by Nicole Powers

On the surface, The Last Mountain is a documentary about the dirty business of coal, the highly destructive and toxic practice of mountaintop removal mining, and one community’s fight to preserve their homes, their livelihoods, their health, and the last great mountain in the region. However, the story of Coal River Mountain in West Virginia is allegorical of much that is wrong with America, which is why during our roundtable conversation with the film’s champion, renowned environmental lawyer and activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., he barely mentions the four-letter word that is coal. Instead, Kennedy focuses on the underlying history and climate that has allowed corporations to rape and pillage our environment, and poison and kill our citizenry with impunity.

In The Last Mountain, Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy (he retired at the end of December 2010), is typecast in the role of modern day robber baron. As the largest coal producer in Central Appalachia, his company is only able to function on the scale it does by subjugating democracy. Mountaintop removal mining is cheaper and less labor intensive than traditional underground coal extraction methods, but it causes such an affront to the landscape, water and air, that it can only be done when the authorities charged with protecting the public interest are willing and able to look the other way.

Between 2000 and 2006 Massey chalked up a staggering 60,000 EPA infractions, but has suffered little in consequences beyond much belated and pitifully low fines that serve the government’s need to be seen to be doing something while maintaining the status quo. Of course, Massey is not the only corporation and coal is far from the only industry that is using and abusing our severely compromised shell of a democracy. In light of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling allowing corporate campaign donations (and a subsequent one that makes direct-to-candidate payments permissible), our government couldn’t be for more up for sale if it were posted on eBay.

Though there will inevitably be dark days ahead for our democracy, it’s not all doom and gloom thanks to a groundswell of grassroots activism as witnessed in Coal River Valley and documented in The Last Mountain. As for the environment, Kennedy points out towards the end of this interview that there’s an (LED) light at the end of the tunnel, and ironically it’s capitalism in its cleanest and purest form that may end up saving the day.

Read our interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on SuicideGirls.com.

The Last Mountain opens in Los Angeles* on Wednesday, June 15, and in Irvine, Pasadena, Philadelphia, San Francisco*, and Berkeley on Friday, June 17.

*Bill Haney and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will appear in person at the Landmark opening night screenings in Los Angeles and San Francisco – visit the Landmark website for more details.

Manko Suicide in Dead End

• INTO: People who have notes written on the back of their hand in blue biro pen.
• NOT INTO: That question: “What lies beyond the fierce surface? Who is the girl behind the image?” It is the straightest path to my sod-off list. If I open my legs wide enough you reckon you’ll see the real Manko shining through? Well honestly darling, you can suck my cock.
• MAKES ME HAPPY: The smell of hair bleach, the sound of semi in Tokyo heat, jinxing people on my blacklist and getting mistaken for a tranny.
• MAKES ME SAD: That David Bowie ruined his fabulous Ziggy Stardust fangs in the States in the ‘80s.
• HOBBIES: Collecting tart cards.
• 5 THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: A handful of people and plane tickets to see them. The rest can sod off.
• VICES: I trust you’ll find that in any given moral system Manko is perfectly 100% vice-free.
• I SPEND MOST OF MY FREE TIME: Dressing up, wallowing in self-obsession, excessively drinking, mocking things, making things, entertaining my alter ego, not being very nice, dreaming.

Get to know Manko better over at SuicideGirls.com!

by Blogbot

If you get off on cosplay as much as we do, you may want to come over to the dark side to view this special photo set featuring VooDou Suicide. You can take a peak at the complete Real Dark Side gallery for FREE for a limited time (warning: there’s NSFW images after the link).

If you like what you see – JOIN HERE – and come play dress up in our fun lovin’ community.

XOX

by Daniel Robert Epstein

It’’s 2007 and Simon Pegg has become a bonafide movie star. Pegg’s breakout role in the surprise cult hit Shaun of the Dead has led to bigger roles such as the lab tech in Mission: Impossible III and the lead in the Run, Fat Boy, Run written by Michael Ian Black. But Hot Fuzz is the film that Pegg and his long time collaborator, director Edgar Wright, have wanted to do since they wrapped Shaun.

Shaun of the Dead is one of my favorite films of recent years, but Hot Fuzz surpasses it in acting and humor, and technically the film is a marvel. Wright and Pegg have crafted a tight screenplay that lovingly satirizes elements from some of the best/worst action films of all time. Amazingly they’’ve incorporated those ideas into pivotal and often emotional scenes.

In Hot Fuzz, Pegg plays super cop Nicholas Angel, who does such a good job of arresting bad guys that he is making his department pale in comparison. He is then transferred to the rural sleepy hamlet of Sandford. At first he spends his time trying to whip the lazy police department into shape but soon Angel realizes that Sandford is hiding a dark secret…

Read our exclusive interview with Simon Pegg on SuicideGirls.com.

Dwam Suicide in Parallelism

• INTO: Like a storm, I’ll arrive in your life with lots of noises and thunder. I’ll shake your ideas, mess with your world, open all the doors. I’ll make you giggle and whirl in the winds. I’ll make you feel dizzy and excited. You’ll lose your balance, and suddenly I’ll run away and disappear as fast as I came. And all that’s left will be a weird silence, and this vague and nauseous feeling of being upside-down in a devastated unknown place.
• NOT INTO: Feelings.
• MAKES ME HAPPY: Something something in the month of May.
• MAKES ME SAD: Why you are not naked?
• 5 THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: Either you have sex with me…Or you have sex with me.
• VICES: I’m a sexual tiger.
• I SPEND MOST OF MY FREE TIME: Neurotically making lists, overanalyzing, and daydreaming.

Get to know Dwam better over at SuicideGirls.com!

by Nicole Powers

There’s nothing pretty about coal mining at the best of times, but mountaintop removal mining is downright obscene. The process is ugly in every sense of the word, but is less labor intensive, and therefore cheaper and more desirable for the big energy corporations who do it. However the hidden expense in terms of the environment, public health, employment, and subsidies mean that it’s something that the American public is paying dearly for. The cost of mountaintop removal mining is something that is literally and metaphorically killing us.

The sordid details involve deforestation to prepare the site. The ‘overburden’ – in this case a euphemism for the top 250 to 500 feet of a mountain – is then removed using dynamite to reveal the underlying coal seam. The rubble created as the mountaintop is blown away is generally pushed down the mountainside, covering flora and fauna, rivers and streams, and anything else in its wake. Once the coal has been removed the mining companies are supposed to restore the site, but this requirement is at best broadly interpreted, and at worse blatantly flouted with few repercussions.

Fifty percent of the electricity produced in the US comes from coal-powered plants, and thirty percent of the coal used comes from Appalachia. As a result, 500 majestic Appalachian mountains have been destroyed. The biggest perpetrator of this destruction is Massey Energy, who proudly proclaim on their website that their ‘vision’ is ‘to be the premier supplier of quality coal from Central Appalachia to worldwide markets.’

The physical removal of coal however, is only the first stage in a highly toxic chain of events. The coal then has to be prepared, a procedure that uses vast amounts of water to wash off the soil and rock. The byproduct of this is a filthy sludge, which contains all manner of heavy metals and other such carcinogens, that is stored in vast impoundments. These sludge ponds are generally lazily constructed using dirt that is blasted off the mountaintop to damn a valley below. For the most part, there’s no concrete or steel reinforcement as would befit dams built on such a scale. Because of this, many of these impoundments are leaking, and, furthermore, because these structures are not lined, the pollutants even in the sound dams leak into the surrounding water table.

The environmental impact of such mining practices is supposed to be mitigated by the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, which in turn are supposed to be enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and, to some extent, the Army Corps of Engineers. But a Bush-era single word change to the Clean Water Act arrested its ability to control pollution, much to the delight of the polluters. Known as the Fill Rule, the definition of allowable fill material that could be dumped into lakes, rivers, and streams was essentially broadened to include all manner of waste. Thus, the Clean Water Act now serves as a license for big business to pollute.

Because of the intrinsically dirty nature of coal mining and the cozy relationship the industrialists have with those in power (George Bush famously called his election to office ‘a coal-fired victory’ because of the extent of the industry’s contributions to his cause), pollution is an inevitable part of the process and polluters are rarely brought to task. For example, according to Environmental Protection Agency records, Massey Energy committed over 60,000 violations between 2000 and 2006, but has paid a pittance in fines, which when compared to the company’s profits barely even register as a tickle on the wrist, never mind the slap they’re supposed to be.

In the lieu of the government acting in the interests of the people it’s supposed to represent, the battle for clean air and water, and sustainable energy and jobs is being fought on the ground by those Big Coal directly adversely effects. The struggle of one such community in West Virginia’s Coal River Valley, whose homes, land, health, and employment prospects have been blighted by Massey’s mountaintop removal mining operations, is documented in a new film, The Last Mountain.

A collaboration between filmmaker Bill Haney (whose previous credits include the Academy Award-shortlisted Price of Sugar) and renowned environmental lawyer and activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., The Last Mountain should be mandatory viewing for anyone who’s ever switched on a light. The film not only tells the inspiring story of the grassroots fight against the Goliath that is Massey, but also underlines our implicit culpability, which can be summed up by one simple yet staggering statistic: sixteen pounds of coal is burned each day for every man woman and child in the US.

SuicideGirls participated in roundtables with Haney and Kennedy. The following is excerpted from the interview with Haney (our conversation with Kennedy is posted here).

Read our interview with Bill Haney on SuicideGirls.com.

The Last Mountain opens in Los Angeles* on Wednesday, June 15, and in Irvine, Pasadena, Philadelphia, San Francisco*, and Berkeley on Friday, June 17.

*Bill Haney and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will appear in person at the Landmark opening night screenings in Los Angeles and San Francisco – visit the Landmark website for more details.

Chrysis Suicide in A Dull Roar

• INTO: World events, social avoidance, grammar, straight-edge, going fast, veterinary medicine, coffee, sushi, old dogs, smarties (and not the candy), baking a cake for every reason, stirring up trouble, brain-stretch, language, truth, blood, bruises, scars, being left to my devices.
• NOT INTO: People who prey on others, fucking liars, forward boys, fatty foods, the party scene, the Tea Party, pollution (environmental and mental), second-hand smoke, prejudice, shower curtains, shower stalls, fake laughs, speeding tickets, washing silverware, Ohio winters, uneducated opinions, lack of effort, lack of tact, lack of personal or societal awareness, taking anyone’s word for anything, people who inherit their parents’ positions or interests, imposition.
• MAKES ME HAPPY: Huge dogs, vanilla-scented things, sunlight spots on the floor, veggie burgers, listening to baseball on the radio, using double-negatives, violent weather, gut laughter, strong coffee in an oversized chair, working on my car, ambient noise, the laundry aisle at the store, heavy blankets, hospital rooms / bandages, charity.
• MAKES ME SAD: Does everyone list “animal cruelty?” — well, me too. And willful ignorance (especially toward the English language or politics), propaganda, apathy, time, aging and birthdays, being around happy families (especially around the holidays), driving through industrial cities, weak coffee, actual silence, self-servers and self-aggrandizers (either one in denial = – 10 pts).
• HOBBIES: Cycle of self-destruction and self-improvement fueled by coffee.
• 5 THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: Heavy eyeliner, unlimited texting, espresso, sunlight, a reliable pen.
• VICES: Disclosure.
• I SPEND MOST OF MY FREE TIME: Neurotically making lists, overanalyzing, and daydreaming..

Get to know Chrysis better over at SuicideGirls.com!