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so what does the art world have to say about
the prospect of war? can art make a 'political intervention'
in times like there? john mcdonald in last weekend's
sydney morning herald doesn't seem to think so, as he
bemoans the lack of political
art in the 21st century. his conjecture
that the last "politically prominent work of art"
was made in 1937 doesn't help his argument - for that
he cites picasso's anti-war painting guernica,
created as a response to the luftwaffe bombing of the
spanish village. there's no doubting guernica's power,
but has there really been nothing of note in the intervening
65 years? perhaps there hasn't : answers on a postcard
pls.
i was, however, drawn to his closing statement : "it's
not that works of art can't be political, or cannot
make direct political points. it's that there is something
dishonest about the way virtually the entire spectrum
of contemporary art is bathed in an abstract glow of
political significance - even when the work is self-evidently
about nothing but space or colour or the artist's tortured
ego."
txt: smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/21/1045638478225.html
more on guernica at picassoswar.com
- "painting is not done to decorate apartments.
it is an instrument of war."
here in aus, PM john howard
has been boosting his re-election prospects by accusing
500,000 of his people of "giving comfort to Saddam
Hussein" : smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/20/1045638427837.html
of course, it's not as cut-and-dried as any party would
like to think. everyone has a vested interest. even
the so-called 'peace lobby' of germany and france would
seem to be fighting to protect their existing oil
deals with iraq. more: washtimes.com/world/20030220-11583742.htm
+ forbes.com/home_europe/newswire/2003/02/25/rtr889323.html
aside from the death of thousands of innocent civilians
that would naturally occur as a result of a US-led invasion,
we also have to ask what
fate will befall the iraqi people should saddam be deposed?
bush has already said that a "US military commander
would run the country jointly with a civilian administrator
for 18 months or so" . so, bush governs iraq? more:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2631491.stm
meanwhile, blair has seized upon this email
from a young iraqi student and has been
using it in his propaganda war : number10.gov.uk/output/page3068.asp
and there's a good cross-section of recent anti-war
demo pics at whatreallyhappened.com/protestphotos.html
including pics from london, LA, NY, germany, alaska
etc
and if iraq and north korea weren't enough, bush now
has his sights set on columbia : observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,901180,00.html
war, war, bloody war : well, this helped me out of my
dark spot, from a recent disinformation
email :::
"what intertwines the looming war on iraq and the
columbia space shuttle disaster's aftermath is the habitual
sense that we have become stuck in what philip k. dick
called the "black iron prison". disinfonauts
appreciate, more than many others, that contemporary
society is, from one angle, the social construction
of confused perceptual warfare between different groups
and individuals. what also intertwines these two events---one
past and one a probable future---is that they force
us to confront the reality of our own deaths. when we
realize the reality of this specter then most "games
conspiriologists play" fall away and the real Great
Game, that of conscious
evolution, can begin. that's the dream
that the seven astronauts on columbia lived and died
for."
so it goes :::
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link_the animatrix
thus begins the marix onslaught ::: the animatrix
is a series of nine anime that will be available online
+ on dvd later in the year. the first anime 'the second
renaissance' is now available to download and tells
the story of how the machines come to power. i know,
i should get out more ::: theanimatrix.com.
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link_bushwacked2 +
chris morris
chris morris + warp release the follow up to
the original bush video-cut-n-paste, this one featuring
dubya's state of the union address. plus a cheesy d'n'b
mp3 rmx from ozymyzo: warprecords.com
200203
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from cnd uk
::: "did you know... a british nuclear-powered
trident submarine is out on patrol ready, 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year, to fire sixteen nuclear-armed
missiles. each submarine carries 48 independently-targeted
nuclear warheads. each warhead has seven times the explosive
power of the first atomic bomb. the atomic bomb that
was dropped on the japanese city of hiroshima, killing
140,000 civilians. it costs us £1.5 billion every
year." : cnduk.org
no need to send in the inspectors, here's the full breakdown
of where you can find all the weapons
of mass destruction you could ever need
- right there in the good ol' u.s. of a. : nyc.indymedia.org.
but they'd never use them, right? certainly not in a
pre-emptive strike, right? wrong : commondreams.org/views03/0126-01.htm
article
on how the US prepared for an oil
shortage caused by a possible war by
buying up oil reserves from, well, iraq : observer.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,882517,00.html
the culture of fear
rumbles on : story of the french airline steward who
was held for nine months in the US on false charges
of terrorist activity. he reported finding the message
'bin laden is best' scrawled on the plane's bathroom
mirror in soap. the FBI naturally arrested him for "threatening
to use weapons of mass destruction to annihilate the
United States" : wsws.org/articles/2003/jan2003/phil-j22.shtml
nice anti-war
/ geeklove page : coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
an article on ENUM,
an electronic numbering system that would allow us to
merge email addresses and phone numbers. it's a long
shot professor : news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2130457,00.html
beam us up : another step closer to teleportation?
according to the NY times "scientists have taken
particles of light, destroyed them and then resurrected
copies more than a mile away". www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/science/30TELE.html
and elvis had a baby boy ::: elvis
jnr lives and breathes, and has had
his parental lineage legally confirmed by a federal
court in the US. and to show the world he can sing jus'
like his ol' daddy, he's released a 25 cd box set (count
'em) on SON records. ouch. : elvisjr.com
and on a fanboy note: animator eric wight worked
on some preliminary sketches for the buffy
animated series : ericwight.com
- also looking forward to seeing his work on
hellboy 'weird tales 2'. talking
of whom, sony have put out an interview clip with the
creative sparks behind the fothcoming movie - "the
last emporer of cheesy monster movies" - director
guerillmo del toro, writer mike mignola and lead actor
ron perlman : hellboymovie.com
170203
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been out of sydney for a few days, up the coast
at scotts head. eight hour train journey, god bless
game boy advance. sun at scotts head made the head go
pink, which hopefully will develop into a golden tan
[as if]. pics from the last 2 wks : photolog
archive 0203
great scenes on the street of sydney + all over aus.
let me see > largest ever rally in the country's
history, prime minister refuses to alter position on
iraq. sounds like i never left the uk... as ever, alternative
sources of news are an important way to keep a check
on reality ::: see indymedia.org
and projectcensored.org
reading jeff noon's falling
out of cars ::: far less cyberfriendly
+ darker than previous, and all the better for it >
recommended ::: jeffnoon.com
went to see adaptation
last week, new film from being
john malkovich team - spike jonze and
charlie kaufman. could well be the film that defines
the god-awful term 'post-post-modern'. even manages
to allow the phrases 'good film' and 'meryl streep'
to sit side-by-side. truly we live in strange times.
official site w. trailers etc : sonypictures.com/movies/adaptation
and unofficial stalker weblog: beingcharliekaufman.tripod.com
080203
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the primer has been updated with a new entry
on the velvet underground
: primer
+ tokyo pics are now online in photolog
archive 0103
060203
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tokyo was a hoot - will upload some pics soon. got to
see jurassic five
while i was there (great gig, esp the 'cut chemist +
dj numark show') and also managed to get a few karaoke
tunes out of my system. j5 site : jurassic5.com
and here i am in aus ::: from what i have seen so far,
sydney is a great city - hot, mellow and friendly. what
more can you ask for? pics + stories soon :::
last night finally managed to see michael moore's bowling
for columbine. whatever you think of
moore's style, this is a definite must-see. at the core
of the film is the question that never gets answered
- why is america the only country in the world that
manages to kill 12,000 of its own people every year?
simultaneously hilarious and depressing, it's worth
the ticket price to see moore's breakfast showdown with
NRA chief, charlton heston. moore's official site :
michaelmoore.com
also had the good fortune to catch guitar
wolf : wild zero on tv this week. wonderful
japanese zombie ufo rocknroll road movie. "love
has no borders, nationalities or genders" - indeed.
fan site w. drinking game : panix.com/%7Eneko/wz/
020203
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zero-g ::: landed in sydney, view from this
week's apt /
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