An old Grandfather said to his grandson, who came to him with anger at a friend who had done him an injustice, "Let me tell you a story.
I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do.
But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times." He continued, "It is as if there are two wolves inside me. One is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him, and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.
But the other wolf, ah! He is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger,for his anger will change nothing.
Sometimes, it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit."
The boy looked intently into his Grandfather's eyes and asked, "Which one wins, Grandfather?"
The Grandfather smiled and quietly said, "The one I feed."
Today I watched a Robin Red Breast being torn asunder by our cat, casually he sauntered in laid out the bird before me on the tiled floor, a gift. As i looked into the Robins eyes, I saw myself.
With the natural order of things being what they are the cat was just doing what it was programmed to do, survival of the fittest, keeping the balance. Even in the jaws of fate the Robin seemed so at peace with what was to be his final journey. I knew at any given point I could have freed him, yet I didn't.
For it was a symbol. A symbol of what has been and what is to be. At this time of year one reflects on the journey thus far and usually we drink and eat too much to somehow make it seem worth while. The Hope through Sufferance that the next year will bring about a change in our luck, a change in our ultimate fate.
As I watched him take his final breath before the jaws of fate clamped down for last time, i could only hear one song in my head, i closed my eyes and with a nod of my head in salute, sent him off in my heart back into the cycle of life.
For there is only, Sufferance through Hope.
The king's taken back the throne The useless seed is sown When they say they're cutting off the phone I'll tell 'em you're not home
No place to hide You were fighting as a soldier on their side You're still a soldier in your mind Though nothing's on the line
You say it's money that we need As if we're only mouths to feed I know no matter what you say There are some debts you'll never pay
Working for the church While your family dies You take what they give you And you keep it inside Every spark of friendship and love Will die without a home Hear the soldier groan, "We'll go at it alone"
I can taste the fear Gonna lift me up and take me out of here Don't wanna fight, don't wanna die Just wanna hear you cry
Who's gonna throw the very first stone? Oh! Who's gonna reset the bone? Walking with your head in a sling Wanna hear the soldier sing
Working for the Church While my family dies Your little baby sister's Gonna lose her mind Every spark of friendship and love Will die without a home Hear the soldier groan, "We'll go at it alone"
I can taste your fear It's gonna lift you up and take you out of here And the bone shall never heal I care not if you kneel
We can't find you now But they're gonna get their money back somehow And when you finally disappear We'll just say that you were never here
Been working for the church While your life falls apart Singing hallelujah with the fear in your heart Every spark of friendship and love Will die without a home Hear the soldier groan, "We'll go at it alone" Hear the soldier groan, "We'll go at it alone"
Has anyone else noticed that Avatar has worrying similarities to Dances with Wolves, it cost $300.000.000 to make and despite a horrific waste of money in re: global economic climate, I loved every second. Yeah i know, Indigenous life loving nomads with bows and stones fighting Mankinds's inability to curb his desire for absolute power through mass destruction and greed
right up my alley i hear you say
But its sentiment hit a real chord with me even though a similar chord was hit by Kevin Costner in the original,
(no but really, its the same story. Naughty Cameron, that's a bad boy!).
Strange how as a species, our drive to become ever closer to the machine and all the glories it promises has driven us like cattle to the big cities of promise, on mass we've lost touch with our primal selves. This ever increasing lack of control we've developed on all levels is worrying, its almost like we're slowly but surely going into a global coma. Soon we'll evolve into nothing more then reality television wage slave androids sponsored by Tesco. Unbiasedly used for market research poles, unlicensed product testing and overall general life expectancy ROI statistics for global advertising conglomerates...wait.
When was the last time you touched the earth, felt the contours of a leaf or smelt and felt the sea mist on your face on a crisp winter morning.
Italian street artist Blu Blu has been ahead of the game re: stop animation street art for a few years now. His unique style can only be described as urban organic sprawl. Utilising every nook and cranny his creatures breathe life into dead spaces bringing with them a unique stories. Morphing into interiors and exteriors, they climb large buildings and crawl over park benches before disappearing down manholes. His rich narrative of paint will leave an indelible print on the pages of modern street art history. Well at least it should do. Oh yeah and did i say.. Banksy take some notes and while your doing that, go fuckyourself.
One of the worlds most corrupt public figures, Berlusconi Prime Minister of Italy, literally took it in the face today, is this a sign of the times ?, a sign of things to come for those leading we the people into further despair. As a global consciousness, are we going to slowly start rising up to the words:
Nobody likes a cheat, nobody except lets say the cheat. Mista Bishi recently single handily brought an entire line of artists into dispute. Djing in its own right is a dying art. There are computer software that pretty much beat matches for you, c.d's have replaced the vinyl the list goes on. But the one thing you try to hold onto is at least the Dj is earning his money, at least hes actually mixing....
Well
Mista Bishi while supposedly mixing a 2hr set was filmed without his knowledge, during this film it was clear to see he wasn't in fact Djing he was in fact, texting on the phone, and twiddling with nobs on his mixer, which were switched off. That's right.
A pre-mix C.D.
Here you can see the cdj is infact turned off.
It wasn't an isolated situation, Chase and Status also were recorded without their knowledge and for the first 15-20 mins they didn't switch the cd in their mixer once, the pair were also guilty of twiddling nobs in the event the audience thought they were mixing. That's right, you pay £20 to get into a club to see your favorite Dj's doing their thing, except, their not doing a damn thing except take your money and stick on pre-mix c.d's. These guys get in excess of £1200 a night for a set.
Which in the end begs the question, how many other Dj's are doing this.
Torches and nooses at the ready, its a witch hunt boys.
Here's an exciting new project from Inkfetish featuring at the Barbican in London, here's an excert from his new website which is chock full of new work from the hottest new talent on the scene.
"For the majority of last month, I’ve been working alongside music producer ‘Mikey J’ on a really exciting project in conjunction with what I can only describe as an urban dance version of ‘The Pied Piper’ which deputed earlier this year at The Barbican to critical acclaim.
This December It’s back and I’ve been brought on board to recreate 12 illustrations/paintings to feature in a new audio/visual soundtrack that acts as a prequel to the ‘Pied Piper’ entitled ‘Rat’s Lair’. Confused? I was too at first but it’s shaping up to be a really interesting cross media project, and the first time I’ve been involved in producing sequential artwork since my comic ‘No Strings’ back in 2005.
I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve been up to and can let you now know that I’ll be exhibiting the works to coincide with the opening night of the play on the 11th of December. The work will be on display along with a big mural painted by myself in the main foyer on the Ground floor until December 22nd."
Fed up of Simon Cowell's latest karaoke act being Christmas No.1?
Me too... So who's up for a mass-purchase of the track 'KILLING IN THE NAME' from December 13th (DON'T BUY IT YET!) as a protest to the X-Factor monotony?
AGAIN DON'T BUY IT YET! NO, REALLY DON'T BUY IT YET. IT WON'T COUNT!
In response to supporters' comments we have set up a just giving page DONATE TO SHELTER - http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas
To the Students and Citizens of Persia, the true state, i stand in heart and mind with you on the streets of Tehran. Through the bullets and gas of hate, the unbreakable spirit of freedom against the oppressors will rise triumphant. How long do they think the whitewashed mind control state will supress the spirit of such a bold people. May the words and actions of the people overthrow the doctrines of hate and suppression. They may clamp down on communication, they may halt all mobile phones/internet but the veil of archaiac hate mongering can only hold an entire nation in place for so long, and as always, the blood of the bright and the beautiful will pave the way for social reform and subsiquent overthrow of such a regressive hate machine.
Restitution the only solution the armed response of an entire nation.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad you and your facade of a goverments time of judgement is at hand and the people will be there to deal that judgement.
The Situationist movement originated from a small band of avante-garde artists and intellectuals influenced by Dada, Surrealism and Lettrism. The post-war Lettrist International, which sought to fuse poetry and music and transform the urban landscape, was a direct forerunner of the group who founded the magazine 'Situationiste Internationale' in 1957. At first, they were principally concerned with the "suppression of art", that is to say, they wished like the Dadaists and the Surrealists before them to supersede the categorization of art and culture as separate activities and to transform them into part of everyday life.
At first, the movement was mainly made up of artists, of whom Asger Jorn was the most prominent. From 1962, the Situationists increasingly applied their critique not only in culture but to all aspects of capitalist society. Guy Debord emerged as the most important figure.
The Situationists rediscovered the history of the anarchist movement, particularly during the period of the First International, and drew inspiration from Spain, Kronstadt, and the Makhnovists. They described the USSR as a capitalist bureaucracy, and advocated workers' councils. But they were not entirely anarchist in orientation and retained elements of Marxism, especially through Henri Lefebvre's critique of the alienation of everyday life. They believed that the revolutionary movement in advanced capitalist countries should be led by an "enlarged proletariat" which would include the majority of waged laborers. In addition, although they claimed to want neither disciples nor a leadership, they remained an elitist vanguard group who dealt with differences by expelling the dissenting minority. They looked to a world-wide proletarian revolution to bring about the maximum pleasure.
I first saw this band in 2007, they were at the time a 5 peice i believe. A dear friend had invited me for a night of baroque magic and wonder. I was moved to tears actual tears. So emotively Jamie dances around the notes, the voice flutters up and down the scale effortlessly. Its the first time in a long time i can truely in my humblest opinion say, a star is born.
Their sound is described as Baroque shock but i'd add, sensual, raw, powerful, spontanous and visually they live up to the definitions. Extravagant costumes with wonderfully magical themes, inventive use of space and circus, light and shadow, exterior and interior.. they have become their sound. Masters at work.
Here are a few of my favorite videos, they are beautifully shot and are classic examples of the vision, style, and collaboration of sound they are responsible for.
Let the wealthy and great roll in splendour and state I envy them not I declare it I eat my own Lamb My Chickens and Ham I shear my own Fleece and i wear it I have Lawns, I have Bowers I have Fruits, I have Flowers The Lark is my morning alarmer So jolly boys now Here's God speed the Plough Long life and success to the Farmer
I found this on my mug today and it made me laugh, but i think alot of you agree, theres alot to be said about living off the land and having a simplier kind of life. Not that im saying living off the land is easy, its back breaking work but at least its honest and homely.
Lets move to the country and leave this ole highway behind.
What you've made crooked you can't make straight, it's the price that you gotta pay.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
And you've paid it over and over my brother, my sister.. now is the time of the Letting Go, we must all find it in ourselves to let go of our transgressions and failures in this life and the past. We must learn the lessons and find their meanings, for they are all but a gift and this life but a dream, a ride if you will.
Hell to me is the act of forgetting how to stand, forgetting how to find your feet in the quicksand of the immediate. The human mind is a twisted maze of systemic emotion, relating to every part of your body, ultimately controlling your every action. Emotion based on environmental shifts in comfortability. The reality of the uncontrollable elements, elements that shape our journey on this planet.
Herrad von Landsberg
Hope Sufferance is the standard we all carry and we are all guilty of letting it slip. But there isn't and never can be a reason for us to let our Fear out weigh our love. Love for self, love for our global neighbor and Love for this gift of a life we live, Live being the operative word.
Live
We get one chance at this
one chance to experience the grace of the soul.
Dante's rings of Hell
Inner Love Inner Strength Inner Peace Honesty and Harmony
This the mantra i had tattooed to myself to remind me of the strength and focus that can an be found in Inner Fortitude. Recently i let my mind become clouded with despair subsequently forgetting my code of Honor, my Armour for the sticks and stones of misfortune.
Not that I'm here to preach my personal take on the current global emotional breakdown, but i think we are all reverberating with the same energies, we are in a sense all feeling the same weights and lifts, we need to focus and heal.
Hailing from the big smoke, the new front line soldiers Broken Note have set the bar that bit higher. Their sound conjures post apocalyptic decaying urban sprawl, leaving you feeling like the machine has taken over and we let em do it, we just didnt listen...
Ive seen these guys live and have to admit i couldn't fault them. With tearing saw bass and intelligent layered amen patterns dancing about your brain, your left enveloped in a world of sound.
Their first album is just about to be released on Ad Noiseam featuring everything they’ve done to date.
Souvenirs is a new film Short film from Director Andy Pearson, set in Birmingham the plot focuses around two friends Denzil and Bookmark. Its all about conquest and personal arrivals, as they notch one souvenir after the other to the proverbial bedpost. But things turn sour when Bookmark finally meets " the one " leaving queen bitch Denzil seeking out ways to sour the broth as he tries to hold onto his best friend.
Winning choice of the festival at the independent film festival in London and chosen for the Oscar qualifying international film festival, Palm Springs (where it out sold Demi Moore and Courtney Cox's directorial debuts resulting in a David an Goliath article being written about it on CBS) and has now been selected for the Stuttgart international film festival in January.
Its a funny film with heart and I've heard on the grape vine that a series and possible feature film is in the pipeline.
What can i say, 4*c the studio that brought us Tekkon kinkreet, the film that to date comes closes to summing up my personal feelings on what this life is, whats the meaning and what it is to face the demon inside us, The man in the mirror if you will.
Well they've done it again.
Mind Game directed and written by Masaaki Yuasaby is about the process of Letting Go, the idea that thoughts become things and that if we just believe in ourselves and the power that life imbues us with enough we can achieve our hearts desires. Beautifully animated and extremely bizarre, lets just say i was tripping balls on the possibilities in our life and personal freedom from the constraints of self.
Throw off the self imposed shackles of uniform thinking
Subtitled version available from all good torrents
The controversial Beat Generation writer will be best remembered for his hip, yet slightly insane novel, Naked Lunch. In a book review, the New York Times said the book was “less a novel than a series of essays, puns, epigrams — all hovering about the explicit subject matter of making out on drugs while not making out in either work or love.” With Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, Burroughs embodied the Beat Generation with experimentation with sex, drugs and the written word.
In 1951, Burroughs and his wife, Joan Vollmer, while drinking with friends, decided to play “William Tell.” Vollmer put a glass of water on her head, and Burroughs attempted to shoot it off. He failed, putting a bullet in her forehead. She died instantly. The shooting was declared an accident, and Burroughs served a short jail sentence. In the 1980s, Burroughs emerged as a hero to musicians, artists and filmakers.
Working with a variety of new and old artists and writers across the board, artists such as, Kurt Cobain with their collaboration called, " they call him priest "
There's nothing quite like watching a drummer shred on the drums, i've had the pleasure of playing with some talented musicians in my time but, the drums were one thing that time and time again would leave me with my jaw slack and head nodding. Ben stiff was the drummer in Miss: Spelt Yoof and he truly was the most talented of us all.
Throughout time there have been many masters of the beat,here are a few of my favorites:
Joe Morello of " The Dave Brubeck Quartet"
Also:
Seb Rochford the rubber man of "Acoustic Ladyland"
Here's some thoughts and feelings of the man not long before he shuffled off the Mortal coil. His last book "Kingdom of Fear" has been like a travel bible to me, dipping in and out of his world, triggering and exploring so many dormant questions, his work will always be close to my heart.
We all know the drug fueled rantings of Las Vegas, but the thousands of letter of correspondence contained in Fear and Loathing in America or the Gonzo Journalistic approach to the Campaign trail will stand out as wonderful streams of consciousness, reactive works, soberly real tales from his lesser known exploits.
I've always enjoyed stand up comedy, the likes of Richard Pryor and Billy Connolly were always filling the house with laughter, as i took off in my own direction there would always be a place in my heart for goat boy. Bill Hicks born, December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994, stand up comic with a savagely factual bite.
Hicks was born in Georgia in 1961. He worked his way around the US's stand-up comedy circuit in the late 70s and throughout the 80s. He was a star turn at the Comedy Workshop in Houston, Texas, at the age of 17, when he was still a high-school student by day
His misunderstood dark humor often pushed the boundaries right out to sea, His jokes included general discussions about society, religion, politics, philosophy and personal issues. Hicks' material was often deliberately controversial and steeped in venom and truth.
The world lost a bright light when he finally died of the one thing he always joked about. Just think, prophetic as his musings often would be, imagine what he would say about today's state of affairs.
This makes my skin crawl everythime, its such a powerful song as it stands but with Pavaortti bringing that elegance and supported operatic voice to Cavaleras raw caveman power, the song erupts into a war like call to arms, so that we may find our..
If i have children (and that's a big fucking if), they will be raised on a square diet of home grown vegetables, Beatrix Potter, Jimi hendrix and Hayao Miyazaki.. this man single handedly puts an end to benign child hood animation (the likes of racist grass root Disney). His style and vision has inspired a generation of fertile imaginations and hopefully will for many moons to come.
My personal favs are Ponyo on the cliff by the sea, Princess Mononoke, Howls moving castle and the acclaimed Spirited away.. If you have never heard of Studio Ghibli well prepared to be moved..
