tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-328901672011-09-05T17:23:36.695-04:00The roar of the masses could be farts.Graemenoreply@blogger.comBlogger5311100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-69542044763773731002009-11-25T08:57:00.003-05:002009-11-25T08:59:54.835-05:00

...when you can change it to a different, but also stupid blog name. From now on, this blog will be found at:The Roar Of The Masses Could Be FartsAll posts etc from this place are migrated over there.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-59372732029866908062009-11-23T08:54:00.004-05:002009-11-23T09:24:33.045-05:00

As a sort of follow-up to this:Two Swiss human rights organisations have conducted a study analysing video games in terms of how actions carried out in the game are or aren't in accord with the relevant humanitarian laws. They, not at all surprisingly, found that "The practically complete absence of rules or sanctions is... astonishing" and "the line between the virtual and real experience

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-60026295586264518532009-11-22T11:21:00.002-05:002009-11-22T11:32:03.797-05:00

Apologies for flogging a dead horse, but after reading the following article about the Harper government's cover-up of Canadian complicity in the torture of Afghan detainees and its subsequent attempt to discredit and destroy the diplomat who made this public, even though the Conservatives passed a law in 2007 to protect whistleblowers, I thought of Norm's post from a couple of months ago about

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-56130617822040932732009-11-19T19:31:00.001-05:002009-11-19T19:32:39.281-05:00

Due to extremely careless wording, a gay-marriage ban in Texas has banned all marriages.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-83926063287210040672009-11-19T08:06:00.001-05:002009-11-19T08:10:25.594-05:00

The priest poked his head out between the threadbare curtains and peered through the sepia dusk at the stranger, and then he stepped out of the confessional and the woman with Indian features also stepped out of the confessional and the three of them stood frozen watching the stranger who was moaning faintly and kept urinating, wetting his pants and loosing a river of urine that ran toward the

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-91091521623808238962009-11-17T10:05:00.001-05:002009-11-17T10:06:45.810-05:00

Nevermind boring and insufferable twats.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-45972985578409759542009-11-10T18:25:00.002-05:002009-11-10T18:28:19.917-05:00

...promoting martial values is a keystone of fascism.The Conservative government has re-written the book on what it means to be Canadian.No longer will prospective immigrants learn that Canada is a strictly peaceful nation. Instead there will be a greater emphasis on Canada’s military history and on the poppy as a symbol of remembrance and of Canada’s sacrifice in the First World War.Citizenship

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-34407081872975033402009-11-10T08:26:00.003-05:002009-11-10T09:04:13.684-05:00

Photo by 'thisgig', taken from here.Maryanne Amacher, described in her New York Times obituary as a 'visceral composer', died aged 71 in Rhinebeck, New York on October 22 following a stroke. The obituary covers all the necessary information, from her early collaborations with John Cage and Merce Cunningham, to her sound installations and more recent work with Thurston Moore. The website

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-18446034155346518562009-11-09T18:32:00.003-05:002009-11-09T19:19:15.698-05:00

It isn't released until tomorrow, but Infinity Ward's new shooter Modern Warfare 2 is already recieving rave reviews and is generating no small amount of controversy over a leaked sequence in which the player guns down civilians in an airport. The Daily Mail reported on the outrage and noted that Labour MP Keith Vaz (according to his wikipedia entry, he led a protest in 1989 against The Satanic

Graemenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-51969977713481739652009-11-09T16:32:00.005-05:002009-11-09T16:35:25.108-05:00

Can we just give up the ruse that comment forms on the websites of newspapers are there to stimulate debate and conversation when it's patently obvious that they are in fact there to generate hits and therefore more advertising revenue?

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-62385511565283351802009-11-03T13:13:00.003-05:002009-11-03T13:53:56.832-05:00

I remember an interview between Jeremy Paxman and then UK Tory leader Michael Howard in the leadup to the 2005 British general election. Howard said--I paraphrase here--that he intended to withdraw the UK from the UN Refugee Convention. Paxman responded by pointing out that this put Howard's Tories farther to the right of Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National, and would put the UK in league with

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-24505744327374074052009-10-31T14:22:00.002-04:002009-10-31T14:32:11.223-04:00

What's the best music for Halloween? Gore-obsessed brutality? Folky malevolence? Prog-rock soundtracks to Italo-horror classics? Nah, it has to be The Monster Mash:

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-79253634058706227212009-10-29T12:58:00.006-04:002009-10-30T11:09:34.163-04:00

Chuck Biscuits playing with the Circle Jerks. Photo stolen from here.Chuck Biscuits, one of the finest drummers in the history of hardcore punk, passed away over the weekend after a battle with throat cancer. He battered the skins for some of the most important bands of the time--D.O.A., Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, Run DMC, Danzig--and was, as Bill Stevenson of The Descendents said here, "

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-39945717345454483012009-10-29T00:36:00.001-04:002009-10-29T00:39:47.248-04:00

Bill Brownstein musing on delis in the Montreal Gazette. Great stuff, as always. Brownstein's book on Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen is also a must-read.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-60809441992280562462009-10-27T12:30:00.002-04:002009-10-27T12:33:56.600-04:00

One response to their Obama=Hitler posters from Jewschool:Well, it’s sort of a good news/bad news situation for you. On the one hand, it’s bad news that your comparison is ridiculous, offensive, and wrongheaded. On the other hand it’s good news for you that Obama isn’t much like Hitler, since, if he was, you’d be in a concentration camp for drawing the comparison.Not bad, not bad. This, however,

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-42158439640266772952009-10-23T20:42:00.003-04:002009-10-23T20:53:21.371-04:00

No One Is Illegal Montreal reports from a demonstration outside of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's appearance at a Conservative McGill function. Kenney's posturing about being tough on immigration is apparently a laughing matter, the depraved fucking prick:When Kenney was told by a member of No One Is Illegal that his policies scapegoat migrants and pander to racists, Kenney replied (with a

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-57170970367326694812009-10-22T20:39:00.004-04:002009-10-22T20:57:05.295-04:00

You can only get the BBC in Canada if you have a fancy and expensive cable teevee subscription, and I'm not sure if they show Question Time anyway (probably not), but that didn't stop The Globe and Mail from reporting on the giving-free-publicity-to-Nazis fiasco. The article has changed--for the better--since it first appeared. It first graced the Globe's site as a simple controversy over a "

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-52840514740941789662009-10-21T12:55:00.003-04:002009-10-21T13:10:47.489-04:00

A thought I had before stepping into the shower, inspired by this post by John at Counago & Spaves about David Hockney's iPhone doodles: That Piero Manzoni's canned shit is without question the most important artwork of the past fifty years. This should be obvious.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-90398233560444647002009-10-20T12:12:00.002-04:002009-10-20T12:19:01.961-04:00

The headline: "Canada to take hard line with would-be migrants":The Conservative government has said it believes many refugee claims are bogus and has promised tougher legislation. “We don't want to develop a reputation of having a two-tier immigration system – one tier for legal, law-abiding immigrants who patiently wait to come to the country, and a second tier who seek to come through the back

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-56582015736374340562009-10-15T01:05:00.004-04:002009-10-15T01:13:57.297-04:00

Absolutely staggering stuff in this article about a feud between the Republican senator and candidate for torture (not for any reason other than it would be worthwhile to attach electrodes to his testicles just for shits and giggles) Tom Coburn and Paul Krugman about government-funded political science grants. It's all worth reading, if only to see how Republicans are hell-bent on stripping

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-29877518246869913732009-10-14T13:10:00.003-04:002009-10-14T14:14:55.210-04:00

I'm uncomfortable with this blog succumbing to being an unwitting viral marketing tool, but the trailer for the Where The Wild Things Are movie looks absolutely fantastic (the following is a slightly different one than the one I've seen in the cinema):I suppose like a lot of other people, that this book was being made into a movie at all filled me with trepidation: I loved this book as a boy and

Graemenoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-43460195943449893762009-10-14T10:11:00.002-04:002009-10-14T10:16:03.056-04:00

Gibsons, British Columbia has been named the best place in the world to live, according to some organization or other that nobody had ever heard of before.I beg to differ. The last time I was in Gibsons was eleven or twelve years ago and I was punched in the head by a local just for not being from around there. I later worked with a guy from Gibsons--he left at the first opportunity--who said

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-43409077069097588652009-10-09T12:31:00.008-04:002009-10-11T11:14:59.802-04:00

The best book I've recently bought is Daniel Ekeroth's Swedish Death Metal. I'm sure that when I get around to reading it, it will also be the best book I've recently read, but I'm not quite there yet. One of the more fascinating features of the book is a 118-page encylopedia featuring every Swedish death/thrash/black/grind metal band to have likely ever existed, including an opinionated

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-75152605238320064502009-10-03T07:43:00.002-04:002009-10-03T07:48:32.584-04:00

Good stuff from Walter Benn Michaels in the LRB here:An obvious question, then, is how we are to understand the fact that we’ve made so much progress in some areas [racism, sexism, homophobia] while going backwards in others [economic equality]. And an almost equally obvious answer is that the areas in which we’ve made progress have been those which are in fundamental accord with the deepest

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-1924676754409422182009-10-02T14:04:00.003-04:002009-10-02T15:22:47.305-04:00

How's this for equivalence? From a stupid Catholic in the Guardian:The old gibe, that anti-Catholicism is the antisemitism of the left, looked like being given a new lease of life.Of course if there was any truth at all in this--never mind that Catholics have been responsible for or complicit with many of the worst episodes of Jewish persecution in history, and never mind that quite unlike

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-62681426871709242862009-10-02T08:24:00.002-04:002009-10-02T08:26:55.041-04:00

On the train wreck that is Roman Polanski's arrest:France's Society of Film Directors also voiced concern the arrest "could have disastrous consequences for freedom of expression across the world".I do not agree with you drugging and raping a child, pleading guilty to it before a judge, then fleeing the country before being sentenced, but I'll defend to the death your right to do that?

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-91933818633532327682009-09-29T17:25:00.003-04:002009-09-29T17:38:47.086-04:00

Norm asked this last week with reference to Canada's decision last week to boycott Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the United Nations. He wrote that "It's easy to be cynical in response to the question"...and yeah, it is, especially considering that Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon--the minister who led the boycott--is currently being sued over violating a Canadian citizen's

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-10743015334728913962009-09-26T13:58:00.002-04:002009-09-26T14:01:14.194-04:00

Obituary here.A scene from his 1981 film Elvis Gratton:

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-27616282349253641802009-09-24T17:55:00.001-04:002009-09-24T18:00:11.300-04:00

PISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS(worthwhile comment: "Nobody needs more Tories. Not the country, not the BBC, not the bloke next door. No one. We've got so many Tories at the moment they should be culled.")

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-63839185664849516212009-09-17T18:53:00.002-04:002009-09-17T19:43:13.023-04:00

1) Insurance companies in Washington DC and eight other US states "used domestic violence as a factor when deciding whether to extend coverage and how much to charge if coverage was extended." This is vile and despicable even by American insurance provider standards, and is further evidence--not that any more is needed--that a system that kills 22,000 people annually needs to end now.2) The

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-71623550701662546972009-09-15T17:07:00.003-04:002009-09-15T17:29:16.567-04:00

This video would almost be hilarious if these people weren't for real. They're completely shameless in their ignorance--and yes, they're Glenn Beck fans.Bonus: Tim Wise on the "Hitlerizing of Obama". I was a little bit dismissive of his explanation of this nonsense being projection--it seems overly facile--until he starts talking about Pat Buchanan's open praise for Hitler.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-79076877828841511112009-09-09T17:42:00.002-04:002009-09-09T17:59:20.461-04:00

Excellent stuff here from Tim Wise about the Van Jones resignation and how Republicans--virtually without exception--are race-baiting scum. Read the whole thing, but here are some choice excerpts:This is not about socialism, as Jones is not a socialist. Oh sure, he's associated with some, and might still be friends with several to this day. And so what? Martin Luther King Jr. associated with

Graemenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-15782349073869027842009-09-08T15:26:00.003-04:002009-09-08T15:27:12.822-04:00

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-63570937375522594172009-09-07T22:09:00.002-04:002009-09-09T18:29:07.979-04:00

(measured commentary on the same topic can be found here)

Graemenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-41855765445040158582009-09-07T21:47:00.001-04:002009-09-07T21:57:30.808-04:00

Hak Mao brings us this report from Center for Urban Economic Development, the National Employment Law Project and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment:In a survey of 4,387 low-wage workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, we and our colleagues found severe and widespread violations of employment and labor laws. One in four workers were paid below the minimum wage in a

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-77576896424667356692009-09-04T15:17:00.004-04:002009-09-06T11:17:50.017-04:00

-Why Rupert Murdoch is evil and can fuck off (read this);-Why Nick Cohen can likely fuck off as well;-Why white South Africans claiming refugee status in Canada also need to fuck off a thousand times, but that Jason Kenney is still a stupid and racist prick;-And whatever elseYou get a Flipper music video instead. I bet you didn't know that Flipper even made music videos. Here's the oft-covered

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-83325704836253037422009-09-03T10:30:00.003-04:002009-09-03T10:37:12.622-04:00

An entertaining and informative lecture as to why talking to the plod will always land you in a world of hurt. Sections 11c and 13 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms give similar protection to the Fifth Amendment.Part two is here, though it's evidently about why you should talk to cops--and is given by a cop--so I haven't watched it.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-1081256494474891382009-09-01T17:04:00.003-04:002009-09-01T18:24:52.395-04:00

Noticed this in the signandsight.com Magazine Roundup:Nathalie Rothschild tracks the enmity that developed between Sweden and Israel after the publication of an article in the Swedish tabloid Postille Aftonbladet, claiming that the Israelis were dealing in the organs of murdered Palestinians. The Israelis immediately demanded an apology from the Swedish government and threatened to freeze entry

Graemenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-55181025477774351842009-08-29T17:41:00.002-04:002009-08-29T18:27:35.800-04:00

About a month ago I made a post about a supposed honour killing (though, the last I heard, motive was never actually established) in Kingston and how the pundits and keyboard warriors were so quick to condemn not just the supected murderer, but the post-Trudeau immigration system as a whole because "the core belief of many ethnic groups that women aren't equal to men and are less valuable a

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-85715269070738509722009-08-29T06:47:00.002-04:002009-08-29T06:50:50.058-04:00

Need. To. Get. Rid. Of. Immediately.Stephen Harper says he's more concerned about God's judgment than how history books rate his term in office, telling a Quebec magazine in a markedly personal interview that preserving relationships with family is far more important than worrying about a political legacy.[...]“To be honest with you, I am a lot more concerned by God's verdict regarding my life

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-29877387225136086882009-08-28T07:46:00.003-04:002009-08-28T07:53:08.451-04:00

Because running public services on a general business model wasn't going far enough, the Tory-controlled council of Barnet is now going to use the business model of RyanAir and EasyJet in the provision of public services in "a relentless drive for efficiency".New Conservativism: taking governance tips from a company that charges you every time you need to take a piss.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-66305034223054649922009-08-27T15:42:00.002-04:002009-08-27T15:50:33.249-04:00

Norm addresses the issue of file-sharing here. It's not really worth mentioning, other than the following three sentences: "If I buy a book and lend it to a friend, should Waterstone's refuse to sell me books for cutting into the profits of publishers and the royalties of writers? Indeed, should free lending and gift-giving be legally prohibited? I don't think so."Which should, of course, go

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-82379396319144071812009-08-26T18:50:00.001-04:002009-08-26T18:50:48.711-04:00

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-5483718978485053512009-08-26T17:48:00.002-04:002009-08-26T17:49:49.394-04:00

No comment needed:Tory MEP names Enoch Powell as his political hero.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-73482806916230539352009-08-20T11:17:00.001-04:002009-08-20T11:18:46.103-04:00

From here, via John at Counago and Spaves:Incredibly, President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse.Honest. This isn’t a joke. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-36155084276985328312009-08-19T11:00:00.004-04:002009-08-19T14:30:19.693-04:00

As I mentioned below, I just came back from a blissful eleven days in Nicaragua. Prior to visiting I didn't know much about the country--I am of the age when my first serious encounter with the country was through the Nintendo game Contra, though I remember, albeit in a background way, the breaking of the Ollie North/Iran Contra scandal--and so I was surprised and taken aback at the beauty and

Graemenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-88220759627300738192009-08-19T10:55:00.001-04:002009-08-19T10:57:09.291-04:00

Free speechFree speechFor the dumb

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-46538287316718220132009-08-18T17:59:00.002-04:002009-08-18T18:03:15.069-04:00

Christopher Hitchens:Stanford, California. As I I was reading a newspaper account of yet another "town meeting" to protest at even the possibility of national health care, the years suddenly fell away and I began to feel myself young again. "This is about the dismantling of this country," shouted a woman named Katy Abram at Senator Arlen Spector, in the course of a chaotically emotional event in

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-43610858409675824342009-08-18T17:03:00.003-04:002009-08-18T17:22:20.856-04:00

A howler monkey up in a tree, Ometepe, Nicaragua. Photo taken by me.I would apologise for the blogging hiatus, but 1) I most likely don't care what you think and 2) I had more important things going on. Like getting married and going on a honeymoon to Nicaragua. More on that and related things later.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-57805968619326879182009-08-01T09:35:00.001-04:002009-08-01T09:37:08.253-04:00

Miltary aid flows to Honduras despite coup.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-41344822995654581482009-07-30T12:30:00.002-04:002009-07-30T13:12:22.222-04:00

It came out today that Canada's homegrown equivalent to Bernie Madoff (showing, yet again, how Canada aspires to be a second-rate United States), Earl Jones, had been living a lavish $70,000 a month lifestyle while screwing his investors out of what will possibly amount to $50 million.I'm just pointing this out in the context of the filthrag Montreal Gazette's headlines from a couple of days ago-

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-32648914338605517012009-07-28T09:45:00.000-04:002009-07-28T09:47:07.960-04:00

New York Times obituary here.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-76681741470665733772009-07-25T14:07:00.002-04:002009-07-26T13:06:14.992-04:00

I wrote a couple of months ago about Christie Blatchford's nasty piece of racist rabble-rousing in the Globe and Mail about the Tamil demonstrations in Toronto. She's at it again, this time about the "honour killings" of four Montreal women in Kingston (news story here). It's best to ignore the likes of Blatchford, but since a lot of people seem to more or less share her opinions about how

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-26185292244519319222009-07-25T10:37:00.001-04:002009-07-25T10:40:18.829-04:00

From the LRB. Extract:It isn’t hard to see why loud music appeals to interrogators. But it’s no less aggressive, or invasive, for leaving no visible marks. As anyone who’s gone to a rock concert or rave knows, its power lies in the fact that it seems inescapable, at once outside and inside the listener’s body: ‘what better medium than music to bring into being . . . the experience of the West’s

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-83748004607434141592009-07-22T14:04:00.000-04:002009-07-22T14:05:10.878-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Suzanne Girard, the director of Montreal's Divers/Cité gay and lesbian festival, came to the defence of the Tory government after their "controversial" (ie controversial only to the homophobic fuckheads in the party and their knuckle-dragging voters) decision to fund Toronto's Gay Pride festival. Girard said: "Personally as an organization, we have been treated very fairly

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-12587125757480745762009-07-16T12:57:00.000-04:002009-07-16T12:58:35.680-04:00

Full story here.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-34112506484512969992009-07-14T13:43:00.002-04:002009-07-14T13:48:43.219-04:00

Fenriz presents... Trapped Under Vice Vol. IFenriz explains: I started the comp by thinking of some acts that should definitely be on there. Then I mulled it over for a week. I then sat down to structure it, and I had several darlings to kill and new ones to include. I am not making a ONE STYLE comp here, like ‘occult thrash’ or something. I chose numbers mostly from bands that are/were old and

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-47513852412070963052009-07-11T22:51:00.006-04:002009-07-14T10:59:33.708-04:00

A little while ago I mentioned an article John Lanchester wrote for the London Review of Books asking if video games could be art. I was and still am of the opinion that they're not, and that if any video game producer aspired to make an artful game it would likely be a piece of unplayable pretentious shit. Though at the same time we've recently seen comic books become a respected medium thanks

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-60250622685596704842009-07-10T09:50:00.002-04:002009-07-10T10:18:16.488-04:00

Here's Vice Magazine's five part True Norwegian Black Metal documentary, which is basically entirely about Gorgoroth's Gaahl. Never mind that this spawned a ridiculous coffee table art book, or that the filmmakers, despite not wanting to succumb to a sensationalist tabloid-style take on the subject, do nevertheless mythologise Gaahl.And for good measure, Gorgoroth's music video for "Carving A

Graemenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-64898840449611328582009-07-08T11:02:00.001-04:002009-07-08T11:04:22.453-04:00

(The why is here, with a jaunty tip of the cap to Will)

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-7222097394754608102009-07-06T12:18:00.002-04:002009-07-06T12:23:43.226-04:00

Here's an interesting idea for a blog: get a group of music bloggers with "taste and distinction" together, come up with a theme each week, then each blogger chooses a song related to each theme and explains why he or she chose it, and then the whole thing is put up for download.The blog is Blog Bodies, and the bloggers are Aesop of Cosmic Hearse, Jess Blumensheid of Invisible Oranges, and a

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-69506131853804996322009-07-04T12:02:00.002-04:002009-07-04T12:19:30.307-04:00

There are a lot of things that I love about where I live--I am a couple of blocks away from a fantastic library, there's an excellent bar right behind my apartment, there are good parks nearby, I can walk or take public transportation to nearly everywhere I need to go so I don't own a car--and, thankfully, this city, barring the occasional outbreak of idiocy, is the most politically sane place in

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-83907474438618565952009-07-01T10:11:00.000-04:002009-07-01T10:12:11.476-04:00

Poll reveals Canadians are delusional and not very bright.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-32277831901193119792009-06-30T00:36:00.002-04:002009-06-30T00:38:30.534-04:00

...what Canadians really need is Ronald Reagan according to the author of this letter to the Montreal Gazette.No, "in these times of record high unemployment" we should put people to work building prisons so we can lock up idiots like this for being stupid.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-81320370735172001802009-06-26T12:33:00.002-04:002009-06-26T12:52:42.503-04:00

Normo links to an incredible collection of pictures of the most beautiful libraries in the world. It's the sort of thing that makes me want to sit down with some Borges.(The picture above isn't from that post, but is instead taken from here, and is a photo of my local library, which is the second best thing about this neighborhood--the best thing being the bar behind my apartment.)

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-48438240038172052622009-06-19T15:59:00.002-04:002009-06-19T16:05:07.780-04:00

AKA: I can't be arsed with keeping a blog anymore but neither can I be arsed with actually shutting the fucker down because maybe I will have something important that I would like to share with this place's two (soon to be fewer) remaining readers. Bang your head against the stage.SPAZZ:MAN IS THE BASTARD:DYSTOPIA:

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-35845841478595998542009-06-11T12:24:00.003-04:002009-06-11T12:37:33.086-04:00

More precisely, we must ask the question that, without a doubt, constitutes the great enigma of the century: why does the subsumption of politics, either through the form of the immediate bond (the masses), or the mediate bond (the party), ultimately give rise to the bureaucratic submission and the cult of the State? Why do the most heroic popular uprisings, the most persistent wars of liberation

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-37709743927474686212009-06-01T11:24:00.002-04:002009-06-01T11:27:54.693-04:00

Here is a long but superb article about the banking crisis by John Lanchester (not Lancaster as I erroneously called him a couple of posts ago) in the London Review of Books.Ta Will.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-85499089841580501662009-06-01T10:46:00.003-04:002009-06-01T11:23:57.686-04:00

A couple of weeks ago Eurozine printed an interview from New Humanist with John Micklethwait, the editor-in-chief of The Economist, about his new book (co-authored with Adrian Wooldridge) God is Back: How the Revival of Religion is Changing the World. The main thrust of the book is:The challenge is threefold. First in line is the secularisation thesis, the argument that religion simply fades

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-13426768015721539422009-05-26T11:16:00.004-04:002009-06-01T10:41:33.216-04:00

Back in January, the London Review of Books carried an article by John Lanchester asking if video games could be art. In my opinion, the question is silly for reasons I don't want to get into right now (but might in a future post), but it was a far better article than I had anticipated because Lanchester actually put some serious thought (and playing time) into the matter and didn't dismiss it

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-41260538773476894802009-05-14T10:54:00.002-04:002009-05-14T10:57:05.792-04:00

The most spectacularly ugly piece of writing about Sunday’s blockade of Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway by about 2000 Tamils isn’t in a comment box–though there was ugliness there to spare, to be sure–but is rather by Christie Blatchford in the Globe and Mail. With a title like "Whose rights are really being trampled?: Torontonians feel they’re being asked to suck up without complaint the

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-74839989854860363462009-05-11T12:09:00.003-04:002009-05-11T13:54:10.650-04:00

The Guardian reports on continued shelling and aerial bombardments in the "no-fire zone" in Sri Lanka:A doctor working inside the no-fire zone in Sri Lanka today told the Guardian that more than 1,400 people were believed to have been killed in two days of air and artillery attacks.Dr V Shanmugarajah said 381 bodies had been brought in to the temporary hospital inside the government safe zone

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-9440497438297520792009-05-07T10:09:00.004-04:002009-05-07T10:16:08.043-04:00

For Will, cos he liked that WITTR shit I posted. This is much better:

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-54430942493238863452009-05-06T01:06:00.001-04:002009-05-06T01:08:02.963-04:00

"CRUSH THE PRIEST!"Thank you, mysterious Russian visitor.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-19898533473520061252009-04-29T11:40:00.003-04:002009-04-29T11:56:58.191-04:00

It's been difficult to miss the publicity for Michel Brûlé's new anti-English screed Anglaid (for you non-French speakers, the title is a portmanteau combining "Anglais" (English) and "laid" (ugly)--clever guy, this Brûlé) as not only has he taken out full-page ads in some of the papers, but there are also posters for the book pasted up about town. Somebody pinned one of the ads up in the

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-54385547289428076202009-04-25T14:03:00.003-04:002009-04-25T15:34:06.921-04:00

I was tagged by Bob to list seven songs that are shaping my spring. Spring started here yesterday, which meant that while my favorite ice cream shop is open, they don't yet have the chocolate dip for the soft serve cones. Total bullshit, I tell you. Anyway, the rules:List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but

Graemenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-60100526074317376472009-04-15T10:22:00.003-04:002009-04-15T10:31:42.688-04:00

Not really worth mentioning, mind you, other than that it's been sort of a hobby horse of mine to pay attention to when these sorts of outlets talk about metal and invariably write something stupid and silly. The Guardian gave a good review to the new Mastodon album a week or two ago--fitting because it's kind of crap.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-9269237468756902442009-04-08T12:48:00.001-04:002009-04-08T12:49:46.390-04:00

On April 4, 1969, the first anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, the third night of Passover, hundreds of people of varied racial and religious communities gathered in a Black church in the heart of Washington DC to celebrate the original Freedom Seder. For the first time, it intertwined the ancient story of liberation from Pharaoh with the story of Black America's struggle for

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-39318761755793428472009-04-02T12:29:00.003-04:002009-04-02T12:36:37.380-04:00

Following news from Italy about how Silvio Berlusconi has formed a united party of the Right with the neo-fascist National Alliance, comes this post from Hak Mao: I want a revolution against gypsies … I want to eliminate all the gypsy children who steal.These are not the words of Mussolini or one of his underlings in the 30s or 40s — they were spoken by the deputy mayor of Treviso in 2008, a

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-86370947335661849542009-03-27T18:30:00.001-04:002009-03-27T18:31:42.695-04:00

Following yesterday's Eyehategod post, here's some more New Orleans sludge.Crowbar, "Existence is Punishment":

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-73782075839016099872009-03-27T18:25:00.003-04:002009-03-27T18:30:43.022-04:00

Nope, just a case of mistaken identity.In other news related to (former) fugitive war criminals from the former Yugoslavia, there are new allegations that Richard Holbrooke made a deal with Radovan Karadzic guaranteeing him immunity from prosecution in exchange for a complete withdrawal from politics and public life. Holbrooke, as usual, vigorously denies the claims.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-49271965899786264472009-03-26T10:48:00.003-04:002009-03-26T10:53:43.575-04:00

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-61749891004893426252009-03-25T11:49:00.002-04:002009-03-25T12:42:30.400-04:00

Are the Habs for sale? It's just a rumour at the moment, though with owner George Gillett being hundreds of millions of dollars in debt at the moment, the right offer might be enough to persuade him to sell. From Pat Hickey in the Gazette:Gillett’s main problem stems from his co-ownership of Liverpool FC. Gillett bought the English soccer club with partner Tom Hicks, the owner of the Texas

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-28153439231298465422009-03-18T16:26:00.002-04:002009-03-18T16:43:51.555-04:00

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, after 146 years in print, has ceased being in print and is now an online-only affair. The BBC reports that this is the first time a major American paper has done this, though with newspapers struggling financially, I expect that it's only a matter of time before this sort of thing is commonplace. I don't see this as necessarily a bad thing either. I like

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-79288897267220481502009-03-16T19:03:00.002-04:002009-03-16T19:13:58.887-04:00

Deplorable.Canada:With bill C-10 [the Budget Implementation Act], the government is finally acting on improving pay equity, but rather than recognize it as a human right for federal employees, it is turning the issue over to the bargaining table so that any concerns about equal pay for work of equal value will have to be negotiated upfront. The proposed legislation will also revoke employees'

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-42526898834846655632009-03-09T19:10:00.004-04:002009-03-09T19:20:21.239-04:00

Remember Ween? I don't really, because I figured that they were the sort of band that only people in college could like, but those guys can apparently cook some fucking pasta. Recipe here.Picture here:Live video for "Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)" here (I don't know if this is a good song or not, but the song title is funny):

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-3645228528603243552009-03-09T16:50:00.002-04:002009-03-09T16:56:13.387-04:00

Hey, at least they're not sanctioning child rape. Oh wait, they are.As International Women’s Day is celebrated, the Vatican had a novel message for the women of the world: give thanks for the washing machine. This humble domestic appliance had done more for the women’s liberation movement than the contraceptive pill or working outside the home, said the the official Vatican newspaper,

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-85204584103259608332009-02-13T10:58:00.002-05:002009-02-13T11:13:50.547-05:00

From here, via Julien in the DSTPFW comments box.It made me think of this, from Strunk and White's Elements of Style:Another segment of society that has constructed a language of its own is business. People in business say that toner cartridges are in short supply, that they have updated the next shipment of these cartridges, and that they will finalize their recommendations at the next meeting

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-71837131805322745322009-02-12T16:06:00.006-05:002009-02-12T20:33:46.999-05:00

Question:How tedious is the discussion every time some fascistic headcase complains about his free speech rights being violated because he isn't allowed to speak in public wherever and whenever he wants, as if it's a fundamental human right to be allowed to address the Oxford Union or the House of Lords?Answer:Extremely fucking tedious.And so it is with Geert Wilders being denied entry to the UK.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-57246096507778383442009-02-10T17:35:00.002-05:002009-02-10T17:40:05.317-05:00

Might have to tighten the belt and get rid of the summer home in the Hamptons. Times are hard.(h/t)

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-9796655771899033512009-02-05T12:14:00.003-05:002009-02-05T15:00:12.409-05:00

The main funding body for university research in the social sciences and humanities in Canada is the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), a federal body accountable to Parliament. According to the SSHRC website, "Research in the social sciences and humanities advances knowledge and builds understanding about individuals, groups and societies—what we think, how we live and how

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-35561916398816279212009-01-30T12:07:00.001-05:002009-01-30T12:08:28.733-05:00

Remember acid rain? Now we have acid oceans.Time to crank the Nuclear Assault.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-69864036495054218362009-01-25T07:56:00.001-05:002009-01-25T07:59:23.227-05:00

One:The Vatican has condemned President Obama's move to restore US funding for family planning clinics abroad that give advice on or carry out abortions. Two:The Pope has lifted the excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church of four bishops appointed by a breakaway archbishop more than 20 years ago.One of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's appointees, Briton Richard Williamson, outraged Jews by

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-28484366719653313572009-01-16T15:17:00.001-05:002009-01-16T15:26:31.978-05:00

From an interview with Fenriz of Darkthrone on the Deciblog:In past interviews, both you and Ted have cited your day jobs as the key to keeping Darkthrone pure. Well, it’s easy to be smug about having a band and never having to work again. But it’s sad to see that huge bands just can’t keep people in the band—people quit, something must be wrong, but oh, they’re making money. They’re getting

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-64676414557000984312009-01-11T11:40:00.002-05:002009-01-11T11:47:59.482-05:00

Of personal interest, might not be of interest to anyone else:This was an important market day, and Auclair went down to the hill early. The black frosts might set in at any time now, and today he intended to lay in his winter supply of carrots, pumpkins, potatoes, turnips, beet-root, leeks, garlic, even salads. On many of the wagons there were boxes full of earth, with rooted lettuce plants

Graemenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-72431670600798860672009-01-07T12:12:00.002-05:002009-01-07T12:18:13.621-05:00

Copied from Talking Pish:The wait is finally at an end. The Magic Glue, our radio pilot, is on Radio Scotland (92.4 - 94.7 FM and 810 MW) this Friday 9th January at 11.30am. Yes, that's right Friday MORNING. I've already had a few folk asking if I meant PM. I don't, I mean 11.30AM.That is not the only time you can hear the show however. You can also hear it repeated at 8.30pm the following day,

Graemenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-84721734721689425812009-01-06T14:10:00.003-05:002009-01-06T18:16:31.548-05:00

Ron Asheton, the guitarist for The Stooges, 1948-2009.Here's Asheton in 2000 talking about hearing the influence of his playing in punk rock:Then, it was even harder that some of the people who came from that and other bands from later like Pearl Jam would say "My favorite guitar player is Ron Asheton." The guy's maybe ten years younger than me. So he's a millionaire and I've got 100 dollars in

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-69635481988238376002009-01-06T12:20:00.003-05:002009-01-06T12:39:54.049-05:00

From an interview featuring Bernard-Henri Levi:I was in Sderot, one of the cities bombed daily since month. I was there a few months ago. People live there like the people of Sarajevo 15 years ago, leaving the streets a ghost city, a ghost town. No city in America or in Europe could live this way.If I was to make comparisons between the two situations, I'd think that Gaza is far more similar to

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-77612024694654433942008-12-29T13:51:00.001-05:002008-12-29T13:53:49.718-05:00

A poll released Sunday night in Israel showed that 81 per cent of Israelis favoured the action being taken against Hamas, but only 39 per cent thought it was likely to be effective.From The Globe and Mail.

Graemenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32890167.post-29460979198045422922008-12-18T12:32:00.002-05:002008-12-18T12:38:35.810-05:00

From an interview with Cannibal Corpse in the current issue of Decibel:"We played the birthday party for Elijah Blue, Cher's Son," [George "Corpsegrinder"] Fisher tells me with a grin. "It was at Johnny Depp's club...It was pretty crazy. Cameron Diaz was in the front row the whole time throwing up metal horns."That was unexpected.Hammer Smashed Face:

Graemenoreply@blogger.com1