No hierarchies of strength, knowledge or love

Photograph: Attilio Maranzano  jennyholzer.com

Jenny Holzer | Projections | New York, 2005

We learned to whisper almost without sound

guardian.co.uk

The above image was created by Anna and Elena Balbusso for a new edition of Margaret Atwood's pivotal novel The Handmaid's Tale; the title of the post is a quote from chapter one (New York: Anchor Books, 1986, p. 4).

Very much alive

 kateoplis

Barbara Kruger, Stopwatches

If I sow a wind now, I will reap a storm

thedivision-bell.tumblr.com

Katatonia's latest album Dead End Kings has rightly received wide critical acclaim, including rave reviews by the BBC and The Guardian. Inasmuch as it is interesting to see mainstream sites acknowledging that there is much more important music than the usual pack of style over substance, it seems to me that what matters the most remains unnoticed. Let me first turn to the band's guitarist and co-founder Anders Nyström, who was asked in an interview with the webzine Metalship about the meaning of the album's title, and replied as follows (my emphasis):

It hints at the position we’re currently at in our lives and career. We’ve been going for more than 20 years now, which is a long time indeed. And because of that fact many people expect us to be more successful in terms of fame and fortune. What they don’t realize is that just keeping a band alive for 20 years is the achievement of success itself and also having the firm belief to follow your own vision without compromising and conforming to other people’s demands and expectations would make you a king in what people would just define as a dead end. 

Dead End Kings is Katatonia's most progressive sounding effort, and it displays the merits of Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström's songwriting to the fullest; but most of all, it is a celebration of the mentality outlined in the above excerpt. Katatonia are among the doom metal/gothic rock pioneers, and have contributed much to the genre's artistic integrity and musical evolution in the underground during the past two decades. And in this respect, Dead End Kings is more of an alternate version of success, understood as one's ability to express themselves on their own terms.

Last but not least, the album's artwork is by Travis Smith, a pivotal illustrator as well as a long term collaborator of the band; his images are available here. And the title of this post is of course a quote from the lyrics of The Racing Heart, my favourite track on Dead End Kings.

White sun
Spring of wealth
Come for a good time
It's not what I have
Vibrate
Life on the line
My racing heart
Your vacant mind 
 
If I sow a wind now, I will reap a storm
You saw me sliding away from the sun
And tomorrow who will come
And put their hand over mine
Mine with the burning shape of a gun 

Washed out
Soul of money
Couldn't keep the fire
It's not what I do
Vibrate
Life on the line
My racing heart
It's all I find 

Inside the sickness
Rest
Inside the sickness
Rest 

If I sow a wind now, I will reap a storm
You saw me sliding away from the sun
And tomorrow who will come
And put their hand over mine
Mine with the burning shape of a gun

Democracy and the eurozone crisis: quotes #8

Photograph: Thanassis Stavrakis/AP, Athens 12.02.2012   Time

[T]he purveyors of conventional wisdom forgot that people were involved. Suddenly, Spain and Greece are being racked by strikes and huge demonstrations. The public in these countries is, in effect, saying that it has reached its limit: With unemployment at Great Depression levels and with erstwhile middle-class workers reduced to picking through garbage in search of food, austerity has already gone too far [...].

Much commentary suggests that the citizens of Spain and Greece are just delaying the inevitable, protesting against sacrifices that must, in fact, be made. But the truth is that the protesters are right. More austerity serves no useful purpose; the truly irrational players here are the allegedly serious politicians and officials demanding ever more pain. 

Europe's austerity madness, Paul Krugman, The New York Times, 27.09.2012

 

More than anything else

erh-ya.tumblr.com

 Camille Claudel
Sakountala, or L'Abandon, or Vertumne et Pomone

itsyouranthem.blogspot.com

Policing the (Greek) crisis: austerity meets police brutality

Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis    nihilsentimantalgia

  

Greek GDP has shrunk by 6.5 per cent in 2012 and Greece's economy is expected to contract further in 2013 under the weight of the next round of austerity measures demanded by international creditors.

And while much has been said over the economic figures, on the fate of Greek democracy there is silence. With Greeks suffering under austerity measures with no end, and the country paralyzed by nationwide strikes, accusations of torture and ill-treatment by Greek police have multiplied.

Recently, Greek police have allegedly tortured four bank-robbery suspects that were arrested beginning of February in the north of the country. According to their families the young men, aged between 20 and 24 and allegedly belonging to a local terrorist group, were hooked and severely beaten during detention. While images of the suspects published by the media show extensive bruising, the police released photographs of all four, digitally manipulated in an effort to erase bruises and cuts, causing a public outcry.

The Greek minister of citizen protection, Nikos Dendias defended Greek police by saying that the use of Photoshop was necessary to ensure the suspects were recognizable.

This is not the first time that allegations of torture by the Greek police forces, make headlines. Last October fifteen anti-fascists protesters were arrested in Athens during clashes with supporters of the fascist party Golden down. The victims claimed at the British newspaper the Guardian that they were tortured during detention at the Attica General Police Directorate: police officers slapped them and spat on them, burnt their arms with a cigarette lighter and kept them awake all night with torches and lasers. The Guardian report led the Greek Minister, Nikos Dendias, to accuse the British newspaper of spreading lies and threaten it with legal actions. However, professional forensic examination of the fifteen protesters proved that the torture had indeed taken place. When, the next day, two Greek journalists commented on the Guardian report on the national television channel, they were fired.

As society's crisis deepens in Greece, police brutality is on the rise. From the very beginning Greek citizens have opposed the austerity measures with general strikes, demonstrations and occupation of squares. The answer was excessive police force, tear gas, injuries and unjustified detention of protesters.

During anti-austerity measures protests taken place in Athens on May 2011, Yannis Kafkas, a psychologist and photography student, reportedly suffered an almost fatal head injury when a police officer hit him with one of the fire extinguishers that the riot police carry with them. He spent 20 days in intensive care and had to undergo emergency head surgery.

Journalist Manolis Kipraios, while covering June 2011 protests against austerity measures, suffered from permanent hearing loss after a member of riot police fired a stun grenade against him.

In February 2012, more than one hundred thousand people gathered outside the parliament, following the public suicide of a 77 year old pensioner. The protests ended up in clashes with the riot police amidst clouds of tear gas and flames. Photojournalist Marios Lolos reportedly received severe head blows by the police forces and had to go through surgeries for head injuries. The previous day, journalist Rena Maniou was also reportedly severely beaten by security forces while Dimitris Trimis, the head of the Greek journalist association ESEA, broke his arm after he was violently pushed and kicked by the riot police.

In other instances protesters were used by the riot police as human shields: a photograph circulated on the internet shows a female protester in handcuffs ahead of policemen as people threw stones against the officers, during protests over the October visit of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Athens.

Of all cases, not a single one has been prosecuted.

[...] 

The European political and economic elites fail to understand that democracy and social justice, values upon which the concept of the European Union was built, are now being undermined by unilateral imposition of severe social cuts and wages slashes that impoverish nations and give rise to extremism and chaos. The Greek coalition government fails its own people and is unable to ensure justice and basic rights for its citizen. 

This is an excerpt from Fragkiska Megaloudi's article "Growing Police Brutality in Greece: The Hidden Face of the Crisis," which was published in The Huffington Post (UK edition) on 8 February 2012.

See also:

Greek police 'Photoshop away' signs of brutality from mugshots
Amnesty International, 04.02.2013  

Greek authorities must send a strong message against cases of police abuse
Amnesty International, Public statement, 24.10.2012 

Police violence in Greece: Not just 'isolated incidents'
Amnesty International, Report, July 2012

Selective zero-tolerance: is Greece really a democracy anymore?
Yiannis Baboulias, New Statesman, 05.02.2013 

Greek police accused over racism and asylum rights 
Paul Mason, BBC News, 24.10.2012 

 

Just outside the window

Michael Sowa, February  wikipaintings.org

Closer to you: Nuit Blanche, by Arev Manoukian

emptykingdom.com

Many people happen to admire Arev Manoukian's short Nuit Blanche because of its aesthetics; and rightly so, as the film is visually stunning. But I must admit I was more interested in the idea that there is nothing that can keep two people apart when they desire to be together; nothing, but their own will. And I was pleased to find out that the film prefers to pose this concept in the form of a question, rather than provide any conventional answers. For those interested in the technical aspects there is also a 'making of' video; and for the record, the coffee shop depicted in the film is none other than the Parisian Café de Flore.

A Grand Central birthday party

Photograph: Betmmann/CORBIS  theatlantic.com

It was one century ago exactly: New York City's Grand Central Terminal opened on 2 February 1913, and so as to commemorate the event, Alan Taylor published some incredible photographs of this iconic urban space in the Atlantic. But hey, you cannot have a real birthday without some music and some dance now, can you? And I've got just the thing: there is a scene in Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King where Parry (Robin Williams), a hallucinating homeless person, observes the shy employee Lydia (Amanda Plummer), with whom he has fallen in love, as she goes to work; and all of a sudden, the main concourse of the Grand Central is turned into a huge ballroom, in what may be seen as one of the most extraordinary visual representations of love in the history of cinema.