MonthSeptember 2007

The Cereal Box Conspiracy Against the Developing Mind

By Michelle Handelman and Monte Cazazza in Apocalypse Culture:

Breakfast with Barbie appeals to the precious libido of pree-teen girls and boys. The pink motif of the box is targeted for girls, and perhaps sissy boys rebelling from their puppy dog tail stereotype. But the image of scantily-clad Barbie showing lots of plastic flesh might be just the perfect breakfast companion for the developing heterosexual boy. The result of this may be to confuse a young boy’s sexual orientation. This may be welcomed by food manufacturers, for market surveys have found gay men to be more avid shoppers than their hetero counterparts. For the girls, the pink design of the Breakfast with Barbie box suggests nothing more than pre-pubescent female genitalia. To this end, an optical illusion that appears on the Breakfast with Barbie cereal box panders to the primal fears of a young girl’s sexual self-discovery. In between Barbie’s legs an undefinable form emerges very pink and very erect. Is it a giant clitoris? A tongue? Daddy’s penis? Further investigation reveals the form as Barbie’s pink sunglasses which rest upon her knee.

Full Story: deflection 7.

Old Alec Empire interview

I read this interview years ago and have been looked for it off and on ever since. Somehow I managed to find it today:

For instance, “Start the Riot,” the first track on Atari’s new disc, Burn, Berlin, Burn!, suggests that the fastest way to affect social change is through violence–an argument that makes perfect sense coming from Empire, a man who praises extremist organizations like the Red Army Faction and the Baader-Meinhof terrorists. “I think without them, everything would even be worse in Germany,” he insists. “I want every mainstream teenager to respect terrorism and risking one’s life for change. I think that’s the most important thing anyone can do–to die for change.”

From: Denver Westwood, September 4, 1997.

Meanwhile, Empire remains alive and rather well off and doesn’t seem to have initiated much change.

Portland Occulture participating in the Memory Walk for the Alzheimer’s Association

PDX Occulture is registered for the Memory Walk to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association.
Sunday, October 7th
9AM at Pioneer Courthouse Square

Help fund Alzheimer’s research by donating funds. Our team page is here and my fund raising page is here.

Independent Infographic

The english newspaper The Independent has a great infographic on its cover today depicting which countries support the immediate ceasefire in the Middle East demanded by the UN and which do not:

independent

(via Kottke)

M.I.A: remixing the future

I have a piece up on Alterati today about M.I.A and her new album Kala:

M.I.A’s new album Kala whips listeners through the poorest corners of the world, moving too quickly to quite distinguish between the various locales. Is this Rio or Trinidad? Calcutta or London? Wait, the Australian outback? It’s all blurred, mashed-up.

M.I.A brings us straight to the bleeding edge of modern culture. While indie rock endlessly recycles the past, M.I.A is busy remixing the future. In his essay The Sudden Stardom of the Third-World City’ Rana Dasgupta wrote ‘Is it going too far to suggest that our sudden interest in books and films about the Third-World city stems from the sense that they may provide effective preparation for our future survival in London, New York or Paris? Our fast-moving media culture, groping always for any image of the ?new’ that can be used to produce more astonishment, operates in a zone slightly ahead of knowledge.’ In other words, westerners are increasingly looking to the Third-World to catch a glimpse of our own future.

Full Story: Alterati.

M.I.A: remixing the future

I have a piece up on Alterati today about M.I.A and her new album Kala:

M.I.A’s new album Kala whips listeners through the poorest corners of the world, moving too quickly to quite distinguish between the various locales. Is this Rio or Trinidad? Calcutta or London? Wait, the Australian outback? It’s all blurred, mashed-up.

M.I.A brings us straight to the bleeding edge of modern culture. While indie rock endlessly recycles the past, M.I.A is busy remixing the future. In his essay The Sudden Stardom of the Third-World City” Rana Dasgupta wrote “Is it going too far to suggest that our sudden interest in books and films about the Third-World city stems from the sense that they may provide effective preparation for our future survival in London, New York or Paris? Our fast-moving media culture, groping always for any image of the ‘new’ that can be used to produce more astonishment, operates in a zone slightly ahead of knowledge.” In other words, westerners are increasingly looking to the Third-World to catch a glimpse of our own future.

Full Story: Alterati.

Baring Your Genes in Public–A Full Individual Human Genome Sequenced for the First Time

Would you want to know your genetic predisposition to alcoholism, coronary artery disease, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, antisocial behavior and conduct disorder? Genome pioneer Craig Venter now does and he is revealing to the whole world that he’s got genes that make him more susceptible to them all. Venter and his team have for the first time sequenced a full (diploid) set of human chromosomes–his.

Full Story: Hit and Run.

Two More Isolated Incidents

More botched drug raid coverage from Radley Balko:

Full Story: Hit and Run.

These 2 aren’t as bad as some of the ones Balko has covered. See his previous coverage here.

Dramatized atomic evacuation of Portland from 1955

Since it seems nothing much came of Noble Resolve, I present you a dramatized evacuation of Portland circa 1955:

Day Called X Part 1.

Day Called X Part 2.

(Thanks Trevor!)

L.A. Weekly story on Father Yod and the Source

the source

Usually, accounts of communal spiritual movements are sensationalistic ‘expos?s of brainwashing cults’ or whitewashing ‘defenses against prejudicial conspiracies.’ The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 and the Source Family is something else. The participants in this story seem uniformly intelligent, straightforward and better off for their brush with the infinite. Most cherish their time with YaHoWha as a central transformative period in their lives, even when they have gone on to make millions in the construction industry or found other fringe spiritual communities to shelter them. And the Source Family is just one of many such under-documented experiments from a period of recent American history that was quickly swept under the rug with unwarranted ridicule and fear mongering. I’m not convinced that the release of this book is a harbinger of the imminent transformation of our species’ consciousness and the basic structure of society. But it at least allows us to discuss the possibility again without snickering.

Full Story: L.A. Weekly.

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