Mind Valve

Lately I’ve been hearing pieces of news here and there, reading blogs, and just paying attention to what I call the new cool religion atheism. And I really need to talk about this.

I’m one of those that reached the age of reason almost before I could talk. God never had a soft spot of any kind in my mind. But as I grew up I slowly came to realize that God wasn’t the problem, people were. Or more accurately organized people. Religious institutions. I grew up in a non-practicing Christian home, so access to the bible and cartoons/movies about the bible was very easy. I did read and watched through those stories and I felt that the message was beautiful it really was something worthwhile. Love thy neighbour. Do not judge. Everyone is equal to the eyes of God. Are a few of at is in general a very good set of guidelines. The problem is the church does not love thy neighbour, they do judge and they don’t see everyone as equal to the eyes of God. Something was truly lost in the process. Bear in mind many religious people do live by these guidelines, I’m truly grateful for them, but the institution as a whole? They certainly do not. While I speak from the point of view of Christianity I’ve come to realize this is true for almost every other religion out there, just think of Qur’an and what the Islamic Extremists make of it. 

So as I said I reached the age of reason very early and I started calling myself an atheist but recently I’ve dropped the label. The reason behind this is that I started feeling that while the idea behind atheism felt good the groups of people calling themselves atheists started acting like much theists. Holding conferences, participating in activism, holding rituals of de-baptism, etc. For me these are the same as mass, preaching and baptism. They are holding the books of Dawkins and such as holy books and their prophets. They might hold good values like free speech, love, reason and welcome everyone but so do the rest of the religions when they started. It was the institution that grew around the religions that screwed everything up. Atheism, I’m sorry to say, is going on the same path. For instance, they criticize other religious groups for interfering in politics but in doing so they are interfering in politics and its not because they don’t want a catholic country it’s because they want an atheist country. Am I the only one who sees the problem here?

And, by the way, 0 deities is a form of deity, just like 0 is also a number.

You could say I’ve come to be agnostic, but I’ve learned not to label myself. Right now I believe in free tough, questioning and critical thinking. I believe everyone is equal but they are also different. I also believe everyone has the right to believe in what they think is right. And I will not try to convince anyone that what they believe is wrong. I will, however, make them question their only beliefs and have them criticize the things they read or learn. What they do with that is their business. I have no interest in the conclusions they reach, only in the path they take.

The fact is religions are like opinions everyone as them and they should never be forced upon others.

Hmmm… Good times…

If only every porn would be as sexy as this… One can always dream…

Cartoon by B. Deutsch (via leftycartoons.com)

Recently I’ve been hearing the following sentence:

“In 10 to 20 years the Islamic population in Europe will be larger than the Catholic.”

At first nothing seems wrong with this statement. It’s a simple matter of statistics. The recent immigrants coming from Islamic nations to Europe will indeed surpass the Catholic Europeans. Why? Because they have much higher natality rates. 

The real problem is in the way this sentence is used. Usually it’s said as a danger sign. As if the Islamic culture is a large unsightly beast that will engorge everything we know. I call bullshit. This is nothing more than scare tactics meant to ostracize these immigrant cultures. I’ll break it down for you.

First of all, if these people have submitted themselves to inhuman conditions just so that they could have a better life in a country other than their own, then they have what it takes to live in western civilization. They wanted something better, they were not happy with their country or society, they were exiled from their countries. Whatever it is, something inside them cried for more. More for them and their families. So what we need to do is provide them with the means to work in our society. Give them jobs, houses, education, planned parenthood, freedom but most of all let them learn on their own that if they obey our laws and respect our customs then they will have a better life than they had before. But is this what we do? No. We put them in ghettos, we don’t trust them with any jobs, we don’t provide education for their kids, we don’t respect their customs and we see them as people of a lower caste. This is very dangerous. Because their kids will grow in very bad conditions with no education and no respect for themselves or anyone else and will slowly but surely turn to crime. We give them no opportunities.

Secondly we approach these situations with a double standard. We tell them that they have to follow our rules, our customs. But we show no interest in any of their own ways. They complain about a crucifix in a classroom and we say they have no right to complain about that because religion is free, but then we tell their young women that they can’t wear burkas to school. We tell them they need to find jobs to get out of a life of crime, but when they show up at your company asking for a job we don’t give it because we’re afraid of hiring a criminal. Can you see where this is going? 

Thirdly, due to recent events the Islam has been associated with terrorism. But in fact, terrorism is only done by a very, VERY minor percentage of Islamic people. In fact terrorism isn’t even a religious tool, it’s political. And it certainly isn’t restricted to Islam. Catholicism was, and still is in some places, very open minded when it comes to terrorism. Catholics vs Protestants in Ireland, Catholics vs Catholics in north of Spain are just a few of the most recent in Europe. And the Crusades (or Jihad depending on what you may call it) of the middle ages or the golden age of the Roman-Catholic Church the Inquisition, boy those were the days! What I mean is, Islam has taken a few hits on popularity due to a few bad elements. That doesn’t make it a bad religion or a religion that doesn’t respect the value of human life like some might say. Islam is quite frankly just as bad as Catholicism.

Finally these sentences remind me of a very charismatic and well spoken leader of old Europe:

Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: ‘by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.’

Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)

How well that one ended right? I wouldn’t even be surprised if in a few years we hear someone finding a religious/minority scapegoat to blame for the current economy crisis.

For the sake of tomorrow’s children, let’s just try to learn from history, please. 

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated, nor have I ever been, with any religion. In fact I truly believe the world would be a better place if there were no religions. I just happen to live in a country where Catholic church has a bigger fan following.

You know what I miss? The good old ’80s. Well, not quite the ’80s but also the late ’70s and early ’90s. Everything between the fallout of the hippie movement and the depressing hangover of the ’90s.

It’s funny but those last three decades of the twentieth century seem like a party night. You first get that rush when you meet you’re friends and start to let go, to enjoy the night-out, those were the ’70s riding on the hippie movement from the late ’60s. Then you go all in, everything goes when the drinks and drugs reach their all time high and you are enjoying everything you see and do, these were the ’80s, that amazing decade where every movie, music was created without any restraint. What follows is the all-dreaded hangover, when you feel really bad and sorry you took off your pants and danced on the table on a dare, those lovable ’90s when the depressed teenagers took over and everyone got in touch with their inner suicidal tendencies. And then comes the talk, the fantastic heart-to-heart one has with the parents when they wake up and find vomit all over the imported tapestry, finally we are in the first decade of the twenty-first century the one of the Political Correct movement, of the dreaded nipple-on-tv, and of the “great” economy (very much like the allowance cutback to pay for the damage you’ve done that night).

Getting back to the reason for the post. I really miss those times. Sure you can always argue that those were my growing up years, but they really weren’t. I was little more than a toddler by the turn to the ’90s. So what do I miss, you ask? I miss the Terminator, Star Wars, Total Recall, Robocop, Die Hard, Goonies, Indiana Jones, Alien, Gremlins, Tron, the only good Batman in the time before Christian Bale, Flash Gordon, etc. Even in music Michael Jackson (when he still resembled a black man), Queen, Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, etc. 

I feel like something was lost through the ’90s… I know many of you may disagree with me but that’s just the way I feel. I feel more and more disconnected with the current crap produced by Hollywood, so much so that I’ve turned almost completely to indie or outside-USA productions. 

Who knows, maybe the success of The Expendables or the upcoming Super 8 will change things a bit. Let’s see…

Hellboy screen capture (via DelToroFilms)

Yesterday, while happily zapping, I happened to catch a re-run of Hellboy by Guillermo del Toro. I dunno if you’ve seen it but there are a lot of tentacle based monsters there. And I think they deserve to be separated from the rest.

Today’s tentacle monster is an offspring of the sea monsters of old times. Sightings of giant squids might have promped the sailors to imagine huge squid-like creatures to the point of being more than 2km long like the Kraken. Jules Verne wrote about these creatures in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. Eventually these made into movies, games and basically every form of entertainment.

These beasts work because they are gigantic and relentless. Their tentacles can reach you wherever you are and are extremelly powerful and fast. Some of them can even regenerate the tentacles.

Nowadays they can be found just about anywhere, not only in the high seas. Plus they’ve evolved from giant squids to anything you can imagine as long as they have tentacles…

And tourists girls beware, in Japan these monsters won’t kill you, at least not without raping your brains out first. Apparently someone looked at these tentacles and tought: Hey, what if those were penises? And of course a lot of people liked the idea. If you search the internet for “tentacle monster” I guarantee you Jules Verne’s sea monster is not on the first pages.

But it’s not all bad news. They always have a weak spot. There’s always a central brain or eye that when hit will make this huge beast crumble away. But to reach it you normally have to be either eaten, raped or be a super-hero, doesn’t look to good does it?

[REC] (by Balagueró and Plaza)

It’s been some time since my last post. And I’ve missed it. 

So why review [REC], well to put it simply it’s a great movie. It’s one more of those reality movies where you see everything through the eyes of a cameraman who is also a protagonist. And while most others are bad this one is very well accomplished. The shaking, and fast camera movements add to the intensity of the film. The setting of small rooms and corridors is also very important because it lets you keep your focus. So even when the character is running wild, you always know where he is going. And never lose track of the action. 

The story here is quite simple, a small tv crew is going to spend a night shift with some firemen for a show. The firemen are called to a building because of some screaming, the crew follows. They arrive at a small apartment building and all hell breaks loose. Without giving away the story, apparently there’s some kind of outbreak in the building and the infected turn to a blinding rage attacking everyone in a zombie-like manner. Meaning they want your body parts for a snack. 

The actors are all pretty good, this isn’t off course a character performance movie, but everyone fills their roll flawlessly. 

And you know what the best part of this movie is? The end sequence. Those final seconds off footage are really something worth seeing in a dark silent room.

And one last thing. Is you’re american you’ve probably heard of Quarantine, this is the exact remake of [REC], same story, same characters, different country, different language. Apparently american producers think americans are a bunch of stupid people incapable of enjoying anything produced in a foreign language. So even though I love Jennifer Carpenter, especially since Emily Rose and Dexter, I have decided I won’t see Quarantine. And I advise anyone to do the same and boycott all these stupid remakes see the original instead.

Martyrs (by Pascal Laugier)

Let me start by saying that I like horror movies. But lately I feel like they’re all the same, they are still good but I couldn’t care less about any of the people or story. But Martyrs is different there’s just something about it that makes all the difference. If you think you can handle the movie, and I’m not saying you should, then stop reading, there are huge spoilers ahead, if you have decided not to see it then keep readind. I basically tell all the story in a simple way, because I feel that if you don’t see the movie you’re missing out on a good story. 

This movie tells the story of Lucie, a girl who escaped from an abbandoned building where she was tortured. Lucie meets Anna and the two become friends. Anna is a simple girl and she loves Lucie. Her love for Lucie is such that she stays with her through her hallucinations and self-mutilation. When Lucie goes to slaughter the family of the one that tortured her Anna stays with her and helps her deal with it. Soon after, Lucie’s hallucinations drive her to suicide, and in those final moments we learn that Anna didn’t really believe Lucie’s story. She then proceeds to find a dungeon where she finds a captive, torture beyond belief woman. And she stays… Every normal person would’ve run away in the first minutes of the movie, but she stays through it all. I’ve heard critics mention they couldn’t relate to Anna because she makes no logical decisions. But that is exactly why this movie works. Anna is one of those people that carries the suffering of others. She can’t help herself and is driven by a need to help others even though she knows it’s bad for her. This characteristic that Anna shows through the first 45m of the movie is why the next 45m work. She is captured by the people that tortured Lucie and they tell her that they are trying to create a martyr through inflicted torture. They need to find someone who embraces the pain and suffering and then lets go, someone who will be transfigured by suffering. Then they start to torture Anna. I have to be honest, by this time Anna had me, I kept wishing for her to fight back and escape, or for someone to come and rescue her, I felt every single blow she took. And the last step of the process… It’s so horrifying that it came full circle. So far everything she had suffered was real but by now, no one would have survived, the fact that she did reminded me that this was a movie and woke me from a nightmare of torture so I could see the final moments and enjoy them. All the top people involved in this crazy cult arrive to hear what Anna has to say about the other side. This was why they tortured young women, to find out about life after death. And in the end they never do because the only person Anna tells it to commits suicide just after telling another that ”You should keep doubting”.

This movie will burn terrible images in your eyes and make your ears bleed with screams of agony. But the story is well told. And it is a good horror story. It’s not meant to make you laugh at over the top deaths, it’s purpose is not to make you jump from cheap scares, it’s only purpose is to make you feel. And you will feel. This one has stayed with me for a few days now, I can’t remember the last time that happened with any movie.

I haven’t discussed any sex positions in a while now. But this is a good one.

One of the most pleasure giving things there is is oral sex. There’s nothing like licking a wet pussy and I can state with all certainty that having your dick sucked is an incredible experience as well. No one knows who first thought of the wonderful 69 in the first place but they were genius. Being able to give oral sex while receiving it is amazing. 

Now there’s really nothing to be said about it, you just have to do it. But let’s all try each of the following variations and see if you can pull them off, in an orgasmic way that is.

Starting with a simple one.

Now a simple one but with more weight put into it.

The next one is not too hard if you have some good bending skills.

For this one you really need to have good flexibility.

This is fairly simple depending on the girl.

Now for some rest.

Same as kneeling but for those with bad knees.

Same as kneeling but you need to have strong legs.

better have a strong head and neck.

All images are courtesy of SexInfo101.com.

“The Tunnel” - Teaser 1 (via Vimeo).

Like everyone else who has had access to a pc with internet connection I’m a criminal. At some point of my life I’ve illegally downloaded movies, music, tv shows, books and software. So basically I should be behind bars ‘cause I’ve been a bad boy. 

But is this really wrong? Of course it is. Someone created the content we’re downloading and that person or persons should be compensated for that. This compensation is, of course, money. And this is the way it should be. But I believe the system we have today is outdated it does not hold in today’s world. There are many reasons for this. And I’ll list a few.

There’s just too much content out there and not enough time or money to go through it all. I cannot afford to go to the cinema every week (or more than that) to see all the movies I want. Besides more than once I’ve felt like being robbed because I paid for a horrible movie, and I’m sure you did too. So now I only see movies I know for sure I will enjoy, the rest I see at home. How do I do this? Through the cunning use of research, and sometimes that research involves downloading the movie. The ones I really like I watch one the cinema and I buy the DVD, it’s my way of rewarding good content. This holds true to every form of media, for instance, for more than a year now I haven’t bought any graphic novel I didn’t read before in digital form, and let me tell you the collection has been growing like never before. In fact, if it were not for illegally downloading graphic novels I would’ve never got hooked to them.

There’s also some content that is almost impossible to come by through normal means. Straight to TV movies for instance are difficult to find. Foreign movies. Books out of print. Anime shows. And many other things. Piracy on the internet allows me access to things I would never had before.

And another thing, offline stores need to evolve. I can give you an example. I used to purchase everything on a electronic/book store, because it had everything I wanted. But now I hate it. I can find every single item for less online. Just yesterday I found that a graphic novel I bought from Amazon (which I’d already read) cost 30% more plus taxes in a comic store. I find it a little sad that these places can’t compete with online retailers but we are going through changing times and if you don’t keep up you perish. That’s natural evolution. I know this is not a piracy issue but it all comes together, you’ll see.

So by pirating I’m actually rewarding the creators that produce things I like and enjoy. I have no problem with buying things I like and piracy allows me to save money from buying crap so I can spend more money in the things I really like. This way I’m not only rewarding good stuff but I’m also punishing bad stuff.  And a big plus by downloading pirated movies from, let’s say Thailand, is that I can help spread the word and give notoriety to an otherwise unknown movie.

But I do not believe that pirating should be encouraged, because although I go out and buy the stuff I like I know there are many who don’t. What I do encourage is change and we are in desperate need of change in terms of how content is handled and distributed to us. But there are already signs of good things to come. A group of Australian film makers felt the same way I did, or close enough, so they decided to try and fund a film by selling each frame, 135k, to be exact by $1. After the movie is done they will make it available for free online. The movie in question is called The Tunnel and is a horror movie filmed in a documentary style, much like Rec was. I can guarantee that a movie like The Avengers could be financed this way. That’s every fanboy’s dream right there.  Now help spread the word about this and change the world a little.

 Mortal Kombat Promo (via Twitch)

I saw the old Mortal Kombat movies back when I was a teenager, and I’ve always been a sucker for bad action movies, so I enjoyed them. But I am aware of how bad they were as movies. 

But this promo… it gets to me. I’ve always loved gritty stuff and this fits right in. I love the idea of turning those costumed villains to just plain monsters. This is just a promo, something the director is using to try and find enough support (money) to actually do the movie. But right now it’s something I’d watch. And I know a lot of things could still go wrong, but I’ll be there watching it when it comes.

By the way Twitch is an amazing site for movie news!