It’s difficult to express adequately how distinctive and even dangerous the UK series The Young Ones felt when it landed on MTV in 1985. The angry, chaotic, hilarious series, which positively screamed opposition to conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, represented a timely injection of Monty Python-esque absurdism into the cultural landscape and was, in retrospect, a key purveyor of a scarcely diluted punk aesthetic to the mainstream audience. You know how your older brother was good enough to introduce you to The Clash? The Young Ones served a similar function for me in my middle school years.
 

 
What was immediately clear, to me at the age of 13 or so, was that American TV had nothing like this! There wasn’t even anything remotely like it on American TV. This show had actual punks in it! The characters were angry and profane and disgusting and seemed to pay normal bourgeois virtues no heed at all. The focus of the series was ostensibly the filthiest and least likeable set of college students in all of Britain, a premise that they carried over in thoroughly convincing fashion. Their squalid squat featured four enduring archetypes: the hippie Neil (Nigel Planer), the politically engaged poet Rik (played with emphatic genius by Rik Mayall), punk Vyvyan, and “Mike The-Cool-Person”—possibly only by comparison—who is a bit more of a ladies’ man.
 

 
Vyvyan, played with a pinched air of dunderheaded menace by Adrian Edmondson, wore torn denim and sported four painful-looking metal stars across his forehead. His key foil is Rik, a prat by anyone’s definition—in so doing the show stacked the deck in favor of the punk, even though he was himself a complete asshole. The issue of “likeability” never seemed to arise much because, indeed, none of the flatmates were in any way likable or ingratiating, evidence of courage on the part of the show’s writers, or perhaps simply conviction that they knew damn well what they wanted to express. The trio of Rik, Neil, and Vyvyan—Mike wasn’t very essential—nailed an anti-buddy comedy nirvana obscurely comparable to Kirk, Spock, and Bones.
 

 
The show frequently featured copious amounts of spurting blood and vomit, explosions, and frequent references to almost unmentionable squalor and filth, a refreshing change of pace from, say, “Silver Spoons,” an American sitcom of the same vintage. The anarchic absurdity called for many unmotivated cutaways to puppets who would offer a punchline or some other sort of mordant commentary. One of the best such characters was “Special Patrol Group,” the flat’s resident hamster. (Years later a friend of mine would name his cat SPG in homage.)

But best of all were the bands! Motörhead! The Damned! Madness! Dexys Midnight Runners! Who the hell were these maniacs!? How the hell did they find their way onto a prime-time sitcom? The juxtaposition of a raging rendition of “Ace of Spades” with a near-genius piece of sketch writing between Neil and Rik comes very close to my Platonic ideal of television entertainment:
 
“Bambi” episode:

 
More Young Ones after the jump…

 
At this point, “hipster” has basically become a catch-all for anyone under the age of 35 whose mother doesn’t dress them, so any and all drug consumption habits have fallen under the Instagram glow of this amorphous label.

Take alcohol, for example. Hipsters drink craft beer because they’re into DIY and micro-brews. Or is it that hipsters drink wine because it’s “artistic”? Oh wait, hipsters drink shitty malt liquor and PBR because it’s “ironic!” Or bougie mixed drinks made by these so-called “mixologists”? Or more esoteric hooch, like sarsaparilla and moonshine (ooh, retro!)?

Well you’re all wrong, because everyone knows drinking is soooooo over. Nowadays, hipsters do meth! Not only that, they make twee little videos about cooking it themselves! Next stop, Etsy! Maybe they can’t sell the drug there directly, but I’m sure they could make an adorable little illustrated how-to guide, and there’s all sorts of “cooking” accouterments that could be sold as accessories? Hand-felted meth pipes from recycled cat hair, for example!

(By the way, growing up in meth country, I was into meth wayyyyyy before it became hip!)
 

 
Will Self: “I was reported as ‘suspected paedophile’ when out with my son” - The Guardian

At 82, Sonny Rollins is one of the last jazz originals. He still tours, records, and practices three hours a day, convinced he’s still got something to learn – and something to prove - Mens Journal

Bradley Manning sentence to be delivered Aug. 21, 10am US Eastern - Boing Boing

“Mike” from Breaking Bad has joined the cast of Community - UpRoxx

Horror of North Korean prison camps exposed at U.N. panel hearing - Reuters

3D print of Internet memes into IRL - ANIMAL

Al Jourgensen chronicles Caddyshack-like campaign against ‘thug gang’ of raccoons - Slicing Up Eyeballs

California prisons can force-feed inmates on hunger strike, rules federal judge - Huffington Post

Paris suburb to use CCTV to fight dog poo ‘plague’ - TheLocal.fr

College students and some of their professors are pushing back against ever-escalating textbook prices that have jumped 82% in the past decade - USA Today

Nirvana’s ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ video director’s cut finally surfaces online - Entertainment Weekly

Gov. Paul LePage tells fellow Republicans: Obama ‘hates white people’ - Daily Kos

Contaminated water with dangerously high levels of radiation is leaking from a storage tank at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, the most serious setback to the cleanup of the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl - Reuters

Anti-superstition activist Dabholkar shot dead in Pune, India - Times of India

Terry Staunton spins the wheel with Elvis Costello and takes him back through the years, and discusses Thatcher’s death, Britain today, and protest songs - The Quietus

Breaking Bad viewers in Connecticut call 911 during cable outage - Fox40

Florida man attacks mom’s boyfriend with Samurai sword over missing can of shrimp - Death and Taxes

Type Hunting: Nicely curated snippets of lettering and typography on packages from decades ago - Type Hunting

When the world first met the LP, cassettes, CD and other physical formats - Billboard

Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner may get married, have been together for 42 years - E-Online

Below, how to stop on a longboard:

Video via KMFW

 
Canadian dentist and tooth collector Michael Zuk spent more than $31,000 to purchase one of John Lennon’s rotten molars at an auction in 2011, but he’s no mere collector—he wants to use the DNA to regenerate a whole new John Lennon.

In the last week it has been reported that Zuk has come to an agreement with “U.S. researchers” to see what can be done with DNA extracted from the tooth. “I am nervous and excited at the possibility that we will be able to fully sequence John Lennon’s DNA, very soon I hope. With researchers working on ways to clone mammoths, the same technology certainly could make human cloning a reality.”

Zuk continued: “To potentially say I had a small part in bringing back one of rock’s greatest stars would be mind-blowing.”

Lennon gave the molar to Dorothy “Dot” Jarlett, who worked as his housekeeper at his home in Weybridge, Surrey, according to her son, Barry. Jarlett, who worked for Lennon between 1964 and 1968, developed a warm relationship with the famous songwriter, her son said.

If you would like to follow this story in the future, be sure to check regularly at the John Lennon DNA website, which greets visitors with a very silly rendition of, er, “Love Me Tooth.”
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
D.M.C.‘s heartfelt tribute to John Lennon
The F.B.I. is still harassing John Lennon 30 years after his death
John Cage chats with John Lennon & Yoko Ono (1972)

 
Although they don’t consider it a “mature” work, or even part of their official canon, Kraftwerk’s third album, 1973’s Ralf und Florian saw the Teutonic duo groping towards their man-machine aesthetic using synthetic rhythms and proto electronic drum pads (patented by Hütter and Schneider). By then, they’d already begun to use a primitive Vocoder and the Minimoog, although most of the keyboard sounds on the album were made with a Farfisa organ. They were still using a lot of flute and guitar at this point, too.

Ralf und Florian has still never been released on CD, but the whole thing is on YouTube:
 

 
On France’s ‘Pop 2’ program in 1973:

 
By the time of the 1973 television appearance below, electronic percussionist Wolfgang Flür had already joined them for live performances, but their signature rhythmically precise sound and dramatic image was yet to come. What’s great about this is actually seeing and hearing them play their instruments. The whole “laptop remix greatest hits shows with lots of dazzling visual spectacle to distract the audience from the fact that we’re not doing anything” thing they’ve been touring with since the 90s really doesn’t hold a candle to the live recordings that were made of them until about 1981.

The thrill for fans found on vintage Kraftwerk bootlegs is hearing them make mistakes! It’s only when measured against their very own flubs that you can judge the truly maniacal quality of their musicianship. What other standard would be possible?
 

 
It may be fake, but it doesn’t stop it from being absolutely true.

How One Direction Are Being Advertised In Cardiff

Sometimes the anti-mainstream bandwagon can be just as off putting as ultra mainstream musicians themselves, but not when done as brilliantly as this One Direction poster spotted in Cardiff this week

Allegedly.
 
Via sickchirpse, with thanks to Emma Mullen.
 

The skeleton with the wig on, above left, and her husband, don’t want poor people to have health insurance

You might think from the way that it’s getting reported that the 13 members of the Maine Republican Party who are leaving the GOP decided to ditch the party because it had gotten too extreme, too stupid, too racist, too xenophobic, was in bed with the oligarchs, etc.

“As Maine goes, so goes the nation,” you maybe hoped?

Well, if you actually read the entire resignation letter (which frankly isn’t really all that interesting) that’s not what they’re saying at all. These folks are hardcore Tea party types who loathe John Boehner and who are supportive of Maine’s governor Paul LePage, surely one of the very dumbest people in America to currently hold an important political office. There’s fierce competition as to who is actually the dumbest, but LePage is every bit as egregiously inane as Michele Bachmann, Steve King or Louie Gohmert are. Just yesterday LePage was revealed to have said that Obama “hates white people” at a private GOP fundraiser last week. Truly, when you assert support for Paul LePage, you are endorsing stupidity itself, in its most offensive, know-nothing, force your ignorance on others form.

So yeah, it seems pretty clear to me that this renegade baker’s dozen aren’t leaving the Republican Party because it’s too extreme, they’re heading out the door en masse because it’s not nearly extreme enough! The way Huffington Post lazily half-reported on the matter, you might well think they were “moderates.” Most of the tweets I’ve seen about it were from folks who seemed to be under this impression, too. Or maybe they just read the headline and… assumed.

What I did find interesting about the letter, though, is how it smacks so strongly of the Ron Paul-style free market/no foreign intervention school. When you have office-holders and elected officials (including a 2006 candidate for Congress) of a political party willing to denounce it in public and renounce their memberships, this is an interesting development indeed and one that should have the GOP establishment quaking, on both a state and national level. Will other Libertarian/Tea party types, emboldened by the defection of the Maine Republicans, do the same in their states and form break-away parties and political action groups? I sure hope so!

This whole “GOP Civil War” thing we’ve been hearing about sounds like it’s about to get very interesting, very quickly. This is a loud shoe dropping. With the deep, deep unbridled fanaticism within the party’s ranks, any sort of perceived ideological “betrayals” by former allies in the conservative movement makes the likelihood of that once ironclad coalition splintering into warring former Republican factions seem likely indeed.

The demographic tide that turned, hard, against the GOP in recent years as their voters got older (and deader) while the country as a whole has become younger and browner, is merely one of their seemingly insurmountable problems. Should they split up into two or more rival factions, to my mind, that would be just great. United they stand, but divided, well… the entire conservative movement will be about as impotent as their stalwart old white male voters. The oligarchs, the stupid, the religious, the stingy, they need each other BADLY. If that coalition frays—and then they go to war against each other like feuding hillbilly relatives with rabies, which they will—the GOP is doomed. Put-a-stake though-its-heart and piss-on-its-grave doomed.

Can a Republican ever win the White House again? Consider this, on a national level, the 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee will basically start out with 246 electoral votes. Imagine the finger-pointing rancor between say, the “Chris Christie Republicans” vs the Rand Paul fans and then turn the volume knob up to ten on that noise. The names may change, but the negative, hateful energy is turning inwards now. Without a black guy for them to unite against, what hope does the GOP have in 2016?

Update: Then there was this.

Keep in mind as you watch the video below that it was paid for by a Republican-affiliated PAC!
 

 
This is exactly why I hate the circus. Torture wild animals all day long so they’ll perform neato little tricks for human entertainment! No thanks.

I remember a school trip to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus when I was kid. We watched a caravan of polar bears and grizzly bears shuttled out on the main floor in teeny-tiny cages. It was one of the bleakest things I’ve ever witnessed. The bears’ eyes were full of sadness, confusion and mostly… depression. 

Whilst I sincerely hope the lion tamer is okay (the lions attack him in the video), what did he honestly expect was going to happen to him—eventually—after years and years of whipping these wild beasts? A lion is going to lion, buddy. If someone tortures you for years, when you see your shot, you’re gonna take it and that’s what these lions did. Don’t support circuses that “employ” animals with your money.

Warning: While the footage is disturbing, it proves my point.

 
Via reddit

 
British Labour MP Tom Watson wrote a scathing must-read essay for nsfwcorp.com on L’affaire Miranda and the news that some boneheads from Scotland Yard thought getting all heavy at The Guardian offices was, like, a good idea:

We still don’t know the full circumstances surrounding David Miranda’s detention at Heathrow airport but I think we probably know enough to conclude that: a) he is not a terrorist and b) it is not a coincidence that he is Glenn Greenwald’s partner.

I think that we can also usefully assume that the spooks did not find enough to detain David Miranda under any UK law and that Greenwald and The Guardian are not dumb enough to forget to make copies of the files that prove illegal state surveillance.

The spooks are not going to get the NSA files back; that genie is well and truly out of the bottle. So why do it? The conclusion must be, as Greenwald speculates, that we were just roughing up his boyfriend in order to psyche him out. I am no Carrie Mathieson but I think the wrong case officer is in charge of this investigation if they think this will shut Greenwald up. He thrives on this stuff. The UK intelligence services have created a global audience for the spectacle of him beating them with a big stick of indignant rebuke.

And they have horrified people across Westminster who know the “inside.” As a former defence minister I have authorised special forces to conduct hostage rescues, covert military entry to foil terrorist plots, as well as approved nuclear submarines to travel to places you do not want to know. So I think I can assess an ill-conceived plan when I see one. And this was a howler.

LOL! Real Tom Watson’s full editorial at nsfwcorp.com
 

 
Thank you Michael Backes of Los Angeles, California!

Photo by Amanda Lindner
 
Apparently if you spray paint the word “Slayer” along with a pentagram, it may be—at least momentarily—considered a hate crime.

Wicks Park, which is home to the Commack South Little League, was vandalized Tuesday night, police said.

One of the buildings on the town park property was marked with black graffiti.

Police were initially investigating the vandalism as a hate crime after a resident called in the incident, but officials then realized the markings, which included a pentagram, were symbols from the band, Slayer.

According to Cherrybombed, a thrash metal-lovin’ police officer had to set everyone straight and “correctly identified the graffiti as an illegal homage to the band Slayer.”

Via Commack Patch