Saturday, 13 August 2016

The Salvation of Sinners and the Suicide Bomb

Alex Bent & the Emptiness - Hold On To Me Forever

(A. Bent, O. Friesen)
Additional vocals by Oliver Friesen
Recorded at Matt's House from June 2015 - January 2016 in Saskatoon SK

This song took me by surprise. I wrote it as a way of coping with loneliness, but since then it's taken on an entirely new meaning. It is my favorite song on the album. The album was written at a time where I chose to be reclusive out of fear of being hurt or humiliated. I found comfort in creating songs that took the stories I saw in my head and painted them into reality. I hope others may listen and find a similar escape within these songs

From 'Dead, In The Water' available August 26th on www.iamtheemptiness.com

Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States' playlist

In many ways I am going to miss this man...and hasn't Courtney Barnett done well - from behind the bar at my local pub (Melbourne's Northcote Social Club) all the way to the White House

A 19th-Century Vision of the Year 2000

A series of futuristic pictures by Jean-Marc Côté and other artists issued in France in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1910. Originally in the form of paper cards enclosed in cigarette/cigar boxes and, later, as postcards, the images depicted the world as it was imagined to be like in the then distant year of 2000. As is so often the case their predictions fell some way off the mark, failing to go far enough in thinking outside the confines of their current technological milieu (hence the ubiquity of propellors, not to mention the distinctly 19th-century dress).
There are at least 87 cards known that were authored by various French artists, the first series being produced for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. Due to financial difficulties the cards by Jean-Marc Côté were never actually distributed and only came to light many years later after the science-fiction author Isaac Asimov chanced upon a set and published them in 1986, with accompanying commentary, in the book Futuredays: A Nineteenth Century Vision of the Year 2000