Wednesday, February 27, 2008

The New Political Paradigms

Suddenly, it's in the air. Something new. "Sea changes." A cresting wave. Seismic shifts in the old ways of thinking about politics.

"I'm going through a huge Zeppelin renaissance. I hear they might be going back on the road. If we're gonna have peace in the Middle East, or the markets are going to get back in line, it's going to be because Zeppelin is on the road. . . . Here's how we catch Osama bin Laden: We give him two backstage passes to Zeppelin, and he'll show up. We got him. It's like a world-changing event."

Nada Surf drummer Ira Elliot, to the Onion's A.V. Club.
h/t Michael Crowley at The Plank (The New Republic).

Ontological origins: Paris, 1969 (Mais oui!)



[If you look closely, I think you can see Deleuze in the audience.]

[[It's turning into Rock and Roll week at Zone. Strange. I've been listening to Rodgers & Hart for the last several days. But this stuff is just coming at me out of nowhere. The Cosmos trying to tell me something?]]

5 comments:

John Schertzer said...

Deleuze!!?? Groovy. One of my idols...

Back during the cold war the Ramones had an album called Rocket to Russia, and I thought it would put an end to the cold war if we just air dropped them into Red Square. Turns out, the real reason the cold war ended was that a few brave souls put a hole in the Berlin Wall, and gave Eastern Berliners money to go shopping in the west. The news circulated through the underground like a rash. Now, to me, *that's* Deleuzean. And that's how real political change happens.

In other words, don't give a certain type of fundamentalist an opportunity to martyr themselves, give them Zeppelin tickets. Exactly!!

That's taking something essentially dark, like capitalism, and putting it to good use. In a sense, doing judo-capitalism. Actually, I'm entrenched in Tai Chi training at present. Same thing, really.

May the wuji woove wiff you...

Liam said...

I see Jimmy Page with that cello bow, and all I can think of is Nigel's guitar solo in Spinal Tap.

cowboyangel said...

John,

Rocket to Russia - that would've been awesome. All they got instead were the jeans.

Personally, I think Sun Ra would be a transformational tool in international politics. Though I'm not sure what kind of transformation would ensue.

I have three serious concerns about a Zeppelin political strategy:

1) No Bonham the Elder. What kind of teeth would a Zeppelin policy really have?
2) Those damn Cadillac commercials. What would we really be saying to the Middle East?
3) Robert Plant.

cowboyangel said...

Liam,

I knew a Jimmy Page/cello bow comment was coming. And it's a fair one.

But, come on, it works in this case because it's 1969 - in Paris - in a classroom auditorium.

And John Bonham provides the necessary karmic balance. Did you see him in the soundcheck? 5:51-6:30. Awesome.

John Schertzer said...

A friend of mine recently got me a book of Sun Ra's writings (and many of them are political) for my birthday.

Most excellent. Did you know he took a trip to Saturn back in '36?