Death Star Science

DOOM

A very special bonus episode, to celebrate the villainous talents of MF Doom, Daniel Dumile. (pronounced Doom-a-lay)

• It Ain’t Nuttin w/ Herbaliser MF Doom [SuperMiscellany] SuperMiscellany

INTRO and BACKSTORY

As Zev Love X, he formed the group KMD, in 1988 with his younger brother DJ Subroc and another MC called Rodan. When Rodan left the group, Zev found another MC to replace Rodan named Onyx the Birthstone Kid

Subroc was struck and killed by a car in 1993 while attempting to cross the Nassau Expressway before the release of their second KMD album, Black Bastards. The group was subsequently dropped from Elektra Records that same week. Before the release, the album was shelved due to its controversial cover art,[2] which featured a cartoon of a stereotypical pickaninny or sambo character being hung from the gallows. After the death of his brother, Dumile retreated from the hip hop scene from 1994 to 1997, living “damn near homeless, walking the streets of Manhattan, sleeping on benches.[1][3] ” In the late 1990s, he left New York City and settled in Atlanta. According to interviews with Dumile, he was also “recovering from his wounds” and swearing revenge “against the industry that so badly deformed him”.[1] Black Bastards had become bootlegged at the time, leading to DOOM’s rise in the underground hip hop scene.

In 1997, Dumile began freestyling incognito at open-mic events at the Nuyorican Poets Café in Manhattan, obscuring his face by putting a women’s stocking over his head. He meanwhile had taken on a new identity, MF DOOM, patterned after and wearing a mask similar to that of Marvel Comics super-villain Doctor Doom, who is depicted rapping on the cover of the 1999 album Operation: Doomsday. 

MF Doom has taken to wearing a metal gladiator mask onstage, in press and album photos, and even in everyday life around people he doesn’t know very well. “Hip-hop tends to be about who’s the flyest, who has the biggest chain,” Dumile explains. “So it’s kind of like the mask is the opposite of that. It’s like, it don’t matter what he looks like, what race he is. All that matters is the vocals, the spit, the beats, the rhymes.” 

he was often just referred to as DOOM. The MF comes from longtime friend MF GRIMM. He is also commonly referred to as the Super Villain. Metal Fingers – This is DOOM’s production alias. Almost anytime he handles production, be it on his albums or anyone else, it’s often listed simply under Metal Fingers. 

ends up everywhere, EVERYWHERE, collaborating with everyone

His output in the early 00’s was unheard of at the time, and for a while it seemed like we were getting a new DOOM album every few months, which can be a bit daunting to new fans.

this album:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unexpected_Guests

http://www.amazon.com/Unexpected-Guests-Doom/dp/B002NZJMFY

These are all tracks collected from different artists, all from different years, and yet they all flow together to form a pretty damn cohesive sound.

Truthfully though this is one of the best compilation style albums on the market. Essential listening for people wanting to check out DOOM, but not be stuck listening to just him. 

• Fly That Knot Ft. Doom Talib Kweli DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
• Sniper Elite J Dilla And Doom DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
• Yikes Ft. Doom Scienz Of Life DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
• Sorcerers K.M.D. DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
• Da Supafriendz Ft Mf Doom Vast Aire Look Mom No Hands
• Quite Buttery Ft. Doom Count Bass D DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
• ? – Kurious MF DOOM Operation: Doomsday
• All Outta Ale Ft. Doom The Prof DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
• E.N.Y. House Masta Killa DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
• Bell Of Doom Ft. Doom The Prof DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
• My Favorite Ladies DOOM DOOM presents Unexpected Guests

SEGMENT

• Madvillainy with West Coast Legend ‘Madlib’

This would finally be the debut of DOOM’s “abstract” style of rapping. His multi-syllable game is impeccable, and he often stacks his words so fast and with such complexity that you’re often wondering what the hell it is he’s trying to say. Really though that’s part of the fun, because no matter how oddball and left-field he sounds, no matter how much it seems like he’s just bullshitting; he is always talking about something. It just takes a bit of digging and some rewinds, but it wont’ take long to catch on. 

DangerDoom

With oddball Dangermouse

This was also the first collaboration between DOOM and Ghostface, which would later result in DOOM producing a good chunk of Ghostface’s album Fishscale and forming the group DOOMSTARKS. Talib Kweli has one of the best verses of his career here too.

Note: DOOM dissed his old group MIC on this album, and effectively kicked his beef with MF Grimm in to high gear. 

MF Grimm

http://www.wutang-corp.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-28558.html

Mr Fantastik???

He doesn’t really do social media, and in general is a pretty mysterious guy too. He has one tweet “DOOM IS NOT ON TWITTER” so good luck finding out from him. He has said in Deep Fried Friends “I first met Mr. Fantastik at a arms deal”

Predecessors WU-TANG — pop culture, nerdy references like kung fu movies and comic books meet indie culture

1. Street Corners (Doom Remix) Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck And GZA DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
2. Angels Doom And Ghostface Killah DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
3. Fire Wood Drumstykx J Dilla And Doom DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
4. Project Jazz Hell Razah, Talib Kweli And Viktor Vaughn DOOM presents Unexpected Guests
5. Black Gold John Robinson DOOM presents Unexpected Guests

SEGMENT

that’s the album, now let’s play some other great “Guest Shots” (either people on Doom albums or Doom on peoples albums)

EVENTS

Mutiny Radio has been supporting “Stop Mass Incarceration Month” since October with our art show “Incarcerated Art” featuring various artistic expression from currently incarcerated people in New Folsom Prison. This presentation of written work and art sent from inside prison walls accentuates the systematic problem with Mass Incarceration that currently faces all Americans. Mutiny Radio is attempting to give voice to the voiceless currently being effected by mass incarceration.

On November 29th from 8-10pm we will be holding a closing celebration for this show! We will be featuring multiple performers and community members speaking out against mass incarceration. (line-up to be announced soon) Please join us for this very special celebration of art and life!

Presenting pen and ink and pastel works sent by Ronnie Hung Ling Hoang #V-58077as well as his short stories along with sent written work from Guss Edwards #B-89208, Calvin Petterson #F-36257, I Seven Devine, Anonymous, Kevin Lewis #J-19998 and SJ Noble #D-74884.

Incarcerated Art- Oct 16th-Dec 1st

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In the 1980s and early 1990s, Rock the Vote was simple: get young people to vote for politicians who wouldn’t censor music. The organized movement behind Rock the Vote focused on the “Motor Voter” bill, which would allow people to register to vote at the DMV when they got a driver’s license, and to register by mail. In short, they wanted to encourage young people to engage in the voting process by making registration easy and welcoming.

In May 1992, after a successful petition drive (with help from REM), the Motor Voter bill passed Congress, only to be vetoed by president George H.W. Bush. This was an election year. Bush’s opponent, Bill Clinton, took up the cause of the Motor Voter bill, and signed it into law as the National Voter Registration Act of 1992.

Here is video from committee hearing for the National Noter Registration Act in congress, April 17, 1991, showing 19-year old MF DOOM (Zev Love X) with his partner Onyx from the group KMD. They’re sitting with Rock the Vote co-founder Steve Barr, speaking to Sen. Wendell Ford of Kentucky.

http://www.stereogum.com/1716709/watch-a-19-year-old-mf-doom-testify-before-congress-for-rock-the-vote/video/

• interlude MF Doom [Ugly Mac Beer Invasi Ugly Mac Beer Invasion
• Biochemical Equation (w/RZA) MF Doom Think Differently Music Presents-Wu-Tang Meets The Indie Culture
• Rock Co Kane Flow (Feat. De La Soul) MF Doom [Since Last Week] Since Last Week
• Potholderz Feat. Count Bass D MF DOOM MM Food
• People Places and Things (Prince Paul Ft: Chubb Rock, MF DOOM & Wordsworth) MF Doom [The Doomilation Bootleg] The Doomilation Bootleg
• Impending DOOM – (featuring MF Doom) Daedelus Exquisite Corpse

SEGMENT

range of projects

Doom’s many faces/personae/team-ups:

Danger Doom (with Danger Mouse), JJ DOOM (with Jneiro Jarel), Madvillain (with Madlib), King Geedorah, Metal Fingers, Viktor Vaughn, Zev Love X, and NehruvianDOOM (with Bishop Nehru)

Imposters/”Doombots” – and other general supervillainy

http://consequenceofsound.net/2010/02/update-redux-chicago-gets-a-fake-mf-doom-show-too/

“Everything we do is Villain style.” – DOOM.

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.7938/title.mf-doom-addresses-rumors-of-fake-performances

Anti-Villain “The whole Villain thing is really like looking at how other people see him,” he says. “The oppressors usually look at the people they’re oppressing as the villains. But the oppressed are the heroes to the people, so I just accept it now. I’ll be the villain. I’ll be the hero to the hip-hop world.” 

“Next couple of days, I speak to [the label rep that attended the show], and he was like, ‘Good show, but a lot of people are saying it wasn’t you,” the rapper revealed.

MF Doom explained that he lost a considerable amount of weight last year, and his physical appearance contributed to rumors that an imposter was doing his shows.

Still, despite fans’ reactions, Doom said that whether or not a fake MF Doom was performing, the music is what matters, and not the visuals of him on stage.

Even club co-owner Allen Scott doesn’t seem entirely sure what happened. “I watched the show, but I didn’t see him personally,” he says regarding the incident at San Francisco’s Independent. “He walked [into the building] with his mask on, that’s how he always does it. I can’t say for certain whether it was him or not.” (San Fransico Weekly)

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.10799/title.promoter-says-doom-impostors-are-intentional

While speaking with DOOM’s road manager, he said he found out that this is all a plan. “This is DOOM’s loophole,” he said, adding that DOOM’s road manager replied by saying DOOM always goes to the shows, insinuating that Daniel Dumile, the man behind the mask, doesn’t always necessarily have to show up, as long as someone in a DOOM mask does.  

“They’ve been doing this. It’s all intentional. I’m like, ‘I’m all for art but there’s a better way to do this. What you’re doing is bordering on fraud.’ [DOOM’s road manager said], ‘We always say DOOM’s coming.’ But, the perception! That’s what I’m talking about.”

“What people saw, what happens with him is not a mistake. It’s engineered. What goes on…This whole thing, he likes that. This is the whole plan. He likes attention and he likes that confusion he causes with people.”

That confusion led to a start that had fans booing at the Toronto show. A fake DOOM first entered the stage to perform to a confused crowd but the real DOOM soon followed.

DOOM explained how he viewed “impostors” and this whole situation.

“Here’s how I look at it, because the wording in there is kinda funny. ‘Impostor.’ Impostor would imply that the character. I liken it to this: I’m a director as well as a writer. I choose different characters, I choose their direction and where I want to put them. So who I choose to put as the character is up to me. The character that I hired, he got paid for it. There’s no impostor. …When I go to a show, I’m going to hear the music. I’m not going to see no particular person….Any cats that are coming to see me as a physical person, I can switch the [actor] any time. I’m not gonna play the part of that character every time. Like how [actors] changed through the Batman series, where it was George Clooney [and] it switched like five [other actors].”

“…So when you come to a DOOM show, I’m letting all the cats know now, come to hear the show and come to hear the music. To see me? Y’all don’t even know who I am! …Technology makes it possible for me to still do music and not have to be any particular place. I’m using all that. I’m using every aspect at my disposal to project my creative thoughts. Either people gonna get it or they not. But I’ll tell you one thing, if you’re coming to a DOOM show, don’t expect to see me, expect to hear me or hear the music that I present. And it’s gonna be a unique experience every time. So that’s all I have to say about that.”

http://potholesinmyblog.com/mf-doom-says-hes-done-with-the-united-states/

Doom was denied entry into the United States upon completing his 2010 European tour. Born in Britain and moved to the United States as a child, Doom never bothered becoming a full-fledged American citizen. He’s been chilling out in South London finishing up the JJ Doom album, Key to the Kuffs, which he described as a “pop-rock” album with features from UK rock luminaries like Damon Albarn of Blur/Gorillaz and Beth Gibbons of Portishead, and Flying Lotus. “I’m done with the United States,” he says of his ongoing fight to re-enter the U.S. 

• Intro MF Doom [Twisted Metal Pt. 1] Twisted Metal Pt. 1
• Accordion Madvillain Madvillainy
• Closer Madvillain/MF Doom/Quasimoto The Further Adventures of Lord Quas
• El Chupa Nibre DANGERDOOM The Mouse & The Mask
• No Snakes Alive (Feat. Monsta Island Czars) MF Doom & MF Grimm MF EP
• Cookies MF Doom [Twisted Metal Pt. 1] Twisted Metal Pt. 1
• Kookies MF DOOM MM Food
• Doom, Are You Awake? [Skit] MF DOOM Operation: Doomsday

Our tribute to a mysterious but unforgettable artistic genius.

Your Consciousness is Editing Itself

Our brains have a lot of ways of tricking us. In many ways, they are worse enemies to our faculties of logic and critical thinking than even some exterior forces, for the ‘tricks of the mind’ often facilitate demagogues, cult leaders, and even magicians with their illusory machinations.

New research led by cognitive scientist Claire Sergent has found that conscious experience can be altered retrospectively. Specifically, the information of visual input can be ‘altered’ by the brain a split second later by distracting our attention elsewhere.

“Cueing Attention” circles used in the study

Via Mind Hacks:

The research involved asking people to stare at a centre point of a screen with two empty circles either side.

At some point, one of the two circles would fill with randomly oriented stripes for just 50ms (one twentieth of a second) and afterwards the participants were asked to say which direction the stripes were pointing in.

Crucially however, each time this happened, one of the two circles would dim either before or after the stripes appeared.

This would happen at different times – from 400ms before the stripes appeared, up to 400ms after the stripes appeared, and the dimmed circle might appear on the matching side to the stripes or on the opposite side.

Dimming one of the circles grabs your attention. It makes you instantly focus more on whichever side of space it happens.

For example, if the left-hand circle dims, it grabs your attention, and if the stripes then appear on the left, you’re more likely to make a correct judgement about which direction they’re pointing because you’re already focused on this area. But if the stripes subsequently appear on the other side, you’re distracted and you do worse.

The key discovery from this experiment was that this also happens if the dimmed circle appears after the stripes. Up to 400ms seconds after.

In other words, you perceive the original visual details that would otherwise have escaped consciousness if your attention is drawn to the area after the picture disappears. It’s like a retrospective editing of consciousness by post-event attention.

This suggests that consciousness isn’t ‘filtered’ sensory information, but an active ‘conclusion’ drawn from information distributed across senses, space and time.

This explains why that sleight-of-hand artist got my wallet! Extrapolating this to larger sociological realms of politics and religion would be tricky, but it is an interesting proof-of-concept.

Check out the open-access commentary of the study “Cueing Attention after the Stimulus Is Gone Can Retrospectively Trigger Conscious Perception” from the journal Current Biology.

Ukraine Trains Dolphins With Friggin’ Pistols on Their Heads

Another nightmarish future has opened up with this latest aquatic advancement…

 

Via Robert Beckhusen via WIRED’s Danger Room Blog:

Killer dolphins with knives and pistols attached to their heads. It might sound crazy, but that’s reportedly one element of the Ukrainian navy’s restarted marine mammal program.

The program reportedly includes training dolphins to search for mines and marking them with buoys. But Ukraine also plans to train the dolphins “to attack enemy combat swimmers using special knives or pistols fixed to their heads,” according to RIA Novosti. A source inside the Ukrainian navy told the agency that the exercises, which are being conducted at the state oceanarium in Sevastopol, are “counter-combat swimmer tasks in order to defend ships in port and on raids.”

Now they’ll be trained to kill, allegedly. If so, it won’t necessarily be the first time. Russian commandos trained to fight dolphins in case the animals were ever used against them. The Soviet navy once deployed dolphins armed with hypodermic syringes loaded with carbon dioxide, according to one dolphin expert who advised the Sevastopol base on caring for the animals after the program first ended. Soviet dolphins were also purportedly trained to attach mines to ships, and were attached with parachutes before being thrown from helicopters.

Rumors about killer dolphins have also been directed at the U.S. Navy. One former Navy dolphin trainer said the Navy experimented with arming dolphins with syringes…

[continues at Danger Room]

The Lie of the Conservative Batman

I’ve waited a week to post this until enough people have had a chance to see the latest Dark Knight movie, but it bears mentioning: MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Batman mythos runs so deep in our culture, that parallels are easy. Claims now run rampant that the latest brilliant installment of Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight trilogy is anti-Occupy, or pro-capitalist in sentiment. That it purports ‘only a billionaire’ can save us. Chris Nolan has dispelled as much, though it’s not unreasonable to suggest that the phenomenally successful series may be inexorably linked to current events, as no writer or director creates in a vacuum, and both life imitates art and art imitates life. All films reflect their times, and the Batman is no exception. The imagery itself has seeped into everyday usage, (much like the protagonist masks in V for Vendetta), the war-painted Joker has been used by protest movements to vilify seemingly every elite from Bernie Madoff to president Barack Obama. Even without the gadgetry, moral code, genius-level detective skills, martial arts, cape or cowl, many billionaires see themselves as crucial heroes, their “sacrifices” necessary for the good of the system. And yes, the probably psychopathic James Holmes seems unable or unwilling to separate reality from fiction, modeling himself after The Dark Knight‘s villainous Joker (portrayed inimitably by Heath Ledger).

But Christopher Nolan’s version of the Batman (dubbed the Nolanverse), had already established an old Gotham rife with political corruption, a recession predating our own by a few years (Batman Begins began in 2005), the excesses of the rich and inequity of their system, and the thievery of Wall Street.

The script for The Dark Knight Rises was written during 2010, with location scouting happening in December of that year. Filming ran from May to November 2011, overlapping the rise of the Occupy movement by mere months. Any similarity is purely coincidental, and furthermore seen through the lens of Fox news analysis and FBI entrapment, where Occupiers have already been condemned as criminals and terrorists. The predominant Beltway philosophy already has established the ‘infallible rich’ as a cornerstone of its power structure.

And the story of haves and have-nots is as old as time anyway, as the Dark Knight Rises draws heavily from A Tale of Two Cities and its historical Red Terror. It’s a false dichotomy (which many pundits love) that one cannot have both a healthy opposition to violent revolution and sympathetic support for a protest movement. It really reveals more about the claimants’ ideology than anything else. Charles Dickens, for one, cared deeply for the plight of the poor, but not for the brutal atrocities of the French Revolution.

We humans will ascribe our own meaning and see what we want in film and comic book escapism, no matter how earnest the telling. This trilogy simply rings true because it dissects the hard ideological differences regarding justice, evil, truth, responsibility, and just exactly who is the real psychopath, anyway. We can all too easily see the divides and overlapping philosophies of the Occupy movement, the police force, the rich elites, and the League of Shadows. And yes, both lone vigilantes and lone nuts.

But even if the movie were a direct allegory to our failed structure, it could hardly be seen as a conservative endorsement, as bloggers on both sides have contended. More likely, the chilling dystopian vision of a city torn into a No Man’s Land reads as a warning against radical demagoguery and institutional deception. And though some may not agree with the aims of the Occupy movement, it takes a willfully ignorant or forcefully disingenuous mindset to equate them with the insane philosophy of either a chaotically sadistic Joker or a frighteningly focused and cold-blooded Bane (portrayed by Tom Hardy).

Indeed, Occupy remains a leaderless movement, constantly worrying about being co-opted by self-interested parties. Bane adopts a populist message in order to peddle false hopes to the citizenry he hopes to torture, populating his army with liberated thieves and killers. Yes, and there are those whom society has forsaken. Bane’s armed revolt plays to the same paranoid fears of Fox News and the State Department, and the same rhetoric of a much less radical Anonymous; it is made up of janitors, shoe-shiners, orphans, ex-cons, sanitation and construction workers. The under-served.

Bruce Wayne’s (reprised by Christian Bale) sins are spelled out for us at the beginning of the Dark Knight Rises. Not only has he taken the fall for the crimes of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and conspired to propagate a political lie, he has turned his back on society and the world. The streets have become relatively clean without him in the eight years since he donned the cowl, but the less obvious ills of a broken system still endure as Bruce neglects the city he loves, and literally atrophies in his elegantly rebuilt mansion.

Gotham’s sins are also many, where betrayal and lies are common political practice, where war heros are expendable during peacetime, where critical-thinking police are discounted as ‘hotheads’, and where even good men like Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) get their hands filthy. The Batman himself, as the Force-ghost of Ra’s Al-Ghul (Liam Neeson) reminds us, “for years fought the decadence of Gotham with his moral authority… and the most he could achieve was a lie.” The overreaching Dent Act, based on Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne’s falsehood, has robbed the imprisoned of any chance of parole. And though it was (hurriedly) agreed that if they world knew of Harvey Dent’s crimes, the guilty would be opened up to appeal, it is this very act of conspiracy that threatens to help blow apart the system, once finally discovered. The career politicians, police bosses, day traders and rich elite are anything but sympathetic figures.

Selena Kyle (Anne Hathaway) is the only decent representative of the 99%. She (as well as her politics and moral code) is adaptable, values anonymity, and doesn’t seem to care much for gun control. She embodies the ‘honor among thieves’ adage, she is generous, and sees herself as somewhat of a Robin Hood, at least more than the society types she robs from, who ‘take so much and leave so little for the rest.’ However, she is equally horrified, frightened and disgusted by the madness that ensues during Bane’s “revolution.”

John Daggett (Ben Mendelsohn), on the other hand, is your stereotypical corporate vulture, a literal blood diamond opportunist looking for his next hostile takeover, who doesn’t have time for “save-the-world vanity projects.” In fact, Daggett doesn’t care if the world is destroyed with his help, so long as he acquires more money, and the “power it buys.” It is the likes of Daggett and the other one-dimensional capitalists who worship the status quo when it suits them, and then collude with criminals on the side. Daggett only sees Bane as ‘pure evil’ once he realizes the imminent threat to himself and his riches. Once it’s no longer himself who’s in charge. It should be noted, for the record, that there are no real-life Occupy figures who could cow a crooked billionaire by placing a hand on their shoulder like an alpha dominant.

But of course these unsympathetic crooks are surely served up as contrast to our hero: the billionaire who would save us.

And though the Batman/Bruce Wayne may be heralded as the authoritarian’s dream; willing to employ mass surveillance, extreme rendition, and solely deciding what technology the people deserve and can be trusted with, he is no societal Superman. He is not a billionaire’s billionaire, for though he has more cars than cares to count, has never answered his own door, and “doesn’t even go broke like the rest of us,” he is also easily displaced within his own boardroom, decries the egotistical hypocrisy of charity balls, and has not been watching his own money carefully. Notably, he wants to fail. He relishes the opportunity to be destroyed as the Batman, if it means saving the lives of everyone; the rich, the workers and the poor alike.

Neither, however, has he been serving his own people and city of late, trading in his once rich playboy identity for a Howard Hughes shtick. Not only is his corporation floundering, his beloved charitable foundation is practically defunct. Orphaned boys age out of Gotham’s social programs, neglected by a city with no homes of jobs available. Here they become easy prey for vaguely Middle Eastern terrorists and organized criminals, where they die in the sewers and wash away once they are used up.

The progressive responsibility of socially conscious and civic-minded billionaires, (an extremely endangered breed both in Gotham and out real world) had to be summed up by an ecoterrorist acting the part of a lovely socialite (Marion Cotillard); “You have to invest to restore balance to the world.” Bruce has been lacking in his duties, and that evil that he and Commissioner Gordon buried isn’t dead, but rising up once again.

Bane’s movement is a false one, as he tells the people of Gotham that he is not a Conquerer but a Liberator, but in actuality he is neither. Bane is the Destroyer. Spinning a hopeful message in the wake of his havoc, telling the people to “take control” of Gotham, Bane uses his “truth” to get the citizenry to “tear down a corrupt city” and reclaim what is theirs from the rich oppressors who had peddled their myth of opportunism.

And it is not just any “ordinary citizen” who holds the detonator to their destruction, but equal parts rich girl and terrorist-anarchist. These masterminds did not just create a populist movement to fulfill their diabolical plot, but infiltrated powerful corporations with their subterfuge as well. For comparison, real-world anarchists, despite practicing just another political philosophy, are readily depicted by the media as murderous terrorists. Protestors, despite exercising their constitutional right to assemble, are either beaten or made into bridge bombers by the FBI. Even those who have read the anarchist or socialist literature pale in comparison to the bloodthirsty Bane army. But the fear has been writ large in the news: if a lone nut like the joker can inspire a depraved massacre in a theatre, what would an evil warlord and his army of mercenaries inspire?

Like the Batman, authoritarians do seem to create their own enemies.

What follows once the structures fail lacks even more subtlety; in the face of such wanton violence, the government will abandon you. The good cops will attempt to salvage the status quo, and the bad cops will either desert or work against the people. Idiotically and blindly following orders, in fact, could get orphans and priests killed. Only the Batman can save us.

As even Selena realizes too late, this is not what the 99% ever wanted. Their system has swung wildly from an authoritarian, decadent state to the bloody turf of a mad warlord. It is the Dark Knight who is the hero we need, but unlike any known billionaire, he is now humiliated and humbled, fearful, responsible, accountable, and thus strengthened, empowered, respectful and focused. “Hardened by pain… not from privilege.”

It really should go without saying, by the way, that is not until Bruce Wayne loses all of his money, loses nearly everything, in fact, and is dropped into a pit to rebuild himself, that he is worthy of becoming a savior. And even those he still uses all those wonderful toys that only his privileged life could have afforded him, there can be no analogue for his virtuosity. Nobody has done as much as the fictitious Wayne family. And no playboy industrialists don a mask and fight crime.

As super-fan of the Batman, Kevin Smith, points out:

“In our world it’s not the case. The richer one gets, the less moral one seems to become. Not in all cases, but you hear about everything that just happened to our economy in the last few years… at the end of the day, Bruce Wayne/Batman [is] a moral example of a billionaire… Right then and there you should be able to divorce yourself from reality because no billionaire would waste their time helping others.”

This establishes the film’s central conceit as high fantasy. The Batman doesn’t have what we’d normally call superpowers, and we’ve seen it’s not simply the gadgets or money that keeps him going, but his rigid moral compass and drive to do good that makes him superhuman.

It isn’t just allegorical. It’s not just a cautionary tale. It’s a mad thought experiment. Fiction. Fantasy. Though some of us do have trouble separating that.

For there is no Ayn Randian perfect citizen or engine of the economy that somehow magically makes everything better. There is no Nietzschean Übermench. In the face of the very real threats of depraved elites, deadly terrorist groups and savage gunmen, there are no real superheroes.

Batman will not save us.

Olde Times are Goode Times

At the request and behest of our esteemed guest, who arrives just too late and right on, we exemplify how the olden times are the besten times, with music from the turn of the Swingin’ Century, slowly evolving as have our petty mindsets. Some political rations and weird subsidies later, you arrive in the Strangeland.

So stick around for the BONUS segment where fellow Revengerist Dr. Tasty reacts to the show and current events, and lo, the Earth mightily trembles.

BONUS:

PLAYLIST
In The Hall Of The Mountain King – Will Bradley-Ray McKinley Band
For Old Times’ Sake – Annette Hanshaw
Ragtime Regiment Band (1913) – Heidelberg Quintet with Billy Murray
Frog Legs Rag (1906) – James Scott
Original Rags (Piano Roll) – Scott Joplin
Hobomoko – John Philip Sousa Band
Pozzo – Frisco Jass Band
Dixie Jass Band One Step – The Original Dixieland Jazz Band
Alexander’s Ragtime Band – Ethel Merman, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker
Lady Is A Tramp – Sophie Tucker
Changes – Bing Crosby
Paul Whiteman – The Charleston
Everything Is Hotsy Totsy Now – The California Ramblers
Maple Leaf Rag – Bix Beiderbecke
Down South Camp Meeting – Fletcher Henderson
Night And Day – Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli
Making Whoopee – Eddie Cantor
Let’s Misbehave – Irene Bordoni
Anything Goes – Cole Porter
You Do Something to Me – Billy May & The Andrews Sisters
Canned Heat (1947) – Chet Atkins
Jolly Banker – Woody Guthrie
Old Blind Sow, She Stole the Middlins – John W. Summers
Death of J.B. Marcum – Asa Martin
I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive – Hank Williams, Sr.
I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town – Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five
Juke Box Boogie Woogie Chick – Snookum Russell
Jumpin At The Jubilee – Big Joe Turner
Finger poppin time – Hank Ballard & the Midnighters
The Stuf Is Here – Cleo Brown
Powerhouse – Spike Jones
Rhapsody In Blue – George Gershwin & Paul Whiteman
Frankie And Jonny – Gene Vincent
My Baby Don’t Love Me No More (1957) – Happy Wainwright & The VI-Counts
Red Hot – Billy Lee Riley
Rink-A-Din-Ki-Do – The Edsels
All Right, Baby – Janis Martin
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You – Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Runaway – Del Shannon

Stranger in a Strange Land 2012-06-16: Olde Times are Goode Times by The Stranger on Mixcloud

http://s.ytimg.com/yt/swfbin/watch_as3-vflTL1Rpm.swf

Strange Days Have Found Us

Well, we’ve really done it. Ze Black Waffle and I have returned triumphant from waging the Robot War for the Future against SpaceWeb and its mechanical forces of cold calculation. We are safe from the existential threat of malevolent, artificially-intelligent automata… for now.

Unfortunately, in preventing a horrific potential future from coming to pass, we may have accidentally set into motion an equally-dystopian (if somewhat less lazer-burning) future of corporate takeover and constitutional debauchment! We sincerely apologize if the butterflies we crushed in our reckless traversing of spacetime resulted in the awful offshoot reality of japanese earthquakes, #NDAA, #SOPA, and #DNF (Duke Nukem Forever). Sorry about all that.

I am impassively dedicated to covering the disturbing developments as they formalize and gel into our present, with Mutiny News, twitter, and The Stranger in a Strange Land. We welcome your insights, shared posts, rantings, musings, and dark prophecies, as each unfolding event of doom is rewritten newly before us.

Archived Stranger in a Strange Land shows from the Imperial era are being lovingly polished, annotated, timestamped and uploaded, both on the Mixcloud and on the Stranger‘s own blog of Absurdist Noir. Sadly, the same timequake that causes the fabric of reality to tremble EVEN NOW is also responsible for the loss of several of those archived shows. We soldier on, all of us, into the dark unknown.

For the the most multifarious (that’s multifaceted + nefarious) tunes and freshly-lacquered commentary, check out the Stranger in a Strange Land, Sat. 2am-4am (that’s Friday night going into Saturday mornings). For interviews involving eclectic esoterica, write to thestranger@earthling.net. For general Mutiny Radio coverage, send your aggregated articles, accomplishments, muckraking investigations, and fluffy public interest pieces to thestranger@earthling.net. For that money I owe you, see me next Friday..

Doppelpöster Syndrome, or; Brother from another Mother (Earth)

I met a doppelgänger of mine from a parallel dimension today on my lunch break. He didn’t explain how he managed to end up in our worldline (it never came up, I only get an hour!) but it did become evident fairly quickly that I was the evil one for several key reasons, not the least of which being that he DIDN’T have a beard.

We spoke the same language, though his accent was indescribably different, and we had trouble communicating on some odd, conceptual level. He was far more convivial.

He told me that in his dimension, the rich routinely give so that there are no destitute or super-rich classes, safe synthetic meats ensure delicious bacon without any animals being tortured, money we would spend on guns and bombs are going towards cancer and free energy research, politicians argue over the most logical and compassionate and efficient ways to serve the weak and sick, and Adolf Hitler was only a slightly renowned drag entertainer.

He was shocked to discover that our media glorifies violence, but is also frustratingly both perversely obsessed and shamefully repressed when it comes to sex. He seemed to think the internet was a good sign for us, something they have had since the nineteen-twenties. They have had jazz since the seventeenth century.

All of the water fountains shoot cream soda, as they have found the cures for both diabetes and obesity, or as they archaically remember them, “diabesity.”

There is free health care, but they are not a socialist dictatorship. In their free market economy, the affluent volunteered to pay the higher taxes that they can easily afford, and every corporation profit-shares with their employees.

When I asked about the Third World he replied that, yes, both of our planets were the third from the sun, but of course being the homeworld, Earth was simply the most populated than the solar system’s colonies. I couldn’t bring myself to clarify the question.

He failed to check out the passing perfectly plump posterior of an attractive female, which made me consider my double was a little light in the loafers, but he assured me that in his utopian reality, nearly everyone is bisexual at some point in their lives, they simply don’t view the opposite sex as objects, and all elected officials are cannabis-smoking voluntary eunichs.

There are no suicide bombings or underage oversexed Disney pop divas.

Jimi Hendrix is alive and well.

Christianity exists there, but is more a self-reflective non-judgemental philosophical set of ideals meant to help and love each other, than it is a self-righteous violent rhetoric meant to control and degrade each other that it is on our plane.

People say thank you, acknowledge each other, and don’t complain when they agree to help one another move.

People are allowed to experiment with altered brain states up to and including death, without government criminalisation.

The Cold War ended nearly the moment it began, with heartfelt letters of apology and a good, stiff drink or two. In their realm, modified alcohol restores brain cells.

Pie is the same.

Fascinated by each other’s cultures and technologies, we set a lunch date for tomorrow. I intend to ask him about world peace, the brotherhood of man, and the exact manner of his dimensional travel. Then I am going to kill him, shave my beard and take his place

…or conversely…

I already have done that little thing, and the doppelgänger is already communicating at you now

To you, my otherworldly friend:

The Stranger’s Superheroic Four-Hour Show

A double-wide feature for you listeners this week, as I unsuspectingly find myself filling time, while putting the finishing touches on the Superheroic Stranger in a Strange Land! Four hours of music, experimentation, and news!

For Psionic Dehiscence I pull out some lightly seasoned tapes, the Frank Zappa Crossfire debate, Michael Hedges, the great William F. Buckley/Noam Chomsky debate, and the Firesign Theatre.

Lionel Hampton – Glad Hamp – Jazzmaster
Clatworthy Saunders – In Your Own Sweet Way – All That Jazz
Cannonball Adderley – Moanin’
Louis Armstrong – Let’s Do it (Let’s Fall in Love)
The Firesign Theatre – The Ralph Spoilsport Mantrum – How Can You Be In Two Places at Once When You’re Not Anywhere at all
Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington – It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Don’t Have That Swing
Michael Hedges – Because its There

On The Stranger in a Strange Land we battle back the forces of evil, do the Batusi, ponder powered musician battles, super-politics, and every agency from the cia to the x-men.

SRC – In the Hall of the Mountain King
The Bagdhdaddies – Wonder Woman – Katchyazafta
Al Hirt – Green Hornet – Kill Bill Soundtrack
David McCallum – Batman Theme – Ultra-Lounge, Vol. 13: TV Town
Jan & Dean – The Joker is Wild – Meet Batman
Paul McCartney & Wings – Magneto and Titanium Man – Venus and Mars
Mel Tormè – Sunshine Superman – Ultra-Lounge: On the Rocks
Sun Ra – The Bat Cave – Batman (Original Motion Picture Score)
Sun Ra – The Penguin Chase – Batman
Sun Ra – Penguin’s Umbrella – Batman
The Apostles – Super Strut – Acid Jazz Story
They Might Be Giants – John Lee Supertaster – No!
Moe. – Captain America – Warts & All
Spin Doctors – Jimmy Olsen’s Blues – Pocket Full of Kryptonite
Weezer – In The Garage – Weezer
Sun Ra – Batman and Robin Swing – Batman and Robin
Sun Ra – The Riddler’s Retreat – Batman and Robin
Goldfinger – Superman – Hang-Ups
The Aquabats – Powdered Milk Man! – The Fury of the Aquabats!
Fastball – Human Torch – Make Your Mama Proud
Serge Gainsbourg – Comic Strip – Love and the Beat
Jelly Roll Morton – Wolverine Blues – Doctor Jazz
Black Sabbath – Iron Man – Reunion
Entombed – Wolverine Blues
Apollo 440 – Spider-Man Theme
Roam The Hello Clouds – Geoff As the Hulk – Near Mises
Deacon the Villian – X-Men
Dangerdoom – The Mask feat. Ghostface Killah – Mouse and the Mask
7L & Esoteric – Incredible Hulk Rap – Egoclapper
Lee Hazlewood – Batman – Batman and Robin
Gil Scot Heron – Ain’t No Such Thing as Superman
Wesley Willis – I Wupped Batman’s Ass

Stranger in a Strange Land 2010-04-03: Timefill/Superheroic! (Psionic) by The Stranger on Mixcloud

~The Stranger
thestranger@earthling.net

“It’s just words.”

A Lot of Nice Things Turn Bad Out There

12/5/09

Evil global organizations, the most reviled power-hungry madmen outside the world of fiction, and music you claim to hate but secretly mouth the words to and do your little dance. All of those nefarious leaders and musicians who got away with it. The sad thing is that only some of these supervillains were one-hit wonders.

Its the show you love-to-hate!*

Call-in with the news, music, people, and dirty jokes you love-to-hate: 510-747-8228

PLAYLIST
Animal Stampede – Hall of the Mountain King
B-52’s – Rock Lobster
Power Rangers Orchestra – Go Go Power Rangers
Fastball – The Way
Barenaked Ladies – The Old Apartment
Semisonic – Closing Time
Philip Glass – Prophecies (Koyaanisqati)
Hall & Oates – She’s Gone
Lenny Kravitz – It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over
Peaches and Herb – Reunited
Minnie Riperton – Lovin’ You
Astor Piazzolla & the Kronos Quartet – Anxiety
Paper Lace – The Night Chicago Died
Pilot – Oh Oh Its Magic
Cat Stevens – Wild World
Kenny Rogers – Lady
Crash Test Dummies – Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Yellow – Oh Yeah
Vicki Sue Robinson – Turn The Beat Around
Eiffel 65 – Blue (Da Ba Dee)
Thomas Dolby – She Blinded Me With Science
Hot Butter – Popcorn
Van Halen – Jump
Salt N Pepa – Push It
Cameo – Word Up!
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – Mystic Cave Zone
Anita Ward – Ring My Bell
Air Supply – Even The Nights Are Better
Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass – Spanish Flea
Pat Boone – Moody River

Behold the power of cheese.

Stranger in a Strange Land 2009-12-05: Nice Things Turn Bad Out There by The Stranger on Mixcloud

How could I possibly do this, you do-gooder listeners may ask? Because at least I wouldn’t subject you to Christmas music.

~The Stranger (making good my escape)
thestranger@earthling.net

*’love-to-hate’ ratio, according to google = 8.19