Thursday 31 December 2015

Szczebrzeszyn (Poland): Town Centre on Boxing Day


Here I am walking up towards Szczebrzeszyn town centre on Boxing Day.  Below is what my Polish wife calls the (ancient) '4-faced god' statue:
 

My wife explains that before the advent of Christianity in Poland, the Poles worshipped a 4-faced pagan god (of course, there are Christian symbols on the statue above now).

And below, Szczebrzeszyn town centre looks wonderful lit up with a big Christmas Tree in front of it:


And finally, the lights point towards the medieval 'Hospital Church' ahead:


Wednesday 30 December 2015

Szczebrzeszyn (Poland): The Powered Parachute Rider


While walking down near the sugar factory in Szczebrzeszyn on Christmas Eve, I suddenly heard the sound of an electric motor coming from high above, and when I looked up, I saw a powered parachute up in the sky:


First time I've ever seen a powered parachute rider passing by high above.

Tuesday 29 December 2015

Szczebrzeszyn (Poland): St. Maximilian Kolbe Stained Glass Window


Was passing the hospital church in Szczebrzeszyn town centre on Boxing Day, and had to get a shot of the St. Maximilian Kolbe stained glass window above.

Remember back in the 1970s, the headmistress (Mrs Hart) at St. Joseph's junior school in Bury, Lancashire, telling us about how Maximilian Kolbe had volunteered to die in place of another man at Auschwitz during the 2nd World War.

A Sublime Song



Sometimes I come across a song which just gobsmacks me with its beauty.  This is definitely the case with Arjen Lucassen's Star One project and 'The Eye of Ra' above. 

Especially love the sublime melodic crescendo of this song:

Monday 28 December 2015

Misiek Having a Nap


Couple of shots of Misiek having an early afternoon nap after a long walk here:


Szczebrzeszyn (Poland): Gothic-Type Shots


Went down near where the sugar factory once stood on the edge of Szczebrzeszyn on a walk with a dog, and came back with these dark, Gothic-type shots overlooking the river down there:



Was in the sleepy, small, eastern Polish town of Szczebrzeszyn for a few days over Christmas:



Really like the shot below where the late afternoon mist enshrouds a tower where the old sugar factory once stood:


Sunday 27 December 2015

Warsaw (Poland): The 'Child Soldiers' Statue


Can never pass this small 'Child Soldiers' statue at the Popiełuszko church in Warsaw without getting a picture of it.

Warsaw (Poland): Two Great Concerts on One Day


Why did Calexico and Riverside have to end up on the same day?  Really like both 'Tex-Mex' specialists, Calaxico, and Polish Prog band, Riverside.

Had already bought Calexico tickets for me and my wife at Warsaw Palladium before the Riverside tickets came out for Warsaw Stodoła, so I went to watch Calexico which was excellent.


But still would've liked to have seen Riverside too.  Anyway, I've seen Riverside three times in Warsaw over the last few years, and hadn't seen Calexico since the early 2000s (at Manchester Academy 2).

Friday 18 December 2015

A Great Prog Song


Have kind of always been aware of Symphony X, but I'm only just getting round to giving them a serious listening.  And now one song seriously stands out:  the majestic 25-minute epic, 'The Odyssey'.

Monday 14 December 2015

Kadavar Live at Warsaw Klub Progresja 12th December 2015


Finally, after three good preceding acts (Horisont; Satan's Satyrs; The Shrine), it was time for the headliners, Kadavar, who I'd only discovered about 6-8 months ago but immediately liked.


With Kadavar, I was familiar with quite a few of the tunes ('Living in Your Head'; 'Broken Wing' etc.).


But for me, the set really came alive with 'Purple Sage' which was incredibly hypnotic:


My old friend, Dave Dealy, views Kadavar as being kind of 'Black Sabbath-ish' around the time of 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' and 'Sabotage', and I kind of agree, they're really interesting for sure:



Really enjoyed this four-band gig at the Progresja, each band was great with really quick changeovers between each act.

Sunday 13 December 2015

The Shrine Live at Warsaw Klub Progresja 12th December 2015


What an atmosphere these three guys, The Shrine, whipped up, having the crowd in a frenzy.  Frontman (guitarist and vocalist), Josh Landau, is the perfect showman, and the crowd loved him:


Great humour as well, introducing one tune by telling the crowd that it was about cutting off the head of a snake.


Despite only knowing The Shrine from Youtube, the 70-minute set seemed over in a shot, it was that enjoyable with an incredible rapport between band and crowd:


Nice touch at the end when drummer, Jeff Murray, came down shaking everybody's hands at the front of the stage, as everybody sensed they'd been involved in something a bit special.


Satan's Satyrs Live at Warsaw Klub Progresja 12th December 2015


Second band on at the Klub Progresja last night was Satan's Satyrs who, like the other three bands on the bill, had an incredible drummer (above).

Could see that Satan's Satyrs were very good musically, especially the booming rhythm section, but didn't quite know what to make of them, as the bassist/singer had one of the most unusual voices I've ever heard:


Still, the band's stint on stage went very quickly so I must've enjoyed them.


Before last night, I'd only had a quick look at Satan's Satyrs on Youtube. 

Without knowing much about Satan's Satyrs, Horisont, and The Shrine; and only being a bit more aware of Kadavar, I went up to the Klub Progresja last night to catch four young bands who offer Rock music in a good, old-school way, and ended up enjoying all four bands as each offered something different from the others.


Horisont Live at Warsaw Klub Progresja 12th December 2015


Was glad I got up in time to see Swedish band Horisont kick off a great evening of entertainment (with Kadavar; The Shrine; and Satan's Satyrs) at Warsaw Klub Progresja last night:


Like the other three bands on the bill, Horisont have an incredibly energetic drummer (having a well-deserved beer below):


Had checked out Horisont on Youtube so I knew they were well worth catching. Was nice to see them check out with UFO's classic 'Rock Bottom'.


Friday 11 December 2015

Warsaw (Poland): Nativity Scene Christmas Cards


One good thing about living in Poland is that it's still reasonably easy to find Nativity Scene Christmas cards to send people at Christmas.  Really like the one above as it seems to have a special Eastern flavour.

In my native Britain, it's not that easy to find such beautiful Nativity Scene Christmas cards due to politically-'correct' censorship in the mainline shops (people are frightened of 'offending' Muhammadans; dogmatic atheists etc.).


In Britain, many people are now forced to look for these kinds of Christmas cards in second-hand shops, or to get them from a church.


When I lived in my homeland, I used to get them from one of the Society of St. Piux X churches.


Really like the Nativity Scene below as it seems to have a folk art kind of quality:


Tuesday 8 December 2015

Political-'Correctness': The Mind Forg'd Manacles


Went on a Google search to find cartoons and short messages making fun of the Western totalitarian ideology of political-'correctness' (cultural Marxism), and saw how different features of politically-'correct' ideology were being targeted in these messages.

First, the top picture above highlights how politically-'correct' ideologues go on the offensive labelling their opponents with (often mindless and inaccurate) slogans such as 'racist'.  Of course, once a person has been marked with such a dirty label, he/she is then often labelled in such a way for life (e.g. Enoch Powell was labelled and commonly viewed as a 'racist' for his 'rivers of blood' musings while very few people know that he was thought to be a fine Biblical scholar).

Second, as George Orwell prophesied in '1984', political-'correctness' views any attempts to tell the truth as one sees it (especially when deviating away from politically-'correct' orthodoxy on such issues as Islam; homosexuality/lesbianism; abortion etc.) as being revolutionary acts:


And of course, there is the politically-'correct' assault on Christmas(tide) and mainstream Christianity:


The politically-'correct' are so intent on not 'offending' Muhammadans that they don't realise that they're genuinely offending Christians by banishing the Christ-child and what he represents from Christmas:



The great writer Doris Lessing rightly pointed out that a politically-'correct' elite imposing their views on the masses is an inheritance from communism:


In modern, Western (especially English-speaking) countries, people are generally not allowed to criticise such meta-ideologies as Islam or political-'correctness' itself:
 

And of course, within the politically-'correct' narrative, what was once held to be sacred or highly valued (e.g. mainstream Christianity; the Western Literary Canon; a patriotic sense of history etc.) has been subverted (offering mass-scale disenchantment to people):


Within the politically-'correct' narrative, a minoritarian worldview often presents white people as being the root of all evil, and this kind of message is continually propagated by an unscrupulous mass media:


Concerning its inheritance from communism, political-'correctness' may be viewed as an egalitarian cultural creed that evolved out of the failure of an earlier egalitarian economic creed.  A writer called Bill Lind is big on this as he reflects on the Frankfurt School ideologues (Adorno; Benjamin; Heidegger; Marcuse etc.) paving the way to modern-day political-'correctness'):


When political-'correctness' is compared to Stalinism, it's amazing how many concepts and linguistic devices these two totalitarian ideologies have in common (e.g. 'hate crime'; the term 'political-correctness' itself etc.):


And with the world currently being dangerously close to mass-scale war, many people are starting to sense or see the creation of some kind of politically 'correct'-Salafist Muhammadan alliance that threatens the rest of the world (including the remnants of genuine Western culture):


And of course, many people sadly ask how a previous radical-type inclination to question authority has been replaced by complete conformity to politically-'correct' dogma:



Thus, if Western people want to keep their jobs (especially those in the public sector) and feel safe with their families, they have to toe the line by either preaching politically-'correct' dogma or keeping their mouths shut:


Indeed, modern-day political-'correctness' seems to be a mass-scale attempt to rid the world of belief in goodness, beauty, and truth (e.g. to rid the Western world of its high culture).