Shredding the Veil of Banality

Richard Metzger's
"Disinformation- The Interviews"

a review by Preston Peet
for DrugWar.com
(photos by Preston Peet)

Feb. 2, 2003

If “occultism is not an attempt to draw aside the veil of the unknown, but simply the veil of banality that we call the present,” as Colin Wilson wrote in his 1971 classic, “The Occult,” then Richard Metzger is an occultist extraordinaire.

After the Sci-Fi channel contracted and paid for, then cancelled running “Disinformation”- Metzger’s wild ride of a television show originally produced for and aired on the UK’s Channel 4- Metzger culled through countless hours of video, gathering and transcribing the more “intellectual” segments together inside the cover of one book, aptly titled “Disinformation- The Interviews.”

Media viruses, magick, psychotronics, conspiracies, plant consciousness, cults and bands, time machines, religion, freaks, body manipulations and drugs, the topics covered are as diverse and intriguing as the free-thinking interviewees themselves. I flew through this book, happily reveling in the irreverent, lucid, outlandish viewpoints seldom seen or heard in most mainstream corporate media.

As Metzger once told me in an interview for High Times magazine, (August 2000) “I like to cause trouble. I like to get people talking about things they might not normally talk about- things that could be of great benefit socially if people did talk about them. Humanity itself is one big ecosystem. Everything is interconnected. We are all part of this big Leviathan, like Howard Bloom describes in his book, ‘The Lucifer Principle’. There is a need for people who say, ‘Wait a minute, that’s not the only way to do this’ or ‘What are you guys thinking? You could do it like that.’” Now with “Disinformation- The Interviews” Metzger, who with partner Gary Baddeley founded the influential website and publishing company Disinfo.com, is giving some of those people another opportunity to say those things and more.

Artist and interviewee Joe Coleman with wife Whitney Ward in NYC

Some of the guests making appearances in this beautifully illustrated collection include Illuminati Trilogy author Robert Anton Wilson, Invisibles comics creator Grant Morrison, the above mentioned author Howard Bloom, artist Paul Laffoley, Philosopher and eco-futurist Peter Russell, media critic and author Douglas Rushkoff, the indescribable goth-shock rocker and high-fashion model Kembra Pfahler, artist Joe Coleman, and the ever fascinating musician and poet Genesis P-Orridge. These people are all weird- either too smart, too self-governing, too bizarre, too aware, too something for most people who consider themselves well adjusted and normal to admit they relate to. But all give voice and substance to the ideas that few else entertain, to ideas that dwell deep inside, only appearing in the privacy of most minds. They think critically and speak out, living life the way they find best suits them without buying into the mass hive, Gap/Walmart mentality that embodies a vast portion of Western culture today, which is probably why the Sci-Fi channel cancelled its contracted run of the brilliant television show for which these interviews were conducted.

Metzger with Nick Zedd in NYC

If you’re tired of the same old dreck and jive on your tv day in, night out, in your newspapers and pop entertainment offerings, “Disinformation- The Interviews” is a way out of the box. The veil of modern banality doesn’t stand a chance with folk like Metzger and those he interviews out there shredding away with such joyful enthusiasm.

An accompanying DVD of the interviews will be released in mid-February 2003, available at disinfo.com.