I miss Goliath still…

Greetings faithful Normalinauts,

Gilgrim here… and sadly I have to admit that we have been really, really, really bad about updating the site as of late. I see that Kilian has made a public apology, but honestly aside from his insane devotion to the on-all-accounts-inferior-Liverpool-football-club, he has little to apologize for. I am sad to say that the majority of the blame lies firmly on my own shoulders.

While I can (and actually will) shift my personal blame to that of my day job, it’s still been up to me to at least keep in better contact and make sure that I tell everyone what’s going on. Right now, I am once again separated from Goliath and have been for a painful amount of time. This painful separation doesn’t seem to have any immediate end in sight, which only makes the sitation even more painful. I’m trying my damndest to get this thing resolved and fast, however, there are a lot of flaming, shit-smeared hoops to jump through yet until proper resolution becomes a reality.

Not to be too cryptic, but my additions to our beloved digital home are monitored by certain overlords, so I will not give out details, but let us say that things have been put into motion. I’m not going to talk directly about my exact situation here, frankly it’s unprofessional and inappropriate, no matter how classless the “other side” may be. But, perhaps when things are settled, and the dust has cleared to reveal a world in proper working order, I will be able to wow you with the heebie-jeebie-inducing tales of intrigue, lies and assorted retaliations (and other related wholesome and infantile goings-ons). Let us hope that that day is not too far off.

In the meantime, I offer you this, my peace offering, which should hopefully help to illustrate exactly why I’m currently on pause as far as contributions go…

With a heavy, guilty (for neglecting all you wonderful Normalinauts)-heart,

–Aleister

Demon Hunter – Disbelief

Third Post of the Day, with a Question!

Certainly, smarter (and in the case of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, much funnier and more entertaining) people than me have pondered the degradation of journalistic standards in this country. I’m not going to wax philosophic about it.

But…

I came across this article and had a thought, and wanted to hear some other people’s reaction.

OK, it’s fairly short, so I’m just going to extract the whole thing.

(more…)

Oh Interwebz, you are a cruel mistress!

Yesterday saw a spike in our traffic that usually only occurs when Gilgrim shows up to post a comic. The spike was the direct result of my letter addressed to JK Rowling, et al. But, oh the many and varied denizens of the interwebz have spoken out against what I had to say…

I suppose that proper internetz protocol would dictate that I respond to those comments on the site that they appeared, much as Holly Won’t once did here on NR. But if I wanted to comment all over the place I wouldn’t have my own website, so…

To rowsdower: My point was that, much like the HP books, Troll centers on a young man being told that he is part of a secret world of wizards and witches…and maybe a giant pickle thing would have been cool at Hogwarts, I’m just saying.

To frequentmouse: Well, I don’t know what to say, I mean, I like white text on a black background. It just seems easier to read…

So, probably, neither of those two will read this. I don’t actually care that much, but I did feel the need to reply because I like having the last word.

Another thought occurred to me last night though, and after reading this recap of her testimony, I have to say I’m becoming increasingly sick of Ms. Rowling’s gaping maw of shit she calls a mouth.

Toward the end of direct, Cendali asked whether publication of the H.P. Lexicon in book form would discourage Rowling in her own creative work. Rowling replied that if, when she’d been “choosing between food and a typewriter ribbon,” she’d known that anyone could take her words, she’d have been discouraged. Moreover, said Rowling, if the market is flooded with inferior Harry Potter encyclopedias, readers will be “sick to the back of the teeth” with such books. “It’s the reading experience that stands to be endangered here,” she said.

I wonder if Ms. Rowling had an opportunity, at any point during the first half of last year, to visit any bookstore in the US. I can’t speak for places outside my own country, but I know for a fact that over here, before HP 7 came out, there were a shitload of books out in stores about what would and wouldn’t happen in #7. Don’t believe me?

So my question is, why didn’t Rowling have the same concerns about the “reading experience being endangered” with all these other books that came out before HP 7? Could it be, maybe, that all these works added to the general feeling of anticipation and excitement (read: probable sales) surrounding the final installment of the Potter saga? But now, all that’s really left for Rowling to do with the Potter world (unless she writes the eighth book she’s hinted at…which if her first non-Potter book bites it, she will) is do a reference book herself. Personally, I think she needs to take the George Lucas stance and realize that she’s created a universe much too large for her to be the only one to “play in.”

And look, I like the HP books, I really do. I’ve read them all more than once, and I’ve listened to the audio books each several times (because, if we can agree on nothing else, I think everyone can admit that Jim Dale rocks out with his cock out!). But, come on Ms. Rowling! Is a trial in a US District Court really fucking necessary?

Clearly, I need to start paying attention to things…

April 15th – 17th will bring the &Now Festival to the campus of Chapman University. What is &Now you ask? Well, official website of &Now 2008, how would you answer that question?

&NOW is a biannual gathering for authors and critics of contemporary, innovative literature and art, including fiction, poetry, e-writing, visually-driven writing, and other kinds of mixed and indeterminate genres.

Basically, writers, artists and critics will gather for three days and read, lecture, discuss, etc. If you happen to be in/around Orange CA, then you may want to take a look at the schedule of events.

Now as all Normalinauts know, Chapman is where I am currently pursuing two (semi-worthless) graduate degrees. For some reason (my guess is a mixture of apathy and obliviousness) I did not find out about said “festivities” until, literally, last night when I discovered that fully half of my current workshop class will be participating in readings over the course of the three days. Well, good for my classmates…bad for Kilian…

Now that I am informed about the whole “festival” I would like to highlight a few specific events. First off, James P Blaylock and Alicia Kozameh will be reading a on the 17th as part of a group entitled “Sexual Stealing; Skin; Fabulous; Exile/Home/Immortality.” I had the opportunity to hear Kozameh read last year and I highly recommend seeing her if you get a chance. And, of course, we are all aware that James Blaylock is considered a good friend of Normality Restored. In Blaylock’s own words, he will be reading a “short story that I wrote.” So, that’s a fairly glowing recommendation, I think. Also, David Antin will be the closing speaker on the final day of the event, for all you poetically minded out there.

And, as I mentioned, several Chapman students will be reading throughout the event. While I can’t speak to every student reading, I can suggest that, if you happen to attend, you might want to make a point of hearing Cruz Medina, and Daniel Schutz on the 15th, Ryan Wirick on the 16th, and Danielle Soucy, Nidzara Pecenkovic, and Jazmine Green on the 17th.

Of course, my inability to realize such an event was taking place at my very own school means that no one will be graced with a reading by yours truly. Though, even if I had submitted something for consideration, my guess is that I would have been told in no uncertain terms, “thanks but no!”

Pot meet kettle…

Not that it’s a big surprise to anyone, but I’m not a huge fan of Hip-Hop. I do like a few different hip to the hop style artists (though some are just white english guys

Nevertheless, I don’t go out of my way to real XXL…

But here’s an interesting interview with DMX

Rather then attempt to recount all of the absurdity, I’ll just let you read it. I did, however, want to highlight one key moment…

We could have a female president also, Hillary Clinton.
I mean, either way it doesn’t matter. I don’t care. No one person is directly affected by which president, you know, so what does it matter.

Yeah, but the country is.
I guess. The president is a puppet anyway. The president don’t make no damn decisions.

The president…they don’t have that much authority basically?
Nah, never.

But Bush pretty much…
You think Bush is making fuckin’ decisions?

He did, yeah, he fucked up the country.
He act like he making decisions. He could barely speak! He could barely fuckin’ speak!
Can’t be serious. He ain’t making no damn decisions.

We are obviously in the end times when a person with DMX’s considerable talents in the field of oratory is calling out somebody else!

kilian

I guess Buffy’s a Lezbo now?

Buffy was one facet of nerdom that I never got into…not sure why really. I generally like anything with a vampire, or better yet, a werewolf. Anyway, I wasn’t too sad when the televisual iteration went away. But now, that it’s in the decidedly less titillating comic form, Joss Whedon has decided that it was time for the ol’ Buffster to get it on with a chick…

Buffy Get’s It On…

If Whedon would have pulled this back when Buffy was still flesh and blood, I would have certainly tuned in on a weekly basis…it’s not like Sarah Michelle Gellar was against girl on girl action…

I’m just sayin…

kilian

Happy Revolution

Firstly, big thank you to Matty for passing this on, and to APrilhead herself for then passing it on to me, so that I may bask in the gleeful joy of this news.

For those that have not already heard, the internet hacking group known simply as Anonymous, has hacked into the FOX brodacasting signal to declare open and unrelenting war on the money-grubbing, brainwashing intent, and media-bullying cult of Scientology.

Here is the main clip which has been circulating – Anonymous = We do not forgive. We do not forget.

Now, I am not particularly a fan in anyway of the mass media and it does not matter to me in anyway if the source is con or lib, to me it is pretty obvious that all broadcast – mass-market news media is simply is about (like all business) bottom dollars. And for this form of ‘entertainment’ it is simply most profitable to push sensationalized versions and spins of what would otherwise be interesting but innocuous fluff, such as the FOX report some time ago on Anonymous itself, which is not the clearest or most accurate depiction of the group or its antics and does not clearly prove that the group they are reporting on is in fact even the same group in question. With this is mind it is important to note that it is FOX who was specifically hacked and their signal was broken into and used to push the most recent message from the group itself. That message, is an open declaration of war against Scientology. If you want to know why this group, legion, of hackers and other revolutionaries is now formalizing their efforts on the infamous cult, watch their video, they will explain in their own words.

For me, this is a startling and exciting phenomenon as it heralds a shift that I think all of us who ever took some small consolidation in fantastic or speculative fictional stories about a coming change to world. The change is coming and it looks like Gibson, Palaniuk, Dick and others were spot on. I don’t think that this is really any sort of overwhelming conspiracy as I tend to not believe in conspiracy theories simply for the fact that that sort of organizational hutzpah is nearly impossible. Instead I see this recent action as an embodiment of the cultural zeitgeist of our society. We all know that things are not as they should be, and that things are simply messed up especially when it comes to large scale media control and brainwashing. It’s easy to dismiss stories about the builderbergs and illuminati, skull and bones, and even scientology as merely overhyped paranoia. Yet, while I personally do not put unbiased stock in everything that comes forth from the mouths of Alex Jones and others like him simply on the face of their own presentations, I think it is impossible to ignore the fact that more and more stories keep popping up in this same vein.

So what does this similarity mean? To me, it is symptomatic not of an overwhelming and shadow-organized conspiracy for world enslavement – no, instead I think it is much simpler, but no less draconian, I believe that these actions by organized and powerful groups are taken as a shortsighted means to a profitable end. But the fact that these efforts, uses of disgusting amounts of spin, misdirection and misinformation and control are not orchestrated on some grand -evil-overlord-sort-of-scale does not dispute the fact that the results are not acceptable.

To this end, I believe that we have slowly been moving towards a revolution of sorts. I think, after watching many developments and trends come in and out of play with new media and information dissemination techniques now available that did not even exist before, that people are beginning to think. They are beginning to truly question, and they are not happy with the answers that they’re receiving as a result. There is no James Bond styled master-villain behind the curtain pulling the puppet strings, no singular shadow-group or figure head that can be villainized, thwarted, and attacked in the ways that movies have taught us for decades. Instead, it is the extremely unpleasant reality facing us that we must confront and stand against the worst results of all of our most utopian efforts and avarice, our shortsighted plans and efforts and our willingness to forfeit our freedoms for security that is staring stupidly back at us through the mirror. I see groups like Anonymous, and am happy to know that thinking is starting a new. I’m happy to see people no longer happy with their flaming little shit. I’m energized, excited and overwhelmed to see the beginnings of what should be a thorough (and likely difficult) change to come in how we handle information, news, media and ideas. The time has come to quit taking the obvious and easier roads offered, the pavement that we’ve laid ourselves in our own laziness that gives control to others instead of relying on the hardship of our own accountability. It could easily have lead to our own literal destruction, but it should be obvious now that there is still time to fight back. There is chance and opportunity to learn from our mistakes and to try and make things right.

Utopian dreams are wonderful, and sadly the efforts generally used to achieve them result ultimately in the reality of dystopia rather than utopia. They work well on paper but not in reality. Perhaps, it is best to strive for utopia and to be content in continuing an ongoing and never ending struggle to keep totalitarian efforts in check. It’s somewhat Jeffersonian, it means that the efforts are never ending and that the struggle is never really with a true and tangible end. but such may be the very worthwhile cost of true freedom. The cost of freedom is not security and the cost of security is not freedom. The cost of freedom is accountability and ceaseless effort, and willingness to fight. By any and all means. I think the fight is finally starting to happen and it’s about bloody time.

The following is the follow up video from Anonymous regarding their first organized effort against the Scientology cult:

Call to Arms – FEB 10th 2008 – We Are Legion. We Do Not Forgive. We Do Not Forget. We Will Be Heard. Expect US.

Happy Revolution NR.

–Aleister

Acumen Nation