this is the sleep of one hundred years

Tomer Yosef - Al Tatusi Rahok Miday

Video for the song 'Lie To Me', from the legend himself, Tom Waits, from his latest album 'Orphans', released in 2006.

"They say we all lose 21 grams at the exact moment of our death...
everyone.
The weight of a stack of a nickels.
The weight of a chocolate bar.
The weight of a hummingbird."

The basic idea of "21 grams" is the fact that we all lose 21 grams when we die, which means, maybe the weight of our soul, which leaves our body, is exactly 21 grams.
The movie, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, released in 2003. The main characters are Paul Rivers (Sean Penn), Jack Jordan (Benicio Del Toro), and Cristina Peck (Naomi Watts).
The film is very unique, because the timeline is totally destroyed, and there are no signs which helps us to arrive at a point about the exact story, until about the first 60 minutes of the movie. But later, everything becomes clear.


"21 Grams, written by Guillermo Arriaga (Amores perros), explores the emotionally and physically charged existences of three people over a period of several months. An accident unexpectedly throws their lives and destinies together, in a story that will take them to the heights of love, the depths of revenge, and the promise of redemption."
In my opinion, the characters are all have serious problems with the meaning of life, and with their own roles in the society, but they're searching these things, which sometimes harder than we think it is.


www.21-grams.com

http://www.scrawlcollective.co.uk/

Bauchklang - vocal groove project from Austria. Bauchklang is an extremely creative music group, which consists of six vocalists with six microphones. These guys make a very complex music without any instruments!
The drums, percussion, keyboards, guitar, bass - everything, every sound made with mouth. Bauchklang more than just beatboxing, their sound is on a complete basis, which seems to be a unique conception. Their style is mainly a mixture of ragga, drum&bass, hip-hop, world music, avantgard and electronic, but anything else is acceptable in their music. "Jamzero" was the debut release, in 2001. Their second album was released in 2005, with the title "Many People".
They've played once in Hungary, at the Sziget Festival, and in June, 2007 they'll come to our country again, to play at the Balaton Groove Festival.

Press Review about Bauchklang:
"...not only the technical achievement leaves one speechless, but also the
music stands ist ground all the way through, this probably is the secret that propels these austrians well ahead of the scene..."(magazine la cote/nyon/ch)

Must see this one:

Soulfly - Prophecy


Unearth - Giles


Mastodon - Colony of Birchmen

Stephen Marley, one of the twelve children of Bob Marley released His first album, "Mind Control" in the beginning of 2007, although He has made a lot of previous records and collaborations with other artists. Most of His collaborations made with one of His brothers, Damian "Junior Gong" Marley (Bob Marley's nickname was "Tuff Gong", similar to a label where "Mind Control" was released), who has three solo albums ("Mr. Marley", "Halfway Tree" - which is a Grammy-winner album, and "Welcome To Jamrock" - a Grammy-winner album too, and it is the greatest success of Junior Gong).
Although, He has spent many years in music, "Mind Control" has just released with 11 songs, and with featured artists like Mos Def (one of the leading figures of conscious hiphop), Julian Marley, Mr. Cheeks, Spragga Benz, Damian Marley, Maya Azucena & Illestr8 and Ben Harper (on guitar). My favourite songs on the album are "Mind Control", "Hey Baby" (with Mos Def), "Iron Bars" (with Julian Marley, Mr. Cheeks and Spragga Benz) and "The Traffic Jam" (with Damian Marley), but the others are also great (except "Let Her Dance", which is the only one that I don't like).
Stephen Marley's music is very full-fledged and professional, and I would mark this album as one of the best reggae releases of the year, although the most of the year is just coming, but maybe this will be one of the biggest successes in 2007.

Trailer for the movie, Requiem for a Dream.
(This is my favourite movie, but my bravery was enough for only one watching...)

Obviously amazing video from Sage Francis, from his 2005 album, A Healthy Distrust.

The concept of Rastafarianism was evolved in the second half of the 1920s.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, a jamaican typographer initiated the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association), which had a main aim: unite all black people, and bring them back to Africa. In the 1920s, He travelled across the USA and the Caribbean Islands, and worked a lot for his aims. Later the UNIA miscarried its excercise, but Garvey's prophecies remained as parts of the rastafarian philosophy. Once He said: "Look to Africa, when a Black King shall be crowned, for the day of deliverance is near he prophesied.” Few years after this famous statemant, in 1930, Haile Selassie became the emperor of Ethiopia. Many people believed that Selassie is the king who's in the prophecy, nevertheless Garvey denied this, because He said that Selassie is a cruel ruler. Despite these words, many people still believe that Haile Selassie is the greatest emperor, and after the release of the Rasta Bible in 1935 by Leonard P. Howell, the movement developed a lot.
The original name of Selassie was Tafari Makonnen, and when he became prince, his name changed to Ras Tafari. "Ras" means prince. This is the origin of the name Rastafari. The believers of that philosophy started to salute Selassie as the Creator. They thought that Selassie is the black God. Haile Selassie is the 225. descendant of King David, who ruled before Christ. King Solomon, the son of David, and the Queen of Sheba were the parents of Menelik, who returned to His home, and became king there. Solomon gave Him the ring, which pictured a lion, the symbolical lion. This ring was owned by Selassie, and after his death in 1975, Bob Marley, the well-known reggae singer received it. The lion is a symbol in Rastafarianism, Selassie is called The Lion of Judah, or The Conquering Lion of The Tribe of Judah. In 1940, Howell founded a Rasta community in the mountains of Jamaica. Rastafarians started to live like it was written in the Bible: they don't cut their hair and beard, which refers to a line from Leviticus (a book from the Old Testament). Their hair is called dreadlock, because other people in Jamaica found it dreadful. Of course, it is not necessary to wear dreadlock, if someone is a Rastafarian. In 1941, the police force liquidated the Rasta community, and arrested Howell. As a result of this, Rastafarians became a part of the Jamaican society. In the end of the 1960s, when reggae became an existing music genre in Jamaica, many singer and musician joined to Rastafarianism, and the music and beliefs intertwined. The lyrics are about Haile Selassie, and the opression of Babylon. In the Rasta philosophy, Babylon is the evil system, which is holding down the Rastafarians.
Nowadays this culture has a great influence both in music and lifestyle, and many young people in our society joined to this movement, but most of them don't know every detail about it.

One of my favourite reggae singles (or tunes, as they say it in Jamaica) is 'Black Roses' from Barrington Levy. His voice and technique is extremely unique and remarkable.
I've just found this video, which is a concert version of the song, and I have to put it there, because I think it's fantastic. In this video, there are some additional lines from Dennis Brown's song 'Revolution'. (Dennis Brown was another great singer, who had as huge respect as Bob Marley in Jamaica.)

Most people have misconceptions about vegetarianism. They think that human body can't survive without meat, and without protein. Obviously, it is not true. Just think about someone who hasn't eaten meat for about fourty years. They're healthy, and don't have any problemes because of their eating habits.
The meat industry feeds us with lies. The meat that you buy in supermarkets, or wherever you buy it, is a result of cruel violence.
In the first few weeks, it is very hard to "give up" eating meat, but later it will be more easier and easier, as time passes by.
After almost one and a half months, since i haven't eaten meat, i feel much better, and lighter, than ever before. And i got to know that there is a big community, which can help you. Peta has advertisements like this one:




www.peta2.com

Seven years after their break up in 2000, Rage Against The Machine reunite for one concert on the 29th of April, at the 2007 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Maybe it's a prospect for them to stay together. I hope...

Throughout the last decades of the 20th century, a new era of music was born. Revolutionary music is not a style or genre. We can call any kind of music revolutionary.
Bands like Public Enemy, or Rage Against The Machine had great success in the 1980s and 1990s. Lyrics about the fight for civil rights, and against racism, corruption, poverty are prevailing. One question still remains: what guided us to the conformation of revolutionary music?
In the middle of the 1970s, hiphop was born. A new sound was built from the penury of people and became rebellious. The most notable rap group with political messages is the Public Enemy. "With his powerful, authoritative baritone, lead rapper Chuck D rhymed about all kinds of social problems, particularly those plaguing the black community, often condoning revolutionary tactics and social activism." - As it is written in their biography. One of their most famous songs is "Fight The Power", which is an encouragement for the people to fight for their rights.
In 1992, a new release changed a lot of things in music. The self-titled album of the Rage Against The Machine brought together the sounds of hard rock and hiphop. The lead vocalist Zack de la Rocha became a symbol of revolutionary music. Legendary songs from the first album like "Killing in the Name", "Freedom", "Bombtrack" or "Wake Up" are all about their revolutionary left-wing viewpoints. They released "Evil Empire" in 1996, which was a lesser success. Their last self-contained album was "The Battle of Los Angeles", released in 1999. In 2000 they published "Renegades", which was a collection of covers of bands those are inspired Rage Against The Machine. But after the release of this album de la Rocha left the band, and RATM broke up.
Of course there are some other names, like Immortal Technique, or Looptroop. And reggae itself is a revolutionary genre. For example, Bob Marley, the most famous reggae artist (with his band The Wailers) had a lot of political messages in his lyrics. To be a little more subjective, one of my favourite reggae bands, Soldiers of Jah Army from Washington, also have a revolutionary strain. "The band grew up listening to reggae, hiphop, and rock. In their sound, reggae became the predominate influence because it is dedicated to a real message and promotes revolution." - quotation from sojamusic.com.
I find revolutionary music very important, the influence of these bands is really significant in the modern society.
Important links for this post:
Rage Against The Machine
Public Enemy
Soldiers of Jah Army
Zack de la Rocha #1
Zack de la Rocha #2

In the future, i would like to write about my general interests, so mainly about music, art, literature and my relationship to these topics.
So, for that reason, let me add a little "foretaste":