Thru Shadows Alternative Dark Culture & Art

Culture Kultür: Interview with Salva Maine

2010-10-17T16:29:00.000-04:00

Culture Kultür is a Spanish Electro trio from Malaga, which we have already profiled before. The frontman Salva Maine kindly gave us an interview, in which he talked about Culture Kultür's career, and their latest album Spirit. For more information on the band, visit their site or Myspace page.

Your new album will be released next September, and one of the songs you chose for it was the classic Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart, why did you choose it?

First, it is one of our all-time favorite songs and band, so for us is a pleasure to work on this song. And when we started we realized that we had the chance to make a song very 'ours' but keeping the structure and spirit of the original. I think that the electronic dance twist is interesting enough for us to do it.

Why is the new album called Spirit?

In the beginning it was just a working title, but when we looked closely in the dictionary we found a surprising high number of meanings for that word: It may refer to a ghost, a demon, an angel, the human being inner strength, a sense of membership in a group, or even God. Many of those meanings refer closely to our lyrics, so we found it appropriate to name the album that way.

How was the work process on the new album? When did you start working on it?

After 'Reborn' and the following gigs we made a pause to regain strength for the next album. The process has been slow because we took very seriously the task of adjust and perfect every single track to the limits of our capabilities. We also used new equipment to record the vocals, which also caused some delay: one tube mic preamp broke just before we finished the sessions.

How do you compare the new album with your previous ones?

I think that Reborn follows the path of Spirit in some senses: It has a wide range of moods and tempos from almost electro ('Never Again') to ballads ('Silence'), with mid tempos ('Dead Second') and dark dance electropop ('Sieged', 'Blind Man'). This time we have focused more on lead synth lines, making them sharper, which I think make the songs more complete.

Do you think there have been any changes in the Electronica scene in Spain since your first years?

Not really. The scene here is very stagnant. Alternative music here is only understood as pop rock, and electronica only as dance.

How did you come up with the band’s name Culture Kültur?

That was before I joined the band! But I think that is an homage to English and German bands the other were fans of, like Front 242 or New Order.

How have your shows been welcomed in other countries? Which are your most remarkable experiences?

The shows are usually good wherever we go. I remember two special ones: México DF and WGT at Moritzbastei. The places were full and both public and band enjoyed it a lot.

As you started in the early 90's, you dealt with promotion both before and after the internet, what have been the upsides and downsides of internet for the band?

For me Internet is the new channel. We are now in a time of changes for the music industry where a lot of money is 'lost' because of music downloads. But I'm sure that after some readjustment, new ways of funding the musicians' work will be stablished.

First the CD was replaced by downloads, and now the downloads are being replaced by streaming, as well as the PC is being replaced by mobile devices. Things have to settle down for a while before some order emerges. And there are the social networks: the relationship with the listeners that they provide is amazing.

Has file sharing/piracy affected the band? Has it affected the scene as a whole?

It didn't affect us because we never did this for the money, but it seems to affect the scene. But as I said before, labels and bands have to readjust to the new situation. There is still a lot of ignorance about how internet works regarding the music industry.

Besides the release of your new album, do you have any other projects for the near future?

Prepare the live shows and after that I would like to do a compilation CD, giving some old songs a new twist, and also introducing some remixes that other bands had made for us in the past. But it still is too soon for that.

Aeon Flux Movie Review

2010-07-26T11:21:00.004-04:00

Aeon Flux is a science fiction movie based on an MTV animated series that ran in 1991, 1992 and 1995, created by Peter Chung. The movie adaptation has a much more sophisticated look and refined plot than the original rough animation, and less of the disturbing suspense and strong images of the original.

Its photography is amazingly beautiful, deeply influenced by Japanese art, with stunning state-of-the-art architecture, and very good action sequences, reminiscent of animes.

Aeon Flux’s story tells of a time in the future, in which the last millions of humans who survived an epidemic live in a walled city called Bregna, and despite the seemingly peace and prosperity in which they live, the government keeps a tight leash on the populace, and people go missing without a trace.

The Monicans are rebels who fight the authoritarian and secretive government, whose purpose is to take down the Goodchild brothers, a dynasty that has been ruling for centuries. Among them is Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron), who soon has personal reasons to finish with the Goodchilds once and for all.

Now more determined than ever to exterminate them, she takes an assignment to murder one of the brothers, Trevor (Marton Csokas), but doesn’t fulfill it because of an unexpected event that changes both their lives.

Trevor Goodchild wants to change the present state of things, but has to stand up against his own brother, Oren (Johnny Lee Miller), who wants to preserve it, and has his own agenda.

Aeon Flux wants to get to the bottom of what’s happening, and she ends up making an uneasy alliance with Trevor. Both must face their archenemies in order to reveal the truth to the people of Bregna, and start a new era.

Released in 2005, Aeon Flux was badly received by critics and had a box office of about US$ 26 million. The movie plot has been changed a lot, including the creation of Johnny Lee Miller’s character and the softening of Trevor, who in the animated series is Aeon Flux’ nemesis. Still, if you are one of those who consider each art piece for its own value, there’s much to enjoy in it.

At the time, Charlize Theron described her character as a “woman who is very strong and quite of a free thinker. Someone who doesn't quite always trust everything around her, questions a lot of what's happening around her in the society in which she lives [...]

“The greatest arch for her is that she thinks that this one thing, this one mission will change her life and make things better, and then actually what happens is that it just opens a big can of worms, as to her existence, and she has to make some really tough decisions” [1]

Here is a selection of screen captures and the trailer. Visit the sites at the bottom of the post for more information.

Aeon Flux @ Yahoo! Movies # Aeon Flux Official Site

Jason Chan: The Best Of Eastern & Western Art

2010-07-25T11:20:00.002-04:00

Jason Chan is an American Concept artist, whose art is textured and rich in details, giving it a photographic look, despite his comics-like style of drawing.

The 27-year-old artist currently works at Massive Black studio, where he has created art for several games, such as Dragon Age: Origins and Magic: The Gathering, and also several fantasy novel covers.

As a great fan of video games and comics, Jason Chan has also been inspired by painters like Sargent, old school illustrators such as Leyendecker, Rockwell, and the legendary Boris Vallejo, Brom, and Frazetta. Being also inspired by the art of mangas and animes, his artwork shows an interesting combination of Western and Eastern elements.

Jason Chan described what his work process is like. “My first step is familiarizing myself with what I am doing,” he said, “this means I read over any documents and look at any references my client sends me to make sure I understand what is expected of me.

“Then I proceed to make thumbnails for the client. I start these as black and white blobs that are slowly chiseled out until they are recognizable to people other than myself. I send these off and wait for comments.

“Based on feedback, I either continue on one of the thumbnails or start a new image and take it to a more finished state for another round of feedback. This continues back and forth until the client is happy.

“Along the way, I do my best to make the best image possible by paying attention to light and shadow, anatomy, perspective, and anything else that I can.” [1]

I have selected two other amazing art by Jason Chan. Visit his site for more.

Jason Chan Official Site

Factory of Dreams: Talking About Reality Through Fiction

2010-07-25T11:18:00.002-04:00

Impeccable melodies, soaring vocals and sci-fi thought-provoking lyrics make up the Factory of Dreams music, a Progressive Metal project of Portuguese multi-instrumentalist Hugo Flores and Swedish singer Jessica Lehto.

They have released only two albums to date, both of them masterpieces. There is not one average song in them, all of them are powerful and inspiring, especially Weight of the World and Slow Motion World.

The project started in 2007, when Hugo Flores found out about Jessica Lehto through Myspace. Both are best known for their other projects, Hugo for his eclectic work on Project Creation, and Jessica for her Gothic project Once There Was.

The Factory of Dreams’ first album, Poles (2008) was also produced through the web, with Hugo Flores sending her melodies and lyrics, as she sent him back the vocals and her own ideas.

Melodies play an important part in the Factory of Dreams music. To Hugo Flores “melody is what people remember and what music is made of mostly, so the challenge for me was to be able to focus more on melody and on production than complex material.” [1]

Being a great science fiction fan, Hugo Flores composed the albums with complex themes: Poles is about “the human mind, how we are capable of the best and the worst things” and “how nature is a living breathing entity, how it connects with us, and also about our emotions”, and their second album A Strange Utopia (2009) is a full story about a world in conflict and the fight between good and evil.

Despite the science fiction background, there’s also some social critique in the lyrics. “Sci-fi can bring up great ideas, social problems and do that in a very profound and imaginative way,” Hugo Flores commented, “Imagination is one of the best things that we have and simply talking about common subjects isn't my thing, so, I prefer to imagine possible scenarios and then bringing common themes to the set.” [1]

Though the web has been instrumental in the work and promotion of Factory of Dreams, Hugo and Jessica warned about the downsides of file sharing and piracy, which is damaging many bands like theirs and small record labels.

Jessica candidly declared: “If you do like the band you should buy the CD and support their music, it’s that easy. There are so many hours of work behind the tracks. I don’t only record vocals, I write my own music as well, and somehow I’m not too bothered if people download it since I anyway am just trying to reach out to as many as possible with my music at this point.

“But if things were to become more serious I don’t think I’d be too happy if people kept downloading. And in the end I always really appreciate it when people ask me about buying my music, even now when it’s just at a demo stage. That’s a very kind and sweet way of supporting a musician. When I myself find music I like I always buy it.

“[...]To sum things up, internet, myspace, mp3s, I’m cool with it, we do lots and lots of promotion over the net and I think I couldn’t live well without it now since my music relies a lot on it, but to everyone out there, please, keep buying the albums. If you do so, more music will come out and less labels/bands will close their doors.” [2]

Visit their Myspace page to listen to their music and check ways of buying their CD’s. For US residents, the tracks are also for sale on Amazon.com here and here. Below is their video for Sonic Sensations.

Factory of Dreams @ Myspace

Beautiful New Thor Movie Images!

2010-07-20T14:09:00.000-04:00

The Thor movie will be released only next year, but at least we have these beautiful images to give us a hint of what awaits us. Not enough, but at least it's some eye candy....

Source: IGN.com

Great Thoughts Must Be Expressed #1

2010-07-19T20:30:00.000-04:00

"Sure, it's not very much, but you still made something where there was nothing before, and you had fun while you did it," I told myself, "so go ahead and enjoy it, but just keep it all in perspective. Use this as inspiration to keep writing – and finishing – all those other ideas you keep having."

- Actor Wil Wheaton on his latest writing experience.

Read whole text on his site.

The Inception Movie Comics

2010-07-18T14:47:00.001-04:00

The Inception movie was released last Friday in the US, and as far as the trailer goes, the story seems quite interesting, and the looks are similar to that of Matrix, with amazing special effects.

The Yahoo! Movies site posted a comics, which introduces some of the elements of the movie. You can read it here: INCEPTION: THE COBOL JOB

The artwork is very good, done by Long Vo, Joe Ng and Crystal Reid of Udon, in the best "Western Manga" style.

The Inception movie has Leonardo Di Caprio as a lead, and is directed by Christopher Nolan (Batman: The Dark Knight), also starring Ken Watanabe (Cirque Du Freak), Ellen Page (X Men III), and Michael Caine.
This is the trailer for the movie. For more information, visit the links at the bottom of the post.

The Inception Movie Official Site

July Suggested Reading: The Named by Marianne Curley

2010-07-15T20:49:00.000-04:00

Though The Named is a Young Adult Novel, it is a good read for any age, a captivating story that mixes time travel, psychic powers and immortality.

Ethan is a 16 year-old Guardian of Time, one of The Named, whose purpose is to prevent the Order of Chaos from disrupting history in their schemes for overtaking the world. His life changed brutally when he witnessed the murder of his sister at age 4, and since then was tutored by a 600-year-old mage Arkarian.

Arkarian assigned to him an apprentice, Isabel, the younger sister of his former-best friend. Isabel has a crush on Ethan, while her brother is attracted to Ethan’s girlfriend, which is sure to cause much trouble, while they take part in the conflicting events around them.

As they unfold, secrets of the past involving both criminals and heroes are found out. Making the transition between time periods through a trance-like sleep, they go back to Medieval England, at the time of King Richard II, where they uncover a mystery connecting Marduke, a monster member of the Order of Chaos who wants to alter the past for revenge, and the death of Ethan’s sister.

A final battle between The Named and the Order is about to happen, and Ethan and Isabel are bound to play a decisive part in it.

The Named is the first book in a trilogy published between 2002 and 2005, written by Australian Marianne Curley.

She said that her idea for the Guardians of Time came up when she was writing her first novel Old Magic. “In “Old Magic” I had toyed with the concept of what might happen to the present, or the future, if a figure from the past was tampered with or even killed. I took this concept further and thought of writing a story about organized manipulation of the past, and the potential havoc it would create.” [1]

Check the Amazon.com page below to read an excerpt from the book.

Marianne Curley's Official Site # The Named @ Amazon.com

The Other Side: The Invisible Movie

2010-07-15T20:46:00.001-04:00

Can a teen thriller about a near-death young man in his desperate struggle to get back to life make an engaging movie? The Invisible proves so.

The Invisible movie was released in 2007, and tells the story of Nick Powell (Justin Chatwin), who is very smart and bookish, a top student. Little by little, the movie shows that his prosperous facade hides a deep loneliness, worsened by his mother’s indifference towards him since his father died.

Nick has a best friend who is very timid, and is often terrorized by a school gang. The gang leader is Annie (Margarita Levieva), who fights Nick in the canteen, after he ridicules her in public for harassing his friend. This event will set in motion all the bizarre incidents to come.

Annie leads a terrible life. Her mother doesn't care about her and her little brother, her house is always a mess, and her father is a former policeman who works as a security guard. In order to cope, she keeps a combative attitude, plays with knifes, listens to blaring Rock, and dates a mechanic, who is also a car robber.

After Annie robs a jewelry store, and is denounced to the police and arrested, she starts suspecting Nick is behind it. Then she goes after Nick to take her revenge, leaving him for dead in the woods, after beating him up with her gang.

Nick's nightmare starts the following day, when he goes to school and nobody sees him. At first, he doesn't know what is happening, but as soon as he finds out, he starts a desperate race against time to find anyone who can help him before he actually dies. In the meantime he finds out the truth about those closest to him, and has his opinions about others constantly challenged.

At the time The Invisible was released, Justin Chatwin talked about the main theme behind the plot. “He gets to see different sides of people, you know. When you think that something is white, then you see that it also got black and grey... There's middle ground. You learn things about people that you didn't know. There's a reason why someone is the way they are.” [1]

The Invisible movie raises interesting questions about consciousness, reality, near-death experiences, and the different ways people deal with challenges in their lives. It has a well-structured story, with interesting plot twists.

Here is a couple of pictures. Watch the trailer below.

More information:

The Invisible IMDB page

Marion Zimmer Bradley: Controversial & Visionary

2010-06-29T19:54:00.016-04:00

Author Marion Zimmer Bradley was an ingenious, prolific writer, known for her generosity with both professional and beginner writers, but who was notorious for her controversial attitude and visionary ideas.

At a time when female characters were portrayed as either weaklings or wantons, when there were few women writers and they were best known for writing sugared romances, Marion Zimmer Bradley was responsible for helping create the modern Science Fiction and Fantasy genres, with strong female characters, daring plots, and delicate social questions.

Masterpieces

Born in 1930, she faced as a child the hardships of the Great Depression, and had her dream of becoming an opera singer smashed by both lack of money and health problems.

However, at age 19, she won an amateur fiction contest, and 3 years later had her first short story sold for a Science Fiction magazine. In 1961, her career started with the publication of her first novel The Door Through Space (whose text is available here).

The following year, she published the first in a series of about 40 novels and anthologies set in the planet Darkover, called Sword of Aldones, which was also the first of several of her novels to be nominated for a Hugo Award.

Darkover was her first masterpiece. A small wintry planet under a red sun, surrounded by four moons, in which a Terran ship had crashed, and where a thousand years later it was developed a Medieval-like culture, with a ruling caste that had astonishing and dangerous psychic powers.

In this strongly patriarchal society, Marion Zimmer Bradley included a feminist element of strong-willed female characters and The Guild of Free Amazons, which was a warrior group of women who renounced society in order to enjoy freedom from its repressive rules.

Her second masterpiece was the Mists of Avalon novel, in which she recreated the Arthurian Legends, mixing its elements with Celtic mythology.

This novel was also characterized by a strong feminist connotation, not in the sense of women being better than men, but women being as good (or as bad) as men.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Morgaine, who is a priestess of the Celtic Mother Goddess, raised in the island of Avalon, sister to King Arthur, and mother of his son, Mordred, who end up killing him for the throne.

Contrary to the traditional character, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Morgaine isn’t the ambitious evil witch, but a common woman, struggling with a prejudiced society, having her life manipulated by those with a political agenda.

Both worlds she created are filled with controversial topics, the most recurrent of which was sexuality. That’s where most of her notoriety comes from.

Constant Controversy

The author first became involved with the gay and lesbian movements in the 1950’s, when she contributed with the newsletters The Ladder and the Mattachine Review. Besides, her second husband was writer and numismatist Walter Breen, who defended “Greek Love”, i.e. a homosexual relationship between a man and an adolescent, and who died in prison, after being found guilty of child abuse.

In her novels, Marion Zimmer Bradley often dealt with the horrors of sexual violence, either against women, men or adolescents, and also discussed sexual freedom. In Darkovan society, 13 year old boys are already considered men, and are entrusted with adult responsibilities. She has once declared, “I wasn't a child at 13, were you?” [1]

It is reported that she knew about Breen’s homosexuality, and that at the beginning of their marriage he had an affair with an adolescent, which she overlooked. However, when in 1989, her secretary Elizabeth Waters told her that Breen was being accused of molesting a 12-year-old, she immediately divorced him, and cooperated with the police investigation.

Still, she was accused by the boy’s parents of negligence in 1996, a trial that only ended after her death in 1999, through an out-of-court settlement with her insurance company. [2]

Besides sexuality, her other controversial subject was religion. She had very progressive ideas about it, for a long time she was a neo-pagan, and then she turned back to Christianism, and was even ordained a Gnostic Catholic priest.

In a 1986 article, Marion Zimmer Bradley discussed the feminist and religious elements in the Mists of Avalon novel:

“For me the key to "female personality development" in my revisionist, or better, reconstructionist version, is simply this. Modern women have been reared on myths/legends/hero tales in which the men do the important things and the women stand by and watch and admire but keep their hands off. Restoring Morgan and the Lady of the Lake to real, integral movers in the drama is, I think, of supreme importance in the religious and psychological development of women in our day […]

“People who have become so sickened by the pride, arrogance, anti-woman attitudes, hypocrisy and cruelty of what passes for Christianity that they leap toward atheism or agnosticism, may well reach out for the gentler reign of Goddess-oriented paganism to lead them back to a true perception of the spiritual life of the Earth. Time enough later to make it clear -- or let the Mother make it clear to them -- that Spirit is One and that they are, in worshipping the Goddess, worshipping the Divine by whatever name. And I can't think of a better place than Glastonbury for that realization.” [3]

Supporting New Talents

As I said at the beginning, Marion Zimmer Bradley was admired for the support she gave to beginner writers, through encouraging Darkover fan fiction, and including new talents, such as Mercedes Lackey, in her Sword & Sorceress anthologies and her magazine.

She only stopped encouraging fan fiction, when a fan sued her because of one of her own novels, alleging that it had similar elements to hers.

In the text below, she gives some advice to beginner writers. Be sure to read the full text at her Trust’s website.

“The main way to get started as a writer is to write: apply the seat of the pants firmly to the seat of the chair and just get down to it. Having a thousand "good ideas" in your head is no good; you have to get them on paper. Just sit down and do it […]

“There's no "magic secret"; writing is like everything else; ten percent inspiration or talent, and ninety percent hard work. Persistence; keeping at it till you get there. As Agnes de Mille said, it means working every day -- bored, tired, weary, or with a fever of a hundred and two […]

“Think of this: a thousand pages sounds like a lot. But write three pages a day and a year from now you'll have a book […]

“Never listen to criticism from anyone unless they can sign a check. Never mind what your best friend, or your aunt, or your English teacher thinks. Trust only professional criticism.” [4]

Marion Zimmer Bradley was a skilled writer, who left an impressive body of work, and who should certainly be more popular nowadays. To know more about her work, visit the following sites:

Marion Zimmer Bradley's books # Biography # Wikipedia article

Arcana: Sophisticated Harmony

2010-06-28T19:51:00.007-04:00

Arcana is a Swedish neoclassical group, whose music is marked by Eastern and Medieval melodies and sophisticated harmonies.

The group was formed in 1993, by multi-instrumentalist Peter Bjärgö. He and vocalist Ida Bengtsson recorded a tape, which led them to feature in a Cold Meat Industry label compilation, and in sequence, they released two albums through it.

With 10 albums released, the box set Arcana - The First Era 1996-2002 is their latest release, Arcana’s line-up currently consists of Peter Bjärgö (guitar), Ann-Mari Thim (vocals), Ia Bjärgö (vocals) and Mattias Borgh (drums).

Bjärgö defined Arcana as being “kind of introvert, because I’ve never done music for other people, I don’t try to make a statement or anything for others, I do everything for myself and am very very happy that people appreciate it and like it but I only do it because I want to do it [...]

“I want to keep it as honest as possible, otherwise if it will be too big and almost depending on selling a lot of CDs and making it more commercial, then I wouldn’t be satisfied with it. It’s better for me to just keep it like this.”

Bjärgö also commented that each Arcana song has a unique creative process, adding that “sometimes I have a clear idea about what to do and then I call Matthias and say “I need percussion, come over” and then we record the percussion, and choirs with Stefan and Ia, and the vocal parts with Anne-Mari, but sometimes I want to try and experiment, I don’t have a clear idea, and then its easier to just try some idea myself, because sometimes by chance you end up with something that’s really really good.”

The band is also supportive of environmental protection initiatives, even raising awareness of it in their lyrics. Bjärgö said that, “I don’t consider that to think about environmental problems is being political, I mean, we don’t take political sides but this is something that everyone should be aware of.” [1]

Visit their Myspace profile to listen to their songs and buy their CD’s. I’ve selected two videos of Arcana’s great live performances. Enjoy!

Arcana's official site # Myspace profile

Music Industry Revolution: Adaptation Means Survival

2010-06-27T19:44:00.030-04:00

In the previous article, we saw how badly file sharing and piracy have affected the music industry, the relationship between record labels and artists, and the options artists now have of taking more profit from their works, which technology and the present crisis have made available.

The music industry is undergoing a deep change, but those who aren’t afraid of adapting and innovating will certainly be the ones who will survive these times.

In this article, we will focus on copyrights, file sharing, and what the future has in stake for record labels.

Law Vs. People

It’s been 7 years since notorious RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) sued the first music consumers for file sharing. According to the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), a non-profit that defends free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights, the record companies have sued over 28,000 people for music file sharing since then. And there is no end in sight. [1]

Some of those who share files on the web, like video documentaries on Youtube, for example, try to protect themselves by mentioning the Section 107 of the US Copyright Act. However, that law isn’t a life saver.

According to the text on the US Copyright Office site, the Section 107 actually lists the instances in which reproduction of copyrighted content is considered fair use, which are for “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research”.

Still, such reproduction must be considered according to four criteria:

“The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
“The nature of the copyrighted work
“The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
“The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work”

The problem with using the Section 107 as a defense for reproduction of copyrighted content online is that it is vague when it comes to defining when exactly copyright infringement occurs.

The text on the site points out that “the distinction between fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission.” And because of that, lawsuits of copyright infringement are often judged on a case by cases basis.

Also it isn’t enough to place an attribution along with the copyrighted content as it “does not substitute for obtaining permission.” The Copyright Office advises that getting permission first is the best warranty against a lawsuit. In the following links you can read the full text, and find more information on fair use. [2] [3]

So, considering that law, all those who share copyrighted content online (which doesn’t belong to them), such as documentaries, video clips, songs, pictures, books, etc, are infringing the copyright law. And while some choose to fight their own consumers for that, others, smarter perhaps, try to adapt.

New Ideas, New Strategies

Maybe what this commotion is really about is that things changed too quickly and many people, especially those who own the content, are still catching up. People are being forced to deal with new technologies, a new idea of intellectual democracy, and many are either adapting very slowly or getting desperate.

While those who adapt try to implement new alternatives (paid streaming services, paid track downloads, ads on Youtube channels), those who get desperate, take desperate legal measures (heavy charges against consumers).

Internet is about content, and it has created a demand for access to content from all over the world, an interest in products from faraway places, and consequently new market possibilities. However, the changes are so recent, despite their sweeping effect, that we still don’t have a general efficient way of paying for and acquiring content and products online, for instance.

Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU project and the Free Software Foundation, raised this question in an interview for Mashable.com. He commented, “I would like every player to have a button you could push to send it down [money to artists], and you shouldn't have to look up where you send this, it should be anonymous, it should be nothing by tracking who sends money to anybody, and it should be easy [...] And then if you send it through Paypal, for instance, the musician will get half a dollar. The existing systems are inefficient for use." [4]

Stallman also has a very controversial opinion on file sharing: “I don't think that artistic works all must be free, but there's a freedom criterion that I think you must have for all copies of any works that are published, including art, and that is freedom to share. And that means to non-commercially redistribute exact copies. So, I don't say that music must be free, but I do say that it must be shareable.” [5]

That’s very good for music fans, but how do you make that possible without hurting artists and labels?

Meanwhile Record Labels Struggle

Do CD’s really need to be expensive?

Record companies used to be (and some still are) responsible for several costs, such as funding recording sessions, manufacturing, distributing and marketing products, supporting artists financially, and doing the accounting, but many aren’t dealing with that anymore.

All these costs were paid by consumers when they bought CD’s, but CD’s will have to become cheaper as digital recordings become more and more common, and as record labels stop caring for all those aspects of CD production.

Nowadays, recordings can be made in the same computer one uses at home, manufacturing is becoming unnecessary as digital recordings are more and more the format of choice for music fans, and distribution costs are almost none. [6]

In such a dynamic scenario, either labels will change, becoming small offices with few employees or they will disappear. And this is no wonder, as in the past, when a new technology became popular the previous one either adapted or became extinct.

Take the Industrial Revolution for example, which left thousands of manufacturers and craftsmen jobless, while the new industries and entrepreneurs flourished. Times were certainly chaotic then, but without it we wouldn’t have much of our present comfort and prosperity.

Quoting again from the article written by David Byrne for Wired.com, he did a remarkable interview with musician and producer Brian Eno, who stated that record labels “structurally, they're much too large. And they're entirely on the defensive now. The only idea they have is that they can give you [the musicians] a big advance — which is still attractive to a lot of young bands just starting out. But that's all they represent now: capital.” [7]

Besides, according to Eno, it seems that record label executives complicated the situation by firing middle level employees, who knew the job and loved music, keeping the lower level ones and hiring an inexperienced workforce, just because they are cheap.

In addition, most of the upper level executives were also replaced by lawyers and business people, who don’t know the market, and probably don’t care much about music.

Hard & Urgent Measures

In order to unravel this imbroglio, several hard and urgent measures must be taken. When it comes to the relationship between record labels/retailers and consumers, CD and digital track prices must be reasonable, with streaming services as an alternative, and import prices being improved as well.

As for the relationship between record labels and artists, the copyright issue has to be tackled. An artist shouldn’t be deprived of earning their keep with their own work, just because the label isn’t interested in marketing it. Regardless of the labels’ investment, artists should be the main owners of their creations.

And then there’s the problem of file sharing and piracy, which are actually distinct issues. Whatever the blame of file sharers, they definitely can’t be considered the same way someone who rips CD’s for selling.

Slowly the classical model of music industry is being changed, but its new form is still unknown.

Music Industry Revolution: Surviving Amid Chaos

2010-06-26T19:44:00.000-04:00

The music and movie industries are in crisis. This is one of the most recurrent news of the last 5 years or so. Much has been written and talked about it, but the numbers are still debatable.

Some say file sharing and piracy are killing the industries, and at first glance, the large numbers of laid-off employees and the alarming deficits could be a sign of that. They are certainly affecting minor labels and artists. However the crisis is much more complex than that.

This is the first of two articles, which will analyze the present CD market crisis from the point of view of its three players: the artists, the music industry and the fans, and will speculate on what solutions are available.

In this first article, we will check the music industry numbers, and take a close look on how our beloved artists earn their living.

Elusive Numbers

Precise numbers on record sales are very hard to come by, but Timesonline published an interesting research, based on numbers from 2004 to 2008, of the PRS (Performing Right Society) for Music and the BPI (British Phonographic Industry).

The numbers show that record labels in the UK had a loss of 26.72% in the period, while show promoters had 70.24% of increased revenues, and the PRS had an increase of 27.10%. [1]

According to the research, artists seem to have improved their revenues in the period though, despite the 26.72% loss from record sales, as they had an increase of 70.24% in revenues from live performances. [1]

How much loss do record labels have to fear in the short term? In 2003, their revenue was of US$ 12.9 billion, which came mainly from CD sales. The prediction for 2012 is that their annual revenue will have a 29.46% drop, that is, it will be of US$ 9.1 billion, with digital recordings selling almost as much as CD’s, and the average price going from $14 to $10. [2]

And what about the artists? This is a touchy subject, because often artists don’t make much money from records. Another research showed that for an artist to earn the current US monthly minimum wage of US$1,160 they would have to sell the following amounts of recordings:

143 self-pressed CD’s
1,161 retail albums
12,399 track downloads on Amazon/iTunes
1,546,667 streams on Last.fm
4,549,020 streams on Spotify [3]

It’s no wonder most musicians must have a day job in order to pay their bills…

And now we have another element to consider, as there has been a drop in the amount of illegally downloaded/shared music, with 65% of 14 to 18-years-olds who used to download and share music preferring to stream music instead of downloading it. At least they aren’t doing anything illegal, but this doesn’t mean that the situation of record sales has improved. [4]

Some interesting points can be concluded from these numbers. Without questioning whether download/sharing music is a crime (this is a subject for the next article), at least this situation has made major record labels and retailers review their strategies, which benefits both consumers (by cutting prices) and artists (by offering new options).

These numbers don’t sign the death of the music industry, but instead, they mark a shift in how it does business. Regardless of any blame file-sharers may actually have, the record labels also have theirs. After all, not all of them have been generous supporters of artists, as some claim.

A Conflicting Relationship

In some ways, the current situation is making it more difficult for new talents to earn a living than ever before. Also, both major and minor record companies face the same challenges: decreasing revenues and consequently shrinking offices and less investment on talents, with minor labels having obviously much less resources, and because of this, suffering a heavier blow. [5]

Labels and artists relationships have always been a mix of support and conflict. Recently, former-Dresden Dolls Amanda Palmer has posted an open-letter on her blog about her release of contract from Roadrunner Records. It gives a great insight in the conflicting love affair between artists and record labels.

On introducing, she opens up, “for the past seven years, anything i have written and recorded (solo or with my band, The Dresden Dolls) has technically been owned and under the ultimate control of the label[…]”

Then, in the open-letter, she declares “i would like to take this chance, as we part ways, to thank you for all you’ve done for me and for my band, The Dresden Dolls.

“when we signed with you in 2004, i was a wreck of a human being because I was working too hard to juggle business-ing and musician-ing[…]

“no other label in america would sign us, but you did. all the cool, hip, indie labels didn’t think enough people would like us. they passed.
you saw our potential. for a while you worked very hard for us. you spent money on us, and you helped people find and hear our music[…]

“you stopped helping us when our second record came out in 2006.
that made us really sad.
since then we’ve needed to part ways, but i will never regret signing with you…and i will never take for granted what you did to help my life[...]

“i know that the record business is not easy and that things are getting harder and harder by the day, and i know your jobs are not easy.

“i hope that as the industry teeters you can all find safe harbor, jobs that you really love, and connections with art and people that feed you.” [6]

And that’s the fate of several artists, both minor and major. According to musician and songwriter Helienne Lindvall, the reasons why that happens are various: either the person who signed the artist was fired, and they are left without support, or their record didn’t have a good enough performance, or the label was bought by a bigger one. Check her article to know about the fate of songwriters too. [7]

It has been proposed to the EU member states that if a record label doesn’t make a recording available to the public, the artist has the right to release it, but it is still to be approved, and surprisingly, there are many labels that are against this basic artist’s right. [7]

There’s a puzzling point in Amanda Palmer’s account, which is worth exploring in order to understand the relationship between record labels and musicians.

All of her songs were the label’s property, and she couldn’t take any profit from them, or from anything else she created, because she was under contract, despite the record label having stopped investing in her band in 2006. But that was part of the contract they signed, and there are both worse and better deals in the industry.

Former-Talking Heads David Byrne authored an article for Wired.com which helps us know what’s behind the record deals, and which options are available for artists. His article and interview with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke are very enlightening, so be sure to read them. [8] [9]

David Byrne candidly describes several kinds of deals in the article, going from the more traditional models, which give artists less control over their work, and the new ones, which allow them total control over how they sell and distribute their work.

About these models, Byrne comments, “not surprisingly, the more involved the artist is, the more he or she can often make per unit sold. The totally DIY model is certainly not for everyone — but that's the point. Now there's choice.”

This variety of options is both good for artists and for the public, who will have more and more interesting music to listen to, but not that much for record labels, who will have to adapt, and quickly, to these new times. The models are:

Equity deal – in this model the artist becomes a brand, owned and operated by the label, which gives the company a long-term perspective and interest in handling the artist’s career. That’s the model of mainstream artists such as Korn. The artist gets a lot of money, but they hardly have any creative control.
Standard deal – the record company bankrolls the recording, the CD manufacturing and distribution, and the promotion. The artist gets a royalty percentage, but the label owns their work forever. That seems to be the model to which Amanda Palmer had signed with Roadrunner, and is the model Byrne’s Talking Heads had to deal with.

The problem with it is that artists are often in risk of running into debt, as the company banks everything, and also, as Byrne explains, “obviously, the cost of these services, along with the record company's overhead, accounts for a big part of CD prices.

“You, the buyer, are paying for all those trucks, those CD plants, those warehouses, and all that plastic. Theoretically, as many of these costs go away, they should no longer be charged to the consumer — or the artist.”

License deal – this model is similar to the standard one, only the artist retains the copyright and ownership of the master recording. The record label has a limited period of time to explore the property, usually 7 years.

Byrne explains that if Talking Heads had chosen this model, they would earn twice as much in licensing as they do now. That model is interesting if the artist made their own record and doesn’t need creative and financial help, but the downside is that the label may invest less in promotion.

Profit sharing – profits are shared between artists and record labels. The artist retains the master recording, and the label does some marketing and press. The artist takes a greater share of the sales.
M&D deal – this is the manufacturing and distribution deal, in which the artist does everything, except making and distributing the product. Big record labels don’t make such deals. There’s total creative control, and according to manager Michael Hausman, “a lot of artists don't realize how much more money they could make by retaining ownership and licensing directly. If it's done properly, you get paid quickly, and you get paid again and again. That's a great source of income."
Self-distribution – total creative control and ownership, but also total responsibility. The artist deals with the whole process from recording to selling, with records are sold in shows and through sites, and promotion is made through MySpace and Youtube, for instance.

Byrne comments that “in practice, especially for emerging artists, that can mean freedom without resources — a pretty abstract sort of independence. For those who plan to take their material on the road and play it live, the financial constraints cut even deeper. Backup orchestras, massive video screens and sets, and weird high tech lights don't come cheap.”

One of the strategies artists, like Amanda Palmer and Radiohead, have been employing, is distributing their recordings through their site and letting fans donate whatever amount they see fit.
Music industry executives felt threatened when this model started being practiced, accusing artists of devaluing music, but to the artist, this is a way of asking fans to value it, and a democratic, and not less profitable, way of distributing their music to the world.

Radiohead released their album In Rainbows firstly on their site on a pay-what-you-want system, with 1 million downloads in the first month. 40% of the fans paid an average $6 for each download, which earned the band about $3 million revenue. Then they leased the album for a label to distribute it on CD (as they own the master recording). [10]

According to Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, that was a good way of reaching straight to the fans, instead of going through the long traditional process, which starts with the artist sending the album about 3 months in advance to journalists, and then asking them to write a review, a way of getting the album in the charts.

Being such a popular band, what they did startled the music industry, and was seen as another nail in its coffin, but Yorke said that wasn’t intended as an attack. “It's not supposed to be a model for anything else,” he commented, “It was simply a response to a situation. We're out of contract. We have our own studio. We have this new server. What the hell else would we do? This was the obvious thing. But it only works for us because of where we are.”

And their daring act paid off well. He revealed that “in terms of digital income, we've made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever — in terms of anything on the Net. And that's nuts. It's partly due to the fact that EMI wasn't giving us any money for digital sales. All the contracts signed in a certain era have none of that stuff.”

And that serves as a warning to new artists. According to Yorke, “Well, first and foremost, you don't sign a huge record contract that strips you of all your digital rights, so that when you do sell something on iTunes you get absolutely zero. That would be the first priority.

“If you're an emerging artist, it must be frightening at the moment. Then again, I don't see a downside at all to big record companies not having access to new artists, because they have no idea what to do with them now anyway.”

Though file sharing has indeed damaged the music industry, it at least served to expose the problems with the high CD prices and it helped open new possibilities for artists to make a living.

In tomorrow’s article, we will have a look at copyright infringement, the new available options, and the possible solutions.

Anne Stokes: Fantasy Made Real

2010-06-26T19:31:00.001-04:00

Anne Stokes is a very talented British illustrator, whose precise drawings and careful painting give an almost photographic quality to her art.

Since childhood, she dreamed of becoming an artist, and has been a full time professional for about 12 years.

Her works have been licensed to decorate many kinds of products, from T-shirts and posters, to tarot cards, sculptures and jewelry, and she has also made illustrations for the game industry, including Dungeons & Dragons books. You can check the products and prints on her site.

With a very active imagination, Anne Stokes always takes with her a pocket digital camera and paper and pen, in case she comes across any interesting figure or gets some idea for her illustrations while away from home. When commissioned to do some artwork, she always tries to bring something new to traditional characters, like angels and dragons.

On her site, Anne Stokes shares a lot of information on her working process, and gives the following advice to fledgling artists:

“The first and most important thing is to actually try. There are a lot of people who would like to do this, and many other things in life, but don’t ever actually try to do them. The only way to fail for sure is not to try.

“Practice as much as you can and get some commissions, however small, as a way to learn. Do what the client asks you to and do it on time. A good site which provides free hosting and an opportunity to show some of your images to the world is Deviant Art. I post there under the name Ironshod.”

Here are two other images. Visit her site to see more amazing art.

Anne Stockes' official site # Deviant Art profile

Pixel Art: Retro Art For The Future

2010-06-15T18:55:00.016-04:00

by Jaeden

Though not a much popular form of art, and one some think is a relic from the past, Pixel Art, is actually a very complex form of digital art, and can be surprisingly beautiful.

The name Pixel Art was coined by Adele Goldberg and Robert Flegal of Xerox PARC in 1982. The image is made by painting each pixel, using a limited color palette. It is reminiscent of the images of old video games from Atari, Nintendo, etc. It takes a lot of patience and a great deal of skill to make those images brick by brick, so to speak.

I’ve selected some art I’ve found on the main community for Pixel artists Pixeljoint.com. Visit the links below to know more about the style and how to do it.

by Wayuki

by AndyOaks

by FraGMarE

by Jalonso

by Jaeden

Source:
Pixel Art @ Wikipedia # Pixel Art Tutorial 1 # Pixel Art Tutorial 2 # Pixel Art Tutorial 3
Sprinterdex @ Deviantart # Perfect Pixel Art Blog

The Illusionist: The Magician’s Revenge

2010-06-15T18:42:00.006-04:00

The Illusionist is one of the best movies of the last decade. It is an impressive thriller set in the late 19th century, which has flawless photography, lavish scenarios and wardrobe, making you feel as if you were inside the movie, living the action.

Edward Norton is the illusionist Eisenheim, who causes controversy in Vienna, when he goes there for a series of shows. The movie begins at the end of the story, and then goes back, through the narration of inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti), who tells the stern and ambitious Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) what is known about him.

We learn that Eisenheim was originally a boy from a village nearby, who reportedly met with a magician on the road, who taught him his trade and vanished without a trace. The boy then started practicing maniacally, and fell in love with the beautiful Duchess Sophie Von Teschen (Jessica Biel).

Their relationship was prohibited, and on the night they decided to run away, they were found and separated. Eisenheim decided to go away and only returned years later as the mysterious illusionist.

Inspector Uhl becomes fascinated with Eisenheim’s tricks, while the Crown Prince becomes obsessed with him, demanding to know the secret behind his amazing illusions.

As Eisenheim and Sophie, who now is the Crown Prince’s fiancée, get involved again, his tricks become more and more sinister and inexplicable, making the crowd idolize him.

After he ridicules the Crown Prince’s ambition to succeed his father, the Emperor, in the aristocrat’s own palace, the Prince orders inspector Uhl to discredit him and make him stop his shows.

In the meantime, Sophie is found dead, and the blame seems to fall on the Crown Prince himself. After her ghost is called by Eisenheim onstage, the Prince is determined to silence him, but will he manage to, or will Eisenheim find a way to escape? Besides, did Sophie really die?

In addition to the amazing visual aspects, the Illusionist has very good dialogues and wonderful effects. Here are some pictures and the trailer, be sure to check the movie out.

The Illusionist IMDB's page

Culture Kultür: Electronica For The Mind And The Body

2010-06-15T17:55:00.006-04:00

Culture Kultür is a great Electronica trio from Malaga, Spain, whose music is similar to that of Covenant and Pride & Fall, but which stands on its own.

The group was formed in 1992, and its lineup is made of singer Salva Maine, programmer/producer Josua, live keyboardist Distortiongirl, and occasionally keyboardist Ray Storm.

In 1998, they distributed their first records, until they signed with German label Out of Line the following year. With the EP DNA Slaves, which has bold songs such as Manifesto and Reflex, they reached #10 in the German Alternative Charts.

Since then, Culture Kultür has traveled all over Europe and America, taking part in some of the main festivals of the style such as Wave Gothic Treffen, M’era Luna, Terra Gotha and Eurorock.

The Culture Kultür musicians are very passionate about music. In an interview, Distortiongirl described her love for it: “It seems incredible to me when a song, a sound, a melody, a voice can make you cry, imagine without limits or travel mentally. The music transports me and I believe that it pulls the best out of me.” [1]

Also, supporting the strong social opinions voiced in their songs, Josua reminded fans and listeners to:

“Defend your ideas without worrying about the pressure for changing or selling them... After all this is the only thing we can consider our own.” [2]

They have other two albums: Revenge, released in 2001, with the remarkable songs Forever and Lost Ideas, the EP Combat (2002), and Reborn, released in 2005, which reached #3 in the German Alternative Charts, and has the inspiring Wonder, Glimpse, among other thought-provoking songs.

Culture Kultür’s new album Spirit will be released next September through the Caustic Records label. You can listen to two new songs, Drum Machine and Blind Man here.

To close this post, I’ve chosen a video of one of their shows at Terra Gotha. For more information, visit the site below.

Culture Kultür's Official Site

June Suggested Reading: Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy

2010-06-04T18:30:00.006-04:00

Sara Creasy’s debut Song of Scarabaeus is a science-fiction romance novel which reinvents the future through introducing some new technologies and also yields a fun reading.

The story is about cyphertech Edie Sha’nim who is kidnapped by mercenaries to help the Rebel Fringe colonies get their freedom from the Crib, which is a top secret government agency. Their interest on Edie is due to her innate talent and special training on terraforming, and she will only earn her freedom if she shows them how to prevent the deactivation of the biocyph seeds, which are part of a technology that uses genetic engineering to terraform planets.

In this time, most of the technological work is done through connecting one’s mind to equipment, and in order to keep her from running away, the mercenaries link her mind to that of Finn, a bodyguard, who risks death, if he leaves her side. As the two characters are forced to live together and face several dangers, a relationship inevitably develops between them.

A biocyph technology was deployed by the Crib on the planet Scarabaeus to terraform it, but something went wrong and the planet is dying. Edie took part in the project, a secret she desperately tries to keep from Finn and the Rebels, and she knows what went wrong.

Author Sara Creasy created a sophisticated world and a complex plot. An avid science fiction reader since high school, she commented on her influences and how she developed her story:

“I love gritty science fiction movies, and that’s how I imagined the universe of this story. Creating the main character Edie was more a matter of removing influences: I didn’t want her to have a military background, or be a genetically engineered superwoman, or be a kick-ass heroine with a smart mouth… Finally, because my background is biology, that’s what I drew from for the science part of my SF universe.”

Talking about the main character Edie, Sara Creasy told that: “She’s definitely someone who tries to do the right thing but she doesn’t always have the experience or opportunity to make the best decisions. She’s not in a position of power but she stands up to injustice and she makes whatever deals are necessary to get by.”

She also described what her writing process is like: “I sit at the computer and write. It’s that simple: get words on the page. I worked for many years as an editor, and while many of the skills required for editing are useful to a writer, I also found it was holding me back. I could never leave a paragraph or a sentence alone until it was edited to perfection. This is a bad thing when you’re trying to complete a first draft. I’m still learning that I have to just write it and leave it alone, however bad it seems, knowing I can come back later and fix it.” [1]

Song of Scarabaeus already has a sequel scheduled for 2011, and Sara Creasy has plans of writing more science fiction adventure and romance.

To read excerpts from the book, click on the widget below. For more information, visit her site.

Sara Creasy’s official site

Media & The Way We See Ourselves

2010-06-02T16:45:00.005-04:00

In the last few posts we talked about eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia, which are the two most common disorders in the world, the devastating effects, first-hand accounts of those who survived the disease and how you can help those who suffer from them.

On this article, we’ll talk about one of the main reasons behind the increasing epidemics of eating disorders and other weight and self-image-related psychological problems: media’s brainwashing for profit.

Before you snigger at this accusation, know that this is something even advertisers, the braver or more brazen ones at least, confess to, when they say “clearly, it's time to wipe out sexism in beer ads; for the brewers and their agencies to wake up and join the rest of America in realizing that sexism, sexual harassment, and the cultural portrayal of women in advertising are inextricably linked.” (AdAge magazine editorial, 1991) and “only 8% of an ad's message is received by the conscious mind. The rest is worked and reworked deep within the recesses of the brain.” (Rance Crain, former senior editor, AdAge magazine). For those who don’t know it, Advertising Age is “the leading global source of news, intelligence and conversation for marketing and media communities”, according to their site.

So, being well aware of the effects of repeated images and sounds in people’s minds, especially children’s, knowing how long-lasting the effects are, and constantly perfecting their strategies in order to make them more efficacious and powerful, unethical advertisers the world over have been fueling our anxieties, discomforts, doubts, prejudices and fears, manipulating us like puppets, to extract more and more profit.

They Profit When We Feel Bad

The numbers speak loud enough:

20 years ago, models weighted 3% less than the average women, now they weight 23% less
Only 5% of American women have the body type shown in ads and fashion magazines
More than 75% of normal weight women think they’re fat
80% of mid-fifties women want to be thinner
50% of American women are on diet
98% of the dieters who lose weight through products gain it back and even more later on
80% of 4th grade girls have already been on diets
Diabetes has increased 74% in the last 10 years due to increase in weight in the populace
The number of hospitalized anorexics has increased 80% in the last 10 years

But that wasn’t always so. Though there have always been historical records of eating disorders, all the way back to the Greeks and Romans, who had the habit of binge eating in feasts and then purging through vomiting, and the “miracle maidens”, medieval Catholic women who starved themselves in the name of faith, like saint Catherine of Siena, until recently, the cases were isolated, and mostly the ideal body type for over 2,000 years had been that of the Classical time: women were rounded and men were softly athletic, both sometimes even plump, as in this 17th century painting by Nicolas Poussin:

For centuries, strong, healthy and plump bodies were shown as a sign of wealth and beauty, while emaciated ones were often associated with death and sickness. Then in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the amount of anorexia and bulimia cases took such a big proportion, including the death of singer Karen from famous American pop band The Carpenters, in 1983, that media and specialists the world over started drawing attention to this serious matter. [1]

The problem is that the appalling cases of eating disorders became just another product in the hands of many media professionals, who used it to rivet people’s attention, while promoting products as means of achieving success, happiness, satisfaction, which are things they will never do.

Another lie found in this culture of thinness is that which says one can achieve models’ slim bodies through dieting or working out, when actually they are genetic, even the models starve themselves to keep them, and often after they reach their mid-twenties, they can’t keep them anymore.

Also, ads can often be contradictory and misleading, as Jean Kilbourne’s lecture Slim Hopes so poignantly shows. The same magazine cover will have a luxurious image of a chocolate pie on the cover, and a highlight for another easy diet to lose lots of weight in few weeks; computer-altered pictures will sometimes be a collage of images of 5 different women, or will have been heavily worked on in order to show the subject in a slimmer flashier way; pictures in ads show women without any flaw, as this famous Dove ad illustrates.

Despite all the trickery, they are still cheeky enough to tell us “you can look like that if you buy the product, actually you have to look like that, because that’s the only way you can be happy, if you don’t, you’re not worthy.” Absurd as it sounds, thousands flock to the stores every day all around the world, sometimes even waiting in line for new products, looking for an easy way to compensate for whatever is wrong in their lives, believing the foolish sad lies of ads.

But that’s not all, not only ads are misleading and false, more and more sex, misogyny, violence, repression and addictions are glamorized as a means to drive attention to products. In addition, as said above, the message stays in the mind, and not only does it lead people to buy products, but also shape their behavior.
So when ads like this one are used to sell clothes…

especially for women, which is absolutely disgusting, or this other one…

which pokes fun at the anorexic model who is so thin she wears the watch on her upper arm, and such images are supposed to be attractive, a style model for women, one can see something is terribly wrong.

And to think there are those who are still surprised at the huge amount of violence and eating disorder cases in developed countries. Of course, this lack of ethics isn’t only present in advertisement but all over media, be that music and music videos, shows, movies, magazines, books, art, etc.

But like Jean Kilbourne points out, it’s not that an ad directly causes violence, “but it is part of a cultural climate in which women are seen as things, as objects, and certainly turning a human being into a thing, it's almost always the first step towards justifying violence against that person.”

Back to food, it is both promoted as a drug, a substitute for sex, a compensation for disappointments, and at the same time, women who have normal weight or are overweight are pictured as bad girls, the good ones being those who are thin, timid, passive, and vulnerable, from an early age, like these ads show:

In the meantime, men are shown as being active, athletic and powerful, sometimes even violent, abusive and wicked, which some advertisers seem to think we should find appealing.

When women are shown with any power, it is either in a masculine way or in a silly one, like in the ad for body lotion that says “'For girls with plenty of balls, clubs and bars to go” or in the one for clothes that says “live outside the lines”, which in the ad means that the woman is able to use the men's room.

Or they are offered the power to change their weight, either through dieting, working out, through the dangerous use of diuretics and laxatives, which are promoted like just any other product, as if they weren’t medicines, and through the ultimate extreme form of ‘salvation’: cosmetic surgery.

Isn’t it sinister that when finally women have achieved some power in society, they are being oppressed again, this time through the tyranny of weight and unrealistic beauty? Just like our foremothers, women are again being silenced, diminished and manipulated, and for what? Profit?

Women’s bodies are often shown dismembered, like objects, in a very misogynic way. “Buy the product, get the look, act like this, talk like that, and you’ll get the man of your dreams, you’ll be successful, happy and young forever!”

What a sad maddening lie! And what about being yourself, developing your personality, having a relationship with a man who loves you for what you are not what you look like and own? What about loving a man for what he is, for his character and achievements, and not for his looks and possessions?

Besides promoting medicines like ordinary products, tobacco is also sold as a means of ‘redemption’ from the ‘sin’ of eating. The ads below are examples, both present, and past, with its disastrous marketing to teens in fashion magazines.

(click on the picture to enlarge)

Well, at least they warn that smoking can cause problems to pregnant women and several diseases…

With all the evidence around, there are still those who think they aren’t affected by advertisement, just as there are parents who think that they have nothing to fear letting their children watch TV the whole day, especially without any guidance or restriction, and giving their children all the products they want (which, of course, they were told to buy in ads).

In their minds, there’s nothing wrong with waking up in the middle of the night and eating a full bucket of ice cream, there’s nothing wrong for their children to eat a bag of cookies at school and then eat some fast food afterwards several times a week. But when people do so are they living healthy lives? Are they eating to live, as they should, or living to eat?

This fixation on weight that media promotes not only causes people all sorts of grief, but also takes their attention away from what really matters. In a recent poll, women and girls answered that if they could choose one wish to make true that would be losing weight, and not ending poverty or succeeding in some activity, not solving the garbage and energy problems or being healthy, more intelligent, more active, having a loving relationship.

Isn’t that a terrible tragedy? Such people would rather support a 33 billion diet industry, which isn’t around to solve their weight problems, by the way, than to be positive and conscious about themselves and the world.

Resist The Influence

Now, why can’t there be ads that value people, either women or men, children, teens or elders, whatever religion, culture, social class they have? Why can’t people be treated in an intelligent, positive way?

As advertisers aren’t likely to change anything, it’s up to us to start changing the way we deal with media and the products we choose to buy with our hard-won money. It’s up to us to start deprogramming from the brainwashing that makes us feel awful because we aren’t as skinny as Megan Fox, we don’t look as buffed as Matt Damon, we don’t have the Fast and Furious’ cars, we don’t live in a mansion up in a Malibu cliff, or we aren’t as young as the Twilight actors anymore.

First of all aim at being healthy and not imitating somebody; wear clothes that are comfortable, and make you look good, and not only because someone wears it on a magazine; exercise and eat, because that is good for you, but respect your body limits. Instead of compensating whatever is bothering you on food, products, getting drunk, having shallow relationships, value yourself and your money. Spend your time working on what can improve your life, not wasting it.

Protest, discuss, boycott products that violate people’s image and wellbeing, criticize media, learn about the ways advertisers use to forward their products, know about how they manipulate people, so that you won’t be an easy prey anymore.

Stop considering people for their looks, especially fight prejudice in your own mind and raise awareness about it among your friends and family. We are all of us more than our appearance.

Sources:

Slim Hopes # Pink stinks # The Religion of Thinness # Our disordered approach to eating # Jean Kilbourne # Jean Kilbourne's Killing Us Softly 3 # Jean Kilbourne's Killing Us Softly 4

Michele-lee Phelan: Faery Worlds

2010-06-01T17:21:00.005-04:00

The Australian Michele-lee Phelan is a very talented artist, who specializes in Pagan and Mythology pictures. Though she is 40 years old, she has been a professional for only 5 years. She is an example that we can always improve our lives and make our dreams come true, and also of how giving in to our fears can keep us from achieving our goals.

In an interview, she told that she felt discouraged both by the challenging financial aspect of art, which makes artists often live hand to mouth, and the heavy criticism artists constantly have to stand. Still in her teens, Michele-lee Phelan stopped painting, though it was her great passion, because she thought she wasn’t good enough, and only resumed it when she was 30 years old.

She spent years in depression, which she attributes to her repressed creativity, and was advised by her doctor to seek art as a form of therapy. She says that “The only way I could do this was to rebel. I turned my back on everyone’s doubts and questions, I quashed my own doubts and fears, and I painted.” [1]

Her particular interest in fantasy art is due to her unusual way of regarding life. Michele-lee Phelan comments on her site that she “have always loved the idea that we cannot see everything and that there are different planes of existence and reality. Fantasy allows me to peer into those hidden worlds and bring them to life within the hearts and minds of others. This I believe to be a very important key to healthy emotional and psychological development. To imagine is to create, and to create is why we exist.”

Acrylics, colored pencils on cotton watercolor paper are her favorite medium, and her greatest influence is award-winning illustrator Thomas Canty. She draws inspiration from many sources: “Sometimes they come from nothing, suddenly appearing fully formed in my mind as if someone had switched on a light bulb. Other times they will come to me in dreams, only partially formed and elusive. I will then sit for hours, trying to again see what I saw. Sometimes the idea will come back to me, while other times the concept will evolve and change as I put pencil to paper.”

Michele-lee Phelan is presently working as an illustrator and author for publisher Blue Angel Galleries, and has done artworks for oracle and tarot decks, and fantasy books. She is also working on her first book Dreams of Magick.

Check her site for more of her artworks and products personalized with her art. Here is a selection of two of her enchanting works.

Michele-Lee Phelan Official Site

Bulimia: Purging The Excesses

2010-06-01T16:40:00.004-04:00

Bulimia Nervosa is the second most common eating disorder in the world, the first being Anorexia Nervosa. Those who suffer from it have frequent periods of binge eating, consuming inordinate amounts of food in little time, and then purge through vomiting, excessive work-out or severe fasting.

Basic Facts

Some of the symptoms of Bulimia Nervosa are: worrying about food, secretly binge eating and then vomiting, abuse of laxatives, diuretics and diet pills, denial of hunger, using drugs to induce vomiting, exercising compulsively.

Physically, bulimics have chronic gastric reflux after eating, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance (causing cardiac arrhythmia or arrest, sometimes leading to death), inflammation of the esophagus, oral trauma because of insertion of fingers or objects causing lacerations in the mouth or throat, broken blood vessels in the eyes, teeth decay, suspended menses, infertility, constipation, enlarged glands in the neck under the jaw line, calluses or scars on the back of the hands from inserting fingers in the mouth, constant weight fluctuations, among other consequences. [1]

The difference between common binge eating, which happens because of miscalculation or overindulgence, and the binge eating of a bulimic, is that they consume a huge amount of food in a short period of time (2 hours or less) and they feel they can’t stop eating, also feeling physical and emotional anguish.

Then next comes purging, which is, as described above, done by taking extreme measures to rid the body from the food. The problem is that it seldom works for losing weight. Diuretics and laxatives make a person lose water not weight. Also vomiting is useless, as 50-75% of the calories have already been absorbed. As a result, bulimics can either have normal weight, be overweight or underweight, or can change weight constantly, and in the meantime, they can lead “normal” lives on the outside, working, studying, etc, which can make it very difficult to identify those who suffer from it early on.

The frequency in which such behavior happens is also worrisome, it may occur over 2 times a week and for at least 3 months, which is certainly a terrible aggression against the body.

Those who suffer from Bulimia Nervosa are overly concerned about their looks, having self-deprecating thoughts, and keep the habit of binge eating/purging as a compensation for something that is going bad in their lives, and also as an attempt to achieve a better image of themselves. However the compulsion eventually leads to isolation, constant anguish, and more desperate actions, as the inner pain obviously doesn’t go away. [2]

Below are three accounts of people who have suffered from Bulimia Nervosa and overcame it. For information on how to help bulimics, check the first article in this series about eating disorders, and visit the sites mentioned at the bottom of the post.

“The image that I used to see reflected on the mirror was more of a monster than of a young girl. I was in a state where nothing was more important to me than to “look good” and if that meant to be sick I wouldn’t care.

“Many years later and 100% recuperated, I value more how I feel than how I look and these pictures reflect, in one way or another, my physical and mental state. I have accepted and love myself the way I am; I respect my body and take care of it like a temple.

“Rather than looking perfect, I value the fact that I can run or walk for an hour without getting exhausted or losing my breath. I value more the fact that my endurance has increased incredibly and that I have fulfilled successfully the physical challenges that I have set out. When I thought I couldn’t any more, I could…”

- Rosa Acosta [3]

“It's hard to say where my addiction began. I would have to say sometime in middle school. That's when I began to hate my body. I started off skipping meals and working out off and on. By the time I got into high school, my eating disorder became my life. By my freshman year, no one recognized me. I dropped a few sizes and I didn't even notice it till my friends began to talk. I went from a size 6 to a size 2. When I looked in the mirror, all I saw was fat. I could of sworn that I gained 50 pounds.

“When I got really hungry, I would go into my kitchen and eat tons of food. I remember sitting on the kitchen floor at 2am and eating a loaf of bread, a box of gram crackers, a bag of chips and then drinking some orange juice to help it all go down. I would feel so guilty that I would go and throw it all up.

“This happened for a few months then it got even worse. I began to take laxatives and diuretics as meals and kept up the binging and purging. If I was really bad I would bring a heater into my room and crank it up. Plus I would wrap myself with a garbage bag and put on a few layers of sweat pants and sweaters. I lived like this all throughout my high school days.

“Bulimia, to me, is like a giant mental mind game. Everyday I woke up and I hated to look into the mirror. I didn't like the person I saw and I felt so guilty every time someone looked at me and said how healthy I was. I felt like such a liar. I used to work out for three hours a day. That was my life. I started to do triathlons so I would get to work out even more without people questioning me.”

- Anonymous [4]

“It is a very dangerous illness to have, because I carried on at school, I did my exams, I didn't do very well, but I did my exams, I'd go into university, I went abroad for a year, then, so I did carry on, meanwhile, I was secretly vomiting, my teeth were decaying, my period stopped for quite a while... and I unfortunately grew to learn to hate myself... it was on university actually that I realized I had to see somebody... and it was basically… I knew I had to stop, because I was living a dual life.

“There's absolutely nothing glamorous or exciting or positive at all about developing an eating disorder. All it does is… it's decaying your body, it shortens your life, you know, I still spend ridiculous amounts of money on my teeth, which are really in a bad way. It affects people's fertility, and I think really importantly, it affects one's identity and how one feels about oneself in the short life that we have here and it affects your relationships with family, friends, partners. For many many years I didn't have a relationship because I was too afraid to. Because I was living in this terribly self-destructive bubble.

“In terms of getting help, I think the difficulty is you can't force somebody to talk to somebody, especially with an illness like this, because you're living in denial, and for me there was a huge shame about it, terrible shame, it’s sort of the ultimate… it's grotesque, you know, people don't want to know about your disfunctioning, whereas, you just want to be normal, you want to fit in. And it's an addiction. So until you realize that there's something wrong in your behavior, it's not a way of surviving, it's the opposite, only then will you want to get help.”

- Liselle Terret, who was 38 at the time of the interview, was bulimic from age 14 to 23. [5]

Come back tomorrow for the last article in this series: Media & The Way We See Ourselves.

More information and help center:

Survivor's Club

Addams Family: Creepy and Sweet

2010-05-31T17:15:00.003-04:00

Mixing gothic elements in a social satire, The Addams Family series may have had a short life when it was first aired between 1964 and 1966, but its afterlife has been proven eternal so far.

The series was based on the characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams for the New Yorker magazine, which was about an eccentric and rich family who lives surrounded by elements from the gothic imagery and is blissfully unaware of how different they are and the effect their bizarre lifestyle has on others.

The original single panel cartoons were published between 1938 and 1988, when Charles Addams died. In its posthumous success, the series was succeeded by TV specials in 1972, 1977, and 1998, 2 animated series in 1973 and 1992, 2 movies in which Morticia and Gomez were played by Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia in 1991 and 1993, and this year, a stop-motion movie is being produced by Illumination Entertainment.

The 30-minute episodes are very funny with their ironic tirades, and for our present standards, have a light innocent sense of humor. Dialogues like this one are very common:

Gomez: “What news, Tish?” Morticia: “The police are on their way over. Oh! Good Heavens, the neighbors will think we committed some crime.” Gomez: “Does make me feel like a fraud.” - (from the episode Wednesday Leaves Home)

Basically the Addamses make fun of stereotypes that were usual in sitcoms of the time, showing the ‘perfect American family’, only in their case, it was a bit twisted.

Gomez Addams (John Astin) is the head of the family, always enthusiastic about his plans, madly in love with his wife, Morticia, a dedicated father, who loves playing of wreaking toy trains with his son Pugsley.

Morticia (Carolyn Jones) is the aristocratic mother and wife, loves gardening her poisonous, carnivorous plants, she is always kind with everyone, and is a devoted mother to her two children Pugsley and Wednesday.

The Addamses’ children are quite amusing: Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax) makes his parents worried from time to time, because of his bouts of being ‘different’, which means playing baseball and becoming a boy scout, among other weird pastimes. As for Wednesday (Lisa Loring), she is very charming, and loves playing with her beheaded dolls Marie Antoinette, Mary Queen of Scots, and Little Red Riding Hood. She also has a pet lizard called Lucifer.

Complementing the Addams Family are the characters Lurch (Ted Cassidy), the sinister butler, who loves playing harpsichord and speaks in monotones and grunts, Cousin Itt (Felix Silla), whose body is covered in head-to-foot hair and chirps like a bird, Thing (Ted Cassidy), the servant hand in a box, always ready to help, Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan), Morticia’s uncle, and Grandmama Addams (Blossom Rock), Gomez’s mother.

Much of the humor in the series is attributed to producer Nat Perrin, who was a close friend of comedian Groucho Marx and had previously worked as a screewriter for the Marx Brothers. There various subjects: politics, the legal system, Beatlemania, Hollywood, parenthood.

Below is one of their episodes, Wednesday Leaves Home:

Addams Family TV Series @ Wikipedia # Addams Family Cartoon @ Wikipedia # Addams Family Fan Site

Anorexia Nervosa: Illusionary Sense of Power

2010-05-31T16:29:00.004-04:00

Eating disorders are epidemical nowadays, but Anorexia Nervosa together with Bulimia Nervosa are the most common ones. Anorexia Nervosa is a disorder in which someone fasts for long periods of time in order to look thinner or as a means to feel in control of their lives. Those suffering from it select the kinds and amounts of food they eat, and they get so obsessed with becoming thinner, they don’t know when they went too far.

Basic Facts

Though it is thought that people suffering from anorexia often see a distorted image of themselves as being fat, that is not always true, as blogger Emily Troscianko, a former-anorexic, tells in her account, which completes this article. According to her, she used to focus her thinning goals on parts of her body, like her belly and thighs, ignoring the rest, and when once forced to focus on her whole body, she was shocked.

It is considered as warning signs that someone is suffering from Anorexia Nervosa: practicing self-starvation with weight loss, unusual sensitivity to cold, excessive fear of gaining weight, excessive facial/body hair for lack of protein, compulsive exercise, no menses or intermittent ones, and hair loss.

Also, unlike common knowledge, anorexics take excessive interest in food, are secretive or detached from the rest of the world, have little energy to do any extended physical or mental activity, though they feel hunger, they control it neurotically, and may justify their behavior as being a search for perfection. [1]

The numbers for Anorexia Nervosa are staggering:

1 in 150 girls of age 15 have Anorexia
About 4 in 100 people, between age 10 and 39 get Anorexia each year.
For every 10 women 1 men is anorexic, however the numbers among men have been increasing.
Anorexia has the highest death rate of any mental sickness. [2]

There are two kinds of Anorexia Nervosa: the restricting type, in which people take a few calories a day or only drink water, and the binge-eating/purging one, in which they eat something they feel they shouldn’t have or they binge and then to compensate, they workout excessively or vomit.

Living with Anorexia

The greatest difficulty in dealing with those suffering from Anorexia Nervosa, and of course, of several other mental sicknesses, is that they don’t realize how sick they are. Until something happens to draw their attention to the seriousness of their situation, they feel empowered, enjoying the fake sense of control and superiority over those who don’t act like them.

For Emily Troscianko, her breaking point was when she looked at herself in the mirror and, after 10 years of anorexia, noticed how the ball gown she wanted so much to wear, highlighted the “Dachau contours” of her “spindle arms and scrawny neck and bony bust”, which made her cry; and also when her mother, who was moving away with her boyfriend, told her plain and simple “your anorexia is not welcome at our new house.” [3]

Her mother, writer Sue Blackmore, commented about her desperate last act of trying to recover her daughter: “It was probably more like selfishness and straightforward honesty. I'd had enough of all this misery. The books always tell you to try to separate the anorexia from the person who is suffering from it. The anorexic will tell you that she is her anorexia; that she wouldn't be herself if she ate like other people do, as "fat" and "greedy" people do. I had never tried to follow the books' advice, but I guess that was somewhere in the back of my mind. I wanted my Emily back!” [4]

With the help of a college friend, Emily went to see a doctor, started a treatment, and persisted on the long bumpy way back to health. Sue’s desperate curt words worked to raise Emily’s awareness, but that may not be the best method for everyone. For ways of helping those who suffer from anorexia and other eating disorders, check the previous article.

Emily Troscianko keeps a blog on Psychology Today (Hunger Artist), where she shares the main events of her life while she was sick, her recovery process, and addresses the myths about Anorexia Nervosa. Here are two excerpts from the articles on the site:

“This meant that changing - living a ‘normal' life - was something that I not only believed I could never do: I believed I could never want to do it, ever. Why on earth would I want to give up the magnificent, all-eclipsing pleasure of my nightly meal of bread and boiled vegetables and chocolate on my own in bed for the ‘pleasures' other people claimed to find in other things? It was completely implausible that anything could replace that ecstasy of sucking a great mouth-filling lump of milk chocolate and then falling asleep a little before sunrise (in winter, at least).

“This is why I want to write this blog: because for so long, and with increasing conviction, I was so sure that I didn't want to be ‘better', as everyone always seemed to assume I must. I could see all the things that were wrong with how I was living, of course; I wasn't stupid. But they couldn't see all the things that were right about it, and unrelinquishable. I read all the anorexia self-help books, with case-studies of girls who got better and looked back on their old lives with the marvelling incomprehension of someone who's come back from the dead. But I always thought I was different.

“I knew, from the other parts of those books, that I had all the unglamorous symptoms the other girls had, and indulged in the same warped behaviours (who'd have thought all we anorexics would want masses of salt on absolutely everything?), but I kept on thinking that with me it was something more special, or at least something redeemed by the things it let me be: thin (so my difference from everyone else was unmissable), hard-working (nothing and no one else in my life to keep me from reading and writing), safe, untouchable.

“For me, it was a little war of attrition: gradually, over the years, enough things amassed that made staying the way I was seem less possible, until the constellation of chance and will power and deathly tiredness was at last enough to make me change.” [5]

“Whether you sometimes check the calorie count on the back of packets, or worry when you've missed a gym session, or wish you could still get into the jeans you used to love, or buy low-fat yoghurt - whether you read up on nutritional theory or just panic vaguely when you've had too much ice cream for pudding - there is anxiety there, there is a sense of being slightly out of control.

“The anorexic sees these people and sees weakness, sees hypocrisy and the failure to act consistently: she or he, by contrast, takes this feeling of fear and decides to deal with it, and controls food, drink, and exercise more or less perfectly, and can then feel more or less contented, and safe. When anything at all goes ‘wrong', though, and ‘control' is forsaken for an instant, everything threatens instantly to crumble.” [6]

Come back tomorrow for the article on Bulimia, and on Wednesday, for the closing one on Media’s influence on our image of ourselves.

More information and help centers:

ANAD # The Guardian article

Within Temptation: Line-up Changes & A New Album Coming

2010-05-30T17:09:00.006-04:00

Compelling delicate vocals and a flawless combination of loud guitars, symphonic strings and heavy beat are the trademarks of Dutch band Within Temptation, which is presently one of the most successful Symphonic Metal bands in the world.

Within Temptation was formed in 1996, after Sharon den Adel contributed vocals to a song of guitarist Robert Westerholt’s band, The Circle. Of the forming members only Jeroen van Veen, besides Robert and Sharon remain in the band to date.

That same year, they signed with a label, and in 1997 released the album Enter, which has some great songs, like Pearls of Light and Grace. At the time, Sharon’s vocals were accompanied by Robert’s grunts, something that became less common in more recent albums.

Within Temptation’s success grew exponentially, from main stage at Dynamo Open Air in 1998, a #3 album in 2002 (Mother Earth) and a #1 in 2004 (Silent Force) in their home country, several awards, conquering the US market in 2008, and the astonishing sum of 10 million albums sold worldwide.

The band has many popular songs: Stand My Ground, The Heart of Everything, Aquarius and Memories are only a few. But it’s been 3 years since their last studio album, and though there has been much talk about a new release coming out later this year, nothing is certain. In an interview in October 2009, Sharon said that the new album would be released by that time this year, “and don’t shoot me if it’s a bit later”, but things seem to be a bit complicated for the band now.

After many line-up changes, Within Temptation just went through another one: drummer Stephen van Haetregt, who was first a studio technician for the band, did his last show on last April 29 in Antwerp. However, they posted a message on their site on April 30 about the end of their Theater Tour, adding that “after taking a very small break we're going back into the studio. After doing this tour, we really can't wait to get back on the road, hopefully we can tell you a bit more about that soon.” So, maybe a new album will be coming up by the end of 2010 or early 2011.

While we wait for their new release, here is one of the moments of this year’s tour:

Source:

Within Temptation @ Wikipedia # Interview with Sharon den Adel

Eating disorders: A Desperate Search For Control

2010-05-30T16:07:00.004-04:00

The world is sick; not only nature but also people. Be that stress, ordinary sicknesses or those which aren’t officially recognized as such, like eating disorders, maybe all of us carry one form or another of sickness, either mental, physical or both.

This is the first in a series of articles about eating disorders, and how media, society and our present hectic way of life can destroy us from inside out.

First, here is some information on what are eating disorders:

The numbers are stunning. About 7 to 10 million women and 1 million men suffer from eating disorders in America, whatever their age, social class or ethnicity. The numbers throughout the world are equally distressing, and have been increasing.

The organization ANAD, whose site most of the contents of these articles about eating disorders are based on, reports that the most critical groups for developing the disorders are the one by the age of 20 and the one between the age of 16 and 20, which sum up to 86% and 43% of the cases respectively. Also the majority of the cases last from 1 to15 years, and there’s 50% of cure and 6% of death among them.

People who suffer from eating disorders have basically very low self-esteem and want to look thinner, either overall or certain parts of the body, even if in order to achieve that, they have to make the hardest sacrifices, such as spending the whole day without eating, eating only a few types of food, throwing up after eating, eating and not swallowing, etc. There are also cases in which people want to feel in control of their lives or dull inner pain.

Eating disorders cause many grave health problems, such as severe malnutrition, ruptured stomach, tooth/gum erosion, heart, kidney, and liver damages.

Despite all the harm it causes, there are few adequate programs and services to fight these disorders around the world, and few schools have programs to educate about the dangers, which is absurd when you take into account that most of those who develop them are still in school years.

Types of Eating Disorders

Anorexia Nervosa – people who suffer from this disorder spend long periods without eating, and when they do, seriously restrict the amount and kinds of food they eat. They may set aside a specific time of the day to eat and develop rituals for preparing food and eating. Contrary to common knowledge, not all of them have a distorted image of themselves as being fat, instead they tend to focus on parts of their bodies they want to be thinner. Some of them may practice severe fasting as a means to feel in control of their lives.

Bulimia – those who suffer from this disorder have constant periods of binge eating in which they eat excessive amounts of food in a short period of time, feeling unable to stop. Afterwards, they feel guilt or fear, and purge through vomiting, over-exercising or fasting.

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) or Obesity – about 30% of those who take part in weight loss programs are diagnosed for BED. It is present in 2% of the American population and is 1.5 times more common in women. Goals of the treatment include ceasing binge eating, improvement of concerns about weight and shape, weight loss, prevention of further weight gain, etc. Remission rates are high, about 50%, and the general projection is better than for those with bulimia nervosa.

Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) – less occurring disordered eating patterns, such as switching between anorexic and bulimic behaviors, not so often episodes of binging and purging, orthorexia (people who eat normal amounts of food, but select foods obsessively), anorexia nervosa but with regular menses, starvation without substantial loss of weight, repeatedly chewing and spitting out -without swallowing - large amounts of food.

How to Help Those with Eating Disorders

Don’t expect those suffering from eating disorders to talk about their difficulties, as they are often secretive about their ways, and think they are well. However eating disorders are an indirect way of crying for help; those who develop them are in terrible confusion and vulnerability. No matter how hard daily life is around them, it is important to remember that, and offer them love and patience, otherwise recovery becomes almost impossible.

Also brace yourself for confrontation, as your friend or family member may feel angry at your interference. Still, try to talk to them in private, have some evidence prepared to use for persuasion, always try to keep yourself calm and in a non-confrontational attitude, and remind them of your love, and how you can’t simply watch and do nothing. Don’t let any worries and fears keep you from addressing the matter.

Be careful not to use the talk for causing conflict. Express your worries, exemplifying with specific episodes, without placing shame and guilt on them. Don’t make use of simple solutions either, like “if you stop, it’ll be alright”, as that will only annoy them. Disorders aren’t something that one can wake up the next morning without. It took them a long time to get to it; it will take them a long way to recovery.

Then explain the kinds of diagnosis and treatment available, and either make clear that you will seek help or help them do so, if they are ready. Stress the importance of treatment, which is essential to assess the symptoms, provide correct diagnosis and find other medical problems involved, and also determine any other condition, like depression, requiring treatment. In case your friend or family member is reluctant to see a doctor, ask them to get a physical, and offer to make the appointment or go along on the first visit.

There are several types of treatment, and often a combination of several ones, like nutritional counseling, therapy and group support is used. This page has more information on all the types.

The process of recovery is long and strenuous. Besides keeping to treatment plans, family therapy sessions, healthy menus and meal plans, avoiding binges or purges, family and friends have to be prepared to deal with emotional outbursts, to support the person with love and praise, and to always value the achievements despite any slips.

It is important that those who are caring for the ones suffering from eating disorders, take some time for themselves to relax and recharge their batteries. Do whatever makes you feel better, even if for a few minutes a day, and don’t isolate yourself. In addition to keeping contact with friends, support groups are great places to interact with those who are living through the same challenge. It is at least a useful way to be aware that your suffering isn’t unique, and to learn new ways of supporting those who suffer from the disorder.

Also be yourself a good role model. Avoid dieting and negative comments about your own body, educate yourself about eating disorders, learn to listen quietly to your loved one’s concerns and feelings, and try not to criticize.

And finally, these are some actions that must be avoided at all costs:

Eat or avoid foods solely to accommodate the eating-disordered person
Make mealtimes a battleground
Monitor someone else's behavior for them (even if you are invited to)
Be the "food police"
Try to play therapist
Comment about someone's weight and looks [3]

The next part in this series of articles is about Anorexia Nervosa. It includes not only basic information and sites where to look for help and support, but also a very informative and an emotional account by blogger Emily Troscianko, who was anorexic for 10 years. This part will be published tomorrow.

Besides these two articles, there will be others about Bulimia Nervosa and the part of media in all this mess, which will be published in sequence.

More information and help centers:

ANAD # Eating Disorders Research # Eating Disorder Expert

Ronnie James Dio: The Heavy Metal Master Has Passed Away

2010-05-17T16:12:00.009-04:00

Ronnie James Dio, one of the creators of Heavy Metal, died yesterday, May, 16, at 7:45am of stomach cancer. Though this was the end of his struggle with this terrible disease, it is a great loss to the music world.

Aged 67, Ronnie James Dio had over 50 years of music career, and had taken part in some of the best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal bands of the 70's and 80's, Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio. Presently he had been a part of the band Heaven & Hell, which is the name of one of the albums Dio released with Black Sabbath in 1980.

Dio's unique tenor voice was strong, loud, thrilling, andperfect for the songs he used to sing about good and evil conflicts, such as Heaven and Hell, Rainbow in the Dark, and Time Machine. His performances were always fascinating and in his interviews, he was always kind and genial.

The most moving thing about his death is the amount of messages fellow musicians both young and old have written about him, which only say the best things about him. Here is a selection of them:

"I am at an absolute loss right now upon hearing that Ronnie has passed away... I swear to you he is one of the nicest human beings I have ever met, period. Many a night on that tour, Glen [Drover, then-MEGADETH guitarist] and myself would have amazing conversations with Ronnie about his career, etc. fully knowing he had probably told these stories 10,000 times to people and yet he answered every question I had with a big smile. I can recall so many times making eye contact with Glen sharing the exact same thought: 'Dude, I can't believe we are hanging with RONNIE JAMES DIO!!!!!'

"If you are lucky enough in your lifetime to actually meet one of your idols (let alone tour with them) and they turn out to be even nicer than you could have envisioned, that is something you would truly treasure. Lucky for me, I will cherish those memories forever." - Shawn Drover, Megadeth

***

"It is a very sad day today... I have lost a very dear friend.

"Ronnie was a true leader of heavy metal... an icon and a visionary... There will never be another like him.

"Ronnie gave me wisdom, and showed me great compassion when he was in ELF, all those years ago, when we were on tour together in my time in DEEP PURPLE. He was a beautiful soul, kind, considerate and a wonderful teacher.

"Some day I'll be bringing your microphone up there with me, and we'll sing a song, and share a Vindaloo together...

"I'll miss, you mate." - Glenn Hughes,former-Deep Purple/Black Sabbath

***

"Today the world has lost the greatest vocalist in the history of hard rock. He was also the nicest and warmest human being I have met in the music business.

"I had the good fortune to meet Ronnie on many different occasions throughout the years. He was always interested in what others had to say. He always listened. He never forgot a face and he would always have some wise words to impart. You always left his presence a little more enriched. He was always encouraging and he has been a tremendous inspiration in my life..." - Janne Jarvis, Warrior Soul

"Rest in peace, Ronnie James Dio... one of the greatest of all time.

"Looks like Dime [late PANTERA guitarist 'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott], Randy [Rhoads; late OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist], Cliff [Burton; late METALLICA bassist] and Bonzo [late LED ZEPPELIN drummer John Bonham] just scored the ultimate singer.

"This is one of the saddest days in metal ever." - Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater

***

"I've been in total shock; I just can't believe he's gone.

"Ronnie was one of the nicest people you could ever meet. We had some fantastic times together.

"Ronnie loved what he did, making music and performing on stage. He loved his fans so much. He was a kind man and would put himself out to help others.

"I can honestly say it's truly been an honor to play at his side for all these years.

"His music will live on forever.

"Our thoughts are with Wendy Dio [Ronnie's wife/manager] who stood by Ronnie until the end. He loved her very much.

"The man with the magic voice is a star amongst stars, a true professional.

"I'll miss you so much, my dear friend." - Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath

On last May 4, Ronnie James Dio issued the following statement for fans about the shows he had to cancel because of his health problems:

"I would like to voice my great disappointment on the cancellation of the HEAVEN & HELL summer tour. Wendy [Ronnie's wife/manager], my doctors and I have worked so hard to make it happen for all of you, the ones we care so much about, that this setback could be devastating, but we will not let it be. With your continued love and support, we will carry on and thrive. There will be other tours, more music, more life and much more magic."

Here are two moments, one from the past and one recent to remember him for. RIP.

Source: Blabbermouth

ReVamp: The Siren Has Returned

2010-05-16T10:58:00.005-04:00

Floor Jansen is back! Little over a year since After Forever broke apart, Floor Jansen has a new band, Revamp, whose album is due for May 31, 2010 in the UK and June 15, 2010 in the US. [1] [2]

Revamp’s sound is similar to that of Floor Jansen’s previous band, the classic Symphonic Metal band After Forever, maybe because besides the singer, she had the contribution of former-band mate keyboardist Joost van den Broek. Another contribution was that of producer, composer and musician Waldemar Sorychta who has worked with several bands, such as Lacuna Coil, Moonspell and Tristania.

Her working single is Head Up High, which has her traditional strong and compelling melodic vocals, a heavy beat and strings, and other great songs such as Fast Forward, Million and All Goodbyes Are Said, which were presented in a show at Bevrijdingsfestival Zwolle on May 5.

Though we are in a seemingly endless fad of vampires in pop culture worldwide, Floor Jansen explained that the band’s name is not about it: “ReVamp with the capital V is just for the looks. To me it means a new start, nothing with vampires no, I'm not into that stuff. ReVamp literally means 'Give new energy to something'. I found that very symbolic for my career. The word vamp also makes a sexy association with woman. Nothing sleazy, just sexy :-)” [3]

In another interview, Floor Jansen spoke firmly about the differences between her former and new bands: “Revamp is not After Forever II. The instrumental and vocal versatility have remained diverse, but Revamp is heavier, less orchestral. I often change my opera voice with my rock voice, and there is more emphasis on guitars and less on the keys. Revamp is more direct, more Soilwork direction.” [4]

Revamp’s line-up is completed with drummer Matthias Landes (Dark Fortress), bassist Jaap Melman (Dreadlock Pussy, Pendejo), guitarists Jord Otto and Arjan Rijnen (Pendejo) and keyboardist Ruben Wijga (Insomnia). The band is scheduled to do a series of shows in the next few months.

Check the videos below to see Floor Jansen singing her soul out with Revamp:

Revamp's Official site

Tiarra: Light & Darkness from the Land of Dracula

2010-05-16T10:45:00.009-04:00

Tiarra is a Romanian band from Bucharest, whose sound is both potent and melodious. Formerly a Black Metal band, their sound now is more Progressive and Gothic Metal.

They have a unique combination of Metal instruments and strings, due to the playing of their cellist Iulia, and violinist Diana. Also, all the musicians have academic training on classical music, which makes their sound very rich and fascinating.

Their main vocalist, Anda, has a delicate voice, which contrasts as light to darkness with the tenor vocals of Alex (Indianu). The other members who complete their special line-up are keyboardist Johann, guitarist Tudor, bassist Adi and drummer Gabi.

Tiarra underwent several line-up changes since their formation in 2004. The following year they released their first CD with 6 songs, which was called Drama Per Musica, including the excellent songs To the End of the Light and Dying Soul.

It took them 3 years to release their second album, Post Scriptum, in 2008. In an interview, Alex explained what happened then: “Mainly it was the changes in our line-up. We took the time of finding our identity along with a sound we can call our own. We are still working on that, but I think we have the best possible formula member-wise.

“Another reason is that both albums were recorded with our own resources, which I have to admit are very limited. Even though Omvina, the label that produced "Post Scriptum" helped a lot by taking care of mastering, production and world-wide distribution, it still took us a long while to do the actual recordings, which were already finished by the time the label approached us.” [1]

Tiarra is currently doing some shows in their homeland, and intends to take their act to other European countries, but in order to do that there some obstacles to overcome, as Alex comments: “If in the rest of Europe to make money as a young metal band is quite hard, in Romania it actually is impossible. Here, when you draw the line you discover that you actually have to pay to do music.

“Even if we have five years of existence as a band, we still are at the beginning of our career. If you add this to the fact that Romania is a grey area on most of the strong booking agencies' maps you realize that it is hard for us to have such opportunities.

“To do a tour on our own, without being invited and supported by some good promoters is virtually impossible. But we hope this will change in time we succeed in making a name for ourselves. We will most definitely welcome any opportunity to come and perform anywhere around Europe and we would be honored to accept any such invitation.”

Let’s root for them!

Below are two live videos:

Source: http://www.tiarra.ro/biografie.php

Tiarra's Official Site # MySpace Profile

VNV Nation and Epica Memes

2010-05-08T20:38:00.004-04:00

I've posted two new artworks on my Deviant Art gallery. These are meme-like graphics for VNV Nation and Epica with their biographies, plus lyrics excerpts and pictures. It's a practical and quick way of learning about these two amazing bands.

Click on the pictures to view them.

Camille Rose Garcia: Weird Beauty with Social Criticism

2010-05-08T19:59:00.007-04:00

The Lowbrow American artist Camille Rose Garcia is responsible for some of the most creative and intriguing alternative dark art out there. She has recently released an Alice In Wonderland book with her illustrations, which give a fresh acidic twist to the classic tale.

Though she graduated from Art school, for the first few years Camille Rose Garcia didn’t want anything to do with art, preferring to join a punk rock band. But then after seeing works by the Clayton Brothers and Mark Rydens, she decided to start all over, as theirs styles were similar.

She and other alternative artists from Los Angeles define the Lowbrow style, which is an art movement that started in the late 1970’s, which have a lot of influence of comics visuals, street culture, punk rock, and other subcultures.

Describing her way of doing art, Camille Rose Garcia said: “I think I have always approached art making in the same way as a lot of my favorite bands.

“Bands like The Clash and the Dead Kennedy's make this really rad music that in some cases sounds really fun, but still has a social commentary…

“I always wanted to do art that people could relate to but also carry some social relevance. Like in art school it wasn't really about commentary, or if it was, it was really boring, so I really just wanted to create art that was not only super fun to look at, and if you’re 5 or 15 and hated art your still could like, and relate to it and understand and would still carry that whole social political commentary, which is kinda the same approach that a lot of my favorite bands were taking.” [1]

Camille Rose Garcia really has some strong points of view about present society. Commenting on global warming, the break of economy and other current problems, she had some provocative thoughts to share:

“To me it just seems that things are getting worse and worse faster and faster. As far as the whole machine of keeping people scared, they don’t rebel if they are scared, it’s just part of the control mechanism.

“Then there is all the stuff that is real. I don’t really think all the terror warnings are real, but the global warming is real, the huge deficit is real, the end of oil is real, all those things are real. But the terror alerts, I don't know how much of that is real and it’s an easy way for our leaders to blame them.

“I just think, on a very basic personal, spiritual level if every person would take some responsibility, ya know, as far as being cool with others and not being an asshole. That’s the only real revolution that I think is possible at this point.”

Besides having worked as a free lancer illustrator for magazines, she has published three books: The Saddest Place on Earth, (Last Gasp, 2006), The Magic Bottle: A BLAB! Storybook, (Fantagraphics, 2006) and Tragic Kingdom (Last Gasp, 2007). She also has works in permanent collections of LACMA and the San Jose Museum of Art.

Below are three of her artworks. Visit her site for more.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Rose_Garcia

http://www.hifructose.com/the-blog/494-behind-the-scenes-with-camille-rose-garcia.html

Camille Rose Garcia Official Site

New Art On My Gallery

2010-05-01T18:27:00.003-04:00

In the last few weeks, I had taken a break from updating this blog, but today, as promised, I'm resuming work here, so be sure to visit it every weekend for new posts. Also check the new index pages for lists of all the posts on this blog. Some of them have been expanded and altered too.

Besides that, I've also updated my art gallery at the Deviant Art site, with the manipulations below. Please let me know your thoughts about them. Best wishes!

Spirit Orbiting The Earth

Ghost At Sea

Apocalyptica Wallpaper

Dark Angel & Northern Lights

Visit my Deviant Art gallery for more.

May Suggested Reading: Greywalker by Kat Richardson

2010-05-01T17:19:00.004-04:00

The Greywalker novel by Kat Richardson is the first in a series of five books, the latest is due to be released in August 2010, which has a great paranormal detective story.

It tells the story of a private investigator in Seattle, Harper Blaine, who is clinically dead for about two minutes, and after that experience, she develops the ability to interact with the creatures of the Grey.

The Grey is the dimension between the physical and spiritual worlds, in which vampires, witches, ghosts and other magical creatures dwell.

Harper Blaine has to go on with her life though, and she is immediately faced with two cases, one of a missing student, who turns out to be a vampire, and of a mysterious artifact, which is a sort of time bomb. Though she is still groping with this new reality and her abilities, she is the only one who can keep the worst from happening.

The Greywalker is written on a first-person narrative, with terse sentences, but that doesn’t compromise the story, which is very interesting and rich. Kat Richardson’s writing seems to have improved a lot since then, having acquired a more fluid rhythm, as far as the excerpt of the last installment of the Greywalker series shows.

Kat Richardson told in an interview about how she created the character Harper Blaine. She said Harper was originally a male clichéd character of a tough PI with blazing guns, who never complained and never got hurt. She then started a long process of shaping the character into something more believable.

She said: “Making the character female was some immediate relief, but it still had that ‘man with breasts’ problem. The former military or spiritual martial artist trope has been done to death, too, so those were not options for developing the character and breaking her out of the cliché, so I considered the women I knew who were competent and physically tough and drew Harper based on them.

“I let her go ahead and acknowledge her discomforts, but do the job anyhow—just like most of the women I know.” [1]

The author Kat Richardson seems to be a very interesting and unconventional person. She has a degree in Magazine Journalism from California State University, and presently she lives in Seattle with her husband in a sailboat.

She has worked as a writer and editor in the computer industry, and has also written RPGs, film scripts and computer games plots and has experience in theater and music. She is a supporter of the California Ferret Legalization, which aims at making it legal to own ferrets as domestic pets, instead of considering the ownership illegal and the animals as wildlife ones.

About her working process, Kat Richardson said “I'm not a seat-of-the-pants sort of writer. Since the stories are structured like Mysteries, that makes timing and placement of clues very important, so I work out a lot of the details in the outline before I get a lot of the writing done and that eliminates a lot of heavy revision or re-writing later. At least so far it has.” [2]

Check the sites below for more information on the book and the author.

More info:

Barnes & Noble Greywalker Page # Kat Richardson's Site - About Greywalker & About the Author

A World of Fairies: Selina Fenech

2010-05-01T17:15:00.005-04:00

Selina Fenech is a very talented Australian illustrator, who specialized in pictures of fairies. She has always had an interest in mythical creatures, and as a child loved illustrated fantasy books.

A professional artist since age 23, Selina Fenech had her artworks sold all over the world, and published in books and magazines. In her site, her beautiful illustrations can be acquired as posters, stationery, t-shirts and other products.

Her working medium is mainly watercolor and acrylics on paper, but she has also used other media such as inks, pencils and even digital painting.

Selina Fenech describes her passion for her work on her website: “I want to live my life like it's a fairy tale, and I want my artwork to make other people feel the same. I love that for a person of any age my fairies can bring back the magical memories and feelings of adventure from their childhood. I hope that they also create new memories and dreams of magic!

“As an artist, I paint because of a true, driving need to create beauty and magic. It is an inner need which I fulfill by putting brush to paper. But there is no magic there until it is shared, no joy to be found in the forms and colours until it is seen by another.” [1]

She has also published several articles on drawing and painting techniques, which are available on her site.

Here is a selection of Selina Fenech’s artworks. Visit her site for more.

Selina Fenech’s Official Site

Mystic Sounds: Irfan

2010-05-01T17:06:00.006-04:00

The Bulgarian band Irfan is a great Ethereal band, with a sound reminiscent of Qntal and Dead Can Dance. Using instruments traditional to the music of Turkey, Egypt, Greece and the Balkans, Irfan’s sound is a blend of the Eastern, the Medieval and the Modern.

Talking about the band's mysterious and dark sound, vocalist Denitza Seraphimova said that “We believe that music is an act of the spirit… The vibration of the sound and the music has the "magic" power to create new worlds, to open gates to other space and dimensions. But this is also very dangerous because creating spiritual music is a big responsibility that needs a clear mind, intention and pure heart.” [1]

This concept begins in the band’s name. Irfan is a Sufi term from Persian and Arabian, which means gnosis, mystic knowledge and revelation.

The musicians of Irfan, Denitza, plus Ivailo, Kalin and Kiril joined together in 2002, and had their first album released in 2003, with the band’s name, and their second in 2007, named Seraphim. The line-up is made of Denitza Seraphimova vocals, Ivailo Petrov - programming, strings, Kalin Yordanov - vocals, percussion, Peter Todorov – percussion and Yasen Lazarov - keyboards, woodwind.

They have already done soundtracks for a Bulgarian documentary and a movie, and they have played all over Europe.

One of the interesting things about the Irfan musicians is that all of them work with archeology, history and culture, and have side projects as musicians. They also like to experiment with old folklore music and instruments like the daz, bodhran and tamboura.

As for the vocals, the songs seldom have any lyrics, they prefer to vocalize sounds in a Cocteau Twins-like way. When they do, the lyrics are in Church Slavonic, Latin and Medieval Spanish.

Their process of composition is very democratic. Denitza described it as “It is a common and collective process. In the beginning one of us (mainly Ivailo and Kiril) brings a primary idea and then all of us work in the building of the composition.” [1]

Throughout Europe they often play in Goth Festivals like Summer Darkness, and also Folk Festivals. Talking about the way their music seems to attract people from so many different cultural backgrouns, Denitza said: “We believe that the message of our music is universal and that it is for everyone who could understand it with his heart nevertheless his language, color, religion or music stream and preferences.” [2]

Check the videos below for samples of their fascinating music.

Source: Wikipedia Irfan # Irfan MySpace Profile

Natives in America: The Struggle of the Lakota Sioux

2010-04-26T20:54:00.007-04:00

Lakota Sioux Flag

I’ve recently watched an interview with Twilight: New Moon Native American actor Chaske Spencer, in which he talks about the hardships the Lakota Sioux people have been facing in the US, and his own experience living in reservations.

Before watching that interview, in which he talks frankly about delinquency, drugs, alcohol and prejudice being a constant in the lives of the Native Americans, I had no idea how bad their life conditions were. I’ve done a little research on the main points he raises in the interview, and I’d like to share them with you.

Oppression & Poverty

According to the interactive world map on the Indigenous Peoples Issues & Resources site (image above), there are Indigenous Peoples all over North America, who often live below poverty level, with serious social, health, educational and developmental problems.

What is the origin of such problems? Chaske Spencer draws attention to an important point, when he says that “When you take a conquered people, and you take their religion right away, and tell them to be ashamed of themselves, then it starts a pattern... And the cycle of that, I believe is... you have a generation of people that are very ashamed of their culture.. and you have a lot of... self-esteem issues, and... that's when alcohol takes place, drug addiction and abuse…”

Recently it was reported that a student at a South Dakota school won’t be allowed to dress in his Lakota traditional dress for graduation because: "We are a district school, an open-enrollment school. We're not a Native American school," [Superintendent Lawrence Jaske] said. "You have to respect the people from this area. They pay the taxes. We don't get money from Pine Ridge. So the tradition here is cap and gown. That's in the handbook. That's what we'll follow." And that when 95% of the school population is made of Native Americans.

And what kind of “scandalous” clothes that would so disrespect non-Native American tax payers are those? The clothes consist of: “ribbon shirt with beaded cuffs and armbands, his beaded moccasins and his medallion, his eagle fan, his feather and his beaded medicine bag.”

So, in order to keep a school tradition of caps and gowns, a student has to set aside his wish of celebrating his achievement as a member of his people, and at the same time honor them. O-K... Luckily others don’t agree with that, and he still may wear his traditional clothes at the graduation, as he should.

Then there’s the poverty issue, which is maybe even worse than the lack of respect for their culture. In the interview, Chaske Spencer mentions visiting the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations, both of the Lakota Sioux people.

Most of the Pine Ridge reservation area is located within two counties listed as some of the poorest regions of the US, the Shannon (2nd poorest) and the Jackson (23rd poorest) in South Dakota. As for the Rosebud reservation, it is located in the Todd County, which is the 5th poorest in the US. [1]

This is what Pine Ridge and Rosebud look like:

On Google Maps there’s no date for when those pictures were taken, and they only show the view from the highways. In the videos at the bottom of the post, there are detailed images of the people’s awful housing conditions.

Chaske Spencer commented on the government help the Lakota Sioux, and the Native peoples in general, have been receiving, and the long-term ineffective results it has: "...It's funny that we depend on the government, but the government set it up [the water system at the Sioux reservation], so we have to depend on them... it's a vicious cycle, it's almost like a drug, you know. The drug dealer gives you something, gives you a taste and you want more and more, and you try to get off but you can't."

On January, 2010, the Cheyenne River region faced one of the worst winters ever, in which over 3,000 power lines were damaged due to ice storms.

And as the 10,000 inhabitants depend on the electricity transmitted across hundreds of empty miles to run pumps, ignition modules and heaters, they were left without it, and are still living in precarious conditions.

The local water system is totally outdated and would require US$ 65 million to be restored, which is something very difficult to raise from the federal government. [2] [3]

Another comment from Chaske Spencer’s interview shocked me, but after some googling, I’ve found out it is even worse than that. He says: "Someone gave me a text telling me about how the suicide rate for Native teens on the Pine Ridge reservation is up to 85%. I couldn't believe that..."

Actually the teenage suicide rate on Pine Ridge is 150% higher than the US national average. The unemployment rate is 85%, and 97% of the population lives under poverty level. Some other stunning numbers are:

“The infant mortality rate is the highest on that continent and is about 300% higher than the U.S. national average.
More than half the Reservation's adults battle addiction and disease. Alcoholism, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and malnutrition are pervasive.
The rate of diabetes on the Reservation is reported to be 800% higher than the U.S. national average. Recent reports indicate that almost 50% of the adults on the Reservation over the age of 40 have diabetes.
As a result of the high rate of diabetes on the Reservation, diabetic-related blindness, amputations, and kidney failure are common.
The tuberculosis rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation is approximately 800% higher than the U.S. national average.
A Federal Commodity Food Program is active but supplies mostly inappropriate foods (high in carbohydrate and/or sugar) for the largely diabetic population of the Reservation.” (check this site for detailed information on the Lakota Sioux life conditions)

Chaske Spencer gives more details about his personal experience growing up in reservations:

"I would go to parties when I was 13, 12, and there were stabbings, there were shootings, and I thought that was the normal thing... until I went to a different school, and went to a party there and I found out that that's not how life is."

Melanie McBee, an Oglala Lakota who lives in Pine Ridge, gives a poignant account:

Alcoholism, addiction, violence, and suicide predominate in this once tranquil place… These people...MY PEOPLE were committing a slow suicide by the huge amounts of alcohol they were consuming… Many of these families are living without necessities like running water, electricity, sewer, heat--even food, diapers, and formula. Despite these things--they somehow always seem to find the money to drink, or to buy a can of hair spray to huff, or a can of paint to sniff. [4]

Her account complements the information of the NY Times article, published in December, 2009, describing the growth of gangs in Pine Ridge, which mirrors those of big cities in all its worse aspects. [5]

Perhaps the saddest thing about those lost boys mimicking the ‘gangstas’ who are their idols, is the utter loss of identity it shows. The Native Americans have a rich culture, with powerful and respectful personalities, from who they should draw strength, if only they hadn’t been brought so low. The same goes for the African Americans and Latin Americans they copy.

Then again, lack of identity is an epidemic nowadays. Who do all of us, the young, have to look upon? Where do we draw our strength from? Who are our idols and what are they doing?

Those we have to mirror on are as lost as we are, even those who are older than us. We listen to their songs, which talk about despair, hardships and looking endlessly for a way out, and that’s the sort of comfort we have. There has to be more than this for all of us.

Taking action to help the Lakota Sioux

In the last few months since the January blizzards incident, the Cheyenne River region were given some help by the government and charities to repair the damage caused by the weather, and tackle some of their most serious social problems.

The One Spirit non-profit has been one of them, and it sponsors several local programs, from food distribution to fuel assistance and bed donations in the region. They are constantly in need of support, so visit their site to know more about their work and for ways to help. [6]

Chaske Spencer’s project takes on a more political approach, drawing awareness to the urgent need to give a voice to Native Americans.

According to the mission statement on the site, its purpose is to “create awareness of the current issues and conditions; create alternatives that promote dignity, justice, unity, and accountability and take action that supports the creation of these alternatives.”

Chaske talked about his reasons for starting the project: "The one thing that really made me want to do this with the Global Shift/Shift Power to the People, was that I had so many experiences with...my own people, Natives... they're the underdogs, people who don't have a voice... Giving a voice to someone who needs help...

I've been in a place where I needed help, and luckily someone else was there to help me... and being blessed with Twilight, you can be all about limo[usine] rides and meeting famous people, but that doesn't do anything for me... it's not what the bigger picture is, what can you do with the medium, what can you do to help people… And I do it for reasons… it feels good to give back, but also I'm on a service of some sort, not just this useless actor sitting around..."

To take part in his project, you can use this form to petition the government for improvements on the Lakota Sioux living conditions. For non-US citizens, the site also has the option of sending a digital letter to the White House.

Finally, Chaske describes his own way of helping, which is a great advice to anyone who wants to start doing something to improve his city and his country: "How I try to help change and make a difference is just talk to people, see if you can make synergies and get help, and take one step at a time… You can start a circular ripple effect."

Below are the videos of Chaske Spencer’s interview, and others with more information on how the Lakota Sioux have been living.

If there’s anything in your district, city and country that you think should be improved, look for ways to draw attention to it. Don’t allow it to go on, expecting others to take action for you.

Even the work of a small group of people in a short period of time can effect some change, but the joint effort of many over a long period of time, doing whatever they can, little by little, will certainly change the face of the world, just as it has already been done.

MIPtalk.com interviews Chaske Spencer from Brad Rowe on Vimeo.

Entwine: Melodic Gothic Metal

2010-04-26T20:42:00.005-04:00

The Finnish Entwine is a Gothic Metal band with a very melodic sound, and vocals that despite being quite unpretentious, fit perfectly into the heavy and sometimes raw sound of the band.

Entwine started out as a Death Metal project of drummer Aksu Hanttu, guitarist Tom Mikkola and bassist T. Taipale in 1995. By the time they released their first album, The Treasures Within Hearts, in 1999, their sound had changed dramatically to a more melodic metal orientation.

The current singer, Mika Tauriainen, joined the band in the same year, and has become the voice by which Entwine’s sound is identified. The other members of the band are: Jaani Kähkönen (guitar), Joni Miettinen (bass), Aksu Hanttu (drums), and Tom Mikkola (guitar).

Their latest release is Painstained, about which guitarist Jaani Kähkönen commented that “this time we were able to combine all of the elements we have had during the last six years or so. I also had to mention that this time we had probably the best producer in Finland, Hiili Hiilesmaa. We cannot underestimate his contribution for this album. He’s so professional yet really easygoing.” [1]

Also Tom Mikkola said about the album: “Painstained contains some of the heaviest stuff we've ever written but at the same time you can find really mellow atmospheres, so there are contrasts between and even within the songs which is a good thing.” [2]

This will be the first album the band releases throughout Europe, as their label has recently opened an office in the UK. Jaani talked also about the current state of Entwine and its members:

“Everyone else but Mika is working or studying at the moment. It is extremely difficult to make a living in the music business. Especially in Finland where there is quite a low population. The amount of gigs we are able to do is limited. Actually I’m studying music and media management so I’ll probably be working in the business also in the future. I mean if I stop playing some day.” [3]

I’ve selected two videos of Entwine. Enjoy!

Source: Entwine Biography

Book Review: The Dark Reaches by Kristin Landon

2010-04-10T18:54:00.004-04:00

3rd part in a science fiction trilogy by Kristin Landon, The Dark Reaches is the story of a period in the future in which Earth has been dominated by intelligent machines called The Cold Minds that enslaved humans. Those who managed to flee, colonized planets called The Hidden Worlds.

In a trip through space, pilot Linnea Kiaho is contacted telepathically by humans living on Earth, who are seeking help against the Cold Minds. Because of the shock caused by the contact, she is separated from her partner Ian sen Paolo, and when she finally joins him, her only thought is to go with her partner to their rescue.

Together they will find a secret which may either save the Hidden Worlds or destroy it.

Kristin Landon has created a very clever and enticing future time, with some interesting concepts.

One of these is the neural and physical connection the pilots have to their ships, which sustain them during the journeys, and which they control directly with their minds, experiencing the trip with all their body, requiring them to curb their emotions so that the brutal effects of the voyage through space won’t affect them.

The author said that her favorite scene in the book was “when Linnea and her companions must hide from Cold Minds robotic probes aboard an abandoned spaceship. I'm proud of the trick Linnea comes up with to hide them—but the Cold Minds are thorough searchers. . .”

As an advice for fledgling writers, she says: “Work hard on writing the best book you can. Get feedback from people you trust, and be ready to spend whatever time and effort it takes to make your work the best it can be. A lucky break, a chance to get your work in front of the right pair of eyes, won't get you anywhere if the work isn't worth reading.” [1]

Kristin Landon has been a fan of science fiction since childhood. She has a degree in Chemistry and has worked as a research lab technician for several years before taking up writing.

Find out more about The Dark Reaches novel and her other books on her site. An excerpt, which gives a good idea of what awaits the reader can be found here.

Book Review: Darkness Calls by Marjorie Liu

2010-04-10T18:37:00.004-04:00

Darkness Calls is the 2nd book in the Hunter Kiss series, which starts with Iron Hunt. It continues telling the story of demon hunter Maxine Kiss, who must now rescue her lover from an army of religious zealots.

Maxine Kiss is descendant from a line of demon hunters, and she inherited from her mother five demon protectors, which camouflage as tattoos throughout her body during the day.

Her lover, Grant, is a former-priest who uses music to control any living creature, and runs a homeless shelter in Seattle. The previous book revealed that he is the last Lightbringer, descendant from a race of otherworldly creatures who have lived on Earth for ages.

The Avatars, other such creatures, were their enemies, and their remnants thought them extinct until they found Grant. Throughout the book, they try to kill Maxine Kiss, to keep her from defending Grant.

In order to save Grant, Maxine Kiss will have to unleash her darkest powers, risking losing herself in the attempt.

Marjorie Liu has published her first fantasy book in 2005, and she has written over 10 books, including some X-Men novels. The next installment of the Hunter Kiss series is due in July 2010.

About the Darkness Falls book she has commented that: “Darkness calls is about Maxine's journey to understand this force that she was born with, that's inside of her, that is so frightening to others in a way... it's frightening to her, but for those who realize that she was born with this, it terrifies them.

“Years ago, there was another hunter who was born, who exhibited these similar traits, a similar power within her and she almost destroyed the world.

“And so now, thousands of years later, here's another hunter, Maxine, who is exhibiting this same power, this same darkness. Certain signs are coming, she's marked on her face with a symbol, and for those who recognize that symbol, and recognize this darkness, it terrifies them, they don't know what's coming, all they know is it's going to be bad, and she is very dangerous.” [1]

Marjorie Liu is a major in East Asian Languages and Cultures, and a minor in Biomedical Ethics, and also a Law graduate. She has worked previously in the US Embassy in Beijing, before becoming an author.

Learn more about her work and her amazing novel in the sites mentioned below.

Darkness Falls Book Page Marjorie Liu's Official Site Darkness Falls Excerpt

Charlemagne: 88-year-old Christopher Lee’s Metal Project

2010-03-21T19:29:00.002-04:00

That Sir Christopher Lee, the British 88-year-old actor, is a living legend is beyond question. In his long career he has played some of pop culture’s most iconic characters: Dracula, Saruman and Count Dooku in Star Wars.

His voice is unique, vibrant, strong and ominous, and he has provided the voice for several games like Lord of The Rings: Battle For Middle Earth, Kingdom Hearts, and animations such as Valhalla, The Last Unicorn, The Corpse Bride, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Years ago he has already contributed with the bands Rhapsody (Magic of the Wizard’s Dream) and Manowar, and Inner Terrestrials, now, he has a new Symphonic Metal project, Charlemagne, in which he, accompanied by a group of talented musicians and a presenter, tells the story of one of the world’s most important historical figures.

In an interview on You Tube, Sir Christopher Lee says that: “It's fascinating for me, that at this stage of my life, I suddenly find that people are beginning to look upon me as a Metal singer... And judging... from the huge number of hits on the internet… everybody is very excited about this, I certainly am, but it's very unexpected."

"So to my surprise and indeed great pleasure, I suddenly found that there seems to be another string to my bow, and now we shall wait and see.”

Sir Christopher Lee says that he descends from Charlemagne through his mother’s family Carandini, but that’s just a coincidence and not the reason he has decided to start this project.

As far as what is already on the internet, the songs are powerful and well done, and the work is reminiscent of another music & storytelling album, the Rick Wakeman’s classic King Arthur & The Knights of The Roundtable. As for Sir Christopher Lee’s act, he’s amazing like always, with his singular voice and his decades of theatrical experience.

If you like Symphonic Metal bands like Leaves’ Eyes, Battlelore, Blind Guardian and others that mix legends from the past and great heavy melodious sounds, check it out.

For the record, Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne was a revolutionary king. He ruled the region that now comprises Germany, France, North of Spain, Belgium and Netherlands, for 46 years, between 768 and 814CE.

He had a great importance in the history of Europe, not only because he unified several regions, but because he tried to bring back some of the Ancient wisdom, by recovering Greek and Roman texts, he promoted the exchange of knowledge between cultures, scholars from all over Europe went to work for him, and at a time when most noblemen were illiterate, he himself studied and had his children and grandchildren study as well. His greatest frustration was that he never actually learned how to write.

Because of all that, the period of his reign is known as Caroligian Renaissance.

To know more about Christopher Lee’s project, Charlemagne, watch these videos, one with an excerpt from the album and the other of his interview, and visit the MySpace profile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Lee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne

http://www.myspace.com/charlemagnemusical

Phillip Straub: Pushing The Limits Of Concept Art

2010-03-21T19:20:00.001-04:00

Phillip Straub is a very talented illustrator, with over 16 years of experience in the games, film and publishing industries. Presently he has been working as concept artist for Warner Brothers, and he has already worked for other big companies such as DC Comics, Mattel and EA.

As one of the founding members of the CG Society, Phillip Straub is responsible for judging in illustration competitions. He said that when he does that “the most important aspect in an image to me personally is originality in concept. I’m drawn to images that have a strong idea/story and images that play with metaphors or symbols. Now, with the advent of digital technology technical proficiency has new meaning- and while there are myriad of technically rendered images out there because of the great range of tools, many have little soul.” [1]

And that’s one of the things he tries to accomplish in his works, Straub focuses on invoking an emotional response from his images through composition, color, light and subject matter.

He takes inspiration from several different artists like “the Hudson River School painters - Church and Bierdstadt, orientalists like Gerome, Alma Tadema, and Bouguereau, and Michael Whelan.

As a Concept Art teacher, Phillip Straub says he gets “a great joy sharing the knowledge I’ve tried to gather over the years with others. Really, there are very few things that I find more rewarding than helping someone grow as an artist or even as an overall individual.“

He is the author of an amazing graphic novel called Utherworlds, whose pages can be viewed here. In a recent interview Phillip Straub has described it:

“The basic idea is – All thought is alive – each hope, fear, and memory is a part of the whole we call the universe. Every living creature contributes in their own unique way to the balance of positive and negative energy in the world. This energy is channeled to the Realms of Nightmares and Dreams, a visual manifestation of all thought energy that is located far in the depths of the universe.

“For eons a balance has been maintained between the positive and the negative but, the balance has shifted and the natural order has been disrupted. Sentient beings have lost their way and have given into the temptation of negative thought. Hope, empathy, and truth are being challenged by the growing forces of greed, hatred, and lust. War, global climate change, and industrialization grow with each passing day unchecked. It is true – the universe has reached a tipping point. A time of no return is nearly upon us all. Those who are open – those with true presence and a belief in hope are called upon to reclaim and restore the balance.”

Below there is a selection of his works, the first two are from the Utherworlds novel. Check his site for more.

http://www.ballisticpublishing.com/books/utherworlds/showcase.php

www.philipstraub.com/

Echoterra: Progressive Melodies

2010-03-21T19:13:00.002-04:00

Echoterra is a great Symphonic Metal band formed by Avian’s guitarist Yan Leviathan and Jonah W in 2008, in the US.

Their music has the beats and melodies of other female-fronted bands like Nightwish and Imperia, but with a Progressive Metal twist, and both the former vocalist Suvi Virtanen and the new one Melissa Ferlaak have beautiful, if not very potent, voices.

They have only one album, The Law of One, and one EP, In Your Eyes, released to date, but they have announced a new release by early 2011.

In a recent interview, Leviathan talked about his reasons for forming Echoterra. He said that:

“I enjoy many kinds of music and I wanted a different outlet for the songs that I had written that didn’t quite fit Avian’s style. Jonah W and I are very good friends and I think that we make a very good writing team and the debut Echoterra CD is a good reflection of that.

“Unlike Avian where I write all of the music and the majority of the lyrics, Jonah composes the symphonic versions of the songs and I then re-arrange them a bit and write the guitar, bass and drum parts. It also allows me to write lyrics that I would not write for Avian; in fact, I make a conscience effort to write from a female’s point of view since we have a female singer.”

Talking about what moves him to make music, he said:

“My goal is for people to really listen to the music and get inspired to go out and find the truth; unfortunately, most people rely on the media and schools to tell/teach them the truth but in fact they are just being programmed with lies.”

Below our usual selection of videos and links. Enjoy!

http://www.stormbringer.at/interviews.php?id=540&lang=en

http://www.myspace.com/echoterra

Goth Classical Music: Franz Liszt

2010-03-21T19:01:00.001-04:00

Some of the main successful Symphonic Metal bands of later years are deeply influenced by classical music, and besides the undeniable technical quality and complexity of it; there are some compositions that are darkly fascinating, and I don't mean those from some Horror movie soundtrack.

For this reason, this is the first of a series of articles on classical music composers, who have influenced many Goth Metal bands.

So let's start with the Hungarian genius Franz Liszt, who was a prodigy child, the first showbiz international star, a controversial and admirable personality. Born in 1811, in Hungary, dead in 1886, in Bayreuth, Franz Liszt lived a long and productive life. With both his grandfather and his father as musicians, he started playing for the Esterhazy family, owner of the land in which his family lived, when he was 9 years old.

At age 12, Liszt was already composing and playing concerts, and from that he progressed in a vertiginous speed, through becoming a virtuose concert pianist, a much requested tutor, a versatile and daring composer, and a captivating conductor.

He was considered by his contemporaries as the most technically advanced pianist of his time (and maybe of all time), which his compositions of the period known as Years of Pilgrimage can confirm. The Marche Funebre is particularly interesting for us, Metal fans, as it has both the raw power and the introspective melody we like.

His playing was described as having "abandonment, a liberated feeling, but even when it becomes impetuous and energetic in his fortissimo, it is still without harshness and dryness. [...]

"[He] draws from the piano tones that are purer, mellower and stronger than anyone has been able to do; his touch has an indescribable charm. [...] He is the enemy of affected, stilted, contorted expressions.

"Most of all, he wants truth in musical sentiment, and so he makes a psychological study of his emotions to convey them as they are. Thus, a strong expression is often followed by a sense of fatigue and dejection, a kind of coldness, because this is the way nature works."

His performances were particularly known for being intense and emotional. Franz Liszt not simply played but expressed the emotions he was trying to convey through it in his face, which showed anger, sadness, joy, according to the melody and in the intensity of his playing, which could become quite energic.

His main influences were Beethoven, the idol of his childhood, Paganini, the eccentric violin master, who had a Jimi Hendrix-like impact on the musicians of his time, Berlioz, who pushed the limits of orchestra concerts, once playing with 1000 musicians and Chopin, whose moody and seemingly simple compositions fascinated Liszt.

Though some purists may cringe at my comparing classical composers with a Rock stars, this is inevitable. Liszt was probably the first international celebrity, who had a rabid fanbase of screaming, fainting, hysterical women chasing him, collecting his cigar stubs, tearing at his clothes, wearing locks of his hair in bracelets.

Interesting that Liszt would have female adulation even in his late years, regardless of him being in his 70's.

This period, which began in 1842, was nicknamed Lisztomania, and affected not only Paris, where he lived at the time or even France, but most of the countries where he toured in Europe.

But Liszt's musical prowess and fame are far from being his only qualifications. His generosity towards fellow musicians and his dedication to charity were other important traits.

Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Gried and Alexander Borodin were only a few of the many composers he helped in all ways, including financially. And if you think that charity concerts are a recent trend, know that Liszt was one of the most dedicated musicians to humanitarian causes.

He played numerous concerts to raise money for charities, contributed to the fund that helped the victims of the Hamburg fire of 1842, to the raising of the Beethoven statue at Bonn, the building of the Cologne Cathedral, and others.

Always unpredictable, he took minor orders in 1865, becoming Abbot. In the next few years, he would compose many sacred choral works, but would never lose his nerve in challenging the status quo. Though a Catholic and abbot, he experimented with some “devil’s chords” or some sounds that the Catholic Church had forbidden to be used, in his compositions Dante Sonata, Csardas Macabres, among others.

After his years traveling the Northern Hemisphere, he finally settled down in Weimar, with his unofficial wife Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who he never could formally marry, then years later, as an abbot, he spent periods of the year among Rome, Weimar and Budapest, despite his old age.

Probably because of several losses and worries he had in his later years, as the death of his son and daughter, and of many friends, the problems caused by his daughter Cosima betraying her husband with Richard Wagner, the struggle he faced to promote his innovative music and that of others, he became increasingly introspective and even depressive, and his thoughts on death and despair can often be found in his later works. He told his biographer, Lina Ramann that he carried “a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound.”

A couple of interesting quotes by Franz Liszt:

“Life is only a long and bitter suicide, and faith alone can transform this suicide into a sacrifice.”

“Real men are sadly lacking in this world, for when they are put to the test they prove worthless.”

Now that you know about the man, here are some of his music. For more information, visit the links at the bottom of the post.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_works_of_Franz_Liszt

Arnold Böcklin: Gothic Paintings For Inspiration

2010-03-14T09:35:00.001-04:00

Arnold Böcklin was a Swiss painter; known for his symbolistic paintings with gothic themes.

He was born in Switzerland in 1827; and had to stand up to his father in order to chase his dream of becoming a painter. After attending art school in 1845; he went on a grand tour of Europe; as was the custom then; visiting Brussels, Antwerp, Switzerland and Paris.

Arnold Bocklin lived in some of the most important cultural cities of the period such as Weimar; Florence and Rome. He was keen on Greco-Roman art; and took most of his inspiration from it.

He had strong opinions about his craft; such as:

"Just as it is poetry's task to express feelings, painting must provoke them too. A picture must give the spectator as much food for thought as a poem and must make the same kind of impression as a piece of music..."

"Painting should pervade the soul in the same way, and as long as it does not do this it is nothing more than a brainless handicraft."

I've selected three of his pictures, which you can see below. For more, visit the sites devoted Arnold Bocklin's work mentioned at the bottom of the post.

http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/artist.aspx?artist=arnold-bocklin&page=1

http://www.arnoldbocklin.com/index.htm

March Suggested Reading

2010-02-27T15:52:00.001-05:00

Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

And if I should die before I awake,

I pray the popular attend my wake.

Charlotte Usher feels practically invisible at school, and then one day she really is invisible. Even worse: she's dead. And all because she choked on a gummy bear. But being dead doesn't stop Charlotte from wanting to be popular; it just makes her more creative about achieving her goal. If you thought high school was a matter of life or death, wait till you see just how true that is. In this satirical, yet heartfelt novel, Hurley explores the invisibility we all feel at some times and the lengths we'll go to be seen.

Book Page Official Site

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.I am that girl.I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame. Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies.

But now Cassie is dead. Lia’s mother is busy saving other people’s lives.Her father is away on business. Her stepmother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia’s head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way – thin, thinner, thinnest – maybe she’ll disappear altogether.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the National Book Award finalist Speak, best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson explores one girl’s chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia.

Book page Official Site

Dhampir by Barb Hendee & J. C. Hendee

Magiere and her half-elf partner, Leesil, have the cleverest con in the land. Magiere claims to be a vampire hunter, while Leesil impersonates a vampire, and in a spectacular show of theatrics, she "kills" him--for a hefty sum, of course.

But Magiere's modus hits closer to home than she thinks, for when she faces down a real vampire, she wins. Now fighting her natural calling, Magiere arrives with Leesil in the town of Miiska, where they intend to make an honest living as tavern owners. Unbeknownst to the pair, a group of vampires, led by the nefarious Rashed, resides in Miiska.

When Welstiel Massing, a mysterious older man, confronts Magiere, claiming she is "the one," and she has an almost-deadly encounter with Rashed, Magiere discovers her true nature: she is a dhampir, a part-human, part-vampire warrior whose purpose is to battle vampires. The discovery leads to a pulse-pounding showdown with Rashed and his gang.

Book Page Official Site

Katra: Bringing A New Element To Goth Metal

2010-02-27T14:31:00.001-05:00

Katra is a Finnish Goth Metal band, which has a great singer, with a very peculiar voice. While most Goth Metal frontwomen have delicate soprano voices, her voice is lower and melodious. The band was formed in 2006, and represented Finland in Eurovision 2007. They have only 2 albuns released to date, and there's not a bad song in any of them.

About the band's music, the singer Katra said: "Every song is a bit blue, but in the end the message is that there’s still hope. For example: I wrote Swear as a note to myself; Keep on your dreams and don’t let your life go to waste, though sometimes you may lose yourself." [1]

Though their second album is a kind of remake of their first one, but in English instead of Finnish, there's one song in Finnish, which is a cover of a Spanish song (globalization can also be great...).

Here's what Katra has to tell about it: "Kuunpoika is a cover song of Mecano's "Hijo Dela luna"... When we were looking for a cover song to play at the gigs, I heard that song in Finnish by Tuula Amberla. Both melody and lyrics made a huge impression, so I suggested that song to guys. They liked it too, so we have been playing it at gigs since then. It is one of our favorite songs at live, so I wanted it also in our album. I can't sing Spanish and there are no translations of that song in English. It would have taken too long time to apply the rights to write it in English. So I just sang it in the language in which it had already been translated - in Finnish. " [2]

Here are two videos of Katra. For more information, check out their site.

Katra's official site

Social Phobia: Turning One's Back To Life

2010-02-22T17:30:00.001-05:00

Goths are often considered by "normal" people like being depressive, haughty and taciturn. Of course, that isn't true, but there are many Goths, just like people who are of other subcultures, who feel better away from most social interactions, and even those who suffer from more acute cases like social anxiety disorder.

Social Phobia becomes a problem when it interferes with the things you want or need to do, like studying, working, developing and keeping relationships, experiencing real life with all its positive and negative aspects.

In Japan, for instance, they have such a great number of people who withdrawl from social life, that they have a name for them, hikikomori, who shut themselves in their bedrooms, sometimes even refusing to talk to their parents, often for years.

A New York Times article has sad accounts of such people, like the story of Y.S.:

"After years of being bullied at school and having no friends, Y.S., who asked to be identified by his initials, retreated to his room at age 14, and proceeded to watch TV, surf the Internet and build model cars - for 13 years. When he finally left his room one April afternoon last year, he had spent half of his life as a shut-in."

So Kawakami asked him to write a letter about himself... he told her his birth date and that he loved making plastic model cars. He wrote: "I don't think the situation is good, but I don't know how to solve it. This might be a chance to change it. But I don't know if I can do it."

When Kawakami asked him to create a car for some children at a day-care center, two weeks later he gave her one, meticulously detailed and painted. "He seemed so pleased," she said. "It was as if he'd never been asked to do something for someone else before. He was sitting in his room all day where nothing was expected of him, and he did nothing to show his value."

And Takeshi, who spent 4 years in his room, told the reporter:

"Don't laugh, but musicians really helped me, especially Radiohead," he told me through an interpreter, before scribbling some lyrics in English in my notebook. "That's what encouraged me to leave my room."...

After Takeshi spent four years in his childhood bedroom, he was finally motivated to leave, he said, by his frustration with himself and by the Radiohead lyrics: "This is my final fit, my final bellyache." Then he said: "It's not hopeful, but I learned that the world is not such a good place, and regardless we have to move on. That caught my heart."

Sometimes change takes a long time to happen to the hikikomori, as the NY Times article reports:

...about 30 percent... won't leave their rooms and another 10 percent of those who do join the program (that helps hikikomori re-enter society) eventually return to the hikikomori life. "We usually limit our visits to a year, but if we see progress, we'll keep coming back," a counselor said.

One rental sister visited a 17-year-old for more than 18 months before he finally joined the program. And in one of the most extreme cases, Takeshi Watanabe of the Tokyo Mental Health Academy counseled a hikikomori for 10 years - 500 visits - until he persuaded him to leave home. He has since graduated from a university, works part time and last summer vacationed in Spain.

Some interesting facts about the social anxiety disorder are:

Social phobia can be generalized, when a person avoids most social situations, or specific, when a person is excessively anxious in certain types of social situations, like starting a conversation with a stranger.

There are several factors that can cause it. Those considered more important are the genetic makeup, the chemical processes of the brain and life experiences, when after experiencing situations in which we are singled out in a negative way, or have bad social experiences, we can develop negative opinions about them, and start having social anxiety.

There are several means to treat this disorder, from medications and therapies to social skills training. Experts advise that those who think they may suffer from it, look for the help of a psychiatrist for a proper diagnosis and treatment.

The following sites are worth visiting for more information:

http://www.socialanxietysupport.com/

http://www.socialphobia.org/

Catlin Harrison: Unexpectedly Surreal

2010-02-14T12:34:00.001-05:00

Catlin Harrison is a British illustrator and photographer, who lives in London, and does some amazing illustrations with composites of dozens of flowers to form a figure, or distorted images. Her pictures are very creative, reminiscent of the works of the renaissant painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo and of the surrealists.

Catlin uses Photoshop to put up the images together, and they take a long time to finish, because sometimes she works with over 60 scans.

About her style, she said that she's "very interested in the way of representing and expressing ideas about the human being, but as time passes, the images become stranger."

She gives some advice to fledgling artists: "Be prepared to work like crazy and try a little of everything, because every artist, illustrator and design must be seen by the largest number of people possible. And don't think there's only one way - there are many possible ways. You never know who will see it either. Don't limit yourself thinking that your work doesn't fit anywhere, experiment with absolutely everything - which of course takes a long time!"

I've chosen three of Catlin Harrison's works. Visit her site for more:

Catlin Harrison official site

Qntal: Neofolk With An Electronic Beat

2010-02-14T11:55:00.001-05:00

Qntal is German Neofolk band, with both Gothic and Industrial influences, that has been around since 1991. Their singer Syrah (Sigrid Hausen) has a very beautiful voice, and the songs are entrancing with their medieval sounds and electronic beats, similar to another great German group, Faun.

About their music, the instrumentist Michael Popp said that it "does have a serious element to it, but I don't think of it as educating anyone. I think that could be a result of our German education and of our classical training. I personally never listen to any kind of "normal" pop music. I hate MTV and things like that… but I love experimental underground music: the weirder, the better."

While Popp plays several medieval and eastern woodwind and string instruments, Qntal's other member, Fil (Philipp Groth) plays guitar and keyboards.

Curiosities: Qntal's strange name is a made-up word that appeared in a dream Syrah had, and the band's albums are all numbered instead of named, because according to Popp "Qntal is in a permanent state of flow. The CDs are just snapshots of our work at a particular moment in time. They are not the most important thing for us. You can imagine what our record company thinks about this opinion." [1]

Below is one of their videos. Visit their site and Myspace for more information.

site: Official Site MySpace Profile

Dehong He: Breath-Taking Fantasy Art

2010-02-07T09:14:00.001-05:00

Dehong He is a very talented Chinese illustrator, who works with concept art for games.

His style is very clean and realistic, full of intricate details and often based on Chinese folklore.

About his choice for fantasy imagery, Dehong He said that it "gives me the biggest possible stage to work with. It’s as if you’re God, you can create a new world."

Dehong He's ability impressed his parents when he was very young, and when he was a fine art student at university, he started working with comics and a year after finishing college, he moved on to work as a concept artist for games.

About his work process, Dehong He says that he puts "my work’s quality and the themes which I express first. Style comes second. With the passage of time, I think, my own style will emerge naturally." [1]

Below is a selection of his artwork. Visit his site for more.

Official site: http://www.hdhcg.com/

February Suggested Reading

2010-02-07T09:04:00.002-05:00

Here is February's list of gothic and fantasy novels. Enjoy!

Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover

In a world where magic walks and demons ride, you can't always play by the rules. Jayné Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she discovers reality isn't quite what she thought it was. When her uncle Eric is murdered, Jayné travels to Denver to settle his estate, only to learn that it's all hers - and vaster than she ever imagined.

And along with properties across the world and an inexhaustible fortune, Eric left her a legacy of a different kind: his unfinished business with a cabal of wizards known as the Invisible College.

Led by the ruthless Randolph Coin, the Invisible College harnesses demon spirits for their own ends of power and domination. Jayné finds it difficult to believe magic and demons can even exist, let alone be responsible for the death of her uncle. But Coin sees Eric's heir as a threat to be eliminated by any means - magical or mundane - so Jayné had better start believing in something to save her own life.

Aided in her mission by a group of unlikely companions - Aubrey, Eric's devastatingly attractive assistant; Ex, a former Jesuit with a lethal agenda; Midian, a two-hundred-year-old man who claims to be under a curse from Randolph Coin himself; and Chogyi Jake, a self-styled Buddhist with mystical abilities - Jayné finds that her new reality is not only unexpected, but often unexplainable.

And if she hopes to survive, she'll have to learn the new rules fast - or break them completely....

Barnes & Noble Page MLN Hanover Site

Zandru's Forge by Marion Zimmer Bradley & Deborah J. Ross

Zandru's Forge is the 3rd book written by Deborah J. Ross, who is the writer chosen by Marion Zimmer Bradley to continue her Darkover literary legacy.

This novel tells the story of how two of the most important characters in the Darkover world met, King Carolin Hastur and Varzil Ridenow, developed their friendship, and took the first steps towards establishing The Compact, which was the pact that abolished the use of long-distance and psychic weapons from the world.

The story begins when they are teenagers, and Varzil goes to Arillin Tower, one of the main institutions for the study of psychic powers in the planet, to ask admitance. Carolin is instrumental in helping him to join the tower. As for Varzil, he ends up becoming Carolin's protector, as the then Prince is often threatened by an occult enemy.

As the years pass, the oppressed populace grows restless, and when King Felix dies, his throne that should have gone to Carolin is usurped by his cousin Rakhal, who begins a war to increase his lands, and persecute his cousin and all those who support him.

Carolin goes into exile, but in the end has to fight his cousin to end his reign of terror, but though Rakhal uses the most deadly psychic weapons against him, Carolin will have to fight it only with the strength of his army, his own intellect and non-offensive psychic powers.

This story discusses ethics, the right and wrong when facing a death threat, and the morals of war.

For those who are acquainted with the series, you'll find here several elements from Hawkmistress, which is one of the original books of the Darkover series. Deborah is a very good writer who does the series justice.

Zandru's Forge is the 2nd book in the Clingfire Trilogy, which ends in the book A Flame in Hali.

Amazon.com Page Marion Zimmer Bradley Deborah J. Ross

Circle Of The Moon by Barbara Hambly

In Hambly's mystical sequel to The Sisters of the Raven, the Crafty Women of Yellow City continue to hone their new-found healing and magical powers while the men of this patriarchal society adjust to the loss of their own wizardly abilities.

Set against a desert landscape that evokes Egyptian myth, Hambly's tale unwinds like a skein of multi-colored silk, illustrating her talent for well-drawn characters and fantasy rooted in many cultures. Young Raeshaldis, a powerful Sun Mage-in-training, has received a psychic dream plea for help from a Crafty woman on a faraway island.

Raeshaldis rushes to help, but another crisis in Yellow City complicates matters-a deadly green mist referred to as the Eater of Dreams has been released from grave amulets stolen by tomb robbers.

The mist kills many, infects Summerchild (Shaldis's fellow Raven Sister and King Oryn's beloved concubine), and enthralls Raeshaldis' tyrannical grandfather. Hambly nimbly brings the Yellow City and the faraway healing crises together, and she works in a surprise about the teyns, animal "slaves" to the humans, suggesting a sequel.

Amazon.com Page Barbara Hambly

Lyriel: Much More Than Folk Metal

2010-02-07T09:03:00.001-05:00

Lyriel is a German Folk Metal band, formed in 2003, that mixes celtic, gothic, medieval and classic elements in their sound. Their style is very sophisticated, with complex melodies and beat.

When asked if the diversity of styles in Lyriel's music was intentional, the guitarist, Oliver Thierjung, answered that "that’s just how it turned out. It is sometimes not easy to find music that contains all our musical taste. We try to find a way and solution that is based on this concept. But we try also to develop our own kind of music and style. This is the idea behind Lyriel."

About the most important element in their creative process, Oliver said that it is "to find a new concept for every release, based on our style. Otherwise we try to find an enhancement for our style and music. The possibilities and ideas are unlimited, unlike the time." [1]

Lyriel's other members are: Jessica Thierjung (vocals), Sven Engelmann (bass), Martin Ahman (keyboard), Linda Laukamp (cello), Claudia Schäfer (violin).

Their latest album Paranoid Circus was released at the end of 2009.

Watch below two videos of their live performance.

Official Site | Myspace Profile

Fighting Poverty

2010-01-30T15:22:00.001-05:00

January is National Poverty in America Awareness Month, and it's a great opportunity to talk about this disturbing aspect of our world.

The present conditions of the poor in the US and elsewhere is not only due to recurrent bad governing, but also prejudice, pride and ignorance.

Just as the joint efforts of helping Haiti have been showing, one doesn't need to donate much in order to help. And money is not the only issue here.

Poor people are often despised and shunned from society, they don't have access to decent education and health systems, are constantly changing jobs and facing prolonged periods of unemployment, the very culture they are surrounded with is often negative and degrading.

Still, the fact that there are those strong enough to break this vicious circle proves that they aren't fated to be outcasts, and with some help from both goverment and individuals, they can overcome their limitations.

It's not a point of "fishing for them" either, but showing them how to "fish", giving them the instruments they need in order to do so.

There are many ways you can help, wherever you may live, no matter how favored (or not) you are.

You can donate food, clothes, furniture, and many other objects to charities. The Salvation Army is only one of many institutions that distribute such donations, and they have branches all over the world.
Support financially one or more charities in your neighborhood. In New York, there's the Food Bank For New York City, which does an amazing work locally.
Become a volunteer. What do you know best? Languages? Finance? Law? Arts? Sports? What do you enjoy doing? Writing? Reading? Interacting with people? You can accomplish a lot doing any of that. Volunteers of America is one of the organizations that offers many options for those willing to help.
Change yourself. If you're one of those people who discriminate against others for any reason, such as ethnicity, religion, culture, sex, poor dressing, etc, think again. It's irrational to judge a group of people by the disrespectful actions of a few, or just because they are different.

Instead of agreeing to outdated prejudices that have always caused such dire problems, question them, look into things, learn about those people you despise, try to understand their qualities and limitations, and learn to respect them just as you expect to be respected.

The Anti-Prejudice Consortium is an Atlanta-based nonprofit that has several interesting programs on raising awareness about and fighting any form of discrimination.

Our world is hectic, seemingly even worse than it ever was, but all the actions that people are taking in order to improve things will certainly be effective in time. The present state of things is the result of centuries of disregard, so the future will certainly be better as a consequence of both our small and big actions to improve it. Roll up your sleeves!

More information: http://uspoverty.change.org/

Pride And Fall: Powerful Futurepop

2010-01-30T14:15:00.001-05:00

Pride And Fall's sound is both engaging and dramatic. The Norwegian group, formed in 2000, is currently composed of Sigve Monsen, Per Waagen, Svein Johnsen. They have only 4 albuns released to date, but they all have songs with strong beats and thought-provoking lyrics, akin to VNV Nation.

About his lyrics style, Pride And Fall's vocalist Sigve Monsen said, that "I don’t even recognize myself in the 'live and let live thing'... I would rather say live as you live, and take the consequences for your actions." Sigve also said that "in general, I bring to the surface more contents about looking back at one's own life, seeing all the mistakes and shit you’ve done or gone through. And then in the end cope with them all." [1]

Official site: www.prideandfall.com/ | MySpace

Stephan Martinière: Sophisticated Futuristic Art

2010-01-30T13:45:00.001-05:00

Stephan Martinière is a French concept artist, cartoonist, and animation director, winner of a Hugo Award in 2008. He worked on major movies such as I Robot and Star Wars 2 & 3, made concept art for many book covers and games. His style is very sophisticated and precise, the colors always balanced and harmonious.

In interviews, Martinière has commented on his work process, saying that he tends "to use my imagination more at the beginning stages when I’m doing concepts, and finding compositions, original and unusual shapes. I do more research when the concept goes into the painting stage to find a mood, some texture or particular elements such as street signs, windows, etc." [1]

And when asked to compare the different media he has worked with, Martiniére said that "being an illustrator for film or animation is being part of an enormous machine. An artist also does not own his work and therefore has a lot of difficulties exhibiting his art much less exploiting it. The publishing industry especially in book cover is the exact opposite.

"In terms of the actual work there isn’t much of a difference between doing concept for a movie, an animated film or a game. There are obviously some technical limitations associated with each medium but doing concept is about ideas. Obviously that same idea will follow different path to completion and will be rendered in different ways based on each field. Animation for example will dictate certain simplicity of execution as opposed to a feature film. All in all as an illustrator I like doing book cover best." [2]
I've selected three of Stephan Martinière's amazing artworks. Visit his site for many more, which are also for sale in print.

Official Site: http://www.martiniere.com/

January Suggested Reading

2010-01-24T15:24:00.001-05:00

Here is our list of books for January. Good reading!

Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda

As the youngest and only female member of the Knights Templar, Bilqis SanGreal grew up knowing she wasn’t normal. Instead of hanging out at the mall or going on dates, she spends her time training as a warrior in her order’s ancient battle against the Unholy.

Billi’s cloistered life is blasted apart when her childhood friend, Kay, returns from Jerusalem, gorgeous and with a dangerous chip on his shoulder. He’s ready to slide back into Billi’s life, but she’s met someone new: amber-eyed Mike, who seems to understand her like no one else and effortlessly stakes a claim on her heart.

But the Templars are called to battle before Billi can enjoy the thrilling new twist to her life. One of the order’s ancient enemies has resurfaced, searching for a treasure that the Templars have guarded for almost a thousand years - King Solomon’s cursed mirror, a source of unimaginable power. To save the lives of millions, Billi will have to put her heart aside and make sacrifices greater than she could have imagined.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Devils-Kiss/Sarwat-Chadda/e/9781423119999

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.

Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty—especially if they learn of her Sight—and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.

Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries.

Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.

Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention.

But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost—regardless of her plans or desires.

Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Wicked-Lovely/Melissa-Marr/e/9780061214677/

Ghosts of Albion: Accursed by Amber Benson & Christopher Golden

Even death could not stop Britain’s greatest defenders.

In 1838, William and Tamara Swift inherit a startling legacy from their dying grandfather, transforming them into the Protectors of Albion, mystical defenders of the soul of England. But the shocked, neophyte sorcerers also inherit unique allies in their battle against the dark forces. Fighting alongside them are the famous–even infamous–Ghosts of Albion: Lord Byron, Queen Bodicea, and Lord Admiral Nelson.

When strange and hideous creatures appear in the slums of London, an unholy plague threatens to launch an epic battle that may rage all the way to Buckingham Palace . . . and beyond. Time is running out as William and Tamara must learn whether their friends will stand beside them, or seduce and betray them.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Ghosts-of-Albion/Amber-Benson/e/9780345471307

Misty Benson: Eerily Pretty

2010-01-24T15:20:00.001-05:00

Misty Benson is an American illustrator born in 1976, who does some pretty and eerie drawings. The figures all have huge eyes and features resembling that of babies, which only add to their weirdness and appeal. She has been featured in several books, one of them which is called Big Eye Art .

Here you have three images, and her site has many others, which are also available for print.

Official site: http://www.mistybenson.com/

Aesma Daeva: Ethereal Voice & Angry Guitars

2010-01-24T15:12:00.001-05:00

Aesma Daeva is an American Symphonic Metal band formed in 1998, whose present members are Lori Lewis, Chriss Quinn, John Prassas and Tim Klatt. Their sound has some progressive melodies, and Lori's vocals are quite impressive.

Below I've selected a couple of videos, including an amazing rendering of a Mozart Opera. For more information visit their site and myspace profile.

More info: Official Site | Myspace Profile | Myspace Profile of Lori Lewis

Sherlock Holmes: Dark & Dirty

2010-01-16T15:10:00.001-05:00

The latest Sherlock Holmes movie is very entertaining. Though it was released on Dec. 25, 2009, in the US, it was released where I live only last weekend, so please ignore the delay...

Robert Downey Jr. embodies a dusty, decadent, devil-may-care Sherlock Holmes, which is perfect for this action-packed movie. Jude Law makes a very modern Watson, with nothing of the lackey-ish attitude usually attributed to the character. He's a fine and even counterpart for Downey's Holmes, often exchanging funny repartees with him, and a fierce fighter.

Besides the main pair, there's the seductress Irene Adler played by Rachel MacAdams, a clever resourceful thief, who outsmarted even Sherlock himself several times. And there's the villain, the ambitious Lord Blackwood, who wants to rule the world through the Free Masons.

To me, this is the first decent Guy Ritchie movie (Ritchie fans don't get offended!), and it has some smart fight sequences, special effects and a beautiful and properly dark photography. Late 19th century London is shown as decadent, dirty, messy and dangerous, which fits the plot very well. I bet this movie will have a sequence, which is already hinted at in it, when they mention the archrival Moriarty.

If you haven't already seen it, do it!

PS: Sherlock Holmes was the creation of Scottish writer and physician, Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote many books, not only novels, and was curiously eccentric. He was a Spiritualist, member of several paranormal research societies, and was involved in the ugly scam of the Cottingley "fairy pictures" of 1917, which doesn't make his beliefs less intriguing.

Just as it happened with several famous characters of the Victorian period literature, such as Alice and Peter Pan, Sherlock Holmes started out as a dark character, who was a drug addict, at a time when the use of drugs was almost as common as that of smoking. (Check the interesting article by Mike Jay about it in the Darklore magazine.) Below a selection of sites where you can find more information about Doyle, Spiritualism and Sherlock Holmes.

Official site: sherlock-holmes-movie.warnerbros.com/

More information:
www.sherlockholmesonline.org/
http://www.woodlandway.org/
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org.uk/articles/doyle/war.htm

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

2010-01-16T14:22:00.001-05:00

The novel The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, published in 2008, has a thought-provoking story and a piercing narrative.

The main character and narrator of the story is a drug addict and former pornographer, who suffered severe burns throughout his body in a car crash. Once handsome, the 35 year-old finds himself on the brink of death for several months, suffering from his injuries and the painful treatment used in his recovery. In his storytelling, he alternates events from his past and those of his present in the hospital, as a backstory for the encounter with Marianne Engel, who little by little wins his trust and gives him a new direction in life.

It seems like a fine lovestory, but it's nothing such. The narrator is totally revolted against his fate, often cynical, bitter, ironic and angry. The account is poignant and fierce, and also thick from the pain and misery in the health situation, which the writer details minutely.

As for his "savior" of sorts, Marianne, by the middle of the book, you're wondering along with the narrator, whether she's just eccentric or outright mad, as she claims to have known him 700 years before, when they were married, and she tells of several of her "spiritual friends" who have lived in different periods of time, in places like Italy, Iceland and Japan. Besides, she's a very talented sculptor, obsessed with making gargoyle statues.

All those elements are smartly woven into a complex tapestry of mysterious and eerie patterns. It poses interesting questions about life and death, love, sanity, reincarnation, God, destiny, etc.

As for the writer, Andrew Davidson, the guy is undoubtedly very talented. Even though the book has the epitome of the anti-hero for narrator, which sometimes made me feel a bit frustrated and uptight, the author has put a lot of work on it (7 years of research, no less) and it shows.

More information:
http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=6470

The author talks about the book:

Help Haiti Earthquake Victims But Avoid Scams

2010-01-16T13:43:00.001-05:00

On January 12, last Tuesday, a massive earthquake hit Haiti, leaving the already impoverished people of the Caribbean island in a despairing situation. People from all over the world are sending funds through institutions, and if you can, please join the effort. But beware of scams! Unfortunately, in such situations there are always those who want to profit from it.

I've found two pages that have interesting information about how to help and to avoid scams. One is from MTV.com and the other from MSNBC.com, which has a list of institutions that are accepting donations and at the bottom of the page, information on how to donate wisely.

If you're outside the US, check your local news for ways of sending help to them. Don't ignore their loss just because they're in another country. Take action! Even the smallest aid can make a difference.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1629828/20100115/story.jhtml

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34835478/ns/world_news-americas/

Blutengel: Dark Melodies

2010-01-16T13:25:00.001-05:00

The German Dark Pop band Blutengel has been around since 1999, and is currently formed by Chris Pohl, Constance Rudert, and Ulrike Goldmann. Their sound is something of a clash between Crüxshadows and Zeraphine with female vocals, melodious and with a hard synthetic beat.

I've chosen a couple of videos as samples of their sound. Check their website for more information.

Official Site: http://www.blutengel.de/

John Howe: Middle Earth And Beyond

2010-01-16T13:14:00.001-05:00

John Howe is a great Canadian illustrator, best known for his works on JKK Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings series. He was one of the illustrators who worked on the concept art for the movies of the Trilogy (and he's working on the art for the upcoming The Hobbit movie as well), and has also illustrated several other books by Tolkien, Robin Hobb and other writers.

Below is a few of his artworks. Visit his site for more.

More info: www.john-howe.com/

Blood Donor Month: Give Your Blood!

2010-01-07T19:12:00.001-05:00

Alright, you're tired of hearing about vampires, blood, etc, but... January is Blood Donor Month, so Vampire Fans and Gothlings in the US and elsewhere take action!

Donating blood is always important, as it can save many lives. We've put together some basic information about how blood is used and who can donate. If you want to know more, visit the sites listed below.

How blood is used

Red cells - treatment of anaemia, when red cells break down in the newborn, sickle cell disease, to replace lost red cells due to blood loss in accidents, surgery and after childbirth.
Platelets - bone marrow failure, post transplant and chemotherapy treatments, and leukaemia.
Fresh frozen plasma - after obstetric loss of blood (which is usually childbirth), during cardiac surgery, and to reverse any anti-coagulant treatment, to replace clotting factors after massive transfusions or when they are not being sufficiently produced, such as liver disease.
Processed plasma - treatment of haemophilia, to help produce stronger antibodies against diseases like tetanus, hepatitis, chickenpox and rabies, it also helps generate anti-D, which is used for RhD negative pregnant women carrying RhD positive babies.
Additionally there is a protein called albumin contained in plasma, which is extremely beneficial for burn victims.
Blood transfusion - it is a procedure in which blood is given via an intravenous line into the blood vessels. The Top 10 Users of blood - Anaemia (medical) – 23%, Orthopaedics – 14%, Haematology – 15%, Gastro intestinal bleeding – 11%, General Surgery – 10%, Cardio thoracic surgery – 6%, Obstetrics & Gynaecology – 6%, Vascular surgery – 5%, Urology – 3%.

Who can donate blood?

Most people can give blood. If you are generally in good heath, age 17 to 65 (if it's your first time) and weigh at least 7st 12Ib you can donate. You can give blood every 16 weeks, that's approximately every four months.

Who can't donate blood?

You should not give blood if:

You've already given blood in the last 12 weeks (normally, you must wait 16 weeks).
You have a chesty cough, sore throat or active cold sore.
You're currently taking antibiotics or you have just finished a course within the last seven days or have had any infection in that last two weeks.
You've had hepatitis or jaundice in the last 12 months.
You've had a tattoo, semi-permanent make up or any cosmetic treatments that involves skin piercing in the last 6 months.
You've had acupuncture in the last 6 months, unless this was done by the NHS or a regesitered doctor or nurse.
A member of your family (parent, brother, sister or child) has suffered with CJD (Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease).
You've ever received human pituitary extract (which was used in some growth hormone or fertility treatments before 1985).
You have received blood or think you may have received blood during the course of any medical treatment or procedure anywhere in the world since 1st January 1980.

You may not be able to give blood if:

You've had a serious illness or major surgery in the past or are currently on medication. Please discuss this with the clinical staff. The reason you're taking medicines may prevent you from donating.
You've had complicated dental work. Simple fillings are OK after 24 hours, as are simple extractions after 7 days.
You've been in contact with an infectious disease or have been given certain immunisations in the last four weeks.
You're presently on a hospital waiting list or undergoing medical tests.
You do not weigh over 50kgs (7st 12).
You should not give blood if you are pregnant or you are a woman who has had a baby in the last 9 months.
Wait 6 months after returning from a malarial area before giving blood. Please also tell us if you have visited Central/South America at any time. (Those who've had Malaria, or an undiagnosed illness associated with travel, may not however be able to give blood.)

You should never give blood if:

You have ever had syphilis, HTVL (Human T - lymphotorpic virus), hepatitis B or C or think you may have hepatitis now
You're a man who's had sex with another man, even safe sex using a condom. For more information click here.
You've ever worked as a prostitute.
You've ever injected yourself with drugs - even once.

You should not give blood for 12 months after sex with:

A man who has had sex with another man (if you're a female).
A prostitute.
Anyone who has ever injected themselves with drugs.
Anyone with haemophilia or a related blood clotting disorder who has received clotting factor concentrates.
Anyone of any race who has been sexually active in parts of the world where AIDS/HIV is very common. This includes countries in Africa.
Do not give blood if you even think that you need a test for HIV or hepatitis, or if you had sex in the past year with someone you think may be HIV or hepatitis positive.

Source:
http://www.blood.co.uk/

More information in the US:

http://www.aabb.org/content

Gerald Brom: Beauty & Dark Creatures

2010-01-07T18:30:00.001-05:00

Gerald Brom is an illustrator who has done various media, from novel covers (Michael Moorcock, Terry Brooks), to role-playing books, comics (DC, Chaos, Dark Horse), games and film (Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow). He also has released some books with his artworks and writing, which are very well done and creative.

Below is a few of his works, for more, visit his site.

Source:
http://www.bromart.com/
http://conceptartworld.com/?p=2714

Tim Burton's Art: Gothic With A Bite

2010-01-07T18:22:00.001-05:00

The MoMa in New York has an exhibition on Tim Burton's artworks that will be around until Apr. 26. If you're lucky enough to be in town then, be sure to visit it.

Tim Burton is one of the most iconic artists associated with the gothic genre. His movies often show a gothic imagery mixed with witty sense of humor. Some of his best-known movies are Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissor-Hands and Corpse Bride. His latest production, Alice in Wonderland will be released next March 5 in the US, and it looks both astonishing and fun.

Below is a selection of pictures from the exhibit and the new trailer for Alice in Wonderland. Visit the sites for more information and images.

More information:
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/313
http://flavorwire.com/gallery/12-17-09/index.html

Darwin The Movie: So Much For Free America?

2010-01-05T17:42:00.001-05:00

It's been over a year since the polemic on the Creation movie started, and it's finally being released next 22 in the US. The movie features Paul Bettany as Darwin and not only explores the scientist's ideas but also his life.

The trailer shows that the movie may be really good, but some seem to have found the movie too controversial. And why? Because in the 19th century, Darwin established a theory that all creatures evolve and adapt, which is the opposite of the creationist theory that holds that everything was created by God as it is, and will always remain the same.

The problem here is not that there are large groups of people, in the country which is the cultural-leader of the world, that believe in creationism, but that a movie about a scientist and his theory, important as it is, can face difficulties in distribution, just because there is a certain amount of people that don't believe it. Is America the land of freedom? Certainly not of total freedom of expression, as it's commonly known for.
For those of you who don't know about Darwin and his ground-breaking theories, visit the links below and peek over. Also visit the other sites to know more about Alfred Russel Wallace, who was another evolutionist, and about the movie.

I can't help but remember one of John Lennon's songs: "I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round... I'd really love to watch them roll!"

http://creationthemovie.com/
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/01/first-look-creation/#more-25878
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/12/charles-darwin-rutherford
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6173399/Charles-Darwin-film-too-controversial-for-religious-America.html
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/12/wallace/quammen-text.html
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/

Lord Byron: Gothic Bad-Boy Genius

2009-12-30T18:30:00.001-05:00

Lord George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) is one of the greatest English poets ever. He was also a playwright, and had an inconstant life, full of excesses and an arrogant and rebellious behavior.

There are probably as many myths about him as historical facts, as much of what has been told about him may not be true. He died as a hero out of his stories, during a war in Greece against the Turks. The Greek version of his name Vyron is still popular in the country and there's even a suburb named after him, Vyronas.

Along with Mary Shelley, and John Polidori, Byron helped develop horror and gothic literature with several works, including his poem The Giaour, which is one of the first popular vampire stories. I've chosen two others as examples of his writing.

Stanzas (And Thou Art Dead)

And thou art dead, as young and fair
As aught of mortal birth;
And form so soft, and charms so rare,
Too soon return'd to Earth!
Though Earth receiv'd them in her bed,
And o'er the spot the crowd may tread
In carelessness or mirth,
There is an eye which could not brook
A moment on that grave to look.

I will not ask where thou liest low,
Nor gaze upon the spot;
There flowers or weeds at will may grow,
So I behold them not:
It is enough for me to prove
That what I lov'd, and long must love,
Like common earth can rot;
To me there needs no stone to tell,
'T is Nothing that I lov'd so well.

Yet did I love thee to the last
As fervently as thou,
Who didst not change through all the past,
And canst not alter now.
The love where Death has set his seal,
Nor age can chill, nor rival steal,
Nor falsehood disavow:
And, what were worse, thou canst not see
Or wrong, or change, or fault in me.

The better days of life were ours;
The worst can be but mine:
The sun that cheers, the storm that lowers,
Shall never more be thine.
The silence of that dreamless sleep
I envy now too much to weep;
Nor need I to repine
That all those charms have pass'd away,
I might have watch'd through long decay.

The flower in ripen'd bloom unmatch'd
Must fall the earliest prey;
Though by no hand untimely snatch'd,
The leaves must drop away:
And yet it were a greater grief
To watch it withering, leaf by leaf,
Than see it pluck'd to-day;
Since earthly eye but ill can bear
To trace the change to foul from fair.

I know not if I could have borne
To see thy beauties fade;
The night that follow'd such a morn
Had worn a deeper shade:
Thy day without a cloud hath pass'd,
And thou wert lovely to the last,
Extinguish'd, not decay'd;
As stars that shoot along the sky
Shine brightest as they fall from high.

As once I wept, if I could weep,
My tears might well be shed,
To think I was not near to keep
One vigil o'er thy bed;
To gaze, how fondly! on thy face,
To fold thee in a faint embrace,
Uphold thy drooping head;
And show that love, however vain,
Nor thou nor I can feel again.

Yet how much less it were to gain,
Though thou hast left me free,
The loveliest things that still remain,
Than thus remember thee!
The all of thine that cannot die
Through dark and dread Eternity
Returns again to me,
And more thy buried love endears
Than aught except its living years.

A Spirit Passed Before Me

A spirit passed before me: I beheld
The face of immortality unveiled -
Deep sleep came down on every eye save mine -
And there it stood, -all formless -but divine:
Along my bones the creeping flesh did quake;
And as my damp hair stiffened, thus it spake:

"Is man more just than God? Is man more pure
Than He who deems even Seraphs insecure?
Creatures of clay -vain dwellers in the dust!
The moth survives you, and are ye more just?
Things of a day! you wither ere the night,
Heedless and blind to Wisdom's wasted light!"

Sources: Wikipedia | Online Literature

Howard David Johnson: Mythologic Images with Realism

2009-12-30T18:15:00.003-05:00

Howard David Johnson is an amazing illustrator, whose works have been exhibited in several galleries around the world. His works are very eclectic, done in various mediums, and are mainly about mythology and history.

Below is a selection of his artworks, visit his site for many others.

More info: Official Site

The Covenant: Swedish Synthpop

2009-12-30T18:09:00.001-05:00

The Covenant is a Swedish Synthpop band formed in 1986 by Joakim Montelius, Daniel Myer, Eskil Simonsson. Their sound is a mix of Kraftwerk and a light-Front 242. Despite the cold sound of the synthesizers, their songs are melodic, have a strong beat and provocative lyrics. I've selected two videos to display here.

More info: Official Site

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-24T14:17:00.000-05:00

Goths & Non-Gothlings, Happy Christmas!

Today is a special day to enjoy some time with our families and friends. I'd like to wish you a fun time with them. Cheers!

The Gathering: 20 Years of Progressive Rock

2009-12-24T14:12:00.001-05:00

The Gathering is one of the best Rock bands from Netherlands. Their style is a unique mix of dark, moody and introspective melodies with Progressive Rock. The band's best-known songs are from the time of the singer Anneke van Giersbergen, and currently the band's singer is Silje Wergeland, originally from Metal band Octavia Sperati from Norwege.

Below is a selection of two videos, one from the time of Anneke and the other from their latest album with Silje.

More info: The Gathering

A. Andrew Gonzalez: Surreal Spiritual Art

2009-12-24T13:57:00.002-05:00

A. Andrew Gonzalez is an American illustrator, who has won several awards. His artworks are very original, of an exquisite otherworldly beauty. Below is a selection of them.

More information: A. Andrew Gonzalez

Various 19th c. Eerie & Supernatural Paintings

2009-12-24T13:53:00.001-05:00

The current Gothic Art we so love started out in the early 19th century, when writers, poets, painters and later on, photographers, first explored symbolist, supernatural and eerie themes. Painters like Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rosseti are well-known among Gothlings, but there were many others who also made some interesting artworks. Below is a selection of works of less known artists of the period.

Pierre Auguste Cot

Alexandre Cabanel

Ernest Board

George Henry Boughton

Giovanni Boldini

Source: Artmagick.com

Demether: Folk Metal from Serbia

2009-12-17T17:50:00.002-05:00

Demether is a Folk / Goth Metal band from Serbia, formed in 2002, their style is on the lines of Nightwish. They have released only 2 albuns to date, both very good. Their sound is a mix of operatic vocals, fast Heavy Metal-guitars, sometimes Baroque and Medieval melodies, loud drums, and the predictable male guttural vocals here and there.

Below is a couple of videos of theirs. Enjoy!

More info: Myspace

December Suggested Reading: Meridian by Amber Kizer

2009-12-17T17:35:00.002-05:00

Meridian by Amber Kizer

Meridian Sozu is a very unusual teenager. Since her birth, she attracted death like a magnet, insects, vermin, animals, they all appeared mysteriously in her bedroom, and every night she had to first clean up the carcasses before going to sleep. And also, when she woke up, she would still find others scattered across her room.

When Meridian witnesses a terrible traffic accident, causing her a mysterious pain, though she wasn’t injured, her parents decide to reveal the truth of what she is. Meridian is a Fenestra, and with the help of her aunt, she starts a journey to understand her talents.

A Fenestra is able to open a portal into the afterlife for the dying, and Meridian finds herself caught in an age-old fight between light and darkness for the souls of mankind, fighting the Aternocti, a group of dark forces who capture souls near death.The writer told in an interview what is her writing process and how she developed the story of Meridian:

“I do a mix of both outline and fluid writing. I have a box color coding system where I take characters and scenes and give them a color - write it all up in shorthand on a wipe board in a chapter box and have it to refer to as I work. With Meridian I wanted to answer the question of, “What if a girl looked human until someone died and then she became the light they transitioned through to Heaven?” And more, “What do people see when they see someone or something as they die?” [1]

If you like supernatural novels, you will certainly enjoy this first book by Amber Kizer.

Click here for a preview of the book. The links below have more information on Meridian and the author.

Learn more: Meridian # Amber Kizer

Cécile Corbel: Celtic Songs from Brittany

2009-12-12T17:13:00.002-05:00

Cécile Corbel is a French harpist, born in the Brittany region in 1980. Her style is reminiscent of Loreena McKennitt, but a little darker.

Cécile Corbel was originally a student of Archeology, who left Pont-Croix dans le Finistère for Paris to study, and ended up playing the harp and singing in pubs and as a busker. In 2008, she played in Rangoon, Burma and donated a portion of her pay to Info Birmanie, a local French institution that fights for human rights. Besides her shows and workshops, Cecile has a part in the musical Anne de Bretagne, where she performs the main character.

She has released 3 albums to date, and is scheduled to release a new one next year. Cécile Corbel’s first album had a mixture of several different musical influences such as jazz, folk and pop.

Then the second album was more introspective, and Cécile commented about it that “Song Book (released Nov 2008) is more personal: I composed most of the songs and wrote most of the lyrics. It reflects who I really am, and my influences: Celtic music of course but also medieval, baroque, rock and pop/folk music. I loved the songwriting and the possibility to tell stories with my songs.” [1]

She told that her music “keeps an acoustic spirit, rooted in the imagination and legends of the Celts, but with a sound and arrangements, which I hope are modern.” [2]

Below are two videos. Visit Cécile Corbel’s site for more.

Cécile Corbel official site: http://www.cecile-corbel.com/

Jessica Galbreth: Fey Beauty

2009-12-12T17:10:00.002-05:00

Jessica Galbreth's illustrations are some of the most used by gothlings on the web, in avatars, forum signatures, sites, blogs, you name it. She's very talented, and keeps a site in which all her artworks are available for purchasing in several formats, as Magnetic Print, Altar Tile, Canvases, and others.

Jessica Galbreth started her career in 1999, and specialized in illustrations of fairies, witches, vampires, Pagan goddesses and dark ladies of all kinds.

In an interview, Jessica Galbreth commented on her favorite subjects, she said “I love to paint goddesses and mythological subjects the most. However, these paintings aren't always what my licensors want from me...most of them prefer my lighter, more elegant winged women. I try to keep a balance between these and what I truly love to paint, which is my more mysterious, haunting images.”

In the same interview, Jessica gives some helpful advice for beginners: “I would tell them to be prepared to have tough skin and never give up on their dream. It is not easy for any of us to get there, and even more of a challenge to stay there. Be prepared to knock on a lot of doors, some of which will be promptly slammed in your face. If you don't have a good sense of business and marketing, align yourself with someone who does...you'll need it as much as you need your artistic talent.

“When the business gets you down, hold onto your successes. Be kind to others, and treat them how you'd like to be treated. Help other artists along the way...make friends with them. Never try to tear other artists down who are more successful than you - don't let the ugly side of envy get to you in this way or you will doom your own career with a serious case of bad karma. Spend your energy on positive things like creating your art.

“Develop your own style and stay true to your visions...however, be prepared to paint what are sometimes just "pretty pictures" if you want to do this seriously for a living. Always try to improve on your art, never get stagnant if you can help it.

“If you begin licensing your art to companies, be very very careful. Though most of them are wonderful and will have your best interest at heart, some won't and it's your job to protect yourself and your art.

“Most of all, enjoy it. Don't let anything get you down as you follow your dreams.” [1]

Below is a selection of Jessica Galbreth’s art; visit her site for more information.

Jessica Galbreth Site: http://www.enchanted-art.com/

1st Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Trailer!

2009-12-07T17:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the 1st teaser for the penultimate Harry Potter movie was released, and here is the video. It looks great already! And to think we are still a year away... :( Enjoy!

PS: The other video was taken out, so here is a link that *still* works: teaser