The Beer Retard - June 10th, 2004

I feel like spewing out nothing but venomous negativity today, but I won't. I'll make an effort to temper my feelings of disgust with a mindset that our good friends in Bad Brains called P.M.A. (Positive Mental Attitude for those unfamiliar with one of the best bands in the history of mankind). So without further ado, some positivity. The other night I happened to see one of the finest moments ever aired on a network television show. The show was Freaks and Geeks. The episode was called "Noshing and Moshing." The moment took place when the character of Daniel (a stoner dude who listens hard rock/metal), feeling pressure from his home life and girlfriend, decides to give punk a try. He brings home a record, puts it on the turntable and puts his headphones on. Now this is the good part. The record was Black Flag's Damaged. Pretty fucking cool. James Franco, who plays Daniel, does a pretty good job in the scene. As he listens to "Rise Above," you can see how it's hitting home with him and tapping into the rage and frustration he's supposed to be feeling. Of course, the episode comes crashing down to Earth when Daniel goes to a punk club and the lame-ass band Diesel Boy are playing. The show's supposed to take place in the early 80's and I can't remember there being a band as lame as Diesel Boy around back then. They should've gotten some old school band or at least a current band that might be believed as a band from that era. I was also disappointed that Daniel finds out that punk isn't for him and goes back to his old way of life. It would've been a lot more satisfying to see the stoner rock dude become a punk for good. But shit, I shouldn't complain. For at least a moment or two, the show transcended the usual bullshit and became something special. It wasn't the first time Freaks and Geeks had done that. It's too bad it only lasted for 18 episodes. I guess all the jackasses with Nielsen boxes watched a stupid sitcom instead.

Okay, so I'm not exactly working the P.M.A. but I'm trying. The only other thing I have to say is that my eyes have been opened about GMOs. I'd heard something here and there about it before and I try to buy organic as much as possible. But damn, I never knew how fucked up things were. After seeing The Corporation and Fed Up! last weekend, I feel like I've gotten a wake-up call. I should've been out protesting the Biotech conference this week. I need to go down to visit reddawn on the farm in Santa Cruz and see how shit should be done. For the moment, I'm reading Eating in the Dark by Kathleen Hart and I highly recommend it if you know little or nothing about how biotech companies, big agri-business and the government have been force-feeding us genetically modified food. It's been going on for years and while the Brits have fought it tooth-and-nail, we Americans have barely raised a whimper. The anger I've been feeling while reading parts of the book reminds me of 10 years ago when I read books about vegetarianism and learned about how a meat-centric diet fucks up the environment and screws up our hearts, colons etc. And the factory farming shit stuff didn't make me happy either. Support your local farmers' markets and buy organic if it's within your means to do so! Man, I've got a lot more reading to do.

Tonight is the Guinness Believer thing I signed up for a few weeks ago. Free beer, free food and free swag is what they've promised. Then today I get an email that reminds me about the $5 donation that is required at the door. I don't remember being told about that the first time. Everything I read said "completely complimentary." Completely horseshit is what I'd call it. But I guess $5 for all the Guinness I can drink, food, t-shirts, etc. is a good deal. And the $5 supposedly goes to some charitable foundation. I looked it up and it seems legit. So let the stout-drinking begin...