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Question What I've Seen Morphizm's Amy Bass has a welcome message for you: No one has the right to take your voice away. Whether it's blue or red: MORE	Cornucopia of Death The Bible-thumpers have dialed in doomsday. The Pope's demise dominated, and the Schiavo brigade took eyeballs away from Tom DeLay's imminent political death: MORE	"Enterprise" On one depressing day in March, there were three top stories in the New York Times' biz section detailing the extensive greed of WorldCom, Enron and other multinationals intent on grifting the U.S. blind. But does anyone care? MORE	Ecuador Gets Chavez'd Like Hugo Chavez, Alfredo Palacio is simultaneously sitting on a priceless oil reserve and ducking bullets from the Bush administration: MORE	The Rapture We are at the epi-center of a rapidly spreading energy crisis, but no one seems to notice. Hummers are still in the carpool lanes and we're building mega-malls like George Pataki's favorite, DestiNY USA, without a care. In other words, the perfect setting for a Revelation. . . MORE	That 1914 Feeling As predicted, the world's peak oil production is falling faster than the NASDAQ. Will Americans trudge forward in ignorant bliss? MORE	Just Say Noruba Think that an information-deprived American public needs more Downing Street memos and less Jacko and Aruba? Think again: MORE
Crony Capitalism Goes to War For every costly war and lengthy reconstruction, there is a Daddy Warbucks somewhere cashing in. And lately, they've all been members of the Bush Administration. Forget all the boring talk of freedom and liberation -- guys like Jay Garner just want you to show them the money . . . MORE	Thirteen Ways to Prepare for War Egged on by CNN and Fox News and entranced by war drums from the White House, you're probably wondering how you can ready yourself for the imminent war with Iraq. Here's a hint: step on the gas and pray like hell . . . MORE	Whole Lotta Love That's usually what's inside a battlefield convert's heart after almost losing his job to people who don't support segregation, unequal voting rights, jeez, even a birthday for Martin Luther King, Jr. Can you imagine what a country like that would be like? . . . MORE	Bin Laden's Diary "I have befriended a dog with scabies and adopted him as my pet," writes the Terrorist That Shook the World. Now read his take on infidel America, heretical technology, she-devils on prime-time television, and his own bitch of a mother . . . MORE	Call Me Bushmael Prior to the 9/11 tragedy, Bush the Younger was adrift in a sea of corporate paybacks, Crawford vacations and incoherent speeches. Now's he's the New Ahab, chasing terrorism's white whale across the world at freedom's expense . . . . MORE	Nineteen Ways to Avoid War With Iraq We know, we know, everyone's itching to go cash in on revelopment contracts and oil bonanzas at Iraq's expense. But time is not yet up for Saddam's house, not as long as the U.S. has genuises like Great White on hand . . . MORE	Crony Capitalism Goes to War For every costly war and lengthy reconstruction, there is a Daddy Warbucks somewhere cashing in. And lately, they've all been members of the Bush Administration. Forget all the boring talk of freedom and liberation, just show us the money . . . MORE
Sons of Afghanistan There's more than one way to look at a War on Terrorism, and more than one voice to give weight to the ravages of history. Erik Gauger caught up with one that speaks of fantacism , the loss of native artifacts, and what the future may hold . . . MORE	Is Perception Reality? Now that the American counterattack is in full swing, it would be in everyone's best interest to understand what kind of war they're fighting, how it's perceived by extremists on both sides, and why preemptive strikes may only give birth to further fundamentalism . . . MORE	Con-tro-versy! Slavery is a blight on the record of human history, whereas the civil rights movement of the 1960s was a shining example of peace and strength. Somewhere between those polar opposites lies the current issue of reparations. But what is the price and who will really pay in the end? . . MORE	Like Freedom? Then Free Xu Wenli The anniversary of the September 11 attacks has passed, but democracy everywhere is still at risk. So even though America's scars are healing, others in more oppressive countries, like China, are still wide open . . . MORE	Can't Have the War Does anyone else besides Will Durst think that the United States should slow its roll? After all, there's a huge laundry list of things that we should be taking care of first. Like the NCAA tournament, the Academy Awards, and the next Jacko documentary . . . MORE	The Empire Strikes Again (and Again) Who's beaneath the hood, Palpatine or Bush? It's getting harder to tell these days, especially when some Americans believe that the Iraqis were behind 9/11. Yeah, it's that bad . . . MORE	Democrats: Profiles in Spinelessness How can these weaklings honestly expect the U.S. to take them seriously? Bush couldn't be more beatable if he painted a giant bullseye on his back. So what are the so-called Democrats doing about it? Nothing at all . . . . MORE
Killing Machine Judging from the frenzy following the sniper case, it was easy to believe that nothing else of interest -- war, scandal, a withering economy -- was going on in the U.S. But when America found out that Muhammed and Malvo were black . . . MORE	The Bottom Line Here's a hard question for the war hawks. Just where exactly is Dick Cheney? After all, he was cozy with Saddam as recently as a few years ago. Arianna Huffington -- and millions of inquiring minds would like to know . . . MORE	The Spoils of War Before a bomb was launched, the Busheviks had already tabbed a few corporations to divvy up the billion-dollar contracts to rebuild Iraq. But there was no bidding war -- the prizes went to fat-cat donors. Does anyone else smell a master plan here? Arianna Huffington does . . . MORE	What a Mess-O- Potamia! OK, slow your roll. The war in Iraq may look like it's over, but the real battle has just begun. Which means answering a few questions like where is Saddam Hussein, and what has Bush sold us into ?. . . MORE	Why the Anti-War Movement Was Right Only a sucker thought Saddam had a chance making it out of Baghdad alive. In other words, that wasn't a war. The real war begins now, when the rest of the world is screaming "Occupiers!" in our direction. But the sad fact is we played right into their hands . . . MORE	Reality War TV According to Franks, the war to end all television wars has begun. But just how far removed are embeds, game graphics and images of the dead from snuff films? And how will mediation denature what may become an occupation? . . . MORE	The Gunfight at the Iraqi Corral With terms like "cowboy" and "outlaw" being thrown America's way, now's the time to pitch the Western that the Bush dynasty has been filming for two decades. After all, you can't trust wimps like "old Europe" to deliver justice at the end of a barrel . . . MORE
The Iraq FAQ Did that missile strike kill Saddam or is he still alive? And if he's alive, why didn't Rather take him out when he had the chance? And just where is Madden when you need him? Will Durst has all of the answers for you. God Bless America! . . . MORE	Citizen Works Newsletter What would this country do without Ralph Nader? Probably nose dive into ignorance. In the spirit of avoiding that mess, Morphizm has teamed up with Citizen Works, to keep you up to date on the stuff you'd rather not hear about . . . MORE	Gray Davis: Looking for the Silver Lining On the surface, the controversial Gray Davis recall movement in California looks like democracy at its finest. That is until you dig a bit deeper and find that, like most Republican-funded jihads, it's rife with criminals, even more suspicious motives and a dead-end finale . . . MORE	The Verge of Worse Who says liberals aren't tough on each other? Will Durst has seen what the Green Party can do, and he wants an apology from Ralph Nader. Because while everyone was wondering if America could get any worse, the country was busy turning into a nightmare . . . MORE	The Grinch That Stole Labor Day George W. Bush has been stumping across the U.S. for more jobs, a better economy and a prosperous future. How does he want to accomplish this and celebrate Labor Day at the same time? By erasing your overtime pay, of course. Makes sense to me . . . MORE	Goosing Gray Gray Davis is a man in the crosshairs. On one side, he's got a hash-smoking Republican with election shirts that say "Vote for me if you want to live" trying to terminate him. On the other, his own people are gearing up for an "Et tu, Brute?" But here's how he can survive it all . . . MORE	The Spoils of War Before a bunker buster was launched, the Busheviks had already lined up a select few to divvy up the contracts to rebuild Iraq. But there was no bidding war -- the prizes simply went to fat-cat donors. Does anyone else smell a master plan here? Arianna Huffington does . . . MORE
California Debate: The Lost Transcript Watching Ahnuld, Arianna, Cruz, McClintock and Camejo go at each other was almost as fun as Mary Carey's last showdown with Gary Coleman. But who knew that the dolts at MSNBC left all the trenchant conversation on the cutting room floor? Good thing we picked up the scraps. But be warned -- you will be offended . . . MORE	Half a Million on Poindexter, Please! And you thought the Bush administration couldn't fuck up worse than the Iraq quagmire. Well, that's only because you haven't met one of the more frightening Strangeloves hiding in Dubya's closet: John Poindexter. See, he had this great idea for an online gambling site involving assassinations and . . . MORE	Bush and the Saudis Sittin' in a Tree... Compassionate conservatism is one thing, Dubya, but don't you think you might be going too far? After all, the Saudis, not Saddam Hussein, were more or less responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and blanking out the dirty parts of a probe isn't going to change that . . . MORE	Just a "Recall" of the 2000 Election Arnold Schwarzenegger. Gary Coleman. Porn star Mary Carey. Larry Flynt. As each day goes by, the surreal California recall is looking like a cheap imitation of Hollywood Squares. But it actually is a tired show we've all seen before -- in Florida. Maybe we should just skip it and watch more TV . . MORE	Bush's AIDS Test God bless the Canadians! First they decriminalize gay marriages, then they decriminalize marijuana and now they're taking on the headstrong WTO. But will Bush, who's assigned Big Pharma puppets to oversee the generic drug sitch, slam his neighbors to the north? Ask Naomi Klein . . . . . MORE	Smoke, Mirrors, Blood In a land America couldn't wait to invade to save the world from a nuclear holocaust that didn't exist, the oil is flowing. It was a short time ago that Iraq dominated the newscasts. Now it's just an afterthought. But we went to war for one good reason: WMD. So where the hell are they? . . . MORE	Arnold Unplugged Grabbing tits and ass always makes the headlines. But it's what you aren't hearing about Ahnuld's cozy relationship with ex-Enron CEO, Kenneth Lay, that should have you worried. Those Indian gaming millions Arnie's bitching about? They're nothing compared to the billions he'll give back to Enron . . . MORE
Where Art Thou? Memories are short, so we'll make this as clear as we possibly can -- the only reason anyone signed off on Iraq is because they thought that Saddam had nukes. So where the hell are they? Well, we have some ideas and we're glad to share them with Rummy and Co. . . . . MORE	Fuzzy Math So there was our President, blinking into the camera as if someone was about to activate his electric collar if he screwed up. Which, of course, he already has, to the tune of over $50 billion and thousands of lives. So then why was he asking us for $87 billion, and begging the U.N. to jump in? . . . . MORE	Myth of Free Speech It was one Ari Fleischer that cautioned America to watch what it said. And it's Ashcroft's PATRIOT Act that's going to enforce that edict. But when are these guys going to follow their own advice? When they prove that Jews run the world and Jesus can kick Mohammed's ass? Welcome to the double standard . . . MORE	Fear of a Free Election OK, let's straighten this out. We went into Iraq because Saddam had nukes cocked and ready for action. Then we changed our minds, deciding instead to invade and bomb the country to usher in their new era of democracy. And now, after all that, we're not willing to give the Iraqis a shot at an election after all. Naomi Klein explains . . . MORE	Corporate America's Most Wanted There are financial wizards in our world that you should take advice from, but these guys are definitely not them. Together they've given offshore tax shelters front-page coverage, ruined the accounts of millions, and helped build Saddam's Iraq . . . MORE	Iraq and a Hard Nose So many questions. Where are the WMD? Where is Saddam? Where is Osama? Who put up that goddamn "Mission Accomplished" banner? The Bush administration can't seem to answer anything with a straight face anymore. So why are they still hanging onto the phony war in Iraq? Perseverance, baby, perseverance! . . . MORE	Baker Takes the Loaf Everywhere you turn, there are fossils from administrations past screwing things up. Enter James Baker, who now controls the Iraqi debt. It looks good on paper, until you realize that he's the attorney for terrorist-sponsoring Saudi Arabia. Whatever the Bushies are smoking, we want some . . . MORE
A Rare Win-Win-Win-Win-Win Situation Get out your party hats because it's tax cut time. Which means that every donor that gave Dubya a donation is going to get a return on his investment. Who wins? Everyone! But who loses? The poor, but who gives a shit about them? . . . MORE	Hugo Chavez vs. The Free Trade Zombies If you ask Friedman and the Chicago School, the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas is supposed to be a global economic panacea. But if you ask Hugo Chavez, it's a short trip to damnation. So who's telling the truth? We suggest you ask Greg Palast . . . MORE	Protect the Right to Choose. Again. Thirty years is too long a time to simply hand over the invaluable rights others are so willing to destroy. So while the landmark Roe Vs. Wade victory blows out its birthday candles, women everywhere should be lighting fires under their government . . . MORE	The Teflon Goose Like a true leader of all Republica should, President Bush has stood up and squarely assigned the blame for the uranium debacle -- on George Tenet. No, wait, it was that other intelligence guy. No, no, it was Condoleeza Rice. Wait, where am I? did I actually become president? Pass the vodka! . . . MORE	Directions, Anyone? Every few years. the Israelis and the Palestinians decide that they've killed each other enough, and sit back down at the table like mature adults. But guess who's coming to dinner? The Bush administration, fresh off of two wars and a draconian civil liberties record. We smell a three-car pileup on that storied road to peace . . . MORE	Once Strip-Mined, Twice Shy Argentina is known for its vistas and bounty. But they don't want you polluting their water with cyanide. That's what Meridian, a Canadian-U.S. mining interest, found out when they blew into town. Naomi Klein explains . . . MORE	Mutiny in Iraq Friends. How many of us have them? Where are they when we need help carrying the load in Fallujah and Baghdad? Where are their deep pockets to aid us? As Naomi Klein explains, they've decided that Iraq is a loser's game . . . MORE
Under My Thumb First we invaded because of WMDs. Then we were there to spread democracy. Both, Naomi Klein writes, were uncovered as just another free-market lie. Which leaves? What else? Oil . . . . . MORE	SF Joins Axis of Evil! It's election year and you know what that means -- diversion! Enter the Bush administration's jihad against the gay community. But is a constitutional amendment really such a bad idea? . . . . MORE	Thumbs Up! Abu Ghraib? Horrible. Nick Berg? Barbaric. Donald Rumsfeld? Employee of the Month! After everything that's happened in the war and its aftermath, Dubya still loves him some Rummy . . . . . MORE	Mother of Anti-War Forces The parents of the barely legal grunts that the Bush administration has sent to die are beginning to speak out. And as Naomi Klein argues, they're not working for Dubya's reelection campaign . . . MORE	Unruly Women Meet the new millennium, same as the old millennium. Teresa Heinz Kerry refuses to be a cookie-baking First Lady, and for that she's endlessly harangued and called a flake. We've come a long way, baby. Haven't we? . . . MORE	Shakespearean Spotlight Everyone knows our prez doesn't enjoy the reading thing. But he should really check out this guy named Shakespeare and his play Henry V. And a writer called Arianna Huffington . . . MORE	Ditch the Distraction After spending years championing the progressive cause, Naomi Klein has finally thrown in the towel and got behind John Kerry and the Democrats. But only because she's ready to tear down the charade in the White House and get back to work . . . . . MORE
Great Decision After taking its sweet time, the invisible Kerry campaign has finally pulled a Southern rabbit out of its hat. But Edwards is a great choice, if only because he can change the linguistic game . . . MORE	Five Possible Election Results Now that the heavily scripted debates are concluded and the voter fraud frenzy is underway, Morphizm's own Ross Levine is certain that the election can go only one of five ways. Which one will end in riots across America is for him to know and you to find out . . . MORE	Likudization The sadistic strain of fundamentalism being leveled on the innocent is quickly overtaking the world. But should anyone truly follow Israel's lead in the War on Terror? You're going to run out of bricks building all those walls someday . . . MORE	Thumbs Up! Abu Ghraib? Horrible. Nick Berg? Barbaric. Donald Rumsfeld? Employee of the Month! After everything that's happened in the war and its aftermath, Dubya still loves him some Rummy . . . . . MORE	Why Bush is Still Standing One book by a prominent neuroscientist has finally provided her an answer to one of life's enduring mysteries: Why everyone believes Bush and Cheney's crap . . . MORE	Democrats Discover Blacks! Fahrenheit 9/11 has given the Demos something to gloat about. Guessed they missed the beginning, where not one donkey stood up for the Florida vote-jacking. What a difference a regime change makes . . . MORE	20 Ways to Honor Reagan Ronald Reagan's death has provoked some to rethink their hero worship. But putting his face on the $10 bill or Mount Rushmore is thinking too small. Surely there are more noble ways to honor one of the United States' most influential politicians ever . . . . MORE
Pandemic of Brainlessness Cable news losers are nuts over China's ascension into globalization superstar. But no one will be buying Pepsi when the oil runs out: MORE		The Judy File Expands Arianna Huffington has been digging deeper into Judith Miller's Washington laundry. And she might have finally found a corpse: MORE	Deep Throat Cover Blown, Washington Post Still Sucks Mark Felt spent years making fools out of Nixon nation, and ended up making history in the process: MORE	Doomed Environment Heard of Sam Bodman? You should have. He's your Energy Secretary, and a polluter par excellence: MORE
Musings on an Election Everyone wants to believe, especially after the sovereignty handover in 2000, that their vote in this ratings-fueled election will make a difference. But have you ever heard of the Electoral College? While you're choosing the lesser of two evils, it's deciding who will be America's next president . . . MORE	Bushes in the Hood Great, jus

"They Have Problems" Sure, Ben Gibbard and his various bands Death Cab For Cutie and The Postal Service might not be overtly political. But these are scary times, and if you don't like what the artist is doing, Ben's got a message for you . . . . MORE	"Off the Scale" Tom Morello can't take it anymore. The former guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and current axe master for Audioslave is ready for regime change. Now. But will America keep covering their ears, or are they finally ready for some truth? . . . . MORE	"The Ship is Sinking" It is fitting that the music of And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead is often compared to apocalypse. Because their new album Worlds Apart seems convinced we're going to hell in hurry -- but not for the usual reasons. Our interview elaborates . . . MORE	"Money, Timidity, Fear" After taking a wrecking ball to comedy with Bob Odenkirk and Mr. Show, David Cross has made a name for himself in both Hollyweird and the SubPop universe. But he's saving his best for the 2004 election . . . . MORE	Fast Talker The Latin American wing of cinema has finally hijacked America's attention. Or is it kidnapped? If you're talking about his film Secuestro Express, first-time Venezualan director Jonathan Jakubowicz favors the latter . . . MORE	"Make You Uncomfortable" Nicolas Cage has taken roles that would make other actors empty their lunches into their limos. Though some of his films tread that popcorn line, Cage claims independence in Morphizm's latest, In Their Own Words. . . . MORE	"That First Shock" With the release of the Uh Huh Her, Polly Jean Harvey is once again baring her talented soul for the sake of her angst-filled art. And Morphizm is proud as hell to have the 50-foot Queenie on board for In Their Own Words. Read it and weep . . . MORE
"Good Therapy" How did Ice Cube go from Amerikkka's Most Wanted to box-office gold for the Rated PG set? Because it's art, baby! You have give yourself up to it, even if no sucka gets gaffled at the end. Our interview explains. . . . MORE	Americans Aren't Interested Canadian hip-hop? Does such a thing exist? You bet your ass it does. And now that K-Os is making sonic waves, expect narrowcasted American radio to take notice. Our interview explains . . . MORE	"Sea of Trivia" If you're looking to fit in during a War on Terror, the last thing you do is make a film about a guy who wants to kill the president. But if you're Assassination of Richard Nixon director Niels Mueller, you make the movie you want to make, and hope Sean Penn is in it . . . MORE	True to Reality Moises Kaufman, the self-described "hardest-working Jewish Latino gay artist in New York," boldly dug deep into the roots of homophobia and murder on The Laramie Project, right before winning a Tony Award for I Am My Own Wife. But is he still Wilde at heart? . . . MORE	"It's All Good" For years, William Shatner has negotiated the fine between integrity and parody, and come up smelling like a rose every time. But will his latest album, Has Been, erase the camp factory he produced with his hippie-happy release, The Transformed Man? Read the interview and find out, suckers . . . MORE	"It's Amazing I've Survived" Bill Plympton's latest self-drawn exercise in physiological agency and madness takes the animator back to high school in search of hormones and Volkswagen-humping mascots. Our interview elaborates . . . . MORE	Pink Peril What do a toilet and a vagina have in common? They both need to be thoroughly cleaned with Lysol. At least, according to Lynn Peril's collection of femorabilia found in her book, Pink Think . . . . . MORE
Jusify Your Existence They are the reigning kings of mood music. But don't call them Sigur Ros. Because unlike their contemporaries, Scotland's Mogwai can kick out the jams. It's a good thing they quieted down enough to talk to us . . . MORE	"The Future Does Not Exist" Serj Tankian might be the headbanger behind System of a Down, but he also has an ear for world music. Especially the kind that his Serart companion, Arto Tuncboyaciyan, can play on something as boring as a crockpot. As Serj says in our interview, the instrument that brings you joy can set you free. . . MORE	"I Want To Be Challenged" M. Night Shyamalan has redefined the way American suspense films are built and executed, but that doesn't mean he's getting comfortable and lazy. Our interview explains . . . . MORE	"Life's Too Short" Viggo Mortensen hasn't gone Hollyweird, but he can't exactly go out to a quiet meal with the family either. Still, he's resolute about maintaining the indie atmosphere at Perceval Press, his low-budget publishing outfit . . . . MORE	As Dumb as I Am Brendon Small can do it all. But whether he's wisecracking his way through the eight-year-old auteur that bears his name, rocking your stand-up circuit, or laying down a pitch-perfect rendition of Van Halen's "Eruption" on the guitar , he keeps it humble as pie . . . . MOR	On Relatability Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley might have spent their early years at institutions such as SPY Magazine, *The Simpsons, and Futurama, but that doesn't mean they were ready to watch Mission Hill* fly right over the heads of prime-time viewers. Let's just thank God for Ted Turner . . . MORE	"It Should Be Cool to Care" Call them electro, call them post-rock, call them whatever. Just don't call Trans Am a boring interview. They're taking dead aim at Liberation in 2004, and that means no Bush, no Atkins diet, and especially no Friendster . . . MORE
Black Heart Talking Black Heart Procession's earnest exercise in moody catharsis, Amore Del Tropico, has made even the die-hard Three Mile Pilot fans sit up and take notice. So like any good artist, Pall Jenkins says he's ready to take his experimental record onto the silver screen. Or at least a DVD . . . MORE	Internetwork Yourself That giant sucking sound you hear is the gaping void left behind in Public Enemy's wake. But they haven't abandoned us -- they've just taken their revolution into cyberpsace. As Chuck D explains, contrary to what the latest NASDAQ says, the Internet is still the place to be. . . . MORE	Mimetic Rivalry On a Planetary Scale In violent times, you turn to philosophers of violence. Ones who try to make the world understand why it's so eager to kill itself. Enter Rene Girard, who has some thoughts on September 11 . . . MORE	Something That Makes People Think From handily winning DJ throw-downs to jazzing with Herbie Hancock and Blue Man Group, Rob Swift has been spreading the turntablist ethic far and wide. But with the release of his latest solo effort, Sound Event, he's topped his own tough standards. The interview awaits you . . . MORE	The Freedom to Wait Terence Malick might have cut him down to size in The Thin Red Line, but Polanski's harrowing film, The Pianist, has given Adrien Brody a well-deserved Oscar win. But, as Brody says in our interview. learning Chopin and shedding pounds just comes with the job. The one he loves . . . MORE	"Those Kids Were Fast as Lightning" Feel-good kid movie about soccer or potent exegesis on interracial politics? How about both? Gurinder Chadha's *Bend It Like Beckham* is already a UK smash and is catching on in the States. But, as she says in our interview, it's just the part of the continuing multicultural dialogue the world needs to have . . . MORE	Something Genuine Pigeonholing the Shipping News is impossible, but that doesn't mean our interview didn't give it the old college try. After all, these are the music pioneers that laid out a set of rules for composition only to end up breaking them all into pieces to form the moody masterpiece, Three-Four . . . MORE
Stick a Fork in Them, They're Dead The Dead Kennedys were one of punk rock's last outposts for anti-corporate integrity. That is, until the rest of the band sued Jello Biafra and stole the DK catalogue. What the hell happened? Funny, we asked Jello the same thing in our interview . . . MORE	The Mercy of Viewers With a neglected cinematic subject like the Armenian Holocaust as the centerpiece of his latest film, Ararat, director Atom Egoyan isn't exactly killing at the box office. But he explains in our interview, it is in times of tyranny that overlooked stories like these need to be told . . . . MORE	In The Afterlife The Squirrel Nut Zippers were supposed to be one tonic that could solve a bland musical landscape's various ills, but they were headed for the serious strife sooner than they thought. Ex-Zipper Tom Maxwell dishes the dirt on a brilliant opportunity missed. And what came next . . . MORE	One in a Series of Enabling Devices From Bickle to Lamotta to Christ and now to Bob Crane, Paul Schrader has always had an eye for men on the verge of nervous breakdown. While his latest film interrogates the other type of home movies, we interrogate Paul in our interview . . . MORE	We've Come to Break Down the Walls With an inspired East-West fusion, Cornershop has now secured its place in the UK indie scene. So why does Tjinder Singh still think that the women belong in the back? Perhaps this interview will explain . . . MORE	No Ordinary Guy For close to two decades, the punk legends Fugazi have been churning out compelling music, a trend thankfully continued with their latest release, The Argument. So we count ourselves lucky that Guy Picciotto had the time to talk for so long . . . MORE	"Imagery & Infuence" From The Crying Game to his recent film, *The Good Thief, Neil Jordan* knows how to make films about the kind of class struggle you don't see on the evening news. He also knows, as he says in our interview, how to remake a movie classic, as well as help Nick Nolte, save some serious face . . . . MORE
The Instinct is to Go Somewhere Different If you're looking for an artistic intersection between worlds, try Calexico. With Feast of Wire, they might have released the best album of the year. Now if only someone could tell Joey Burns how to play Metal Gear, everything would be right with the world. And our interview . . . MORE	Z-Boy in the Hood These days, kids would rather grow up to be Tony Hawk than the President of the United States. Which means it's time for another cultural history lesson, this time courtesy of director Stacy Peralta and his skater documentary, Dogtown and Z-Boys. The pool is yours, Stace . . MORE	What Hasn't Been Homogenized? Writer/director John Sayles has been making thoughtfully political films for more than two decades. His newest film, Sunshine State, takes on corporate tourism in Florida; meanwhile, our interview takes up two pages. Wake up and smell the strip malls . . . MORE	She's Notorious Comedian Margaret Cho might talk about colonic irrigation and getting sexually probed by short lesbians in *The Notorious C.H.O., but we still asked her about racial politics, her daring honesty and the September 11th backlash in our interview* . . . MORE	A High-Wire Act That about sums up how film legend Peter Bogdanovich has lived his life on the many sides of the camera. Now his latest tussle with Hollywood scandal, **The Cat's Meow, has hit the big screen while his latest interview has landed here . . . MORE**	Pall is Your Co-Pilot The best band you've barely heard of during the last ten years is Three Mile Pilot. But you'll hear of them now that we got a chance to interview, Pall Jenkins, whose Black Heart Procession is continuing the very strange tradition of essential artistry overlooked. . . . MORE	"So That We Can Have a Cinema" The media usually trots out stereotypes like Long Duc Dong when it feels like dealing with Asian America, but thanks to Justin Lin, there is light at the end of the tunnel. As Lin says in our interview, change is coming for you. Whether you want it or not . . . MORE
"Poisoned By Money" You call yourself a journalist? Well, while you've been busy interviewing porn stars on the *O'Reilly Factor, the BBC's Greg Palast* has been writing books about how Katharine Harris stole your election and how Enron unplugged your lights. . . . MORE	Cosmic Gamers It's strange to think that the Thievery Corporation were raised on the DC hardcore scene. Then again, they're not your everyday chillout colossus, something the Flaming Lips and David Byrne already know. Now you do too. Our interview explains . . . MORE	Predictability is a Disease Forget that Adam Reed and Matt Thompson, creators of Adult's Swim's Sealab 2021, are top-notch pomo cut-and-paste artists with a predilection for animated interracial love fests and homicidal maniacs. After reading this hilarious interview, you'll just wish you had their cushy jobs . . . . MORE	Morphizm Q&A: Harvey Birdman Talk about your Sisyphean tasks. Just try nailing down a superhero attorney while he's busy defending animated mobsters like Fred Flinstone, potheads like Scooby and Shaggy and radicals like the UnaBooBoo. See how much you like it. In fact, we couldn't get Harvey to the interview until we bought him a caseload of Tab, the freakin' prima donna. Ah well, read it anyway . . . MORE	The Greatest Show on TV Now that we've watched brats complain about living together, gold-diggers chase millionaires and celebrities turn into puppets, how can we redeem ourselves? By watching Adult Swim, the only show on TV brave enough to push the envelope and take no prisoners . . . . MORE	"Something Else New" John Singleton has been a busy man. With Four Brothers and Hustle and Flow , he's got films you should watch: MORE	Don't Get Comfy The Mars Volta have confounded conventional wisdom on Frances the Mute. That's how they want it: MORE
"I'm Not a Fan of Boring or Ugly" Rock n' roll is supposed to be about fun and games, right? So why is everyone so serious all the time, wonders Eddie Angel, guitarist for the masked marauders of surf music, Los Straitjackets, in our first interview . . . . MORE	Driving Ms. Huffington Arianna Huffington jumped ship on the trickle-down set years ago. So why was anyone surprised when put out ads drawing concrete connections between oil consumption and oil wars? As she tells it, she's as surprised as anyone . . . MORE	"If I'm Not Having Fun, I Drop It" Animator Bill Plympton has been crafting films full of corruption, paranoia, sex and bodies for over two decades. So why hasn't the DVD release of his latest, Mutant Aliens, received its deserved hoopla? That's what we asked Bill in our interview . . . MORE	The Religious Moment According to Viggo Everyone's noticed Viggo Mortensen convincing turn as Aragorn in Peter Jackson's version of Lord of the Rings. But art and poetry fans have had their eyes on the renaissance man long before he spoke Elvish. And both camps will probably dig this interview . . . MORE	Under Siege Everything might be hunky dory for the war hawks, but media theorist Mark Crispin Miller is shaking in his shoes. Whether it's North Korea, the war in Iraq, or the parrots on Fox News, Mark says we should be afraid. Very afraid . . . MORE	"It's Terrifying to be Connected" If you want to make a man squirm, say the word "vagina". An uncomfortable irony, considering that most men (and most societies, Eve Ensler would argue) are centered around that very organ. But so is most of the world's violence. So how do we untie this tangled knot? That's exactly what we asked Eve in our interview. . . MORE	"Poisoned By Money" You call yourself a journalist? Then we've got a man we'd like you to meet. See, while you've been busy interviewing porn stars on the O'Reilly Factor, the BBC's Greg Palast has been writing books about how Katharine Harris stole your election and how Enron unplugged your lights. . . . MORE
FILM	Spinning the Body Horror Web From flies to twins to mugwumps and now on to spiders, David Cronenberg has mastered the art of taking the mind and body apart. But that primordial split is more destructive and understated in his latest release, Spider. Which is why it may just be the best film he has ever made. . . . MORE	The Wizard of Awe Legendary animator Hayao Miyazake depressed everyone when he decided to hang up his brushes after the fascinating *Princess Mononoke. But then he met a little girl too protected from the Real World. And so Spirited Away, was born . . . MORE*	The Meaning of Life? Ask the Mole-Rat After four years of hibernation, Fast Cheap and Out of Control, Errol Morris's masterpiece on mortality, savagery and innovation, returns to remind us just how hell-bent we are for immortality. And how we'll die anyway . . . MORE	"I Don't Know Dick" Contrary to what the newly released DVD for Heavy Metal 2000 may have her say, one would think that cult goddess Julie Strain would know dick very well indeed. But it would be hard to tell by looking at her film, because it's far too busy blowing the shit out of everything . . . . MORE	Spike Takes His Time He's a born and bred New Yorker with a chip on his shoulder the size of an American tragedy. So it makes sense that Spike Lee's latest film, 25th Hour, would put his motley crew of hustlers, grifters and soft-hearted sympathizers at the heart of Ground Zero's moral oblivion . . . MORE	The Not-So-Straight Story The world has been a sunnier, more optimistic place since David Lynch put his brutal stamp on cinema and sound with Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. But the master of narrative disaster is back and back big with his latest film, Mulholland Drive . . . . . MORE
Willful Blindness Thanks to Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser, a new cinematic adaptation of Graham Greene's hard-hitting novel, The Quiet American, has finally made it to the screen. No thanks to waffling studios, narrow-minded talk shows, and a public afraid of harsh realities, Phillip Noyce's film has finally found an audience. . . MORE	Western Syndrome It might look like Nolan's Memento all over again, but Gaspar Noe's film, Irreversible, is an unflinching if confusing look at how human depravity can cause society to rewrite its Bill of Rights in pursuit of an elusive justice. But does it go too far in its desire to shock, or is the West too desensitized to care? . . . . MORE	What Works Together From Run-DMC to Jurassic 5, hip-hop has always been about synergy. And its spark has always originated from the turntable. And according to some amazing DJs in Doug Pray's documentary, *Scratch, its endpoint is across the universe* . . . MORE	It's Alive! With his strange, but very funny *Little Otik, Czechoslovakia's legendary Jan Svankmajer* is poised to ditch the ghetto tag of animator and take his place as a visionary who just so happens to use animation in his films. . . MORE	American Ugly One Academy Award later, director Sam Mendes is still pumping out neo-noir tales of domestic dysfunction, this time in the form of the father-son road show that is *Road to Perdition. After all, who else could trun drop-dead gorgeous Jude Law into a psychopath? . . MORE*	Persistence It was just a matter of time before Holocaust survivor Roman Polanski revisited that nightmare of his youth. And although a Palme D'Or from Cannes --and perhaps an Oscar -- might soothe, his newest film, The Pianist, nevertheless feels like an old wound opening . . . MORE	Love at First Punch He's barely over thirty but Paul Thomas Anderson has spent a good deal of his life rewriting the rules of cinema. Who else could insert Adam Sandler into a magical realist revision of the hackneyed romantic comedy like Punch-Drunk Love? . . . MORE
Dreamworking the Hollywood Dystopia With mainstreamers like Spielberg and Cruise on board Minority Report, it's hard to imagine the film would have room for Philip K. Dick's panopticon future. But everything seems to be messed up just fine . . . MORE	Everyday Things With breakout films like Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, M. Night Shyamalan has become the master of Sci-Gothic cinema. Now Signs takes on crop circles, religion and that sinking feeling you get when you know the end of the world is nigh . . . MORE	My Own Condition Slavoj Zizek, channeling Sigmund Freud most likely, once called it the feminine depression. Guys might call it a chick flick. But no matter the misogynist label, The Hours boasts a high-powered lineup of three canonical actresses at the top of their game. Cue the Academy Award . . . MORE	There's a (Digital) Riot Goin' On For fans of George Lucas' mytho-science fiction canon, Stars Wars, Episode II: The Attack of the Clones may be just the film they were waiting for when they were unsuspectingly tortured by Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace . . . MORE	She's Got Big Balls And we understand the irony in that headline, trust us. Margaret Cho's DVD release of I'm the One That I Want takes no prisoners in its sweeping condemnation of mainstream media, pugnacious networks, and Soon-Yi. And that's just for starters. . . MORE	Coming to a Theater Nowhere Near You Forget Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. The strangest thing to hit the silver screen involves a trio of directors whose movies include family dysfunction, microphone enemas, and Satan in the form of very large breasts. Grab your bon bons! . . . . MORE	Bring the Payne If the western is dead, then perhaps the Midwestern can take its place. And no one knows that peculiar condition better than About Schmidt's director, Alexander Payne. And no one knows peculiar conditions like Jack Nicholson. Sounds like a marriage made in cinema heaven. . . MORE
Watch Out For Those "Sammies"! Sure, sure, most red-blooded Americans want their payback, especially if they can see it spill out on the big screen. But *Black Hawk Down* is a weaker sort of war movie -- and not just because it's a Jerry Bruckheimer production . . . MORE	Domestic Disturbance Some small dramas come in large packages (Waterworld, anyone?) whereas some massive dramas come in little packages. In the Bedroom is the latter kind, and just because it's small doesn't mean it doesn't hurt . . . MORE	Who's Sick Here? Before being awarded for his role in Training Day, Denzel Washington dedicated his career to movies that might cash him in like he deserves. So now maybe we won't have to see him in movies like *John Q* anymore . . . MORE	The House Always Wins Gorgeous-looking movie stars! A glitzy Las Vegas setting! Oscar winners and Sexiest Men of the Year! A director who's been around the indie and the major block! Ok, what's left? Oh yeah, the plot . . . MORE	The Warhol Rooms Agitator or innovator, Andy Warhol always attracted a crowd. And that's usually when he and Paul Morrissey picked up the camera and started rolling. Meet The Chelsea Girls, the recently re-released but still self-absorbed inhabitants of the artist's strange and sadistic universe. . . MORE	A Professional Guy Ok, stop me if you've heard this one before. Smug male stud shows off and mouths off because his insanely privileged life is empty, usually because he's lost beneath the overwhelming legacy of a dead father. Oh yeah, that's Vanilla Sky . . . MORE	So ... How's Your White Man? In our post-9/11 world of political, racial and cultural confusion, it's hard to tell if Hong Kong action guru John Woo's Windtalkers, is either serendipitous multicultural revisionism another excuse to blow a ton of shit up. . . . . MORE
High Concept Ok, here's an idea. Let's take the tough-as-nails urbanite Ashley Judd played in Double Jeopardy and pair her up with the grizzled veteran guy that Morgan Freeman played in Kiss the Girls and we got ourselves a great parking spot . . . MORE	Make Mine Metafiction So how exactly does a talented screenwriter follow up on the wild success of a mindtrip like Being John Malkovich? By writing a movie about that very painful process, of course! Enter Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze's latest self-referential escapade, Adaptation . . . MORE	Say It Ain't So, Jim! How many people in the world can successfully effect the daring physical comedy of Jim Carrey? That's right, few, if any. So why won't the Academy award him for those performances and spare us the "mature" Capra rip-off that is The Majestic? . . . MORE	There Goes the Neighborhood! After genre-bending his way through the buddy film and the horror film, the talented David Fincher tackles another sociocinematic phenomenon, home invasions, in Panic Room. Cue the soft-hearted thugs of color . . . MORE	Crossover Dreaming Like *Rocky* before it, Eminem's myth-making new film, *8 Mile, self-consciously posits its beleagured white* hero as victorious against all odds. But even if the formula is tired and in need of an update, Eminem is nevertheless everywhere. All at once and all of the time . . . MORE	Confessions of a Dangerous Dreamer He isn't Hunter S. Thompson, but that doesn't mean he's not just as paranoid. He's Chuck Barris, and he's primed for assassination. Plus, with George Clooney on board, he'll probably kill in more places than just the box office . . . MORE	You Can't Fake the Funk (Brothers) Does this sound familiar? Monomaniacal mogul strings success after success together without crediting those who made it all move? Welcome to the world the Funk Brothers, and the movie about their struggle . . . . MORE
"Why Does it Have to Be Like This?" In a strange confluence between art and reality, one of Hong Kong cinema's stars leapt headlong into death as his onscreen character had done in a earlier film. But what exactly were the demons that possessed the talented Leslie Cheung to rush into suicide? . . . MORE	The Bore Could this film's timing have been any worse? Forget the fact that *The Core* feels like warmed-over Armageddon -- doesn't the country have enough to deal with without having to see space shuttles crashing to the Earth, major cities and bridges melting and general chaos ruling the streets? . . . MORE	Mutating the Mind/Body Politic The summer blockbuster onslaught has begun and there has already been a film taking a crack at the paranoia sweeping the U.S.. Except that in Bryan Singer's X-Men sequel, the enemy is not meteors or atmospheric disasters, it's our own government that's gone on a rampage . . . . MORE	Brotherlove and Motherlove Italian neorealism birthed its share of movements, but only after Visconti's controversial Rocco and His Brothers opened the floodgates. Long before Todd Haynes' was a catalyst for melodrama, Visconti had planted his flag in the genre . . . MORE	"I Like His Face" Who doesn't? Humphrey Bogart lorded over the image industry for decades, which is probably why Nicholas Ray chose him to deconstruct Hollywood in the film noir classic, *In a Lonely Place. Who else could play a celebrity psychopath* in a movie aiming to tear the image apart? . . . MORE	"Why Does it Have to Be Like This?" In one of those strange confluences between art and reality, one of Hong Kong cinema's brightest stars leapt headlong into death as his onscreen character had done in a earlier film. But what were the demons that possessed Leslie Cheung to rush into suicide when he was on top of the world? . . . MORE	Light of Day What would you do if your family was all of a sudden at the center of a molestation frenzy aired across the country on the nightly news? Whatever it is, it would probably resemble the disintegration captured in Andrew Jarecki's Capturing the Friedmans. In other words, it would be ugly. Real ugly . . . MORE
Environments and Hallucinations The Wachowski Brothers have already embedded the Matrix in the pantheon. Now they're giving back to the community. Enter *The* *Animatrix, a collaborative masterpiece* that hinges as much on philosophy as it does on tradition . . . MORE	My Guys In the rich tradition of wartime satires like Catch-22, Buffalo Soldiers seems, at first blush, like it bites off more than it can chew. But that might just be post-9/11 paranoia talking. After all, our dirty little war in Iraq is looking more and more like Vietnam every day . . . MORE	How Still It Is Steven Soderbergh's vision of Stanislaw Lem's masterpiece about consciousness and desire didn't register a blip on the radar when it came out, probably because audiences can't watch sci-fi film unless there's a ton of explosions. But as Zen masters have told us for years, the mysteries of life -- and death-- are most accessible in stillness . . . MORE	Gregory Peck, R.I.P Unlike other artists, Gregory Peck did not grandstand. Rather, he was a quiet giant whose expressive calm spoke eloquently for him. And though it became a role that would define him forever, To Kill a Mockingbird's Atticus Finch nevertheless paints a fitting portrait of how the generous and sensitive actor lived his life. . . MORE	Strangelove Turns Sweet It's not exactly news that the gifted Peter Sellers never received his due before his death. And the release of The Mouse That Roared on DVD won't change that. But the film does dig up some interesting similarities to Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. For starters, Sellers is still getting no love . . . MORE	Just Call Them Nuts The muscle-bound action hero baton has been passed to The Rock, and he's hit the ground running with it. And although The Rundown may be just another formulaic buddy pic with a hard-to-ignore hottie, it sure is nice to see some people of color tearing the place up on the silver screen. Even if the guy passing Rock the baton is that creep, Arnold Schwarzenegger . . . MORE	Want Where do narcissism and cinema meet? In the image? In the celebrity? Sofia Coppola and her film, Lost in Translation, think they have some answers, and -- with Bill Murray at his finest on board for the ride -- they just might be onto something . . . MORE
What is Truth? Fundamentalist Christian Mel Gibson has spent the last couple of years promoting The Passion of the Christ, his vision of Jesus' last days. And now the wait, like the ages-old crucifixion, is finally over. But the controversy, especially the part regarding Mel's belief that his film is literalized truth, isn't going anywhere . . . MORE	Domestic Responsibilities As an actor, Clint Eastwood has long been known for his consistency. But *Mystic River* may be his riskiest film to date. And, if you look long and hard beneath the star turns by Sean Penn and company, you'll find an uncompromising analysis of loss, masculinity and outrage . . . MORE	Immigrant Song All idealization aside, coming to America has always been a struggle. Assimilation, identity, acculturation, prejudice, consumption -- there are life-altering complexities around every corner. And no film so far this year has exhibited that tenuous integration better than Jim Sheridan's marvelous In America . . . MORE	Portraits Mainly After the horror of 9/11, the relative nightmare of Columbine seems like more than a distant memory. But it's still the kind that can scare a theater empty. But, even if it's too painful to look, films like Gus Van Sant's Elephant can still peel the veneer off of teenage wasteland . . . MORE	Feeling Raw Quentin Tarantino has been away from the game he helped unleash on Hollywood after Reservoir Dogs. But is he a one-trick pony? *Kill Bill, Volume One* is finally here to put those questions to rest. But first we're going to need a Hong Kong action cinema handbook and a gurney to clear all the dead bodies away. . . . MORE	Don't Call It a Remake George Romero's original Dawn of the Dead was a Reagan-era rant on rampant consumerism and nihilism. It was also gory as hell. Meanwhile, this 2004 remake seems to be more interested in the fine line between life and death. See what happens when you eat too many brains? . . . MORE	Ridonculous Guitar whiz and force of nature Jack Black is the first to admit that he can go "crazy ham and cheese" on the set, but if you ask director Richard Linklater, the last thing the guy needed was a tight leash. It was all good, baby, kinda like the excellent School of Rock DVD, come to think of it. Cynthia Fuchs peeks beneath the hilarity . . . . . MORE
You Can't Go Home Jackson's rendering of Tolkien's metaverse has hit the DVD racks -- and the racks are staggering. But Return of the King also establishes how harrowing war and its indivisible remainders can be . . . MORE	God Only Knows In a chaotic world plunged into a holy war from hell comes the delicious Saved, courtesy of the cats who injected *Being* John Malkovich into brainstems everywhere. That's me in the corner, losing my religion. . . MORE	Through the Looking Glass If you aren't a fan of Shakespeare or Python, then you may have never heard of Jonathan Miller. But during the Swinging Sixties, he got as creative with the arts as The Beatles did once they discovered LSD. And to this day, his Alice in Wonderland remains a resounding triumph . . . MORE	Revolutions In a time of American political turbulence and awakening, Sweet Sweetback had a badaass song -- and got mad cred for singing it on the run from The Man. Forty years later, his son is picking up the torch for a world that hasn't seemed to change one damn bit . . . MORE	Bringing Freedom Who Al-Jazeera is depends on who you're talking to -- and American news media has mostly been interviewing itself about the subject. That's all Jehane Noujaim's Control Room is trying to say about the Iraq war's nerve center. Don't kill the messenger! . . . MORE	"Being There" No Maps For These Territories, has hit the shelves just as *The Matrix* has imposed a monopoly on sci-fi narrative. But like Orwell before him, William Gibson wasn't aiming to predict the future when he wrote *Neuromancer, just make sense of an the present . . . MORE*	Quirk Hate the French all you want redneck America, but Delicatessen auteur Jean-Pierre Jeunet has discarded better ideas than you've dreamt up. And his latest missive on war and desire A Very Long Engagement may be his finest yet . . . MORE
Top Films of 2003 In a year that brought us an intractable global war, the darkly personal film shined just as brightly as its big-ticket counterparts. And whether the subject was cocaine, the Columbine massacre, zombie rampages or marriages on the brink in Japan, there was simply nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide . . . MORE	American Operator The remake of John Frakenheimer's controversial classic about politics, war, brainwashing and mad mothers couldn't come at a better time. Because the original Manchurian Candidate reminds us that sometimes it's a good thing that they don't make them like they used to . . . MORE	Serious Delirium Jim Jarmusch, that eternally cool chronicler of all that is eternally cool, is back with another low-budget talkie, this time with Bill Murray, RZA, The White Stripes and more. And you thought cinema was only about global catastrophes . . . . . MORE	Ai, Robots! Way before The Matrix bit on William Gibson's rise-of-the-machines rhyme, Mark Pauline and Survival Research Laboratories were building robots to blow the living shit out of everything in sight -- including your eardrums . . . MORE	Emperor of Masculinity Mos Def named his band after the man. Muhammed Ali channeled his spirit throughout the '60s and '70s. But does anyone else know who the hell Jack Johnson truly was? Ken Burns does, and now you do too . . . MORE	Forgotten Master The man that the drunken genius W.C. Fields called the finest comedy mind in Hollywood is in danger of being forgotten by the industry he helped shape. But Gregory La Cava and his masterpieces aren't going anywhere . . . MORE	Grumpy Hero for the Lord He's a chain-smoking comic-book legend who can't go to heaven but can still kick unholy ass in hell. But he's also Keanu Reeves, who hit action-hero paydirt with The Matrix. So does *Constantine* measure up? . . . MORE
Antic The hyper-talented Stephen Chow has labored long and hard under the shadows of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. But with the marvelous mash-up that is Kung Fu Hustle, one of Hong Kong cinema's superstars is about to explode everywhere else that doesn't already worship him . . . MORE	Roller Coaster Director David O. Russell has spent much of his career unmasking the American subconscious, and usually in a very talktaive manner. But with I Heart Huckabees, he may have taken metaphysical cinema into the future . . . MORE	That Free Will Thing Through his work, director Danny Boyle has investigated junkies, zombies and greed. Now he's taking on the nebulous engine of materialism that's gripping the world, filtered through the eyes of the innocent in his newest masterpiece, *Millions* . . . MORE	Wild at Last Why the DVD market continues to treat David Lynch like a red-headed stepchild is anyone's guess. But it's nice to finally see the Palme D'Or-winning Wild at Heart get the red carpet rollout. Now if we can just gets that Twin Peaks box set rolling . . . MORE	Going Deep Porn has gone mainstream with a vengeance. Enter *Inside Deep Throat, he a documentary that follows the low-budget stag film that helped spawn the porn industry. What a shame no one could ask the late Linda Lovelace* about the whole shebang . . . MORE	Escalation While previous films have been exercises in schlock, Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins is a sign that the Dark Knight has returned: MORE	Normality Restored At long last, Douglas Adams sci-fi lovechild has hit the big screen, just in time to remind George Lucas how smart he really used to be: MORE
Body and Soul Robert Bresson spent a year under Nazi occupation. How he became an optimist is another story: MORE
Smell This! So what if *The Scorpion King* is your run-of-the-mill cornball action flick? At least all the people of color are the good guys, even if the token white villain is about as convincing as Milli Vanilli's singing ability. Just go and smell what The Rock is cooking, already . . . MORE	"Something Beyond Oneself" No one knows wars better than Robert McNamara, and not just because he had a dealing hand in so many of them. And no one knows how to build documentaries out of guys sitting around and talking better than Errol Morris. Which is another way of saying that The Fog of War is a film the world should see. Right now . . . MORE	Overwrought After a months-long media blitz, the action blockbuster Van Helsing, featuring Hugh Jackman in another Romantic hairdo, has finally arrived. But aside from the vamps, accents and cliffhangers, is there any there there? Or is it just so much sucking? . . . . MORE	Tagging Along Just when the U.S. could use a potent dose of humor, here comes the sure-handed Shrek franchise to bail us out. But first we have to get our domestic roles sorted out. Well, that and our Disney-baiting . . . . . MORE	Knowing Jim Carrey's been chasing an Oscar for years, but to no avail. So pairing him up with metafictionalist extaordinaire Charlie Kaufman might just be what the Academy ordered. Even if the film features the same sad-sack characters as Adaptation and Being John Malkovich. If it ain't broke . . . MORE	Hamburgling Everyone knows how a movie about a guy who eats nothing but fast food is going to end. But Super Size Me is still must-see, if only to watch the poor bastard kill his inner organs for the sake of art. Now that's lovin' it! . . . MORE	Little Stabs of Happiness There's a wild world to experience once Hollywood stops force-feeding you Julia snoozers. And it houses some pretty weird shit, like Jeffrey Dahmer, homosexual parents, Euro schlock and porn involving rats. Gary Morris breaks it down. . . MORE
MUSIC	Select Your Memory Even Isaac Newton agreed that what goes around comes around. So not only has Nirvana come back with a Big Bang -- in the form of a compilation and a long-lost blistering song, "You Know You're Right" -- but MTV's hype machine has once again crashed the rock revolution . . . MORE	Private Pressure For those awaiting DJ Shadow's next experimental collage of cultural allusion, *Private Press* couldn't have come too soon. But don't let the wait fool you -- he's been busy living up to the enormous expectations borne of his own immeasurable talent . . . MORE	Irony is Painful Back when Pixies fans could look forward to the punk-pop legend's next release, getting The Purple Tape on disc would have been a welcome bonus. Now it's just another collector's reminder of how empty the music landscape is without them . . . MORE	Two-Track Stones Gather No Moss While most mainstream music acts are puzzling over their bloated budgets and lack of skills, ex-Pixies architect, Frank Black -- Gen X's sonic Kerouac -- has released two great albums containing 29 songs full of sound and fury signifying everything . . . MORE	From Sonic Kids to Radical Adults Sonic Youth's sixteenth release carries the hushed urgency an experimental noise troupe can absorb after its studio is nearly obliterated by suicide bombers. Or its city is witness to a minor apocalypse. Can you tell me how to get to *Murray Street? . . . MORE*	Set the Controls for the Heart of Darkness Doomed romantics looking to vent -- as well as fans of the long lost concept album -- will enjoy the sweet melancholia of Black Heart Procession's, *Amore Del Tropico. But what will the graveyard dirge addicts and Three Mile Pilot* die-hards think? Does it matter? . . . MORE
All Hands On the Political One A world in love with Spears and Aguilera don't know, but the little girls understand. Substance, that is. Enter Sleater-Kinney, whose newest release, One Beat, is a call-to-arms for a world afraid . . . MORE	Wonder Why Jack Black ripped him to shreds in High Fidelity, but he -- like most of the U.S. -- probably had zero clue that Stevie Wonder brought the funk and the noise long before "I Just Called to Say I Love You." Looks like a history lesson is in order, courtesy of The Definitive Collection . . . MORE	Howlin' Wolves At long last! After countless art rock posings or snoozy technobabble from the likes of -- well, just about everyone -- the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and their new offering, *Plastic Fang, have come back to reclaim rock 'n' roll for the sweaty dive bars . . MORE*	All Things Must Pass George Harrison may have been the "quiet Beatle," but his songs stuck out like a sore thumb. And they were always filled with the hope that companionship, peace, and love were not far away from the reach of those who pursued them . . . MORE	Life Isn't Fair No one in the hip-hop game works harder to earn their props than Los Angeles' Jurassic 5. And that's because no one in the hip-hop game works as hard to call out ignorance, avarice and apathy wherever they see it. Too bad today's hip-hop audience only want its 50 Cent worth . . MORE	Enter the Priestess of Cello Goth For those looking for something on music's dark side, Melora Creager's classical-Goth outfit, Rasputina, might fit the bill. So tighten your sexy bodices and grab your drum machines, because this is going to be a bumpy ride through musical genres. . . MORE	Invitation to a Fix Nevermind that the Galaxy theater in Santa Ana, California, seemed a better setting for a dinner party than a night with one of folk rock's heaviest hitters, Canada's Cowboy Junkies. That didn't stop Margo Timmins and company from making sure that everyone paid close attention . . . MORE
A Bun in the Oven? Seems like it, judging by The Breeders live show, which gave fans of the indie vets a chance to peep some new material and revel in the old. Which is good news for those of us who have been waiting for Kim Deal to come back and come back hard . . . . . MORE	The School Stops Here They're one of the only hip hop bands that matter. So after dropping their seminal Nia on hip hop headz everywhere, Blackalicious dropped by L.A. to give fans a taste of the heavily-anticipated follow-up, Blazing Arrow. But first they had some problems on the road to deal with . . . . . MORE	Ministry of Confusion It wasn't too long ago that industrial ass-kickers Ministry were fighting the powers that be and railing against the New World Order. These days they might be shilling for Spielberg. What gives? . . . MORE	Name That Tuning So we gave Doug Martsch and his co-horts Built To Spill's new album a glowing review. But that doesn't mean he gets off easy. Given: he's a genius. Given: he's a songcraft virtuoso. Question: can he reproduce that brilliance onstage? . . . MORE	Scotland Rules Echo and the Bunnymen. Cocteau Twins. And now Mogwai. How can one country export so much complex, addictive mood music? Who cares! Mogwai's latest offering, Rock Action, is filled with the usual churning guitars, emotive arrangements and . . . vocals? Catch up . . . MORE	He Still Has the Howl Used to be that you couldn't force Frank Black to play a couple Pixies songs for still-hungry fans even with a gun to his head. But times, just like names, have changed. Probably for the better . . . MORE	Positive Vibrations It is times like these where we need some unity and optimism in this crazy country of ours, and who better to provide it than a legend of protest music? Talk about your perfect timing. The reissues of Bob Marley's Confrontation and Babylon By Bus offer some of the finest activism ever put to an addictive melody -- plus, it's good medicine . . . MORE
The Sweet Sounds of Solitude Andrew Bird has spent enough time under the radar, thank you. After all, there's no better time than the present to brush up on your songwriting virtuosos. But if you are looking for Bird, try the middle of nowhere. Because that's where he went, looking for solitude, while making the beautiful *Weather Systems* . . . MORE	Back to the Big Time It's been ten long years since world rock's iconoclast-at-large last checked in with the mainstream music scene. But now that things are looking Up, watch out for Peter Gabriel. He's as ambitious as ever and he's got mini-symphonies to spare . . . MORE	Party Politics In a groovin' follow-up to their highly successful Brainfreeze collaboration, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist bring music back to the people with a six-hour DJ extravaganza called Product Placement. Free milk and cookies for everybody! . . . . . MORE	Breaking the Cycle Always studies hard. Gets homework done. Passive, submissive and weak. The stereotypes keep piling up, lying in wait to be broken by a film -- like Justin Lin's harrowing Better Luck Tomorrow -- with a fair share of balls and brains. But will it take more than gratuitous sex and violence and to dismantle hegemony? . . . MORE	The Nigga You Love to Love By the time the 1992 Los Angeles riots were in full swing, Ice Cube already had two gangsta rap classic under his belt. Plus, he had foreseen the uprising from as far back as NWA's "Fuck the Police". So we're glad that he's finally getting the reissue treatment reserved for classic rock stars . . . MORE	Morphizm Mash-Up: June 2003 No one -- especially the Nirvana bandwagoners -- gave a shit about Sonic Youth's Dirty when it came out, so why would they buy a reissue? Because it's brilliant. But is the same true for Radiohead's newest sonic experiment? And does hip-hop production legend Prince Paul feel like he's been given the 'Business'? Mash it up! . . . MORE	"Realize, It's Freedom" Caustic Resin's music is unabashedly heavy, right down to the walls of noise and singer Brett Netson's eerie resemblance to a Sabbath-era Ozzy. But that's why their album, Keep on Truckin is so addictive. In times of war, Netson would love to nothing more than to escape. . . . MORE
Staking Claim to the Soul You might read a little too much into titles such as "Stinkfist" if you're relatively new to the work of Los Angeles rockers, Tool, but you wouldn't be the first. Seeing them live and experiencing their fury is part of the process of comprehension. . . . . MORE	Red Flag: Leather Jackets Talk about your vertigo of interpretation. Usually, it's pretty easy -- hear a song, tap your toes, go out and buy. But sometimes, with the hype machine in 5th gear, it's not that easy. Take the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, for example. . . MORE	Detroit Rock Roots What have Kid Rock and Eminem done? Simple: soiled the good name of Detroit. But the White Stripes, a two-piece red-and-white garage band mint, has come to freshen your breath and maybe the indie music scene, as well . . . . MORE	Surf Wrestlers Attack AM Standards! What would serve a country caught up in a international crisis better than a group of El Santo disciples moonlighting as surf guitar gods banging out 50s and 60s Americana with an all-star cast of punkers, Elvis translators, Heartbreakers, guys who used to be in Paul Revere and the Raiders and more? That's right -- nothing. Los Straitjackets are here to save the day . . . MORE	I Call That a Bargain From discount bins to music history, The Who's Live at Leeds has possessed quite a storied shelf life. Which doesn't explain why it's now in its second reissue -- this time featuring a blistering version of *Tommy. But that doesn't mean we're not happier than hell it's finally here . . . MORE*	Speaking of Genius There's some right over there! Look, under the laser. That spinning thing! Built To Spill's long-awaited latest disc, Ancient Melodies of the Future, has come forth to proclaim the timeless necessity of the densely textured, bizarrely structured love song in this age of mean but really clean metal nonsense. . . . MORE	Transatlantic Romantic From locking down The Postal Service to engineering Death Cab For Cutie, Ben Gibbard is one of mood rock's most compelling cats. And most writers so far agree that Transatlanticism is their finest album to date. If you're looking for dissent, you won't find it here . . . MORE
Morphizm Mash-Up: October 2003 The late, great Albert King talks about the blues while rocking the hell out of Chicago. Hip-hop purists the Hieroglyphics churn out another potent release neverthless lost beneath the current morass of R&B vocals. And new wave revivalists The Stills aim to stem the punk tide. Get ready to mash it up, y'all . . . MORE	Relax, It's Just Art Why do the indies keep picking on And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead? They seem to be a group of guys that would probably be having have more fun reading and drawing than trashing their hotel rooms and instruments? Oh wait, they like do that too. Which is why Secret of Elena's Tomb is just as good as having that next album right now . . . MORE	Morphizm Mash-Up: August 2003 Frank Black loves the Rolling Stones, wine and the open road. That much we already know. Meanwhile, Kenna likes U2, but is he too poppy to follow in their footsteps? And do indie bands like The Thermals and and The Kills measure up to the hype? Mash it up! . . . MORE	All Your Goodies are Still Here Maybe George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic really did come from another planet. After all, they were way ahead of their time, left behind a legacy that still hasn't been usurped, and are still funkin' shit up around the country. Which means its time once again to reevaluate that immortal *Down Stroke* . . . MORE	Cooler Than You The Dandy Warhols have always treaded the fine line between hipster self-absorption and cultural criticism. But enlisting Duran Duran to help riff on Kurt Vonnegut while trying to steal Bowie is taking things a bit too far. . . MORE	Beautiful Estrangment Regardless of what many may say, Scotland's finest export is not golf or whiskey but post-rock brainiacs, Mogwai, whose latest release, Happy Songs For Happy People is just what the doctor ordered. The fact that they compose instrumentals in a landscape dominated by ego-tripping divas is just icing on the cake . . . MORE	Morphizm Mash-Up, Part Deux The Dandy Warhols were supposed to release the pop album of the year, but that title might belong to Luke Steele's Sleepy Jackson. But does he borrow too heavily from George Harrison and the Stones? And does Yo La Tengo's latest EP give the fans their noise pop faves back? Mash it up! . . . MORE
*No Million* Dollar Baby** Iggy Pop is rock royalty. But his recent anthology, A Million in Prizes, shouldn't be laid at the foot of his throne: MORE	High on Grass With Road to Rouen, Supergrass has fused '70s rock with its more paranoid War on Terror simulacrum: MORE		Get Some Even if FX's new Iraqmire combat drama Over There stretches reality farther than soldiers would probably like, at least it's talking war: MORE
Perpetual Motion The hype generated by Outkast already reached critical mass before their ambituous double album experiment, Speakerboxx/The Love Below had even hit the shelves. After all, reinventing hip-hop is a lofty goal that's going to be met with a fair share of scrutiny. But no one really expected it to go this way . . . MORE	Environmental Awareness Too much noise, not enough introspection. In a world at war, classical music would seem to have no place. But Rachel's, thankfully, is here to save us. And not just because they've created one the most compelling musical movements this year, but because they want to intersect. With you . . . MORE	2002 Book Roundup Whether it's a tired subject like the inefficacy of the never-ending War on Drugs or a compelling one like the oral history of hip-hop, 2002 had a slew of good books worthy of purchase, if not enshrinement. So we've come up with a short list of the ones you should steal, um, borrow. Read on . . . MORE	Morphizm Mashup: December 2003 He rocked the Solesides collective along with DJ Shadow and Blackalicious. Then he helped form the indie hip-hop label, Quannum. Now Lyrics Born has got his own thang, and he can still pack a literary punch. But will it stick? And can My Morning Jacket shed the "derivative" rep? Mash it up! . . . MORE	*Hail the Comatorium* Sensorium We're saying it loud and we're saying it proud -- with De-loused in the Comatorium, Mars Volta have made the album of the year. Bottom line? No one has invested as much blood, sweat and poetry into any other release so far in 2003 . . . MORE**	Guided By Vision After approximately two decades in the music game, Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard is still one of the reigning kings of indie perserverance. But with a slew of albums and more box sets than fans can count under his belt, it's hard to know where to start to grok GBV's scope and breadth. Enter Human Amusements at Hourly Rates . . . MORE	Little Stabs of Happiness There's a wild world to experience once Hollywood stops force-feeding you Julia snoozers. And it houses some pretty weird shit, like Jeffrey Dahmer, homosexual parents, Euro schlock and porn involving rats. Gary Morris breaks it down. . . MORE
Drifting at Sea The artist known as Beck is back with more high lonesome for your ears. Better yet: he's teamed up with the Flaming Lips for once-in-a-lifetime world tour. But has he travelled these same roads before? Or is he in new sonic territory? . . . MORE	Mash It Up! Morphizm's monthly look at what music hath wrought is in. And right now, it looks like !!! wins it with punctuation, Pedro the Lion wins it with heart, and Sleep Station wins it with the brains. Just another trip to indie rock's own private Oz . . . MORE	American Apocalypse Postmodernity in action can be a confusing thing. Catastrophe and cyberculture are just around the corner while gossip and trash haunt the hallways. And no one splices it like found footage virtuoso Craig Baldwin. Take a trip to his Spectres of the Spectrum before it's too late . . . MORE	My Private Dancer Morphizm columnist Mo Herms has had her hand in the music biz for over a decade now and has seen her share of strangeness. But nothing prepared her for a visit by the smooth-talking Ike Turner, especially once she told him she didn't have his paycheck . . . MORE	Mashup: May 2005 Whether it's Spoon's desire for Fiction or Jon Spencer retro-rock Heavy Trash, May's not the cruelest month. It's the toughest: MORE	Magic Man Van Morrison may still be going, but how strong? The answers lie in his 40-year retrospective Magic Man: MORE	Sri Lanka Represent! M.I.A. has survived her native country's turmoil to bring you Arular, dance music that actually makes you think: MORE

The Cost, er, Genius of Capitalism The "apparent" suicide of J. Clifford Baxter has made Paul O'Neill's flippant comments about the mind-numbing Enron scandal's connection to American capitalism all too clear . . . MORE	It's a Man's World? That probably explains why the war-hungry global culture has so many problems. Especially when it comes to women's magazines. Enter Sandra Fu, whose Sex and Sensibility column lets you know which ones to read and which ones to burn . . . MORE	*Merry F#%g Xmas! Ah, the holiday season. For some guys, it's time to gear up for consumerist war and chase their material girls around the nearest crowded galleria, even as they blink into their shrinking wallets and wonder where all the time went. Color Morphizm's columnist, Josh Ross, ecstatic . . . MORE**	My Big Fat Preconceived Notions Feminists have been waiting for years for the indie sensation, *My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Especially since its Plain Jane heroine* -- not named Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan -- gets to walk off with the hunk at the end . . . MORE	Check the Mir/ror One way of getting up close and personal with the world is taking Polaroids of it. Ironic, isn't it? Morphizm's buddy Jorge Mir has moved to the Bay Area and if you could see what he sees . . . oh, wait. You can! Check it out . . . MORE	OBL, the DVD! His Al Qaida guerilla films are legendary examples of Central Asian cinema verite (at least according to Al-Jazeera TV). So now Tom McNichol expects nothing but the highest quality picture and sound from bin Laden's foray into the DVD market . . . MORE	Taliban Table Manners Meet your friendly neighborhood zealots, who chop off hands and parade them through the streets. The same crew of crazies who claimed it would be "rude" to ask bin Laden to leave the country. Will history remember the Taliban? Who cares? . . . . . MORE	From Electric Cars to Demon Weed Did media mogul William Randolph Hearst really begin the criminalization of dope to save his skin? Are Bush and Cheney destroying demand for hybrid cars to stuff their wallets? The answers can be found in the first installment of the Conspiracy Corner . . . MORE
Looking Backwards Damn right we are. At least according to guys like Trent Lott, who figures that the Dixiecrats had everything under control until the civil rights movement came and screwed it up. Hey! Speaking of screw-ups, here's a short list of 2002's . . . MORE	Still Paranoid? He should be. After the success of *The Osbournes, everyone's out to get Ozzy, including the Queen* and President Bush. But this time it's for autographs not imprisonment or rehab. When Dan Quayle actually praises your show, reality (television) has taken a holiday . . . . MORE	The Legacy of Tulia and Tom Coleman While the hawks preen about our military success, there is a failing war on drugs at home. While the Supremes debate helping blacks into college, those in Tulia are being thrown unfairly into the slammer. Arianna Huffington thinks it's time to connect the dots . . . MORE	Replacement Killers Saddam Hussein is about to get his ass kicked out of Iraq and the United States is poring through its list of misguided puppets to lord over the nation's crude oil largesse. But who should be in charge of New Iraq? One word: Aniston . . . MORE	White is Right It never ends, especially if you're an Asian caricature. Enter frat boy clothier Abercrombie and Fitch, whose new line of graphic tees is guaranteed to insult even the so-called "cheeky" Asian-Americans it claims to court . . . MORE	Roots More than ever, our increasingly stratified world needs to have a serious dialogue about our different cultural backgrounds and look not just backward, but forward. With that objective in mind, let's introduce the rant of one of comedy's most notorious smack talkers . . . MORE	The Enronization of Public Policy So much for compassionate conservatism. The Bush administration is acting like it would rather follow the business model of failures like their buddies Enron when putting together policies that screw everyone but themselves . . . MORE	Ball Kickers of the World, Unite! Ladies, are you tired of men using their physical strength as an excuse for doing whatever they want? Then you need only find the correct pressure points to stop them in their tracks. Sometimes you kick, sometimes you get kicked . . . MORE
Taming of the Shrewd Out of a well-paying job in these economic Dark Ages? If you're bored, you could always try devising a mnemonic system of memorization for all of William Shakespeare's plays. Ian Benjafield did . . . MORE	...And Ten Reasons Why We Really Did Oil, greed, war, scandal, prejudice, conflict -- and that was just the Academy Awards! Whether we were grifting at Saks and dangling our babies or bashing gays and, uh, integrating golf, the United States felt more like altered states in 2002 . . . . MORE	2003 At A Glance The smart money is on another oil war, but the future is a fickle thing. It's sometimes too cloudy to predict a pop star dangling his kid from a balcony. Just wait until the Botox injections turn Arafat into a ticking time bomb . . . MORE	California Uber Alles It's a mathematical constant: everytime there's trouble in the world, America drifts farther to the right. So why not let them, argues comedian Will Durst? California -- the land of sunshine, Sierras, and silicone -- will get along fine on its own. . . . MORE	Eat Shit and Buy Maybe he's getting old, but Tom Maxwell just doesn't get advertising anymore. First they want you to buy the SUV to save the sea turtles, then they want you ingest human waste? Is subtle scatology the New American Cool? . . . . MORE	Officer Down! Now that we're in a law enforcement frame of mind, it's important to analyze the more compelling narratives about cops and robbers. So where else to start but the sublimely strange story of that scruffy loser, T.J. Hooker, starring the ShatMan himself? Pass the jelly rolls . . . MORE	Killing Africans for Profit and PR All you Microsoft robots, close your eyes. Because far from being some angel dipping into his considerable wealth to help AIDS-afflicted Africans, Bill Gates is actually working hard to make sure that the continent never gets the cheap drugs it needs to heal itself. . . MORE	Free Trade is War Naomi Klein's No Logo took clear aim at the brand bullies as it dissected rampant American consumerism. But is it capitalism itself that is broken? Maybe we should ask the Africans who have to pay us just so they can take a bath . . . MORE
2004: Year of the Donkey Every year, Morphizm peers into its crystal ball to see what the future will bring. And boy is 2004 a wild card! But we're still betting on a few things, like Jacko doing time for ethnic cleansing, a few more mulatto Thurmonds, homos splitting the church wide open and, of course, a Bush-whacking . . . MORE	Year of the Fake Look back in anger, indeed. In the so-called greatest country on god's green earth, justice went blindly after bong makers, almanac readers and whistle-blowers while ignoring the liars, cheaters and swindlers. So where did that leave the truth, in all its ugly glory? In the gutter, where Bush likes it. Honesty has left the building . . . MORE	2004: Year of the Monkey Every year, Morphizm peers into its crystal ball to see what the future will bring. And boy is 2004 a wild card! But we're still betting on a few things, like Jacko doing time for ethnic cleansing, a few more mulatto Thurmonds, homos splitting the church wide open and, of course, a Bush-whacking . . . MORE	The Guru of Ganja Let's get serious here, folks. When was the last time you saw a pothead bust into his office and blow everyone away? Or drive over 35 miles an hour, for that matter? Exactly. So why is the government treating guys named Ed Rosenthal and Tommy Chong like terrorists? . . . MORE	Some Fundamentals Forget for a second that we are talking about a religious statue; let's just say we're talking about religion in government . There was a reason that the Founders decided to separate the two. Whether you believe or not, believe this: they simply don't work together . . . MORE	Latino Politics, Miami Beached Talk about your people power. Bolivia had seen enough of so-called free trade's unequal playing field, so what did they do about it? Simple -- amassed thousands of protestors and booted their president right out of office. But you can't kill globalization with just one insurgency. Just ask the poor farmers gathering in Miami . . . MORE	The Perfect Fire When his ballsy *Ecology of Fear* came out a few years back, most thought that Mike Davis has crossed over to another plane of reality. But when a 2003 firestorm ate its way from the San Fernando Valley all the way down to San Diego, everyone stopped laughing. So why is it that no one still seems ready to talk about how rampant development is a recipe for disaster? . . . . MORE	Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Touch We love it when the GOP's finest open their mouths and show their true colors. But why have Rick Santorum's ass-backwards views on gay and lesbian America garnered less attention than Trent Lott's cornfed nostalgia for the days of burning crosses and segregated schools? . . . MORE
Joseph McCarthy Rises What is terrorism? That same questions were once asked about communism, which was used to justify the imprisonment and execution of innocents. But the bigger question is in n that time, have we learned nothing about justice, freedom and hypocrisy? . . . MORE	Defrocked! So you've been following the Catholic pedophile controversy and you want to hear the other side of the story. Then check out Defrocked: The Magazine for Former Priests. Don't say we never did anything for you bible-thumpers out there . . . MORE	Moore-ality Play No matter where they stand on the issues, everyone seems to have an opinion on Michael Moore's latest salvo, Fahrenheit 9/11. But most of them are missing the big picture, which is this: Few films have painted so devastating a portrait of the total corruption of the political game . . . MORE	Let's Talk Torture Freaks on a leash? Naked Muslim pyramids? Homoerotic ballets? This is the best that the finest country on the goddamn planet can come up with? Surely someone can dream up better torture schemes. Hmm, wonder who that could be?. . . . MORE	Name That Regime! They've sold chemical weapons with but one purpose in mind: to kill as many as possible. They've imprisoned thousands of their citizens up without due process. So who are these civil liberty party animals and why are we worried? . . . MORE	Reparations in Reverse Real journalists follow the money, so that's what Naomi Klein did. But even she wasn't prepared for the fact that Iraq, a country hammered by totalitarianism, will have to dole out reparation millions to American corporations like Halliburton, Bechtel and, yes, Toys R Us . . . MORE	Shameless in Iraq Handover? Nice try. For a country that's housing over 100, 000 soldiers, million dollar embassies, private contractors and insurance sectors offering sudden-death policies, America's beginning to look more like a neighbor every day . . . MORE	You Can't Bomb Beliefs Almost overnight, Muqtada al-Sadr went from being a Shariah fanatic no one had ever heard of to a full-fledged nationalist-of-the-hour. See what happens when the U.S. decides to bomb before doing its homework? Naomi Klein explains the FUBAR sitch in Sadr City . . . MORE
What's a Democrat to Do? When it comes to the 2004 election, it's not all bad news. The Democrats motivated millions to show up in record numbers only to lose in the end. So now what do they do? Simple: Stop pretending they're something they're not . . . MORE	Telltale Signs of Persistent Vegetative State Sure, you're the president, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have your feeding tube detached. Here are sure-fire indications that it's time to disconnect your leaders from their life support . . . MORE	Getting the Purple Finger Americans are losing their minds with optimism over the Iraqi election. But the more ballots are counted, Naomi Klein reports, the more it seems that the majority Iraqis can't wait for Americans to get the hell out of Dodge. Or Baghdad . . . MORE	25 Dangers of Gay Marriage Whether Rick Santorum wants it or not, here it comes. The LGBT community has been around since time immemorial, so the rest of the world might as well get with the program. How does the phrase, "You may now spank the bride" sound? . . . MORE	A World Without Bodies We're heading for a future without flesh. And though suicide bombers use it for leverage on the evening news, it'll never be more than electronic to us. Morphizm's newest columnist Nathan Means keeps it hyperreal . . . MORE	Ball Kickers, Unite! Are you tired of men using their physical strength as an excuse for doing whatever they want? Then you need only find the correct pressure points to stop them in their tracks. Sometimes you kick, sometimes you get kicked . . . MORE	You Break It, You Pay For It Americans are notoriously tight with their money, but they see no problem in shelling out billions for a war they don't want. That's because no matter how shattered Iraq is, the American occupation will never go broke . . . MORE	20 Ways to Honor Reagan One death has provoked some to rethink their hero worship. But is putting his face on Mount Rushmore thinking too small? Surely there are more noble ways to honor one of America's most wanted? . . . . MORE
Are We There Yet? While the silver screen features gangsta rappers babysitting brats, Washington is already looking toward the Dickian dystopia of Minority Report. Or is that a Spielbergian utopia? It all depends on which side of the gun barrel you're on . . . MORE	Conspiracy Corner If you think the current clash of fundamentalisms is something worth losing sleep over, you ain't seen nothing yet. See, while you're fretting over oil and terrorism, a giant comet is heading your way. Or is it? Time to go back to the Conspiracy Corner . . . MORE	Thanks For Asking The siege of Fallujah went almost entirely unnoticed by mainstream news media. Which is exactly what you want if you're killing off dissenters and witnesses. Why London's ambassador has a problem with telling the truth about the tragedy is another story . . . MORE	Pathological Peas in a Pod Something funny happened to Arianna Huffington while she was reading DisneyWar: The similarities between California's governor and the most hated executive in the history of Disney became utterly apparent. Too bad only one is on the way out . . . . MORE	God, Country, Fear Sure, this is a hotly contested election. But are the Republicans that desperate or is the country that dumb? We'll find out once the RNC's latest flyers claiming that Kerry would ban the Bible and marry homos across America hit the so-called heartland. . . MORE	Rummy TV Media consolidation is scary enough without Donald Rumsfeld and his DoD disciples crafting an all-military channel called Pentagon TV. But really, who can resist *Pimp My Humvee* or Real World: Fallujah? . . . MORE	Nailing the Hammer? If Tom DeLay was a Democrat, he'd probably be dead already. But since he's a good ol' red-stater from Texas, he's hanging on for his political life. But for how much longer? Arianna Huffington explains -- while crossing her fingers . . . MORE	The Architects of Defeat Just why Democratic strategists thought that coopting the right's message would be a winning strategy is anyone's guess. But either way, it was the wrong one. And that's all that matters . . . . MORE
Rather Not Say Goodbye It's too bad that the disgraced Dan Rather has to go, especially since his doomed report on Bush's (lack of) service has so far withstood the test of time. But at least he's not going alone: MORE	Nailing the Hammer? If Tom DeLay was a Democrat, he'd probably be dead already. But since he's a good ol' boy from Texas, he's hanging on for his life: MORE	Unhappy Birthday! Time to blow out the candles! We've been in Iraq for a year and what do we have to show for it? More terrorism, more graft, more bombs, and more chaos than anyone can handle. In other words, it's going just the way we planned it . . . MORE	A Tale of Two Styles One of them is a man who finally has nothing left to lose so he's standing tall in the face of sellouts. The other is yours for the right price. One is Andy Stern, the new face of progressive politics, and the other is your president . . . MORE	Willful Blindness The price of oil has soared through the roof in only one year. Guerillas are sabotaging its delivery. Soon the payback will suck you dry at a nearby gas station. But no one wants to start talking about it. Especially the Democrats: MORE	It's My Party Republicans have quickly taken over vital sectors of American politics and have set about fortifying their rule with unapologetic measures aimed at erasing Democrats altogether. So why are the Demos doing nothing about it? . . . MORE	Surviving Bush's Embrace With democracies like these, who needs dictators? That's what Naomi Klein is asking after watching the Bush administration meddle in the Middle East, a move that has so far produced more shariah states than free republics . . . MORE	China Floats, U.S. Sinks The Beast of the East is on the rise again, this time on the currency front. Too bad privatization had nothing to do with it: MORE
		Art of Hover-Pissing Ladies, have you've ever been somewhere where you felt that a trip to the bathroom would encompass more contagion transfer than a Chernobyl plant? Then what you really need is a plan and a stance. Here's a good one . . . MORE	Storming the Castle Pro sports may look like a beer and SUV clusterfuck. But it has a long, rich history of radical politics the world should never forget: MORE
Ten Reasons Why We Didn't Suck in 2002... Believe the hype. From the Lord of the Rings' two installments to so-called trip-hop to the textual imaginary of 9/11, American culture had much to offer in this year of mourning. And while some of it was in your face, all of it wanted a reason why and a way out . . . . MORE	An Immodest Proposal It might ruffle a few feathers, but at least it isn't satirist Jonathan Swift's infamous plan to eat babies. No, it's something more majestic and more grand, my friends: plan for the end of racism in our time . . . MORE	2003: Revolution Accomplished Lies, lies, lies. If 2003 had a running theme, it definitely had something to do with the constant barrage of bullshit escaping from the mouths of Bush, Rumsfeld, Blair, Thurmond and many, many more. But the year that was didn't stop there. There was also apocalypse, terrorism, and Jacko. Look back in anger . . . MORE	Towers and Landscapes You may have never heard of Johnny Ace, but his creepy backlog -- twenty-one songs altogether -- sticks out like a sore thumb. Probably because, like Kurt Cobain and Robert Johnson, he was doomed from day one . . . MORE	Five Reasons Culture Didn't Suck in 2003... Depending on who you ask, 2003 was either the year that the world came together or became irreparably polarized. We tend to take the middle road, and say that it more or less sucked but had some bright, history-making moments. In fact, whether it was Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings juggernaut or the rise of Howard Dean, life as we know it may never be the same again . . . MORE	...and Five Reasons Why It Really Did There were so many laughable failures in 2003, that it would simply be impossible to list them all. So where should we start? How about with an oil whore -- uh, war -- dressed up to look like a 9/11 payback? Or perhaps the sellout Democrats that let it all happen? Or maybe we should turn away from politics and just enjoy the lesbian lovefest between Madonna, Spears and Xtina? Or . . . . MORE	The Perfect Fire When *Ecology of Fear* came out, most thought Mike Davis had crossed over to another plane of reality. But when firestorms ate their way from the San Fernando Valley down to San Diego, everyone stopped laughing . . . . MORE	Pomp and Crummy Circumstances As a distinguished graduate of Cambridge University, Arianna Huffington is no stranger to the benefits of a higher education. Which means that she knows as much as anyone how screwed America's graduates are . . . MORE