Rare footage of the late, great Lester Bangs ripping on Bryan Ferry, Emerson Lake and Palmer and calling for new something new musically in the mid-70s. Must be out-takes from All You Need Is Love documentary.
Sorry Republican and Tory Dangerous Minds readers—if there are any of you out there—don’t shoot the liberal atheist messenger. Controversial, tell it like it is, not as you’d like it to be evolutionary psychologist Dr, Satoshi Kanazawa, of the London School of Economics (co-author of the excellent book Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters), has correlated the results of a massive, long term study that found young adults who said they were “very conservative” had an average adolescent IQ of 95, while the young people who said they were “very liberal” averaged 106 on the IQ scale.
11 points is a statistically significant spread. Scientists speculate that these findings may indicate evolutionary trends. Guess what else? These liberal, atheistic folks (well the males at least) also make better husbands as they are more prone to monogamy. What is Sean Hannity going to say about this?!?! This is going to drive him nuts. Olbermann should take care to twist this knife in extra hard. Clearly his viewers are smarter than Hannity’s!
“The adoption of some evolutionarily novel ideas makes some sense in terms of moving the species forward,” said George Washington University leadership professor James Bailey, who was not involved in the study. “It also makes perfect sense that more intelligent people—people with, sort of, more intellectual firepower—are likely to be the ones to do that.”
Bailey also said that these preferences may stem from a desire to show superiority or elitism, which also has to do with IQ. In fact, aligning oneself with “unconventional” philosophies such as liberalism or atheism may be “ways to communicate to everyone that you’re pretty smart,” he said.
The study looked at a large sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which began with adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-95 school year. The participants were interviewed as 18- to 28-year-olds from 2001 to 2002. The study also looked at the General Social Survey, another cross-national data collection source.
Kanazawa did not find that higher or lower intelligence predicted sexual exclusivity in women. This makes sense, because having one partner has always been advantageous to women, even thousands of years ago, meaning exclusivity is not a “new” preference.
For men, on the other hand, sexual exclusivity goes against the grain evolutionarily. With a goal of spreading genes, early men had multiple mates. Since women had to spend nine months being pregnant, and additional years caring for very young children, it made sense for them to want a steady mate to provide them resources.
Religion, the current theory goes, did not help people survive or reproduce necessarily, but goes along the lines of helping people to be paranoid, Kanazawa said. Assuming that, for example, a noise in the distance is a signal of a threat helped early humans to prepare in case of danger.
“It helps life to be paranoid, and because humans are paranoid, they become more religious, and they see the hands of God everywhere,” Kanazawa said.
Liberalism, atheism, male sexual exclusivity linked to IQ (CNN)
Alan Moore (the writer) and Stephen O’Malley (the musician and Z’Ev collaborator) are preparing a performance at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Alan Moore’s neo-shamanic spoken performances, for my money, are a lot more interesting and transformative than his comics, and that’s saying something. Hopefully there’ll be a CD.
For the opening of the Great British Art Debate: Turner Versus Martin, AV Festival 10 brings together two great forces in contemporary culture, the graphic novelist Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Watchmen), and musician Stephen O’Malley (Sun O))), KTL, Gravetemple). Alan Moore will write and perform a new text responding to the energy of the two paintings on show: John Martin’s The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Hannibal Crossing the Alps by JMW Turner.
Stephen O’Malley will create a new ambient soundscape, sonically melting in the radiance of the paintings.
(Alan Moore and David J: The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels)
Interesting development—New Scientist reports that two scientists at the University of Ottawa have discovered how to shape nanoparticles with colored light. Amazing indeed…
How many chemists does it take to change an LED light bulb? Two – and they’ve shown that choosing its colour selects the shape of nanoparticles growing out of a solution of silver.
Kevin Stamplecoskie and Juan Scaiano at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, can grow silver particles shaped as hexagons, rods, triangles, spheres or dodecahedrons by shining green, red, orange, violet and blue light on the liquid respectively.
Being able to select the shape of nanoparticles is important because it changes their properties. For example, silver nanoparticles are used to make bacteria-killing clothing – and truncated triangular particles are the deadliest.
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Is that a Love and Rockets album? No, it’s “Contes de Perrault,” bound in beige calf and black morocco leather by Henri Creuzevault, 1950. Just one of many stupendously good book bindings on display over at BibliOdyssey.
Dangerous Minds pal Michael Simmons reviews When You’re Strange, the new documentary about The Doors from director Tom DiCillo (Johnny Suede, Living in Oblivion) on the Mojo blog:
DiCillo’s hardest task has been to do justice to the charisma of Mr. Mojo Risin’ (one of Jim Morrison’s many handles, in this case an anagram of his name); I saw The Doors live in January 1969 and can attest that Morrison glowed, generating tangible heat. And yet, 39 years since his death, the Morrison magic comes through loud and clear, as the film traces the transformation of 1965’s callow California kids into the jaded, burnt-out rock stars of 1971. Along the way, we witness every over-told incident in Doors history: Light My Fire and the subsequent string of hits, the adoration of trendsetters du jour like Andy Warhol, Morrison’s refusal to sell out - whether it be changing a controversial lyric for Ed Sullivan or selling a song for a car commercial - his increasingly self-destructive behaviour, the two books of poems published in his lifetime, the penis-flashing in Miami that never happened, and the poète maudit’s Parisian finale.
The musical contributions of the other Doors are emphasized, from drummer John Densmore’s deft swing to guitarist Robbie Krieger’s flamenco fingering and organist Ray Manzarek’s Bach mastery, serving to remind that there would’ve been no Doors without the other Doors. Morrison’s excellence as a singer is also noted, a fact often overlooked in the accounts of his antics. When he was younger, his vocal role model was Elvis; as he got older it was Sinatra and one can clearly hear Ol’ Blues Eyes’ in Jim’s caress of a note.
The footage feels fresh and intimate. There are clips of Morrison’s underground movie from his university days, a sweet Jim playing with children, fly-on-the-wall recording studio scenes, as well as the familiar live concerts where we witness Jim the consummate performer and Jimbo the inebriated clown. But it’s the shots lifted from Morrison’s own experimental films HWY and Feast Of Friends (the former the source of that Ford Mustang footage) that allow us entry into the omnivorous, risky, arty mind of the front Door.
What’s gotten into the water at UC Berkeley? I personally think this is a positive development and hope to see more of it in the future. The young people in this country are too fucking passive. They need to wake up and flex their collective political muscle or risk ceding their futures to the dum-dum Tea party types… which would be a huge tactical error.
“The youth is starting to change. Are you starting to change? Are you? Together”—MGMT, The Youth
What began as a dance party on Upper Sproul Plaza led to an occupation of Durant Hall at around 11:15 p.m. Thursday to raise support for the March 4 statewide protest in support of public education.
According to a statement distributed by the occupiers, the building was selected because of its symbolic nature. Durant Hall formerly housed the campus East Asian Library and the campus Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. It is now being renovated to become office space for the College of Letters and Science, which spurred activists to “reclaim” the space for students.
UCPD Captain Margo Bennett said the occupiers “cut a lock to get into the construction area and then cut a lock to get into the building” before vandalizing the area.
“There were windows broken, there was spray painting and graffiti on the interior, there was construction equipment that was tossed around,” she said.
The occupation evolved into a riot as it moved onto streets south of campus, where a protester broke several windows of the Subway at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue at about 1:41 a.m.
And then something idiotic like this happens at UC San Diego. “Compton Cookout”? A noose? How incredibly lame.
A lovely and unlovely mix for the weekend from me to you.
To Blast Away The Fungus In Your Ears by brad laner
Runzelstirn and Gurgelstock- Bei Abwesenheit Jeglicher Genussempfindungen (excerpt)
Wolfgang Dauner/ Etcetera - Lady Blue
ID Company - Bum Bum
Pedro Santos - Sem Sombra
Chrome - TV As Eyes
Fleetwood Mac - Albatross
Jon Anderson - Transic Tö
Angel Rada - Upsadesa
Yoko Ono/ Plastic Ono Band - Paper Shoes
Taj Mahal Travellers - July 15,1972 part 3 (excerpt)
Matching Mole w/ Brian Eno - Gloria Gloom
Brian Eno w/ Brad Laner - Faraway Suns
I’m dying to see this! Does anyone have a copy they can upload? I could only find a crappy version of it here on Vimeo.
Birdemic: Shock and Terror is one of those so bad that it’s good films that, surprisingly, rarely come along that often these days. Of course Hollywood routinely releases dreck that’s simply so bad that it’s ... boring, but Birdemic is in another category entirely, like its spiritual twin, cinematically speaking, The Room. Birdemic is a movie so dumbfounding that it ends up being compelling viewing, especially when seen in a theater full of folks who have partaken in some herbal entertainment insurance, if you catch my drift.
According to the press materials, Birdemic “tackles topical issues of global warming, avian flu, world peace, organic living, sexual promiscuity and lavatory access.” Director James Nguyen, a 42-year-old Vietnamese refugee, wrote, cast and shot the film over four years, diverting money saved from his career as a software salesperson in Silicon Valley toward making his Hollywood dream come true. Note that Nguyen calls himself “The Master of the Romantic Thriller”™ and uses a trademark symbol to ... I guess make it official or… something?
Birdemic has several famous fans and boosters. Aside from dada comedy geniuses, Tim and Eric (who’ll introduce the cast and crew at the Saturday screening), there’s Rainn Wilson from The Office and Lost co-creator Damon Lindeloff, who has been enthusiastically twittering about it.
Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles; Saturday, 10 p.m.; $10
Update: Due to high demand for tickets, a second screening of Birdemic will take place Friday, March 5 at midnight.
Cross posting this from Brand X