(First of all apologies for my rather lengthy hiatus, life seems to have kidnapped me and forced me to attend to deadline-related uni things, damn things. Oh yes, and kidnapped by a charming Englishman.)

*SIGH* The blond hair, those sexy suspenders, and awesome artistic skills, oh Leonardo DiCaprio. Remember how just over a decade ago every girl went insane over Leo? Every girl wanted to marry Jack from Titanic, and either swooned over Kate Winslets’ outfits, or hated her guts. Girls were leaving the theatres exclaiming “What kind of woman lets Leonardo die!” Girls going hysterical over musicians and actors isn’t news. When your parents or grandparents were teens during the 60’s, they were most likely part of the Beatles mania that took place. Women were almost killing each other, climbing over themselves, and nearly killing the object of their affections via trampling as they ran out of the venues.

As I was walking downtown Toronto in the last few days, I just couldn’t for the life of me escape the fact that the new Twilight: Eclipse trailer was out and that New Moon is on DVD. Sunrise Records is selling every Twilight series product you can think of, HMV has posters everywhere, at Chapters it’s the main book on display, and the DVD series was staring at me while I was paying for books at the counter. I also remember walking along Yonge and Dundas Square when the first movie was released and on one of the screens there was the Paramore music video song that was featured in the movie.

I remember a time before Twilight when it was so darn nice and qui—; wait maybe not. There were Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. When you go home, its on Youtube, Facebook, side ads, no matter how you look at it, you can’t escape it. There are many advertisements I pass every day but I have to say I have never been as bombarded by anything as much as this.

At first I thought to myself “girls will be girls, they will swoon over it and forget about it, it’s just how teenagers are, they will grow out of it,” after all I was once a teen as well. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this multi-million dollar series is fuelled by hormones. Hormones should be the ones getting all the profit because in my opinion without them, this series would be in a dark dusty corner in the library.

I have a 15 year old sister who read most of the series. When I first caught a glimpse of the famous red apple cover, I thought this looks sinister, sweet! “Karin…,” I asked, “what is that book about?” She shrugged at me and said, “Oh, just some Vampires. Mom thought the cover looked too scary.” “Vampires!?” I said, rather excited for her. I remember reading about vamps, they are dark and sometimes romantic, if you read Anne Rice. “Oh well, that’s exciting,” I told her. When her birthday came around, I knew she was hassled by her girlfriends for not reading the new Twilight book Breaking Dawn so I bought her a copy. When she got it, she was relatively happy but she didn’t jump for joy like I thought she might, like any teenage girl would, I suppose. In fact she has yet to finish reading it (and she can be a bit of a bookworm at times). Maybe my sister is a mutant!

I didn’t think much of it until she asked me to go see the Twilight movie with her. Besides noting the apparent lack of any on-screen emotions or personality, not to mention acting skills, I was quite disturbed by other issues with this story and I seemed to be the only one. The army of teens were squealing every time they saw any molecule of Robert Pattinson’s body. To better illustrate the experience, I quote Kevin Smith, “I swear when Edward came on screen I could feel the whole room go moist.” This phenomenon of teen hysteria, while very common, is a result of our hormones and other bodily functions. Dr. Louannn Brizendine, the author of The Female Brain wrote about the euphoria many young girls experience when it comes to fandom:

“ Basically, one girl affects another affects another, and it becomes a domino effect building up to that level of hysteria. They are getting all these brain hits of dopamine, and also Oxycontin, which is a love-and-bonding hormone. Teenage girls have so much estrogen, which just catapults the level of dopamine and Oxycontin in the brain, creating this sort of ecstatic rush in themselves and others. It truly is a state of ecstatic love.”

As time passed, I actually got to read the synopses and parodies of what was thus far a successful attempt at ignorant bliss of the mass media’s new boy hysteria. What I basically found out was that sweaty palmed 12-year-olds were not the only people reading these books: mothers and many other middle-aged women are suckered into this fantasy. They even have a nickname: Twimoms.

I am not bashing the Twilight series for my own amusement, I largely ignored it in the past.What others were reading wasn’t bothering me. Until now. The reason for my sudden anger came from a closer investigation into the message that these books give many young women and the Twimoms aren’t far behind. They have fallen into a fantasy that I very strongly believe is damaging. When Star Wars and Lord of the Rings were in theatres, they were no doubt also milking the public for all it’s worth but at least they gave positive messages. The message I get from Twilight is that Stephenie Meyer is peddling Mormon ideals to young and old unsuspecting audiences that are too caught up with a man that has absolutely no basis as a possible good match to any sane person, just because of the love the mainstream currently has for vampires. First, Bella, the main character, falls for a man/vampire (Edward) who avoids her and treats her like garbage. In fact, the more he does that, the more she wants to get to know him. This is a horrible example for girls, encouraging them to stalk or obsess over the subject of their affection until they return it. This is followed by close-ups for the majority of the film that build sexual tension between the two after just discovering each other’s existence. These books rely heavily on “abstinence erotica,” and even though that may seem like a good message, they still end up having sex later on. In fact, he is violent because of his inability to touch her or be near her.Yeah, great message. He tells her multiple times that he is trying very hard not to kill her, yet she persists to like him despite this “small” flaw. In the real world a sane woman should have run in the opposite direction. Right? This is followed by her complete dependence on this man she just met, while having no strong will of character or convictions of her own, other than her blinding love for him with almost no sense of self-preservation. This persists as he nearly kills her by throwing her around in her own room and stalking her in the middle of the night before they get together, and breaking and entering to watch her sleep. Vastly illegal, I’m sure, no matter how you look at it.

All this under the guise of unattainable lust; this is frankly sickening. This series, in fact, continues to ruin both women’s and men’s concept of a healthy relationship and self-respect, saying things like “Leave him and be with me” (from the new trailer). And let’s not forget that in the final book Jacob, Bella’s other love interest, falls in love with her half vampire daughter that grows at super speeds, realizing that she is meant to be with him. Stephenie, what kind of utter drivel is THAT? Parading half naked men on screen seems to be getting her the big bucks because, as already pointed out, it drives the young girls (and moms) crazy. Any fan of the series will pretty much say the same thing of their love for the character: “He is so hot!” I’d interview some, but really, it’s much easier to go on YouTube.

RabidGirl1

“I am soooooooooooooooooooo with you on that. Me and my sister have him all over our walls (not the same room). I’m like “I’m gonna go to the bathroom to change” so she says “Why? I like changing in front of them.”

The best way to describe it is actually from the mouth of Robert Pattinson himself:

““When I read it I was convinced Stephenie was convinced she was Bella and it was like it was a book that wasn’t supposed to be published. It was like reading her sexual fantasy, especially when she said it was based on a dream and it was like, ‘Oh I’ve had this dream about this really sexy guy,’ and she just writes this book about it. Like some things about Edward are so specific, I was just convinced, like, ‘This woman is mad. She’s completely mad and she’s in love with her own fictional creation.’ And sometimes you would feel uncomfortable reading this thing.”

Without fully summarizing the entire series, I’d like to simply say that the fact that the entire series’ popularity is fuelled by hormones is ridiculous. So often many of us don’t investigate where much of our money is going and I was guilty of the same thing. Many of these fans don’t actually think about what it is their characters are or represent and just go for how attractive their representation is (by actors on screen), or imagine their own lives being like the ones of the characters. Stephenie Meyer created hollow place holders, which, lacking their own personality, are easy to be replaced with the reader’s own life and fantasy ‘crushes’. Although it has recently become more widely known, many readers were unaware that Stephenie Meyers was a Mormon, and is paying a tithing to the Mormon Church from her earnings on the book. Out of the millions of dollars she made from both the novels and the movies, let’s not forget that 10% of the merchandise are going to the Mormon Church. The Mormon Church has been discovered to be a big supporter of Proposition 8 in California to make gay marriage illegal. While the author never commented on her opinion of marriage in the LGBT community (it would be important to note that many donors can be anonymous or remove their name from the list), it would make sense to connect the dots. If she gives money to the Mormon Church and they give money to this kind of cause, then 10% of the money from her goes towards it as well. The New York Times is currently looking into the issue.

What was hard for me to believe is how all this was partly helped by girls, boys, and women blinded by hormones. While many fangirls and fanboys go crazy over many celebrities, people like Stephenie Meyers (and a few others I would like to name, but that would be off-topic) have a bad influence over young women, I feel.

An ‘undercover’ cracked writer also investigated this fan craze and documented it in this hilarious article.

So before you buy a book, read a bit about the author, and get acquainted with anything they may support or the kind of message they try to relay.

If you discover it’s total rubbish early enough, they might not turn into multi-millionaires on their mediocre writing, and you can maybe buy yourself a ski trip, sit in a hot tub time machine, and go back in time to prevent both Miley AND her sister. Great movie… go watch it!

Black metal. One of the most misunderstood genres of music in the industry. Certainly, it is understandable, why this genre of music would flare up so much controversy and dislike, there are plenty of scales, intervals, guitar progressions, double bass, blast beats, and it’s hard to understand the screaming most of the time. The look of the band is very dark and ominous, plenty of corpse paint, blood, black leather, and as much hardware (spikes for the most part) as they could have on. This genre of music is definitely angry, but what do they have to be angry about?

On Feb. 19 was the opening night of one of the few documentaries about Black Metal culture, Until The Light Takes Us, playing at The Royal Theatre in Toronto. The movie mostly discussed the Norwegian Black metal scene, featuring interviews with the band members as well as the story of their life (and in some cases death) while in the band. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the movie as I didn’t know a great deal about the black metal community and its origins, just a few bits of information from fans of the genre. As the movie played, however, a sense of foreboding and sadness went through me. I could relate to these artists, understand their motives and reflect on their society. Much like their ancestors, the Vikings, wore face paint to prepare for battle, they also put paint on their faces but they fought a different kind of battle.

Black metal has a story with deep philosophical and cultural roots, a story that everyone should at least be aware of, because in a roundabout way, it concerns all of us. Black metal started out in Newcastle, England, with the band Venom, who were actually a thrash metal band who coined the term black metal, along with Bathory. Venom’s Black Metal album (1982) was part of the “first wave” of black metal, with elements of heavy metal and thrash. Black metal imagery is a combination of death, violence, Satanism (event though most artists did not practice Satanism), pagan mythology, spikes, face paint, long hair, and a lot of leather. Until the light takes us focuses on the origins of Norwegian black metal, and interviews the pioneers of that group in Norway, featuring plenty of the characteristics mentioned above. Because of its harsh, fast paced, and rough sounds, the genre is the most extreme of its kind and its history. Due to the vast amount of information about this, I will only cover some of the features that were also mentioned in the movie. I will add links at the end of this post if you seek more information (and it’s highly recommended that you do so).

Black metal isn’t just a genre of music; it is an ideology that is fueled by the anger that many Norwegians feel about the loss of their old cultures and customs. When Christianity took over the Scandinavian region, crosses took over the landscape. Many pagan churches, such as The Stave Churches, were taken over and converted into Christian places of worship, with no regard for the old culture. Norway is the 4^th largest country in the world, with mostly no daylight hours in the winter and about 24 hours of daylight in the summer. While its mountains, frost bitten forests, and insane fish dishes bring in a lot of tourism, the general feeling of the place is cold, very freaking cold. According to the Eurobarometer in 2005:

* 32% of Norwegian citizens said that “they believe there is a God”.
* 47% answered that “they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force”.
* 17% answered that “they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force”.
* 4% answered that they “do not know”.

By the sound of things, 47% of the Norwegian population is either agnostic or pagan, which comes into quite a bit of conflict with the other 32% of those who do believe. While most of these 47% don’t outwardly express it, there was a small generation of young adults that started getting very angry at the world they now saw around them. They disliked the way that the Western world and Christianity overshadowed and destroyed their pagan beliefs. Their anger is what fueled the dark tones and sounds of this underground musical genre, as well as their violent behaviour. Between 1992 and 1993, at least four Medieval churches were burnt down, three of those either by Varg Vikernes or two of the other Mayhem band members. Much of the situation at the time (early 90’s) is explained through the eyes of Varg “Count Grishnackh” Vikernes, former member of the bands Burzum, Mayhem, Old Funeral and [MF1] Darkthrone. Varg was convicted with four church burnings and of the murder of his band member Øystein Aarseth, who took credit for all the “brutality” even though he didn’t do much of it; for Øystein it was all about the image of appearing brutal, while not actually committing any crimes. While he was under arrest, Varg described a different version of events. “They presented one witness in each case who claimed I had burned this or that church, and that was it. Guilty. Just like that. This process was repeated four times, and I was found guilty of kindling four churches, three of them having burned to the ground. There was not a single piece of physical evidence in any of these cases. I was convicted solely because of the testimony of one single person in each case.” Varg is surprisingly eloquent and calm while describing the anti-religious and commercial sentiments that he and his band members were experiencing. The very short version (it’s explained in more detail in the film) is that while the motive of the murder remains somewhat under debate, Varg committed it in self-defense, and after 15 years in prison, he was released on parole on May 24 2009 (under probation). What isn’t debatable is the motive behind the church burnings that took place either by Varg and his band members or other individuals. They hated what Christianity did to the Viking cultures and they wanted to show just how much respect they had for it. As Varg stated, “they didn’t have any respect for our customs, so why should we have respect for theirs.”

At the beginning, this movement consisted of a small group of people that wanted to get their anger out, at the world, at commercial over-taking by corporations, assimilation of culture, and (what I felt) an anger for other people trying to define what their identity should be; so they changed it drastically. They did it with dress style, retaliation, and by creating the most disturbing sounds that they could think of. This is their self-expression, their rage, and – for many – their depression coming out in music, and with black metal you can really feel it. Most of us don’t want to face that dark side of us; most of us ignore the primal nature of humanity, and our old pagan roots before dogma took over. These people, as menacing as they seem, are also human, and they defy the mainstream by confronting those raw emotions that are bottled up inside every day, as society tells us we should. “Don’t express anger,” they say, “try to be composed.” While I don’t necessarily agree with burning down 900-year-old churches, another part of me also understands why they did it. The Church represented what they hated, and what everything became. And just as the old pagan church was masquerading as a Christian place of prayer, so were they masquerading as a “functioning member of society,” having to give up what they believe is their true selves.

There is a dark poetry about their life and music, their sadness and antagonism comes through in the interviews. Ever since the first generation of black metal, many of the new black metal fans seem to miss the point of the genre and focus on the image that it gives, the more brutal the better. What I ask, is that you look deeper and see these musicians as people, many dealing with depression, all of them frustrated, and among all that, also a sense of humour. There were many parts in the film that were humorous, such as the artists discussing whether they like their corn flakes crispy or soggy. These humorous parts show us their humanity and how they are as people. And not to get too philosophical but I dare say they show us the “the lighter side of darkness.” Don’t fear what you don’t understand, always seek the truth, shed some light on situations, and explore the motivations behind them. Always question.

“I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.”
~Richard Wright

Until The Light Takes Us is playing all this week until Friday at The Royal theatre, 608 College Street, Toronto

I’ll now be updating every Monday now instead of Sunday
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Further information:

*http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/A-Z-of-Black-Metal-Garry-Sharpe-Young/9781901447309-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527black+metal%2527
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4U33U_UyzQ
*http://www.peterbeste.com/store.html

Movie: Metal A Headbangers Journey.

Magazine: Terrorizer.

Cafepress.com

While most people around the world celebrated Valentine’s Day, the nerdier of us may say, “Jee whiz, isn’t there another day close to Valentine’s that is worthy of honourable mention?” Since you are on the edge of your seats, there certainly is – Darwin Day! I must confess this entry started out after watching Valentine’s Day (directed by Garry Marshall) yesterday evening. In the movie, Kara Monahan (Jessica Biel) really hated Valentine’s Day, and while she was attractive, successful, and in the company of great friends, she just couldn’t stand the holiday. While observing Kara and the multiple blackberry product placements, it occurred to me: this week isn’t only about Valentine’s Day and about people using their Blackberries as vibrators while listening to Michael Bublé as the movie portrays. Instead, today marks two days post the birthday of Charles Darwin, born on February 12 1809. Charles Darwin gave a much bigger contribution to the world than St. Valentine, therefore I believe he deserves his own holiday and his share of Hallmark’s shelf space in celebration of the Theory of Evolution. Though, I suppose, that wouldn’t get Hallmark as much holiday revenue; it would certainly cause a few riots in the Bible Belt of the USA and at least make this time of year a bit more interesting.

So to celebrate his achievements, let’s roll back the clock some 200 years and take a look at how it all began.

Charles Darwin was English, which automatically qualifies him to narrate nature shows on the Discovery Channel. He was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire and later went on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, but he “found lectures dull and surgery distressing” (Isn’t Wikipedia wonderful). Having realized he disliked medicine, our young and ambitious dropout student then went on to apprentice under John Edmonstone, a freed black slave from whom he learned taxidermy, the art of turning cute adorable creatures into creepy display trophies. Let’s fast-forward the clock a few more years to the year 1856, the year of Rock N’ Roll Biology style. Darwin was already married to his first cousin Emma and had a few kids. While he loved them dearly he was a big workaholic. In those years he’d already traveled all over the globe, hitch-hiking his way on every ship navy-style. He longed to study cultures, behaviours, bugs, and other assorted creepy crawlies. It was during those years that he collected most of the data that made up his writings.

Darwin came from a nonconformist Unitarian family, which, besides being a mouthful, is a theology, which teaches belief in the single personality of God as opposed to the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So if you ever invited the Almighty out for a pint and said you were buying, He wouldn’t be bringing his other pals along because that would just be ungentlemanly. By the time Darwin returned from his many journeys his belief in the existence of God withered significantly, and he started to question the Bibles’ literal meaning. Darwin later writes

“In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.— I think that generally ([and] more and more so as I grow older) but not always, that an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind.”

Which is the Victorian way of saying “I’m not freaking sure what’s out there, so please let me have my tea in peace.”

On November 24 1859, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life was published, resulting in mass criticism from the religious community, the likes of which Marilyn Manson could only wish for. So far Darwin dropped out of school, was cutting up dead animals, and angered the Catholic Church: If he lived today, he would have dropped everything, started a death metal band, and called it “Atheist’, oh wait—that’s’ been done. Maybe, Darwin and the Taxidermies would work better here for an indie twist, or would Darwin and the Evolutionists have a better ring? But I digress.

So remember this day next February 12, remember Charles Darwin who reminds us that this day isn’t only about showing someone your love with foods high in sugar and artistic prowess in making Valentine’s cards and flower arrangements, it is also a reminder that Darwin realized long ago that love wasn’t the only factor controlling who and why we pick someone to cuddle next to a fire with.

And if you feel adventurous you can always combine both days in one and dress up like Tarzan for your sweetheart. Remember to do the mating dance.

I’d like to begin by saying that by reading these entries to come you might be a little twisted! But alas, do not worry – it’s not so bad. In the vast space of the Internet—home to 4chan and Rule 36—you may have already stumbled upon an oddity that made you go “Where on earth did this come from?” or “What was that person thinking!?”. That is what I am here to talk about. The sub-cultures and counter-cultures we see around us on the streets or that we ourselves are part of. I am a video gamer, an aspiring fashion designer, an all around general nerd, and I’m part of the metal music community. This makes my combined array of interests rather odd for most people.

Ever since I could remember I’ve loved things that looked antique and old. One could say that I was simply attracted to their fragile state, and their meaning for the person who used to own them. I always wondered, though, about those objects that never really existed. When I discovered the genre of Steampunk as a little girl, I felt a passion for it that only grew stronger. In my teenage years I moved on to more popular cultural icons, such as the Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls < insert sigh and also cringe of nostalgia >. I soon came to find that I could never really stay within that music, art style, or fashion genre. I grew up listening to metal and rock music, and that was at the core of who I started to become. Like many people I found myself more and more interested in subcultures as the mainstream didn’t appeal to me a whole lot. Subcultures in the metal scene, cosplay, science fiction, and science fiction sub-genres; you name it, if it was avant-garde, I was into it. For all those who like the strange and the bizarre, for those that discuss science fiction plots like they were yesterday’s headlines, or for those that are interested in anything you don’t hear about in mainstream media—this blog is for you.

And now onto today’s topic: Steampunk!

Steampunk cat is not amused

Steampunk (my favorite sub-genre) used to be a niche genre in the 1980’s and 1990’s, but more recently a lot of it has been welcomed into the mainstream. Dressing like a mechanized 19th century lady or gentleman is not as bizarre to some as it used to be. Much like the indie/ hipster scene, knowledge of this fascinating world is becoming more readily available. I never knew what Steampunk was until half a decade ago, but what I did know was that the merging of science fiction and history was what I craved to see – and I wasn’t alone. By now some of you might be already jumping for joy at the thought of gears, brass, goggles, and well pretty much anything that could run on steam power. As for the rest of the confused lot, here’s a review of what Steampunk is.

Alternate History is great!

Steampunk is a speculative sub genre that melts a 19th Century aesthetic with mostly fictional steam-run technology. Almost anything today can be made to look like Steampunk: clothing, computers,jewellery,cars, fictional characters, you name it—that’s what makes this genre so versatile. Now, you might not have heard of it as much because of its previous obscurity, but you’ve most likely come across it in movies or books without knowing it. Two of my favourite literature gems that feature Steampunk are Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne and The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, both of which I highly recommend. Similarly the genre also appeared in quite a few movies. The Golden Compass is a more fresh and recent example but there are also Howl’s Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky, and Steamboy to name a few to whet your Steampunk appetite.

Now that I have opened a few doors for those not previously aware, I encourage you to look into it. There are many other genres that are similiar to the Steampunk genre that you might now be interested in as well – Cyberpunk and Dieselpunk (which I shall talk about in another post, as the information is far too vast), Atomicpunk, Neo-Victoriana, Girl Genius, Gaslamp Fantasy, Airship, or sky captains – all feature an alternate view of technology, history, and the near future. As with any sub-culture, they are born and disappear just as quickly. But for many of us they are part of who we are, what we live and breathe. What is a fad for others is cherished for a lifetime for people like me.

For this reason I dedicate this blog to those nerds, geeks, and science fiction junkies who crave the alternate side of culture like I do. I will be updating this section every Sunday afternoon for your weekly dose of oddities, innovations, and sub cultural banter. I encourage any comments on my posts and would love to hear them, so don’t be shy. I hope you enjoyed this first brief overview of my favorite sub-genre, and that you suddenly feel the urge to go to a shed somewhere and put together a flying contraption machine, so you can terrorize the skies in a proper Steampunk fashion. One could only hope – and don’t forget to pick me up on your way through the clouds!