Censorship is not an option!

[Edit 2009-05-28] Radio For Peace International has now stopped broadcasting. On www.rfpi.org you can read about their legacy, but for progressive radio we now have to find other sources and stations.

There is something of a “secret” that I’ve had for quite some time. I”ve told a few and perhaps some even know but I guess that there is a bunch of you with no clue. I spend a good part of my days listening to talk radio from Radio For Peace International.

Radio For Peace International (RFPI) broadcasts from Costa Rica but mainly concists of american programs. Oh man, I don’t know where to start, it is so cool. The radio station first started in 1987 transmitting non-censorship radio across the american borders. Since then RFPI has been shut down several times by military forces – always without valid official reasons. But they are still around broadcasting a number of independant radio programs dealing with quite a few touching subjects. Everything and anything between war, peace, environmental issues, health issues, poverty, culture, science and religion. They only accept contributions from individuals – not from corporations. They refuse to streamline the broadcast according to governmetal wishes. There is not censorship. At all.

There are shows like Democracy Now with a daily hour-long “War and Peace Report” featuring Amy Goodman. At the moment they mainly focus on US foreign policies (the war in Iraq etc) but there is also in depth features about democratic issues in the country. They are not very happy with the people who are currently in office. :)

Then there is the brilliant Spritual Awakening with James Bean. The show sets out to introduce it’s listeners to the width of spirituality and religion across the world. Here you will hear representatives of faraway faiths of which you have never ever heard. No matter what religion you follow, this is really exciting.

The list of breathtaking alternative shows goes on and on. The contribution from New Dimensions Radio is incredibly inspiring. As is the material from Honoring Mother Earth: Indigenous Voices produced at Yat Kitischee Native Center.

Every day there are new, exciting, really progressive and professional alternative programs. If you are tired of pop music radio or commercial radio then give international alternative radio a chance. Simply go to www.rfpi.org and listen to their webcast (you can easily listen through your iTunes or Windows Media Player).

Censorship is NOT an option!

Naked Virginian kids

We’ve been to museums the last couple of weekends. First it was an exibition about death called “Gruesome Death” or something. Then last week we checked out the Modern Museum here in Stockholm where they hade some really cool stuff. And so yesterday we had plans on seeing something but quite some time passed before we got on the subway and well, we soon understood we wouldn’t make it. Then we found out that there was a free Sally Mann photo exibition at Kulturhuset.

Wow! Mann’s stuff is really super fantastic! It’s no wonder all kinds of people in high places, and on boards and art societies and what not call her the american photo wonder of the last decade! She’s dug out a bunch of decade old cameras (and some modern ones too I guess) to capture her surroundings in the woods and swamps of Virginia. And her children – as natural as they get.

Naturaly the know-betters of the world shouted out loud in the early 90s when she first published her pictures. (Word has it she went up to FBI before publishing asking: “Are you gonna make something out of this?”). Well some people thought of her pictures as “pornographic” and “hard evidence of child exploitation”. Mann had taken pictures of her kids naked doing everything from swimming to checking out dead animals.

Funny isn’t it? I know there’s a full slide show at home from when I was about half a year old. You know, dad took these really cool pictures of me naked on some kind of velvet cloth. Experimenting with lights and stuff. If I was to publish it on the web then I’m sure I’d be labeled a pedophile.

Perhaps even after I told people that it was I who was on the picture.

Sushi-Su, baby I love you! Sushi-su!

Time to get back from the biggest break ever in the history of the Road From Madness blog. Not that this break has been that much of a break. I’m the one who is about to break actually.

I trust you all had a cool christmas and a good new year and all that stuff. Me and Elin went to mom and dad and spent about four days there and then we went up to Falun for another four days with Elin’s mom and dad. Then back to Stockholm for new years eve. As some of you know. I think new years eve parties suck #€%/#€ but I actually had fun on this one. Partially because I got to go to bed before 1 AM.

The other day Elin and I decided to make our own sushi. We are suckers for sushi but this was our first try. We were quite proud with how it all came out. So we decided to make some more when Elin’s brother and his girlfriend were coming here. Well, it turned out that Daniel (the brother) was feeling like a raw sushi himself with a flu or fever or something of the kind.

Now, the table is set. Some avocado dish is waiting and then I guess we’ll watch a movie before it is bedtime. The stupidheads who run the trains changed the time of the morning train from Stockholm to Örebro so I have to get up nutty early on mondays.

Waking up Guy

I went to Belgium to work together with the nice böys in Oceans of Sadness. It all happened very fast. We discovered that we needed video footage and more photos so we managed to set up a support gig at a Deathstars show.

I took a plane to Brussels last thursday and Tijs, Nik and Hanneke were nice enough to pick me up at the airport and for about fours days there was nothing but lots of work and a lot of fun. Tijs would keep me busy in the daytime and Wim would keep me busy in the nighttime.

We filmed the show and did some interviews for a promotional video which also came out good. Me and Tijs watched a few movies and Wim and I had a legendary night out where restaurant and pub owners throughout area gave me souvenirs to bring home. That was very loving and amusing I think. We also woke Guy up in the middle of the night.

On the final day, which was monday, Nik and Wim and I drove into Brussels and had a stroll. Then we met up with Anneke for some coffee. I can’t stress enough how glad I am that you came out to help us throughout the week. That goes for the rest of you too, not the least Nik!

A quick one about penguin slippers

Just dropping in to write something to keep this blog going. Between all the really heavy stuff which is work I’ve made it a priority to answer mails before updating blogs, but not updating soon would be something close to euthanasia so I figured I should.

Life is pretty much all about work at the moment. Work has been a whole lot about publishing websites which is not really what I want but you need to build the bridge to cross the river… or something.

So anyways, me and my friend Jens are in the middle of promoting this a belgian metal band which is very interesting. They incredibly cool and nice guys and all. Neither one of us see any reason why this band shouldn’t get a good deal with a good label, but then again – probably a lot of people have said that about a lot of bands. I’ve been sending out lots of promo material and discs and pictures and presentations and stuff. We’ll see what comes out of it.

Elin and I had a funny conversation yesterday:

Anders: “You look like a penguin when you walk like that!”
Elin: “What a nice thing to say! So I am a penguin?”
Anders: “Uuuh, it was because you are wearing your slippers…”
Elin: “But I’m not wearing slippers.”
Anders: “Oohhh…”

At the moment I’m sitting up in Stockholm in Elin’s apartment translating a bunch of contracts. Pretty slow work if you wanna get it right. This is not really the most stimulating work either but a pig has got to do what a pig has got to do. I am the pig.

Iraqi elections

I’m on the train to Stockholm and Elin. Don’t know what we’re gonna do really. I’m so tired (and I have a horrible headache) so I’m not really up for anything. Watching movies I guess. I’ve brought some and I think there’s a load of them at Elin’s place that we have yet to see. But before that I’m gonna take a serious bath I think.

So what about the elections then (swedish readers only)? I think the Folkpartiet vs. Socialdemokraterna spy-thing is complete bullshit. I mean, c’mon! Sure, the 24-year-old who accessed the other parties non-public network should be held responsible but if someone has to draw attention from the serious national issues to this farse, then that person probably hasn’t got a whole lot to say anyways and had better shut up.

The fellers in the picture above I like a lot. Picture was taken at a rally in Falun a couple of weeks ago. They had a whole lot more to say about Iraqi elections than they had to say about Swedish. However, I’m afraid I forgot to register to vote in the Iraqi elections.

On a different not, it turned out we all liked the new Iron Maiden album “A Matter of Life and Death” so much that we didn’t want to miss them in Sweden, so me, Bomber and Elin decided to get tickets for one show i Stockholm in November. Have you heard the new album? I think “For the Greater Good of God” is cool and I also like “The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg”.

My stop is next. I’ve gotta pack my stuff and jump of this train.

Pile of dirt once was

I walked out of Jens’ studio an hour ago to throw some dirt in the big pile of dirt. We were gonna take the big pile of dirt to the dump. Much to my surprise the pile was simply gone today! My guess is one of the neighbours (there is actually only one) decided that enough was enough and took the pile of dirt in his own hands. Anyhow, the pile is no more.

I recently met someone who makes a lot of things make sense to me! Her name is Elin and as often as she calls me boyfriend I call her girlfriend and she is simply the best. Well, to make a long story short, I met her in Stockholm about six weeks ago and it was all cool. A week later I had to go to Germany and I decided ask  Elin if she wanted to come. Her answer was “Hell yeah!” (sort of but without the “Hell”) and so we left about a week after that.

The main reason I was going to Germany was to buy a car for Jens. Also I was gonna meet a record label guy and promote our belgian friends in Oceans of Sadness.

The Germany trip was one big bomb actually because there was a whole lot of trouble with money transfers and stuff so me and Elin ended up spending two nights at a small hotel in Bingen outside of Frankfurt and then one night somewhere else (Elin remembers the name of the town, I don’t).

I will spare you the story of the car, the payment, the export plates and the oblicatory service that had to be done there and then. I guess it is fair to say that our romantic trip was a bit less romantic than we had expected. But! If there was something I realised then it’s that Elin is one cool chick and that I will walk over a number of bodies (living or dead) before I ever let her go!