Four quotes about books from four of my favourite writers: Voltaire, Ezra Pound, E.M. Cioran and Franz Kafka. Book autopsy by Brian Dettmer, an artist who carves into books, dissecting them and revealing their art…
What we find in books is like the fire in our hearths. We fetch it from our neighbor’s, we kindle it at home, we communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all. Voltaire
Certain books form a treasure, a basis, once read they will serve you for the rest of your lives. Ezra Pound
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A book should open old wounds, even inflict new ones. A book should be a danger! E.M. Cioran
We need the books that affects us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be an axe for the frozen sea inside us. Franz Kafka
> Jan Stenmark: Some people are too stupid to feel anxious. That’s smart. —
First you might want to read Intelligent misanthropy – Part 1. Then you might pose the question: Is being misanthropic really such an intelligent thing?
Well, misanthropy is a way of looking at humanity that probably will emerge over time. The more you learn about this world and its inhabitants, the more you would want to distance yourself from its craziness. At least that’s how I look at it, because I see no change to the better in the long run.
Alain de Botton writes in his book Status Anxiety: “The disadvantage of this otherwise usefully clear-eyed view of humanity is that it may leave us with few friends.” I don’t necessarily agree with that few friends thing. I’m more in agreement with what Chamfort said: “Once we have resolved only to see those who will treat us morally and virtuosly, reasonably and truthfully, without treating conventions, vanities and ceremonials as anything other than props of polite society … the result is that we will have to live more or less on our own.”
To spend time alone is essential to me. That’s what keeps me going. But: “It is sometimes said of a man who lives alone that he does not like society. This is like saying of a man that he does not like going for walks because he is not fond of walking at night in the forêt de Bondy”, as Chamfort said. In other words: I have a desire for company, not just 24/7.
What disappoints me though is that I often have to wage wars alone as well. People may agree with what I say, but I’m the only one saying it. That’s awfully tiresome sometimes, the lack of support. And people say I am the one who’s lost all hope! At least I’m still fighting/writing. Seems to me like you – the passive masses – are the hopeless ones…
This one looks very promising! One of the most prominent critics of Israel, Norman G. Finkelstein, son of Holocaust survivors (his mother was a Majdanek survivor and his father a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp), will appear in this documentary about his life and work. Can’t wait! Along with Chomsky this dude is the shit. Finkelstein was recently denied entrance to Israel and is now banned from entering the country for 10 years. Why? Because he’s a true threat to the racist zionist pro-apartheid assholes that rule with iron hand. The madness goes on…
Below is a very interesting debate between Finkelstein and Alan Dershowitz, whose book The Case For Israel was commented by Finkelstein as “a collection of fraud, falsification, plagiarism and nonsense”. Thus begun the Dershowitz-Finkelstein affair. Not much love in that one… You may skip the first ten minutes of part 1, but from then on it’s full throttle. Which one is using facts and which one is using propaganda? It’s quite obvious.
Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Lemmy, Van Halen, The Police, Soundgarden… Those are some of the influences mentioned in the Fingerspitzengefühl biography, and I could go on for weeks without sleep just naming names, but FSG won’t sound like any of them… That’s what matters. In short, this band seems to deal with two issues; how to endure life and how to cultivate their schizophrenia. Because the music is truly schizo, I kid you not. It’s like life and death colliding and collapsing. Don’t be fooled by that pop song Pick It Up, because you have Kursk waiting around the corner and it will kill you. If you’re narrow-minded about music you might have a problem here. Fingerspitzengefühl have played together with Neurosis as well as to an empty crowd, all within a time range of a few weeks. That’s schizo as well. In my opinion this is easily one of the top five active Swedish bands today. On stage they split your weak skull, body and soul in about a thousand pieces. That’s right.
Here are three mpthrees for you to download and listen to, but first check out this YouTubed version (distorted as fuck) of Kursk . It’s heavier than your mama.
He gave you / A bitter name / To bring you down An anchor / Gets a grip / On bottom of the sea He gave you / Someone else’s name / To pull you down Alone with / Its damnation / Forever tied to it He gave you / A hollow soul / Impossible to waste He greets you / With twinkling eyes / You can never reach
God’s great
He gave you / A bitter name / There’s nothing you can do Roaring depth / Hand over you / You sink through the soil He whispered / Your mother’s name / You know what she’ll be Pungent pain / Indifference / God’s on my shoulder
I love you
Express death / Yeah, let it show / For her, expose / Death, and let it show Guide her to the light
“I can’t imagine how this law is going to be able to meet the demands of the European Declaration of Human Rights”, said Privacy International’s vice secretary general David Banisar yesterday, almost mocking the FRA law.
Today Sweden took a giant step away from democracy towards totalitarianism. The FRA, who’s been monitoring our business illegally for years, was not punished by applicable law for doing so, but rewarded. The Swedish parliament ignored the facts, its people and common sense and voted yes in favour of the FRA law. It’s too sick to be true, really. But it is.
I’ll let the words of Promoe speak for themselves.
Promoe: Prime Time
Prisoner code THX 1138 I’m a break the chains and lidigate Bill Gates And Ricky Lake type intruders of your private life It’s like they got a million private eyes in the public eye Then they publicize double lies in a love disguise Wolf in a sheep clothing, I just love these guys Talking about freedom of speech, freedom of the word It’s a well known fact you need cash to make yourself heard With topics like this they don’t literally stop me But I’d be happy to sell 20 000 copies That don’t make no revolution, so what am I to do then? Rather die looting, then get my message diluted Dilemma, either you say nothing to a lot of people Or you try and kick some sense to a minority of equals Who already know what you know and don’t need to be schooled While 85 % of the population keeps getting fooled
Massmedia misleading ya All them press idiots gets greedier Chasing headlines and deadlines, the truth left behind It’s prime time and the blind lead the blind
They tried to drug me with TV, deceive and mislead me But on the low though, I don’t keep what they feed me Believe me, I throw it up like a bulimic Don’t tell no one though or they’ll put me in a clinic For brainwashing, they wanna stop my guys With money and lies, they got the truth monopolized Manipulate and pollute the mind states Generations are mind-raped My voice echoed off the Walls of Jericho and Berlin in the old days Listen close and hear it now in your own hallways It’s your baby brother quoting me, he got all tapes Some youths of today want substance, not All Saints Massmedia don’t wanna deal with the real issues They want you to think, life is about chasing the riches But that materialistic shit will fade away Don’t get caught up in the modern day slavery trade
The unemployed no longer want to be used Modern day slavery, computer rules In the school system, of miseducation The entertainment business of indoctrination Capitalist interests, run the press and information Highway to hell approaching, the end-station At a faster pace than Formula 1 racing Blaming the problems of society, on immigration When Sweden make guns, export it to poor nations Causing wars and starvations, killing Africans and Asians Calling it “foreign relations” and it’s all annihilation Yo, you force them to leave their homeland for an unknown land Then look upon them as more barbaric than Conan They ask you for work, and you say ‘no man, you can’t be trusted’ They walk down your street and get busted By your so-called justice designed to chain minds To put you in the lead, and the others behind Well I will never trod your road again, never vote again Cus you will use them as a scape goat again I’ll raid your radio-show again, like once P.E. Run up in your office screaming and raving play me! I got the hottest beats out there courtesy of Embee And rhymes with the message to set your mindstate free
You know those “military analysts” that appear thousands of times in the mainstream media, telling us about the war in Iraq? On April 20th 2008 New York Times revealed that those very analysts in fact are hired by the Pentagon in a massive campaign to generate favorable news coverage of USA:s wartime performances. Their filthy lies are echoed throughout the rest of the world, thus creating a false image of what’s really going on in Iraq. Fox, CNN, NBC, ABC and others are involved. “Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air”, writes NYT, meaning they have great financial interests here. What we think are comments from experts is pure propaganda. “A few expressed regret for participating in what they regarded as an effort to dupe the American public with propaganda dressed as independent military analysis”, writes NYT.
This obviously is a huge scandal, but have you read about it anywhere? Where are the bills in the newsagents’ windows? I’ve looked, but all I see is the same old crap; “You’re feeling dizzy? Might be a hidden disease!” Damn, I feel like a conspiracy theorist sometimes, but what the hell… This is the truth. This is what’s going on. How can we keep quiet?
And how come such a huge paper like the New York Times wrote about it? Because they are not dependent on selling ads to those major american companies that have interests in what the world looks like post 9/11, the companies that earn their money from war and are a huge part of the war industry. New York Times is owned by a very wealthy family, and they were against the war in Iraq from the very beginning.
That’s just another example of how we’re being fucked by the mainstream media.
Here in Sweden the headlines today are about the totally mindbending wiretapping law which in short terms means that all telephone and internet operators will be forced to attach a large cable to the state’s supercomputer, where the state will be able to keep a record of everything said in telephone conversations, surfed on the web or written on the internet. Instead of just criminal suspects having their phones tapped, now everyone will be tapped via their phones, emails, web surfing, faxing, etc. The state will scan all phone calls, emails and so on in real time. Anything that is considered “interesting” on the basis of 250,00 search criteria, will be saved for further investigation. This is plain sick and makes me think of China, Stasi and crazy movies from the Cold War era.
The problem is that media just woke up likeyesterday starting to report on this highly important issue, and on Wednesday the Swedish parliament is supposed to pass this very controversial law. People are hard at work writing emails to their politicians, participating in anti-FRA-law-Facebook-groups, blogging like fuck and lots of other good things. However, had media done their job we’d been much better prepared. However, that’s what the people in power are trying to avoid. A well informed crowd is a dangerous crowd. Keep the masses away!
It’ll be interesting to see what’s gonna happen on Wednesday. Too little, too late? Or maybe we really made a difference on such a short notice?
>When Close-Up Magazine celebrated their 100th issue they published a list of their favourite albums released since 1991 (when issue #1 was released). I love lists of all kinds, so of course I had to do one myself.
One rule: One album per band. Note: The list is only sorted somewhat by genres, otherwise in no particular order.
Indy’s Top 40 albums 1991 – 2008
01. Wu-Tang Clan – Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) 02. Smut Peddlers – Porn Again 03. Dr. Octagon – Ecologyst 04. Gang Starr – Moment of Truth 05. Mobb Deep – The Infamous 06. The Goats – Tricks of The Shade 07. The Terror Show – S/T 08. Dissection – Storm of The Light’s Bane 09. Deathspell Omega – Si Monumentum Requires Circumspice 10. Funeral Mist – Salvation
11. Mayhem – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas 12. Darkthrone – A Blaze In The Northern Sky 13. Nifelheim – Servants of Darkness 14. Watain – Sworn To The Dark 15. Master’s Hammer – The Jilemnice Occultist 16. Dinosaur Jr – Where You Been 17. Stereolab – Switched On 18. Björk – Homogenic 19. Beck – One Foot In The Grave 20. Svarte Greiner – Knive
21. Proiekt Hat – Lebensunwertes Lebens 22. Erik Enocksson – Farväl Falkenberg 23. Flesh Quartet – Love Go 24. Morte Macabre – Symphonic Holocaust 25. Plastikman – Sheet One 26. The Sabres of Paradise – Sabresonic 27. Entombed – Clandestine 28. Autopsy – Mental Funeral 29. Opeth – Still Life 30. Repugnant – Epitome of Darkness
31. At The Gates – Slaughter of The Soul 32. Mastodon – Leviathan 33. Neurosis – Souls At Zero 34. Today Is The Day – In The Eyes of God 35. Faith No More – Angel Dust 36. Primus – Sailing The Seas of Cheese 37. Turbonegro – Ass Cobra 38. His Hero Is Gone – Monuments To Thieves 39. Swans – Soundtracks For The Blind 40. Jex Thoth – S/T
And here are another 40 albums that could’ve easily made it onto the first list. I know it’s cheating, but who cares…
01. Earth – The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull 02. Brainbombs – Urge To Kill 03. Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works II 04. Sunn0)))/Boris – Altar 05. Godspeed You Black Emperor – f# a# oo 06. Deutsch Nepal – Benevolence 07. Brighter Death Now – Great Death box set 08. B12 – Time Tourist 09. Goldie – Timeless 10. Massive Attack – Protection
11. Souls of Mischief – ´93 Til Infinity 12. Group Home – Livin’ Proof 13. Nas – Illmatic 14. The Pharcyde – Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde 15. Kool Keith – Sex Style 16. Loop Troop – A Modern Day City Symphony 17. Rage Against The Machine – S/T 18. Seigmen – Total 19. Pearl Jam – Ten 20. Nirvana – Nevermind
21. Candlemass – From The 13th Sun 22. Audionom – Retrospektiv 23. Fingerspitzengefühl – Happy Doomsday 24. Voivod – Phobos 25. Celtic Frost – Monotheist 26. Murder Squad – Unsane, Insane And Mentally Deranged 27. Morbid Angel – Blessed Are The Sick 28. Brutal Truth – Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses 29. God Macabre – The Winterlong 30. Archgoat – Whore of Bethlehem
31. Immortal – Pure Holocaust 32. Witch – S/T 33. Counterblast – Balance of Pain 34. Disfear – Soul Scars 35. Loud Pipes – The Downhill Blues 36. Arsedestroyer – Teen Ass Revolt 37. Poison Idea – Blank Blackout Vacant 38. Antony & The Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now 39. Stina Nordenstam – People Are Strange 40. bob hund – S/T (the 1994 album)
