Vlogging & Link of the Week

I will be looking to Vlog (Video Blog) fairly soon with some simplified, more linear conveyances of my thoughts in bite size, 5-10 minute chunks as this is the most regular request from this blog. The only thing causing me any problem regarding this is my phones rather good camera being hindered by a rather rubbish button that came off and now refuses to record.

As this kind of frustration seems trivial to me but with what is occurring at the moment I'm just gonna work it out and deal with it.

Now let's talk about the Paths (links) once again. As you'll notice I have several links to the right of various places that add little snippets of information and relief to this whole emasculated Draconian nightmare world we call "earth".

The first Link I'm going to draw your attention to is "Principia Discordia". This is book of Koans, a collection of ideas with bizzare juxtapositions put into a modern context and create a mental map that shows the absurdity of modern life and allows a quick hit of Zen clarity.

The book was written at a time unknown, most likely late 1950's/early 1960's by a right honourable gentleman known as Malaclypse the Younger. It was circulated in printed form and so created the discordian religion, one that establishes the rule of chaos and requires us to embrace the Erisian nature of life.

The key point to all this is to remember that if we treat it like a game, then it becomes a game, and all of life is game like and as a result less....crap. I'd much rather be playing a game than struggling every day. And in between the police sewing circles, the rule of fives and the thick Fnord laden fog we find a rather logical, enlightened approach to life. This is the right brain speaking to the soul, and skipping back to this book will always allow a moment of clarity.

The other Link I'd like to draw our attention to is Pablove. I'd first of all like to go into why I chose Pablove over an associated entity like Nine Inch Nails.

Pablove was started in aid of the son of a Roadie for Internationally Renowned Smug Bastards Nine Inch Nails. Although I value Nine Inch Nail's music, and their philosophy, along with them creating some of the greatest esoteric masterpieces to ever break out of mainstream music, Trent Reznor (The Front Man) has increasingly become caught in his own little "Holier than Thou" shit storm where he's been lowering himself to the level of his fans and abusing them personally through twitter and myspace.

The culmination of this ego trip was a fantastically flat gig at this years Sonisphere festival in Knebworth, England, where he wandered on stage, played all his most self indulgent soft songs at the countries biggest metal festival, left after 25 minutes and insulted the band who were headlining.

It's not your place Reznor, I hate them as much as you do, get your head out of your ass and stop insulting their fans, the band in question have done enough of that.

Knowing personally several hardcore NIN fans who payed in some cases through the ass to see what will probably be his last gig ever in this country; I've heard several people say they have never been so ashamed of Trents Conduct in all his life. The jock rock persona is worse than his "dying cocaine/heroin addict" persona who took five years per album in that he's now pumping out track after mediocre track while telling everyone how wonderful he is.

I thought I'd bypass NIN and the associated shitstorm as I'm not really a music blog anyway.

However one set of goodness that obviously bypassed Trents ego vacuum was Pablove, an amazingly charming blog about a young boy Pablo Castelaz, who was diagnosed with bilateral Wilms' Tumor, a rare form of children's cancer. His loving family kept up the foundation, and the blog throughout Pablo's short life on this earth and their stories of sticking together through the most terrible hardships is a great testament to the human condition when applied correctly, and I thought rather than the doom and gloom, and the dry philosophy channeling through my other links, I'd just throw that one in there.

And yes it's sad, and yes it's upsetting, but it's also full of life and love, so sounds closer to the human element of the reader than most things we see and hear today. The blog is a tale of how with love and closeness, one families worst nightmare can turn into a dreamlike lifestyle where everyday is an adventure.

Now I've made the majority of my audience puke with my sentimentality I guess there's little else to say except,

Peace, Love, Empathy

Rich