Category Archives: Arts & Entertainment
Statue of lauded rocker Chris Cornell vandalized in Seattle Reply
No doubt some crazed late 80s hairspray metal fan was exacting revenge for the grunge coup of the early 90s.
The first wave of the insurrection got it right. Hit the state hard, hit the capitalist class hard, retreat, and disappear. What came next was a mixture of middle-class do-gooderism, culture war tribalism, and exaggerated sports rioting.
By The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — A life-sized statue of Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell has been vandalized outside the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle.
Museum officials told The Seattle Times that the statue was covered with white paint or a similar substance on Thursday.
The damage is being assessed and the statue will be restored, museum officials said.
Metal Band Arsames Escape Iran After Being Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison Reply
We must oppose all states everywhere. What we need is something like the Non-Aligned Movement, only oriented toward individuals, groups, voluntary communities, and subcultures rather than nation-states. National-Anarchist Movement is a prototype for such. But in order to develop such a project, we first need to achieve a Gramscian intellectual hegemony that rejects the legitimacy of all states.
Loudwire
Iranian band Arsames, whose members were recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for playing metal, have successfully fled their home country to avoid being locked up.
Iran has a long history of suppressing creative freedom, famously sentencing Confess to over 14 years in prison and 74 lashes. Metal is viewed as a Satanic form of music in Iran, which violates the country’s strict blasphemy laws and could result in execution.
In a statement to Loudwire, Arsames wrote that they’re not a Satanic band. “Our music is about our past culture, history… that they think when we growl and play fast music we are into Satanism! The skulls on our t-shirts means the same for them as satanic musicians.”
Arsames continue, “We [were] arrested in 2017 when we were in our studio during rehearsal. They moved us to jail that day and [did] not [tell] our family about where we [were] for a week. Finally after nearly a month later we paid bail to come out of prison and they told us you should not work, release [or sell] your merch until your final court … and do not talk with media! Our Instagram page, official website … banned and they shot down all for a year, but we built a new Instagram again and [started] to be active until few weeks ago [when] the court called us again and they gave us 15 years [in] prison. So we had to escape from Iran.”
How ‘V for Vendetta’ predicted 2020 Pandemic, Civil unrest, 15 years ago Reply
By Samantha Murray
Almost 15 years have passed since V for Vendetta was released, but the movie’s version of 2020 still manages to reflect the real 2020. V for Vendetta takes place in a world that is of course much more grim than ours.
In the film, the U.S is in the middle of fighting a second civil war while fighting off a virus with the rest of the world. Meanwhile in the UK, where most of the story takes place, is a police state and its crazed leader attempts to keep order through strict surveillance, control of the media, and by sending anyone deemed undesirable to concentration camps.
The 2005 film follows Evey, a young woman working for the tv news station, and her involvement with a masked man known as V. When she becomes targeted by the police, she is forced to go into hiding with V.
At some points, it becomes hard to ignore what seems to be this semi prophetic version of 2020. A pandemic, civil unrest, problematic media, and crazy leaders can sometimes seem like a mix of problems unique to this year, but movies like this remind us that these problems have always had a place in society.
In 2005, the UN warned of Avian flu becoming a devastating pandemic, surveillance under the Patriot Act sparked fear across the U.S, and stop-and-frisk still was acceptable in New York City. While the year 2020 may have been a lucky guess on the part of the writers, the Wachowski Brothers, these fears and trends have not subsided after 15 years.
Despite addressing social issues that still have yet to be dealt with, the filming and editing style feels dated. The constant cuts over to unimportant things are poorly executed and make the movie feel more all-encompassing, which distracts from the main action. Watching the over the top news personalities with the Londoners especially feels over the top and like it’s hand-holding.
Hollywood, Cinema, Pornography & Propaganda 1
By Nicky Reid aka Comrade Hermit
Exile in Happy Valley
It’s often said that there is a fine line between art and pornography, and this is true, but few people take the time to seriously contemplate where that line is. As a fan of both art and pornography, not to mention sociology, I have probably spent too much time on the subject. Most people view the dividing line between these two mediums to be the actions of its subjects, to put it bluntly, people fucking. But some of my favorite art films include graphic scenes of passionate and unsimulated coitus. And some of my favorite genres of pornography involve acts that many wouldn’t even consider to be sexual. No, the line between art and pornography is not defined by its subject matter but rather by its intent. The intent of art is to provoke and engage the audience intellectually. The intent of pornography is to indulge and engage the audience reactively.
Unlike far too many other feminists, I have no problem with pornography in and of itself, particularly if it involves Asian lesbians with small feet and plenty of rope, but there are forms of pornography that have nothing to do with natural human sexuality in all its perverted diversity. Propaganda would probably be my least favorite genre of pornography and this hardcore smut plays on cable news 24/7 when any child could be flipping through the channels. Propaganda is the ultimate form of malignant pornography. It is the complete antithesis of art, designed for the express purpose of keeping people reacting by making sure they have no time to think. The audience is blitzed with an explosive barrage of suggestions, largely parroted from the satanic conglomeration of big government and big business commonly referred to by woke freaks like me as the Establishment. “Fear! Fear! Be afraid! Be afraid! Vote! Buy! Vote! Attack Iran! Squirrels on jet skies! Lupus fun run! Drone strike! MONEY SHOT! Have you attacked Iran yet?” Some pretty sick shit. Ted Turner makes Bob Guccione look like Captain Kangaroo.
Night of the Living ‘Things’: Zombie Archaeology Reply
By Eric Fleischmann
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “archaeology” as “the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artefacts and other physical remains.” The OED also defines the word “zombie,” in the context of popular fiction, as “a person or reanimated corpse that has been turned into a creature capable of movement but not of rational thought, which feeds on human flesh.” The former word’s definition would generally be taken as meaning humans actively uncovering essentially inert objects. But what if those objects are themselves active? What if they force themselves upon us? Instead of us brushing aside the dust of ages to reveal our own past, artifacts rise from the grave—bursting forth and dragging our history back to us. This is where the zombification comes into play. Now certainly many professional archaeologists would reject the previously stated “inert objects.” Archaeologist Michael Shanks describes his field as “an active engagement with remains of the past in the present” and explains its mission as seeking to “understand how people connect with the things they make, to place people in the networks of others – other people, things, other species, environments – that make them who they are.” But this form is still about the human present analyzing the human past, as opposed to the that past malignantly and physically haunting our present. This proposed necromantic behavior of abandoned items presents itself as a zombie archaeology.
Alex Jones continues to grow amid extermination attempt 1
Extermination Update 09/12/18 – Infowars continues to grow among all age groups of weird people, especially those with anti-mainstream views who would never fall victim to a marketing society that pushes products and dreams on fears that exploit easily influenced weird people. Unlike everyone else under capitalism, Jones’ fans are big on careful examination and educated research by people who are always willing to question the party line of a specific product’s marketing department and fan club. More…
The New Art Right: A New Reaction for 2018 Reply
A new book from Rachel Haywire. Available at Amazon.Com
The New Art Right: A New Reaction for 2018, takes us back to a time before the woeful dominion of contemporary politics – a time when art served as the impetus to drive political forces, not the vulgarity of the masses nor banal populism. It also points toward possible futures, such as transhumanism, and higher forms of humanity.
The New Art Right is not just a second edition of The New Reaction, it is the culmination and the final refinement of Haywire’s thought. The New Art Right sets itself squarely against the vulgarity of modern America, a place where both the Right and Left have devolved to into a state of perpetual squables and a race to the bottom. Haywire savages the bourgeois Left and the Right with equal disdain, often in the form of satire and sardonic wit.
The New Art Right, however, does not take us into the ‘safe’ realms of art. Instead, it leads one on a dark journey, through the underworld towards the enlightenment of Dark Bohemia. Along the wayside, Haywire attacks both the intellectual inadequacies of the feminist Left and the patriarchal Right, leaving no ‘safe spaces’ left behind.
Haywire does not draw her philosophy from within the isolation of the ivory towers of academia, her wisdom is one of the real world, and she takes inspiration from her vast experiences in music, art, and American counter-culture.
Rachel Haywire is also the author of Acidexia.
Why is the far right so against US intervention in Syria? Reply
The Left dropped the ball and the “far right” picked it up and ran with it. Now the Left is pissed. What did they expect? In the past, I have heard leftists (mostly the “anti-hater” types) talk about how the far right threatened to “take the game away from the left” (by actually talking about real issues like international conflict, class conflict, and state repression as opposed to nonsense like “microagressions”). Now, it’s happening.
By Jason Wilson
The Guardian
Despite Iraq the left has mounted no serious opposition to Syrian involvement – so why is the right now filling those shoes?
In 2002 and 2003, millions of left-leaning demonstrators crowded cities around the world to protest against the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq. All the while, conservative media, along with large segments of the liberal press, beat the war drums, encouraging the Bush administration in its project of regime change.
But 15 years later, as the US edges towards a greater involvement in Syria, there is as yet no progressive, mass anti-war movement. For now, the most prominent opponents of Middle East intervention are all on the right, while leading Democrats are entirely on board with military intervention in the Middle East.
The Alt-Right is Gay 6
One thing about European New Right philosophy that I think is right is that America is a completely separate culture and civilization from Europe even if it is a derivative in many ways. Interestingly, North American New Righters try to be more European culturally and intellectually even if many of them are Americans by birth and citizenship. That said, as the demographic change continues and whites become just another minority I don’t see how white nationalists will not become even weirder to most Americans or not be a right wing version of the creepy cross dressing homo plastic surgery freaks of leftist identity politics groups with their own bizarre subcultures and idiosyncrasies. I am just not convinced that a high brow, intellectual, racialist counter culture is going to achieve intellectual hegemony in US cultural institutions and then trickle down from the Alternative Bourgeoisie to the white masses to forma zee Eudapean Amedikin Etno Homozexuelle State.
It’s true that the Alt-Right is growing but the only reason it’s growing is because it provides more social space for non threatening preppies, dandies, stuck up snobs, and closeted homosexuals who have the same west coast values and lifestyles as most yuppie square professionals on the Left (wining and dining at fancy restaurants, driving a nice car, parking, lunch and dinner, having a dog sitter, living in an upscale apartment with a loft in a “good neighborhood,” etc.) except that they hate blacks and dirty Mexicans so they get off on identifying as Euro Mysterion to scare a few democrats who don’t know any better.
One thing you’ll notice about the Alt-Right is that there’s not a whole lot of discussion of actual strategy in their circles. I think one of the reasons the ENR has never been able to extend its influence outside dissident intellectual circles in Europe is because its high brow intellectuals have no conception of practical politics. They’ve never been able to agree among themselves on anything other than their homosexuality to be able to actually work out any practical plan of what a WN / ENR / Alt-Right society would actually look like (form of government, economic system, legal definition of rights and responsibilities, foreign policy, handling of gay marriage and other inter-white irreconcilable cultural conflicts, etc.) or how any of it would really be achieved or implemented.
The Alt-Right was interesting when it was bringing the ideas of real thinkers like Dugin and Benoist to an American audience, and promoting bad motherfuckers like Jack Donovan who has since broken with the Alt-Right. Richard Spencer’s leadership has been terrible. He’s more or less become the new David Duke. Whether that was his intention or not is beside the point. He did nothing to prevent it. Matt Parrott, who used to produce the ATS podcast on VOR and CC, has become a self-parody along with his son-in-law, Matt Heimbach. Those guys have become the new Tom Metzger or something. The Right Stuff guys like Mike Enoch have gone off the deep end as well.
It’s a shit show.
Kind of anti-SJW SJWs.
This is why the Alt-Right and the New American Right will never become anything more than a fetish for a small minority of weird intellectuals just like the symphony or the opera. Practical strategy, armed resistance, and all the other stuff that actually matters beyond the level of a small group of ineffectual intellectuals aiming to develop the white counter-culture through art, literature, and philosophy is a no-go. It’s the same with conspiracy kids, the libertarians, and most anarchists of course, which is why most of our work at ATS has been about addressing these questions. We certainly don’t have it all figured it out but we know the tradition of secession resonates well with Americans, and we know pan-anarchy would enable a number of white republics or white socialist states. Conspiracy theorists can have their UFO tents. Anarchists can have all their varying hyphenated communities. And white nationalists can have many different kinds of homosexual cities. Aristotle noted that the great cities of classical civilization possessed over 150 different constitutions among them. One big homosexual state is just not necessary and let’s be real, it’s not going to happen. So why not aim to break up the central state and scatter throughout the continent?
I don’t think whites have much of a future in modern American political culture and I agree that it’s a problem but I don’t think a white rights movement is the way to go. If that’s what you’re going for, cool, but I’ll be hanging with the anarchists agitating for secession while you guys reread Ezra Pound Part 9 Million behind the symphony set on Sundays.
Holla.
Savage Hippie Episode 18 B – Jim Goad: There Are No Good Guys! Reply
On what is probably my favourite episode of this ‘cast, the Savage Hippie crew discuss moralism and its discontents with Jim Goad. (Catch 18A here.)
~MRDA~
SavageHippie Episode 18 A – Jim Goad: Don’t Call Me Right! Don’t Call Me Right! Reply
First man invented the wheel, then man invented fire, then man did some other cool technological shit, then the woman had sex with the man for doing all that cool shit and then Jim Goad appeare…
Source: SavageHippie Episode 18 A – Jim Goad: Don’t Call Me Right! Don’t Call Me Right!
SavageHippie Episode 19 – Retards Are the Real Racists 1
This episode is sponsored by Rayce Riot Apparel. Check out their RAYCY t-shirts at www.cafepress.com/rayceriotapparel. Why do Ann Sterzinger, David Cole and I do what we do; that is aside for the …
Source: SavageHippie Episode 19 – Retards Are the Real Racists
Once Again, Fuck the U.N.! 1
Over at the Inferno: my latest love letter to the kind of “peacekeepers” nobody needs.
Excerpts:
Ostensibly formed as a global peacekeeping organisation in the wake of World War II, the United Nations, or U.N., has, over time, made it clear that the peace it means to impose on the world resembles the pax Romana (or pax Islama), mandated and managed by way of a top-down global hegemon.
For all the criticisms levelled at desert pirates Daesh, their M.O. seems to resemble the U.N.’s in several key ways, with its fatwa-friendliness, universalist aspredations*, and a heralded, hypocritical hard-on for pious prohibition and penile predation. If one didn’t know any better, it’d be easy to suspect the Muslim Männerbund of taking more than a few notes.
~MRDA~
Cards Against Humanitarians Reply
An end-of-September piece from Foreign Policy.
On Friday, heads of state — along with Nobel Prize winners, Pope Francis, and Beyoncé — convened at the United Nations in New York to inaugurate a grand new agenda to improve human welfare. Known as the Sustainable Development Goals (or, supposedly catchier, the “Global Goals”), the scheme consists of seventeen objectives — from “ending poverty in all its forms” to “conserving and sustainably using the oceans” — that are supposed to be achieved by 2030. As is de rigueur for grandiose United Nations summits, the formal festivities were accompanied by a bewildering array of over a hundred side events hosted by national governments, U.N. bodies, and NGOs large and small. If there’s a nerve center for the hive mind that is the international development industry, this was it.
Needless to say, this very serious industry has its very serious critics. But few are as creative (or as hilarious) as three young development professionals who, in the last few weeks, have chosen to express their discontent by self-publishing a satirical card game. JadedAid is modeled on the popular millennial game, Cards Against Humanity, in which players compete to select the funniest (or most vulgar) answers to a set of “fill-in-the-blank” questions. Just a week since its opening, the JadedAid KickStarter campaign has collected nearly twenty thousand dollars — far ahead of its creators’ targets — and the game is well on its way to completion. As an example of the kind of decidedly un-pc satire the game provides, here is one possible combination of cards:
Some of the card ideas were developed by the game’s inventors, who, all in their thirties, have extensive experience in the technology and communication side of the development industry. But the vast majority of the suggestions (nearly 800 at last count) were submitted by friends, colleagues, and anonymous development workers. One of the game’s co-founders, Jessica Heinzelman, 36, attributes the game’s immediate appeal to the need for development workers to “let off some steam” by subjecting their experiences in the field to mockery.
This is the best South Park season in a decade Reply
From Entertainment Weekly. I knew I wasn’t hallucinating Parker ‘n’ Stone’s sudden discovery of the narrative arc!
It’s been a long time since we talked about South Park as a TV show. As an institution, sure. Trey Parker and Matt Stone took Comedy Central mainstream in 1997, and they’ve outlasted all the network’s ensuing zeitgeists: Jon Stewart, Dave Chappelle, Stephen Colbert, Key & Peele, soon Amy Schumer, maybe Tosh someday. In 2013, the show downshifted to a 10-episode-yearly schedule: a shorter season, but also maybe just the new normal for cable. They’re contracted through 2019.
Why would they stop? Parker and Stone have time for extracurriculars — an Oscar nomination here, a videogame there, the occasional raft of Tony awards. In their public statements, they sound perfectly willing to keep the show going until Comedy Central cancels them. Comedy Central, in turn, seems perfectly willing to keep the show going until they quit. The show’s ratings aren’t what they used to be, but then again, our perspective on TV ratings isn’t what it used to be. Sure, South Park’s first season finale had 6.4 million viewers; sure, last week’s episode had just 1.2. But that first season finale was 17 years ago. Saying less people watch South Park is like saying someone invented Netflix.
Because South Park has lasted so long, because of its uniquely privileged position beyond the usual ratings race, and because it has been and always will be a relatively low-budget cartoon, starring lookalike soundalikes, we don’t think of it as a TV show because it’s not really like any other TV show. We treat it more like an animated op-ed column. And, to be fair, the timeliness of South Park was always one of its central virtues. As memorialized in the documentary Six Days to Air, the complete production schedule for a single episode is insanely rapid: Weeks shorter than the typical scripted show, months shorter than the typical animated series. “What does South Park think about this topical event?” became a thing right around the moment that the rise of social media demanded loud, frequent opinions about topical events.
Robert Stark interviews Ann Sterzinger Reply
Ann Sterzinger Returns!
Topics include:
Trigger Warning, her new project with Rachel Haywire
The Pros and Cons of Child Abuse
Why she is a “radical moderate” and why it’s foolish to subscribe to any ideology in its entirety
Why people feel a need to be part of a political team that will support them and how it’s difficult to be politically homeless
Robert Stark interviews Ann Sterzinger Reply
Robert Stark interviews Ann Sterzinger
Ann Sterzinger is a writer, publisher of HOPELESS BOOKS , and Editor of Takimag .
Topics include:
Her Catholic upbringing and how she lost faith in religion
Her career in Journalism as a proofreader and freelance writer
The upper middle class women who dominate the journalism industry and why Ann finds them alienating
The modern left and how it has become dominated by upper class boutique issues as opposed to class issues
Why introvert writers develop dark alter egos in their work
Anti-Natalism and the tragedy of the human existence.
Her response to arguments against Anti-Natalism (ex. “Idiocracy” and ethno nationalism)
Her book NVSQVAM (Nowhere)
Her book The Talkative Corpse: A Love Letter
The concept of loserdom; Genuine losers vs. situation losers and those in between
