Sean Daily is an English major from New Jersey now living in Las Vegas, the Other City of Lights. "I consider 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' to be comfort reading, I like the al pastor tacos at Tacos Mexico and I count among my literary influences the Chainsaw from 'Doom'. 'RRRRRR! You don't like that, do you, Mr. Undead Marine! RRRRRR!'"
Shanoah Alkire is our Discordian at large. "Born in Santa Cruz, I grew up in Grass Valley and the Bay Area, and now lurk in Las Vegas. My literary influences include Ray Bradbury,
Lewis Carroll, and Douglas Adams. I also program as a hobby,
and currently maintain the Gtk port of Angband. You can find
a rather old bio of me here."
ZOMG! Well, you dirty birdie, if we’re going to have pro-drug propaganda [1] on this blog, then dammit we’re gonna have some anti-drug propaganda, too! You know, keep things Fair and Balanced™ and whatnot.
That’s right, it’s time for 1936’s Reefer Madness, courtesy of those fine folks at Archive.org. You can view it in full – and for free – here.
Interestingly, Reefer Madness may not be the ”propaganda film” that everyone says it is. Sez Archive.org:
Considered THE archetypal sensationalized anti-drug movie, but it’s really an exploitation film made to capitalize on the hot taboo subject of marijuana use. Like many exploitation films of the time, “Reefer Madness” tried to make a quick buck off of a forbidden subject while skirting the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930. The Code forbade the portrayal of immoral acts like drug use. (The illegal drug traffic must not be portrayed in such a way as to stimulate curiosity concerning the use of, or traffic in, such drugs; nor shall scenes be approved which show the use of illegal drugs, or their effects, in detail.)
The film toured around the country for many years – often being re-edited and re-titled (“Tell Your Children”, “Dope Addict”, “Doped Youth”, “Love Madness”, “The Burning Question”). It was re-discovered in the early 1970s by NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) and screened again as an example of the government’s demonization of marijuana. NORML may have been confused about the film’s sponsorship since one of the film’s distributors, Dwain Esper, testified to the Arizona Supreme Court that “Reefer Madness” was not a trashy exploitation film but was actually sponsored by the U.S. Government – a convincing lie, but a lie nonetheless.
This is backed up by a review for Reefer Madness at AllMovie.com:
… But this reception of the more overtly ludicrous aspects of the film presupposes that Tell Your Children (as it was originally called) was truly intended as a heartfelt if clumsy warning against drug addiction. At least three sequences, barely registering with a modern viewer, demonstrate that it was not: the least subtle of the three is a lovemaking scene between the young leads that includes what appears to be French kissing, a strict taboo under the Production Code that regulated mainstream Hollywood fare; then a girl under the influence wantonly removes her sweater to reveal a brassiere; and, most subtly of all, but perhaps also the most indicative of the film’s true intent, the character of Mae Coleman’s seemingly superfluous changing of wardrobe. The sequence, during which Mae (Thelma White) lovingly rolls up her sheer stockings, may be explained to further establish the character as an unscrupulous despoiler of young innocents. But apart from parents, educators, and law officials, Mae is the only adult present with misgivings about the drug-induced orgies taking place in her apartment. Granted, the character is as ill-defined as everyone else in the film, but her presence still goes a long way to demonstrate Reefer Madness’ true mission: sexual titillation.
Funny how fine the fine the line is between propaganda and exploitation, huh?
Whatever it is, though, Reefer Madness still great stuff – “great” in the sense that a train wreck is great, that is.
[1] Actually, I have no idea if May the Cube Be With You was pro- or anti-drug. It could have been Thomas Dolby singing praises to Almighty Cthulhu, High Priest of R’Lyeh, and every time someone plays it humanity comes that much closer to the apocalypse. Like I’ve said before, I’m terrible with song lyrics.
Well, no new deaths today that I know of, though I haven’t really checked too closely. It’d be pretty eerie if a new celebrity started dying each day for a blog theme, after all. Like Michael Jackson, who is now confirmed to have died of a heart attack. (The default method of dying from having your name written in the notebook from Death Note, as I recall.)
Don’t think we had a firm established theme before that, so I’ll fall back on what I had been doing: posting Frank Zappa songs.
This one’s a rather nice rundown of televangelists and other religious groups, Jesus Thinks You’re A Jerk. Includes jabs at Jim & Tammy, and the Ku Klux Klan, among others. Pity the lyrics shown are occassionally misspelled, or incorrect. (Bush for Pat was one noticed, for example.)
It’s a fun song lambasting various people and groups that need it, anyways. And no, not work safe.
This is the Who at The Concert for New York City[1]. Their drummer, Keith Moon, had died in 1978. Zak Starkey, a close friend of Moon’s (who was his godfather), has been filling in as their drummer since 1994, and is featured here. He also played with Oasis from 2004-2008.
Zaks father, Richard Starkey is pretty well known as a drummer as well, under the name Ringo Starr.
[1] The concert one month after 9/11, for charity. A lot of the audiance are members of the New York Fire and Police Departments, or family members of them.
Well, you know, the funny thing about that is that Frank Zappa didn’t do drugs, and wouldn’t tolerate anyone in his band doing them, because they wouldn’t be able to play as well.
I did a bit of searching, and as odds would have it, I found John and Yoko singing two songs together where Yoko actually sounded good, and wasn’t caterwailing in the background and ruining the whole thing. As odds would have it, both were about Irish independence, so she may have thought they were too important to ruin.
First is a song called Luck of the Irish (which had the honor of being banned by the British). If Yoko had sung like this most of the time when she was on stage with John, she wouldn’t have gotten half the flack she did:
Next, I have Sunday, Bloody Sunday. You can hear Yoko on the choruses. And for those who don’t know, this song is about an incident where the British shot 27 unarmed civil rights protesters in North Ireland. 13 died, and 5 of them had been shot in the back.
That’s why there are several songs about it. And John Lennon considered himself Irish, incidentally.
Well, I was planning on waiting for the next post before posting, but I’ll be leaving for work in less then half an hour, and won’t be back before todays over.
So, I’ll use my superpowers to warp this post several hours in the future. Hopefully there will be another post up by then.
So, not knowing what the theme is, I’ll post a They Might Be Giants song, Shadow Government. As with many TMBG songs, it’s catchy and surreal.
Where's The Shadow Government when you need them?
It's a bad bad world...
Well, meant to post this earlier, but I fell asleep. I’m going to make this one relatively quick, anyways.
This song is The World Turned Upside Down by Leon Rosselson, and is essentally a modernization of The Diggers song, from the 17th century. It’s basically a protest song about land rights. And, well, I like protest songs, as well as murder ballads, songs about outlaws, etc…
Of course, the diggers had fairly fnord communist[1] fnord views, too. Don’t really care about that, though. The song follows a trend I’ve noticed: a peaceful, proud community of people who get crushed and oppressed by the British. I tend to like songs like that for some reason.
[1] fnord Communist fnord is one of these trigger words that people tend to not think clearly when it’s mentioned, and substitute something like mother-raping baby-killing bastard for. Sort of like liberal.
It’s not really a horrible thing so much as something that idealists like to think will work, that tends to lead to lots of corruption if tried in the real world. Because if you try to share everything equally, someone is going to end up stashing all that they can grab somewhere along the line.
Of course, democracy has it’s own problems. It really requires a nation of educated voters, otherwise things like George W Bush happen. Of course, we aren’t really a democracy, either; we’re a democratic republic. Important thing to remember.
Yeeeeaaaaaah… The Naked Now. Wasn’t that just the original series episode The Naked Time with a fresh coat of paint and some hot blonde-on-android action for the fanfickers?
Think of the possibilities with an android pleasurebot, though. The positions! The ATTACHMENTS! Star Trek meets Heavy Metal! Woo hoo!
On that somewhat disturbing note… Yesterday was Earth Day, when all of mankind comes together to recognize our stewardship of Earth for our children and our children’s children, the little ingrates. But what about an environmental holiday for non-environmentalists? who go into violent convulsions whenever they hear the words “spotted owl”? Hence, I’m proud, and I’m sure UhhSplat is proud, too, to present this PSA on “Earth Day for the Rest of Us”, otherwise known as Fuck the Earth Day.
Devil’s Advocate: But Sean, don’t you consider yourself an environmentalist?
I do, Mr. Pacino. But that doesn’t mean I can’t laugh at my own beliefs.
Not Work Safe, as if I have to tell you, for repeated use of a Very Bad Word. You know, fuck.
Well, it’s that time of the week again, where Sean takes a break from posting, and I totally diverge from whatever theme we had going, and post whatever I think of.
In this case, I thought I’d play a nicely controversal song by Voltaire. The name of this song is God Thinks. I’ve always loved a nice turn of irony, which this song is dripping with. And you can’t say he isn’t clear on his beliefs. Rated not worksafe for assorted statements that, suprisingly, some people believe.
And you can find a copy of the lyrics here. He certainly likes to stir things up, given lyrics like this:
I hate people who blame the Devil for their own shortcomings and
I hate people who thank God when things go right
And I
I know what God thinks
God thinks you’re an idiot
God prefers a heretic
God God
God thinks all people like you are hateful
God thinks all people like you are an embarrassment to creation
self-righteous, judgmental, first to throw the stone
and using His name for your own protection
“Frankly,I’m mad as hell,” said Des Moines, Iowa, businessman Doug Burnett, one of about 1,000 people, many in red shirts declaring “revolution is brewing,” at a rally at the Iowa Capitol. “This country has been on a spending spree for decades, a spending spree we can’t afford.”
Again what I said with the pickaninny president. You’ve been mad for decades, but only now do you protest?
In Connecticut, police estimated 3,000 people showed up at the state Capitol in Hartford and another 1,000 at a rally in New Haven. Many carried makeshift pitchforks and signs with messages aimed at the Democrats who control Congress and the White House.
Why not white hoods and nooses? And I understand those burning crosses work a treat, too.
Well, I got all busy, and didn’t really have much time to post today.
Still, I decided to post a song by Gorillaz called Fire Coming Out of the Monkeys Head. I love songs that have a story to them, and thought this one was pretty cool.
And as the Strangefolk mined deeper and deeper into the mountain, holes began to appear, bringing with them a cold and bitter wind that chilled the very soul of them up.
