Verflucht, hab ich doch geguckt. Popstars schon nicht gesehen. Ich meine, diese Rotznase hat ja von Bohlen gut gelernt und mit der Tränendrüse seine Geschichte gehabt. Sonst hätte vom Grande Gracia-Skandal auch niemand was mitgekriegt und ich würde mir diesen Mist nicht ansehen. Fernsehen und Schreiben. Das ist es, was da mit dem Stream of Consciousness gemeint ist. Ein alter Mann nennt eine 17jährige "Knutschkugel" und dann werden die Kameras reingehalten. Favoritin Juliette sagt, es sei "nicht mehr menschlich". Die Moderatorin sagt, "das halte ich nicht mehr aus." Die Betreuerin fände es am besten, "wenn alle immer und jeden Tag gut drauf sind." Leider sind aber manche nicht immer gut drauf. Judith ist schon nach Hause gefahren. Und es sind noch Kinder.

Die Kinder von Bohlen haben Katzen. Er selbst hat einen Rottweiler. Einer hat ihm mal in die Fresse gebissen. Bohlen hat schon viel erlebt. Er hat auch viele Preise gewonnen. Die Superstars erleben auch viel. Jemand ist in ihren Keller eingebrochen. Manchmal ist es aber auch langweilig. Genau wie die Sendung. Die Superstars haben einen Liebling-Stylisten. Er heißt Matze.

Bohlen tut kund, das Gottschalck beim Küssen nach Haribo schmeckt und wer 'ne "Flitzpiepe" ist. Was für ein Lude. Er ist schon ein kleiner Prophet für sich. Morgens ist er schon mal nicht so gut drauf. "Hab mir heute schon wieder Leute angehört", stöhnt er. Überhaupt ist Superstars natürlich ein genialer Name. Hätte man mal selbst drauf kommen können. Man hätte aber stattdessen eine Cartoon-Show machen sollen, wo die Superstars allerhand Verbrecher jagen und nebenbei Autogramme geben oder singen.

"18-das sind Spannung und Emotionen", verspricht die nächste Show. Da folgt ein Kamera-Team einem 18jährigen mit der Kamera beim Aufriß. Manches Mädchen wird soviel Medien-Präsenz sicher schwach und wähnt sich selbst als nächsten Superstar. Danach begleitet das Team eine junge Sportlerin, die von einer egopathischen Trainerin gequält wird und dann geht mit den Veganern zum Enten befreien. Als nächstes machen die Belgier 'ne Sendung wo Kinder geschändet werden.

"Somebody some day will say 'this is illegal'. By then be sure the orgs say what is legal or not." L. Ron Hubbard, HCOPL 4 January 1966

Die Psychosekte klagt sich mit Copyright-Quatsch durch die Welt und bombt das Netz was das Zeug hält. Diverse kritsche Sites scheinen ganz verschwunden zu sein und die Brüder haben bei Google gründlich aufgeräumt um nur die eigenen Seiten gelistet zu haben. Hatte man ja schon ganz vergessen. Hier ist dazu eine etwas ältere Story bei Heise und hier ist eine Site, die nicht oft genug verlinkt werden kann um die Strategie der Sekte zu unterwandern. Nutzen auch Sie Ihre Site für Google Bomben

Interessant auch, daß unser prima Geheimdienst die Scientologen seit einigen Jahren ausschließlich mit ehemaligen Stasi-Spitzeln auszuspionieren sucht. "Buendnis 90/The Greens have asked an explanation of why Constitutional Security was exclusively using former members of the DDR State Security against Scientology." Interesting story at cisar.org

Hilfe, ist diese Suche bald vorbei? Wie lange dauert dieser Dauerbeschuß von RTL, Springer und Co denn noch? Das ist ja noch schlimmer als diese ganzen unerträglichen R&B-Nummern, wo erst ein Frau singt und dann irgendein Rapper losgrunzt. Würde mich auch nicht wundern wenn sich ein gewisser Daniel demnächst die Kugel gibt. Das geht die ganze Bild-Schlagzeile für das Geheule dieser Heulsuse drauf. Diese ganzen Hupfdohlen-Scheiße soll endlich aufhören. Bitte! Gibt eh nur einen Superstar und das ist natürlich der Dieter! Kann Deutschland nicht irgendwas anderes suchen? Frieden oder Blumen z.B.? Kann man die Sendezeit nicht nutzen um den besten Fischverkäufer vom Wochenmarkt zu küren?

"Das sind nur die 90er, mein Freund und das ist nicht mal bös' gemeint..." ...But Alive

In Berlin war mal wieder Transmediale. Das ist was für ganz Schlaue. Gestern diskutierten Ted Gaier und Dietrich Diederichsen "Global Player Strategies". Leider gab's nix über Mix-Media, Streaming und Crossover-Branding. Scheint irgendwie nicht mehr so wichtig zu sein. Klingt schon so total nach Neunziger. Was für das überhaupt für ein lächerliches Jahrzehnt, wenn man mal auf dem Sofa sitzt und bei einer Tasse Tee in Ruhe drüber nachdenkt. Ganz schlimm waren vor allem wahlweise das "neue Berlin", die "neue Mitte" und die "Berliner Republik". Was hat man da alles ertragen müßen! Deutscher Größenwahn vom feinsten. Jeder war ein globaler Player mit 'ner fetten Strategie und dem totalen Masterplan.

Erinnert sich noch jemand an die "MicroLounge" im WMF und wie wahnsinnig wichtig gewisse Leute das genommen haben, was da aus alten "Wired"-Ausgaben rezitiert wurde?

Jetzt isses Geld alle und alle gucken dumm in die Röhre, wobei mit einfällt, daß es in Hannover mal eine Disco gab, die ebenfalls "Röhre" hieß, was eigentlich viel zu selten Anlass alberner Wortspiele war. Die "Röhre" war irgendwann dicht und irgendein anderer Laden wird von der Hannover-Posse seitdem beständig als "ehemalige Röhre" bezeichnet, was auch wieder ganz lustig ist. Ich meine, eine "ehemalige Röhre", was war die denn vorher? Vielleicht eine Dose?

Anyway. Es hat sich ausgestreamt und das schon seit gut zwei Jahren. Jetzt hat jedenfalls die Stadt Berlin ein echtes Problem mit all den arbeitslosen Hipster-Ärschen, die sich nun voll wertlos vorkommen und den ganzen Tag in ihren Milchkaffee weinen. Studium geschmissen und gemeint, daß man als Angestellter mit Internet-Gepopel ganz doll reich werden kann. Gerade noch hauptberuflich hip und jetzt schon altes Eisen.

Verzweifelt wird versucht zu retten, was man noch irgendwie subventioniert kriegt und mit viel Mühe werden dann doch so "Events" wie die Transmediale angeschoben. Wozu eigentlich? Brauchte irgendwer noch die "Berlin Beta" als die Sponsoren abgesprungen sind? Vermisst irgendwer den gerade eingestellten "Flyer"? Ist es nicht eher super, daß der ganze Scheiß vorbei ist?

All diese Veranstaltungen, wo man sich für 10$ Eintritt die Dias irgendwelcher Architektur-Studenten ansehen kann und dazu progressiv gemeinte Elektro-Trommeln anhören muß. Drüber geschrieben steht dann immer was mit virtuell, neue Räume erobern und so. Alles schön mono-minimal und irgendwie schon vor zehn Jahren nichts Neues gewesen. Hauptsache keine Aussage treffen oder kontrovers sein. Bloß nichts thematisieren oder nur auf der entferntesten Meta-Ebene. Problematisch dabei, daß die ganzen Würstchen, die zu "Events" gehen weder eine politisch angehauchte Vergangenheit haben oder sich je sonstwie am gesellschaftlichen Diskurs beteiligt haben. Intellektuelle Anregung also gleich null und wenn man fragt, hat man es wahrscheinlich nicht verstanden oder zumindest suggeriert das Schweinchen Schlau mit seiner Hornbrille. Man darf auch nicht fragen weil die ganzen Traumschlösser sich sonst in Luft auflösen.

Das ist so Neunziger, daß es inzwischen nur noch Gelächter auslöst. Das ist alles so inhaltsleer und langweilig, Freunde. Formalismus pur, den Unterschied zwischen Kunst und Design nicht verstanden, ach, Kunst sowieso nicht verstanden. Geht ja eh nur um Rumstehen, Prosecco und was zu ficken finden. Ist ja nix anderes als noch so eine Mini-Gesellschaft, die unter sich bleiben will um schön geheimnisvoll und cool zu wirken. Ihr macht keine Kunst, Ihr macht Euch lächerlich!

"Über Musik schreiben ist wie zu Architektur tanzen." (William S.Burroughs)

Als Gegentrend zur totalen Sprachlosigkeit etablierten sich in den Neunzigern aber auch mal wieder die Bühnen für Kleinkünstler. All die irren "Pop-Literaten" haben Heerscharen von schwäbischen Nachwuchs-Autoren gen Prenzlauer Berg verschlagen, wo sie jetzt den ganzen Tag mit spitzem Bleistift im Cafe sitzen und auf den Durchbruch warten. Studenten-Lyrik und Social Slambeat in jeder Kneipe. Hat schon wieder was von Zupfgeigenhansel und "du, ich bin da jetzt aber emotional total betroffen".

Unerträglich auch die Arroganz mit der eben diese Menschen auf den Rest von uns herabsehen. Die halten nämlich uns für Idioten, Leute! Die finden auch dauernd, daß irgendwas "nichts bringt". Meistens geht es dann um politische Sachen und kurz danach möchte man ihnen das Genick brechen. Als würden wir nicht derzeit in einer schwer politischen Zeit leben... Als wäre popelige Kleinkunst irgendwie weniger popelig weil man sie mit Hilfe eines Computers produziert oder auf der Bühne vom Kaffee Burger präsentiert...

Fuck, werdet erwachsen, Ihr Idioten! Und bleibt mir weg mit Euren "Szene-Kneipen"! Ihr spielt Subkultur und der mangelt es genauso an Ideen wie den Websites, für die Ihr mal gearbeitet habt! Die versilberte Verlängerung Eurer Jugend ist vorbei. Game over!

Kreuzberg-gegen-Krieg! Ich habe mir auch schon ein Poster in's Fenster gehängt um Bushie zu ärgern. War es nicht auch mal Sitte, daß man während anstehender Golfkriege weiße Bettlaken aus dem Fenster hängt? Was ist daraus geworden? Bringt es das auch nicht mehr? Vieleicht könnte man seine gesamte Garderobe an den Fensterrahmen nageln und dann gibt es noch weniger Krieg. Zumindest würden die Amis diese Bilder im Fernsehen sehen: ganz Deutschland hat seine Wäsche an's Fenster gehängt. Da würden die doch denken:"Those crazy motherfuckers! They really mean it, man!"

Ziemlich prima übrigens, daß sich die Stadt Hamburg mit dem alten Autonomen-Slogan "Feuer und Flamme für Hamburg" um die Olympischen Spiele bewirbt! Oh, "Ramones" im Radio! Schön! Werd mal schnell bei Radio Eins anrufen und mir das Lied von Deutschland's Superstars wünschen. Die halbe Stadt wird mich hassen. So fies kann ich sein, ja, ja. Das würd' sich nicht mal Fantomas trauen!

Ficken, ficken, ficken! Beinahe in den Top Ten!

Platz 1 bei den Schweizer Freunden von jungen Mädchen Überhaupt empörend wieviel Kinderschänder-Gesuche hier landen! Hier, auch als Dr.Sommer für 14jährige ganz weit vorn! Ansonsten sucht die halbe Welt bei Google nach dem Jewish Astronaut und beschert mir laut "Referrers" unfassbare Besucherzahlen.

Da sollte man mal wieder über Google Bomben nachdenken...

Wired announces The Year The Music Dies and gives the the music industry only five or ten more years to live.

"The labels' new legitimate online music services attracted fewer paying customers than the McDonald's in Times Square. (...) The electronics industry's attitude toward the labels is summed up by an Apple slogan: Rip. Mix. Burn. Which, a music executive once told me, translates into "Fuck you, record labels."

Capitalism eats itself. It's going to be interesting how big business is going to solve this problem. If they're interested in solving it. It's obvious that Sony makes more money with selling MP3-phones rather than Michael Jackson-cds and Bertelsmann aka. BMG is just too stupid to realize what's going on after buying Napster. The funniest example of globalism right now is AOL Time Warner. AOL sells high-speed-internet-connections to people who download all kinds of songs and movies produced by Warner. Look at this grand old player which used to be called Warner Brothers and what it came down to. . Now they're almost bankrupt and think about selling their music-labels.

The story of Hitler's last secretary by Andre Heller is one of the most impressive documentaries ever banned on film. Certainly one of the most interesting films about the Third Reich. Now there is an international version, a Homepage and even a trailer for you to check out.

After all these years, Traudl Junge, who was Hilter's private secetary from 1942 to 1945 finally talked. Watching the film it seems like nobody had ever really asked her until Heller approached her. Seeing her talk about Hitler, you get the idea that she has waited all her life to tell the story. There are some scenes where she watches some of the first sequences on video and it seems like she has prepared these stories by hard. The film was finished before Frau Junge died.

Another trailer has to be withdrawn due to the crash of the Space Shuttle. After Spider-Man had to get rid o that scene with the Twon Towers, some cheesy movie called "The Core" is next. Hurry up if you wanna see that scene with the Shuttle in trouble down there since the trailers will be gone any minute!

Official Website: TheCoremovie.com
Trailers: QuickTime, Various
International Trailer: QuickTime, Hi-Res QuickTime, Lo-Re

  The space shuttle Columbia is all over Texas. Don't touch any of the pieces. They might be lethal and they can make you glow in the dark. Well, aren't we glad that NASA works on sending a nuclear powered space shuttle the next time?

Here's an interesting article: Will Nuclear Power Put Humans On Mars? by Greg Clark at space.com

Here is a movie about a guy who likes rats. After having been George McFly in "Back to the Future" and he villain in "Charlies Angels", Willard seems to be the role Crispin Glover has been waiting for. Wait a minute, isn't this just another remake of Ormero's movie from 1971?

Damned, there is is this new law in Germany. You have to buy 25-50 cents "Pfand" for any can or plastic-bottle you buy and you can only return the empty fuckers where you bought them. I ended up with all these little bags of empty beercans I bought at various stores or gas-stations with little bills attached to them. Now I only buy cans at one store. Makes returning much easier. The industry had ten years to come up with a reasonable system to return cans and plastic-bottles, but they didn't.

The New Europe had an ad in the paper. Well... What's that thing with the trial of Ramzi Binalshibh? Ok, everything is secret......

I finished "Brooklyn Dreams" by J.M.DeMatteis and Glen Barr (Four books, Paradox Press). Interesting. Back from a time when DC Comics tried to have a real adult-line.

I will drop the working-title of "Dirty Tears" and I will call it "The Stranded" now. It's strange to have finished a novel. The charakters still haunt you. "What happened to them, did they die?" Makes me want to bring them back in some other context....

Nasa plans to throw nuclear waste into space. That's really something we should look into, friends!

ZickZack has put out a new sampler which is a follow-up to the legendary samplers Alfred Hilsberg used to do years and years ago. This is a must for everone following contemporary music in Germany right now. Good ole Boy from Brazil is on there and the Boy Division is on there! what else can you ask for, ha, ha! Alfred Hilsberg hat die "Neue Deutsche Welle" benannt und noch gnaz viele Schulden weil er so ein guter Mann ist und schon wieder kommt so ein cooler Sampler für so billig raus. Also, KAUFT DEN GEFÄLLIGST!Ist doch eh euer halber Bekanntenkreis drauf!

Bohren und der Club of Gore is my favourite band. Some of these guys used to be in the hardcore-band 7"-Boots. I can't get enough of their urban death-jazz and I got all their records. I even have the split with Wald and the first 7" on Burt Reynolds Moustache Records with the handmade moustache attached to it. That's how cool I am, ok? It's like the Twin Peaks-soundtrack with the right sort of attitude (come on, David Lynch is lame!), the best soundtrack for those lonely nights you spend on your own with the computer and a bottle of vino. They play a handful of live-shows: 28.03. Potsdam   Waschhaus 29.03. Hannover   Glocksee Check out the site of Bohren und der Club of Gore yourself. Here are two songs of the last record for direct download as mp3s. It's just a click to the right: Song 1 Song 2

Yes, it's here and it's written by the man himself: the Weblog of George W.Bush.

Abt. Google-Anfragen und mit was für Erwartungen diese Site besucht wird...

Mad-Science.Net - Ihre Nummer 1 bei folgenden Suchanfragen: "kaninchen ficken" sowie "extrem jung missbraucht".

Mad-Science.Net: Your number one-source if you wanna find out if eminems dead or whoever this guy might be...

I saw "8 mile" last night. It was okay. It's not a tale about a hero. Pretty much like "Rocky" with a mike. I also saw Hanin Elias play at the Bastard last night. It wasn't far too different what I expected. A lot of Atari Teenage Riot. She also did "Destroy 2000 years of culture" by ATR. All these riot-videos in the back, I don't know. A lot of people who go for that have never been at a riot. Add the "State of Emergency"-videogame and you have a new placebo-experience to go for. Hanin kept screaming "are you ready for World War III?" It's part of the image, but it doesn't have a shock-value anymore. Neither does the grotesque gabba-noise she's using. The whole act is endangered of looking like nothing but a big pose. It's making use of imagery from a safe distance. It's art through the lense of watching too much TV. The Eminem-cartoon is more real than that.

Uh-oh, I wrote a lenghty thing over at Bazima's

We are robots has some great, great fast-loading cartoons by Brian Frisk. Check out the Angrybot!
White Bread Blues is really funny as well! Check out the "Zone Wars"!

Click the picture for more funny shit or go here first to see Hollywood burn!

"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini (a man who knows)

Jello Biafra has released his 7th spoken word-album and there are some MP3s for downlaod available.

"At last the full, no holds barred, album on how the war on terrorism went terribly wrong and what we can do about it. Expands on The Big Ka-Boom, Part Onewith more in-depth details, plus a eye-brow raising recap of the Florida election Fraud Follies – complete with a trademark searing reply to anyone who still thinks Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the election (and just in time for this election!)"

Looks like Lula from Brazil is the new hero. More than a 100000 people in Davos and protests against the war finally starting in Germany too. The churches are getting active and Goldie Hawn said something on TV. It's strange how much the Germans and the French love each other right now. They should go out together more often! When they had their 40 years of friendship-party the other day you could see them standing in the rain in front of the Dome in Paris. They were soaked, but they stood together. Those idiots! The Rolling Stones will play their first free show ever since 33 years ago on February the 6th in Los Angeles. They wanna protest against Bushie and his politics considering the climate. Associated Press reports, the First Meeting of 9/11 Commission Will Be Closed to the Public "Aides to the commission's chairman, Republican Thomas H. Kean, and vice chairman, Democrat Lee Hamilton, said the panel will convene privately in Washington on Monday." And The Guardian (London) found out that "the US military has drawn up detailed plans to secure and protect Iraq'soilfields to prevent a repeat of 1991 when President Saddam set Kuwait's wells ablaze." A lot of secret talks going on!

a lot of discussion about the new model which salon.com is using. In an open letter, salon.com had to say: "You can pay our low subscription price (as little as 5 cents a day) or you can click through a multiple-screen advertisement. " It sounds reasonable. I wonder whether it works.

The Bloggies 2003 can be found here! I love the Bazima Chronicles from Brooklyn!

Heart First Records I was out drinking, watching socer and finally winning the glorious, glorious quiz-game at the Intertank where I also met Flo of Heart First Records. Looks he's still around doing the same great little record-label.

-Lotus-Milk-com is a beautiful site consisting of poetry and pictures. Even the basic-version shows how can you still do art on the web without doing something big and flashy. -The boys of Propagandhi linked me and we're already counting the visitors from over there. So, there must be some true fans of glorious progressive trash out there. By the way, if there's one thing that Propagandhi can't do (and there is a lot that they CAN do!), it must be playing soccer. Some interesting talk going on about a very special tour I can't talk about yet, but it would be a killer! -For some reason I downloaded this ballad about this guy who died on 9/11(MP3 / 1.2MB). It gave me the creeps! failureispossible.com has it up.

I saw Robin Gibb on TV last night. What a zombie. Here's a funny one: "The Bee Gees may have lost a brother, but at least they still have their reputation for being the hardest pill-poppers, drinkers and smokers in the business. According to awed roadies, each brother had their own choice of intoxicant - one used pills, one smoked weed, and the other drank. They were, therefore, known as "Pilly, Potty and Pissy."

(Can you guess who was who? Clue: Robin was Potty) (FYI: Pilly ordered 30 Es for his 50th birthday, a few years ago.)" ->popbitch.com

"When Europeans make such criticisms, Americans assume we're envious. "They want what we've got," the thinking goes, "and if they can't get it, they're going to stop us from having it." But does everyone want what America has? Well, we like some of it but could do without the rest: among the highest rates of violent crime, economic inequality, functional illiteracy, incarceration and drug use in the developed world. President Bush recently declared that the U.S. was "the single surviving model of human progress." Maybe some Americans think this self-evident, but the rest of us see it as a clumsy arrogance born of ignorance.

Europeans tend to regard free national health services, unemployment benefits, social housing and so on as pretty good models of human progress. We think it's important — civilized, in fact — to help people who fall through society's cracks. This isn't just altruism, but an understanding that having too many losers in society hurts everyone. It's better for everybody to have a stake in society than to have a resentful underclass bent on wrecking things. To many Americans, this sounds like socialism, big government, the nanny state. But so what? The result is: Europe has less gun crime and homicide, less poverty and arguably a higher quality of life than the U.S., which makes a lot of us wonder why America doesn't want some of what we've got."

-Brian Eno in Time.

failureisimpossible.com has revealed an interesting story about the current propaganda: "Newspapers around the country are being deluged with Letters to the Editor expressing support for the Bush agenda. These letters are obviously an orchestrated campaign: they are identical, word for word, except where they are "edited for length"." Read this and do something!

Take back the media and check those funny Bushie-Flash-movies on this site!

"Germany is a problem, France is a problem!" The new Europe is somewhere over there in the East. It has been more obvious ever since the wall came down. Europe is closer to Russia than ever. Time for god's own superpower to show off and get things clear. Everyone's gotta be more careful than ever, I guess. Things like MoveOn happening at least.

-Tom Hanks is in town. He met with Egon Krenz, formerly the last head of the GDR. Krenz has been a friend of Dean Reed, the dork who is the world's most unknown superstar. Dean Reed was a singer and actor who died under msterious circumstances in 1986 after he has been living behind the iron curtain since 1972. Great conspiracy-story! Hanks is gonna do a movie about the guy called "Comrade Rockstar." I was just out drinking with Dave from Wisconscin who is also doing a potrait on Dean Reed. There is a lot of new interest in this guy. Check out the Dean Reed-Fansite for more.

-Soccer-season starts again today. St.Pauli even won the first game, unbelievable!

-Some folks have been showing some great animations at the Glashaus/Arena in Berlin. Everyone can do Flash-cartoons. Some of the best are just stills with narration and music. They should teach this program to the kids at school!
There's another show on the 26th this month. Check out Flashkino

-Work on the Urban Drift-project might continue in a new form. Talks about a dvd have started.

-I finished "Dirty Tears". Woo-hoo! I gotta do some last rewritings and a few things here and there, but I'm pretty much done. I'll post the motherfucker soon and then I come up with a print-edition via books on demand in a while, ok?

Damned, Frodo, you failed! We're doomed!

"Belief in UFOs is not as marginal as one might think. As part of the publicity push for Taken -- Steven Spielberg's recently aired 10-part miniseries chronicling the UFO abductions in three different families over 50 years -- the SCI FI cable channel sponsored a Roper poll.

The survey revealed that 72 percent of Americans believe the government knows more about UFOs and extraterrestrials than it's passing on to the public. Still, UFOs, extraterrestrials and the people who love them often serve as stock straw men for the media. With a tone of orchestrated paranormality, sensational reports typically focus on accounts of sightings and abductions with speculation on the alien agenda. Often missing are any reports on how diverse the world of UFO research actually is. As is the case in just about any broad movement, Ufologists fall into numerous and often conflicting camps."

This was taken from an interesting article by John Dicker which deals with Ufologist and the belief in weird things in general.

"Nowhere on these pages will a clean-cut Air Force retiree unearth three decades of "suppressed" evidence exposing the bizarre and tenuous connections between extraterrestrials, the Cosa Nostra, and the assassination of our 35th president."

~~ John Dicker, 'The Aliens Among Us'

"The stars are out in Hollywood, glamming up for the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. We at AlterNet are not quite as impressed by the hype as we are by the incredible range and quality of films released last year.

In celebration of film and film culture, we bring you
The Alties, the 1st annual Alternative Movie Awards!

The Alties honor the vast diversity of movies and let you, the reader, nominate and vote for your favorite films. The Alties belong to you: this is your chance to
think about and discuss your favorite movies and what they really mean.

Find the Alties on our new content file, Movie Madness:
-nuggets of movie lore and highlights from the forums. -Some of the best film writing from the alternative press."

-> alternet.org

Warren Ellis has commented on this one in his personal newsletter. Here it is:
"Patrick Stewart has apparently said, in a dozen places, that he still wants to make a TRANSMET film.

This does not mean one is in production, nor that anyone's actively working to develop it right now.

I think Patrick's brilliant. I think he'd make an excellent Spider Jerusalem. Providing Darick was amenable, and I can't imagine he wouldn't be, we'd go and make a film with Patrick and Wendy Stewart in a second. But right now, nothing's happening.

Patrick and I haven't spoken in a while -- he did the last TREK film and X-MEN 2 back-to-back -- and I haven't caught up with Wendy in a little while now. When we do talk, we talk TRANSMET. There were overtures made to Darick and I by a director about a year ago, and I kept Patrick and Wendy updated whenever anything happened -- it came to nothing, as you can tell. Hollywood's built on talk. It's no big deal. Before that, we all tried to set up TRANSMET as a web animation with rich media around it, as a stepping stone to a movie, but the company involved tried to screw us all, and that was that.

What Patrick is saying is that he still wants to make the film. He knows I'm right there with him. We see things the same way. Patrick publicly attaching himself to the project doesn't hurt. But right now, nothing's happening. Okay?"

Transmetropolitan.com

The independent fair and comic-show Expo 2003 in the US is coming up!

-Graphic artist Peter Kuper has always been a favourite of mine. Check out the brilliant mini-series "The System" and Peter Kuper - Online

Metaphrog also has a new Flash-Site. Nice one, man!

People sell small Californian villages or their soul on the Internet. Now there a log following the most bizarre item on E-Bay and it's called Who would buy that?

-"New music terms for 2003: Tetris Pop. Acts created to fit a specific youth demographic identified by marketing executives. For example: Avril Lavigne." -popbitch.com

-Limahl is the headline act for European Gay Ski Week in Austria this year.

The media tries to be sensititve or at least they pretend to be. Nobody really knows how to comment on the new facts considering a network of cannibals practicing initiation rites with some sort of satanic background. The TV-show "ZDF-Reporter" broadcasted a report on wednesday which consisted of the most horrifying stories ever broadcasted. Journalist Rainer Fromm has researched the story for two years and if it we wouldn't have had a case of cannibalism in December 2002 already, nobody might have taken it serious at all. But now we're talking about 800 cannibals in Germany if we wanna believe the "Insiders"....

Not all Satanists are cannibals. There are lot of people, including loads of rockstars like The Beatles, who have studied the works of Aleister Crowley. Lots of teenagers who are into certain role-playing-games, consider themselves satanists. Ozzy Osbourne, who has recently been welcomed by George W.Bush himself, used to be a satanic media-boogeyman. But we're not talking about a rock-circus-performer or attention-seekers like Anton LaVey, the author of "The Satanic Bible".

When the cops arrested former sergeant-major Armin M. in December, the case was considered an isolated incident. Armin M. had been looking for young men who wished to be slaughtered and eaten on the internet. He found software-engineer Bernd Jürgen Brandes. Armin M. was disappointed that Brandes had lied to him since the engineer from Berlin wasn't a young man anymore. He cut off Brandes' penis nonetheless, cooked it and the two men ate it together. Afterwards the victim was chopped up and deposited in the deep freeze. Armin M., who was a big fan of barbecues, documented the whole process on video. He ate the remaining body parts later on. An anonymous citizen stumbled across the ads that M. had posted on the web and informed the police. The cops were not taken the hint too serious, but they still felt a need to research the story and visit the potential cannibal. Armin M. was a sissy with a dictatorial mother. After his mother had died, he had been living alone in a big house in Rotenburg where he had built a torture-chamber in the basement. A week later, Germany's biggest tabloid "Bild" revealed that M. had stated in prison that there would be " a network of around 800 cannibals in Germany". There were two pictures on the media. One of them shows M. drinking wine and smoking a cigarette with friends. Someone must have gotten a lot of money for that one. The other shows him after he was arrested in a police-car. The trial is expected to begin in February. Since there is no law against eating someone who offers himself voluntarily, it's gonna be a difficult case for the German judiciary.

Armin M. is a sick man and Bernd Jürgen Brandes must have had a serious mental problem. His wish to be eaten alive has nothing to do with bizarre body-modifications nor satanism. Both men were into a bizarre sex-ritual which is beyond everything else I've ever heard of, but they didn't seem to worship the devil. They were perverts, but Brandes wanted to be eaten and seeemed to have turned him on to have his penis cut off.

On tuesday, the 14th of January, the day before the big story broke, I sat in my kitchen with a friend. We talked about Satanism for a different reason. i get to that later. My friend told me that she wanted to do an interview-movie with an old friend of her who had been a victim of cannibal-rituals too carried out in the area of Magdeburg in the former GDR. She had some first hand insider-knowledge, but she was too scared to talk to the cops. I couldn't really believe the whole thing, but I agreed to assist her on doing the film.

The day after I had a hangover since we had been drinking quite alot of wine that night. When I went out to get some breakfast, I saw the headlines of "Bild" announcing that there were more cases and that ZDF-Reporter would broadcast a film about cannibals eating children the same night.

Rainer Fromm has been researching bizarre murder-rituals for years and all victims he has interviewed approached him on their own after hearing about his work. His main-witness is a 34 years old woman called Steffi who stated that babies have been killed, sliced up and eaten by a German Satanist group from the Trier-area near the border with Luxembourg. The group has also been raping women as part of an initiation rite. Some of the cannibal acts are said to go back 15 years. The woman said that she had been in touch with these groups for the first time when she was three years old which was even 31 years ago. Her parents have been part of this cannibal-scene and they made her take part in all rituals until she moved out of her parents' house at the age of 20. She got raped, she was forced to eat human flesh and she had seen some of the most gruesome acts of violence ever heard of in Germany after the Third Reich. The group told her that she had to take part in the rituals or she would get killed right away. Most of the kids the cannibals ate were very young or they had been aborted. Girls were raped to impregnate them and the babies were eaten right away.

The woman called Steffi led the journalist to a deserted industrial area in Liege, Belgium where most of these rituals took place. This is the same area where Marc Dutroux has been active. Dutroux has probably killed dozens of children. He has been the leader of a ring of child-molesters with high-ranking contacts. The case has been slowed down over and over.

Fromm has also interviewed a nine years old girl who described how she had seen other kids getting eaten alive. The face of the girl was unrecognizable, but the girl described so many details that all experts are sure that she was telling the truth. Everyone who has heard this girl crying and talking about what she had gone through, had nightmares that night.

A copy of the documentary and pictures the kid has painted can be found on the homepage of zdf-reporter

The day after the story broke, Rainer Fromm had to answer lots of questions. The media was fascinated, but it still seemed hard to believe. Fromm presented them material like four different "cookbooks" with detailed descriptions of how to slaughter and cook children. All books have regular ISBN-numbers and the adresses of the publishers. You can order them through any regular bookstore.

So, there really seems to be a network of satanic cannibals out there. Not only in Trier, but also in other regions of Germany and probably all around the world.

But why didn't anyone notice that so many children had been raped for years and years? Well, look at the Dutroux-case, it's actually even more disgusting and it raises way more questions without the satanic element. Why didn't anyone look into the case of high-ranking people raping children in and around Bruxelles, the capitol of Europe? Who was in charge of dismissing anyone who came up with a proof that Dutroux was only working for the people paying him?