\u2022 Tim Stoen has published the third edition of his memoir. Entitled Surviving Utopia<\/em><\/a>, the book is, in the author\u2019s description of it, \u201ca more autobiographical, less \u2018academic,\u2019 version of Love Them to Death<\/em>, published in March 2017.\u201d The original title of the book, publishing in December 2015, was Marked for Death: My War with Jim Jones the Devil of Jonestown<\/em> and was reviewed twice for this site, by Matthew Thomas Farrell<\/a> and John R. Hall<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jonestown in Music<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u2022 Skynd, a trio of musicians of electronica \u2013 whose origins are apparently as mysterious as the identities themselves \u2013 has produced a half dozen songs<\/a> and videos commemorating mass murderers from the past. One of their songs \u2013 entitled simply Jim Jones<\/a> \u2013 includes lyrics taken from the so-called \u201cDeath Tape,\u201d recorded on Jonestown\u2019s last day, as well as references to White Nights. The video images are mainly of figures draped in sheets, bathed in white or red light, although there are several images of anonymous people embracing each other before they drink from a goblet.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Musical Hype, a website that has compiled playlists based on various themes, has created a list of 10 Songs About Cult Leader Jim Jones & Jonestown<\/a>. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/year-zero.jpg\")
<\/a>\u2022 San Francisco Year Zero<\/a><\/em>, a book by Lincoln Mitchell published in late 2019, takes a single year from the history of San Francisco to provide a basis for understanding the Bay Area in the present day. The year he chooses is 1978. While much of the book focuses on Mitchell\u2019s main interest of baseball, it spends much time on the Peoples Temple tragedy and the assassinations of two city leaders, Mayor George Moscone and Councilman Harvey Milk, ten days later \u201cas moments that ultimately changed San Francisco\u2019s fate but also provides somewhat of a corrective on the often misconstrued, or altogether ignored, narratives of the city\u2019s identity.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/D-2.jpg\")
<\/a>\u2022 A K-pop artist initially denied that he knew who Jim Jones was when he used part of the so-called \u201cDeath Tape\u201d as the introduction to the track \u201cWhat Do You Think?\u201d on his D-2<\/em> mixtape album released in May 2020. Faced with criticism over the use of the snippet of audio of Jim Jones<\/a>, the record label for BTS Suga countered, \u201cthe producer of this song selected the audio sample as he was considering the mood of the track, with no ulterior intentions and no knowledge of the person who delivered the speech.\u201d The statement did not mollify Suga\u2019s critics, who pointed to additional references to Jonestown in the artist\u2019s previous works and in those of artists with whom he had collaborated. The producers later offered an apology \u201cfor anyone who may have been hurt or offended\u201d and re-issued the track without the sample.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>\u2022 The independent film, The Jonestown Defense<\/em>, had its world premiere on August 21, 2020 at the MethodFest Film Festival in Sherman Oaks, California. The dramatic film, which follows a businessman dealing with collapse in both his professional and personal life, takes its title from the phrase, \u201cJonestown defense,\u201d defined as a defensive tactic employed by the management of a target company to prevent a hostile takeover but which is so extreme that it often leads to the destruction of the target corporation. The expression takes its origin in the Jonestown tragedy.<\/p>\n