There’s the smell of revolution in the air this week, both to the north of us as well as over in the United States, where the Republican Party reptiles are gathering in New York, along with a few hundred thousand protesters who are rather keen on making their feelings known. For some of the latest, look at NY Protest.
This past week saw the closing down of the only apparent opposition party in Zimbabwe. Was the Movement for Democratic Change a real, bona fide opposition party, or simply a “cut-out” (as it’s termed in intelligence circles) designed to draw the anti-government folks out from hiding so that they can be identified and killed off? Only time will tell. Read the latest letter from Zimbabwe and do some browsing at the excellent site on Zimbabwe known as African Tears.
Yet again, local stupidity put this country into the novelty item slots in international radio and TV news. Well, that’s what happens when a rather weird culture decides it’s a good idea to make sure that A Dead Couple Get Married.
And I stumbled on yet another glimpse of local brainpower in action that has spread beyond our borders. There’s a site online that collects writings and pictures of examples of stupid corporate thinking. Take a look at the odd sign a tourist found on the top of Table Mountain, and then browse the many other glimpses of corporate Homer Simpsons in action at This Is Broken!.
In far more important news, which will be of use to all of you out there who consider yourselves experts in the subtle art of air guitar, read the BBC report on the Ninth Annual Air Guitar Championships!.
Alternatively, you could always have a look at this presentation of the Pentagon and that Missing Boeing.
Being a happy member of the South African Short Attention Span Disorder Hey Is That A Rain Cloud Over There Club, its no wonder that the idea of a 10-second movie festival really caught my focus for at least five seconds. Go watch, look and learn at The 10-Second Film Festival.
Revolution elsewhere. The Republican National Convention (RNC) is about to start in New York, and there are levels of discontent not seen since the days of Vietnam. There’s an unelected Jesus freak and ex-coke-fiend and drunk in the White House (who Fidel Castro called aptly “the idiot son of the Mafia friend of worms”), about 1 000 soldiers and at least 20 000 civilians dead thus far, and a spreading global war, as the NeoCons push to force the United States into becoming a new global empire. The stakes are high for the world as the RNC gears up ahead of the US election. To get a taste of how divided the US has become, read Heckling Bush Costs Man His Job.
Now on to the streets of New York: Start by reading the Village Voice‘s slightly nervous article trying to sell the protesters on the idea that if they make a fuss, it could give Bush the election. Hmm, I’m not buying it, but go read Get Mad, Act-Out, Re-Elect Bush.
And the first shots are being fired by the protesters, who unveiled a huge anti-Bush banner on the side of a New York hotel. Go look at the pix at Anti Bush Banner Drop.
The crunch time is August 31, when all the protesters descend on Central Park — although the city authority has said that they won’t be allowed to gather there. Go to the central hub of the vast, growing protest, at A31 (August 31).
Last Friday night, one of the first convergences happened. (A “convergence” — to use the protest groups’ own vocabulary — is when large numbers of individual protest groups combine for a unified effect.) Somewhere between 5 000 and 8 000 bicycle-riding protesters took to the streets of New York, freaking out traffic and law enforcement. Then, on Saturday, about 20 000 protesters marched under a pro-choice banner. See New York Protest. About 250 000 protesters are scheduled to descend and march in protest against Bush. We’ll see if the police can restrain themselves, or whether pitched battles erupt from here on, on the streets of New York.
Given the kind of hi-tech “non-lethal” sonic weaponry that the New York Police Department made a point of proudly showing off a week or two back, it’s quite possible that the next few days are going to be an interesting test of wills between protesters and the evil storm troopers of the new world order — sorry, I meant to say “the forces of law and order”. Consider Police Ready Military Acoustic Device for Protesters.
And staying with protest, to see why there’s a growing groundswell of anger by local net-users, go look at the timeline of unfolding chaos that Sentech has been providing to its customers, at the MyWireless Timeline. The main page is at Sentech Sucks.
Speaking of storm troopers, the first trial by unidentified people of equally unidentified so-called criminals is taking place on a piece of land beyond the reach of the Red Cross and any legal courts. It’s rather interesting that it’s now quite legal and acceptable for people to be arrested, tried and executed without ever knowing their names or their crimes. So much for modern civilization. Orwell was right, dammit. Go read the remarkably under-reported information at The First Trials Begin at Guantanamo Camp.
It was Mussolini, the original “fascist”, who clearly described our current political system when he said: “Fascism should rightly be called corporatism as it is a merger of state and corporate power.” Gee — it sounds just like a good description of modern democracy, doesn’t it? Either way, now that I’ve burst your bubble and demonstrated that the political system we live under is fascist to the core, it’s perhaps time to rewrite history again. Go read this news item that surfaced quietly: Churchill Ordered the Killing of Mussolini.
So what do you do when you have sweets to sell, but nothing much springs to mind in terms of ideas for a cute toy to dangle in front of kids as an inducement? Yup, you plunder recent history — go look at and wonder what folks were thinking when they made The 9/11 Toy.
Tending to stare in horror at the mindless, retarded and outdated pseudo-Stalinist and self-conscious juvenile consumerist rubbish that passes for “television” locally, it was rather fun for me to see someone in the United Kingdom feeling the same way. Veteran broadcaster John Humphrys hadn’t bothered watching TV for almost five years, then switched it on. Go read TV Is Damaging Society.
Life is strange. To show that I’m not kidding, consider this handful of news items that demonstrates that the world is not as straightforward as you might believe. Read Student Charged with Clogging a Toilet, or even better, try Britney Spears’s Spat Out Gum for Sale on eBay.
Or if you’re a sick puppy with a strong stomach, how about being able to sit at home and watch live operations, via the internet? Yup, to me that sounds about as appealing as being made to watch Sunday religious programming, but I understand that there are some strong-stomached individuals out there who actually might think that watching medical procedures is rather cool. If it’s your thing, go stare at OR Live.
And keeping with sick-puppy stuff, be cautious as you dip into the online photo-comic known as A Softer World.
South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are about to emerge with a new movie. Having been previously blown away by their previous films Orgazmo and Cannibal the Musical, the new film is likely to be equally misbehaved and tasteless. Go watch the trailer of Team America!. And stop by the official site.
Here’s something geeky and kind of cool, which seems to have closed down, but it’s still worth staring at. Go look at The World’s Tallest Virtual Building. Or, for cheerfully blatant-yet-odd Japanese commercials that fit firmly into Lost in Translation territory (and which I’d rather like to see on local TV, so I can righteously denounce it) — trust me, you do want to try the one-meg download of Bounce Bounce!.
As we’re approaching the bottom literally and figuratively, how about a company that offers model’s behinds as advertising space? Try Ass Vertize. The main page is here.
Cool, you made it to the end of the column. Here’s a reward for your persistence and brilliance as an obviously dedicated follower of cutting-edge culture and anti-authoritarian preaching. Yes, it’s a site that offers sex in exchange for your vote against Bush! Now this is something I can really get behind. Although I was shaken to see that Michael Moore is listed as being among the people willing to have sex with you, to help you vote for anyone but Bush. Go to F*** The Vote: Trade Sex for Votes Against Bush!.
And finally, despite having recently seen a rather disturbing documentary called Sex: The Annabel Chong Story, read Sundance Controversy and Child Defiled as well as Spike Interview.
Despite the grimness of the above film, as a vegetarian and occasional porn watcher it was still rather pleasant to see these two things collide in an unlikely way at the adults-only Vegan Porn!.
Until the next time, if good taste doesn’t get me.