new years

New decade. New numbers. New generation. New music. New trends. New people. New news. New [....]

Or just another new year...

I wish everybody who reads this blog a happy 2011 with lots of fun, health and love! Best 3 things ever! Seriously!

the wizard

LSD, herbs, smoke, wooden pipes, ceilings, black sabbath, long hair, elephants 

 its cheesy, its good

Importance of Weekends 101

Weekends are important.

Abide

break stuff

Breaking stuff is cool, it releases a lot of anger/stress/messed up feelings you hold inside. No need to be pissed off to do it, just do it anytime once a week or month. Yes.

TV's, cell phones, laptops, cameras, glass stuff, thin walls, guitars etc etc etc
Basically whatever CAN be broken

Must have companion is two loud speakers and newer grindcore/spazzcore music.

Compare & Contrast 101

Two different countries. Two different ethnic backgrounds. Two different historical legacies. Two totally different lifestyles. Two different worlds.


I am obviously talking about Greece and the United States if you haven't already noticed.


Having lived in both countries, i feel responsible to make a decision whether i prefer the one more than the other and why.

Here we go

Quality of life:
I like to include a couple of things under this label, such as weather, entertainment and leisure.

Weather: It is quite obvious that a mediterranean country's weather is light years away than a northeastern state. No question. Compare Miami (not even!) to New York and you have it. It never snows, it rains even less and the lowest temperature would be around Dec-Jan (4°C/39°F)
Highest summer temperature (40°C/100°F)

GRE 1-0 USA

Entertainment: Its simple: New York is bigger than Athens and Thessaloniki. This means you can find almost any kind of bar, club and lounge in the NY area. Makes sense. Now what doesn't make sense to me is the prohibition of smoking, the process of carding U-21's and the very very expensive prices that have been haunting NYC and almost any other place in the States for the past 5(?) years.

This is unacceptable. The holy trinity of clubbing/drinking/smoking has been incinerated and there is no turning back. Well if you're 21 and over you're ok, except from smoking (good for you if you're not a smoker)

This is NOT a free country, its a plague inside another plague which was built on the non-smoker's or anti-smoker's freedom of choice and desire to diminish the smoker's freedom of choice.

It was also built on "30 year old acting" 18 year old girls who apparently snorted enough coke and drank too many vodkas and eventually got raped and killed.
False idols?
50% of my blame goes to 00s MTV and Hollywood

GRE 2-0 USA


Leisure: Statement - Greek people are lazy, its in their DNA. Democracy and Philosophy are based on laziness, think about it!
Americans on the other hand are hard working, everybody has a job! They start from 14 and stop when they are forced to retire. You don't see that in Greece.
This breaks it down to: Greeks would rather go out and entertain their ass off (95% entertainment/5% leisure time such as backgammon, some reading and other activities) while Americans balance these two to 50-50 (outdoor activities, reading, sports, off-work tasks)

Its obvious

GRE 2-1 USA


Who doesn't love Sports?:
America's 3 most popular sports: Football, Baseball and Basketball
Greece's 3 most popular sports: Soccer, Basketball, Volleyball

Just because Soccer is 1st on Greece's list and Baseball is Top2 on the American list:

GRE 3-1 USA

Sorry, baseball isn't even a sport for me
And there's nothing like soccer! Ever wondered why it's called "King of all sports" ?
Passionate, dramatic and very intelligent


Economy: The blackest era of the Greek economy since WWII is on its way: inflation, country in high debt, unemployment.

GRE 3-2 USA


Businesses: Three words - professionalism, integrity, reliability
Three words that are absent from Greek businesses' dictionaries.
Shame.

GRE 3-3 USA


History/Sightseeing, Arts, Natural Beauty:
A legacy of 2500 years vs. 300 years

GRE 4-3 USA

Theatrical Composition, Sculpting, Comedy/Sarcasm, Architecture, Philosophy, Literature, Mathematics, Geometry, Physics etc etc etc

GRE 5-3 USA


As far as natural beauty is concerned, ill let you find out for yourself.
Google both Greece and United States
both countries are diverse and possess a wealthy number of natural sights
i wont be taking a side on this one, as it would be unfair.


This post has nothing to do with Greece and Greeks being a better place, country and community than the United States and the Americans. I love and respect both countries for what they are and what can they offer to a tourist or citizen. Every country is unique but equal with each other and same goes for their people. From countries to countries though, people grow up with different mentalities and lifestyles. Nobody is the same and nobody can be perfect.


Until next time, listen to this amazing tune (reminds me of a typical greek summer!) and Google as many greek pictures you can! You can also re-consider a trip to the Greek islands a.k.a small paradises on earth!

Life: As a window

Life is like a window
every morning before you look outside
you never know what you are going to get
every day could be like Sunday
a gloomy rainy day, or a blooming sunny day
hopes may rise, hopes may sink
after all it's life
and that is the beauty of it





Slowdive on Souvlaki, Creation Records, 1993

ENVY

How do you feel about a band that has managed to make you cry with its music, played a show near you but didn't go and then found out that they are doing a last tour in Japan and then calling it quits?

Posting a tribute on this blog is the least i can do, i should probably be on a plane to Japan right now or being busy building a time machine to go back a few months (or years).

All the lyrics are in Japanese.
I never looked them up, i liked considering the vocalist of this band an extra instrument either he is screaming his feelings out or slowly whispering verses.





They started out in the early 90s, blending american and euro screamo, adding their own touch at the same time [From Here To Eternity, 1998]



After that came All the Footprints You've Ever Left and the Fear Expecting Ahead in 2001 in which the band started introducing more post rock elements, slowly generating a large fanbase outside of their country and starting a league of their own.






In 2003 they released A Dead Sinking Story, an album that many consider their best. This record follows the same path as their previous one set, but with less songs hence lengthier ones, along with a more complex approach in song-structuring. I believe this album could be classified as the even more mature version of All the Footprints You've Ever Left





Insomniac Doze is the band's most experimental album to date. Their sound has changed to a dreamy mix of screamo/post rock (with the latter appearing more than ever), even less tracks (7) building an epic wall of sound for almost an hour. Probably their best one.





After 2006, they released an EP and two split albums with Thursday and Justin Broadrick'sJesu, with all their material floating in the same vein as Insomniac Doze.

Thousand Scars taken from Abyssal


An Umbrella Fallen Into Fiction taken from the split with Thursday


Life Caught In the Rain taken from the split with Jesu

-

They just released their funeral album, Recitation. It is my favorite final album of a band that never had highs or lows, good albums or bad albums, positive or negative reviews. Envy just means so much to me in a different music language for all the soundtracks that accompanied moments of my life with and the chills and feelings i still get when i go back to some of their stuff.





Thank You,
You will be missed.

Defying College/University

"Go to college! You must go to college! Get an associates degree! Then get a bachelors!"

These are some of the things i have been hearing from friends, parents and relatives on a frequent sequence in the past six years. Needless to say that more than half of that people have never been to a college/university or they are still struggling to graduate (with no luck yet).

I always wondered why "going to college" should be a mandatory companion of my subconsciousness. It could be the rightest of choices, but when i look at it in a certain way it all seems useless and pathetic.

The Certain Perspective:

In the modern world-economy-business-workplace we have sciences and arts.
Now starting from early ages, people choose their "job", some succeed, some fail, doesn't matter.
What happens after high school is the preparation and training of an individual's skill in order to gain sufficient "ammunition" and to apply successfully at a workplace of his field.

There are two reasons so far for someone to undergo this process or investment. These two reasons lead to a better financial status (not always though) and expertise (hopefully) in your field.

A decent financial status contributes to a relaxing life with a limited number of pleasures and the expertise eases out the work one has to complete and might also give pleasure while at work (very rare) and not boredom.

So it's money and pleasure from expertise. Can't i have these two in my life without going to college?


From my experience, there is always more than way to go for anything in life.
Some ways are tougher, some are softer and more balanced.
Both are still ways, no matter if one is longer or shorter than the other, it might just take some time without guidance to reach the final goal.


There are so many people around us that have achieved these goals, even starting from scratch sometimes and having taken the long way. Still, no one acknowledges their effort or "resistance" to the thousands of colleges and schools that support and convince millions to join.

I don't see any open-minded people today except a few. If they existed in enormous amounts (# of people in college) where are all the progressive ideas about a better society and economy?

The amount of believers and supporters of new ideas would be overwhelming enough to even bring down the government. Everything is never changing, because you don't become open-minded in college or school, you grow up being like that, the right plug-ins are inserted in your brain at certain circumstances and ages of your life.

Until that happens, one will continue living in static, supporting ideas he has been taught to follow without challenging them with newer, less conservative beliefs.


Whatever makes one happier





New Order on Technique, Factory Records, 1989

Modern Life (minus) Cell Phone (equals)

I have been asking this to myself and other people and the first expression i get is a deeply questioned but also terrified face.

Does this mean we are afraid of separating our small evil black devices? maybe

Does this also mean that these small evil black devices might control a small or large portion of our everyday life? perhaps


If you asked people from past decades how would they feel if somebody knew what were they up to, where they were 24/7 and that they might be required to report in or do extra work outside of their usual 9-5, believe me, they wouldn't like it AT ALL. And they would have every right to do so as we today have the right to protest against a hypothetical ID-chip locator etc.

It's not the same thing but if you break down the concept, it shares a wealthy number of similarities.

I've heard stories of how the youth of the past used to communicate and arrange things and to me it all seems like a dream that could only be accomplished by building a time machine...or maybe eliminating the use of cell phones to 0!

Picture this: Somewhere in the late 60s or 70s or even the 80s, a large group of friends (yes, that's when a group of friends could count up to 20-30) get off high school for the weekend and they all agree to meet up at this place for drinks later that night, just like a natural process, no im's no bbm's no txts no cells.

Everything used to work differently without cell phones, people would be, act and interact naturally. There was more freedom and that was what made them free-spirited. They still had standard home phones, but they would rarely be operating unless there was an emergency.

If someone really wanted to reach you for some reason he would just call the place, then: "Johnny, there's somebody on the phone for you!" or "You got a phone call!"

wow, that's pretty classic and vintage but right as well

maybe we should start giving value to other things and enjoying life like they did



I hope cell phones will be hated at some point like cigarettes are, and people would just QUIT or never even START using them.
Both cause cancer





Ten Years After on A Space In Time, Chrysalis Records, 1971


Until next time,
smoke signal it

Ask Me, Ask Me, Ask Me Out

I have a strong feeling that 65% and more of today's youth are or have been users of online dating sites and having been one myself, i now know why i'll never be again.
If you don't know what this is all about, here's some hints: boy enters dating site in pursue of a decent number of dates/women/(alcohol)/sex OR serious, mature boy enters dating site in search of true love and a lengthy: dates/romantic walks/making out/marrying

i guess same goes for girls 70%-30% respectively regarding the needs

anyway, the point is, why anything never works out? why 1 out of 20 actually happen to stay together for more than a one night stand, or a week?

Having tried it myself all i can say is that all this internet trend-meets-human emotional or sexual requirements is totally superficial and fake, well, maybe not that bad for sexual encounters but...maybe thats your way of life so you should stick with it!
Real people should try Real things, such as meeting others during Real circumstances such as social places, bars, parks or whatever, you get the point
that's how things were done for centuries, before the first social online network appeared in our lives

i think the old fashioned way is more sexy, alive and original

you should think the same too

try out  www.plentyoffish.com and/or www.okcupid.com for now and ask me ask ask me





The Smiths on Ask, Rough Trade Records, 1986


Date Fair

Introduction to Dissent 101

Greetings,

I welcome you all(?) to my first personal blog!
I would like to apologize for the primitive design and colors, they will hopefully change to a more dissent concept throughout the life of this cryogenic, isolated cyberscape.
Getting started, i would like to display a (thin for now) string of ideas and topics i will gladly be hating, dissing and humiliating

-Capitalism™, Communism™
-consumerism
-religion
-extremely popular "Pop™" music, extremely popular "Pop™" culture

-"famous" human beings of the 21st century
-this generation's habits (18-28)
-this generation's conversations (19-29)
-decriminalization of cannabis

I do not love music, i do not breathe music, i do not live music.
I maybe love 4 people, i breathe air and i live my life.
but yes, i like music!
so...
I will also post previews, YouTube™ videos and upload 1-2 tracks of upcoming/released music that will try to accompany some posts OR base a whole post around a song that makes real sense to me (and hopefully to you too)

-weekly/monthly specials include:

*photographic comparison of teens and their usual "stuff" in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s
*tributes to "real" bands with "real" music and "real" lyrics (although i enjoy a  limited number genres i shall try and give praise to bands from a wide variety of genres)
*videos/photo material from social events, everyday excursions in the city and the non-city, people that i like (along with a brief bio and medical report!

and much much more to come!

call it: The Shape Of Dissent To Come (Refused, courtesy of Burning Heart Records)

Also The Nation Of Ulysses for inspiring Refused, courtesy of Dischord Records)

manuel can't fail!




The Clash on London Calling, Columbia Records, 1979

Fight Fair