People that fake death reports are not high on my favorite people’s list at the moment.
I have no clue why there has been an uptick in fake reports of celebrity deaths as of late, but it has gotten to the point of being annoying, and it certainly isn’t funny.
The other day I wrote up a post about the passing of drummer Chuck Biscuits. It has now been revealed to be a hoax, and Mr. Biscuits is alive and well. While I am thrilled that he is alive, I couldn’t be more annoyed with the person who started spreading this rumor. Now, I do not blame the original site, JG2 Land, he reported this news in good faith, and he believed himself to be in contact with the wife of Chuck Biscuits from as far back as this summer. So, just to be clear, I do not feel that blog is at fault for this.
This is just one example of the numerous fake deaths reported this year, and I wish I could figure out what sort of sick and twisted individual gets a thrill out of leading friends, family and fans to believe someone is dead? Is your life really that sad that you have to get your jollies from depressing other people?
Whatever the case may be, luckily Chuck Biscuits is alive, and I can now just go back to wondering what sort of idiot this person is that started this whole thing.
Welcome to another week of the daily edition of CobWEBs, the flagship podcast of The Cynical Bastards!
For those who don’t remember from the other episodes, this is a new format for the show as we are going to try giving you daily bite sized chunks of our patented brand of cynicism over everything in the tech universe. The show will have a rotating host schedule between Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself. You’ll always get two of us, you just never know which two!
Steven Hodson and myself tackle an entirely speculative subject today as to why Microsoft isn’t manufacturing its own computers. This is an unusual departure for us, but it was an interesting subject to tackle.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Welcome to another week of the daily edition of CobWEBs, the flagship podcast of The Cynical Bastards!
For those who don’t remember from the other episodes, this is a new format for the show as we are going to try giving you daily bite sized chunks of our patented brand of cynicism over everything in the tech universe. The show will have a rotating host schedule between Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself. You’ll always get two of us, you just never know which two!
I have no clue what it is, but this new Avatar film from James Cameron is just not capturing my interest in the least.
Perhaps it is the fact that Cameron, director of Titanic, has been working on it for nearly 10 years, or maybe it is the fact I think he is horribly over rated as a director, but something just isn’t clicking with me. There was a day that I should have been bouncing off the walls for this new trailer, and instead I find myself going, “eh”.
I think if I was to nail it down to anything is that I am simply growing fatigued of CGI fests. No matter how advanced the systems get, certain things still don’t look life like. Sure the Na’vi are supposed to look alien, and they do, but at the base level they still look like a bunch of really pretty computer pixels. When you add up the over the top environment of the planet, the rubbery look of the aliens, and I just walk away from this without feeling any emotional weight, any sense of true peril or threat … in short, I’m bored.
Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, but for now judge for yourself by watching the new 3 and 1/2 minute trailer below.
UPDATE: THIS WAS A HOAX … I am beyond angry at people and these damned death hoaxes.
Chuck Biscuits, one of the biggest drummers in the hard core/punk scene, has passed away from throat cancer.
Chuck Biscuits had a long career in music before passing away this past Saturday at 44-years-old from throat cancer. The Inquisitr is where I learned of this, which pointed me to JG2 Land, the only place that seems to have any form of official confirmation of Mr. Biscuit’s passing.
Drummers are one of those musicians that have a tendency to get overshadowed by the lead singers and guitarists as they are hidden behind they are hidden behind their drum kits and difficult to see, but if you ever heard or saw Chuck Biscuits play, you remembered him. He had an intensity in his sound and style that was impossible to not notice. I had a chance to see him in Jan. 1993 when he was till playing with the band Danzig. I remember the month specifically because it just happened to be the day Superman #75, the infamous Death of Superman, comic came out, and I was getting dirty looks from all of the employees for taking off for a concert … too bad, perk of being the boss.
All that aside, he was a sonic force to be reckoned with, and seeing him pound the skins live was a treat as you weren’t sure he was playing drums or beating some rabid to animal to death with sticks.
I also had the opportunity to meet him in person once at San Diego Comic Con when he was hanging out in Glenn Danzig’s booth (Danzig has set up at the con over the years to sell his collection of original comic book art), and Mr. Biscuits couldn’t have been a nicer fellow, and surprisingly soft spoken.
Besides playing with Danzig, he also played with D.O.A., Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, Samhain (Glenn Danzig’s band that later morphed into Danzig), Run-D.M.C. and Social Distortion. His contributions to the hard core and punk music scenes can never be spoken of highly enough, and he will truly be missed.
I leave you with the Danzig video for “Am I Demon” as it has some nice shots of Mr. Biscuits doing what he did best …
Welcome to another week of the daily edition of CobWEBs, the flagship podcast of The Cynical Bastards!
For those who don’t remember from the other episodes, this is a new format for the show as we are going to try giving you daily bite sized chunks of our patented brand of cynicism over everything in the tech universe. The show will have a rotating host schedule between Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself. You’ll always get two of us, you just never know which two!
It isn’t normally newsworthy when someone decided to leave their religion, but when someone leaves the Church of Scientology, and airing its dirty laundry on the way out, that makes it newsworthy.
Paul Haggis wrote Crash (for which he won an Oscar for Original Screenplay), Million Dollar Baby, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and many other projects. It also appears that Mr. Haggis has been a practicing member of the Church of Scientology for the past 35 years.
Long time readers of this blog will be well aware of my bottomless hated for this “Church”, so my extreme pleasure at seeing such a notable figure leaving the organization should come as a surprise to no one. However, why did he leave? Well, it seems that Mr. Haggis has become disenchanted with the “Church” over its support of Prop 8 in California, and also over the fact the Tommy Davis, the head of Scientology’s Celebrity Centre, has publicly stated that the “Church” no longer enforces the practice of “disconnection.”
For those unfamiliar with this term, disconnection is the polite term for cutting off all contact and dealings with someone who chooses to leave the “church”. Mr. Haggis saw Mr. Davis deny that this policy was still enforced on a television interview, but Mr. haggis claims that a mere year and a half ago, he and his wife, actress Deborah Rennard, were told told to cut off all contact with her parents as they had been kicked out of the “church” for an unknown infraction. Apparently Ms. Rennard followed the orders, painfully, but Mr. Haggis refused to cut off her parents from their grandchild. Mr. Davis has since been quoted as saying that Mr. Haggis is wrong about this.
The last straw for Mr. Haggis was that 10 months ago Mr. Davis promised him that something would be done about the “church” vocally supporting Prop 8, but as time dragged on, and nothing happened, Mr. Haggis chose to leave the “church.”
What follows is Mr. Haggis’ letter to Mr. Davis, which is possibly one of the most embarrassing documents from a former member to ever come to light. The original source of the letter is the blog, Moving On Up A Little Higher which has details of how they received the letter. The letter has also been authenticated by Ziggy Kozlowski, a publicist for Haggis, who said the letter was originally intended to be private.
Tommy,
As you know, for ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego. Their public sponsorship of Proposition 8, a hate-filled legislation that succeeded in taking away the civil rights of gay and lesbian citizens of California – rights that were granted them by the Supreme Court of our state – shames us.
I called and wrote and implored you, as the official spokesman of the church, to condemn their actions. I told you I could not, in good conscience, be a member of an organization where gay-bashing was tolerated.
In that first conversation, back at the end of October of last year, you told me you were horrified, that you would get to the bottom of it and “heads would roll.” You promised action. Ten months passed. No action was forthcoming. The best you offered was a weak and carefully worded press release, which praised the church’s human rights record and took no responsibility. Even that, you decided not to publish.
The church’s refusal to denounce the actions of these bigots, hypocrites and homophobes is cowardly. I can think of no other word. Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent.
I joined the Church of Scientology thirty-five years ago. During my twenties and early thirties I studied and received a great deal of counseling. While I have not been an active member for many years, I found much of what I learned to be very helpful, and I still apply it in my daily life. I have never pretended to be the best Scientologist, but I openly and vigorously defended the church whenever it was criticized, as I railed against the kind of intolerance that I believed was directed against it. I had my disagreements, but I dealt with them internally. I saw the organization – with all its warts, growing pains and problems – as an underdog. And I have always had a thing for underdogs.
But I reached a point several weeks ago where I no longer knew what to think. You had allowed our name to be allied with the worst elements of the Christian Right. In order to contain a potential “PR flap” you allowed our sponsorship of Proposition 8 to stand. Despite all the church’s words about promoting freedom and human rights, its name is now in the public record alongside those who promote bigotry and intolerance, homophobia and fear.
The fact that the Mormon Church drew all the fire, that no one noticed, doesn’t matter. I noticed. And I felt sick. I wondered how the church could, in good conscience, through the action of a few and then the inaction of its leadership, support a bill that strips a group of its civil rights.
This was my state of mind when I was online doing research and chanced upon an interview clip with you on CNN. The interview lasted maybe ten minutes – it was just you and the newscaster. And in it I saw you deny the church’s policy of disconnection. You said straight-out there was no such policy, that it did not exist.
I was shocked. We all know this policy exists. I didn’t have to search for verification – I didn’t have to look any further than my own home.
You might recall that my wife was ordered to disconnect from her parents because of something absolutely trivial they supposedly did twenty-five years ago when they resigned from the church. This is a lovely retired couple, never said a negative word about Scientology to me or anyone else I know – hardly raving maniacs or enemies of the church. In fact it was they who introduced my wife to Scientology.
Although it caused her terrible personal pain, my wife broke off all contact with them. I refused to do so. I’ve never been good at following orders, especially when I find them morally reprehensible.
For a year and a half, despite her protestations, my wife did not speak to her parents and they had limited access to their grandchild. It was a terrible time.
That’s not ancient history, Tommy. It was a year ago.
And you could laugh at the question as if it was a joke? You could publicly state that it doesn’t exist?
To see you lie so easily, I am afraid I had to ask myself: what else are you lying about?
And that is when I read the recent articles in the St. Petersburg Times. They left me dumbstruck and horrified.
These were not the claims made by “outsiders” looking to dig up dirt against us. These accusations were made by top international executives who had devoted most of their lives to the church. Say what you will about them now, these were staunch defenders of the church, including Mike Rinder, the church’s official spokesman for 20 years!
Tommy, if only a fraction of these accusations are true, we are talking about serious, indefensible human and civil rights violations. It is still hard for me to believe. But given how many former top-level executives have said these things are true, it is hard to believe it is all lies.
And when I pictured you assuring me that it is all lies, that this is nothing but an unfounded and vicious attack by a group of disgruntled employees, I am afraid that I saw the same face that looked in the camera and denied the policy of disconnection. I heard the same voice that professed outrage at our support of Proposition 8, who promised to correct it, and did nothing.
I carefully read all of your rebuttals, I watched every video where you presented the church’s position, I listened to all your arguments – ever word. I wish I could tell you that they rang true. But they didn’t.
I was left feeling outraged, and frankly, more than a little stupid.
And though it may seem small by comparison, I was truly disturbed to see you provide private details from confessionals to the press in an attempt to embarrass and discredit the executives who spoke out. A priest would go to jail before revealing secrets from the confessional, no matter what the cost to himself or his church. That’s the kind of integrity I thought we had, but obviously the standard in this church is far lower – the public relations representative can reveal secrets to the press if the management feels justified. You even felt free to publish secrets from the confessional in Freedom Magazine – you just stopped short of labeling them as such, probably because you knew Scientologists would be horrified, knowing you so easily broke a sacred vow of trust with your parishioners.
How dare you use private information in order to label someone an “adulteress?” You took Amy Scobee’s most intimate admissions about her sexual life and passed them onto the press and then smeared them all over the pages your newsletter! I do not know the woman, but no matter what she said or did, this is the woman who joined the Sea Org at 16! She ran the entire celebrity center network, and was a loyal senior executive of the church for what, 20 years? You want to rebut her accusations, do it, and do it in the strongest terms possible – but that kind of character assassination is unconscionable.
So, I am now painfully aware that you might see this an attack and just as easily use things I have confessed over the years to smear my name. Well, luckily I have never held myself up to be anyone’s role model.
The great majority of Scientologists I know are good people who are genuinely interested in improving conditions on this planet and helping others. I have to believe that if they knew what I now know, they too would be horrified. But I know how easy it was for me to defend our organization and dismiss our critics, without ever truly looking at what was being said; I did it for thirty-five years. And so, after writing this letter, I am fully aware that some of my friends may choose to no longer associate with me, or in some cases work with me. I will always take their calls, as I always took yours. However, I have finally come to the conclusion that I can no longer be a part of this group. Frankly, I had to look no further than your refusal to denounce the church’s anti-gay stance, and the indefensible actions, and inactions, of those who condone this behavior within the organization. I am only ashamed that I waited this many months to act. I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Scientology.
Sincerely,
Paul Haggis
Ps. I’ve attached our email correspondence. At some point it became evident that you did not value my concerns about the church’s tacit support of an amendment that violated the civil rights of so many of our citizens. Perhaps if you had done a little more research on me, the church’s senior management wouldn’t have dismissed those concerns quite so cavalierly. While I am no great believer in resumes and awards, this is what you would have discovered:
* Founder, Artists For Peace and Justice,
- sponsoring schools, an orphanage and a children’s hospital in the slums of Haiti
* Co-Founder, BrandAid Foundation and BrandAid Project
- marketing the work of artisans from the poorest countries in the world,
* Board Member, Office of The Americas
- supporting peace and justice initiatives around the world
* Board Member, Center For The Advancement of Non-Violence
* Member and active supporter, Amnesty International
* Member, President’s Council, Defenders of Wildlife
* Member and fundraiser, Environment California and CalPirg
* Member and Award Recipient, American Civil Liberties Union
* Member and supporter, Death Penalty Focus
* Member and supporter, Equality For All
* Fundraiser, NPH (Our Little Brothers) – for the children of the slums of Haiti
* Member, Citizens Commission on Human Rights
* Patron with Honors, IAS
And formerly:
* Trustee, Religious Freedom Trust
* Board Member and fundraiser, Hollywood Education and Literacy Project
* Board Member and fundraiser, For The Arts, For Every Child
– supporting art and music in public schools
* Board Member and fundraiser, The Christic Institute
- supporting Human Rights in Central America
* Founding Board Member, Earth Communication Office
* Working Board Member, Environmental Media Association
* Fundraiser, El Rescate – Human Rights for El Salvador
* Fundraiser, PAVA – Aid and Human Rights in Guatemala
Awards for outspoken support of Civil and Human Rights:
* Valentine Davies Award – Writers Guild of America
“for bringing honor and dignity to writers everywhere”
*Bill of Rights Award – American Civil Liberties Union
*Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award – Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
*Peace & Justice Award – Office of the Americas, presented by Daniel Ellsberg
*Signis Award, Venezia, World Catholic Association
*ALMA Award – National Council of Latino Civil Rights
*Ethel Levitt Award for Humanitarian Service – Levitt & Quinn
*Prism Award – Entertainment Industries Council
*Humanitas Prize (2) – Humanitas
*Legacy Award, for Artistic and Humanitarian Achievement
*Environmental Media Award – EMA
*EMA Green Seal Award – EMA
*Image Award – NAACP
*Creative Integrity Award – Multicultural Motion Picture Association
*EDGE Awards (2) – Entertainment Industries Council
*Artistic Freedom Award – City of West Hollywood
*Catholics in Media Award – Catholics in Media Associates
And many dozens of fundraisers and salons at our home on behalf of Human and Civil Rights, the Environment, the Peace Movement, Education, Justice and Equality.
My hat is off to Mr. Haggis as this is not an easy move to make in Hollywood circles.
I especially would like everyone to note the part of the letter where Mr. Haggis wonders what other lies have been told by the “church” … could this be a reference to the old policy of “the enemies list” wherein the “church” used to keep files and evidence on everyone identified as an enemy to them? It’s a bit of a stretch, and the “church” claims that policy ended years ago, you know … sort of like they claim they stopped disconnection.
Welcome to another week of the daily edition of CobWEBs, the flagship podcast of The Cynical Bastards!
For those who don’t remember from the other episodes, this is a new format for the show as we are going to try giving you daily bite sized chunks of our patented brand of cynicism over everything in the tech universe. The show will have a rotating host schedule between Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself. You’ll always get two of us, you just never know which two!
Steven Hodson and myself discuss the fact that Google seems to be totally losing its brand identity. Is it a communications company? A video company? A storage company? Who knows! They used to be the kings of search, and now they seem to have no clue what they are.
Okay, its look is a bit cliché at this point after Sin City, 300 and The Spirit, but that doesn’t make this any less awesome.
Steven Hodson messaged me last night with a link to a movie called The Cup of Tears, and told me I had to check it out. Well, I did, and … wow. Visually it isn’t anything we haven’t seen before at this point, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
Steven also sent me a link to an article about the film that made it just that much more fascinating.
… Gary Shore’s The Cup of Tears, a gorgeous CGI hybrid samurai sci-fi movie being made in Ireland. This was shot on the Red camera in Slovenia …
Okay, an Irish guy making a movie in Slovenia that is set in a futuristic Japan … you have to love a movie that needs a map just to figure out its production.
It totally looks like a Japanese Anime come to life, and while I don’t envision it doing huge box office, it still looks like it will be a lot of fun to see at least in the visual sense, although the story looks slightly odd (where in the world do the futuristic air ships come from at the end of the trailer?), but as is the way with these movies, they can easily become style over substance.
At least watch the trailer and enjoy the eye candy.
Welcome to another week of the daily edition of CobWEBs, the flagship podcast of The Cynical Bastards!
For those who don’t remember from the other episodes, this is a new format for the show as we are going to try giving you daily bite sized chunks of our patented brand of cynicism over everything in the tech universe. The show will have a rotating host schedule between Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself. You’ll always get two of us, you just never know which two!
Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself discuss the “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” attitude everyone in the blogosphere is taking with Microsoft in light of the news that they had pulled sponsorship of an upcoming Seth MacFarlane comedy special.
Seriously, Bono, lead singer of the mega-popular band U2, really just needs to shut up.
Last night I tuned in to the live U2 concert on YouTube with some trepidation. See, I used to be a major fan of U2 up through the late 1980′s. I loved their first five albums, and I really enjoyed their concert film, Rattle & Hum to the point I have seen it numerous times, something I have never done with any other movie of the type.
When their next album came out, Achtung Baby, I was not sold on the new musical direction of the band, and I was even less sold on Bono’s increasingly holier-than-thou attitude he was taking with world events such as hunger, poverty, world peace and eventually climate change. It seemed that no matter what the cause du jour was, Bono felt his opinion on the matter somehow mattered as he was, after all, the lead singer of one of the biggest rock bands in history.
I continually tried to ignore Bono’s antics and pay attention to their music, but I was growing less and less happy with the band with each passing album. After the latest album, No Line On The Horizon, I gave up as I found it pretty much impossible to listen to.
All this being said, I decided to check out the concert that was being shown for free on YouTube tonight, and I lasted exactly two songs before I turned it off.
I was struck almost immediately by a multitude of things that felt hypocritical for a band that has been annoying in their “save their world” attitudes. When they launched the 360° world tour, a lot was made of the insanely large stage they were using, and the fact it took a multitude of semi trucks to transport it. When the tour began in England, the criticism over the carbon footprint of the tour was almost instantaneous, and U2 guitarist The Edge found himself having to defend the band to the media, and also stressing that they had plans in place to offset their carbon footprint for the amount of materials they were transporting between shows.
Fine, but what about all of the other problems?
The Sunday night show at the Rose Bowl was able to accommodate an extra 30,000 attendees due to the way the stage was set up, bringing attendance into the range of 90,000 people at the stadium. Did their carbon credits include the number of vehicles used to get that many concert goers to the show? The amount of water used in stadium bathrooms?
While being escorted to the stage by numerous people, I noticed that there were spray painted markers on the ground telling the band where to stop and when. (because the people walking with them wasn’t enough?) Was that eco-friendly spray paint? was it going to be removed in some way so as not to wash into the sewer system?
I know Google offsets their carbon emissions for their servers, but was U2 doing anything about the amount of energy being used by the people watching at home on their computers?
Okay, so even I thought I was probably being a bit overly harsh, and I decided to tune back in and give it another try. As I watched Bono walking around on the outer section of the stage that extended through the crowd, he laid on the floor to sing, and as the song came to an end, the camera went to cut away, but just as it did I saw a stage hand pass a plastic water bottle to him … a plastic water bottle? Okay, yeah, I gave them a second chance, and they blew it.
Honestly, I am not this concerned about the environmental issues, I do my part, but I don’t condemn others for their choices. However, when you have been as insanely preachy as this man and his band have been, then you do have a different set of standards for them. Apparently Bono will champion all of these causes all day long … until it comes time for him to fatten his already considerable wallet.
If this had been any other band up there on that stage I wouldn’t have paid one bit of attention to any of the things I have brought up in this post. But when your frontman is one of the most holier-than-thou busy bodies in the world lecturing everyone in ear shot about how they should support this, do that, live this way, well, then you bring it on yourself.
Scattercast is 67 … and it stay awake this week!.
I have no clue what it is, but this new Avatar film from James Cameron is just not capturing my interest in the least.
UPDATE: THIS WAS A HOAX … I am beyond angry at people and these damned death hoaxes.
It isn’t normally newsworthy when someone decided to leave their religion, but when someone leaves the Church of Scientology, and airing its dirty laundry on the way out, that makes it newsworthy.
Okay, its look is a bit cliché at this point after Sin City, 300 and The Spirit, but that doesn’t make this any less awesome.
Seriously, Bono, lead singer of the mega-popular band U2, really just needs to shut up.
