Rogue of The Week: Sen. Gordon Smith Two Blind Dates, Soul-Style Miss Dish: Pop Quiz!
Rogue of The Week: Sen. Gordon Smith Two Blind Dates, Soul-Style Miss Dish: Pop Quiz!
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08-16-2000
strangeness, ACII contains oddball pagan gods, revolution and arcane
to ast fall, the Southern actor Crispin Glover's denunciation ritual, but contains no racist lyrics.
of Steven Spielberg ("Would the Still, the band's use of such con-
% Poverty Law Center, culture benefit from Steven troversial material, not to mention
Spielberg's murder?"), a short the Kruekenkreuz, an ancient
\ the national anti-racist story b y Ted Kaczynski and an cross adopted by some Christian
essay by one S. Epps, explaining Crusaders and Austrian national-
M. organization, published w h y white people are genetically ists (but banned by the Nazis),
inferior to black people. sparks leftist ire. Protests spurred
^ ^ a list of six men it Moynihan helps translate some by socialist groups forced the can-
claimed to be the leaders of essay by Finnish ecologist Pentii Seattle and San Francisco in 1998.
There's J i m m y Miller, a skinhead band, Blood Axis, a n d head of adapt his formidable sexual quent phone conversations for a
imprisoned for bombings in Storm Publications, is a big player appetite to prison life. time, which later served as the
Arizona; Alex Curtis, a San Diegan in the effort to bring racism into If Apocalypse Culture II crosses basis for an article by Moynihan)
convicted of harassing inter-racial the metal scene locally." Joe activists' desks, such strangeness and Siege, an anthology of rants
couples, n o w publisher of a white- Conason, writing in Salon, alleged m a y join other evidence they cite by James Mason, an ex-Nazi and
supremacist newspaper; Matt Hale, that music and writing like in their case against Moynihan: Mansonite. Siege has been out of
once arrested for threatening three Moynihan's drives "dangers lurking Exhibit A : Quotes in obscure print for five years, and Moynihan
black m e n with a g u n and n o w in dark, Nazi-worshiping corners of fanzines, like one from No Longer says he hasn't printed a Storm cat-
pimp for the virulent World Church alienated youth culture." a Fanzine, circa '94: "The number alogue in about as long.
of the Creator; Bruce Breeding, A booklet called Soundtracks to of six million [Jews killed in the Exhibit E: Lords of Chaos,
crony of David D u k e and member the White Revolution, published in Holocaust] is just arbitrary and which Moynihan co-authored with
of the far-right National Alliance; November by the Seattle-based inaccurate.... If I were given the Norwegian journalist Didrik
and Erich Gliebe, a National Northwest Coalition, accused opportunity to start up the next S 0 d e r l i n d . Though m a n y praised
Alliance organizer. Moynihan of spreading racism Holocaust, I would definitely have the book's exploration of a grim
A n d then there's Portland's through his music and writing, more lenient entry requirements variant of heavy metal that w o n
Michael Moynihan, a 31-year-old particularly his 1998 book Lords of than the Nazis." popularity among some Norwegian
author and musician, w h o m the Chaos, an examination of Norway's Exhibit B: Interest in Asatru, a kids, Moynihan's activist critics
SPLC describes as "a major purvey- violent "black metal" underground revival of Norse pagan spirituality. slam the book's account of mur-
or of neo-Nazism, occult fascism that was praised by numerous S o m e forms of Asatru are champi- ders and arsons and the racism
and international industrial and reviewers. (The book w o n a presti- oned by white supremacists, espoused by some of the scene's
black metal music." gious alternative-press award and although m a n y elements within principals. Some call the book a
T w o Sundays ago, as a gor- sold more than 2 0 , 0 0 0 copies.) the movement vigorously oppose work of veiled propaganda.
geous summer evening faded to W h y do activists lump an such efforts. Moynihan also writes Surveying this jihad against
black, Moynihan reclined on the author and musician together with for The Black Flame, the Church him, Moynihan is frankly dismis-
back patio of the M o o n & convicted felons and active right- of Satan's magazine, and inter- sive. "They don't understand the
Sixpence, an English-style p u b just wing organizers? viewed late COS founder Anton first thing about what I'm saying
off Sandy Boulevard. H e sipped a "Moynihan's inclusion on that LaVey twice. or doing," he says. "They're con-
Guinness and considered the list is more emblematic of a differ- Exhibit C: Blood Axis, his band, vinced that if society was run
notion that he is one of the most ent section of the far right than an well-regarded within a small exper- according to their views, every-
dangerous m e n in America. body would be happy. I don't
where to even begin," he says. " I d o n ' t see w h i t e people d o i n g a n y t h i n g particularly That Moynihan has some
"They're out of their league. If unusual ideas and interests is
n o b l e t h e s e days, so w h y on e a r t h w o u l d I be a w h i t e
they would check with m e in the clear. However, a deeper look into
course of their research, it would supremacist?" his strange case creates serious
be m u c h more difficult to spread doubts about allegations that he's
these lies." a fascist bent on twisting under-
attempt to suggest that he's the imental scene in which a fascina- ground culture to his will. If you
Especially since last May, w h e n leader of any group," says Mark tion with the forbidden is practi- actually talk to him, you, too,
neo-Nazism was initially (and Potok, the editor of the SPLC's cally de rigueur. Blood Axis rarely might start thinking that it's not
incorrectly) supposed to have Intelligence Report. "He's an intel- books clubs in the U S , but has that simple.
sparked the massacre at Columbine lectual leader." toured extensively in Europe. continued on page 27
High School, Moynihan has The drumbeat m a y get louder. Despite what some think, Blood
become a favorite bete noire of This month, Feral House, publisher Axis is definitely not a heavy metal
anti-racist activists. O n M a y 13, of Lords of Chaos, released band. Dark portents of classical,
1 9 9 9 , a n Oregonian guest editorial Apocalypse Culture II, an antholo- folk, electronic and experimental
by Robert Crawford, a member of gy of extreme writing and art cer- music swirl through band's sound.
the Northwest Coalition for H u m a n tain to be one of the most jarring Blot: Sacrifice in Sweden, the most
Dignity, declared, " w e believe that books published in America this recent of the group's two albums,
the Portland leader of a metal year. In its percolating stew of runs hot with images of sacrifice,
IT'S FOR
from Blot. also exhibits a certain sardonic out with avant-garde artists and
humor, especially squatting in a fac-
The Northwest as far as his noto- tory. After return-
Coalition for riety is concerned. ing to the US, he
REAL. Human Dignity is
the product of a
merger between
the Northwest
He christened his
other band, a
dark-edged folk
roomed and collab-
orated with notori-
ous musician/
Coalition Against
group, Witch provocateur Boyd
Malicious Hunt; he adorns Rice—who actually
an envelope full of has called himself
No additives. Harassment and
the Coalition for recordings with a fascist—in
Human Dignity. sprightly "TEACH Denver before
No reprocessed The latter group TOLERANCE" stick- moving to Portland
was founded in ers. He recently told the venerable in 1995, in part to work with Feral
sheet tobacco
Portland in the punk magazine Flipside that his House. (The publisher has moved
late '80s.
membership in the "National Polite to LA; Moynihan has long since
People's Party" precludes any sym- stopped working with Rice.)
made from scraps. Apocalypse Culture
II has received
pathy with Nazis. There is no doubt that, as an
advance praise He moved to Portland in 1995 artist and thinker, Moynihan is rad-
Because from Portland rock and now shares, a house in ical. For starters, he rejects the idea
journalist and Northeast with his girlfriend, that society is evolving into pro-
100% first-cut poet Richard Blood Axis violinist Annabel Lee, gressively more enlightened forms.
Meltzer, National and their two dogs. He has a dis- That's where I part ways with
Public Radio's tinct fondness for good beer and all these political people," he says,
v tobacco naturally Andrei Codrescu
also sings the praises of absinthe, "whether they're the Marxist/
and Marilyn
which some friends of his distill. Communist/Socialist people who
tastes better. Manson, among
others.
He describes his circle as a diverse think that humans want to get
crew of artists, writers and musi- along on a grand scale, or whether
cians, mostly united by their it's the Nazis, who think that if
determination to stand against everyone was just of the same race,
conventional thought. they'd all get along perfectly, or the
"I know all kinds of strange anarchists, who think everyone
people," he says. "I've always would love to live this way if you
1
hung out with people who are real just took away the police.
outsiders or heretics." "They're all deluded. People
A pair of local events illustrate should worry about what happens
the wide swathe Moynihan and on their block. They should get
friends cut through Portland's (for along with their neighbors before
lack of a better term) "alternative" they worry about the great ills of
subcultures. At the end of July, society and about telling someone
Witch Hunt played a kind of New who lives 200 miles away what
Age teach-in at Pioneer to do."
Courthouse Square organized by He describes conventional poli-
Jose Arguelles, a local writer who tics as a parlor game played out to
believes he's decoded the ancient 19th-century rules while con-
13-month lunar calendar of the sumerism paves the planet and
Mayans. Last week, Moynihan and wipes out unique cultures. He says
Lee both played in an eclectic per- he never votes. He says vast
NO B U L L formance-art cabaret at Berbati's nation-states are a ridiculous way
Pan, joining in on a Gypsy bur- to organize society, and that a
lesque song popularized by tribal mosaic of small, tightly
Marlene Dietrich. bonded groups would better suit a
The Boston native has been human nature he views as largely
involved in underground music unchanged from ancient times.
and culture since he was a teen- continued on page 29
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that the quote has been lifted the voluminous material by and
from its original place in an under- about Moynihan that's been printed
ground subculture, where all in 'zines, newspapers and journals.
brands of radicalism are bandied While the activists argue that
about, and held up as a serious they're just presenting their side of
/axu-zy/at /As 6e</. Art/A wt</ 6ody
political statement. the story, there's no question that
"This is in response to a ques- their slickly printed reports, widely
X O I M i l K A S i - l>(>l('l'I.AM) 114 1 N K H I I O A I I W A Y 28a-N2»(> tion from a snotty 15-year-old distributed to journalists and law
punk rocker, and that's the spirit enforcement, have a rather unbal-
I'KAIII, D I S T K K T 5.1(1 \ W I 4 T I I AT H O Y T 2a.J-3H7i)
in which it was answered with this anced impact. In the wake of
KtTOKNK K I K T I I S T K K K T I ' l ' H I . K ' .MAIIKKT 54 1 4 :»-«!»04 Soundtracks, for example,
sort of incendiary statement," he
says. "I'm not calling for singling
•( p l e a s e e x p l o r e o u r c a t a l o g at w w w . e u r o l i n e n s . c o m } continued on page 32
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people to research Native American
culture, or Far Eastern culture, or
whatever. I encourage everyone to
Lords of Chaos won Moynihan's name figured in a num- find out as much as they can
a 1998 Firecracker ber of newspaper articles that did about their heritage."
Alternative Press not include any comment from him. Those who criticize him on
Award for music
"Once you get stuck with that political grounds, he says, really
writing. Other
Firecracker hon-
Nazi tag, it never comes off," lose him.
orees include left-
Moynihan says. "Putting an editor- "These people are worried
ist historian ial like that in The Oregonian, about some skinhead takeover?"
Howard Zinn and filled with misrepresentations, has he says. "It's not like the average
Zapatista leader serious implications for someone black person in America, or some-
Subcommandante who has to live and work in one in Thailand or Tibet, is really
Marcos. Moynihan Portland. People lose their jobs threatened by skinheads. What
and S 0 d e r l i n d are over that sort of thing." they're threatened by is a global
preparing a
Moynihan does take America's corporate monoculture that's really
German edition.
traditional fascination with the going to divest them of power and
strange to a deeper level of destroy their culture. Not to sound
"I feel perfectly
comfortable sell-
inquiry. You could trace this like some progressive type or any-
ing Blood Axis,"
national tendency back at least as thing, but I actually do support
says Janelle far as Edgar Allen Poe, and detect the idea of a diversity of human ,
Janosz, owner of it, in debased form, in the serial- groups surviving on earth.
Ozone Records. killer T-shirts sported by suburban Different cultural traditions make
Janosz doesn't metalheads. His writing examines the world interesting. In the
carry bands such people far beyond the borders of United States, you have homoge-
as infamous the mainstream. Blood Axis' allu- nous consumerism. Everyone buys
English Nazi bone- sions to a pagan past and its use the same clothes at the mall no
heads Skrewdriver.
of Nordic, Germanic and Celtic ele- matter what their heritage is.
"I've never seen
any reason not to
ments definitely contrast with That's a far more immediate threat
carry his band."
both bubble«-gum pop and sword- to racial justice or identity than
and-sorcery metal. anything emanating from neo-
"I make no apology about my Nazis."
interest in European culture,"
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Season of the Certainly, a serious consideration
Witch: Moynihan of Moynihan takes you into rocky
and Annabel Lee
terrain, where many of the
play with Witch
Hunt in Pioneer assumptions of mainstream politics
Square in July. and culture are either irrelevant or
under assault.
At the same time, who hasn't
looked at the plastic sprawl of cur-
rent pop culture and wished for
something a little more intense,
intimate and immediate? Who has-
n't spent at least a few moments
considering some of the darker
corners of human experience? Who
hasn't said things or entertained
notions that could offend? Aren't
artists, under a cultural mandate
as old as the West, supposed to
rub salt into society's wounds?
There's no doubt that some
aspects of Moynihan's work are
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