Peter Phillips (Editor), "Censored 2000 � the Year�s Top 25 censored Stories"
The easiest way to talk about this book is by talking about the San Francisco band Victim�s Family. I think they�re one of the best bands still around.
The problem is, I was the only one in San Jose that actually liked them (I say was, because I finally convinced Joe that they were amazing. Well, I didn�t convince him, I just demanded that he go to a recent show and he got to witness how great they are in person, so I guess Victim�s Family convinced Joe how good Victim�s Family really is. Anyhoo...)
On the day the new album was released, I rode my bike down to Streetlight Records and grabbed a copy in my hot little hands. Prominently featured on the front album cover was a cartoon drawing of a poodle.
Okay, whatever. Victim�s Family album cover art rarely made any sense to me, with the exception of �White Bread Blues� and �Headache Remedy,� so I didn�t think much of it.
At the show, they were selling shirts with the same dog emblazoned over the chest, which I also promptly snatched up. A couple of days later, I�m at the bookstore and this elderly woman is staring at my new shirt. As I�m handing her a bag full of romance novels she points to my chest and says, �Your shirt has Leo on it.�
Leo? Is this some weird reference to an astrological sign? Isn�t that supposed to be a lion? Or maybe it�s some television dog that I don�t know, seeing how I don�t watch TV. �Oh, is that who that is?� I say. �I just knew it was from their newest album.� The lady tells me she didn�t realize it was a band and starts out the door, both of us giving each other cautious looks.
Later that same evening I go out to dinner with a friend and when I take off my jacket, she points to my shirt and says, �Hey! That�s Leo!�
�That�s the second time somebody has said that!� I say. �Who the hell is Leo?�
�You know, that fucking dog that got thrown into traffic at the airport!�
You know how in bad sitcoms, writers will go for a cheap laugh by having the surprised person violently spew out whatever liquid they were drinking? I did that. All over our food.
Every time I thought about it, for the rest of the evening I�d start laughing all over again. Fucking Leo the dog! On a shirt that says �Victim�s Family!� Brilliant!
But it�s also absolutely frightening to think that this punt dog has achieved such status that a cartoon drawing of it evokes recognition. I remember when the events were unfolding: It was such a so-called �big story� that it received top front page placement for at least three days as the manhunt grew, along with the reward money offered.
A few columnists tried to put the phenomenon into perspective, comparing it with a case of a suspected kidnapping nearby that had less than 1/20th of the reward offered for information for the �killer.� For the most part, however, the public watched anxiously for the dog-flinger to be brought to swift and terrible justice.
That�s what�s so great about these Project Censored books, because you get to put the event like Leo into perspective of what else happened in the world that you probably never heard about. And while this book covered the events of 1999, hence no story on Leo�s trip to the dog kennel in the sky, it does compare events such as the Pokemon craze to pharmaceutical companies switching research from illness prevention and cures to products like Viagra and hair restoration.
1999 was also the year of Kosovo, something I wouldn�t have been able to shed any light on before (though I�m still not sure that I can, even though 5 of the 25 stories featured here dealt with that region and elements that led to U.S. invasion). The problem is that these issues are complicated, and need to be dealt with as such, which require both time and effort. A dog suddenly finding itself airborne needs no exposition.
Worse, with the emphasis on nationalism in regard to what is considered newsworthy, the major news outlets almost always ignore international affairs. Consider Enron, which even those who take in minimal amounts of news content now know at least a little about. Now read this opening graph from the winner of this year�s compilation:
�In the sleepy fishing village of Veldur in India, Sadhana Bhalekar, a young woman in her mid-twenties, was taking a bath on the morning of June 3, 1997, when police broke down her door, beat her retarded nephew, and mercilessly dragged her naked out of her house. They beat and then arrested her. She was three months pregnant at the time. The police officer in charge reportedly said, �This is Baba Bhalekar�s wife, bash her head on the road.� Why? Vithal �Baba� Bhalekar is a leading opponent of the Houston-based Enron Corporation�s Dabhol Power project � the largest power plant in the world � in the state of Maharashtra, India. The brutal police raid on Veldur village was clearly an act of terror to silence critics of the project.�
Has any of that story resurfaced in light of the recent Enron �scandal�? Of course not. It�s much more shocking that they bilked people out of their money. Shows where our moralities lie, doesn�t it?
And as an end note, sharp eyes may notice that these were written two years ago. I�m transferring all these reviews from an older site [now defunct]. As it happens, I�m wearing that same Victim�s Family shirt today. As it also happens, an older lady looked at my shirt and asked what it meant. I told her it was a tribute to Leo. She knew what I was talking about.
Fuck, I hate people.
