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May 31, 2005
MAY 2005 ISSUE
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MASTHEAD
Publisher: Andrew A. Anissi Writers: |
Posted by andrewanissi at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2005
The United States - Land of the Revolution
by Andrew A. Anissi
Last year, a Japanese girl got very annoyed at me for criticizing Peter Jackson's movie, The Return of the King. Not that I thought it was a bad movie, I actually enjoyed it very much. My criticism was merely that it should not have been nominated for Best Picture because it lacked an original screenplay (the producers cheated by using a story that already had great market success). But I was quite surprised when the Japanese girl (who was actually my girlfriend at the time) asked, "Who are you to criticize?"
My first thought was that I was a member of the audience who paid to see the movie and was thus entitled to an opinion. But, reflecting on the incident, it occurs to me that the issue of my right to criticize Hollywood's most popular filmmakers resulted from a cultural divide. This person grew up in a country with a national culture based on total loyalty to the Emperor (and ultimately loyalty to all authority). The United States, on the other hand, has a national culture of dissent. Modern Japan began not after World War II, but in the late 19th century when the Japanese decided that competing daimyo in a feudal shogunate system no longer made sense, and the nation was united by allegiance and loyalty to the Emperor, who represented all of Jopan. To betray the Emperor was to betray their own Japanese heritage.
The United States, on the other hand, began when Americans decided that loyalty to a British monarch made no sense, and chose instead a culture of self determination. This was manifested through a democratic form of government, a capitalist economy, and the many freedoms that the Supreme Court has very slowly recognized over the past couple of centuries. The United States is not the land of loyalty, it is the land of the Revolution, and we American value our rights to think for ourselves and to decide for ourselves, in a land where, ideally, opportunity is great, and we can have the potential to recognize our dreams and then to fulfill them.
I have the right to criticize a The Lord of the Rings movie because I'm an American, and it's my cultural duty to have my own opinion and make my own choices.
What occurs to me, based on this reflection on American culture, is that the current regime is actually Counter-Revolutionary. Every time authorities attempt to silence people who oppose the President, to label as "anti-american" people who criticize the foreign policy, and especially when authorities attempt to punish Senators who vote in their best judgment, those authorities are opposing the very basis of the American Revolution. The current regime's demands for total obedience and for enforcing the will of the Protestant Church are anti-american, COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY demands. We the American people owe no allegiance to the Crown of England or to anything it symbolizes. We are free to have our own opinions, to dissent, to choose, and to live our lives according to our individual wills. I'm not even sure it's the Bush who is the counter-revolutionary, but, more specifically, the counter-revolutionaries are the Bush-ites: those to whom the mere voicing of disagreement with the regime is immoral.
Failing to think for oneself and living for total loyalty to the regime is the path of a Benedict Arnold, and those who do so should be deported to Canada with all the other royalist toadies.
Posted by andrewanissi at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)
MarsEdit Software, from Ranchero
I was so happy with NetNewsWire, an RSS news reader from a software company called Ranchero, that I just downloaded MarsEdit, which is supposed to make posting new entries to webpages like Winged Earth very easy.
Posted by andrewanissi at 01:25 AM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2005
Police Attack on Tent University in Santa Cruz
Andrew A. Anissi
Tent University was established as a response to the unfortunately materialistic and unenlightened education offered at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The faculty and students of Tent University hold classes and workshops in an open field and in tents, with a devotion to the ideals of liberty, solidarity, community, and creativity.
Sounds great, right?
Well the police were terrified at the level of independent thought going on, and decided to invade Tent University, and then to rip up the tents and forcibly remove attendees from the site, with a complete disregard for the First Amendment right to assembly. See the film of the police attack here.
Posted by andrewanissi at 01:41 AM
An Analysis of Power Without Versus Power Within
by Andrew A. Anissi
The effects of the exertion of human will can be separated into two different categories: effects on that which is external to the individual (“power without”), and effects on that which is internal to the individual (“power within”). For the purposes of this analysis, the individual’s physical body will be regarded as internal, even though is may be external to the individual, when the individual is described as the hybrid of mind and spirit (what the Ancient Egyptians referred to as “akh”).
Continue reading "An Analysis of Power Without Versus Power Within"
Posted by andrewanissi at 01:38 AM
May 23, 2005
ALBUM REVIEW: Doves - Some Cities
by Andrew A. Anissi
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Yes, there's a lot of feeling and soul in there, but no unique voice. You'll also find that the catchy tracks like "Black and White Town" are more monotonous than the background scenery in a Flintstones cartoon. Still...there are catchy tracks involved, and, as I said, there is some soul in there, so you might like the album.
Posted by andrewanissi at 12:14 PM
May 22, 2005
IP Justice League Super Fantastic Adventure Fan Site!
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Celebrating the only comic book of international super-star
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY POLICY super heroes!
Larry Lessig! IP Justice is GO! Can the IP Justice League save Wil Wheaton from super-villain Jack Valenti? Will they defeat his evil army of psycho culture pirates!? Whose side is Avril Lavigne REALLY on?? STAY TUNED!!! |
Posted by andrewanissi at 04:50 PM
The Equinox, Vol 1. No. 1: Sun in Aries
The Review of Scientific Illuminism
Click here to view.
Posted by andrewanissi at 04:03 AM
May 21, 2005
FILM REVIEW: Star Wars, Episode III
This film was not even good enough for me to attach a picture here.
When I saw Star Wars, Episode III, I felt a great pity for the young generation, and all the lack of talent surrounding the art they are exposed to. The writing was absolutely horrendous, especially the dialogue. Anakin's transformation to the dark side was completely stupid and unbelieveable, and
the emperor was weak and pathetic. Most of the movie consisted of light sabre duels, and the dialogue was purely functional, giving information rather than presenting human interaction and emotion. In fact, I don't think the dialogue is even copyrightable, because it lacks the requisite modicum of creativity.
George Lucase clearly lost his soul about 20 years ago, and he is now a really awful director. I've never directed a film before, but I am confident that I could make a better movie on my first try.
Watching Episode III made me feel as though the movie was made as part of a junior high school project, and then was sent it to post production to add all the special effects, before theatrical distribution. I can't imagine how a writer and director could be that unimaginative and lame.
Posted by andrewanissi at 12:58 PM
May 20, 2005
High Tension party on May 20, 2005 @ Sly
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Posted by andrewanissi at 10:00 PM
May 19, 2005
On the Logic of Suing One's Customers and the Dilemma of Infringement-Based Business Models
By Professor Justin Hughes, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
EXCERPT
"Peer to peer technology blindsided the recording industry in 1999 and, until recently, the recording industry has been fighting this battle alone. The battle has been fought mainly in the courts, not in legislative and administrative agencies. And the battle has attracted much more attention from press and pundits - indeed, a regular stream of front-page stories and television news reports. Yet the choices facing the music indusry have still been the same: (a) surrender, (b) seek to enforce copyright norms against the technology and its business models, and/or (c) seek to enforce copyright norms against individual consumers - the individual P2P users offering and downloading music files."
Download the entire paper here.
Posted by andrewanissi at 02:38 AM
May 17, 2005
One Star in Sight
by Aleister Crowley
The feet in mire, thine head in murk,
O man, how piteous thy plight,
The doubts that daunt, the ills that irk,
Thou has nor wit nor will to fight -
How hope in heart, or worth in work?
No star in sight!
Continue reading "One Star in Sight"
Posted by andrewanissi at 02:57 PM
May 13, 2005
Friday the 13th Revealed
by Andrew A. Anissi
The mystique around Friday the 13th began back in 1307 when the then Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques Demolay, having been invited to France by King Philip and Pope Clement V for a supposedly friendly convocation, was arrested and burned at the stake. The date of the arrest was Friday, October 13th, 1307, and Jacques Demolay was burned at the stake in 1314. Just before dying, Jacques told the Pope and the King that he would meet them in heaven within the next year, and by the end of 1314, both King Philip and Pope Clement V did, in fact, die.
Continue reading "Friday the 13th Revealed"
Posted by andrewanissi at 11:45 PM
May 11, 2005
DID YOU KNOW?
by Andrew A. Anissi
Did you know that the most powerful laser in the world, the Omega laser, is located in Rochester, NY? And did you know that within two years, scientists in Rochester will finish building the Omega EP laser, which is 50 times more power than the Omega? Imagine, the greatest power in the world in the hands of Rochesterians!
Read the story here.
Posted by andrewanissi at 11:14 PM
May 10, 2005
Discovery and Fulfillment of True Will - The goals of human existence
by Andrew A. Anissi
I believe that a strategy for human life can be analyzed from a negotiation standpoint. The parties involved are the individual and all other intelligent beings (AOIB), and specifically the interests of any forces of Destiny (FODs). Descartes, in the beginning of his mediations where he was still logical, tells us that everything outside of ourselves is unknown, and therefore the interests of AIOBs are unknown. As for FODs, it is unknown whether or not they exist, but if they do, their interests may be hypothesized by their actions on the individual, specifically all of the individual’s experiences that do not result directly for exerting free will.
Continue reading "Discovery and Fulfillment of True Will - The goals of human existence"
Posted by andrewanissi at 04:14 PM
May 08, 2005
Propaganda machine makes a serious error
Whoops! It looks like CNN used this propaganda photo on nuclear facilities one time too many! Look at the same photo being used to "prove" the existence of nuclear facilities in North Korea and in Iran. But don't worry, there's plenty more pro-war propaganda to drown out this little boo boo.
Posted by andrewanissi at 02:37 PM
Stop haXXing our trailer or we will tell the mods on you!
Andrew A. Anissi
A gamer recently downloaded the new Star Wars trailer (from the Sith movie), added subtitles it, and posted it online. The subtitles were a l33t/gamer-speak translation of everything that was said on screen, which apparently involved a lot of Lucas' typically awful dialogue (e.g. "Around the Jedi a perimeter create!" - Yoda in the Clones movie). The Business Affairs lawyer over at Lucasfilms was not amused (or maybe he was amused but decided to f* over the gamer dude anyway), and in response sent a "cease-and-desist" letter to the gamer. So the gamer translated the cease-and-desist letter into l33t/gamer-speak and posted it on his webpage. Continue reading for the original cease-and-desist letter side by side with the translation.
Continue reading "Stop haXXing our trailer or we will tell the mods on you!"
Posted by andrewanissi at 01:06 PM
May 07, 2005
J-LAI'S VOYEURISTIC B-DAY BASH!
Big Six
97 Bowery b/w Hester and Grand
Saturday, May 7 2005
Open bar from 10 - 11
Strictly Bangers all night:
ROK ONE
HONKY D
THE FAMOUS DR. BURTON
DJ RADEUS
Posted by andrewanissi at 10:00 PM
Buy this book!
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My Education by William S. Burroughs Price: $6 |
Posted by andrewanissi at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)
ALBUM REVIEW: Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horses - Perils
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Ever imagine yourself working deep within a secret, subterranean chamber preparing a ritual to raise to spirit of a long-dead sorceror to learn his alchemical secrets? Or maybe chanting incantations over a bonfire in the middle of a dark forest, attempting to awaken long dormant forces of nature to take rise up and assert their presence in the world? If so, this album would be an appropriate soundtrack to either of those visions. The playful but dramatically forceful tunes of pagan magick brought forth via a medley of harmoniums, autoharps, violins, violas, pianos, organs and glockenspiels, played by the Brits in Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horses who surely prefer "Old Europe" over the new, brings to mind an occult world that Aleister Crowley would thrive in. Listen for the Eastern European gypsy rhythms mixed into the sounds of Olde English wizardry.
Posted by andrewanissi at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)
May 04, 2005
Boy Scouts Indoctrinated Into Hollywood Plot With New Merit Badge
Andrew A. Anissi
Hollywood has created a new Boy Scout Merit Badge on intellectual property violations (i.e. downloading movies, recording a copy of The O.C. on a DVD, etc.), in the hopes of encouraging children to report their families' downloading activities to the local Gestappo, and to create a generation willing to do away with Fair Use in copyright. This is to ensure that Hollywood can continue making enough money to go on producing really awful movies.
Yes, I realize this is overly critical, and I further realize that there are plenty of great works of art that are made within the Los Angeles city limits, but sometimes, when every preview I see is for an adaptation or a remake or a sequel to an original movie that should never have been made, I get a bit frustrated. I mean, whatever happened to the value of originality?
As for the merit badges, read the story at: http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-5693563.html
Posted by andrewanissi at 11:24 AM
May 01, 2005
Liber II: The Message of the Master Therion
Liber II, Number 2, Class E
This Epistle first appeared in The Equinox III(1) (Detroit: Universal, 1919).
The quotations are from Liber Legis-The Book of the Law.-H.B.
``Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.''
``There is no Law beyond Do what thou wilt.''
``The word of the Law is Velhma.''
Velhma--Thelema--means Will.
Continue reading "Liber II: The Message of the Master Therion"
Posted by andrewanissi at 07:32 PM | Comments (0)
May 1: Beltane
Beltane -- Holiday Details and History
by Christina Aubin
Beltane is the last of the three spring fertility festivals, the others being Imbolc and Ostara. Beltane is the second principal Celtic festival (the other being Samhain). Celebrated approximately halfway between Vernal (spring) equinox and the midsummer (Summer Solstice). Beltane traditionally marked the arrival if summer in ancient times.
Continue reading "May 1: Beltane"
Posted by andrewanissi at 01:00 AM | Comments (0)