This documentary is the best summary of how wrong copyright, the RIAA, MPIAA, Disney, and lots of other too powerful organizations have got it all wrong. The clip above shows just a couple examples of the illusion of original ideas in music and how groups like our beloved Rolling Stones are a bunch of scam artists that now want to protect something they stole in the first place. Some of us have known this for a long time but didn’t much mind until society started calling us thieves. Ironic since our society is based on thievery. This is an important film, one that people are trying to shut down on YouTube and anywhere else but in reality it will always survive. Hopefully it’s seen by many and remixed by more. That can be done here:

Open Source Cinema

And as Lars Ulrich from Metallica so eloquently puts it: “It’s about control.” See part 3

And if you love Disney, you’ll love this little history of their creativity.

A sample of the creativity attempting to be squashed…

And a proponent from the Ivory Tower….

Lawrence Lessig

-Charles Bowden

Ludlow was no cobbler. He merely did what he needed to do and right now he needed a new sole for his left shoe, worn thin from the wheel. It needed to be replaced 3 weeks ago but he hadn’t been able to find any tires to craft a new shoe bottom, or to sleep for that matter, during the stretch of “Everest” as the carny leggers called the Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada circuit. It was named Everest after the bio-scare of ‘23 when the larger half could no longer afford even low grade, “McDonald” biofuel. That’s when the leggers emerged as the latest indentured slave. Horse’s, mules and donkey were now for eating so it was up to the leggers to pull the carnival load. Literally. They ran the little wheel, the human powered wheel that powered the ferris wheel for the children of the energy riche. They were the only ones that could pay other people to spin them around on the ferris wheel. After the stop they broke it down and pulled it to the nearest train. This west coast tour had many stops far from the railroad stop so in addition to driving the rides on site, setting up and breaking down, the leggers had many extra miles to pull it all. Places like Moxee, Washington, Lake Oswego, Oregon, McCloud, California and Gabbs, Nevada. And they had very little time to do it all. Hence, Ludlow’s predicament of a growing hole at the ball of his left foot. The hole had allowed for a blister which popped, pussed and became infected which made for a horrible smell.

The bull shit is so thick these days that instead of even trying to engage in a debate, ultra conservative ignoramuses just send their minions to go to town hall meetings and make a ruckus. Don’t engage in debate about health care, just know that it’s wrong and make noise because it’s socialist and fascist, as if something could actually be both. In general, Americans have bought into the lie that as long as something can be made profitable it is “the good.” Anything that is even slightly directed by the government is “the bad.” Ridiculous really. If “the good” had it their way my internet connection would be slower (e.g. less bandwidth) so Fox could spread even more rubbish into the world on my bandwidth, just to name one. Make it stop.

Speaking as a child of the 80s, John Hughes died this week. He made movies about middle class, suburban white kids that wanted to be individuals fitting in (among other things - see above clip of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles). They came from affluent Chicago that could have been anywhere affluent America. But he did capture something that people think they can replicate but I haven’t seen someone do it yet. To some his films could look like some current teenage romance but that would be wrong. The 80s was a strange decade. It was the moment that the marketers perfected how to sell shit to teenagers. Woodstock was the eureka moment of a new, cashed up demographic and by the 80s the strategy was perfected. However, we weren’t clueless, sheep to the slaughter. Not all of us anyway. But none of us are immune. Maybe that’s what John Hughes did so well. He showed emotion in the time of Gekko. America has not left the mindset of Gekko, we just talk about it differently.

It’s not entirely right, but I see a strong connection with John Hughes’ films and The Smiths. It’s the wolf in sheeps clothes and what a beautiful wolf. Machismo and materialism ruled the 80s and Hughes and The Smiths subverted that mentality although Morrissey did it in a much bigger way. Hughes did it by focusing on the sensitive, yet attractive, anti-hero, outsider that could navigate relatively seamlessly through the high school social circles. Morrissey and Marr did it differently, in particular Morrissey. Just watch the video below and you might even cringe when you see him dance. Is he taking the piss? Is he serious? Is he just dancing? Who knows but so many people, macho or not, loved their tunes and had to deal with their emotions, and some with their homophobia, while they danced and sang and cried in their beers. Morrissey challenged all the nonsense just by putting out records. Really good records.

Both were critical, crucial and emblems of the 80s. It’s great that you can go to a bar in the Mission on the 3rd Thursday every month and hear The Smiths on vinyl. A lot of it is nostalgic but The Smiths and John Hughes will be referenced forever by anyone who wants to know about that decade.

Pretty in Pink being shown in Dolores Park (Mission), San Francisco, Saturday, August 1, 2009.

And here’s a great band from the nineties and naughts covering The Headmaster Ritual….

Brent Dennen - San Francisco

But back to GM. Plain and simple, I want an apology. Not just one, but multiple apologies.
First, I want an apology from Bob Lutz. Bob Lutz is GM’s soon to be retired chairman. Last year he famously commented that “Global warming is a crock of shit.” Have a look. Before he retires, he should apologize to the people of Tuvalu, the Pacific Island nation that has had to abandon its low-lying islands. He should apologize to the people of Arctic villages that have had to be relocated due to thawing permafrost. He should apologize to the American people for politicizing a scientific matter.

Second, I want an apology for their role in dismantling privately-owned transit systems in numerous American cities. This was done by fronting companies, which Standard Oil and Firestone helped to fund. See this. And this. For a comic version of it, watch the animated movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
GM has been instrumental in spreading the plague of car culture and its methods for doing so have not always been particularly ethical. I think it can be argued that our level of fossil fuel consumption makes the US less competitive with other countries on the global market, and will become more so in the future. The agenda of GM and other car makers has put the US in a hole, a hole which they are now being swallowed by, and they expect us to pull them out of it. The least they could do is show a little contrition. Before you label this position alarmist or hyperbolic, consider this. There is substantial evidence that the oil price spikes of 2008 played a larger role in the foreclosure crisis than first assumed. Many of the new buyers who were already financially stretched saw their budgets break when they had to pay so much to make their long commutes to far-flung suburbs. Among the worst hit areas for foreclosures has been newly constructed homes on the outskirts of major cities. This has been reported in no less than that well-known Lefty rag, the Wall Street Journal.

Thirdly and relatedly, I want an apology for killing the EV1 in the late ’90s. A movie was made about it. See Who Killed the Electric Car?
I would like to see total transparency on the issue. They had an electric car that worked fine, looked good and was easy to drive. Then they took them off lease and destroyed every last one of them. Now we have to deal with this hyperbole about them “developing” the Chevy Volt.

That’s all, just three apologies. No big deal, right? I’m not even asking for an apology for the Hummer, possibly the most polarizing vehicle ever made. Las Vegas’ only Hummer dealership has been converted into a Smart Car dealer. I smile every time I drive by. That’s enough of an apology. But, I do want to ask, can you please explain the Pontiac Aztek? What were you thinking?!

I also propose, as a goodwill gesture, that the Chevy Avalanche be renamed the “Glacier Melt”.

Who’s up next? Chrysler? OK, apologize for building cars that look like they came out of a time warp from 1971. Chargers with Hemis? The re-release of the Challenger? Are you friggin kidding me? They really look like they just took the old molds out of the warehouse and added some new electronics and drivetrain stuff. Its like their designers live in a fantasyland where “American Graffitti” is the adolesence and NASCAR races are every weekend. Start acting like you have a grip on what people need to get around in their daily lives and maybe you’ll become profitable again.

“‘Look at this traffic,’ he said. ‘Look at them, rolling along on their rubber tires in their two-ton entropy cars polluting the air we breathe, raping the earth to give their fat indolent rump-sprung American asses a free ride. Six percent of the world’s population gulping down forty percent of the world’s oil. Hogs!’ he bellowed, shaking his huge fist at the passing motorists.
‘What about us?’ she said.
‘That’s who I’m talking about.’”
-Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang, 1975.