2026.03.23
If the American-Israeli terror war on Iran should teach people anything, it's that it's long time to abandon "traditional" gas and oil technology.  It's 2026 and we are still using 19th century inventions to run most of our heavy equipment.  Not only is it causing proven, objective irreversible environmental damage, disruptions in its output instigated through these imbecilic wars are causing global destruction and instability.  Few things should as important now as eliminating oil and gas completely from global supply chains as fast as possible.

2026.03.11
Only an utter moron would compare the health of stock markets to the health of economies.  No surprise that Trump supporters, then, would do this.  Back when Covid was at its peak and 20% of people in America suddenly became unemployed (near 40% in the service sector) the stock market was at a historic high - it was never doing better!  Right now Iran is appropriately targeting oil as a response to the Israeli-American terrorism, trying to make it hurt where it is most seen, outside of the stock market (though stocks are also sinking, probably not for long).  Unfortunately, as time has shown, the only thing that will budge and catalyze Americans into any action and force them to vote differently is if they feel damage to their wallets.  Nothing else.  Also notice, by the way, that the people that claim they are the most religious servants of "God" have initiated this violence and aggression, as they always do.

How is it if we are the most intelligent species on earth, we always vote for the least qualified leaders? What's going on here?

2026.03.10
Jarboe is so overrated and overhyped it's not funny.  If she had no connection to Swans, would her Sightings album, the promo of which I received today, really get any reception at all? It's endlessly fascinating how name recognition takes one so far.  You can record complete garbage and yet sell albums and receive accolades only because of your name or association to earlier recordings, or even other musicians/names.  I never let any band I listen to off the hook in this way. An album is an album is an album... of course it's disappointing but past works don't disappear.  With her, though, and Swans broadly, I don't get any of the hype to begin with. Certainly 80s and early 90s Swans albums were heavy and intense for their time, but not nearly as heavy or brutal as their fans think they are.

I will give Michael Gira credit, though: his book, The Consumer, was awesome...I still think there's nothing like it.  I don't know how I'd feel about reading it now in my 40s, but back when I was teenager, it hit the spot with my societal disgust and alienation like little else.  I still have vivid images from it in my mind to this day.

2026.03.01
For those interested in my worthless views on the US-Israel-Iran war, read here.

Last month when I mentioned Septic Flesh in one of my posts I was inspired to check out the one album from their early years that I decided to quickly disown: Revolution DNA.  I was pretty disgusted with it back when it came out in 1999.  Now, 26 years later, I had a compulsion to check it again after listening to a track online and, I must say, it is not as bad as I thought!  There are a few stinkers on it to be sure, like Dictatorship of the Mediocre and Android, but there are tracks that really hark back to classic Septic Flesh, like Revolution and Last Stop to Nowhere - really great tracks!  I think if anyone was quick to give up on this album they should check it out again.  The Thief of Innocence is also a fantastic song that was mysteriously omitted from the album in the end.  Septic Flesh are just a great band even if Titan and their recordings from 2017 upwards lost me.  Maybe I will return to them some day and think otherwise.  Also in context of how bad most metal is now even the worst stuff from Septic Flesh feels good, that could be a contributing factor in my revised opinion.