A batch of my reviews have gone live on Metromix, including this swampy funk from Texas, a state I usually hate. OK, I still hate it. It’s the worst state on Earth. See my piece on T. Boone Pickens for more on that score. But when it comes to score, Texas can rock with the best of us. With that, meet Topaz & Mudphonic. Read More »
OK, let’s catch up with my work on AlterNet, shall we? There’s this oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens who has been garnering fawning attention from the mainstream and green press, because he’s given up on funding Bush/Cheney and turned his attention to wind farms and natural gas. Fade to black. Film at 11.
If only reality were hyperreality. If only. It didn’t take too deep a peek at the numbers and research to realize this is another pipe dream from a vulture capitalist looking to stay fat and warm, while the rest of an economically and geopolitically fatigued America sucked wind. Without the farms. Read More »
Greetings, Morphizm pals. Sorry for the delayed communication. I celebrated my birthday over the weekend, and spent this morning suffering for it. But I did manage to clock some work for Wired on Saturday and Sunday, including this Digg-hot piece on The Doors. Polish those knobs! Read More »
[Jim Kunstler, Clusterfuck Nation]
The feeble American response to Russia’s assertion of power in the Caucasus of Central Asia was appropriate, since our claims of influence in that part of the world are laughable. The US had taken advantage of temporary confusion in Russia, during the ten-year-long post-Soviet-collapse interval, and set up a client government in Georgia, complete with military advisors, sales of weapons, and even the promise of club membership in the western alliance known as NATO. These blandishments were all in the service of the Baku-to-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which was designed specifically to drain the oil region around the Caspian Basin with an outlet on the Mediterranean, avoiding unfriendly nations all along the way. Read More »
I’ve been interviewing and reviewing for Filter for a few months, and have finally caught up with that content. Recently, I reviewed Love as Laughter’s Holy for the righteous mag, which is almost as cool as Love as Laughter. Almost I say, because the band’s Sam Jayne has an ear for addictive rock, and a friend in Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock. That rhymed. Read More »
I wrote this piece of half-assed homage for Wired on Sunday, but it was a hit far and wide. Maybe people are as sick of CDs as they are of bottled water, both of which are wasteful phantoms of a previous life where mass consumption supposedly didn’t murder innovation or the environment. Those days are long gone, so it’s good to get some positive feedback, and not just on Wired. Prefix Mag sent me a shout-out as well. It takes a village, people, especially to unplug from a consumerist fantasy that has no place in the 21st century. Read More »
The Swedish have invaded Morphizm! Between Lykke Li and Kristoffer Ragnstam, I’m drowning in the alphabet and pining for the days of Ingmar Bergman. But the better news is both efforts don’t suck at all. They are actually very entertaining, for different reasons, as I explained on Metromix recently. Suck that, ABBA!
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[By Greg Palast, Photo: AP]
Lhasa, Tibet — China’s secret police are just terrible at keeping themselves secret. The detective, dressed in her business suit and pumps appropriate to urban Lhasa, did not expect to be trailing my wife and me up the steep hillside to a monastery 15,000 feet up an ice-crusted ridge. Even at 200 yards behind us, I could see her shivering in the thin, frozen air, trying, absurdly, to look like just another hiker on the barren slope.
But then, she really wasn’t trying to hide. Her presence was meant to send a message of fear and intimidation. I got the point earlier when a photographer we’d helped sneak into Tibet was arrested, her film of protesting Tibetans seized and her camera smashed as she was hustled onto the first plane leaving the country. Read More »
UPDATE: Our pals at the Huffington Post has syndicated this fine interview. Stop over there and leave a comment or two. They love the love.
Adam Mansbach is a dude of many hats. A hip-hop poet that can recite histories old-school and new without missing a beat, especially in his acid satire Angry Black White Boy. An author who lives in Berkeley, grew up in Boston and can freestyle in Brooklyn without weak knees. An intellectual from a long line of East Coast intellectuals who fraternized with bigshots like Alfred Kazin, Bernard Malamud and more. I’m not sure what size head he has, but I know the guy has a big brain.
He uses it with skill in his latest novel The End of the Jews, which marries our 21st century’s postmodern overload with the last century’s clumsy geopolitical and artistic fumblings, without sacrificing generational sensitivity. I pinned Mansbach to talk about all of the above, and why Israel needs to screw its head on straight before history repeats itself. Read More »
It’s been a busy weekend over at Wired, where I have tackled everything from dead icons to dead technology. I’ve also had a chance to float some stellar music into the mix, including tracks from these two vastly underrated artists. Dig into the sonics, stake out your ground on the text and rock onward. Read More »
My name is Scott Thill, and I launched alt-culture pusher Morphizm.com on July 4 2001. It serves as the home base for my professional and original work, as well as those who I like. I'm currently a journo for Wired, AlterNet, Filter, Huffington Post and more, many of whom can be found on the Who? page above, along with other Morphizm contributors. Want to get in touch? Visit the Contact page. Enjoy. 
Morphizm @ Wired
