Mr. Touchy Too Muchy

If you think that's funny...

Adam Curtis is my favorite documentarian, I guess if you made me pick one. His work centers around historic political and social trends: the invention of Public Relations, the rise of violent religious revolutions and neoconservatism, the fear we have of each other. His style of composition is decidedly subjective and the atmosphere of the editting and narration encourages curiosity and suspicion. Most of his early work had been in the form of 3 part series' for the BBC, most are readily downloadable from this internet.

Here he is interviewed by my second favorite, Errol Morris, the man with giant balls behind the Robert McNamara interview'in "Fog of War".

Please, do yourself a favor and start watching Adam Curtis' "The Power of Nightmares", "The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom", and "The Century of the Self".

Here's 2 segments, part of his involvement in the new BBC series "ScreenWipe"

How'd you get up there?

I've been back in St. Louis for more than a season now, and I'm enamored with the place. Give these fine midwestern folk the chance and they'll surprise you with their generosity and chumwithyness. So that's good.

My friends Eric, Ashley, Tom and I have started a band. It's called Doom Town and it's tremendous if you don't mind my saying. So that's good.

I need to put in some time pouring concrete in my basement. My studio gear is all strewn throughout the house and I haven't done any recording in 5 months. There are a bunch of amazing new bands with wonderful people in this town; I want to spend long hours with them in an underground bunker.

I got a job as a shoe salesman. I just finished a job working for the World Bank in South Africa, making the website of an alternate reality game for tech-school students to get to know each other. The premise was so weird I had to do it. I posited the moral question of working for the World Bank to my boss. It went like this:

Me: Does it concern you that we're working for an organization that makes loans to underprivledged nations?
Boss: Whadja mean?
Me: I mean what if they can't pay. Usually when a poor African country can't pay, and they usually can't, the banks have to recoup their investment someway. That tends to be children having their feet cut off and lowering them into diamond mines. I mean a contract's a contract!
Boss: I dunno, I don't think our website can do that.

So that's good.

This weekend is Buckminster Noodles' first birthday. He's daring and nimble, affectionate and appreciative, all fine qualities a young boy should have. I feel as if I'm raising a brave son who will someday take over my estate.