Tag: satire
Mel Brooks on inequality, the rich, and what trickle down really looks like
Field hollers et work songs
This clip is from Blazing Saddles. Mel Brooks (and very possibly Richard Pryor, who was a writer on the film) created a brilliant segment that manages to cut right to vicious racist heart of the u.s. in ways that only satire can achieve. I hesitated to add this clip in with eminently serious songs, but the songs speak for themselves, and the use of satire is deadly serious. The best satires crush your heart and make you laugh a the same time. Absurd, non?
Gil Scott-Heron doc by Don Letts for the BBC – required viewing for all humans
Gil was one of the all time greats of course – and it’s a great documentary too, put together with intelligence, creativity, technique, and love.
To all the truth-tellers, revolutionaries, artists, and soul rebels!
Rebels: A Journey Underground – documentary
Lenny Bruce
This is quite some tape here…sociologically too…
Lenny was a genius of course…
If you watch all the parts, Jonathan Winters even gets a shout out.
He’s a little shaky in the beginning, then starts to roll baby…and we learn some things about a real comedian’s motivations…
And then a little later: Carnegie Hall:
Of course, no comic today could get near the genius of Lenny Bruce. George Carlin was the last of them. Bill Hicks had some flashes of brilliance, but Lenny Bruce was ground down to a pulp and Carlin lived so long – and became so rightfully and righteously bitter – his material in the end amounted to stating brutal facts and telling the audience how stupid and ignorant they were. And they laughed and laughed…
And so it goes…
Swift thought
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.”
– Jonathan Swift
Miss America – David Byrne. Also: Talking Heads
Great satirical song from David Byrne about – you guessed it…
And here is the full (wow), brilliant album (totally underrated):
And here is his official site:
Oh, for those of you who may not know, he was in a little band called, Talking Heads:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_Heads
and…
Stop Making Sense
“Hi, I’ve got a tape I want to play…”
Great concert and great concert film. Directed by Jonathan Demme by the way…
Rum and coca cola
iPhone 5nSa – don’t miss this commercial
Russell Brand at the GQ Awards – Good on ya mate!
Web Reading List #4 [9-11-2013]
Economic Update: Your Weekly Dose of Revolutionary Economics (Audio)
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Pennsylvania Judge Sentenced To 28 Years For Selling 4,000 Kids As Young As 10 Years Old To Prison System For $1.2 million
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Tomgram: Nick Turse, AFRICOM’s Gigantic “Small Footprint”
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Exclusive: CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran
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Religious people are less intelligent than atheists, according to analysis of scores of scientific studies stretching back over decades
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Bradley Manning and the Gangster State
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New Snowden Leak Reports ‘Groundbreaking’ NSA Crypto-Cracking
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If you care about education, we would like to encourage you to stop.
Help Kickstart World War III!
Bill Moyers telling the truth as usual – well, as close as almost anyone on tv…
The only part of the truth he skipped was admitting we were violently pushed off the cliff decades ago. As they say, “it’s all over but the cryin’…” but the cryin’ has been going on forever, so…
“I forgot my phone” – Screen addiction satire
Monty Python – Life of Brian and Life of Brian “debate”
Monty Python and the knights of the Holy Grail [1975]
Google is supporting right-wing climate change denying politicians
Fuck you google. Why not a boycott? At the very least of the search engine. Here is an alternative:
The Mindscape of Alan Moore
Great little piece (except for the voice-over guy) that will give you a tiny introduction to the man.
This is a fairly well-done doc. I have my quibbles with the actual film-making, but no real reason to go into it here. The film is an exploration of Moore’s autobiography and art, but it also becomes a fascinating presentation of his weltanschauung (worldview). Even if you have no interest in his art or story, the ideas he explores are worth listening to and thinking about.
Above is a great talk he gave in support of the library system in England. He talks about his history with books, comics – and the comics industry, the library, and many other topics.
His wit, intelligence, humor, integrity, and humanity – and of course his story telling abilities – are there for all to enjoy.
Feel free to
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