My Darling,
I love that photo! Of course I mean the Emily Tebbets photo you posted. I just now got home, cause I had to take Pearl to the eye doctor, and I saw that picture and immediately thought, "that's us". I would give anything to be hugging you at this moment, in the sunshine amongst the trees or anywhere.
That will be the first "moment of a lifetime" for us, and we will have many. But to hold you for the first time.........can you say "wonderful"? :):)
I Love You So Much, Elizabeth........................so, so much!
Well, it's Monday, so I have no more appointments. I'll be around until 4:15. I may run over to the store later on, or look for a movie at the Redbox, but mostly I will be here. What a great start to the week. :)
(back in a bit)
4pm : My girl, my girl.........that song title, I tell ya. I was browsing Bill Nelson's music on Youtube and I came across it. I mean, all you've gotta do is just change the spellings a little bit, and it's Us.
And with that, my Beautiful Angel, I must leave for Pearl's, but I will be back shortly, at 6:45.
Atom Man Loves Radium Girl. :):)
10:50pm : Have you ever heard of, or maybe even read, a book called "Lords Of Chaos"? It is somewhat along the lines of the paper your friend is writing. I have a copy that was given to me. It deals more with the so-called Satanic metal bands from Scandinavia (Norway mostly), but the guys who wrote it did their research, and interviewed a lot of people who were in on that scene. The crux of the book deals with how some of the more notorious bands, like Mayhem, went to great lengths to identify with their beliefs. It's more about the "Satanic" bands than Paganistic ones. I think the first couple waves of Black Metal were all about extremism. Some of those bands had members who were psychos. Mayhem, Emperor and Dissection all had guys who commited murders. Now, Mayhem flat out sucked, they couldn't play or write good music, but Emperor were actually pretty awesome, with two classic albums, and the same is true for Dissection. Emperor was founded by the guy who calls himself Ihsahn, and he is now a solo artist. Very talented, too. But he had two guys in the original Emperor who killed someone. In Dissection, the leader, a singer/guitarist named Jon Nodveidt, fancied himself a true Satanist. Not "evil" per se, but "against". It's a set of beliefs the specifics of which I am not familiar with. I got into Dissection because the first two albums they made were absolute classics. This was during the second wave of Black Metal, starting about 1993. I didn't discover Dissection or Emperor until 2010, but I was into first wave Black Metal back in 1985 with Venom and Celtic Frost. Anyway, Jon Nodveidt did something abominable. He participated in the murder of a gay man who had hit on him. This was during the 1990s wave of violence involving some of these bands in Scandinavia. In Norway, if you kill somebody, you do a few years in prison, and then you go free. Jon Nodveit did about 8 years. Then he came out and made a third Dissection album. And it was excellent.
That's quite a paradox, to say that a guy who committed (or participated, as the evidence shows, he was not the ringleader) a hate crime of murder. But, as sick as he was in his soul, he was a good musician who made three classic Black Metal albums. The second wave of Black Metal produced some great music. Not a lot, but the best stuff was classic. Jon Nodveidt, after serving his measly 8 year sentence, got out of prison, reformed Dissection with new members, made a third really good album called "Reinkaos". Then he and his band played a European tour. Then he killed himself. It was supposedly for "Satanic" reasons, there are numerous articles about it, but I think in reality it was because he felt guilty about what he'd done. He really was a great musician in a Black Metal way. If you Youtube Dissection at Wacken, or check out their first two albums, you can tell. His vocals were like no other, and his music was actually well written and performed. And yet he committed a cold blooded murder. Such was the mentality and emotional development of many of the people in that second wave of Black Metal. Ihsahn, the leader of Emperor, did not participate in the wave of violence, as he was a man of intelligence and refinement, a real artist and an excellent musician.
At any rate, this book, which made a big splash when it came out several years ago, does tackle some of the cultural issues that led to the violence and church burnings of the 1990s. Many of the guys in those bands were idiots trying to rebel in ever increasing ways, just to out-shock one another in an effort to have more street cred. There was one band at the beginning that was probably more Pagan or simply Viking oriented, culturally attuned to their historical origins, and that was Bathory. They named themselves after the Countess Elizabeth Bathory (you can Google her), but really they used that name because "Countess Bathory" was a song by original Black Metallers Venom. But Bathory emphasized the Paganistic roots before any other band, and especially the Viking history. The founder (I don't recall his name) died a while back, from cancer or heart problems or something. But I don't think he was involved in the violence of that era.
So, that is what this book is about - the way in which some of these bands chose to rebel against Christianity in the second wave of Black Metal in Norway. It began with church burnings and went from there. The funny thing was that Christianity was already on the way out in Scandinavia. Many people there have been turning to atheism for years now. So these bands were just looking for something to shock with.
I think now, at least with some of the more folk oriented bands, you might find a philosophy that is a bit more developed, and a better understanding of the cultural and religious history. But "Lords Of Chaos" is an interesting read, at any rate. I think in the long run, you protect your cultural heritage much in the same way the American Indians have protected theirs; by keeping traditions alive, continuing the practicing and teaching of rites, and identifying on the inside with your beliefs.
I am certainly no expert on the subject, but it is interesting.
That's all I know for tonight, my Darling. Sweet Dreams, and I will see you in the morning.
I Love You! :):)
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