BMTH live in Jakarta 2024

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This time around Ravel gets it right and BMTH (Bring Me The Horizon) are headlining the Nexfest festival in Jakarta which also features Babymetal. In this format there is no seating - which makes for a much more intimate experience - although you do have to arrive really early if you want to pick a spot right up close to the stage.  We arrived about six hours before BMTH were scheduled to start their performance and bought plenty of drinks to stay hydrated in the tropical afternoon heat (mind you, some of those were Iceland vodka mix!) This was a gig I had long been looking forward to - especially after the debacle last year. Not everyone likes BMTH of course. For deathcore fans the band sold out. For metal heads the band is not purist enough. And for the wider mainstream audience, the band is too heavy. You can't please everyone of course but there are few bands in the rock world which can match the sheer emotional velocity of BMTH. To bring metal and even aspects of metalcore t
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Animal magic in Bali

Every society is based upon lies. Our society of today is based on conflicting lies. The man who lived in a simple, stable, single-lie society absorbed the single-lie system into a unified self and spouted it for the rest of his life, uncontradicted by his friends and neighbors and unaware that ninety-eight percent of his beliefs were illusions, his values artificial and arbitrary and most of his desires comically ill-aimed. > Luke Rhinehart 

 One of the highlights of a recent trip to Bali was Lake Batur: a simply beautiful lake with an ethereal ambiance at dawn. But while walking around the lake I came across a bunch of kids treating a stray and mangy dog in a manner which, well, would not exactly win commendations from the RSPCA. 

The poor bugger was being used for target practice. Direct hits scored 25 points and a headshot counted double. So I picked up a stone to join in the fun. But as much as I tried, I simply couldn’t do it: the Western indoctrination and brainwashing that has afflicted me since early childhood seemed to kick in at the critical moment, rendering me completely impotent. 

Westerners of course get highly agitated when it comes to the topic of animal rights. And more than 90% of pet owners in the UK even consider their pets to be an equal member of the family! (are we really that mad?) Some play the role of the Good Samaritan (like this woman in Bali) and save stray dogs, while others suffer months of torment as they mourn the loss of a pet moggy. 

Such delusion is quite bizarre when you think about it. Cos just imagine how many human lives could be saved in Africa if pet owners in the West spent less on pampering their cats and dogs and gave the money to charity instead? Trade a cat’s life for a human’s life. Sounds like a good thing to me. 

 All in all, the tribal Papuans have got a better understanding of things than anyone I reckon: no sentimental irrationality when it comes to butchering off a few animals for lunch but still a great level of respect for their natural environment in which they live in harmony.

Dance of the Papuans 

 Anyone up for some hunting?

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