“deadbeat philosophy” plus 2 more |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2010 11:59 AM PDT
In a previous century, I participated heavily in the original "mp3.com" unsigned artist website. 'Twas much fun, and the other day ran across a few tracks I had saved by Massachusette's Mountain Mirrors. Turns out there has been much added since that genesis, and some very tasty, spooky prog at that. These (this) guys were compared to the infamous Porcupine Tree, but without the pompous bagage....there's your starting point. http://www.myspace.com/mountainmirrors Mountain Mirrors-Immortal Deadbeats Mountain Mirrors-A Spell to Block the Sun
Other than coming up on a name related image search, I have no idea who she is - but, hey, sex sells! Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Posted: 12 Jul 2010 12:14 AM PDT "This experiment accomplishes something never seen before" By Ben Johnson July 12, 2010
Scarlet is hands down the most difficult review I have yet to write, and I can't imagine another that causes me to take such pause before for putting finger to key appearing anytime soon. It is without a doubt something new, with Brian Michael Bendis utilizing story techniques I've never witnessed before, and the art is outstanding, which is absolutely unsurprising considering the source is Alex Maleev. But what caused me to take a moment for some serious cerebration is the possibility that the book I held in my hands was, in fact, art. Perhaps this shouldn't strike me as amazing, considering I use the word "art" in nearly every critique I write, but isn't it striking how rarely we hold up a creative team's work and proclaim it to be something special? Outside of works like Watchmen, Maus, and A History of Violence, "art" is rarely used to describe comic books. After some soul searching, and a little research, I found a quote that finally made up my mind:
And this is exactly what Scarlet accomplishes. Bendis and Maleev manage to capture a moment in contemporary time; the frustration and helplessness we all feel seeing the world as it is and not as it should be. The story opens with the main character strangling the last hold on life from a nameless cop, but quickly changes gears, utilizing a narrative technique I've never seen outside the pages of Deadpool (don't hold it against Bendis). Scarlet almost immediately shatters the forth wall, taking us by the hand and leading us through important moments in her childhood, adolescence, early steps into adulthood, and finally, the Defining Moment of her life. During this moment of self realization she asks herself two important questions, "Why is life the way it is?" and most importantly, "What (is she) going to do about it?" The answer to the latter brings us back to the first page, and readers realize what the series is about. In the same vein as movies like Falling Down, Scarlet is angry at a broken world and she's going to fix it, consequences be damned.  Cover art to SCARLET #1 by Alex Maleev It's not the story itself that makes this art, nor is it the outstanding visuals, it's a blending of the two over the top of a wildly unconventional and wholly involving technique of delivery. Add to that a prestige format that makes it a pleasure to hold, and an interesting promise of reader involvement, a component I can't imagine how the creative team will implement, and this experiment accomplishes something never seen before. However, an important question must also be answered, is this worth reading? Is it entertaining? Is that goal realized? Mostly. As with any first issue, not all answers can be found, but Bendis and Maleev are undoubtedly off to a great start. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Lotterman: Government austerity won't help the world economy Posted: 11 Jul 2010 10:40 PM PDT German Chancellor Angela Merkel studied physics, not philosophy, but German university studies usually include some study of logic. Yet she apparently fails to recognize the logical fallacy in the economic strategy she advocates, not only for the country she heads, but for Europe as a whole. Unfortunately, neither Europe nor the world can export itself out of recession. Moreover, government austerity is not likely to spur consumption or investment in time to prevent further economic downturn. Germany is the second-largest exporting nation in the world, shipping nearly 90 percent of what China does even though the German population is only 1/16th the size. That means Germany's net exports are high, and it runs a large surplus in its "current account." That is, all of its short-term financial inflows from other nations, including their payments for German exports, are far larger than Germany's short-term financial outflows. Such a current account surplus means it must run a deficit in its capital account, which tabulates all international movements of investment principal. German capital is lent or invested in other countries. In practical terms, that means Germany exports goods and services to Greece, Spain, Portugal and other countries. It receives money from these countries that flows back to them when German banks make loans to businesses in those countries or to their governments. This is exactly the same as our country importing a great deal from China and our import payments to China flowing back here to buy U.S. Treasury bonds. Merkel perpetuates the mercantilist fallacy debunked by Adam Smith 234 years ago that an export surplus always represents good morals as well as good policy. She portrays Germany as particularly virtuous in the ongoing global financial debacle and argues everyone else should follow its example. This is logically and operationally impossible. Any country's production of goods and services falls into four categories: consumption, investment, government and net exports. Consumption goods - food, clothing, shelter, etc. - meet the needs and wants of the country's populace. Investment in this case does not mean stocks and bonds but rather new factories, machines and infrastructure. Government is all government spending on goods and services, but not income transfers like Social Security, student financial aid or farm subsidies. Net exports are the value of exports minus imports. (In the United States net exports have been negative for years, as they were for much of the 1800s.) All of these must sum up to Gross Domestic Product, the total dollar value of all final goods and services a country produces. ("Final" excludes double counting; we count the price paid for a hamburger but we don't also count the cost of the bun, the flour that went into the bun, the wheat into the flour or the fertilizer used to grow the wheat.) If one category falls without another one increasing, the total output of the economy falls. And while it would take another column to explain this fully, when output falls, so does the total income received by the population. Thus, if investment in new plants and equipment or consumption fall, as they both have in the United States, Germany and many other nations over the past three years, either government spending or net exports must rise. If they do not, GDP and hence incomes must fall. Merkel and some other European leaders at the recent G-20 meeting in Toronto think that government spending must fall and taxes rise. If they are right, and consumption, investment or net exports rise in response, GDP can hold its own or rise. Incomes can rise. Prosperity can return. The problem is that the historical record of either consumption or investment rising during recessions in response to government spending cuts or tax increases is not just thin, it is nonexistent. And history is full of examples where such austerity measures further depressed both consumption and investment. If the government part of total output falls and consumption and investment do not increase, then net exports must rise. Merkel sees this as both possible and virtuous for all. The problem is that the world as a whole is subject to another simple limit. Net exports have to sum to zero. What one country exports, another must import. This is the root of Merkel's "fallacy of composition," a mistaken belief that what may be true for one nation, especially in the short and medium term, is necessarily true for all. It is impossible for all countries to simultaneously increase their net exports. One unspoken fantasy for European fiscal hawks is that the United States will act as the "consumer of last resort" for the whole world, increasing our imports so that they can reduce government spending without reducing their nations' output and incomes. It has done so during past shallower and briefer downturns. But it cannot do so for the entire world on an extended basis. The outlook for the global economy already was somber, and odds are that this policy tack will make things even worse. Economist Edward Lotterman teaches and writes in St. Paul, Minn. Write him at ed@edlotterman.com. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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