…There is no morality that alone makes moral, and every ethic that affirms itself exclusively kills too much good strength and costs humanity too dearly. The deviants, who are so frequently the inventive and fruitful ones, shall no longer be sacrificed; it shall not even be considered infamous to deviate from morality, in thought and deed; numerous new experiments of life and society shall be made; a tremendous burden of bad conscience shall be removed from the world – these most general aims should be recognized and promoted by all who are honest and seek truth.
From The Dawn, Aphorism 164, first published in 1881.
The Virginia Tech Massacre. 30+ killed this time. And still people ask the same stupid question: Why does this always happen in the United States of America – the land of the free, the biggest and best democracy in the world? To answer this, once again I turn to rap music: one of the few genres where social realism and urban youth is allowed to collide head to head, no holds barred, free from moral restrictions (as we all know, punk and hardcore ought to be like this, but is far from it…).
Back in 1992 there was this pretty strange rap group called Consolidated. Strange because they were white, and strange because they were dealing with political issues on a higher level than most other rappers at the time. They weren’t in it for the fame. And not for the game either. They wanted world wide change. They were the white equivalent of Public Enemy, in a way, and they started already in 1989 unleashing the This is Fascism EP. Their song Tool and Die is still as relevant today as it was back then, 15 years ago. Sadly, not much has changed. The NRA and the gun lobby are working hard for gun rights instead of gun control.
Download Tool and Diehere, and get with the lyrics. Truly great stuff! No lame bling-bling shit, this is true hardcore. Can you deal with it?
Consolidated – Tool and Die
Damn, this is madness its the fourth consectutive week I’ve had this reoccuring nightmare of a woman who tries to walk her child to daycare they pass some liquor store see an average looking kid running out the door in a moment frozen they watch as he reveals a handgun terror in her voice, no sound, he unloads a round, her son goes down then I wake up screaming but am I dreaming cause its just another day so many killings repeated until people have no feeling when every two years guns take more american lives than the whole vietnam war Six teens and children die every day in gun homicides and the NRA lobby fool pay athletes to tell kids to stay in school whoever said that must be joking go tell that to the kids in Oakland, DC. Detroit and Newark and you wonder why kids don’t do their homework the school is a warzone teachers and students alike are afraid to leave home hallways are an innocence tomb the principal’s office a grieving room this is a malignant cancer guards and metal detectors won’t be the answer hundreds of thousands of students say they carry guns to school daily growing up with fear and panic. Bang – Nine – Automatic!
It’s genocide America has the most homicides Society devouring its own young Take away the guns we need gun control
How can we stop the violence when everywhere we look is the image of gun death the Rodney King explosion is just one result of inner city erosion take away all hope and kids will turn to robbery and dealing dope you don’t care about elections what urban youth want is protection from a life of war could be the Iraqi war or war in the Filmore There is no more tragic sight than a heavily armed youth with no respect for life The leading cause of death in African American males under thirty five at the funeral the friends will cry but on the streets they tool and die and Hollywood has done more than anyone to glamorize the gun movies, music and TV. Its Genocide…can’t you see… Got to take the profit out of crime stop glamorizing death on primetime Cities are the only places where kids are waging arms races in suburbs and rural areas Across the country kids are carrying three more hours and another teenage youth will have committed suicide while his mothers crying gun advocates are on TV lying to the public about how people are the ones who kill and guns don’t until we have gun control we can’t stop these ten year olds from going in their father’s closet were the gun was left unlocked and loaded Where does it end? When everyone gets their own piece, dividend
Driving down Guerrero cut off a psycho kid looked like Sendero Luminoso, words were froze so I don’t start talking shit or acting macho you could get popped in a minute this is the wild, wild west and we’re in it and my kids don’t want to play when they have to worry about ducking spray or two drunks having an argument in front of our apartment when I hear that sound I yell: Everyone get inside and get down!
>Originally posted April 08, 2007. Stig Sæterbakken is an interesting author straight out of Norway. Here in Sweden he’s well known for his books Siamesisk and Sauermugg Redux unleashed by Vertigo förlag in 2002 and 2007 respectively. Just recently his norwegian translation of Nikanor Teratologen’s Äldreomsorgen i Övre Kågedalen was released over there.
Sauermugg, one of his projects, has been in development for quite some time, and the latest installment is Stig inviting others to participate in continuing and developing the eternal curse that is Sauermugg. This is what he calls Sauermugg +. Nikanor Teratologen, Gunnar Blå, Stefan Whilde, Terje Dragseth and Anastasia Wahl are some of the participants. I was asked as well, and I wrote this dark, dystopic, futuristic piece that Sæterbakken published on his homepage. I’m very thankful for that. It was an interesting process writing this kind of stuff and it certainly got my mind going.
Comics, that’s kids stuff, right? Well, that’s what I thought as well for quite some time. As a kid I was kind of obsessed with Spider-Man for some years, but by the time he’d went black I was out there riding my skateboard and listening to records instead. I guess I wasn’t into comics that much after all. I still find Spider-Man among the coolest of superheroes, though. He’s metal, you know, the way he shoots his net making the sign of Satan:
However, I didn’t quite realize that there were “adult” comics (except for the crappy “erotic” shit) until I got hold of some anime movies (which I bought from the drummer in Sator, by the way! This was in 1990…). Those movies made me rediscover comics in a way. But since the style still was that wild and crazy shit it didn’t make any lasting impressions. It was fun for the moment and then forgotten about.
In 2003 I saw American Splendor. Yeah, I’m one of those late losers who discovered Harvey Pekar through that movie. I really loved the film, so I bought Our Cancer Year, one of his and his wife’s comic books that they based the movie upon. And it fucking touched my soul, I tell you!
American Splendor is all about life, death and the things that matters – things and thoughts that at first may seem pointless, but after some consideration may turn into mindbending visions. It did for me. I spent a lot of time thinking after reading Our Cancer Year, the same kind of thinking that may occur after reading a really thick, good book or seeing a mindfucking movie. I just love the way that a few strokes and a few lines can get your thoughts going. Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff. That’s probably the best and most accurate summarization ever, even though it’s become quite a tiresome cliché since the movie hit the charts.
Harvey’s life is drawn by a lot of different artists (Our Cancer Year excluded, which is fully drawn by Frank Stack), and that in itself makes this comic really interesting. Here’s just a few examples of how some artists perceive our man:
And of course I identify with Harvey. He’s just an honest and literate guy with a sense for politics and music. Him being a Jew and just being so goddamn tired of the exploitation of the Holocaust is a revelation. This strip is from 1994:
And the cover of The New American Splendor Anthology has the coolest quote:
When I was younger I thought about women constantly… I was always running around looking for a good time… Now I’ve matured, my priorities have changed. I’m aware of what’s really important: CRUSHING MY ENEMIES.
The fact that I discovered American Splendor so late bugs me. I’ve missed so much. Harvey’s been doing his comics since 1976! Bah…
It’s been a long while since B-Girls got down. T-Love said it, and she said it ten years ago. So where the fuck are all the ladies at? Being a woman in the rap scene is definitely not the easiest of tasks, but every once in a while it’s time for one of them to step up and shine. I’m talking about MC’s who can rock the mic and spit lyrics that kill, and who’s got skilled producers to back them up. We’ve got Lady Luck, What What, Sonja Blade, Leila K (!) and sadly not that many more (in my opinion and to my knowledge). Sure, there’s always underground female MC’s ready to pop, but they rarely show their skills. Too bad. And please, don’t give me crap like Missy Elliot. She’s just super wack. Lady Sovereign? Eh… Well, for fun maybe. Lil’Kim? Hmm… Every once in a while. At least she’s portrayed really cool in this photo:
There’s probably some really cool female grime artists as well, but that’s not my kind of rap really, so I can’t speak about that.
So it was back in ´97 that T-Love made this super dope track Return of The B-Girl. She was supported by Kool Keith, one of the most sexist dudes in the whole rap industry, but also one of the very best. How awesome then that this amazing collaboration turned into one of the fattest hip hop joints ever. Listen to the song and fall to your knees pissing. It’s that good. Download the Return of The B-Girl mp3 here! Do it. Now.
And listen to the lyrics:
There’s a lot of girls rhymin on the mic with no direction Don’t know why they flexin, forgot rules and lessons The essence: beats and rhymes and shit I’m about to show these bitches that I’ll die for this … It’s been a long time, I shouldn’t have left you Sorry for the wack shit you slept through
Yeah, it’s been ten years of wack shit. Where are you now? Please, I’d love a re-return of the B-Girl. Hear me now, T-Love.
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It’s the International Women’s Day today, so here’s some more stuff to check out:
Global warming. It’s a fact. And a terrible threat.
So what can we do about it? I truly believe that it’s already too late. We’ve fucked with nature for far too long, being far too ignorant and failed to see the consequences of our utterly stupid and egotistical actions. I believe in the apocalypse now.
I believe that when and if I reach the age of, say 70 or 80 (in year 2050 or something), we’ll see the beginning of the end quite clear. It’ll probably happen much sooner, but hey, I’m trying to be optimistic here… Some people I talk to seem to have forgotten about the extremely disastrous Katrina already. And look at Jakarta right now. There’s natural disasters happening all the time and I wouldn’t be surprised if they soon got to our territory as well. In a way they already have… Remember Gudrun, Swedes?
Sure, there’s always been big, drastic changes in nature. No newsflash there. The thing is that this time it’s happening incredibly fast. A quick example: The ten hottest years on record have all occured in the last 14 years. Five of them in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. That ought to ring a bell, baby. A bell of doom.
On another topic: I got into a long discussion the other day about the future and stuff like that, and a friend asked me if I didn’t want kids of my own. Sure, it’d be cool as hell raising a child, but looking at the world today I would never do it. What kind of world would this poor child enter? What kind of future are we looking at? And top that with all the fears and fuck ups you have to live through just being a regular normal human being. No way I’d place another baby here. I’m simply not that sadistic. I’m thinking about the child here, not about my pity self. Let’s face one horrible truth: The child would suffer and face a future not worth facing.
Apparently, I’m a humanist, and the best thing would be if this whole godforsaken planet and all of its futile inhabitants got wiped off the map of the universe forever. That’s my humanism right there.
Back to topic. Global warming. I really recommend you watching An Inconvenient Truth, an astonishing documentary on Al Gore‘s campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide. Oh, if he’d been president…
Watch the movie. That’s the least one can do.
“And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.“ George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright
By the way, Living with the dying is a brilliant song by Night Sun, a 70’s progressive hard rock band from Germany that you really ought to check out. They only made one album, Mournin’ (1972), and it’s bloody amazing.
This was actually happening in 2006. No, the photo is not from some old Western movie. You’ve seen it all – and it was not a proper execution, it was a dirty lynching instigated by a vicious mob.
Saddam was – all of a sudden, without further due – to be executed. They didn’t even finish the trials properly. And what a “trial” then… Did it conform to international standards for a fair trial? No way. Mock trial is the only word for this shit.
So why the sudden rush to execute this monster? Simply because by doing the only right thing – sentence Saddam to a lifetime imprisonment and thus being able to distinguish between lies and truth through thorough questioning (not through torture…) – would reveal war criminals on the “wrong” side of the track. Those in power would have been forced to open up. Be sure they are sighing in relief now that most of their war crimes won’t ever have to be brought to court… Their propaganda and distractions can continue. Israel and USA are already marching towards Iran.
In the words of Manuel Garcia, Jr: “There is no doubt that Saddam was guilty of great crimes, and any truly independent tribunal would have found him undeserving of retaining his liberty. A victory for the world public would have been a judgment requiring Saddam to reveal all the details of his career, during the course of a lifetime imprisonment. Historians and prosecutors in many countries would work from this record to winnow the truth from the lies, and to then enable the many agencies making up our international system of justice to pursue other perpetrators implicated in the tale.
The quick execution of Saddam Hussein is not simply “victor’s justice,” it is a demotion in a Mafia-style re-organization, the elimination of capo fallen from grace, to protect the power elite from any exposures that would threaten its control.”
Because that’s what it’s all about: control, power, money… You should know the drill by know. US of A sure do.
