Jeez, Senator Clinton has already voted for one disastrous war: why is she ready to open another front in the Culture War?
I've played GTA: San Andreas, and the game offers its own critique of popular culture quite independent of the "mother-knows-best" authoritarians. The corrupt, racist cops, drug-dealing CIA agents, and treacherous businessmen are more of a threat to your character's life than some two-bit gangster wannabes walking the streets. The game's storyline spins on their treachery--society's approved authority figures are above the law, and will sell you and your friends out in a flash, if it suits their immediate interests...and there is seemingly nobody to hold them to account for their deceit.
Art imitates life, after all.
To wit: clean up your own backyard first, Senator. Your votes to back Bush's War have resulted in far more degradation and death for Americans than the simulated violence in vid'ja games EVER have. Leave the moralistic hand-wringing to reliable fools like Lieberman and Dole.
And keep your hands off my entertainment!
I've played GTA: San Andreas, and the game offers its own critique of popular culture quite independent of the "mother-knows-best" authoritarians. The corrupt, racist cops, drug-dealing CIA agents, and treacherous businessmen are more of a threat to your character's life than some two-bit gangster wannabes walking the streets. The game's storyline spins on their treachery--society's approved authority figures are above the law, and will sell you and your friends out in a flash, if it suits their immediate interests...and there is seemingly nobody to hold them to account for their deceit.
Art imitates life, after all.
To wit: clean up your own backyard first, Senator. Your votes to back Bush's War have resulted in far more degradation and death for Americans than the simulated violence in vid'ja games EVER have. Leave the moralistic hand-wringing to reliable fools like Lieberman and Dole.
And keep your hands off my entertainment!
by at 3:12 PM
Watching Scotty Die
So--over a week after Newsweek fingered Rove as the source of the Valerie Plame leak--it looks like the press is finally fed up with being treated like $2 whores. My only question to the gelded press poodles: where were you guys four years ago? Jeez, at what point did they finally decide Hey! HE LIED TO US! and break out the brass knuckles and brickbats?
As others have noted already, Scotty's comments are leaning awfully close to Ron Ziegler's infamous "past comments are inoperable" press dodge. For those who were barely alive during Watergate, Clinton's "I didn't inhale" or "depends what the definition of 'is' is" will do. Ha! (Let me tell you, NOTHING pisses off a Republican more than being compared to Slick Willie.)
Thanks to a dutifully compliant stenography corps, Rove's apotheosis as a political wunderkind has created a aura of invincibility around himself over the years. Let's be realistic here...Rove is no genius. His campaign "brilliance" is nothing more than Nixon's Southern Strategy redux...but steeped in a viciousness that would make Segretti and Atwater mutter "hey now!" He's like that kid down the street who discovers the pentatonic minor scale, and proceeds to act as though he was the first guy on earth to ever use it on an electric guitar.
From the White-House directed Swift Boat Liars campaign, which defiled the entire system of military commendation; to his willingness to destroy press shield laws and send reporters to prison to protect his considerable ass: Rove has proven that nothing is sacred, and he will sacrifice anybody and anything--even the safety and security of America--if it gets the job done.
Send this traitor to Gitmo! I'm sure he'll enjoy the jocular "fraternity pranks" bestowed on him.
So what the fuck was Rove doing with this information to begin with? Here's a hint: he probably got it from the loveable crackpot Bush is trying to send to the UN. Bush needs to address this right away...he's Rove's boss, after all, and he's had, what, two years to clear this mess up?
Incredible.
What doesn't the President know, and when didn't he know it?
So--over a week after Newsweek fingered Rove as the source of the Valerie Plame leak--it looks like the press is finally fed up with being treated like $2 whores. My only question to the gelded press poodles: where were you guys four years ago? Jeez, at what point did they finally decide Hey! HE LIED TO US! and break out the brass knuckles and brickbats?
As others have noted already, Scotty's comments are leaning awfully close to Ron Ziegler's infamous "past comments are inoperable" press dodge. For those who were barely alive during Watergate, Clinton's "I didn't inhale" or "depends what the definition of 'is' is" will do. Ha! (Let me tell you, NOTHING pisses off a Republican more than being compared to Slick Willie.)
Thanks to a dutifully compliant stenography corps, Rove's apotheosis as a political wunderkind has created a aura of invincibility around himself over the years. Let's be realistic here...Rove is no genius. His campaign "brilliance" is nothing more than Nixon's Southern Strategy redux...but steeped in a viciousness that would make Segretti and Atwater mutter "hey now!" He's like that kid down the street who discovers the pentatonic minor scale, and proceeds to act as though he was the first guy on earth to ever use it on an electric guitar.
From the White-House directed Swift Boat Liars campaign, which defiled the entire system of military commendation; to his willingness to destroy press shield laws and send reporters to prison to protect his considerable ass: Rove has proven that nothing is sacred, and he will sacrifice anybody and anything--even the safety and security of America--if it gets the job done.
Send this traitor to Gitmo! I'm sure he'll enjoy the jocular "fraternity pranks" bestowed on him.
So what the fuck was Rove doing with this information to begin with? Here's a hint: he probably got it from the loveable crackpot Bush is trying to send to the UN. Bush needs to address this right away...he's Rove's boss, after all, and he's had, what, two years to clear this mess up?
Incredible.
What doesn't the President know, and when didn't he know it?
by at 3:33 PM
The following would be cooler only had it been penned by Guitar Wolf...
Rock stars avoid lines at restaurants. Rock stars get tickets to sold-out events. They get free upgrades at hotels and on airlines. Their moms are proud. They get laid where they might otherwise not.
Being a rock star is a dream job. It's a life that many people fantasize about and aspire to. But do rock stars have a happy life? Some do, and those are the ones who have it right. But many don't, and for them the reality is nothing like the dream.
The psychology is complicated.
In many rock stars, the lines get blurred until they can't get a handle on who they are, who people think they are, and who they want people to think they are.
True rock stars shouldn't like to call themselves a rock star. People like Mick Jagger and David Bowie know no other way to be. They don't plan their way of carrying themselves. It's in their bones.
True rock stars are born to it. They don't act out what they feel is expected from rock star behavior. What they are is obvious.
Perhaps the first and greatest rock star was Elvis Presley. He didn't know what a rock star was supposed to be. He just was one. And there's a case to be made that some rock stars don't play rock and roll. Was Frank Sinatra a rock star? Bill Clinton? But no over-educated computer nerd who helped to create a hit song, only to go out and buy clothes and accessories to fit the image of who he dreamed of being, is a rock star in my eyes.
I also have no patience for those who complain about the burden of celebrity. A true rock star wears his or her status like a badge of honor, with no insecurity. So don't complain! We all work hard to have our success, and although there are special demands that go with celebrity, the benefits vastly outweigh them. For example, you have a pulpit from which you can do great things for society, or you can simply use your money and celebrity to enjoy your life.
Finally, a pop star is not a rock star, although the press and the media rarely seem to be able to differentiate between the two. This is not to say that I don't recognize that creating pop hits requires a great deal of talent and skill. It is also, however, true that many pop stars do not create their own musical ideas. They perform music conceived and promoted by the record business star machine.
But that is not what sets pop music apart from ROCK AND ROLL.
True rock and roll has a spirit born of angst; of love of freedom; and of free love. And, in the end, trying to analyze what makes a person a true rock star and not a pop star is so not rock and roll.
There is no formula for someone to follow. You cannot distill it down to parts to be analyzed and duplicated. If you need it to be explained, you probably can't understand it anyway.
I fear the true rock star is a dying breed. The poseurs have taken over. And I say: I know who you are, and I am not impressed.
And, as for me, I'm going to go listen to a Fugazi song and calm down.
Very sincerely yours,
Joan Jett
Rock stars avoid lines at restaurants. Rock stars get tickets to sold-out events. They get free upgrades at hotels and on airlines. Their moms are proud. They get laid where they might otherwise not.
Being a rock star is a dream job. It's a life that many people fantasize about and aspire to. But do rock stars have a happy life? Some do, and those are the ones who have it right. But many don't, and for them the reality is nothing like the dream.
The psychology is complicated.
In many rock stars, the lines get blurred until they can't get a handle on who they are, who people think they are, and who they want people to think they are.
True rock stars shouldn't like to call themselves a rock star. People like Mick Jagger and David Bowie know no other way to be. They don't plan their way of carrying themselves. It's in their bones.
True rock stars are born to it. They don't act out what they feel is expected from rock star behavior. What they are is obvious.
Perhaps the first and greatest rock star was Elvis Presley. He didn't know what a rock star was supposed to be. He just was one. And there's a case to be made that some rock stars don't play rock and roll. Was Frank Sinatra a rock star? Bill Clinton? But no over-educated computer nerd who helped to create a hit song, only to go out and buy clothes and accessories to fit the image of who he dreamed of being, is a rock star in my eyes.
I also have no patience for those who complain about the burden of celebrity. A true rock star wears his or her status like a badge of honor, with no insecurity. So don't complain! We all work hard to have our success, and although there are special demands that go with celebrity, the benefits vastly outweigh them. For example, you have a pulpit from which you can do great things for society, or you can simply use your money and celebrity to enjoy your life.
Finally, a pop star is not a rock star, although the press and the media rarely seem to be able to differentiate between the two. This is not to say that I don't recognize that creating pop hits requires a great deal of talent and skill. It is also, however, true that many pop stars do not create their own musical ideas. They perform music conceived and promoted by the record business star machine.
But that is not what sets pop music apart from ROCK AND ROLL.
True rock and roll has a spirit born of angst; of love of freedom; and of free love. And, in the end, trying to analyze what makes a person a true rock star and not a pop star is so not rock and roll.
There is no formula for someone to follow. You cannot distill it down to parts to be analyzed and duplicated. If you need it to be explained, you probably can't understand it anyway.
I fear the true rock star is a dying breed. The poseurs have taken over. And I say: I know who you are, and I am not impressed.
And, as for me, I'm going to go listen to a Fugazi song and calm down.
Very sincerely yours,
Joan Jett
by at 2:29 PM