Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down like a flow’r; he flee’th as it were a shadow, and ne’er continueth in one stay.
In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased? Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, thou most worthy judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from thee.
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself.
I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, from henceforth blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord, ev’n so said the Spirit, for they rest, from their labours.
Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us.
Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Amen.
Religion, as fascinating and beautiful as it is disgusting and ugly. The hand that strangles and the hand that heals is the same… This is shown with true perfection by Deathspell Omega, especially on the Kénôse EP. They bring forth the ultimate combination of music and ideology, philosophy and theology, life and death. Here below are the sounds of the first song on this amazing album. Click here for the lyrics.
>I wrote an article about Watchmen in September last year (read it here!), and now the movie has finally arrived. It’ll be damn exciting to watch the Watchmen, I tell you! I hope they’ve kept the darkness and seriousness which is always present in the brilliant comic novel, or else I’ll be disappointed. I mean, it’s tough enough to make a comic book about superheroes seem mature, but that’s where the comic succeeds 110%. It’s extremely good and I deeply urge each and everyone of you reading this blog to give the book a try. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. From what I’ve seen so far the movie looksreally good. Director Zack Snyder made a great visual impact with 300 (I wrote a bit about that here), so I have no doubts there… The big question is how it feels.
Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Save us!”… and I’ll look down and whisper “No.” They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like my father or President Truman. Decent men who believed in a day’s work for a day’s pay. Instead they followed the droppings of lechers and communists and didn’t realize that the trail led over a precipice until it was too late. Don’t tell me they didn’t have a choice. Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody Hell, all those liberals and intellectuals and smooth-talkers… and all of a sudden nobody can think of anything to say. Rorschach‘s journal, October 12th, 1985
Our planet is slowly moving towards global disaster. Mankind’s devastating waste will put an end to human existence, there’s no doubt about that. The only question is when. There definitely will be a point where the air will be impossible to breathe and the water impossible to drink, and every day is another nail in the coffin. There are 6.76 billion people trying to reach for the same materialistic lifestyle, and there’s just not enough for the world to go around.
Jennifer Baichwal, director of the scary yet beautiful Manufactured Landscapes movie (based on the astonishing photos by Edward Burtynsky – check them out!), has documented the toll that “progress” is taking on the planet by visiting dumping grounds, dams, recycling yards, factories, mines and other manmade facilities that follow in the hollow trails of the industrial revolution. For the most part the documentary takes place in China, the land which strives so hard to Westernize, not realizing that this means total decline of the soul, spirit, and ultimately – life. China is the manufacturer of the world (you most probably have “Made in China”-products all over the place at home), and its’ work force is so concentrated that whole towns are dedicated to one type of product. But there’s a steep price to be paid for runaway consumption. As Mother Earth slowly dies we tend to look away. Business as usual. I’m like that myself, but then again, I lost hope a long time ago…
The opening shot of Manufactured Landscapes is truly surreal. The camera rolls through what seems like a never-ending Chinese factory and it blows my mind everytime I watch it. The whole movie is like that: deeply mindblowing. I’m amazed by the good shots, but repulsed by the sickness in man. If you’ve seen the magnificent film Week End by Jean-Luc Godard you know what to expect, only this sequence is very much for real!
The Week End clip for comparison:
Unser Täglich Brot (Our Daily Bread) is another movie you definitely should watch. It’s pretty much in the same vein as Manufactured Landscapes (a documentary without the voice-over where you’re left to your own conclusions, where the photography speaks for itself), only it deals with the food industry. It sure as hell ought to awake the misanthrope in all of us.
Maybe it’s time to consider redefining the meaning of civilization?
>Victoria, the Crown Princess of Sweden, will marry Daniel Westling in the summer of 2010. That’s great! I wish them the best of luck. And that’s about it. Now check the video below (it’s not a joke!). This is Sweden 2009. It’s like Monty Python in the 1970’s, making fun of King Arthur in the early 6th century! That should be enough to clarify why monarchy sucks.
>People in Sweden are upset over some old clip called “Territorial Pissing“. The debate is ridiculous – as always in the land where it’s illegal to carry a spraycan. (If you want my opinions on the matter, read Hynek Pallas’ column (in Swedish) here and here.) Last year, London decided to hail its’ street artists with the awesome Cans Festival by transforming a whole street into an art exhibition, free for everyone to enjoy and where the public was encouraged to add to the exhibition with their own art. “Make your mark!” The exhibition took place in an abandoned tunnel formely used by taxis which was vacated when the owner Eurostar shut it down. Banksy – world famous graffiti artist – found the tunnel and with the help of Eurostar turned the idea into reality. Banksy: In the space of a few hours with a couple of hundred cans of paint I’m hoping we can transform a dark forgotten filth pit into an oasis of beautiful art. Watch more photos here.
And as a tribute to NUG, here’s a previously posted video.
>I know absolutely nothing when it comes to evolutionary biology and zoology or whatever it’s called. I know I love sex, but that’s about it. I believe sex is a part of evolution… ;) Nevertheless, having read Richard Dawkins‘ amazing book The God Delusion (I wrote a bit about it here. Also check steve austin’s runthrough (in Swedish) here.), I decided to try his old masterpiece The Selfish Gene. I’ve come across the title several times when reading about religion, and especially when reading what the Young Earth creationists have to say. These comedians seriously believe that the universe is less than 10,000 years old. It is estimated that 47% of Americans hold this view, and almost 10% of Christian colleges teach it. No wonder the world is a fucked up place!
However, when reading The Selfish Gene I’m so fascinated by this whole thing called existence, I’m almost willing to submit to the idea of Intelligent Design and whatever the hell these crazies (EDIT: the creationists) are talking about. It’s really that amazing. There’s a lot more to evolution than many people realise. And I mean a lot more! Dawkins, just as in The God Delusion, argues like the professional he is, but it’s never a dull read and even people who aren’t the slightest interested in the theory of evolution should enjoy this book if they only gave it a fair chance. It’s not hard going and Dawkins provides a lot of interesting examples that’ll make your brain flip because they’re pretty mindbending and thought-provoking. I don’t know, maybe die hard biologists think Dawkins’ simplifying and dramatising ideas, often using sweeping statements, are laughable. I like it, though. But what struck me, me being a Spenglerian (or at least having read a lot of Spengler stuff and liked it), is that Dawkins’ argumentation leaves little room for the influence of culture and individuality when it comes to human development. Even so, he apparently coins the term ”meme” in this book, meaning ”a unit of human cultural evolution analogous to the gene, suggesting that such “selfish” replication may also model human culture, in a different sense” – or ”a unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices; such units or elements transmit from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena”. I have the feeling I will return to this book when reading Spengler further on…
Anyway, this is probably the best popular science book I’ve ever read. If you decide to read it, make sure you get the 30th anniversary edition (yes, it was originally published in 1976!), since it includes a very large selection of notes which offer an additional perspective to many topics. As for the title, The Selfish Gene: it’s kind of a metaphor describing the behaviour of genes, where altruism is an integral part of the so called ”selfishness”.
I read Charles Darwin‘s On the Origin of Species some 15 years ago, and I think that kind of got me started on the anti-Christian (left hand) path, and I’m re-reading it right now. Still, I feel I know nothing. Like Manuel.
