Myths, Opinions and FACTS

I'm in favour of debating points, and i'm open for all sorts of ideas and different points of view about reality. I am not a bully. But theres an increasing list of facts that i simply have no more time to debate about. When it comes to discussing taste or religious/political/sexual differences, everything is good. Soime stuff i dont like, some i dont agreer with, and viceversa. Most of the time i'll disagree because i find debate and discussion way more interesting than passive agreement and niceness, but in the end, its really hardly about making points, mostly about excercising debating abilities.

And yet, a few things are FACTS. Whether you agree or not, those are truths. Not debatable.

1) Men And Women Are Not Equal And Shall Not Be Treated The Same

I am deadly serious about this. To be clear, i am not saying that sexism is ok or that machismo is a good thing. What i am talking about is that the two genders (and i am not talking about sexual orientation, im strictly talking about gender, whether its physical or psychological. Yes transgendered people count as waht they feel within, not how they feel physically) ARE different in all aspects of their psychology and some, if not most of the widely recognized traits attributed to them are actually true.

Women are mercurial, more difficult, more sensitive (in both the good and bad way) and more able to deal with emotions. Men are more limited in those aspect, morte aggressive, more prone to a defnsive approach . When guys play the "i'm sensitive, i have feelings like women, i understand them", they're, in large part, either delusional or manipulative. A "sensitive" man is hardly REALLY sensitive, but he is potentially usign his idea of how "sensitivity" should be to manipulate people. That is not worth of trust. Men can have emotions, but they have to be different, more under control, less manipulative and more basic and non mind-fucking. Exceptions exist but they are suspect and generally bad.

To sum it up: the roles exist and shall be taken into consideration. Again, i'm not talking about sexuality. Sexuality is a natural instinct of living beings that can be approached in every way conceivable. fuck the fuck-able. What i'm talking about is behavioural patterns and the way generally, brains are shaped. Think about it.

2)Life Is Not Precious

Yeah. Babies arent special, abortion is not a bad thing, since the right of a mother to choose if she wants to be a mother or not, whatever background she has, comes before any conglomerate of cells. And even when the creatures are born they are not granted special rights, besides the main ones. They will be special when they prove themselves to be.

Life is a process. People die. Unless there are particularly strong reasons to pribilege a person's life (like love, which is already a very debatable thing), they deserve attention and care and decency but they're not granted special rights. Animals are as important as people, no more no less. An death and sickness happen. It is what it is. We shall fight about it but also we have no right to think that we have special rights because we are humans.

Also, and possibly more importantly: a lot of people deserve to die. A lot. People who have no conscience or remorse that hurt others out of their broken nature. There's no superior idea of the sanctity of life that protects me. they should be killed, fact.

Suicide is not wrong. Its cowardly and whenever you do that you lkeave your loved ones behind. No matter how big the pain is, when you kill yourself you betray your loved ones. But besides that, if you dont have anyone and your life is meaningless, do it. Life is not precious or has any sanctity.

3)There Is No God

You're spiritual. Fine. You do not want to think that when you die there will be nothing afterwards. Ok. Youw anna think that the possiblity of a a superior being makes your life better. Knock yourself out.

Do not talk to me in a condescending or convincing or preachy manner, trying to use poetically sensitive arguments or verbal aggression in order to pull me into your hazy supersititions. The absence of any prooof about the existence of any fgorm of deity or any life after death is the final point. It's not about being into organized religion or not. Its not about spirituality or whatever. Humans are bundles of flesh with nothing more special than bananas, besides their hyperactive and strongly delusional brains. When they cease functioning they cease existing and rot. End of story. Its the ONLY logical explanation and the only possible truth. All the rest is a silly superstiution, which you're allowed to believe but stays a superstition. It doesnt mean that life is less worth living, actually it means you have to live it MORE, because you have no second chances.

4)Things Wont Be Fine

Its ok to have ideals and not be apathetic. Actually, jaded and apathetic people are a disease that should be taken away from this world. But bear in mind that having ideals and fighting for causes is something you do for yourself, to be a person thats able to look in a mirror without spitting. The improve3mednts will be momentary and there wil always be a majority that wiull. crush the good. Things wont be fine, its not how things work, even in the small parts of life. Nothing lasts, everything is worth a try.

Apathy is the real enemy, but excessive optimism is apathy in disguise.

5)America Is Not The Greatest Country In The world

Big? Yes. Powerful? Yes. Culturally varied? Sure.

The Best? No. Not even vaguely.

The US are a strong conglomerate with a lot of good thin gs and a whole shitton of flaws. Yes, they are bettger than war torn third world places but that doesnt mean much. Those places are NOT part of civilization (another fact that i wont list but it's true), so being better isnt really an achievemnent.

There are country that are living peacefully in Europe without adapting the patriotism of the States and the Gung-Ho arrogance that seems to be key to their way to live.

That said, The States are a country that shall be proud of themselves. But they're not superior or better and maybe its time they realized this.

Music For Your Pockets: Giles Robson& The Dirty Aces

If i had to sum up why this guy deserves attention and praise in one polished sentence, it would be this: he plays pure Blues Rock and plays a Harp.

You may not get why that is so awesome, if you're not a fan of that specific gritty music or you only heard it in its modern revisionist way, where the focus is on guitar histrionics, pretty polished vocals or top chart hooks.

But see, the people that love the blues in its blood and guts, undiluted version, know what i'm talking about. A harp is a magical instrument for that genre, it gives the sound something special. Just check out the always underrated Red Devils, a band that survived on live performances and whose discography is mostly made of primal bootlegs recorded with people like Mick Jagger, John Lee Hooker or Johnny Cash. They had a full band assault, made of guitars, howling vocals and all. But the harp was like a symbol of a soulful attitude, a sincerity and a love for the roots of the music. A mouth harp brings the magic of blues to a whole different level. Its an instrument that screams for live performances, improvisation, jamming and sweaty pubs. Street Musicianship. Soul and balls.

Giles Robson plays it, does it well and also has all the rest. Him and his Dirty Aces deliver some absolutely bare boned and magical Blues Rock that comes right out from the golden vault of the golden age and get right into your heart. Its energized, sad, soulful, warm, badass songs about life, love and despair. Sung and played like they're in a small smokey club in a gutter alley but polished and smart enough to guarantee constant replay. Sell your soul to this scruffy devil.

Take A Bite

http://www.myspace.com/gilesrobsonthedirtyaces

Being An Ass Is An STD

Talk to any neo-nihilist geek and there's a high chance that they'll quote the movie "idiocracy" as a dystopian cinematic manifesto for a possible outcome of our society. Theres a very spread belief, especially in the embittered post youth of today, that idiotic people willò outbreed the smart ones. According to the theory, morons are resilient, have a lot of children, dont use birth control, and are unaffected by the small, soul crushing aspects of living. So in the end they breed more and in largher quantities, where intelligent people extinguish themselves by not having kids, commitinbg suicide eand marching to oblivion.

I agree with soime aspects of this, mostly with the idea that theres a scary lack of limitation towards the breeding of human trash. Still, ive seen a renewal in the interest of having kids in the armies of intelligent beings. I see less people reasoning with the idea of being parents and more just doin it because "it has to happen". Seems like people want to procreate, whether its a good choice or not, and that is kinda positive. I don t feel like being a father but thats a lacking aspect in me, i realize that being a parent is a fundamental aspect in being a leveled human being. I realized that i potentially lack some emotional aspect that would make me sacrifice myself for another person, consider them on a different level than any other person and allow them to eventually walk over me and putting them before myslef. I dopnt think i could do that and i dont wanna risk the change of not doing it.

Also,l and thats my main point, i think the reale scary disease that transmits from parents to children is "flaws". Or on a harsher and more realistic level: bad people will unavoidably breed worse people and the cycle will almost eternally stay unbroken.

That possibly sounds extremely pessimistic, but i have very few examples to mind where i can really be proven wrong on this. Take me, to say one. I got a lot of strength from my mother, as i learned from her how you can survive odds and fear but at the same time i learned from her the idea that substance can be a crutch and give youy enough oblivion to go through stuff, until that becomes THE stuff. A baby is born as a blanket, he reproduces what it sees and as much as friends and society affect, the main input of data comes from what is your first habitata in your earliest days.

I saw my7 family being litigious, cowardly, aggressive, mean and i reproduced inevitably all of it in my own world. I learned that you can abuse and get away with it, if you're careless enough and i did the same to other people close to me. I am a product of them and as much as im self aware of that and i try to be different, some things are engrained in my soul and push me towards being that way. Its almost unstoppable and change CAN happen but its one of the biggest struggles a brain has to deal with.

I have the CERTAINTY that in the end, id do a lot of those same mistakes towards a child that my own family has done with me. Or, maybe even worse, i would mutate into overcompensation and turn into a tyrant because i wanna make my son or daughter strong so they can face the filth. Or be so spineless and soft that i make them people that could be hurt by a breeze.

It's a dungeon. And my dragon is HUGE. Ha ha. Just kidding.

I Dont Like You

Let's deal with the difference between myths and truths: love and good relationships, friends, support and affection are a great idea, and in the occasional spurts where they occur they're a source of happiness, health and delight but in the majority of human interactions, people desxerve sheer dislike, if not hate.

Nowadays it saeems like a big wave of emotional cuddliness has taken over. Its a million of apparently oversensitive babies out there, all about respecting feelings, not being awkward or inappropriate creating all sorts of protective measures, formalities and structures in order to not cause even the slight impression of discomfort to others and appearing hyper protective of themselves and others. Major avoidanhce of confrontation, truths, discussions, honesty or anything that's human. But instead of actually making iunteraqctions easier, all that has been spoawned is a major, tumorous ball of resentment and meanness that is equal to the hypocrisy of the victorian era, where you had to appear proper but at the same time you did the most depraved stuff to other beings that could be conceived.

Human beings are cruel, by nature. Love is not instinctual. i know its ounds disturbing, but thats how it is. Love is a social construct, close to the pack mentality. Its a derivative of maternal/reproductive instincts. You get attached to your own parteners, brothers, member of your tribe, and mostly, cubs. All the social hubbaloo, made of politeness, soft words, healing process of niceness, sparkly clouds of awesome and smiles, is a castle ofn cards that humanity has built onto their bare bones to make the brutality of survival more easy or logical. Like religion. Or traditions. We are scared about the natrural hostility of interacting with others so we create niceness and rules to rest our wary heads on.

From that we have evolved and made all sorts of wonders, like art. We have created courting, flirting, and sacrifice. But still when it comes to the gorund level, we are a naturally merciless species and it still comes out. We are made to hurt each other. Whether its with all out war, defensive attacks or by the small grind that is the sanitized violence of daily interactions. Through a layer of social niceness and polite turns of phrase we naturally corrode each other, by backstabbing, daily cruelty, small and big, aggression, lies and all sorts of poisoning of the soul and heart.

So hate, when it comes as a reaction to that and as a defensive mechanism, as a way to cope with the fact that you can hardly lower your guard and have to be ready for everyone to get at your throat at the slight chance they get, its more natural than love. Even when it comes to family, hate is a basic. Mothers and fathers will hate their children as soon as they detach themselves from the domination that comes fromj being a parent. When the kid becomes a functioning adult that actually interacts with you, youll end up hating them. Its not a given, but its a high chance. And they will hate you.

Loved ones will hate you and hurt you.

Its how humans are, we have no claws or fangs. We are the species capable of cruelty and we will use it in spades. Pets, wont. They will love you no matter what. Still pets dont make dinners. Hmm. Puzzzling.

Storytelling: Mr C and The Legless Heart

Once Upon A Time, in an Empty House, a Man and a Woman gave birth to a creature called Mr C.

Mr C was not a product of love, he came out of a stove one morning, crawling and crying blindly, looking for warmth and shelter and trying to make his voice heard in this world but nobody rellay noticed his presence. So he looked for food by himself and found a way to survive and grow stronger. He became friends with the rats, who were actually quite nice when you talked to time and were actually very tired of being chased around the house all day and threatened. They shared their treats with Mr C and helped him become versatile in the art of dodging danger.

Mr C gre enough to be noticed by the house owners who suddenly realized hed been eating their food for all that time and befirending those horrible pests that had been plaguing their home for all those years. Their first instincts was to boil him in a pot and eat him but they decided to make a deal with him: he'd live and could eat and stay there if he killed all the rats and kept the house clean and pretty.

Mr C did not want to kill the rats, they were his friends. They were nice to him. But he had to or he wouldnt survive. The rats begged him to let them live, even run away far from the house. Yet that wasnt pissble, since the owners requested to see their dead bodies as proof. So Mr A had to do it, and killed the rats. It was the first time he actually fel a pain that wasnt due to hunger or cold, or fear. It was a weird pain, deep inside. A pain with no borders, edgy and stingy that made want to stop eating and sleep forever. So he tried to ignore it and for once, he succeeded.

The work in the house was tiring but made time pass. Teh owner were obsessed by perfection. They would attack Mr C if even a slight detail was wrong, starve him and beat him. But weirdly enough, that pain was not that big confronted to what he felt when he had to kill the rats. So he just let them do what they wanted.

One day they died and left him alone, in the empty house. As bad as they treated him, they were all that Mr C had in his life and being alone was something he had never experienced before. Mr C was feeling that pain again. Stronger. And this time, it wouldnt go away. It kept growing and aching, making him cry bitter salty tears and stay awake at night. making him starve until he started fainting.

Mr C had to solve this. So he went to the Town's Witch Doctor. The doctor, after being paid a large fee, examined Mr C.

"There's nothing really wrong with you, little man. What causes you this suffering is something everyone has"

"And what in Tarnation is that?" (said Mr C, who had started reading the house books at night and wanted to speak like the owners to feel big and strong)

"It's a thing that makes you be different from a sponge or a cucmber. Not that sponges or cucumbers need that, but thats that"

"I dont wanna feel that pain anymore. It's horrible. More horrible than being hungry or being beaten or anything. I dont wanna have a heart no more"

"I can do that, little man. But remember, if you take it away, you'll never get it back"

Mr C was little and did not know much, so he let the Witch Doctor take his heart away.

So, he lived for years without a heart. He didnt live really. Just ate, slept. Not feeling pain. Not feeling anything really.

One night , a noise he hadnt heart in ages woke him up. it was a rhtyhtmic beating. Like a drum or a melody but better.

Hypnotized by the sound he went out of the house in the middle of the night and went looking for the source of the sound.

In the middle of a forest, far far away, on a bed of snow and roses, there was a heart. It was beating strongly. It had no arms or legs, but it kept beating with a sound so warm, so powerful and so beautiful that Mr C could not stop listening. It was cold and late and the forest was far from his home but he just stood there and let himself fall asleep to the sound of the heart beating. He stood there, arms wrapped around it and felt so good and happy for the first time in so long. He had dreams. He didnt remember having dreams.

In the mroning he had to leave and go tend to his house

"I'll come back heart"

The heart just kept beating. Mr C wanted to take it away but did not know how. He was tiny and couldnt bear the weight alone. And the heart had no legs so it couldnt walk. Mr C felt a tinge of the pain again, but it was almost good this time. Then it went away again.

When he worked at the house, he forgot about everything and became numb and empty again. Then sometimes, he just heard the beating from far and felt everythign was good again. He could just stop the woprld and fight everything just to hear that beat.

One night he went there.

"Heart, i realized i cant be away from you. I dont know why but i need to be here. I just forget everything when i'm away. I know i did this for a reason. Cause i did not want to feel the pain. I think. But, when i'm away from you i forget the sun and the music and chocolate. I am just there. And i dont want to be there. I wanna be here with you"

The heart just kept beating

Mr C realized that he would never be able to move the heart away and yet he couldnt stay away from it again. It would've been too empty.

So he stayed there. Close to the heart, silent, just listening to it beating.

The days and night passed and he forgot to eat or drink or anything but he didnt care. Suyddenly he had found his place. So one night, in the warmth of that beating he just passed away. At that right moment, the heart ceased beating.

The snow melted and all the roses died. But Everything felt right in the world. Just for a second. And then went dead again.

The Mysterious Case Of The N-Word

Being a person who does not speak english as a first language but, most importantly, a person who lives in a country that isnt even close to the idea of a racial metlin pot, i always felt weirdly detached towards the idea of words being offensive.

I dont diosagree with that. I am sure that when you live in a contezt where every single asshole you meet spews an offensive slur and then hides behind feeedom of speech, makes you want to react violently.
Also, while still being a person who doesnt really get the full depth of a slur, i despise people who use the idea of being "not politically correct" in order to be racist, hateful, intolerant or simply ignorant.
I think that 99% of people are fundamentally ignorant and hateful. Its the way humans are born and, eventually, they will be shaped into more logical individuals through education and life experience. But somehow the primal pulse is to be ignorant morons. Being sexist, intolerant and aggressive, is something that most people have as a natural drive. Some sort of claw-less version of the aggressive pulse of animals, sheped into a low level form of attack by the ever-so-lame tendency of humanity to create verbal excuses for thyeir istincts.

Once people used to have shame for being bad people. The ones who didnt have that, were labeled as unrepentant, dangerous individuals. Maybe they ruled society, maybe they were the majority (and they still are) but you could point them out. Now when a p'erson is that way and expresses dangerous ideas, they are able to call YOU intolerant when you point out their ignorance.
Being racist, sexist, homophobic, violent, aggressive, unable to discuss anything in a civilized manner now equals being "not PC" or "telling it like it is". And as much as some people like to delude themselves into the idea that assholes are only a section of humanity, a loud one , but not the norm, i think its the contrary.

Still, there is a reason. I wont take stances but i will tell a story. Bear with me and, if you want, give me your cents.

A long time ago, i used to hang out a lot in a zone of Turin close to the main river. That was the place where you could genrally meet the most people, thanks to the fresh air and the converging of all sorts to humanity to that point. Also there were nightclubs, bars, restaurants and an amazing night view of the city. And a LOT of pushers. I bought weed thjere, i dont hide that. Sitting on the riverbank, high and watching the moon was quite the experience, one of many the city gave us.

Still, like it often happens with places like that, the borders of that zone were full of hot headed immigrants. They hung out there too and they were genrally pissed. Being one of tyheir customer and a generally pleasant guy usually saved me from trouble. I remember buying an extra spicy kebab by one of those. The man sat there with a garden styled grill and spices and made those infernal kebab sandwiches, with his mysterious silent mother next to him, bat5hing her legs in a bucket of cold water and telling him who he could sell the meat to and who was banned. I was white but i was accepted.

Anyway, one night, one of my friuends got a bit too drunk and started singing a song with a lot of "Nigga" in thge lurics. In a matter of seconds, a bunch of giagantic african guys and a couple of middle eastern ones surrounded him and started asking him the classics pre-beatdown questions. He tried to explain but the guys wanted to kick his ass.

Me and a bunch of bigger dudes, managed to be the peacemakers, pick up the guy, who went through the drunk bravery and sudden terror phases, and run away.

Later, at a bar, a common friend, a socially conscious lady, declared that the fellas were in the right, since they had to bear racism all their lives so one could not utter that word even in a song and at a distance.

That kind of argument made me want to be racist. But maybe i'm wrong. Whatevs.,

Music For Your Pockets: 4 Hero "Play With The Changes"

Lately, i've had a moment of epiphany while listening to an album that for the majority of people will be nothing more than a passing soundtrack to their daily mundanity. I had this moment of clarity while listening to the latest Jay-z and Kanye West album "Watch The Throne". I can already see some of you snarking. Well, you condescending dorks, take a deep breathe and listen. While the public figures of Jay-Z and Kanye are probably getting very close to Borderline parody or just sheer annoyance, their music shows intelligence and creativty.

I have never been a hip hop fan and i am still bored to tears when i hear traditional hip hop. While the posturing can be done well, the track has to have something special going on. That works for any type of music, but i noticed that in some genre people tend tyo be more forgiving than others. Hip Hop tends to be accepted even if it is completely devoid of ideas, same as pop and singer-songwriter music. Most of the audience just wants to hear something that fullfills the basic needs, gives a few catchphrases, has ONE good hook on the entire album or simply has enough attitude to bear the lack of magic. We can take a Bon Iver, cause he pretends to be cool enough to hide the fact that he doesnt really have that much talent.

Still, once in a while, there's a band that defies the limit of its genre and destroys categorization. Or in simpler words, reminds you that great music has no limits and can give you emotion, whether you like it or not. "Watch the throne" reminded me this, with its flowing, tasteful beats and great melodies. And then i went back to the shiny genius that is 4 Hero.

I was introduced to 4 Hero in the nineties, by one of those guys that you end up knowing sometimes in your life and seem to have the most incredible taste for music, movies or anything and make you discover things that change your mind forever. The guys that are there when no one else is and give you the gift of true mind melting music.

When i first head their other groundbraking album, "Two Pages", they were almost too "out there" for me to get. Two guys, with an eclectic bunch of guests, that tooks the shapeless, ebullient matter that is black music, from jazz to soul, through funk, added it to the modern possiblities of sampling and electronic decosntruction and made something new. Something new that sounded like nothing else but still was completely devoted to the classic Motown Sound.

And the later "play with the changes" is even more powerful. Listen to the opener "Morning Child" with its old time orchstration, its smooth melodies, the special vibe of it all, the way it uses sound to get under your skin and speak to your heart and brain....

The album has polarized the experts and made me fall in love. Proof that "experts" are cunts. Dig it and discover a world that has no name.

Take a Bite