Bush Tours Auschwitz, and a lightbulb goes off above his head... "Hey, I know a perfect spot in Texas where we can build something just like this," he excitedly remarked before reaching for his cell phone and calling John Ashcroft. "Johnny! We've got to build us one of those consternation camps where we can put anyone suspected of sympathising with the terrorists, the French or the Democrats." And in honor of this visit, some of the lyrics to the Ramones' Bonzo Goes to Bitburg... You've got to pick up the pieces C'mon, sort your trash You better pull yourself back together Maybe you've got too much cash Better call, call the law When you gonna turn yourself in? Yeah You're a politician Don't become one of Hitler's children Bonzo goes to bitburg then goes out for a cup of tea As I watched it on TV somehow it really bothered me Drank in all the bars in town for an extended foreign policy Pick up the pieces My brain is hanging upside down I need something to slow me down

Colin Powell on the shady "evidence" of Iraq's alleged WMDs: "I'm not reading this. This is bullshit." But you read it anyway, didn't you? Perhaps Harry Belafonte was right after all. (first link via metafilter)

A former FCC chairman talks about the dangers of media deregulation. Here is where you can let your voice be heard against this corporate consolidation of our media.

Washington Interns Gone Bad's favorite Senator, Rick Santorum, is having a kinky sex act named after him by Dan Savage readers! My vote is for the last one.

After reading this stupid article about Metallica and remembering exactly how much I hate those guys (and particularly Lars), I decided to fire up my favorite p2p tool and download as much of their new album as I could, burn it on CD and give it away to people. I've been able to download some of the tracks. Some were just old songs renamed. I have successfully downloaded a few of the tracks though, and here's a mini review (keep in mind I haven't bothered following them in years, so I don't know if any of these songs are already released or what)... Valley of Misery: radio-friendly power ballad crap. Vocal harmonies are nice and all, but not in metal. Chains of Pain has a couple of decent guitar riffs and it almost goes for their old sound, but they seem to be trying a little too hard and the lyrics are just dumb. A Time for Hate has a decent riff, but it sounds way too much like a bad Metallica cover band's attempt at an original song. Burn it Down is a decent instrumental which has sort of a campy b horror movie feel to it. Lastly, Dirty Window starts off with a decent riff and then the dorky vocal harmonies of weak-ass lyrics come and ruin it. James' vocals have some wierd effects on them, somewhat remeniscent of ZZ-Top (it works for ZZ-Top but not for Metallica). Anyway, my recommendation is to not spend any money on this piece of crap CD. They're even packaging it with a DVD of a live studio performance of the whole album. That should wind up on the p2p networks as well. If their music was as good as it used to be, they wouldn't need these kinds of gimicks, but they're just doing whatever they can to not let the napster backlash bite them in the ass.

Where can we get some of this in the US? Well, you could make it yourself.

Another reason I'm proud to live in the Bay Area: "Librarians in Palo Alto are facing off against the federal government. They are now shredding all documents and deleting all computer files about people's reading habits in protest of the U.S. Patriot Act.

Winona Ryder: The Musical!

Three more earthquakes in my neck of the woods and I didn't feel a thing. Anne thinks this is a precursor to the next big one and that we need to start preparing for it.

Thanks to freakgirl for this great link about the greatest word ever: Asshat.

Last night was the first earthquake that has happened since I moved to California and I didn't even know about it until tonight.

Funny that while official polls are showing Bush with a high approval rating, online polls like this one are telling a completely different story.

And if the Dixie Chicks backlash wasn't enough, here's a bit more ugly jingoism for you this morning: "New York Times reporter Chris Hedges warns the graduates of Rockford College that a warmongering America is "flirting with its own destruction" -- and gets booed off the stage."

Big surprise, the audience at the Academy of Country Music Awards are a bunch of ignorant jingoist rednecks. "Many country music fans aren't ready to forgive the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines for comments critical of President Bush: Voters rejected the group's nominations for three Academy of Country Music Awards and the audience booed the mention of their name."

Capalert's review of X2 is a classic. The idea of an openly gay Alam cumming playing the part of a devoutly Christian mutant leaves the reviewer a bit conflicted, and don't even get him started on Mystique's painted on costume! Here are some of the other "sins" comitted by this film... "promotion of evolution, repeatedly," "anatomical reference insult," and "bizarre, unnatural imagery," just to name a few. The review of Old School is also pretty entertaining, and he takes some serious parental issues with Bend it Like Beckham (and not once did he mention how badly that movie dragged).

And yet another rat flees the oil tanker SS BushCheneyCorp as it sinks. Christine Whitman leaves the EPA and goes back to Jersey, probably to be replaced by some oil industry lobbyist.

I found another blog plug for Washington Interns Gone Bad!

Today I got to see another one of the films that was in Barebones which I didn't get to see when I was there. It's called The Shape of Evil (IMDB entry) and it was really good. Marc Anthony Massimei was a one-man crew on this great homage to classic suspense/horror films. He wrote it, directed it, shot it, and did all of the postproduction (and I mean ALL of it, including sound mixing and composing an original score). Oh yeah, and he even acted it it too. You never see a drop of blood, but the viewer is constantly kept on edge with a combination of camerawork, editing and music.

Film Festival Fun! So I may not have a job here yet, but I've gotten myself a volunteer spot as the webmaster for the San Francisco World Film Festival. I had so much fun at Barebones I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to get involved pretty much on the ground floor of a brand new festival in my brand new city. It should be a great opportunity to network with other filmmakers and get to see what the local filmmaking scene is like, not to mention really seeing what goes into putting one of these things on. Plus, there's going to be a marketplace there, so Washington Interns Gone Bad will have a table and I'll get to schmooze it up with some actual distributors and see about actually getting this thing sold. We're planning on doing some cool stuff with the website, and I'll post details when that info is ready to go public. Note: the site was already designed. I'm pretty much just maintaining and adding things to it. Also, I designed these postcards for the Oakland Playhouse Improv Troupe. These folks are really funny and if you're in the Bay Area you should check them out. They have a weekly show every Thursday at the Black Box in Oakland, and they're doing a special show on June 14th (details are on the card I did). Oh yeah, don't take my word for it on them being funny. They were voted Best of the Bay in the Bay Guardian for last year.

Somebody call Amnesty International! Iraqi prisoners tortured by forced Metallica listening. Lars can't quite figure out who he should sue in this case. (via metafilter)

My goddamn rock solid ghetto shiznit name is Ass Machine Juice. What's yours? Powered by Rum and Monkey.

More on Ari's departure from Salon: But while Fleischer served his patrons with loyalty and single-mindedness, he frustrated reporters by going far beyond spinning -- telling untruths and taking great effort to intimidate, several White House reporters said. "No one's shedding any tears," said another White House reporter. "His personal style -- the smarminess and unctuousness -- was annoying to people. But his deceptions and the telling of falsehoods is what really turned people against him."

Say it ain't so! The White House press secretary we love to hate, Ari Fliescher, is leaving the White House. Who could ever fill those shoes? How about this guy?

The republican wing of the democratic party doesn't like Howard Dean too much. Big surprise that the Lieberman faction wouldn't like the only real progressive in the race. How republican do they sound calling him an "elitist?" Well that gives Dean another point in my book! And you can click here to tell the DLC exactly what you think of their republicrat politicking.

Does Monica Lewinsky have her own brand of Whiskey? (via Enormous Fun)

Tonight we saw Winged Migration. Coolest nature documentary EVER. If you get a chance to see this in a theater, do it. There was very little narration through the whole thing, just insanely shot eye candy without a single special effect. The only thing that would have made this movie cooler would have been if it were on an Imax screen.

This sucks... Barry White Suffers Stroke

Here's a list of questions for Bush.

Check this out, this blog is the only Google search result for "Yahoo! News Message Boards" trolls.

Message Board Mayhem: The rightwingnuts can't stop whining about those Texas Democrats who broke quorum and it's awfully entertaining to watch them spin their embarassing loss every which way they can.

In case anyone is interested, here is the site that I had shot some video cips for this last weekend. You can also download the entire novel from that site, which judging from the clips I shot ought to be a good read.

An interesting interview with author Eric Schlosser: "How come porn is legal but dealing pot can get you a life sentence? Because the free market is a myth..." Check out his new book, Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market.

I just love the fact that the very first comment on a DC Indymedia story about Rick Santorum brings up his now legendary connection with Washington Interns Gone Bad! And it wasn't even me who posted it. Zoe perhaps?

My old post-college stomping grounds, New Paltz, NY, has elected a Green Party mayor and two Green trustees!

Shit. Today we lose another legendary 60's rock bassist: Hendrix Bassist Noel Redding Dies

Note to democrats in congress and sentate: Screw the republicans Texas Style!

Aparently, the ad for a Klingon Interpreter in Oregon is an Urban Legend. (link indrectly via Punk Princess)

So yesterday I took my first bit of freelance videography work. I saw an ad on craigslist for a guy who is putting together a website for his novel that would include some video clips of actors giving monologues from the book. He couldn't afford to pay anything except a bottle of vodka. Not wanting to seem like a lush, I made sure to inquire as to the quality of vodka and the amount of work before agreeing. It was top shelf and the work was just to shoot, no editing or streaming or anything of the sort, so I agreed. I figured it would be good to just get out and shoot some video as well as meet some other creative types. I've made a few other connections from craigslist for some freelance work and I've met with a few of them so far, but this was the first that I actually got to work with. It was pretty cool. The book is set between the world wars in the rural south and deals with sharecroppers and racism and the monologues were interesting and very well acted. I'll post a link to the site once he has the clips up. Later this week I'll be reworking and updating a site for a photographer as well as doing some print work for an improv troupe in Oakland, plus some web maintenance for a film festival here in San Fran, and then possibly some photoshop work for an upstart. Some of them will pay right away, some will be deferred, one will be volunteer but could lead to a paid gig down the line as well as good film connections. Besides that, I have an actual job interview on Wednesday for a tech support job at a medical school. I have a friend who works in the HR department there so we'll see how much weight that will carry. I'm a bit nervous since it's my first real job interview in a long time. It would be a half time job which would give me benefits but also leave half of my time open for higher paying freelance work, so I'm really hoping I can get it.

What can you even say about this?

Happy mothers day. Don't forget to call your moms today.

Message Board Mayhem: Bush lovers and rednecks are still outraged over the Dixie Chicks.

Doing a routine google search for mentions of Washington Interns Gone Bad, I came across this nice recap of the Santorum incident with a very funny photo of his "pimped out gold SUV."

NEWSFLASH: Dick Cheney's old company is as mired in corruption as his current company is. I don't think they need to stop the presses for this one.

Well, tonight's dance lesson had its ups and downs. We're making pretty decent progress, but it's a big sales pitch. This was our second to last pri