a related wanker/yob note a recent study suggests that people tend to assume that males with wider rather than longer faces are more likely to be agressive, and that this perception is often correct. Below is some bonus live TISM to make up for the delay in posting:

...

J.M. Carré, C.M. McCormick & C.J. Mondloch. (2009). Facial Structure Is a Reliable Cue of Aggressive Behavior. Psychological Science, 20, pp. 1194-1198.

In Memorium

I didn't know Dean Turner but will miss him. Magic Dirt have always been pretty special to me and I know, to many others and it's a real shame that he won't be around to continue to create such awesome music. It sounds like he was a man of courage and dignity, and we know he rocked pretty fucking hard too. Here is some evidence of this in a live version of their song 'White Boy'.



Apparently they are releasing this song in an EP to celebrate his life and achivements, I'm getting myself a copy.

I got drunk and ripped up the town

Not much need be said really, it wouldn't be appropriate to let the week pass without this, one of the dirtiest riffs ever unleashed under a southern sky.

Ornamental

As we rock along I next present The Funknecks, sadly now no longer playing live though soon to make some final (?) recordings. Their spastic drummer, my good friend Tim has a birthday sometime soon and as he was the one who reminded of my duties re. The Rock this spring I am delighted to share with you Melbourne's most slept on punk-funk outfit.

Rocktober

As I was reminded the other day; its Rocktober and even though rock hardly needs it's own month in order to celebrated around here, I figured as a project I'd chuck up a rockin' Aussie film clip each day this week.

Regretably I wan't able to go the reformation yesterday but as a really cool entry to Roctober here's The Stems' grooviest take on garage rock 'Tears Me In Two'. This video was provided by the kind hearted 'NZOZ' who must have converted hours of tape of 'Rage' and has uploaded to youtube decades of great Aussie and Kiwi rock organised into channels for each year. Cheers NZOZ, here's hoping you're having a great Rocktober!

On a related note it has allways bothered me that rage never shows the song titles at the end as well as the begginning of each clip. Here's their lame excuse for those who too have wondered why:

"Because rage is a very long show and is broadcast ‘live to air’ this makes it technically difficult to title the start and end of each clip. rage tries to have as little interference with the video as possible so that it can be enjoyed the way the creators intended!"

Less annoying since we have the internet I suppose.