WAVE YOUR BLACK SHIRT GOODBYE

I have come to realize that I've been keeping this blog for a bit over five years.  Five geddem years! 

To think I was the picture of reluctance when started my foray into social networking and  Web 2.0, on the urging of my girlfriend that this would be a great tool to market my books, my works, thoughts and generally just inflict my aesthetic on the blogoverse. 

This started out as a space to continue the thrust of the TYBS columns that were originally printed in the (now defunct) Philippine Chronicle --a daily that lived for a bit over a year and then got swallowed up in the maelstrom of financial problems and politicking that eventually envelops most Philippine media entities) That column seemed to me too good to be abandoned to the fickleness of the local print industry. Thank God scribblers and have-nots can always turn to Web 2.0. A middle finger to the dabbler merchants and the moneyed hangers-on who know nothing about beauty or how hard it is to create something and set it loose in the harsh wild of other minds, other souls to thrive or wither.  

It's now Black Saturday 2011 and TYBS has become too ragged around the edges, too thin and faded and just as worn as an old but fond band shirt that contains a lot of memories -- a lot of them good, some of them catastrophically bad. For what it's worth it's served its purpose as a sounding board while still  keeping to the dark stuff in media theme.

For the followers, lurkers and whoever else has visited here you have my gratitude. And of course thanks to my friend at the Absurd Republic Studios for customizing this site.

Now moving to a bigger HQ. With more guns!

Don't fret, though. I'm only shedding the shell of this blog to move house and cover a wider range of topics with a more punk-laced strategy. TYBS will be merely the chrysalis that gives birth to a hopefully more defiant, beast.  

So kindly point your browser to the link below and, hopefully, subscribe to that. Hope you enjoy the new shit, too.  

DESTROY THEE

And thaaat's it. Again my thanks to you who's reading this. To sing the eulogy of  this blog I've put down a short and sweet ditty on a down tuned guitar. Paaalam TYBS.

Wave your black shirt goodbye. 

I HAVE SEEN THE DYING OF THE LIGHT by tzaddi salazar

FOREIGN PARTS

Just finished watching Turistas.

I know I've been behind in the massacre films bit. But this 2006 movie is a purty decent and straightforward big budget gem that's got a lot of things going for it. There's the classic vacation plot (bored, thrill-seeking tourists get more than they bargained for in exotic tropical country), the twist (you can probably figure this out by yourself, HINT: what can you trade in the black market?) and the no bullshit, clean as a guillotine cut acting of the Hollywood stars.

They do an amazing job at levelling up what could have been a sleeper of a horror script.

Josh Duhamel (aka Fergie's hubby) is probably the biggest A-lister here though the whole thing is livened up a lot by the inclusion of the hotness trifecta of Melissa George, Olivia Wilde and, my personal fave, uber chick Beau Garret.

If you remember she also starred in one of the Fantastic 4 movies and the Tron remake.

I thank my lucky stars I scored the unrated version from a local book shop.

Beaches, topless girls, philantropically-crazed local doctors and loads of tiny swimsuits and that distinct Brazilian sizzle.

Beau Garret has mean curves. I mean, just look at that. . .

ROOTS BLOODY ROOTS 2.0

A Max Cavalera interview on the Australia-based I Heart Guitar Blog.

Max Cavalera may have left Sepultura well over a decade ago but he certainly hasn’t rested on his metallic laurels. Soulfly has kept him in the brutality game with album after album of metal fury, sometimes tempered with the tribal elements of the Seps classic Roots and sometimes more straightforward thrash. A few years ago Max re-teamed with brother Iggor in Cavalera Conspiracy, a thrashy new outfit which picks up right were Sepultura left off their thrashier elements around the Chaos AD era. New album Blunt Force Trauma is out now and Max couldn’t be happier about album #2.

Last time we spoke you said you’d actually recorded this album last year, before the latest Soulfly CD was released. Is the album exactly as it was when you finished it or did you take the opportunity to go in and tweak it?

No, we didn’t change much. It took a little while for the artwork to get done. I was doing the artwork with Iggor. We wanted it to look punkish, like European 80s punk – like GBH and Discharge – so we needed to find a special way to do this artwork. But we figured it out and it turned out really cool. We really love the way it got done. We also worked on a special edition. It comes with a DVD that was filmed live in France. It’s got a lot of great songs. It’s a full Cavalera concert. It’s a really cool show and it’s really cool for the fans. They get something extra, the full DVD along with the album, some more artwork, some more photos from the studio. But as far as the sound, the album is exactly the way it was finished. I didn’t touch anything. I love the way it turned out. I love the work that Logan [Mader, producer] did. It’s heavy, it’s crisp, it’s big-sounding, it’s aggressive, it’s brutal. It’s more brutal than Inflikted, and I wanted to get that result. Right now I’m just very excited to have people hear the record.

When you were writing it, were you like ‘That’s a Conspiracy song, that’s a Soulfly song…’?

When I write, I write all together. I just write riffs al the time, not really thinking which one it’s going to go into. It’s later on when I listen to the songs that I make that decision, whether it goes for Soulfly or if it goes for Cavalera. But when I’m writing I just write them all together. When I get in writing mode, it’s like a factory. Riffs come out one after the other and I don’t even stop to think about where it’s going to go. I just put it on a CD and put it aside then listen later. It’s working so far. It’s a good technique that’s been working for me for a couple of years. Since Sepultura days we did things like that. I started writing like that on Arise. That’s when I started getting my drum machine and my guitar and starting to write albums full of songs by myself. I really love doing it. It’s a therapeutic kind of thing. I lose myself with a guitar and a drum machine. They feel like a real song because of a drum machine. They have beginnings, middles, choruses, vocal parts. Some of them are really quite finished songs when you listen to the demos. I have some demos of Refuse/Resist that are like that… Arise, Dead Embryonic Cells… songs I wrote at home first then took to the studio to show the guys. It’s a technique that’s worked for me for years, and if it’s working it doesn’t need to be changed.

Read the full interview HERE. 

And the cover of an old classic. . .

SOME GOOD/BAD NEWS FROM THE FUTURE

A commercial break from all the blood and gore for a bit of sci-fi rhapsodizing. My article about The Singularity came out on GMANEWS.TV a couple of days ago. And the Transhumanists actually wrote me back a thanks letter. Much appreciated, too, Mr Tom McCabe.

Below are excerpts. Or you can go read the whole thing right away HERE.

In the future, there will be robots. And that future 

 will happen less than 40 years from now.  

Transcending the flesh: 

The coming Singularity

 

In the future, there will be robots. And that future will happen less than 40 years from now. If you believe that humans and machines will eventually become one, then the Singularity movement is for you. 

What is The Singularity? It is that point in time when humanity’s technological capacity so outstrips itself that a moment of near apotheosis for the race takes place. This means many things, but chief among them are: a) technology will become so small and cheap that body augmentation (through nanobots) will become as routine as an injection’ and b) we will give birth to machine artificial intelligence (AI) so smart it surpasses all the smart human brains of the world put together. 

Ray Kuzweil’s book The Singularity is Near (When Humans Transcend Biology) defines it thus: “The Singularity will represent the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and existence with our technology, resulting in a world that is still human but that transcends our biological roots. There will be no distinction, post-Singularity, between human and machine or between physical and virtual reality."

If you experience a profound feeling of terror and shock at having grasped the full meaning of that statement, please don’t be alarmed. It’s a sane and valid reaction.

It’s pretty easy to dismiss the concepts and predictions of those who believe in the coming Singularity (they call themselves Singularitarians or Transhumanists —or even Post-Humanists) as wish fulfillment of futurists and tech-fetishists. Mad ravings, even.

Read the rest HERE.

WE HAVE SUCH SIGHTS TO SHOW YOU

Free PDF of the Hellraiser comics prelude! Am already downloading mine : D. Check it out HERE.

Thanks, Clive!

Official Press Release:

March 23, 2011 - Los Angeles, CA - Today at comic book shops worldwide one of the genre's most celebrated franchises returns with Clive Barker ushering in a new vision of Hell in the all-new ongoing HELLRAISER comic book series! BOOM! Studios celebrates this launch with an all-new, all-original “PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1” PDF available for download FREE from your favorite horror and comic book news sites — both written by Clive Barker himself.

That's right, to kick off the release of HELLRAISER #1 — available in comic shops across the nation today — Clive Barker and BOOM! Studios is making available for download an absolutely free, all-new, all-original “PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1” to whet your appetite for the insidious horrors of HELLRAISER #1. So head on over to your favorite horror or comic book news site to get the “PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1” and check it out. After you’re done reading, spread the word, and share the PDF by emailing, tweeting, facebooking, and torrenting as much as humanly possible. Help us evangelize the new series to all those horror fans, Hellraiser fans, and Barker fans that may not know about the comic or haven’t ever been exposed to comics.

“This is an unprecedented chance to spread the word of comic books,” said BOOM! Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ross Richie, “with one of the biggest authors and with one of his signature creations. Non-comic book fans, lapsed comic book fans, and horror aficionados who don’t go into comic book stores will all be excited and interested in this. And we are calling on the fans to get the word out to them. Send this via Facebook, Twitter, torrents, and e-mails to everyone in your life that you think would dig this, and let’s increase the overall pool of people worldwide who read comic books! I can’t think of an easier way to share this great comic. They don’t call it Portable Document File for nothing!”

The biggest and the best comics and horror sites have joined BOOM! to launch this franchise classic with its original founding father, Barker himself. BOOM! will be updating its Twitter account with locations where you can download this must-have Hellraiser essential! Search the hashtag #HellraiserPrelude to suss out participating sites!

BOOM! Studios has made it easier than ever to join Clive Barker, who along with writing partner Christopher Monfette and HELLBLAZER artist Leonardo Manco, serve up a masterfully chilling trip through Hell and bring fresh nightmares to new and old fans alike.

This new comic book series marks only the third time Barker has written the character: first in the original novella THE HELLBOUND HEART, second in the original seminal horror classic HELLRAISER film.

“With all the tremendous work and effort poured into the HELLRAISER comic series, we're confident that the second readers feast their eyes on those first pages they'll be clamoring for more,” says Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon. “Whether you're a regular comics reader or not, HELLRAISER and Clive Barker are unmistakable names in horror, and if you read the free PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1 I'm sure you'll agree HELLRAISER is a series worth picking up!”

“Have you ever heard of an offer like this from any comic publisher ever? I think not,” says BOOM! Studios Marketing Director Chip Mosher. “We know how die-hard HELLRAISER fans are and to show them we mean business we're offering this fantastic PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1 ready to download free! Are we crazy!? No, just BOOM! Studios.”

Visit your favorite horror and comic news websites to download your free copy of the all-original PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1, then run to your local comic shop to pick up your copy of HELLRAISER #1!

HELLRAISER #1 and the PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1 PDF are written by Clive Barker and Cristopher Monfette with art by the sensational Leonardo Manco (HELLBLAZER). HELLRAISER #1 is a 40 page giant with a back-up story by Larry Wachowski (THE MATRIX) and Marc Pacella and ships with A & B covers in a 50/50 split with art by Tim Bradstreet and Nick Percival respectively, as well as a very special 1-in-50 incentive cover drawn and signed by legendary master of horror Clive Barker himself! This title is suggested for Mature Readers.

DOG EAT GOAT

From Discovery Channel. Well that's disappointing. 

Chupacabra Mystery Solved

Halloween stories about the ghostly "chupacabra" circulate every year, but now scientists have solved the mystery surrounding this legendary animal.

Instead of being vicious, fanged creatures that supposedly drink the blood of livestock, chupacabras turn out to be wild dogs inflicted with a deadly form of mange, according to University of Michigan biologist Barry OConnor.

The myth about chupacabras, also known as goatsuckers, started after reports of livestock attacks in Puerto Rico and Mexico, where dead sheep were discovered with puncture wounds, completely drained of blood. Similar reports began accumulating from other locations in Latin America and the U.S. Then came sightings of evil-looking animals, variously described as dog-like, rodent-like or reptile-like, with long snouts, large fangs, leathery or scaly greenish-gray skin and a nasty odor. Locals put two and two together and assumed the ugly varmints were responsible for the killings.

OConnor, however, and other scientists conclude that an 8-legged mite that burrows under the skin of coyotes can give these animals the "chupacabra" look.

He explains that the mite responsible for the extreme hair loss seen in "chupacabras syndrome" is Sarcoptes scabiei, which also causes the itchy rash known as scabies in people. Human scabies is an annoyance, but not usually a serious health or appearance problem, partly because our bodies are already virtually hairless and partly because the population of mites on a given person usually is relatively small---only 20 or 30 mites.
Humans have likely evolved natural defenses for this mite over the years. When we began to domesticate dogs, we likely spread the mites to them. When the mites then transfer to wild dogs, such as foxes, wolves and coyotes, the victims appear to be less able to fight them off. . . .

READ THE REST HERE.

The 20 Greatest Metal Guitarists Ever | Total Guitar Magazine | MusicRadar.com

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