“Official Website of Authentic Greek Feta Cheese”

rarity is a precious thing. moving people isn’t easy.

at this performance, múm turned the calderwood courtyard at the MFA into an aquarium. if you took a straightforward, but mellow pop/rock band and turned them into sea monkeys and made them play music underwater, you’d get a good imposter of múm’s sound.

then inject that sound with feverish innocence and urgency, and you’ll understand them. combine that with the start of a tour and the most beautiful evening in boston’s summer, and you’ll understand that performance.

this is not minimalism. too complex. beats are connected by filler like the fascia of your muscle. don’t let the slow tempo fool you, there’s more than a lullaby. this is shameful to say, but they really might be the halfway point between bjork and sigur ros.

the invasion of your senses is one to be reckoned with. their style of invasion anyway. metallica and jimmy buffet can take people over on certain levels as well, but mum’s technique is a frightening combination of beauty and force. a Siren with backup. and i dont mean the police task force in your front yard right now.

purity is a rare thing. there is no reason for small talk or cover songs. múm is simply beautiful art.

Anti-Bush message on laptop case laundry tags

it’s amazing where you’ll find anti-bush messages these days. in laptop bags, under childrens’ food lids, or just about any square inch of this planet outside of the United States.

this particular message says “We are sorry that Our President is an idiot. We did not vote for him.”

so clever. yey.

Conservative groups accused of illegal aid to Nader

instead of stealing votes the old-fashioned way with messed-up ballots, the conservatives are using nader to steal kerry’s votes. that’s not the problem, but illegal phone calls and donations are. you don’t actually think nader could accomplish anything on his own, do you?

Inmate doesn’t return from funeral leave

the idiot judge didn’t read the prisoner’s file before issuing him the funeral pass. he currently has indictments for first-degree robbery, ditto for burglary, as well as “being a persistent felon.” what on earth would make this judge think it was a good idea to let this guy travel to michigan, with only his word as bond? worst criminal justice system ever.

Blind man banned from saying ‘phlegm’

as with most british blind men, this clown is obsessed with groping breasts and talking about mucus while being helped across the road. so he was given an “asbo” (antisocial behavior order) and ordered never to say the word “phlegm” again. i’m sure the 16 months in jail and a braille thesaurus will be all he needs to get back on his feet again.

To the high school students of America:

Do not attend Hamilton College. Here’s a quick lesson why.

Hamilton is just like any other corporation: out for a profit, satisfied to take advantage of its customers. the pamphlets, the tours, the alumni; they’re all equally fake. just like food in commercials and the iraq invasion, they’re illusions used to make money.

i would love to see a survey on the students’ level of satisfaction with their classes. i bet it would be no better than disappointing, even compared to other schools. the faculty and administration serve to create a learning environment defined by unobtrusive apathy. “if you don’t waste my time, i won’t waste yours.” rarely is there any connection between a professor and his/her students, despite the many claims of small, intimate classrooms.

the trustees are intentionally unaccomodating to the student body. at no other school have i seen such a difficult social life. residence halls are divided into two pseudo-campuses, greek housing is non-existant, and off-campus residency is extremely limited. if someone showed me a list of 100 colleges and i had to rate their social atmospheres, i’d most likely put Hamilton at #100, not even tied with anyone.

for the mighty Continentals, social diversity is a sad joke; it wouldn’t surprise me if segregation was encouraged. hamilton’s diversity plan consists of quietly filling minimal quotas then patting themselves on the back for it at every photo op.

Hamilton also excels at exploiting its seclusion. as a haven for future CEOs, which are the only alumni that matter to the school, Hamilton uses its middle-of-nowhere location to provide a small, controlled environment for the future millionaires to learn how to control and manage, thus preparing them for financially successful careers. for the rest of the student body, it’s unnecessary isolation.

ultimately concerned with making money and maintaining a high U.S. News & World Report ranking, Hamilton College fills its quotas, lures its elite families, and further jams the knife into the belly of educational virtue. Hamilton is perfect evidence of why you should never, ever believe the pamphlet.

sincerely,
anonymous alumnus

“The first Angolan blog on the web”

Trip to salon turns disastrous

Before	After

Location: Russell County, Kansas
Car: 2001 Lexus
Occupants: 2 Chinese people
Length of airborne flight: 101 feet
No. times car rolled over: 6
Narcotics on board: 39 lbs. of cocaine, 69,000 tablets of ecstasy
Survivors not wearing seatbelts: 2 of 2

the moral of the story is if you’re going to speed on the highway with no seatbelt, make sure you have enough coke and ecstasy in your system that you won’t even notice the crash.

Zimbabwe: Cane or breast for naughty pupils

she’s not so special so look what you’ve done, boy

“Maker of Shredmaster 3000 - Official Document Shredder of the Bush Administration”

These days, everyone has a conspiracy theory. Some are just more elaborate and correct than others. Michael Moore’s just happens to be the most widely distributed. And he’s probably right, too.

Moore’s plotumentary is mainly focused upon the corruption and tragedy of the Iraq war, and how money is the “true” cause. Chronologically, the film follows H-Dubya’s and Dubya’s business connections in Texas, and how once the election was won, it was a Bush-Saudi conglomerate that planned/plans to take advantage of other strategic Middle Eastern nations. Moore even explores the United States’ connection to the wealthy bin Laden family, but stops short of accusations. By virtue of his own writing and narration, Moore’s discussions are always left open-ended, forcing the audience to make quick decisions skewed by his presentational skills.

Instead of using statistics and stunts, as he did in Bowling For Columbine, Moore uses narrative and newsbites to lead the audience. This is why his film is more socially effective than any of his others. In the age of reality tv and instant information, the news photos and videos Moore splices in this film provide the audience with a seemingly “official” appeal. The clips serve as a vague snapshot; to jog memories and general assumptions about what we all think we remember. But, just like in Bowling For Columbine, Moore’s editing determines the relevance of most of what’s shown, sacrificing unbiased, actual context. If someone were to pay you $100,000 for a project to take a bunch of news clips and edit them so they showed “an anti-bush bias”, i doubt any of us would have much difficulty, either.

On one hand, most people these days have a well-formed opinion about the Bush administration, but those opinions usually end up on a kitchen table. This is one of the only nationally important opinions about the Bush Administration that America has had in the last four years, so it’s refreshing to see what influence it has. Moore’s point is that as long as people get a glimpse of how the Bush admin seems to conduct its business behind closed doors, and how it distracts the public from many of the things it does, Bush won’t be re-elected. And since this is my site (film) and can express my opinion too, I hope this film gives Dubya’s gang a taste of their own medicine and confuses enough Americans to follow along and re-defeat them.