Friday, January 13, 2006

Friday the 13th: More Tyler Durden, Sander for Governor, Jesus tokes, and the poetry of prosecution

Posted by Mickey Z on 01/13 at 07:48 AM
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  1. GOOD MORNING BIG COUNTRY JOS!!

    Hi all, I’m zooming around like Buffalo Bill with the lid off, going to buy more boxes and tape for my helpers to fill up during their 5hrs here.

    I’ll check in after 3pm CST, and try to rad the rest of yesterday and whatever brilliance erupts today.

    Sander for Governor!  When he’s 35 (actually, I think he already is...?) Sander for President!

    Posted by Mudge from Dear, dead Austin  on  01/13  at  08:55 AM

  2. ok, 3rd time lucky with this blasted captcha. It seems I’m computer challenged this morning.....

    Good morning MZ, JOS, Mudge and all the Expendables!

    In Germany 13 is a lucky number. I have no idea why this is, but for that reason I’ve always liked the number myself.

    In Canada a cannabis extract has been available by Rx for about 6 months. Apparently no high, but it does help with neuropathic pain.
    Not approved in the US of course.
    Brings a whole new meaning to the Rapture, doesn’t it?

    Sander for Governor sounds good to me. I’m still too busy clenching with our own elections. What to do, what to do…

    I’m sure that I had more to say the 1st or 2nd time I started typing a comment…

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  01/13  at  09:04 AM

  3. Aha! MZ I got it...full html required for some reason…
    <br>

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  01/13  at  09:36 AM

  4. i like the sander idea too.

    the fight club bits you keep showing make me think that it will be something similar to trainspotting the novel - not the film (paul jogged my memory about it with his spectacular arrival yesterday)

    for example, the style is different here but he is really saying the same thing as tyler…

    “Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that?”

    going to check which book came out first.

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  01/13  at  09:38 AM

  5. Sorry about this...apparently there’s an issue with this picture url. 
    I’ll stop polluting with my failed attempts now. (my display of bravada is due to the preview showing me the picture, only to show up as a non picture)

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  01/13  at  09:40 AM

  6. Michael, were the Trainspotting book and movie so completely different? Some people have said yes, others no. I ask because Renton speaks that paragraph in a voiceover in the movie, too, if I recall correctly. Always thought it odd that I have no experience with drugs of that sort, or any other really, yet the story always resonated with me. I guess that was the idea.

    Posted by James from Hell's Kitchen  on  01/13  at  09:46 AM

  7. AN ODE TO THE PROSECUTOR
    There once was a Prosecutor named Fitzgerald
    Whose virtues we all would herald
    If only one of these times
    He would recognize USA war crimes
    Then we would cheer for Prosecutor Fitzgerald

    Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  01/13  at  09:51 AM

  8. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen trainspotting and it’s another novel I’ve not read.  But you are making it sound compelling Michael. I’m interesting in what James asks...are they so very different from one another?

    The experience is so much more tailored to the individual when reading vs. film viewing. Emphasis is put on different lines or details; or so I’m finding with Fight Club. I read a paragraph and can recall watching the scene, but I notice different details.

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  01/13  at  09:52 AM

  9. shit i just wrote a whole piece about he differences between book and film and it didn’t post. let this be a lesson to copy ebfore posting.

    i’ll do it again later on.

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  01/13  at  10:15 AM

  10. Hello Expendables. I just knew I could count on Rosemarie to pen a poem. Thanks, RMJ.

    ...and Empress, feel free to display your bravada here anytime.

    I have a confession to make: I have neither read the book nor seen the movie, Trainspotting. I’m thinking that should change...soon.

    Good luck with all the moving and shaking, Mudge.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/13  at  11:33 AM

  11. no time right now but will post about what i said. for the record trainspotting novel was out 2 years before fight club

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  01/13  at  11:49 AM

  12. Thanks, Michael. To keep the universe in balance, we should probably wait two years before reading Trainspotting as a group.

    Who else has one of “those” poems?

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/13  at  11:52 AM

  13. Fitzgerald my brave
    tried and true prosecutor
    find them all guilty

    What can I say, I’m doing this on the fly while Alberto and Paulo are flingin’ books into boxes.

    Trainspotting the movie was completely incomprehensible.  Liked the book okay.

    xoxo
    RMD

    Posted by Mudge from Dear, dead Austin  on  01/13  at  12:18 PM

  14. If there were a decent, high-profile Green Party candidate for governor of New York State that would be fantastic. Let supporting Sander be one of our Expendable missions in 2006.

    Sorry Mudge but I thought Trainspotting was a great film. Slightly disgusting at parts, and to be honest I can’t compare it to any real world experiences of my own. But still. Mickey, check it out. The soundtrack’s fun too.

    --

    My dear Mr Fitz
    At th’ ends of your wits
    Please do us this favor today:
    Indict for their crimes
    Those neo-con slimes
    And lock them forever away

    Posted by Keir from The Hague  on  01/13  at  01:04 PM

  15. I strongly recommend both the book & movie of Trainspotting.  See the movie first, though, as the book is darker & more socially dystopic & it’s hard to believe it became such an entertaining, exhilirating movie, but it did!  The book is superb: a dark, hilarious read.  As usual, the read is better than the flick.

    Not much of a poet but here goes:


    There once was a terrible fucker
    An unpleasant, sleazy cocksucker
    He invaded Iraq
    And shat on the map
    Then stood there with a strange pucker

    The fact that I just HAD to write that is grounds for prosecution in itself.

    Posted by Chris Wood from Manchester, England  on  01/13  at  01:39 PM

  16. There once were some FBI bitches
    Whose funding had hit some strange hitches
    So they lurked on a website
    And wrote some bizzare shite
    Then noisily pulled down their britches

    Posted by Chris Wood from Manchester, England  on  01/13  at  01:57 PM

  17. This is nothing to be proud of, but this is what you get when you encourage my bravada and ask for poetry on the same day:

    ...
    while their britches are down
    mr. fitzgerald should frown
    on their attempts to create
    an imperial crown and place it
    upon a head of state

    I love reading poetry but not so “much” the creation of it. (no suprise why)

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  01/13  at  02:40 PM

  18. Good morning to you, Mickey, and to all you MZ’ers/expendables.  And all the best to you, JOS! 
    Another enlightening/funny/eye-opening post, Herr Z. 
    Amelopsis, I was born in Germany and lived there between 1951 and 1985 but - ‘13’ is not a lucky number there for all I know.  The same superstitions swirl around the number there.
    And how one would love to see Mr Fitz prosecute Bush & Co.  However, when one sees what is going down with Alito/Scalito, Bush and his cronies will end up being even more empowered.
    Have a good weekend, all of you - a sunny weekend coming up here:  between 75 and 80F on Saturday and Sunday.  At the moment it is 6:49 am on Saturday 14 January ..

    Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia  on  01/13  at  02:50 PM

  19. “the book is darker & more socially dystopic”

    bang on. the book is also more directed toward a specific time and place (edinburgh in the mid to late 80s) whereas the film is a bit more anytime anyplace, though it still retains some of the significance of its location. i heard the film was subtitled in the US - is this true?

    mudge - the book is written in quite a strong accent/dialect. how did you get on with that?

    there are also some bits they didn’t put in the film.

    renton is a redhead and can’t get a girl because of it so he dyes his hair black. he gets a girl on the night out and they go back home whereupon he realises that though he dyed his hair he forgot to dye his pubes and the whole think fucks up for him on account of that. priceless.

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  01/13  at  02:52 PM

  20. who is this Sanders character you people are talking about?

    I liked the book trainspotting haven’t seen the movie though.

    fight club quiz: http://tinyurl.com/b5ldy

    trainspotting quiz: http://tinyurl.com/bzdlk

    Posted by tm from a town  on  01/13  at  02:53 PM

  21. Thanks for all those great poems, Keir, RMJ, Amelopsis and Chris.

    Re Scottish accents:  if Scots talk with their strongest accents, this woman has huge trouble understanding them, so she might need subtitles.  Have not seen ‘Trainspotting’ and have not read the book either but have seen the video in a local store.

    Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia  on  01/13  at  02:59 PM

  22. oh shit.

    bush says he wants to diplomatically work the thing out with iran.

    it really is just the build up to iraq all over again.

    iraq wasn’t pushed over easily. iran will be stronger.

    oh shit.

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  01/13  at  03:10 PM

  23. Ah Helga - eine Deutscher bist du! I’ve gone quite a number of times to visit family and always rec’d birthday cards littered with #13 along with ladybugs, 4 leaf clovers and pigs, for good luck wishes.  It must be a regional thing.

    TM - fun Fight Club quiz.

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  01/13  at  03:21 PM

  24. HOW CAN IT BE THAT THE ONLY NATION TO HAVE EVER USED NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO KILL FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS, IS NOW THREATENING IRAN?  Seems like the ultimate in hypocrisy to me! Is this an upside down universe, or what?  Is it time yet to disarm the USA or (as my friend, Peter, says) should every other nation be given a nuclear weapon as a deterrent.

    Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  01/13  at  03:24 PM

  25. because they are degenerate evildoers and the UK and US only murder people for jesus. come on RMJ - get with the program

    Posted by michael from scotland  on  01/13  at  03:30 PM

  26. Ah Rosemarie you’ve just pointed out the one thing that REALLY bugs me about the UN. While there are plenty of problems that need to be remedied within the UN, the fact that the US has not had sanctions imposed upon them for the very same reasons as they are imposed upon other countries has bothered me for years.

    An upside down universe is putting it mildly.
    Hypocrisy is a speciality it seems, just when you think you’ve seen it all, they come up with another display.

    Now we’ll witness the “increase” in rhetoric as we build up to another fiasco plunging our planet into yet further turmoil.

    I saw that the govt is blaming the increase to the projected deficit on Katrina. I don’t know how they can say things like this and keep a straight face.

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  01/13  at  03:43 PM

  27. Chris #15: A crime has occurred!! I am MORTALLY OFENDED that you impugn fucking and cocksucking as qualities possessed by Repulsivecans!!!!!  Take it back or I’ll instruct the lurking FBI shitheads to proscute your English ass!!

    Michael #19: If I can sit and stare at it long enough, I can figure out the dialect writing.  I’ve even read Hugh MacDiarmuid in the original whatever-that-is.  I rented the DVD years after I left the theatre blissflu because I love the Scots accent but without a single clue what they said...I could stop and re-listen, so I finally got it, but DAMN it was a lot of work.

    TM #20: Sander Hicks, publisher of Vox Pop Books and former founding editor of Soft Skull Press; sexy studly lefty activist (though no patch on Our Host); victim of official oppression when he published a book that exposed Bush’s misdeeds, misdemeanors, and miscellaneous turpitude.  Also, publisher of Our host’s first book, agented by the present writer.

    RMJ #24: That’s a stumper, ain’t it?  With our record, we’re complaining about ANYbody’s behavior?!

    Helga, I am ignoring you for the next five days because you didn’t call MY poem in #13 good, too.  >winkwink<

    Posted by Mudge from Dear, dead Austin  on  01/13  at  03:53 PM

  28. Michael-- I don’t think the Trainspotting movie had subtitles, and that’s funny about Renton’s hair, what with how they gave Ewan MacGregor a crewcut in the movie.

    ...not online much today, got a lot to do and I have an overnight proofreading job starting at 11pm tonight.

    Posted by James from Hell's Kitchen  on  01/13  at  04:02 PM

  29. Hi Humans -
    Mike Whitney has a fairly mild ( for him ) piece on Iran at CounterPunch.  Solid, though brief, overview:

    http://tinyurl.com/92kvl

    Amelopsis, it’s really OUR-UN, in many ways.  We have a seat on the Security Counsel, so we have veto power, and we have economic and military muscle to toss around to “nudge” other nations to vote our way.  If all else fails, they black out most of the news, then accuse various UN reps of duplicity or of ties to “Evil” nations or ideologies. 

    By the way - I really enjoyed Bill Reid’s carvings / sculptings.  He’s quite a master.  I was also slammed by some of Emily Carr’s stuff.  Tough, impressive lady, and some very powerful work. 
    I’m not at all familiar with the “Group of Seven.” I’ll look further into them.
    Last link keeps failing for me.
    Thanks again, though, for those links, Amelopsis.  I feel I know you much better, now.  I’m delighted.

    Looks like we’re going to be the only nation to Nuke people in the 21st Century, too, Rosemarie.
    Somehow, methinks, many folks here will just accept it as another necessary but Oh So Regrettable action to curb the threat of terror by “rogue nations.” As my beloved neighbor said the other day - “To deal with those Muslims, Israel just needs a bigger bomb!”

    I do think, however, that this will create a whole new scale of troubles around here, and around the world… This will be a BIG BANG in more ways than one. 
    Fortunately for Bush, Alito will probably be confirmed, by then, so they’ll be able to crack down even more savagely, here at home, than ever before.  Whatever we have to say, we should say it quickly.  We may be muzzled, or “gulaged” soon.
    Perhaps we should all share e-mail addresses, in case conversations such as this become illegal, and all of our “places” are shut down…

    Posted by joe from wherever, who cares?  on  01/13  at  04:20 PM

  30. PS -
    Mudge, I LOVED!!!!! your poem.  ( Nudge, nudge. )
    Hi, too, to Mickey and James and Helga and TM and Michael and Chris and Keir and all expendables everywhere. 
    Hope we can stay together, as events unfold.

    Captcha word:  “former”

    Posted by joe from Vaporized / Everywhere  on  01/13  at  04:25 PM

  31. Hi Joe, I’m glad you had a chance to check out those links and dug into some of it.  I think I also know you a little better now, and am likewise delighted.
    As seems to be a common thread - these artists have fascinating life stories. Bill Reid and Emily Carr in particular, maybe something about the West Coast just inherantly makes things more interesting - larger and more vivid than life in some way.
    One of Bill Reid’s most beautiful works is a huge bronze called The Black Canoe on the grounds of our Embassy in Washington. A totem pole from his mother’s home village in Haida Gwaii stands in Toronto’s museum (horribly dusty and in need of care when I last saw it.)If I’m not mistaken, the sight of it there is one of the things that sparked him to ‘become’ an artist.

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  01/13  at  04:59 PM

  32. Mudge re 27 - I thought it was common knowledge that most, nay, all, neocons have defective genitals & no sexual instincts beyond honing in on disapproving, churchy wives.  I can’t imagine anyone behaving in such deplorable ways if they’d got their rocks off in the last 20 years.  But if I offended you, wholehearted apologies. 

    I do have one question, though.  Which Repulsivecan do you believe capable of sustaining an erection?  Bush has no balls, Rumsfeld no pulse, Cheney no working blood supply, - exactly how can my japesome words be taken literally?  The world’d be a far better place if they devoted themselves to fellatio. 

    I am also very sure that lurking FBI shitheads wouldn’t know what to do with my English ass.

    Posted by Chris Wood from Manchester, England  on  01/13  at  05:30 PM

  33. thanks much Mudge. how do you do that bold underline thing?

    hi Joe.

    Posted by tm from a town  on  01/13  at  05:45 PM

  34. Hello again - told you I’d be back. The internet now has it’s billions of electronic tentacles drawing me online....

    Re: Trainspotting - it is a superb book. The bit that Michael quoted is from the very end of a chapter called “Searching for the inner man”. This is where the main character Renton tells of society’s attempts to rehabilitate him and in it he ponders why he is a junky and whether this is a bad thing anyway in the grand scheme of things(see bit Michael quote for Renton’s final thoughts). Chapter can be read here in it’s entirety: http://tinyurl.com/8zo3u

    The book is 100 times better than the film because the film is only really showing you how these wacky/terrible junkys live and then does a bit of moralising through a part where someone dies (don’t want to be more specific in case I ruin it for anyone). Whereas the book gives you an insight into why the characters are like they are and might make those not normally so disposed to actually sympathise and empathise with junkys/ hooligans/underclass...but saying that the “Choose Life” speech is in the film so it is asking questions of the society that can spawn so many junkys and violent destructive people, but not as deeply or effectively as the book.

    Another great thing about it is the way it subverts the normal standards of narration (i.e. local dialect / accent is for dialogue only - certainly not for intelligent narration!).

    For a working class person to appear to be just as knowledgeable as the counsellor / psychologist and in fact to be ridiculing him and be more self-aware perhaps and ALL in the local dialect with slang words / vulgarisms is very powerful.

    I have a problem with people berating local accents and “slang” words anyway, it’s all about snobbery and social control in my book. Michael did an excellent post about it on his tubthumping blog....

    Posted by Paul M from Scotland  on  01/13  at  06:49 PM

  35. Too many to say hello to...but I will once again welcome Paul (gotta keep the new folks happy). Excellent poems all around and I’m still laughing—thanks to Chris—about “bizzare shite” and all that.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/13  at  07:41 PM

  36. Well this captcha has really got me beat today.
    Joe I attempted 2 different times this evening to respond regarding yesterday’s art and both times after much typing, I screwed something up and lost the whole thing. For the “record”, I decided to take it as some indication of...who the hell knows what… but feel free to email if you’re interested...a little detail on Bill Reid and oh - the link that won’t work for you is an image search for Norval Morrisseau. I’m glad you liked some of that, and I’m equally delighted, I feel I know you a little bit better too.

    Micheal, I’m sure you’ve already got your tickets for this will undoubtedly be the cultural highlight of the year: http://tinyurl.com/arhef

    Good night to All, and welcome back Paul.

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  01/13  at  10:26 PM

  37. Good night, all. Remember to bring a story tomorrow…

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/13  at  10:56 PM

  38. Hi All, (if anyones still awake!)

    Regarding “this upside down world”, I’d like to mention that this is the essence of evil - everything is back to front. I have had experience with people who were quite consciously dedicated to doing evil and squashing anything “good” and they will everything 180 degrees opposite. It sounds farcical but believe me it’s true.
    How can they say it with a straight face?  It’s because it literaly is a way of life for them.
    If you look carefully you will see that almost everything in life is a lie which is what Durden is saying (although I will be interested to see if he says anything that is positively true as opposed to merely pointing out what’s wrong).
    Which brings me to say that this is why I value coming here to read genuine attempts at truth by reading Mickey’s thought provoking
    commentaries and all your posts.

    Oh, and Mudge, that would be “your English ARSE”!

    Posted by Jim from   on  01/13  at  11:13 PM

  39. Hi Mickey - didn’t see much of you, today.  Good to see you.  I guess you’ve been putting in a lot of hours, recently… hope you’re doing OK, my friend.  See you soon.  And remember - we have no ZEAL, no Zounds!, without the Z!

    Amelopsis - that happens to me alot.  If the post gets long, I try to put it onto a Word Doc., before I hit the submit button, though I often forget.  Recently, I composed a very long post, then remembered the word doc..  Called up a new doc., then hit the submit button, BEFORE copying my post to it.  Duh.  Fortunately, it posted, but I remain embarrassed…

    You know, I used to dislike Native art.  I thought of it as childish and goofy.  I said that, one day, to some friends at the diner - one of whom was an Inuit guy, named Jack.  I’d forgotten his heritage.  DUUHH.  Jack was so cool.  He smiled and said:  “Not child-ish, man, Child-Like.  Child-Like - like simple, clean, innocent, beautiful… like nobody’s trying to be cool or smart… like there’s no bullshit.”

    We all went out and got stoned, afterwards, and he behaved as if he’d completely forgotten my stupidity.  But I’ve never forgotten.

    Native art always makes me remember that experience, and also a story from a Mexican American guy named Mario.  He was born in a tiny town in Mexico, and lived there for 12 or 13 years, till his family moved to San Jose.  He said that, when he was a kid, there were a great many strange things going on in the night, all round the town:  People saw ghosts.  People heard voices and singing in the winds.  Some animals were thought not to be animals but spirits conveying messages to humans.  Some places were generally avoided at night, while other places were thought to be places of strength and courage and insight.  He said it was a mystical, magical place to live, and he loved it.

    After a few months in San Jose, he realized that there were no ghosts, no spirits, no strange sounds or unusual animals - no real “mystery” at all, except violent, stupid people, and strange customs.  He asked his mother why there were no ghosts or spirits or mysteries.  His mother replied:
    “Because no one believes in them, here.”

    Native art always reminds me that no one believes in “much of anything, at all, here.” Mystery is verboten.  Simple, raw, real life is mistaken for a means to power or profit… Everything is “cool,” or “useful,” or presumptuous… everything.

    Anyway, thanks again for your links and thoughtfulness.  I’ll soon google Norval Morrisseau, as well. 
    Be happy, my friend.

    Woooo - my captcha word is:  death

    Posted by joe from Oregon  on  01/13  at  11:45 PM

  40. Welcome back, Paul.
    Thanks for the book review.  I only saw previews for the “Trainspotting” movie.  They contained so much puke and filth and ‘nast,’ that I thought - “Naah, I’ll wait till someone I know has reviewed it.  Till then, I can always smell my son’s two-day old socks, if I want to feel like a ‘trainspotter.’” ( Which, by the way, I was never inclined to do. )

    Well, you and Michael and Chris have just about convinced me that there’s something behind all the stomach-churning goop in the commercials…

    Hi TM -
    Sorry for calling you “Sir.”
    My first couple weeks in the service, I called everyone “Sir.” It usually worked out fine, but sometimes I - or one of us recruits - would call some “older” recruit “Sir.” He’d stare at us for a long moment then say:  “You fucking idiot… Do I look like a Sir?”

    Oh, and, in case you’re not a guy at all - because it suddenly occurs to me that I know almost nothing about you, and the letters TM convey nothing - please say so, OK?  Then, I can feel like a proper idiot, just as when I was in boot camp… In either case, G’night, TM, and all…

    Posted by joe from Oregon  on  01/14  at  12:01 AM

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