Dance till the world ends

Now this's the most poignant digest of modern media and, in a broad sense, modern culture if I ever saw one. This is unsettling on so many levels. The fact, that it's a remix of one of Britney's tracks to begin with.

Courts of Chaos

I love the net. My little comment went viral :D

Taming reality

As every cubic inch of our washing machine seems to radiate a certain philosophy - namely: "Bite my shiny metal ass!" - it seemed only fitting to christen the bastard. I name thee Bender. Perhaps if I pour some beer inside that insidious mechanism will start working again, hm?

Music to get shit done

That would be my review of 65daysofstatic's "We were exploding anyway" album if I were to state it in a single sentence. If I were to elaborate, I'd say: Put post/mathrock, glitch, shoegaze and dance in four fast, expensive sports-cars and send them on a four way full frontal fender bender at around 130bpm and this is what you get. I hadn't heard anything this good since when I heard Bonobo or the second Unkle album, although this thing, it's a whole different ballpark in terms of genre.
This music is so intense. So visceral. It literally makes me wanna get up and Shindance™ or go ride my bike through the woods at some insane speed, draw, get a sweat-breaking workout, create. I know I'm sounding manically euphoric but I simply can't find any other words to describe it.
This isn't your everyday, run of the mill, easy on the ear record. It's one of those, that you can listen to countless times and it grows on you. Provided that you get over the first "What the fuck is this insane arrhythmic cacophony" impression. There's a rhythm to this arrhythmia. There's a melody to it. There's a method to this madness.
Most of the tracks are instrumental (aside from "Come to me", the illegible jabbering on "Go complex" and the soul-tugging moans on "Debutante"), but that doesn't bother me. On the contrary, I've always found that the lyrics should be either good or not there at all.
Give it a try.

Typical...

So I spent the last hour getting the bike sorted only to discover that the rear tube is probably punctured somewhere. And the weather for a ride is just perfect. Purrrrfect.
Murrrrderrrrr.
...

In other news, as some of You probably noticed on fb I finished the Sunanda Tribe logo. I learned a lot about working with vector graphics on this one. Although another color set got picked, this one is my personal favourite as imho it hast the most impact:

Now all I gotta do is choose an expensive alcoholic beverage as payment. Bombay Sapphire Gin for mixing Gibsons or Ardbeg 12YO single malt?

"And if you go chasing rabbits..."

While on the tram home from the movies on Friday afternoon I witnessed a group (dunno around 60-70 people strong) of "Smolensk conspiracy" supporters, crowding the sidewalk in front of the main entrance to MTP. A lot consisting of pensioners mixed with youths. All of them brandishing national flags and signs stating "Boyscout scum! You won't bury the truth!" and the like. All round fuckwits if you ask me. The best thing about this otherwise sad prospect of a mob of rabid right wing fanatics was a huge purple fiberglass Easter bunny right in the middle of them. One of many strewn about the city as part of some kind of Easter decoration. The muzzle expressionless, eyes only sketchy, completely immobile and oblivious to the mayhem beside it. Add to that the vibrant color and any and all semblance of dignity of the protesters is stripped, eradicated and the mob is reduced to some absurd band of escapees from bedlam. Unfortunately I failed to capture the moment on a photograph, but believe me, it's a sight I'll remember for a long time.

No news is good news

Although Mo. and Jo. already wrote about this I think I'll toss in my two cents.

For fuck's sake, enough with the fear-mongering. I know that "objective journalism" is  sitting at a table, playing poker along with a unicorn, Santa and the Tooth-fairy in the Fairyland Casino, but how low can you sink? I'll quote here an article title (leaving it in Polish as the stupidity is more palpable that way):

"Po trzecim wybuchu w Fukushimie. Świat patrzy jak Japonia walczy z atomowym demonem."

Atomic demon? Seriously? Cool story bro. While scrolling through the piece I really hoped to find some photos of Godzilla or other rubber monster/alien robot standing jollily smack in the middle of Tōkyō, munching on a truck. Evangelion in the background. Sadly there was nothing of the like there, only liveblogged one-line summaries from various press agencies/other sites. No broad context, no scientific details. Just stuff written, or rather poorly translated for the most part, by shmos who don't get paid to check the facts they "write" about.
Elswhere I've read stuff like "Tōkyō is situated north of Fukushima." and was forced to cringe. I don't expect everyone to know Japan's geography, but it doesn't take an IQ worthy of MENSA to check the facts on a fucking map. Or all the comparisons to Chernobyl. Extremely adequate indeed, 'coz the technology behind construction damage control of malfunctioning nuclear reactors didn't move an inch in the last 24-25 years. Yeah, right. But the presses gotta keep rolling, each click on an article, no matter how absurd its title or how meritless the content, still generates revenue from ads (even if they're blocked in the browser) on the news site. If it isn't authored by someone with a Ph.D in nuclear physics or engineering of nuclear power plants don't read it. Four times out of five it'll be a waste of time. Same goes for firsthand relations ,the kind about which Mo. wrote in her post (the one about the article by B.). No amount of words can convey what happens to a person during such an event. Not even  when the words are for the most part flowery, overly dramatic adjectives. Nor can tearjearking photos or videos explain it. People are too desensitized by the constant stream of atrocities in the media for that - consider the winners of World Press Photo in the last decade. Each year there had to be some photo akin in theme to an African child on the verge of starvation. Preferably a sexually abused amputee orphan girl using an Ak-47 as a crutch. Suffering from AIDS to boot.

Another thing are the reactions on social networks. All that "Pray for Japan" crap re-posted ad nauseam. As if pleading to an imaginary entity could change anything. Oh, I'm sorry - it makes the praying person feel good about him/herself. The recipient remains oblivious and has to deal with reality. Or  inquiries whether the Polish Humanitarian Organization is recruiting volunteers. Inquiries by people who (for the most part, as there are exceptions to every rule) on the daily basis wouldn't give a fuck about their fellow man if he collapsed on the tram - because he stank. By people who don't have any search and rescue training whatsoever, can barely remember their CPR basics and the only asset of whom is knowledge of Japanese. But the thing about catastrophes is that they're in some way seminal events. And everybody wants to be a part of those. Part of the change. Just to be able to say "I was there." They didn't want me there, I wasn't of any use to them, but hey, who cares?

One last thought about the news - until the quake/tsunami hit Japan, Libya was where it was at. Now nobody gives a fuck. Page three, bottom column. Headlines occupied by the nuclear holocaust (pending). Any bets on where he hype will be next week?