Captain of Industry

Review of Captain America: The First Avenger

Originally published at Dissident Voice

Spoiler alert: America wins! (But seriously, spoiler alert.)

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a man masturbating with an American flag — forever.  That is at least part of the message that I took away from Captain America: The First Avenger.¹ The US is that unique superpower that will never fall, and as evidence for such a position withers, the way that the history of such a power is presented can make all the difference in the remaining number of true believers.

The film is set during the final years of World War II, when the US was kicking Nazi ass and preparing to become captain-in-chief of the post-war planet.  In the 21st century, Nazis are incredibly useful storytelling tools.  They were white, so you don’t have to worry about those annoying charges of racism and the hard work of checking for privilege in the script writing.  They’re the nearest there is to a consensus when it comes to identifying real-life bad guys (so you don’t have to worry about alienating too many potential customers), whereas every murderous rampage since has been morally murky and not suited to superhero simplifications.  And for an increasingly large majority of people, they are not known by memory, and can thus be embodied with whatever evil or comical characteristics suit the occasion (and of the minority who do remember, not too many go to summer blockbusters). If the country has been waging war in the name of peace since before we can remember, why shouldn’t we think that it will extend at least that far again into the future, if not indefinitely?

Whilst we’ve been continually retelling the story of our ‘finest hour,’ however, the world has, in fact, changed.  Domestic dollars no longer provide enough of the monetary expansion needed, and while the proportion of the global population mired in poverty has scarcely changed (thanks to decades of neoliberalism and economy crushing depressions), there are still more opportunities abroad than in 1945.  Just as the gangrenous News Of The World was severed by Murdoch, the filmmakers have cut out a lot of the overt pig-headed chauvinism embodied in a character who is so laughably named (aside from the occasional “there’s flags in MY future” comments; i.e., the American flag; i.e., the American nation).  The script makes fun of cheesy wartime bond-selling efforts.  It doesn’t mention the dictator Mussolini or his military even when a significant part of the plot takes place in 1943 Italy, separating that group of potential ticket holders from the “real” villains, the Nazis (a trick employed with more sophistication in the forward-thinking 1943 Humphrey Bogart film, Sahara).² The story of German defector Abraham Erskine, an anti-Hitler scientist who develops the “super soldier” serum but is then immediately and unfortunately assassinated out of the rest of the series, is retained.

A Frenchman is given one line, and looked at funny for saying it in French.  Unlike the actual army, Captain America’s handpicked team is integrated, yet the Nazis are apparently so well documented that the white supremacist nature of their threat is never even mentioned, lest we notice the glaring contradiction of Allied powers with legal systematic racism and centuries-old empires fighting for freedom.  In fact, since the real baddies of the film are not Nazis but a weird fictional cult who don’t think the Nazis can manage the job, Germans are further assured that their money is welcome.  At one point an English soldier says “Mind the gap” for no logical reason, purely for the amusement of American viewers, but hell, those limeys should be happy that they were even bloody well included.

Which brings us to the English love interest, patronisingly dolled-up for the modern era with a feisty right hook and some military knowledge.  Despite such skills she, of course, falls for the muscleman in the stupid rubbery outfit and does her best to support him in his serious manly tasks.  Like their involvement in American conflicts since at least the first Gulf War, the point of the UK soldier in this case is to serve as a fig-leaf for international co-operation.  No matter the size of the deployment, they are generally presented as enough proof that the US is not the testosterone-fueled lone ranger serial killer that it secretly fears itself to be, and the adventures can continue.  It is important to show that not only was the US the big dog of power even way back then (bigger than it actually was, extending the imaginary future), but that it was viewed and admired as such by select foreigners.  Despite the desire of Churchill to involve the US in the war in the early years, that was a matter of practicality, not worship.  At the time many English people viewed the US in the way Westerners view more recently freed colonies today: a quaint little pseudo-country, which can be tolerated as long as it doesn’t get too ambitious.  You see, arrogance in declining imperial nations takes a generation or two to even begin to subside (as the US is now learning). But never mind accuracy — here, England is the lapdog. England has always been the lapdog.

Several other myths are dragged out of our grandparents age to serve the current agenda.  America is the humble little shit who believes in justice and tries his best, then through ingenuity and new technology improves his situation and clambers to the top of the heap, where he deserves to be.  Having gotten there, with many jealously still picking on him, he turns the other cheek and saves them in glorious fashion.  Our enemies, the Islamo-/fascists, have the same destructive technology as us, but cannot be trusted to be responsible with it (whether super soldier serum or nuclear weapons).  When Captain America saves New York from a suicidal plane by taking it down early and sacrificing himself, you can practically hear the writers soapboxing: this world of fictional history is around us today!  September 11th is a one-dimensional tale of good versus evil and could have been prevented had we realised it in time!  We don’t need to worry about the details and complexity that surround us or about our role in terrorism, because superheroes fight bad guys and always win!  Just in case this isn’t obvious enough, the Captain is then frozen in ice and wakes up in the present day — in New York.

Yes, the character was created in 1941, and we should make some allowances for the prejudices and viewpoints of the day.  Yes, Captain America is sent to the future to set up the next Marvel film, The Avengers (also laughably named. It would more suit an un-American group. Al-Avengers perhaps.)  No, the observations made here were not necessarily the goals of the people involved.  But that does not mean that the film is incapable of unwittingly pushing certain agendas or fitting certain convenient narratives.  If you want to prolong an empire, keeping up the confidence of its inhabitants will ensure that they continue to work hard for it.  The subheading for the film, character accuracy aside, should not be The First Avenger  but The First Shots.  It was during the mid-1940’s that the United States went for global domination while it had the chance, setting up the UN Security Council, IMF and World Bank to work in its favour³, and dropping nukes to tell the USSR to back off.  The makers of this film are both desperate to return to this time of glory and reshape it to make Americans feel good today.  When both the past and present are distorted, the future becomes an unnerving blur.

1. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), a film by Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures. Starring Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving. Directed by Joe Johnston.
2. See part of the impassioned speech that seeks to draw a distinction between wartime Germany and Italy here.
3. George Monbiot, How to Stop America, New Statesman, 9th June 2003.

Bust a Groove

Various Artists

GrowthBusters: Earth Day 2011 Soundtrack

Citizen-Powered Media, 2011

Originally published at Dissident Voice

Fatih Birol has done it again. At the end of May the chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA) was quoted in The Guardian as saying that preventing a 2 degree increase in global temperatures might be nothing but “a nice Utopia.”  About a month earlier, on the Australian network ABC, he repeated his organisation’s belief that “crude oil production has already peaked, in 2006.”  It’s starting to look like his tolerance for restrained advisement on energy issues has also peaked and gone into decline.

The Guardian article in question was noteworthy not just because it reported that runaway climate change might be unavoidable depending on what happens this year (a reasonable prediction that, unfortunately, has lost its impact due to continuous warnings), but because it showed how strong the link is between resource consumption and economic growth. Because of the worst recession in living memory, global carbon emissions fell from 29.3Gt (gigatonnes) to 29Gt between 2008 and 2009. Compare that with the huge jump to 30.6Gt that took place in 2010, even as we still swim in the thick of financial troubles (and apparently, declining amounts of cheap oil). The link is not only explicit – it’s completely out of proportion. Everything seems to hinge on finding a different goal for our economy.

A group called GrowthBusters, made up of a core of dedicated activists and international volunteers, has been pointing this out for five years. Their film, Hooked on Growth, is due for release this October. As part of the effort, an Earth Day soundtrack is currently being sold to raise funds and awareness, and features a mix of artists from various genres. The legendary folk singer, Pete Seeger, makes an appearance, and his amusing live contribution, “We’ll All Be A-Doubling,” is a fine centrepiece for much of the CD’s acoustic singer-songwriters.

If you like your music a little more extreme, there’s a decent amount on offer here as well. South Australian act The Chairman provide “Zero (Al Bartlett).” In the vein of PPK’s “I Have a Dream” and Coldcut’s Blair-bashing “Revolution,” it’s an electronic track featuring quotations from physics professor Bartlett, who is most famous for his lectures on the exponential function. Black Piranha’s “It’s Our World” is New Orleans style classic rock with sincere 80’s riffage. Jake Fader, teaming up with different vocalists, puts in two great songs. The first, the documentary’s theme, opens the album in a Ghostbusters-influenced-reggae direction, obviously. The second, “All The Little Birdies,” is reminiscent of Erykah Badu neo-soul, with its near-rapping and relaxed drum, piano and guitar beat.

Not everything on the compilation will be to everyone’s taste. Like the solutions we seek, it needs to be a diverse affair. For me, the album echoes the history of growth economy: the same ideas run throughout, but towards the end of the timeline it doesn’t seem to be as enjoyable. There was a long period when re-distribution really might not have provided enough for everyone, and growth seemed like a noble goal. Now that the generation of additional money is causing more harm than good, we need to be able to accept that it has outlived its usefulness (and the last couple of tracks on the CD are aimed at kids, to be fair). Hopefully the as-yet-unwritten bonus songs will be beautifully crafted art, and not grim, unlistenable shite.

You can hear samples of all the music here. Both digital downloads and physical copies are available for the same price. If you’re interested in financially supporting the film but don’t fancy the soundtrack, a Kickstarter campaign has just gotten underway to fund final production costs. GrowthBusters is aiming to raise $20,000 and any pledge you make will only be taken from your account if the goal is met by August 7th.

Conditioned

Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer)

Stan Cox, The New Press, 2010

Originally published at Dissident Voice

The choice of font for the Blair’s Air Conditioning and Heating company says a lot about what we want. The letters are coated in snow;¹ we wish, at least initially, to go from one extreme temperature to another, and may the Floridian that has never had to wear a jacket to an indoor activity be the first to deny it.

Enjoyment of extremes — which can also be seen at beaches — is just one of the methods for weaning ourselves off of refrigerated air that Stan Cox suggests in his book, Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer).² As a person from the North of a country in the North of a continent in the Northern hemisphere, I was, until I moved to St Petersburg, fairly uninterested in air-conditioning. Being dependent on electricity, I had imagined that cleaning up its environmental impact would be a simple matter of changing the energy source, at least compared to improving heating systems based on natural gas. But air-conditioning is more than just an ironic indicator of the problems we face in preventing a warming planet. Cox shows that it has changed our world in ways that are hard to comprehend.

The following figures are approximate. Air-conditioning now accounts for a third of electricity use in the U.S. (20% in homes, 13% in the commercial sector). The same amount of electricity is used for AC today as for all purposes in 1955. Between 1993 and 2005, the total amount of energy used for AC doubled. Each American uses as much electricity for AC as 3 Africans use for all of their needs. We would create as much pollution if every U.S. household bought an additional vehicle and drove it around for 7000 miles per year. I cannot bring myself to depress you with the figures projected for AC’s increasing use as the Earth heats up. 

The direct energy burdens air-conditioning creates are only part of the story. As Cox points out, “from the desert Southwest to the Everglades, air-conditioning has played an essential role in drawing millions of people to some of the country’s most fragile environments.” It has acted as a bridge between the places humans can naturally thrive and other glorious forms of destruction. For example, a 2006 report by the Florida Coastal and Ocean Coalition shows that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approves more permits to destroy wetlands in Florida than any other state, approving 12,000 permits between 1999 and 2003. The number of applications rejected: one. Gary Mormino of the University of South Florida is quoted as saying that it is “inconceivable” that 18.5 million people would be in Florida today without AC.

Even without population growth, domestic use of AC would have exploded. The excesses documented are some of the most infuriating problems in the book, but they may well prove the easiest to solve. They include cooling empty winter homes in the summer to protect possessions, and homeowners associations that ban visible fans or window air-conditioning units — both less wasteful than centralized air — on the grounds of aesthetics. More troublesome is the fact that in the last half of the twentieth century, average housing size doubled and per occupant floor space tripled. An “efficient” 3000 square foot house uses far more energy than a leaky 1500 square foot house.

That other great twentieth century innovation, the car, would also be a much different beast without artificially cooled air. A typical vehicle in Hawaii uses 94 gallons of gasoline per year just to run the AC unit; in Arizona the amount is 76, in Florida, 73. When you add all the numbers together, the national cost is 7 billion gallons of fuel annually, or 5.5% of the total — a point worth remembering as we hit peak oil. A habit has developed among some of leaving AC blowing in vehicles whilst they wait in parking lots for their owners’ return. Wealthy Americans can now store their pride-and-joy mid-life-crisis indicators in climate-controlled rooms known as car condos. Cox even ponders whether AC is responsible for the United States’ wider car culture: “It seems worth asking whether the working people of America would be in open revolt by now against the mind-numbing ordeal of ever-lengthening commutes were it not for air-conditioning” and other mobile comforts and distractions.

We should be glad that that band of hippies, the U.S. military, is working on expanding its use of renewable energy, as at present, 85% of the diesel taken into Iraq and Afghanistan is used to run AC. Air-conditioning may not only have made invasions of intensely hot countries possible, it may have made them even more inhumane than they otherwise would have been. Troops in air-conditioned Humvees rather than open top vehicles can’t easily interact with locals, adding to the illusion of the war video game. The concern is not so much hearts and minds as heat and melting.

Air control has affected our health in many ways, including our ability to cope with extreme heat. But as air-conditioning is often not just a health issue, but a life or death issue — as the Immokalee farm workers, living in metal trailers based on oven blueprints, know to their peril — what is the solution? Among his conclusions, Cox undermines several prominent lines of thinking that dominate present climate policy. 

The first is that striving for energy efficient appliances is worthwhile under our current program of perpetual economic growth. Efficiency at present simply lowers prices for both producers and consumers of energy and results in higher levels of consumption. The governments Energy Information Agency, for example, expects a 22% increase in commercial sector cooling over the next 20 years, even with improvements in efficiency — the growth of the sector will undo any technological gains made, and then some. This effect is called rebound, and it explains why nothing other than a large global recession seems able to even dent our carbon dioxide output. The only way to slash emissions sufficiently is to cut overall energy use, and that means dumping economic growth.

The second myth, which is found all over the political spectrum, is that we are going to trade our way out of trouble. If there is anybody left who still can’t see a problem with markets, and that accepts climate change science, one simple fact devastates their proposed path to sustainability. Under solely market forces, U.S. renewable energy generation is expected to quadruple by 2030, but that will only provide enough energy to power 75% of AC use, let alone anything else. This again shows that attempting to meet current energy demands rather than using less of it is unlikely to be enough.

In response to these problems, Cox pads his technological and efficiency-based tree shades and solar-powered systems in a bed of other elegant solutions. He shows that when we choose to try and live in natural temperatures, our bodies participate in regulating our internal thermometers, and our tolerance grows as a result. Cooling centers could provide a way to give relief to everyone, whilst bringing us out of the individual homes that air-conditioning has sent us hiding in to. Tough truths also have to be accepted and acted upon. Air-conditionings demands only add to the need to reduce our dependence on the private vehicle. States like Florida need to restrict the over development that is ramping up Northern flight and sending them into the Gulf of Mexico (although the crushing of Amendment 4 by big money this past November 2nd demonstrates how hard this may be). We may simply need to leave some hot areas for good.

Air-conditioning activism provides no excitement for anybody. It allows us neither the glory of storming the local coal power station or the feel-good easiness of eco-shopping. It is so boring in fact that I can barely bring myself to pump up this concluding paragraph. But, as the rest of the world climbs towards American levels of use, we must deal with it. Serious work on sustainability sometimes requires confrontation with drab subjects. The benefits of living with less artificially cooled air, such as more outdoor activities and more employee control of comfort in the workplace, will slowly begin to surface. In the meantime, I can tell you that writing book reviews in your underwear is a good way of keeping the thermostat turned up.

1. Newsletter ‘HomeSense’ from Blair’s Air Conditioning and Heating, Fall 2010
2. Unless referenced, all other statements are taken from or based on this book. 

Pandemonium
Logan Albright
Self-published, 2010

John Milton would probably be disappointed to see the continued existence of extravagant royal weddings in England in 2011. The famous poet and republican who lived during the country's blip without monarchy wrote directly and indirectly of the dangers of unchallengeable power, messages which the modern royal family have sidestepped through a misleading PR campaign about symbolic figureheads and tradition. During the recent offensive, many United States citizens have fully embraced a power structure that they once threw off, without discarding any of the ideas on which that revolution was based. One man who hasn't succumbed to such nonsense compartmentalisation is Logan Albright, the author of a recent novel based on Milton's Paradise Lost, named Pandemonium.

The stripped-down yet sleek packaging of Pandemonium is a far cry from pompous self-indulgence, with an understated brown-paper coloured cover reminiscent of an organic vegetable box delivery. Does it contain as much flavour and revolutionary potential? Or is slogging through this book the hell which its title implies? While the story itself contains more than one hellish location, it is, thankfully, a joy to read. It takes place in a vast futuristic galaxy of anthropomorphised birds, the majority of whom work for a corporation named Infinity United. To call it a corporation is something of an understatement, as Infinity United control virtually all aspects of life, having taken over the role of governance long ago. Nobody, even within the regime, can remember how it began or its early years of expansion, such is the breadth of its power. We follow a small group of rebels, led by a former high-ranking employee named Lucas, in their mission for liberty over security.

For reasons that are initially unclear, the plot begins with the group on a lifeless volcanic rock of little significance. It bears no resemblance to the glistening headquarters of their banishers and former employers on the planet Plerixia, which features threatening tooth-shaped buildings and a surface that is 97% paneled over. In these places and elsewhere, Albright describes his environments well. His characters, likewise, are sharply defined, and even those in supporting and minimal roles are interesting enough to keep the reader from becoming lost and disinterested in this unimaginably large setting. As I was introduced to new individuals and spacey species, I thought of the world of Starfox and the Lylat system (the title having already made me think of another game series, which appeared in part, oddly enough, on the spaced-out Saturn console). We come to see their amusing quirks and faults in a relatively short space of time, and the intelligent and humble Lucas would no doubt find a kindred spirit in the fox commander. Nowhere is the comparison more fitting than the battle scenes, where lasers and razor-sharp talons relay a sense of chaos that is both thrilling and horrifying, knowing you can only possibly be learning of a small part of the carnage.

Until I was about two-thirds of the way through Pandemonium, I kept waiting for a political turn in narrative that never came. You see, I know Logan Albright personally. As a representative of the libertarian right, he has for many years outraged and mocked me and my radical positions. But I have a hard time disliking him. He doesn't take his opinions lightly or wear them as a fashion accessory, and is the ideal antidote to the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. Instead of a laughable haircut, he has facial hair somewhere between Frank Zappa and John Waters, and instead of a clown-like naivete, he is actually a respectable human being. Stories of revolution and tyranny are, of course, prevalent all over the political spectrum (particularly in the United States), but Pandemonium and its character-driven epic reads a lot like a novel by the progressive comedian and author Ben Elton (Blackadder, Gridlock). Unlike with Elton, however, the books excellence stems from the fact that the politics are present and important, but universal. They are also, like the human beings of the plot, a supporting species, yet filling a significant (and in the humans case, chilling) role. It takes a big person to perform this kind of separation in their art, and the skill needed to tell such a big story in an easily digestible size is evident in Pandemonium too.

Pandemonium can be bought in both paperback and kindle form, and a preview can be read at the amazon page. Logan Albright has also recently published a new book, entitled Errant Heirs: A Character Study in Five Parts.

Trading Bluebloods for Oil
Why anti-Monarchist activists and peak oilers should care about one another’s campaigns

Originally published at Transition Voice

This past November an announcement shocked the world.  We all suspected that it would be confirmed eventually, not least because of years of media speculation.  But suddenly we had a date for it - a date that could be stamped decisively into the history books.  It has dominated the headlines ever since and even threatened to overshadow the seriousness of the austerity cuts being implemented across most of the Western world, an issue to which it is closely connected.  I am of course talking about the announcement from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that global conventional oil production peaked back in 2006, signaling officially that our industrial way of life is on the way out(1).

Unfortunately, the media coverage wasn’t quite that which is given to your average Royal engagement (or even 1%).  And on the surface, perhaps that’s fair.  We learn when we are children that oil is a finite resource.  Those interested in peak oil have always known that the exact time of the peak wouldn’t be obvious until years after it happened, and a casual look at the data since 2006 made it pretty clear that we were probably already very close to the stage of decline.  But the Paris-based IEA is a conservative and restrained body.  Its coupling of the announcement with absurd reassurances that tar sands and other polluting and pathetic technologies would keep economic growth trundling along for a few more decades is proof of that.  For this organisation to finally give us a specific date in the face of its usual policy of trying to keep everyone calm (and in the dark), was a sobering moment.  This world-changing problem took on a solid form.

The fantasy world of energy resources is mirrored in the fantasy world of the Wills and Kate wedding.  Politicians and newspapers invited us to escape our economic woes by living vicariously through them and their Disneyfied lives.  Despite the fact that it is actually they who are living through us on their taxpayer-funded special day, it is tempting to buy into this logic – what’s wrong with a little innocent escapism?  The problem is that the Royal establishment is using this once-in-a-generation event to revitalise a positive image of themselves as saviours of the nation, at a time when dissenting questions regarding their place in the world are increasing.

The simplest criticisms of the monarchy are self-explanatory.  The head of state is a hereditary position, unelected and impossible to democratically remove.  They take money from everyday people to fund lavish lifestyles, with little in the way of a defense.  They portray a stereotypical image of British people around the world as out-of-touch, snobbish, arrogant and old-fashioned, to say nothing of the image that we all support having such Royalty.  The Queen represents a violent, shameful and embarrassing colonial past in her continuing position as head of state of 15 other countries. 

However the more alarming issues are rarely heard about.  The royals have been relatively shielded from Freedom of Information laws since their introduction in 2005, but in January of this year they were effectively given complete protection from disclosing their activities to their ‘subjects’(2).  Royals are given military ranks, medals and jobs irrespective of whether they are qualified for them or deserve them(3).  The monarchy is an area in which the BBC is most spectacularly far from impartial.  The monarch effectively holds the entire British government in her hands.  He or she (he will still always be picked over she, by the way) has the ability to veto any legislation passed by parliament.  They can appoint whoever they like as Prime Minister, dissolve Parliament (triggering an election) or even dismiss the entire government(4). 

All this is kept under wraps and unreformed by a mighty Buckingham Palace PR machine, which uses virtually unlimited public money to convince us that we cannot have any kind of national identity separate from an institution whose primary achievement is a thousand years of anti-democratic oppression.

Monarchists argue that these powers are hardly ever used as to do so would open the monarchy to criticism and threaten its existence.  But this is surely a tacit admission that the powers are unjustified.  We may have had a smart political operator in the driver’s seat since 1952, who knows to keep her opinions quiet or non-partisan and her interference in governance subtle and - perhaps - minimal.  There is no guarantee her successors would act in the same way.  Prince Charles, with his outspoken moral judgments and personal scandals, is being urged and maneuvered out of taking over the reins not just by republicans, but by some monarchists too, because he runs the risk of bringing the whole palace of cards down.

It is not difficult to see how increasing social turmoil caused by a series of interlinked crises – peak oil, the end of economic growth, climate change, food shortages – could lead to a return of using never repealed royal powers, subtly or otherwise.  Strong leadership may become welcome, but when you have an illegitimate platform to proclaim your leadership skills, and the public has no way to hold you to account, it becomes less appealing.  A state of emergency may make the ability to use privileges and power within the military, media, political and tax systems seem worth the bad publicity.  It might seem that if we’re going to have an unelected head of state going into a period of resource shortages, it would at least be beneficial to have someone like Charles who seems to have knowledge of some of the issues.  Yet putting aside that his mandate would still be entirely undemocratic, Charles’ understanding of energy is often exaggerated, simply because of his status. 

Unsurprisingly, his views are completely lacking in class analysis.  He routinely encourages regular people to green their lives, whilst ignoring the fact that his stolen millions commit him to spending his way through resources.  In September, shortly before his son’s marriage distracted everyone, Charles was traveling the country by train to promote the eco-consumerism message.  Once again letting the capitalist economy off the hook, the adventure cost taxpayers at least £50,000, caused untold pollution and demonstrated the ego of somebody who really has nothing new to add to the debate(5).  He has flown to Scotland by private jet for an Easter getaway and flown business class to New York to pick up an environmental award(6). His reliance on religious answers to our environmental troubles could lead into medieval territory, if he and those closest to him take the remaining oil, while the rest of us are encouraged to pray as we shiver around candles(7).

Even more worrying than the powers the monarchy holds onto are the powers the monarchy hands over to politicians in exchange for unwavering support.  These include the ability to make treaties, govern overseas territories, appoint and remove peers and ministers, declare war and deploy ‘Her Majesty’s’ Armed Forces – used most infamously by Tony Blair to invade Iraq.  All this can be done without parliamentary or public consultation, let alone approval(8).  The Queen meets up with the Prime Minister on a weekly basis to discuss policies.  As you can see, we really do have a choice: between a dictatorial head of state and a dictatorial head of government.

The point here is not that these two issues are of equal weight.  Even the main UK group working against the monarchy, Republic, has said itself that there are more imperative problems, and set itself a modest goal of success by 2025(9).  Unlike the end of cheap oil, on which everything from medicines to mass-produced food to waging oil wars relies, republicanism lacks urgency.  But both campaigns desperately need more supporters, action and widespread awareness, and it seems that some solidarity might be in order.  Anti-monarchy activists don’t want to see the royal family gain even more power and prestige.  Peak oil activists don’t want there to be even less freedom ahead of us.  If there’s one thing we’re not going to need in the coming decades, it’s the knowledge that we could have abated the situation if only we had connected the dots.

There is one more way in which the Royals are already making the future a more daunting place.  The “Wedding of the Century,” as Entertainment Weekly billed it(10), is the celebrity culture at its peak.  Every moment spent obsessing over the lives of the rich and famous is a moment not spent preparing for a fragile tomorrow, or even, living our own lives.  Does it seem likely that the monarchy doesn’t have a back-up plan, in the event that the lights go out?

References:

1. It’s official: Peak oil came in 2006. Transition Voice magazine. November 10th 2010. http://transitionvoice.com/2010/11/its-official-peak-oil-came-in-2006/
2. Royal Family granted new right of secrecy. The Independent. January 8th 2011. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/royal-family-granted-new-right-of-secrecy-2179148.html
3. Royals and the Military. Republic. http://www.republic.org.uk/What%20we%20want/In%20depth/Royals%20and%20the%20military/index.php
4. The British Constitution. Republic. http://www.republic.org.uk/What%20we%20want/In%20depth/The%20British%20Constitution/index.php
5. And Finally. SchNEWS. September 10th 2010.  http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news7388.php
6. Charles 'the hypocrite' takes private plane for 500-mile trip to Scotland. London Evening Standard.  March 31st 2007. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23390946-charles-the-hypocrite-takes-private-plane-for-500-mile-trip-to-scotland.do
7. God versus Greens. The Guardian. May 25th 2000. http://www.monbiot.com/2000/05/25/god-versus-greens/
8. The British Constitution. Republic. http://www.republic.org.uk/What%20we%20want/In%20depth/The%20British%20Constitution/index.php
9. Join Network 25. Republic. http://www.republic.org.uk/Get%20Involved/Join%20Network%20%2725/index.php
10. You are invited to a Media Frenzy! Entertainment Weekly cover story. March 4th 2011. http://www.ew.com/ew/inside/issue/0,,ewTax:1144,00.html

Dead Sound

Monuments To Alienation (demo number one)

Self-released, 2010

When I first saw the name of this band on a promotional flyer, I asked myself, "is this going to be the usual bollocks hardcore concoction?"  Then I saw their emboldened URL on the same flyer, steadystateflorida.blogspot.com, and I thought, "okay, maybe they're Propagandhi-esque radicals dedicated to the destruction of capitalism and the introduction of a sustainable, steady-state economic system."  Then I read the text description and decided to stop wasting time trying to guess stuff from a name (turns out 'Steady State' is the bands predecessor).

Dead Sound make the kind of grufty melodic Florida punk that causes so many people to go weak at the knees.  It's a vague maturation of the genre that's not so angry, with lyrics that are more personal, narrative-driven and sometimes melancholy, even if still occasionally referencing political issues (see the PTSD-themed 'Bryan').  It's not surprising to learn that the band has played with the likes of Leatherface and Smoke or Fire after hearing this record.  But in searching for familiar dead or undead sounds, you'll find there are some ingredients mixed into the pot to make it original enough.

The track 'Better on my Own' has a wonderful, nostalgic pop-punk momentum, particularly in it's introduction.  The ghost of Against Me!'s respectability can be heard a little in 'Another Rainy Night' and most certainly in the disc closer 'I Hope the Ending Is A Beginning'.  I think my favorite song however is 'Stale Coffee, Burnt Toast, and AM Radio'.  Somewhere in there the guitar becomes casually, modestly, effortlessly epic.  Although the sleeve indicates that the track is about spending a lonely night in a diner, the title made me think of those mornings when you just know you're going to have a bad day at the office.  And what could be more of a monument to alienation than the 9-to-5 cubicle or cash register?

And if the other side of the workplace equation, consumerism, gets you alienated, Dead Sound have a range of options for you. The band have not only made 'demo number one' (it has 11 tracks but alright) available as a free stream, you can download it for free or a donation of your choosing.  The hard copy, complete with cool screen-printed tree artwork and eco cardboard cases, is available for just 6 dollars.  Perhaps they should change their name to Red Sound as they're clearly a bunch of America-hating commies after all.

The band have recently acquired new members and are looking to play live in the next month or two.

http://deadsoundfl.bandcamp.com

Paint it Black, Ceremony, Hammers, The Shadowcops

Monday 21st September 2009

Star and Garter, Manchester

"Our bands sing about the darkest shit, but we love life with a passion," said Dan Yemin during the headline set, an observation that is certainly appropriate when lots of enthusiastic people turn up to see a gig bookended by bands with the words "Shadow" and "Black" in their names. Locals The Shadowcops are without their usual bassist, Mike (believed at the time to be in Turkey, filming a remake of Midnight Express). Whether this has anything to do with the relative lack of merrymaking during their set is hard to say, but the songs - mostly from their album, A Big Pot of Hot - are still rock n' roll topness even with a temp who had to learn the songs quickly. You can buy their album here: http://www.tnsrecords.co.uk/webstore

Highbrow humour comes with Hammers when they do all their soundchecks screaming wildly, which is an indication of what's to come.  By which I mean rage really, not humour.  If they had shown up dressed like the Hammer brothers from Super Mario then we might be onto humour. Nothing in the set is particularly distinctive, but on the other hand their music certainly isn't like being hit in the face with a flying hammer, except in a good way.

As Ceremony begin their first song the singer thusts his shirt over the mic stand, which coupled with the, again, style of screaming hardcore, reminded me of a Send More Paramedics performance (with bones jutting out or something).  Considering I thought their name was "Cemetary" at first, it seemed even better. Some of the crowd is really getting into things for the first time in this set, as the weird behaviour continues, with the singer sticking his head out of the window, growling with the microphone in his mouth or placed against his throat.

Paint it Black last played here almost exactly a year ago, and unlike then, something about Dan Yemin's size and expressions and behaviour on stage seems a lot more matched to his gutteral, overpowering vocal style. During the first song he manages to bite his tongue and blood pours down his chin, which he leaves there because it "thankfully matches [his] shirt." In between getting through awesome tracks like "Womb Envy," "Cannibal" and new material, and charming the crowd, Yemin says how hard it is to follow Ceremony every night, something audience members might well have been thinking at the time of their set. But in no disappointed way. Paint it Black are briliant music and no bullshit, the only downside being that at about 30 minutes they didn't play for very long.

4/5

World Exploitation Cup
The tournament taking place in Germany next month is a catalyst for injustice.

In 2003, David Beckham earned £15.5 million by endorsing companies such as Adidas. The workers in Indonesia producing Adidas clothing earn $60 per month(1). Adidas, along with McDonald’s, Gillette, Yahoo!, Coca-Cola and Hyundai, to name but a few, is one of the official partners of World Cup 2006, and are no doubt making a killing, having jumped on the bandwagon as much as 3 years ago(2). Burger King were not so lucky(3). Across England, every shop and stall is bulging with official patriotic FIFA merchandise in preparation for our national sport’s biggest event, but you would be hard pressed to find any that was supporting workers in England rather than sweatshop owners in China(4).

Of course this is just the start of it. For years Nike, Barclays and friends have practically owned the game, the stadiums and the players. Only when there is the most stupendous uproar about awful working conditions, such as the cases of children as young as 10 in India and Pakistan stitching footballs together, does anyone seem to notice(5). But the World Cup is an advertising and endorsement opportunity that would make any CEO salivate. In Japan and South Korea in 2002 an estimated 300 million people tuned in(6), or, if you deal in individuals viewing, 32 billion(7). Aside from an upsurge in the sale of plastic flags, what else does it magnify?

The number of football fans expected to arrive in Germany in the next few weeks is 3 million, from at least 108 different countries(8), including 100,000 England supporters(9). With the airlines ever-dropping ticket prices, we can’t expect many people from outside continental Europe to be arriving by boat. FIFA seem to be aware that people are getting more concerned about the environment, and have implemented a World Cup 2006 project entitled Green Goal(10). Some of the measures outlined on the website are admirable, such as the increased use of rainwater to maintain pitches, but most of it reads like it was overseen by the BP greenwash department. Whilst there is a lot of talk of reducing transport emissions by 20% (it’s not clear from what), the only city that seems to have even vaguely overhauled its public transport is the city of Gelsenkirchen(11). Given that only 5 of the 64 games are taking place there, it’s not a good start. The goal is to persuade half of the 650,000 people travelling in and around the city to leave their cars at home. They seem to think this is an ambitious target, as around 70% normally travel by car, but presumably many tourists will have left their cars at home in the first place, and the city only has a population of 278,000. The plan “encompasses fans who still choose to travel to the Ruhr city by car” by having free parking; The best way to cut car use is to cut the availability of parking spaces, and instead invest in more trains and busses. But Hyundai may not have liked that proposal.

There is absolutely no mention of the impact of people travelling into the country, rendering the projects claims to be climate neutral absurd. It’s willingness to accommodate motorists outweighs it’s dedication to cycling: Several thousand free parking spaces will be provided in Gelsenkirchen, but in the city of Berlin, which has over 12 times as many inhabitants, a mere 700 bicycle spaces(12). There is a claim that the matches themselves will be carbon free, the lighting powered by hydroelectric dams(13). However, by the projects own admission this is simply power purchased from Switzerland being fed into the national grid, and only “offsets” the emissions of 4000 houses over the space of a year. The games are not actually carbon free, they just take capacity away from another country, a one off purchase that won’t encourage any further investment, as Switzerland already gets 16% of its energy from hydro power(14). Sporting events, paradoxically, have very little to do with health when it comes to watching them, so we can expect people to hop into Germany’s endless supply of taxis despite their relative expense(15), not to mention the internal flights between the major population centres. Given that the matches take place in 12 cities in all corners of the country, the amount of pollution from travel will skyrocket.

When it comes to hooliganism, England is still infamous for exporting it, and the World Cup brings fans together, including the small minority of fans who ruin it for everyone else. Although a problem throughout European football, a recent poll showed that 54% of Germans would select English fans as the worst troublemakers(16). In 2002 a prominent German newspaper published articles that would make the lead columnists of the Daily Mail blush, that according to the organisation Kick It Out portrayed World Cup co-hosts South Korea as “workaholic, alcoholic, dysfunctional dog-eaters”(17). Despite their distance from the tournament, Combat-18, the BNP and their associated thugs still managed to cause racist chaos on the streets of Britain 4 years ago(18), so are no doubt delighted that Germany is so comparatively near. Spurred on by the “we should never have taught them [Africans] to play football” comments of the Danish coach(19), the BNP published an article which claimed Denmark’s 2002 victory against France was due to it’s overbearing whiteness(20) (Denmark was subsequently beaten by an England team made up of black and Jewish players). The number of extremists and neo-Nazis in Germany is estimated to have risen in recent years, and a former government advisor has warned against non-white supporters visiting certain parts of East Germany following a racially motivated attack on a Turkish-German MP(21). With some African teams playing former European colonists, and the presence of Iran, the far-right will need holding down.

Perhaps the gravest consequence of such a biblical event is the overshadowing of other news. Whilst not responsible at the best of times, we can expect our newspapers to block out anything short of a nuclear war that is taking place outside Germany for a solid month. Front page news at the Daily Express focuses on the Africans coming here via boat who are not trying to see international stars, but escape grinding poverty(22). One can only imagine what they’ll be saying if The Hamburglars – a group of Robin Hood types currently invading classy restaurants in Hamburg(23) – manage to steal the spotlight away from this ludicrously over-reported tournament. 15,000 journalists will be in Germany covering it(24). Already the UK is applying the football blinkers. In the past month a democratic revolution has taken place in Nepal(25), the EU and US have removed all foreign aid to Palestine(26) and the so-called Octagon consortium has managed to extract £95 million of taxpayer money from a hospital scheme in Norfolk and Norwich(27). The tabloids are far more willing to accommodate page 3 girls in children’s England strips than a big awareness campaign about the high increase of illegal sex trafficking likely to take place during the event(28). However, if you ask the average person in the street about any of this, they are more likely to know about the size of the genitals of certain contestants on Big Brother 7(29).

I hate to rain on anyone’s good time, and acknowledge that football, being perhaps the world’s most popular sport, bonds people in a way nothing else can. If you go to an urban Ethiopian slum you are likely to find fans of Roy Keane(30). But a simple game that was not so long ago played by part-timers in England is now a multi-billion pound business, to be profited from whatever the consequences. Based on the evidence, it seems the beautiful game could stand to be a lot more beautiful.

Sources:

1. Leaflet produced by No Sweat, 2004.
2. http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/partners.html
3. Burger King ambush of 2006 FIFA World Cup stopped in its tracks in Israel. http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060208/1/60rd.html
4. See the label of every baseball cap, fridge magnet and arial topper in shops and stalls across England.
5. See, for example, http://www.christianaid.org.uk/indepth/9705spor/sportin2.htm#1 Christian Aid Reports: A Sporting Chance. May 1997.
6. Nike and the football industry. http://nosweat.org.uk/article.php?sid=97
7. Getting set for television spectacular. http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/050629/1/41zh.html, Paragraph 3.
8. Flying start to FIFA World Cup sales: 500,000 tickets ordered. http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/050201/1/320g.html, Paragraph 3.
9. Luke Harding, May 19th 2006, page 5. The Guardian.
10. http://greengoal.fifaworldcup.yahoo.net/en/home
11. Gelsenkirchen takes the train. http://greengoal.fifaworldcup.yahoo.net/en/news/details.php?id=100
12. All change in Berlin. http://greengoal.fifaworldcup.yahoo.net/en/news/details.php?id=78
13. Major boost for green power. http://greengoal.fifaworldcup.yahoo.net/en/news/details.php?id=65
14. Swiss Economy, Energy Policy. http://www.swissworld.org/eng/swissworld.html?siteSect=306&sid=4017139
15. German public transport. http://www.germany-tourism.co.uk/pages/getting_around.html, Paragraph 5 and 2.
16. Fears for safety of black fans increase after attack. http://www.kickitout.org/index.php?id=9&StoryID=2588, 4th to last paragraph.
17. German Press Attack South Korea. http://www.kickitout.org/index.php?id=9&StoryID=2216
18. Racial violence mars World Cup progress. July 2002, Searchlight Magazine. http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=51
19. Danish coach in racist tirade. http://www.kickitout.org/index.php?id=9&StoryID=2238
20. BNP scores World Cup own goal. http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=51, see bottom of page.
21. Fears for safety of black fans increase after attack. http://www.kickitout.org/index.php?id=9&StoryID=2588
22. Our Next Stop: Britain. Front page of Daily Express, mid-May 2006.
23. SchNEWS 545. http://schnews.org.uk/archive/news545.htm#9
24. Transport, Green Goal. http://greengoal.fifaworldcup.yahoo.net/en/das_will_greengoal/verkehr/, 1st paragraph.
25. SchNEWS 540. http://schnews.org.uk/archive/news540.htm#1
26. SchNEWS 544. http://schnews.org.uk/archive/news544.htm (see the cartoon above the piece - http://schnews.org.uk/images/544-wall-large.jpg)
27. An Easter Egg Hunt. The £95 million that private companies extracted from a hospital project was not a mistake, but a deliberate gift from the government. George Monbiot, 9th May 2006. The Guardian. http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/05/09/an-easter-egg-hunt/
28. Red card to trafficking during World Cup, Amnesty International USA. http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGACT770082006
29. “Big Secret”, or something equally as tacky. Front page of Daily Star, mid-May 2006.
30. Geldof in Africa, published by Century and BBC, 2005. Page 62.

Pennywise
The Fuse
Epitaph Records, 2005

Published at MancPunkScene

My past write-ups of Pennywise releases and performances have been anything but arse-kissing.  They have for a long time been, and are likely to remain for the foreseeable future, my favourite band.  Despite this, I often feel the need to defend my liking of them, and counter-act it in admitting their shortcomings in my writing.  Fans are an artists harshest critics.  Perhaps it’s to do with the fact that I have grown to love them in the years when they’ve released their least amazing material.

In many respects, this album is an improvement on From The Ashes. The band have gone back to addressing specific issues in some of their songs, such as disinformation (Fox TV), war (18 Soldiers) and our electronic dependence (Disconnect). There are some interesting ideas that grab your head and nod it in the music, which whilst not directly stolen, sound like they were influenced by the likes of Strung Out, Strike Anywhere, The Offspring (“woah-oh”). One line of thought they seem to have taken note of, at least to some extent– “If 7 Seconds can still play fast, why can’t Pennywise?” As usual, Pennywise know how to write an album opener and closer. A couple of songs, including said opener, have really cool high-pitched guitar segments and metallic stop-short riffs (ironically in this aspect, it is they who sound like 1208).

But there are still too many emo songs in punks clothing, whining about not fitting in instead of revelling in it, and whinging about the state of the world instead of getting angry about it. Even when Jim Lindberg is spouting defiant statements, it comes across like a whimsical, watered down version of an older song, partly because it sounds as if once again Lindberg has passed his voice through some sort of machinery, and partly because the words are so bloody unoriginal. Some of the apparent favourite terms and words include millions, lies (final song name), the wonderful filler “yeah yeah” and society. His obsession with the word society – ARRGH! There’s a song called Knocked Down and a song called Stand Up. A song named Dying, and a song named Take A Look Around (luckily no Fred Durst inspiration for Pennywise’s writing – yet).
 
You also get the feeling that they aren’t putting enough effort into the instrument music either, as a lot of it is bland and throwaway and doesn’t inspire at all. Certain tracks just get lost in the hearing.  Perhaps they are too insistent on having a new album every two years. I’m reminded of something my dad once said about skate punk: this music is just the drummer trying to keep up with the singer trying to keep up with the guitarists.

Maybe if you are new to the band, you will find more decent levels of enjoyment in this. It’s only because Pennywise in the past showed that they were capable of producing some of the most satisfying, straight up rock music of our time, indicative of punk’s radicalism, that they allow themselves to be criticised this way. We can guess they tried to retain that image by naming this latest album as they did. The actual result is like a Wile E. Coyote project: you light the fuse, it reaches the bomb, and nothing happens.

2/5

James Lamont.

7 Seconds
Take It Back, Take It On, Take It Over!
Side One Dummy Records, 2005

A typically revolutionary album title from a band with more optimism than I have that punk rock is going to change the world in any massive way.  I say this because they’ve been around longer than I’ve been alive (and no, I’m not just a really hilarious toddler).  17 tracks in 28 minutes.  I've listened to it 4 times whilst you've read this introduction.

For a band who once sang “I’m gonna stay young until I die” they write a lot of songs about being over the hill.  The 3 tracks that stand out most if you just have this album on in the background are the longest, “slowest” songs on the CD, they are all a bit cheesy (musically) and all have an ageing theme.  The best song all-around on the album, is the first, the only one that’s under a minute long  - “All Came Undone” is a song about looking back and wondering if you really changed things that much.  Which are the kind of elderly wises those of us in the 17 – 23 age-range can appreciate, because we wonder if we’ll look back and think the same.  There’s something disheartening about hearing Kevin Seconds pre-pubescent voice sing about “Your Parents Hardcore”.  On “Big Hardcore Mystery” he quite fairly says, “give the kids a try”, but it’s as if to imply that the kids aren’t giving it a try quite fine on their own.  Seconds also sings “some even tried to steal the name”, as if the bands musically tame and outdated definition of “hardcore music” is more true than the much heavier metal and emo hardcore bands that are around now.  Perhaps it would be cynical of me to wonder if the albums theme has anything to do with its title.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate what these guys did, but they’ve barely changed their sound in 20 years.  Which is okay I suppose, it’s a good sound.

Nevertheless, 7 Seconds have stuck around longer and remained more entertaining than many of their (younger) contemporaries, so perhaps we can allow them to settle into being middle aged.  Even though their gang vocals are starting to sound more like church harmonies, the guitars and drums are still infectiously well crafted, and Kevin Seconds unique voice still works brilliantly on your lugholes.  If you want something fast and fun and not at all groundbreaking, get this.

3/5

James Lamont.

South Asia Benefit gig: The Little Explorer, The Dragon Rapide, Tigers!, Day For Airstrikes, When
Words Escape, Raucous, Grayson's Hour, Durai, Cornish Tinmines
Sunday, 9th January 2005
The Phoenix, Manchester

It doesn’t take George Monbiot to figure out that the recent devastation in Southern Asia could have been minimised significantly in a world where wealth and resources are not so ridiculously (and purposefully) misplaced. It’s no pain in the arse for a Premier football club with more income than a remote island to throw a few thousand the way of a natural disaster, and the pathetic crumbs of “aid” donated by Western governments simply seem embarrassing. That is, until you read that Blairs government gave £1bn (20 times the aid money) to the Indonesian military, then a month before Christmas supported an arms fair in Jakarta. Then it becomes outrageous. The Indonesian military by the way, killed 20,000 civilians in Aceh and was still killing them right up until the day when it was hit by a tidal wave.

Luckily for our sense of shame, the British public have been donating a lot, apparently. As always, and as we seem keen to point out in the music scene, there is certainly a case of bandwagon jumping from people who never have and never will make a charitable contribution again. I suppose it’s better that they do this than bandwagon jump a national uzi fetish, but obviously, it’s pleasant to search out those genuine humanitarians. This is the point where I say, “yes, this is still a concert review.” As if it isn’t task enough to try and organise a 10-band line up, to do it so speedily is admirable. We don’t seem to have any trouble coming together in large numbers for benefit gigs, the sad thing is we don’t show unity of this scale all the time. The bands are a mixture that you wouldn’t normally expect to see together, which goes to show it can work.

The afternoon danced into the night from the rising punk of Durai to the non-stop noisities of Raucous.  From the easy mid 90’s emo of Grayson’s Hour to the twangly delicacies of Day For Airstrikes, and the kazoo’d madness of Tigers! to the sleepy sparks in The Little Explorer (who almost didn’t turn up at all).  Every band brought something positive to the table, and even though some claimed not to have fingers (I’m looking at you, When Words Escape!), the community vibe in the second floor venue was excellent throughout. Get your bum over to www.manchestershows.cjb.net for more gigs, and for information on the generous people who damaged our ears for free this past Sunday, www.mancpunkscene.co.uk would be a good place to start.

Between the door charge, cake/CD stall and additional donations, this day raised just under a £1000 for Oxfam ( www.oxfam.org.uk). An amazing feat. Let’s hope it’s not the last of its kind for a while after the BBC take their cameras off Sri Lanka, leaving the general populace back on the happy shores of apathy, far from any natural or man-made disasters.

5/5