Which Japanese bands? I'm more or less slowly turning into a weaboo anyway

Yeah, I love Melting Point of Wax, So Strange I Remember You especially as well as virtually anything on Vheissu. I&II was fairly good, thought they captured water brilliantly, Night Diving especially with the way they conveyed dripping water, and the tranquility of deep sea diving. Fire, eh not so much. Could see they were going for a sense of chaos and distortion but just didn't feel like it came together melodically, Flame Deluge was excellent though. Agree Red Sky EP was excellent, especially their acoustic renditions, particularly Of Dust and Nations, really wish they'd do more of them.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Yeah, I've heard a few of the songs, but haven't really gotten around to checking it out fully, for some reason. Been too busy with new releases from my favorite Japanese bands, I guess. I thought Alchemy Index vols. I and II was pretty solid, with some tight songs, but definitely not quite up to par with the other stuff. Still, "not up to par with the other stuff" still translates to "pretty damn good," so I can't really complain too much in that department.

I wish they had a music video for T&C, A Torch to End All Torches, Melting Point of Wax, or So Strange I Remember you, because it's always hard to find truly good live videos of songs like that. I was very surprised to see them release Red Sky on that EP thing, but totally dug the coupling tracks.

In reply to this comment by RedSky:
Heh, yeah it was a bit of a giveaway before, now it's more subtle

Reminds me, I still gotta sift that song too Pity that they never released their better songs as singles though.

Sample the album on their myspace if you want, it's not anything groundbreaking by all means but still a solid album all around. Not nearly as good as Vheissu but still, have to give them props for branching out and experimenting with different styles.

Lyrics:

Mr. President, Distinguished delegates...

[H.I.M. Haile Selassie I dialect]

[Bunny Wailer dialogue]
Since the beginning of modern civilization
Generations have witnessed and inherited the only conflicts of world wars
But behold the marriage supper of the lamb and the bridegroom onto his bride
Then shall the earth's children know the true expression of ONE LOVE
Then mother earth shall honeymoon in peace.
Forever eliminating the aspirations, lust and anguish of wars and rumors of wars...SELAH!

[Verse 1]
See it deh know the innocent going up in vapors
And propoganda spreading inna the sunday papers not even superman coulda save you with him cape cause
Red-a Judgement a blaze, blaze ya
And Babylon a gamble the youth dem life like racehorse
And gi dem a uniform and a shave dem head with razors
And now the clock a strike war, don't be amazed cause
inna dem churches tryin to save...saviours

[Marcus Garvey dialogue 1]
Can we do it? We can do it, we shall do it!

[Verse 2]
Boom!
Tell dem fe uh draw mi out when the world government inna falling out
Only few men survive crawling out
Run left him collegues dem sprawling out
NEARLY DEAD!
Medic haffi haul him out
And give him two tranquilizer fi stall him out
DEH PON BASE!
Can't get no calling out when him hear from the shout last week
Him mistress find a new shoes
Wife can't get no news and lately she starting to doubt
SHE STILL SEARCHING!
And the youth dem bawling out
Working hard not to let it all come out
Well it's not safe to go walk about
A slaughterhouse from Bagdad to Waterhouse
She start to arouse sometime she want a spouse
She start go out, start beat a darker stout
GUNS COME OUT!
Working people funds run out
Keep a show last week and no one come out
BOMBS COME OUT!
Mi gas tank just run out
BOMBO CLATT!
The scotch tape just run out
WEED RUN OUT!
Yuh senses must dumb out, Mi have a pound round a back deh a gwan sun out
NAH COME OUT!
Till the chalice bun out,
NAH COME OUT!
Till the malice bun out, A WAR!

Zimbabwe to Berlin Wall
Blazin' like a burnin' ball, loose ball...dat no work...IN WAR
Sleeping...dat no work..IN WAR
Can't wear jheri curl...IN WAR
No diamond and pearl...IN WAR
Can't drink weh a serve...IN BAR
Gas wi fuck up yuh nerves...IN WAR
Shot wi blood up yuh shirt...IN WAR
Can't go lift up no skirt...IN WAR
Now disease and germs...IN WAR
Can't go release your sperms...IN WAR
Stamina must preserve...IN WAR
Fire constantly burn...IN WAR
RED...IT RED...IT RED...IT RED...IT RED!

[Marcus Garvey dialogue 2]
If you cannot do it, if you are not prepared to do it...then you will die.
You race of cowards, you race of imbosiles, you race of good for nothings
If you cannot do what other men have done
What other nations have done, what other races have done
Then you yourself shall die.

[Repeat Verse 1]

[Verse 3]
SEE IT DEH NOW...Hey!
Now wi fore parents sacrifice enough
Dem blood sweat and tears run like syrup
Any day a revolution might erupt, and the skys over Kingston lighting up
For the new generation rising up, of youths now a days weh dem sighting up
And through reasoning dem biding up,
Searching for the sign and the sign is us,
Searching for the truth all you find is us,
Searching for the troops still behind is us,
The almighty we recruit and we come from the root
We build like roach building boot
Weh just can't done, Rastafari we design tuff
If a the fight for freedom sign me up
Cause you Tell-Lie-Vision can't blind me up
Soldiers and police dem wising up, realizing they're no more right than us
Realizing there's no use fighting us
Realizing their opening their eyes to see the same demoralizing life as us
So we nah tek talk nor smiling up
Cause the word temper tantrum boiling up,and who...
Calling the shots and nah bust none
Controlling the mind of the young, bring down...

Bear famine, no rain nah fall from London to Dadeland mall
All the son of the virgin bawl, institute of the church IN WAR
Preaching and researching WAR
Practice and rehearsing WAR
Teaching and dem learning WAR
Instigating and urging WAR
Always keep alert in WAR
Cause man will jump out a swerving car
Now bees and birds IN WAR
And the freaks and nerds IN WAR
And the straight and curves IN WAR
Forward and reverse IN WAR
RED...IT RED...IT RED...IT RED...IT RED.

[Marcus Garvey dialogue 2]

The source may not be reliable, but I found a source for the gulag claim:

1957 Controversial statement from Oliver Kenneth Goff, June 22, 1957, a member of the Communist Party and the Young Communist League from May 2, 1936 to October 9, 1939, reveals he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1939, as to the implementation of the fluoridation of American public water supplies in the same way they used it as a brain tranquillizer at Soviet prison camps. Goff reflected that the Party leaders felt that it would bring about lethargy in the U.S, and keep the public docile during a steady encroachment of Communism. Also discussed, says Goff, was keeping a store of deadly fluoride near the water supplies where during a time of revolt it could be dumped wholesale into the water supply and either kill off the populace, or threaten them with liquidation, so that they would surrender to obtain fresh water. (See Ref#64,65). Sworn statement in Arapahoe Country, Colorado, notarized. (Ref: Fluoridation, by Isabel Jansen, R.N, 1990, ISBN 0-932298-73-7, page 128, Tri-State Press, Antigo, Wisconsin 54409)

Oh crap, MG thinks he's the siftbot again. Grab the tranquilizers and the dart gun before he starts humping the servers.

^I mean, who holds coke in their hair?

Amy Winehouse, that's who. She probably has coke, heroin, crack, crank, mescaline, mushrooms, ecstasy, ether, and horse tranquilizers stashed in seventeen other places on her body as well.

Wow, this is fantastic. Makes me want to go out and buy a video camera. I love macro.

The music is beautiful. It reminds me of a game I used to play quite a bit called Tranquility. Who is the artist? Eno? Aphex Twin? Harold Budd?

Ant: Hate them enough to downvote this gorgeous video? Just let it go, man- you don't have to downvote everything you don't like.

Deep in the dark recesses of the great Sift, there lurks a creature so clever with his jabs and prolific with his prose, that few dare utter his name. Noobs tremble with fear that he may pounce at any moment and question the origin of their only video submission. Stars and diamonds cautiously go about their daily sifting dreading that Cheshire smile from the depths of the abyss. Without warning he may disrupt the otherwise tranquil dialogues that litter the landscape. And what do they call this menace to their happy little virtual utopia?

CHOGGIE

Now playing at your local multiplex. Check Movietickets.com for theater listings and show times.

Choggie collectables are now available while they last.

Mmm, here, more background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_coup_of_1973

"Chamber of Deputies' Resolution
<already cited above, snip>

Among other particulars, the regime was accused of:
<snip>
The resolution finally condemned the "creation and development of government-protected armed groups which... are headed towards a confrontation with the Armed Forces." Allende's efforts to re-organize the military and police, which he could not trust in their current forms, were characterized as "notorious attempts to use the Armed and Police Forces for partisan ends, destroy their institutional hierarchy, and politically infiltrate their ranks."

[edit] Allende's response

Two days later (August 24, 1973), Allende responded [9] characterizing Congress's declaration as "destined to damage the country's prestige abroad and create internal confusion," and predicting that "It will facilitate the seditious intention of certain sectors." He pointed out that the declaration (passed 81-47 in the Chamber of Deputies) had not obtained the two-thirds Senate majority constitutionally required to convict the president of abuse of power: essentially, they were "invoking the intervention of the Armed Forces and of Order against a democratically elected government" and "subordinat[ing] political representation of national sovereignty to the armed institutions, which neither can nor ought to assume either political functions or the representation of the popular will." Allende argued that he had followed constitutional means in bringing members of the military into the cabinet "at the service of civic peace and national security, defending republican institutions against insurrection and terrorism." In contrast, he said that Congress was promoting a coup or a civil war, using a declaration "full of affirmations that had already been refuted beforehand" and which, in substance and process (handing it directly to the various ministers rather than delivering it to the president) violated a dozen articles of the then-current constitution. Further, he argued that the legislature was trying to usurp the executive role.

"Chilean democracy," Allende wrote, "is a conquest by all of the people. It is neither the work nor the gift of the exploiting classes, and it will be defended by those who, with sacrifices accumulated over generations, have imposed it... With a tranquil conscience... I sustain that never before has Chile had a more democratic government than that over which I have the honor to preside... I solemnly reiterate my decision to develop democracy and a state of law to their ultimate consequences... Parliament has made itself a bastion against the transformations... and has done everything it can to perturb the functioning of the finances and of the institutions, sterilizing all creative initiatives." Economic and political means, he said, would be needed to get the country out of its current crisis, and Congress was obstructing these means; having already "paralyzed" the state, they were now seeking to "destroy" it. He concluded by calling upon "the workers, all democrats and patriots" to join him in defense of the constitution and of the "revolutionary process.""

You continue to avoid my questions... are you Jewish with some sort of mental hangup on "International Bankers".. is that why your so fixated on this? Are you calling Admiral Ward a racist conspiracy theorist because he stated such a thing?

Also.. You left out the following:
More modern theories transcend the religious overtones of the earlier theories. They purport that a clique of international banking houses which exercised financial control through ownership of the Bank of England and Federal Reserve, run by the Rothschilds, Warburgs, Morgans, and Rockefellers then bought up political control and media control to create an invisible government which usurps the Constitutional government and creates wars and depressions in order to gain more control. For more about this theory see the documentary The Money Masters

also... since you took these two small words from one statement made by an insider of the CFR that was exposing it and are subverting the topic to call him a racist.... here are some statements regarding "International Bankers" and the U.S.:

Capital must protect itself in every way... Debts must be collected and loans and mortgages foreclosed as soon as possible. When through a process of law the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and more easily governed by the strong arm of the law applied by the central power of leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principle men now engaged in forming an imperialism of capitalism to govern the world. By dividing the people we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd.
-- J.P. Morgan (American born private International Banker)

History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling the money and its issuance.
-- James Madison (4th President of the United States)

I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.
-- Woodrow Wilson (28th President of the United States)

Banks have done more injury to the religion, morality, tranquility, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they can have done or ever will do good.
-- John Adams (2nd President of the United States)

When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.
-- Napolean Bonaparte (Tyrant - attempted ruler of the world)

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
-- Henry Ford (Auto manufacturer and inventor of the assembly line)

Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws.
-- Mayer Amschel Rothschild (German-born Jewish International Banker that changed his last name to a British sounding name)

This country has been fighting against International and Central banking since it's initial colonization. The banking legacy is that they keep systematically establishing a central banking system which dominates the people in many ways.

Your attempt to label those of us that realize this fact as racists is pathetic and futile. Go crawl back under your rock and leave your race card at home.

They are considered an endangered species, so I don't think so.
Sometimes they put nets in place, or tranquilize them and relocate them.

What we should not forget is that they do not do this out of a grudge against humans but by instinct. A surfer on a board looks much like their favourite turtle diet from below.

After all it is us invading their territory, not the other way around.

"Here in the UK religion was always pretty dormant until Muslims came along and started ..." With these words, he introduces his rant. Religion has hardly been a tranquil issue in British history--and with no Muslims involved. Consider Henry VIII, Elisabeth I or the IRA. (See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholicism_in_Great_Britain . ) Not to mention the crusades, though those did involve Muslims.

And I should listen to the rest of your misinformed rant ... why?

Winterzauber, "Winter Magic"

More info from the artist's website: http://www.p-geist.de/start.html

Multimedia art in Zurich: A restaurant is turned into a work of art

english version (translation Julie Draper)
Zurich, 11.27.2005

Beginning at sundown from 11.27 through 12.31.2005, the historically protected building housing the Lake Side Restaurant in Zurich will be transformed into a 450 sqm. three-dimensional video art installation.

It is the work of Berlin-based multimedia artist Philipp Geist, a rising star in the young art scene. Together with the symphony orchestra OBC Barcelona and the Finnish sound ensemble Pan Sonic, Philipp Geist appeared as a video artist at the opening of the Sonar Festival in Barcelona in 2004. He was represented at the Dissonanze Festival in Rome, at Clubtransmediale in Berlin and at the Mutek Festival in Montreal which is renowned for new media. His video works have been exhibited at important international art institutions including the Central House of Artists (CHA) in Moscow, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London, the National Gallery in Warsaw (Zacheta), at the opening of the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich – and now for the first time in switzerland.

For his work in Zurich, the 29 year-old Berlin-based artist deliberately avoids the use of canvases and instead projects directly onto the concrete building façades and windows which have been prepared with a special projection foil. Every evening, visitors can expect to see a selection of images alternating between purist, dreamlike and intangibly fragile compositions. The starting foundation for all of Philipp Geist’s work is video material solely filmed and produced by himself. Geist finds the subjects for his work in everyday things like hairbrushes, leaves, raindrops and curtains. He releases these objects from their usual setting and places them in new visual and correlated contexts by employing special camera and video techniques using motion blur and superimposition.

Especially for Winterzauber (Winter Magic) in Lake Side, Philipp Geist went in search of wintry, Christmasy motifs which attempt to break the link to consumption and indulgence, and instead direct visitors’ attention toward the pure aesthetic component that is all too often obscured by the kitschy madness of Christmas.

It is in this way that a ride along the highly commercialized Oxford Street in London takes on a completely new appearance as it is seen through a window pane. Distorted by the raindrops at night, it allows viewers only a vague impression of the twinkling Christmas lights. Microscopic close-ups give sparklers, burned down candles and snowflakes an element of diversity that would have remained unappreciated by the human eye without the aid of technology.

By opting to use the three-dimensional, defined structure contours as projection surfaces instead of canvases, Geist increases the motifs’ abstraction while simultaneously regaining depth and diversity. In this way, Geist initiates a dialogue between the historically protected architecture, his artistic work and the people going in and out of the structure: The visitor himself becomes part of the projected image on the threshold between the inside and outside of the building.

Geist allows a wintry world to emerge in front of visitors’ eyes. The subject matter and motifs, although familiar, astonish with their size and unusual presentation while altering the observer’s perception and challenging conventional viewing habits.

Given that the opening of Geist’s work will coincide with the first day of Advent, it will be intriguing to see how he uses his playful, artistic interpretation to approach winter and Christmas themes. One thing is for certain: Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in a tranquil, wintry, dreamlike world of lights.

"Winterzauber" 2005 at Lake Side
Videoart installation by Philipp Geist
open daily from 11.27 - 12.30.05, 6:00 pm – 12 am
12.31.05, 6:00 pm – 5:00 am

Survival Kit contents check. In them you will find: one 45 caliber automatic, two boxes of ammunition, four days concentrated emergency rations, one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills, one miniature combination Rooshan phrase book and Bible, one hundred dollars in rubles, one hundred dollars in gold, nine packs of chewing gum, one issue of prophylactics, three lipsticks, three pair of nylon stockings -- shoot, a fellah could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff....
-Maj. T.J. 'King' Kong (Slim Pickens)

Great post!

It's really nice to have many of the most fundamental teachings of Islam in one post!

This is a translation of the Islamic song (nasheed) in the background (taken from youtube):

My soul is brightened by a light in my heart
When I praised God of mankind
And my soul is cheered up and the tears were flowing
Oh God! guide my heart to reason
In the tranquility of the night I pray during worshiping
While the black darkness is all around me
Oh Most Kind! Oh Most Merciful! Oh Most Forbearing!
Oh Most Kind! Your gifts are endless
Oh All-Hearing! Oh Answerer! Oh Most Magnificent!
Oh Creator of the strong predatory animals! Guide me
Guide me to truth, God
I depend on your guidance today
Oh God of the universe! You are my aid
You are the refuge of man in the afterworld
Here I am God, asking your forgiveness
Forgive me and grant me my wish

I don't know what's funnier this or the YouTuber's comment about his own video:

The tranquil chaos of Ecuador's most mercantile city was briefly interrupted this morning by a rare moment of collective coordination and choreography of the kind not witnessed since the legendary, if not infamous, Pirate attacks that systematically pillaged the wealth and virtues of the city's original settlers. Police and municipal authorities were flooded with calls reporting unexplained organization along a narrow portion of 9 de Octubre Avenue, Guayaquil's main thoroughfare. While no group has yet claimed responsibility, there are rumors circulating in local media outlets that the city may have taken its first evolutionary steps towards 2nd World status, demonstrating that collective organization absent coercion is indeed possible, momentarily at least. ...