Two For Tuesday
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Category Archives: Video
Russell Brand on Voting and Revolution
Though I’m not familiar with Russell Brand’s work as an actor, judging from interview clips he’s a pretty good comedian and social critic in the tradition of Bill Hicks. In this excerpt from the BBC program Newsnight he defends his choice not to vote and voices concern for a number of topics not usually discussed on television.
While I understand the position of not voting, I believe in the U.S. there’s still good reason to vote at least for local elections, initiatives or referendums. Voting may be a form of coersion but in some cases it can block the enaction of policies leading to greater coersion. If one uses absentee ballots voting doesn’t take much time and effort and though vote rigging is a problem, not all elections are rigged and voting can in some cases make it more difficult to do. For now in this country, with education and organization, voting can still lead to positive change or prevent things from getting worse, and of course one’s political activity shouldn’t be limited to voting. However, when it comes to presidential elections, low turnouts are one way to send a message of illegitimacy and disgust. Despite political disagreements I’m glad public figures such as Brand use their fame as a platform for thoughtful and substantive ideas not usually found in the world of corporate media. It seems he’s been on a roll lately because just last month he was banned from the GQ Awards for this speech:
And earlier this year he made a mockery of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program:
While Brand may have good reason to be annoyed with the hosts, it’s unfortunate that he resorted to lewd jokes near the end. Stooping to their level undermines the effectiveness of his critique, in my opinion.
About the Fainting Diabetic “Saved” by Obama…
A couple days ago Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton of Truthstream Media released this dissection of a supposedly spontaneous and unusual incident which took place during a recent Obama speech on healthcare:
Even if someone in the audience pointed out to Obama what was happening behind him, it doesn’t explain the utterly unnatural response of the woman next to Karmel who doesn’t even look at her as she’s holding her hand and propping her up. It also doesn’t explain the number of times very similar incidents have occurred in the past. Faintings might be a common occurrence at large public events but to have them play out in almost the exact same way with the same responses makes it more likely to be scripted political theater.
This video was posted on Cryptogon.com and is much like the “TeamWakeEmUp” clip referenced on the Truthstream video:
The latest fainting incident may have been used to hammer in the point about why we need Obamacare and to distract from embarrassing aspects such as the website access problems, but it must have more important uses for it to be used so many times. Corporations and interest groups spend vast amounts of money to get their people into office. High level politicians are too much of an investment risk to allow to act independently so they must work with teams of advisers, speech writers and PR experts. It’s not hard to see what they would gain from the false-fainting ploy. In some situations it could be a distraction but it also adds an element of surprise, fear, reassurance and a little bit of humor which makes the event more dramatic, emotionally resonant and memorable. It also serves to humanize the speaker while simultaneously endowing them with heroic and paternal qualities: attentiveness, assertiveness, cool headed-ness, compassion, and expertise. This strategy would of course work much better in the days before independent media reports and YouTube compilation clips but those could always be dismissed as delusions of “truthers” and conspiracy theorists.
Two For Tuesday
Saturday Matinee: The Holy Mountain
There was once a time when seeking out cult movies was a challenge, involving a combination of dedicated effort and luck to hear about them and to actually be able to see them. Even learning what exactly is a cult film was not so common. Today, with internet communities that thrive on niche interests and novelty, most of us have an idea of what they are. For those who don’t there’s always wikipedia, but it used to be knowledge gained mostly through word of mouth or books discovered in stores or libraries like Midnight Movies by Stuart Samuels and Cult Movies by Danny Peary. To watch such films one had to be lucky enough to live near video stores or independent theaters managed by the right kinds of people (weirdos) or be able to visit such places on trips. Obscure or pirated videotapes could sometimes be ordered by mail through catalogs and magazines or found at comic conventions. Sometimes college campuses would also have small screenings organized by student film societies. Once in a blue moon, some of these films would even air on late night network or cable television.
To do my small part to carry on the cult movie tradition I will feature old and new examples of such films every Saturday that can be viewed in their entirety on YouTube. The first is “The Holy Mountain”, which is appropriate because the director, Alejandro Jodorowsky also created “El Topo”, one of the early acknowledged cult classics.
Monsanto Double Feature
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Saturday Morning Cartoons
After the Crash 