Category Archives: rant

Mark Sultan, Quotes, rant

Sultan On Korea/KKBBQ

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I [Glen] will admit that I’ve been posting a lot of hearsay on what has happened in far off nations concerning Mark Sultan, King Khan, the break-up and tour dates. Mark has read some of the comments and wanted to set the record straight on what has happened. His frustration towards what has been posted is understandable.

Mark wrote to me:
I have tried posting on your comment board, but nothing is registering. I knew it was me solo in Korea. You know how I knew? Cuz I played by myself. Please quit with the conjecture. That promoter was super nice and apologetic and is now trying to earn street cred by siding with the popular guy, even though khan destroyed his friend’s place, etc… I remained calm thru everything and soldiered on to finish this. The day before Seoul, the promoter did a mailout claiming khan would also be in Seoul and perhaps we would play together. I told him we were enemies and that all khan needed was rest and to see his family. I show up at thr venue and who jumps out of a cab but the promoter and khan – guitar in hand. Sorry, but that is underhanded. Speaking of overly sensitive, this two-faced asshole promoter – who I treated with kindness throughout – was tearing up like a baby and shaking like a leaf. Everyone may have preconceived notions about me, but I SWEAR that all I did in Korea and after Australia in general, was to finish the tour and help folks not lose their asses completely by playing free, etc… Enough Internet bullshit. You wanna know something? Ask me. I was trying to get the promoter to bring my suitcase to the club all day, cuz his place was 45 mins from the club (and khan was staying there) and my set was slated for like 1 or 2 am and I had to leave for airport at 6am and STILL needed to pack everything post-show. He told me it was impossible and he was busy, etc yet he still managed to bring khan to the show. I don’t know what else to say. You guys will talk shit no matter what, and I admittedly built this persona, so I shall lay in it.

The following was posted on The King Khan & BBQ Show Facebook page by Mark:
Now, when me and Khan first strated the band, we were hesitant to name it ‘The King Khan & BBQ Show’, as the Shrines already had existed for a bit (and were doing great) but also cuz the potential for bandname misspellings etc… were gonna happen (and did): King Kahn & The BBQ, . I guess we made an error thinking people could differentiate the two bands. KKBBQ was started with the goal to play the roles of yin and yang and maximize the energy of that. I would be the quiet grump, Khan the active showman. For a while, we hit our stride and were a perfect symbiosis. When Khan started getting tons of attention, I admit, I was miffed. I thought: “What about my songs, my voice, my MUSIIC?”… But I realized early that that was OKAY. Khan was destined to be that star type guy and I was destined to be someone more serious about the musical side and less recognizable. That was the ONLY time I felt overshadowed. I have understood that Khan is the face of the band for years – i am NOT naive. But I loved the music so much, that it didnt matter. That’s where people like Sean come in. They ask for ‘us’ to play, but would rather the Shrines (and rightly so, they RULE), but are troo cheap to get that band OR just figure “I want Khan”, and have no knowledge that this band even exists. Fair enough. We are under the radar and don’t appeal to everyone. But then, do the right thing and brting what you really want or don’t AT ALL. Because it is very frustrating for BOTH of us. When a promoter like Sean writes a bunch about the Shrines for our press, it is worrysome. And when Khan bails and I am to play alone in Seoul and the guy writes ‘and maybe Khan will sign some autographs’, it just sucks. Personal taste is one thing, but bias in promotion, where you are affecting peoples opinions and tastes… It’s irresponsible. Same goes with playing in a far away land, invited as KKBBQ specifically to play for Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, and then being promoted as either Khan’s show or ‘too bad it ain’t the Shrines’ type journalism… it sucks. Touring is stressful and long – especially from Europe to Australia and Asia. So if you don’t know who WE are as a BAND (THAT is the most important thing to me) and don’t give a fuck who I am and, in fact, wish it was another band, that is not sensitivity on my part, but frustration that we came so far to be put in that situation. That i am meaningless to pop-culture tastemnakers is fine, but don’t devalue me. I know Khan is a ‘star’, and he is great at it. But like moist ‘stars’, they are fragile at times. And if you feed into that side of him, the schism between our yin and yang grows massive, and makes things like Sydney happen (once again, i was FRUSTRATED that such an important show went to shit). Essentially, i will write and play my music forever, through many forms of obscurity, without some folks’ backing, cuz that is what i do. Now you go do YOUR job and understand what you are bringing and stop and think a bit before you treat people like shit. BTW – all was fine in China. i have no idea why they feel that way. Oh well.

Art, Entertainment, Film, Films, humor, interviews, rant, TV, Video

Chris On…

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The Work of Harmony Korine : Recently I have had a growing fascination for the work of writer, director, producer, actor, etc, Harmony Korine. I’ll be up front right now, I have only seen one of his feature films: Gummo (1997), his directorial debut, which I reviewd a couple of months back. I have also been a huge fan of the film Kids (1995) for years, but Korine only wrote the script, it was directed by Larry Clark, nonetheless a classic that highly recommend y’all check out. Since, viewing the bizarre (to say the least) Gummo I wanted to dig more into the psyche of its creator. Why does he make such strange, really distubring films? and more importantly how does he do it?! Well, reading up a bit more on Korine and seeing some hilarious interviews of him, especially on Letterman :), I discovered the man believes that film as an art is dead and that there has been very little progression in its history. Therefore, he makes films that he has never seen done before. His tactics include non linear storylines (Gummo had no real plot, but consisted of various vignettes), using non actors (often asking random folks if they wanted to be in his flick), and giving his actors (or non actors lol) different scripts, so they are confused with what they are working with, to the extent that they believe they are working on different films, as well as other unconventional methods. Two particular qualities stand out to me about his work. Once again, I have only seen Gummo , but even based on trailers of Mister Lonely (2007) and Trash Humpers (2009), you get a feel for what his films are like in general; previews are enough! Anyway, firstly, imagery is incredibly strong in his movies. Usually for me, one thing that makes a film really great is how memorable it is. With Korine you are bombarded with numerous, highly memorable images. Even if you don’t want to remember them! He simply has a knack for capturing off kilter, unsettling, images that burn deep in your brain for months and more. Even with his trailers, the images are so unusual that they are etched in your psyche for an undetermined amount of time. Every now and then I view a trailer and as time goes by, I vaguely remember what I saw. The images of goons literally humping trash and driving around wearing weird masks from his latest picture, Trash Humpers (2009) is still on my mind and will be for quite some time, I imagine. I’ve read that Korine sees his films as successful, if someone walks away with a lasting image. Well, I guess he has succeeded admirably. Secondly, I really dig the way he does not create intentional meanings behind his works. Most artists intentionally develop some morals and themes in their stories, but not old Harmony. He sees this as “belittling” to the viewer. Thus, the audience can sit back and interpret whatever they like from the mess (I mean that in the best possible sense of the word, which I suppose is ironic, considering I am now explaining my intentions on how awesome it is for an artist not to explain their intentions, go figure). Unlike, most other films, his works do not comfortably hold your hand and cross the street with you. It’s more like you’re dodging oncoming traffic during Rush Hour! Overall, if you are a fan of film, especially, unique, artsy films, then it is a must for you to see at least one of Korine’s films. But, I will give you a heads up, they are not your average “indie” flick that serves as a minor departure from the mainstream, like Eternal Sunshine (2004), which don’t get me wrong, is a great and strange film, but still maintains a mainstream quality, at least compared to Korine’s work. His movies are totally devoid of anything mainstream. Therefore, some people might be turned off by their intense, sometimes, morbid nature. Well, too bad for those poor souls cause they will be missing out on some of the most original art I have ever seen.

Articles, business, Crime, Drugs, economics, Quotes, rant

END THE DRUG WAR!

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The following is an article by John Stossel recently featured in the Boston Herald.

“I’m confused. When I walk around busy midtown Manhattan, I often smell marijuana. Despite the crowds, some people smoke weed in public. Usually the police leave them alone, and yet other times they act like a military force engaged in urban combat. This February, cops stormed a Columbia, Mo., home, killed the family dog and terrorized a 7-year-old boy — for what? A tiny quantity of marijuana.

Two years ago, in Prince George’s County, Md., cops raided Cheye Calvo’s home — all because a box of marijuana was randomly shipped to his wife as part of a smuggling operation. Only later did the police learn that Calvo was innocent — and the mayor of that town.

“When this first happened, I assumed it was just a terrible, terrible mistake,” Calvo said. “But the more I looked into it, the more I realized (it was) business as usual that brought the police through our front door. This is just what they do. We just don’t hear about it. The only reason people heard about my story is that I happened to be a clean-cut white mayor.”

Radley Balko of Reason magazine says more than a hundred police SWAT raids are conducted every day. Does the use of illicit drugs really justify the militarization of the police, the violent disregard for our civil liberties and the overpopulation of our prisons? It seems hard to believe.

I understand that people on drugs can do terrible harm — wreck lives and hurt people. But that’s true for alcohol, too. But alcohol prohibition didn’t work. It created Al Capone and organized crime. Now drug prohibition funds nasty Mexican gangs and the Taliban. Is it worth it? I don’t think so.

Everything can be abused, but that doesn’t mean government can stop it, or should try to stop it. Government goes astray when it tries to protect us from ourselves.

Many people fear that if drugs were legal, there would be much more use and abuse. That’s possible, but there is little evidence to support that assumption. In the Netherlands, marijuana has been legal for years. Yet the Dutch are actually less likely to smoke than Americans. Thirty-eight percent of American adolescents have smoked pot, while only 20 percent of Dutch teens have.
One Dutch official told me that “we’ve succeeded in making pot boring.”

By contrast, what good has the drug war done? It’s been 40 years since Richard Nixon declared war on drugs. Since then, government has spent billions and officials keep announcing their “successes.” They are always holding press conferences showing off big drug busts. So it’s not like authorities aren’t trying.

We’ve locked up 2.3 million people, a higher percentage than any other country. That allows China to criticize America’s human-rights record because our prisons are “packed with inmates.”

Yet drugs are still everywhere. The war on drugs wrecks far more lives than drugs do!

Need more proof? Fox News runs stories about Mexican cocaine cartels and marijuana gangs that smuggle drugs into Arizona. Few stop to think that legalization would end the violence. There are no Corona beer smugglers. Beer sellers don’t smuggle. They simply ship their product. Drug laws cause drug crime.

The drug trade moved to Mexico partly because our government funded narcotics police in Colombia and sprayed the growing fields with herbicides. We announced it was a success! We cut way back on the Colombian drug trade.

But so what? All we did was squeeze the balloon. The drug trade moved across the border to Peru, and now it’s moved to Mexico. So the new president of Mexico is squeezing the balloon. Now the trade and the violence are spilling over the border into the United States.

That’s what I call progress. It the kind of progress we don’t need.

Economist Ludwig von Mises wrote: “(O)nce the principle is admitted that it is the duty of the government to protect the individual against his own foolishness … (w)hy not prevent him from reading bad books and bad plays … ? The mischief done by bad ideologies is more pernicious … than that done by narcotic drugs.”

Right on, Ludwig!”- http://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/end-the-drug-war.html

Naturally, because Stossel is writing for corporate thugs, his piece lacks the subversive quality of say a Kevin Booth flick. In other words, he doesn’t cite the Government as Vicious and Evil criminals, like they are. But, nonetheless, he makes some key, fundamental points here and the fact that this matter is being questioned in such Right Wing media as the Herald and Faux News, demonstrates that we are moving forward. Yippie!