The Rolling Stone Bombshell

What many may see as a stupid move on General Stanley McChrystal's part regarding his comments to Rolling Stone magazine in which he degrades the Obama administration, I see as a calculated attempt to get the hell out of a dead end situation in Afghanistan. McChrystal can't possibly be so misguided as to think that hanging out with a Rolling Stone reporter for a lengthy period of time while talking shit about his boss - the President of the United States - will be "off the record." Not surprisingly, McChrystal was fired today and I can't help but think that he has to be relieved.

The timeline that Obama has set for leaving Afghanistan is July of 2011. We are not currently winning this war and things are not going to drastically change for the better in the span of a year. This timeline is foolish. McChrystal knows this timeline is foolish. General David Petraeus, who has replaced McChrystal, certainly has to believe that this timeline is foolish. When outrage ensued over Afghan president Hamid Karzai's threat to join the Taliban, you need to realize that Afghanis won't have much choice once U.S. troops pull out. If you are trying to win the "hearts and minds" of the Afghan population, this timeline is not only a noose around their loyalties to American forces, but a death sentence as well.

The silver lining in all of this is that Petraeus is Obama's last realistic option in Afghanistan which will hopefully give him leverage. Petraeus understands Afghanistan and Middle East issues just as well if not better, in my opinion, than McChrystal. In March, Patraeus said that the perception of U.S. favoritism towards Israel was becoming a liability for the advancement of our interests abroad. An obvious statement, but one that is rarely uttered from such a high ranking military official. Needless to say, I like Petraeus.

I don't blame McChrystal for saying the things he said about Obama given the situation in Afghanistan. Hopefully, this will be a wakeup call for an administration that is quickly unraveling while justifiably being perceived by the public as disengaged and elitist.

Baby Snakes and Bruce Bickford

Baby Snakes is a film documenting Frank Zappa's 1977 Halloween concert at New York City's Palladium Theater. I saw it for the first time the other night and, even though I like Zappa, this documentary clocked in at just under 3 hours which made me want to punch my television set. It was way too long and I could care less about backstage hijinks. It did, however, make me realize two things that I'm very thankful for: 1)Frank Zappa is an amazing guitarist, which is even more frustrating considering he plays it all of ten minutes throughout the entire film; and 2)the most wonderful thing about this whole documentary is, hands down, the spotlight it shines on artist Bruce Bickford. My anger at the length of this film was tempered by the need to find out more about Bickford, which led me to a 2004 documentary film about his life entitled Monster Road.

Egos are quite a pet peeve of mine and there couldn't be a bigger gulf in egos as there is between watching Zappa's in Baby Snakes and Bickford's lack of one in Monster Road. I would argue that Bickford is one of the most important visual artists of our lifetime and yet, as the film points out, the guy can't find work. You would think that some current musical artist would seek him out to do a video but, then again, what else should you expect? The non-egotistical of the world don't exactly market themselves very well because, well, they don't have an ego.

Russell Brand

"My life is a series of embarrassing incidents strung together by telling people about those embarrassing incidents."
-Russell Brand

I've never seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall nor have I seen Russell Brand's latest movie Get Him To The Greek. I bought Russell Brand In New York City on dvd and was a bit disappointed, yet every time I see this guy as a guest on late night talk shows, he absolutely shines. The guy intrigues me so much that I purchased his latest book "My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up."

If you're looking for high comedy, this isn't the book for you. Reading "My Booky Wook" is what I imagine a priest feels like in a confessional booth upon hearing the most lurid tales of debauchery he has come across. Russell Brand is a man of many vices, and while most people would bristle at the thought of airing their own personal dirty laundry, Brand not only airs his, but he dissects it as well in a very impressive manner. Jail; drug rehab; sex addiction rehab; mental issues - Mr. Brand has his demons and, yet, he makes light of them at his own expense while holding a mirror to society's own hypocrisies.

Russell Brand has all the potential in the world to become the next Lenny Bruce. Whether he will or not remains to be seen, but I really like this guy and I highly recommend this book.

Ariel Pink

Ariel Pink's latest album Before Today has been getting great reviews which is completely confusing to me because his previous work pretty much got overlooked. Pitchfork.com gave Before Today a 9.0 rating while giving his far better 2004 album The Doldrums a 5.0 rating.

And that's the trouble with The Doldrums, and the reasoning behind this conflicted rating. The album is not so much Ariel Pink's creation as it is Ariel Pink himself, a real-time observation of his brain synapses at work. His nerves are either firing at Einstein levels or misfiring like harlequin babies, and in fairness, I'm hardly the staff brain surgeon.

-Nick Sylvester, October 25, 2004

This isn't a knock against Ariel Pink so much as it is a knock against critics who find his latest album more appealing. Before Today is The Doldrums lite. I'm happy for Ariel Pink in that critics are finally giving him his due, but if you fell in love with The Doldrums first, I can't imagine that you are blown away by this album because I'm not. Anyone who thinks this new album is his best, I must challenge you to a duel.

The Terrorist State of Israel

The flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza that is being talked about in the above video didn't make it to its intended destination because the Israeli Navy attacked the ships this morning killing 19 people.* We're not talking about nineteen combatants in war or terrorists - the Israeli military killed nineteen humanitarian aid workers in international waters, no less. World condemnation of Israel has been swift. Of course, President Obama's response has been predictably cautious. Yet when it comes to the defense of Israel, Obama is anything but cautious as he successfully lobbied Congress recently to give Israel 205 million dollars to build a missile defense system. We're not talking about a poor country here. Israel is a developed nation - let them build their own fucking defense system. Meanwhile, Obama can't issue one word in support of humanitarian aid for Palestinians who are desperately poor??? What a fucking joke this administration is.
*Right now, the death toll is at 10. I've seen various figures on the casualties. Nineteen, however, is not a definitive number yet.

M.I.A. vs. Hirschberg

A recent, not so flattering New York Times Magazine cover story about M.I.A. written by Lynn Hirschberg has infuriated M.I.A. so much that she tweeted "917.834.3158 CALL ME IF YOU WANNA TALK TO ME ABOUT THE N Y T TRUTH ISSUE, ill b taking calls all day bitches." It turns out that the cell number actually belonged to Hirschberg who herself is now infuriated over M.I.A. giving it out. "It's a fairly unethical thing to do," Hirschberg said.

What I find to be slightly unethical is schmoozing up to someone you are interviewing with the hidden agenda of tearing them down. Point in case:

Unity holds no allure for Maya — she thrives on conflict, real or imagined. “I kind of want to be an outsider,” she said, eating a truffle-flavored French fry.

That sentence alone leaves me with doubts regarding Hirschberg's intentions and integrity as a reporter. Regardless, it is valid to ask of someone, who considers herself an outsider and anti-establishment, why exactly she married into the establishment(she married Ben Bronfman, son of the Warner Music Group chief executive and Seagram’s heir Edgar Bronfman Jr.) and now lives in Beverly Hills, but Hirschberg never debates the issues she has with M.I.A., instead preferring to deceptively ensnare her in a hypocritical web of perceived lies that she can publish without challenge. M.I.A. also claimed that her father was a revolutionary for the Tamil Tigers which the article seems to dismiss as fabricated. If this information about her father is indeed fabricated, that would be pretty damning to her credibility but, again, Hirschberg never takes M.I.A. to task on this issue. That, to me, is suspicious and I would say, in regards to this article, give M.I.A. the benefit of the doubt first and let her tell her side of the story before you spout that she's a poser.

Janelle Monae

The current soul universe, for me, has revolved around two individuals - Lauryn Hill(despite her lengthy absence) and Erykah Badu. That said, it wasn't enough for me to pull the trigger on a $107 ticket to see Badu live in Houston at the Verizon Wireless Theater on June 13.

That, however, changed upon hearing Janelle Monae's fantastic new album The ArchAndroid(Monae is opening for Badu in Houston). The ArchAndroid isn't a soul album so much as it is a stew of many different genres and influences that never sounds forced.

One hundred and seven dollars is still quite a chunk to pay to those greedy bastards at Ticketmaster, but after listening to The ArchAndroid, that pill is a lot easier to swallow now.