(no subject)

[catscradle]

The Donahue transcripts for the Michael Moore appearance are up now for those interested.

From Bowling for Columbine - This is part of the interview with Marilyn Manson, which I thought was one of the most intelligent interviewees on the show:

MOORE: Do you know that the day that Columbine happened, the United States dropped more bombs on Kosovo than any other time during that war?

MANSON: I do know that. And I think that that’s really ironic, you know, that nobody said, well, maybe the president had an influence on this violent behavior. No, because that’s not the way the media wants to take it and spin it and turn it into fear.

But then you’re watching television. You’re watching the news. You’re being pumped full of fear. There are floods, there’s AIDS, there’s murder. Cut to commercial. Buy the Acura, buy the Colgate. If you have bad breath, they’re not going to talk to you. If you have pimples, the girl’s not going to fuck you.

And it’s just this-it’s a campaign of fear and consumption. And that’s what I think it’s all based on, is the whole idea that, keep everyone afraid and they’ll consume.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DONAHUE: Well, the spiel from your movie, Michael Moore —- we should say that we’re in Flint, Michigan, home of Michael Moore, for the premiere of this movie, from which this Marilyn Manson interview was taken.

You asked him, what would you say if you had a chance? What would you say to the kids from Columbine today? And he said?

MOORE: He said, I wouldn’t say anything. I’d listen to them, and that’s what nobody did. I thought that was one of the most intelligent things said in the film.

There are some other very good moments in the interview - lots o' very passionate commentary from Michael. . .

Comments

[wiebke.livejournal.com]

Watching MTV Germany back this past September, I saw a really cool documentary that was basically following Marilyn Manson around, mostly as he was on a trip to Japan to make some record deal. They were showing it with German subtitles but it was all him talking and I'm telling you, he said some DAMN articulate, perceptive things, just commenting on the way he was being treated in Japan, wry comments about commercial influences in Japan, plus he also made remarks on Columbine and "media influence." I have no idea if that show was ever broadcast in the U.S.

[damoyre.livejournal.com]

Marilyn Manson is *such* a cool guy. Not only is he super-talented (and original!) but he's also rather articulate, intelligent. I've heard interviews with him in the past, and I usually sit there thinking that his looks do not make him any justice. People perceive him as this... monster.

In any case, I still haven't seen Bowling, but I'm really looking forward to!

Re:

[wiebke.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's hard for me to think that people would even be thrown by his looks, the only thing I notice is his eyes -- otherwise I see that sort of thing regularly. Unless you have more than 10 piercings, I probably won't notice. But then again, I'm certainly not "America" :)

One other comment I recall from him has to do with the same thing mentioned in Steph's original post about how he said he'd "listen," not "say" anything. Basically he said he knew what it was like to be a disaffected youth everybody hated and he could understand people reacting to school as a kind of hell.

It's like I often thing: There are two kinds of people, those who get beat on, those who do the beating.