ALL THINGS ADOLF

The slogan of Disposable, the second Deviants album was “If you can’t trip on garbage, you can’t trip on nothing.” Here’s a new one for the modern world, “If you can’t laugh at Hitler, you may not survive the 21st century.” This was prompted by my latest perusal of the blog of our goodbuddy Adam Gorightly, where I was hipped to The Daily Hitler. It is a truly outrageous (and I use the word very precisely) Adolf funfest – kinda Chaplin meets Lemmy.. But wait…I feel another slogan taking shape within the swirling mist. “If you can’t laugh at history, you are liable to be fucked by it.” Click here for The Daily Hitler.

The secret word is Heil

ALL THINGS BALLARD

Our pal Peromyscus alerts us to Ballard.com. A website that is a massive collection of all things about and adjacent to the work of the great J. G. Ballard.

"At the opening party there was wildly drunken reaction, and what seemed to be barely repressed hostility came bursting out. During the month on show the cars were attacked, daubed with paint and so on. Many visitors stared at them numbly. I don’t think there would be the same reaction today, 35 years later. Since then there have been so many provocations that the audience response to three crashed cars would be much more calm. People are still shockable today — as with the Myra Hindley handprints portrait — but nothing defuses a sense of shock more than the sense that it’s all been done before. Duchamp’s urinal would produce no gasps, in fact I think a [sic] saw it, or a replica, at the Hayward gallery some ago. No-one was looking at it. I said to my girl-friend that the only way to startle the audience would have been to urinate into the thing, which I think someone has now done. I don’t think today’s audiences are all that different. Apart from the Arts Lab regulars, the audience in 1969 were readers of International Times, rather than today’s Time Out, and people interested in any new ideas that might be floating about. They certainly weren’t extras — I was very keen to see their reactions to the cars. The whole thing was a psychological test, to see whether my hunches were sufficiently confirmed for me to go on and write Crash. They were. The show’s object was not to shock, but to prompt a response."

OUR WHACKY AUNT AYN

In her youth, Aunt Ayn had a fairly unorthodox approach to her craft.

SPACE OPERA

CLICK (You shoulda been wearing clothes.)

I DON’T USUALLY SAY A WORD ABOUT SCIENTOLOGY

Here in Hollywood we don’t say anything bad about Scientology. Too many Hollywood stars on the roll of true believers. Too much sinister real estate over on Hollywood Boulevard just west of Sunset Junction. They are also too solid a part of local occult folklore, what with Hubbard hooked up with Jack Parsons, OTO, the Jet Propulsion Lab, the Process, and even Charlie Manson out on the edge. Even a once and future sci-fi writer, who has wondered now and then if forming a religion might be fun, doesn’t like to quote stuff like this slice from Wikipedia for fear the Thetans might get him.

“Xenu was according to Scientology founder and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology dogma holds that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm. Members of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story. These events are known within Scientology as "Incident II", and the traumatic memories associated with them as The Wall of Fire or the R6 implant. The Xenu story is part of the Church of Scientology's secret "Advanced Technology", normally only revealed to members who have already contributed large amounts of money.”

But while we keep quite in LA, the church is being hammered in Australia…

"The Church of Scientology in Australia was last night defending itself from a scathing attack by a politician using parliamentary privilege. In a senate speech late on Tuesday, independent south Australia senator Nick Xenophon said: “Scientology is not a religious organisation. It is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs.” Mr Xenophon questioned Scientology’s tax exemption status and called for it to be investigated by the police and parliament. The senator tabled letters he received from former Scientology members detailing claims of abuse, false imprisonment, forced abortion, embezzlement and the covering up of children’s deaths." (Click here for more)

And in France…

"In Paris last month, a court fined the French branch of the Church of Scientology €600,000 after finding it guilty of fraud, but stopped short of banning the group from operating in the country. Scientology’s Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris, the two branches of its French operations, were fined €600,000 for preying financially on several followers in the 1990s. The court also handed down suspended prison sentences ranging from 10 months to two years and fines of €5,000 to €30,000 to four leaders of the group in France. France regards Scientology as a cult, not a religion, and had prosecuted individual Scientologists before, but this case marked the first time the organisation as a whole was convicted." (Click here for more)

The Secret word is Clear

MORE ON HOW I WAS PHISHED

Our pal Stephan writes on Facebook… "HACKER WARNING! There is a new way to hack your Facebook. A Notification will be sent to you that one of your friends has commented on your status, it will open a new page and tell you to re-enter your Facebook user name and password. The page looks just like the FB login page so be on the look out!! Repost this to your status to let your FaceBook family know."
And Valerie has sent us visual evidence.

A COMMERCIAL

“Will you buy Mick’s new book Zones of Chaos?”
“Will it stop me being a poly-amatory, fur-wearing slut?”
“I very much doubt that.”
“How I get one?
“Click here.”

DOC WAS PHISHED!

Late last night I was phished via Facebook. So, instead of posting, I’ve been clearing up the mess, changing passwords, running virus scans (and sleeping.) If the little bastards leave me alone, I should be back to normal tomorrow.

The secret word is Decimate

WE’RE COMING BACK FROM THE PAST TO SCREW THE RECORD COMPANIES, OKAY?

Our pal Joly posted a link to the following on Facebook, and I’m repeating it here, because, for once, the artist may have a chance to stick it to multi-national media corporations that have had their way for far too long. It may be a little involved for those who aren’t involved in the recording or writing of songs, but it’s probably worth a look.

“The late ’70s, when punk exploded and disco imploded, were tumultuous years for the music industry. A time bomb embedded in legislation from that era, the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, could bring another round of tumult to the business, due to provisions that allow authors or their heirs to terminate copyright grants — or at the very least renegotiate much sweeter deals by threatening to do so.
At a time when record labels and, to a lesser extent, music publishers, find themselves in the midst of an unprecedented contraction, the last thing they need is to start losing valuable copyrights to ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s music, much of which still sells as well or better than more recently released fare. Nonetheless, the wheels are already in motion.” (Click here for more.)

The secret word is Vengeance

BILL MAHER ON SWINE FLU

I don’t always agree with Bill Maher and I’m not sure if I agree with all of what he has to say here, but, when I found it on Common Dreams, I figured it was worth passing long.

“While America is still in the grips of swine flu mania, let me use this opportunity to clear up a few things about my beliefs concerning the flu shot, vaccines, and health in general. I do this because there is obviously a lot of curiosity about this subject of vaccines -- it comes up in every interview I do these days, and I've been finding that people, including doctors, are privately expressing a skepticism that is still not very prevalent in public. I feel like I've become a confessor for people who want someone to be raising questions about vaccines.
But I don't want the job. I agree with my critics who say there are far more qualified people than me -- its just that mainstream media rarely interviews doctors and scientists who present an alternative point of view. There is a movement to stop people from asking any questions about vaccines -- they're a miracle, that's it, debate over. I don't think its that simple, and neither do millions of other people. The British Medical Journal from August 25 says half the doctors and medical workers in the U.K. are not taking the flu shot -- are they all crazy too? Sixty-five percent of French people don't want it. Maybe its not as simple as the medical establishment wants to paint it.” (Click here for the rest.)

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Aquitaine Frozdick is neither drowning nor waving.

I don’t usually post political cartoons but this kinda had a resonant edge. Especially in the rendering of the Palin insanity.

BELLE PEELED

I don’t know how many of you recall Belle de Jour. Our pal Hipspinster reminds us how, back in 2003, borrowing a name from the Bunuel movie, she ran a highly graphic blog, called Diary of a Call Girl what went early viral across the English-speaking world, resulted in two books, and finally a lame TV show – Secret Diary of a Call Girl – starring former pop chanteuse and Dr. Who sidekick, Billie Piper. At the time, there was a mighty furor about Belle’s true identity, but now all is revealed. Click here to find out.

REMEMBER SPAIN?

I also don’t know how many of you remember Spain Rodriguez. He was/is one of the truly great underground comic artists. Is on-going strip Trashman: Agent of the Sixth International – the first radical left comic book hero – was even cited as a subversive influence at the Old Bailey trial when my partners and I fell foul of the law and were forced to defend ourselves for publishing the comic book Nasty Tales back in the day. Munz sends us this timely reminde…

“For the cover of My True Story, an autobiographical anthology of his work, cartoonist Manuel “Spain” Rodriguez used one of his many illustrations of a barroom brawl. This one is a real beauty, the royal rumble of bar fights. Bikers, truckers, a blonde frozen in mid-scream—everyone is either pummeling or about to get pummeled. There has perhaps never been so many comic strip sound effects packed onto a single page: ptoomf, wonk, ptaf…even a blump. (That one sounds like it didn’t hurt too bad.) In the center of the melee is Spain himself, ducking slightly, a hint of a smile on his face as he grips the neck of a beer bottle, ready to swing. Bar stools are flying through the air. Chains, wrenches, and fists are poised over the crowd. A thought bubble above one brawler’s head reads, “Someday, this will make a great comic strip.” (Click here for more.)

MO’ SPAIN

This is the cover for his graphic biography of Che Guevara.

WEEKEND WARNING