tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46473220792603504452024-03-13T01:27:26.677+01:00Väggen försvinner / The Wall DisappearsVäggen försvinner / The Wall Disappears shows how it is possible to grasp and dissolve the wall with art.The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-24204074158964753302017-06-16T20:34:00.000+02:002017-06-16T20:34:56.107+02:00Are we living in 1879? – Henrik Ibsen's play A doll's houseWhen <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_Ibsen">Henrik Ibsen</a></b>'s play <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Doll%27s_House">A doll's house</a></b> was published and staged in 1879, it caused great controversy for pointing light at and showing an alternative to the existing way of living. Though this story is over a century old, it is just as relevant today. Relationship constructions may seem to be different today than in the 19th century, but overall we still live in the same world as then; a world of blindly accepted and hollow structures that make a true life impossible.<br />
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The play reveals the story of a woman, Nora, living a life generally accepted at the time. First and foremost she is a loyal wife and mother. With the idea of having a happy marriage which is opening up to new opportunities, both Nora and her husband are adamant that anything that could interrupt the reputation of the family or their peace has to be kept silent. When new circumstances come about and withheld secrets nevertheless start to arise to the surface, so does Nora's feelings about being stuck in an empty and meaningless situation. This striking depression, that is Nora's moment of realization that she wants a different kind of life, will later in this and other texts here on Väggen försvinner be referred to as “the Nora moment”.<br />
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She realizes that all along her pleasant life has been an illusion; she has played a role out of expectations from the surroundings, her husband and herself, of what a happy and respectable life should look like. She finds that she does not have a real relationship with her husband. Because he cannot imagine a life without her, as an empty role, he wants her to always be around and to fulfill his wishes. While she has always taken on his opinions and manners, he knows nothing about her. Conversations about the foundation of things have been entirely absent between them.<br />
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Nora comes to the conclusion that she does not have the opportunity to be, do or give anything valuable, because she has no understanding of life; and she decides to leave her life as the doll she has found herself to be, and set out on a journey to discover herself.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RSWrZSeWcr4" width="640"></iframe><br />
A doll's house has been turned into several screen adaptions. This is the trailer for one of three versions released in 1973, directed by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Losey">Joseph Losey</a></b> and starring <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Fonda">Jane Fonda</a></b>, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Warner_(actor)">David Warner</a></b> and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Howard">Trevor Howard</a></b>.<br />
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<b>We still blindly accept the norms</b></h3>
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The established structures in the society of this story from the 1870's are only different from today on the surface – the foundations are still the same. Denied today as they were denied then. Then, as well as now, it is official that there are norms that we need to follow to function in society. At the same time we cannot fully understand what these norms actually are; and any questions are only on a superficial level, since the norms generally seem to be a natural state. As long as we do not know what these norms are or what they are based on, we cannot understand what it is we see as the only possible or reasonable way of living.<br />
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In fact the structures in our society do not have a substantial base, but rests on concepts that cannot completely be explained. In other words, if you try to understand them you will face a wall; you will have to simply accept and adjust to the existing structures, or end up as an outsider.<br />
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In conclusion, it is extremely hard to even become aware of that in order to take part of life as it is around us, we have to live like slaves under a pre-conceived concept with a meaningless and empty foundation. Without that awareness we do not understand that there are ways of living that the existing structures exclude. And if our comprehension of the world says that there are no options that are excluded, how can we possibly imagine what they could be?<br />
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<b>How could it be like?</b></h3>
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An example of a concept without concrete meaning is the freedom of speech. You get told you can think what you want and that what you do is your own choice. But as long as the structures prevent the ability to see outside what is accepted, thinking is not free. So how free are actually the words we are ”free to speak”? And even if you would have and express ideas that do not fit into the concepts of society as it is now, they will be disregarded as your ”subjective” thoughts and have no real effect on the so called ”objectivity”. Terms like these, that sound boring and complicated, are only there to protect the established norm by making us believe that they are the only possible truth. The terms simply seem to represent the constant scientific conclusion, and are therefore never questioned.<br />
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As long as we do not break out of the wheel of inevitable ignorance, the world will remain as it is. Because the existent structures make us very limited in our ability to imagine another perspective than the one we already have, we never learn how to build a bridge between what we already know and what we yet don't know. In other words, we cannot imagine or take ourselves to something completely new, neither with internal thinking or in exchange with someone else. We simply never learn to communicate, since all we think or say has to fit into the already accepted perspective. This means that the structures that become part of everyone who grows up in the Western world keep a wall between the people and their opportunity of meaningful relationships that help create an actual good life.<br />
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<b>What is the function?</b></h3>
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If we take a closer look at this, we understand that it is not the constellations of relationships that are constrictive, it is their function. The necessity to live up to the pre-determined relationship concept, independent on content or purpose, takes away the significant opportunity and meaning that relationships could give us. We get stuck with having to accept to live on the surface without substantial exchange, since no matter what, ”it just has to be the way it is”.<br />
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Within the current structures the partners of a relationship can keep their imagined comfort and security, while they are in fact being very vulnerable in their dependency on that everyone and everything around them has to stay the same. The function of a relationship becomes to create a space where we can avoid everything we do not understand, since contradictory perspectives is something we never learn how to handle or use for our benefit. A situation where everything goes the way we already know it is therefore what makes us feel safe and comfortable. This turns the function of relationships away from being a means where we can explore and come to new vital understandings that will take us forward.<br />
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By simply having to be loyal to the generic structures, or fit into the so called normalcy, we are kept at a distance from ourselves and our opportunities; we do not know how to use our own thought processes, how to explore what we want or do what we discover. We simply live as in a play where all actions are for show, though we are not even aware of it; in order to live up to never-talked-about structures that has to be seen as the only possible way of living. As long as we accept this, we will never get out of the treadmill of meaninglessness. We will never have real relationships or be free to live the lives we can dream of.<br />
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Below first a Swedish quote from the autobiographical novel <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Son_of_a_Servant">The Son of a Servant (1886)</a></b>, or in Swedish <b><a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tj%C3%A4nstekvinnans_son">Tjänstekvinnans son</a></b>, by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Strindberg">August Strindberg</a></b> about the norms that simply have to be blindly obeyed. <br />
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... den kristna sedeläran, med offerskyldighet och pliktkänsla. Och så kröp begreppet synd in igen. Att njuta var synd, att öva sin plikt var plikt. Varför? För samhällets skull, till vilket man stod i tacksamhetsskuld? Nej, därför, att det var plikt.</blockquote>
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And here another longer quote in English from the same book, under a paragraph named “No Happiness without Virtue; no Virtue without Religion. 1864”:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"What is happiness? Most worldlings regard the possession of great wealth and worldly goods, happiness, because they afford them the means of satisfying their sinful desires and passions. Others who are not so exacting find happiness in a mere sense of well-being, in health, and domestic felicity. Others, again, who do not expect worldly happiness at all, and who are poor, and enjoy but scanty food earned by hard work, are yet contented with their lot, and even happy. They can even think 'How happy I am in comparison with the rich, who are never contented.' Meanwhile, are they really happy, because they are contented? (...) They go to church every Sunday, they honour God and His Holy Word, but yet they have not been born again of the Holy Spirit. Now, are they happy, since they are virtuous? (...) They think themselves better than other men, and righteous in the eyes of the Most Holy. These <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisees">Pharisees</a></b> (…) think to win everlasting salvation by their good deeds.”</blockquote>
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The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-63677819480205018852016-10-04T22:18:00.000+02:002016-10-04T22:18:03.264+02:00Trevor Hall - Ghosts (2008)<div class="tr_bq">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ynqc2qbW_kc?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br />
Live version of "Ghosts" by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Hall_(singer)">Trevor Hall</a></b> in 2010<br />
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<blockquote>
<i>Turning fantasies into realities </i><br />
<i>Oh we were lost in dreams</i><br />
<i>We had all the keys</i><br />
<i>And now it seems we can't pick the lock</i><br />
<i>Kind of like a flat line, I need a shock</i><br />
<i>What's behind the door</i><br />
<i>Are we too scared to knock</i><br />
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<i>Why do they make this pill so hard for us to swallow</i><br />
<i>Treating us as if we are ghosts, as if we're only hollow</i><br />
<i>Oh yea but we sing today and we'll sing through out tomorrow</i><br />
<i>Because our fire it burns, it burns up all your sorrow</i></blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dJiWPyGX3c0?rel=0" width="640"></iframe>"Ghosts" from the album Alive & On the Road, with full lyricsThe Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-34708792230690305932016-08-09T19:41:00.000+02:002016-08-09T19:41:30.395+02:00Elvis Costello - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding (1978)<div class="tr_bq">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eJ1ZQ99pKbY?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="640"></iframe></div>
Elvis Costello - Peace, Love and Understanding (Live on the Letterman Show)<br />
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<b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(What%27s_So_Funny_%27Bout)_Peace,_Love,_and_Understanding">(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding (1974)</a></b> is written by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Lowe">Nick Lowe</a></b> and made popular by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Costello">Elvis Costello</a></b>.<br />
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The lyrics clearly shows the main theme in the current Western culture: that Dynamic concepts like Peace, Love and Understanding cannot be understood in a concrete manner.<br />
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<i>My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes,<br />So where are the strong?<br />And who are the trusted?<br />And where is the harmony?<br />Sweet harmony</i></blockquote>
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<i>'Cause each time I feel it slipping away, just makes me wanna cry,<br />What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding?<br />What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding?</i></blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3ywceG6onqg?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
Nick Lowe performs "Peace, Love and Understanding" in Studio Q. Published Dec 27, 2011.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/13/AR2007091300685.html">Spotlight: Peace, Love and Understanding Nick Lowe</a></b>, Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, Sep 14, 2007The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-54423683337514156892016-07-07T15:41:00.001+02:002016-07-07T15:41:14.217+02:00Shirley – Visions of Reality (2013)<b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hopper">Edward Hopper</a></b> was for painting was <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell">George Orwell</a></b> was for writing. <b><a href="http://www.gustavdeutsch.net/">Gustav Deutsch</a></b> has made a film based on Hopper's paintings of the hollow, empty and claustrophobic Western ideals: <b><a href="http://www.shirley-visions-of-reality.com/">Shirley - Visions of Reality</a></b>.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/n12IqtouuqY" width="640"></iframe> <br />
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Watch it online: <b><a href="http://putlockerr.ac/tt2636806-watch-Shirley--Visions-of-Reality-online-putlocker.html">Shirley - Visions of Reality</a></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140731-hopper-paintings-brought-to-life" style="font-weight: bold;">Edward Hopper’s paintings brought to life</a>, BBC, July 31, 2014<br />
<b><a href="http://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/edward-hoppers-paintings-are-brought-to-life-by-film-director-gustav-deutsch/">Edward Hopper's paintings are brought to life by film director Gustav Deutsch</a></b>, Katy Cowan, Creative Boom, June 3, 2016<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/j24uh8cZ3wA" width="640"></iframe><br />
About Hopper and his painting Nighthawks (1942) by Smarthistory, Art History at Khan Academy<br />
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Read more about George Orwell in our post <a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.com/2013/11/suddenly-art-becomes-interesting_3.html" style="font-weight: bold;">Suddenly art becomes interesting</a>, Nov 3, 2013.The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-77486394686284944982016-06-19T23:17:00.000+02:002016-06-20T13:55:35.928+02:00The Big Short (2015) – Exposes the Ongoing Scam of The Western Culture<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vgqG3ITMv1Q" width="640"></iframe><br />
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Do you know about the terrifying background to the financial crisis of 2008 and its vast effects on your life?<br />
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The drama documentary The Big Short does not only expose the fraud of the financial system. The Big Short demonstrates that an exposed fraud can go on – as long as the fraud is protected by the elite of the system: a system that they say is a Democracy based on so called Science.<br />
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And this is not only an American problem. It is the big problem of the West.<br />
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From the film:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Jared Vennet: “The big banks were clueless. (…) And you're surprised?”<br />
Mark Baum: “That's not stupidity, that's fraud.”<br />
Jared Vennet: “Tell me the difference between stupid and illegal and I'll have my wife's brother arrested. I guess you just don't realize how clueless the system really is. Yes, there's some shady shit going down. But trust me, it's fueled by stupidity!”</blockquote>
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The title of this highly acclaimed movie refers to the true story of when a few individuals understood something that no one else did, which made them able to profit big when the whole rest of the world fell down into the financial crisis of 2008. It's an important movie and a horror movie, says the actor <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Carell">Steve Carell</a></b>. The film is based on <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Short">the book of the same name</a></b> by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lewis">Michael Lewis</a></b>.<br />
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<h3>
<b>Oh no! Not Economy...</b></h3>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Mortgage backed securities, sub-prime loans, tranches… It's pretty confusing, right?<br />
Does it make you feel bored, or stupid? Well, it's supposed to. Wall street loves to use confusing terms to make you think only they can do what they do. Or even better, for you to just leave them the fuck alone.”<br />
-<b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Gosling">Ryan Gosling</a></b>'s character Jared Vennet, also the speaker voice trying to both entertain and explain the cryptic terms and relations within banking throughout the movie.</blockquote>
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For how interesting can it be for the non-banker to watch a movie mainly taking place within the closed group of investors and bankers? <br />
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The truth is this movie says more about our world than what might appear at a first glance and is both interesting, funny, horrifying and engaging on many levels. It is a good reflection of what is going on in the world right now, and that on a much larger scale than in the field of economy.<br />
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Mark Baum (Steve Carell) is a character that is as pissed off with “the kind of crap people are pulling” as the fact that everyone seems to pretend that everything is fine. Him and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Burry">Michael Burry</a></b>, played by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Bale">Christian Bale</a></b>, are two of the characters telling the real story of how a few individuals managed to predict the stock market crash that caused the economic meltdown now eight years ago.<br />
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The film follows the story of how these individuals became so sure of their discoveries that they bet millions of dollars against everyone else in both their own companies and the whole world of banking.<br />
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<h3>
<b>The System as a Glue</b></h3>
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If you have seen the film you probably remember Georgia, the lady with the strange spectacles, played by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Leo">Melissa Leo</a></b>. Her company's, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_%26_Poor%27s">Standard and Poor's</a></b>, business is to evaluate mortgages from the banks.<br />
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What they do is to put a value on the likelihood of whether people will be able to pay back their loans. And then in the next phase the banks are able to ask the financial market, such as other banks and investors, to buy or speculate on these loans. In brief, it is profitable for the banks to get high ratings on bad loans.<br />
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The highlight of the conversation from the film where Mark Baum and his college, Vinnie Daniel meet Georgia:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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Georgia: If we don't give them the ratings they go to Moody’s, right down the block. If we don't work with them they will go to our competitors. This is not our fault. It is simply the way the world works.<br />
Mark: Oh shit!<br />
Georgia: Now you see, and I never said that.</blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tNZY0Ia1K6s" width="640"></iframe><br />
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You can read about the basics on this Wikipedia page: <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agencies_and_the_subprime_crisis">Credit rating agencies and the subprime crisis</a></b>.<br />
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So, the core of the bubble is that it is possible for the banks to profit big on lies, and that there within this arrangement is no possibility to do anything about that.<br />
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The banks keep buying themselves free from having to change anything and instead adjust the world around them to their conventional ideals.<br />
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The system is such that it protects its own immobility with fraud and stupidity. The inevitable factor is that people's ideas and dreams are made insignificant.<br />
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<b>We are Trained to not Bother</b></h3>
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To sum it up the current stupidity is allowed to go on as there is not enough pressure to change the system, and that depends on that the voters are trained to not bother.<br />
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The author of <b><a href="http://www.debtgeneration.org/">The Debt Generation</a></b>, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Malone_%28independent_filmmaker%29">David Malone</a></b>, summaries the current situation on <b><a href="http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2015/09/tick-tock/">his blog</a></b> in September 2015:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"... they can work for the greater good and help change the old system into a new one better fit to the new challenges, or they can ignore the problems, forget the reason they and the system were created in the first place, and instead seek merely to get as much as they can from the failing system before it implodes."</blockquote>
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In a way The Big Short exposes the same fraud as <b><a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-light-bulb-conspiracy-2010_1.html">The Light Bulb Conspiracy</a></b>.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NcV2FPXg5is" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<b>Carell: I didn't know the depth of it</b><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“... I think that's part of the reason [this movie is] so important. (…) People have kind of a cursory knowledge about what happened in 2008 but when you start peeling away the layers of fraud and duplicity it's incredibly terrifying. I wasn't terrified in 2008. It was a news report and it was affecting a lot of people, but I didn't know the depth of it.”</blockquote>
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<b>McKay: Why we don't hear about things like this in our mainstream culture</b><br />
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“It's a really hard, uncomfortable position to be against the mainstream" says director <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_McKay">Adam McKay</a></b>, also making a note on what mainstream is by having pop icons in the movie to tell facts about how the financial market works. McKay says:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“We kept talking about why doesn't our (…) mainstream culture tell us this stuff, why aren't we learning about this on the news, why aren't we learning about it through documentaries, why aren't we hearing people talk about it, why isn't it discussed in debates (…) and what are we hearing about instead.”</blockquote>
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<b>Gosling: Probably meant to just make you feel stupid so that you don't ask questions</b><br />
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“... the position that it takes, this idea that it's intentionally alienating is like a liberating idea, or certainly was for me, you know, it sort of takes some of the pressure off and it allows you, you know, I think that they're both assuming the best of you and that you can understand this and that, you know, by just sort of breaking it down in a way that they have it's sort of, it really shows you that it's true that it is something that is probably meant to just make you feel stupid so that you don't ask questions.”</blockquote>
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Because what can happen if we start asking questions and do not simply accept that what they say to us? Gosling continues:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“I think that the book and the film leave me feeling optimistic just in a sense that it's<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>information that feels like it's in the process of being disseminated to the masses and the code is being broken. (…) I think that might be the way to start the dialogue.”</blockquote>
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Watch it online: <b><a href="http://www.watchfree.to/watch-28437d-The-Big-Short-movie-online-free-putlocker.html">The Big Short</a></b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/07/next-financial-crash-is-coming-imf-global-stability-report">Next financial crash is coming – and before we've fixed flaws from last one</a></b>, Heather Stewart, The Guardian, Oct 7, 2015<br />
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<b><a href="http://time.com/money/4142920/the-big-short-review-things-you-should-know-explainer/">5 Things You Should Know Before You See “The Big Short”</a></b>, Ethan Wolff-Mann, TIME Magazine, Dec 10, 2015<br />
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<b>Other Perspectives on Money that Opens Up</b></h3>
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<b>Money for Nothing? </b><br />
BBC, Newshour Extra, Mar 5, 2016 <br />
<b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03kptyk%E2%80%A8%E2%80%A8">Listen online</a></b><br />
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"What if governments paid all their citizens a <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income%E2%80%A8%E2%80%A8">basic income</a></b>? Whether rich or poor, you would receive the same amount of money, and you would keep it whether you went out to work and received a salary or not. It is an idea that has been around for centuries, but one that has been gaining traction in recent times as welfare payments become ever more complex and expensive to administer. Proponents also argue that it would remove the 'poverty trap' where people are dissuaded from seeking work because they would lose their benefits if they did so. There is also the issue of machines taking over many of the jobs that we all do to earn a living - not just basic manual tasks, but increasingly 'intelligent' work that will in the future be carried out by robots. Join Owen Bennett Jones and his panel of expert guests as they discuss the future of work and how we pay for it. Should we give free money to everyone and let robots take the strain? "<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.basicincome.org/">basicincome.org</a></b><br />
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The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-55403314127142341462016-05-22T15:16:00.001+02:002016-05-22T15:21:28.796+02:00 Ólafur Arnalds – Old Skin (feat. Arnór Dan) (2013)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NBxsfe-uoQc" width="640"></iframe>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93lafur_Arnalds"><b>Ólafur Arnalds</b></a> performing "Old Skin" (feat. Arnór Dan, Viktor Orri Árnason and Hallgrímur Jónas Jensson) live during Iceland Airwaves 2013. Recorded Oct 28, 2013. Published on Sep 29, 2014.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>In these hands I'll hide, in these hands I'll hide<br />While this world collides, this world collides<br />It's not enough for me, it's not enough for me<br />It's not enough for me, it's not enough for me</i></blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FQYYMTBJQbE" width="640"></iframe>
Ólafur Arnalds performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded September 27, 2013. Published on Oct 26, 2013.<br />
<br />The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-76927012503359300712016-02-29T15:56:00.001+01:002016-06-20T13:41:22.767+02:00Anna Ternheim - Shoreline (2004)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fDfbrdQKwjk" width="640"></iframe><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Ternheim">Anna Ternheim</a></b> - Shoreline (song by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broder_Daniel">Broder Daniel</a></b>, 2004)</span><br />
<blockquote>
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<i>lose your hunger, you lose your way<br />get confused and you fade away<br />all eyes turn hollow<br />from the work of sorrow</i> </blockquote>
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<blockquote>
<i>you die when you're young<br />you die when you're young</i> </blockquote>
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<blockquote>
<i>we are shadows<br />oh, we're shadows<br />just shadows in the alley</i></blockquote>
The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-58533437095900725262016-01-27T15:58:00.000+01:002016-06-20T13:45:04.895+02:00The Emperor's New Clothes – Russell Brand & Michael Winterbottom (2015)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7yvJTsEf5JunPdbLRxmYygsNiBKmcT9hNZIQANyR8IuEdblzc4jIcKzHw5y5cHutrTdf5eThJJc45qPtKiS8QRIFFzCmJ2PQiUtwSjyD-9hYF3iUBYzgIH57P2X9FLOQtnC0Y73ZmYawO/s1600/Bild+TheEmperorsNewClothes640.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7yvJTsEf5JunPdbLRxmYygsNiBKmcT9hNZIQANyR8IuEdblzc4jIcKzHw5y5cHutrTdf5eThJJc45qPtKiS8QRIFFzCmJ2PQiUtwSjyD-9hYF3iUBYzgIH57P2X9FLOQtnC0Y73ZmYawO/s1600/Bild+TheEmperorsNewClothes640.png" /></a></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U4Geq8dM13k" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes_%282015_film%29">The Emperor's New Clothes</a></b> by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Brand">Russel Brand</a></b> and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Winterbottom">Michael Winterbottom</a></b> explains in a practical way the dysfunctional economy of today –
and they go out to meet the people who experience the consequences.<br />
<br />
An example of information this film brings up is that if the money
of Great Britain would be distributed to every citizen they would all
have £200,000 each, and it is probably not necessary to mention that
this number is far from the reality. Compare this to the top richest
1% alone now having £5,800,000. And the money of Britain are still
well distributed in comparison to the money of the whole world.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Even if this film presents
how people are stricken by the financial meltdown – which is an
often neglected perspective – there are no real questions that go
beyond the established and politically correct ideologies, and ask
why these have put us in the situation we have in the world right
now.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">What so many people talk
about, who say they are critical of the current situation</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">,
</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">is distribution
of the existing wealth; which is not really the problem. The </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">real
</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">problem is that so few
generate or create wealth. As long as we depend on a few to provide
what is considered </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">to be
</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">valuable, we will be
stuck in a hierarchical system. So </span><i>how
to change that</i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">i</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">s
the important question if we want to get rid of a</span> <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master%E2%80%93slave_morality">master and slave society</a></b>.<br />
<br />
All in all, this film pr<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">esents</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">
the current crisis as it is. No real questions </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">are</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">
asked and it all is presented as some kind of </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">entertainment
for rebels,</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">all
</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">while “</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">nothing
can be done” and </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">people
suffer. </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The evident
reflection of our </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">times</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">
makes this film essential.</span><br />
<br />
Watch it online: <b><a href="http://putlocker.is/watch-the-emperors-new-clothes-online-free-putlocker.html">The Emperor's New Clothes</a></b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JP2snLBHohY" width="640"></iframe><br />
Live Q&A with Russell Brand and Michael Winterbottom from the premiere in 2015, published Apr 28, 2015, Studiocanal UK<br />
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Also see our post about the original story <b><a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-emperor-new-clothes-1837.html">The Emperor's New Clothes by H.C. Andersen</a></b>The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-83786707257972435112016-01-12T16:19:00.000+01:002016-01-12T16:19:03.173+01:00Wilco – How to Fight Loneliness (1999)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7CAYFIpi89k" width="640"></iframe><br />
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A song by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilco">Wilco</a></b> about having to live a life without meaning or change in order to avoid alienation.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>How to fight loneliness<br />Smile all the time<br />Shine you teeth till meaningless<br />Sharpen them with lies</i></blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z8U4zw84gyE?controls=0" width="640"></iframe> <b><a href="http://kexp.org/">KEXP</a></b> presents Wilco performing live at the Columbia City Theater on August 10, 2015.The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-68362238359264280482015-12-27T20:12:00.000+01:002016-06-20T13:23:50.720+02:00The Hunger Games and The Almost Hidden Rebellion Theme in The Western Popular Culture<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n-7K_OjsDCQ" width="640"></iframe><br />
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Recently the fourth and final movie in <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_Games">The Hunger Games</a></b> series had its premiere. The series might be described as a <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy">fantasy</a></b> version of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell">George Orwell</a></b>’s <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four">Nineteen Eighty-Four</a></b>. The main theme in The Hunger Games is the adventure of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katniss_Everdeen">Katniss Everdeen</a></b>, played by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Lawrence">Jennifer Lawrence</a></b>, to unify the districts of <b><a href="http://thehungergames.wikia.com/wiki/Panem">Panem</a></b> in a rebellion against the tyrannical <b><a href="http://thehungergames.wikia.com/wiki/The_Capitol">Capitol</a></b>. The Hunger Games series is based on a book trilogy with the same name written by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Collins">Suzanne Collins</a></b>. Both the books and the movies have had a tremendous success.<br />
<br />
The tyranny in The Hunger Games is apparent, but could it be that the patterns are the same as in our reality; the only difference is that the suppression and censorship in the Western world are hidden? Is it not interesting that movies with a theme of how to end suppression tend to be enormously successful? The Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit, <b><a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.com/2014/08/v-for-vendetta-2005_1.html">V for Vendetta</a></b>, <b><a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-matrix-1999_8.html">The Matrix</a></b>, Star Wars, to name a few.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">
The Plot As Art and As Reality</span></h3>
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The Hunger Games is in the movies a kind of sporting event, managed by the state authorities and based on hunting and killing other humans. The annual game is screened for all people in Panem to see. The competitors are selected individuals from the different districts of the nation. In the end there can only be one victorious survivor.<br />
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One of the propaganda themes in the Hunger Games is to turn the people against each other in order to divert from the real problems. Another major theme is the story of the main character Katniss and her strong will to survive. The authorities try to turn Katniss into their propaganda symbol for wanting to settle back to her ordinary normal life after her victory. In this way the hero is meant to be a symbol or the ideal of a normal life where no change is needed.<br />
<br />
The whole Hunger Games series starts off with a scene where the Hunger Games are presented as a <i>tradition</i> – something that stems from the past and that has grown to become something that knits all the citizens together. This state manufactured tradition keeps the wheel of oppression and empty values turning without any disruptive change.<br />
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The authorities don't have to force anyone or even work to keep their structures alive – the traditions of the state are kept close at heart by the people, because these traditions provide a believable comfort and security and because any other option appears to only cause destruction.<br />
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This makes it easy to disregard anyone who opposes the existing structures as radicals, and blame them for misunderstandings and violence. And anyone who brings up any alternative to what already exists can be safely rejected.<br />
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This is the established tradition: the citizens have a loyalty (or what is called love) for The Capitol and ”in return the Capitol provides order and security”. The citizens can in this perspective think or do nothing but follow the established patterns and be dependent on the state to provide a functioning life. To live is just to follow the prescribed routine.<br />
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A real life perspective of the loyalty to be normal is offered by the Italian writer Umberto Eco that was a child during the epoch of the dictatorship and the cult of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini">Benito Mussolini (1883–1945)</a></b>. But as Eco never was loyal to the worship he says, in <b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/umberto-eco-on-berlusconi-bestiality-and-beyonc/">Umberto Eco on Berlusconi, bestiality and Beyoncé</a></b>, Gaby Wood, The Telegraph, Nov 30, 2015, that he thought:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Am I a bad boy, incapable of loving Mussolini? Maybe I have a corrupted mind.”</blockquote>
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In the same article that mainly is about Eco's new novel Number Zero (2015), based on the theme that Mussolini survived the war and continued to rule as a hidden dictator, you can read this conversation between Wood and Eco:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Still, you don’t need Mussolini to be alive to feel his influence on politics. Though the conspiracy is implausible, the point, surely, stands? </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Eco’s idea about Mussolini’s survival is an elaborate way of saying the spirit of fascism lives on. “Yes, OK,” says Eco. “Good reading. A+.” […] “There you have the curse of Italy: one half fascist and one half suicidal.”</blockquote>
<br />
Though it is not only the Italian people that have fallen into the trap of hidden <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism">totalitarianism</a></b>. <span dir="ltr" id=":zw">Italy is just one of the nations in the Western confusion.</span><br />
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<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">
The Wall</span></h3>
<br />
Why does it seem so hard to get a real understanding of how art, like the messages in the movie series The Hunger Games, relates to our Western reality? The structures of a hidden suppression, such as in the West, do not only disregard voices, but consist of a total censorship that keeps all opposing thoughts at a comfortable distance.<br />
<br />
This suppression is made possible by <i>the Wall</i>. A layer of this Wall, that separates 'how it is' from 'what we want' and what is possible to do, consists of the ideal to regard Art, like these movies, as nothing else than entertainment. In other words the Wall blocks any relation between art and reality, and therefore blocks out a huge part of our understanding. Read more about the hidden censorship in our post: <b><a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-guardian-launch-neo-stalinist-art_15.html">The Guardian Launch a Neo-Stalinist Art Theory</a></b>, Sep 15, 2014.<br />
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The Hunger Games highlights in many perspectives the concrete relation between Art and what we are able to actually understand, but are denied to talk openly about. Consequently the story about The Hunger Games is also a reflection of the total bankruptcy of the West.<br />
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We cannot talk about our future. We cannot talk about the real function of Art. We cannot talk about how our world actually is, and so on. If you try, the loyal <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparatchik">Apparatchiks</a></b> will drown every word of yours by shouting: “you are free to talk about everything as we live in a democracy!”.<br />
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The ongoing bankruptcy of the West is not about the collapse of the economy; the bankruptcy of the West consists of the intellectual bankruptcy that results in a total demand of silence and apathy.<br />
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In other words, the connections needed for real thinking are broken.
Consequently, we cannot come to insights about the situation of our
world or of alternatives; we are made impotent.<br />
<br />
We get stuck without being able to change the lives we all live, but that we <span class="sac" id="spans0e0">never actually chose</span>.
Because how can anything be called a choice when there is only one
alternative: the already approved. And do you not like the
pre-determined course of your life? “Just take your antidepressants and
everything will be fine”.<br />
<br />
Quote from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Gale: ”But everyone has a choice”<br />
Katniss: ”He doesn't know, no one [...] has seen what<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>they have done”</blockquote>
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It may be easy to say that it is up to the individual to create a life they want, and to not just follow what someone else says. But it is not that simple. They who are loyal to the existing structures and traditions are not evil; they have not chosen to support a system of suppression. They are robbed of their understanding, they are made to be ignorant, and ignorance makes them passive. For how can anyone oppose a wordless tradition of loyalty that is there to protect everyone?<br />
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<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">
Revolution</span></h3>
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<b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Sutherland">Donald Sutherland</a></b> plays one of the leading roles in The Hunger Games, as the authoritarian president <b><a href="http://thehungergames.wikia.com/wiki/Coriolanus_Snow">Coriolanus Snow</a></b>. Will we ever know if his messages about starting a revolution in the videos below are his personal reflections or part of a marketing plan for the movies, or both? Even movies with a message of protest and change, as the Hunger Games, need to become part of the established tradition in order to be accepted, realized, become popular and bring in money. An example is the marketing of this movie series as a super hero story. That opens up for the audience to be dragged into an adventure where they can sit back and just watch the almost supernatural hero come to change the bad situation.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NGWRGaJilWE?start=15" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Millennials need awakening from slumber. [...] With the exception of Occupy, a minority movement, passivity reigns." […] he is quite serious about the call to arms. "We did it in <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_of_1968">'68</a></b>." […] "Hopefully they will see this film and the next film and the next film and then maybe organise. Stand up." […] The Hunger Games, Sutherland suggests, is a coded commentary on inequality, power and hope. "It just puts things out in the light and lets you have a look at it. […] it will make you think a little more pungently about the political environment you live in and not be complacent."</blockquote>
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From <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/19/donald-sutherland-hunger-games-catching-fire">Donald Sutherland: 'I want Hunger Games to stir up a revolution'</a></b>, Rory Carroll, The Guardian, Nov 19, 2013<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/viyohWRoi5A" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
Sutherland's perspective and the fact that he mentions protest movements of the sixties is especially interesting when you look into what kind of art and not least literature that had a huge impact on that time. For further reading, see the article about Hobbits and hippies below.<br />
<br />
<span dir="ltr" id=":189">Here are concrete examples of how rebellion as art actually has transformed into real life:</span><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_Jne2PHAWmw" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
In Thailand, a country governed by a military junta since a coup d'état on May 22, 2014, and where the suppression is open, both The Hunger Games and Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four are symbols of protests.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30110280">Five Thai students held for 'Hunger Games' salute at PM</a></b>, BBC, Nov 20, 2014<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/03/hunger-games-salute-banned-thailand">Hunger Games salute banned by Thai military</a></b>, The Guardian, June 3, 2014<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/thailand/11015375/Dont-pack-George-Orwell-visitors-to-Thailand-told.html">Don't pack George Orwell, visitors to Thailand told</a></b>, Travellers heading to Thailand have been urged not to carry a copy of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, Oliver Smith, The Telegraph, Aug 6, 2014<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-29995874">#BBCtrending: Why George Orwell is trending in Egypt</a></b>, The British author's name is a byword for the struggle against totalitarianism. Now an arrest in Egypt has led activists to embrace George Orwell as a social media trend, Nov 10, 2014<br />
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<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">One Example of the Hidden Suppression in Our Western Reality</span></h3>
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In <b><a href="http://fokus.dn.se/edward-snowden-english/">Five hours with Edward Snowden</a></b>, Lena Sundström and Lotta Härdelin, Dagens Nyheter, Nov 6, 2015, gives examples of how the tyranny can look like in our present world. During his years working for the NSA, the National Security Agency of the United States, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden">Edward Snowden</a></b> has gathered insights about how the American government acts. He talks about how killing is made into a game. Snowden also talks about how, when they talk about security, they don't talk about securing freedom, they don't even talk about safety; they talk about stability, of avoiding change.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Relations Between Art and Reality</span></h3>
<br />
This highly interesting article investigates the messages of art from the perspective of other movie heroes. <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141120-the-hobbits-and-the-hippies">Hobbits and hippies: Tolkien and the counterculture</a></b>, Tolkien’s The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings became required reading for the nascent counterculture, devoured simultaneously by students, artists, writers, rock bands and other agents of cultural change. The slogans ‘Frodo Lives’ and ‘Gandalf for President’ festooned subway stations worldwide as graffiti, Jane Ciabattari, BBC, Nov 20, 2014<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/dec/12/tolkiens-myths-are-a-political-fantasy">Tolkien's myths are a political fantasy</a></b>, In a world built on myth, we can’t ignore the reactionary politics at the heart of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Damien Walter, The Guardian, Dec 12, 2014<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/11279677/Are-you-addicted-to-a-fantasy-world.html">Are you addicted to a fantasy world?</a></b> The worlds of Star Wars, Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings are the opiates of the masses, Anne Billson, The Telegraph, Dec 13, 2014<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As one addict put it, "When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed grey." Time for another fix, perhaps?</blockquote>
<br />
<h4>
<span style="font-size: large;">Revolution as Art and the Empty Promise of a Real Revolution</span></h4>
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The very idea of revolution contains a revolutionary perspective. Many citizens of the West are not satisfied and like to talk about a revolution, but are robbed of a complete understanding of history and future, which keeps them thinking and acting the way they have done for generations and generations. And when there is no revolutionary perspective the idea about change is just an empty promise.<br />
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<b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon">John Lennon</a></b> said, in 1971, as an answer to the question: “What do you think the effect was of the Beatles on the history of Britain?”:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We’ve grown up a little, all of us, there has been a change and we’re all a bit freer and all that, but it’s the same game. Shit, they’re doing exactly the same thing, selling arms to South Africa, killing blacks on the street.</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The dream is over. It’s just the same, only I’m thirty, and a lot of people have got long hair. That’s what it is, man, nothing happened except that we grew up, we did our thing–just like they were telling us. [...] We’re a minority, you know, people like us always were, but maybe we are a slightly larger minority.</blockquote>
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From <b><a href="http://www.jannswenner.com/archives/john_lennon_part2.aspx">The Rolling Stone Interview: John Lennon, Part II</a></b>, by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jann_Wenner">Jann S. Wenner</a></b>, Feb 4, 1971.<br />
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The dream is over and it is still the same game because we never came to the root of the reason to why the world is the way it is. Most people are fooled to take for granted that there cannot exist any fundamental questions, such as: Why is imagination made impossible to understand and use? And why is the base of everything loyalty and trust instead of to understand?<br />
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As long as most of the people are convinced that the current Western worldview is the only possible reality, we lack all knowledge about how real change can be achieved and the very concept of revolution is only one more profitable decoration that covers the total frustration and despair of the West.<br />
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Watch it online:<br />
<b><a href="http://putlocker.is/watch-the-hunger-games-online-free-putlocker.html">The Hunger Games (2012)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://putlocker.is/watch-the-hunger-games-catching-fire-online-free-putlocker.html">The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.spacemov.com/the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-1-2014-full-movie-online-hdfree298/">The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.spacemov.com/mockingjay-part-2-full-movie-2015-the-hunger-games-hdfree299/">The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)</a></b>The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-48449575323492397912015-11-08T18:02:00.000+01:002015-12-27T15:52:40.988+01:00The Sand Storm – Starring Ai Weiwei (2014)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0z4ZvlTC-LXwdk4NUrUyirL3o2GBUs8xTXJlzR9BW8fJkNlXpeUZlp6EBzhCdztlqHDoiPmAyiuCn8wrRGfkSTxjFctPngE_vbbuHBQfS7XU7ED0tL6hZUa6rAwRk2R0z31fGMMdnC35_/s1600/sand_storm_640.jpg"><img border="none" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0z4ZvlTC-LXwdk4NUrUyirL3o2GBUs8xTXJlzR9BW8fJkNlXpeUZlp6EBzhCdztlqHDoiPmAyiuCn8wrRGfkSTxjFctPngE_vbbuHBQfS7XU7ED0tL6hZUa6rAwRk2R0z31fGMMdnC35_/s1600/sand_storm_640.jpg" /></a>
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Picture from The Sand Storm campaign at <b><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/">Kickstarter</a></b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/104436803?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe> <br />
Made by <b><a href="http://www.wishnow.com/">Jason Wishnow</a></b><br />
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What would your life be like if you wouldn't have access to water? What could life be without water? In the short film The Sand Storm we face a world where the shortage of one of life's most essential elements is a reality. The artist <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_Weiwei">Ai Weiwei</a> </b>stars as a water smuggler who brings life to the thirsty.<br />
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The story is a metaphor about the artist and the confined people, where the artist is the bringer of life, the one who brings water, and who knows the way to ”Ma Le Ge Bi”, where he also brings a suffering woman. From this place it seems possible to reach another world where life can grow, if it is only possible to pass through the wall that here is made out of barb wire.<br />
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That the artist Ai Weiwei has the role of a life giver is one level of this story. Another level is the strange place ”Ma Le Ge Bi” that is a reference to the censorship in China and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_phenomena_in_China">the need to use metaphors</a></b>, here in the form of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legendary_creature"><b>mythical or legendary creatures</b></a> and places where they live.<br />
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Ma Le Ge Bi, the Mahler Gobi Desert, is Chinese political slang for a place where the <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse">Grass Mud Horse</a></b> lives. So in all this short movie is a thick weave of messages that for instance consists of politics or what concerns the citizens, art and mythical creatures.<br />
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Unfortunately, it is taken for granted that this short movie can only reflect the situation in China and particularly the situation Ai Weiwei was in for a long time. Many viewers will therefore get stuck in this perspective and lose their possibilities to discover what is fundamental to every human being regardless of the political system.<br />
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And furthermore, what is it that we, in the West, are not able to talk freely about? For example there is no possibility to make any distinct definition of the concept normal, and yet this construction is the base for countless of rules and political arguments. What is this normal and why is this non defined concept a base for almost everything? These questions are answered with nothing but silence.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/QUEtNNsZAio?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
Video from the Kickstarter campain for the movie<br />
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/world/asia/12beast.html?_r=0"><b>A Dirty Pun Tweaks China’s Online Censors</b></a>, Beijing — Since its first unheralded appearance in January on a Chinese Web page, the grass-mud horse has become nothing less than a phenomenon, Michael Wines, March 2009, New York Times<br />
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<a href="http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/21611/1/watch-ai-weiwei-starring-in-a-short-sci-fi-dystopia-film"><b>Watch Ai Weiwei starring in a short sci-fi dystopia film</b></a>, The Chinese artist is the main attraction in ‘The Sand Storm’, but he was close to pulling out of the project altogether, Thomas Gorton, Sep 2014<br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/aiww"><b>Ai Weiwei, Twitter</b></a><br />
<b><a href="http://aiweiwei.com/">Ai Weiwei, Official website</a></b>The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-24131251187673191682015-11-08T17:51:00.000+01:002016-06-20T13:47:56.506+02:00(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction & Get Off of My Cloud – Two iconic songs by The Rolling Stones (1965)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g5W4k6vD2WY" width="640"></iframe> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rolling_Stones" style="font-weight: bold;">The Rolling Stones</a>' songs from 1965 <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(I_Can%27t_Get_No)_Satisfaction">(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction</a></b> and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Off_of_My_Cloud">Get Off of My Cloud</a></b> are clearly about the terror of the rules and traditions – the wall – that restrict living and force us to live on the surface.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>When I'm drivin' in my car</i><br />
<i>And that man comes on the radio</i><br />
<i>And he's tellin' me more and more</i><br />
<i>About some useless information</i><br />
<i>Supposed to fire my imagination</i></blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AGZOgPYrCo4" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I live in an apartment on the ninety-ninth floor of my block</i><br />
<i>And I sit at home looking out the window, imagining the world has stopped</i><br />
<i>Then in flies a guy who's all dressed up like a Union Jack</i><br />
<i>And says, I've won five pounds if I have his kind of detergent pack</i><br />
<i>I said, Hey! You! Get off of my cloud</i></blockquote>
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<br />
In this in-depth interview by Jann S. Wenner published in Rolling Stone Magazine on December 14, 1995, <b><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/mick-jagger-remembers-19951214">Mick Jagger Remembers</a></b> and talks about (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and Get Off of My Cloud:<br />
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<blockquote>
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction: <i>it captures a spirit of the times, which is very important in those kind of songs. ... Which was <b><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alienation">alienation</a></b>. Or it's a bit more than that, maybe, but a kind of sexual alienation. Alienation's not quite the right word, but it's one word that would do.</i><br />
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Get Off of My Cloud: <i>It's a stop-bugging-me, post-teenage-alienation song. ... The grown-up world was a very ordered society in the early '60s, and I was coming out of it. America was even more ordered than anywhere else. I found it was a very restrictive society in thought and behavior and dress.</i></blockquote>
The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-66774683731802813572015-10-27T19:41:00.000+01:002016-06-20T13:48:47.079+02:00Waylon Jennings – I've Always Been Crazy (1978)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZFMznXaCzDs" width="640"></iframe>Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt and Waymore Blues Band at Ryman, Nashville, January 2000<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I've always been different with one foot over the line<br />Winding up somewhere one step ahead or behind<br />It ain't been so easy but I guess I shouldn't complain<br />I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane</i></blockquote>
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<b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waylon_Jennings">Waylon Jennings</a></b> (1937–2002)<br />
I've Always Been Crazy: <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ve_Always_Been_Crazy_%28song%29">the song</a></b>, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ve_Always_Been_Crazy">the album</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Tritt">Travis Tritt</a></b>The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-33216787041403894972014-12-22T04:06:00.000+01:002016-06-20T13:52:22.832+02:00Banksy Does New York (2014)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JOvw0YA6eAY?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
Trailer to <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy">Banksy</a></b> Does New York (2014) by Chris Moukarbel. The documentary gives a perspective on the project <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Out_Than_In">Better Out Than In</a></b> that Banksy made in New York City during October 2013.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid4wkm0isRPc5Syg6Idd-KD6yYSmgu0BUoROepPZM6-lpBso8sQ1YyOnM1wxqCkRAxuOtrgxM3q9ZxNSEbGgYro7_aLbQmg9S1WkF4WGL7hyhAewQEiDN_ev5sCehq5UtMs1YLhkq0KBQ/s1600/BanksyDoesNewYork.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid4wkm0isRPc5Syg6Idd-KD6yYSmgu0BUoROepPZM6-lpBso8sQ1YyOnM1wxqCkRAxuOtrgxM3q9ZxNSEbGgYro7_aLbQmg9S1WkF4WGL7hyhAewQEiDN_ev5sCehq5UtMs1YLhkq0KBQ/s1600/BanksyDoesNewYork.jpg" width="277" /></a></div>
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<b><a href="http://putlocker.sg/watch-banksy-does-new-york-online-free-putlocker.html">Watch it online: Banksy Does New York</a></b><br />
<a href="http://www.complex.com/style/2013/11/banksy-new-york-residency_760389/"><br /></a><b><a href="http://www.complex.com/style/2013/11/banksy-new-york-residency_760389/">A Timeline of Every Piece From Banksy's "Better Out Than In" New York Residency</a>,</b> Aylah Donayre, Raka Sen, Complex, Nov 1, 2013<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.undertheradarmag.com/interviews/chris_moukarbel_director_of_banksy_does_new_york/">Interview: 'Banksy Does New York' director Chris Moukarbe</a>,</b> Austin Trunick, Under the Radar - Music Magazine, Nov 17, 2014 <br />
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<b><a href="http://www.full-stop.net/2014/11/20/blog/max/the-echo-of-graffiti/">The Echo of Graffiti</a>,</b> Full Stop, Max Rivlin-Nadler, Nov 20, 2014. This text is also published in Salon under the headline <b><a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/11/30/banksy_gentrification_and_the_end_of_graffiti_partner/">Banksy, gentrification and the end of graffiti:</a> </b>A new HBO doc paints a grim picture of the medium's future as landmarks are torn down and artists move indoors<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/11/economist-explains-5">The Economist explains: How did graffiti become respectable?</a></b>, Timekeeper, The Economist, Nov 10, 2013. <br />
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<b><a href="http://www.banksy.co.uk/">Banksy</a></b>, Official siteThe Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-13028947372212468982014-12-22T04:04:00.000+01:002015-10-19T12:40:09.859+02:00Republic of Outsiders – Alissa Quart (2013)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TeAWw3rtfwc?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> Published by Strand Bookstore, Sep 11, 2013<br />
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This video is an interesting interview where <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alissa_Quart">Alissa Quart</a></b> talks about why and how she wrote: The Republic of Outsiders – The Power of Amateurs, Dreamers, and Rebels, published in 2013.<br />
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The questions from the audience fades towards the end of the video, but Quart gives introductions to most of the questions. At the end the movie <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_%282011_film%29">Margaret </a></b>(2011) by <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Lonergan">Kenneth Lonergan</a></b> is mentioned.<br />
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From <a href="http://alissaquart.com/republic-of-outsiders-post/" style="font-weight: bold;">the presentation of the book on the author’s website</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>We have long received our information, therapy, films, and even vegetables from authoritative sources: from insiders, trained or ordained to dispense this knowledge or cultural products. Most of the rebels in this book are changing that equation.<br /><br />Republic of Outsiders is the story of the growing number of Americans who disrupt the status quo. It’s about the outsiders who, freed of middlemen and armed with new technology, are able to make their unusual ideas go viral. They include everyone from amateur filmmakers who crowdsource their work to transgender and neurodiverse activists and “alternative” bankers. These outsiders create and package new identities in a process acclaimed author Alissa Quart dubs “identity innovation.” They push the boundaries of who they–and we–can be and what we can do. <br /><br />… Republic of Outsiders is a critical examination of how to make rebellion or amateurism a strength rather than a weakness.</i></blockquote>
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Well, it must be a good thing to make the outsider a rightful citizen of our society – or? We do of course not criticize Quart for what is a systemic fault of our culture, but a tiny question will give a lot more understanding.<br />
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The tiny question is: how can there be outsiders in a culture that is said to be a democracy? Of course there cannot be outsiders in a real democracy. A real democracy cannot be governed by rules or regulations that specify what is so called normal, which as a result also define what is not normal and therefore wrong according to a ruling élite. <br />
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Our problem of today is that the hidden and fundamental relations that control our lives still are considered to be a taboo – questions and relations that cannot exist – and therefore impossible to talk or write openly about in the media. The media, as well, is controlled by the political élite and sets the mark on what is real and what is not.<br />
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Now, you will realize why Quart, in the video, cannot answer the questions that are too close to the taboos that protect the false democracy that is built on the ideals that there must be people who are inside and outside of society.<br />
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And once more. We do not criticize Quart in any way. Her work is important and becomes even more essential when a lot of people are able to find out that she pinpoints the wall, the wall that you are trained to not even be able to observe. In brief Quart makes a jubilant act to balance on the top of the wall.<br />
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<b><a href="http://thenewpress.com/books/republic-of-outsiders">Presentation of Republic of Outsiders</a></b> by the publisher The New Press.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/books/review/republic-of-outsiders-by-alissa-quart.html">Review of Republic of Outsiders</a> </b>by Annalee Newitz, The New York Times, Nov 8, 2013.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15824235-republic-of-outsiders">Comments by readers on goodreads</a></b>, Republic of Outsiders: The Power of Amateurs, Dreamers and Rebels by Alissa Quart.The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-64860712773061424222014-12-15T01:43:00.000+01:002015-10-19T12:34:35.182+02:00Exit Through the Gift Shop – Banksy (2010)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a0b90YppquE?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
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<b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_Through_the_Gift_Shop">Exit through the Gift Shop</a></b> (2010) by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy"><b>Banksy</b></a> is a V-Movie in the sense that it presents art as any other kind of product. This protest is also highlighted in the title: museums are today a part of the consumerism and has no other value. <br />
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However, this movie has many dimensions. Nevertheless, this movie pinpoints, in a hilarious way, the rather strange relations we have with art in the western tradition. <br />
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<b><a href="http://putlocker.is/watch-exit-through-the-gift-shop-online-free-putlocker.html">Watch it online: Exit through the Gift Shop</a></b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/1616365/heres-why-banksy-movie-banksy-prank">Here's Why The Banksy Movie Is A Banksy Prank</a></b>, Alissa Walker, Fast Company, Apr 15, 2010<br />
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Main participants<br />
<table cellpadding="5"><tbody>
<tr><td><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Brainwash">Mr. Brainwash</a></b> / Thierry Guetta (?) - <b><a href="http://www.mrbrainwash.com/">The official website for all things Mr. Brainwash</a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td>(Space) <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invader_%28artist%29">Invader</a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_%28artist%29">André</a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_Fairey">Shepard Fairey</a></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Life Remote Control Trailer II – Mr. Brainwash<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OiLaaZjcgWc?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="640"></iframe> Uploaded on Sep 2, 2006<br />
<br />
A site for the not yet existing movie<br />
<b><a href="http://www.liferemotecontrolthemovie.com/">Life Remote Control: The Movie</a></b><br />
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Live version of the title track "Tonight The Streets Are Ours" released on <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hawley">Richard Hawley</a></b>'s album <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady%27s_Bridge_(album)">Lady's Bridge</a></b> (2007).<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SCsKRbChILA?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Those people, they got nothing in their souls</i><br />
<i>And they make our TVs blind us</i><br />
<i>From our vision and our goals</i><br />
<i>Oh the trigger of time it tricks you</i><br />
<i>So you have no way to grow</i></blockquote>
<br />The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-63957374972664807132014-12-08T23:34:00.000+01:002015-10-19T12:31:47.923+02:00The Goa Mix – Paul Oakenfold (1994)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uY0oTkrALyA?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
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<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/61218379&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe> <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_Mix">The Goa Mix</a></b> by DJ <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Oakenfold">Paul Oakenfold</a></b>'s is a legendary mix broadcast on BBC's <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Mix">Essential Mix</a></b>, <b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wkfp">official site</a></b>, in 1994. <br />
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Down below are two songs from the mix: <i>Only Love Can Break Your Heart </i>and <i>Inner city life</i>. Guess what the ingredients are all about? Of course it is The Wall or the impossibility to make sense - in other words the man made weapon to make you stupid and subservient. Only complaints are possible.</blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vZAajrxvDs4?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Love_Can_Break_Your_Heart">Only Love Can Break Your Heart</a></b> by <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Etienne_%28band%29">Saint Etienne</a></b> written by <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young">Neil Young</a></b> (1970). The cover was on <span class="sac" id="spans0e0">their</span> first album <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxbase_Alpha">Foxbase Alpha</a></b> (1991).<br />
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<i> I have a friend</i><br />
<i> I've never seen</i><br />
<i> she hides her head</i><br />
<i> inside a dream</i><br />
<i> Someone should call her</i><br />
<i> and see if she can come out</i><br />
<i> Try to lose</i><br />
<i> the down that she's found</i></blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/L2gdPLlwcGQ?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Inner City Life by <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldie">Goldie</a></b> on the album <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeless_%28Goldie_album%29">Timeless</a></b> (1995).</blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lx9-fjlh7Y4?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i> Inner city life, inner city pressure</i><br />
<i> Inner city life, inner city pressure taking over me</i><br />
<i> But I won't let go,</i><br />
<i> I won't let go</i> <i>Inner city life, life, life, life...</i></blockquote>
The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-63865492971818912252014-11-24T15:47:00.001+01:002015-10-16T20:45:44.680+02:00Art Dissolves Taboos – Stephen Sackur speaks to Shurooq Amin<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kQ6vPd1NwtA" width="640"></iframe> Stephen Sackur, <b><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg2m">HARDtalk</a></b>, speaks to the Kuwaiti painter and poet Shurooq Amin.<br />
First broadcast: Nov 17, 2014.<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" style="width: 630px;"> <tbody>
<tr> <td width="630">Regarding topics in the interview:</td> </tr>
<tr> <td><b><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/artist-shurooq-amin-exhibition-popcornography-kuwait_n_2678531.html">Shurooq Amin's 'Popcornography' Exhibition Examines Religious Taboos<br /> In The Arab World</a></b>, The Huffington Post, Feb 13, 2013 </td> </tr>
<tr> <td><b><a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/multimedia/2014/11/syrian-artists-findbittersweetsuccessinexileinbeirut.html">Syrian artists find bittersweet success in exile in Beirut</a></b>, Alia Malek,<br />
Al Jazeera America, Nov 15, 2014 </td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Pictures of artworks by Shurooq Amin, on our site with the kind permission of the artist. Click for larger picture. More on <b><a href="http://www.shurooqamin.com/gallery.html">Shurooq Amin/Gallery</a></b>.<br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhNuPqpfc0273EXfR0Dwfkx2rBusfr30WTCcQ66fiKLdXc5h2CkbQMQAL1nf-pVb3Tz-dHonCQfc2yH7pa76RWjtFdNPaeq6UTLkBglOFYrD1U-miazqPF6GeF4V-EOl5Y36RJdiaLWVB/s1600/AManOfNoImportance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhNuPqpfc0273EXfR0Dwfkx2rBusfr30WTCcQ66fiKLdXc5h2CkbQMQAL1nf-pVb3Tz-dHonCQfc2yH7pa76RWjtFdNPaeq6UTLkBglOFYrD1U-miazqPF6GeF4V-EOl5Y36RJdiaLWVB/s1600/AManOfNoImportance.jpg" width="450" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"A Man Of No Importance" From the 2013 series Popcornographic.<br />
(Title based on<b> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde">Oscar Wilde</a></b>'s book <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Woman_of_No_Importance">A Woman Of No Importance</a></b>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3VOlKQwRk9skZD67o2-bT7CPLQL4F9fzpfjPwrBmsrlUWBK4yTwMEh4vWb95Hrn5VpS6MZx_u4DvHvX8vJJnzL3Un4-i8uOFyIQmM-Lv5MxfFvsSUDWenLsNCfTSsgzBxPv3A3g8CwOJ3/s1600/EducationandBeyond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3VOlKQwRk9skZD67o2-bT7CPLQL4F9fzpfjPwrBmsrlUWBK4yTwMEh4vWb95Hrn5VpS6MZx_u4DvHvX8vJJnzL3Un4-i8uOFyIQmM-Lv5MxfFvsSUDWenLsNCfTSsgzBxPv3A3g8CwOJ3/s1600/EducationandBeyond.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Education and Beyond" From the 2014 series We'll Build this City on Art and Love.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsf1uiwfKgfKEMg0M-2xpGt7749O0nCg5u5LT-fVe6QchRjeeka0xq9PZ-ZD9QW_AZ6udp7eYJJFJV2t2VHDct8880osU5prUM8MeTjrv6KfSKcWPwlsww6j49Jt6Zut9uuRBq1StJeMLK/s1600/PickingUpthePieces.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsf1uiwfKgfKEMg0M-2xpGt7749O0nCg5u5LT-fVe6QchRjeeka0xq9PZ-ZD9QW_AZ6udp7eYJJFJV2t2VHDct8880osU5prUM8MeTjrv6KfSKcWPwlsww6j49Jt6Zut9uuRBq1StJeMLK/s1600/PickingUpthePieces.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"We Are the Future: Picking Up the Pieces" From the 2014 series We'll Build this City on Art and Love. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.shurooqamin.com/">Shurooq Amin's site</a></b><br />
Twitter: <b><a href="https://twitter.com/ShurooqAmin">@shurooqamin</a></b>The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-63845024208004364912014-11-24T14:55:00.001+01:002014-12-26T06:36:11.385+01:00Malachite – Lydia Ainsworth (2014)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/iNjTDxfRPQ8?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> <br /><br /><a href="http://pitchfork.com/features/rising/9517-lydia-ainsworth/" style="font-weight: bold;">Lydia Ainsworth, Somewhere between serenity and terror lies the work of pop experimentalist Lydia Ainsworth</a>. She talks about being inspired by classical music and film scores, and trying to offer a different way of looking at the world around us, Jenn Pelly, Pitchfork, Oct 7, 2014<br /><br /><br /><br /><iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/169851351&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe> <br /><br /><b><a href="https://soundcloud.com/lydia-ainsworth">Lydia Ainsworth, Soundcloud</a></b>The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-19581105141077469992014-11-12T21:31:00.001+01:002015-11-08T10:43:04.538+01:00Right Now – The Context to: The ongoing and almost hidden Revolution, Russell Brand, The Million Masks March, The Crisis of Trust, Art and the Fucking WALL that is Exposed under the Melting Ice<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/q-z1xtYUOug?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mmm?src=hash">Million Masks March - #MMM on Twitter</a></b><br />
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
The Economist explains how Guy Fawkes became the face of post-modern protest <a href="http://t.co/vTqTScNuX2">http://t.co/vTqTScNuX2</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MillionMaskMarch?src=hash">#MillionMaskMarch</a> <a href="http://t.co/H2mlwZMQi4">pic.twitter.com/H2mlwZMQi4</a><br />
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/530081127537868800">November 5, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> <br />
<b><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/million-masks-march-2014-thousands-gather-for-anticapitalist-protest-in-london-9842407.html">Million Masks March 2014: Thousands gather for anti-capitalist protest in London</a></b>,<br />
Kashmira Gander, The Independent, Nov 5, 2014.<br />
<b><br /><a href="http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/22460/1/thousands-of-protesters-hit-london-for-million-mask-march">Thousands of protesters hit London for Million Mask March</a></b>, Zing Tsjeng, Dazed, Nov 6, 2014. <br />
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The ongoing story of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)"><b>global movement Anonymous</b></a> with its association with <a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.se/2014/08/v-for-vendetta-2005.html"><b>the movie V for Vendetta, that includes the perfect speech</b></a> to us citizens, is only disregarded by the political élite. And this is our situation in a nutshell. There are a lot of movements that are not a part of the established political system. The projects, issues and concerns that we have are not considered to be real politics.<br />
<br />
Consequently there are two sides; a political class that protects the established and static traditions of the state and on the other are we who are interested in improvements. And in between the two sides there is only silence. And as Simon & Garfunkel sings: no one dared disturb <b><a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.se/2014/08/the-sound-of-silence-simon-garfunkel.html">the Sound of Silence</a></b>. In other words, the problem is that there is a tradition to eliminate the possibilities of change and instead support and protect what already exists. And there are many examples that make it easy to observe this anti dynamic tradition and the impregnable Wall that destroys any alternative to what already exists.<br />
<br />
In this context of two opposing sides there is a third way, if you skip what they train you to deny: the beginning of new ideas. Courageous bastards begin to explore new perspectives. The opening video in this post is a good example of this curiosity. You might not understand it at first, but if you look at the other stuff by the same producers, <b><a href="http://www.fifthwalltv.com/">FifthWallTv</a>,</b> you will find that they are genuinely interested in for example art in a context. They say on their <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/FifthWallTv/videos">YouTube channel</a></b>: "Fifth Wall create and enhance projects based around art, culture and social movements." That statement is revolutionary in itself since the élite of the state demand you to say that art can only be what they call experiences, which results in that art can never have anything to do with thinking to reach understanding.<br />
<br />
Another example of the new, that cannot exist according to the established ideas or values of what is real, is the message of Russell Brand, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Brand">Wikipedia</a></b> / <b><a href="http://www.russellbrand.com/">Site</a></b> / <b><a href="https://twitter.com/rustyrockets">@Rustyrockets on Twitter</a></b> / <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCswH8ovgUp5Bdg-0_JTYFNw">YouTube channel</a></b>.</blockquote>
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-XOVRnr_7zM?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="western" lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Brand’s book <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_%28book%29">Revolution</a> </b>(2014) have had harsh reviews from the establishment. They complain that he does not deliver the total fix for the stinking mess of suffering, death and destruction they have made. One example of this is David Runciman’s review in The Guardian, October 17, 2014, with the headline <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/17/revolution-russell-brand-review-political-manifesto"><b>Revolution by Russell Brand – soft-soap therapy when we need a harder edge</b></a>.</span></div>
<br />
Finally, here is someone using their top position in the hierarchy to say something. If you, someone in the bottom or outside of the cozy pyramid, try to say anything at all the élite will guarantee that you end up without an audience. Because whatever you say will not be considered to be of any value. And if you try anyway, they will stop you with their standard procedure that kills everything: you must not disturb our perfect democracy with your perspective.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, Brand is addictive. Brand’s excess of somewhat brutal British flair annihilates traditional arguments, or at least makes these questions seem redundant. Whatever the method, the vital point now is to dissolve the conform static stupidity that the élite have trained everyone – YOU – and themselves to believe is the same as democracy, security and the only possible perspective.<br />
<br />
Brand does not necessarily talk about what is possible. But, he pinpoints the border, the wall, that separates us from our possibilities. Brand exposes the wall of static power that the élite of the state defends, to force people to be commanded like simple machines. The <b><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/firebrand">firebrand</a></b> melts the ice. What Brand talks openly about makes him a whistleblower with the same <a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.se/2014/11/the-matrix-1999.html"><b>message that Morpheus gave in the movie The Matrix</b></a> or that was given <a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.se/2014/08/v-for-vendetta-2005.html"><b>in the speech in the movie V for Vendetta</b></a>.<br />
<br />
What is going on in front of our eyes in the world right now are visions that earlier were only possible to show in objects of art. What earlier was done in movies is now transformed to the real world. And that is exactly what the established western tradition of art denies: the potentiality to transform. And observe that this ongoing transformation is so far made without violence, which is the usual ingredient in movies made for the consumers.<br />
<br />
To realize what is wrong must be a first and necessary step before we, as a culture, will be able to discuss the actual possibilities and find the tools to create a life and a world. So, get yourself an over-dose of Brand immediately (after you have read our post to the end to get the full effect).</blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/VqsFp0J22Hc?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
"We got a graph – everything is tidy!" Russell Brand on BBC Newsnight, Oct 23, 2014.<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" style="width: 630px;"> <tbody>
<tr> <td width="630"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span><span style="color: #444444;">Mentioned in the interview:</span></td> </tr>
<tr> <td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty"><b>Thomas Piketty</b> </a>and his book <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Twenty-First_Century">Capital in the Twenty-First Century</a></b> (in English 2014)</td> </tr>
<tr> <td><b>Housing crisis & <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Benyon">Richard Benyon</a></b></td> </tr>
<tr> <td>- <b><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/property/britain-is-suffering-from-a-housing-crisis--who-is-to-blame-and-how-can-we-fix-it-9113329.html">Good overview: Britain is suffering from a housing crisis - who is to blame and<br />how can we fix it?</a></b>, Ben Chu, The Independent, Feb 9, 2014</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>- <b><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/diane-abbott/richard-benyon-mp-and-londons-housing-crisis_b_5560021.html">Richard Benyon MP and London's Housing Crisis</a></b>, Diane Abbott MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, The Huffington Post, July 5, 2014</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>- <b><a href="http://hackneycitizen.co.uk/2014/07/01/new-era-estate-families-rent-hikes-benyon-landlord-takes-over/">New Era Estate families face rent hikes as Benyon landlord takes over</a></b>, Ella Jessel, Hackney Citizen, July 1, 2014</td> </tr>
<tr> <td><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_%28department_store%29">John Lewis</a></b> is a chain of department stores</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>Built-in obsolescence: <b><a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.se/2014/08/the-light-bulb-conspiracy-2010.html">The Light Bulb Conspiracy (2010)</a></b></td> </tr>
<tr> <td><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara">Che Guevara</a></b></td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Russell Brand is a part of an ongoing motion where the participants are trying to break away from the static ideals that have led to the current economic and humanitarian disaster. Other significant examples are the leader of the Italian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Star_Movement"><b>Five Star Movement</b></a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beppe_Grillo"><b>Beppe Grillo</b></a>, that like Brand has a career in comedy (<a href="http://www.beppegrillo.it/en/"><b>Grillo's English blog</b></a>), and Spanish <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Iglesias_Turri%C3%B3n"><b>Pablo Iglesias</b></a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podemos_(Spanish_political_party)"><b>Podemos</b></a>, with its roots in the Indignados movement (the outraged). See for example <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-18070246"><b>Spain's Indignados protest here to stay</b></a>, BBC, May 15, 2012. The article <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/nov/06/podemos-a-crisis-of-trust-and-the-rise-of-new-political-parties"><b>A crisis of trust - and the rise of new political parties</b></a> by Alberto Nardelli, The Guardian, Nov 6, 2014, specifies the situation in numbers.<br />
<br />
An interesting detail is that Iglesias got his doctorate with a <b><a href="http://eprints.ucm.es/8458/">thesis about postnational collective action</a></b> (pdf in Spanish). Other examples of this motion to try to come out of the static traditions are the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_independence_referendum,_2014"><b>Scottish independence referendum (2014)</b></a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_self-determination_referendum,_2014"><b>Catalan self-determination referendum (2014)</b></a> in Spain.<br />
<br />
It is worth to remember that the same struggle also has reignited a distinctly reversed movement founded on that the only possible cure to the hopelessness must be to get even more static. These movements want to go back to a society built on clear-cut hierarchical obedience, a society built on structures we know well. And that is exactly what the established political élite with their mass media, their schools and their universities train the people to believe is the same as reason. The result is citizens who don't know how to create a next step, anything that is not preconceived, and they are therefore scared of a society that is not built on commands.<br />
<br />
Many of us who want to dissolve static ideals are currently in an angry protest mode and are therefore not yet able to comprehend the big picture and the possibilities. This pathetic situation, to not be able to have a concrete vision of the next step, is just a result of the denial of art, or the denial of everything else than total obedience in combination with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_and_control"><b>command</b></a>: do not bother. Because art is actually about what we are able to do. See our post <a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.se/2014/09/the-guardian-launch-neo-stalinist-art.html#Duchamp"><b>The Guardian Launch a Neo-Stalinist Art Theory</b></a> and the video from 1968 in which <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp">Marcel Duchamp</a> </b>(1887–1968) says:</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The word art etymologically means to do, not even to make but to do, you see. The moment you do something you are an artist. … the word art means action, activity, of any kind … for everyone. But, we in our society have decided to make a group that is called artist … which is purely artificial.</i></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Have a look at the magazine <a href="http://www.arcfinity.org/"><b>Arc</b></a>. They have realized the gap between our real possibilities and the static illusion that the élite of the state protects. The Independent published an interesting article when Arc began its life: <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/new-scientists-new-digital-magazine-combines-sciencefiction-and-futurology-7580755.html"><b>New Scientist's new digital magazine combines science-fiction and futurology</b></a>, Enjoli Liston, The Independent, March 22, 2012. Arc is not published online for free, but they have a great blog called <a href="http://arcfinity.tumblr.com/"><b>Arcfinity</b></a> and interesting <a href="https://twitter.com/arcfinity"><b>tweets</b></a>.</blockquote>
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" style="width: 630px;"> <tbody>
<tr> <td width="630"><span style="color: #444444;">Regarding art, in the form of literature, to change the real world, see also:</span></td> </tr>
<tr> <td><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28974943" style="font-weight: bold;">Project Hieroglyph: Fighting society's dystopian future</a>, "Pop culture has painted a darkly dystopian vision of the future. But a new book hopes to harness the power of science fiction to plot out a more optimistic path for the real world." Debbie Siegelbaum, BBC, Sept 3, 2014</td> </tr>
<tr> <td><b><a href="http://hieroglyph.asu.edu/">Project Hieroglyph</a></b></td> </tr>
<tr> <td><b><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/10/uncanny-fiction-beautiful-and-bizarre/381794/">The Uncanny Power of Weird Fiction</a></b>, From Leonora Carrington to Haruki Murakami, disparate writers tap into something universal when they channel the bizarre, Jeff VanderMeer, The Atlantic, Oct 30, 2014</td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
At this time of year we are reminded of the fall of the Berlin Wall, like for example the article <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/06/-sp-fall-berlin-wall-what-it-meant-to-be-there"><b>The fall of the Berlin Wall: what it meant to be there</b></a>, “Twenty-five years on, Timothy Garton Ash asks what hindsight can’t reveal – and wonders where the 1989 generation might lead us”, The Guardian, Nov 6, 2014.</blockquote>
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<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wnYXbJ_bcLc?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Yet many have to realize that the Berlin Wall was a result of a particular worldview where physical walls make perfect sense to preserve a static perspective of life. The Berlin Wall is gone but THE WALL that made the Berlin Wall is still here to kill your potentials.<br />
<br />
Dirk Kurbjuweit writes about <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/how-east-germany-influences-modern-day-german-politics-a-994410.html"><b>The Merkel Effect: What Today's Germany Owes to Its Once-Communist East</b></a>, Der Spiegel, Oct 02, 2014. The intro is "East Germany ceased to exist following the 1989 revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall. But did the former communist country help shape today's Germany? The answer is yes, and Chancellor Merkel is a big reason why". Kurbjuweit says:</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i> A dictatorship fears open discourse and conflict, and it thrives on the fiction of unity. The ruler or the ruling party claims that it is executing the will of the people, and because that will is supposed to be uniform, everyone is under forced consensus. Silence in the country is treated as approval. Merkel grew up in this system.</i></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
<i>Elements of it are reflected in her political style. She despises open dispute, she does not initiate discourse and she feels comfortable when silence prevails. She prefers to govern within a grand coalition, because it enables her to create broad consensus within small groups. Things have become quieter in Germany.</i></blockquote>
<i><br /></i>Kurbjuweit’s words are not alone. In the article <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/07/us-germany-wall-westberlin-idUSKBN0IR1EX20141107"><b>West Berlin recalls 'island' of freedom that vanished with Wall</b></a>, Reuters, Nov 7, 2014, Stephen Braun quotes:</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"There was incredible investment in education and culture ... There was a feeling of liberty. Anything was possible." "West Berlin's musical scene of the 1970s and '80s lured the likes of David Bowie." "The Berlin of the '80s was a pool of crazy, creative and inspiring people. After the Wall fell, the city changed." and "It's a shame to lose this part of West Berlin's identity".</i></blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Regarding David Bowie: His song <b><a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.se/2013/11/where-are-we-now-bring-noise-when-we_3.html">Where are we now?</a> </b>(2013) is most probably about both the lost Berlin and the forgotten hopes of the West in general.</blockquote>
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If you want another injection of Russell Brand we recommend:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/S3PalrfEF4g?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br />
Russell Brand interview with Mehdi Hasan, The Huffington Post UK, Nov 7, 2013.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/10/russell-brand-on-revolution">Russell Brand on revolution: "We no longer have the luxury of tradition"</a></b><b><a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/10/russell-brand-on-revolution">– But before we change the world, we need to change the way we think</a></b>, Russel Brand, New Statesman, Oct 24, 2013. Brand writes:</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>We British seem to be a bit embarrassed about revolution, like the passion is uncouth or that some tea might get spilled on our cuffs in the uprising. That revolution is a bit French or worse still American. Well, the alternative is extinction so now might be a good time to re-evaluate. The apathy is in fact a transmission problem, when we are given the correct information in an engaging fashion, we will stir.</i></blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<br />
So, once more we refer to The Matrix and say:<br />
“Buckle your seatbelt Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going bye-bye!"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0-JJuHpfN5g?rel=0" width="640"></iframe>The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-46078476926415296302014-11-12T21:01:00.001+01:002016-06-20T13:39:53.628+02:00The Wall – Pink Floyd (1979)Down below is a quote by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Waters"><b>Roger Waters</b></a>. The co-founder of the group <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Floyd"><b>Pink Floyd</b></a> talked about <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall_Tour_(1980%E2%80%9381)">The Wall Tour</a></b> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall"><b>The Wall</b></a>.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Redemption lies in the destruction of the walls we surround ourselves with, both as individuals and nations. And it is fear that builds these walls, and it's a fear that's engendered and supported in us by our governments. It makes us much easier to control if we're frightened of other people than if we're not.</blockquote>
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<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8707442.stm"><b>Pink Floyd's Roger Waters revisits The Wall</b></a>, BBC, May 27, 2010.<br />
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The first words of the lyrics in their song <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Brick_in_the_Wall"><b>Another Brick In The Wall</b></a> (Part II):<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>We don't need no education</i><br />
<i>We don't need no thought control</i></blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YR5ApYxkU-U" width="640"></iframe>The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-67889519801477696922014-11-11T21:25:00.001+01:002014-12-26T06:36:11.426+01:00Hello Frustration – Wimps (2013)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/44vt-wAHh5I?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> Animation by <a href="http://www.mattnyce.com/"><b>Matt Nyce</b></a><br /><br />The final lines in Hello Frustration:<br /> <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>Take your nervous habits</i><br /><i>where wherever you go</i><br /><i>hold them close and you will never let go</i></blockquote><br />We all know these lines are true; we hold on and we will never be free. Though, there are they who like the fact that "we never let go". When we know this, why can't we just give up their rules or the wall that generates the problems and nervous habits in the first place?<br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NY5Bi4AKiFc?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> <br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.thesewimps.com/">Wimps website</a></b>The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-85913185630562026032014-11-08T19:48:00.001+01:002015-10-16T20:47:53.613+02:00The Matrix (1999)<div class="tr_bq">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/m8e-FF8MsqU?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></div>
<br />
At the beginning of the movie Morpheus tells the hero, Neo, about the situation in the world:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<i><b>Morpheus:</b> The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when you go to church or when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.</i><br />
<i><b>Neo:</b> What truth?</i><br />
<i><b>Morpheus:</b> That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind...</i></blockquote>
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<b><a href="http://putlocker.is/watch-the-matrix-online-free-putlocker.html">Watch it online: The Matrix</a></b><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix"><b>The Matrix</b></a> (1999), by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wachowskis" style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew "Andy" Wachowski and Lana Wachowski</a>.The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-64782812832990118552014-10-29T17:54:00.001+01:002014-12-26T06:36:11.450+01:00Not Dark Yet – Bob Dylan (1997)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RZgBhyU4IvQ" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>... Feel like my soul has turned into steel ...</i><br /><i>There’s not even room enough to be</i><br /><i> anywhere</i><br /><i>It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there</i><br /><i>… I know it looks like I’m moving,</i><br /><i>but I’m standing still ...</i></blockquote><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan" style="font-weight: bold;">Bob Dylan</a>, <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_Dark_Yet">Not Dark Yet</a> - <a href="http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/not-dark-yet">lyrics</a></b>, from the album <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Out_of_Mind">Time Out of Mind</a> </b>(1997).The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647322079260350445.post-69747998801266504642014-10-26T18:19:00.001+01:002015-10-19T11:23:15.092+02:00The Conformist – Bernardo Bertolucci (1970)Protests against the established values and ideas are today focused on for example whistleblowers and activities made famous by Wikileaks and Snowden. This culture of protest is based on fast arguments and evidence. Only the "viral" is of importance. In the pre-internet era there was time to investigate perspectives. The new culture of protest does not reach to the depths where the established values and ideas can be dissolved. We need to get back to get forward.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7rFn2Zn_ETg?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> <br />
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<div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The novel </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conformist"><b>The Conformist</b></a> (1951) by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Moravia"><b>Alberto Moravia</b></a> is the background for the movie with the same name, directed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardo_Bertolucci"><b>Bernardo Bertolucci</b></a>.</div>
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<div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conformist_(film)">The Conformist</a></b> (1970) is indisputably one of the movie classics and is the inspiration for numerous other important movies. There are also many words out there about how Bertolucci uses light, design, architecture etc.</span></div>
<br />
However, the core of the story in The Conformist is usually hidden with silence, and there are reasons for that. Moravia and Bertolucci pinpoint that it is the Western tradition that is the terror, regardless of open dictatorship or not. And they prove this relation with perfection.<br />
<br />
The Conformist is an investigation of the concept <i>normal</i>. The main character wants to be normal – and his struggle to be normal is highlighted in the movie – so he actively finds out how to join the secret police and their torture and killing in a fascist Italy.<br />
<br />
Moravia and Bertolucci expose that fascism, and probably dictatorship in general, depends on rules that conform citizens to loyalty. The Conformist exposes that to obey the norm of conformity is to be normal.<br />
<br />
Moravia and Bertolucci also disclose that today, in our so called democratic society, we are supposed to follow the same conformity and be normal, just as in an open dictatorship. In short Moravia and Bertolucci bring out that what is called democracy is in fact a hidden dictatorship.<br />
<br />
Today the élite forces you to use and accept the concept normal, which you cannot even define in a concrete way. You are therefore only able to obey what is normal. Any kind of protest is useless and cannot even exist, because it is not normal.<br />
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In all, Moravia and Bertolucci disclose that the élite train you to use concepts with hidden functions.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x118p41" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x11f85x" width="640"></iframe><br />
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The Conformist was released in 1970 and is a tragic symbol of that absolutely nothing has happened since then. The élite still has the power to turn you into the silent and normal majority.<br />
<br />
Arcade Fire sings in their song <a href="http://thewalldisappears.blogspot.se/2014/08/normal-person-arcade-fire-2013.html" style="font-weight: bold;">Normal Person</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Is anything as strange as a normal person?<br />Is anyone as cruel as a normal person?<br />...you want to know if you're normal too<br />Well, are you?<br />...<br /> I think I'm cool enough, but am I cruel enough...<br /> Am I cruel enough... for you?</i></blockquote>
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<a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/08/28/the_conformist_an_unsettling_political_masterpiece_returns/"><b>“The Conformist”: An unsettling political masterpiece returns</b></a>, Bernardo Bertolucci's twisted drama of the Fascist era shaped Coppola and Scorsese, and retains a potent allure, Andrew O'Hehir, Salon, Aug 29, 2014The Editorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17149777895725769188noreply@blogger.com0