Shooting Palestinians

The Lebanese fired on a crowd of Palestinians trying to rush a "check-point" to get back into their homes. Three people were killed and over forty wounded.

This just goes to show that no matter where you are, it is ok to shoot and kill Palestinians. If you are Palestinian, no matter where you go, your movement can and will be restricted at whim.

Final Nail In Coffin of Affirmative Action

The US Supreme Court, packed full of fascists, ruled that race cannot be used as a factor in school entry.

What started out as a band-aid solution to quell massive progressive demands for social justice has been chipped away at for over 30 years as the US moved further and further to the Right and abandoned any role of actually confronting institutionalized inequities.

This ruling struck down school entry policies in Seattle, Louisville, and Kentucky, following protests from White parents who felt their children had been denied entry to certain schools because they would have exceeded a quota of non-black pupils.
Of course, quotas have been illegal since the 70's. The Court just took up this redundant case to further eliminate any program that might reverse historical and continuing racism.

Other factors can still be used to determine admissions. Such as if one's parents were fortunate enough to have already attended the school. So rich White kids are still safe with their preferential admissions policies.

I am surprised this has gotten as little media coverage as it has.

Ceremony song

Ceremony has posted a new song on their MySpace page.
Don't get too excited as it is very brief (yet interesting). I think you would have a better chance of hearing good new Ceremony at Bows & Arrows in Berkeley.

bike hip

After the revolution, everyone will wear capri pants.

Fight Girls!

My new favorite TV show is Fight Girls on Oxygen.
It is essentially just like The Ultimate Fighter except with female Muy Thai fighters.

I think my interest in the show stems from my love of tough women. Since this is a TV show, of course, these women are more-or-less pretty cute. They show them training with Master Toddy, Gina Carano(my favorite female pro fighter), and Lisa King. A little socializing/drama thrown in but not too much. And, of course, every episode ends in a fight that determines who will go on to the next "round" in Thailand.

The Fight Girls' site has a lot of interesting info on each fighter (including their stats which are unfortunately left off of the episodes). Although the more I read about my favorite women on the show, the less I thought of them. (Hooters waitress?!haha)
One of my top favorites (Jeanine) has already been kicked off. Her blog is VERY interesting. She gives a lot of insight to reality TV.

Gumby Retro

The best 80's retro I have yet to see is definitely Young Joc's new slanted-Gumby-esque-Bobby Brown fade.
As seen in his new video for "Coffee Shop":

I love it.

$mashing Pumpkin$

Do you like The Smashing Pumpkins? I used to.
Want the full new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist, with all "bonus" tracks?
Then you have to purchase one at Target, one at BestBuy, and one from iTunes.

shitting to lose weight

Last night, The Colbert Report hipped me to a new weight-loss product; Alli.

Apparently Alli has the oh-so-pleasant side effects of oily gas leakage and advises users to wear dark pants or carry a change of clothes..
Alli says of the fat it prevents your body from absorbing: "you may recognize it in the toilet as something that looks like the oil on top of a pizza."

Mel showed me that the ever considerate Alli provides an online "Accident Support Group."
The posts are hilarious.

Fat Americans who would rather shit themselves than exercise rule.

divide and conquer

Every damn day I read the news and am dismayed and infuriated at the state of affairs in Palestine.

It would seem this is the endgame. Israel (with major outright help from the US and EU) have orchestrated divide & conquer more successfully among Palestinians than could have been imagined even 5 years ago.

"My enemy's friend is my enemy"
Abbas (Abu Mazen) has proven himself to be a fuckin sellout lackey dog. Accusing Hamas of a coup attempt???! Hamas won the elections, dude!
Of course, Hamas aren't that progressive of an option... but all progressive/radical factions have been murdered or imprisoned by Israel.

The US and EU pretended they wanted elections in Palestinian controlled territories. As soon as they were unable to control the victors, they tried to starve and isolate Palestinians by withholding aid, etc.

There is blood on a lot of hands... including ours.

taste of Midnight In America

One of my favorite bands, Modern Life Is War, have posted 2 new tracks from their upcoming lp on MySpace.
Definitely worth checking out!!

MODERN LIFE IS WAR MYSPACE

iTunes

Yep, iTunes.

Yo, peer to peer file sharing software is dead. More effective than all the attempted bullshit legislation and RIAA scare tactics, the labels/artists have flooded file sharing networks with bogus files. It is pretty much impossible to get anything.
If anyone does know of free DRM file sharing (especially for Macs), hit me up!!

Now, I love iTunes.
99cents for a song ain't too bad. Plus, iTunes best feature is a user's ability to listen to 30sec clips of any song. Hell, those 30min clips have hipped me to enough bands for me to appreciate it.
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I have realized that, in large part, I have ignored most "mainstream" hardcore as of late. iTunes allowed me to check out new Outbreak, Go It Alone, Verse, Sinking Ships, Dead Hearts, etc etc. Sure most HC kids are probably aware of this shit but are they aware of the glory that is Never Healed, Ramparts, and a myriad of other Bay Area localz? I think I do prefer my punk under the fuckin radar.

So, on the one hand, I am excited to check out a lot of these "newer" HC bands that everyone loves.
On another hand, I love what the Bay Area breeds. We definitely got our own vibe and it is a lot less flashy hypebeast macho bullshit than a lot of other places.

"There's a point to this. A Reason to resist."
"What we do is secret."

(Now excuse me while I go download some new Outbreak and Have Heart.)

homemade seitan

As a vegan who weight-trains, I have considerable interest in high protein vegan food. A major staple in my diet is seitan. I recently discovered how cheap and easy it is to make my own seitan (thank you Alison, Shaudi, & Mel). Making your own seitan also allows one to create any flavor one wants.
It is super easy, here's how I do it:

preheat oven to 350degrees.

mix well:
1.25 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
.25 cup flour (wheat, soy, etc)
.25 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons oil
.5 cup water
+ any seasonings you desire

For this batch, I added garlic (I have found 1-2 of these little frozen cubes work wonderfully), sriracha hot sauce, a tablesppon of liquid smoke, and a tablespoon of this fantastic bouillon... use your imagination!

Knead all that together for about 5 minutes.


(I added some sesame seeds and some vegan parmesan flavor topping to the outside of the logs.)
Form into a log, multiple logs, or flatten and wrap tightly in foil.

Bake.
The size/shape is going to affect how long it needs to bake.
One log takes about an hour and a half. The 3 mini logs I did took about 1 hour.


Bam! You're done!
Each batch has about 135g of protein, so you are set.

+60lbs

The film Chapter 27 is reportedly having difficulty securing a US distributor due to upsrt John Lennon fans. This is unfortunate because who doesn't want to see this Jared Leto transformation?

Batsuit Returns

The Dark Knight's new batsuit is revealed.

I don't know if the suit really needed any "improvements" from Batman Begins. However, for the first time in a Batman film (begininning with Michael Keaton), Batman can swivel his damn head. Finally! I just hope this new motorcycle helmet based cowl doesn't look too much like a fuckin' helmet!

His glove razors retract, project, and are actually not part of any glove. This idea is ridiculous for anything except maybe an action figure.

Overall, maybe a bit too much like armor no matter how reasonable that idea is. We want The Dark Knight not Robocop. And perhaps it is the lighting or the angle, but could we get a little more emphasis on the all important bat on his chest??

It will still most likely be a great film.

Puerto Rican Day Parade

Check out this HILARIOUS photo essay of NYC's largest parade; The Puerto Rican Day Parade!


(scroll down to "Its Like This Everyday in Puerto Rico, Jerry.")

wallpaper of hate

Mel is removing the ugly wallpaper from our bathroom and repainting the walls.
She took down the awful wallpaper and discovered this quote on the wall:

...unless she scratched this on the wall while I wasn't looking.

Hot Chicks w/Douchebags

While I would argue with the "hot chicks" part of the name, there are certainly more than enough wildly interesting douchebags to keep anyone entertained.


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another douchebag:
This dude was running his own prison in Afghanistan.

He says he did so under orders from the Pentagon. Surprisingly, he was set free by the puppet ruler of Afghanistan.

My Big Chill

I see that there are plans to remake the 80's yuppie classic film, The Big Chill. The remake will be updated and have a Black cast.
That film was huge in the 80's. If you are unfamiliar with the plot: seven college friends reunite over a weekend at the funeral of a friend. As they get reacquainted, they become introspective about how their lives turned out.

I can't think of much more unpleasant than reflecting on how I wanted/expected my life to turn out and where I am ending up... especially with my high school friends.
In high school, like I assume most kids, I had an idea of where I wanted to go in my life and it, in no way, seemed unrealistic. Since that time, I have had more jarring twisted turns than I planned for. Some goals changed. Some dreams had to be abandoned.

This upcoming remake of The Big Chill will take the 90's as the era in which the characters bonded. That puts them approximately at my age. I know people my age are supposed to be at a stage in life where we feel comfortable, accomplished, and optimistic.
I will admit that a sense of comfortability is setting in, but I still don't want to look into the face of abandoned hopes that a younger self held dear.

shiv art

Brett Yasko has a project celebrating the "art" of the shiv.

Plenty of pics featuring prison shanks.



(thanx Mel)

Lifetime circa 1995

I was looking at Chrissy Piper's amazing body of work on Flickr and noticed an old Lifetime photo. The show looked familiar even though it was listed as 1995 or 1996 (I was taking photos at the very same show).
Upon closer inspection, there I was!

This show was pretty amazing. I already had fallen in love with Hello Bastards and jumped at the chance to see Lifetime while spending my summer in Isla Vista, CA.
The show was sparsely attended, in the middle of the afternoon, and another fave of the time, ex Ignota (now most of The Court And Spark -haha), opened the show (it was their living room).
We sang and sang and sang a long.


(thank you Chrissy)

Against Me!'s White People

Former acoustic anarcho-punks Against Me! are now major label anarcho-rockers. Their first single for Warner Brothers (from the album "New Wave" produced by Butch Vig!?)is the pretty interesting "White People For Peace."

Knowing Against Me!'s politics, I read the song as a critique of Liberal protest songs... but I am not sure if the message is clear enough for the average listener.

...ugh...

I lost my wallet... and all of its contents.

I searched everywhere I thought it could be before admitting defeat and calling my bank.
I guess calling one's bank could be a smart move to begin with since you can find out if your card has been used and not go on a wild goose chase looking for it.

Turns out, my card was used.
Three different gas stations in four hours and two attempts at purchasing imposter Louis Vuitton bags online.

ugh

G-8 success

Protestors in Germany seeking to fight, disrupt, and/or stop the G-8 Summit were pretty damn successful.

Protestors blocked all roads leading to/from the G-8 Summit. Aides had to be flown in/out by helicopter!

The massive seven mile wide security fence was breached and street fighters battled with police behind police lines.

Anarchists also really fucked shit up in the city of Rostock.

More Convictions and Snitches

(I wrote a lengthy blog all about more of this week's ELF/ALF convictions and then my browser crashed. You know how it is.)

For all the info on the week's ELF / ALF convictions and who turned snitch, check out Bombs and Shields!

open letter to Max (and Burnt Ramen)

READ THIS FIRST
(rather than post another comment on THAT tired entry, I figured I would start a new one.)


Max,
I think we agree on a fair amount. I have seen you at shows. I think we both sang-a-long together to Young Offenders (after I tried to rip that Israeli flag outta your hand).

Don’t get it twisted; my “review” wasn’t a critique of Warkrime. It was intended just to be my reflection on that Warkrime show and some of the bullshit I saw there (and how it reminded me so much of the shows I went to about 15 yrs ago).
Then all kinds of internet gangsters popped up. I didn’t read many comments standing up for a scene. I read people standing up for smoking and getting wasted and keeping punk “dangerous.” As if they knew what dangerous really was or anything about me. Punk to them is only a caraciture of anything it ever was.
Maybe I didn’t make mention of some of the refreshing positives I saw (i.e. an energetic crowd ready to ‘go off’ to all the bands and a seeming disregard for trying to be the “cool kids”). The only shit I dissed is stuff that is detrimental/destructive to any scene/community. If THOSE are the things the kids are defending, fine. Fuck em. They will lose interest in going to shows soon enough. Afterall, a large chunk of that audience is obviously more concerned with using Burnt Ramen as a hideout to get wasted than out of any interest in the bands.

You’re right, Max. Punk/HC doesn’t have to be positive or progressive. A lot of it is a reaction against what we hate in this society. Which is precisely why embracing mainstream values ruins it (whether it be cigarettes, a jock attitude, or celebrity).
As for language: I greatly respect your distaste for the term (and concept?) of “PC” since it was created, as you note, precisely as a tool against us. Sorry buddy, accepting homophobic language also reflects one’s attitudes and helps shape the culture around them. Homophobia ain’t ok with me so I won’t use language that perpetuates it. The question is not what is “offensive” but what is oppressive.

The last thing my blog entry wanted to come off as is a “scolding authority figure.” I never even expected any of the Burnt Ramen loyalites to check in. However, I’m glad they did. (I am still clueless how they all found it.) Maybe I know a little something more than them; maybe I don’t (I probably do though). If I read some 20yr old kid complain about (supposedly) not being able to shout “fag” from the Gilman stage or people being upset with his/her smoking at a show, I wouldn’t give two fucks about them. It is just silly that the only thing the comments you are seemingly defending got irate about was my dislike of their dear drugs or my attempt to show a little girl that there are repercussions for hitting people (my friend, BenEdge) with her beercan.

I refuse to stop taking myself or this world seriously. This is all we got. Let’s burn this shit down and build it anew.

-shane

(now open the floodgates)

Project Vader

Last weekend was Star Wars Celebration in LA.
Project Vader was launched there. Here is a taste:










What else goes on at Star Wars Celebration?


(All photos stolen from bonniegrrl. Check out her Flickr account!)

news?

Y'know that GIANT PIG?!

Well, it was raised in captivity. That young boy standing so proudly behind his kill shot the pig with a pistol inside an enclosed 150-acre grounds. He then followed it for three fuckin hours with his father and a hunting guide til it collapsed and he could shoot it some more.

Anyone gonna find that boy and give him and his father what they deserve?

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Sure, comix are busting at the seems with enormous unrealistic boobs and overly sexualized female characters.
Recently, however, Marvel's Heroes For Hire #13 featured a cover with the main (female) characters bound and suggesting rape.
Roar Of Comics has a good write up and critique of the cover.

___________________

Two more ELF / ALF saboteurs got tagged as terrorists and turned snitch.
What the fuck is wrong with the earth and animal liberation movements that those bourgeois fucks cooperate with the pigs for a slightly lighter sentence so damn easily?!
Think going to prison for a few less years will be any easier as a snitch? Think again. (They are already getting death threats in prison.)
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For good times check out the furor my blog about Burnt Ramen caused.