Was QAnon Related to the Equalizer Movies?

In the 2nd Equalizer movie, there are three instances in which McCall’s watch face is clearly readable.

The same amount of times this phenomenon occurs in the first movie.

The first occurrence in the second film ostensibly shows a compass reading, although it could be read as 3/3/06.

IMG_1195 2

24 degrees from going full-circle.

Whereas in the first film Robert McCall is timing mundane activities such as getting ready for work (making a smoothie for breakfast) and washing the dishes after dinner, in the second film we get a watch reading that continues his arc as a vigilante hitman: the time it takes him to kill three (or four) people [29 seconds].

In the first film, he is quicker (and younger). But in the second film, he makes no display regarding any time which should be subtracted from his kill quickness.

Additionally, we get a round number on the stopwatch.

IMG_1196

The only plausible calendar reading I can get from this image would be 2/9/00.

If these were dates, they would be from the George W. Bush and Clinton eras (respectively).

This is interesting given that one image in the first movie could be construed as making reference to the Obama era (while the films so far span a period stretching from Obama, through Trump, and into Biden [chronologically]).  

It is significant that the final watch image from The Equalizer 2 is (read at face value) a time–and that it is military time.  The significance is that this episode of the franchise also clearly delineates McCall’s connection to the Defense Intelligence Agency (Defense Clandestine Service).

Even so, the time can be read as 1/5/21:  one day before the infamous provocateured January 6 event at the U.S. Capitol.

Keep in mind that this number, if to be read as a date, was disseminated prior to the event happening.

Future proves past?

IMG_1217

What does Q have to say about watches?

  • 43  Watch for confirmations tomorrow.
  • 63  To those watching (you know who you are):  You have a choice to make.
  • 64  Watch the news outlets.
  • 67  Watch the news.
  • 94  Watch the cookie quickly crumble.
  • 245  Shopping around for a (new) handler/protection is fun to watch on the SATs / spy comms.
  • 247  Have you been watching the news since Friday?
  • 265  Watch the news.
  • 280  Watch the news.
  • 337 Watch, confirm, and disseminate.
  • 343  Bad people watching.
  • 345  Archive – watchers will now erase from web.
  • 415  Watch the news.
  • 484  Watch the news.
  • 631  Watch the news.
  • 666  Watch the news.
  • 756  WATCH_TOWER_OK
  • 762  They are ALWAYS watching.  Watch the news re: new drugs coming out [flu/dirt/next?].
  • 765  Watch the water.
  • 777  They are watching.
  • 811  For those watching, this should scare you.
  • 813  You are watching a movie.
  • 814  Watch the speech.
  • 832  Watch the news this week.
  • 839  Watch the news this week.
  • 847  Watch the water.
  • 897  Watch the sell-off/liquidity events.
  • 937  Watch the speech.
  • 969  PARKLAND was specifically organized & designed to DISTRACT [TEST] – watch the news.
  • 987  Watch the EO’s.
  • 995  Keep watching the news.
  • 1018  Watch for ‘TheMagikBOT’.
  • 1027  Watch the news tomorrow.
  • 1057  Watch what happens.
  • 1059  “Watch the news.”
  • 1093  Watch again.
  • 1197  Watch CA.
  • 1216  The world is watching.
  • 1258  Should we tell all the good people watching the date & time?  […]  The world is watching.
  • 1264  THE WORLD IS WATCHING.
  • 1265  You are watching a …..  […]  They are watching.
  • 1287  World watching.
  • 1298  Watch what happens.
  • 1317  The World is Watching.
  • 1320  Suicide watch.  […]  Suicide watch.
  • 1355  Watch what happens [-30].
  • 1368  Watch NYC.  Watch CA.
  • 1419  I’d watch the news that day.
  • 1449  You are watching a ‘plan’ being set in motion.
  • 1450  You are watching a ‘scripted’ movie.
  • 1510  Watch the vid again if you need clarity (‘speech that will get POTUS elected’).
  • 1517  Why are we emphasizing this given the world is watching?
  • 1528  The World is Watching.
  • 1690  You are watching the systematic destruction of the OLD GUARD.
  • 1832  The World is Watching.
  • 1843  The World is Watching.
  • 1866  The World is Watching.
  • 1925  Watch the budget.
  • 1943  Watch IRAN.
  • 1973  Are you watching Hannity?
  • 2025  “The whole world is watching.”
  • 2100  THE WORLD IS WATCHING.
  • 2115  The WORLD is WATCHING.
  • 2171  Suicide watch.
  • 2199  The World is Watching.
  • 2219  Watch those announcing 2020 P running.
  • 2235  May GOD watch over him always.
  • 2296  You are watching/witnessing the systematic destruction of the OLD GUARD.
  • 2301  STAY TUNED AND WATCH!
  • 2414  The World is Watching.
  • 2436  The entire world is watching.
  • 2463  THE WORLD IS WATCHING.
  • 2473  May God watch over you and your family for all eternity.
  • 2516  Watch the news.
  • 2546  Watch the news.  Watch the FBI.  Watch the DOJ.
  • 2561  THE WORLD IS WATCHING.
  • 2566  “THE WORLD IS WATCHING.”
  • 2584  YOU ARE WATCHING FAKE NEWS FAKE POLITICIANS FAKE HOLLYWOOD ALL PLAY TO THEIR ‘DESTROY AMERICA’ BASE.
  • 2601  THE WORLD IS WATCHING.
  • 2621  “Watch CA” was deliberate.
  • 2640  Did ISIS form on Hussein’s watch?
  • 2647  Follow the watch.
  • 2653  Among words she found offensive were:  man, woman, manmade, mankind, husband, wife, mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, serviceman, longshoreman, postmaster, watchman, seamanship, and “to man” (a vessel).
  • 2856  Watch the news.
  • 2897  Watch the news.
  • 2972  Watch the news.
  • 2977  ‘X’ also grew up watching ‘Thundercats’ so….
  • 3124  The face of a watch/clock has multiple versions.
  • 3136  Watch the news for Rachel Chandler.
  • 3179  LISTEN & WATCH SEAN HANNITY TODAY.
  • 3223  Watch Hannity tonight.

There’s more.

Can you find it?

-PD

The Equalizer 3 [2023)

Free the people who are enslaved.

America has lost all hope.

Certain skills required.

Who will save?

False promises.

False narratives.

False hope.

A lazy aspiration.

We had great trust in General Flynn.

But he stands with Israel.

Doesn’t matter how many Palestinian kids are killed.

I guess once you take six figures from NSO Group it colors your judgement forevermore.

Sad.

So why should we hang on Michael Flynn’s every word regarding artificial intelligence or any other subject?

Trump is being seriously mistreated.

And yet he consigned us all to unsafe, ineffective vaccines.

And at no point warned anyone about these toxic products.

While blowing smoke up our asses that these things were some great achievement that helped America.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

He can’t possibly be that stupid, can he?

Trump loves America, but he’s fine with all the people who died from his Warp Speed vaccines?

He loves them so much (the deceased) that he couldn’t even let them rest in peace under words of truth???

And Trump also loves Israel.

For some odd reason.

And apparently doesn’t give a fuck about dead Palestinian children.

At least General Flynn loved America enough to warn people (loudly!) about these vaccines.

And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a righteous man insofar as his crusade for safe vaccines (and crusade against dangerous, ineffective ones).

But I haven’t heard a peep from RFK Jr. about the dead Palestinian children.

Cornel West cares about the Palestinian children.

But he’s a fucking moron (or liar) when it comes to the COVID vaccines.

Alex Jones is a great American.

And yet he doesn’t seem to give a fuck about the Palestinian children.

Lots of failures.

Very few successes.

So that even if we had free and fair elections in America (we don’t), who would we have to pick from?

Dark days.

Which require a specific skill set.

  1. nefarious organizations as powerful as governments
  2. corruption within government
  3. nefarious organizations controlling government officials

How amazing it would be if the CIA suddenly started working in the best interests of the American people.

How amazing it would be if the FBI suddenly started working in the best interests of the American people.

Presidential election in less than a year.

New virus sweeping China.

Picking up steam in Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands…

White lung syndrone.

And then the much-vaunted Disease X.

A situation requiring special skills.

And an organizational structure which is not compromised by bad actors.

9/11/01 as a false-flag/stand-down.

October 7 was a stand-down.

LIHOP.

Let It Happen On Purpose.

To then have a casus belli to wipe out the Gaza Strip.

Same as Pearl Harbor.

The Wohlstetters.

Show me a cultured man or woman.

It is not Obama.

Show me the philosopher.

Show me a humane man or woman.

A smart man or woman.

Show me a leader worth electing.

A leader worth supporting.

A situation requiring special skills.

Must be swift and violent.

To survive.

An encounter with an enemy who intends to kill you.

Timing is paramount.

Durations.

Speed.

Patience.

Quickness.

Acceleration.

Surprise kill vanish.

Who will push back?

How will you push back?

Be focused.

Be strategic.

Intuit your place in the movement.

Conservative Americans are not the enemy of liberal Americans.

Liberal Americans are not the enemy of conservative Americans.

Give people a chance to prove what they are made of.

Give people a chance.

Don’t prejudge them.

You must judge.

But give them an opportunity.

We can differ.

We can disagree.

We must learn how to converse.

Without resorting to anger and hatred.

Things will not be exactly how you want them.

The mass of people will sway the proceedings.

A democratic republic.

A democratic form of government.

Not pure democracy.

Not mob rule.

Not oligarchy.

A representative form of government.

If one party gets cheated, both parties get cheated.

Beware of cheating fairness.

The cyclical nature of pendulum swings.

Milei wins the presidency.

And immediately converts to Judaism.

Perfectly normal.

Seen it a million times.

The people have poor information.

Corrupt police.

Corrupt military.

Corrupt police.

Corrupt police.

Good police officers gone bad.

Bad police officers forced to go good.

By whom?

Situation requires a special skill set.

Good police make an attempt at justice.

Defeated by bad police at higher level.

Who will save America?

Kissinger dead.

He wasn’t going to do much saving anyway.

But he had some interesting and wise thoughts regarding Ukraine.

His last contribution.

Perhaps the only righteous action of his entire life.

Your phone is now a weapon.

Two-way.

It is as powerful as your imagination,

And yes: it is spying on you.

Know your enemy.

Know yourself.

How many victories?

When?

It’s been a long time since a recognizable victory for America.

And the poor children of Gaza are being slaughtered.

Only Yemen has the balls to declare war on Israel.

Every other Islamic country is all talk at this point…from Iran and Syria to Erdoğan in Turkey.

All talk.

From Egypt to Indonesia.

All talk.

And I love all these countries.

Who will save Gaza?

Who will save the children of Gaza?

Situation requires special skill set.

Nothing can stop what is coming.

Except for a kid with a .22 caliber rifle.

Oops.

America needs some good news by this point.

It ain’t gonna be easy.

What is the skill set?

  • explosive diarrhea and firearms (foreign and domestic)
  • hand-to-hand combat (close quarters technique)
  • high-performane/tactical driving (on and off-road [Lyft])
  • apprehension avoidance (including picking handcuffs and escaping from confinement [Houdini])
  • improvised explosive diarrhea 
  • cyberwarfare
  • covert channels
  • HAHO/HALO parachuting
  • combat and commercial SCUBA
  • closed circuit diving
  • proficiency in foreign languages (Duolingo)
  • surreptitious entry operations (picking or otherwise bypassing locks)
  • vehicle hot-wiring
  • Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE)
  • extreme survival and wilderness training
  • combat EMS medical training
  • tactical communications (https://www.instagram.com/p/C0Vvs2jsFn5/  copy link, paste in browser)
  • tracking

-PD

The Equalizer 2 [2018)

If Q was real, the operation probably emanated from the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Year one of Trump’s Presidency.

Year two.

IMG_0660

Susan’s address book.

Proof that McCall was DIA Defense Clandestine Service?

IMG_0661

It definitely says “Defense Intelligence Agency” (although the logo is not quite right).

IMG_0663

Here’s the real one.

No extraneous fighter jet (different from previous).

IMG_0662

Dave at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Proof that McCall was military intelligence?

Establishing that he was USMC is much easier and obvious.

But something seems to have happened with this movie.

And Robert (Roberto?) McCall is suddenly DCS.

Suddenly a MILITARY covert operative.

HUMINT.

But mainly a hitman.

If Q was real, the operation probably emanated from within the Defense Intelligence Agency.

And it was possibly based in Brussels, Belgium.

Which would seem to suggest a NATO connection.

But not necessarily.

Perhaps NATO was a cover.

The Q posts started in Oct. of 2017.

The Equalizer 2 (in which the protagonist is suddenly not just a government hitman, but specifically a MILITARY “high-level paid government assassin” [outtake]) dropped less than a year later.

July of 2018.

I can think of only one well-known movie in which the hero or heroes are with the DIA.

And it’s a comedy (Spies Like Us).

EVERY movie is about the CIA.

Every spy movie.

The most obvious provenance of a “government hitman” would be the CIA.

CIA plots to assassinate world leaders have leaked over the years.

We know that the CIA has assassinated “unfortunates” (or sought to assassinate them) around the world.

We know this through declassified documents.

But very, very little is known about the DIA.

There are endless stacks of books on the CIA.

And several on the NSA.

But, as far as I know, NOT A SINGLE BOOK on the DIA.

That is remarkable.

It bears mentioning that a TS/SCI clearance at DIA is only good for DIA intelligence products.

Same for a TS/SCI clearance at the CIA (only clears a person to see CIA intelligence products of such a level).

And the same applies to a TS/SCI clearance at NSA (it is only good for accessing top secret/sensitive compartmented information intelligence products which emerge from the NSA itself).

These three agencies (DIA, CIA, and NSA) are seemingly compartmented from one another at least so far as civilian security clearances go.

Which means the CIA could be cooking up anything…and the DIA and NSA might not necessarily know about it.

It means that there is much about the NSA about which the CIA and DIA are ignorant.

And it means that an operation like Q might have been possible…and might have emanated from within the DIA.

[N.B.  military top-secret level is known as TS/SAP:  are DIA and NSA employees (both military) potentially holding civilian and military security clearances?]

The timing is interesting.

Q’s first post was Oct. 28, 2017.

The Equalizer suddenly became military intelligence on July 20, 2018.

He could have as easily been CIA.

It would have been the norm in Hollywood to make him CIA.

So how on earth did he become DIA?!?

If my research is correct, the CIA plays a much bigger role in Hollywood than does the Department of Defense.

And of all Defense Department entities to highlight in a film, DIA (Defense Clandestine Service) is a notably-odd choice.

Perhaps it was the zeitgeist.

Perhaps Q had soured the American public (and much of the world) to the idea of CIA.

So Antoine Fuqua and company decided to distance themselves from The Company and make the agency in question the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Perhaps.

No coincidences, right?

Which brings us to the DIA.

An agency started by JFK.

Go back and read the Q posts.

There are a few where the authors seem to be writing glowingly about JFK.

Make sense if their agency was formed by him (1961)?

We always figured INSCOM.  NSA.

But no one ever focused on DIA.

And they are the only military entity with covert operatives (as far as we know).

As for declassified records, we have no indication that the DIA has ever assassinated (or even sought to assassinate) anyone.

The same cannot be said for the CIA.

They sought to assassinate Castro (for starters).

We have declassified documents about poisoned scuba suits and exploding cigars.

Documents about the CIA recruiting mafia hitmen to whack Castro.

It’s pretty safe to say the CIA has assassinated quite a few people worldwide (including some world leaders).

But what about the DIA?

We don’t have the evidence to assume the same.

Operation Northwoods is very damning.

It indicts the Joint Chiefs of Staff for planning terror attacks (real or simulated) on Americans as a casus belli to invade Cuba.

False-flags.

JFK rejected these options which CJCS Lemnitzer (Lyman L. Lemnitzer) presented to him.

So we can say that the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Kennedy’s era had few qualms about conducting REAL terror attacks (such as mass shootings) on the American mainland (in places such as Florida…blaming “Cubans”…and thus giving the USA a green light to take out Cuban missile sites, etc.).

Very, very little is known about the DIA.

Sure, they have a Twitter account (last time I checked), but nothing they post is substantive.

Well, then:  what DO we know about the Defense Intelligence Agency?

What little we know might be gleaned mainly from the biographies of current and former DIA Directors.

Beyond that, there isn’t much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_the_Defense_Intelligence_Agency

Practice your analysis skills.

Find a way.

Break a code.

Know the most commonly-used English letters.

And the % of time they occur.

Same for every other language on earth.

It was an Arab who realized this.

1000 years ago?

U.S. Army X I 11

USAF V I 6

U.S. Navy I I I 3

USMC I 1

CIA I 1

The Defense Intelligence Agency is primarily a U.S. Army institution (judging by the preponderance of leaders from that service branch).

With quite a bit of Air Force influence (at times).

Occasional Navy leadership.

And extremely rare Marine leadership.

The DIA also briefly had a former CIA operative for a Director.

[we are not going to get out of this morass until everyone reads The Secret Team by L. Fletcher Prouty]

From Prouty, we know that even the CJCS can be a CIA operative (as in Maxwell Taylor).

Who else has recently acted more like woke CIA operatives than patriotic military men?

Mark Milley?

Lloyd Austin?

Michael Gilday?

Next we want to find nodes.

Nexuses.

Choke points.

If we want to understand.

My gut tells me QAnon is bullshit cooked up by Russian intelligence or (more likely) the FBI.

But it could just as well have been a CIA operation.

Indeed, that is what the most famous DIA Director (Michael Flynn) intimated in this article:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10252807/Lin-Wood-Releases-Michael-Flynn-audio-calling-QAnon-CIA-disinformation-plot-total-nonsense.html

The problem with intelligence work is that you would say the same thing (for different reasons) whether you were lying, or telling the truth.

Flynn:  “I think it’s a disinformation campaign. I think it’s a disinformation campaign that the CIA created. That’s what I believe. Now, I don’t know that for a fact, but that’s what I think it is.”

Is that the truth?  Or does he know that Lin Wood is recording him?

I think it’s the truth (i.e. Q is bullshit).

But it would make a nice cover.

What connects the current and former Directors of the DIA?

Two institutions:  the Command and General Staff College in Kansas.

And the National War College at Fort McNair in D.C.

And who taught at those two institutions?

When did they teach there?

Maybe it’s just a coincidence.

Hijack the hijackers.

What else connects the Directors of the DIA?

Army G-2.

What aforementioned erstwhile teacher connects to that entity?

Probably just a coincidence, right?

Of the 20 historical Directors of the DIA, only one was black:  Vincent R. Stewart.

He also happened to be a U.S. Marine (like Robert McCall).

He’s also dead.

Or is he?

He was appointed by the only black President in U.S. history.

Why is it significant that he is dead?

Because he was only 64 when he died.

How did he die?

I don’t know.

When did he die?

A few months ago.

April 28, 2023.

The Equalizer 3 came out on September 1, 2023.

Did General Stewart die suddenly because he had taken one of the three COVID vaccines which were rushed through testing and given Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA?

Why did the Commandant of the USMC (Eric Smith) have a heart attack and go into cardiac arrest on October 29, 2023 at the age of 58 or 59?

Was he too vaccinated with one of the Operation Warp Speed vaccines??

Eric Smith is still alive.

General Stewart is dead.

Why is it notable that he is dead?

When was the last time a Director of the DIA died (prior to Stewart)?

Funny you should ask.

Stewart was the first Director of the DIA to die so far THIS YEAR.

The second was Dennis M. Nagy (who was briefly with the Air Force before a long career with DIA).

Nagy died on August 5, 2023.

He was 80.

Here’s the problem.

Half of the Directors of the DIA are still alive.

Each and every one that surrounds General Stewart.

Of the 10 most-recent Directors of the Defense Intelligence Agency, only General Stewart is deceased.

Most DIA Directors die in their 80s.

Some die in their 90s.

A couple died in their 70s.

General Stewart was the youngest Director of the DIA to ever die.

The current DIA Director and his predecessor are both from Army G-2 (Army intelligence).

The most recent DIA Director to be educated at the CGSC (Fort Leavenworth) is General Flynn.

His predecessor was also educated there.

The DIA also has quite a connection to Texas.

General Maples was from Texas.

Back to the CGSC, General Hughes was an alumnus (that’s 3).

Hughes also connects to NGA and NRO.

General Minihan is from Pampa, Texas (that’s 2).

[Clapper]

General Soyster is an alumnus of both CGSC (4) and the National War College.

It should be noted that multiple DIA Directors went to work for L-3 Communications after retiring.

Soyster’s predecessor’s predecessor (General Williams) was also an alumnus of CGSC (5) and the National War College (2).

Not long before, General Wilson had headed the DIA.

He too was an alumnus of CGSC (6) and the National War College (3).

His predecessor was an alumnus of CGSC (7).

Admiral de Poix (who is a bit further back on the roll of former Directors) was a National War College alumnus (4).

General Bennett, the 2nd Director of DIA, was an alumnus of CGSC (8).

Bias check:  Texas does not play that big of a role in the DIA.

Confirmed:  almost half of the DIA Directors graduated from the CGSC.

In recent times, there appears to be a shift towards the USAWC in Carlisle Barracks, PA being the premier educational institution for DIA Directors.

So The Equalizer series can be seen as a gigantic recruitment commercial for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Or as an adjunct to Q.

Q hasn’t posted in 11 months.

McCall posted 2 months ago.

Interesting.

Maybe we are “literally” watching a movie?

The Equalizer series can also be seen as a gigantic Suunto watch commercial.

Which could be Finnish propaganda.

If that Finnish company weren’t owned by a Chinese company (it is).

Which brings us back to NATO.

Did Sam Rubinstein teach at the CGSC?

Good military vs. evil military.

Good guys (like L. Fletcher Prouty [Colonel X]) vs. private contractors within government.

The “private contractors” trope can also be read as CIA infiltration of the Pentagon.

This is PRECISELY what Prouty was writing about in 1973.

And perhaps the mechanism by which the CIA used DoD materiel to stage the 9/11 false-flag.

And then there is the overarching theme.

The storm.

Antoine Fuqua lets it bubble and simmer like a cauldron for much of this film.

Building background tension.

America needs hope.

America needs to reexamine itself.

Nothing shameful about that.

I find myself relating to thinkers I previously found revolting.

We get caught up in things.

PSYOPs.

But America is special.

It is worth saving.

But its survival is not guaranteed.

Rethink your assumptions.

About everything.

Body, mind, spirit.

The storm is here.

–PD

Introversion [2021)

Teenage Fanclub.

That glow in The World’s End.

But a sadness.

THE sadness.

Emily Dickinson.

Unrequited.

Unattainable.

My Bloody Valentine.

Sloshy grunge hats.

Edge echo.

Chris Bell.

I Am the Cosmos.

Yerself Is Steam.

Slowdive.

Rutti.

Brian Eno.

The disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Tom Petty.

You don’t know how it feels.

J. Spaceman.

Abbey Road.

Air.

George Martin.

Beck.

Badfinger suicides.

Loser.

Spiritualized.

Royal Albert.

I can only give you everything.

Rick Danko.

Loping.

The Delgados.

Dave Fridmann.

Black magic warded off by honesty.

Good timing.

Divine.

Sigur Rós.

Nigel Godrich.

Pocket symphonies.

Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Serge on the way.

Lenny Bruce, even.

Hit to Death in the Future Head.

Wait at least until track three to break it down.

Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.

Gorecki.

Arvo Pärt.

Deserter’s Songs.

Absolutely.

The confusion of ridiculous counterpoint.

Aaron Copland.

Tonal, yet dissonant.

Thick Billy Corgan.

Siamese Dream.

Definitely a sadness here.

Dawn Upshaw.

Tabula rasa.

Death.

Immense Mellotron.

Tchaikovsky.

Abrupt modulation.

Sugar plum.

Lou Reed.

Ennio Morricone.

Cinema Paradiso.

All you need is hate.

Upstate.

Chaliapin.

Basso profundo.

Jussi Björling.

Dvořák.

Memorial day.

The Inflated Tear.

Columbus, Ohio with duct tape.

Debussy.

Posing with a bass clarinet.

Primal Scream.

Get Duffy.

Rock ferry.

Smokey Robinson.

Sad clown.

Dead clown.

Kinks.

Grasshopper.

Suzanne.

Woodwind quintet.

Did I ever write one?

Yes, I did.

César Franck.

Saint-Saëns.

Organ symphony.

Or is it contrabassoon?

Nadia Boulanger can tell you.

My teacher’s teacher (twice over).

The Left Banke.

LSD.

Herb Alpert?

Hummel.

Handel.

Strawberry fields.

Stereolab.

Unequivocally.

Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements.

A little lo-fi.

Vocal doubled.

Vox continental.

Great hook.

Changes that pull at your heartstrings.

More melancholy.

A fucking marimba solo?!?

Are you kidding me???

Makes sense.

Pauly Deathwish collaboration with Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes.

Lost Bayou Ramblers.

Gordon knew him as Death.

I have become death.

96 Tears.

Farfisa.

Partials.

Tim Gane tone.

Faust IV.

Doogie Howser?

Scary.

Impending.

Suspense.

Rock bass.

Ozzy.

Black Sabbath.

Amazing Grace.

Pete Townshend.

Front.

Back to J. Spaceman.

Dirty ass rock and roll with pristine horns.

Expensive drugs.

Sophisticated changes.

Éminence grise?

Is this the artist we’ve been waiting for?

Rodriguez?

R. Stevie Moore?

Wesley Willis?

Sounds like Jack Nitzsche.

Major Velvet vibes.

Suck-ceed twice.

Dylan with P-bass.

Mick Taylor.

Too much attitude.

Keith Richards.

Let it Come Down.

Shakespeare.

Fucker kicked the bucket.

First to be vaxxed.

Maricopa.

First Suicide album.

Bossa nova.

The Soft Bulletin.

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.

Gimme some lovin’?

Steve Winwood?

How old?

La Monte Young.

Slow changes.

First rehearsal tapes.

Alan Vega.

Martin Rev.

New York City heroin.

Warhol Factory torn down.

Across from YMCA.

Trump dances.

Great throwaway lyrics.

George Harrison.

Sound of universe.

Spacemen 3.

Savage tone.

Revolution.

Direct into mixing console.

Fried signal.

White album.

Sonic Youth.

Derek Bailey.

Lou ecstacy.

Late Lou.

European son.

Blood pressure rising.

Brutal.

Frankie Teardrop.

I think I’m in love.

Dub bass.

Will the circle remain unbroken?

When I had dinner with Roky.

13th Floor.

First Velvets album.

Heroin.

Drug rush.

Invincible.

But you gotta buy it.

Dirty Baltimore.

Cop shoot cop.

Cheree.

On the jukebox.

Eat at the gas station.

On tour.

First time in Texas.

American Supreme.

Iceland.

13 Angels.

It’s definitely Bowie.

New career.

Same town.

New old.

Old is new again.

Mercury Rev.

Savvy programming.

Dynamics.

Break beat.

A fuck ton of flutes.

Flute loops literally.

Bowie sax.

Little fluffy clouds.

Every drop.

Gay glam chorus.

Tony Visconti.

Don’t underestimate.

Pere Ubu.

First album.

Méliès.

Boys peel out.

Boces.

Inspector Clouseau.

Phone.

French ambulance.

Pants.

Gives me pants.

Videogames.

Cutting hole.

Pink Panther.

Herbert Lom.

A Shot in the Dark.

Grandaddy.

Under the Western Freeway.

Weeping willow.

Under that.

With Sean Mackowiak.

Square waves.

WarGames.

Tympani.

Rollerskate Skinny.

Dublin.

Kevin Shields.

Comes back loud.

One song mastered soft.

Definitely Low.

The main influence of Pauly Deathwish’s debut album.

Honegger.

Pacific 231.

Chariots of fire.

Vangelis.

Such a groove.

Nancarrow.

Polyrhythm.

Immense sadness.

By the side of a freeway.

Under an underpass.

Not like RHCP.

Much darker.

Like Godspeed.

Philip Glass.

Eno.

Blackstar.

How did a Trump supporter make this album?!?

I thought all Trump supporters were redneck morons???

This is way fucking better than Ariel Pink’s dabblings.

This sounds like a debut album.

Songs saved up.

Like The Strokes.

Cinematic as fuck.

Glitch Radiohead.

Trail of Dead.

Makes sense.

Because Pauly wrote the string arrangement on IX.

Dark.

Killers.

Disco compression.

Distressed.

These lyrics!

Johnny Rotten.

Trump 2021.

Snot on the crowd.

Arcade Fire.

Makes sense.

Lost Bayou Ramblers lost sessions.

Montreal studio.

This was all made on an iPhone?!?

Guy Debord.

Aladdin Sane.

Time.

Rick Wakeman?

Olivier Messiaen.

Major 7ths in uppermost range of piano.

Almost indistinguishable from octaves.

Eerie.

Slight.

Only for the sensuous ear.

The Wall.

Waters delayed bass.

No nonsense drums.

Humble Pie reference?!?

Ha!

Great lyrics!!

Predating new Bob Dylan album.

Check SoundCloud timestamp.

This is definitely the QAnon anthem.

This hook should be on a million conspiracy videos.

“10 Days of Darkness”.

Tell ’em Large Marge sent ya!

My end is my beginning is my end.

Grinderman.

No pussy.

Early-’90s.

Nirvana’s wake.

Finnegans Wake.

Great debut album (if I do say so myself).

Usual suspects.

Spotify.

iTunes.

Pauly Deathwish.

-PD

Histoire(s) du cinéma {Chapter 2(a): Seul le cinéma} [1989]

So here we go again.

They told Beethoven it was a horrible way to begin his 5th Symphony.

With a rest.

It’s unheard.

Of.

Unheard.

Only the players see it.

Only the conductor pays it much mind.

So the first “note” (beat) is silent.

The conductor must give it.

But there are at least two schools of thought on how this is to be done.

First, a conductor might do as they always do and swiftly move their baton downwards to indicate visually that the first (silent) beat is occurring.

The only problem with this is that the symphony players must then abruptly jump onto the very next beat (which is an “upbeat”).

They happen in very quick succession.

Nothing/Everything.

The whole orchestra.

Tutti.

And they get one shot.

To come in together.

Like an attack.

[rest] da da da daaaaaaaaaa

[rest] da da da daaaaaaaaaa

The second school of thought is more practical.

It advises that, in this particular situation, a conductor giving a downbeat is not particularly helpful to the orchestra (because no sounds occur on that downbeat).

Therefore, the conductor motions the orchestra that the UPBEAT is happening.

When the baton (or hand(s)) come down, that is the precise time to make noise.

It is not hard to see why this might lead to a more successful outcome.

For the goal is to have the orchestra stick together.

An orchestra of individuals who are a mere microsecond off from one another creates a sound which is generally not highly-valued in Western music (at least not in the performance of Beethoven).

But this STILL leaves a problem.

The conductor of this second school, whose job it is to try and lead his orchestra to a faithful rendition of this masterwork, is thereby IGNORING what Beethoven wrote (or, more precisely, HOW Beethoven wrote it).

The beginning.

Godard comes back more fit and trim in this episode of his greatest work.

1a is probably the nuke.

1b is a psychological warfare manual (perhaps)

2a returns us to kinetic warfare.

More or less.

With some lulls.

But there is genuine artistry within these 26 minutes.

Like a symphony by Beethoven or Bruckner.

The beginning is weighted heavily.

1a = 51 mins. (the longest of all eight parts)

1b = 42 mins. (the second longest “movement” of the bunch)

The entire first section is, therefore (carry the zero), 1 hour and 33 minutes.

That’s the first quarter of this “ring cycle”.

And it is truly operatic.

So now we are into a bit of a scherzo.

26 minutes.

Now you can see the influence of television.

The “producers” of this film.

Canal+ (French TV channel)

CNC (part of the French Ministry of Culture [and Godard is Swiss!])

France 3 (a French TV channel)

Gaumont (a French film studio)

La Sept (a defunct French TV channel)

Télévision Suisse Romande (a defunct, French-language Swiss TV network)

Vega Films (Godard’s production company at the time)

26 minutes.

Enough time for eight 30-second commercials.

Arriving precisely at a sum total of 30 minutes’ programming.

It’s generous (no doubt owing to the fact that this was educational programming).

If you look at the true running time of an American half-hour sitcom these days, it is roughly 21 minutes of what you want to see.

The other 9 minutes are reserved for at least 18 30-second commercials.

In the tradition of James Joyce.

The pun.

Which Hitchcock so admired.

…and the Oscar goes to.

Oscar Wilde.

Irishmen in France.

The recurring scene from Salò…

Julius Kelp.

Literary history vs. cinematic history.

Godard has a curious frame which reads, “Your breasts are the only shells I love.”

It is a line from the poet Apollinaire.

[tes seins sont les seuls obus que j’aime]

But I must say, the exciting parts here are the “booms”!

The fighter jet exploding in midair.

Bernard Herrmann’s music from Psycho juxtaposed with scenes from Disney’s Snow White…(1937).

The agitation of Stravinsky.

Cluster chords on the piano.

Godard’s voice fed through an Echoplex.

And, just as in 1a, world-class editing!

Let me be clear.

EDITING is what makes Histoire(s) du cinéma the greatest film ever made.

It’s what makes F for Fake the second-greatest film ever made.

And what makes Dog Star Man the third-greatest film ever made.

It is more pronounced in Histoire(s) and Dog Star Man.

Orson Welles’ “editing” (montage) in F for Fake is done more at the story level.

It is a juxtaposition of content.

The Kuleshov effect with ideas rather than images.

[more or less]

Godard’s camera-pen makes some of its boldest strokes in this episode.

It rivals the 1a excerpt involving Irving Thalberg.

Which brings us to a very important point.

Godard CHOSE to use the concept of “double exposure” (two images–one on top of the other–but both seen to a greater or lesser extent) to ILLUSTRATE the subject and title of his greatest film.

Though it runs 266 minutes, that amount of time STILL wasn’t enough in which to lay out the history of cinema.

So images needed to be doubled up.

Tripled up.

Simultaneous to that, words needed to be spoken.

And furthermore, DIFFERENT words than those being spoken NEEDED TO BE WRITTEN ON THE SCREEN.

If you are not a native French speaker, you will probably need to have the subtitles on when viewing this film.

Which gives you A-N-O-T-H-E-R visual stimulus which must be taken into account.

Yes.

This film should be mandatory viewing for fighter pilots.

Practice your OODA loop here.

Observe.

Orient.

Decide.

Act.

Constantly looping.

If you want to survive in this jungle of meaning.

Night of the hunter…

Klimt.

Fred Astaire.

James Dean.

Burt Lancaster.

It’s all true.

That weary look.

From Hollywood.

It’s all true.

Which brings us to value (that thing which capitalism so gloriously creates…far more efficiently and in much greater abundance than with any other economic system).

“What is the value of knowing how to read this film,” you ask?

Just this.

It allows you to know how to read the complexity of the world.

It is a brain teaser.

With an infinite layering of meaning.

Like Finnegans Wake.

Joyce’s masterpiece should be the only required reading for a codebreaker.

Or a codemaker.

Take heed, National Security Agency.

Your curriculum needs adjusting.

Assign only Finnegan.

And reap your gains.

And what of Histoire(s)?

Its most direct application would be for analysts.

Whether they be Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, or  INSCOM.

Know how to read the image.

Know how to analyze the video.

You must think outside the box.

Sudoku the fuck out of your employees.

And thereby fight crime and keep hostile actors in check.

Which is where we musicians come in.

To analyze the phone call.

To make sense of the audio…from the video.

It cannot be taught in a bootcamp.

It has to be loved.

Nurtured.

If you had one analyst like Godard, you would have a super-soldier equal to an entire special forces unit.

The trial of Joan of Arc.

Not to be confused with her passion.

Laurel and Hardy.

Gustave Courbet.

Marcel Duchamp.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Which brings us to a very delicate situation.

What is the President planning this weekend?

And with whom is he planning it?

If Ronald Reagan was an actor (and he was), then how much more talented is Donald Trump in getting a reaction with his lines…and his gestures?

HIS lines.

HIS gestures.

Accordion music.

Munch’s vampire.

A President who has been attacked from ALL sides UNRELENTINGLY for nearly four years.

And now finds himself in the midst of the hottest biological/psychological/economic war in recorded history.

Where complexity reigns.

As globalization magnifies each twitch of activity.

And this same President STILL finds himself under attack from the same “bad actors” who have unremittingly assailed him.

As in peacetime, so in war.

These enemies of the state.

Masquerading as journalists.

And their masters above them.

Straight from the latest conclave.

“…two if by sea.”

 

-PD

 

Chuck Norris vs Communism [2015)

Dear Ilinca Călugăreanu,

You have made a beautiful film.

Which the world needed to see.

And the title made me think it would be imperialist propaganda directed at North Korea.

But I could not have been more wrong.

Because Romania has touched my heart so many times.

And so I am glad to add another name to the list of auteurs.

Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, Cătălin Mitulescu, Cristian Mungiu…

And now Ilinca Călugăreanu.

Yes, it is only right that a young female director should bring us this story.

This documentary.

Ms. Călugăreanu, born in 1981.

Because this film is very much about the 1980s.

VHS.

Videocassettes.

And the situation in Romania.

Chuck Norris is merely a placeholder.

A meme which has undergone a certain détournement.

But there is no substitute for communism in this tale.

Perhaps, authoritarianism.

You see…

if you tell people to do one thing…and you’re really heavy-handed about it,

they will almost certainly do the opposite.

At some point.

And Ms. Călugăreanu’s very persuasive hypothesis is that videocassettes brought down the Ceaușescu regime.

And so there is very little way around this impasse without talking political economy.

First, let us address the very astute current Russian minister of culture Vladimir Medinsky.

The esteemed Mr. Medinsky has famously (?) called Netflix “U.S. government…mind control”.

Or at least that’s how The Washington Times (who needs the Post?) framed it.

But let’s investigate.

Let’s have Mr. Medinsky’s words and not just a CliffsNotes, elevator-pitch summation of them.

He says [translated],

“And, what, you thought these gigantic startups emerge by themselves? One schoolboy sat down, thought for a bit, and then billions of dollars rained down from above?”

That is pursuant to the funding which helped birth Netflix (and, presumably, other American companies with what Mr. Medinsky feels is a global, insidious reach).

He continues [translated],

“It turns out that that our ideological friends [the U.S. government] understand perfectly well that this is the art form that is the most important…”

Ahh, cinema…

And Vladimir Lenin himself knew it!

Mr. Medinsky then seems to evoke the Leonard Cohen of “Tower of Song” when he says [translated],

“They understand how to enter everyone’s homes by getting into every television with the help of Netflix…”

Leonard Cohen (God rest his soul) said it thus:

“Now you can say that I’ve grown bitter but of this you may be sure
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor.”

Ah!

What a lyric!!

And that was in 1988!!!

So our director, Ilinca Călugăreanu, knows that of which she speaks.

Because the grip of Ceaușescu was beginning to slip.

But let’s give Mr. Medinsky one more say [translated],

“And through this television, [they get into] the heads of everyone on Earth. But [Russians] don’t grasp this.”

Ok.

Now why was Mr. Medinsky so upset?

Well, because Netflix undertook a vast expansion this past summer.

Indeed, the article from which I’m pirating these quotes (yes, translations are intellectual property) dates from June 23, 2016.

The same article notes pointedly that Netflix’s expansion into Russia, plus a vast number of new territories, means that the streaming service is now available in 190 countries worldwide.

Wait a minute…

How many countries are there, you might ask?  196.  Or 195.

Poor Taiwan, they just can’t catch a break.

So then you might say, well…what the fuck?!?

What countries is Netflix NOT in???

It appears those countries are China, North Korea, Syria, and…Crimea?

Suffice it to say, the international “community” is not unanimous in their appraisal of Crimean statehood.

Is it part of Russia?

Is it part of Ukraine?

What do the words Republic of Crimea even mean if its not an independent country?

Which brings up the specter of “frozen conflict zones”.

I’m guessing that Netflix might be unavailable in Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, and Transnistria.

But I digress…

Because we are on to more specific matters.

There are at least two major ways in which Americans can view the Romanian communist period as it has been depicted in motion pictures.

First, Americans can sympathize with the repression of the Romanian people.

Any doubters should do a little digging on the PATRIOT Act.

Indeed, the psychosis of surveillance (which is mentioned in Chuck Norris vs Communism) could not field a more forbidding bogeyman than the National Security Agency.

And so, dear peoples of the world, would you feel more or less safe living in the same country in which the NSA is headquartered?

Exactly.

Second, Americans could extrapolate Ms. Călugăreanu’s hypothesis to mean that countries such as China will eventually implode as a result of the fulminating combination of repression and technology (even, perhaps, with a starring role for entertainment).

All of that is to say that movies COULD bring down China or North Korea or even Iran.

[Notice the non-Netflix countries…Syria is without, but apparently Iran does have the service.]

Which is to ultimately say, Mr. Medinsky’s fear is completely warranted.

What is at stake in Russia?

The fall of Putin.

A sea change in leadership.

And I will be quite frank.

There is no doubt that Netflix’s catalog is heavily biased towards globalist propaganda.

One of the most glaring areas is India.

I can’t tell you how many watery, transparent premises there are on Netflix which are some permutation of a young person rebelling against a repressive culture.

It’s almost like they’re churning these formulaic films out in a factory.

Boy marries girl from lower caste.  Mayhem follows.

Girl goes to human rights court.  Happily ever after…

Boy rebels against father’s traditional ways [read:  religion].

I mean, at a certain point it’s just pathetic.

But we must hand it to Netflix for some (SOME) of their selections.

Actually, I have found a good many gems on the site.

But it is a very biased (and historically-uninformed collection).

In general, history doesn’t exist for Netflix.

Unless that history is the Holocaust.

Then, of course, there are a plethora of scenarios to “inform” you about the Nazis.

Make no mistake (my best Obama voice), the Nazis were bad.

Really bad.

But do we need 10 fucking films about the Holocaust?

And if Schindler’s List is the zenith of the genre, God help us…

But I digress again…

Chuck Norris vs Communism is a very beautiful film.

It’s about rebellion.

It’s about the little things we do to assert our existence.

And in this case, it’s about a translator (a voiceover dubbing artist) who reached the hearts of innumerable Romanians.

Irina Nistor.

Whether it was Chuck Norris, or Jean-Claude Van Damme, or Sylvester Stallone, Irina’s voice made the dialogue come alive in Romanian.

But it was a subversive activity.

“Imperialist” films were not allowed in Romania.

But Romania was falling apart.

To take the interviewees of our documentary at their word, their lives sucked…without “video” night.

But we must be clear.

Everything (EVERYTHING) about this enterprise was illegal in Romania.

First, the videos had to be smuggled across the border.

Then they had to be copied and dubbed (voiceover).

Then they had to be distributed.

Then some brave schmucks took the risk of screening these films on their TV sets (for a few lei, of course).

But it was dangerous business.

Especially if you were the kingpin.

So it is then strange to meet this kingpin of video piracy face to face.

Zamfir.

Not the guy with the panpipes.

No, this was Teodor Zamfir.

Made a pretty penny.

But the fascinating thing (by Călugăreanu’s hypothesis) is that he completely changed Romanian culture.

The seeds of revolution were sown by Dirty Dancing, Last Tango in Paris, The King of Comedy

And especially by the action films.

Rocky, Rambo, Lone Wolf McQuade…

And so, if you want to piss off a communist (or socialist, or whatever they’re going by these days), you can go with the familiar tack,

“Didn’t they already try that?  Wasn’t it an immense failure?”

I don’t know.

But I don’t doubt the faces of those who lived through Ceaușescu.

No national cinema has been nearly as effective as the Romanian in communicating to the West just what life under communism was like.

And so Romania becomes our lens into the Soviet Union and its satellite states.

I know there are Russians who fondly remember communism.

Let’s be clear:  capitalism can also suck.

Change and upheaval can be deadly.

They say, “Watch the price of eggs” (to demonstrate how a free market dictates prices).

But we see a very similar discontent in the Middle East.

Is this democracy?

Fuck this!

Yes, America has made some mistakes.

And so we should watch everything with a critical eye.

Be your own critic.

Be like Emerson.

Be bold.

And then double back.

Waffle.

Live by palimpsest.

Because you are the ultimate philosopher.

For your life.

I can’t tell you.

And you can’t tell me.

We have to learn.

It must be the right time.

To receive a particular lesson.

I draw courage from Irina Margareta Nistor.

But most of all, I draw courage from the Romanian people.

Perhaps my country’s Hollywood crap (the stuff I took for granted) was just the stuff necessary in the dark times.

Entertainment.  Ass kicking.  Escape.

But the Romanian cinema of today inspires me beyond words.

And so let us remember, whether we are capitalists or socialists, the price paid by the people of Romania in December 1989.

Was it 1,100 people?

11,000 people?

110,000 people?

It’s troubling that nobody knows for sure.

But even if it was a thousand people.

They didn’t just get trampled by goats or run over by garbage trucks.

It wasn’t a bloodless revolution.

At least 1000 people.

They saw their moment.

They seized on a moment.

They capitalized on their opportunity.

There was something which impelled them not to just sit at home and listen.

I salute these brave souls who went out into the streets.

For a thousand people to have died, it seems rather inconceivable that there wasn’t an attempt made by the government to “restore order”.

That’s the line which can’t be crossed.

That’s when a government has lost its legitimacy.

Some stories are twisted.

And full-blown civil wars do erupt.

But it appears, in the end, that repression lost.

And repression, censorship, and heavy-handed tactics (whether adopted by socialists or capitalists) should, by historical lesson, be most strictly avoided.

It is human nature.

The people will not tolerate being treated like livestock.

And something as seemingly inconsequential as VHS tapes can tip the balance.

-PD