Month: November 2004

Aftermath.

“Let’s put our heads together, and start a new country up…” Well, it’s been a week. So now what? Howard Dean says put me in charge (Sure, he can’t be worse than McAuliffe), James Carville says let’s find a new story (and Keep It Simple, Stupid), and John Kerry, well, he’s “fired up” about returning to the Senate (?)…and has started contemplating a 2008 run.

Get the Balance Right.

On the release of DM’s 3-disc remix album (which, since I obsessively bought all the singles in high school, is something of a letdown given the paucity of new tracks), Douglas Wolk talks about Depeche Mode and the history of the remix for Slate. I’ve complained in the past about the general lack of respect for DM’s early period, so it’s nice to see ’em getting their due here.

Heir to the Empire.

In case you couldn’t find it for some reason last week, the Episode III trailer is now officially available. And, if you’re looking for more SW news, Lucasfilm has also released the first film image of General Grievous, a.k.a. the new and goofily named Big Bad that was supposed to be voiced by Gary Oldman.

Things Have Changed.

Some choice words on moral values and politics, courtesy of Bob Dylan’s Chronicles (my current read):

“Clausewitz’s book seemed outdated, but there’s a lot in it that’s real, and you can understand a lot about conventional life and the pressures of environment by reading it. When he claims that politics has taken the place of morality and politics is brute force, he’s not playing. You have to believe it. You do exactly as you’re told, whoever you are. Knuckle under or you’re dead. Don’t give me any of that jazz about hope or nonsense about righteousness. Don’t give me that dance that God is with us, or that God supports us. Let’s get down to brass tacks. There isn’t any moral order. You can forget that. Morality has nothing in common with politics. It’s not there to transgress. It’s either high ground or low ground. This is the way the world is and nothing’s gonna change it. It’s a crazy, mixed up world and you have to look it right in the eye. Clausewitz in some ways is a prophet. Without realizing it, some of the stuff in his book can shape your ideas. If you think you’re a dreamer, you can read this stuff and realize you’re not even capable of dreaming. Dreaming is dangerous. Reading Clausewitz makes you take your own thoughts a little less seriously.” (Chronicles, p. 45)

The Diebold Difference?

From Boing Boing and the AP: “A computer error with a voting machine cartridge gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna [Ohio] precinct. Franklin County’s unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry’s 260 votes in Precinct 1B. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.” Hmmm…I for one don’t think it’s feasible that the entirety of Dubya’s winning popular vote margin is manufactured. (Right now, I’m more inclined to side with Jane Smiley and the Brits.) But factor in Greg Palast’s discussion of Ohio chads to the equation and, I’ll admit, one starts to wonder.

Welcome to the Occupation.

So, in their first stop since Dubya Day, REM played the Garden last night. A good show, and they played my favorites from the new album (“Boy in the Well,” “High-Speed Train,” “The Outsiders”) But there was obviously a very strange and subdued vibe to the proceedings. Angela McCluskey, the opening act, struck an appropriately funereal tone with a swelling rendition of The The’s “Love is Stronger than Death.” And Stipe, for his part, seemed as staggered as most of the crowd, and barely spoke at all — (not that it much mattered…85% of the people there seemed to be waiting for “Losing My Religion” the whole time anyway.) All in all, I enjoyed last year’s stop more, but obviously those were happier times for both the band and the nation. Setlist below:

REM at MSG, W2+1:

1. It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine.) [Just in case you haven’t been keeping up with current events…]
2. Begin the Begin
3. So Fast, So Numb
4. Animal
5. Boy in the Well “This song takes place in Tennessee.”
6. Welcome to the Occupation
7.The Outsiders
8. Get Up!
9. High-Speed Train
10. Cuyahoga “This song takes place in Ohio.” [BOO.]
11. Sweetness Follows
12. The One I Love
13. I Wanted to Be Wrong “This is our State of the Union.”
14. Imitation of Life “This was a #1 single in Japan.”
15. Final Straw
16. Losing My Religion “I don’t know what to say tonight, so I’ve tried to say as little as I could and let the songs speak for themselves. There’s something about a well-constructed pop song…”
17. Walk Unafraid
18. Life and How to Live It
E1. What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
E2. Drive
E3. Leaving New York “This song takes place in NYC.”
E4. Electrolite “This song takes place in LA.”
E5. Permanent Vacation (w/ Steve Wynn) “We’re REM, and this is what we do.”
E6. I’m Gonna DJ
E7. Man on the Moon “This song belongs to you.”

Fanboy Post-Mortems.

Some pop culture quotes that, applicable or not, have been flitting about my head the past few days:

“And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.“
– Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

“Where is the horse and the rider?
Where is the horn that was blowing?
They’ve passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow.

The days have gone down in the West, behind the hills, into shadow.”
– Theoden, The Two Towers

“Ladies and gentlemen, er, we’ve just lost the picture, but, uh, what we’ve seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has been taken over — ‘conquered’, if you will — by a master race of giant space ants. It’s difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.”
– Kent Brockman, “Deep Space Homer” (This last one birddogged, after much mutual quoting, by Mark at Nofeblog.)

Downfall of the Republic.

“Lord Vader…rise.” My, how delightfully apropos. The teaser for Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which will appear in theaters before The Incredibles tomorrow, is now available for Hyperspace members, AOL users, and file-sharers (as well as on some overextended mirrors such as here.) All in all, it’s pretty well done, with a good deal of footage from the other films (particularly A New Hope), and some brief glimpses of the CGI & lightsaber carnage we’re all expecting. Update: Several more mirrors here. Update: It’s now officially available.