Courtesy of Tom Feeley’s Information Clearing House:

“Politically speaking, tribal nationalism [patriotism] always insists that its own people are surrounded by ‘a world of enemies’ – ‘one against all’ – and that a fundamental difference exists between this people and all others. It claims its people to be unique, individual, incompatible with all others, and denies theoretically the very possibility of a common mankind long before it is used to destroy the humanity of man.”
— Hannah Arendt, The Origins Of Totalitarianism p.227

Something to think about, sweet little neocon.

The day has opened with some sad news.  Dan Curtis, creator of the much-loved Gothic daytime soap “Dark Shadows,” died yesterday morning.  Four months ago he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, which has apparently…finally…taken its toll.

Jamie and I have been DS fans from way back.  Vague impressions of Collinwood and its cursed inhabitants are among my earliest memories.  Whenever the show comes up in conversation, there is always one person who fondly remembers running home from school to catch the show at 3:30pm (back in the dinosaur days when there were no home VCR’s or TiVo’s).  Anyone who watches the show, whether they were fans or harsh critics, eventually developed an attachment to Barnabas, Maggie, Willie, Angelique or Quentin.  It wasn’t hard.  For all its technical weaknesses and dialogue that was so wooden you could’ve staked vampires with it, “Dark Shadows” had heart.  Everyone on the show was having fun.  And you could tell.

It’s important to point all this out for a simple reason. Dan Curtis will be remembered for “Dark Shadows.”  His accomplishments in Hollywood are significant and numerous.  He’s everything from TV sports to the “Winds of War” mini-series, and won accolades for all of his work.  But he’ll be remembered for this corny Gothic soap opera.

You know what?  I don’t think he’d have wanted it any other way.  Recently we saw a recent interview with him.  The slightest mention of the show made him explode with enthusiasm.  Recalling his frustration with budget issues and crumbling sets and live Chromakey only made him smile from ear to ear.  It was a difficult production, but after three decades, he still loved it.  And he wanted to do it again.  Once, twice, three times…it was never enough.

And once has never been enough for us either.  Many horror fans, writers, artists…well, everybody has been inspired by “Dark Shadows.”  We Afterhell folks are no different.

Hence the personal sense of irony for us:  Tonight, Afterhell Volume 2 will be ready for disk production.  On Thursday we’ll submit our copies for the Ogle Award.  And on Friday, we’ll need more Dark Shadows DVDs.  We’d go shopping for some tonight, but we’re gonna feel wiped out by the time we leave the studio. 

Wiped out and satisfied.  And already anticipating the next production.  Just like Dan Curtis.

Being an info junkie can be a real drag, y’know?  I subscribe to zillions of mailing lists and online newsletters.  Sometimes I even read them.

Out of the swarm I got this morning, this popped out at me.  Remember back in the 80’s, when there were rumours of a Star Trek movie about Kirk and Spock as teenagers in Starfleet Academy?  Remember all the groans and trash talk over it?  It turns out that Ain’t It Cool News has found the script for that project.  And according to them, it’s not as bad as everybody thought.  Beam down a landing party and check it out.

Um, about that big circle I told you to make on your calendar…did you do it in pencil?

The Afterhell segments on The Sonic Society radio show have been bumped out a week. We’ll be appearing on April 4th and 11th.  They probably needed more time to edit out the long silences that punctuate my occasional lapses into unconsciousness.

Also, there is a Frapper map courtesy of the Audio Addicts, friends, fans, and allies of the Sonic Society.  Jamie has put in one of those little pin thingies on the map.  So has Sam Mowry of the Willamette Radio Workshop.  You’ll even find a cute picture of Jamie.  (I have dibs on her, by the way.)

I’m still debating whether to join the Frapper map myself.  I’m inherently paranoid about anybody knowing where I am at any given time, for one thing.  I have been known to sandblast tables in restaurants to obliterate any traces of myself whenever we go out for dinner.  I have to leave really big tips after that, but anyway….

On top of that, recently a complete stranger has told me that I look like Saddam Hussein.  Oh yeah, that really builds up my enthusiasm for public appearances.  Gimme a paper cut and pour some Southern Comfort on it while you’re at it.

Oh yeah.  Volume 2 is going to disk production next week.  Did I mention that?

Three audio formats — WAV,  MP3, and CD-Audio — represent the current standard in sound these days.  Just about everyone is familiar with them by now, thanks to CD burners and portable MP3 players.  The MP3 file format has been a real boon for voice work too.  Nowadays a voice actor can do most of his/her work at home, compress the results to MP3, and e-mail the file wherever it has to go. 

There are negatives to MP3 format, of course.  It’s a lossy format, which means you lose information.  To make a sound file smaller, it leaves stuff out.  It’s like filling up a suitcase.  You can’t take everything with you, so you take the stuff you know you’re gonna need and leave the rest behind.  If you want the audio format equivalent of a Space Bag, you have to try something else. 

MP3 is also a proprietary format.  Technically it belongs to somebody else.  Some cyberspace cowboys don’t like that.  They want information to be free (or at least hassle-free), accessible to everyone.  That desire set off the open source movement.

Okay, so why am I bringing all this up?  Well, other than the way working in audiodrama makes all this stuff disturbingly important, I stumbled on something that might be handy to folks who want to use their MP3 players without getting pushed around by the Man.  It’s called Rockbox.   However it’s a geeky, hacker-ish alternative.  I haven’t tried it either, so I can’t vouch for it. 

I’d love to hear from anyone who tries it out.  Post a comment on this posting or e-mail.  Rockbox looks like an interesting experiment and I’d like to follow its progress.

You heard me.  If you followed the news media’s passionate coverage of “the biggest air assault” of the Iraq war, you now know what happens when someone dangles a big shiny in front of the American news media.

Time has a web exclusive on it:  On Scene: How Operation Swarmer Fizzled

A quote from the article, with my bold lettering:

“But contrary to what many many television networks erroneously reported, the operation was by no means the largest use of airpower since the start of the war. (“Air Assault” is a military term that refers specifically to transporting troops into an area.) In fact, there were no airstrikes and no leading insurgents were nabbed in an operation that some skeptical military analysts described as little more than a photo op. What’s more, there were no shots fired at all and the units had met no resistance, said the U.S. and Iraqi commanders.”

Some are suggesting it was all a big publicity stunt to show off the new and approved Iraqi army.  The troops secured some documents and war materiel.  That much is true, and it’s a good thing.  No one gets to use those weapons on them.  Everything else is psychic lip gloss.  Don’t be fooled by the shiny.

I suppose some under-informed yahoo is going to complain that I shouldn’t challenge the official story coming from the White House, that it’s arrogant, that it’s undermining the war effort.

What freakin’ war effort?  Go back and read it again.  Our own government is lying to us.  Lying.  Bad thing.  And instead of doing their homework, mainstream news is going by faxed press releases.  They phoned it in.  Lazy.

Besides, how is a soldier going to feel when pseudo-patriotic idiots pat them on the back for something that never happened?  That soldier is going to feel like a fraud.  That kind of patriotism isn’t for the troops.  It’s for the poor sucker at home, the one that’s too scared, too overwhelmed, or sometimes too damn lazy to use her brain.

Listen, little neocon.  The information is out there, but it doesn’t always come to you.  If you can’t get enough news about your favorite movie or TV show, you’ll hit the ‘net faster than you can say “fanfic.”  But if it’s about the real world, about us, suddenly you can’t be bothered.

The war protesters and angry lefties ain’t holding us back.  They’re not the ones who take turns cheering and then ignoring the Abu Grieb pictures.  They’re not the ones blowing off high crimes and misdemeanors.  They’re not the ones who feel safer under a dictator who sends people out to be tortured, who uses a secret police force to quelch free speech, who hides behind Allah and squirms when told that he might like “Brokeback Mountain.”

Think about it.  Did I just describe America…or Iraq?

No, it’s not them.  It’s you.

Here’s a quick peek at what Volume 2 is going to look like. We’ve been working on this the last few weeks, back and forth. Friday the 10th saw us with the print-ready files packed up and ready to go. We had way too much fun playing with the design on this one. And what a lot of information to pack in! We’re going more colourful with this volume, but kept the white, red and black look similar to “Dark Descent” for the CD face.

We’ll be updating the website shortly with other promotional material for vol 2, so keep your eyes open for that.

Recently Jamie posted a humble lament for the current state of modern America and humanity in general.  I was going to post a comment on her blog to show some solidarity, but the comments window wouldn’t be enough to contain the things that had come to mind for me.
Let me end the suspense for ya.  I agree with her.

Re the first item…no, the government doesn’t give a flying f*** about us.  This administration never did.  How else can we explain a government that would sooner side with big business than keep rat poison out of the mouths of children?  A government that would sooner teach kids that contraceptives cause mental health problems?    A government that lets a city drown and still hasn’t cleaned up the mess?

Oh dear, was that arrogant of me?  Ask yourself:  What is more arrogant, to speak one’s mind in good conscience or to shout down those who do?  Or maybe death threats beat either one.

And frankly, to let all this corruption and cruelty and incompetance hide in the skirts of Lady Liberty…that is nothing short of cowardice.

Re the second item…it’s one of the more disturbing news stories I’ve seen in a while, for more reasons than you might think.  Orange County Assistant District Attorney Susan Kang Schroeder said in the article, “It shows how a group mentality can breed disgusting behavior.”  And that’s true, as far as it goes.  The problem is that it doesn’t go far enough.

Youth gangs and the violence they perpetrate has its roots in racism and economic injustice that has taken place over generations.  And before your eyes roll up into your head, I’m not blaming America.  Minority communities carry as much of the burden as anyone else, but racist violence made these gangs a necessity in the early 20th Century.  Zoot Suit Riots were more than just a cool song.  They were set off by acts of terror — men beaten with baseball bats into a bloody pulp, chicanas raped in the streets, cops that arrested the hispanics and let the white guys walk.  Criminal gangs form in communities that feel oppressed.  Until the cycle is broken from within or without, we face the tragic prospect of writing off entire families simply because they were the wrong color.  Genocide can happen slowly as well as with modern efficiency.

So we’re left with one chestnut of wisdom that I’ve heard recently and often, from many, many voices:  ” We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

Okay, bad pun.  But if you killed me, you wouldn’t get any updates, now would you?

As Volume 2 gets closer to completion, so does our deadline. 

Deadline — what deadline? 

I’d set a private deadline for myself some time ago, then slowly divulged it here and there to see if it was a realistic one.  Among my sordid and sundry reputations (as a Quiet Loner, short fuse in residence, token hyper-nerd, or even blood-sucking freak of nature, to name but a few), I had often been accused of harboring unrealistic goals.  I pick my battles.  Sometimes I feint.

Going back on point:  My private street date has become a hard and fast deadline.  The deadline for Volume 2 is March 31.  

There’s a simple reason for that.  The American Society For Science Fiction Audio in Minnesota holds the Mark Time Awards every year.  Every year they give Mark Time Awards to the SF audio of their choice and Ogle Awards for fantasy/horror audio.  We’re gunning for the Ogle.

Of course, a sincere “wow!” would do.  But Afterhell Volume 2 is worthy of the Gold Ogle.

If not Volume 2, then Volume 3.  If not Volume 3, then Volume 4.  If not Volume 4, I’ll blast open their vault with a Death Star superlaser and take what’s mine.

So for their sakes, wish us luck.

Also, put a big fat circle around March 28th and April 4th on your calendars.  We’re about to hit Canada’s airwaves.  The Sonic Society, a radio showcase of modern audiodrama syndicated across Canada, has invited us to join their exalted ranks.

Our friends at WRW suggested that we send them a copy of “Dark Descent,” so we did.  Apparently it sent the Sonic Society folks into a tailspin!  They rearranged their production schedule to squeeze us in.  Host Jack Ward even called us up to interview with me and Jamie.  Fifty-fifty, whether our cats will also appear on the show.

If you miss those airdates, no problem.  Podcasts will be available.  The Sonic Society — tune it in or download the MP3’s.  You can hear us babble and grope for answers to Jack’s questions!

Now then, caffeine…

Over the last six years, I’ve heard many well-intentioned but otherwise pathetic Americans defending the government’s right to withhold public information.

Withholding public information…from the public.  A government of the people is hiding from…the people.  It belongs to us.  It comes from us.  It’s ours.

But no, no, the government says, you can’t be trusted with your own information.  Let us hold it for you because you don’t know how to handle your own information properly.

Mind you, this isn’t sensitive info about tactical movements, transnational ops, or confidential staff meetings.  I mean public info like, “What the hell are you doing with my tax money.”

“What the hell are you doing to my son or daughter.”

“Where the hell have you been keeping my husband for the last five years.”

“Why the hell are you tapping my phone line.”

“Where the f*** is my lawyer.”

Little things like that.

All this has come up for me for two reasons.  When I hear or read otherwise sensible people defend the government’s failures or even the government’s “right” to hide them from us, it takes a long time for me to let it go.   So I’ve been running on a slow burn for a few weeks now after a particular instance.  And this piece here at Steven Aftergood’s Secrecy News got me thinking about it further:

Origins of “The Right to Know”

It’s short.  It’s simple.  Even pro-Bush people can understand it.

Also make note of Carol Monical’s posting in the comments section:  “To me it is inherent in a representative democratic system that a person has the right to know what the government is doing.  Otherwise, how can one make any decision, particularly intelligent decisions, about for whom to vote.”

Oh dear.  Does that mean we’re supposed to know what we’re voting for?  Or what the government is doing?

Maybe it’s arrogant to ask where the hell does the Vice-President, perhaps the most powerful person in my employment — in other words, the f***er works for ME — get off hiding from me for 18 hours just because he didn’t want me to know that he’d accidentally shot someone.  It wasn’t arrogant six or seven years ago to make detailed public inquiries about a President’s family jewels in open court.  I think that kind of trumps embarrassment by bird shot, so I’m entitled to know.

Yes, I’m still angry.  It’s created a burn mark under my chest that only disappointment and betrayal can inspire.  We should all be friends, but we’re not.  We shouldn’t be at each other’s throats, but we are.  The powerful, the connected, and the glib pierce our eardrums and inject hate speech, rotten logic, and outright lies directly into our brains.  And we don’t even have the decency as a nation to question anything we’re told.  Anything at all.

We should be informed.  And thinking.  And awake.  But we’re not.  There is blood on the hands of the mighty.  But it’s okay.  And yet in the hearts of every man, woman, and children in the United States for whom honor, integrity, and conscience aren’t a matter of convenience, it will never truly be.

And now we have a government whose primary goals are to enrich the enrich, to protect the powerful from the powerless, to suppress knowledge, to oppress anyone who thinks or loves differently than them.

And those of you out there responsible — the perpetrators, the apologists, the fearmongers, and the spineless who lick up their bile — you have a right to know how much I hate you.  The least you could do was apologize.

One day, I’ll forgive.  But I’ll never forget.  And neither should you.

Stupidity is a greater crime than dissent.  And we’re all paying for it.

I mean, not that I’m bitter….