From the galley to the gallows in 3 easy steps

There is a reason why hip-hop is dead – it has betrayed its roots and completely sold itself to the evils against which this subculture rose against. It's easy to buy "production values" when you have enough money to throw in the air in clubs but the truth remains that those wannabes (to avoid Tom allusions here) are pathetic, vacuous, and disrespectful ignorant sell outs. Commercial hip-hop that is. Underground HH is alive and kicking, and at the forefront are titans like Dead prez, Paris, Immortal technique and Pharoahe monch. They are the democrats to the Lil' B & Minaj republicans. They are the voice that America needs to hear but prefers to mask with the bling shit of Jay Z and Drake (Drek in Yiddish fits better). The analogies can go on forever, but simply prick your ears to this interview IT gave while visiting Occupy Wall street. Then download his latest effort called The martyr. It's free, and it has some killer tracks.

The Brandt Brauer Frick ensemble ft. Emika – Pretend (from: Mr. Machine, !K7 24/10/2011)

Brown bird - Fingers to the bone (2011)

We cut corners - Pirate's life (2011)

The aprons - Firefly (from: Sound stains, Hi fidelity 11/2011)

Der Räuber (The robber) (Benjamin Heisenberg, 2010)

The age of rage

Julia Holter - Try to make yourself a work of art (from: Tragedy, Leaving 30/08/2011)

Whitehorse (Melissa McClelland & Luke Doucet) - Killing time is murder (2011)

Up – Figured out (2011)

Steven A. Clark – Stranded (2011)

Cave birds - Some lightning thrill (2011)

Trash talk - Awake (True panther, 11/10/2011)

Maybe the more conservative, closed, racist and money-obsessed a society is the more bleakly intense its true artists are. I thought that Haneke was hardcore (which he is), but then cam Seidl. Stark realism? With all due respect move aside Loach (I'm not talking about the Korine joke). No one comes close to such a brutal, grim, cold, hopeless and dismal portrayal of modern society as this guy. Now that I live in Vienna, I can understand why only they can make such films.

Import/Export (Ulrich Seidl, 2007)

Die at coke

Dead sons - Shotgun woman (2011)

Band of skulls - The devil takes care of his own (2011)

Big Scary - Gladiator (2011)

Matthew Herbert - One pig (Accidental, 10-10-2011)

Snowtown (Justin Kurzel, 2011)

Jûsan-nin no shikaku (13 assassins) (Takashi Miike, 2010)

Thinking outside the box holds only for people already in it

This is visually stunning, actually the most eye-popping movie I've seen since Bibliothèque Pascal. Such a shame the story and acting don't match, but THEN we get the bonus of Mike Patton, providing not only the song below but also the entire narration throughout.

Bunraku (Guy Moshe, 2010)

Juno reactor ft. Mike Patton - Putting on the blitz (2011)

So here's another Patton, just for fun

Foetus - how to vibrate (Mike Patton mix) (2007)

Mustard pimp ft. Alec Empire - Catch me (2011)

Combat wombat ft. Ozi Batla - Alternative energy (from: Unsound $ystem, 2005)

Azealia Banks – 212 (2011)

The rebel spell - It can't be just me (2011)

Emika – 3 hours (2011)

In this age of information, one would expect that public knowledge would be assimilated better, at least superficially. Well, expectations and reality don't really coincide. Remember the Milgram experiment? Apparently other don't. A team of Belgium researchers reports that people change their perception of a patient depending on their own personal experience with her. In particular, if someone doesn’t like you, she would gladly discount your pain. The team showed 40 subjects photos of 6 patients, accompanied by either positive (e.g. friendly or honest), neutral (reserved) or negative (arrogant, egoistic) descriptions. Those patients suffered from shoulder pain and the team prepared short clips of them undergoing physiotherapy assessment. Subjects were asked to rate the intensity of the pain suffered by each patient after each clip and to characterize them as being un/sympathetic, dis/agreeable or negative/positive. The results clearly show that subjects dismissed the pain of those they have rated as having a negative personality. This is yet another example of how personal, subjective judgment of character modifies the way we perceive objective phenomena. It works every time, be it in advertisement, medicine, or genocide.

De Ruddere L et al. 2011. When you dislike patients, pain is taken less seriously. Pain. 152 (10): 2342-2347