the matrix trilogy

I watched The Matrix Trilogy back to back. I hadn't seen them since the second two came out at the cinema. Overated. First one great. Reloaded is eye-candy filled with fucking psycho-babble alluding to actual meaning once we see the third. It's funny that if you fill the script with shite and get the actors to deliver it with such conviction the average schmoo will believe that the meaning must simply be to deep for them. In this case nope. It meant shite. Revolution. Eye-candy again with a complete lack of depth. No real answers making it obvious that there was no real questions in the previous half of this over-bloated piece of fluff. It's gotta be said that a person who believes that they are actually deeper and smarter than they are writing shite does nobody any favours. Still, incredible production, creativity and project management. The actors certainly worked for the money with all the physical they had to learn. Shame the nimrod brothers believed their own hype after the first film. Fingers crossed they've pulled their collective heads out of their arses and can get on to making some great stuff.

As a side note, I wonder if the brothers Wachowski have got over their gay German dance club fetish that's fairly obvious in all three films. Not judging mind, just saying.

quote for the day:
"The ego is not master in its own house"
- Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)

mitch hedberg

As usual I missed the boat, so far behind the curve the damn thing was already off-loading at the other end by the time I got the ticket out of my pocket. Mitch Hedberg. A legend comedian dead before I even noticed. Maybe that's a fucking curse? Maybe if comedians sent me a free cd / dvd they may well secure a trouble free future. Either way, thanks to eMusic (US$9 a month for 40 track downloads) I discovered Mitch for myself and then while pissing myself and surfing for info about the man, I found he'd already left the mortal coil for whatever's next. If nothing's next he left too soon.

Here's some stuff (check here for a mass of 'em):

:: Fish are always eating other fish. If fish could scream, the ocean would be loud as shit. You would not want to submerge your head, nothing but fish going "AWWWW Fuck! I thought I looked like that rock!"

:: My apartment is infested with koala bears. It's the cutest infestation ever. Way better than cockroaches. When I turn on the light a bunch of koala bears scatter. And I don't want them to, you know, I'm like, "Hey, wait, come back. Let me hold one of you... and feed you a leaf."

:: A kitten bats around a ball of yarn but what he's really saying is, "You know I can't knit, motherfucker." That is one foul mouthed kitten.

:: I was in a restaurant and I ordered a chicken sandwich, but I don't think the waitress heard me because she said, "OK, how would you like your eggs, sir?" I tried to answer anyhow: "Incubated. And then raised. And then beheaded. And then plucked. And then cut up. And then put on a grill. And then put on a bun. Shit, it's gonna take a while. I do not have time. Scrambled. You fuckin' confused me."

:: I saw a commercial that said, "Forget everything you know about slipcovers!" ... So I did. And it was a load off my mind. Then the commercial tried to sell me slipcovers, but I didn't know what the hell they were.

:: I did a radio interview. The DJ's first question was, "Who are you?" I had to think, "Is this guy really deep? Or did I drive down to the wrong station?"

:: Every book is a children's book if the kid can read!

quote for the day:
"I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're goin', and hook up with them later."
- Mitch Hedberg (1968 - 2005)

right in two

Angels on the sideline,
Puzzled and amused.
Why did Father give these humans free will?
Now they're all confused.

Don't these talking monkeys know that
Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly old monkeys,
Wonder when you're bound to divide it
Right in two

Angels on the sideline,
Baffled and confused.
Father blessed them all with reason.
And this is what they choose.
Monkey killing monkey killing monkey
Over pieces of the ground.

Silly monkeys given thumbs,
They forge a blade,
And brothers walk abound to divide it,
Right in two.
Right in two.

Monkey killing monkey killing monkey
Over pieces of the ground.
Silly monkeys give them thumbs,
They make a club
And beat their brother..down.
How they survive so misguided is a mystery.
Repugnant dismal creature who would squander
The ability live, to die, and have a conscience
Brothers live inside here

Cut it all right in two (x4)

Fight over the clouds, over wind, over sky
Fight over life, over blood, over prayer, overhead and light
Fight over love, over sun, over another
Fight...

Angels on the sideline again
Been so long with patience and reason
Angels on the sideline again
Wondering when this tug of war will end

Cut it all right in two (x3)
Right in two

Right in two...

- Tool

quote for the day:
"I wasn't born a fool. It took work to get this way"
- Danny Kaye (1973 - 1987)

arrr me hearties...

Piracy. Music piracy. What the fuck. How and why and who the fuck named it?!? For all that is (or is not) holy, out of all the varied descriptions for theft or nefarious furtive swiping how did 'piracy' come about? I mean seriously-actually in this case obviously not so seriously-when has anyone bought an illegal CD, tape or reel-to-reel from a bloke sporting a shoulder held parrot and a decidedly marine theme?

I downloaded a copy of Tool's latest album the other day. Don't get upset, I'm still going to buy the fucking thing when it's released through sheer compulsion. Fuck guilt seriously, man I've spent at least 10-15K on music over the last 13 years so I don't think I'll ever feel bad about the occassional downloaded album. Still, if it's any good I feel bad enough to go buy a legit version 'for the band'. By the same rationale if it blows they ain't ever seeing another dollar of mine. Mediocrity gets enough support in this world, it doesn't need my few cents.

quote for the day:
"Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality."
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

vicarious

Eye on the the TV
'Cause tragedy thrills me
Whatever flavor it happens to be, like...
"Killed by the husband"
"Drowned by the ocean"
"Shot by his own son"
"She used a poison
in his tea...kissed him goodbye"
THAT'S my kind of story
It's no fun 'til someone dies

Don't look at me like
I am a monster
Frown out your one face
But with the other
Stare like a junkie
Into the TV
Stare like a zombie

While the mother holds her child
Watches him die
Hands to the sky crying,
"Why, oh why?"

Cause I need to watch things die... from a distance
Vicariously I live while the whole world dies
YOU ALL NEED IT TOO, DON'T LIE

Why can't we just admit it?
Why can't we just admit it?
We won't give pause until the blood is flowing
Neither the brave nor bold
ARE RIGHT as the story's told
We won't give pause until the blood is flowing

I need to watch things die... from a good safe distance
Vicariously I live while the whole world dies
You all feel the same, so...

Why can't we just admit it?

Blood like rain falling down
DRUM ON brave and proud

Part vampire
Part warrior
Carnivore and Voyuer
Stare at the TRANSMITTAL
Sing to the death rattle

La, la, la, la, la, la-la-lie (x4)

Credulous at best
Your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men
But pull your head on out
YOUR HEAD PLEASE, and give a listen
Shouldn't have to say it all again

The universe is hostile, so impersonal
Devour to survive... so it is, so it's always been

We all feed on tragedy
It's like blood to a vampire

Vicariously I live while the whole world dies
Much better you than I

- Tool

quote for the day:
"In the early days all I hoped was to make a living out of what I did best. But, since there's no real market for masturbation I had to fall back on my bass playing abilities."
- Les Claypool

the white hat vs. the black hat

Ahh the wild west visual cliché is unfortunately still alive and well. Maybe not so obvious but still there. Still makes me laugh when I flick on the TV halfway through a western (pre-sergio and clint westerns that is) and wonder who the good guy is for about one-one-hundredth of a second. The shining example of good in a dark and evil world. Phew, I feel safer just knowing he's out there. Damn, he isn't is he. Or she. Nope, they just 'aint real.

For my lifetime to date we have watched historical footage and read about the evil and tyranny of World Wars. The spin of the spread of some unseen evil through whatever country, state or suburb. Then we feel glad that we had and have the good old allies there to protect the World. Ready to give lives so that many can feel safe and sound. The black hat and the white hat facing off across civilisation.

The problem with the theory of being the white hat is the reality of corruption. Not just political or fiscal corruption but more the corruption of integrity and morality. The old saying "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" has proven to be true time and again. I think the same can be seen with an unchecked 'white hat'. If you're the so-called 'good guy' for too long without serious analysis some of that there evil can sink in there. It was always there but just makes it's presence a tad more pronounced. Little stuff like invading another country behind the banner of saving it. 10 years after actually fucking up parts of it and about 20 years after installing the very problem the country suffers to power. The allies. We march behind a banner of 'white', feeling so supreme and righteous because we've always been the good guy yet surely certain actions would prove that our white hat is in fact a tad closer to grey.

quote for the day:
"There aren't evil guys and innocent guys. It's just...
It's just... It's just a bunch of guys."
- Steve Arlo

"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
-Paulo Freire, educator (1921-1997)

"We should not march into Baghdad. . . . To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us, and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero . . . assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability."
- George Herbert Walker Bush (Dubya the first
in his 1998 book A World Transformed)

beliefs

Would you die for your beliefs? With purpose, risk, and if necessary give away your existance for an intangible thought? I considered my own inability to be wrong without embarassment. How I have always said (and believed) that I don't always think that I'm correct most of the time but will make my point of view when required. Often when not required. More than occasionally when actually told at length not to give it. Opinionated, Arrogant tool. A label, and like most labels not actually correct but then again from certain angles completely correct. A case in point for his-story becoming history. The truth is a many faceted thing. One man's truth is another mans salmon mousse ("It's a Mr Reaper from the village..."). I suddenly realised that the so-called truth of accepting one's points of view possibly being incorrect has gone from a strength to a failing. An arrogance. A falsified triple-redundancy safety check. By believing in my inability to only think of my point of view, I've in fact made myself believe that my openness is greater than it is. That because of this my opinion comes from a better place than some others. It's crap. Then again so is Big Brother but it still has it's fans.

I wondered about the way we all disagree. We get angry with people who disagree. The anger is more or less on a sliding scale with the depth of the belief. Often it's tuned into more deep-seeded hates and issues. Does a white supremist's hate towards say Muslim's increase since September 11 or did it simply fuel the fire with a petrol bomb stamped "I told you so". The anger is not always a bad thing. Only when it's misdirected or made violent is a negative. If you believe enough that you can get angry then at least you have some passion about you. Your belief, right or wrong, comes from inside you and not simply a learnt or picked up piece of fluff from some daytime television advertising delivery system like The View. Hopefully anyways. Saying that and wanting to give some shite to those afore mentioned whities with attitudes, an opinion based around badly educated, ignorant falsehoods 'aint ever going to be right. The safe bet is that if your beliefs hold injury or assault to others then it's probably not a great one to hang onto. Just my two cents. Rule of thumb - if you ever think you're in hold of all the facts and know exactly how the world runs, you're fucked. The same runs true if your family tree resembles a stump and you're often late for your klan meeting 'cause you just have to have a quicky with your sister.

Going back the first question. I only wondered it because when people give their lives for a belief we can't simply write them off as nutjobs or fools. Extremist yes. Overkill yes. Misguided, very probably. Fundamentalist's always do kind of miss the point. Christian Fundamentalist's killing abortion doctors to make a stance against killing is obviously fucking stupid and as Bill Hicks called it a "base irony". Muslim fundamentalist's destroying an icon of economic western power as some allusion to a religious dispute, kinda odd. You'd think if it was a religious war they were after they would have hit a religious icon? No, as usual the top does the planning and the grunts to the work. People gave their life for a pointless exercise on behalf of their beliefs truely thinking that they were giving for their religion. They were lied to. I think anyways. Either way, you have to stand up and acknowledge people who believe so whole-heartedly in something to end their life over it. In truth though, a point can be made without taking others lives. The Budhist monk who gave his life as an anti-war stance (used on the cover of the first Rage Against The Machine cd for anyone born after the late 70's) shows how a life given can resonate for years. If you truely believe, try not to take tourists into your afterlife thanks.

You've had time to think and I bet your answer to the question would be no. Idealistically yes but realistically no. In this respect are your belief's then so important you would cease to listen to those who would disagree with them on a fundamental level? On any level? Any belief needs to be tested and that includes your own, not just everyone else.

quote for the day:
"There is no certainty, only opportunity."
V