Hugo Sieiro

Germany, circa 1600, the story of the werewolf is born.

Whenever humans face something inexplicably tragic, we tend to justify it creating impossible explanations and out of this world creatures to prove that humans aren’t inherently evil.

Written accounts say that when the habitants of a small village in Germany back in the 17th century, found the corpses of children in the outskirts of their homes, wolves was the only natural explanation as it was their most feared enemy back then.

Obviously, when signs of the children been raped as well as murdered without the distinctive marks a wolf would leave them came to be the main conversation, the villagers started questioning what was going on.

One day, they found it was one of them, raping and murdering children.

But that was impossible, it couldn’t be one of them, he was a monster they said, obviously part wolf part human, but a monster, not a member of the community. Not the son of a father and a mother.

A monster.

Ironically, now in this day and age, “everyone” loves a werewolf who is trying to shag a self-conscious and insecure teenage girl who needs to pay a visit to Ann Summers before her vagina explodes.

Greek mythology, the bible, dragons… the list goes on and on.

Everything that is wrong with us, is justified by supernatural beings, we are not evil, monsters are evil, not us. Rapists, killers, Josef Fritzl, power-ballads songwriters… they are all monsters.

But in the last century something happened, America started to create its own mythology, but contrary to that of the old continent, the supernatural creatures are the good guys.

Even though the Greeks had heroes in their mythology, they always fought supernatural villains.

With the birth of the comic book superheroes, we now have put our dreams and hopes in something good that it’s protecting us, superman, spiderman, batman… they all fight robbers or killers (hopefully one day someone will make a comic book about Batman beating the shit out of power-ballads’ songwriters)

We as a race have matured, we no longer justify the evil in our society by saying; is a monster, is the hand of Satan, it was God’s will.

But we accept that we’re  a bunch of bastards, and looking up to the fantasy of a good man who can fly gives us comfort.

Like the end of 2001, we will be born again in the stars. We look to the future with optimism.

If we look at America today, we see it as a decaying empire that designed the blueprint for the modern world. Greedy wars, christian fundamentalism or the heart of the markets, the only and true power behind our law system.

But there’s much more to America.

Americans have learnt to look past the old traditions, the monsters of our ancestors and have created a new mythology of supernatural good things.

And this brings me to the reason for this post.

Hotel St. George – Little children’s bones.

This video, with their dogs with capes, wizards and robots, their use of fantasy and mythology on the modern landscape, portraying the alienation of youth as a good thing, proves how much America has matured. The world is not a place full of monsters lurking in the shadows to take our children, but a place where good things happen at 3 am, with beers, with friends, where a wizard and a robot are as real as the werewolf who took our children away.

This video proves that we all live in America, and that’s a good thing.

Intel and Vice are behind one of those projects that when first explained, it sounded like another of those webs that collates interesting assets together but, once you start exploring it, that idea is flushed down the toilet and the interest level skyrockets like when it was announced that Trent Reznor and David Fincher are working on The Social Network (the otherwise lame Facebook movie)

From the website:

The Creators Project is a new network dedicated to the celebration of creativity and culture across media, and around the world.

From movie directors to musicians, installation artists and designers, you can find all sorts of interesting people to be jealous about.

Pick one, I did.

United Visual Artists are living proof of how regardless of what you do, if you do it with passion, someone will pay for it.

Started by a group of freelancers doing similar things who decided they were better off joining forces to create something new, U.V.A. have manage to create a team of “architects and designers” who will end up working with Massive Attack, U2, the Chemical Brothers or transforming a landscape with projectors or LED lighting.

You know when you’re at work hating your life, feeling like your last chance to do something worth telling anyone is about to abandon you? And your friends are equally miserable but each one on a different job? And that all your promises and dreams of working together in perfect harmony doing something you would truly enjoy have been shattered due to the sheer lack of interest in anything past nine o’clock?

Well, read  here how a group of people from different backgrounds had the balls to do what you and your friends aren’t willing to do.

Come on! read it and cry you waste of space, you lazy fuck, you king of procrastination-land.

Yes you, the one who types right now these very same words, who should be doing something productive on a Sunday instead of just typing words telling you off for not typing enough.

You disgust me.

After the notorious Christmas Campaign to get Killing in the Name of to number one in the UK, an equally mischievous and wholeheartedly driven concert was in order.

Rage Against the Machine delivered.

For those without the enough patience to read a few paragraphs I would only say this; it was fucking epic. Let me rub it in the faces of everyone who couldn’t get the tickets, you missed one of the most significant concerts since Sauron lost the Ring.

There, you can go away now or keep on reading to find out what exactly happened on June the 6th 2010 at Finsbury Park.

I’ve never been to a Rage Against the Machine gig before, I quite like them, listen to them enthusiastically when the pub’s DJ blasted them on the speakers and never changed channel should I find them on TV.

I was a mild listener of their music. Not worthy of their presence according to some but, regardless, I bought the single Killing in the Name of like three times and pressed F5 the day the tickets were available online like a maniac about to win a supply of Marmite for life.

What surprised me was the amount of humour swirling in the air.

The concert started with an animated Simon Cowell introducing the event. Apart from a few chuckles it managed to remind everyone why 40.000 people were standing on a field listening to live music.

Rage Against the Machine could have made the night a celebration of their music, demonstrating why the UK used them to get them to Number one last Christmas. But instead of behaving like divas the band proved they’re not just a bunch dudes who happen to not work at an office. They made sure it was clear the reason why we were all there was because of the people.

During the concert there was a great mood all around, with just a few awkwardly long pauses between songs, apparently to help people get out of the packed crowd.

The sound was brilliant, and the band has as much merit as the sound engineers for that. Rarely you can listen to live rock music without only hearing the feedback from the bass.

At the serious moment of the night, Zack de la Rocha reminded everyone what was happening at Gaza and asked the US Government to fight against the Israelis, to which he laughed and corrected himself saying the Israeli Government.

I lol’d.

After that, they introduced the two organizers of the Facebook campaign to the stage and handed a big check (someone right behind me shouted “I like big Checks”, which made me lol). All the profits received from the sales of ‘Killing in the Name of’ during that Christmas week were donated to Shelter, the charity supported by the organizers of the Facebook campaign.

The band was touched by how people in the UK joined forces for something charitable and funnily mischievous at the same time.

Tom Morello said: “It never felt so good to fuck the system” or something similar. Don’t quote me on that.

That’s why I’m not a journalist, if you want proper reporting buy a newspaper.

As everyone expected, the highlight of the night was playing “Killing in the Name of” which was the encore on its totality.

After the concert was done, the giant screens became the main focus of attention again and started displaying news headlines regarding the whole Christmas Number One ordeal with the song by the X-Factor contestant in the background.

Quotes such as: “It will never happen” “The Climb will be number one” “Rage are just shouting instead of singing, they’re horrible” followed by the number of sales by “The Climb“, a scratching sound stopping the song, and the sales by “Killing in the Name of“

The famous bass intro started.

Everyone went mental.

What I think was the most significant moment of the gig was the fact that the band has emotionally given the song to the Brits. Never again playing Killing in the Name of in the UK will have other meaning than people joining together and fucking something established by comically huge amounts of money.

And that’s a good thing Motherfucker.

Yesterday I attended the screening of “The Internet“, among other 19 short films, at the Cross Kings in London.

It was a fun night, the piece got quite a few laughs and people seemed to enjoyed it. The staff at the Cross Kings was extremely helpful and friendly, so a big thank you to them.

I generally enjoy this type of events, you get to see different type of films on a big screen, instead of your computer, and mingle around people struggling through the same ordeals as you.

Sometimes you discover talent, and sometimes you see films selected for the wrong occasion. More than 10 minutes of colours and sounds could be part of an incredible art installation, but in between drinks, and live music it seems to be a bit out-of-place.

Still, people are very respectful of each others work, and we all know we’re no Paul Thomas Anderson, so the good vibe is always present.

When we all introduce or talk about the piece we just screened, being humble, saying thanks and understanding that people have just sat through your 10 minutes of nonsense helps to keep the night going and make a good lasting impression.

What its appalling is when not only your piece hasn’t work with the audience, but you actually are so arrogant that you tell the audience off for not “getting it”, for not understanding how your mix of random 20 minutes of scenes is a critique of commercial cinema and human nature.

And whoever says that he does art for himself is a liar.

Have you ever heard of that proverb about a tree falling on the mountains where no one can hear it? Art is the same, if you do art, it will only work once someone sees it, once there’s an emotional connection, when what you’ve created manages to get a reaction from someone else.

No one does art for himself.

But why trying to badly express with words what the Monty Python have already perfectly filmed?

Do you know those websites that sell vouchers? full of adds and the word free splattered all over the screen?

I always feared them, always closing the browser before my eyeballs retained enough information so even the bright colours and hypnotic patterns wouldn’t reach my brain; thinking that just by looking at the website, my computer could burn and my bank account support the family of some hidden gang leader from a remote part of the unknown world.

But I wouldn’t be writing this post should I’ve not championed my fear and faced with bravery my nemesis.

I bought a voucher on MyCityDeal.

Blame it on ‘midweek crisis‘ if you want, but we have all reached a moment where if a little window chat flashing at the bottom of the screen becomes the highlight of the week, your brain really is prepared to accept anything; running for mayor, learn to play the violin, give away all your clothes, buy a voucher from an always feared and loathed website… anything as long as you get a bit of conversation to help you forget how terribly pointless you are.

So I receive the message: “click on the link, buy the voucher and we can both go” she said knowing full well of my emotional vulnerability.

It was a voucher to go to a place known as “Supperclub” a restaurant that is not a restaurant, but neither it is a bar, nor a pub or the Large Hadron Collider.

It’s the sort of place someone from Shoreditch would introduce you to, saying something like: “it is an experience” while rolling its eyes (people from Shoreditch don’t have any defined gender, they are mutants from the future that will bring peace on earth once we accept that our sense of fashion is insulting the overlords of the universe)

You go there, lay back on some furniture from A Clockwork Orange and eat while uber humans perform exotic petulant routines for your amusement.

Thanks to the voucher, the whole “experience” cost £17 instead of £70. I can now believe and trust in some of those colour proyecting webs.

A few hours before going to the place, I decided to check on the internet some reviews about this “Supperclub”.

If the whole experience was already terrifyingly exciting for me, it was about to get Super Saiyan.

Dozens of people left terrible reviews of the place, complaining about anything “Supperclub” related. From the food to the staff to the actual type of customers.

Well, I thought, I’m not really paying for this. If it is that bad, I will just run away.

We walked there (I live in the area) and I was proudly wearing my Star Wars t-shirt as my emotional shield.

Many people compare it to the one in Amsterdam (the original one apparently) and they said it is not as good by a mile; that it lacks European etiquette or something, I’m definitely not an expert on the subject. Never been to any other supperclub so I can’t compare.

A very friendly black man with a green beard, wearing blue trousers met us at the entrance, took our jackets, and showed us around the place. There’s a bar all red, some stairs to go to a cage on the outside that hangs above some tube tracks for the smokers to socialize and then the doors to the white area, where the sofa/beds are together with the DJ.

The cage thing was full of girls smoking, which proves my theory that smoking has become a girly thing. Don’t know many blokes who smoke now to be honest (apart from old farts) They were smoking, and I was there holding my friend’s glass wearing my Star Wars t-shirt.

Once they take you to your table, they ask you whether you eat meat or if you lie to yourself to prove you’re better than the rest.

I’ve tried many times, but it is a herculean effort for me, so I ordered meat.

There’s no menu, that’s the only choice. You will be served whatever the chef feels like cooking that night. I wonder if they allow the cook to work with any serious type of mental depression. It would be great if one day people are served shit on a white squared plate, with a slice of lemon and touch of ice.

Between courses, someone will perform something in the middle of the room while a maniac takes 500 pictures per second of the performer’s ass. After that, the lights change, so instead of being and all purple room, you’re sitting now in Avatar where everything is blue and very tall skinny people with feline qualities walk around you far enough to avoid your hand touching them.

At some point, we left.

I am clearly not the target audience for the place, but contrary to the opinion of the more opinionated and restaurant savvy people of London, I did have a good time.

Mind you it only cost me £17 and a Star Wars t-shirt.

With the current digital economy bill looming on the horizon of legality, it’s good to know if your MP voted against or in favour of it. It won’t fix piracy and it will fuck with freedom of information and the concept of Web 2.0

http://theyworkforthebpi.com/

http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/

This is the letter I wrote to my MP who voted in favour of such draconian and anachronistic document, please feel free to copy it and send it to yours if you understand how wrong this new law will be.

I’ve noticed that you voted in favour of the Digital Economy Bill.

Please, put the bill to debate again, ask experts on the matter, IT people, creative people, your voters and then debate it properly between all parties but don’t ever pass a bill that can harm the freedom of information of the UK and put us side by side with China again.

Funny documentary Time Trumpet style about the Internet. Recommended for fans of British Humour

If there’s something I wholeheartedly admire is the democratization and evolution of pop culture.

Concepts like ‘locally global’ define this new era of ours were culture has widely spread through the Internet, defining the identity of millions of people not by their geographical locations, borders or sociopolitical environment but through ideas.

The Internet has allowed anyone to share an idea with anyone, no matter distance, or relevance. Long are gone the days were art was synonymous of social class or propaganda. Now it represents and enhances our memories, our identity.

Nintendo and Vice magazine are bringing together part of recent pop culture to an art gallery. Art wouldn’t exist with0ut the support of a patron, and our culture wouldn’t be ours without art.

Look at video game communities on the Internet, millions of people sharing an identity through a democratic line of communication, and a nearly ‘socialist’ content provision system.

I, for one, salute the idea of taking pop culture and elevate it to the same level as art.

If you agree, come around Shoreditch where live music, booze and several artists’ reinventions of the Japanese creatures will make for an otherwise average Wednesday evening.

All the details here.

PS – Also note that you can enter into a competition to win the game following the steps from the link above

Unlike the Afganistan and Irak wars, the war of ideas is capable of changing the future of a country.

A lot of political analysts know this, one of the reasons the Afghan war is the mess it is right now it’s due to the lack of political strategy for the aftermath. Even though unfortunately a lot of innocent people die while confronting the Taliban, it still is quite a predictable battle where the guys with bigger guns kill more people effectively. The problem is that without knowing how to clean the mess, it’s becoming quite difficult to put an end to a conflict no one really knew how to deal with in the first place.

But we’re not here to talk about the war in Afghanistan, but the war of ideas and its new victim, the BBC.

Considering then, the importance of the war of ideas, one needs to identify the battleground. An idea is useless unless it is communicated. I would be a cunt if I had came up with the cure for cancer but had kept it to myself, or Martin Luther King had a dream but had preferred to keep it to himself.

So, like every single movie where the writer with a bit of warfare research has shown us, whoever controls the bridge, controls the outcome of the skirmish.Communication is the bridge. Whoever controls the lines of communication, controls the outcome of all the battles.

Obviously, I’m not trying to encourage anyone to vehemently intervene between any possible argument you might have an opinion on, but to take into account that in these days we live in, the war of ideas is being fought between two sides and you are part of it, even if this is news to you.

I don’t think we need to clarify the fact that we’re not talking about Pepsi Vs Coca-Cola, Beatles Vs Rolling Stones or Tekken Vs Virtua Fighter. The two sides of this war (I know I sound like a FOX news nutter repeating the word war as if trying to induce fear and discomfort upon the reader) can be identified by the following:

- One side thinks that ideas can be dangerous. The objective is to keep a tight control over them in order to protect us. Justifying their case with examples of people taking the wrong idea too far such as: Adolf Hitler or Simon Cowell.

- The other side thinks that a world were ideas are not only encouraged but also nurtured, gives way to great advantages for all of us. Justifying their case with the advances in medicine, technology and social progress.

You might be thinking: ‘hey, I couldn’t care less what others do or don’t do. I didn’t pick a side on this.’ Well, you’re wrong. Apathy is the most effective weapon against the evolution of thoughts, ideas and concepts.

If you think you are not part of this war, then you fall into the first category. You allow others to make decisions on which ideas can be shared.

Rupert Murdoch, the allegedly Australian-American media mogul, owner of the pinnacles of good, fair, balanced and professional journalism that are Fox News, Sky News or The Sun, isn’t happy with what he’s got. He understands that current democracy it’s a pretty girl he likes to play with and be pleased by.

In order for a political party to be in power, it needs to campaign. Campaigns are funded by supporters, the bigger the amount of money supporters offer, the bigger the campaign. Remember that bit about apathy? well since that’s the clear winner of every single election (no one really bothers to either turn up or check which parties can be elected apart from the ones that are on TV all the time (big campaign)

Once the politician is in power, he or she will return the favour to the benefactor (very rich people who supported their campaign) by changing the laws or lobbying in favour of certain regulations that will help those companies earn more money and start all over again.

But we all know this right?

OK, moving on.

So what’s so special about the BBC? The BBC is almost a socialist idea, it’s a TV station for the people by the people. There’s a TV license fee every single person with a TV needs to pay. This way, instead of relying on advertising support, the station is sustained by the fee we all pay.

If you need from advertising, your income will depend on the companies paying you to display their content, piss off some big corporation and you might lose 25% of your income.

Obviously not everything is Newsnight at the BBC (I’m looking at you BBC3) but we need to contextualize things a bit. Have you seen Fox News recently? Sky News perhaps?

I don’t personally ever listen to the Radio (having the internet now don’t see the point) So I can’t share the pain and frustration of all the BBC Radio 6 listeners who might lose their favourite station (including Ed from Radiohead, yeah I call him Ed I like to pretend we’re close friends who leave insults on each other’s facebook, do you have a problem with that?). But I do share their concern of an eminent change of government in the UK that will open the flood gates playing a fanfare while Rupert rips to pieces what’s left of the BBC.

David Cameron (conservative leader) flew on Murdoch’s son private Jet to the US not long ago to discuss the Media regulations for the UK should he end up in power. Already warming up the bed.

In the sixties we needed people like Bob Dylan to help getting a message across. If you had something to say against the government, your voice wouldn’t be heard by anyone, so having someone blasting it on the radio helped people get in touch and share the idea.

Nowadays we have the Internet, making the protest-song format obsolete, it’s too slow. Think of the Iranian elections, someone seeing the events, get inspiration, write a song, record it and publish it for others to share a sentiment.

By the time the guy is finishing the song, there are already millions of people organized and taking action thanks to the Internet. The would arrive later than the movement, not serving the purpose of carrying a message.

We are the first generation to start harnessing the true power of the Internet (everyone has a voice, there’s nothing more fair than that), but we’re also the last generation with a huge part of the population still relying on the TV for News. In a country like the US, where Fox News’ misrepresentation of reality is balanced by the all-republicans-are-evil-mongers MSNBC or the always perfect Daily Show, finding a middle point it’s easier since you have two extremes to use as reference. In the UK, if the conservatives take power, and Rupert takes over, we won’t have anyone pushing from the other direction.

We need another 10 or 20 years before the type of communications and information that’s brewing right now on the Internet takes over every other single format. Till then, we need to make sure we abandon apathy and fight for open information for everyone.

Save the BBC.