RIGHT TO RIDE

What kind of "punk" am I? Crust punk? Metal punk? Hippy punk? Thrash punk? well, all these and more, but also - A BIKE PUNK!

Not a "biker" punk as in I have a motor bike, but as in I ride around on a push bike - oh yes, bike punks are everywhere!

Why are there bike punks? Well, lots of theories have been presented as I rode home thinking about this blog. Better for your health, better for the environment, you don't have to support multi-national oil companies, you rarely kill anything on the road, you don't have to succumb to the rat-race of being branded by your car - and I guess I can think of more if you gave me time.

The downside is that Mrs.Elk won't always give bike punks a lift to school when it's pissing down with rain.

So today I thought....I wonder how much energy I am saving by biking everywhere, and does it compare to the amount of energy Borås town uses supplying and running these big electronic signs that tell you how many people on bikes have rode by them that day....?

(FYI - I checked the ones in Borås and see no sign of them running on solar energy, ironically they are called "eco-counters"...)

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE pt3

First before the adverts it was "BLAH BLAH is presented by BLAH BLAH"

Then it was "The adverts are presented by BLAH BLAH" as well! How does the adverts get sponsored by an advert?

Now I've just seen "BLAH BLAH presents this program on this channel"...like not even specified, just like "this product sponsors whatever it is that we're sponsoring on whatever channel or whatever...."

Lazy, that's what it is. Why don't we get cool toy adverts anymore?

BTW - I had "Dragon Blaster Skeletor" - Stick that up your Pokémons!

WAS HE A REAL "SIR" THIS IS HOW HE SHOULD SAY IT!

Was I to speak honestly and forthright I would say that one is quite partial to appreciate those with an ample and substantial gluteus maximus.


I am quite sure that the collective of my male-sided siblings would be unable to state anything that was a contradiction of the afore mentioned statement.


When a particular younger woman enters the room and her abdoment midsection is of minimalistic proportions yet she is in possession of something which is circular, sugested, undescribed yet hinted upon which is presented to the front of ones vision


One is said to adopt the properties of a tightly wound coil.


And that as my mate Ed said, is how someone claiming to be a sir should present that statement!

DETESTATION!

Listening to the mighty DETESTATION today - damn no matter how many times I hear them it always blows me away - by the book thrashy D-Beat with that amazing screaming banshee over the top of it - it's hard to find better!

 
Not heard them? Shame on you! Go download their self titled album from HERE right now!!!

TRUE TALENT....?

For a while now there has been this advert on TV for a new show called "True Talent" - it's basically one of those Idol/X-Factor type deals but with a difference, and it was that difference that made me a little curious.

When advertised they say - we don't care where you come from, we don't care about your haircut, we don't care about your clothes, the only thing we care about is your voice. So it sounded like something a bit different where they were going to really just care about how the contestants sounded and nothing else...

Well, I'm watching it now (hey it's Sunday morning) and so far each judge has spoken a  lot about each contestants life, where they come from, how they are as a character, their personality and so on...

So - yeah. "The only thing we care about..." Bollocks.

NOBODY WANTS TO BE PETER CRISS, NOT EVEN PETER CRISS!

Well, we've lived at the new place for a while now but now, finally we've got the wallpaper up so it's time to start decorating and putting up all our (framed) posters and stuff - nice!

This fills a life long dream for me since many years ago at the height of my "must have everything to do with KISS" stage I manged to hunt down and buy all four KISS solo albums with the posters inside. I've always wanted them up on the wall and well - now is that day!

Don't worry kids, I haven't forgotten ACE, he's in another frame in a storage from a previous move and coming my way soon - besides he deserves his own little shrine right?

Of course while putting this together, Fenriz the cat decided to show me which member of KISS she likes best.

Cats eh.

CHEMICAL INBALANCE

Johan's in the basement mxin' up the medicine, I'm on the ceiling weeing on pedestrians.... Lets get mixing up some chemicals and see where it gets us! Me at school - I am the coolest.

And of course if you are in the area don't miss out on CRYPT OF THE ZOMBILORD's first ever gig, and my first live performance in over two years! More info HERE.

MESSAGES OF THE DEAD

After going right off on a zombie movie one lately me and Mrs.Elk started to talk about various movies and how they were(*) She said she didn't like LAND OF THE DEAD so much as she didn't like when the zombies started to get smarter. So I talked about how this has been a theme through out the Romero "Dead" films, starting with Dawn they gain a bit of previous memories and in Day experiments are being held to see if they in fact do have any of their former life left, especially with the "pet" zombie Bub. LAND OF THE DEAD is just an evolution from there, but the most important thing with Romero's Dead series is the social messages that underlie them - and it is these I will examine today!

We'll start at the beginning, it's a very good place to start, with counting it is 123, with writing it is ABC with zombies it is "DON'T EAT ME!"  Of course...

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD - The granddaddy of all zombie flicks, this 60s movie has been re-made, re-told, re-filmed and elaborating on for years. It's a basic zombie film, the start of the Dead series that shows a single zombie attacking a couple, the girl then flees to a house with a few survivors and is in turn attacked by a few more zombies. The message in this movie is what happens when society starts to break down? When faced with an very real and very big threat how does humanity treat each other?

DAWN OF THE DEAD - Both the original and the re-make touch upon the same themes. We're talking capitalism and commerce. Zombies running amok in a huge shopping mall. You're dead, the only memory you have is to go shopping in your familiar surroundings. Of course the parallel between mindless shoppers and zombies is a little more under your nose. The 2004 remake of Dawn Of The Dead by the way is possibly one of the best zombie movies ever made. Fact.

DAY OF THE DEAD - A tricky one here. The film was made in the mid 80s at the height of Regan v Russia, nuclear warfare was a very real threat, military intervention was ripe all over the world. All these themes come into it, along with the military ham-fistedly trying to control civilians with threats and violence. The film takes place underground in a military bunker, no one is sure if anyone else in the world has survived. One scientist is experimenting on the zombies to try and find a "cure" or a rehabilitation for them. The military of course are against this. It's the classic tale of gentle, intelligent, trying to figure out a way to end the problem at it's root vs mindless "shoot first ask later". NOTE - If you ever come across any place selling  "Day Of The Dead 2" burn down the store for it's heresy. Avoid this films at all costs.

LAND OF THE DEAD - Romero....20 years to come out with another film? C'mon! Land Of The Dead is a much more obvious twist. The plot revolves around a gang that go round the zombie infested city looting and collecting. One part of the separated by rivers and a large electric fence and the humans are living in a cramped slum inside it, apart from "Fiddlers Green" that lies in the center where all the rich people live, ruled by a nasty corrupt leader. The metaphors are ripe. To distract the zombies while looting, fireworks are shot into the air making the zombies just stop and stare at them while dirty deeds happen around them (I mean hello!). Fiddlers Green is a legendary afterlife place that pops up in a lot of folklore, but could also be a reference to "Nero fiddled while Rome burned" - a phrase (of course from Emperor Nero) to mean needless irresponsibility in the middle of a crisis situation. To turn your back to it. When the zombies start to get smarter they eventually take over the middle of the city - a warning indeed.

DIARY OF THE DEAD - However is a side-line story that is itself a great film but is not really a sequel of any sorts, instead it sort of slots in as a "this also happened" film. A gang of students are filming a movie when the dead attack and they document their findings. Most important to them is getting it out on the internet. Possibly a poke at mass media, I'm not too sure what the message was in Dairy, if any, I will have to watch it again and get back to you. It's got zombies in it though.

SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD - The latest in the series is just damn awesome! Sadly it could be the last in the series as Romero said he would make two more films IF Survival did well, and it did not, and I just don't get that as it's great! Basically there is an island run by two families, one wants to ruthlessly kill all the zombies while the other wants to keep them alive in case of a cure. There is a lot more to it that that but that's just the basics of it. The message here is actually spelled out for us at the end when the zombies of the heads of the two rivaling families continue to try and kill each other with empty guns - the narration is "one guy sticks a flag in the ground, the other takes it out and sticks his in and they fight until in the end they forget why they put the flag in the ground in the first place".

(*) BTW - does anyone know which film it is where a group of people are escaping from zombies and they throw a bunch of bullets at them that makes them fall over each other? Mrs.Elk was sure it was Dawn Of The Dead until she watched it, I say it sounds like that American Godzilla film when they are being chased by baby Godzillas but, anyone know?

THE ODE TO THE T-SHIRT ROCKER

From time to time on The Elks I may throw around a few terms, mostly to describe people that you may not be familiar with - well, I'm gonna go into a bit more detail. In the past I have described for you THE BAND HAG and now I will go into a bit of detail on another unjustified sweeping judgement I make on people on first impressions - THE T-SHIRT ROCKER.

The T-Shirt Rocker has an understanding of "alternative" music that never really goes beyond the "rock" section of any chain store, supermarket, or gas station. They love Motorhead but have only ever heard "Ace Of Spades" (the song not the album), they got into Metallica when The Black Album broke through. They can happily sit in a room and listen to an album of a band of which they wearing the exact same t-shirt and ask "who is this?". Their favorite TV shows are The Osbournes, LA Ink, Viva La Bam and Gene Simmons Family Jewels, although they don't know that Gene Simmons is in KISS.

All their clothes are brand new and their image is created because they think it is how they should look (unlike myself, who of course wears the image, and in many ways it is created the way I want it and influenced by others but also mostly because it's all I can afford - the holes in my jeans, fucked up shoes and faded t-shirts and not by choice...). The name "T-Shirt Rocker" comes because the depth of their musical "soul" is as deep as the t-shirt they are wearing, of which they probably have no music of said band.

Fave books - The Dirt, Scar Tissue, Long Hard Road Out Of Hell, Heroin Diaries...and that one Slash did.
Fave bands to pretend to like - Guns n Roses, Rammestein, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue (has never heard any other song apart from "Girls Girls Girls" but has read The Dirt and seen Nikki Sixx on LA Ink).

Is not usually talented but it can be known for groups of T-Shirt rockers to flock together to form "bands". In this case it is essential to show off your tattoos and be seen drinking and/or smoking in every photograph.

Also essential is wearing sunglasses and at least one member doing a silly "spur of the moment" open-mouth-point-or-do-something-with-your-hands-at-the-camera pose.

Combinations of both is also accepted

I know I used Hardcore Superstar more than once here but...if you're gonna eat fish, expect bones!

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE - PT2

Part 2 of my dig at adverts of today (actual adverts, not the band...).

First up - it's time once again for me to lash out at THE PIRATE PARTY, those unfamiliar with my previous rants on how much I disagree with them can read about it HERE in a previous blog.

Anyway - at face value it seems that The Pirate Party is really out help the little guy, the struggling artists, to topple the faceless corporations and help out the man on the street. This is of course ridiculed here my home town where there are limited places to set up posters for gigs and other happenings. The Pirate Party come along with these HUGE fucking A1/A2 posters and set them up right over the other posters! Or just take up all the room with their huge posters that say nothing really apart from "we like the internet"...helping out the little guy or pissing over him?

Now remember kids.....damaged hair sinks, healthy hair floats! Now you can buy a product that will rescue your damaged hair and make it float again it's called A FUCKING SHEET OF GLASS to put over the water tank you're demonstrating your floaty/sinky hair with.... honestly, how stupid do they think we are? Very. Very stupid is the answer.

McDonalds...they have this great NEW thing, you buy a meal-deal and you get a drink with it now! Is it just me or....didn't you always get one?

IN SEARCH OF BRAINS!

Get in! Thanks to GINZA.SE I managed to pick up these three beauties for the collection - DAY OF THE DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD (Both the newer versions, I think Dawn is superior, not seen Day yet but it's on the way) and SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD - all for just over 100 kronor with postage, nice!

Jinx the big-eyes-small-mouth cat likes zombie movies too. So, that's my day sorted!

Soundtrack (between flesh eating undead and brain shots): TERRORIZER - WORLD DOWNFALL

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE - PT1

Adverts - I mean really, do they exist? Which board to publicity sits about, makes the advert and then looks and it and says "yup, that pile of patronising shite should lock them in...lunch?". So I reckon it's about time I covered some of the pet-hate ones of mine...

I'll start with the latest SIBA advert...not a bad one but their prices are so cheap because they have "bought too many". Is it just me or didn't Family Guy already cover this with "wacky waving arms inflatable man"?

Second up - any advert that has anything to do with a new kind of phone - thing is that they seem to advertise them as having wonderful things such as "Facebook" and "Youtube" on them, and often these things are "included". Now...my phone is the most basic of basic, it cost about as much as one and a half beers and on it it has this magical alchemy known as "the internet" - as did another phone I had, sometime in the 90s. And on this wonderful thing "the internet" it has things such as, Facebook, Youtube and more. Now I know nothing about how these new fangled phones work so maybe I am wrong but...if my super basic one has all these great "features" then....

Talking of this magical thing "the internet" I'm a bit confused over this new website that is "too good to be true" where you can watch 1000s of films for only 99:- a month. Now, in the advert they interview people on the street and ask "do you know where you can see films online" and no one answers "yes....the fucking internet! Just type in "watch BLAH BLAH film online free"... you'll find it!"....or of course any of the illegal download sites...but all this of course is against the law kids, ok ;)

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 2

I take it back - The Walking Dead was good but no way should they have only made 6 episodes and then ended it just like that - WAYYYY too much talking and plot, far too few zombies!

Season 2 is gonna be at least 13 episodes long and starts this October so - eyes peeled for that, hope for more zombies and brutal eatings and brain shots - until then, get down with some Zombi-grind!

THE WALKING DEAD

Mrs.Elk and I have decided that the one thing our lives are missing is a good collection of zombie movies, they are after all the apex of good cinema.

Apart from the few we all ready have in our collection we haven't been lucky in finding any in the stores just yet. I personally really want all the George A Romero "Dead" films (new and old), the Return Of The Living Dead films and of course Zombi (sometimes known as Zombie Fleash Eaters) and she's into the Resident Evil collection. But so far we've only managed to turn up Night Of The Living Dead and "Död Snö" (Dead Snow) which came as part of a 3-film "zombie boxed set" which also included The Signal (not a zombie film) and Day Of The Dead 2, which is a ham-fisted mess of a film with all the acting skills of a cheap porn and nothing at all to do with Day Of The Dead at all!

Yesterday on a hunt we came across The Walking Dead boxed set, which we started to watch when it was on TV but then kinda forgot about it - but it does need to be bought after all we want EVERY zombie film there is - started watching again now and we're hooked! Awesome stuff! The story is kinda slow and a bit soap opera but the zombies are awesome, best in ages!Typical me to only get into things ages after everyone else has discovered them.

Right - brains for tea then!

REJOICE - THE GREAT GOD FEAR IS DEAD!

Every day is is started with the new Amebix single "Knights Of The Black Sun" and listened to at least 3 or 4 times a day - the wait for the album is the most I've been looking forward to something since I was kid, it was Christmas and I was getting an X-Wing.

I wish I had been more tuned in or at least older when I grew up in Clevedon and Bristol as so many of the great punk bands came from that area - Amebix being one of them, as well as Disorder, Chaos UK and more.

I can still remember the day that we were sitting round in a friends apartment that happened to be the "Disorder House" (the address on the back of any old Disorder record) and Taff, the singer from Disorder popped in to visit - the questions I had for him were many, and a lot about Amebix too of course! At the time there was no news apart from "I dunno, Baron is off on some island making swords" - which at the time was true I guess!

Chaos UK sometime in the 90s was a great show but with Chaos moaning about how lame the "scene" was now - next time I saw him at a bar I had to point out that all they had done recently was be off touring America and hadn't sniffed the local scene for many years, if you're gonna moan about it, help change it!

Anyway, to think all those bands were about and very active only a pair of years before I got into them...and I missed it all. Amebix, Disorder, Choas UK, Extreme Noise Terror, the scene was off the chain. I was busy sat home headbanging to Megadeath.....thank god that one day someone pressed "No Control" into my hands...

GET OFF THE PHONE!

Sweden has some strange laws - it is against the law, in your own home to give your child alcohol if they are under 18 (this may even be 20...) yet it's legal to wank a monkey. It's against the law to have even a joint yet is legal to drive around in the middle of a busy town on your phone.

And it's this I moan about today as at least once a day I am a near accident because some twat is driving around chatting on their phone - or worse sending a text or playing on Facebook, while driving!

You take up your phone, look down to do something with it for a few seconds, look up and bang! Some idiot is in the middle of the road. Or is that "idiot" on a crossing that you didn't notice as you were fucking about with your phone?!?!?

Today I saw a guy chatting away on his phone reverse towards another car and despite the guy behind beeping his horn the other dude just kept talking and reversing...

You're behind the wheel of a heavy, fast moving metal object with the potential to injure, main or kill - get off the fucking phone!

LOTS MORE PENCILS, LOTS MORE BOOKS!

First day of school today! Much better than that pretend first day yesterday when I showed up to an empty school a day early.

Anyway - nice simple schedule, at least two lie-in days (nice!) and lets see if I can keep up to date with everything this term!

TOPPEN! TOP FIVE!

A while back I was asking around for places to get good vinyl, used or new and I got an answer from TOP FIVE RECORDS.

Awesomeness that on their site they had a record that is on my "need" list - The first ACID REIGN ep "Moshkinstein".

Acid Reign being one of my all time fave bands their albums have now been remastered and re-issued on CD with extras - great stuff. I'm lucky enough to be loose friends with singer "H", we've been in email/myspace/facebook contact for about 10 years now, and I managed to work together with guitarist Kev a few years back also.

Anyway - can totally recommend going over to TOP FIVE RECORDS (topfiverecords.se) and checking them out - nice bloke, fast and safe delivery, good prices!

HELLOFAKVÄLL COMES BACK

After a wait of over a year I will be putting on a one-off Hellofakväll club again in Borås - mostly just as the band OTIS are on tour round Europe and needed a date. Pretty fun! I'll also be playing with CRYPT OF THE ZOMBILORD which will be our first gig - should be fun!

Check out the Facebook event page HERE.

DIY - NOT THE PUNK KIND...

Today I thought I'd just spread a little info for the older punkers that like a bit of home decoration here and there...and why not!

Today - how to paint stuff so it looks antiquated or/and metallic - ta da!

OK - so we're gonna turn a simple IKEA style ornament that looks a bit like this:

To this:

The technique is simple and takes about 30-60 mins with minimum tools. First off decide what colour you want of course - I chose gold. And begin with a technique that will be known to Warhammer nerds world over called "DRY BRUSHING". You take a very small amount of paint on a dry brush, just the tip of the brush and then you quickly and softly rub the brush over whatever it is you are painting leaving a small amount of paint that should only reach the raised parts. Leave that to dry of course.

Next is the "INK WASH" - now you can buy special inks or use just regular ink, or like me use a small amount of paint mixed with water. Here I used normal black acrylic paint mixed with water on a dish. Start from the top of the object and apply generously - the result is that the "ink" will run over the object and sink into the cracks, bringing out the detail. Depending on the shape of what you are painting you might need to go over a few times, and of course make sure that the ink isn't collecting in big pools anywhere. Two washes here and I was done, leave to dry.

Of course this can work for anything - dry brushing is really nice on metal to give it a nice look and ink washing of all colours is great for wood.

Well there we go - tomorrow, something about drinking cider and sniffing glue probably.

TAKE CARE, TAKE CARE, TAKE CARE...

Pretty hard for me to find an album I really get into right away these days, especially in the wait for the new AMEBIX album (soon soon!) the new KYLESA is dead good but I've just got a hold of the new EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY album "Take Care, Take care, Take Care".

If you know the deal with EITS then you know the deal - swirly, building stuff that rocks. Not a far throw from stuff like ISIS and CULT OF LUNA but without the growly vocals and a bit more listenable - RUSSIAN CIRCLES is a good branching point.

Thing is with EITS is they have done the FUGAZI staple of not changing the formula of a good thing and followed up again with this newy that's gonna be keeping me company on the way to and from school until Sonic Mass comes out!

HARD ROCK CAFE - NO WAY!

I have no control of which adverts pop up on my blog - but recently I have noticed that HARD ROCK CAFE have been taking over my page - so with that in mind I would like to re-post this blog from a while ago, all about Hard Rock Cafe - enjoy!

**********

Not everyone is aware, but workers in Sweden are protected by many laws and rights. However just because they are written down doesn't mean that everyone follows them or won't find a way round them.

Today I will do my own little expose on one of the world's most popular chain restaurants and how they work/treat their staff in Stockholm Sweden.

THE HARD ROCK CAFE.

Most of you will know the Hard Rock Cafe started off in the 80s with a fun idea in London and then spread all over the world. Some world tourists must find a Hard Rock Cafe as soon as they visit a new country. So, Hard Rock Cafe was founded on certain principles, however..."the man" runs it now. The following is true of the Hard Rock Cafe in Stockholm when I worked there a few years ago.

All Hard Rock Cafe's have the following mottos:

SAVE THE PLANET

They have no recycling program. Receipts are printed in triplicate, the third one if thrown away. Bleached, white paper napkins are used. Plastic cups are used, these are disposed after use. Waste food is thrown away. Take-away boxes are made from Styrofoam. Most packaging is plastic or paper.

ALL IS ONE

Immigrant staff are preferred, especially English, American, Australian etc. Partly because of the amount of tourists that visit the cafe. However, speaking Swedish is not a requirement. Since this is one of the only jobs a non-Swedish speaking immigrant can take the powers that be have control. More on this later.

The cleaning staff and kitchen staff and all "lesser" jobs positions are held by Asian, Hispanic or black workers.



By the way, these sayings all come from one of the founder members (Issac Tigrett) guru. Issac is a Hindu and a member of the Audarya Fellowship. It was a requirement that there was a picture of Vishnu in every Hard Rock Cafe. However, after 911 HRC in Stockholm took Vishnu away because they wanted to avoid anything that might be seen as connected....


...yup. Muslim, Hindu...it's all the same right.

TAKE TIME TO BE KIND

All employees of HRC are expected to be able to fill several roles. In fact in the handbook it tells us that "that is not my job" isn't a phrase used at the Cafe. However this is often used as an excuse to have the the staff do all manner of shitty jobs that really shouldn't be their job, leaving them overworked and rushed. Some do in fact find the time to be kind, most are just stressed.

The average worker has no control over their cash register and to do anything such as a return, a refund, a discount etc it demands a manager to enter a code. The managers are rarely available when they are "on duty", they are usually doing "important manager work" which is usually sitting on the internet or eating. This holds up the customers for a long time, making everyone more stressed.

The managers also train in Hard Rock Cafe standards. These are however catered only to the Cafe's in America and therefore do not always work in Stockholm. For example, we had shelves of T-shirts that fit, folded onto our shelves. The HRC "standard" was to fold them to X=cm. However this was because that was the size of THEIR shelves. However, we still had to do it. Making our tees fall over every 5th minute.

LOVE ALL - SERVE ALL

Lets go back to how one is employed at the HRC. Now, when I first moved to Stockholm it was impossible to find work. However, HRC and just opened up a new tourist store that was in a separate location to the Cafe and the boss was also from the UK, he took pity on me and offered me a job.

• My wage was 85 kronor an hour. Before tax. There is no minimum wage in Sweden yet this is very much under the average. The overtime was also based on the restaurant overtime, despite it being a stand-alone store. After a while myself and some of the other workers were approached by a shop union who saw how our wages and overtime was a complete joke. The staff worked long hours, evenings, weekends and "red days" (holiday days) without legal overtime or pay.
  

• The bosses caught wind of us speaking to the union and told us that anyone who joined the union would lose their job. They also told us that they would add a Coke machine or Snack Machine to the shop so they could class it as a restaurant and therefore avoid paying us the legal wage for shop worker.

• In an attempt to be a good worker, when I worked at the other shop (located in the cafe) I offered to learn the booking system so that I could help out a bit more. This was an act of help and I made it clear I would do it to help and not as a part of my job. Sometimes I was asked to clean the windows, tables etc after this. I did complain that I had my own job to do. Future shop workers signed a contract telling them they were required to also clean and help out in the cafe.

• When my boss left I was put in charge of inventory and training new staff. I never received a pay rise despite asking several times.

• Promotions were always hired from outside. For example, despite having several English speaking employees they hired a "PR" woman who went straight onto a managers wage. Her sole job was once every few weeks to design a poster to promote whatever event was coming up. Every time the spelling and grammar needed to be changed, after they had printed up a batch.

• After working for three years I trained up a guy from a rich background, who then became my boss.

• There was at one point a mugging in the shop at night. A young girl was held at knife point and forced to hand over all the money from the cash register. To combat this in the future they bosses decided that every time we got a 1000 or 500 Kronor note we should take it to the safe. This of course, protects their money, but not their staff.

• If the money at the end of the day didn't add up, it was taken from the staff's personal wages.

• To protect the safe and money, CCTV cameras were placed in the store. There was also one secretly hidden behind the air vent in the room with the safe. This was also the room the staff used as a changing room. This is illegal in Sweden.

So, pretty much - MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS - GENOCIDE OF THE STARVING NATIONS!

THE READERS OF ROCK!

I was rocking out to one of my fave albums today - HAWKWIND - Chronicle Of The Black Sword. Hey get involved! Hawkwind are awesome, and so is this album!

For those of your who don't know it's an album based around the stories of renowned Sci-Fi/Fantasy writer Michael Moorcock (who is also awesome!) and I got to thinking - do rock bands still write songs about books and stuff?

I think it was a sign of the times in the 70s and 80s. I watched the documentary on the band RUSH and Dave Mustaine tells of running out and buying books by AJ CRONIN after he heard that Rush had based a song on his works. Books inspired bands to write songs which in turn inspired fans to read books!

Iron Maiden, I mean what nerds they are - Ryhme Of The Ancient Mariner, Brave New World, When Worlds Collide, Lord Of The Flies and more. ANTHRAX - two songs inspired by Stephen King on one album (Among The Living's "Spreading The Disease" and "Skeltons In The Closet") along with a song about the Judge Dredd comics.

Even Metallica with "For Whom The Bell Tolls" based on the Hemmngway classic and both "Call Of Kthulu" and "The Thing That Should Not Be" based on HP LOVECRAFT books. Lovecraft of course inspiring a bunch of bands from Black Sabbath to even Morbid Angels band member's names like Trey Azagthoth.

So does this sort of nerd-merge-of-worlds happen still today? The only recent example I can think of way MASTODON's "Blood and Thunder" based on Moby Dick - who can enlighten me?

HEAR THE ROAR!

A clip for a THUNDERCATS movie was released on Youtube a few years ago which turned out to be nothing but a home-made job (very good all the same!) but  now it's actually coming to light - perhaps fueled by a surge in retro stuff or that Thundercats merch is worn by...well, people like me.

Unneeded retro or "why change a good thing" - THUNDERCATS have come back a few weeks ago with a new animated series which so far seems to be pretty good! Very Manga in it's feel, not scared to show a few fights and with all the weapons we loved as kids, the characters are all there (apart from Panthro who is "dead" but I'm pretty sure he's actually not) in force, Cheetara looking smoking hot - actually.

The story is a re-boot of the original series (so is starting over) and making way for a CGI movie set for release in 2012. The plot is a little deeper and more "adult" that the original show, of course probably aimed at both kids and adults that will be watching the show - seems great so far anyway! Well worth a watch for any nerds like me.

Bandai are also releasing a new series of toys to go with the show along with a range of "classic" figures.

I guess I'll be looking out for those, any why not! Speaking of retro toys, if anyone knows where I can get a reasonable priced one of these:

It's NORTHLORD from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons toys - must have all the bits (helmet, shield, sword, axe and belt) - do drop me a line!

GOOGLE + : I'M CONVERTED...

....so far!

Well it was a time before, long ago and Myspace was the leading social network. It was a nice simple place where you kinda had a picture of your face, maybe a few more pictures, a bit about yourself, your friends and kinda that was it.

Then they started making pages that people could use for their bands, I think mostly prompted by the whole pop-culture around it. Was that a good idea? Fuck yeah! I think it almost single handedly wiped out the need for bands to have their own websites - and as soon as people realised you could piss about with the layouts and HTML, well you had a swish looking page for the world - good stuff! Myspace was great, you could find people chat, start groups that actually meant something, in fact I spent many a day and night just hanging out on Myspace. I made friends that I am still friends with today despite never meeting them.

But something happened right...one day we all opened up our Myspace and it looked different. None of the buttons were in the same place and nothing was how it used to be....in fact, it was awful! And then you had to wade through the pages and pages of mails and adverts for bands before you could see what your friends wrote to you.....then Myspace started adding more and more frills and trinkets until it took you an hour just to open up the page....it started to fizzle....

As if answering the call, Facebook popped up and it was just what we needed! A bit hard to start off with but after a while that was it - we had lift off! Fucking FACEEEEBOOOOK! It was good stuff, and the features were simple and easy to use.

Hard to say when it started but bit at a time Facebook started to add a bit here and a bit there...a bit like stacking wobbly bricks on a solid foundation. Quite early on I discovered BETTER FACEBOOK which is an application for Firefox, Chrome and Opera that allows you to sort out your Facebook so you can get rid of a lot of the things you really don't need. Constant suggestions of people you might want to be friends with that you are avoiding...past status updates you want forgotten, pictures you really, really want to tag, events on the other side of the world, help me build my cow, quizzes for no reasons at all, more and more and more rubbish upon rubbish, adverts and then PLACES!!! People can tag you depending on where you are! Fuck that.

The final straw for me was recently when they changed the way the chat function works and how the messaging system works - last straw. Fuck you Facebook. Learn from past failures, really, it's like trying to go in and take over Russia, learn where others failed and don't make the same mistakes! Stop fucking about with the stuff that works..... because this is happening!

 Oh yes - GOOGLE + (or G+ or GOOGLE PLUS) has answered the call and come up with a Facebook-like social network. I've been on it a day now, and I'm a little bit in love already. It's clean, simple, not a whole bunch of mucking about add-on crap, but just the stuff you need.

If you too are getting sick of Facebook - go check it out. You'll need a Gmail (or Google) email account and an invite and after that...you're good to go! I recommend it, it's nice, it's clean, it's the new wave - fuck you Facebook!

READ BEFORE YOU SIGN!

About 10 years ago I sat in an office in London and signed my first "major" record contract - as soon as I walked out of the office I was swamped by groupies and drove off in my Rolls Royce to my gold mansion where I have lived ever since.....

...or maybe not.

Nope, despite the rock dream telling us otherwise, that's not quite how it all happens. I don't have time to go into all the ins and outs right now but when I signed that deal, little did I know that 10 years later times and technology would change. I do imagine that somewhere in the contract it said something about putting music up digitally - and that's just what has happened recently.

Of course, it's nothing I am worrying about, I'm very glad about it that my music from 10 years ago, the Mr.Zippy album "Ambition Is Critical" is popping up on Spotify and iTunes etc. Although was it not for me being smart and registering myself as a song writer with PRS and STIM etc the record company would have done this without us knowing about it (I guess in the contract it says that they are allowed to do this) and would be earning money from it without us knowing a thing.

Still - those interested can check the album out for free on Spotify right now - which is pretty cool as I guess it's very hard to get hold of an original copy these days!

You can of course read more about the band in my latest book SECOND PLACE HEROES:

Which you can buy HERE.

PSYCHO INTENTIONS

I have mentioned new UK thrash band REIGN OF FURY before on my blog, but after listening to their new EP "Psycho Intentions" they really need another mention.

Fuck me - it's like one of the best things I have heard in a long, long time. Thrash, or even "nu-thrash" is commonplace these days with a lot of clone bands popping out of the woodwork and playing through plastic/wooden re-hashed versions of a genre that was about before they were born and really lack any of the feeling or passion of what it's all about....not REIGN OF FURY. I know for a fact that all the members (who have come from such UK punk bands as Gash, Screaming 88s, 4ft Fingers, Whippersnapper and more) are huge, long-time fans of the thrash and the metal and have really been thrown into their element when the timing was right.

Take Pantera, Slammer, Japanese thrash-moguls Outrage, a dash of early Annihilator and mix well, serve with a few dashes of punk attitude. You've got it - great stuff! Some on-the-ball monster riffing with some of the best solos this side of Dragonforce.

Go check them out on Myspace or Facebook or listen to the EP on Spotify (or buy it of course!)

TEENAGERS WITH GOOD HYGIENE

It seems that since vinyl became "cool" again and people started to know the value of the classics it's harder and harder to find a treasure among the stacks in 2nd hand shops these days.

But...very happy to find one of my "must have" records out in the sticks in the middle of Sweden in a store that you'd never find if you didn't know where it was.

XRAY SPEX - Germ Free Adolescents. Quite sure it's the original press, I have the other version (the orange vinyl) but it's this version I've been hunting after - good stuff!