Fantasy and Taboo

An article exploring the content of a previous article on Alterati.com, but from a different angle-

Jung talks about the shadow as being areas of the unconscious that are socially unacceptable, as well as undeveloped positive potential. He suggested that the more these thoughts and behaviors were suppressed, the larger the shadow grew. "In spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness—or perhaps because of this—the shadow is the seat of creativity."

The Senoi dreamers of Malaysia apply the same concepts of approaching "darkness" to their dream travels: whenever encountering danger in a dream, the dreamer was encouraged to confront and conquer his or her attacker. Once obliterated, the dreamer asks this now defunct "demon" for a gift. There is tranformation.

The greatest gifts I've received from the people in my life, Andre being one of them, was their understanding and utter acceptance of me and my myriad shadows. This lack of judgment - of ourselves and others - liberates us. It isn't achieved without courage though, both in the revealing and the accepting.

From:
http://beautifulanddepraved.blogspot.com/2008/02/6-fantasy-and-taboo.html

Psychosis unveiled Garfield Minus Garfield

It makes so much more sense now.

And why is it that I feel like I can relate to Jon...?

Filesharing is a virtue

We in the music industry have shown ourselves unable to follow in this change. Some of us have even waged war against those the music is recorded for – the listeners. The rift between producers and consumers has never been bigger. “The truth is that Internet has provided us with a fantastic grey scale of possibilities! Instead of fighting back we ought to obtain learning from the daily newspaper and the computer game industries. They early realized the superiority of the internet and developed new services there.

Who wants to bet this is going to fall on deaf ears within the industry, at least here in the US?

Anyhow, it is late, and I'm tired, so I'm going to do something uncharacteristic and not run my mouth about this issue. But there's a pretty good spin on the matter available here if you're interested.

Recent Amazon Review

I spotted this review on Amazon for
Fallen Nation: Babylon Burning, which made me smile:

By Jack Schmidt (Hinterland, USA) -
Illuminatus, Robert Anton Wilson, Philip K. Dick and Neil Gaiman certainly all come to mind when reading Fallen Nation; Haruki Murakami and Alan Moore too. I love all these authors, but thankfully Curcio is doing something all his own here. He's not aping anyone else.

In Fallen Nation Curcio has dragged something unsettlingly out of the shadows of modern culture so we can examine its contours more closely. In the process we may note the hidden effects of oh-so-fashionable complacency, homogeneity, cynicism, escapism and post-modern irony just as his rebel-rousing characters must; and just maybe find a portion of the courage, tenacity, wit and humor they unfold in order to find both themselves and a better, more humane way of living.

If you liked any of the fore-mentioned authors then this book is for you. If you enjoyed his previous book, Join My Cult!, then you're going to absolutely love this one. It's a faster, more fun-loving and dangerous ride.

Curcio's prose begs the reader to live and love like there's no tomorrow... 'cause you know what? Your end, and the end of the American Empire may be coming sooner then you think.

The past two weeks have been positively hellish, hopefully that'll turn around soon. It's nice to get a little complement in such times.

Catalytic Converser

Recently we ran a doubleshot of GSpot with Jared Louche, frontman of Chemlab. When we ran that piece, we promised a follow-up based on the email conversations that had taken place while working out the details, a conversation that started out tackling some of the controversy that surrounded the Chemlab release Rock Whore vs. Dance Floor but quickly grew to encompass Jared’s incredibly varied musical projects and writing career. Check it out, follow up by listening to the podcast linked below, and hold on to something tight - this is one hell of an interview (Alterati.com).

Podcasting Audio Production 101

The following is a sort of quick and dirty guide to audio post-production for podcasts.

I’m trying to provide a fair view of the playing field, but can’t possibly cover everything. To begin with, there is no comprehensive list that is “everything there is to know” about audio production. The process simply doesn’t work that way. Not only is audio production an ongoing process, it is a process that should adapt itself to the specific material that you’re dealing with. What you must learn to do as a producer, more than anything else, is to listen. Everything else is just figuring out what to do when you hear something you don’t like, or how to create the sound that you have in your head.

Thus, there is no one “right” way to produce an album or a podcast. The project itself defines its needs, and the more flexible you are, and the more expansive your “toolbox,” the better. At the same time, each producer inevitably develops their own signature sound which somehow winds up a part of the final material, even if they were made with the same exact tools as another.

For most podcasting tasks I use Adobe Audition (which is essentially the same as Syntrillium’s Cool Edit Pro 2.) I’m not saying that this is the best software to use - chances are if I was working on a Mac I’d be using Digital Performer. However, it is more than sufficient for the task at hand, especially when coupled with a robust array of Direct-X plug-ins. For this I will refer to plug-ins in the Waves Platinum Bundle. I have and use many others myself, but many of the FX in this bundle are invaluable.

Full article on Alterati.com.

The dark side.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about art-forms that confront us with our cultural "dark side." I'm not talking Star Wars, but instead the dark side of the moon, which is never revealed to us unless if we ourselves go there. This is only moderately related to the work I have done in the past, but it is heavily connected to the next major work that I'm engaging in, which at this point I cannot yet speak about publicly. Let me just say that this "confrontation," and even the idealization of fascism and oppression as a means of demonstrating their opposite, are very closely tied to what we will be doing.


(READ FULL POST.)

Oedipus Rex?! Read a book!

Watch it to the end. Srsly.

It never ceases to amaze me how illiterate the world seems to be. I'm not in a tizzy about people's improper conjugation in blog posts (God knows I'm guilty of it), or the proliferation of omg like lolz AOL speak. I'm talking about the cause for blunder like this. Is it really any wonder people don't catch literary references, or the basic concept of a metaphor? That last one as you know has been the cause for more murder and genocide throughout history than anything else I can think of, except perhaps subverted sexual desire.

How is an author to sell a book in this climate?

The cure?

For once, this is an easy one. To quote the hand-puppet:

READ A BOOK!

Want to share your psychosis & have thousands see your work?

Want to share your psychosis & have thousands see your work?


We are excited to announce that we just completed two audio trailers for the Fallen Nation: Babylon Burning project: one 30 second and one 60 second. Originally we intended to produce a video ourselves before running it all over the net, but we thought it might be more exciting (and surprising) to offer it up to the public for you budding videographers, film students, drug fiends, cut-up artists, etc. If you win you will be included in an ongoing viral campaign, you will receive a signed 1st and 2nd edition of the book, and we will line up an interview with you about your work to run in the G-Spot. Your work can be animation, video, or any mixture of the two, and may be produced using whatever software / hardware you choose.

Within the contest media packet (.RAR - right click and save as or it will crash Firefox) you will find full details for this contest. Your submissions must be in by March 31, 2008.

(DETAILS & FILES).