This one's a keeper

[lapsedmodernist]

Bush Relatives For Kerry

Comments

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

I wonder which of these are the Bush cousins who did The Atomic Cafe, lo those many years ago. I vaguely remember a buddy of mine telling me about going to the premier and having George Sr. show up (and, later, leave in a huff).

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

People who did "The Atomic Cafe" are related to Bush???? That movie inspired possibly the longest lj entry I have ever written, and one that apparently stunned everyone into silence.
just because:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/anthrochica/149387.html
seriously, that movie is brilliant, and I have made good use of the Prelinger Archive in my own work on the Shocking & Awful series. Among other things I dug up this insane promo reel made by the Arab American Oil Company called "Desert Venture" that has sweeping music and a cimatic baritone narrating the decisions of the oil workers: "And each man was given a choice, for they were asked to dedicate their lives to Oil in Arabia." Boy, did that mesh nicely with the Billionares for Bush footage.

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you've seen it! Isn't it fabulous!!

Unless I'm having one of those unfortunate memory glitches (like the one in which I thought that my memory of the first two minutes of 2001: Space Odyssey was a deeply repressed birth memory), then it was done by a couple of Bushes. Connecticutt Bushes at that. I think. I should ask the guy who told me about it. I should probably introduce you two one of these old days, since he does independent video and all.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

what's his name?

And I just googled it, and Ken Rafferty is, indeed, a cousin to the Shrub. Wow.

and another thing

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

Pnts and I were talking on the phone last night about whether the world is uniquely, spectacularly, unprecedently screwed at this moment in history, or if people felt this way in previous decades. We agreed that the only decades valid for this kind of comparison would be the ones that came after the technology boom and media proliferation. I said that I thought the people who put the dots together in the 50s and early 60s were probably as scared as we are now. They had the paradigm of global nuclear annihiliation feeding their tinfoil hats. And I think it's accurate to say that that "moment of danger" was possibly equivalent in its coefficient of potential disaster. But what constituted the episto-elite then, versus now? Now we have the internet, which is 99% responsible for my personal education in the last three years.

My sister was just the right age for all of that duck and cover stuff (my brother was a little younger, so I don't think it was formative in quite the same way for him). This reminds me of a conversation I had with her once, where she was wondering if anyone had ever really looked at the effects of all that on the collective psyche of her generation. Kids, even lefty kids, really did assume that the bomb would drop at any minute -- that they were under a constant, normalized threat of fiery death all the time.

But as for the question of how people put the dots together, well, for one thing, they had I.F. Stone. I realize that it's usually a mistake to idealize the past -- especially the parts that you didn't live through (or lived through as a child), but journalism wasn't quite the total dog and pony show that it is now. Also, I'm not so sure that we ever really put the dots together. We just think we do. There were plenty of dots back then... some got put together, some led to the land of tin foil hats... I don't know.

I'm suspicious of knowledge, but of course I'm more suspicious of ignorance.

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

Woo hoo! Score one for my pockmarked memory!

Peter Miller

Re: and another thing

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

I realize that it's usually a mistake to idealize the past -- especially the parts that you didn't live through (or lived through as a child), but journalism wasn't quite the total dog and pony show that it is now.

You know, that is very, very true. I had the same epiphany while watching, of all things, "The Battle of Algiers." While a lot of things in it parallel the occupation of Iraq (and get used by the Pentagon and the resistance movements, accordingly), what shocked me the most about the film were the scenes where the French General sent to Algiers to crush the insurrection gives a press conference. And the press ask him really tough questions, about torture, and ethics, and they are actually holding him responsible, and I was, like, wow, that is like in some other universe from the Rose Garden 2000-2004.

I'm suspicious of knowledge, but of course I'm more suspicious of ignorance.
Well-put! There's that modernism shining through!

OT

[bagira.livejournal.com]

Hi.

I wanted to let you know that though I don't know anyone who owns a cat by the name of Schrodinger's Cat, I did once go on an unsuccessful date with a guy who owned a cat named Schrodinger (I'm not sure of the spelling). Go figure.

Re: and another thing

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

The other thing I was going to write and forgot, was that in my eclectic rading of lately (you know how it is in a foreign country, you read whatever is around) I read a novel called "The Last Debate" by none other than Jim Lehrer. I was surprised because a) I didn't know he wrote novels and b) because it wasn't half-bad although the style was a bit odd at times. But the plot is, there are four journalists who are picked to moderate/host the only presidential debate between a well-meaning, but totally undynamic and uncharismatic-type liberal (think Lieberman but well-meaning) and a totally crazy fucking racist fundie who's got charisma. Right before the debate they get a hold of records that show a number of women all accusing the fundie of hitting them. All of them think it would be disastorous for America if he got elected and they decide to throw the televised debate. They announce that they will be suspending the format and gang up on the fundie, reading out loud all the accusations from women. Since immediately the ratings soar they are not pulled off air. They get the fundie, with an obvious anger management problem to throw his podium at them and say "fuck" on national TV (this was obviously written pre-Cheney) and it's all over for him. So the debate of the book is what is the role of journalists--some call them the new kinds of activists, some call them terrorists who imposed their will instead of letting the American people decide, and what does it mean to be in journalist in the corporate age, etc. Anyway, it's pretty interesting and it was weird to read it so close to this election.

Re: and another thing

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

Ah, the vagaries of what other people leave in guest houses (if that's where you got it). Sounds interesting. I just borrowed Dance Dance Dance from The Other Anthropologist.

Re: OT

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Oh god, Schrodinger Cat. That's weird, that's like meeting some named Alice Wonderland. Or a dog named Pavlov, I suppose, would be a more accurate analogy.

Re: OT

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

And I meant to put this icon in the response above. It's my Schrodinger's Cat icon, although I rarely get to use it.