Hoover Dam
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Ruby Ridge
A film about conspiracy theorists rather than a conspiracy theory film. Ruby Ridge is about the infamous anti-government family that holed themselves up at Ruby Ridge in a stand off with the Feds. What I like about this film is how it shows a particular overlap of societal influences that create a particularly American flavor of politics that doesn’t fit categories found elsewhere, having facets of both the liberal counter-culture and right wing conservatism.
Interviewed now, the Ruby Ridge family look like rural American conservatives, the father is interviewed in a diner full of Stetsons and cigarette smoke and the sweet natured, feminine looking, daughter speaks to us from a field, while firing off rounds from a twelve bore. This is Doris Day’s Calamity Jane rather than Jane Fonda.
In America, conspiracy theorists tend to be pro-gun, anti-government and anti-socialism. Rejection of government is ironically coupled by embracing certain cultural traits which are a result of the history of the American government, such as enshrined justification of armed protection of personal territory and fear of communism. In Europe the situation is the opposite, the rejection of the ruling class due to the exploitation of ordinary people as cannon fodder in WWI and the evils of extreme right wing government in WWII mean that people tend to view a socialist welfare state as sacrosanct, and weapons with suspicion.
In the 1930s, large scale economic chaos created the environment for the paranoia of the few to spread into the mainstream, in places like Germany. If America were ever in danger of suffering the same fate, its inner demons could be the same as those that are currently manifested in a tiny minority of paranoid people. In fact, the natural amplification of primal instinct on the web, means that conspiracy theorist nonsense has a worryingly large audience. The film Zeitgeist, has a larger audience than 60 minutes, it is the equivalent of Mein Kampf for the YouTube generation. Since rejection of society is amplified by the size of the country and the distance from people making decisions about their lives (creating a demonization of Federal over State taxes, for example), any kind of mass hysteria in the US is likely to take the form of libertarianism. .
There is a lot to learn about the people from Ruby Ridge, they are people who represent what can happen when the intrinsic, inner psychological fears of a society are amplified.
Television Delivers People – Richard Serra
June 5th, 2008 Comments Off on Television Delivers People – Richard Serra | # link to | posted by david
Celebrated artist, Richard Serra’s sweet little piss-take of TV as being pernicious not because it isn’t active, but because it isn’t even passive – it consumes you. Complete with brainless test card music.
Thanks: Dan Westlake
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Jamie Oliver Gasses Chicks
I’m of the view that if you are going to eat meat, you should be prepared to kill it. At the very least you should be aware of what you are eating. In this clip, UK chef, Jamie Oliver presents one of those cushy awards style shows where people sit around round dinner tables sipping wine. He asks the guests to select the paler of a bunch of cute baby chicks and put them in a box (these are the males). He then gasses them, something that is done to all male chicks by egg producers around the world, organic or regular. Male baby chicks are disposable, non-financially viable assets. The guests are predictably and presumably hypocritically (if they eat eggs) upset.
Around the World in 80 Treasures
As with the fictional ‘around the world in 80 days’ this 5 month 10 part odyssey made in 2005, includes a variety of modes of transport, exotic locations food and cultures – all to find the world’s 80 principal treasures. The list, of course, is suitably maverick and non-cliche for it to be absolutely fascinating. Chosen by Dan Cruickshank who is a personal favorite architectural historian, this is a must for architecture fans.
Angkor Wat
I’m posting this in time for the publicity bandwagon surrounding Indiana Jones and the Blah of Blah, because Angkor Wat is everything that an India Jones setting should be: a giant, alien looking ruin in the middle of the Jungle, encased in slithering tree roots. Except, of course, that Angkor Wat is real.
A year of my life in 10,000 photos
There are a few of these time lapse pieces on YouTube and nearly all are worth watching multiple times, to see which unexpected patterns emerge.
Air Guitar Nation
This could so easily have been nothing more than a five second joke based on the title. Instead its absolutely mesmerising.
The Curse of Oil
There are seemingly hundreds of awful documentaries about oil, so its refreshing to see a large budget 3 part, 3 hour long (1st part here), produced by people who are not nutcases, for the UK’s Channel 4.
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