MEDIA ROOTS- Trevor Paglen’s work deliberately blurs the lines between science, contemporary art, journalism, and other disciplines to construct unfamiliar, yet meticulously researched ways to see and interpret the world around us.
Paglen’s visual work has been exhibited at several art museums worldwide and his writing and art have been published in major publications including The New York Times, Wired, Vanity Fair and Newsweek, as well as served as a focal point for meditation and inspiration. Paglen holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley, an M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Geography from UC Berkeley, where he remains an affiliated researcher.
In the 90s, Paglen was a member of a locally revered bay area noise/experimental project called Noise Gate, and co-ran an infamous underground venue in downtown Oakland called the Sandcrawler. His electronic music background hugely inspired co-host Robbie Martin in his own musical evolution.
Paglen is also the author of several books: Torture Taxi, the first book to comprehensively cover the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program; I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me, a book looking at the world of black projects through unit patches and memorabilia created for top-secret programs; and Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon’s Secret World, a book that gives a broader look at secrecy in the United States.
The above timeline is interactive. Scroll through it to find out more about the show’s music and to resources mentioned during the broadcast. To see a larger version of the timeline with clickable resources go to the soundcloud link below the player.
If you would like to directly download the podcast click the down arrow icon on the right of the soundcloud display. To hide the comments to enable easier rewind and fast forward, click on the icon on the very bottom right.
This Media Roots podcast is the product of many long hours of hard work and love. If you want to encourage our voice, please consider supporting us as we continue to speak from outside party lines. If you donate, we want to thank you with your choice of art from AbbyMartin.org as well as music from RecordLabelRecords.org. Much of the music you hear on our podcasts comes from Robbie’s imprint Record Label Records, and Abby’s art reflects the passion and perspective that lead her to create Media Roots.org.
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MEDIA ROOTS– Never before Barack Obama’s presidential campaign had I ever seen a candidate brand themselves with a corporate logo. Obama’s official logo appears to be a giant blue “O” sun rising over an American flag horizon, symbolizing the supposed dawn of a new beginning. The manipulative branding of the loaded words “Hope & Change” worked beautifully- most of the world rallied strongly behind Obama as he took on the role of the new world leader.
Two years and three months into Obama’s presidency, his administration has not only continued most of the corrupt, unjust and inhumane policies of the criminal Bush term, but in many cases his administration has exacerbated them. After the escalation of the Afghanistan war and drone attacks in Pakistan, the unconstitutional bombing of Libya, the financial and political backing of murderous governments, the further dismemberment of the Bill of Rights as well as the unabated support of Bush’s “War on Terror”, it’s more than fair to say that the Obama regime has blood all over its hands.
My interpretation of Obama’s logo is one where the American stripes are spilling into a deep pool of blood. The dripping blood represents the carnage and death that has resulted from the perpetuation of these horrendous policies. The blood also represents the slow death of the false sense of “hope” that Obama’s campaign galvanized. Broken promise after broken promise, more people are breaking out of the baseless propaganda and empty rhetoric and starting to acknowledge that true change and hope can only be sustained through love, strength and peace- not a corporate marketing campaign financed by corrupt banks and bloodthirsty military contractors.
Abby
This piece is going to be part of Abby Martin’s upcoming art installation called Dystopian Musings at Mama Buzz Gallery
on May 6 in Oakland, CA for the monthly art murmur. Her new series of mixed media work intends to provoke a stark reflection of modern day politics and
society by visually critiquing major players, events and unsettling
trends. To check out more of Abby’s art go to www.ABBYMARTIN.org
MEDIA ROOTS- I
pull a lot of inspiration from Kurt Vonnegut. The sentence “Here it
is: the end of the world” from Cat’s Cradle stuck out to me, and this image is what came out of it. It made me
picture a beautiful resistance blooming out of a bleak, dystopian
society that had been pushed to the moral and economic brink by a hypothetical
doom.
Vonnegut had the ability to put so much thought and emotion into so little
words. He always managed to pepper some dry wit throughout the
characters’ inner dialogue too, even when portraying some wretched and
hopeless war torn scene.
To me, resistance means freedom- the act of breaking away from the institution. It means emancipation from societal, cultural and poltical chains and limitations. To resist is to liberate your mind, and to embrace knowledge, truth, enlightenment.
When society pushes you to the brink- will you peacefully resist? Would you surrender yourself in the struggle to save humanity?
MEDIA ROOTS– An age-old question among activists and the media is how to
grab an audience’s attention and hold it. In a society accustomed to twitter
feeds, sound bites and news that serves to either placate viewers with
entertainment or alarm them beyond reason, knowing how to engage people on
serious issues can be quite the challenge.
In order to reach a culture that is
over saturated with sensationalism and new technology, one thing though, is for
sure– you have to be creative.
Many people would rather be mindlessly entertained than learn about depressing news. So why not use entertainment to inform the masses? Inspired to combine music and news-room
journalism, two European expatriates living in Australia combined their powers
of lyrically creative brilliance, comical acting and historical and political
knowledge to form the eccentric character Robert Foster– host of Rap News.
From the initial looks of it, Rap News appears to be a one-man
show with a series of goofy wigs and costume changes that turn Hugo Farrant from anchorman Robert Foster into multiple other
entertaining characters featured in each episode. Yet, upon closer listening, the creativity
of the report’s content and lyrics reveal the wit and intellect of Giordano
Nanni, the composer, editor, director and researcher who co-writes the episodes
with Hugo.
As a team, Hugo and Giordano take on important issues facing
the world and critically frame them with ingenious, cutting lyrical verse, all
the while using humor to relay their message. For example, their latest episode
Rap News vs. News World Order, inwhich Wikileaks’s Julian Assange made a live debut,
Robert Foster wrapped up the show with these words-
It seems,
journalism’s become a dangerous profession
Risking ostracism,
extradition
To provide a clear
picture of the world we live in
But without truth,
history will certainly repeat.
The same wars, in
this time of universal deceit,
Telling the truth
has become a revolutionary act
So I salute those
who disclose the necessary facts.
Some of our other favorite Rap News lyrics are from Obama Wins the Nobel ‘War is Peace’ Prize–
Any serious examination
leads to the raw truth
This isn’t a price
for Obama, it’s a prize for George Bush
Nobel’s message
seems to be War is Peace and it’s all well
When all is war, and
didn’t we read that in Orwell?
Well, From the
depths of doublethink and newspeak
This is Robert
Foster, for Juice Media
Have a double plus
good week.
Julian Assange thinks these guys have got it right and so do
we. Inspired by the duo, Media Roots reached out to the minds behind Rap News
to learn how they started, what inspires them and what the future has in store
for Robert Foster.
MR:Who are you both? What are your backgrounds?
Hugo: I’m an exile from the UK who
left to find greener pastures, both creatively and socially, here in Australia. My background is in teaching, but my passion is rhyme writing and performance.
Giordano: I’m an exile from Italy who came
to Melbourne about 8 years ago. My background is history—having studied and
written on colonial history—but my various projects and activities embrace
music, theatre, indy-journalism and film-making, etc.
MR: What caused your political awakening? What led you both to Australia
and ultimately to finding each other?
Hugo: I wouldn’t describe myself as
politically awakened. More politically curious, but lacking in discipline, and
someone like Giordano has the requisite knowledge to satisfy my curiosity. I
was always into bands like Rage Against the Machine back in the day, so I was
aware of the potential of music to deliver political messages.
I was keen to
participate in that style of art, but absolutely didn’t want to be another
rapper complaining about things without the academic clout to back up the
arguments. Giordano and I found each other through a mutual rock musician
friend, and immediately bonded over shared interests in media, movies, music,
conspiracy theories and Medieval Italian poetry.
Giordano: I think one of my first
‘political’ awakenings occurred when I was 18 or so; one of the (few) great teachers
I had at University suggested I read Hidden Agendas by John Pilger. It shocked
and blew me away at the time. It was one of the first books which sparked my
awareness of what was happening in the world, and which alerted me to the vital
importance of journalism therein.
But the awakenings have been ongoing since then. Relatively
recently, during the 2008 presidential campaign I discovered Ralph Nader—thanks
to the Internet and YouTube—not thanks to TV, interestingly enough. Hearing
him speak was a real awakening, in the sense that I had long since given up
placing any faith in the political process. Nader has taught me that politics
can be a noble profession; it’s not that all politicians are bastards, but
rather that most Americans seem to vote for the bastards rather than honest
ones!
MR: I agree about Nader. How did Rap News come into fruition and why did you choose this
approach?
Giordano: Rap News was born in late 2009
but its roots go back a bit further.
Hugo: It came about through
resurrecting a ‘music journalism’ project, which Giordano had previously worked
on—an audio precursor to Rap News. I heard about this and liked the idea, and
asked if I might get involved. Once we sat down and planned, and decided that I
would rap all the characters, it became clear that trying to be serious while
wearing so many stupid wigs was probably unrealistic, so the comedy element
came to the fore.
Giordano: Yeah, as George Bernard Shaw
said, “If you’re going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh;
otherwise they’ll kill you”.
The news-room has become such a powerful and globally
recognized icon of knowledge and information: everything is offered daily, to
millions of viewers, as ‘the truth’. Rap News appropriated this device but
tries to shine a little light on some of the unspoken premises that prop up the
cultural fictions regurgitated daily by the mainstream news networks. Back in the days when I still bothered watching TV news, I
often felt an irresistible urge to shout back at TV set in frustration. Now Robert
Foster provides a channel for that outlet! I guess this also inspired our
approach to delivering the news.
MR: Hugo is an extremely good rapper and the rhymes in Rap News are
incredibly informative, intelligent and cutting. Have you always used hip-hop
as a form of poetic expression and when did you begin incorporating political
commentary into your rapping? How long have you been performing publicly?
Hugo: Thanks for your feedback! The
informative and intelligent nature of the rhymes comes from Giordano. He
provides the ‘juice’ of the dialogue, the research to back it up, and is
responsible for all the most cutting elements of each episode. Rumsfeld saying,
‘We’ll write the history books’ as a prime example.
My job is to make the thing rhyme and flow, and put in a bit
of puerile humor, as well as over-act! My own rap persona is much less popular
than Rap News, but yes, I do perform at festivals and venues in Australia, both
with Treats—an excellent DJ—and with the rising live band ‘Dub The
Magic Dragon’, touring India, March 2011.
My stage name is Hugo, but political listeners will not find
much juice there—now that I am involved with Rap News, I prefer to wax
philosophical, comical and spiritual in my solo work, and leave the political
content to a properly researched forum such Rap News.
Giordano: Hugo is being characteristically
modest: He is in fact very well known, and highly appreciated, in Melbourne,
for rocking audiences and making a real impact on people’s lives through his
art.
MR: Your two latest videos seem to have a more professional production than
your first couple—the lower third
text scroll, the Fox news graphics, etc. Are more people offering to help or are you just refining your skills together?
Giordano: Ever since we launched Rap News,
people have offered to help us by offering to donate their talent and skills to
the show. Probably one of most rewarding results has been witnessing all this
willingness to contribute. As suggested to me by someone who truly
understands this—Julian Assange—this willingness to contribute is
one of the benefits of promoting a shared value. People want to lend their skills and play a part in it.
Ironically, however, we’ve never been too concerned with
trying to look pro: the bedroom-studio-feel being a faithful reflection of the
means and time at our disposal—a reminder that anyone can potentially do this.
We started off simply by borrowing cameras and making do with
what we had at hand. Our backdrops were bed sheets and the lighting rig comprised
an array of six, tenuously balanced desk-lamps. We incorporated new stuff gradually—like
the green-screen background—and I am slowly getting a lot better and faster at
editing, even though I’m really still just hacking it.
But to answer your question: we decided to call upon reinforcements
for the latest News World Order
episode because we really needed to replicate that familiar ‘official newsroom’
environment—saturated with useless information, artificially enhanced by fancy
graphics, logos and slogans which distract and sedate and constantly blur the
line between fact and fiction, information and entertainment. Such visual
mayhem couldn’t have come about without the help of some skilled artists:
Melbourne-based artist, Zoe Tame, in particular, worked hard to create all the
images, replica logos and overlays; while others helped with tickertapes,
animations and advice.
Oh and Zoe also designed the kick-ass website: www.TheJuiceMedia.com. So yeah, Hugo and I still do the vast majority of the work,
but we’ve also benefitted immensely from the help of other people.
MR:What does the creation process of rap news look like? How long does it
take to produce one video—from the
idea to the lyrics to the costumes, editing and graphics? How many people are
involved in the production and what are their roles?
Hugo: A realistic minimum length of
production is two weeks. That includes initial meetings and brainstorming,
about 24 hours of writing—spread over a few days, and with several drafts
winging back and forth between me and Giordano—recording is generally done in
two sessions, we source the costumes from fancy dress shops, and the most fun
day, as far as I’m concerned, is filming day, when we get to bring the audio to
life on screen, and horse around. Then the real work begins in Giordano’s lab,
where it all gets edited and tweaked until it’s ready to be unleashed.
MR:Are your videos getting viral just because they kick so much ass or are
you getting some outside help with promotion and coverage?
Hugo: We try to keep the ass-kicking
level to the highest degree.
We’re not affiliated with YouTube’s partner program, and so we
never get ‘featured video’ status. We are regularly offered the opportunity to
opt in for ‘revenue-sharing’, i.e. advertizing, but the prospect of earning a
bit of money this way is outweighed by the desire to keep the Juice Media Rap
News channel free of ads for our viewers
Having said that, we have managed to attract many excellent fans
to the show, and they, along with some great contacts in the indy-media world,
are responsible for spreading the clips far and wide. We really do feel very
grateful to everyone who watches, comments, gets in touch, shares the link, and
of course to the numerous people who have donated through the website since
episodes 4 and 5 hit the sites.
MR:You incorporate many
facts that are under reported by the mainstream, like the 1,000,000 dead Iraqis
figure, and Obama’s continuation of Bush-era policies. Where do you guys go to
for your information—what media outlets and organizations out there do you
think are doing it right? I am assuming Democracy Now is one of them—with the
product placement and all.
Giordano: There are many indy-news outlets
which do a fantastic job—Media Roots being a good case in point—but there are
very few large news organizations which I know about, that are doing it right.
As you’ve deduced so perceptively from Robert Foster’s choice
of coffee mug, Democracy Now is definitely one of them. After
years of following this show, I am still thrilled about what it does. I really feel
a sense of responsibility for how much (and how little) I know about the world
around me; so I really value this portal of information. For the past 2 years
I’ve had them as my computer home page.
Amid the wasteland of mainstream
journalism, Amy Goodman and the DN crew have set a proper standard for how ‘news’ ought to be delivered
and debated. It’s an hour-long show, with in-depth interviews that truly
elucidate subjects, which are not given anywhere near the attention that is due
to them in the mainstream media. And, above all, they don’t waste broadcast
time reporting on sports!! They are not entertainers and media hacks; and, most
importantly, they are independently funded. I can trust them.
Other than this, I rely on links to website, articles by indy-journalists, and random bits of information that come my way.
MR:I couldn’t help but notice the play on the phrase “New World Order”.
A lot of people think that the New World Order is an elite group of globalists
embarking to take over every aspect of life on this planet. Others think it is
simply a powerhouse of ideas and groups of people for the purpose of control
and profit maximization. What do you guys
think the New World Order is and why did you choose to portray O’Reilly/Fox as
part of it?
Giordano: It’s a good question Abby.
We tend to think that many popular understandings of the ‘NWO’
are falsely premised on an externalized source of power. This is appealing,
since it evokes that basic paradigm of good versus evil—and sure enough, we
always identify as the goodies.
But let’s look at it this way: The two descriptions you
provided for the NWO—‘a group of globalists embarking to take over every aspect
of life on this planet’ and ‘a powerhouse of ideas and groups of people for the
purpose of control and profit maximization’—could well apply to the general
behavior of western/westernized society over the past six hundred years—some sections
of that society of course benefitting more than others!
In this sense we are virtually all beneficiaries and patrons
of the ‘NWO’ in one way or another; which makes the prospect of defeating it
somewhat paradoxical—or hypocritical. It’s a fascinating issue and it goes to
the very heart of what we’re trying to say. We’re actually planning an episode,
which will focus precisely on this subject; hopefully it will make more sense
expressed in rhyme! But it’s probably not going to be what most people expect
to hear.
MR:I love the Wikileaks endorsement of Rap News. Did
Assange reach out to you after seeing your work? How did you get him in the
flesh for your recent video?
Giordano: Julian really loved the first Rap
News episode we did on Wikileaks, Wikileaks
v. The Pentagon, in which Hugo impersonated Assange as a quirky, matrix-like
trickster.
Subsequently, ahead of Wikileaks’ latest historic disclosure of
400,000 documents relating to the Iraq war, Julian made contact with us and
invited us to take a sneak peak at some of the Iraq War Logs in view of
informing the content of a new episode.
Of course, we jumped at the opportunity and were aboard planes
within a fortnight. We arrived in London only two weeks prior to the scheduled
launch of the Iraq War Logs, on October 23, which meant that we faced the
absurd and terrific challenge of writing, recording and filming an entire
episode in under 4 days—a stunt we pulled thanks to the invaluable help of two
awesome Wikileaks crew-members, and thanks to our friend and supporter back in Melbourne,
Asher—aka Mama Wolf.
As for the cameo, we asked Julian straight up, thinking that
his appearance might be a historic and comedic event—not just for Wikileaks and
Rap News, but for that demographic of the internet community which has been so
avidly following what’s going on with Wikileaks. Despite a couple of initial raised
eyebrows, Julian was totally up for it. We didn’t pull any punches on the gags,
either. Thankfully the man has a great sense of humor.
MR:Awesome! What issues today are of greatest concern to you both?
Giordano: I wouldn’t know where to start;
all the seemingly separate issues, which I could list, are really interconnected.
I am deeply concerned about environmental issues, but I don’t think it’s just about
energy use.
If I had to choose one central issue, I’d point to the ongoing
treatment of, and attitude towards, ‘Indigenous’ cultures on this planet, which
represents an ongoing war on alternative philosophies of life. I think there’s
a strong correlation between this war and the multiple problems we face
today—especially the devastation of our environment.
Hugo: For my part, modern humanity’s general
belief in separateness is probably my over-arching concern. We have spent
centuries alienating ourselves from the planet, which gave birth to us, and
separating ourselves from each other, along barely relevant racial and cultural
lines. We now face the dramatic, inevitable consequences of our desire for
separateness. But if reading philosophy has brought me any concrete conclusion
at all, it is that ultimately, and in a very real sense, as Neil deGrasse Tyson
asserts, ‘we are all connected’. By perceiving our connectedness, even to the aspects
of life we judge as negative, I strongly believe that true lasting evolution
can take place. Rejecting and excluding those aspects only leads to their
perpetuation.
MR:What are some of your biggest musical, poetic and political inspirations?
Hugo: Too numerous to mention, but in
terms of comedy, certainly the great, great Bill Hicks, the guys behind South
Park and Team America, Chris Morris for his incredible work on Brass Eye and
The Day Today, and of course, the 90’s BBC comedy The League of Gentlemen—if
we could get access to their make-up department, I’d be one happy over-actor.
As for hip hop, my top inspiration is now-defunct but never
surpassed French outfit Saian Supa Crew, and from Australia, close friends and
personal heroes, DJ Treats, Julez, Mantra and Elf Tranzporter.
And as far as literature goes, it’s all about Dante Alighieri
and Jonathan Swift. Gulliver’s Travels is a satire broader than any before or
since, and is the benchmark against which all such work must be measured.
Giordano: My mind has been blown, and my
soul nourished, by many more powerful and precious sources of musical and poetic
inspiration than I can even mention—from William Blake and Leopardi, to Pink
Floyd, Roger Waters in particular, to Rage Against the Machine; from comedians
Bill Hicks and George Carlin—who saved my life by revealing the comedy of it
all—to writers like George Orwell, Jorge Louis Borges and Herman Hesse, who
have been guiding lights.
As for political inspiration, I listen carefully to what Noam
Chomsky and Ralph Nader have to say these days, while they’re still with us.
MR:Do you hope to team up or collaborate with any other political or media
players in the future?
Hugo: The beauty of the project is
that we don’t really need to. If we want someone in the show, like Donald
Rumsfeld, we can just come up with a poor impersonation of him and get some
laughs out of the hokiness of it. Nevertheless, we’re always open to offers,
and when the possibility of that episode 5 cameo was mooted, we jumped at it. So
the answer is, ‘definitely’; but in the meantime, we’ll just keep doing the bad
wig, bad accent, bad hand gestures thing.
MR:What else is in store for Juice Media and Rap News? Are you planning
any other projects or just focusing on these segments for now?
Hugo & Giordano: We’re really going with the
flow here, working during the glitches of our less-adventurous lives.
TheJuiceMedia will continue it’s less glamorous but highly valuable purpose of
broadcasting Indigenous, Aboriginal Australian voices to a wider local and
international audience. We’ll keep developing Rap News, exploring the vastness
of topics and narratives, which are out there begging to be translated into
rhyme and reason. We hope that Robert Foster’s voice might one day become an
important one. Stay tuned.
***
Rap News vs News World Order ( Wikileaks and the War on Journalism)
MEDIA ROOTS– An age-old question among activists and the media is how to
grab an audience’s attention and hold it. In a society accustomed to twitter
feeds, sound bites and news that serves to either placate viewers with
entertainment or alarm them beyond reason, knowing how to engage people on
serious issues can be quite the challenge. 
MR: Who are you both? What are your backgrounds?
As you’ve deduced so perceptively from Robert Foster’s choice
of coffee mug, 
