Eternal Tragedy, the best Death Metal band in existence, need your help to crawl out of the underground and into the spotlight they deserve!
How can you help? Simple, just click on the link below, and vote for Eternal Tragedy to win a contest that will allow them to play a gig at the Zoe Club in Milan, Italy on Oct 2.
It is a small step, to be sure, but one that will help the band start to gain the exposure that they so deserve!
I have posted before on the idea of religion and slavery, I feel that I should also take the time to describe the religion of the free. How does a free man/woman approach the divine? How is this reflected in their beliefs and actions?
The answers to these questions are a bit more complex when talking about free persons than they are with those of a slave mentality. There are simply more options open to a free man than a slave, obviously. For one, there is no fear of reprisal. A free woman can believe as she wishes, without the fear of angering the Master. A free man may serve, out of a genuine respect or even self-interest, but he is not bound to serve upon pain of divine retribution. A free person may believe in many gods or none, depending solely on each individuals needs and desires to interact with the Divine. So considering the above complexity of beliefs, instead of trying to encompass all of them, I will stick with what I know best, the perspective of a freeman who does indeed believe in, and interacts with, the Divine. Continue reading →
The above title is the last line of an Italian folk song called Bella Ciao. It is a song that was sung by a group of anti-fascist rebels during WWII, who fought and died trying to free Italy of the tyranny of Benito Mussolini. I can’t listen to it without crying. I cannot help, when I listen to that song, feeling a profound sense of both triumph and tragedy for those brave individuals who died trying to make their country a better place for themselves and their families.
I would just like to take a moment to pay my respects to all those, past and present, of all races, creeds, and nationalities, who have died for freedom, not on foreign soil, but on their own. May you find a seat in Odin’s high hall, or a place of respect within the halls of whatever god, or gods, you may have followed.
Something I seem to be seeing and hearing a lot of lately is: “Respect must be earned,” and “Why should I show respect to someone who has not earned it?”
Understand this, if one treats everyone they meet with respect, then many will do the same. Is this understandable? If you show respect to a person that you have never met, then you can be said to be earning their respect!
Too often in modern American society, I see those who would demand respect without giving any themselves. And if confronted, they give the excuse, “Why should I show respect to someone who has not earned it?” They do not understand that respect given is respect earned. If you give the utmost respect to everyone you meet, and there is one who simply refuses to give you respect in return, that person has earned your disrespect, and they should be treated accordingly! However, why should anyone bother to earn your respect if you won’t make a good faith effort to earn theirs?
Hmm, on attempting to research a bit for the content of this post, I have spent a little time trying to determine whether the biblical account of the Jewish Origin is indeed even partially accurate. The results were inconclusive, most sources of information that I could find online were clearly biased in one direction or another. However, I must say that the idea that the early Jews came out of Egypt as slaves has an appeal to me, simply because of the structure of the Judaic religion. The reason, it seems to me, is that Judaism, along with its more modern variants such as Christianity and Islam, is a religion that is geared very much toward a slave mentality. If one looks at the the god of the bible as a being conceived of by and for slaves, these religions begin to make a great deal more sense to an outside observer. Continue reading →
Seriously, this is my all time favorite band! Sound technique, blazing, brutal riffs, and solos that will send shivers down your spine, then rip it out! This band is the quintessential Death Metal experience!
Every track on the ‘Forever ‘ album leads to a complex maze of meaning, emotion, and sound. I feel like I discover something new every time I listen to this band.
I could write a whole book about how awesome this band is, but instead, I urge you to listen for yourself.
Commonly, the suffix “-ism” is used to denote bodies of belief and schools of thought e.g.- Catholicism, Satanism, Surrealism, & etc. Meanwhile, “-ist” is used to denote the members, followers, and/or believers of said “-isms.”
Now, truth be told, I do not have much of a problem with most “-isms”, mostly, they are, when stripped down to the basics of their reality, merely groups of ideas/ideals. I am not so sure that any idea is necessarily good or evil in and of itself. Dangerous? Perhaps. Flawed? Useless? Undoubtedly. But not evil or good. Continue reading →
The following is a repost of a blog entry on my Myspace page.
I’ve noticed that most of us with creative proclivities, be art, music, writing, craftsmanship, etc. have a tendency to get pissed off at all the bullshit that come between us and our creative passion. Work, family, bills, and sometimes even relationships can get in the way of our creative efforts, and let’s face it, that sucks. However, that being said, nothing is created in a vacuum. It is most often the things that frustrate us the most , that become the most fertile fodder for our creative drive and expression. So, bullshit is what makes the flowers of our creativity grow, and while we don’t have to eat it and smile, it is good to keep this fact in mind the next time you find yourself on the brink of insanity….
