Never Enough Life Updates Department

It has been a while since I posted to this blog, hasn't it?

To be brief: I think I can say now that Amber, who I mentioned in the last post, is my current love interest. :) She, too, is trans--although in more of a genderfluid sense--and we have a lot in common. It helps that she's just as much of a computer nerd and a kinkster as I, if not more so. She's also much more involved in the local geek communities, given her connection to Norwescon. It also helps that she's cute and cuddly and adorable and fun. The only real downside to our relationship is that she is married--I know Amber's wife and she's pretty awesome herself--but it's an open relationship, and as long as Amber's wife approves of me, all should be well.

Amber also runs a fetish photography studio called Bound Muse--for details, please visit http://boundmuse.com/

I've also been pretty active on Twitter nowadays, and encourage those of you who want to see short bursts of drivel from me to go there. Here you'll only see meanderings. Maybe the occasional penetrating analysis. Obviously you'd rather find out the Black Metal Of The Day (#bmotd) than read here. :)

I'm also active on Blip.FM, which is similar to Twitter only it focuses on music. You can DJ through this, and I have been:

http://blip.fm/lilithvf1998 -- For the more eclectic stuff (including, yes, black metal, but it's really all over the map! Recent blips include Captain Beefheart, DEVO, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, for example.)

http://blip.fm/femmetal -- For female-oriented metal, e.g. metal bands with at least one active woman in the band. This one has been more of a challenge, but has been all the more rewarding for it!

I also posted more recent pics--including Norwescon pics--on my Flickr account.

Finally, I'm also on FaceBook, for those who would rather follow me there. All my blog posts here are echoed there, so you won't be missing much. :)

Enjoy! I am!

Never Enough New Music Department

I've been craving new CDs for months; thanks to both Yule and my birthday (yesterday for those keeping score at home) I finally got a few:

Ludicra - Another Great Love Song: Brilliant post-black metal from San Francisco featuring two women with savage voices, needle-sharp lyrics, and a sound that forges new territory even as it remains true to its black metal roots. Extra points for the buried, distorted sample from "Tainted Love" in-between tracks "Why Conquer?" and "In The Greenest Maze".

Ulver - Blood Inside: The Norwegian black metal band that reinvented themselves as a high-brow electronica outfit continues to astound and confound expectations, with tracks that go from angelic sublimity to surprising heaviness, all without breaking stride. Ulver has always been brilliant but a little inconsistent; all the more surprising, then, that this is one of their most consistent recordings in a decade.

Various Artists - Neurot Recordings I: This is a sampler of recordings from the label that brought Neurosis and Tribes of Neurot to the world--a label dedicated to the exploration of sounds from a post-hardcore, post-metal direction. From the bass harmonics of Vitriol to the distinctly Asian cacophony of Zeni Geva, you are practically guaranteed an exposure to new sounds regardless of how broad your tastes.

Blut Aus Nord - Ultima Thulee: A solid but not quite distinguished first-time effort leaves the barest hint of their later experimentation with Godflesh-inspired ambient discordance. A worthwhile historical addition to my collection, but not necessarily for others....

Samael - Reign of Light: It'd be tempting to compare Samael to Rammstein, except (a) Samael's been around much longer; (b) they write much better music; and (c) their lyrics appeal to the mystic at heart. After some of the disappointment of Eternal, it's a joy to hear Samael put some backbone back into their music. Reign of Light may not exceed Passages as their greatest album, but it gives me hope that they're still striving to excel.

Peccatum - The Moribund People: An EP of three mere songs makes for more interesting listening than most LPs. Peccatum sticks with their moody and sophisticated sound for this album, and they don't disappoint. The only problem: This EP should've had more songs on it! But at least the EP comes with a video for the title track, so all is well. HIGHLY accessible.

Opeth - Ghost Reveries: Simply the most brilliant album from the most brilliant band ever to come out of Sweden. Honest. To call them a death metal band is to disregard the purity of the singing, the smoothness of the mourning guitars, the profound influence of prog-rock, the touches of folk and classical music, and the amazing ability to draw non-metal fans into their circle. But to ignore the death metal elements is to commit a grave disservice: The metal elements, seemingly sparse, have so much more impact as a result.

Never Enough Imperial Bombast Department

So the new and final Emperor album, Prometheus: The Discipline Of Fire And Demise, has been delayed until the end of the month. I still got a chance to listen to a preview of the album, and I've been meditating on the common criticism by many that this album is more like Peccatum, one of frontman Ishahn's bands, than Emperor.

I think it would be more accurate to say that Prometheus is more like Peccatum fused with Zyklon, the band featuring Emperor members Zammoth (formerly Samoth) and Trym. And I think this statement better underscores the reasons why Emperor is calling it quits: Musically, the team of Ishahn and Zammoth has begun to grow apart from one another. This isn't anyone's fault, but rather stems from the fact that the Ishahn and Zammoth of today are radically different from the two young men who brashly unleashed Wrath Of The Tyrants so long ago. They grew up, refined their musical visions, and found that those visions aren't as compatible as they used to be.

However, that is not to say that Prometheus is a fragmented album. Far from it; my take is that this album does more to re-establish the epic coherence that shone so obviously throughout Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk and which was conspicuously absent from IX Equilibrium. Although there are brief moments in which it seems to wander briefly, it all snaps back with the viciousness of a military grade bungee cord, once holding a tank aloft, suddenly breaking free and slamming into the transport helicopter with several tons of force.

When Prometheus finally makes it out to stores, I will snap up a copy as quickly as I can. You may have hesitations, but hearing what I have heard, I am completely eager to own the final release.

Never Enough Slovenian Subversion Department

Years ago, when I was still living in Dallas, a friend of mine first turned me onto a band that has confused many people with their enigmatic presence. The band Laibach often gets labeled "fascist" by people concerned only with surface appearances. Indeed, with their often militaristic uniforms, extensive use of drums and horns, grim expressions, use of seemingly barbaric languages, and provocative statements, it is all too easy to presume that Laibach represents a yearning for totalitarian systems. On the contrary, what is often missed is how they use this pretense to hold a mirror to the world.

In their early days they brashly exposed the hidden totalitarian contradictions in a post-Tito Yugoslavia eager to become a liberal socialist country even if it meant censoring its own history. The Yugoslav government of the 80s, fearing the extremes that Laibach artistically represented, reacted in its own totalitarian way and was thus trapped into revealing its own extreme tendencies in the political arena.

As they began releasing records in Western Europe and the USA, they turned songs by Queen and Opus into anthems of fascism by merely translating the words into German and the music into marches, thus revealing the hidden fascism that festers under the guise of "individualistic" rock and roll. They further sharpened their criticism of the contradictory nature of rock music with covers of "Sympathy For The Devil" and the entire Beatles album Let It Be--the high point of the latter for me being the recording of the concert audience chanting "I've got a feeling" in unison.

When Slovenia began to exert its independence and to flirt with democracy, Laibach sternly warned that "Nazi-fascism under the disguise of democracy is the rule of financial capital itself" and released the album Kapital to illustrate the fact. As Serbian nationalism reared its head and began its military campaign against the former Yugoslav states, Laibach responded with the album NATO to reveal a chaotic collusion of idealism and cynicism, as manifest by the military, ideological, and economic conflict of East and West in a land that, for much of the late 20th Century, was deeply suspicious of both sides of the Cold War. And most recently, Laibach released Jesus Christ Superstars to illustrate how religion and entertainment have become infused with one another, their synthesis being that of a bland universal treatment of good and evil which then serves the manipulative ends of both churches and mass media.

Needless to say, in the context of the breadth and depth of Laibach's musical work over the past 20 years, it is entirely too simplistic, too reactionary, to claim they are fascists. Then again, as a mirror to the world, if we react to Laibach as if they are fascists, we are only revealing our mingled fear and lust for being controlled and manipulated by a larger and impersonal system. If we instead recognize the beautiful subversiveness of their art, we can then attempt our own deciphering of culture, its myths and presumptions, and its effects on humanity from a much more honest place. And while it is unlikely that we will overcome human nature in one leap, perhaps the insight we gain will at least keep us from repeating the same mistakes as quickly or as frequently as before.

One can only hope.

(I am not aware of any site with full length Laibach mp3s, but this fan site has snippets of Laibach on mp3 as well as video clips, and thus makes a worthy introduction to Laibach's provocative music and art.)

Never Enough Metal Department

I've spent the past several days listening to Voivod's fourth album, Dimension Hatröss, a weird otherworldly concept album based in essence on a scientist opening a hole into another universe and jumping in, finding himself in a twisted dystopian universe where primitives consider him a god and yet he is readily captured and manipulated and psychically invaded by "Technocratic Manipuators". In the end, he manages to steal their psychic abilities, cast the parasites out of his mind, and bring forth a quasar to destroy their world. The music was absolutely avant-garde for thrash metal; in many places you can even hear riffing techniques later used by later black and death metal avant-gardists. Technically precise and yet still raw and almost punk-like, it isn't necessarily their most accessible album, but it's really rewarding if you give it a chance.

Anyhow, this is one of the albums that blew my mind the most, while growing up, and it feels good listening to it again. It still manages to tickle that spot.

Soon I will need to write a press release announcing the project of assembling the most extreme female metal musicians onto one compilation. We don't have a name for it yet, but we have an idea who we would like to see on the CD, and we have interest from a few bands as well. More later....

Never Enough Slack Department

September is going to be insane with SubGenius events for me, and it's all slack as far as I am concerned. First, there is Dobbs' Long March SubGenius Retreat, Sept. 14-16, when I will be camping with a couple dozen fellow SubGeniuses from all over the country. And right in the middle of West Seattle, with all Conspiracy comforts a short ride away. Sick, huh?

Then there is the Tampa Bay Devival complete with beach house and some of the best damn preachers in all SubGeniusdom. And my rant this year is guaranteed to be the best goddamn rant you ever heard. If you're within driving distance of Tampa, check it out or kill me.

Never Enough Boots Department

My boot collection continues its mad surge forward, claiming closet space and seeking additional locations to over-run. The most recent attack was most formidable. First, a pair of Brasilian boots in well polished smooth-grained black leather, styled similar to riding boots but without bootstraps due to the placement of a zipper... rather neat and even "fascist" looking... made, appropriately enough, by Coup d'État Ltd. Second, a pair of black rough-grained garment leather thigh-highs with a nearly flat sole, zips at the ankle to facilitate their pulling on and off, and a nice nylon lining to boot. Absolutely comfortable to wear, if a bit big of foot--I had to order a 13 M to ensure it'd be wide enough for my foot. EEP.

Including my paratrooper boots w/ side zip, my stilletto bitch goddess boots, my knee-high flat-soled "pirate" boots, my granny boots, and my day-to-day ankle boots, that brings the leather boots up to seven. Then there's the couple pairs of vinyl ones, the fake suede ones, etc. Those don't count.

Never Enough Love Department

Funny how popular one gets if one posts a picture wearing a pair of boots and a lacy black dress on Yahoo! And it doesn't seem to matter if I make fairly clear I'm almost entirely into women, as most of the instant messages I get are from horny guys wanting me to... to do things to them.

Don't get me wrong. I like things. Things are stuff, and stuff is good, and stuff.

It's mainly that I prefer the shape and smell of a woman. I like where and how they are turned on, which is not always near their crotch. I like the softness of their body hair and the sound of their voices when aroused. Men almost never appeal to me on these sorts of levels. There are exceptions, especially if the exceptions look exceptionally cute crossdressed, but I'm not seeking a guy to make into a forced-feminized sissy slave, HONEST. I don't have the closet space anyhow; I collect boots, remember?

And besides, I have a girlfriend. A wonderful girlfriend, indeed, that shall soon wear my collar.

For the uninitiated, I should state there's a monosyllabic interjection I like to use now and then: "HNEE". It's the nasal sound a pervert makes, and it's pronounced "hneeeeee". Think Peter Lorre having a brain spasm over Lauren Bacall's rear view. Think phone calls late at night from asthmatic insomniacs with an obsession for bedsheet stains. Think hnee. Then knock it off, you're starting to creep me out.

FIN