The books, movies and music of 2011

THIS POST IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION - Old school internet style.

I'd almost decided to skip this post, since I feel I have no clue anymore. However, I just found an album that kicked my ass all over the place, so my plan is to return to this post and add stuff whenever I feel like it. When the post is finalized, I'll let you know.

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MUSIC – The music section is complete. I'll go for the movies next.

40 Watt Sun
The Inside Room
Cyclone Empire

This is THE album of 2011 for me. Total bölfezt.
The lyrics are truly soul crushing and the music is overwhelming. I ain't got much more to say, but if you like this one you need to check out all releases by Warning as well. Pretty much the same band.

Restless, the opening song of The Inside Room, is available here (original version) and here (acoustic version). They are both equally amazing.

40 Watt Sun is playing the Roadburn festival in Tilburg this year. I'm gonna hide in the back and probably cry my eyes out.

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Counterblast

Nothingness
Alerta Antifascista

This is – by far – one of the very best bands ever. Inspired by Neurosis and Amebix, rising from the ashes of the unparalleled grindcore band G-Anx, these dudes and their music are unique in a world of conformity. All of their stuff is top notch, their old songs having more of a crust edge to them (listen to Prospects (1995)).

They're getting slower and more powerful for every album, and on Nothingness I can feel the vibes of the mighty Wovenhand and Morte Macabre, so you better start drooling. This is their most consistent release to date.

It's hard to describe their style, but apocalyptic beauty, darkness and melancholy might say something about the atmosphere. Just listen to The Truth Will Remain and bend over.

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In Solitude
The World. The Flesh. The Devil.
Metal Blade

I couldn't wrap my head around In Solitude's debut album. I wanted to worship, but I just couldn't do it. I really can't put my finger on what was keeping me away. It's far from bad, but I just didn't get it. Great lyrics, ok songs and such, but not as good as I wanted it to be.

Everything, and I mean everything, changed when I got a hold of this masterpiece. This is the essence of occult heavy metal darkness. It's like a sinister and dense version of the kings of the genre (Mercyful Fate), performed by highly dedicated freaks. And this time the songwriting is nothing but flawless, it's just fucking epic.

Their upcoming tour with Watain, The Devil's Blood and Behemoth should be killer.

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Looking For An Answer
Eterno Treblinka
Relapse Records

I can't even remember the last time I heard a seriously good grindcore record. As I write this I've just heard a couple of songs off the new albums by Napalm Death and Terrorizer – bands who once were gods of grindcore. That was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, and now they aren't really that interesting. The new songs may be good, but they sound like shit. Modern day metal production was what made grindcore so terribly boring in the first place, and these guys haven't learned a thing since 1990 (Napalm Death) and 1989 (Terrorizer) respectively. In my mind, grindcore should sound like Napalm Death's Peel sessions, Arsedestroyer's Teen Ass Revolt, or when it gets technical and/or metallized, like Assück's masterpiece Misery Index (listen to the whole album here).

Lo and behold! In 2011 God gave us the new Looking For An Answer assault, and holy shit, this one is a killer! Hail to Spain! Mixing the finest bits of grindcore, crust punk and old school death metal, Eterno Treblinka rocks all the way through. Great hooks, quite memorable songs, awesome production (punkish, but yet with a thick wall of sound) and funky nods to what once was (Running Through The Blood is a Fear of God cover (the great band from Switzerland), and starts off just like the old Master song by Master – awesome! Original live version here and LFAA cover here). The vocals could use some variation in style, maybe, but what the heck... I like it raw and brutal, and I got all hyped up about this release, so if you once enjoyed old school crunchy grindcore back in the day, you might want to give this one a couple of spins.

I had the chance to check out LFFA on stage once, and they were awesome live as well.

If you've got Spotify you'll find it here.

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Rite
Lie In Wait For Blood
EEE Recordings

The best black metal release 2011 – alongside Burzum – was executed by two unknown personas hailing from Sweden. I posted an article about them here and wrote a piece for Sweden Rock Magazine #89 (the massive Ronnie James Dio tribute issue). Listen to the demo on the bandcamp site or log on to Spotify.

I'm listening to a new song right now, Juridical Doctrine, and it fucking slays! One riff running for 8 minutes. Sheer brilliance. If you've got the slightest interest in Deathspell Omega, Ofermod, Malign, Negative Plane, Mgła, Funeral Mist and the likes, you need to check out Rite. Now.

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Roffe Ruff
Barrabas
Download here

Two years ago I declared Roffe's debut Ormar i gräset the number one album of 2009. With Barrabas, his third and final statement, his career is over. At least for now. And by the way he's saying it in the last song, I think he really means it. Whatever happens, this album is as solid as it gets, and – to quote the UFC – as real as it gets. People cry when they listen to Fröken Anderberg, because this is stuff everyone can relate to. It's about life, and life pretty much sucks, so of course it's depressing. If you're not affected by this, your life is too good.
However, Mr. Rolf's got the humour and wits to back it all up and make this a true feast. Roffe's a truth-teller of epic proportions (L.I.M.B.O.).
Of all three albums, this one is easily the best, although all of them must be downloaded and worshipped. He's really that good, so do believe the hype. I'd say even if you don't understand Swedish, this gem is worth the download. The production is crisp as fuck, and I believe you can hear this dude's honesty just by listening to his voice.
R.I.P.

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Additional good stuff

Anima Morte – The Nightmare Becomes Reality
Arckanum – Helvítismyrkr
Autopsy – Macabre Eternal
Nicklas Barker – El Último Fin de Semana
Björk – Biophilia
Blodigt Allvar – Promo 2011
Bohren Und Der Club of Gore – Beileid
Bong – Beyond Ancient Space
Bonnie Prince Billy – Wolfroy Goes To Town
Brighter Death Now – Very Little Fun
Burzum – Fallen
Craft – Void
Deutsch Nepal – Amygdala 
Erik Enocksson – Apan
The Giesagöebbels – Demo 2011
Gösta Berlings Saga – Glue Works
Hell – Human Remains
Hills – Master Sleeps
Invidious – In Death 
Krux – He Who Sleeps Amongst The Stars
Macabre – Grim Scary Tales
J. Mascis – Several Shades of Why
Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
Morbus Chron – Sleepers In The Rift
Necros Christos – Doom of The Occult
Opeth – Heritage
Pentagram – Last Rites
Plastikman – Arkives 1993 - 2010
Portrait – Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae
Primordial – Redemption At The Puritan's Hand
Primus – Green Naugahyde
Pyramido – Salt
Ravencult – Morbid Blood
Reveal – Nocturne of Eyes And Teeth
Swarm – 2011
Teitanblood – Purging Tounges
Terra Tenebrosa – The Tunnels
Today Is The Day – Pain Is A Warning
Tormented / Bombs of Hades – Split
Undergång – The Mother of Armageddon
US Christmas – The Valley Path
Usurpress – In Permanent Twilight
Vanhelgd – Church of Death
Victims – A Dissident
Year of The Goat – Lucem Ferre 
Yob – Atma

The War is Over – Let It Begin

We have hundreds of thousands coming back from these wars that were undeclared, they were unnecessary, they haven’t been won, they’re unwinnable, and we have hundreds of thousands looking for care. And we have an epidemic of suicide coming back. And so many have – I mean, if you add up all the contractors and all the wars going on, Afghanistan and in Iraq, we’ve lost 8,500 Americans, and severe injuries, over 40,000. And these are undeclared wars.
Ron Paul, 2012

Ron Paul's anti-interventionist foreign policy views are in a way supported by a majority of Americans, who don't think the Iraq war was worth the cost in lives and taxpayer dollars. 58% said no, 27% said yes and 15% did not have an opinion.

So, as the warmongering elite (neocons and Zionist scum, also known as chickenhawks (people who strongly support war and gladly send kids off to kill and be killed, but who actively avoided military service when of age)) are putting as much pressue on Iran as possible to make Iran strike first and simply goad Iran into war, making Obomba the war hero right before the election, the video below should be of great interest.

As for the war in Iraq... You think it's over? The title for this post is stolen from The War is Over; Let It Begin, where Ron Jacobs writes:

Meanwhile, in Iraq the number of bombings is increasing as various groups fight over turf and control while the democracy and freedom promised by George Bush and heralded by Barack Obama continues to be a figment of some DC speechwriter’s pen.  The world’s largest CIA station outside of Langley, VA. operates at will from Baghdad, stirring up trouble in Iraq, Iran, Palestine and other nations in the region while the US client state in Tel Aviv continues to ramp up the war rhetoric against Iran while tightening its grip on the people of the West Bank and Gaza (and the political system of the United States).  Let’s not forget Saudi Arabia, whose autocratic monarchy just purchased 84 F-15s at the cool price of approximately $25 billion.  Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the guerrilla war waged by the Taliban and other anti-occupation forces continues, as does the close-to-$200-million-per-day US effort to destroy that resistance.  Over the Afghan mountains the people of Pakistan wonder if they will be the next targets of US ground troops while US-armed drones fly and kill almost daily into some areas of that country.

Mainstream news media is as always more interested in the presidential horse race than in the candidates positions on certain issues, so we have to rely on blogs and such for valuable information. You'll find some of them in the blog roll to the right.
Now, check the video:




RELATED POSTS
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Ahmadinejad and honesty
The demonized Ahmadinejad
Nuclear war games for real
Propaganda for war
Gilad Atzmon – Taking Elder Peres apart
The Israeli and the US warmongers
All articles about the Israel Lobby (see the "Selected articles" section to the right)
McCain or Obama - Does it really matter in the long run?
Obama + Clinton = Change?
Obama – Hope or hopelessness?

Finding meaning in the void

Illustration: Costin Chioreanu 

”The flames sawed in the wind and the embers paled and deepened and paled and deepened like the bloodbeat of some living thing eviscerate upon the ground before them and they watched the fire which does contain within it something of men themselves inasmuch as they are less without it and are divided from their origins and are exiles. For each fire is all fires, the first fire and the last ever to be. By and by the judge rose and moved away on some obscure mission and after a while someone asked the expriest if it were true that at one time there had been two moons in the sky and the expriest eyed the false moon above them and said that it may well have been so. But certainly the wise high God in his dismay at the proliferation of lunacy on this earth must have wetted a thumb and leaned down out of the abyss and pinched it hissing into extinction. And could he find some alter means by which the birds could mend their paths in the darkness he might have done with this one too.”
Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, 1985

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As a way of finding some meaning to the void, as a way of understanding the eternal quest for the answer to the unfathomable ”Why?” question, here are some quotes of true mindfulness. If read carefully, you will see that they range from the pessimistic and hopeless to the exact opposites (well...), only to return to and end in the abyss of the void.
Pain and pleasure – life and death – indivisible.

---

”Brief and powerless is man's life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way; for man, condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow fall, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day; disdaining the coward terrors of the slave of Fate, to worship at the shrine that his own hands have built; undismayed by the empire of chance, to preserve a mind free from the wanton tyranny that rules his outward life; proudly defiant of the irresistible forces that tolerate, for a moment, his knowledge and his condemnation, to sustain alone, a weary but unyielding Atlas, the world that his own ideals have fashioned despite the trampling march of unconscious power.”
Bertrand Russell, A Free Man's Worship, 1903


”A vast, sepulchral universe of unbroken midnight gloom and perpetual arctic frigidity, through which will roll dark, cold suns with their hordes of dead, frozen planets, on which will lie the dust of those unhappy mortals who will have perished as their dominant stars faded from their skies. Such is the depressing picture of a future too remote for calculation.”
H.P. Lovecraft, Clusters and Nebulae, 1915


”No one is accountable for existing at all, or for being constituted as he is, or for living in the circumstances and surroundings in which he lives. The fatality of his nature cannot be disentangled from the fatality of all that which has been and will be. He is not the result of a special design, a will, a purpose; he is not the subject of an attempt to attain an 'ideal of man' or an 'ideal of happiness' or an 'ideal of morality' – it is absurd to want to hand over his nature to some purpose or other. We invented the concept of 'purpose': in reality purpose is lacking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, 1954


”By my thirteenth birthday I was thoroughly impressed with man's impermanence and insignificance, and by my seventeenth […] I had formed in all essential particulars my present pessimistic cosmic views. The futility of all existence began to impress and oppress me; and my references to human progress, formerly hopeful, began to decline in enthusiasm.”
H.P. Lovecraft, A Confession of Unfaith, 1906


”But nothing good can be said of that cancerous machine-culture itself. It is not a true civilisation, and has nothing in it to satisfy a mature and fully developed human mind. It is attuned to the mentality and imagination of the galley-slave and the moron, and crushes relentlessly with disapproval, ridicule, and economic annihilation any sign of actually independent thought and civilised feeling which chances to rise above its sodden level. It is a treadmill, squirrel-trap culture – drugged and frenzied with the hasheesh of industrial servitude and material luxury. It is wholly a material body-culture, and its symbol is the tiled bathroom and steam radiator rather than the Doric portico and the temple of philosophy. Its denizens do not live or know how to live.”
H.P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters 1925-1929, p. 304


”Unless suffering is the direct and immediate object of life, our existence must entirely fail of its aim. It is absurd to look upon the enormous amount of pain that abounds everywhere in the world, and originates in needs and necessities inseparable from life itself, as serving no purpose at all and the result of mere chance. Each separate misfortune, as it comes, seems, no doubt, to be something exceptional; but misfortune in general is the rule.”
Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Sufferings of the World


”Pessimismen verkar skadebringande och förstörande endast när den stammar ur ett svagt, slappt gemyt. Det starka lifsföraktet har en tändande, eggande verkan. Igenom de högsta alstren af den isländska diktningen, i den fornskandinaviska lifskänslan öfverhufvud, sjunger en hvinande ton af hårdnackadt, desperat trots mot lifvets makt och lifvets meningslöshet – densamma tonen som en gång klang så gällt, och väl ännu är kvar, i Strindbergs verk. --- Endast vår feghet, vårt ringa sanningsbegär, vår dumma sentimentalitet är det, enligt honom, som förhindrar oss att inse att lifvet har sin källa i det onda, att det onda är lifvets herre. Hvad mängden kallar 'ödet', 'gud' o.s.v., det är mörkret, Ariman, fienden till allt framsteg, allt verkligt värde, all sann förtjenst. Ariman – det är dumheten och råheten, hvilka alltid ha högsätet i denna den bästa af alla världar. Och detta förhållande är konstant af evighet, den mänskliga karaktären skall aldrig ändras, lifvets princip är evigt en, det onda.”
Vilhelm Ekelund, Det ondas religion, 1923


”Tradition means nothing cosmically, but it means everything locally and pragmatically because we have nothing else to shield us from a devastating sense of 'lostness' in endless time and space.”
H.P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters 1925-1929, p. 356-357


”The sinister, the terrible never deceive: the state in which they leave us is always one of enlightenment. And only this condition of vicious insight allows us a full grasp of the world, all things considered, just as a frigid melancholy grants us full possession of ourselves. We may hide from horror only in the heart of horror.”
Thomas Ligotti, The Medusa, 1991


”That cult would never die till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth. The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.”
H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu, 1926


”I have tried to show that the Outsider is a man with an unusual and acute need for a sense of values. It has been objected that almost everybody asks himself at some time: What is life all about? And that therefore everybody is, in some degree, an Outsider. But this is only a failure to understand the spiritual condition of a man who feels a perpetual gnawing instinct for meaning, a hunger and thirst: a thirst that can be so acute that its frustration can lead to insanity. […] The Outsider has a feeling that there are certain things that are absolutely important, and that, quite literally, should occupy the mind all the time, and be perpetual standard of referens for all other feelings.
The only other man who shares this belief with him is the religious man. Religion makes precisely the same demands for meaning and purpose as the Outsider. The Outsider is therefore akin to the religious man.”
Colin Wilson, The Outsider, 1954


”Att vara outsider i ett sjukt samhälle måste vara något starkt och bra, eller hur?”
Bruno K. Öijer


”My assertion that today there is no political system, no formation, and no party whatsoever worth devoting oneself to, and that everything existing must be denied, has disconcerted many. However, this denial and non-commitment do not derive from a lack of principles, but from the possession of principles, which are precise, solid and not subject to compromise. [...] In the life of today it can be appropriate, for many, to withdraw in order to settle in a more interior line of trenches, so that that which we cannot do anything about cannot do anything against us.”
Julius Evola, 1964


”The press today is an army with carefully organized weapons, the journalists its officers, the readers its soldiers. The reader neither knows nor is supposed to know the purposes for which he is used and the role he is to play.”
Oswald Spengler, 1918


”Tension without cosmic pulsation to animate it is the transition to nothingness.”
Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West, Vol. 2: Perspectives of World History, 1923

The human phenomenon is but the sum
Of densely coiled layers of illusion
Each of which winds itself on the supreme insanity
That there are persons of any kind
When all there can be is mindless mirrors
Laughing and screaming as they parade about
in an endless dream  

Thomas Ligotti

Music that matters is solemn, sacred, severe...

In a time and age when it's frowned upon when people take their arts seriously, when irony rules, when the norm is not to care and the attention span of the average fuck up is no longer than three seconds – it is the age of arts, morals and politics in decline - it's good to know there are still people who are the exact opposite. People who are dedicated, solemn, severe...

As for Oswald Spengler's analogy when dividing cultures into seasons, where spring is the birth of religion and where the basics of this culture is being formed, in June 2007 I wrote this about winter: ”Politics is motivated by money and moves through imperialism. Science no longer reaches certainties. There is much cultural confusion. The arts do not speak from or to the soul of the people, but rather follow materialistic fashions with lots of changes in styles, not asking much from neither the artist nor the people. After a moment of atheism the people will turn to a renewal of religion and spiritual faith, based on the religion developed in the spring of the culture.”
Full article here.

For me, music is a way to gain strenght. Not always, but most often.
Here are some songs that move me in different ways. It's songs that have a certain weight to them, and I guess what they have in common is the stunning dedication to the cause (be it just the music, something of spiritual importance, or whatever), and with that comes a very powerful performance. Many times the lyrics are as important as the music and the visuals. In fact, most of the times the lyrics are what really matters, and when there are no lyrics and the music still moves me, that's when it really hurts, and that's when it's for real. You don't hear that very often nowadays.

EDITED THIS POST BECAUSE ALL THE TUBES SLOWED DOWN WHOLE UNIVERSE...

Portishead - Roads
40 Watt Sun - Restless
Krister Linder - Vow
Esbjörn Svensson Trio - Seven Days of Falling / Elevation of Love
Low - Lullaby
Griftegård - Charles Taze Russell
Primordial - Empire Falls
Sigrblot -Endtime Communion (excerpt)
Watain - Waters of Ain
Funeral Mist - Jesus Saves

Sketch & Smoke ◄► Bomb & Burn

Turn on, tune in, drop out of life with nyponsoppa in hand...

Sketch & Smoke
Bomb & Burn

174 minutes of funk.

The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood

Prepare your feeble mind for some seriously genuine black metal where darkness, beauty, filth, hope and betrayal collide – as manifested in every damned religion. Rite is in a way reminiscent of Deathspell Omega, Negative Plane, MGLA, Ofermod and Glorior Belli, but really, Lie in wait for blood certainly holds its own ground. Containing great guitar work, perfect vocals, and a majestic wall of sound that manages to ooze of both darkness and beauty, not copying anybody's band – at least not intentionally – and leading the way for great things to come, this album is a must have if you're even remotely interested in any of the above mentioned bands.

Knowing that I'm old, grumpy, orthodox, narrow-minded and very picky about new black metal, I was truly surprised when Rite caught my attention with the very first seconds of sounds. Good thing is when I heard the music I knew absolutely nothing about the band, and I still don't, to be honest. I know some names, but names are irrelevant, as are labels and other words not put into context. The feeling evoked by the art is everything.

The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright will deliver them.




Lie in wait for blood on Spotify
Rite on Bandcamp (all songs are available here)
EEE Recordings

The governments don't rule the world

Markets are ruled right now by fear.
The stockmarket is finished.
The governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world.
In less than twelve months the savings of millions of people is gonna vanish, and this is just the beginning.
The biggest risk people can take right now is not acting.

September 11, 2001–2011

This is the best article I've found so far ("best" as in – in my opinion – being fair and balanced):
Imperial Delusions: Ignoring the Lessons of 9/11 by Robert Jensen, journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

[...]
If the new boss sounds a lot like the old boss, it's because the problem isn't just bad leaders but a bad system. That's why a critique of today's wars sounds a lot like critiques of wars past. Here's Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assessment of the imperial war of his time: "[N]o one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over."

Will our autopsy report read "global war on terror"?

That sounds harsh, and it's tempting to argue that we should refrain from political debate on the 9/11 anniversary to honor those who died and to respect those who lost loved ones. I would be willing to do that if the cheerleaders for the U.S. empire would refrain from using the day to justify the wars of aggression that followed 9/11. But given the events of the past decade, there is no way to take the politics out of the anniversary.

We should take time on 9/11 to remember the nearly 3,000 victims who died that day, but as responsible citizens, we also should face a harsh reality: While the terrorism of fanatical individuals and groups is a serious threat, much greater damage has been done by our nation-state caught up in its own fanatical notions of imperial greatness.

That's why I feel no satisfaction in being part of the anti-war/anti-empire movement. Being right means nothing if we failed to create a more just foreign policy conducted by a more humble nation.
[...]

Great movies of the 80's: The Plague Dogs

The opening scene of The Plague Dogs (1982) really sets the tone.



A dog being subject to repeated drowning experiments. Outside the thunder roars, the rain comes down hard and a cold wind blows.
This is not Disney.

Two dogs escape from a British government animal testing lab – Animal Research (Scientific and Experimental), A.R.S.E. – and roam the grey and wintry Lake District in search of a new master, or rather, in search of a good human. The facility spreads the rumour that the animals are carrying bubonic plague, so being hated by humans and not knowing how to survive, they decide that they'll have to ”live by our teeth and kill”.

This is a highly impressive, very realistic movie. It's free from cool effects (even though the animation work is superb if you're into old school stuff), kind of slow at times, and most importantly: it's severely depressing, painful and sad.

Obviously, it still remains an underground movie since it actually has got something to say (something like this: The only way to free yourself from the cruelties of mankind is to die, so when the dogs swim out to sea in the end, they choose death instead of being killed by humans...). People with a short attention span probably won't like it, and some scenes are pretty rough. It got censored due to graphical content, and only 8,000 copies of the uncut film exists on tape. It's on YouTube, though.



Even though the dogs' constant self-pitiness might become tedious after a while, I think the overall darkness and sadness of it all makes up for that. True animal friends most likely will cry when watching. Hell, you don't even have to be a fanatic animal lover to be touched by this one. Anybody reaching the conclusion that mankind sucks ought to cry every once in a while.

The realism is a huge factor as well in making this a classic movie. Rowf's fear of water, the death scenes and the dialogue are just a few examples of that.

I come to think of Grave of the Fireflies (a superb movie that everyone should see at least once) when watching The Plague Dogs, not really because they're both animated films, but because of the depressing mood and the realism. Sometimes, stories like these are told more efficiently in comics and animated movies.

[Snitter, trapped in a garage, is hallucinating about his old home]
Rowf: Snitter! Can you hear me?
Snitter: I'm inside my head now. And it's where I should be.
Rowf: This is no time for one of your turns!
The Tod: Come on out, ya great fool! Sharp with ye, now, before we're all caught!
Snitter: I can't come out. If I do, I'll go mad again.


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OTHER GREAT MOVIES OF THE 80's:
Manhunter (1986)
A Short Film About Killing (1988)
Threads (1984)
The Quiet Earth (1985)
The Thing (1982)

Great movies of the 80's: The Thing

A science outpost at the South Pole, winter 1982. Unexplainable madness. Burnt human remains and melted bodies. A heavy storm. Alien mutations taking over and imitating the human body, leaving the few inhabitants scrambling in a paranoid, claustrophobic frenzy as they try to determine who's infected and who's not. Darkness descends. Extreme tension. Pretty soon it's every man against every man – bellum omnium contra omnes – and within them: The ultimate in alien terror.

This masterpiece is like H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness (1936), Alien (1979), The Shining (1980) and Apocalypse Now (1979), all rolled into one.
Reservoir Dogs (1992) and The X-Files got some massive inspiration here as well.

The Thing (1982) has got that lovely, cheesy 80's feeling, like when the technical aspects of movie making just started to develop into more hi-tech areas, and when people not quite knew how to handle their new tools but used them anyway. The drug-induced social realism featured in many movies of the 70's is replaced by a bit plastic colours and feelings, quite noticeable stylistically, but also musicwise and how the camera works and moves. It's like people stopped thinking and let the machines do most of the work. In other words, the 80's cheese is a bit stiff, but that's the great charm about these fantastic movies.

None the less, The Thing is probably the most realistic among the ”mainstream” horror movies of the 80's, or, for that matter, amongst mainstream horror movies over all. There are a lot of eerie scenes. The one where they find the sarcophagus made of ice, for example, or when blood is drawn from each man to determine who is infected... Very creepy! The editing and sound is amazing in these scenes, and the music, the dark heartbeat-like rhythms made by Ennio Morricone, is crafted for worship. Here are the sounds of isolation, paranoia and darkness.

As for the alien, still to this day I think it's pretty cool. Not as professional as in Alien, but hey... Disfigured corpses melting into each other rule, and that's a fact.

It's not all gloom and doom, though. In the beginning, it's actually quite funny.
The mad Norwegian screaming: ”Se til helvete og kom dere vekk. Det er ikke en bikkje, det er en slags ting! Det imiterer en bikkje, det er ikke virkelig! KOM DERE VEKK IDIOTER!!” (”Get the hell outta there. That's not a dog, it's some sort of thing! It's imitating a dog, it isn't real! GET AWAY YOU IDIOTS!!”).
The black dude on roller skates: ”Maybe we're at war with the Norwegians?”
And MacReady, who simply cannot distinguish between Norway and Sweden, yelling ”Hey, Sweden!” as he enters the Norwegian outpost.
That's funny.



I believe this is the one movie that got me into horror and science fiction in the first place. I remember watching an old grimy VHS copy back in the 80's, and now some 25 years later, I've got this awesome Blu-Ray edition. Both versions are cool, but if I could I'd mix the dirty picture quality of the VHS and the sound quality of the Blu-Ray, making it the ultimate ultimate in alien terror!

John Carpenter's The Thing is a remake of Howard Hawks' The Thing From Another World (1951). Sad to say, I still haven't seen the original, although I own it. I guess I'm pretty stupid.
And now I hear there's a prequel ready to launch in November 2011. We'll see how that goes...

Until then:
It's gonna get a hell of a lot worse before it gets any better.

----------

OTHER GREAT MOVIES OF THE 80's:
Manhunter (1986)
A Short Film About Killing (1988)
Threads (1984)
The Quiet Earth (1985)

The world without us

Apocalypse come early.


The only way to fully understand the scale of our influence is to witness the world without us.
Enter a desolate world.

The inspirational radicalization of Breivik

Impending doom. As for the riots in London, I refer to this article:
Chomsky on demoralized societies – October 9, 2008
As for the American chaos, you may want to read this one:
The Crash, The Israel Lobby and The Change of Attitude – November 25, 2010

---

Now, let's not forget about discussing who and what made Breivik a terrorist.
Here are two opposing views.

1. On the Radicalization of Anders Breivik by David Wood at Answering Muslims, who claims that ”none of the people being blasted by the media [Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Geert Wilders etc] had anything to do with Breivik's extremism” and singles out mainstream media as the beast to blame.

2. Who inspired Anders Breivik? by Justin Raimondo at Antiwar.com, who in previous columns ”clearly assigned them [Spencer, Geller etc] their share of guilt” and now reexamines the issue ”in light of their vigorous denials”.

Watch and read them both.

The fact that David Wood is not even mentioning Fjordman (Peder Jensen) is very odd, since Fjordman's influence on Breivik's ideology is massive. Anyone who cares to read the manifesto (PDF) must see that, and anyone reading the manifesto should come to the conclusion that Breivik is an extreme narcissist with a Messiah complex. What he writes about himself and others has proven not to be trustworthy.
Hence, when David Wood speaks so eloquently about Breivik it's all based on Breivik's own words in the manifesto, which is also very odd. I'm not saying Breivik's a complete liar, just that he's lying. A lot.


The publishers of the Gates of Vienna blog (where Fjordman is a frequent contributor) encourage us to read their articles and check their links. Justin Raimondo did just that, and found some really sick stuff written by some freak named ”El Inglés”. Here are some quotes from an article entitled On Vigilantism – Part One, published on Gates of Vienna, April 5 2010. There are many more.

Altering the response of the apparatus of state to Muslim crime may well emerge as one of the most obvious motivations for vigilante activity. If one is concerned about Somali drug-dealing and the lack of effective response by the state, then executing a few Somali drug-dealers and then calling a national newspaper with a) the justification for the killing and b) the calibre of the handgun used in the executions (for purposes of establishing one’s identity) will be likely to focus a certain amount of attention on the problem. [...]


In contrast, any group of European vigilantes intent on taking the law into their own hands vis-à-vis Muslim crime would not suffer this restriction. Exceptional brutality will always have the potential to repel supporters and potential supporters, but it stands to reason that vigilantes in, say, Denmark, visiting impromptu justice on Arab street thugs in Copenhagen will have a much higher threshold of violence they have to cross before such revulsion starts to work against them. Indeed, everyday Danes tired of the Muslim crime now contaminating their country may well look to such people as their saviours, affording them support of various types. This will open up the potential for exceptional violence. [...]


The efficacy of non-lethal violence in persuading these people to behave themselves in a more civilized manner is likely to be close to be zero. This leaves vigilantes with only one obvious option, which is to kill off the people in question. This will have the twin effects of a) making it impossible for them to engage in further crime, and b) creating at least some possibility that others like them might decide on a change of career.



The first comment on this article is by Fjordman. He does not condemn the maiming, beating and killing, but rather:

A thought-provoking essay from Inglés, as usual. May I also suggest that we cultivate a form of pan-European ethnic solidarity when it comes to stopping and reversing Third World immigration and removing the Globalist traitor class. Perhaps we can call it “white Zionism.” Since European group solidarity appears to be what the powers-that-be fear the most, perhaps that’s what we should give them.

I'd like to see a video by David Wood where he discusses the influence of Fjordman and Gates of Vienna in relation to what Breivik actually did.

Sweden Democrats – All out rotting flesh

In Sweden we have this blog named Politiskt Inkorrekt (Politically Incorrect), which is one of the most visited sites in our country. ”We tell it like it is, straight, without any kind of censorship.”

This blog is now being run by leading people of Sverigedemokraterna (SD, the Sweden Democrats), and it's filled to the brim with hatred and lies. Lately they've been running this ”terrorism against Israel is more justified than terrorism against Norway” crap, for example.

Today they published an article entitled Något är ruttet i Norge – elitens anti-semitism (”Something is rotten in Norway – the Anti-Semitism of the elite”). In short, they praise the freaks in a Canadian TV-show who blame the people of Norway for being anti-Semitic. In other words, they sympathize with what Anders Behring Breivik did, saying that the young people who participated in the AUF summer camp at Utøya had themselves to blame for taking a stand for the suppressed people in Palestine.

This is not the stance taken by extremist underground Muslim-hating websites only (like David Horowitz's Frontpage, to pick one of many examples). In many ways, this is the official Zionist stance. Jerusalem Post:
”The youth camp he attacked was engaged in what was essentially (though the campers didn’t see it that way, no doubt) a pro-terrorist program.”

It would be interesting to hear what the people who voted for and sympathize with Sverigedemokraterna think about this. Are you against your own people, all of a sudden? Are you against your fellow Norwegians? Because that's what SD is all about these days.

The attacks in Norway: Useful links

Whoa, 500+ visitors on this blog yesterday, and all because of this one giant loser named Anders Behring Breivik. It's sad, really.

Indeed, he got the attention he wanted, but hopefully not the way he wanted it, because I've yet to find one person of true relevance who seriously takes this loser's side. That being said, Breivik is not stupid. He's crazy, but not stupid.

His actions must be taken seriously, of course, but I believe it's very important not to feed his ego. I've read a lot of comments saying he's ”academic” and such, but when studying the manifesto it's quite easy to distinguish his own personal writings from what is just plain copy/paste work (I'd say about 70%). He is nothing, yet thinks he is everything, therefore he must be ridiculed and exposed as a fraud. Also, he is everything but a deep thinker, and therefore the comparisons some people have made with Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, are just plain silly.

Two lessons to be learned so far:

The Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre, made an important point early on:
We’ve seen in Europe in recent years that politicians have been jumping to conclusions about suspects before investigations have been conducted, and we will not commit that error.

Unfortunately, a lot of people were not that bright.
Yes, I admit, my very first thought was ”Fuck, I hope it's not the Islamists!”... But I didn't cry it out loud, making a complete fool of myself. Hence, the second lesson: Terrorists come in all sizes, heritages, shapes and skin colors. Or as Counterblast put it some 16 years ago: Terror has no shape.
Most of us already knew that, but it still was an important reminder, since our minds are clogged up by the war on terror. Jan Guillou writes about that here (in Swedish).

Until further information has been revealed I thought I'd gather some articles and websites that have helped me when trying to understand what's going on. I hope you too find them helpful.

• Document.no – A complete list of comments Behring Breivik has left at Document.no (in Norwegian). Rough translations in English here and here.

• 2083 – A European Declaration of Independence (PDF, 8.1 Mb, 1518 pages) – The infamous manifesto. Bear in mind that at least 70% (my guess, Breivik himself admits to about 50%) is copy/paste work from other people's writings. In my opinion, the most disturbing part is the diary, or Knights Templar Log as he prefers to call it (starting at p. 1413).
  
  
• Fjordman (the old blog) – Most of the well written texts in the manifest are written by Fjordman (Wikipedia), at least 35 of them (most of them between paragraph 2.50 and 2.99 in the manifesto). Fjordman is an anonymous extreme Zionist blogger and has obviously been a huge influence on Breivik. Perhaps there are several people using the Fjordman monicker. There have been claims that Breivik himself is Fjordman, but in my opinion that is highly unlikely.
  The Fjordman files – Everything written by this dude.
  
  
• Gates of Vienna – Fjordman resides here for now, alongside some other Islam-critical writers. Read his Thoughts on the recent atrocities.
  

• Norway, Islam and the threat of the West – Aljazeera is almost always on point.
  

• The irrelevance of the Knights in a global society – What Breivik says about the Knights Templar is in my opinion the most irrelevant topic in the manifesto, but Juan Cole still writes excellent about it. Maybe that Christian fantasy stuff is more important in America?

• Terrorn och den europeiska nyfascismen – A summary of Breivik's mishmash of ideologies. (in Swedish)
  
  
• Åter till frågan om Europas två extremhögrar – Rasmus Fleischer's take on the two European extreme right-wing ideologies, as he sees it. (in Swedish)
  
  
• EDIT
  Konsten att läsa statistik om brottslighet – It's almost impossible to compare criminal statistics between countries, simply because what counts as a terrorist attack by ETA in Spain, for example, does not necessarily count as a terrorist attack in another country. It's a matter of definitions. That's why the link of statistics that's been spreading (and seems to do so everytime there's a terror attack) may be misleading. Read a discussion about that right here. (in Swedish)
  

Swedish site EXPO ("founded in 1995 with the aim of studying and mapping anti-democratic, right-wing extremist and racist tendencies in society") is as hypocritical as always. To my knowledge, still nothing about Breivik's own claim that ”the Jews/Israel” (p. 1373 in the manifesto) is his main ally, or his possible connections to and/or utmost inspiration from extreme Zionist websites. Absolutely nothing about Fjordman.

To be continued.

Do we wish our next ones disease and decay?
Do we want them to burn in toxic flames?
Shall we forget about the facts? The future is dark
Shall we continue ignore, while feeding the sharks?

In front of our eyes, the deceit of all time
Take a stand or be part of the ultimate crime
The dung at the top, can we see their devotion?
No, it's them against us, the end versus the solution

Scream -- while there is still air to breathe
End this global rape
Scream -- while there is still air to breathe
Terror has no shape

Wherever I walk I can hear the cries
Wherever I look, I can't believe my eyes
What I see is what they'll get
Can't wipe them out, visions of fear

Nothing's left of what used to be green
No life, no nature, just cold and empty streets
We're gonna blow, time will show
Nailed to my brain, visions of grief

The future ain't ours, the future ain't yours
Still we cut in the heart of the natural laws
Respect for the living, it's only empty words?
I'm waiting for the day when we'll act as once learned

In front of our eyes, the deceit of all time
Take a stand or be part of the ultimate crime
The dung at the top, can we see their devotion?
No, it's them against us, the end versus the solution

Some short notes about Norway and the manifesto

First of all, let me express my deepest sympathy and condoleances to my neighbouring country Norway. The curse of humanity surely is eternal.
Reading this blog post (in Norwegian) written by one of the survivors was not easy.

---

Now, I've just skimmed through the manifesto (2083 – A European Declaration of Independence), and I must say this is huge, getting access to his inner rantings. Very unique.
Download the manifesto here. (PDF, 8.1 Mb, 1518 pages)

I would say it is a must-read to even try to begin to understand what this freak did, and what he believes will happen in the future. Writing him off as a nut case is easy, but due to this immense tragedy I think we owe it to ourselves to get more involved in order to reduce the risks of this happening all over again.
To speak frankly, I believe it will happen again, but the more people care and know about this, the more prepared we will be. So read it and enter the mind of a... well, what is he? A maniac? Yeah, that's for sure, but I believe it's much more complex than that.

Mainstream media are way behind as always, making people believe the guy is a Nazi, so just some short notes and random quotes to give you a taste of what's in there.
In many ways, he's the exact opposite of a Nazi. I'd say he's neoconservative with a strange masonic templar fetisch, almost with a Messiah complex, a pseudo-intellectual islamophobe, a narcissist who has twisted some of the basic ideas of his heroes into obscurity... Something like that.
In my opinion, from just having skimmed through the manifesto, this is what he continually returns to and stress as utmost important:

The three hate-ideologies must be destroyed
Islam, Communism/multiculturalism/Marxism and National Socialism, where fear of enslavement under Islam majority rule "in our own countries" is the key point to just about everything. Extreme islamophobia, so to speak.
Example:
"You cannot defeat Islamisation or halt/reverse the Islamic colonization of Western Europe without first removing the political doctrines manifested through multiculturalism/cultural Marxism." (p. 5)

The importance of Christianity (as a label?)
Example:
"If you want to fight for the cross and die under the “cross of the martyrs” it’s required that you are a practising Christian, a Christian agnostic or a Christian atheist (cultural Christian). The cultural factors are more important than your personal relationship with God, Jesus or the holy spirit." (p. 1360)

• Anti-Marxism
• Anti-globalism/internationalism
• Anti-multiculturalism
• Anti-Jihadism
• Anti-Islam(isation)
• Anti-imperialistic
• Anti-feminism
• Anti-pacifism
• Anti-EU(SSR)
• Anti-matriarchy
• Anti-racist
• Anti-fascist
• Anti-Nazi
• Anti-totalitarian

• Pro-Nationalism
• Pro-Pan-Nationalism (pro-Europeanism)
• Pro-National or Pan-European Crusaderism
• Pro-Christian identity
• Pro-cultural conservatism
• Pro-monoculturalism (pro cultural unity)
• Pro-patriarchy
• Pro-Israel

"Whenever someone asks if I am a national socialist I am deeply offended. If there is one historical figure and past Germanic leader I hate it is Adolf Hitler. If I could travel in a time-machine to Berlin in 1933, I would be the first person to go – with the purpose of killing him. Why? No person has ever committed a more horrible crime against his tribe than Hitler. Because of him, the Germanic tribes are dying and MAY be completely wiped out unless we manage to win within 20-70 years. Thanks to his insane campaign and the subsequent genocide of the 6 million Jews, multiculturalism, the anti-European hate ideology was created." (p. 1162)

"Q: Is it possible that cultural conservatives and National Socialists will cooperate in the future?
A: It will be extremely hard to cooperate with anyone who views our primary ally (the Jews/Israel) as their primary enemy." (p. 1373)

"I have written approximately half of the compendium myself. The rest is a compilation of works from several courageous individuals throughout the world." (p. 5)
By that, I'm not sure if he means that he's co-written stuff with others, or had people writing for him, or if he means the stuff that he's collected during all these years of planning (simple copy/paste from thousands of websites).
I guess time will tell if he's the lone genius/mad man who executed all this by himself, or if there are others just like him, like the PCCTS (Pauperes Commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici) and the Knights Templar, that he's talking about in the manifesto. (EDIT: PCCTS is according to the manifest a "hypothetical fictional group" (p. 766)). He's obviously pretty far from reality in his conclusions.

Regardless, this is probably the weirdest experience of my life, reading this unbelievable manifesto so close to what has just happened (and still is...).
I'm deeply disgusted, yet deeply fascinated.

To be continued.

---

Nikanor Teratologen:

"Det går inte att genom någon sorts överhetskampanjer eller mer omfattande kontroll-, övervaknings-, angivar- och stigmatiseringssystem heltäckande skydda skolor, arbetsplatser, offentliga platser överhuvudtaget mot enskildas planlagda och sedan lössläppta mordiska hämndraseri. Förändringarna måste inledas på individplanet, i människors beteende och attityder mot varandra. Man bör helt enkelt inte kränka och bete sig illa mot andra varelser på jorden. Allt är ett, sammanvävt, förgängligt."

"Den grandiost sadomasochistiska och Kristusyrande självbilden som tröstande och upplyftande suggererar existensen av en andligt besläktad krets att höra hemma i och betyda något avgörande för har, imaginärt, förintat den invalidiserande känslan av att inte duga, inte räknas, inte vara älskad och inte tillåtas hysa känslor, inte finnas till…"

R.I.P.
Dedicated to those who die everyday due to terrorism, war and the war on terror.

---

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...show me a man who is good...
Religion and its influence on society

Two Bathory interviews from Swedish radio (1987, 1988)

HAIL THE HORDES!

We had all the momentum

Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seemed like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era - the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run... but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant...

History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of 'history' it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time - and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights - or very early mornings - when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L.L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket... booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got through the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change)... but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that...

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning...

And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting - on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave...

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

Contemplating decay

The bombing of Dresden. February 15, 1945

The urge to destroy is –hopefully – also a creative urge. With Mikhail Bakunin's words echoing in the minds of the destroyers – us – it should be time to raise the flag of consciousness. But all I see is flags of ignorance. And where's the creativity?
Time is running out. Or, to be honest, time ran out many, many years ago.

Take a look at this webpage, Worldometers – live world statistics in real time on population, government and economics, society and media, environment, food, water, energy and health. It's pretty scary.

Take a look at the nearest clock and understand that since this exact time yesterday, 13 million tons of toxic chemicals were released across the globe (probably more, in regards to what's happening in Japan right now), and 200 000 acres of rainforest have been destroyed. Every two seconds a human being starves to death. Every day 150-200 animal and plant species are driven extinct.

Take a look at this map – the true size of Africa.
(Ok, I know this is not the true true size of Africa because of distortions and such, but the point that Africa is much bigger than it looks on most maps is still valid, and no, the size of something is not really what matters here either...)

So, taking all this information into consideration: where will Earth be in 2045? Where will men, women and children be? Animals?
According to a recent U.N. report, the projected world population by 2050 will be 9.3 billion.
I wrote a bit about that here, more specifically in The Greatest Shortcoming of The Human Race post.

Technology most certainly will continue to develop at an exponential rate, as our development of sustainable agricultural and environmental issues lags behind. Some people claim that technology still lacks what separates tech from Man: a sense of morality, compassion, love, empathy... In my mind, I don't see how we make good use of that morality, compassion, love and empathy. In my mind, we've forgotten everything about the soul, the spirits, and our emotions. Superhuman intelligence is all about the brain, and nothing about the soul, hence I see no difference between Man and Machine.


Everybody knows that we're in deep need of new, sustainable systems to make this world a better place. Everybody knows that hunger is manmade. But these monumental problems are hardly being adressed at all. At least not by those in power, the responsible people who are able to make a difference. The power of the grassroot campaigns and small-scale activism is simply not enough, and we seem unable to grasp the magnitude of the challenges that face us.

We know we cannot rely on the State to help us out when everything comes crashing down. So is it everyone for himself? Survival of the fittest? Yes, very much so. That's the way it's always been, and there's no reason to believe things will change. Man will not live forever. Man will die off, it's just a question of when, and I say the sooner the better.

As for America, the Number One Country In The World...

Well, they have the most guns, the most crime among rich countries and the largest amount of debt in the world. While most rich countries are making large investments in education, science and infrastructure, America is cutting investments and subsidizing consumption; they are 27th in life expectancy, 18th in diabetes and first in obesity.

According to the Legatum Institute's index of prosperity (a measure of material wealth and quality of life (whatever that means) among 110 nations), Scandinavian countries rate the highest, and the U.S., having dropped from a first-place tie in 2007, now ranks 10th.

The main thing seems to be to maintain an unsustainable level of consumption, i.e. to continue to feel good. Obama used millions of dollars in campaign funds to appeal to this way of living, but it will prove to be the true beginning of the end.
This is more than just another financial crisis, this is a crisis of civilization.


The majority of Americans live in a non-reality-based belief system and cannot separate truth from lies, everyday being subject to skillfully manipulated images of information, based on childish, simplistic narratives and clichés. 42 million American adults cannot read, and another 50 million read at a fourth or fifth level grade. Eighty percent of the families in the United States did not buy a book in 2007. Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely literate, and their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year.

So, when these illiterates care to vote, they do so without the ability to make decisions based on textual information. They rely on images; a smile, a nice poster, one word saying ”HOPE”, three words saying ”YES WE CAN”, meaning absolutely nothing...

Political propaganda is mistaken for ideology, feelings are mistaken for knowledge (how many of you cried when Obama was elected?). Style rules over content. It feels good not to think, because that's what it's all about: feeling good, knowing everything is alright, not confronting reality. I mean, you claim to be blessed by God or whatever and that's the solution... An illusional blessing, if there ever was one.

None shall stand before the Lord of Death † A reach for purity – through decay

And so now maybe is the time for a renewal of the Patriot Act and pose the obvious question: Who will protect you from your government?

This experiment gone haywire is in for a lot of surprises. But degeneration began a long time ago, starting when the great empire of production became the great empire of consumption, the great empire of shame. And that was way back, long before the war on terror. People I rely on say it began by the end of the Vietnam war, when the great expenses of this war began to take its toll on the American population, which collided with the decline of domestic oil.

Chris Hedges of the Information Clearing House: ”All the traditional tools of democracies, including dispassionate scientific and historical truth, facts, news and rational debate, are useless instruments in a world that lacks the capacity to use them.”

So, this is America, the number one leading country in the world.
And the world follows the leader.

On a final note, let me quote George R.R. Martin's master novel A Game of Thrones here, in relation to the death of Bin Laden, and the very meaning of the word ”death”:

A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.

May 20, 2011


June 19, 2006


April 21, 2003


May 7, 1945

Utopia: A world run by artists

Last night was free from nightmares.
I dreamt the world was run by artists.
Dedicated, devoted... to the death.

One Wall Part II - A collaboration with STHLMGRAFF

All photos by STHLMGRAFF (except where noted)

sthlmgraff.blogspot.com

fotolog.com/sthlmgraff

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Photo: Mattias Indy Pettersson

Roadburn 2011

The festival of all festivals – Roadburn – is only a few days away!
Until then, rest your eyes on some mighty fine art and worship the manifesto:

This is a gathering of like minded bands and fans from around the world, joined together by a love of music. This is a celebration of tube-driven distortion and crackling electric guitars, a raising of musical consciousness and brotherly and sisterly love, a communion with THEE MIGHTY RIFF, a time and place to get high en mass and bask in the heaviness.

This is what it's all about.