After all these years of asking people to stop going to Zeitgeist SF until they pay me for my work, it's nice to hear a full-throated defense for artists defending our rights - even if the artists in question are Dave Chappelle, Kanye West, and Taylor Swift. Yes, it would've been better to have been in there, too, but not to worry. This was added, so TMR's interests can't feel totally slighted:
As you can see above, it can be (and has been) persuasively argued - for culture - 1976 was "Year Zero", when Punk started everything over by taking a three-chord sledgehammer to what had come before.
Of course, "Year Zero" in politics - 1984 - was predicted by George Orwell in 1948, resulting in the farce of today's media insisting 2+2=5, and we saw a fair election, when we saw no such thing.
Like many today, Poor George didn't see the NewAge Movement's "Year Zero" in spirituality - 1987's Harmonic Convergence - playing a role in much of anything when he wrote:
“One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.”
I haven't followed the news over the last week because it's pointless - nine out of ten information outlets are filled with partisan Democrat Party operatives, and, after this election, I've had my fill of reporter's bullshit, period, for a while. I'll let the left be bad winners without me: I saw their bad loser act already.
The 2020 election seems to have transformed the left's muttering (about "Civil War") into the right's adopting the posture of a Mexican Stand-off - all they lost was President Trump, after a long string of successes, before and with him, so it's hard to feel otherwise. Keep the pressure on, and re-group where necessary, and victory's inevitable. It's a political war of attrition, against a wounded adversary. The Democrats put everything they had into re-gaining the White House. And they made it. But, the Republicans keep winning everything else - so, not only do they hold most of the cards, but they've also got the most time.
President-elect Biden's call for "unity" speaks, both, to his mental incapacitation and a level of evil that's become natural within his party: After MSNBC and Ronin Farrow investigated claims Bill Clinton raped Juanita Broderick - and found them credible - where's room for compromise with the political party that used that very same man, during an election, to vouch for Joe Biden's integrity? Trying to wrap your head around a party - any political party in the world - that would even do that is a daunting task, all by itself. But we're talking about the party of Bill and Hillary Clinton (who also played the race card on former-President Barack Obama, orchestrated the famously racist "Sista Soulja" moment, and killed a lobotomized Ricky Ray Rector just to look tough)accepting their word the writer of the 1994 Crime Bill that destroyed much of black America is alright. Their entire political party did that, as if in a dream.
But, now that it's over, I haven't met a Democrat, face-to-face, who can hide their confusion over having accomplished such a miracle.
Whenblogging works, it matters - like the music Jazz and Country legends used to make - so blogs should always be written with purpose. But, of course, to make that worthwhile, blogging also requires readerswith purpose. I get few comments here, so I rarely know if I've got that. PayPal helps, though.
This ain't Entertainment City, Bitch - it's The Macho Response - so (taking Gwyneth Paltrow's admonition, in the header above, as a guide) you should arrive here asking the main, if only, question: "What are we 'Responding' to TODAY?"
Politics is huge. If you've traveled a lot, you know people get it wrong, all around the planet. They critique what they can't grasp, in a partisan environment, filled with activists, keeping the truth from them or filling them full of bullshit. TMR relies on facts, cross-referenced for accuracy, and forget what the assholes say. They're liars. All of them. To this day, can the average person say why the U.S. invaded Iraq? Or why it all went wrong? (During the 1st invasion, Colin Powell got George"Poppy" Bush to break our promise to rid the Iraqis of Saddam - this necessitated a 2nd invasion. By the time GeorgeW. Bush did it, Saddam had fucked people up so bad, they did NOT appreciate seeing us - even if Iraq did have WMD and were harboring terrorists - which they did and were). "The problem with Michael Jackson"? Trump getting robbed? You're only gonna "get" it here.
Religion is another biggie. If you're old enough to have witnessed the Moon Landing - but still believe in "the man in the sky" (and his kid) after that event reduced him to "a higher power" from now on - then you need to leave. Now. This is probably not the place for you. That's all that's needed to be said.
NewAge "Spirituality" is the ultimate evil today - it is to religion what bullshit is to lying. It's the next step on the ladder to lunacy. And, thanks to Oprah, we - as a culture - have already blindly taken it. To our everlasting regret. Not only will nothing ever be normal again, but now - thanks to the Queen of daytime TV in the '90s - we have to worry if it'll even be livable as well. She's turned the entiure world culture off to science, medicine, realitionships and reality, so - can she do any more damage to us? Of course she can - she's as corrosive as the Nazis - which brings me to,...
Race - a sore spot, complicated even more, now that Oprah Winfrey's trying to legitimize rapists as black heroes, after we already did that once, with Martin Luther King, Jr.. America's a nation that raised it's citizens to think as King did - everyone's the same - even though blacks and Indians are treated different. Now, long after King's murder, blacks and Indians insist we're different, and it's conservatives demanding everyone stick to thinking we're all the same - even though nobody treats us that way. Mindfucking black and Indian U.S. citizens, for our whole lives, requires reparations. Nothing more. Apology included.
The rest of TMR is all science, music, art, and culture - the stuff of life - and fuck just about anything else. I just don't have the time.
I can still remember sitting in My Utah Car and thinking the world had gone mad, because I'd just heard someone handed Lin-Manuel Miranda money for that weak-ass production - and called it "genius". I think I had to pull over, I was so incensed.
Then again, listening to NPR does that to me, anyway.
It seems pretty stunning, that a former Secretary of State, within 24 hours of conceding an election, could and would do something that tied up the world for four years, KNOWING her own boss had already launched an FBI investigation that would do the same to an incoming administration, and - after all that, an impeachment, and more - the other party STILL acts like they haven't a clue why no one can trust them, the election process, or much of anything, anymore. Ah, the NewAge, it's wonderful.
Hillary Clinton was calling President Donald Trump"illegitimate" as late as 2019. Somehow, her supporters missed (or are too-ready to dismiss) that, too, so it doesn't seem out of line, to do the same, though, admittedly, it may be more-than-a-little late:
Never forget, Former PresidentBill Clinton branded his own wife as "illegitimate" - along with any claim to ethics on the part of The Democrat Party - a long, long time ago. So all we can do, now, is agree to it.
With artists from the worlds of Country and Funk (so far, along with their friends, and business associates) retelling stories from the road about the biggest stars in the musical universe, Cinemax's "Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus" has been a favorite lately. See Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings as roommates, or Prince making Rick James nervous, or that one time James Brown forced Bootsy Collins to give him some LSD by accident - actually there's a LOT of guns and LSD in this show. That's the music world. It's still a revelation, even if you're a musicologist and think you know these artists well, because with Mike Judge (of "King of the Hill", "Beevis & Butthead", and "Office Space" fame) as narrator, it will always find the humanity in each new absurdity, and in equal measure. And that's a treasure, to be treasured. Please watch this program.
The new Sci-Fi epic "Raised By Wolves" has been mentioned here before, because the first episode was on YouTube as a teaser, and it's lead character - the android "Mother" - is quite the tasty morsel. Unfortunately, the entire HBO Max series still hasn't been screened, but, if this opener is any indication of the quality of the rest, that's an oversight in need of quick correcting, by us all. Get on it.
The best of the lot. Trying to tell a serious tale of American slavery - with humor and humanity - now that's a challenge. But, it's one that was finally conquered as soon as Ethan Hawke grew a beard to play the great abolitionist "crazy" John Browne in Showtime's fine production of James McBride's "The Good Lord Bird". The first TV show, in a long time, worth pining for new episodes to drop, the ending (after just six) is as sad as it is inevitable, but also as joyful for the same reason: the Civil Warwas coming, just as he said, and then we'd all be free. So watch this show, and be free - now: It'll make you glad to be an American again.
I've now got not one, but TWO albums of FREE demos for y'all to download. The first one is called "Boldly Steppin'" and it was as fun to put together as it looks (Yes, I also did the cover).
The other is called "The First Karen" which seems pretty self-explanatory. I hope you like 'em both. If you do, consider hitting PayPal or leaving a comment. It's the least anyone can do for the struggling artist, trapped in this cold world.
But then, Bill cheated with Monica, so Hillary needed a chat. And she got one, with Eleanore Roosevelt, amongst others.
And then - hearing about that wonderful experience - when Oprah got in a tight spot, she also needed a chat. Hillary recommended her "spiritual advisor" (whatever THAT is) and, of course, Oprah would promote anyone who could talk to Eleanore, sooo,...
Next, she became known as a "Chatty Cathy," and, naturally, that means you-know-who will come calling. But never with any difficult questions about the NewAge Movement's larger "occult" ambitions, or anything like that.
This leads to delusions of grandeur - and, of course, the political stage. If she's gonna advise world leaders and international celebrities, she might as well forget them and run things.
Until exactly what kind of bullshit, Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey were buying, was eventually revealed.
Leaving with her, now, with us - and she won't shut-up - even though we can't STAND to hear shit out of her.
The Macho Response is the only blog that gives you a serious heads-up on the world of cultism, both here and internationally, without getting all weird about it.
TMR was covering the NXIVM cult as far back as 2007, but the rest of the world knew nothing about them - even with the participation of Hillary Clinton and the Dalai Lama - until there was an internal rebellion in the ranks of branding, in 2019.
So what's it matter? What can a TMR reader expect to learn about the One Taste Urban Retreat Center, say, that they wouldn't learn anywhere else? Let's start with the fact a cult leader, Ken Wilber, wrote the book that helped inspire them, also titled "One Taste"? No mention of THAT in the other coverage I've seen.
Or how about the fact that cult leader, Ken Wilber, is also a good friend of former-President and accused rapist, Bill Clinton - the man who was deemed acceptable to vouch for Joe Biden's integrity at the 2020 Democratic Party National Convention? You could see how they'd want to stay hush-hush about that.
And then there's Ken Wilber's business partner, also an accused rapist, and the former "spiritual advisor" (whatever THAT is) to Whole Foods, the just uber-creepy, Marc Gafni? You don't think he wanted one taste? Just one?
I could go on, but you get the idea: the point is, you can learn a lot about what cults are talking about, and cultism in general, by hanging out here.
