In case you're wondering "who the hell is this guy?" I'm the guy who does sound at Gilman sometimes.In my spare time, I like to build PA speakers from scratch and dream of the day when they finish building the space colony on Mars and all the rich people move there to be chic.
Creative People
Hey Girl!, Icky Girlfriends, Rosenbombs, Deconditioned, Voetsek, Holy Ghost Revival, Abi Yoyos, Weak Leads, Poser Posse, Hit Me Back, Limp Wrist, Peels, Miracle Chosuke, Tommy Lasorda, Hella, Scholastic Death, Life's Halt, Dystrophy, What Happens Next?, this bike is a pipebomb, Sharp Knife, Quest for Quintana Roo, Miso Militia, Bananas, Artemis Pyle, 50 Million, ODP, Yogurt, Dr. Dre Del, the Faggz, Dory Tourette & the Skirtheads, The Dairy Queens, Sidekicks, Los Rabbis, The Jocks, Fleshies, Sacralicious, 3 Hung Low, The Human Beans, Fuckface, Spazz, Los Crudos, Dystopia, Miami, Hickey, Plutocracy, a minor forest, LeTigre, Blackfork, The Rape Utic, Fun People, The Gaia, Insaints, Lung Butter, Aus Rotten, Spitboy, Tribe-8, The Grups, Grimple & Rancid back in '92, MDC, Pixies, Cap'nJazz, Jello Biafra, TBR, Darth Vader's Church and a bunch of other metal/punk/DIY bands from Fla. in the '80s whose names I don't remember, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Dead Milkmen, Shiela Escovedo, Jiri Laburda, Tom Tom Club, ZZ Top, Queen, Ry Cooder, Tomita, Thelma Houston, Deep Purple (early 70s), Black Sabbath (ditto), Neil Young, Allman Brothers, Joni Mitchell, Pete Escovedo, Caetano Veloso, Pink Floyd, Arlo Guthrie, Zappa and the Mothers, Jimmi Hendrix, the Band, the Fugs, Ravi Shankar, Herbie Hancock, the Beatles, Dylan, the Meters, Nina Simone, James Brown, Little Richard, the Coasters, Miles Davis, Tito Puente, Big Mama Thornton, Big Joe Turner, Harry James, Billie Holliday, Arsenio RodrÃguez, Woody Guthrie, Carl Orff, Manuel Ponce, Scott Joplin, St. Saens, Tchaikovsky, Chopin ...
Buster Keaton -- Charlie Chaplin -- Mel Brooks -- Pretty much any scene featuring Harpo Marx, Mae West, or Paul Rubens -- Ernest Goes to Jail -- Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media -- Panama Deception -- The Revolution Will Not Be Televised -- Born Into Brothels -- Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- Harold and Maude -- The Life of Brian -- They Live -- Night of the Living Dead (1968 version) -- Dr. Strangelove -- Catch 22 -- Slaughterhouse 5 -- Murmur of the Heart (Souffle au coeur, Le) -- some of the Cheech'n'Chong Movies ...
Amy Goodman / Democracy Now! (Free Speech TV) Weeknights at midnight in SF on cable 22. It's so good, the channel directory lists it as "Off Air."
Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins (2004, Berrett-Koehler Publishers)
This book highlights an important and often overlooked aspect of how "the system" of global empire operates. I've never seen anything quite like it, although a few books I've read provide strong support for the points made by Perkins -- enough to believe the incredible stories he tells. The book is very easy to read, you don't have to be a Chomsky nerd like me to get through it, so I recommend it to everyone with an interest in social justice type issues.
I also like Chomsky, especially Manufacturing Consent (on the media) and Necessary Illusions (on US militarism / military atrocities and their whitewashing).
And I like Bertrand Russell, especially his A History of Western Philosophy and Why I'm Not a Christian.
And if you haven't read it yet, Howard Zinn's People's History of the US is must reading for every resident of the US.
Not much for heroes, but here's a few peeps I admire: Noam Chomsky, Bertrand Russell, Gore Vidal. They all could have lived very comfortably without rocking the boat. ---- Malcolm X. The same is true for him, really. Kept getting better right up til the end. ---- The American Indian Movement, the Black Panthers and the SNCC. ---- Ida B. Wells, Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, Oscar Wilde and Alfred Kinsey ---- the people at CBS News and 60 Minutes who used to slip real information into their reports when they could, like the expose they did on the Shah of Iran 6 months before the revolution there, and on Imelda Marcos and her damn shoes shortly before the Marcos' downfall. ---- people who make good documentary films ---- the incredibly (perhaps unknowingly) subversive Robin Leech, producer of the series "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" (like MTV's "The Crib" x10) ---- Greg Palast and Robert Fisk and the people who reported from Baghdad by cell phone to KPFA during the "Shock and Awe" campaign. ---- people who say no to the system instead of asking how can I get a cut of the action.