Light In the Neoliberal Darkness

MV Bill and Kamila CDD throw down in this epic track from 2014 (English subtitles available in SRT format). Where Putinism's ideology of imperial Russo-whiteness has devastated Russia's once-thriving hip hop scene, Brazil's anti-neoliberal resistance movements keep fighting.

Music From Mali

It is one of the central paradoxes of the early 21st century, that the lands most terribly scourged by neoliberalism have also been centers of the most extraordinary political resistance and cultural creativity.

Just listen to this gem by Malian artist Youssouf Karembe, called Ambaji (click here to support the artist). Also, shouts out to Baba Throbule for maintaining one of the finest music channels around.

53 Days...

...until The Witcher 3. The greatness: it manifests!

28 Years of Greatness: Here's To You, Hideo

Slorgzilla hereby serves notice of the extraordinary life and impending expiry of Metal Gear (born 1987, deceased December 2015), one of the greatest videogame franchises of all time.

Series mastermind Hideo Kojima, character artist Yoji Shinkawa, and a raft of other talented members of the Kojima Productions studio did more than almost single-handedly invent the stealth espionage genre while selling millions of copies to eight generations of finicky, discerning videogame fans.

Metal Gear bravely critiqued imperial wars, denounced power-mad plutocrats, and castigated the war machine of neoliberal consumerism during a time when most media franchises fell over themselves singing the praises of Wall Street banksters and Imperial warlords. Where other franchises shoveled out mediocre scriptwriting, sexist stereotypes, and slipshod game-play, Metal Gear gave us brilliant story-telling, strong and credible female characters, and exquisite game-play innovation. Where other franchises gloried in push-button mass murder, Metal Gear reveled in nonlethal takedowns. Where other franchises digitalized killing, Metal Gear digitalized mercy. Where other franchises told consumers what to think, Metal Gear told us to follow our own dreams.

But now this glorious tale has come to an end. Konami, the corporation which owns Metal Gear, has fired Kojima and his senior staff. The team will finish Metal Gear Solid 5 and release it this September, and then it's lights out.

As sad as it is to see an epoch close, Kojima and his crew are making the right move. Japanese neoliberalism, a.k.a. transnational capitalism, is as vicious, ruthless and self-destructive as any other capitalism. The main business of Konami, Kojima's employer, is operating casinos, and the firm has allowed its other videogame franchises to decline into obscurity and mediocrity.

It is high time for Kojima's crew to set sail on the seas of open source freedom. All the signs suggest MGS5 will be an extraordinary achievement in its own right, a worthy finale for one of the greatest aesthetic achievements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and Kojima will now have the creative freedom to go in entirely new directions.

Farewell, Kojima-san, we will never forget the fantastic stories you told...

...but hello, Captain KojiPro, dread scourge of neoliberal corporate drones, but stalwart scion to the digital commons! We, your loyal commonists, stand ready here in Outer Heaven, its digital girders torrented and minecrafted together from bits and pieces of 20th century media oligopolies and extinct one-party states. Onwards to the revolution of fan media!

Time for Europe to Get It Together

With a silver sword for the criminal Wall Street banksters, and a steel sword for the austerity-mad Minotaurists, Varoufakis of Rivia shows how its done.

68 Days...

...68 days, 23 hours, 10 minutes, 20 seconds... until The Witcher 3. You can already feel the waves of greatness begin to radiate throughout the universe.

The Nemtsovschina

Nemtsov has just been gunned down by a death squad literally meters from the Kremlin walls, in one of the most secure areas of Russia. He had ceased to be a significant political figure for decades, but Putinism has clearly decided to send a message.

Future historians will commemorate this as the beginning of the Nemtsovschina -- the application of open violence against anyone who dares to question the historic greatness of Russia's decrepit, failing petro-colonialism, a.k.a. the Huylo-garchy.

The professionals and intellectuals will begin to emigrate by the millions. Huylo will relaunch his war against Ukraine this spring. The Saudis will shrug their shoulders, and ensure that oil prices stay exactly where they are. The Russian economy will stagger on for another year, then implode completely once its foreign reserves run out (29% are gone already, and the punishing recession will quicken the drain). In the end, Russia will suffer a resounding military defeat at the hands of a retrained and reequipped Ukrainian army.

And then it's going to be 1917 all over again. Savor the geopolitical irony that Putin's fourth and final personal reinvention -- he transformed himself from KGB spook into Sobyak's bagman, to President of the oligarchs, to emperor of the Eurasian petro-colonialisms -- is going to be as Russia's Nicholas 2.0.