The Revolution Will Be Televised

From: modemac@netcom.com (Modemac)

John P. Olinyk (clavis@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
: WHAT FUCKING CHOICE DO WE HAVE!?!
: Unless I'm rich or famous, I can't get a "radio show" or a "TV show",
: and unless I WORK FOR a newspaper as a columnist, I can't get anything
: printed. What other options for mass communication are there, other that
: the Internet (which gets your house bugged) and yelling on a street
: corner (which gets you arrested)? FREE SPEECH? WHO GETS TO SPEAK IN THIS
: FREE SPEECH?

And that's a cue for everyone to head out and find the latest copy of
ADBUSTERS, the anti-advertising, anti TV magazine. This rag can be a
real eye-opener, and its savage attacks and send-ups on popular ads of
all sorts, from TV to billboards, are worth the price of the magazine.
($5.75 in the USA - the high cost is necessary because the magazine has,
of course, no ads.)

The "Kill Your Television" attitude of Adbusters DOES grate on your
nerves after a while. Advertising IS dangerous, and it IS a powerful
weapon - one of the Conspiracy's greatest tools, probably only exceeded
in effectiveness by religion and guns - but as we know, the best way to
deal with the advertising monster isn't to kill it completely. (After
all, advertising ALSO serves a useful purpose for the Church of the
SubGenius - look at the famous SubGenius MTV "ad!") The magazine DOES
serve a good purpose by EDUCATING its readers about the tricks of the
advertising industry. Just don't take their word as gospel.

The magazine's call for people to pull pranks on advertisers (especially
defacing of signs and billboards) is also entertaining.

Anyways, this particular issue (Summer 1995) has an article on the latest
evolution of pirate radio: PIRATE TV! Technology has advanced to the
point where a weak TV transmitter - say, one or two watts - could be
hidden inside a single plastic videocasette case.

The magazine is always worth buying, but as a sample here's a quote from
the pirate TV article:

"Pirate TV...is in its infancy. Groups around the world have dabbled in
it, but it has yet to become as inexpensive and technically simple to do
as pirate radio. Anyone can experiment with transmitting low power TV
signals by running the output of a videocassette recorder into an antenna
distribution amplifier, but operating a station requires more technical
expertise and funds.

"Western Front did some pirate TV programming in early 1994. On one
program, a Chinese New Year meal for 15 people was broadcast live to
anyone within a 2 km radius who unhooked their cable connection and
tuned to channel four."

These guys are also planning a legal battle for the right to broadcast TV
without a license.

But as we know, it is highly doubtful that this will ever happen.

The article includes snail-mail addresses and email addresses that you
can contact for more information on this new form of subversion called
microbroadcasting. Here are the email addresses:

frbspd@crl.com
rkozinuk@wimsey.com
resystom@web.apc.org

Retailers who want to carry ADBUSTERS in their store can contact them at:

USA - 1-800-221-3148
Canada - 1-800-663-1243
Email: adbuster@wimsey.com
--
+---------------------------------------+
| Reverend Modemac (modemac@netcom.com) |
+-------------+ "There is no black and white." +------------+
| First Online Church of "Bob," A Subfaction of the Excremeditated |
| Congregation of the Overinflated Head of L. Ron Hubbard |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
FINGER modemac@netcom.com for a FREE SubGenius Pamphlet!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: The Revolution Will Be Televised
From: i.stang@metronet.com (Rev. Ivan Stang)

modemac@netcom.com (Modemac) wrote:

> John P. Olinyk (clavis@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
> : WHAT FUCKING CHOICE DO WE HAVE!?!
> : Unless I'm rich or famous, I can't get a "radio show" or a "TV show",

Hate to tell ya man, but I got a radio show while poverty-stricken and
unknown. All I had was a good home-made tape. It was the fact that I had
talented FRIENDS that made the home-made tape good. And the radio show
wasn't exactly Prairie Home Companion. But it's out there, fitfully.

> : and unless I WORK FOR a newspaper as a columnist, I can't get anything
> : printed.

I got 4 books printed and because a guy found something I PRINTED MYSELF
in the backseat of somebody else's car.

> :What other options for mass communication are there, other than
> : the Internet (which gets your house bugged)

Gimme a break. Your house was alreAdy bugged.

> :and yelling on a street
> : corner (which gets you arrested)? FREE SPEECH? WHO GETS TO SPEAK IN THIS
> : FREE SPEECH?

YEAH!!! THEY WOULDN'T EVEN LET YOU SAY WHAT YOU JUST SAID!!!

>
> And that's a cue for everyone to head out and find the latest copy of
> ADBUSTERS, the anti-advertising, anti TV magazine. This rag can be a
> real eye-opener, and its savage attacks and send-ups on popular ads of
> all sorts, from TV to billboards, are worth the price of the magazine.
> ($5.75 in the USA - the high cost is necessary because the magazine has,
> of course, no ads.)

(clipped the description and critique but saved it to the High
Weirdness/O.M. category)

Thanks, Modemac, for bringing up Adbusters. What you said is right. (I
have a feeling you're gonna end up with a cut of any new High Weirdness
book like Gunderloy did, back in "the day.")

But what I wanted to gripe about was all this griping about how "Sure,
there's freedom of the press, if you own a printing press." Well, darn it,
the Internet's here and YOU HAVE YOUR DAMN PRINTING PRESS, SO QUIT
COMPLAINING! (You're welcome to keep complaining about the laws against
unlicensed radio and TV.) Some things you can't blame entirely on the
Conspiracy. The Con isn't preventing you from publishing whatever the hell
you want on the Net... nor even in PRINT!! And I promise you, the Net is
better than the "small press" scene, and probably better than the "big
press" scene. It doesn't pay as well, but at this stage it IS BETTER.

Even before the Internet, you had your printing press. I've been meddling
with this ridiculous "zine" world since 1970, when "Instant Print" shops
and photocopy machines started springing up, and I've seen a whole LOT of
folks who started with NO MONEY and NO CONTACTS move "up," through
tenacity and talent and LUCK and WHO THEY KNEW, from a mimeographed
fanzine to a convenience store "slick" mag that you'd call a "Conspiracy"
publication. MONDO 2000 comes to mind. I remember when it was two hippies
with a big offset press bill. (Well, I think they DID get some kind of
"FAMILY MONEY" from somewhere at some point, but SO CAN YOU if you kill a
few relatives.) But there are plenty of examples of dinky little
grass-roots projects turning into "respectable" media. Utne Reader would
be another example. Heck, when I venture into the local health food
supermarket, I see a magazine rack full of slick glossies edited by people
I used to TRADE ZINES WITH.

Then there's lots of other folks who were way more talented, but who
weren't in the right place at the right time. But there was NO ONE ENTITY
holding them back aside from the FACT OF NORMALITY, which is gonna be a
COLD HARD FACT till X-Day.

So IF NOBODY IS ALL THAT INTERESTED IN WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY, and you're
not a NET GOD yet, FOR ONCE you can't blame the Conspiracy.

In the mass media, it REALLY ain't what you know, it's who you know. And
you're just as free to suck Conspiracy pecker to get your TV show as the
next guy.

You'll notice that I haven't moved to L.A. or New York yet.

It depends on HOW BAD YOU WANT WHICH PRINTING PRESS. To tell the truth,
I've been ECSTATIC about my status-luck since I first got approval from my
underground comic book heroes for my instant-printed project many years
ago. The only reason I keep pushing past that point is because my wife
says we need more money. Do you want to be on Oprah and get your ass
kissed by a zillion Normals, or do you want to be on alt.slack and get
your ass kissed by SubGeniuses? (Personally, I wouldn't mind BOTH but
somehow I JUST DON'T THINK THAT'S IN THE CARDS.) Both are within your
power.

Yeah right.

Stang

No offense, Clavister, you're a cool dude and an unquestioned SubGenius
Net Master, but I felt the need to play devil's advocate here. I have said
what you said MANY MANY TIMES in the past, and I can only be so
philosophical from the viewpoint of one who LUCKED OUT to some peculiar
extent, and who is 41 years old and TIRED TIRED TIRED. But it's true, you
can't go claiming "controlled media." Not in this country, if you're
educated enough to use a computer. SO FAR anyway. I love ya, man, and I've
got this stack of historically significant SubGenius Sales Trunk Lock KEYS
to send you yet, so don't think I'm badmouthing your brain or anything. I
just have to try to express how it looks from another perspective. It's
because, if I'm not PROUD of the scars I bear, I'd be ASHAMED of them. And
shame isn't Dobbs-Approved.

--
Copyright 1995 by Rev. Ivan Stang / 1st Orthodox Stangian
MegaFisTemple Lodge of People's Covenant Church of the
Wrath of Dobbs Yeti, Resurrected / The SubGenius Foundation,Inc.
PO Box 140306 Dallas TX 75214 / Fax 214-320-1561 / PRABOB
-------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: The Revolution Will Be Televised
From: anarch@cse.ucsc.edu (Anarch)

Rev. Ivan Stang <i.stang@metronet.com> wrote:
>Even before the Internet, you had your printing press. I've been meddling
>with this ridiculous "zine" world since 1970, when "Instant Print" shops
>and photocopy machines started springing up, and I've seen a whole LOT of
>folks who started with NO MONEY and NO CONTACTS move "up," through
>tenacity and talent and LUCK and WHO THEY KNEW, from a mimeographed
>fanzine to a convenience store "slick" mag that you'd call a "Conspiracy"
>publication. MONDO 2000 comes to mind.

Mondo 2000 *is* a Consipracy publication. The leeches from the Black
Planet got at Queen Mu's brain, and NOW look what's going on.

anarch@cse.ucsc.edu +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ I do not believe in anything
D I S C L A I M E R : E V E R Y T H I N G I W R I T E I S F A L S E

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