BLAST.famy volume 1 ish 8 December 1994 dilettante squabbling over "freedom" issue 6666666666 666 66666666666 666 666 666 6 666666666666 66666666666 666 666 666 66 66 66 666 666 666 666 66 66 666 666 666666666 666 666666666666 6666 666 666 666 666 666 666 66666666666 666 666 666 666 666 666 6666 666 666 666 66666666666 666 666 6666 666 666 666666666666 66666666666 666 666 6666666666666 666 F _ A _ M _ Y A Private World E-zine. Publisher = P. W. Casual, C.E.O, PWE; C.O.B, PWC pwcasual@io.org Editor = Mark "Jr" Jeftovic, markjr@shmooze.net c h e c k o u t P L A N E T S H M OO Z E http://www.shmooze.net/pwcasual +---------------------------------------------+ | "...while most people respond to their | | world instinctively -without thought | | -there exist an "intelligent few" who | | have been charged with the responsibilty | | of contemplating and influencing the tide | | of history". | | -Edward Bernays | +---------------------------------------------+ back issues: ftp etext.archive.umich.edu /pub/Zines/Blastfamy ----------------------------=======================-------------------------- ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| c o n t r i b u t o r s ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ============================(a.k.a the plagarized)=========================== Women's International League for Peace & Freedom J.Deagnon Philip Heggie !*@# reviewers: James Keast, Phil Saunders, Edward Balog --------------------------================-------------------------- ||||||||||||||||||||||||| c o n t e n t s ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ===========================---------------========================== don't say you haven't been warned... U.S. ARMY TO BLAST ATMOSPHERE WITH E/M RADIATION Jr's Rant: Give me a Break with this "Free the net" SHIT !*@# (Exclaim) Magazine Reviews: Daddy's of Eden Acid Bath Exit 13 Godflesh J.Deagnon's My Cavorting with Canadian Censorship cDc Gnuz The damnable # pops up again. New Subscription Policy regarding subreqs from the military-industrial complex U.S. ARMY TO BLAST ATMOSPHERE WITH E/M RADIATION High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program > Congress has provided funding for a new super beam space weapon. Called > the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), it would beam > huge amounts of electromagnetic energy (E.M.) from Alaska to the upper > atmosphere. The skies above Alaska are home to the Aurora Borealis, > created by radiation from space hitting Earth's atmosphere. Bombarding > these cosmic rays might create unpredictable results. Besides electro- > magnetically blinding enemy missiles and satellites, it could change > global weather patterns, disrupt world communications and push the > ionosphere away from the earth. > Its civilian applications are equally dazzling and dangerous. It would be > powered by 30 trillion cubic feet of North Slope natural gas owned by ARCO > Power Technologies, Inc. (too expensive to sell in the United States). > Even if we needed such a diabolical weapon (which we don't) how can any > respectable scientist justify meddling in natural systems that we have > already disrupted in such major ways? > Action: > * Urge President Clinton and all of Congress to harness HAARP. Un-fund > this dangerous and expensive project that is potentially disastrous to > the environment. --- [from Women's International League for Peace & Freedom online newsletter, via PNEWS. To subscribe to a PNEWS list on Internet send request to: ] JR's RRRRRRRRaannt (mail bombings can be directed to markjr@io.org) Forget What "Should be", and deal with What's Gonna Happen Give Me a break with this "Free the Net, man!" bullshit. Spare me the random acts of cyber-terrorism aimed at making "commercialism" on the net unviable through intimidation and core-warz. Give it up babies you don't stand a chance, you're going about it all wrong, and your means, carried through to logical extremes, negate your ends. Your premise is flawed from the outset. Your noble creed: i) Information is Power (correct), ii) Inforamtion wants to be free (also correct) iii) there should be no money involved in any of this (seriously crashes here). Look at this way: Information, Prana, Lifeforce, a.k.a "the best things in Life" may indeed be free, but the conduits of those forces, as a rule, have their ongoing maintenance expenses. The truth of the matter is that the internet is not an "information superhighway". (The phrase has sickened me from day 1). The internet is a gigantic, complex, amoebic ...thing. It's mind/body duality can be best summarized as information and medium. It costs money to maintain the medium. It costs money to stay alive. You want the internet to be free? Then kill it. The information IS FREE. It's already a done deal. There is nothing to fight for here. The reason it's free is because any idiot can generate some at will or on demand. Simply take two different pieces of information, compare them, and the difference is more information (How do you think baseball commentators make the entire damn yawn sound so interesting?). You put something on the net. It's gone. Forget about it and hope it's nothing you'll regret `cause your name/alias is likely on it all the way down the pipe. It is at this point that the medium kicks in. And unless you're a college puke, you'll understand that this is the part that involves gear and bandwidth, -read money. (That is why "This is just a test -ignore" posts with world-wide distribution on Usenet piss me off a lot more than Pizza Hut slinging pies on WWW). I feel like it's gonna take awhile to lead up to this point, so let's dispense with further preliminaries and hit it: Doing cool shit on the net is fine. The best in fact. It takes money to do that. The more money there is in the net (unfortunately including the commercialism, corporate scum and sell-outs that typically accompany it), the better it is for the net. Why? Because.... As the money pours in, it does so in the form of increased bandwidth, improved or fancier retreival mechanisms, and above all, more users. Granted a product of this will be mainstream commerciallized enclaves, no doubt a bore to us cyberpunks. But if some major biz-pigs like the Stentor corporation make good on promises to wire the country with fibre-optic cable within 10 years, what do I care if most of their action consists of piping Mariah Carey videos on demand? As long as I can pump my 1's and 0's along the parking lanes of their "highway" (I have been told this will be the case by a Stentor rep. The possibility of a renege on this pledge will no doubt be the subject of a future rant) I could care less about the drivel I'm passing on the inside lane. Those who are stifling screams of "treacherous sell out!" as they read this are missing a crucial point: On the net, you can create cyberspace at will. You want the net to be "free and anarchistic"? Then create a corner of it that is exactly that. And leave my "free and " corner of it the fuck alone. Let the low-brow trash hang out on the Zellers Web pages, filling out market survey forms in exchange for Club Z points, barely an improvement over the television zombies they used to be... I'll be over at the floating pancreas bbs or some similar place grabbing the latest issue of PrivateLine. You want the corporate pigs off the net? Ok, then tell me who's going to wire the fibre-optic cables, or should we just keep this whole not-for-profit net thang running over copper wires and 14,400 modems? All I really want out of the net is to earn a living doing what I like to do. Sorry, that entails the exchange of money, (one of the things I like to do is pay the rent) and, now I bear my soul: some of it comes from Major Record Labels, who pay us to do what we would we already be doing all day anyhow. The main reason the filthy corporation is required on the net is to wire the hardware (backbones, relays, switches, main routers, etc) and to facilitate a stable infrastructure (or similar facsimile) to provide a means of electronic funds transactions. The hackers who profess to prevent this should perhaps grow up a bit (I know, that can be hard for a 12 year-old) and realize that this is inevitable and necessary. But hear me out, angry young man. There is a higher calling and a better use for your talents. The corporate run on the net _will_ likely incorporate some Big-Brother-ish tactics. But what's the point in monkey-wrenching the net? The real art, that coveted elegance of "hacker finesse" as it were, would lie in gerry-rigging it to foster a semblence of privacy and autonomy, cause ya know the bastards'll try to snag those at their earliest convenience. In the mean time, earn a living, invest (diversify your assets), aquire gear, farm info. Don't forget to take the time to smell the roses. !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# E X C L A I M M A G A Z I N E R E V I E W S !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# !*@# More of this month's !*@# is available electronically: via WWW: http://www.shmooze.net/pwcasual/exclaim email: exclaim@io.org for all of it: S[nM]ail: Exclaim Magazine 7b pleasant blvd., #966, toronto, ont, canada, m4t 1k2 print subscriptions $25 CDN/yr, Canada, $35 CDN/yr, USA, $45 CDN/yr elsewhere 12 issues, tabloid fmt, circ. 25,000 Daddy's of Eden Nobody (Sony) The alternative music scene is rapidly becoming like living near the airport. The noise bothers you at first, everyone comments on it when they visit, but after a while, you just ignore it. You don't even know it's there. More planes, fewer planes, more bad pop bands, fewer bad pop bands, it really doesn't matter after a while. Onto this burgeoning bandwagon now jumps Daddys of Eden with their preview EP, Nobody, featuring a single from their upcoming album and three "unreleased" tracks that (thankfully) won't appear on the album. Ironically, the lead single is called "Nothing New" because that's exactly what they have to offer (although I doubt the word "irony" is in their vocabulary). The alternative pop garbage scow is leaving. All a-bored. - James Keast Acid Bath When The Kite String Pops (Rotten Records) From the folks that incessantly gave us DRI comes more metal. This one starts off okay - you see, I ve been listening to a lot of Kyuss lately - but something goes terribly wrong. I mean those pseudo-70s vocal stylings are kinda cute, but suddenly you re sent into Opus-land. Imagine Jethro Tull trying to do a hip Melvins meets Kyuss thing. Its coupled with the John Wayne Gacy artwork, leaving you with something that belongs to the larger portion that's left after good metal (about 10%): generic, derivative and predictable drivel (the other 90%). Actually, this wouldn t be so bad if it had come out about five years ago, but then again, I d be bored with it by now anyway. -Phil Saunders Exit 13 Ethos Musick (Relapse/ Cargo) Hemp-loving, psychedelic, off-the-wall -arrangement-and-tempo-peddling, hippie-punk-grind rockers Exit 13 (headed by Bill Yurkiewicz, who also is Matt's partner in Relapse) return with Ethos Musick, packed with over 70 minutes of unrelenting and intense low-tuned musical copulation on 13 tracks that defy categorization. Handling the drums this time around is Scott Lewis (ex-Brutal Truth), while Danny Lilker of Brutal Truth looks after the bass, keyboards and some sampling and Kevin Sharp sneaks in some psychotic, anguished howls in the chorus of "My Minds Mine." From the first track to the very last, they enter different chambers of tempos and go up and down, fast and slow, while still knowing where and when to tear you apart, and while early Carcass/General Surgery moments can still be heard. From sampled beginnings (at times informative ones) to even clean chord-strumming, ("Anthropocentric Ecocodial, Conundrum") to even rumbling and speaker-shattering blurs that nearly last a half an hour ("An Electronic Fugue For The Imminent Demise Of Planet Earth (28:03)"), they flaunt their off-the-wall splatterings and dismemberings of half-coherent sounds or frequencies. Warning: Surgeon General suggests that extreme doses of Exit 13 will in some cases cause heart failure with the possibility of severe cerebral hemorrhaging. However, if under extreme caution you do intend or attempt to submit your ears to this Grinding Noise Orgy, then do so only at maximum volume to achieve best results! -Edward Balog Godflesh Selfless (Earache/Sony) Clocking in at almost 80 minutes of music, Selfless could possibly be the most consistently interesting Godflesh release to date. The first track stikes the listenner with an immediate realization that this is unlike any previous release by Broderick and Green. For the last few releases, Godflesh has been meandering in trance-like dirges, as though desperately trying to break free from the corner they d worked themselves into with the staggering Streetcleaner. Though Slavestate was interesting, subsequent releases became downright disappointing. Selfless successfully bridges the gaps and seems to surge forward onto some new terrain. It still bothers me that Godflesh are seen by many as some kind of death metal band. Godflesh transcended that category with their first release, and it s time their prospective audience did the same. There isn t a Godflesh disciple alive that doesn t recognise the broad, reaching significance of this band, and Selfless reaffirms that point. -Phil Saunders +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ My Cavorting With Canadian Censorship By J.Deagnon I have my petty hang ups as I'm sure everyone does, and I suppose in our dealings with certain subjects our judgement can become hazy. Perhaps clouded by our personal preferences, we sometimes don't realize that the door swings both ways and that we shouldn't force our chosen beliefs upon others. I'm speaking of freedom. Call me naive, but as the dread creeps in, I begin to understand that freedom is a term used far too loosely in our supposedly liberated Western Civilization. Being from Canada, you may think I'd have the same rights that any other person has in this so-called democratic society, but this is obviously some twisted joke. When you've been fucked up the ass by the Canadian Government like I have, you realize that your future is controlled by Right Wing Fundamentalist Stooges. The self-sanctioned Customs Gestapo have taken my rights (ha!) into their greasy, chubby little fists and ripped any vestige of latitude procurable to a free thinking schmoe like me. Anyway, I must reiterate two instances of my brush with constitutional rape before I dispense with the subject at hand. I sent away to the United States for an adult oriented video cassette, (okay, cum shot smut tape) thinking that since I'm of "legal" age, I should be able to handle watching it in the privacy of my own home. Well, the Government of Canada seems to have a different stand on what we can or can't do in private). Instead of getting the aforementioned video, all I received after surrendering my hard-earned money was, a letter. This letter informed me, in effect, that some weasly Revenue bastard opened my mail, then, after seeing what the contents were, viewed the tape only to declare it too adult for my sensibilities. The official ruling was "degrading to women". After the initial shock of this information, I was further informed that if I wanted my tape back, I would have to fill out a "B-2" form. On this form I was required to fill out various information about the tape and myself, then, in a tiny little box at the bottom, I was to tell Customs Agents reasons for thinking I should be allowed to view such an abomination. I, needless to say, flew off the fucking handle. Writing them a full page letter, I tried to justify my rights as a Canadian citizen, and why they were bile-spewing rat bastards. A few months later, I received another letter ignoring my pleas for freedom and giving me two alternatives: 1. Send it back to the States for a full refund, or, 2. It will be destroyed. (read: dubbed and sent around the office) My patriotism for this country was so mutilated by this blatant act of censorship, the money was no longer an issue. All this over a couple of people copulating on videotape. (Why do you think videotape was invented in the first place? News and Porno!) The second time my balls crawled up into my stomach was a few days ago when my girlfriend called me at my pathetic workplace and told me that I received another missive that some video cassettes from California had been "detained". In other words, the cowardly Revenue scum ripped open another package of mine, perused the contents, wanked off over it ,and in their cum- spattered frenzy couldn't pass the tapes on to me because their spermatozoa had gummed up the mechanism. The tape in question was the bogus video FILM THREAT magazine hands over to their hapless subscribers; "Shocking T.V.". The reasons for withholding the tape are hideously apparent under Section 2, Memorandum D9-1-1. (See Notice of Detention) Now, I have to call these motherfuckers and speak to some seven-dollar-an- hour ass-scratching, nose-picking public servant and "make arrangements for the payment of duties on admissible goods !!!" (More like TWENTY-seven-dollar-an-hour ass-scratching, nose-picking, etc. -ed) You've seriously got to wonder if turning to crime isn't the best way to combat these totalitarian methods of cleansing our chaste country, in order to get a little of what's deserving of us! You may think that I'm going a little overboard for some smut tapes, but it's the principle. You've heard all the popular arguments for anti- censorship, so I won't rehash them here, but it's my right as a "free" individual to watch whatever I choose, whether it's art or meaningless trash! (Which is really which ?) So, to help you poor slobs out there with similar unexplained problems with your local fascist organize, uh, I mean, government, here's just a few helpful hints to make the shipper or receiver's life a little easier: 1. Disguise the package. The Powers That Be look for suspicious packaging, and even plain brown envelopes are a hazard now. What I suggest is to put the item in a much larger box than needed. Then on the outside of the box, put something like, "I love you grandma. Hope you enjoy the blankets!" 2. Don't use your own address. When shipping or receiving questionable material through the mail, use a friend's address, and steer clear of company logos even remotely related to the film or video industry. Instead, use the letterhead of a well-respected charity organization or christian fellowship, and they won't touch 'em. Better yet, devise a completely unheard of bogus organization and print your own envelopes avoiding any pending legal action, if caught. 3. Bring it over yourself. This is the most dangerous route. The best thing to do here, is to purchase the video or film across the border, then disguise it before coming back. Buy or take blank video cassette boxes and get a hold of one of those shrink wrap machines (fairly cheap at various warehouse outlets) and strip the labels from the "bad" tape, throw into the "good" box and voila! Smuggle...er...transport easily across the border, hassle free except for duty, of course. Those darn Border Patrols! 4. Let your local video store take the rap. Bug the shit out of a mom and pop operation to get videos from distributors that carry weird and banned titles. Don't go to major chain stores like BLOCKBUSTER, because they dumped all adult title stock in order to sap the energy from the legions of swinish families that gorge on shit like "Home Alone" and "Free Willy". (Look, don't get me started on these Big Buck video chains or this'll take all day.) 5. Safer Alternatives for Videophiles with the "Fear". a. Use UPS. This usually works, but it's a bit like playing russian roulette. Just make sure you send money orders, or, if you're the gambling type, send cash and leave instructions that you'll pick it up at the Post Office personally. (Don't forget your I.D., pinhead!) b. Move to the States. (Canucks, only.) This is a big hassle for people who have jobs and/or lives. Getting a green card is a nightmare, so if you're a real masochist, this is for you. 6. Send tapes dismantled. Deconstruct the video cassette casing and spools, then send the tape piece by piece until the receiver gets the entire film. (The worst part is that spring that doesn't seem to fit anywhere, but good luck.) The ironic thing about the governments' tactics in the censorship game is that they aren't stopping anyone from procuring low brow culture , they're just making it a wee bit harder to obtain it. But that's half the fun isn't kids?? And we all know that you always appreciate something more when you've worked hard for it! Well, those are just a few suggestions for sending or receiving underground culture, but I'd like to make it clear that IÕm not telling you to deceive the government - God knows theyÕve never deceived us. I'm just saying that you've got to search for loopholes. It's really the only way you'll get the simulated "freedom" you so rightly deserve. POSTSCRIPT Recently, I was given the chance to work at the head office of a certain Adult Video Chain, under the pretense of "editing" pre-film promos. This in fact was not the case. I found that the adult films that this Canadian chain receives from Montreal, (where nothing in American Porn is censored),and the U.S., is rather hastily dubbed to a "master" 3/4" cassette, then edited for Ontario audiences. I was to be that editor. The equipment used for the transfers and subsequent dubbing is prehistoric, to say the least. The quality of the final dubs is absolutely sickening. Worst of all, the editing is about as professional as a biker sitting in his living room with two VCRs wired together. The guy who was assigned to "train" me, (and coming from a fairly professional working environment, this was a fucking cakewalk) was a completely disillusioned individual, desensitized from his daily routine of hacking out cum shot after cum shot in literally hundreds of splat fests. The "guidelines" for censoring were not recorded anywhere. No memos, no legal type dossiers on what was permitted, nada. These wonderful laws were passed on (in this institution anyway) by word of mouth. He told me, "Basically, ya can't show shots to the face. If there's more than one guy on her, that's a no-no, especially if they're all jacking off on her. There's definately no slapping of her ass. (This was aparently considered violence against women!!) So, you gotta find the edit point where he starts slappin', then ya can't have her red ass in it either. I got this tape called 'Bang'er 100 Times" and I couldn't even show a thing. She was covered in cum from the word go. But, it's over on that shelf if you want to look at it. I once saw a video where these chicks were screwing a retarded guy. It's not in the guidelines, but I cut it out anyway....disgusting..." So this is how it worked!!? The mutilated "master was then sent to the Ontario Film Review Board ( read CENSORSHIP board, changed, probably, after bad PR forced them to choose a more palatable banner) where they either approved the video or sent it back to have more cuts made. The object was to make sure it was sent only once, because the Video Chain had to make a quick turnover, and a tape sent back and forth was money lost. So, in effect, the editor was to cut all he was told, and if he was unsure of certain content chop it anyway! After spending the day with this yak, studying the chintzy equipment and studying the actual duties involved, I quit, siting wrongful job description, shit pay, and violation of my morality. I could not become a part of editing out the only reason I viddy porn! __________________________________/cDc Gnuz\__________________________________ _ _ |\ /^\ /^\ / / / @ )^ -| @ )^ - _ / / 666 ( \/-^-^^| /--^-^-~ \o \ \ o \ / /@ )^ - _ | o| _ - _ \ / o /| /--^-^-~ / / / O o ^ - / ( O |/ / /\ | o \__ _/ O o O o ( o \ o \ /_/@ | \ o o o / |__ _ \\ \ o O \ O ( o - o / . ^ \S - - \ o ) \ ( ) /(_ / /^ | / - _ - - \ \ -_ -- - | / \ / \ | \ \. / | | \ | \ /_ \ / | \ / _ \ | \ - | \ - "This low-go you've received is the image of the be east. Whatever you do, do not hold this image in your write hand or receive its image by foe-ton trance Miss-shun through your I balls into your mined full crane he um or you've received the mark of the bee east. Stung, by buy bull revel lay shun. Keep your clothes on and don't follow the be eastly bare whoreds." -Philip Heggie (appropriated from cDc Global Domination update #18, Nov 1st/64, see below) S. Ratte' cDc/Editor and P|-|Ear13zz |_3@DeRrr "We're into t-files for the groupies and money." Middle finger for all. Write to: cDc communications, P.O. Box 53011, Lubbock, TX 79453. Internet: sratte@phantom.com. --x X x-- It's another... oh oh MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM FFFFFF A CCC TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR MMM (char)0x0D MMM MMM MMM MMM More Military Subreqs. BLAST.faMy staffers (basically Myself) face first [mM]oral call: I would have to look at the subreq.not folder for an exact figure on how many subreqs I get from US [mM]iltary domains and quite frankly it disturbs me. I admit i'M paranoid in certain respects, but I do it on purpose to offset my mind-numbing naivity in matters of trust, or in some cases, coMmon sense. Given the nature of the content of this digital spewage we all know as BLAST.famy, getting subreqs from the DoD is akin to a cop asking me for rolling papers. To be honest, I haven't added any of them to the list. When a subreq catches my eye I usually run a finger on it, and in the case of the ddn adresses I draw a "connection refused" as a rule. So now I know this much: whoever this is, s/he works for the military-industrial complex, and nothing else. They could be peeling potatoes wondering if there's more to life or sitting at a terminal typing "append >> subversives.can.tor.markjr". So here we have an admitted discriminatory policy. No military subscriptions. Is it fair? My gut says no, unfortunately. I'd like to hope that these subreqs are coming from some cool johnsons who happen.to.be.in.the.army. My brain says, "don't be a complete idiot", so here's the deal: If you want to get on the list for this e-zine, and you happen to have a military IP address, email pwcasual@io.org and ask for a copy of the: Sentinal-Of-Big-Brother New Surveiller Registration form T1 v1.3.3 And fill out the questoinaire that will arrive shortly thereafter. Send back in to pwcasual@io.org, with "ATTENTION APPROVAL COMMITEE" in the subject line. If you never hear from anyone here again, then "thanks for being on our show". As for the rest of you..... ============================================================================= To Subscribe to BLAST.famy email pwcasual@io.org and say "sign me up!" send SUBMISSIONS, FLAMES, FEEDBACK, ETC. to markjr@shmooze.net =============================================================================