All posts by Chris DeCarlo

Books, Culture Jamming, Drugs, Entertainment, Food, Music, Politics

Book Review: DO iT!

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Book: DO iT! Scenarios of the Revolution
Author: Jerry Rubin
Year: 1970

This is easily the greatest and most inspiring manifesto ever written. Even before you begin this delicious work of incendiary material, just gazing at the back cover clues you in that your in for one hell of a ride! It reads in giant letters: “DANGER! This book will become a Molotov Cocktail in your very hands.” To the left of this summary is a photo of author Jerry Rubin being escorted out of the halls of Congress by the “pigs,” while dressed up like an American Revolutionary soldier: bare chested (with lots of hair!), covered in war paint, reeking of stench from weeks of not bathing, a head full of acid, and well armed ( a toy gun! albeit very real looking!).
As we open up the subversive memoir we are commanded to “READ THIS BOOK STONED,” a theme that is prevalent throughout the book.
Next, we experience one of the finest introductions by Eldridge Cleaver, the Minister of Information of the Black Panther Party For Self-Defense. Cleaver explains how “if everybody carried out Jerry’s program- there would be immediate peace in the world. Amerika, in particular would cease to bleed.” So, what exactly was Jerry’s programs? Well, his program is very simple: Go out in the streets and be a revolutionary, your own legislator. He shouts, “All you have to do to be a yippie is be a yippie.” Transform your ideas into actions. Fuck Ideologies. Fuck Rules. Fuck Religion. Fuck Everything…in the streets and bring some dope and dynamite with you! Destroy the Schools. Burn the Prisons down. Kill Your Parents. Drop out of society. Burn Money. Actions speak louder than words, so cut out long boring speeches on what your goals or demands are. Instead, use Yippie (Youth International Party) tactics to highlight your agenda. The Yippies nominated an actual pig named Pigasus as their presidential candidate, illustrating the point that all the other candidates were equally filthy pigs. And after all, don’t most politicians like to roll around in their own shit anyway?! If all of this sounds irrational to you, then it should. Our menacing Yippie informs us, “Yippies know we’re sane and everyone else is crazy, so we call ourselves “the crazies.” Jerry Rubin was indeed “crazy,” he was a dedicated revolutionary and a relentless outlaw in the true sense of the word. You know you often hear badass musicians, actors, or comedians like Bill Hicks, referred to as “outlaws.” But, they weren’t constantly in trouble with the law. Jerry, on the other hand was. In fact, at the time of this book’s publication, he and seven other defendants (Abbie Hoffman, Dave Dellinger, Bobby Seale, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, Lee Weiner, and John Froines) were on trial for conspiracy to incite a riot while crossing state lines at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Grade: A 9.5/10- One of the most subversive books I’ve ever read!

Chris

Entertainment, Music

Review: Head Automatica & Cubic Zicronia @ Great Scott (7/23/09)

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Bands: Head Automatica and Cubic Zirconia
Location: Great Scott, Allston
Date: Thursday, July 23, 2009

Cubic Zirconia: I’ll be straight up here, I focused more on the amazingly attractive, sexual chocolate lead singer than on the music itself. If you witnessed the band’s somewhat bizarre performance which included a song, proclaiming “FUCK WORK” about 20-30 times, then you would realize that the singer would probably not take offense to being referred to as “sexual chocolate” haha. I dug her sexually charged dancing and I particularly enjoyed when she stared right into my eyes and sang at me. Glen and others also noted this, thus confirming that I wasn’t merely delusional and horny. As Glen affirmed, “she likes you!” Besides being very appealing, in a stunning, gorgeous gold dress, she and her mates rocked out and were able to get the crowd moving in anticipation of Head Automatica. Continue reading Review: Head Automatica & Cubic Zicronia @ Great Scott (7/23/09) →

Entertainment, Music

Something to Ponder….

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No, this isn’t a philosophical rant concerning a massive social/political issue that plagues our society. No, this merely concerns the music lovers of the world and yet it is still something to ponder. The question I pose is simply this: should artists (especially older artists) play songs all of their fans know and adore or opt to perform lesser known tunes that mostly die hards would know. I think first and foremost artists should play whatever they feel like playing, because if they don’t then it’s fake, hollow, and condescending. On the other hand, I’d rather go to a concert and sing along to all my favorite songs then hear numbers I’m unfamiliar with, albeit usually decent tunes. For example, I saw Bob Dylan a little while back and he put on a decent performance, but I only recognized one song, “Highway 61 Revisited.” He played more modern and obscure songs from his catalog. Had he played all of his classics, I would’ve enjoyed the show far more. But, then again, back to my earlier point, perhaps Dylan wouldn’t have the same passion in his performance. On the same page, inflammatory music pundit, well sought after sound engineer, and rebel rousing singer/guitarist for such noisy punk bands as Big Black, Rapeman, and currently Shellac, Steve Albini feels artists should not “punish” their audience and instead play songs their fans adore. He notes seeing spectacular performances in Neil Young and Cheap Trick, claiming he knew nearly all of the songs. Albini told an interviewer, he plays the Shellac fan favorite, “My Black Ass,” at every show because it pleases the fans and the band still enjoys playing it. When it becomes old and worn out for them, then they’ll stop playing it. So, here’s the message for artists: if you have fan favorites that you love to play then bust them out, but if they’re sucking that passion outta ya, then place em’ on the shelf for now.

Chris DeCarlo

Entertainment, Music

Steal Your Soul!!!

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Great Choice by Glen for a song of the day! The Spooks (not to be confused with the rap group that bears the same moniker) are a “ghost rock” band consisting of the Black Lips’ Cole on vocals, Joe on keyboards, and Jared on bass. They came to light way back in 2002 and typically play Halloween shows covered in white sheets. Their first album, Death From Beyond The Grave, was released by Die Slaughterhaus in 2008. Now here’s a SPOOKY video for y’all to shit your pants to. 3D Glasses sold separately.

Chris DeCarlo

Culture Jamming

Elementary Ideas on Propaganda

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Let’s face it everything you see and hear is propaganda. Every day since you abandoned that womb, you have been indoctrinated by family, friends, school, church, the government, the media, and everything else. I refer to myself as a propagandist and therefore my mission is to honestly spread my radical agenda to as many as possible. I reject journalism because journalism claims to be objective reporting, without any hint of emotion or opinion. I can and do not do this and no one truly can. When you watch the news or any mainstream (as well as most independent, but they’re not as hazardous) media outlet they are being subjective because they choose certain stories, perspectives, or ideas and omit others. This creates bias, a major no no by traditional reporting standards. The truth is, as many have stated over and over again, the aboveground make propaganda for the state and private sector scumfucks, while the underground press makes propaganda for the working and middle classes, the anti-scumfucks. Propaganda is not only ok, it’s moral. Everyone uses it; who uses it? is not the question we should be asking ourselves. It’s how do they use it? That’s the real question to ponder. It’s only moral if the propagandists make their media open propaganda and do not portray it as news. Unfortunately, the mainstream society doesn’t do this. Their propaganda is “news,” “education,” “gospel,” etc. Well, I self-righteously say FUCK OFF! to the establishment with my propaganda. Keep your eyes and ears open kids!

Chris DeCarlo

Books, Culture Jamming, Drugs, Entertainment, Music, Politics

New Left

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Throughout this year I have embarked on a journey of self-education through reading inflammatory recipes for revolution and amongst the incendiary material on my bookshelf, works concerning the New Left appear the most prominently. The New Left, unlike the Old Left of the 1930s and 1940s, focused on social activism and American culture. Elvis Presley and the Lone Ranger were just as important as Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Their main aims were ending the War in Viet FUCKINGnam, ending racism at home, and protesting the conformist, capitalist, greedy, Amerikkkan lifestyle, amongst other initiatives, As I mentioned, I’ve read several books this year on this subject that I highly recommend to anyone and everyone. These include:

From Yale to Jail By: David Dellinger
Steal This Book By: Abbie Hoffman
The Black Panthers Speak By: Various Panthers
Kingdom of Fear By: Hunter S. Thompson
Flashbacks By: Timothy Leary
Soon to Be A Major Motion Picture By: Abbie Hoffman
Fugitive Days By: Bill Ayers
Do iT! Scenarios of the Revolution By: Jerry Rubin

It’s been fantastic learning about these turbulent times through such diverse, charismatic, and first hand accounts. It’s really funny seeing how certain figures are portrayed differently in various works. For example, acid guru, Timothy Leary paints Yippies Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin as pessimistic, Anti-American agitators that advocate violent revolution. Leary says some nice things about the boys, but he tends to omit their personal charm and dedication to social change. On the contrary, through the Yippies’ eyes, the sky is the limit, nope scratch that, after they levitated the Pentagon they could fly with it to the moon! You’ll have to do some reading to understand what the hell I’m talking about right now haha. All of these characters appear in just about all of these books at least once. And the aforementioned protests at the Pentagon, the 1968 (Un)Democratic National Convention and ensuing Chicago Conspiracy Trial are events that are discussed in depth in all of these works. I have also read about Tim Leary’s prison break through his perspective as well as his rescuers’, The Weathermen. Here are some other key New Left figures I haven’t mentioned:

Tom Hayden
Noam Chomsky
Howard Zinn
David Horowitz
John Lennon
Allen Ginsburg
Angela Davis
Mario Savio
Rennie Davis
That is by no means a complete list.

Chris DeCarlo