Hitler in drag crooning lounge songs.

www.titler.com

Check out the section entitled "nummers". View the videos.

Hi-larious.

MAtA Award: Jackass

In the eyes of many, MTV's Jackass may amount to little more than a bunch of irresponisble youths pulling stupid pranks and stunts, yet it often expresses culture-jamming and individual freedom at its most pure. The motives of the members of Jackass are simple and honest: they are doing stupid things because they feel like it, and because they can. They are not kept down by the weight of judging eyes upon them--in fact, they get off on the disapproval of others, because it reaffirms that they are pushing the boundaries of personal exploration.

So here's to you Johnny Knoxville and your merry band of crazy daredevils! Your shameless exhibitionism has made the world a better place by encouraging others to question what they do for entertainment and what it means to exercise one's personal freedoms. For better or for worse, you deserve to be hailed as "More Adbusters than Adbusters."

Jesse Owens Kicks Ass

1936, Berlin, the Summer Olympics: Hitler aspires to use the Olympics as a platform to demonstrate the general superiority of the arian race. Instead, a heroic American althete stole the show by winning four gold medals in prominent track events, including the coveted 100 meter dash. As if to further emphasize the point that the arian race was in no way "superior," this legendary Olympian was black.

That man was Jesse Owens.

Audioscrobbler

Check it out:

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/Parappa

It doesn't give you a completely accurate account of what music I'm most into, but it does give you a pretty good idea of what I tend to listen to while I'm at work.

From Far and Wide: A Brief Rant on Public Advertising and Political Campaigns in Canada (or: Stick Your Ads up Your Ass)

Well, election time is upon us here in Canada (and has been for a while now, actually). You know, that time where we Canucks vote for who we want to represent us locally to try and squeeze some amount of influence on federal matters, indirectly affecting who gets to run the country. Strap yourselves in, it'll be a wild one this year.

Almost as depressing as election time itself is the sheer volume of useless campaign signs I see littered about. I realize that I could very likely be an anomoly in the grand societal scheme of things here, but the notion that my vote hinges on how many signs I see littered around town seems a bit misguided - even insulting - to me. I'm not likely to vote for Joe Conservative instead of John Liberal because I saw more blue signs on my way to work than red. I also don't get the large clusters of small signs that I've seen - wouldn't one larger, clearer sign get the job done? Do we really need to waste that much paper and ink to make hideously ugly signs? I suppose there are worse crimes against humanity to bitch about than this.

I mean, sure, now we have politicans slapping their names on signs to try and using name recognition and exposure in an attempt to influence the way we think about them and what we have to offer. But imagine what it would be like if people did that all the time; not just to try and sell ideals through a largely artificial image, but to sell crap we don't need like fast food and beauty products in the same manner: with sign after sign of the same image, posted up in public view in an intrusive way.

Oh.. wait.

MAtA Award: Fight Club

The first More Adbusters than Adbusters award goes to the movie "Fight Club." Congratulations. "Fight Club" deserves this award because it depicts culture jamming in a way that we can all relate to, and it is also a movie that one can laugh at in site of its dark theme. Best of all, "Fight Club" doesn't preach--it's just a nutty film with a lot of truth behind it, and there is no part of the movie that makes you feel like you "have to" agree with it. If you think "Fight Club" is full of shit, fine, that's great--"Fight Club" can handle that. That's what these awards are all about, after all.

So take that, Adbusters. There are better places to go for "fight the man" inspiration than your prickish little magazine. Choke on it.

The More Adbusters than Adbusters Awards: Intro

It is with great pleasure that I introduce a series of awards that we'll be handing out to various creative individuals and their creations for being "more Adbusters than Adbusters." The premise is simple: Adbusters has a lot of good ideas, and sometimes I would even say that they are on the right track, but they are so pompous and full of themselves that they talk down to everyone who will listen in a massive attempt to insult the intelligence of the entire world out of sheer frustration and spite. It's fair to say that Adbusters has firmly established themselves as something that I love to hate.

It is with this mindset that I have decided to start handing out awards to things that strike at the same ideas put forth by Adbusters, but in a more true and honest way. These are things that will make you think in the way that Adbusters is intended to make you think, but without trying to make you feel like a total idiot.

So check back occasionally--we'll be posting these awards on a semi-regular basis.

Flag for the Bush Government

You know what the Bush administration really needs--something that would really help them to stand out in the history books and be remembered by future generations for their contribution to the world? A flag, of course! I've even taken the liberty of putting together a flag suggestion for them (see above.) To me, this flag really captures the spirit of the Bush gov't and what it represents to the American people. There's even a subtle bit of symbolism in there: the lone star representing Bush's home state of Texas. Pretty clever, huh?

Music and Video Games

If you ask me, one of the best multi-media experiments you can conduct is to turn down the sound on a good video game and play your own music. The results can be surprisingly potent--with the right complimentary music, a game's mood can be drastically enhanced, or you can bring out moods that you didn't consciously recognize a game had with the addition of an unorthodox soundtrack. I've been playing around with this theme for a long time, as I'm sure most gamers have. Some recent experiences that have stuck include the following:

- Unreal Tournament 2004 demo with N.E.R.D.'s "...In Search Of"
- Ikaruga with Tool's "Lateralus"
- Phantasy Star for Sega Genesis with "100th Window" by Massive Attack

I could think of others, but the fun of this whole thing is not to follow the suggested soundtracks provided by somebody else--it's to search your own music collection for stuff that goes well with your favourite games. And definitely don't put much thought into it; just throw on some tunes that you feel like listening to and play a game that you feel like playing as if the two decisions were entirely separate.

It has occurred to me that the desire to play other music while playing a game is sort of a slam on the soundtracks provided by games these days. In the case of Unreal Tournament 2k4, for instance, they really don't have much of an excuse--I'm sure they could have thrown together the money to assemble a really rockin' soundtrack. Instead, the music in that game is so thoroughly forgettable that you end up putting on your own rap, metal, or hip-hop selection and discovering just how much fucking better the game is as a result. I think there's a serious lesson to be taken away from that.

Day of Defeat

I've played lots of FPS games, relatively speaking, starting with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, and leading up to recent titles including Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield and Unreal Tournament 2004. I've logged many hours into classics including QuakeWorld, Quake III, Jedi Knight, Rainbow Six, Counter-Strike, and Battlefield 1942. And many of these games have provided frighteningly intense experiences, even to the point of being moving.

So, to me at least, it is no small deal that I count Day of Defeat amoung the best games I have ever played. There is no one single feature that makes Day of Defeat stand out. In fact, it is inferior in some way to each of the other games that I've just listed, but as an overall experience, Day of Defeat strikes me straight to the core--it is dark, vivid, brutal, fearsome, fast paced, and addictive. The graphics are B grade by modern standards, it lacks any A.I., and there are no vehicles that can be driven. And yet, not unlike Counter-Strike, I keep coming back to it over and over again. (I mention Counter-Strike explicitly because Day of Defeat is by the same team that made Counter-Strike. It's not a far cry to think of Day of Defeat as being basically a moderately enhanced version of Counter-Strike set in the World War II era.)

I just cannot even begin to describe the mind-blowing stuff that I experience in a typical round of Day of Defeat. But I might try... maybe I'll come back to it in a bit. For now, I just had to get that off of my chest.

Thinking About Americans

A few things have gotten me thinking about the United States of America lately, including (but not limited to)...

• The recent issue of Adbusters, a lot about the history of the U.S.


• Seeing the first episode of "The Simple Life" a couple of days ago--mostly by accident.


• This web site: http://www.thetruthforyouth.com/


• The song "American Jesus" by Bad Religeon.

I was also thinking a lot about the colors of flags lately. What does it mean to have a red, white, and blue flag? Red and white? Red, black, and gold? Red, white, and black? What flags do those colors remind you of? What connotations do those color combinations carry?

I can think of at least one red, white, and blue flag that spells freedom: France's. I can also think of at least one red, white, and black flag that scares me so badly that I can't image why anyone would even consider those as national colors. I don't know how I feel about the American flag. I'm still mulling over that one.

PS: The use of the American spelling of "color" is purely intentional. Eat it. :P

Escape from Wherever

Chances are, given enough options, there is someplace you'd rather be right now.