Millionaire celeb whine-in

With the double digit unemployment, the dollar becoming a substitute for kindling, and no end in sight, what’s a good lefty to do but stage a multi-celebrity whine fest:

Like most cultural entities, the Gang, one of L.A.'s most accomplished theatrical institutions, has been scorched financially by the economic crisis. Earlier this summer, the ensemble's accountant even recommended that, to save money, the Gang should consider temporarily not producing theater and just focus on its extensive educational and community outreach programs.

"I'm not ignoring the economy," Robbins says. "We are flying in the face of it. We are saying, 'This is not going to stop us.' And so the best way we can figure out for it not to stop us is to do more than we ever have in the past."

Among the marquee names who'll lend their presence to the Gang's intimate 99-seat space at the Ivy Substation for the festival will be Jackson Browne, Tenacious D, John Doe of X, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.

In collaboration with PEN Center USA, the festival also will present conversations with such authors as Gore Vidal, Naomi Klein and T.C. Boyle.

Because I am sure they all have had to make real sacrifices, unlike like fat and prosperous kulak's in flyover country. I hear that Gore Vidal is so destitute that he had to cut loose his swanky Italian pool boy for a younger less expensive Philippino model.

Maybe next time they could try a die in?

Just a suggestion.

What if newspapers didn't exist?

With the piss poor shape that the media now finds itself in (largely of its own making but that’s for another day) TJ Sullivan at the LA Observer asks what things would be like with no press.

It's time to do something drastic.

It's time to do more than join another Facebook pledge group, or promote a campaign like National Buy A Newspaper Day, or to purchase some overpriced t-shirts emblazoned with the message "Save a journalist, buy a newspaper."

Now is the time for newspapers to do something proactive; time for them to demonstrate what life would be like without them.

It's time for every daily newspaper in the United States, in cooperation with the Associated Press, to shut down their free Web sites for one week.

Yes. Shut it down. Blank screen. Nothing.

Heavens no, whatever will we do!

Somehow, I don’t think that TJ really grasps the concept of how the internet works.

Guys like TJ want to save the newspapers for the same reason that tailors rioted and destroyed a factory full of sewing machines in St Etienne in 1838. He is afraid that this mew liberating technology might not turn out to be such a good deal for him in the long run as his current gig is.

Oh, sure TJ loves the fact that unlike 20 years ago, people all over the world now know what he is listening to on his Ipod, or which recent episode of the Daily Show prompted him to paint the sink with his man hose thinking of John Stewart. But just like TJ, every other asshole on the planet has access to the megaphone.

Unlike the old days where TJ and all his peers could count on a comfortable low six figure life inside the media industry, writing the same old cliché filled pieces of left wing gospel, news consumers now find themselves with an explosion of high quality readily accessible information. The best part about this information is that although they are amature writers, they are professional experts.

For example, what would you rather listen to

1. A combat and Special Forces veteran write about Iraq or a graduate of Smith College/Columbia write about Iraq?

2. A retired nuclear engineer with 40 years in the business write about nuclear power or a comparative literature major from Brown write about nuclear power?

3. A CPA write about Sarbanes Oxley and what it means or a reporter who 6 weeks ago was doing the police beat write about Sarbanes Oxley?

And its not to take away from what they do; good writing and how one conveys thoughts and ideas is just as important a skill, but it seems that they are far more common in the MSM than real honest to goodness expert in the fields.

Its cute that he mentioned Thomas Jefferson as many times in the article as he did. Cute because I don’t think that Jefferson would be to thrilled with the post-modern crypto collectivism and rampant identity politics that passes for journalistic excellence these days and especially super duper cute considering this quote from Jefferson

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
-Thomas Jefferson

But here’s another thought to ponder, especially for that most noble of creatures: the jet setting, eco-friendly, hypocritical, literati/glitterati set: what could we do without more for a week, coal fired power plants or newspapers?

YOU make the call.

The Pop Culture Presidency

2 years ago no one would have predicted that we would be where we are at today saying: President Barak Obama. Obama ran a fantastic campaign, no doubt about it, but it was his ability to harness, cultivate and manipulate popular culture that gave him the win. With every pop culture megaphone blaring at 11 in everyone’s ear about Obama and his greatness his election was almost guaranteed.

Jay-Z and Maureen Dowd are just two sides of the same pop culture coin, and both were harnessed by the Obama machine.

Pop culture has come to encompass nearly every form of information around us. The nightly news, television shows, movies, music, magazines, the internet, advertizing etcetera and it is decidedly and uniformly hostile to anyone right of center. We do have talk radio but the Generation II Fairness Doctrine will take care of that.

Unfortunately over the past 40 years journalism has fallen into the pop culture net as well. Journalism is no longer done at places like the CNN and the NY Times. If I want to read about what’s going on in energy I go to NEI Nuclear Notes, If I want to know the real story on Iraq I read Michael Yon (or one of the dozens of fine military blogs). Mainstream media has just turned into another channel for the glitterati and literati to let the world know how fucking important they are and how we must be dying to hear them. Sure, I might turn into CNN if I give a fuck about how much it cost Puffy to fill up his Gulfstream V and the Times is pretty good if I want to read a character assassination piece on Cindy McCain, but that’s about it.

Just as pop culture had the ability to propel Obama to a victory, it also had the ability destroy the obstacles that stood in his way.

Remember in late August when McCain announced that Sarah Palin was his running mate? He went from being 8-10 points behind to being competitive in fuckin New Jersey for Christ’s sake! Well naturally the pop culture machine behind Obama couldn’t have that so they sent their pit bulls out and tear he to pieces they did. Tina Fey and Katie Couirc may have been two of the most effective tools in Obama’ arsenal.

And why soviet style agitprop theme in all of Obama’s campaign art? Because its so fucking brilliantly effective and simple! Think about it, the October Revolution and its genocidal progeny was able to control an entire nation of tens of millions for 70 years.

We will probably never have this control over pop culture and whatever inroads we make will take at least a generation.

There are bright spots. The American public has roundly rejected every ham handed anit-war movie that Hollywood has cranked out of the past 6 years.

Andrew Brietbart’s Big Hollywood could turn into something huge in the pop-culture wars and I would make sure to visit it every day, patronize its advertisers, comment on its stories and support it.

Even though the odds are pretty well stacked against us and people are bombarded with this shit 24/7, America remains a fairly conservative country and that gives me a lot of hope as well.

Emmanuel Goldstein

Over at Extreme Mortman they were talking about what the “comedic left” will do now that they don’t have Bush to kick around anymore. Mortman, quoting Peter Beinart, was rather optimistic that guys like Colbert and Stewart might have to grow up a little now that they (or their pals more specifically) are in charge.

One of the commenters brought all this into context though with a great 1984 metaphor.

Even though The Party controlled every aspect of Oceania, they still managed to broadcast at least Two Minutes of Hate toward Emmanuel Goldstein. After years (possibly decades), ratings never dropped.

This was the best and probably most realistic response to the post. After all, as triumphant as the left was in 1992 they never missed an opportunity to kick someone when they were down. Just go read a copy of “The Nation” from early 1993.