This one's a few days old but...

Paul Gray, bassist, co-founder of Slipknot, rest in peace.

One Day Holiday - A Death Cult in a Dark City

* One Day Holiday is an unscheduled, published-whenever-I-feel-like-it column for Hafeez, a resident blogger for this blog. This column is centered mostly around music and random stuff that ranges from the coherent to the absolutely absurd.


The one thing (among other things, that is) that I can still recall clearly about 2001 is that sensational coverage by the nation's leading tabloid Harian Metro on a sinister underground movement among teenagers called Black Metal. The way it was treated is as if the movement is almost like a separatist cult group, paving a way for mostly innocent and quite possibly brainwashed teenagers into the depth of satanism, paganism, and a few other -ism's that is associated with the act of disassociating oneself away from God and religion, or THE TRUTH. Which, by the way, is the big worry. Every day since after that revelation, the whole nation was gripped in fear as we all are treated with countless stories of how these young men (who listens to Black Metal) piss on the Holy Book, burn it, excrete on it (I might make that one up), perform religious acts towards Lord Satan, holy-fucking-shit sacrificed black goat (you'll see a color pattern emerging) and drank its blood, supposedly which will put the person 'in the zone' or something. The fact of the matter is that Black Metal is an evil movement that is for sure not welcomed in this country of peace-loving, mosque-attending, Qur'an-reading citizen - or so how the tabloid wants you to see it.

The reason I'm bringing such an old issue up is because recently I am attracted to the concept of the power of suggestion. By merely suggesting to a group of people that something is the norms onto which that group of people should behave because it is the perceived norms of that group of people (and in which case might not necessarily be the case), it then became accepted as the truth. In the case of the Black Metal movement AND the sensational revelation by Harian Metro, it was suggested subtly that by merely listening to Black Metal, then the listener of said music is automatically enlisted in the secret underground movement of Satan worshiper, and therefore must have gone through the rituals of satanism and paganism, and thus therefore must go through yet another ritual of spiritual cleansing and 'aqidah correction. Just why did the tabloid had to pick on Black Metal is not quite certain but most certainly, what was actually, and originally, a genre of music that highlights the darker side of humanity, of suppression of troubled emotion, of the darker side of human psyche, of the dark side of the moon as I would say, had become the easy scapegoat for being a fertile breeding ground for vice. As if Black Metal in general is the music to worship to Satan as how Space Rock is the music to take drugs to.

Perhaps the most ridiculous part of the whole situation is in how the general masses, who have not even the slightest of hint of what Black Metal is, and what constitutes as Black Metal, accepted and used the key word to conveniently pigeonhole every other metal music-associated acts with the acts that was clearly not ingrained and essential to the being and the existence of it. In other words, worshiping Satan is not Black Metal's problem - worshiping Satan is the society's problem. It's a personal problem, it's a personal reference, it's a mental reference. It is the choice and the act of an individual, not a collective one. And just because a small group of Black Metal listeners worship Satan, it does not necessarily means that all other forms of metal music is also associated with the act. Metallica is not a Satan worshiping band; Iron Maiden are partly political in their musical stance, but not satanical; Slipknot is just a bunch of posers much like Marilyn Manson - they are in it for the shock value, not because they actually practice satanism; and Dimmu Borgir, one of the most well-known Black Metal act in the world - they're not even that "black", they are actually quite comical. I believe the metal music community might bash me on this one but I've been listening to Dimmu Borgir for quite some time and I truly believe that they are one Hell of a funny band. Because they are very (and sometimes quite overly) dramatic all of the time, it's almost quite impossible to take them seriously.

But perhaps the most damning thing from the whole Black Metal debacle is that two years later, the Norwegian 'black' metal band went on to release what must have been the most defining album of their career - Death Cult Armageddon. I'd say it's the most defining album of Dimmu Borgir's career because all of the trademark that what made Dimmu Borgir's sound is there, and then amplified by a thousand times, it's almost nuts. It felt like the whole band was just going for broke in this album. When I said that D.B. is overly dramatic in their music, the whole album was overly dramatic from start to finish, at every track. The over-pompousness nature of their sound is close to ridiculousness, but none will dare to ridicule the band. Because the way they are playing the game, it is totalfuckingbadassery and holyfuckingshitawesomeness. Seriously, I am surprised that they don't use the two said words as the title to their songs. Because if they did, it would have completed the package and solidify the status of this album as the most awesome Black Metal record ever recorded. I am that in awe with D.B.

And no, they don't worship Satan. They are just a bunch of musicians.

So, there you have it: Every eligible bachelor is a friggin' moron. Heheh, thank you.

It's a cool site. Check it out.

One Day Holiday - A Tale of Loss, Anguish, Heartbreak, and a Fire at the Arcade

* One Day Holiday is an unscheduled, published-whenever-I-feel-like-it column for Hafeez, a resident blogger for this blog. This column is centered mostly around music and random stuff that ranges from the coherent to the absolutely absurd


I am living in a crazy world today. Allow me to explain the use of 'I am' in that sentence instead of the usual 'We are'; supposing that you dear readers have heard of such saying before this by someone else because I'm pretty sure about this that someone have said it way earlier before I did. The only logic to why I used 'I am' and not 'We are' is because I believe that physical, mental, and emotional experience of a person with the (should I say) graphical and physical representation of life differs from one person to the other. Let's say right now you are going through one of the most exhilarating phase of your life, and everything, just about everything, is all rosy and hopeful and enjoyful and memorable and exciting and positive, just remember that the person next to you might be going through one of the worst phase in his/her life. So even if you are going through the (sort of) 'sunny side up' phase, other people might not be as lucky as you. So life, as it turns out, is only defined by the physical, mental, and emotional experience and perception of one person.

Let me introduce to one of my colleague, I call him 'Hamtat'. To those who know, know. He has only been working at the college for almost a year and makes a decent monthly wage. Decent as in small car, shared rented apartment, measly daily meal, local cheap holiday (once every six month, or a year), bank loan repayment for a lifetime, and almost nonexistent savings in bank account. Hamtat on one hand fits into almost all of the description, except owning a car. Because he don't have one. Good for him. But one more thing about him that is not included in the fore-mentioned description is that currently he is doing his Master's Degree, and the tuition fee comes out of his own pocket money. So a large chunk of his salary goes into study as well. Fine. So you add all that up and you'll get the idea that he don't really have any extra money to, you know, 'flash about'. This is where it all gets a bit mental - this morning, he proudly announced that he's applying for TWO (2) credit cards. TWO (2). From different banking institution. So he might have been joking when he said that one credit card will be used to buy a new HD LED TV (That stuff alone costs RM2000, cheapest), while the other credit card goes to buying the Sony PlayStation 3, or a BluRay disc player, or Astro, whichever is more appealing. But he's certainly not joking with about applying TWO (2) credit cards. He's had both forms filled and "will apply for it at lunch hour". Hamtat certainly has balls.

This then reminded me of a short video I watched at the MNS Open Day, held last Saturday at the Taman Tasik Bukit Kiara. I have enlisted myself as a volunteer. The video that I watched was called "The Story of Stuff" (the title might be wrong). The overall message of the video actually was about recycling - how recycling can save the world from destruction or something, and how it is important for the survival of all life on Earth, and man especially. But the issue that was raised in order to highlight the importance of recycling is how America has turned itself into a strictly consumerist society - that in order for the American society to grow and to expand, they need to purchase. And in that process of purchasing, somehow, one way or other, you have to discard as well. Because if you just keep on purchasing but not discarding, soon you'll end up needing a house as big as an airplane hangar, and that is simply not going to happen. Unless you are insanely rich. The other factor that you have to keep in mind is that the size of your household might not grow in the same fashion as with your purchasing activity, so the more you purchase, the more you have to discard. And this is where shit starts to go crazy - because the more stuff you discard, the more landfill we need to 'take care' of all the refuse.

One of the ways of how businesses, enterprises persuade you to keep on staying in the never-ending circle of purchasing is through advertisements. Ever realized how did the technology development in the IT industry grew and self-expire quicker than a fifth grader can spell iPod? The speed into how this industry is growing is blindingly quick that if you don't play catch up, you'll end up in the Jurassic age in just three years' time. It's apocalyptic. The reason why and how the technology grow and rapidly improved itself is associated with how they want you, the consumer, to buy. They make you look and feel like you're still in the Dark Ages if you're still using that 'old' Pentium Dual Core 3GB DDR Ram 320 GB SATA hard disk drive nVidia graphic card, DVD-RW optic drive, 32 inch wide screen flat LCD monitor, if you don't own the 64GB Apple iPad. They'll make you feel as if Alex Bell is laughing at you from his grave if you don't already own the Apple iPhone 3GS. So in the end, the end-users, or the consumers, or in my case, Hamtat, took the bait and purchased what he believed is essential to his being as a modern man. Bravo.

It is pretty heartening to know that my existence in today's world, or actually my status quo as a citizen of planet Earth, is determined by the number of amazing, stylish, and perhaps importantly latest, new gadgets that I own. It's like, if you don't have one of those, you're incomplete as a human being. That, in order for you to be accepted into the herd, you need to 'flash about' the amount of money that you have (or might not have) by investing in these status quo setter. It doesn't matter how much money Hamtat will have left for him to make it through the remaining three weeks before the next payroll rolls out, if he has all these creature comfort, his life is fine. As if, his whole life, existence, and the meaning to his existence, depends solely on it.

In the past two weeks or so I have been listening to Arcade Fire's brilliant debut Funeral. And there are certain parts in that album that poetically makes sense to this whole thing that is going on around my crazy life. It is a lavish swathe of celebration and empathic call into celebrating life and the meaning of our existence in this world, of crying a solitude tears for the departed soul, for the departed loved ones, for the never ending search for the truth and the certainty in uncertainty. The one and only thing that matters when it comes to the definition of life in each and every person is in the contact that we made with other people. Because think about it, we are all born into this world alone. We go through emotions, events, circumstances, ups and downs, places - all of these, alone. Because the real experience of all of it is in the person him/herself only. If you're going through a rough patch, only you yourself know how painful it feels, and only you yourself actually know how to cheer yourself out of it. If you're in the throes of enjoyment, yes everyone can see it and yes everyone will join in your celebration, but deep down inside you know that it's only you yourself who know how it feels like. Thus, if your mere existence in this world is only made meaningful by the manner in how you 'flash about' your belongings (ignore the sexual innuendo), then what's the meaning of life itself? Because to view life in my definition, then there are currently three billion (I made that up) different version of lives going on right now. Yours is just one in that huge number - would it matter if you shut the door to yours and concentrate on the worldly goods? Would your life matter if it is kept hidden under the rubble of false pretense of ownership?

That's what I've said. I am living in a crazy world today.