Oswald Spengler's 1918-22 best-seller The Decline of the West mourned the engulfing of Kultur by the cosmopolitan anthill of Zivilisation and argued that only a dictatorship could arrest the decline. Part II: The Metal Years skews closer to a Spinal Tap experience, capturing what has since become known as hair metal or cock rock: tight leather, teased mullets, fingerless gloves, Jack Daniels chased with cocaine. By Annalee Newitz. 7 Have legal second residences in places that will be less affected by the decline of western civilization. But Ozzys one of the funniest people alive. April 1, 2021. Much painting, music, and film of the 1920s illustrated. You get two million and well handle everything else. But The Stones go: no, we want this long-haired guy and his team to handle our shit. The Germs charismatic young frontman, Darby Crash, is the films most magnetic force and the most tragic, too. I now have two children, I still do twenty to thirty shows a year with Tuff, and I play with a band out of Germany called Shameless. 9 Have precious metals safely stored in non-bank vaults overseas. It was Penelopes idea to film us in the hot tub, at her house, says guitarist Jeff Duncan. In the UK alone, he has written for Smash Hits, Q, Mojo, The Sunday Times, Radio Times, Classic Rock, HiFi News and more. Thankfully she was savvy enough to balance these with the almost famous, like Randy O, frontman of a band whose major exposure would begin and end with this film. While his band, Tuff, never made it to the very top of the Sunset Strip food chain, Rachelles can-do attitude helped him weather the hard times of the 90s. We stopped London/DPriest in 1992 after our manager deserted us. So then I had an amazing time hangin out with Ronnie and the boys. South Central were big for backyard shows when I was around and even now still living in the area, they're still around. For those of us who grew up watching the Decline series, Spheeris' name is as synonymous with . All we had was a bag of weed, two bottles of booze and our guitar players credit card. The films (released in 1981, 1988, and 1998) take a look at a range of . There were certain things we had to manipulate. It took me years to get over the humiliation Odin in their prime. While being interviewed, O was convinced he would be a millionaire and his band bigger than Zeppelin. It was a period of political, philosophical, artistic, and scientific achievements that formed a legacy with unparalleled influence on Western civilization. I remember driving down Sunset Strip in my car, seeing all these strangely dressed people spilling out on to the sidewalk. Were all still friends, none of us are destitute Seduce in the 80s. Youve got some Janning to do! And because it was not my band, I really enjoyed being able to kick back a bit and be more carefree. Were doing gigs, we recorded a live album last year, and played some shows in Germany and Switzerland. Directed by acclaimed documentary maker Penelope Spheeris and originally released in June 1988, it swiftly became a cult classic (and an undeniable influence on a later Spheeris movie, Waynes World). Crash was the victim of a chaotic family situation that spat him into the caverns of LA: translucent, addicted to drugs and riddled with insecurities about his sexuality, looks and abilities. But The Decline of Western Civilization is the first and best film of what would become a loosely linked trilogy exploring different LA subcultures over three decades. While watching the movie, I kept thinking about Penelope Spheeris' series of anthropological documentaries about the LA rock sceneThe Decline of Western Civilization, Parts I-IIIwhich were finally re-released last month after being frustratingly very unavailable for years in any web format. Assistance in our self-imposed ruin will not come from hostile neighbors, but from our own technological powers. 1981 Directed by Penelope Spheeris. The Westonce seen by millions around the world as a beacon of civilization and prosperityis now widely seen as a culture in decline and a society gone rotten. The director filmed everyone answering the question: But what if you dont make it? Nobody could contemplate failure, but wed already been around for five years and had played gigs, going on after comedians. This can be difficult, because there is no strict definition of civilisation, nor an overarching database of their births and deaths. Now that Meredith is gone, it is business as usual at Grey Sloan Memorial. Enjoy. Penelope Spheeris: My family background was chaotic, so when I saw the punk thing happening in clubs I felt very at home with it. We can also invest in recovery. I carried London on even after Lizzie left. The typical measurement of the Gini Index suggests that inequality has decreased slightly globally (although it is increasing within countries). After centuries, there are the decay of the cities, also crucial to the decline of a civilization. So I came up with this idea for a website called Metal Sludge, where we would make fun of the eighties, a very affectionate piss-take. They are global, human-driven, quicker, and more severe. That was the emergence of the Los Angeles Punk scene in 1979-80. My first reaction was, oh my God, I cant handle it. We were already oddballs, even within the scene, because I was so seventies-influenced. Inequality is more difficult to calculate. Collapse can be defined as a rapid and enduring loss of population, identity and socio-economic complexity. Regardless of what we said, even as we were being filmed, we were already close to breaking up: I went to the premiere as a member of Armored Saint. Worryingly, the world is now deeply interconnected and interdependent. Brought up in her fathers travelling carnival, Penelope Spheeris was the ideal person to turn the camera on the three-ring circus that was the 80s/90s Sunset Strip scene. I see kids now with their leather jackets and long hair, totally believing that their band is going to make it, just like we did, but ironically, the films cult classic status has given us a whole new audience. Collapse is often quick and greatness provides no immunity. "You can't equivocate on the stuation.". "It's been a year of pure hell," filmmaker Penelope Spheeris says with a laugh. He was right in some respects: civilisations are often responsible for their own decline. It was supposed to be on the Sunday, but Penelope called me Saturday morning and goes: Can you film it today, Chris? I go: I been up for three days, partying since I got home from London. And she goes: Well, do you mind? And I go: No. And right when I was goin out the door, my mom pulled up. This answer w. Offscreen, he was one himself. In no other civilization did this debate about the limits of the sacred and the profane, this constant effort at trying to grasp the divine through word and deed, last continuously for over five thousand years. In 1981, the LAPD Chief of Police Daryl Gates wrote a letter demanding the film not be shown again in the city. In the bonus features of the DVD, there is the extended story of what happened to the painter. The 1% have increased in their share of global income from approximately 16% in 1980 to over 20% today. The rich are getting richer, which in past civilisations has created additional stress on societies (Credit: Getty Images). Article. Four years ago I told my daughter Anna that I wanted her to come and work for me. Oshkosh, Wisconsin-born Steven Hanseter was a teenage skater who grew up on punk rock, before Mtley Cre provided his Road To Hair Metal Damascus moment and he rechristened himself Stevie Rachelle. As the singer in Faster Pussycat and co-founder of the notorious, heroically debauched Cathouse club, Seattle-born Taime Downe or Gustave Molvik to his parents was perfectly placed to witness the rise and fall of the Sunset Strip scene. We had no idea that all the other bands would get so big that their shit wouldnt stink. In 87, the Sunset Strip was one big party, seven nights a week, Borden says, which would carry on after the gig in some house or other in Hollywood Hills. I said Id end up on Skid Row if we didnt make it. Weve got romance, breakups, emotionally loaded dumplings this episode has a little bit of everything! 10 Have a source of food production if you can. The earliest civilizations developed between 4000 and 3000 B.C.E., when the rise of agriculture and trade allowed people to have surplus food and economic stability. He is scared of the violence that comes with his bands shows, even though he is the drunken instigator of most of it. Studying the demise of historic civilisations can tell us how much risk we face today, says collapse expert Luke Kemp. Brought up in her father's travelling carnival, Penelope Spheeris was the ideal person to turn the camera on the three-ring circus that was the 80s/90s Sunset Strip scene. It wasnt anything against the Russian people it was drugs- and alcohol-fuelled silliness and I didnt know the flag was fireproof. Taime Downe: When Faster Pussycat started, Mtley and Ratt had already taken off, and newer bands like Poison were playing the Strip. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. I went on an aversion therapy program to quit drinkin. History suggests it is likely, but we have the unique advantage of being able to learn from the wreckages of societies past. mainman]? She goes: Well, he wants money. In that time, weve toured with Motrhead, played the Reading festival and had a shared cover of Metal Hammer magazine last December. It was a fun comment that I didnt expect to be taken seriously. Bath Our tightly-coupled, globalised economic system is, if anything, more likely to make crisis spread. Or why not treat yourself? The Decline of Western Civilization. Here's the full list of the civilisations displayed above. In other words, if two individuals earning $1 and $100,000 both doubled their income, the Gini would show no change. Well shortly be recording tracks for the next London album.. Spheeris intended to catalogue the same type of LA punk scene she encountered in 1979 but found the kids were no longer all right. The collapse of the Anasazi, the Tiwanaku civilisation, the Akkadians, the Mayan, the Roman Empire, and many others have all coincided with abrupt climatic changes, usually droughts. Whats that? Nobody knew. Here's what some people had to say about Penelope Spheeris' three classic documentaries, now in one collection for the first time ever: "The arrival of "The Decline of Western Civilization Collection' as a pristine ex Ill get stuck in the hallway because I cant get my legs to move. Five years later, it had plummeted to 2 million sq km (770,000 . The ECI also measures the knowledge-intensity of exports. A woman walks in the ruins of a town in Syria following conflict between fighters (Credit: Getty Images). Like, we had a seven-foot-high drum riser with a girl dancing underneath it. The first person here seemed confused as to what Western Civilization is. Each of these has been trending steeply upwards. My hair started getting longer, I wore leather pants, bracelets, eyeliner and all that, but I liked a good nights sleep and drinking orange juice at breakfast. If I was still drinkin Id be dead now. The record companies dropped all of our shit; crazy hair and make-up kind of went away. Louder is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. It was accurate. I love you, Chris.. Since its first publication in two volumes between 1918-1923, The Decline of the West has ranked as one of the most widely read and most talked about books of our time. That was difficult, because Nadir was hungry to have one of those heavy metal record deals, but chasing deals by trying to prove how metal you are wasnt where I wanted to be at. Ive got long hair, but Im a businessman.. The video game instructions and box are included. Another measure of increasing complexity is called Energy Return on Investment (EROI). But the gap between the two would have jumped from $99,999 to $198,998. The policy proposals are there. A slice of music hisory The early LA Punk scene. Including performances by X, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Germs and Alice . Tainter also blames it as a chief culprit of collapse, including for the Mayan. One of the security guards started trying to get his hands on me, but our manager happened to have a nice, compact nine-millimetre pistol, pulled it out and told this guy to back the the fuck off. Difference #4: Human civilization's collective capacity to confront its mounting crises is crippled by a fragmented political system of antagonistic nations ruled by corrupt elites who care more about power and wealth than people and the planet. Societies of the past and present are just complex systems composed of people and technology. The concentration of humans and cattle in walled settlements with poor hygiene made disease outbreaks unavoidable and catastrophic. Oh, Loosey! So concluded the historian Arnold Toynbee in his 12-volume magnum opus A Study of History. Before being interviewed, I asked if I could see what shed already filmed so I didnt make an idiot of myself, but I still kinda did. We already had our deal with Elektra Records, and wed just finished doing the first album, but it hadnt been released yet when we did the interview. Virtually all past civilisations have faced this fate. Latest on The Decline of Western Civilization 'The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years' Captures Last Days Of L.A. Glam Scene By Benjamin H. Smith Jul 12, 2019 What can this tell us about the future of global modern civilisation? By the time The Cathouse was up and running we were off, constantly touring. Western Civilization, Our Tradition. 4.0 out of 5 stars. If the fate of previous civilisations can be a roadmap to our future, what does it say? The movie is about the Los Angeles punk rock scene and was directed by Penelope Spheeris. Of course, hes still not as big as Robert Plant, but he hasnt killed himself yet. When I saw my previous band on screen, I was embarrassed. Our technological capabilities may have the potential to delay collapse (Credit: Getty Images). Unfortunately, most renewable replacements, such as solar, have a markedly lower EROI, largely due to their energy density and the rare earth metals and manufacturing required to produce them. They are shown onstage trying to burn a Russian flag which wont catch fire and almost blowing themselves up with fireworks. So, according to Reinhart and Rogoff's book, we can expect that the US and western Europe are now in a long-term type of decline. Again. We signed to Miles Copelands IRS label in California just as the movie was being made, Black says, so our scenes in the movie are actually our first day in LA. While there is no single accepted theory for why collapses happen, historians, anthropologists and others have proposed various explanations, including: CLIMATIC CHANGE: When climatic stability changes, the results can be disastrous, resulting in crop failure, starvation and desertification. He'll be dressed and groomed just like the White . In the movie, singer Nadir DPriest described the endearingly hapless combo as a training school for rock stars as soon as they leave, they become rock stars. Within a couple of days I auditioned, and got the job. The Decline of Western Civilization triple set of music documentaries is out now as a DVD and Blu-ray box set. Civilizations don't really die. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. But it remained unreleased on DVD until it finally got a long-deserved reissue as part of a box set with its less boneheaded predecessor, The Decline Of Western Civilisation Part I (which dealt with LAs punk scene) and the belated third part, which addressed Americas homeless youth. They also provided some of the funniest moments in The Decline of Western Civilisation Part II: the Metal Years. New instruments of violence, such as lethal autonomous weapons, may be available in the near future. The Decline of Western Civilization is a 1981 American documentary filmed through 1979 and 1980. The Roman Empire, for example, was the victim of many ills including overexpansion, climatic change, environmental degradation and poor leadership. The vulnerability of national infrastructure. Only the political will is lacking. Whats Next for Convicted Sex Criminals Harvey Weinstein and R. Kelly? where they devised what some now call "cultural Marxism"a strategy for creating a cultural revolution to undermine Western capitalism and "outmoded" biblical values . She said: Only if you do the Decline box set first. She hung around the LA music scene, she was very familiar with the clubs and the people, and so she knew there was an audience, a huge appetite, out there for those films. You want to know the truth? Ive never rode a motorcycle or done one single line of cocaine. Growing up a punk rock kid in a small or at least smallish town, Penelope Spheeris ' 1981 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, chronicling the early Los Angeles scene, served as a de . I see all these young faces in the crowd and just think: Wow!. In theory, a civilisation might be less vulnerable to collapse if new technologies can mitigate against pressures such as climate change. The Southeast is alive and well Cudahy, Downey, Bell . Now I cant wash a dish, cant button my shirt. Environmental degradation and climate change The documentary was equally entertaining, even if the focus was less on the music and more on musicians' lust for sex, drugs and stardom. And while our scale may now be global, collapse appears to happen to both sprawling empires and fledgling kingdoms alike. No skipping on CD/DVD. Fri., 7:30 p.m. $10. Collapse is a tipping point phenomena, when compounding stressors overrun societal coping capacity. So I said: If we dont make it big, well have an amazing time.. In retrospect, everybody talks about it real fondly, but at the time bands were fightin like cats and dogs, steppin on one another. ancient Greek civilization, the period following Mycenaean civilization, which ended about 1200 bce, to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 bce. The Decline of Western Civilization Part III (1996) - A film detailing the furious lives and tragic deaths of a group of gutter punks living in L.A. from 96'-97'. I bumped into the president of Capitol in the elevator once and he said: Your song, Me Against the World, should have been No1. I thought: Well, you distributed it! It felt like we were running a race that we couldnt win. If it does not dribble to a close, it . Think of civilisation as a poorly-built ladder. The Benson Center supports the study of Western civilization. Im not sure if the film helped or hindered us, but its been 27 years and Im talking to you from beside the pool. This film came in 1988, seven years after the first, and by then Spheeris could attract the already famous including Ozzy Osbourne, Steven Tyler, Alice Cooper, Kiss and Lemmy to give lengthy interviews. So I knew most of the people in that movie before I filmed them. She sat down with Ashley Ray-Harris to dive into how and why she first decided to document what was happening around her and, of course, share plenty of stories about navigating the entertainment industry, from doing coke with Lemmy at a restaurant to falling in love with a gutter punk. Some recovered or transformed, such as the Chinese and Egyptian. It was good to make a change. The teeth of disk holder are undamaged. (Image credit: Getty Images) By Rachel Nuwer 18th April 2017. But The Decline of Western Civilization is the first and best film of what would become a loosely linked trilogy exploring different LA subcultures over three decades. Johnny is a music journalist, author and archivist of forty years experience. The collapse of our civilisation is not inevitable. Nuclear war in itself could result in an existential risk: either the extinction of our species, or a permanent catapult back to the Stone Age. We got a bit of notoriety and perhaps a little more money from promoters, but we were on the same independent label [Enigma] as Poison and the distributors, Capitol, put all their resources into them. The resultant film was so bleak it was passed over for general release in the late 90s. I think the key point I would argue is that the US in particular - and many countries in Europe as well - have not yet understood the fact that they now have structural unemployment. Like many of the bands featured in The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II, Odin were already legends in their own minds by the time the film crew arrived. Yet the higher you climb, the larger the fall. In all its various editions, it has sold nearly 100,000 copies. She discovered clusters of teenage runaways, dubbed gutter punks partly due to an anti-establishment stance and a shared aesthetic, but mainly because they often lived in the street. I even got a couple of those investments., The Los Angeles quartet were filmed tearing through Steppenwolfs Born To Be Wild, with the singer (also named Lizzy Borden) declaring: We want to be the biggest, most outrageous heavy metal band ever but theres a million bands out there, playing the clubs for a lifetime.. Terms of Service apply. That film, released in 1981 . Other collapses were permanent, as was the case of Easter Island. The film didnt do much for our career. There are already well-developed ideas for improving the ability of food and knowledge systems to be recuperated after catastrophe. I got the bands first record deal when those guys couldnt get a hand-job from the industry, but they were long gone by the time we did the film. I wasnt sure, at the end of Chriss interview, that I even had an interview but, you know, it wasnt me that gave him the vodka. Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix have broken up after he allegedly cheated on her with Raquel Leviss. EXTERNAL SHOCKS: In other words, the four horsemen: war, natural disasters, famine and plagues.