The Pixies are Terrorists? Part III

Here’s part III in ‘the Pixies are Terrorists Saga’ – which is honestly set to be the best third episode in a trilogy since X-Me…Spiderm….Well, in a long long time.

Spies have nice gardens too

FINALLY! The Cold War Spy Game is back on between Russia and the United States!

11 people were charged today in the climax of an F.B.I investigation that has been going on for the past 7 years. If you think all the classified material that the Soviets stole from America during the Cold War was crazy, wait until you hear what these cunning spies were up to!

…and the Onion walked off to look for America

This week, America’s most trustworthy news source, the Onion, presents “the Patriotic Issue: News Only Visible to Real Americans.”

Try clicking on the link if you aren’t a real American. That’s right, it won’t work.

By delving into the archives and covering contemporary events, the good folks at the Onion really cut to the core of what being American is all about.

Now before we do this, let’s go over the ground rules

Here’s a couple articles on the blowback from officials sticking up for General McChrystal and his staff over this whole Rolling Stone article thing. The officials attest that Michael Hastings broke the ground rules and there was touching of the hair and face throughout his piece the Runaway General.  Why they didn’t raise these protests immediately is an important question, but maybe it’s because they were out for a lobster dinner or busy fighting a war or something.

American Justice?

Here’s a link to an opinion article written by Timothy Egan called “the Last Firing Squad.”

The piece tells tales of executions out on the American Frontier – state sanctioned killings carried out by the noose and by gun-slingers. Not all the stories are from way back in the Wild West though – two are from the last twenty years, and one of those is from last week.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/23/the-last-firing-squad/?scp=2&sq=firing%20squad&st=cse

The Pixies are Terrorists? Part II

In the earlier post that I wrote on the Pixies’ career as terrorists, I ended by pointing out a couple questions raised by the satirical article that had been written by Larry Haiven, and people’s reaction to its claim that the Pixies were now terrorists in the eyes of the Canadian government.

In this post, if you don’t mind, I’d like to deal with the first question. I’ll tackle the issue of cultural terrorism some other time…well more likely I’ll just never bring it up again. Anyways, as I’m sure you remember, the first question was: “how it could be believable that the Canadian government would actually label a band as terrorists for canceling a gig?”

Forced Exposure

Here’s a link to an opinion article written by David Brooks called “the Culture of Exposure.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/opinion/25brooks.html?hp

telling secrets to the one [magazine] you don’t tell secrets to

Apparently General Stanley A. McChrystal has never seen Almost Famous. If he had, he would know that journalists are the enemy. But since he hasn’t, he is on his way to Washington from Kabul to personally explain to Obama why an article in a recent issue of Rolling Stone has him and his staff  deriding “the national security team with locker-room bravado.”

Some of the articles “highlights” are:

CBC 1 CBC 2 CBC 3 CBC 7 CBC HEAVEN

So just in case you don’t  already know about the CBC Radio 3 website, I’ve written this handy blog post. The website is cool because:

1) It lets you listen to CBC Radio 3 online.

2) It’s the Home of Independent Canadian Music. (TM)

3) Bands can put their music up on their very own page.

4) Bands can put everything else you can think of – from upcoming gigs, to other band info – up on their very own page.

5) The website has a blog where people can post the latest news and gossip.

6) You can listen to music by your favorite acts whenever you want.

7) You can be exposed to new music by independent acts whenever you want.

8) I have a member page with a sampling of some of the artists you can find on the website.

9) You can find my member page right here: here!

Cars + Freedom = America

As everyone on the other side of the pond and at least a handful of people over here know, the United States recently won a football match against England in the World Cup, when the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

To celebrate the match, remind the British of America’s revolution once again, and of course sell cars, Dodge made a commercial for the 2010 Challenger that has King George III‘s redcoats facing off against George Washington and his band of motor vehicles.

The advert has it all – American folklore, the British running from Washington (and his car) in fear, and a narrator professing that “here’s a couple of things America got right – cars, and freedom.”

Every nation does it, but nobody does it better than America. I don’t mean making cars or being free, but propelling patriotism and creation myths into the national consciousness.

Some people think that such a practice hasn’t always made things work out so well for the United States. Others, like Stephen Colbert, use it as a vehicle for brilliant satire. In the case of this commercial, it just ends up being a lot of fun.*

*Yes, a lot of people probably disagree with me that it’s all in good fun. So go ahead, that’s why George Washington gave you the freedom to leave comments.