Monkey Puzzle Magazine

RIP James Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955)

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Friends,

The time has arrived for, as Time magazine called it, my “magnum opus.” I only had a year of Latin when I was in high school, so I’m not quite sure what that means, but I think it’s good.

I’ve spent nearly two years on this new movie, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” and have poured my heart and soul into this project. Many early critics and viewers have called it my “best film yet.” That’s a hard call for me to make as I’m proud of all of my films — but I will tell you this: What you are about to see in “Capitalism” is going to stun you. It’s going to make some of you angry and I believe it’s going to give most of you a new sense of hope that we are going to turn the sick and twisted mess made by the last president around. Oh, and you’re going to have a good laugh at the expense of all the banking and corporate criminals who’ve made out like bandits in the past year.

I’m gonna show you the stuff the nightly news will rarely show you. Ever meet a pilot for American Airlines on food stamps because his pay’s been cut so low? Ever meet a judge who gets kickbacks for sending innocent kids to a private prison? Ever meet someone from the Wall Street Journal who bluntly states on camera that he doesn’t much care for democracy and that capitalism should be our only ruling concern?

You’ll meet all these guys in “Capitalism.” You’ll also meet a whistleblower who, with documents in hand, tells us about the million-dollar-plus sweetheart loans he approved for the head of Senate Banking Committee — the very committee that was supposed to be regulating his lending institution! You’ll hear from a bank regulator why Timothy Geithner has no business being our Treasury Secretary. And you’ll learn, from the woman who heads up the congressional commission charged with keeping an eye on the bailout money, how Alan Greenspan & Co. schemed and connived the public into putting up their inflated valued homes as collateral — thus causing the biggest foreclosure epidemic in our history.

There is now a foreclosure filed in the U.S. once every seven-and-half SECONDS.

None of this is an accident, and I name the names others seem to be afraid to name, the men who have ransacked the pensions of working people and plundered the future of our kids and grandkids. Somehow they thought they were going to get away with this, that we’d believe their Big Lie that this crash was caused by a bunch of low-income people who took out loans they couldn’t afford. Much of the mainstream media bought this storyline. No wonder Wall Street thought they could pull this off.

Jeez, I guess they forgot about me and my crew. You’d think we would’ve made a better impression on these wealthy thieves by now. Guess not.

So here we come! It’s all there, up on the silver screen, two hours of a tragicomedy crime story starring a bunch of vampires who just weren’t satisfied with simply destroying Flint, Michigan — they had to try and see if they could take down the whole damn country. So come see this cops and robbers movie! The robbers this time wear suits and ties, and the cops — well, if you’re willing to accept a guy in a ballcap with a high school education as a stand-in until the real deal shows up to haul ‘em away, then I humbly request your presence at your local cinema this weekend in New York and Los Angeles (and next Friday, October 2nd, all across America).

In the meantime, you can catch us on some of the TV shows that have been brave enough to let me on in the past week or so:

- Nightline (as we take a stroll down Wall Street to Goldman Sachs)

- Good Morning America (where they let me talk about Disney employees who don’t get medical benefits)

- The View (where the Republican co-host told everyone to go see it! Whoa!)

- The Colbert Report (this guy is a genius, seriously)

Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

- Larry King (where a spokesperson for the Senator who got the sweetheart loans responds for the first time)

- Keith Olberman (where we both wonder just how long these media corps are going to let us get away with what we do)

- Wolf Blitzer (yes, he’s back for more abuse – and lovin’ it)

… And the amazing Jay Leno. This man called me after seeing the movie and asked me to be his only in-studio guest on the second night of his new prime-time show. I said, “Jay, shouldn’t you be thinking of your ratings in the first week of the show? Are you sure you didn’t misdial Tom Hanks’ number (the area code where I live is 231; 213 is LA)?” He told me he was profoundly moved by this film. So I was the guest on his second show, and he told all of America it was my “best film” and to please go see “Capitalism: A Love Story.” That was Jay Leno saying that, not Noam Chomsky or Jane Fonda (both of whom I love dearly). The audience responded enthusiastically and, after 20 years of filmmaking, it was a moment where I crossed over deep into the mainstream of middle America. Jay’s bosses at General Electric musta been… well, let’s just say I hope they didn’t place a reprimand in his permanent record. He’s one helluva guy (and following the example he set with his free concerts for the unemployed in Michigan and Ohio last spring, I’ve gotten permission from the studio to do the same with my film in ten of the hardest-hit cities in the U.S. next week).

Oh, and he made me sing! Prepare yourself!

Thanks everyone — and see you at the movies!

Yours,
Michael Moore

MMFlint@aol.com

The literary journal Zero Ducats is now accepting submissions for their 2nd issue.

Zero Ducats is both a print and online journal of poetry and flash fiction, comprised entirely of recycled and pilfered materials and distributed for free.

Our first issue included work by:
Kona Morris
Nancy Stohlman
Linh Dinh
Mathias Svalina
Sandra Simonds
Matt Hart
Laird Hunt
and an interview with Nate Jordon

www.zeroducats.com

A bit about the editorial staff of Zero Ducats:

Scott Alexander Jones, poetry editor and graduate of the MFA program at The University of Montana. A chapbook of his poetry has just been released by Bedouin Books and this October he will be the writer-in-residence at The Montana Artists Refuge.

Their fiction editor is Shane Joaquin Jimenez: currently an MFA student at Naropa University who has a collection of short stories titled It Can Be That Way Still published by Bedouin Books.

Monkey Puzzle Contributors and Friends MooganElla are hosting a new reading series in Boulder!
For details, check the information below:

READING SERIES every Sunday from 3-5 p.m.

Hosted by MooganElla, a duo from The Jack Kerouac School.

Open Mic sign-up begins at 2:45pm.

8 Port Coffee & Tea
1727 15th St.
between Grove and Canyon

Poetry
Fiction
Theater
Music
Dance
Comedy
Improv

WE WANT YOU THERE!
ALL ARE WELCOME!

For a PDF of the flier, click here: The 2nd Avenue Subway? Series!

“We have become Nazi monsters in the eyes of the whole world – a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us… No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way or we’ll kill you.

Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled buy stupid little rich kids like George Bush?

They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us – they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis.

And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them.”

- Hunter S. Thompson -

Monkey Puzzle is proud to announce its 2nd Annual Flash Fiction Contest!

First Prize: $200.00 plus publication

Second Prize: $100.00 plus publication

Third Prize: $50.00 plus publication

Submit one story per entry, 1000 words or less.

$5.00 entry fee (check or money order) payable to Monkey Puzzle Press

Deadline: March 20, 2010 (postmarked)

Send your submission and entry fee to:
Monkey Puzzle Press
3116 47th St.
Boulder, CO 80301
Attn: Flash Fiction Contest

All submissions must include the writer’s contact information on the first page: name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. Include a SASE if you would like a reply via USPS.

We won’t be judging stories based on any particular content or context, just send your best piece of flash fiction! Please keep in mind that we do appreciate work exhibiting intelligence and creativity, socio-political-cultural awareness, and humor. To get an idea for the kind of work we like, check out our Issues page for free downloads of past issues.

Winners will be published in Monkey Puzzle #9!

For a flier, click here: Monkey Puzzle’s 2nd Annual Flash Fiction Contest!

Friend and Monkey Puzzle Contributor Nicholas Michael Ravnikar has just released the new issue of his literary arts zine The Bathroom featuring killer new works by:

Mel Kozakiewicz
Diane Klammer
Nate Jordon
Nick Demske
Travis Macdonald
Dawn Sueoka
and others!

Check it out by clicking below:

The Bathroom #5

Friend and co-conspirator Olatundji Akpo-Sani of Baobob Tree Press was recently interviewed by James Collector of the Daily Camera – for the full interview click the following:

Five Questions for Olatundji Akpo-Sani, Organizer of Artists’ Guild of Boulder

With yesterday’s release of Pearl Jam’s new album, we at Monkey Puzzle Headquarters have been cracking out on Backspacer and figured we’d offer a little something for The Jamily…backspacing indeed:

Grunge Comics – The Pearl Jam Story

“Being an artist doesn’t take much, just everything you’ve got. Which means, of course, that as the process is giving you life, it is also giving you death. But it’s no big deal. They are one and the same and cannot be avoided or denied. So when I totally embrace this process, this life/death, and abandon myself to it, I transcend all this gibberish and hang out with the gods. It seems to me that that is worth the price of admission.”

- Hubert Selby Jr. -