We think they're melodramatic and overrated (granted, they have a few great songs). Nevertheless, the kids seem to love them. So here it is, care of Scenestars, the stream of the new Coldplay record. Enjoy.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[From Unknown Country via Gawker]
A huge floating reef made up of millions of disposed condoms has been discovered in the mid Pacific. The condom mass is two miles long, up to sixty feet deep, and in places so tightly compressed that a small plane could be landed on it.

The mass was discovered by the Australian Oceanographic Laboratory Outpost on Macquarie Island in the South Pacific. Scientists there explained that the accumulation, which consists almost exclusively of condoms, is explained by a principle of physics called "like aggregation." Like aggregation is caused by the massing of similar objects due to ocean currents and winds, the response of the objects to the earth's magnetic field, and other factors.

The tendency of dust to clump and mass in a house or under a bed is explained by the same principle.

The Australian scientists are mapping the reef by satellite because it is a serious marine hazard. The world disposes of an estimated 300 million condoms a year.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

FROM AP
A cell-phone ring tone appeared set to top the British singles chart Sunday, outselling the new single by the band Coldplay by nearly four to one, a music retailer said.

"Crazy Frog Axel F," a ring tone based on the sound of a revving Swedish mo-ped, is the first tune being used on mobile phones to cross into mainstream music charts, said Gennaro Castaldo, a spokesman for HMV, the British music retailing chain.

Coldplay had hoped to go straight to No. 1 on this Sunday's British singles chart with its new song, "Speed of Sound." But by Saturday, it appeared that the ring tone - which is available for digital download and as a compact disc single - would prevail, said Castaldo.

The ring tone was expected to replace the Oasis tune "Lyla" as the No. 1 hit on the list released Sunday by the Official UK Charts Co. The weekly singles chart, which has been released since 1952, is based on the sales of 5,600 retail shops across Britain.

While "Crazy Frog" and other ring tones do not appear to be much of a hit among adults, so many youngsters are personalizing the sound of their cell phones that such digital music could change world music markets.

"Music purists might not be too happy at the prospect of the "Crazy Frog" outselling Coldplay, but it shouldn't come as that much of a surprise when you consider its huge novelty appeal and the massive amount of exposure it is currently getting," said Castaldo.

The ring tone is based on a song that was recorded in Sweden nearly a decade ago by 17-year-old Daniel Malmedahl, using the high pitched revving of a two-stroke motorcycle, The International Herald Tribune reported Saturday.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The Hold Steady free at Soundfix Records

TO DO FRIDAY 5-27

Get drunk by 7pm because Rilo Kiley is sold-out anyway.
Go home and download MP3's of this free Ryan Adams show

TO DO SATURDAY 5-28

Check out The Hold Steady at Soundfix Records, 3:00 PM
It's FREE
Bedford Avenue (at North 11th Street)

Then check out The Weird Weeds w/ Castanets and Marissa Nadler at
Glass House Gallery, 38 S 1st St, W-burg. (only 5 bucks)

From Flavorpill
The Weird Weeds, the Castanets, and Marissa Nadler are united by the tendency to haunt and hypnotize. While the Austin-based Weird Weeds create uncanny congruity from eerie guitar riffs, electrifying cymbals, door creaks, and full-pitched screams, the Castanets, birthed from San Diego's underground scene, mesmerize with mellower avant folk-rock. Marissa Nadler's hypnotic soprano, fortified by guitar, ukelele, or five-string banjo, croons with melancholy and soul. Within the Glass House Gallery's surreal setting (where freedom of artistic expression oozes like the freshly thrown acrylics on the walls), unfetter those last shackles of reality and succumb to this existential showcase.

TO DO SUNDAY 5-29

See the film "Smiles of a Summer Night" at the very underated Museum of the Moving Image at 6:30pm (only $10 and include admission). Get directions here.

From Time Out
Ingmar Bergman's sunniest film -- it's very nearly a comedy, in fact -- inspired both Sondheim's A Little Night Music and Woody Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy. Those who find his usual gloom 'n' doom wearisome are in for a very pleasant surprise.

TO DO MEMORIAL DAY

If the weather is nice on Memorial Day:
Green-Wood Cemetery Celebrates Memorial Day with Free Annual Concert

[From Gotham Gazette] On Monday, May 30 at 2:00 p.m., The Green-Wood Historic Fund will celebrate its 7th Annual Memorial Day Concert as the extraordinary 54-piece Goldman Memorial Band pays tribute to Green-Wood "residents" Leonard Bernstein, Louis Gottschalk and Fred Ebb in a musical salute. The band will also debut a special medley to legendary Broadway lyricist Fred Ebb. The free concert takes place at the landmark Victorian Archway of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Guests are welcome to bring picnic lunches and folding chairs. Hot dogs, snacks and refreshments will be sold, as well as books about the cemetery and its history. All proceeds will benefit the Historic Fund, which preserves and restores the historic monuments and tombstones.

Green-Wood Cemetery is located at 25th Street at 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. The concert will be at the Victorian Archway.
Please call 718-788-7850 for additional information

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BrooklynVegan has a helpful White Stripes post this morning pointing us to some MP3's and the new White Stripes video. Check 'em out.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Monte Holman

Laetitia Sadier has been the stylish voice of cool for a decade and a half, fronting Stereolab and delivering space age bachelor pad themes with a French twist to us drooling fans. We can't get enough, so Sadier and company simply deliver more and more and more. Stereolab's just-released three-disc set "Oscillons From the Anti-Sun" is absolutely essential for any fan of the band.

Somehow Sadier found the time to strike up a side-project, Monade. In this band she takes over the majority of the songwriting duties whereas in Stereolab her role is limited primarily to lyric composition and vocals. Monade's first album, "Socialisme Ou Barbarie: The Bedroom Recordings," (Drag City) presented Sadier's songwriting ability in a low-fi, D.I.Y. manner. Several songs featured Pram's Rosie Cuckston. Monade's latest, "A Few Steps More," (Too Pure) is a more stylized production featuring a full band (sans Cuckston) and a studio production.

Between all the recording and touring and child rearing, Sadier graciously spoke with us about her newest venture. And not surprisingly, the way she charms us sonically in Stereolab and Monade carries over to conversation.

Monade are Laetitia Sadier (vocals / moog / tambourine / trombone), Marie Merlet (bass / vocals), Nicolas Etienne (keys) and Xavier Chabellard (drums).

FREEwilliamsburg: Are you enjoying the Monade tour?

Sadier: Yeah, this is actually lovely because it's the groundwork. You have to somehow be persuasive. People are very enthusiastic and supportive, and it makes for nice shows.

FREEwilliamsburg: So the crowds are different with Monade than they are with Stereolab?

Sadier: Yeah, indeed, they're far less numerous, but it's very exciting.

FREEwilliamsburg: Stereolab is one of the most prolific bands of the last fifteen years. What made Monade necessary? What prompted its forming?

Sadier: I wanted to write songs. I have been writing songs. Because I couldn't write songs in Stereolab, I created a space where my little songs could exist. I also wanted to play the guitar. I always had a vision of myself with a guitar, playing the guitar, and it's the kind of thing I have problems doing alone in my bedroom. I thought it would be more exciting to play in a band format, and it is more fun, more stimulating. And that's simply that, really.

FREEwilliamsburg: Where did the songs on the first Monade album come from?

Sadier: They're songs I wrote over the years that came out on some little singles with friends, and eventually I thought if I record another five or six songs, I could put them all on an LP. And indeed, that's what happened. It was also motivation to work, to do it, you know. It's all about doing it, the activity of it. You can sit in your room and dream you're going to become a rock star or something, but somehow that didn't seem like too much of an option for me. I knew better, that if you want to do something, then go out there and do it.

FREEwilliamsburg: The first Monade album was mostly you, your songwriting, your playing. How did the process of the second album differ now that you have a full-on band?

Sadier: I would still write the songs, but obviously in a loose form. Being with the band, we developed them by playing them with drums, and playing them all together would mean that we could get ideas as to where the song could go and how it could change, how it could turn.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you share the same musical interests as the rest of the band?

Sadier: Yeah, I think so. I was pretty lucky that I found people that were interested in the same way. I have a new drummer now who comes from a very different musical background, but he is learning our way of thinking (laughs), with difficulty sometimes, but he's doing good—he's doing good.

FREEwilliamsburg: When did he join up?

Sadier: About two months ago.

FREEwilliamsburg: Right before the current tour?

Sadier: Yes, we've played maybe fifteen shows together as this band. It's really fresh and exciting.

FREEwilliamsburg: You also play the trombone on this album, and I read in another interview that the instrument intrigued you. What about the trombone appeals to you?

Sadier: I like the sound of it. It's kind of an intuitive thing, you know, being able to identify with a sound. I think it's a bridging instrument—it goes high; it goes low—and I feel it's a bit like my voice, maybe another expression of it. Personally, I prefer the trumpet. I wanted to play the trumpet, but I don't think there is a trumpeter in me. The trombone, I thought, was closer. It's an instrument you really need to work at, and I don't feel I'm putting in the hours. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't, and I feel like I'm back at square one. It's a lot of dedication. Hopefully I will carry on, but again, it's a question of having a reason to play it.

FREEwilliamsburg: You've mentioned that Monade is a band in which you hope to find your own voice because in Stereolab, you aren't the primary songwriter. Do you feel that the current lineup is getting you closer to finding that voice?

Sadier: Well I really don't know what the future holds, exactly, but I'm closer to finding this voice. I can really identify with the music of Stereolab, and hopefully with Monade we'll be able to discover some new grooves, new ways of grooving and somehow being free within the group. But at the moment, we're concentrating on being a group and on being comfortable playing together, and hopefully it will enable us to take it somewhere else, where it's supposed to go.

FREEwilliamsburg: What was the first concert you ever went to?

Sadier: The first concert where I had to buy a ticket and everything was Simple Minds. It was their first album, so they played a small club in Montpelier. It was super exciting—I was thirteen. It's probably not the best concert I've been to (laughs). My dad came with me.

FREEwilliamsburg: Are you going to take your son to shows?

Sadier: He's already been to a few Lab shows, but I think he's still too little for that. He wants to go when he sees that I'm getting all ready to go to a show. He says "Ah I want to go, I want to go!" but he has time...

FREEwilliamsburg: Robert Lanham, the guy who runs our site, wrote a book called The Hipster Hanbook (wink, teeth gleam with subtlety), and in it, he listed Mars Audiac Quintet as an essential record to own. If you had to choose out of all the Stereolab recordings, which would be your favorite, the most essential? I'm a Dots and Loops fan, myself.

Sadier: I really like Dots and Loops. I like the record we did with Charles Long, "The Amorphous Body Study Center." I do connect with this one. And Margarine Eclipse is a nice record.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

After receiving horrible approval numbers in a recent CNN poll, this can't be good news for Cap'n Pigfucker:

From The New York Times

After three years of unemployment, Allen Gruenhut finally landed a job as director of human resources for a company in the stone business on Long Island. His age, 53, worked against him in his long hunt for work, he contends, and so did the six-figure salary he earned at his previous job, in banking.

"They would not take me seriously at job interviews when I said I would be happy with a lower salary," Gruenhut said.

Jackie Ellenwood, 31, is still without a job. She had worked for three travel agencies over 13 years, until her last job, in Allen Park, Mich., ended in a layoff nine months ago. The industry is shrinking in response to more Internet bookings and cutbacks in corporate travel, so Ellenwood is looking for work elsewhere and studying to become a nurse.

The experiences of Gruenhut and Ellenwood help explain why many of the nation's unemployed are still struggling to get back to work. Not since World War II has the percentage of long-term joblessness -- the unemployed out of work for six months or more -- been so high for so long after a recession has ended.

The current trouble falls most heavily on people trapped by the shifting sands of the economy. Today, the unemployment rate is relatively low, at 5.2 percent, and overall hiring has started to pick up again, particularly for younger workers coming out of college and professional schools. But the presence of middle-aged women and better-educated white-collar workers among the long-term unemployed has increased.

"There are just not new jobs being created in the things these people did before," said Andrew Stettner, a policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project and co-author of a study of long-term unemployment. "We are firing fewer people than we did in 2001 and 2002, but we are not hiring many people either, and that cuts off the exit route out of unemployment."

The baby-boomer bulge working its way through the labor force also plays a role. As this large group of workers ages, it becomes harder for some who lose their jobs to find new work suited to their skills. And the bursting of the high-tech bubble stranded thousands of workers who are finding it difficult to shift quickly to other fields.

Structural changes in the economy and productivity improvements, reflecting the ability of companies to achieve higher output with fewer or the same number of workers, mean that even growing businesses no longer need to dip as much into the pool of displaced workers.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We weren't delighted about the filibuster deal made in the Senate, but it was nonetheless a HUGE victory for Democrats who just weeks ago seemed powerless against the nuclear option. Republican senators are going to have a lot of explaining to do when douchebags like James Dobson and Tim Wildmon call asking what the hell happened. [OK, they'll probably say heck instead of hell]. Dobson and Wildmon helped organize Justice Sunday just to ensure the death of the filibuster and enrolled Jesus Freak Bill Frist as a key speaker.

The deal will surely create a larger rift between James Dobson and Trent Lott who have been taking pot-shots at each other all week:

From USA Today
"Who does [James Dobson] think he is, questioning my conservative credentials?" Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said in an interview. Dobson, head of the conservative group Focus on the Family, criticized Lott for his efforts to forge a compromise in the fight over the judges. Lott is still angry. "Some of his language and conduct is quite un-Christian, and I don't appreciate it," the senator said.

We're hoping for an all out brawl. Dobson issued a statement soon after the news broke:

"We share the disappointment, outrage and sense of abandonment felt by millions of conservative Americans who helped put Republicans in power last November. I am certain that these voters will remember both Democrats and Republicans who betrayed their trust."

We hope Dobson heeds his own words to remember this decision. He helped organize the Republican vote in 2004 (Focus on the Family distibuted 8 million voting guides) and we'd love to see him and sit the 2006 and 2008 elections out. As DailyKos pointed out, this entire filibuster debate was largely because of Dobson in the first place.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Somehow the new White Stripes record hasn't been leaked yet. In lieu of MP3's, Scenestars.net has provided a stream of the full record, "Get Behind Me Satan." This is a very different, more mellow, more sparse White Stipes almost completely devoid of Jimmy Page riffs. (Though "Red Rain" — one of the album's highlights — does sound like a Led Zeppelin III outtake). The good news is most of the record is more inspired than the cheesy Lenny Kravitz-sounding single "Blue Orchid." Start with "Little Ghost," a carefree bluegrass-inspired hoedown. "As Ugly as I Seem" is a lovely confessional on accoustic guitar, accompanied by Meg on bongos. Upon first listen, "Get Behind Me Satan" sounds like the proverbial "transitional" record. Most notably, many tracks are piano-driven, a break with their tradional guitar-heavy sound. Vibes, banjos, and xylophones are added to the mix on several tracks. Regardless of your opinion of their new sound, one question will linger; what's up with the Zoro costume, Jack? [The record is due to be released June 6]

Listen to the record by clicking here

Let us know what you think. Start your reviews here in comments.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Click here to sign the petition

From moveonpac.org
Senator Bill Frist has pulled the trigger on the "nuclear option." We now have less than 72 hours to stop him from seizing absolute power to stack the courts — including the Supreme Court. The vote is still too close to call. If we raise our voice, we can win.

We've launched an emergency petition we'll be delivering to congress every three hours, from Monday morning until the final vote is complete. Our allies will read your comments on the Senate floor, and every senator will know the American people are standing ready to hold them accountable.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To do tonight:
33Hz at Rothko. This is pure dance music reminiscent of early eighties Prince. Their new self-titled CD is the best pop release so far this year with the best hand-claps this side of LCD Soundsystem. Check them out tonight, Friday 5/20, at Rothko (band goes on at 12:15)

Rothko
116 Suffolk St. (Lower East Side)
at Rivington St.
212-475-7088

Check out 33Hz's site here

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 01:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

You can read all about it here

Let CEO Reed Hastings know what you think. We did some research and found his email:

reed.hastings@netflix.com

COPY AND PASTE AND SEND:

I enjoy the service your company provides, but please rethink your cross promotional deal with Wal-Mart. Otherwise, I will have to reconsider giving my money to your company.

Sincerely,
INSERT NAME

Here's their phone number:
(408) 317-3700

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

Our friend Pete sent us this one and we had to share:

E-mail exchanges between Lance, the King of Black Metal from Gary, Indiana (aka Dave Hill) and Mathias, a Norwegian black metal guy. [Gary is some Brooklyn writer in on the stupidity of these morons] An excerpt:

okay, let me break it down for you. first of all, i don't think anyone who is truly into black metal would start an e-mail by saying "hi!" you are not working at a smoothie shop buddy, you are representing black metal. pull yourself together! i should know- i'm the king of black metal...do you guys have stickers? you should put them up around town and maybe put something under the band's name that says "definitely not a bunch of pussies"

click here for more

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

by Monte Holman

From the Drake Tungsten album and Telefono to Girls Can Tell and Kill the Moonlight, we've known Daniel to be a sonic scientist, layering vocal track upon vocal track and mixing sporadic, uneven guitar solos with Eno's surefire drumming, all in the name of wholesome, solid pop. Gimme Fiction takes those familiar Spoon antics and throws them into conversations with the band's predecessors, nodding to Bowie, the Stones, Motown, Brit pop, and indie gods like Yo La Tengo.

The opening track, "The Beast and Dragon Adored," establishes the tone of the record. It begins with studio chatter and tape hiss that usher in one of Spoon's greatest assets: Jim Eno. He's a gem of a drummer, producer, filter, adhesive, weapon. He knows when to restrain himself and when to let loose, no silly fills or cymbal wanks. He announces his huge presence on this record with a booming, almost distorted, simple tom hit. On top of Eno's foundational rhythm, Daniel builds a slinky Bondlike theme with powerful low-end keys and distorted guitars, complete with his characteristic "ah yeahs" and "awrights." Throughout, the bass and drums move the song while clips of shrill and distorted un-solos spew and spider. This track unleashes the record's rock and roll spirit: "When you don't feel it / it shows, they tear out your soul / when you believe / they call it rock and roll."

Gimme Fiction is wrought with Daniel's Brit-influenced vocal crooning, and the Beatles don't even need to be mentioned here. But he also shows his Bowie sex appeal and Jagger strut, particularly in "I Turn My Camera On," a minimal disco rehash. If ever there was a moment when singing in falsetto epitomized masculinity, this is it. Try not moving to this one -- if the disco drums and bass don't get you, the hip-hop samples will.

Daniel also presents smart lyrical ambiguities in songs like "My Mathematical Mind," which is primarily a political anthem. Line breaks like "I want to change / your mind" and "I want to change / your ways" are critical both of the speaker and the addressed (who, in all likelihood, is the leader of the free world). Elsewhere the phrases "no more riding the brakes / instead I'm gonna see the stakes" point out a boredom with political inactivity as the speaker accuses someone of setting up the Apocalypse without thinking about it. This is about as politically pointed as Spoon gets, I suppose, and in the end, as the lyrics go, Daniel doesn't sweat it.Between Eno's experienced ear and Daniel's penchant for sonic experimentation, Spoon comes out with a stunning sense of space. There are no holes on Gimme Fiction-each second seems deliberate. But the pair's heady approach doesn't take the life out of the songs. The rewinding tape noises, samples, bells, distortions, amp buzzes, backward tracking, handclaps, taped discussions and laughter-all of it gives the album immediacy and dimension. The recording seems complete but not finished. We feel the studio space; we witness the recording process and appreciate its outcome all in the same sitting.

Each tune possesses characteristics that make it distinct, memorable. For example, "Sister Jack" is pretty straightforward Americana fronted by big guitars, tambourines, handclaps, and a distinctly pop chord progression. Playful lyrics like "I was on the outside / I was looking in / I was in a drop-D metal band we called Requiem" give this song head-bobbing accessibility and, though everything is pleasant and tight, prepare listeners for a sort of pay-no-mind track. But Spoon doesn't let us fall asleep. Enter production experiments (backward tracks, noise), and just when we think the song will trail off into 4/4 repetitiveness, the time signature changes. Instrumental and vocal lines shift, and Spoon proves it is in the business of making smart records. No song is filler. No additive is excessive.

There's a 50s feel to some songs like the tom-heavy doo-wop ballad "I Summon You," which is perhaps the best song on the album, rich in love-lost minor chords and lamenting lyrics. "And now this little girl / she says will we make it at all? / 800 miles is a drive." And the album has a personally historic touch, especially "They Never Got You," which is a product of Spoon's heralded story of major label trickery, the fuck you from Elektra (aka "The Agony of Lafitte). Daniel cautions, "Cover your tracks / don't let the footholds start / don't let anyone in / cause they never got you / and you never got them." This one features prototypically Spoon handclaps plus knee slaps and ground stomps fit for a hoedown.

Spoon continues to put out records of intrigue, connected collections of songs rather than strings of singles. The band is able to combine rock classicism with stylish persona in a way that oozes staying power. And most importantly, Gimme Fiction flaunts Spoon's instinct for booty-shaking rock and roll.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I don't usually read The New Republic, so I can't vouch for the usual quality of their content, but I was astounded by the stupidity of their response to my recent New York Times article on BurningAngel and alt-porn. Here's an excerpt of Rochelle Gurstein's prudish, reactionary, and irrational article; "On the Triumph of the Pornographic Imagination":

"My usually robust sense of the absurd was overwhelmed by the many grotesqueries of the "Styles" article that, in the end, meretriciously recast the humiliation and degradation of women, even if it is self-inflicted, as forms of self-expression.... Had any of those college-educated, alt-porn promoters ever heard of them [Baby Boomer anti-porn crusaders] or of the radical feminist slogan, "Pornography is the theory, rape the practice"

She goes on to suggest that Lynndie England was a victim of the "pornographic imagination"

"[Lynndie]England's sadism, along with the fact that she and Graner not only made but circulated pornographic videos of themselves, speak to the coercive and brutalizing nature of the pornographic imagination so prevalent in our world today..... Pathetic Lynndie England, shown in another article awkwardly cradling her infant boy (her child with Graner, who is now married to another woman involved in Abu Ghraib)--here, I thought, was the Linda Lovelace of our times."

Read the whole embarassing article after the jump

On the Triumph of the Pornographic Imagination

"Wearing Nothing but Attitude"
--New York Times, May 1, 2005

Was this trite phrase part of an ad campaign for a new Calvin Klein perfume or was it a headline for an article in the "Sunday Styles" section? It turned out to be a headline for an article about a new and supposedly hip genre of online pornography called "alt-porn," which, as far as I can tell, is distinguished from the old-fashioned, square type in that it features nude photographs and "hard-core" videos in between interviews with members of "hard-core punk and indie bands." To me, this sounded like an unimaginative reworking of the tired-out Playboy formula (did they have cartoons, too?), but as I read on, I learned that Joanna Angel, a founder of BurningAngel.com and star of many of its XXX-rated videos, thought of herself as a vanguard artist. The reporter, Robert Lanham, pointed out that not only had Angel ("her stage name") been an English major at Rutgers, but that she has "a year-book's worth of quotations tattooed across her 4-foot-11 frame, from Kurt Vonnegut ('So it goes') to a paraphrase of Margaret Atwood ('Touch me and you will burn')." As further proof of her vanguard credentials, she is quoted as saying such edgy things as "Porn is more punk than most punk music," and "Some people make music, others paint, I make porn."

This petite, "literature"-inspired young woman apparently has even greater ambitions than making transgressive art. She tells the reporter that "millions of dollars are being made in L.A. every year on porn" and she wants "to start an empire here." Angel even fancies herself a bit of the feminist. She "takes pride," according to Lanham, "in being a female executive in an industry dominated by men." And she takes care of her "girls," none of whom "ever feels exploited." "We treat everyone with respect, like friends," she said. "It's hard work but everyone has fun." Lanham knows a good story when he sees one so he gives plenty of attention to the liberationist angle. Not only does he quote other young, hip, porn entrepreneurs who run similar websites (like Missy Suicide, the founder of SuicideGirls.com, who sees "nudity as self-expression"), he also appeals to more conventional authorities, like Katie Roiphe, identified for readers as "an author who often writes about women's issues": "Younger women today are growing more comfortable with their sexuality," she said, "and it makes perfect sense that they'd want to create a hip corner of the pornographic universe where they can express themselves."

A hip corner of the pornographic universe where younger women, who are more comfortable with their sexuality, can express themselves. ... So it has come to this, I thought. Pornography, which only a generation ago had been assailed by feminists as the ultimate act of objectification, subordination, and dehumanization of women in a capitalist, patriarchal society was now being offered as an entertaining tidbit in the "Sunday Styles" section of the Times, surrounded on the same page by ads for Prada luxury goods and followed by photographs of the social elite at their charity functions on the next. As is so often the case these days, the world appeared upside down to me and I almost felt like laughing, so absurd was the spectacle of naïvete being paraded around as the last word in sophistication.

But, before I knew it, I was feeling something more like nausea as I remembered that Andrea Dworkin, the radical feminist who dedicated her life to fighting "violence against women"--the stark phrase that used to conjure up prostitution, incest, wife-beating, rape, and pornography as component parts of the same system of male power, as dangerous for girls and women as it was filled with hatred for them--had died just a few weeks before, at the miserably young age of 58. It had been a while since I had thought of Dworkin or her comrade in arms, Catharine MacKinnon, both of whom I long admired for the courageous legal battle they waged to ban pornography that brutalizes women. What, I wondered, has happened to those 1970s feminist "Take-Back-the-Night" rallies, where defiant young women marched through city streets to reclaim their right to walk unescorted and unmolested after dark? Had any of those college-educated, alt-porn promoters ever heard of them or of the radical feminist slogan, "Pornography is the theory, rape the practice"? Samuel Johnson's observation that "a few years make such havoc in human generations" rushed into my thoughts. And then, just as suddenly, I found myself thinking, even as a voice inside accused me of vulgar Marxism, that Herbert Marcuse was right: We live in a "one-dimensional" society that effectively de-fangs as it accommodates and absorbs all forms of criticism, dissent, and vanguardism. So it was no wonder that my usually robust sense of the absurd was overwhelmed by the many grotesqueries of the "Styles" article that, in the end, meretriciously recast the humiliation and degradation of women, even if it is self-inflicted, as forms of self-expression.

Here was further proof, as if I needed it, of the triumph of "the pornographic imagination." The phrase, of course, comes from the title of a celebrated essay of Susan Sontag's from the mid-'60s. Where Sontag (perhaps naïvely, in retrospect) had argued that pornography of the Sade-Bataille-Apollinaire "art" variety expanded the boundaries of consciousness, the pornographic imagination in our own time has instead proved to be monopolistic. "Naughty" S&M lingerie displays in the windows of upscale department stores; "cardio striptease" classes at health clubs; revealing fashions on the street--I wondered if Katie Roiphe had any of these hackneyed, stereotypical images of dominatrixes and porn stars and hookers in mind when she spoke with enthusiasm of how younger, more liberated women were "expressing themselves" in pornography. From what I could see, the erotic imagination of women had never been more flat.

"What does woman want?" Freud's famous question suddenly accosted me, as did the answer offered by the feminist critique of pornography: Women no longer know what they want, so completely has their erotic desire been formed by men's pornographic images of them. But, then, I remembered another answer to Freud's question that still had currency when I was in graduate school in the mid-'80s--"radical lesbian separatism." This militant phrase, which used to evoke the utopian hope of making both personal and political life anew, now sounded impossibly foreign even to my ear. It was hard to resist the oppressive conclusion that, in our present-day atmosphere of habitual conformism and pseudo-vanguards of the alt-porn variety, visionary feminists like Andrea Dworkin have come to feel out of place. Dworkin had the imagination to picture a world where women would not have to fear for their safety, where they would be guaranteed dignity and justice, where they would be free to create their own never-before-imagined realms of eros. As I lamented Dworkin's premature death and the moribund quality of the erotic and political imaginations today, another radical idealist, even more alien to contemporary sensibility, came to my mind, this time from the turn of the last century--Emma Goldman.

Goldman's "beautiful ideal," as she called it, was anarchism. Anarchism, for her (I had gotten Anarchism and Other Essays from my bookshelf), meant "the freest possible expression of all the latent powers of the individual." And Goldman's vision of "free love"--"the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy"--was at its core. I have never been able to fully grasp this vision, for it was highly spiritualized, verging on the miraculous. But it is clear that for Goldman only a radical transformation of the individual erotic imagination would make possible a radical transformation of the world: "Whether love last but one brief span of time or for eternity, it is the only creative, inspiring, elevating basis for a new race, a new world." Like the lesbian separatists of the '70s, nineteenth-century anarchists did not want merely to reform the status quo. Goldman angered the suffragettes of her time by rejecting their cause, for she, like all anarchists, believed the state was founded on violence and existed only to protect the rich. It is a testimony to her radicalism that she regarded voting or even accepting legal representation (which she often required) as colluding with a morally bankrupt system.

I soon found myself thinking about the cost of Goldman's commitment, the unrelenting hardness of her life--her repeated arrests for speaking in public about subjects that few in her day dared to mention even in private ("free love," "family limitation," prostitution); her imprisonment and deportation to Russia for agitating against conscription during World War I; her bitter disillusionment with the Bolshevik Revolution, about which she wrote, turning her into a pariah among the Left for the rest of her life; her lonely wanderings in Europe without legal papers during the '20s; her many passionate but all too frequently unhappy love affairs, often with younger men. ... Then, abruptly, my intellectual reveries ended as my eye came to rest on the headline from another story: "Plea Deal is Set for G.I. Pictured in Abuses in Iraq" (New York Times, April 30). Accompanying the story was a photo of Lynndie England, looking glum and boyish in her camouflage fatigues, a disturbing contrast to the notorious photograph of this same young woman holding a leash around the neck of a naked Iraqi man on his knees--a pornographic pose as common in Helmut Newton's stylish fashion shoots and Robert Mapplethorpe's high-toned S&M portraits as it apparently is in mainstream pornography.

England's trial for her part in the "Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal," as it is euphemistically called, has put this female soldier (the fruit of equal-opportunity feminism, I thought) in the news again these days. It was already well publicized that England, whom the Times describes as "a hell-raising young woman from West Virginia," was sexually involved with Charles Graner, a man 15 years her senior, who was the instigator and choreographer of the circus of cruelty and perversity at Abu Ghraib. But it has now been revealed in her trial that she has a history of mental-health afflictions and learning disabilities. Even if this is an extreme case, England's sadism, along with the fact that she and Graner not only made but circulated pornographic videos of themselves, speak to the coercive and brutalizing nature of the pornographic imagination so prevalent in our world today.

Pathetic Lynndie England, shown in another article awkwardly cradling her infant boy (her child with Graner, who is now married to another woman involved in Abu Ghraib)--here, I thought, was the Linda Lovelace of our times. I didn't imagine that England or the better educated, alt-porn entrepreneur, Joanna Angel, both of whom are in their early twenties, had ever heard of Linda Lovelace, the star of Deep Throat, or of her best-selling memoir about her vicious exploitation by pornographers that led to her becoming a feminist cause celebre and rallying point for Dworkin and MacKinnon's anti-pornography legislation. Now, I couldn't help wondering, with the death of Dworkin, was there anyone left to champion England's cause or, for that matter, any radical cause, feminist or otherwise?

Rochelle Gurstein is the author of The Repeal of Reticence (Hill and Wang).

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

George Galloway called the oil-for-food scandal the "mother of all smokescreens" during a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. He also had this to say:

Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer.

I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction.

I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda.

I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001.

I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 01:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

David Cross has an hilarious list of fake reviews on Pitchfork, a clever attack on their inane skewering of him as a "nauseatingly smug... giant fucking asshole." Cross proves once again he's the funniest man alive.

"May I suggest listening to Elegant Nuisance by ButterFat 100. With this, their second album since signing with Holive Records, ButterFat 100 return to their psychobilly/emo core roots. Let its volcanic rapture overwhelm you like a 19th century hand-woven blanket made of human hair might have done back in the days when they enjoyed such things."

go to pitchfork [thanks to Kevin at Catch for bringing this to our attention]

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Is it just us or does Kenneth Tomlinson
look a lot like Lon Chaney's Wolfman?

The Republican-appointed head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kenneth Tomlinson, is on a campaign to end "liberal bias" at NPR and PBS. Clearly, this self-proclaimed conservative has no bias of his own. Before the appointment, he was the editor-in-chief of the reactionary geriatric staple known Reader's Digest. If you haven't read it lately, it's ultraconservative politically and the journalistic equivalent of Family Circus. Before that, he was director of the Voice of America in the Reagan administration.

CommonCause.org has put together a petition to:

* Stop efforts to influence programming decisions at National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
* Eliminate the two ombudsman positions recently created to evaluate and critique public broadcasting programs for bias. This is an inappropriate role for the CPB and is contrary to its mission of serving as a "heat shield" to protect public broadcasting from political influence.
* Support the appointment of board members to the CPB who have demonstrated expertise and commitment to public broadcasting as opposed to the current system, which favors the appointment of partisans.
* Publicly assure journalists working for public broadcasting that they can conduct fact based investigative reporting critical of government without fear of reprisals.

Click here to sign the petition

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

This is the coolest web site we've stumbled upon in a while. Avoid those annoying website registrations found on the NY Times, etc with bugmenot. Now you don't have to worry that Rupert Murdoch knows your identity should you log into the NYPost to read about Tara Reid in PageSix or to see if Steve Dunleavy is dead yet.

Click below for some sample passwords [most seem to work]
www.nytimes.com
www.washingtonpost.com
www.latimes.com
www.chicagotribune.com
www.nypost.com

If your conscience kicks in see below [from bugmenot FAQ]

Why not just register?
-- It's a breach of privacy.
-- Sites don't have a great track record with the whole spam thing.
-- It's contrary to the fundamental spirit of the net. Just ask Google.
-- It's pointless due to the significant percentage of users who enter fake demographic details anyway.
-- It's a waste of time.
-- It's annoying as hell.
-- Imagine if every site required registration to access content.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finally, a book has come along that can help explain some of those Chuck Eddy reviews we read in the Voice. Does anyone really understand Check Eddy when he says things like "tribal-drummed neo-no-wave," "electro-punk robo-scuzz," or strangest of all "80s post-hardcore pigfuck hard-rock." We're not making this up.

Or how about this impenetrable Eddy prose:

So on the eve of Hitler's birthday I'm pulling out old Laibach and Enigma records in horror of the papacy's return to that old Oberammergau catechism, and I reach for the most seminal goth-rock number of all. It's on The Yardbirds Great Hits (Epic, 1977, one vinyl disc, liner notes by Ira Robbins), and the album cover's got reams of ticker-taped That Was the Year That Was headlines, and there the unexpected words were, (accidentally?) next to the title of the 'Birds Gregorian high-mass stained-glass pagan-pop plaint "Still I'm Sad" (later covered by Boney M): "Pope Paul VI makes a 'peace pilgrimage' to Istanbul." Eerie ...

The Rock Snob's Dictionary will hopefully shed some light. It's funny and informative and, best of all, thorough. Here's a quick excerpt:

Albini, Steve. Self-consciously difficult Chicago-based record producer who chafes at being called a producer, insisting that he merely "records" bands; best known for having produced-er, recorded-Nirvana’s studio swan song, In Utero, and for issuing snarky comments to the press when some of the album's uncompromisingly raw songs were later remixed by other producers. Albini, who pushes the bounds of hard-rock iconoclasm by wearing glasses and having short hair, enhanced his outsider cred by playing guitar in the not-very-good hardcore bands Big Black, Rapeman, and Shellac.

Rewards repeated listens. Euphemistic phrase employed by rock critics to confer value upon a dubious musical work that, given the reputations involved, has to be better than it sounds.

Seminal. Catchall adjective employed by rock writers to describe any group or artist in on a trend too early to sell any records.

But come on.... Shellac rules

Check out the book website. They have some funny excerpts and blog updates including a Snob List vs. Honest List of favorite records for the two authors. ("The first list being the albums that you'd honestly take to that desert island for your listening enjoyment, the second list being the albums that you'd claim to be taking to impress other Rock Snobs.") We listed them after the jump:

FOR STEVEN DALY
HONEST FAVORITES
1. Young Americans, David Bowie
2. Nils Lofgren, Nils Lofgren
3. The Harder They Come, original soundtrack
4. The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Joni Mitchell
5. Parade, Prince
6. The Documentary, the Game
7. Funky Dory, Rachel Stevens (import only)
8. Ultimate Dolly Parton, Dolly Parton
9. J to Tha LO! The Remixes, Jennifer Lopez
10. Quadrophenia, the Who

SNOB SUBSTITUTES
1. Jobriath, Jobriath (reissue with liner notes by Morrissey)2. Like Flies on Sherbet, Alex Chilton
3. Arkology, Lee "Scratch" Perry (box set)
4. Not the Tremblin' Kind, Laura Cantrell
5. Inspiration Information, Shuggie Otis
6. When the Revolution Comes, the Last Poets
7. The Vogue Years, Francoise Hardy (import only)
8. More a Legend Than a Band, the Flatlanders
9. Mutantes Ao Vivo, Os Mutantes
10. Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, the Small Faces

FOR DAVID KAMP
HONEST FAVORITES
1. Revolver, the Beatles
2. Imperial Bedroom, Elvis Costello & the Attractions
3. Unearthed, Johnny Cash (boxed set)
4. English Settlement,