Disinformation: The Interviews.

Rating:
Summary: The Most Interesting People You've Never Heard Of
Review: Alright, well maybe some people have heard of the people interviewed in this book - Howard Bloom or Robert Anton WIlson perhaps - but how many really know much about radionics expert Duncan Laurie or artist-futurist Paul Laffoley?

Certainly not the previous reviewer, because if he'd actually read the book he'd know that the disinfo.com website is run out of New York, Metzger is based in LA and he's never appeared at the Prophets Conference (whatever that is). More to the point he fails to mention anything about the amazingly candid interviews with a collection of oddballs who have in different ways created marvelously diverse forms of modern magic - from Kembra Pfahler's performance art to Grant Morrison's comics, to Douglas Rushkoff's media viruses, etc.

I challenge *anyone* who has actually read the book to say they didn't feel challenged, amazed and at the end changed by what the people within have to say.

I guess some are so challenged by the revolutionary thinking in this book that like those religious zealots who decry texts without actually reading them, they knee jerk attack the author.

Totally recommended for anyone who wants to know where modern culture is going.

Rating:
Summary: A volatile subcultural primer
Review: Another wonderful book from the disinfo crew. Unlike the past volumes, this one includes brilliant color reproductions of some truly mindblowing art. Richard Metzger has had the courage to challenge the system over the years, and has somehow managed to get some pretty insane stuff out over the airwaves. This book documents some of his finer moments, and it is great to see some of these groundbreaking artists get the attention they so rightly deserve. A fantastic book that I STRONGLY RECOMMEND.

Rating:
Summary: Visionary Artists and Brilliant Ideas
Review: Another wonderful book from the disinfo crew. Unlike the past volumes, this one includes brilliant color reproductions of some truly mindblowing art. Richard Metzger has had the courage to challenge the system over the years, and has somehow managed to get some pretty insane stuff out over the airwaves. This book documents some of his finer moments, and it is great to see some of these groundbreaking artists get the attention they so rightly deserve. A fantastic book that I STRONGLY RECOMMEND.

Rating:
Summary: A happy accident
Review: I first picked up this book out of curiousity when it was among the "Staff Picks" at Forbidden Planet book shop in NYC.

Challenging interviewing that gets to the core can only come from a writer who chooses to be interested as well as interesting.I always like when work like this is smart but not detached. By the very exploration of such arcania, there is no detachment and Metzger doesn't pretend there isn't.

So many books on these subjects are either uncredible as crack pot advocacy, or conversely are snarky oh-so-cynical jabs at the subject's expense. A voice like Metzger's is refreshing and cool. Welcome is a writer who can be present in style, yet confident to know it isn't about him. Keep them coming Richard.

Rating:
Summary: Hello to the "reality " check
Review: If you believe everything you hear from the Bush Administration, if you believe what your told by the media tycoons such as AOL/Time Warner - DON'T READ THIS BOOK!

Seeming weened on the internet of unlimited exploration and assimilation, Metzger has an unquenchable thirst for those creative and daring personalities operating "outside of the box".
With a charismatic passion for the lunatic fringe, Metzger suspends judgment and delves into the psychosis of individuals who dare to examine the means of normative thought production.

Knowing first of Metzger's work as an interviewer as well as editor, I became aware of the illuminating and brilliant thinking of Douglas Rushkoff interpreting future media, along with the utopian dreams of Paul Laffoley and Peter Russell. It's true that Metzger "participates" rather than "observe", but he's clearing taking it all in, and so will you.

No other source will give you such an overview of "reality" as it is meant to be in real time.

Rating:
Summary: A volatile subcultural primer
Review: This book is comprised of selections from nearly a dozen important interviews conducted for the Disinformation television series, which unfortunately most Americans have never been allowed the opportunity to see. That may change soon with the release of the Disinformation DVD, but in the meantime this book gives you an excellent overview of the varied thinkers, artists, and pop-cultural agents provocateurs whom Richard Metzger had the good sense to engage in conversation.

All of the material here is extremely thought-provoking and these subjects are fascinatingly articulate in presenting their distinctive worldviews.

Generally the mainstream media avoids any acknowledgment of the sort of ideas you will be exposed to here, which is no wonder since after encountering some of these lines-of-thinking, you'll probably have little use left for the opinions of the status quo.

With its slick packaging and design, this book is akin to a glittering trojan horse, loaded with an army of hardened suicide bombers who will feel no pain as they detonate all your preconceptions. Open the gates!

Rating:
Summary: A PRIMER FOR THINKING
Review: Usually I wouldn't review a book that included myself. But the groundlessly destructive review by John Conroy necessitates ensuring that potential readers of this book be informed of why it is ESSENTIAL reading. The primary criticism I can isolate by JC is that the 12 people interviewed herein are not 21st Century. In fact, familiar as I am with many of the concepts, strategies and commentaries discussed with incredible honesty and compassion in these texts, I still found this a re-awakening-up call. we live in a time where the ignorance of the young in terms of what should be their own youth culture is staggering. Television, especially MTV, colludes with corporate greed and political apathy to train us globally to believe in infinite novelty, and the inate superiority of any and all products presented as NEW. For an informed opinion to be made, information must be available, but more than that, our brains must learn to process and evaluate. Dismissing strategies concerned with the very central issues that our survival as a flawed species depends upon, laying bare bigotry and thoughtlessness , simply because they have their origin at an arbitrary and linear point in time before January 1st 2001 is quite ridiculous. As far as I am concerned, ANYTHING that helps me make sense of consensus reality, from any era past, present or future, or from any dimension, is fine and dandy by me. I am not date predjudiced, nor ageist. In fact most of what fueled my own explorations of life and creativity was encouraged by people active in the 50's like Burroughs and Gysin. I am convinced that even now, their ideas are affecting the very material of popular culture as I write.(eg. sampling, language and media as virus). The people in this book have fought long and hard against laziness, inertia, sarcasm, economic violence, and a status quo policed by mass media control and even by direct victimsation at times. Ideas are timeless. They build upon each other, mutate and develop, remaining valid by their application, first by a daring and unorthodox few, later by clusters of like-minded people. My observations of cultral dynamics so far lead me to feel blessed that anyone has the nerve to stand up and speak from the heart, when even their own, and/or future generations, do not wish to listen because to listen would require change, ethics and effort. This book is a primer of imagination and speculation built from the combined guerilla mindfare of apparently unrelated subcultures. There is no reason to ridicule any person for believing there is hope within hopelessness. Don't forget hopelessness is taught, and agressive meanness of spirit is taught, in order to distract us all from the numb surrender to oblivion that corporate youth culture and nihilism spawns. I say, bless these people for daring to speak, daring to repeat theemselves until they are heard. Who cares what year it is? The fact is the species is in crisis, and communication, and knowledge of how things WORK in culture is vital as a skill and a beginning of a new way on. I un-reservedly support all readers to get this new Anarchist's Software as part of your real education as to what is going on within the pixels of greed and the algebra of insatiable need that is contemporary mediated "reality". Buy this book, and if you are already awake, remember WHY. If you are dozing, wake up!

Richard Metzger is facillitating the visibility of issues and analogous strategies in the altruistic hope that change of an essential kind can still happen, despite ourselves. This thankless (at times) task, is sometimes discouraging work. Nevertheless, let us learn to drive ourselves crazy with praise, not criticism, with understanding, not bigotry, with character building, not character assasination.

I was amazed how much of the content of this book seemed vibrant and fresh, and still so important to say and re-MIND us all of.

My one negative about the book. There are a couple of jumbled paras on pages 44,45 and 46 that need correcting in the second printing.

I hate to sound as petty as he, and forgive this gap in my appreciation of the movers and shakers and seminal thinkers of our times, but I haven't come across a contribution, so far, by John Conroy that gives his subjective and groundless opinions either authority or credibility. I am a great believer in doing more yourself, rather than complaining about what others have done.

Rating:
Summary: Biased Truth
Review: Well, I'm Douglas Rushkoff, a friend of Richard Metzger and an interview subject in the book. But, just to set the record straight:

Metzger lives in Los Angeles.
Disinfo is based in the US - though one of its best writers, Alex Burns, lives in Australia.
Metzger has nothing to do with the Prophets conference - nor do any of the interview subjects in the book, that I know of.

I've only just received the book, and it looks to be pretty extensive interviews with these people, all in the context of their weirder sides. If the book has a point of view, it seems to be that there is a 'magickal' element to the work of some people who you might not expect to work that way - a comic book artist, a scientist, etc.

Some of these interviews - my own, included - are the full transcripts of interviews that Metzger did for a TV show in the UK last year. That show aired late at night, and the long interviews were shrunk to 5 or 6 minutes. I don't quite see the crime in providing a way for people to see the full interviews in one place.

It is interesting to see how mad Metzger's very existence makes some people. A good sign, given his intentions.

My only complaint is that this field seems so dominated by men. Only one woman in the group - and then she ends up being a woman whose subject matter is so self-consciously female. Is this a result of poor selection, or is it an accurate assessment? I fear the former.

That said, though, this is some very interesting stuff. The interview with me is the worst of the bunch, trust me. Check out Grant Morrison, Howard Bloom, and Paul Laffoley for some skull-cracking visions.