JonoBlade

I did not know that. Ironically, while I too was on the "RoP makes no logical sense in its casting choices" bandwagon, I like the idea of giving goblins and orcs some more complexity to their motivations. The black and white, good and evil aspect of fantasy is too lazy. Like the Bond villain that was just evil and wanted to take over the world for the sake of it. These days character motivations get explored a bit more. Which is a good thing for storytelling. RoP was shit because it was written shitly. If it had been written better a lot of the backlash (not all but some) would have been muted. In more contemporary modern day storytelling I welcome the diverse casting/script decisions. My wife and I have been enjoying Billions recently. It has a non-binary main character who adds a new dimension and it was a clever way of introducing me to the concept without it being forced down my throat. By contrast, when the main character from Umbrella Academy went non-binary it felt more forced. The overall writing just wasn't as good. That was a more difficult pill to swallow. Gay characters are now all over everything. It works best when it is incidental and eases the more conservative viewer into it. I was raised in a homophobic and generally racist society (but by fairly progressive parents - except for the gay thing, that was definitely off limits or you'd go to hell) so its taken a lifetime of deprogramming. I feel in a good place now. Now I hate all humans equally. 8 billion wretches on a dying planet. Backwards societies that breed like rats get on my tits....but the forwards societies are just as bad or worse.

I don't collect anything anymore. The only things on display* are decades old. I'd have to be made of stone to throw away/ritualistically sacrifice the teddy bear my grandmother made for me when I was a newborn. However, I keep the clutter out of the rest of the house. *And by "display" I mean stuffed in a corner next to a speaker. I know one guy who has actual glass display cabinets (plural) like in a museum. That is several steps too far.

Oh yeah. That works. Bit of a faff, but there is a link straight to the post in the my attachments area, so it only took a few seconds to clear a bit of space. It removes the image from the old post, but like anyone is ever going to find/read an old post from a year ago. I like how this site allows straight drag and drop. I really can't be bothered uploading to a third party site. Any image to be posted will be relevant to that moment in time and doesn't matter if it is deleted a few months later.

I asked once, but never got an answer. How do you delete images from the "my attachments" area in this site? I can see them all but there is no selection to delete to make room for new posts.

Great minds... Also today: Undeath - It's Time...to give an album a dumb name Cult of Luna - A Dawn to Fear (the outro riff....so choice: The Fall | Cult of Luna (bandcamp.com)) The Antichrist Imperium - III (the outro warbly vocals...so choice: Misotheist | The Antichrist Imperium | Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings (bandcamp.com)) I shit you not I listen to that Anti-Imp album every day of the week and twice on Sundays. The outro: We live through Satan We breathe through Satan We kill for Satan ...was a little hokey to begin with, but now I find it the crowning glory. So much fun.

I'm sure they will eventually. Holy shit, you know what today (8 Dec) is? 18 years.

The horns up sign is perfect for acknowledging all this stuff. It shows solidarity. Thumbs up would be for an asshole. I don't know what "ideal" is for childhood, but my run was fairly smooth. I did have a brother that died (as a baby) when I was 3. Did not affect me because I was too young, but my parents have carried it all their lives. My dad tried to say something once a few years ago, like some kind of weird apology "sorry I was not there more" which left me perplexed. "But, dad, you were home at 5pm for dinner every day and were available whenever I needed something....what are you talking about?" So, geez, even good people don't think they did a good job. My mum is pretty crazy now, but was fantastic and supportive when I was growing up. My brother (not the dead one, one that followed) was a different story. He ran away from home at about 15. But everyone's all good now. He has come out the other side and I'm prouder of him than anyone else I've known. Hmm. So maybe it wasn't ideal. Every family has its dramas. Just glad it is resolved now. You don't get a second chance and shouldn't take any of the wins for granted.

That sucks man. Dementia is one of the cruellest of all afflictions, especially for the observer. However, it could be he was transposing feelings from something/someone else and it was all getting mixed up. The mind is totally unreliable at that point. But it's hard not to take it personally. I hope you processed it in the end. Alzheimer's got my grandad. I saw the degeneration over a number of years, although we were never that close to begin with. I grew up on the other side of the world when having a Grandad would have been really handy. By the time I lived in the same country he was already on his way out. He was a navy diver and worked in bomb and mine disposal. All those stories lost.

Whoa. It's good to get this stuff out there and have the stories told. It's ironic that awareness of mental health issues seems to have improved in recent years, while by all accounts the options for a family to cope with it get worse and worse. My wife's nephew with Asperger's was becoming a massive problem and potentially life-threatening to his Abuela that lived in the same house, until he was chemically castrated a year or so ago. It was an extreme option but when there is no state help it becomes that or wait for the murderous rampage to start. It seems tragic to me that we all live in different parts of the so-called first world and all have the same societal problems brought on by constant pressure to weaken public services put in place after the second world war. But on the bright side I won a doubles table tennis tournament at the office xmas party last night!

In The Matrix no one could tell until some super saviour came along. It might be a bit of a dumb movie, but the idea that virtual reality will be imperceptible from real life is quite plausible (again, I don't even play games, I don't care, but the world moves on without me). I quite liked the idea behind The Peripheral where you can time travel in virtual reality via quantum tunnelling (by sending a data stream, not a DeLorean). Technological progress is infinite, if not exponential. Unless it hits a catastrophe. I don't think societal collapse within a few hundred years is inevitable. I think societal collapse within my lifetime is highly probable. It's just math. There are now 8 billion people on the planet and everyone thinks they are entitled to a pick up truck and a cheeseburger. It is true enough that doom-mongers and death cults have been predicting the end for centuries, but you can't cram infinite growth (economic activity or population) into a finite system, so sooner or later the predictions have to be correct. Now the predictions have peer-reviewed research to back them up, not tea leaves or golden tablets pulled out of a hat. But, it's Friday afternoon. Looking forward to the weekend.

I'm out on a limb here, but I reckon Lars is quite self-aware. He was a true fanatic about the underground metal scene and took the meagre skills he was given to being in (and the driving force behind) the biggest band in the world. Dave Mustaine was unbridled talent but had a self destructive streak and was eventually susceptible to kooky ideas, like god.

This was the piece which caused me to go off on the AI tangent yesterday. That, and a memory of the below. Sure as hell looks like James is playing guitar to me.

It is merely my job to provoke. I don't "agree" with it, but technology will likely move on to the point where there is a blurred and imperceptible line between fantasy and reality (a "successful replication"). I don't waste much of my day thinking about it, but this is inevitable....or the alternative is total destruction. Humanity only has those two paths open to it. The third would be stagnation....which I am perfectly fine with, but just don't think it is likely. A caveman would lose his shit over not believing he just saw a locomotive, let alone a smart phone. But, yeah, we'll probably be dead. Just.

You're thinking about it like there is only one AI computer and only a select few will have access to it. No doubt a lot of pop music will be generated, but it's not like there is a processing limit. You'll be able to ask your own AI bot for whatever you want, bespoke to your specifications. It is even possible that you, being the one that asked for it (i.e. "programmed it") will own the copyright.

Just listened to it again. It's fine. James sounds like he has a cold and drums sound too perfect (maybe they just program them now) but otherwise decent for five minutes. My heart always sinks when the press release says "77 minutes" like it is a badge of honour. The other day I was reading an old guy from Exodus say "back in the day we all went to see Metallica for Dave Mustaine 'cos he was funny as shit." Got me thinking, when the AI gets up to it you'll be able to go to a virtual gig with the energy and hunger of the original line-up....and then get new music from that line up. Was in a record store at the weekend and last last two Megadeth CDs (neither of which I have heard) were less than £7 each and I still wasn't motivated enough to buy them. But Mustaine in Metallica in '82. I'd buy that for a dollar.

Maybe he fell out with Scott and this is his way of getting out of talking to him. I am pretty sure Charlie will end up dropping off Pantera stuff. He's had problems with his hands in the past (although that may be from intense touring night-in-night-out - Pantera may be a little less intense)

Train from MK to Euston is 35 minutes if you get the right one. Camden, where all the gigs are worth going to, is one stop on the tube from Euston. Hence I can (living 5 minutes bike ride from station) be in Camden and banging my head in an hour. You'd never drive into Camden if you can help it, but we frequently drive to and stay in Archway which is a bit further north. As for the mountain cabin I'd probably rather eat meat than order from Amazon. Both actively destroy the world as we knew it, whether socially or environmentally. The playlist sounds good though. Work is done. Computer's going off. See yous on Monday.

If you must know, I live in Milton Keynes. Which is Britain's failed take on suburbia. It's famous for its shitty shopping centre and Bletchley Park where Alan Turing singlehandedly won the war. You can guess where I'd rather spend my time of the two. Closer to Oxford than Buckingham Palace anyway. There are plenty of standalone houses, but they are mostly pieces of shit developments built by the lowest bidder. I would rather live in London than MK but it is too expensive. At least, for where I'd want to live. Living on a mountain would be my preference overall. Britain is definitely a peculiar place. You get picturesque villages dotted over the rolling hills, most forests long since disappeared, large manor houses to visit because the owners have to make a living somehow, but also presumably hidden vast estates where the aristocracy that controls the actual wealth lives.... and every city has everyone else packed in like sardines in terraced housing - although very little high rise. NP: Onward to Golgotha | Incantation (bandcamp.com) It must have been you what recommended this. It was in my wishlist and BC kept pestering me to buy it. Most aceful.

Yes, one of those. Opposite ends of the planet. I don't think NZ is famous for being cold particularly - or full of white people. I find the Sulphur Aeon albums pretty much interchangeably good. They sound very similar in style and production to me. I think I slightly preferred the previous CoL...but that is another band that is pretty much interchangeably good. Will cue it up again tomorrow.

I typically listen to all three albums in a row. They really should be due ripping a new one. I left London ten years ago, when I used to live just off Baker Street and close to everything. Now I live a full half hour train ride north (although an hour back late at night because, unfathomably, they slow the trains down). I can be in Camden in an hour from home. Christ, FA puts me to shame if he's willing to travel 4 hours. I balk at an hours' travel. Because. I. Hate. Commuting. Gone are the days I was willing to drive the length of the country to see Metallica, Sepultura...even Fear Factory. Nighttime Birds and Mandylion were my faves. I never actually heard that pre-Anneke album, although I knew it existed. The Gathering is good gateway chick metal. Don't listen to it anymore, but it had a time and place.

Will be a good night out and thankful that the lads could fit in a visit to Nowhereshire, UK. Gotta support the initiative. Mind you, according to Nergal there are a billion bands all touring at once and no one can afford to go to everything/anything due to cost of living crisis. Yet, this is not my observation. There are fuck all gigs I can find close to home or in London for the next few months. Brexit fucked touring a bit for bands that are passing through Europe and want to hop to the UK. More red tape and expenses. Bands get held up at customs now. Thanks again David. Dick.

"Really like" is relative. I think these guys are astoundingly consistent and every sound they make is cool, but it is still mostly background music. I must have listened to the newest one a dozen times and couldn't whistle you back a single melody. Still good, but The Burden of Restlessness is probably all one needs of King Buffalo. Undeath - It's TIme...To Rise From the Grave It's Time...To Rise From the Grave | Undeath (bandcamp.com) Meat and potatoes, but I happened to notice they are playing at my local pub in January, so bought a ticket and the album to prep. NP: A Romance With Violence | Wayfarer (bandcamp.com) Remember these guys? Western themed black metal. Quite enjoy both albums I have. They must be due a new one.....but in the meantime I noticed they have one from 2016 I haven't heard.

The first Fight is also solid. Resurrection and Crucible are probably better than any post Painkiller Priest. Only let down by being front loaded and a few tracks too many. If you have/had a good relationship with your mother, try and make it through bonus track "She" without bursting into tears.

Yore. Give him a break, he's an old man! There is supposed to be a new KK's Priest album in the mixing stage, which reminds me I really should listen to the first one again. I wonder if they'll bash out this new Priest record, since its already written and mostly recorded, and then get KK back. NP: Conan - Evidence of Immortality Evidence Of Immortality | Conan (bandcamp.com)

Those words are, umm, prophetic. But where is the pop music going to come from? If an EMP has wiped out data storage and, of course, streaming services (quicker that can come, the better) then we'll be left with the vinyl currently to hand. If it hasn't melted. We have no pop on vinyl, other than The Beatles. My wife likes jazz. Which is like being stuck in an elevator for all eternity, but there's only about a dozen LPs. Many times less than the metal cache. New product idea: lead lined box and DAP combo. To keep at least some music and means to play it air-gapped and safe from either nuclear devastation or solar flare. ...although I was being optimistic and assuming there will not be a nuclear holocaust, just general breakdown due to constant barrage of extreme weather events, crops ruined, fresh water compromised. Thanos had it right.