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This blog is maintained by VR&HOU's Propaganda Minister. Be warned.
"Yes, propaganda certainly...and powerful architecture! For every backdrop and in every public building, we must emphasize the vertical, as we strive for near religious authority! Dramatic uplighting playing upon massive stonework! We must employ the power of its presence to plunge the daily lies down the collective throat of…but, perhaps I’ve said enough."
The Propaganda Minister
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Undisclosed Numbers,
Here is the first rough track sneak from the new full-length VR&HOU album. Rough, but for your loyal ears only.
Title: What is this Bleep!?
The album is due to drop Spring '09.
We love you. TM
This site has been culture jammed and this post is from The People
The march on Wall Street was great! Participation! Lots to say, but for now, pretty pictures:
Wall Street Bull: 7000 pounds of bronze = 100 million dollars per pound, at bail out rates. We say, SELL!
Grab the bull by its bronzed balls—snip snip, don’t let it propagate!
A heartfelt note to all those hurt by this march on Wall Street, from the VR&HOU Propaganda Minister:
"My most sincere apologies to the truly fabulously well-to-do…my people. I honestly thought this was a march in support of robber barons and flabby well-dressed criminals."
 "I claim that Von Robinson and His Own Universe had no involvement in the death of Tim Russert. Lil' Russ! Based on appearances, I'm guessing it's diet related. But let me stress: that's just a guess.
I would also like to claim the stage rights to, The Death of Tim Russert, a madcap musical starring a wild-eyed, puffy-fleshed stenographer from Buffalo who shuffles off to Washington to pose as a gritty no-nonsense reporter."
The Propaganda Minister
"when I talk to senior government officials on the phone, it's my own policy our conversations are confidential. If I want to use anything from that conversation, then I will ask permission." Tim Russert's grand jury testimony in the Libby trial
NYC's Deli Magazine (actual and real) interview with Von
VR: Good evening, I'm pleased to take your questions tonight. This is a scripted ...(laughter)
Reporter: Thank you, I love you.
VR: Let's see here ... Elizabeth ... Gregory ... April ... Dan from The Deli... Did you have a question or did I call upon you cold?
Reporter: How is your faith guiding you?
VR: My faith sustains me because I pray daily. I pray for feathery light pastries, and, uh, invisible guides with real people names and such.
Reporter: If you could sit in a bar and have a beer (or whichever beverage you prefer) with anyone who would it be?
VR: Everyone says Goebbels so I won't go there. It'd be a tall Shirley Temple (or 2) with Hannah Montana. I have my reason, if you care.
Reporter: What band/artist are you the most sick of nowadays?
VR: We refuse to dabble in the negatives of your sensationalist journalism. Instead, I'll go positive. I am a big Hannah Montana fan, and I will tell you why. They say she writes her own songs. How could someone so young know so well of the lost dreams and eroded values that dwell deep within the minds of 40 year old Disney execs AND also possess the talent to transform that greedy gunk into audible tripe to serve to the world? That goes beyond prodigy. 2 STs and she'd be loopy enough to let me in on her secrets, I think.
Reporter: How big would you like the band to get? Are you happy settling for respect and indie cred or do you want to own a boat and laugh at the unwashed masses?
VR: Our fan t-shirts say, "The Global March for Cultural Domination" TM so let's not mince words. As humble musicians in the 21st century we know our limits: a clothing line; vodka company; record label; a basketball team; the licensing of our names and likenesses to products we will neither use nor wear; the "creation" of banal scores for furry costumes on Disney's Broadway and a separate deal for a plotless Broadway extravaganza based on our songbook that would require no skilled actors, just pretty, young and clean cheerleader types.
Reporter: Origins (where did your band form?)
VR: Brooklyn.
Reporter: What it is (describe your band in about twenty words)
VR: Rather than speculating or reflecting my bias, I will refer to falsified fan testimony which we planted in the press: VR&HOU: "that which makes us weep with vexation and desire as we stand in the midst of The Presence." So, I dunno, we are It; the pervasive force; the "divine milieu."
Reporter: For Those That Like (Who would you say your music rocks out like?)
VR: Mid-song key changes a la Barry Manilow, Star Search/American Idol, Scooter Pie (Reporter note: he meant Rascal Flats)
Reporter: Relevant Info (pimp your latest shows, records, or whatever is going on in your universe)
VR: We are currently recording our first full-length album. This one will be more eclectic with some upright bass, harp, and horns. With that release we will tour the east coast (maybe spring 2009). In the meantime, we'll play select live shows in Boston, New York, and the Hudson Valley. That info (as well as free downloads) is on our website www.vonrobinson.com.
Reporter: Do you really control the whole band's universe or do you allow your band mates to contribute?
VR: There are natural principles of force and mass that we are all subject to: greed, competition, economic cannibalism, envy, slander...the new physics. We only aim to act in accord with these principles. Naturally, we spend more time fighting than rehearsing, and it feels so right.
Reporter: If you could open for any band, who would it be and why?
VR: Panic At The Disco, The Academy Is... or Fallout Boy because I think they are all one band and it's not very good. Even our mediocrity rises above their's, and to an arena of fans, night in, night out that reads as superiority with little effort. Or Good Charlotte because it is always entertaining being around a collective identity crisis.
A real image sent to us by an Undisclosed Visitor to our myspace page
Obviously, this needs to be addressed, but I first need to say just how much I admire Rupert Murdoch. Rupert Murdoch is a disinterested promoter of the public good; a true global statesman. Can I get a witness? Rupert Murdoch already is a global statesman. Apparently. They the people live their tiny lives, occasionally straining their little hearts and minds in futile attempts to grasp the oneness of it all, the wholeness that envelops the seemingly disparate. Yet, Murdoch has sacrificed His entire life and sense of fairness and decency to be our clear and shining example of this oneness.
To the uninformed (and there is no excuse for being uninformed in a 24-hour Fox news cycle), his life work—a campaign of mergers, takeovers, consolidations and conglomerations—likely makes Him seem egomaniacal, perhaps psychopathic. In truth, His life work is an offering to humanity. In the form of a social and corporately economic monoculture so sterile that it would make the dust bowl precipitate, Murdoch presents us with the awesome power of One. He has martyred His own humanity to be the metaphor for humanity: He is our direct contact with a supreme Oneness, in this case, Murdochness. He is us (metaphorically). His wealth and voice are ours (metaphorically). His influence in Washington is ours (metaphorically), and in that we know democracy is alive and we are one…one very powerful man. In Him, we find that for which Morrissey so long ago whined, “the bond that will bring us together.” (Note: “bond” can mean a certificate of debt passively issued by humanity to Murdoch for His original investment in our future plus interest negotiated whilst our backs were turned and due by a specified future date.)
Of course I am on His side. But with my respect stated, I say that this Uberman has violated vr&hou! Not because he has used the credibility and massive appeal of Von Robinson and His Own Universe to peddle His w(ha)res: hanging his sweetest and most delicious fruit of propaganda on our tree of cultural domination destiny is a restatement of His genius! It is a strategic marketing strike to employ the vr&hou myspace site and all the attention it draws (often more than 10 views per day!) to promote the love-child of His News Corporation and some need-to-feed primitive-brained junkyard predator, the venomousexy gal with debate skills so infantile an adult would be sentenced to prison for intellectually propositioning her, Ann Coulter.
Might I say, madame sex-goddess to pudgy pink fascists and right wing nut job fanatics of the middling mental class, welcome! You honor us.
The only effrontery—and it’s rapacious—is that we have not financially profited from His employment of our page and the army of fans whose attention we gladly sell upstream. We deeply respect product placement, the preying on innocents and the subversive manipulation used to sell worthless crap as real goods (have you seen our t-shirts?! ). But Sir, when you nobly capitalize on our empire to increase your empire, compensate!
Yes, yes, “read the fine print of the myspace agreement,” I know. But in a post-Murdoch/Enron/Bear-Stearn world, that kind of “objective reasoning” shows itself as a disingenuous attempt to avoid our self-serving negotiations. Through you, we have learned that capital dreams are not to be squashed by existing regulations! It is in our ability to change the current set of laws that have governed others into laws that favor us/Me that we transcend the metaphor to become that to which it alludes. That’s enlightened corporate capitalism, Sir. You wrote those rules better than I can recite them.
Oh, the bittersweets! Having expressed my mixed emotions, I remain at your disposal, willing to negotiate a lucrative secret settlement.
Forcefully, more power to you, if that is at all possible,
The Propaganda Minister (your disciple)
This site has been culture jammed and this post is from The People
Mainstream corporate media has a vested interest in seeing John Edwards out of the race (USA Today Squeezes Edwards Out of Race). With fewer and larger corporations controlling the media, His pro-individual rights / anti-corporation message threatens their unhealthy existence and challenges their irrational growth as a monoculture. To this end, they have served themselves well while providing a disservice to voters by framing the Democratic primary as a two-way race between Obama and Clinton.
For the most part, the little press coverage John Edwards has received has told us that no matter how appealing he is or how well he did in Iowa or how much his anti-corporate agenda gets to the heart of real radical change in America, he doesn’t have the money to run a national campaign. So, we should do as they are doing and dismiss him…now. After Edwards’ 2nd place finish in Iowa, reporters and pundits almost exclusively covered the 2-way race between the 1st and 3rd place finishers. What coverage the 2nd place finisher got was less than optimistic and future-fantastic rather than factual reporting:
· "Edwards's political career is probably over." New York Times columnist David Brooks (New York Times, 1/4/08)
· “The Democratic contest is a two-person race, dominated by Clinton and Obama. That leaves Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who is a close third, and Richardson, New Mexico's governor who is a distant fourth, waiting for a stumble or a political earthquake to create an opening for them.” Susan Page and Jill Lawrence (USA TODAY 1/7/08)
· "John Edwards I think has nowhere to go now...even with a second-place win, because he has no money." David Gergen (CNN, 1/3/08):
Whether this soothsayer bullshit spews from the uberbelly of a self-serving corporate media or from the reporter’s unappealing giddiness for the sport of political odds making (and when Tim Russert casts his crazy-eyed smile at us in anticipation of a Clinton/Obama knockdown that he likens, “to Ali/Frazier” why even ask why?), a half-conscious reporter might still try to substantiate that fluff with some factual fiber. The reason Edwards does not have the money is because unlike the Clinton and Obama campaigns that are corporately purchased, the Edwards’ campaign is publicly financed.
According to the money-driven, media-marketed state of political campaigning, John Edwards twice screws himself on behalf of individual citizens:
1. “The Free Media” screw—corporate media does not want his message to resonate so roundtables, print media, TV personalities posing as reporters and pundits (what Judy Woodruff calls, “the free media”) do not give him fair coverage. Responding to readers complaints about this, Newsweek cites reasons for not covering Edwards that would be valid for E-entertainment news:
"Edwards has clearly not received as much media coverage as Clinton and Obama..That said, I think his underexposure has less to do with money than with the "historic" nature of Clinton and Obama's candidacies (woman, African-American), as well as the "celebrity" status both had already attained when the race began. The media pays attention to those things…”
2. The free-market media screw—Edwards does not take big money from corporate PACS to finance his national campaign, yet any updated field guide will show that a trait of the future leader of the free world is a monstrous war chest with which to buy media time.
Chris Matthews and the roundtable, play odds makers for us if you will (and you know you will): Obama wins South Carolina and Michigan—Hillary loses and cries a sea of tears—after Barack Obama parts that sea with but a sincere yet audacious ray of hope from his unfurrowed brow and leads the American people into the promised land, can he really get the terrorists into that ravine and drown them, too, or are we asking too much?”
Some media criticism actually has been more telling about Edwards’ progressive agenda. Bless the buttermilky substance in the primitive mind of Glen Beck that simply won’t allow him to dress up his lunacy with clever words: "I listened to [Edwards] last night give a speech, and, I mean, why not just start wearing the Soviet star on your head and the Workers World Party?" (Jan. 9th, 2008 CNN Headline News).
When Chris Matthews said to Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money, "You don't like [Edwards] because he's against free trade," Cramer undoubtedly shouted his reply: "He's a tort lawyer for heaven's sake. He's a -- that's the equivalent on Wall Street of -- he's [Russian communist leader Leon] Trotsky.” (Feb 25th Chris Matthews Show)
Progressives please take note: Corporate media is more than ok with Obama. It is Edwards they fear. Of the top 3 candidates it is Edwards who has an agenda that aims to shift the balance of power and influence from corporations back to individuals. Edwards is not Trotsky, not even Evo Morales or Kucinich. And he has flaws. He voted in 2000 for the China Free Trade Deal that hurt workers. He voted for the war (but has forcefully said that vote was wrong and has apologized for it). But he is far more than our best worst option.
Paul Krugman says, "Edwards has been forcing the pace on the progressive agenda.” Krugman criticizes Obama for spreading the conservative’s shock doctrine treatment of social security: “[Obama’s] basically buying into the rhetorical frame of the privatizers. And you don't want to do that. I'm actually quite shocked that he would do that.”
Ralph Nader endorses Edwards and chides Obama for his feel good emptiness.
Michael Moore says, “Edwards is the only one of the three front-runners who has a universal health care plan that will lead to the single-payer kind all other civilized countries have. His plan doesn't go as fast as I would like, but he is the only one who has correctly pointed out that the health insurance companies are the enemy and should not have a seat at the table.”
On Obama, Moore writes, “…since he joined the senate, he has voted for the funds for the war, while at the same time saying we should get out. He says he's for the little guy, but then he votes for a corporate-backed bill to make it harder for the little guy to file a class action suit when his kid swallows lead paint from a Chinese-made toy. In fact, Obama doesn't think Wall Street is a bad place. He wants the insurance companies to help us develop a new health care plan -- the same companies who have created the mess in the first place.”
Chris Matthews and the roundtable: it needs to be asked; say Obama wins big on super Tuesday…cleans up…clear winner, as if he isn’t already. Does he bypass the White House completely and ascend to Heaven in a Chariot of Gold? I say yes: he is unstoppable and divine. Play odds makers for us…
Unfortunately, many progressives have accepted the flawed corporate media frame within which Clinton and Obama are the only 2 viable Democratic candidates.
In a surprisingly opaque political maneuver that has to be called Un-Kucinich, Dennis Kucinich, the most progressive candidate with the greatest empathy for society as a whole, threw his Iowa support to Obama.
Bill Bradley recently threw his support to Obama, a move that runs counter to his thoughtful New York Times editorial, A Party Inverted, in which he advised democrats to stop banking on charisma.
“A party based on charisma has no long-term impact. Think of our last charismatic leader, Bill Clinton. He was president for eight years. He was the first Democrat to be re-elected since Franklin Roosevelt. He was smart, skilled and possessed great energy. But what happened? At the end of his tenure in the most powerful office in the world, there were fewer Democratic governors, fewer Democratic senators, members of Congress and state legislators and a national party that was deep in debt. The president did well. The party did not. Charisma didn't translate into structure.”
Yesterday, John Kerry ditched his former VP nominee (Edwards) and endorsed Obama. Know that Lieutenant John Kerry is aboard, “reporting for duty.” And already Kerry has refined that muddy mob zinger of “change” into a multi syllabic lullaby: “Barack Obama can bring transformation to our country.” Genius. The experience-laden old farts staffing the Clinton campaign may now wheel or scooter themselves into the Obama camp. Soft foods low in salt are now being served.
Planted on the erroneous premise that we have only 2 options—Obama and the unwanted one—progressive voices from Arianna Huffington, Frank Rich, David Corn from Mother Jones, Matt Taibbi, Keith Olbermann, Katrina Vanden Heuvel and Donna Brazile have all swooned in sync over the phenomObamanon and/or labored to defend The Frontrunner Obama from The Inevitable Clinton. Often, they just grab onto the phenomenon of Obama and use it to club Clinton’s campaign to death. There is no lack of coverage from the left or right about whatever evil and desperate thing she and her team of experienced old farts has to say about our fresh face of springtime and sunshine.
Yes, if we put those two in a room then Obama is the most progressive. But why close the door and only allow those two in the room? What would truly be progressive is for them to reject the mainstream media’s limited offering and present Edwards to us as a viable candidate. What would truly be newsworthy is for them to tell us what policies should lead us to any of these frontrunners.
In “Obama on the Rise”, Matt Tiabbi points out that what is clear to those who can sift out Obama’s velveteen words and see beyond his unpolarized radiance that makes us all 20 years younger and our smiles brighter, is that Obama is not all that progressive. But they have all caught a whiff of a fresh spirit. And spirit seems substantial enough to sell nowadays so they’ve opened up shop. It is embarrassingly akin to The National Review waxing about Reagan’s very being. Oh, morning. Oh, America.
I strongly believe that a progressive “spirit” would be healthier for the overall system than the privatized good from a conservative “spirit.” But here is the thing: when our epistemology about our most practical and worldly matters (policy) is based on subjective feelings and ethereal qualities, we move policy into a realm where there is no proof of the things that we say matter. Bullshitters call that realm Paradise because it is not a destination they can always find. Marketers, handlers, and PR masters call it home. If we decide to elect a president based on a spirit instead of clear policies, track record, facts and issues, then elections can be completely run by marketing groups. And marketers are really good at packaging what we don’t need or what is dangerous as something we feel we can’t afford not to buy on credit.  That which tickles our tummies can yield us a Reagan, an Obama, a W., a Kennedy, a Coke, some sneakers, a taco, hamburger or car. “Change?” Hell yes, “I’m lovin’ it” because it really feels like “it’s the real thing;” qualitatively, no less real than Coke.
In this realm, "Impossible Is Nothing" (Adidas) and immaterial bullshit is real enough to sell. Products that are functionally worthless can sell for small fortunes if they are marketed as transitional objects—gateways to more than they and we are. Now that a $15 watch can have mechanisms that perform with the accuracy of $5000 watches, marketing has taught us to buy a brand’s spirit for $4,985. Breitling sponsors balloon races and judging from their website, has an extreme group of precision flying aces ready to unload hell on someone’s ass. By owning a Breitling we can, in a very pathetic way, capture that adventurous spirit of flight for ourselves. Once on our wrist, it is there to lie to us and lie on our behalf to those we meet as we sit at computer workstations, dine out, watch sports and work out with trainers in gyms. Buried under this, not only can we lose sight of what a watch is but also lose track of who we are.
Every big brand sells beyond its worth this way. Any celebrity-endorsed product carries a hyper-inflated cost that we pay in order to possess or be closer to some aspect of that celebrity. Marketing’s firewall redirects our critical faculties away from a product’s actual worth, toward the produced story. It is poetic, pretty transparent and has no place in politics…and beyond. This is the selling of a junk bond communication whose yield pays out in a worthless currency. All of these tiny bubbles that we imagine to be solid matter will eventually burst.
Marketing and salesmanship explain why the face of Obama as a brand logo can make the Libertarian conservative Andrew Sullivan wet his pants with excitement:
“What does [Obama] offer? First and foremost: his face. Think of it as the most effective potential re-branding of the United States since Reagan. Such a re-branding is not trivial—it's central to an effective war strategy..."
Egad, how’s that for an odd bedfellow with a totally different idea about breakfast?
Happily, I report that this trend may be shifting: I don’t think that many people are buying a Huckabee just to get a bit of the leathery spirit and odor that is Chuck Norris. So, there is hope, or at least I have the audacity of hope that together, we will bring about this change. Feel that hit you?
I sincerely seek unity—more than red state blue state unity, I seek a unity of Life—a unity that recognizes and respects what is common between people of all nations and then goes further to recognize that the unit of humanity is a fraction in what is really a oneness of Life—that as Gregory Bateson said, “the basic unit of survival is man plus environment.” So I don’t give a shit about respecting diversity at the level of something as manufactured, inorganic, unhealthy, and diseased as a “partisan divide.” Betterment doesn’t come by finding the cold dead middle ground between extremists on both sides of a carpeted aisle or the 50-yard line between corporate greed and Life’s needs. Betterment comes from identifying, respecting and protecting the very soft and precious stuff that is common in all of us and then fighting those who would weaken, harm, or greedily manipulate this unity for self-service.
So, without abusing the poor girl, usher Hillary Clinton out of the room—don’t let her be the counterweight that leads us to Obama. Put John Edwards in the room with Obama. Between Obama and Edwards, Edwards is an agent of meaningful change and Obama is the fashion of change. (Don’t forget to ask yourself what “change” means in a year in which the incumbent cannot run.) Marketing won’t like me for it, but I am ready to stop allowing needs to be sold to me on spirit and feel—bye Nike, Puma, Obama, et al. I can recognize my own needs and though it takes a little digging, I can gather the facts needed to make informed decisions that will address real needs.
Chris Matthews and the roundtable, play odds makers for us: what are the chances that MSNBC’s own Keith Olbermann, a former Sportscenter host, could introduce Chris Matthews to a real sport so he could feel the inner tickle that gamesmanship and competition brings him during his leisure time and do real journalism at work? Odds?
Oh, and Mike Huckabee is a religious nut job
Heroes, Undisclosed Numbers,
 In what can only be described as one of the most heinous acts of knavery and injustice in this burgeoning 21st century, vr&hou did not advance to the semi-final round in OurStage.com’s indie/alt voting. Anticipating a loss, the vr&hou propaganda ministry had already spun a fantastic tale to protect the vr&hou public image, but then great Fortuna shone her toothless grin upon us, delivering a real story that exceeds the incredulity of our most creative tale.
The facts: When the clock struck zero to end the quarter finals vr&hou was #10 (the top 10 advance). When the next round’s (semi-finals) clock began counting down, vr&hou was competing at #10. Minutes later, in an Orwellian act of big brotherhoodiness, the invisible hand of The OurStage Uber-Cyber-Lord shoved vr&hou into 11th position—the realm of losers—where they were frightened and unfamiliar.
That is why today, November 29th, 2007, a day that will live in “famy,” vr&hou join an Undisclosed Number of winners of the Nobel Peace prize in filing charges accusing OurStage.com of committing war crimes. * Sound tenuous? indeed!
The case for war crimes:
OurStage pits one band against another in a blood lust orgy it calls, “battles.” A number of these battles make up a round, or as history more commonly calls a unified collection of battles, a war. Perhaps all is fair in war. But other rules of fairness apply in the negotiations that bring about a peace. When zero hours strikes (i.e. 11:11 am, Nov 11, 1918), war is over and we have peace in our time. And winners! As an Undisclosed and Numbered fan put it, “that’s how it works on Ebay.” And isn’t the market where we ought to get our rules regarding American democracy?
Now, could it just be a glitch? Shouldn't we grow up and move on? One supposed constitutional rights lawyer would disagree. He has said (in statements regarding a completely different case): "These crimes are not the work of 'a few bad apples'; they were planned and executed at the highest levels of the U.S. government."
The charge: Crimes Against Humanity
vr&hou have long been advocates for a world where we focus on community and the pattern that binds us rather than focusing on the trivial differences that separate us. Therefore, absolutely anything that gets in vr&hou’s way, and this includes traffic, is an obstruction that suppresses the betterment of humanity. It couldn’t be clearer.
Why so hot? First off: we are American and therefore we are litigious. Further, to again quote a constitutional rights lawyer in a case that has nothing to do with this one: "Beginning these cases has a deterrent effect," she said. "It shines a light that everybody should be held accountable for the rule of law. The fact that world leaders know that this might happen to them can really make a difference." World leaders are watching: the stakes couldn’t be higher.
* It should be noted that OurStage has apologized for the late tallying of the vote, saying, “[it was] a record day for "battles" on OurStage (I think nearly 100,000 total).” We have gladly accepted their apology and we truly love OurStage.com. Go there and have your own fun.
We will reserve our war crimes charges for Kissinger, Cheney, and who knows, maybe Giuliani.
Thank you vr&hou supporters! Lots of you turned out to get us so close in a race with that many voters. You are our heroes, our Undisclosed Number of fans. We love you. We love OurStage. We are fickle.
Yours without introspection,
The Propaganda Minister
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