|
This two-disc set presents the complete Disinformation series, brought to you by the minds behind Disinformation.com, a website that acts as a clearing house for political news, conspiracy theories and general oddity. Given its origins, perhaps it makes sense that the show acts as a sort of 60 Minutes for people who took The X-Files literally. Originally created for the UK's Channel 4 and hosted by Richard Metzger, the short-lived series ran into censorship problems from the get-go. It was then purchased by the Sci-Fi Channel for broadcast in the US, but never aired. This isn't exactly surprising, considering that it's a news-magazine show that features full-frontal nudity, revels in the occult, and is just totally fucking weird.
However, the genius of the series isn't in its subject matter. Topics like Satanism and transsexuals have been tabloid TV fodder for a long time (although most don't actually show you a transsexual's penis or a high-priestess of Satan giving a lap-dance). Instead, the show's key is revealed in its tag line: "If you can tell the difference between fiction and reality, we're not doing our job right." The first episode begins innocently enough with a story on transvestites (which Psychic TV's Genesis P. Orridge links to a mystic blend of the male and female) and an interview with Apocalyptic artist Joe Coleman. It's only in the third segment, about a woman who claims to have been brainwashed by the CIA, that you start to realize this might all be bullshit. As the woman tells her story, it seems a bit outrageous to say the least. Suffice it to say that the part that makes the most sense is when Ronald Reagan takes her to visit the Queen of England, who decides that she should bear Reagan's love child to continue the genetic line -- all of which happens before Sylvester Stallone borrows her to make a pornographic movie with dolphins. So just when you're trying to decide whether this woman is truly delusional or just making it up, they show a picture of her family. As is typical, they've put black bars over everyone's eyes except for hers. The part that clues you in to the joke is that they even do this to the family dogs.
Once you realize that you can't believe anything you see, the rest of the series gets even better. Intermixing stories about rifts in the Satanic Church and the Jackass disciples behind "Uncle Goddamn" with interviews with underground icons like Grant Morrison and Kembra Pfahler (of the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black), the show becomes a muddled, strange and very entertaining mess. And don't forget the loopy, lovely diatribes by Brother Theodore, part deranged streetcorner preacher and part lovable grandfather. The only downside to the collection is that the series only managed to produce four of these masterful episodes.
Disc two is given over to footage from "Cyberpalooza", a 2000 conference that the organization hosted in New York. Some of the talks are interesting, but too often they descend into simple preaching to the underground choir. Typical rants include diatribes against the Christian church, the government, the rich, and so on. Very little here is new or illuminating to those interested in such topics. Furthermore, some of the speakers make outright errors. For example, Richard Anton Wilson spends time musing on why money printed by the federal government carries value in society but a piece of paper written by him does not. He suggests that this is a mystery, but if he did his research by picking up any graduate textbook on Macroeconomics, he'd find that economists have long since shown this to be the result of a Nash equilibrium in a search model of commodity trade with money. (Editor's Note: Ron has a PhD in Economics, kids, so if you didn't automatically come to the same conclusion, it's not necessarily because you're stupid.)
Despite this, "Cyberpalooza" makes for entertaining viewing. For many, the highlight here will be the speech Marilyn Manson gave via satellite. On the heels of Columbine, it's not surprising that his talk focuses on the damages cased by poor parenting and jocks in high school. But for my money, Adam Parfrey's far too short discussion of the religious absorption of science is far more interesting. Among other topics, he discusses how certain Jewish cults are using biotechnology to breed a red heifer, the birth of which is suppose to herald the coming of the Messiah. Additionally, Mark Pesce's performance piece on the Church of the Motherfucker is a thought-provoking call to arms.
This cunning pair of DVDs shows just how powerful media -- and particularly the television -- can be. If only because it teaches you to use your brain as well as your eyes when watching "news", Disinformation is worth your time.
-- Ron Davies
|
