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   Maybe the best-made movie ever, icy perfection, and the actor best fitted to a role ever, Malcolm McDowell as “Alex” the futuristic thug-turned-victim, “A Clockwork Orange” by Stanley Kubrick (1971), based on the Anthony Burgess novel, is being shown tonight at the State Theater at midnight.
         The movie is more topical than ever, with the “Ludovico Technique” torture being reminiscent of what can be legally done now to torture people in the U.S., see my previous post. Not to mention the questions the “ultra-violent” film raises about Christ, Hitler, Beethoven, the Church of England, free will, and large obscene sculptures.
         To quote Alex from the film: “AAAGGGGHHHHH!!!”

 

(Kos in the kiddie section at Shaman Drum. Sorry for blurry picture)

         At the “blogger dinner” at Amer’s on the 28th from 6-7, we were privileged by having Kos come by, himself! (Others and) I asked him what could be done for the Granholm campaign on Daily Kos, and he mentioned the importance of narrative, e.g., presenting DeVos as the Amway-Scamway “huckster” or con man.
         The book-signing (of his, and Jerome Armstrong’s, book Crashing the Gate) at 7 was preceded by his speech (under the arch of the Shaman Drum children’s section, colorfully enough), which was about similar themes, e.g., people are often interested in values, not issues, especially the mass of people who are not political junkies and may only have time to see 30-second TV ads and say “Yeah, I like that person running for office” or not. He was also realistic about the reach of blogs, noting that Rush Limbaugh might reach 20 million people per month, while Daily Kos might reach far fewer. (Although Daily Kos stats show c. 600,000 visitors per day, so I’m not sure if Kos is doing that badly, really…)
         Finally, the afterparty sponsored by “Drinking Liberally” at Leopold Brothers went nicely: Larry Kestenbaum, the Washtenaw County Clerk, was there in his Australian bush (?) hat, as was local resident emptywheel (DKos online name), working on her Valerie Plame scandal book to come out soon, and of course Kos. …I got to talk to him some more, asking if his upcoming second book, a book on “Libertarian Democrats”, would have any theoretical component, e.g., talking about Locke, Hume, Marx, John Stuart Mill… Kos–a philosophy major in college–said something like “F-ck Locke”, as I recall, and emphasized that it would be a very pragmatic book and that he, Kos, was a very pragmatic person. (The Cato Institute, of all places, is releasing a paper of his that relates to the book…)

         Thanks for koming Kos!!

(The Michigan Liberal “Bloggers’ Dinner” at Amer’s, with Kos on right, and Ron Suarez’s head in the back. Sorry for blurrier picture)

         See, e.g., the WaPo, Senate gives final approval to detainee bill, on yesterday’s passing of Bush-sought federal legislation legalizing (implicitly, if not explicitly) torture. Bye bye habeas corpus too. (It might be more like “habeas corpse” now.)
         All kinds of ghastly things can be done, now, somewhat in the spirit of a crazed killer music video or something. (Remember the videos at Abu Ghraib?)
         See you in the relocation camp I guess. Save a stale bread crust for me. No rat meat though, thanks.

         I wanted to write about my visit with Kos last night, but I’ll do that tomorrow, instead right now noting the…astounding Mich Daily Pixies fill out Tate murder movie by old Arblogger “pal” Kimberly Chou.
         Not only does Chou commit the signal sin of refusing to use “Helter Skelter” by the Beatles, she takes no moral position whatever, it’s just “…Frantic stabbing commences….’Oooh-ooh.’” What the foo?
         There are cinematic portrayals of violence with some redemptive aspects, e.g., “The Passion of the Christ” may make you think, “Hey, this guy died for a principle.” KC has no Sunshine Band here, though, just the “Pixies” and her uninformative and appalling fantasy of video violence, a la “Hey let’s watch the blood dripping, kool, kidz.” …Huh?
         Someone with her talent (cf. 9/28 Daily Arts gray-box blurb, “Daily Arts. So much talent, so little time”), cf. another article of hers from 9/28, Sink in your teeth: Nosferatu style returns for fall, the alliteration and other features of

         “Stars of staple stories in the Halloween/late-autumn canon, vampires hold some heady, romanticized mystery that Frankenstein or the Headless Horseman just can’t touch.”

         , should be able to do better than the Pixies article. Vampire stuff is funny, jonesing on mass murder with Charlie Man is maybe not too funny. Something to chew on there.
         No wonder we have people committing atrocities at Guantanamo Bay (see next post).

         (And all this just when I was beginning to think better of Daily Arts, too; they did a mini-piece on Screech’s porno movie, as per my own 9/27 post…)

As per my earlier post Kos is koming!…, Kos will be at Shaman Drum 7-8 p.m., Leopold Brothers at 8:30. –Also, Michigan Liberal is having a blogger dinner at Amer’s (near Sham Drum) from 6 onward. See you there, at one or all of these.

         See the Daily “Crime notes” (often the best part of the paper) for 9/21/06, Intoxicated woman drives through Diag,

         “Witnesses reported seeing a blue Jeep on the Diag hitting trees and benches on Tuesday at about 10:45 p.m., the Department of Public Safety said. Officers arrested the female driver for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. The driver was not a student.” 

         Perhaps the driver misinterpreted what “Go Blue” means, carousing in her azure vehicle.
         Good that Ms. Blue Jeep was not a student, too; if she were a freshwoman, and had run over the “M”, she might fail her first exam…

          Our man J. L[ ]o been talkin some smack. See “G4–The Feed: The Only News You Need To Know”, Exclusive: Jared Leto Loves Rock, Hates Blogs–Posted by popculturekilla, 

         “30 Seconds To Mars’ Jared Leto Talks Rock, Beautiful Lies & Why Bloggers Should Die

         …JARED: Pretty soon anybody with a cell phone is going to be able to be a news reporter.The blog is yesterday’s  parachute pants. It’s here now but it’s gone tomorrow. …

         G4: Yeah, those people are lame. Anyways, I gotta run and go post this on G4’s blog, TheFeed, so I can make some money, sell advertising dollars and dupe those poor people who are on the internet all day long. Suckers!”

         But in any case, why the foo does he look like a raccoon?

See NY Daily News, Porn star’s name may ring a ‘Bell’.
And you thought Daily Arts was bad.

         Maybe the most talented blogger in Ann Arbor (see future posts), Dumi of the “Black at Michigan” blog will be appearing on TV tonight! The show is Detroit Public Television’s “Bridging the Racial Divide”, on 9 p.m., channel 6 in Ann Arbor, channel 56 in Detroit, and radio-simulcast on 760 WJR-AM.

         Go Dumi!

         These days, it seems the trend is for strawberry-flavored cocaine. As if the “unflavored” version weren’t enough.

          If you thought Prince’s “Raspberry Beret” was a little fruity, I think the strawb-coke is even worse.