Tom Baker
Author of Haunted Indianapolis , Indiana Ghost Folklore, , Midwest Maniacs, Midwest UFOs and Beyond, Scary Urban Legends, 50 Famous Fables and Folk Tales, Notorious Crimes of the Upper Midwest : http://tombakerbooks.weebly.com
Bottom-Rung Star Wars
Battlefield Earth (2000) is a movie that is so unremittingly awful it has been labeled one of the "ten worst films of the Twentieth Century." That's not true at all, but it does go to show that once the tastemakers of the media machine have "decided" on the relative value or worth of a product, they'll waste no time in piling on the said product if they find it to be wanting, often for unspecified reasons.
The Perils of Capitalism
Last night I dreamt of love. Which, as always, was walking in the opposite direction. I had to stop and grab her hand, pull her back. I noted she was missing an "I".
To the Youth in the Streets
If there is a God, S/He must surely look in favor upon And BLESS the youth in the streets: Masked, hooded, lobbing rocks at the pigs,
On Flag Worshipping
Let me preface this piece by stating that the U.S. can't provide clean drinking water in Flint, Michigan, or Jackson, Mississippi...in the richest country the world has ever known. They can't keep the power on in the entire FUCKING STATE OF TEXAS...in the richest country the world has ever known. (Consequently, a young child FROZE to death in his trailer home...in the richest country the world has ever known.) In the "Land of the Free" they incarcerate more people, many needlessly, than does communist China.
Anarchism in America
"All of history is a struggle of the individual against the institutions." --Emma Goldman Modern America, the "Land of the Free," incarcerates more people than any other nation on Earth, including China. We spend more on military spending than the next twenty-five countries combined. We give more in "corporate welfare" than we do in human welfare, healthcare, or the basic services to common citizens. In the film, Anarchism in America, made by filmmakers Joel Sucher and Steven Fischler of Pacific Street Films (which was founded in 1969 as a way to document the continual struggle of radical groups against the Vietnam War and other social ills), we see the various modes of anarchist thought and philosophy in the emerging era of greed and corruption, the trickle-down era of Reaganomics. These are the roots of where we find ourselves today, so to look at the past (which, to quote a certain film, "is prolog") is important.
To the Max
I well remember the mid-to-late 1980s: that was a very special, magical era for me, personally. Or maybe not. Memory always plays you false.
The Vampire at the Inn
Once upon a time, there were four noble Buddhist monks, each a dedicated mendicant, all traveling together to get from one impoverished village to another. As they went, they spread the doctrine wherever their sandaled feet fell.
Saturn in Retrograde 3:13
She was in most respects a happy woman. Except, of course, when Leland beat her. It was just something she had to bear, she realized. Divorce was not an option if you were the wife of a highly respected local physician. Not if you had no way to maintain the lifestyle to which you had become accustomed.
