Here’s a battle I never thought I would see…
 

 
(via Nerdcore )

Billy Gibbons Painting by Eileen Martin from Fine Art America

This is taken from today’s Guardian newspaper’s Film & Music section, which has been guest edited by David Lynch, and it makes for one of the most bizarre “music” interviews ever published:

Gibbons and Lynch – but mainly Gibbons, with the occasional “Doggone right” and “Exactly right, Billy” from Lynch – are talking about the beauty and power of industry. About the roar of factories, the growl of engines, about how the clang and clank speak to something within us. We’re meant to be talking about the block and tackle pulley system, but it’s pretty clear from the start that none of us can sustain a conversation about that, and so the block and tackle is just the key that starts the motor that in turn drives our discussion down the highway.

For Lynch, in any case, the block and tackle seems to be as much metaphor as literal device. It’s a system of pulleys, designed to enable a person to lift a greater weight than they could unaided. The pulley was invented around 2,400 years ago by the Greek philosopher Archytas, a scientist of the Pythagorean school (he’s also thought to have been the first person to invent a flying machine. Bright boy; his mother must have been proud). Then Archimedes realised the simple pulley could be expanded into something with even greater power – the block and tackle system, which he designed to help sailors lift ever greater loads, according to Plutarch. Thousands of years later, the basic system is unchanged: the block is the pulleys – the more pulleys you put in the block, the less the force you need to apply – and the tackle is the rest of the of the apparatus.

“I heard about the block and tackle and I’ve seen it work and it seems so magical,” Lynch says of his fascination. “It’s connected in my mind with the American car” – one of its common usages is to lift the engine block from the body of a vehicle – “and it’s kind of perfect that Billy talks about it. Billy had got a kind of guitar power – I always like the idea that his guitar is gasoline-powered.” That’s not quite the only reason Gibbons is joining us today. When Lynch originally asked for a piece about the block and tackle in this week’s Film&Music, we pointed out that the section dealt with film and music, rather than physics and mechanics. Lynch, though, was insistent. OK, he said, if you’re only going to do it if it’s got a film or music angle, then you can have ZZ Top talking about the block and tackle. And here we are

.

Read the full article David Lynch and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons dream about machines over at The Guardian.

 
The footage in the video below recalls some of what I was witness to and part of during the People’s Park protest and riots in May of 1969 in Berkeley, California.

I’m a pacifist but I understand there comes a point when the destruction of the symbols of oppression and exploitation that represent the institutions that have robbed us of our freedom and human rights becomes an inevitable part of any political insurrection that has as its goal radical social change. We need to pour some sugar in the gas tank of the fascist limousine. Systems need to be derailed. You can start by dropping a steaming turd in the night deposit box at your neighborhood Bank Of America. Consider it customer feedback.

Insurrection is the unwelcome guest at the party none of us were invited to but we all intend to crash. Revolution wears a tank top and shows up at your door with a chainsaw and a peace sign.

Revolutions are vital but unpredictable.They’re in a constant state of updating themselves and we never know just what form they’re gonna take. They’re human and in constant flux. Change changes. And revolution is change. It can come as an organic spontaneous eruption hitting as much as it misses or as a mystical constellation of galvanizing points of energy that no one comprehends but everyone understands. Perhaps it will come in the form of methodical, precise, surgical strikes that cripple the components that animate the machinery of tyranny. However it comes, its intent should be to send a clear, uncompromising and fear-inducing signal to the powers that be that we will no longer tolerate injustice or continue to feed the insatiable appetite of the greed-driven 1% as they systematically corporatize our planet, consume our resources, and control our lives.

It is important to recognize that the attention violent actions generate, even when the targets are inanimate objects, is not automatically the kind of attention that benefits a protest movement in its infancy.

Finding the balance between fucking the system and fucking ourselves is the art of revolution. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing regimes topple with minimal damage done to the activists who put their lives on the line to restore the vestiges of what is left of our dwindling humanity. Martyrdom may be the stuff of myth but it’s no substitute for the liberating joy of being alive and dancing on the graves of the dictators and tyrants we’ve toppled. I’d rather live in a tipi on the front lawn of the former White House than have my dead face silk-screened on a t-shirt. 

Berkeley/Oakland has a long history of “taking it to the streets” and with that activist spirit comes the risk of non-violent demonstrations turning into riots. In my own experience of almost 45 years of being a political activist, I’ve seen protests escalate into riots when cops, working in tandem with undercover agitators planted among the protesters in carefully orchestrated scenarios, incite violence to discredit and demonize legitimate non-violent protest movements. Add to that volatile mix a bunch of shit stirrers claiming to be “anarchists” and you have the chaotic situation that occurred on November 2 in Oakland.

Abby Martin of Media Roots was on the front lines of the war in the streets of Oakland during the aftermath of the Occupy Oakland general strike and shutdown of the port on November 2, 2011.

Over 10,000 peaceful protesters successfully shut down the Port of Oakland, the fifth largest port in the country at 8pm earlier that night. About two hours later, the anarchist “Black Bloc” came to downtown, smashing windows of banks and setting trash cans on fire.

The Oakland PD in full riot gear lined up and marched toward the now out of control rally. They started firing smoke grenades and tear gas into the crowd of people, to which people starting throwing bottles and other objects back to the police.

After the crowd scattered, the police lined up and starting to close in and arrest the remaining protesters at the Occupy Oakland camp.

The OWS movement is getting to that point where mere words and picnics in city parks must and will be replaced by militant action. Those actions need to be well-thought-out, organized and the product of a democratic process. We need to apply steady and continued pressure on our so-called government to either align itself with the people or get the fuck out of the way. It is also essential that we realize there are systems in place that are just waiting to crush this movement. One critical thing that is working in our favor is that while the cops may have the guns I think they’re starting to realize they don’t have the power - they’re on the wrong side of history. When they start seeing their neighbors, children and parents standing in the front lines of the OWS movement, their loyalties will shift and shift swiftly. Pigs are the most intelligent of the barnyard animals.

And to the “anarchists”, I say “fuck off!” You’ve never figured into any successful social uprising at any point in history, now or ever. You are to the revolution what porn is to sex.
 

 
The “message,” such that it is, of this new ad campaign for Boy Scouts of America by Ogilvy & Mather, is somewhat perplexing isn’t it?

Any guesses?

(via Copyranter)

The face of an idiot.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was heckled for six solid minutes this morning by fifty Occupy Chicago supporters in front of an audience of 300 people at a breakfast appearance.

When they were finished harassing the hapless, soon-to-be-former WI Republican governor, the protesters left the event at Chicago’s Union League Club.

Around fifty people chanted things like “Union busting. It’s disgusting” and “We are the 99 percent.”

After the protesters left, politically tone-deaf, about-to-be-recalled-from-office Walker said, “The bottom line is, no matter how loud you shout, the facts are the facts. The facts are that our reforms have worked and continue to work in the state of Wisconsin.”

Look into his beady little eyes. Even Walker’s eyes look like they’re sweating. This is a man terrified on one hand, and yet in deep, deep denial on the other. As the Firesign Theatre once said: “A stiff idiot is the worst kind.”
 

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker heckled at Chicago’s Union League Club from WBEZ on Vimeo.

 
The idea behind Banned in the UK was that you can learn more about a country through what it bans rather than by what it permits. Made by the multi-talented producer/director Nicola Black, the series examined the who, what, whys? of bans on front line news coverage during the Falklands War, Derek and Clive, Rave Culture, football hooliganism and sexploitation, plus a host of other surprising no-nos.

This short clip is on the horror films which were either labeled Video Nasties (39 in total), or banned by the British Board of Film Classification (originally Censors until 1984), ranging from The Good: Sam Raimi’s classic The Evil Dead, Abel Ferrara’s Driller Killer,  Tenebrae. The Bad: Night of the Bloody Apes, The Living Dead of Manchester Morgue. And the Bloody Awful: SS Experiment Camp, Snuff. All of these films were considered to be a corrupting and dangerous influence, one which Conservative MP Christopher (not so) Bright claimed would “not only affect young people but I believe they affect dogs as well.”

When The Evil Dead failed to win its opening press screening in London due yo a ban, it relocated to Glasgow, where I was fortunate enough to see it. The film was a blast, and a joy to meet director Sam Raimi and his special effects man Tom Sullivan, who revealed the secrets of filming - the Dead’s hands made from Marigold gloves and glue; their entrails baked beans. Even then, it was more than apparent Raimi was an inspiring and exceptional genius, who had only great things ahead of him.

Here’s the back story of how Video Nasties nearly unhinged Britain’s youth in the 1980s. The horror, the horror…
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

Nicola Black: Mesh Digital Animation

‘Mirrorball’: Chris Cunningham, Spike Jonze, Jonathan Glazer, Michel Gondry and co.

 
More Occupy-themed free music, and a big tIp of the hat to DM commenter Frank W for alerting us to this. The words “Immortal Technique”, “new mixtape” and “free download” should be enough to catch the more discerning listener’s ear, but if you’re new to this excellent MC let’s just say he’s the real deal. If you want to know more, his full, extraordinary biography can be found on the Viper Records website (as can his essay The Legacy of Bin Laden which is well worth reading.)

The Martyr features guest spots from Dead Prez, Joell Ortiz, Diabolic and more on the mic, and production from J Dilla, Southpaw and the man himself. On the track “Rich Man’s World (1%)” he puts himself in the mind of a genuine one-percenter and shows just how much he doesn’t give a shit what the other 99% of us think (“I hope you got good credit bitch/If not better get a new job with benefits”) - all over that naggingly familiar riff from “Money Money Money” by Abba.
 
Immortal Technique “Rich Man’s World (1%)”
 

 
Immortal Technique is currently on tour through-out the US in support of The Martyr (he’l be coming to a city near you pretty soon, check the dates on the Viper website). but in the meantime you can download the 16 tracks here, so get clicking.

 
I went to see “dirty” rapper Blowfly play sometime in the 80s at an eco-friendly hippie nightclub in New York called the Wetlands Preserve with John Sex, who, no surprise, was a huge Blowfly fan. The Wetlands Preserve was then, and probably still is, the kind of joint where you would eat sea-weed salad and brown rice and watch a jam band play, like Blues Traveler or the Spin Doctors. I also saw Terence McKenna and Timothy Leary speak there. It’s that sort of place, so watching Blowfly, the world’s filthiest rapper, whip out his thang there was a tad incongruous with the tie-died Grateful Dead-inspired decor and surroundings.

Looking like a low-budget combination of a Mexican wrestler, Sun Ra and “Dumb Donald” (one of Fat Albert’s cartoon Cosby Kids cronies) Blowfly came onstage in a glittery cape and superhero outfit in a billow of dry ice smoke. I think his first song was called “Doin’ the Fuck and Suck,” a take-off of Rufus Thomas’s already fairly suggestive “Doin’ the Push and Pull.” His second number was the more moody, contemplative “Suck My Dick.” He did “Shittin’ On the Dock of the Bay” and “Soul Man” became… “Hole Man.” You get the idea. It was good dirty fun, but not necessarily the kind of act that I needed to see twice…

Apparently, Blowfly was an alter-ego developed to hide behind, so that successful R&B songwriter Clarence Reid (who wrote songs for Gwen McCrae and KC & the Sunshine Band) could continue his career while letting his freakier side out… Now there is a new documentary about Blowfly, featuring the participation of Jello Biafra, Ice-T and Chuck D. I haven’t seen it yet, but I want to after watching this trailer. The Weird World of Blowfly is released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 15th by Indie Blitz/E1 Entertainment.
 

 
Thank you Chris Campion of Berlin, Germany!

 
Of his latest film, Detective City Angel, director Alessandro Cima says:

‘I think if you show this film to one thousand people, two will finish it. One of those will hate it. The other one won’t understand a damn bit of it. It’s too long and most people just won’t put up with it.’

A harsh and unfair summation from such a talented and original film-maker.

I like Alessandro Cima’s work, for it demands the full attention and response of its audience - it’s not enough to watch, Cima wants you to think about what you’re watching and question it. Dangerous film-making in these days of empty CGI spectacle and the worn words of scripts edited by focus group.

Films should be dangerous, and as Orson Welles once said:

‘A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.’

Which is a fair description of Cima’s vision.

Even so, he’s correct. Detective City Angel will not be to everyone’s taste - why should it? It’s a dream film that crosses genres, and plays with identity and authorship. it also hints at Goddard, Anger, Polanski, and Jarman, but is very much Cima’s film, in his own distinct style. Alessandro explained some of the ideas behind Detective City Angel to Dangerous Minds:

‘It’s a dream noir about Los Angeles and the unconscious creative mind which has several parts in conflict at all times. That conflict is deadly and life-affirming at the same time. The detective is perhaps an imaginary threat of failure, inertia or the eventual exposure of an artist’s feelings of fraudulence. The city is both muse and death dealer. Its outward mask presents sexuality and beauty which conceal a vicious survival of the fittest. The angel is seemingly innocent and always threatened with extinction. Its creative spirit is neurotic but ultimately pure. I try to balance all of these and keep them in some sort of pleasurable conflict.’

What was your intention in making it?

‘To make something totally mystifying. I wanted to mix genres in several ways. To mix the fundamental viewpoint of noir with documentary, abstract film, and narrative film, without any concern for reproducing the look and technique of noir. To make abstraction that collapses into a narrative, which sort of has the effect of making the viewer forget having seen the abstract part. I’m not sure if that works. It’s sort of like having a dream and not remembering what it was later in the day. I see no reason why experimental film should not mix freely with narrative film. In addition, I wanted to use the tendency toward secret identities in the world of street art and pull that into the crime genre. I think it’s a perfect fit and presents enormous possibilities for crime films.’

What drew you to the subject?

‘I’ve been somewhat involved with the art world and felt that the concealing of identity was in itself an interesting artwork. I was also intrigued by the surprisingly deep and wonderful history of Los Angeles. Noir and the crime film are the best available forms for representing L.A.

‘I make films in a rather dream-like state. I allow my thoughts to wander and actually spend time following false leads. I tend to operate in a general mode of playing with identity. No one is ever who they seem to be or think they are. The layering of image, sound and meaning demands that a viewer watch with extremely focused attention - a demand which is nearly impossible for a web viewer to fulfill. The film is a secret revealing itself very gradually and with many false impressions. It incorporates images that are both invented and real but it doesn’t want you to know which is which. Layering unrelated things, if done with seriousness, creates new meanings and propels a film in a direction that is not entirely under the director’s control. If something happens with layered images on any given day that suggests a new course for the film, then I take the new course. I use a few black & white found footage clips in this one to punch up certain noir/crime aspects.’
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

Alessandro Cima’s ‘Glass Boulevard’

 
Thanks to the fine folks at Morbid Anatomy I just discovered the fascinating web show “The Midnight Archive” created by Brooklynite Ronni Thomas. It’s the first offering from online network hellabox.tv.

The Midnight Archive is a new web series which aims to document the exotic, the strange, the eccentric and the truly unique. Often dark and always on the fringe, the series puts an honest look into some of the most fascinating people, places and artifacts that many people are wildly unfamiliar with. From a woman who mummifies pets to the largest collection of automata, the idea is for the subject matter to tell its own story and give the viewer just a taste of something ‘unusual’. No dramatic stings, no editorial drama - just the facts.

In this episode, we visit Sue Jieven who in addition to being a tattoo artist is an anthromorphic taxidermist which is the art of “taking an animal’s skin, preparing it, and putting it in a human-like setting.”

“The Midnight Archive” consists of six episodes so far and they all make for compelling viewing.
 

You won’t be smiling for long, ruling class son of a peeg dog!

While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was tied up over at the Capitol Building, where Republicans blocked a $60 billion infrastructure bill today that would have created thousands of jobs, approximately thirty out-of-work protesters staged a sit-in at McConnell’s Senate office.

The protesters, who were organized by a group called OurDC, took every chair and much of the floor-space of the GOP leader’s Russell Building office as McConnell’s aides went about their work. The group claimed no affiliation with Occupy Wall Street.

As of 3 p.m EST, the protesters are still there and said they wouldn’t leave before they got a face-to-face meeting to discuss jobs with the turkey-necked obstructionist Republican Senator from Kentucky.

Nicely done. Keep the heat on these Republican motherfuckers. It’s fantastic to watch these guys squirm. Why make it easy on them?
 

 
Brought to you by Spectacular Science, “a collaborative project between the University for the Creative Arts and the University of Kent, which aims to provide a wide audience with access to scientific knowledge and support the education of students in science subjects.”

Trippy Disney-style animation by Thomas Beg.
 

 
(via Mister Honk)

 
Last night at the start of an Elizabeth Warren campaign meeting in Brockton, MA, some sad, scared little man on the wrong side of history expressed his support for the Tea party and called Warren a “socialist whore.”

Via Huffington Post:

After the event, Warren reflected on the man’s outburst, which she said was her first such encounter. “I actually felt sorry for the guy. I really genuinely did. He’s been out of work now for a year and a half. And bless his heart, I mean, he thought somehow it would help to come here and yell names,” she told HuffPost.

The assault stuck with Warren, and she continued to think about it throughout the night. Hours later, she she said she wasn’t upset with the man himself, but rather with those who attempt to channel his anger in a malevolent direction. “I was thinking more about the heckler. I’m not angry with him, but he didn’t come up with the idea that his biggest problem was Occupy Wall Street. There’s someone else pre-packaging that poison—and that’s who makes me angry,” she said.

Did you get to the end where he tries to dramatically storm out and the door is locked? Bless his pointed little head!
 

 
Johnny Carson’s comic psychic “Carnac the Magnificent” merely held an envelope to his head, but Conan O’Brien? He really pushes the envelope. As you’ll see.