caffé KIMBO
Holy Toledo!
I shouldn't of gulped that triple Segafredo latte and the can of Jolt. I feel as if some nasty person have treated me to an ephedrine/adrenochrome enema. Caffeine OD is the way to go: sweaty crack, sweaty palms, motor mouth, motor booty.
On another note: all media is starting to piss me off royally. I mean, I know a lot about computers, networking, the internet, computer security, hacking, & whatnot, & thus I know that public service as well as commercial media is so fucking far off tee that they might as well have their tushes stuck in the bleaches. Goddamn! And if they lying and misinterpreting that field, could it be possible that they are as clueless in other areas?
The main news item on yesterday's TV: politicians buy sex via internet using government computers. For frig's sake! A criminologist had done some kinda research report where he said that he had "tracked the 'sex buyers' via web sites back to their firewalls". Then he alleged that he had "tracked the communication between the john and the prostitute". He proceeded to show some messages containing words like "bondage", "anal sex" and "wet sex", which he seemed to suggest was email messages. Anyone who has any kind of knowledge about networking would know that obtaining such information would be criminal, since it would be illegal eavesdropping. Also, it would be inconclusive, and prove next to nothing. But I guess that's a moot point. The reportage made some things clear via moralistic innuendo:
a) Politicians, elected people and government employees use gov't computers to buy sex.
b) Politicians are kinky & anal sex bondage & wet sex is WRONG, you sick little puppy!
c) The Internet is dirty, a sewer full of smut peddlers and pimps pimpin' underage schoolgirl lolitas.
d) You better watch out, because your boss is looking over your virtual shoulder. Smut surfers, repent and get a lobotomy.
e) Sex is wrong. Porn is wrong. Internet is wrong. You better get back to work and by gum! you'd better erase that copy of Netscape, or else!
What the fuck is up with that, moccasin jackboots all over the Infosphere? Suck this and suck that, you morons! If you wanna keep track of what we do, then try to break our PGP tunnels, our PGPdisks, our hushmail accounts, our secure ICQ servers. What you're doing will only lead to one thing: that people will start encrypting and anonymizing. Then yer up shit creek, Mister Dorkonaut Politico Media Fucknut Dimwit Halfwattbulb. God DAMN & DAMN God!
Thursday, February 24, 2000, 01:58 p.m.

Kyle Motherlovin' Baker, y'all!
Yesterday, I felt a little pussycat-y and whiny. Ie, I was feeling a bit sick and stressed out. Still do today. I'm annoyed with one of my employees and the work situation. To much like a motherfucking flic-flac. There! I typed my obligatory 4-letter word. I'm a hard lad, bam!
So I stayed at home, fiddling with my computers, eating salt-and-vinegar crisps & reading some magazines.
The Comics Journal, man: it sure can be a bit boring, but there was at least 2 interesting articles in it. One was an interview with boss artist/writer Kyle Baker, the other was an interesting Fanboi Politik column, by the often interesting Ray Mescallado. This time Ray addressed the portrayal of Asians in the comic book medium. One of the interesting things about it was that Ray, an Asian American himself, actually enjoyed Fu Manchu and Yellow Peril iconography, as well as Deadly Little Asian Lotuses. Or whatever he called them. Well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't: let's say that the comic book author uses asian iconography for literary emphasis. A little Sax Roehmer, a little Nick Fury and that guy with the rings, a little Tintin & Blue Lotus and a little Charlie Chan. Just for emphasis. I was a little surprised to see that Ray was very forgiving towards the comic book medium, but at the same time he attacked the blatantly anti-asian tone present in many movies. He mentioned the merchants in The Phantom Menace, obviously, as a recent example of such racism. Sure. Hollywood is racist, sexist and the finest purveyor of bigotry there is. As is part of the comic book world. All told, it was an interesting article.
I find it a bit hard to relate though: the racial (fuck damn, does that mean that I subscribe to the kook-winged theory about races? hell no!) issues here are so much more different here. Here, it's more a case of: "Don't come here, you dagos! We don't want your effin' döner kebab! We eat meatballs and pork, goddamnit!" Racial theory and racial confrontation takes on a much different face here: "you are not like us. We don't want you here." That's as far as it goes. A right wing kook politruk here wanted to forbid islam here on the grounds of "They are not like us. They don't eat pork." Honest injun! A leading right wing nationalist politician said it on the radio.
What am I winding up for? Nothing, I guess. I'm as prejudiced as the next person. Or not. I'd like to think that I view humans as one single race & that they are parted into three categories: Assholes, Joneses and Good Folk. All skin colours are represented in all categories. Yeah. I dislike people calling me a racist when I treat them like the assholes that they are, just because they're of foreign origin. I call an asshole an asshole & that's all there is to it.
& just because I like exotic looks but not exotic looks only, but all kinds of people that looks interesting and out of place and odd doesn't make me a slick exotizing white male. Judge me if you must, but see if I really care. RACE DOES NOT EXIST BEYOND THE CONCEPTUAL WORLD. Suck on that, squarehead.
Tuesday, February 22, 2000, 11:20 a.m.

Rushmore
BAM! After a week & weekend of sundry fun of a non-sexual kind (unfortunately). I'm back at work. I watched the oft-hailed movie Rushmore, which sadly enough went straight to video here in bum-rush nation. Pig fuckers. I thought it was good, but not as good as I had expected. And it was a bit too fragmented. Bill Murray was great as always, though.
This week, Ghost Dog screened, so I'll try to catch that this weekend. I'll also go see Honk & Buck play as the D-Men. And next weekend, Supersuckers plays in a nearby burg. Busy days...
...Holy moly! All of a sudden swedish national radio plays "I Want the Drugs" by the 'Suckers. Interesting, indeed.
And I finally ordered a Punk Planet subscription. "Call me Mister Vain."
Monday, February 21, 2000, 05:30 p.m.

JÜXTAPØZ
I'm with Sir Buck, Esq., on this: the latest issue of Juztapoz is one of the best so far. Pettibon & Coleman in the same paper. Swinging! Coleman's cover painting of Hank Williams is simply luscious!
So I had a little magazine fest during my lunchbreak: bought ID, Juxtapoz, Speak & Benno. A good day it is. I'm drinking coffee & I'm not pumpin' for the man. Look at Mister Pig: as lax as they come.
By the way: if anyone for some unfathomable reason'd like to tell me that I smoke dick, cuz of my previous little surly post, I might as well tell you that I'm planning to write a more thought thru thing real soon now. I'll dump it at the main Pigsville site, though.
But who the holy hen am I trying to kid? According to the logs, very few people come back. Thanks to you who do. Call & response, right? Right-o, Ringo!
Thursday, February 17, 2000, 06:30 p.m.

Punk Planet
Punk Planet is one of the best magazines in the so-called counter culture strata. It's labelled a zine, but for content & intent & look & feel, it's extremely professional. Sure, it might be that me, being a swede & all, gets the wrong connotations by the "zine" word. All in all, Punk Planet is extremely well written, well versed, well done and well, um, directed. I like that the writers seem to be open minded & not really a part of a stalinist elit cadre of punker-than-thou minions. The only shitty thing is that the distro here in Sweden is sadly lacking in stamina. Thus I have only read 2 issues this far. So I'll start a subscription to-day. Word to your mother.
The past few days have seen a new batch of anti-pornography debates here in the Land of Bigot Vikings. The reason for it is the screening of a documentary about cable porn. The documentary is full of innuendo, and once more shows that the porn debate is so infected that I, as a male, can't question the anti-porn protesters train of thought and lack of logic without being labled a rapist, guilt by association, just by being a male. My weltanschauung is morally suspect.
The documentary focused on 2 things:
1. a look into the world of porn production & prostitution in Sweden (notice the mix of subjects: porn/prostitution=associative connexion).
and
2. a study of the cable distributed porn, available on pay channels. That part of the movie solely concentrated on speculative material from the Shocking Truth series. You know: cum-drenched girls telling about their sordid lives and how much they enjoy getting fucked in every orifice available.
Some arguments from the documentary: pornography CAUSES anal sex and "a twisted view on sex". Well. I'd say! As far as I know, there is no available study that PROVES a causality between movie and reality, thought and action. A friend of mine wrote his PhD thesis on censorship in Sweden, and according to him there's no study that proves a connexion between watching a violent movie and actually doing violent deeds. This is not counting small children, who to a higher degree mimic what they see. However, there may be a causal relationship between THE WAY ONE DOES VIOLENT ACTS after having seen them in a movie.
Many older people say that "violence has become more senseless. People didn't use to kick people when lying down." Sure. But they did batter each other senseless with axe handles and snuff boxes, according to my belated grandpaw.
I get so tired with people who subscribe to things because "everyone knows it's like that". It's the fucking modern equivalent of "God Told Me To" or "Satan Told Me To" or "My goddamned mutt told me to". It's a gut reaction thing. People are disturbed by blood, so they lash out against the viewing of it. People are disturbed by sex, so they lash out against it. They use weak, intrinsically faulty arguments, such as "they are victims of a male oppressor", "porn causes fist fucking gang bang rapes" and "they are all drugged".
If truth be told, I'm sure that many in the porn industry doesn't fare well. I'm sure they get a fucked up thought set re: sex, and are pretty much insensitive when it comes to sexual love. A porn actor said as much in an interview I read a couple of years ago. But that happens in any line of job, not only in porn. Where there is a capitalist bias inn the production of things, people will always be oppressed. When the director of the movie Shocking Truth- not the movie series by that bizarre Dark character- Alexa Wolf was asked by a female social scientist that there are lots of people who feel like shit in their McJobs ets, did she want to make a law against that to. "Sure", Miss Wolf replied.
I'm no porn connoisseur myself, but I want to talk about facts without being labelled a fucking rapist. For Christ's sake: I've seen oodles of pornographic pictures portraying anal sex (apparantly together with fistfucking and gangbangs the ultimate taboo) and never felt an urge to try it. Damn, sure I've been excited by the thought, just like when I've read Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller or what have you. It's taboos. We get excited by taboos. Tickled.
Another thing about the debate that's interesting: many of the more radical feminists in Sweden are pro porn. Another thing: the abovementioned biggest pariahs in sex are the ones practised to a certain extent by the more hard core queers. I hope I'm not oversimplifying here. A friend of a friend, Sten-Åke Hedström (who actually used to be head of the children's movies dept at the Swedish Film Institute), once wrote an article about his sexual preferences, and that they are illegal (and punishable) to sell & distribute here: fisting, getting fucked in a sling, degraded etc. So what do those middle aged vanilla social democrats want to forbid? Materials that can provoke sexual thoughts of another kind than the missionary?
Two final thoughts in this not very thought through rant o' mine:
1. In the porn study Pornocopia, some porn actress gets annoyed: "How dare you tell us that we don't know what we're doing? That's exactly what men have been telling us since the beginning of time." Not a valid argument pro porn mayhap, but interesting nevertheless. (BTW: in a discussion with a self-proclaimed feminist, she dismissed Pornocopia on the grounds of it being written by a male! The reasons for dismissing the all-female book Tales From The Clit were much more vague, but I guess it had something to do with the authors being stuck in a patriarchal thought set...)
2. The screening of the movie in a Swedish debate program was watched by almost twice as many as the program's previous viewer record. Are we a nation of bigots or what? I don't wanna be a part of your fucking knee-jerk reaction, redneck, whitebread, ignorant couterie.
Please kill me or get a fucking clue.
Thursday, February 17, 2000, 12:46 p.m.

HELL.COM----->no-such.net
I once did an interview with antiorp, one of the most prolific of the artists who chose urls as their canvas. I got an annoyed email from hell.com asking me why the heck was mentioning (the then pretty cool web designers) Big Gun Project in the same article as boss hog antiorp. I felt kinda stupid, sho'nuff. BGP has since folded, and antiorp is still here, as weird as ever. Still, he hasn't done a lot lately.
And hell.com has changed their name to no-such.net & opened up a bit for non-members. Now you can actually view stuff without applying for membership. Lots of the members are no big deal, really, but some of them really kick nutz. Check it out. Every time you'll visit the above address, you'll enter a new TAZ of annoying web wizardry.
Tomorrow, I'll go to smålands & watch Camper van Chadbourne. Boo-yah!
Tuesday, February 15, 2000, 04:41 p.m.

The Makers
Many a day I wake up or lie down singing the Godfathers song that the Makers did such an exquisite cover of:

I'm tired, I'm tired of this life
When I lie down in my bed
With the gun pressed to my head
Damn nation
Frustration

It's not that I'm suicidal, but sometimes I feel like such a sore loser. It's not ennui or something, it's just an irritation over things and why I do fuck all about the state of me. I'm bored. My academic skills have all but athrophied. Christ in a bloody Cortina! Why can't I find something that makes me happy every day? Or almost every day. It's fucked up beyond recognition that we people should be content with life as we know it.
Actually, I'm really bitching aggrevated that my academic reasoning is giving way to gut level reactions, especially when I discuss with friends who are too tied up into the mindset of their field. How do I get through to someone that does not really understand that fiction is as true as we make it and that interpretation of religious myths isn't only about what is true. Our views of religious concepts such as hell, the creation, the Inanna story, the Enki shebang and whatnot, is created by fiction. And that does not make them any less true. Who really cares that the nordic mythology was written down by monks who possibly wanted to ridicule the religion that was there before them? See to what we have at hand instead: how those memes have formed our trains of thought to some extent.
I'm rambling. I'm just angry that I've allowed myself to lose my once pretty darn cutting edge in discussions. In some ways I don't really mind, I'm just as smart as before, but the academical arguments has faded. And in some ways, that is all people accept as valid thoughts...
By the way, I was happy to hear that a girl I know probably will go to the U.S. to work for Southern Records. Damn fine company.
Now, 'scuse me while I check some Mark Ryden art. Does he know the score or what?
Tuesday, February 15, 2000, 11:41 a.m.

Akira Rabelais/Argeïphontes Lyre
But I say darn! I like weird things and weirdos. Akira has written some incredibly strange - and free - audio software for Macintosh. The usage may be somewhat limited, but the interface is fun & the entire concept of making totally arcane software has always attracted me. The only thing I've seen that is weirder than this is Antiorp's vastly mystical programs, such as NATO.
older stuff is now in the archive. Read it, if it pleases you.
Monday, February 14, 2000, 07:06 p.m.