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r.u. sirius
by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - January 21, 2001

His latest maverick project Getting It is a daily Internet only publication with an audaciously subversive lens on mass culture and current news events. But for fans of R.U. Sirius, one of the true cyberculture 'early adopters', this comes as no surprise.

Sirius is probably best known for Mondo 2000, the legendary cyberian magazine that he cofounded and edited (between 1989 and 1993). Mondo 2000 promoted many of cyberculture's early trends and visceral images: Virtual Reality; Teledildonics; Infinite Personality Complexes; philosophers like Arthur Kroker, Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson.

Many of its key writers later wrote for Wired, and there have been suggestions that the latter magazine dumbed down the memeplexes for the mass mind.

This period is captured in Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge (1992) and in Douglas Rushkoff's seminal Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace (1994). Sirius has offered a further re-assessment of cyberculture's early years in 21st Century Revolutionary: R.U. Sirius 1984-1998 (1999), but he is not trapped by nostalgic yearnings.

By the mid-1990s, R.U. Sirius had already moved on, showing his higher evolutionary perspective through a variety of mutating projects. He recorded an unreleased album fronting MV Inc for Trent Reznor's Nothing Records in 1994, and released How to Mutate and Take Over the World (1996). Acknowledging the PoMo academic excesses earlier than most, the book Cyberpunk Handbook: The Real Cuberpunk Fakebook (1996) written with St. Jude, parodied the growing commercialization of fringe culture and the sudden discovery of cyberpunk fiction. He helped Timothy Leary write Design For Dying (1997) and revise The Politics of Ecstasy (1998).

The radical tabloid Revolting! attracted controversy when Sirius meme-spliced corporate banner advertising with articles on Charles Manson and the Heaven's Gate cult. Sirius channelled his subversive agitprop (providing a link to Abbie Hoffman) into The Revolution, a powerful political party designed to alter US presidential politics. His definitive political statements will be issued in the forthcoming book The Revolution: Quotations from Revolutionary Party Chairman R. U. Sirius (Los Angeles: Feral House, 2000).

In a landscape dominated by Time-Warner/AOL mergers and the Amazonification of the Internet, R.U. Sirius remains an authoritative in-your-face voice, rallying against hand-outs to corporate America and the international arms trade.

Oslo VR '94 Keynote Address
R.U. Sirius briefly examines the Internet's revolutionary pulse in this keynote address for Oslo VR '94.

Disinformation Endorses R.U. Sirius For President
An objective sign that the Weird are turning pro.

Web Site Noir
A brief 'Washington Post' newspaper article (August 22nd, 1996) about the film project 'Synthetic Pleasures', featuring R.U. Sirius.

MV: IOU Babe
Hear the debut album by MV Inc('The Artists Formerly Known As Mondo Vanilli'), a project by R.U. Sirius. Requires Macromedia Shockwave.

The Mutate Project
A collection of discussion forums; MV Inc multimedia clips; and early cyberculture missives featuring the thoughts of R.U. Sirius.

Mondo 1995
Jack Boulware's article 'Mondo 1995' captures the dramatic rise and fall of the ultra-hip 'Mondo 2000' crew in all its glory. Compulsive reading.

Mondo 2000 Vs. Wired
R.U. Sirius offers some scathing thoughts on the 'Mondo 2000/Wired' magazine war, including a brilliant section on the future of electronic zines. From the pages of the sadly missed 21.C magazine.

Media Voyeurism
An explosive article by R.U. Sirius and St. Jude for 'Wired' magazine (February 1994) examining media voyeurism and tabloid talk-show politics.

Wired=GBN?
This 'New York Times' article by Douglas Rushkoff exposed the links between the 'Global Business Network' think-tank and 'Wired' magazine. More fuel for the 'Mondo 2000/Wired' magazine war allegations.

Global Business Network: Mondo 2000
A review of Mondo 2000 magazine from the Global Business Network think-tank, which was linked by Douglas Rushkoff to Wired magazine.

Global Business Network: Mondo 2000 User's Guide To The New Edge
An interesting review by Global Business Network member Stewart Brand on the seminal Mondo 2000 anthology. Brand explicitely critiques Mondo 2000 content, and also links GBN with The WELL conference system.

Hotmondo2100.com
The 'Suck' web-site crew offer their thoughts on the 'Mondo 2000/Wired' magazine war, and examine a few other brilliant publications (now 'dead media') including 'Fringeware Review' and '21.C'.

PoMo To Go: A User's Guide To Trendy French Intellectuals
A 'Wired' magazine (June 1994) feature in which R.U. Sirius skillfully dissects cyberculture's fascination with French philosophers, bypassing the Continental school.

The English Ideology And Wired Magazine
This three-part article by Mark Stahlman for 'Rewired' (November 1996) is a thoughtful exploration of the death of 'Wired UK', which triggered a re-assessment of the early cyberculture movement pioneered by R.U. Sirius.

R.U. Sirius
A profile of R.U. Sirius chronicling his anti-career and collaborations. Includes a valuable timeline showing Sirius' debt to Abbie Hoffman.

The Site: R.U. Sirius
This interview with R.U. Sirius covers vyberculture's early years and the controversy surrounding his 'Revolting' site.

Modulations: Cinema For The Ear
Details for the film 'Modulations', which features commentary by R.U. Sirius on identity-related issues.

Essential Media: R.U. Sirius Interviewed By R.U. Frivolous
R.U. Sirius outlines his policies for 'The Revolution' party's 2000 presidential campaign.

Mindjack: A Sirius Interview About The Revolution
Donald Melanson gets the scoop from R.U. Sirius about his anarchist party 'The Revolution'; the dangers of taking politics too seriously; and applying heuristics to the contemporary political arena.

Cyberculture Evolution
R.U. Sirius interviews Jon Lebkowsky for the 'Austin Chronicle' about living fringe lives; the fallacies of controlling evolution; Zen; Charles Bukowski and more. An eye-opening interview from two hardcore netizens.

Weird Times: Death Of Politiccs
A special issue of 'Weird Times' zine promoting cyberspace's own presidential candidate: R.U. Sirius.

Transit Lounge: Wake Up Calls And Travellers' Tales From The Future
R.U. Sirius essay excerpts and details of the excellent cyberculture anthology 'Transit Lounge', edited by Ashley Crawford and Ray Edgar. A must-read book!

Net Prank Places Mainstream Ads On 'Revolting' Site
ZDNet coverage of the controversial net prank that landed R.U. Sirius' 'Revolting' web-site in hot water with certain hi-tech companies. Also features commentary by Disinformation's Richard Metzger.

Timothy Leary: Design For Dying
Chris Mitchell offers his views on 'Design For Dying' (1997), the posthumous released book written by Timothy Leary in collaboration with R.U. Sirius.

Disinfo.con: The Interviews: R.U. Sirius
R.U. Sirius is interviewed by Playboy's 'Digital Culture' team at the 'Disinfo.con 2000' conference about 'The Revolution' party. Sirius states: "I think it makes it hard to talk about counterculture because it dissipates any mainstream culture that you can brush up against. You used to have a couple of channels of TV and people reading the same newspapers, and that was a mainstream sensibility. Now that there are tens of thousands of media signals, there is no mainstream culture. It's all subculture. The Internet is a victory for counterculture."

A Serious View From the Fringe
This Wired News interview (January 20, 2001), by Jessie Seyfer, features some "illuminating" comments by R.U. Sirius about George W. Bush's presidency, his plans for The Revolution Party, the fate of early 1990s cyberculture pundits, the Battle in Seattle, and what inspires him. R.U. Sirius: "Putting oil men in charge of America right now is like sending Hunter Thompson off to look after Elvis during the summer of '77."

Getting It
'Getting It' is the Internet-only daily publication master-minded by R.U. Sirius, and featuring Robert Anton Wilson, Lydia Lunch, Mark Dery and many other cool writers. A must read site!

Revolting: The News You Deserve!
A humurous R.U. Sirius side-project that parodied the World Wyrd Web's tabloid extremism, including great articles on Charles Manson, Heaven's Gate, Trent Reznor and Princess Diana conspiracies.

Web Of Deceit
An incisive collection of early cyberculture articles and book articles by R.U. Sirius, including material now difficult to find elsewhere. Find out the truth about 'Mondo 2000', 'Fake Cyberpunk' and more!

Cyberia: Life In The Trenches Of Cyberspace
The COMPLETE text of Douglas Rushkoff's classic book 'Cyberia: Life In The Trenches Of Cyberspace' (Harper SanFrancisco, 1994) is now online for your reading pleasure. 'Cyberia' features R.U. Sirius and is a snapshot of the early cyberculture milieu that catapulted him to worldwide attention. Very useful for background research.

Sex Machine
In this stunning 'Wired' magazine article (May 1997), R.U. Sirius interviews David Cronenberg about his film 'Crash' (1996). One of Cronenberg's most revealing and insightful interviews.

Just Say Nothing
R.U. Sirius wittily deconstructs the philosophies inherent in the new Digital Generations.

Kathy Acker: Where Does She Get Off?
A moving and perceptive Kathy Acker interview conducted by R.U Sirius. Acker talks about Rolfing; Georges Bataille; Modern Primitives and more. Abundant proof that Kathy Acker is sadly missed.

30 Days In San Francisco 1.6
Jon Labkowsky interviews R.U. Sirius for 'CTheory' journal about his early cyberculture hijinx; 'Mondo 2000'; spectator sports; the 'Nike' William S. Burroughs ad; and other subversive topics. A great conversation that tears apart the tendency for cyberculture to self-destruct through its frantic quest for being Hip.

Timothy Leary, 1920-1996
An eulogy by R.U. Sirius covering three phases of Timothy Leary's life: The Acid Guru; The Adventurer/Explorer; and The Philosopher. The 'Infinity Personality Complex' in action!

The Revolution
'Victory Over Horseshit!' proclaims the site of R.U. Sirius' anarchist party which has dramatically altered the face of US presidential politics: it promotes some very sane policies to end terrorism; end the national security state; and obliterate corporate welfare. Spread the 'Manhatten Project Toward Utopia' meme-plex!

Sonic Outlaws Part 6: R.U. Sirius & Negativland Ambush 'The Edge'
Courtesy of 'Free Speech Internet Television', Craig Baldwin's incredible film 'Sonic Outlaws' (1995) is now available online! "Members of Negativland ambush rock superstar 'The Edge' (from the band U2) during a call-in show hosted by R.U. Sirius." The sixth of an epic thirteen-part series. RealVideo. 6 minutes.

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