More in the "normal" vein of misnomer links...
The Grassroots Economic Organizing newsletter, an interesting little publication about methods of democratizing the workplace, setting up community-owned cooperatives, and the like. Very practical. Definitely an antidote to the wide array of bickering over various theories and positions that passes for anarchist thought these days.
I totally forgot to talk about the IMF, World Bank, and G20 meetings that went down in Ottawa two weekends ago. Not that's I've had time to read about it.
" We have as little desire to be revolutionary as to be old-fashioned." A bunch of reviews of the Rheostatics' music.
They played in Moncton last Thursday, and despite a huge looming paper, I drove to Halifax (3 hours each way) on Saturday to see them play again. I guess that means I'm obsessed. They didn't disapoint, though. It was quite possibly the best live show I've ever seen.
"We were wondering, 'Are we going to come across as pompous art-rock idiots?' " says Bidini, in a telephone interview from his home in Toronto. "In the wrong hands it could be a very pretentious piece of trumped-up, pomp-rock crap. We had to come to terms with that, realizing we could just be ourselves. Then we really got into it and thought, 'Bigger! Grander! More pompous!' "
Some more recent reviews and interviews.
As Rheos' frontman Dave Bidini puts it: "People have painted us as being iconoclasts although, more often than not lately, I hear us described as Canadian icons - so I think it's OK to be both. I think it's great to be iconoclastic icons."
Some Rheostatics Lyrics
Some Photos: Click on "read more" to see the rest.
I'm re-reading Robert McChesney's Making Media Democratic.
Last week's Argosy had a somewhat interesting Globalization Supplement, and I wrote an editorial called "How We Hate Democracy".
An interesting interview with David Mamet.
"How many blistering insights into the precise texture of misogyny do we really need?" A review of HurlyBurly.
A better version of I Am Homophobic has been posted to Monkeyfist. Thanks to Kendall Clark for the edits.
This week's Argosy was big on Maclean's Magazine's rankings of Canadian universities (Mount Allison came in #1 in the "Primarily Undergraduate" category for the 11th year straight). My editorial, The Problems with Rankings, discussed exactly why Maclean's is full of shit and irresponsible. My friend Carole made the same point but differently. The cover was a (rather successful, I think) spoof of the Maclean's cover of the rankings issue. End Days of Analog (a comic strip) continues to be as beautiful as it is subtle.
KillYourTV.com has a lot of good links regarding how insanely the US is acting at the moment.
Village Voice: "A twin towers tragedy every day for almost four years. We get to start the century by defending ourselves from charges of genocide."
I'm on a big Rheostatics kick. Canadian Art Rock at its best.
Since folks haven't their music, I uploaded a few tracks (just pretend you're listening to it on the radio, it makes the intellectual property side of things a little easier.. or not.).
- Saskatchewan, from Double Live disc 1 [9.3 MB, MP3]
- Jesus Was Once a Teenager Too, from Double Live disc 2 [5.1 MB, MP3]
- Rain, Rain, Rain, from Whale Music [8.5 MB, MP3]
I was young and idealistic, a little crassWith a bouquet of flowers and a tear gas mask
I knew I had a serious task
The day the PM was pied
What started out as me joking to my roommates about the need for a Canadian version of "American Pie" (the song, by Don McLean) ended up as a fun little commentary on Canadian politics and culture. So, to the tune of the aformentioned song....
[Warning: non-Canadians may be mystified by some content]
I wrote it. Thanks.
For me, I put pepper on my plate.
have cross-site company." of.
options. in another external.
Arundhati Roy has done some interesting writing.
An Salon Interview with Roy.
The reincarnation of Rumpelstiltskin, by Arundhati Roy.
An Indian Online Magazine, which has an interview with Osama Bin Laden, among other things.
I blundered into an extended set of notes on the supposed synchronization between Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz, as well as the annotated American Pie lyrics.
The Remembrance Day issue of the Argosy is probably the best issue yet this year. My editorial: Dulce et Decorum Est. Apparently, it's hard to tell what the image on the cover is ('tis a poppy).
Those rich white guys sure are courageous.
The Hallowe'en Issue. My editorial was entitled I am homophobic, and I made my Apple Pie recipe public. I didn't choose that title, I swear. And, in what seems to be an emerging trend, I designed the cover. Spooky!
So who actually wrote this version - that was not clear to me. Quite good!