Cultural Dissent

Deep Thought EP
Caper
April 5, 2013
www.caper.net.au

Rapper Caper slams the Native Title Act as a "white bible" on his latest release.

The Narungga emcee, who has worked as a Native Title field officer in South Australia for the past 10 years, raps on his track "The Writing's On The Wall":

A lot of misconceptions about us owning land
We don’t own any, man
I work for Native Title
The government is a rival
Assholes with a white bible

A selection of this week's politically-relevant celebrity news...

Rebel Diaz Arts Collective finds new home http://bit.ly/11ztAet

Cuban video game recreates revolutionary history http://gu.com/p/3enpq/tw

Pussy Riot member denied early release from prison: http://gu.com/p/3fedq/tf

Hear the new Neon Neon concept album about Italian publisher and leftwing activist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. http://gu.com/p/3fak2/tw

Rapper Danny Brown Gets Oral Sex On Stage, Continues Rapping http://bit.ly/ZUUbEF

The Campaign
Kings Konekted
Class A Records
April 19, 2013
www.classarecords.com

Kings Konekted have just released some of the choicest cuts in Australian hip-hop - and they were inspired by some of the whackest cuts in Australian politics.

The Brisbane b-boys' new EP The Campaign paints a pretty gritty picture of life under cost-cutting Queensland Premier Campbell Newman.

Framework of Flesh: Builders' Labourers battle for health & Safety
By Humphrey McQueen
Ginninderra Press, 2009
337 pages, $30 (pb)
Available from www.resistancebooks.com

Humphrey McQueen's Framework of Flesh takes up a 1920s challenge from a militant builders labourer, Charlie Sullivan:

Waking the Giant: How a Changing Climate Triggers Earthquakes, Tsunamis & Volcanoes
Bill McGuire
Oxford University Press, 2012
303 pages, $35.95 (hb)

It is easy to forget, says Professor Bill McGuire of University College London in Waking the Giant, that human civilisation has thrived only in the broadly benign climate of the past few thousand years following the end of the last post-glacial era.

The Endless Crisis: How Monopoly-Finance Capital Produces Stagnation and Upheaval from the USA to China
John Bellamy Foster & Robert W McChesney
Monthly Review Press, 2012

There is growing evidence that the global economic crisis will not end any time too soon. Most mainstream economists have proven time and again to be incompetent when it comes to predicting the course of events in an economic crisis, never mind predicting the crisis itself.

A selection of this week's celebrity news...

Talib Kweli: Rapper says of Boston bombing, 'violence begets violence'. http://bit.ly/11fowMJ

Lauryn Hill To Record New Music To Pay Tax Bill? http://bit.ly/15Ip82z

Yoko Ono To Unveil Not-For-Profit John Lennon Educational Tour Bus http://bit.ly/ZD71Hz

Flavor Flav Court Hearing Postponed For Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction http://bit.ly/15zP5lh

Rolf Harris Named As Man Arrested In British Sex Abuse Case http://bit.ly/ZvYl5M

Greening The Media
Richard Maxwell & Toby Miller
Oxford University Press, 2012
246 pages, $44.80 (pb)

There is a reason why the typical electronic product warranty lasts only 12 months, say Richard Maxwell and Toby Miller in Greening the Media.

Most digital devices are designed to “break or become uncool” after just a year, requiring regular product replacements or upgrades.

The dead. The injured. The anguish. All the result of bombs that were set to explode at the finish line just over four hours after the start of the Boston Marathon.

There will be time to mourn. We will mourn the dead and injured. I also mourn the Boston Marathon, and how it's now been brutally disfigured.

The Boston Marathon matters in a way other sporting events simply do not. It started in 1897, inspired by the first modern marathon, which took place at the inaugural 1896 Olympics. It attracts 500,000 spectators and over 20,000 participants from 96 countries.

Last year, multi-award-winning playwright Angela Betzien undertook a three week residency in the Queensland town of Mt Morgan where she researched and developed a play exploring the impact of mining. Tall Man, a 50-minute two-hander, received standing ovations when it toured for one night only in three mining towns in Central Queensland.

“The play made us cringe and laugh,” said one Mt Morgan resident. “It challenged a room to acknowledge its story.”

Green left Weekly's Brianna Pike talked to Betzien about the play.