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Bronson: A Suggestion
Bronson (2008) chronicles the life and times of Michael Peterson: The UK’s most violent prisoner. His new name, Charlie Bronson came from his short stint of freedom when he worked as an unlicensed boxer. He needed a new and appropriate fighting name. Charlie Bronson was chosen for his gritty performance from Death Wish, which seemed to fit Peterson to a T.
Michael Peterson was first incarcerated for a series of armed robberies, namely that of a Post Office. No one was hurt, no bullets were fired, and no one was killed. For this crime he got an initial sentence of seven years.
Peterson is a shockingly violent prisoner and an all-around fascinating human being. In the book Bronson, the Robin Ackroyd wrote:
Charlie is a lost soul, a man from a different age. Ten thousand years ago he would have been the strongest man in the jungle; two thousand years ago, in Roman times, he would have been the unbeaten gladiator; two hundred years ago he would have been a circus strong man.
I suppose this is a very appropriate description of this man. To most he would appear to be a manic psychopath with self-destructive patterns who could give nothing back to society.
The film seems to show this side of the man. It shows through brilliant cinematography and utterly appropriate scene design and cut scenes that Charlie sought out trouble and wants nothing but to fight. I think it is further from the truth than the fact that the man just can’t control himself.
As the film explains, as Charlie (played brilliantly by Tom Hardy) himself explains in make-up and three-piece suit on a stage to a crowd of the faceless wealthy, he has been in prison since 1974. As of filming, it totaled some 34 years…30 of it in solitary. 23-hour lockdown in the maximum security that the UK has to offer. Maximum security, 23-hour lockdown…for robbery. 34 years…for armed robbery. OK, I admit that he is still in prison for his misbehaving. He holds the records for roofing prisons, for hostage-taking standoffs, and I believe he also holds the record for most consecutive years served in solitary.
Charlie Bronson has never killed a person. Never, not a soul. He has never raped. He’s no pedophile. No serial killer. Never stabbed, cut, or maimed with anything but his bare fists. 34+ years for fighting? Hey, I and the film leave the morality up to you.
The movie is beautifully made. It is visceral, striking, bloody, and Tom Hardy embodies Charlie both physically to an almost eerie similarity. It is uncanny. Having read Charlie’s writing and seen the film that brings to life his words and mannerisms, Tom recreates a real person in a performance that is rivaled only by Johnny Depp from Fear and Loathing in his role as Raoul Duke.
It is not for the squeamish, but if you’ve got the stomach for a stellar film with a stellar lead, genius cinematography, and a perfectly executed screenplay and script, then I suggest this film.
Take this knowledge with you as you watch. Housed with the worst filth represented rapist, wife beaters, serial killers, pedophiles, sits Charlie Bronson who has done nothing but armed robbery for one week and then fought as often as he could muster after that. Never killed a soul. He continues to serve a sentence in solitary confinement that is about to top 40 years. Bronson is now nearly sixty, and could still kick your ass. He holds a record for most push-ups in one hour. He lifts weights and challenges world records to raise money…for programs outside the prison walls that support youth. Orphanages have received money on his behalf from the sales of his books and the stellar shape he keeps himself in. He may not have been meant for this time, but Charlie will tell you that he is the ultimate survivor, and he survives still in conditions that would break nearly all others. Check out Bronson streaming on Netflix.
Ten Fucking Years
Red, White, and Blue Blooded
It is the wee hours of September 11th and I can’t help but write something for this decade milestone since a tragedy such as this. There is no speech, no phrase, no profound quote that can capture the collective emotion this country and it’s people feel. There is no great poet or writer that can truly embody and express the waves of anger, heartbreak, or feelings of vulnerability we all felt that day. The state of shock on par with maybe a geopolitical rape victim; catatonic and non-responsive. There is no proper way to be, to act, or to remember. What is one to do on a day like today? Do we observe silence, pour one out for the homies we’ve lost, or do we rage against the dying of the light? Should you be somber about the event, recharged in the fight we still find ourselves in overseas, or should we instead just remember for a moment and continue on as we did yesterday? Is it somewhat disingenuous that the ten year mark should have any more pomp or circumstance surrounding the day than it should on say March 22nd? There is no proper way to be on this day, as there was no uniform or organized way to react or commemorate it on an idle Thursday any other week of the year.
Today, 9/11, there will be many events, speeches, demonstrations, and even protests surrounding the events that befell this nation some ten years ago. People will hold candlelight vigils, there will be moments of silence before every sporting event tomorrow. The Yankees will play harder, the Jets will want to win one that much more for NY, and the Giants will score that first touchdown for those lost ten years ago and those fighting overseas for our freedoms. There will be fighter jet fly-overs, massive American flag will cover baseball diamonds and football fields alike as the National Anthem is sung with that much more vigor. There will be documentaries, celebrities, and politicians recounting their tales of that day. Anyone with a recognizable face will be expressing the emotion surrounding the day. Twitter will trend Never Forget and #Sep11. Facebook will be abuzz with photos, stories, links, and all other forms of media as people bring all those feelings riling back to the surface only to let it fall away in just as quick a button click when their status moves on to the epic awesomeness of the PB&J they are eating.
There is nothing wrong with any of this. There is no right or wrong way to be, but I think it leads to a question in my mind: Will any of this be genuine? I don’t mean on an individual level. I mean on a show of support level surrounding the public events and speeches that will be made. At Ground Zero, will there be even one genuine, heartfelt, and truly uncensored word spoken? Will the politicians and speakers write their own speeches? I doubt it. There has been a poorly lit room full of speech writers crafting each and every word leading up to this day. There are key phrases that you will hear a lot. Tragedy, horrify, shocking, loss of life, cowardly, rise up, never forget, 9/11, and perseverance. Each person at a podium will do their best to encapsulate their experience and tell us what we all felt that day. They will pour out their “hearts” and let us know what we already know, that it fucking sucked.
It is what comes after that terrifies me. The politicization of this event. The next words you will hear are war on terror, staying ever-vigilant, thwarting, safety, freedom, America, never again, never giving up, hope, future, and something to the effect of never letting them win. What will have started as a partially genuine remembrance will end as a call to arms and a stump speech by politicians, the president, and every GOP candidate for president. Sarah Palin will pop up at Ground Zero in her damned tour bus. Everyone with anything to lose in an election year will try to sell you a bill of goods as to their stance: they felt it the most, love this country the most, and think they can keep us safest of all. They will show the most patriotism, and then the pundits will cut down anyone who missed a buzz word or didn’t look sad enough, or angry enough, or didn’t sound patriotic enough. It will be an ugly thing that comes in the wake of pseudo-feigned genuineness.
Is what will happen today genuine at all, what we will see on TV and hear from our heads of state and Washington in general? Not truly. All of the pomp, the circumstance, and the somber tone followed by rebellion through patriotism and hope, will all be a stage show. It will all be for gain in some way. Patriotism for the sake of patriotism is nearly profane; blasphemous. Should we all feel shitty and relive that terrible day? I think not. Should we unfurl a flag and give this day, this ten year mark, more due than the tragedy of that day deserved yesterday? Not at all. Sure, it’s a decade mark, and milestones in tens always gets a little more attention, but it will all be for the sake of remembering. It will sit as vivid in our minds tomorrow as it did yesterday.
Today will be fodder, like any other day, for the mouthpieces of our day. Those in any position at that time, or now, will spout off their love and unwavering vigilance in the face of terrorism. We will never forget, and always remember. I get it, you’re an American, but so am I. It is hard to disconnect that day from what followed, and the lives lost to a fool’s cause in warring against an idea. I can’t, as an adult, help but feel a certain sense of irony in immortalizing an event that was tragic, but has brought so much tragedy since. I heard Skip Bayless on ESPN’s First Take say that it was a real PR nightmare that Roger Goodell missed a great opportunity to organize a league-wide form of 9/11 remembrance by making every player wear a flag, or patriotic colors, or American flag cleats. That it was a prime chance missed to organize something for the NFL; they did it with Breast Cancer, but not 9/11? He saw it as a PR opportunity missed. Is this what this day represents? A chance to merchandise and profit in some way as companies, corporations, and organizations, to force out some sort of patriotic remembrance for the sake of marketing, and to NOT be the group that did nothing. Well, that’s peer-pressure patriotism, and that is nothing I want any part of.
Feel how you wanna feel, do whatever feels right. Shit, there is no code of conduct on this day, or for any event of this magnitude. If there was a script to be followed, then feel free to feel whatever it is that the politicians and famous people tell you to feel. Shit, there is a tightly scheduled itinerary that you can adhere to and then go through the range of emotion on queue before and after the first C-break which will feature Doritos ads, Pepsi ads, and patriotic ads for the new Audi A4. Shit, Pepsi has the patriotic cans going, but they don’t include “God” references to avoid offending anyone. Wow, if there is a litmus test for where we are as a country, this little soda experiment is it. So feel what you wanna feel. If that feeling is nothing, then fucking feel it. Those that cling to tragedy are unhealthy at best. If you lost someone in that event, or know someone that did, then by all means commiserate and support them. But it is ok to not feel much of anything if you are far removed from this event, because dammit, if you want to beat a terrorist, all you gotta do is say “fuck ‘em” and order another beer. It’s the American way, after all. God bless this fuckin’ country, Goddammit.
Obi-Wan Bin Laden: More Powerful in Death than in Life?
or: FUCK YES, FUCK YES, FUCK YES. Finally.
In the glowing aftermath of the announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden, at the hands of US forces, there is a haze I cannot escape. Everything should be sunshine and lollipops. With this symbolic blow to terrorism with the removal of it’s figurehead from this mortal coil, there are reports of celebration in the streets. Facebook and Twitter are booming with status updates and 140 character tweets of the happiness, excitement, even tears that come after nearly ten years of fighting and wondering where in the world is Osama Bin Laden. We have spent Billions of dollars that was originally based on a manhunt for the men responsible for that date (I refuse to directly reference it since it has been prostituted as a political ploy and weapon in elections). Vindication might suffice as a word to express my personal feelings on the matter; retribution might be appropriate, too. The President used “justice” in his speech tonight, but I don’t know if he addressed the real issue at hand, nor should he have. We will leave the cynicism and the twisting of this moment in time to the pundits and the news outlets (and me). The one thing we all need to think about is whether he is now more powerful a martyr than he was a man?
Finally
I don’t want to shit in your cornflakes or rain on your parade (we might be justified in having one for the guy that pulled the trigger), but it seems we must be cautiously hesitant to think that this will just dissolve a hardened, extremist group like Al-Qaeda. The death of Bin Laden is only going to galvanize an already grizzled bunch. He has been martyred by the Great Satan. Darth Vader was warned by Obi-Wan that if he was struck down then he would become more powerful than you could possibly imagine. Now Osama has finally given his life for the cause at hand like an empty robe falling to the ground. His followers and comrades will stop at nothing to justify his death, honor his memory, and meet now not only a harem of virgins, but Osama himself, on the other side.
In my lifetime there has been nothing more blood-curdling or earth-shattering than walking in to my first class in September so many years ago and seeing the first tower burning, live. I was so confused, didn’t believe, I couldn’t understand. Once I understood I remember hearing Bush speak and wanting only blood for blood. That metallic, salty taste on my tongue made the hair bristle on the back of my neck. I wanted heads on pikes, men drawn and quarter, I wanted men sentenced to be “hung by the neck until dead.” I wanted Old West justice, and if anyone was fit to deliver it then ol’ G.W. was the Texas boy to do it. For a moment I was elated that we had an illiterate redneck at the helm. He was the man who could slake our collective thirst and put meaning to this awful event, tying on it a nice like bow made from the innards of men foolish enough to mess with Texas.
But is was slow going and it has gotten so complicated over the years that most of us forgot what we had initially been fighting for; that justice that Obama spoke of tonight. There is no explaining away our actions in the middle east as a whole, mostly I’m ashamed and angry as an adult now. I became so jaded and tired from the justifying and legitimizing and most of all the double-speak of “strategic victories” and “progress on the ground” that I just wanted to bring all the boys back and admit we had no idea how to get one guy, one symbol, that could alleviate some of the psychological burden that we collectively felt.
Today, some of that was lifted with this announcement. I was never afraid of terrorists. It was never a feeling I felt. I was never scared to fly, afraid of a bombing, and it never effected my daily life except as an inconvenience or something that got my ire up. Today was the most genuine nostalgia I have had for my child-self. I can finally explain to that teenage boy that we got that bastard. He can look up at me with the hope and bloodlust and he can finally rest knowing that the head of the snake, the one that bit and poisoned his youth so long ago, was cut off. I would send him off to bed and pour myself a drink. Hell, what am I saying, I’d pour a drink for the both of us before he went to bed. Then I could sit down in a chair and realize all that happened today was the next chapter, not the end of the book.
I don’t think any of us are kidding ourselves. I might have just been obtuse as a kid, but I can see all the cynicism in the tweets and the status updates today. This moment is tainted by the ten years that preceded it, and beyond. Like drinking from a putrid pool of water after nearly dying of thirst crossing the Sahara; worry about the gut rot later. Sage Francis wrote almost immediately after I heard the news on Twitter: “Donald Trump and Sarah Palin are already asking to see Osama Bin Laden’s death certificate! This is getting ridiculous now.” Among others are, “BREAKING: Apple takes credit for finding Bin Laden through iPhone secret tracking. ‘We told you it was a feature, damn it’ – Jobs,” “When you run out of the house to join the Osama is dead rally in DC, when does grabbing the beach ball cross your mind as a good thing?” Possibly my favorite I’ve found is, “Beloved character actor Osama bin Laden, star of TV’s ‘Fox News’, dies age 54.”
Right now, as I type, there are hundreds of men setting timers, spooling det cords, and sewing vests for the purpose of attacking America forces renewed by the thought of their now martyred leader. Instead of one man’s calculating and absentee leadership, each cell will invariably mobilize itself and act on it’s own accord with no central leadership. This is now Project: Mayhem and in death, he has a name, his name is Osama Bin Laden. Stop it. His name is Osama Bin Laden. This is crazy. His name is Osama Bin Laden…what is going to follow in the next few weeks will be escalation. We may have cut the head off the snake, but there isn’t only one snake, and they are all irradiated with like three heads; these groups are Cerberus, the hell-hound. The next 72 hours will be very tense. They will want immediate satisfaction. We have got the new terror alert system after doing away with the Starburst color wheel we had gotten used to using, and this new one consisting of only two levels is going to get a workout over the next six months.
What might be the good to come out of this? Well, the greatest good will be as symbolic as his death. We might get renewed anti-terrorist cooperation, new cooperation in areas we didn’t have it, and an overall feeling that our military ineptitude can be lifted for the time being. Pakistan is most definitely going to politically bend over and spread ‘em after looking like jerk-offs and terrorist sympathizers with Osama having been in Pakistan when we found him. There might be a statue or parade for the man that killed Osama, justifiably so. Maybe a bronze statue of the soldier mid-war cry, holding up the severed head of Osama in one hand and a machete in the other. Too gruesome? Well, my 16-year old self would disagree with you on that, and I’m betting the you from ten years ago would, too, if you were honest with yourself.
Obama is now untouchable in the next election. War time Presidents get re-elected, that’s just a fact, and now with the blood of Osama spilled on what I can only assume were Italian marble floors in a mansion in Pakistan (Lucy, you got some ‘slainin to dooooooo), he can basically phone in a campaign. Like Zim capturing the smart bug in Starship Troopers, it’s a great victory, but it is only the beginning of the rest of the war. This was, though, the culmination of a “vow” Obama made during a debate in 2008, to find and bring to justice Osama Bin Laden. He fucking did that. That. Just. Happened! If the GOP field was weak-kneed before, they are even weaker now. Who wants to drunkenly fall into the wheat thresher that is Obama 2012? This is the drum Obama gets to beat for at least the next 24-months before anyone tells him to put it away. There is no amount of pundit BS and side-chatter that can break the results of this day. Bin Laden is dead. Election day cannot get here soon enough; don’t want this “dead terrorist” smell to wear off before then.
A monster no more.
This Middle East crap is all a fucking mess, and “if it ain’t, it’ll do until the mess gets here.” This was my generation’s great evil. The man hell-bent on destroying and upsetting the natural order of the civilized world. Enjoy the fruits of our long harvest. Yes, we’re cynical, we’re cracking jokes, and maybe I’m looking for the dark cloud instead of the silver lining, but this was not just a symbolic and real blow to terrorism and it’s most insidious voice, but this was like me killing the monster that lived under my psychological bed. I was never afraid of him, but the idea of him. Osama’s image and martyrdom will live on forever, no hyperbole there, but at least we finally put that SOB six feet under, which gives me just a little bit of that metallic, salty taste of blood in the back of my throat that I have wanted for so long.
Side note: If anyone fucking says, “mission accomplished” to me I will sock you right in the nose, though. That phrase is as dead as “winning.”
Look at This F-ing Guy #16
Who says, “The book was better.”
Everyone has been there. I know, that in my years as a server, one of the most popular conversation, outside of how shitty customers are, is what movies are good. At any time you can find a good movie debate going on in any bar, patio BBQ, even behind the counter at Macy’s. Top five lists abound, what people recently saw, whether it was good, whether you should wait until it hits video, or if it just HAS to be seen in theaters to enjoy.
Just as often as you find the conversation, you will find that one guy who is just waiting quietly. He has been banking this little comment for months. He has been laying in wait, like the world’s lamest snake, ready to strike when the moment is right. The conversation finally comes up and he just smiles and laughs along until a particular film can come around naturally as the main topic. He wants it to develop organically, but if it is not happening fast
enough for him he might steer the conversation in that direction, just so he can say what it is he wants to say. The joy inside him is bursting at the seams as the movie comes up that he wants to comment on, and let’s a few people chit and chat about it before he can FINALLY put in his two cents, two cents that have been burning a hole in his pocket for the last 28 months, “Well, I saw it. It was alright. The book was better, though.”
This is the intellectual equivalent of slapping a dunce hat on all of your friends; it’s really like an ego-gasm money shot all over their stupid faces. He has had that little gem tucked away, not to discuss the merits of the book, but to publicly declare that he read something everyone else saw. I don’t get how this strokes off the chip on his shoulder. OK, we get it, you’re literate and have ample free time; now fuck off. Do you think you’re better than everyone else ’cause you read it? Of course the book was better, it’s a book! You get to imagine everything. The acting, the set, the effects, the cinematography, the soundtrack, the lighting, the fucking craft services…are better in your imagination. Imagination trumps reality every time. I have a mind to wonder whether you might have read the book JUST so you could say that one phrase. You need a damned hobby if you are taking days of your life, time you can never get back, to read a book for the express purpose of making that snide comment. The book took you a week to read, the movie took me 2 hours to watch, and it took us all less than five seconds to realize we’ll never be your friends again.
A McCarthy Witch Hunt: Radicalized Muslims are Among Us…Along With a Lot of Other Crazies
or: Here kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty. I’ve got a nice little filet of religious discrimination for you. Mmmmmm, it tastes so patriotic and pseudo-comforting
Well, it is that time again, for another farce of a series of hearings about a subject in which no one involved in moderating possesses any expertise. It is that time again to start trumpeting party lines, playing roles of good and evil representative for the people, and to tread ever so carefully over the Constitution and level-headed discourse. The probative hearing on the subject of American radicalized Islam began on March 10th, spear headed by Rep. Peter King, the Chairman of the United States House Homeland Security Committee. Yes, the IRA bedfellow that brought you such great quotes as, “If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the IRA for it,” in regard to 600 civilian casualties during the Troubles in Ireland in the eighties, compared Gerry Adams to George Washington, and now thinks that “85% of American Mosques are run by radicalized Muslims,” despite not being able to cite a single report to support such a claim. We find ourselves in a war with a religiously radical group, so it is that time for a complete and utter hypocrite to take the reigns and single out a diverse populous and dig deep in to their closets to find out if they are Communist sympathizers…I mean Muslim extremists. Sorry, I got my ridiculous and embarrassing public hearings of history confused…
…What I find fascinating is that we are looking in to “community’s response” to the radicalization of their religion. We expect that muslims will seek out the extremists in their own groups and do the work of fighting terror as much, if not more so, than anyone else. Didn’t we create an entire branch of the government to do just that? Don’t we already have a half-dozen organizations and federal groups tasks with just this same goal? Maybe the real reason behind these hearings isn’t anything more than a set up for a possible run for NY Senate in 2012. It sure would help Rep. Peter King to have a “tough on terror” platform when running in New York. Preying on people’s emotions by alienating the perceived enemy and taking a hardliner “no” on a Ground Zero adjacent Mosque after vetting the owner of that proposed house of worship just before an election year where the Democratic base is looking ever weaker as time goes on would not be advantageous, would it? Oh, that wouldn’t make any sense, a potential candidate for a powerful political seat setting himself up in a city that stands as a victim of terror by going after terror at home…there is no way a campaign slogan could come out of that along with some juicy soundbites. Ya think?
Joseph "Tail-gunner Joe" McCarthy on the left and Peter King on the right
Where are the hearings for the other groups not curtailing and punishing those that are extreme or illicit in their acts? Where are the hearings for all Catholics pertaining to the predilection of pedophilia in their leaders? When will I get to see the Baptist community under the microscope for the deplorable actions of Westboro Baptist Church? When will there be a hearing as to the homophobia and persecution by Christians and Republicans on the freedoms and equal rights of fellow American citizens? Why aren’t there hearings of stock brokers who didn’t blow the whistle on the Ponzi schemes? I wanna see a family man bean counter from Connecticut under the interrogation lights of a public court because he wasn’t looking in to Goldman-Sachs on his off-time…
…If, in fact, 85% of Mosques were run by radicalized Muslims, then I would think the propensity for suicide bombings in this country would be much higher. Where are the suicide bombers? When did a martyr detonate himself in a market in this country? If they really are recruiting for Jihad, where are the suicide bombers we see overseas? How widespread of a problem can he have if no one is blowing themselves up on street corners in America? Has domestic production and innovation fallen on such hard times that we can’t even make for good religious extremists? Do foreign nations have to be better at everything? I bet if we really tried we could be the best damn terrorists out there, but instead we keep farming our extremism overseas. We are most definitely the best a crazy, Charlie Sheen proved that, but we have got to step up our terrorism game if we can ever hope to keep up internationally…
…I get the philosophical ideals behind fighting imperialism and having such a venomous hatred for America. I understand, and can almost respect, the efforts of a group that has been able to grow over the years. Of course Muslim extremists are as upset as they are, America has been nation-building and imposing it’s will on the people and politics there, for more than 30 years. We armed Afghanistan against Russia all those years ago, and since then we have been screwing with commerce, religion, politics, and been destroying and interrupting daily life. There are men in their 40’s who have known nothing but occupation and the terrors of war as nothing more than the condition of life. Children have become men under foreign occupation and are raising kids under that same iron fist…a connection like that easily spans seas, and of course some American Muslims will see the plight of their people and act out to support the cause.
I can sympathize with the struggle of those wanting nothing more than to be left alone. That is the most basic issue that terrorists have with America. We have not left them alone their entire lives. Not a day has passed without the threat of military action or the installment of one puppet dictatorship after another….
…Terrorism is defined as the “use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.” These trials are yet another shameful example of political terrorism. This is a case, not unlike the McCarthy Trials to find pinko sympathizers, which we now know was ridiculous and outlandish, to the end of the persecution of civil liberties. These hearings are a government using intimidation and stump speech politics to control it’s people through fear. How better to garner support for a course of action than through inciting fear in the proletariate? How better to get a vote than by preying on the very same fear you instilled? Terrorism is quite likely being grown in select Mosques centered on extremism, you can’t refute the possibility, but right now there is a committee of terrorists trying to control you, the American people, through tactics of intimidation and fear, to control their desired outcome, and that calls for a war declared against it. Edward R. Murrow, a hero of mine, said this of McCarthy’s investigations when it was all said and done, “We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men.” I for one will not be terrorized, not by radicals of any stripe, but most certainly not by my government out on a lark for the purpose of scrutinizing my fellow Americans for political gain.
