I Hurt You

Rammstein has released their second video from the new album, Liebe ist für Alle Da. They chose the track Ich Tu Dir Weh, a powerful, driving song about, well, various sado-masochistic acts. It's one of may favorite of many songs on the album, and while it's not my first choice for a video from this album, it's a welcome addition to the visual library.

The Video!!!

At first view, it makes me swell with pride. My first concert was seeing Rammstein, on their Mutter World Tour from 2001 to 2002. The excitement, the smoke, the fear of being hurt, and the love of going deaf. When they took the stage, they were dressed in a full motif from their album, and of the flames went into their set. They were more pyrotechnics than Independence Day, more people sharing a unified love than there were in college, and I had more fun, in my sweaty singed t-shirt then than I have had in a long while.

This video woke up distinct memories of that very show. This video is a fantastic image of Rammstein. Spiky, flame-broiled, active, and in love the the heaviness of their art. Of course, this is the idea of industrial. Note the massive machinery, churning with the metal of the guitars. The electronic sparks as the synths plays. The activity of the band members as the play. Lastly the lighting effects out of Till's mouth was an especially nice touch. Enlightening us with hurtful words.

This is all a very impressive display, as it only took them 3 months to kick this video out, and they're all (still) pushing 50 years old. This is what I love about this group, and what I imagine and envision think out every time I hear good industrial music.

God I hope they come back to America, just one last time.

-The0

A Happy Christmahanukwanzaakah to all!

Well well, that time of year is here yet again. A time for some of joy and receipt. A time for others of sorrow and tax. Where the tides of the season find you, let it be know that this one bids you much happiness! It is a dear pleasure to know you!

My season has been a little weird. A good friend in the country, my first Christmas with a partner in a long while, and barely enough cash to stretch across all my friends for gifts. The main save-all for this season has been my blessed deal-a-day sites and Steam.

Let me digress for a paragraph. Steam has been the best thing to happen to gaming since Nvidia came out with SLI. A community where you can buy the games, connect automatically with friends in the same game, track your acheivements and all with a simple email address. Steam is what XBL wishes it could be. Steam offered literal fleets of sales for the holiday season. The gift of game will keep me consumed for many hours in the coming month.

A few hours with friends and family is enough to cure what ails you in most any case. My foot feels better, and I'm going to get my teeth taken care of sooner than later. There is a LOT of New Year time-off coming up, So I plan to have a a lot of fun and a lot of alchol.

Merry Holidays and Happy New Year!!!

-The0

Liebe ist für Alle Da

As my closer friends and relations no doubt know, I am a HUGE Rammstein fan. I'm not the biggest fan in the world, but they are hands-down my favorite band in the world (though some others do come as close seconds.) The thing is, it's been several years since they've last been in the studio, ever since they worked on Rosenrot. They have a new album, and it comes out very soon. As such, they have started marketing the singles and such that have been selected off the new album, Liebe ist für Alle Da. This post is to review their latest video, to attempt to divine what the band wanted to portray to us, and to compare it to their best videos of albums past. A review of Pussy.

First off, the video (WARNING: EXPLICIT, GRAPHIC, ADULT-ORIENTED CONTENT!!!!!!!)

This video is either Rammstein's greatest or worst video. Speaking from a mature adult standpoint, It's pure porn. It's a very shallow story, comparing to earlier videos like Du Riescht So Gut and even later ones, like Benzin and Rosenrot. Rammstein has had a talent of putting together very compelling stories in their videos, ones which usually match the song nicely, but this simply pales. The lyrics also disappoint, as Till Lindemann is an accomplished poet, but as far as this song is concerned, even I've written better. As a Rammstein enthusiast, this is not their best representation.

As a sex-addled post-teenager still in love with the industrial genre and all things German, this is outstanding. The heavy use of English to speak to a wider, sex-addicted audience is a good demographic move. Their show their nationality brusquely, with smatterings of definitively German-branded words and concepts. It also speaks to their shocking side. Truly shocking, and not a moment too soon. With their rumored retirement on the horizon, I think they are probably just doing their best to go out on a literal bang. I am still in love with the driving, ass-pounding song, and you'll find me humming it at work sometimes. I have been starving for more material from them since they released Rosenrot 4 years ago. Bravo! Gimme fucking more!

Rammstein has always been known for their brutality, depravity, and stage presence. They have a provocative method of framing the very worst humanity has to offer. But what are they framing this time? Simply fucking? Does it all boil down to just fucking? I suppose in the loosest sense, it really does. They had the presence of mind to acknolewdge most of the settings in which porn stars, well, star. It isn't ironic, but definitely pulls some point. It just has to. Please?

How about:

Anyone can do a porn, Rammstein is pulling out, and at the end of the day, all we want to do is fuck.

-The0

Edit: 03/05/2010

Because of the release of the newest Rammstein video, the old link now goes to that. This link here seems the least infectable site for the whole, uncensored video. As a rule still, turn on your anti-virus, and again, make sure you're not at work.

Edit: 03/19/2010

Disregard. Fixed it again. Still NFSW.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Well, due to the recent improvements in my job situation, I was finally able to afford something have wanted for a while now. Readers of this weblog will recall a post about how I somehow managed to resurrect a 9 year old laptop. Unfortunately, its little hard drive was just about as old. It has since crashed, and left me without mobile word processing again. Thus, I was in the position to purchase a new laptop. The Asus Eee PC 901 XP (because I still like Windows.)

A small review. The 901 has more than enough power to multitask. I can run Steam, Trillian, Chrome and voicechat and still not start to lag overly much. It has a pretty nice webcam, so if I ever get around to trying out Skype, that will be fun. If you're considering, get a RAM upgrade. It helps with that. Half-Life runs at a comfortable 70 fps, and that makes it easy to LAN a Sven co-op, and enjoy other moderate gaming applications. I haven't tried HL2 yet, but that seems well off in the distance anyway. I may even attempt that Eee PC hamsterball robot idea. Thank you, Randall Munroe. At 1.6 ghz, it runs all that I need it to, and again, I'm finally typing outdoors and in comfortable places again.

On that key-note, typing is actually a little difficult on this little powerhouse. The keyboard is very small, and my massive hands are having something of a tough time getting used to how minute these keys are. Still, for just under $300 all told, having an ultraportable latptop is very nice. Chic and sleek, and I finally have something to throw at the TV everytime that ridiculous Verizon/HP commercial comes on.

Bricks.

-The0

First Post

Well, I broke down and did it. I started a blog. The idea behind this isn't really to be clever or philosophical, but mainly just an outlet for my anger and frustration. I'm going to piss, moan, and rant a lot in this thing, about my ego, my personal and sexual frustration, and against the whole of society. If it were public, I'd probably lose a lot of friends, make enemies and generally piss people off. 

This whole thing comes out of an episode at church. I had finally gotten up in time to go to catholic mass without my father for once. I was proud, I was finally taking my own spirituality into my own hands. My motivations were kind of ulterior though. My dad had sometimes spied this woman there, hotter than hell (ironic in a church, and yes, I have actually spoken to her,) that he wanted me to ask out at some point. I had intended to try and get back into talking to the fairer sex, and though I hadn't spoken to her much, I was going to try the whole "This is really forward, and I'm sorry, but would like to..." approach.

Well, she wasn't there, so I figured I should at least pray like a good little catholic. The sermon angered me. It was essentially about how any use of our bodies that wasn't directly glorifying God (fucking, smoking, drinking, using contraception, etc.) was sinful. Any philosophy or life-view that allowed these actions was sinful and bad too. I felt a lot of the guilt for which the Catholic church is famous, and i just sat there, seething. Right after communion, I made a prayer. It was essentially to the tune of "Lord, please take my anger, and make me a vehicle of your love."

I don't think I've ever been more pissed off leaving a church.