Black & White

I keep getting told that life is not black and white, that I can be too judgmental – that things are not that cut and dried. That the Good is not discrete. That the Good and the Bad hold hands, that they blur into a vague grey.

Crap.

Actually, life looks grey because it's made up of many black and white dots. Like dots on a newspaper. Black and white events, black and white moments. Moments where you do what's right, and moments where you do something recklessly selfish, or moments where you stand by and let something happen.

Just because there are a lot of those moments, doesn't mean we're any less responsible for choosing the side we're with at that moment.

If we confuse issues, then we're out of focus, and rather than see all the black and white moments, we see a blurred continuum of maybe's and greys.

When we do that we are shirking our main duty.

It is on us to perceive with clarity and empathy, it is on us to ascertain which side bears the burden of the good, and it is on us to take that side, and share with it that burden.

Nothing grey about any of that.

So Much For The 'Digital Revolution' : They're Screwing With Your Heads.

According to one investigator - each of the new highly active twitter accounts were created on Saturday, June 13th. “IranElection” is their most popular keyword. He narrowed the spammers to the most persistent: @StopAhmadi, @IranRiggedElect, and @Change_For_Iran. He researched further and found that On June 14 the Jerusalem Post already had an article on the new twitter.

http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/proof-israeli-effort-to-destabilize-iran-via-twitter/

Ahmedinejad, The U.S., and The Iranian Elections

It's an easy enough lie to digest.

Ahmedinejad is a nutcase. Look at him, he's been wearing the same jacket for years, ever since we ever laid eyes on him. He's unshaven, looks kind of gruffy. He exhudes an informal, almost clumsy air and doesn't seem like much of an orator. He's soft spoken enough to make a cynic disbelieve anything he says, and the claims that he's still living in his old house and still driving his god-knows-how-old car all seem inherently ridiculous.

And then, of course, it was his idea to hold a conference on the Holocaust in an attempt to weed out the truth from the myths involved, and naturally, it was he who everybody credits with wanting to wipe out his Zionist neighbors.

It's easy to paint Ahmedinejad as a "petty, cruel, and ignorant dictator" as he was described by his host, the President of Columbia University in New York, after accepting an invitation to speak there.

Yeah, it's pretty easy.

I don't know about the old house, nor can I confirm that Ahmedinejad still drives an old car, but I have read the letter he sent to George Bush Jr., while Bush was still in office, and perhaps you should give it a read too, if you have the time or the inclination. It’s written simply, almost naively (considering who he was addressing), and is clearly unedited by anything resembling a professional political writer.

Once, during a television interview with some major U.S. network, I forget the name of the interviewer now, but it was a considered a major scoop at the time – the American Interviewer noticed Ahmedinejad’s assistant whisper something to him during the interview. Sensing the sinister intent behind the whisper, the American Interviewer asked Ahmedinejad what his assistant had told him. “Oh", said Ahmedinejad, adjusting his jacket, “he just told me to adjust my jacket because it looks a bit strange on the monitor.” Truly, investigative journalism at its best.

When Ahmedinejad – oh, wait – you’re still put off by the name, right?

Here, let’s play syllables: Ahmed (c’mon you know that one, right?) DEE (like John Dee, for example) NE (like your NEck) JAD (like, er…Chad)…see? Simple Ahmed-Dee-Ne-Jad. See?

To continue:

What Ahmedinejad (don’t you feel better about him already, now that you can pronounce his name?) said about the Chicken Little that you like to call ‘Israel’ (okay, so it’s not worried about the sky falling on its head – but it is particularly obsessed with being pushed into the sea..) – is that the ZIONIST regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish in the pages of time. It seems to redundant to say this, but apparently, there is a need – a regime is not a people, a regime is not a mother, a regime is not a boy, a regime is not a child. A regime is a mindset, and some regimes, such as the Apartheid Regime in South Africa, are certainly doomed to a morally-bankrupt downfall.

So now, we have Ahmedinejad – and an Iranian Election.

When Ahmedinejad was insulted by his host at Columbia University before he had even spoken, he replied, when he did take the podium, by saying that he was unfamiliar with America but that in his country, guest are not invited to an occasion simply to be insulted and ridiculed. The same Columbia students who clapped when he was insulted by their President applauded Ahmedinejad when he made that statement.

Their minds, apparently, are easy to sway.

So now, we are told that Ahmedinejad has stolen the Iranian Elections! That his people actually support an pro-reform opponent called Mousavi (it’s certainly easier to pronounce, isn’t it?) – and that the election has been rigged! The people of Iran have lost their voices! Their democracy has been hijacked by the Hitler-Esque Madman of Tehran, the would-be Holocaust-Denier, the would be Israeli-Decimator, the teacher who thinks he’s a preacher, if-he-gets-a-bomb-he’ll-beat-cha’ – Ahmedinejad!

Oh, gosh.

So here are the lies:

Ahmedinejad has less support than Mousavi. The U.S. and International Media know this. Ahmedinejad could not have gotten 62.6% of the votes since Mousavi is so well-supported. Mousavi is pro-reform, and the young population of Iran loves him because they yearn for a reformist who will bring Western Values to the country! The vote has been stolen, and Mousavi has been asking his supporters to stay calm while the issue is resolved. However, his supporters, those Valiant Iranians seeking the Western JuJu will not be calmed, they are on the streets asking for their rights! Ahmedinejad and the ruling council are meeting them with an Iron Fist. Killing them in a brute display of force! Proving once and for all that the rule of the madman in Iran is monstrous!

Oh, gosh indeed.

The Independent (of the UK) publishes a story in which an agonized Iranian student referred to as Maryam tells of her disappointment – that her hopes have been destroyed, her voice stolen, her dreams dashed. I run into the story since a friend of mine living in the UK sees it and sympathizes with the poor all-but-fictional ‘Maryam’.

Well-intentioned people fall for this story just as they fall for Obama and his recent speech to the Muslim World. Just as they fall for an invasion of Afghanistan that promises to liberate the women of Afghanistan from the dreaded tyranny of the Hijab – as only cluster bombs and an invasion force of rapists know how.

The truth is this:

Ahmedinejad has always had more support than Mousavi – even a recent American pre-election poll proves that much. Not only that, but it proves that even in Mousavi’s supposed main demographic – the Azeri’s polled 2 to 1 in favor of Ahmedinejad previous to the election. In fact, the polling overwhelmingly demonstrated that Ahmedinejad would get not only 62.6% of the vote but 66% of the vote and that his strongest voting bloc was among 18-24 year olds.

Mousavi is not as well-supported as his fans or the U.S. or England, or Israel would have you believe. That is, depending on how you see it – either a delusion of people who cannot believe that anybody could sincerely prefer a non pro-western candidate – or an illusion designed to fool over-educated, well-intentioned do-gooders who still can’t get over the fact that the Iranians might not see things the way they do and might not share their intentions, hopes or dreams.

Mousavi only made things worse (and this is apparently, all he’s really designed, and perhaps more dangerously paid to do) by declaring himself a winner before the official election results came in. Thus making his supporters (mainly, by the way, composed of university graduates, and the richer echelons of Iranian society) feel as though they had a victory and then had it stolen from them. In doing so, he has caused a great deal of fury, anger, and disappointment. Not only has he done this, but he has also specifically asked his supporters to continue to demonstrate, despite the fact that this is a legal issue – he is thus directly responsible for any bloodshed that occurs during those demonstrations, and is the primary inciting force behind the violence.

But you don’t want to hear all that.

Like Axl said in ‘Sorry’ - “It’s harder to live with the truth about you, than to live with the lies about me.”

And so it goes.

Obama In Cairo

Well, here he was.

Massive hype, of course, an event touted as a game-changer for American/Arab relations and something that a lot of people were eagerly expecting.

Even before the event, certain facts were being highlighted within the region -

Unlike most, if not all, US Presidents of the last few decades, Obama would not be visiting Israel and would not be driven straight from the airport to the Holocaust Museum.

Obama would make his speech from Cairo, not from any of the other Middle-Eastern U.S. Buddy Nations of Arabia. This, in itself, is seen to augment Egypt’s arguably waning influence within the region.

And so he comes, with a security details of around, apparently, 3,000 Americans – most of whom entered the country with no visa or who were given rushed, no-questions-asked visa’s in the airport as they landed, putting in a more embarrassing light the humiliation and contempt with which the average Egyptian has to contend with if he desires to travel to the US, or for that matter, most other ‘Western’ countries in the 1st Century PWTC (Post World Trade Center).

Egypt, of course – painted any roads that Obama would drive or fly anywhere near. Traffic was restrained, and people pretty much stuck to their homes. Obama’s trip through Cairo would be pretty and unencumbered by the usually troublesome Cairo traffic.

A courtesy?

Perhaps.

So he’s at Cairo University, and he speaks. He tries the Arabic but keeps stumbling on the name ‘Azhar’. Still, he’s trying – so we listen.

The speech is very well written, rhetorically speaking – it’s quite well designed. A bit cliché-ridden here and there, the usual forms and patterns, but with a generous serving of credit to Moslems and to Islam. In any case -

These are my issues:

Obama not only regurgitates the standard Holocaust accounts of 6 million Jews killed (never mind that we’re ignoring the other non-Jewish 12 million people killed during the war) – but states that these are undeniable facts which nobody can dispute. With this he ignores the very real dispute put forward by historians like Roger Garaudy, and others. In short – that Jews were killed, but that many other races and/or groups were killed, and that it’s highly unlikely that the figure is anywhere near 6 million. Not only does the Obama regurgitate all of these (yes) disputed numbers, but you must remember that he does so while speaking to a people who were in no way at all responsible for a single one of those murders, and who despite this, have suffered from the event for the last 60 years at least, and are still suffering from it today.

In an attempt at ‘balance’ – the Obama uses the word ‘Occupation’ when referring to the Israeli aggression on Palestinians and yet by insisting that the Palestinians must renounce violence he is basically attempting to strip them of one of their basic human rights. In order to mask this, he mentions the agonizing example of school buses being targeted by Palestinian rockets – ignoring the fact that the Palestinian rockets are home-made pieces of flying debris and that thousands of them raining on Israel would amount, in effect to a nasty day-full of hail-stones. Ignoring the fact that a single Israeli helicopter or F16 can and does (routinely) inflict far more damage to the Palestinians.

The attempt at balance is shameful, and a simple scenario should clarify why it’s a false platform:

I steal $100 from you. A 3rd party walks in, hoping to arbitrate. You say it’s your $100, I say it’s my $100. In an effort at ‘fairness’ – the 3rd party offers to split and to give each of us $50.

Balanced? Only if you have the attention span of a goldfish.

Obama mentions that the settlements must ‘stop’. Stop? Stop to me, sounds like a gate through which what the Israelis call ‘natural growth’ will pass through unharmed. If, as Obama seems to admit, he knows they are illegal – then why is he not using the much more appropriate verb ‘dismantle’?

Feeble.

Obama throws around references to nuclear arms in the region – incredibly – and oh, the audacity – he is not talking about Israel. Israel has an estimated 200-300 nuclear bombs, and has never demonstrated anything resembling a desire for peace, and yet – the Obama is talking about IRAN.

He claims a desire for a nuclear free world, while he sits on around 20 or 30 thousand nuclear weapons and represents the only country in the world to have used them twice.

A word on that. First of all, the regular apologetics claim that the U.S. saved lives by nuking Hiroshima and Nagazaki is fallacious – it ignores the documented facts – that Japan was trying to surrender anyway. There is also the matter of why the U.S. felt the need to use TWO bombs – and for those still looking for an explanation – here’s a simple clue – they had two types of bombs.

Science, folks.

Obama tells us that he’s shutting down Guantanamo – and the people applaud. Unaware perhaps that as Obama was saying this, a 31-year-old Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo who had been imprisoned since 2001 was killing himself. He had been on a hunger-strike, and was thereafter held in a psychiatric ward where he was force-fed in a restraint chair and most likely held sedated.

These same people are also most likely unaware that in fact, most American ‘detainees’ are not held in Guantanamo at all, but around the world in what can only be described as torture-franchise stations in various third world countries around the world.

Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, The Shock Doctrine, and other works – said that “Obama is making us stupid.” – and in an single attention seeking moment, one of the actors present at the Cairo speech shouted ‘We Love You Obama!’ – during the speech. Obama, dutifully, thanked him, and continued.

Obama went on to claim that the ‘war’ (read ‘invasion’) with (read ‘of’) Afghanistan was forced on the U.S. by the attacks of 9/11 (which, it should be mentioned he mentioned at least 3 or 4 times during the speech) – ignoring completely the well-reported (do your homework if you don’t remember this) fact that the Taliban explicitly made an offer to surrender any of those proven to be responsible (including Osama Bin Laden) to a neutral country for trial if any evidence was presented. Ignoring the fact that 6 months before the invasion of Afghanistan the Afghanis were threatened with just that – an invasion – if they did not submit to the pipe-line demands of Haliburton, etc.

And so it goes.

America Marches On.

Ironically, it is the people on the street who see through the lies. The cab drivers of Egypt, the doormen, the plumbers and the carpenters – all of those seem to understand innately – that the Obama is all talk – all of those are skeptical of mere words, and are in wait of any real action, any substance to the smoke and mirrors.

It is the educated of the Middle-East, the ones with degrees, the ones who’ve invested in Americana – who are most eager to believe him, who are most eager to wash themselves aglow with his apparent sincerity – with his apparent good intentions – with his apparent respect for Islam.

We need much more.

Tele-Vision

Sit down. Tune in, and grab a beer. See what you might otherwise miss. Give us 30 seconds - and with one blank frame every thirty - we’ll put you up into a deep hypno-idiotic state during which you’ll be up to 25 times more susceptible to The Creed. Photons building crude patterns, chiseling into your organism. Give us your minute cause we’ll take away your day. Believe what you will as long as it’s true. And that is what we offer. ‘Truth at 25 frames a second’ the man said, and he didn’t even know how much he’d meant it. Information and misinformation collude and leave you confused, or, a worst case scenario, leave you bright, blessed in lucidity, and full of insights. A new preacher in our midst. The Cretan Liar, twice bound and still unfulfilled. A dramatic re-inaction of a flop. Space: The Final Something and in Ethiopia the children are still dead and dying, but omnipotence has it’s rewards and telekinesis is as close as your remote control, and the kids aren’t there anymore because the drug lord is about to get shot by the good guy. All bad things come to a swift end. Tele-Vision: The Gaze from Afar, seeing at a distance, keeping a distance. In safety and in trust, forever pledged in holy media-money. A craft; artful even - sometimes - but always a taker. The mediator. That which comes between one thing and another, getting a cut on both sides.

Snow Blind Bliss.

ShortCuts

Shortcuts are offered. In flavors tailored to appeal to both men and women.

For men, books like The Laws of Power basically provide a pseudo-mystical-alpha-male warrior disguise for what, basically, is a manual on how to be an asshole. Hardly the first of that kind that we've seen.

The excuse offered to women to allow them the luxury of being assholes is that of Disney-Destiny-Fate-Plan-Esteem-Bubbles - the kind of dross packaged in The Secret - ideas both useless and corruptive -

All there to give you permission to feel that you've earned the comfort your own life provides and to ease your guilt regarding the poor bastards to whom your 'miserable life' is a charmed one, and to provide a framework for the sacrifice or abandonment of others.

Go figure.

Lie To Me, She Says.

Buffy: "Does it ever get easy?"

Giles: "You mean life?"

Buffy: "Yeah, does it get easy?"

Giles: "What do you want me to say?"

Buffy: "Lie to me."

Giles: "Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true. The bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats..and uh...we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies and...everybody lives happily ever after."

Buffy: "Liar."

From Season 2, Episode 7 "Lie To Me."

Batman Falls Victim! The Joker Didn't Do It - Morrison Did!

I am sick of Grant Morrison.

My exposure to comics has lessened over the years. I've been living in Egypt, so unless I download the occasional scan or buy the trade paperbacks from Amazon, I don't get to read as much as I used to. Still, when I travel, I spend ridiculous sums of money on buying comics and catching up.

Lately, I 'caught' up again, after traveling and spending far too much at a particular comics shop in Austria.

First of all, I was SHOCKED by the ridiculous amount of titles written by Grant Morrison. I just didn't get it. It was as though DC had given Morrison a monopoly on it's titles. Half of the books in the shop were written by Morrison. I just don't get it. How many books does this guy write/month?

Also - he's just not very good. He's WAY too busy trying to be 'cool' and 'awesome' and 'controversial' to even know what a good story is. I was lucky enough to run into some stories by Geoff Johns and he is BY FAR a better writer. Johns writes the characters, he shows us dramatic scenes that lend gravity to any action scenes he writes. The gravity of the characters, the strength of the characters, his LOVE of the characters shows through almost every line of dialogue. He also respects the continuity and does his best to integrate and explain as many aspects of it as he can. He really does wonderful work, and his work on the Hal Jordan rebirth story was great, and the way he had Batman and Jordan interact in that, and in subsequent issues was wonderful. He LOVES the characters and it shows.

Morrison on the other hand - loves himself, and his own 'rebel without a clue' sensibilities. He's willing to destroy anything and anyone to appear cool and awesome and on top of things. I suspect he goes out of his way to make the stories 'cosmic' and 'complex' so that 1) people don't notice the complete lack of dramatic substance, and 2) the continuity gets so convoluted that only 'he' can continue to make sense of it thereby assuring his monopoly as DC writer supreme.

He's lame.

It didn't take me long to find that out. 

Final Crisis is a piece of crap. 

Yes. It really is. Including ridiculous panels where he 'tells' us how great and noble the characters are because he is CLEARLY unable to SHOW us just that in subtle dramatic scenes. Morrison is the Die Hard 4 of the comics industry. HUGE BANGS all in a row, leading, in my case, to a snooze-fest. He's so busy pulling focus on himself that his stories are just boring, boring, boring - and his treatment of the characters both shallow and shamefully disrespectful.

DC is really shooting itself in the foot, and the longer they allow Morrison free reign, the longer this will continue.

DC, if you listen to anything - listen to the fans - dump Morrison.

Listen to Geoff Johns.

Beg Brad Meltzer to write more.

Respect your characters.

Please.

The Clinton Provides A Pass

Despite the supposedly promising move of making George Mitchell the Middle East Envoy - it appears that any work he attempts will be under the glowering shadow of none other than second of the two infamous Clintons, good old Hillary.

Consider if you will, the article at Reuters entitled "Clinton says Israel has the right to defend itself. " This is not a novel or unique statement, and it is a factually redundant one given that any 'nation' (and I use the word here against my better judgment) legally has that right. In fact, the statement is old code, and what it means is this "That the USA will continue to support Israel no matter what Israel chooses to do and no matter what it becomes in the process. Israel has the USA-Backed MIGHT to do to the Palestinians whatever they goddamn please." - so let's not kid ourselves, that's exactly what the Clinton has just stated.

The fact that she needs to make an apparently redundant statement implies one of two things, that "Israel" is not actually a 'nation' in which case it does not automatically have that 'right', and therefore 'we so state it' - or that, in fact, 'Israel' is doing something which we insist that you call self-defense.

In any case, she glosses over any right that the mothers and children of Gaza - living on the most densely populated space on earth, with an average age of 17 - any right whatsoever - that they might have of defending themselves.

She says that the Hamas rocket launches cannot be left "unanswered" - when she knows damn well that they are an answer to a decades old occupation and a several years old blockade - an answer from a population that has been robbed, raped, murdered, deprived of their tax money, had their homes destroyed, their husbands imprisoned, their children robbed of any childhood conceivable amidst poverty and rubble, and constant humiliation, intimidation and aggression.

Ironically, or ridiculously, given the title of the article, she is quoted as saying that "It is regrettable that the Hamas leadership apparently believes that it is in their interest to provoke the right of self-defence instead of building a better future for the people of Gaza." - so despite having specially, and just now invoked "Israels right to defend itself" - she then has the sheer gall to claim that it is the Palestinian democratically elected government that is so doing.

The sheer gall.

She then states that "The United States is currently the single largest contributor to Palestinian aid and we will be adding even more because we believe that it's important to help those who have been damaged and are suffering."

Let's correct this, if you will -

What she is in fact saying is this - "The United States is currently the single largest contributor to FATAH - the corrupt ex-leadership of the Palestinian people - a leadership that was sold peanuts in Oslo and eventually got so corrupted by US & Israeli and Arab Influence so as to effectively become a group of thugs operating under American and Israeli directives. A 'leadership' that is now the primary reason for the internal struggle within Palestine itself, since it is made up of a group of imposters trying to dethrone the legally elected government of Palestine." - and that is what the Clinton says.

"Yes," they say, "we can!"

Chinese Democracy Starts Now!

You've had too many Yesterdays, and it's been 14 Years since you've heard anything good - meanwhile, Anything Goes. You've taken the Nighttrain straight from a Breakdown into a Coma, and you've been feeling Estranged from Paradise City, and all you feel like during this very un-Civil War is that you just want to scream 'Don't Damn Me' - but the time IS come, the moment is NOW, and Dr. Pepper owes all of America a free drink.

Chinese Democracy is here.

It's been a long time coming for Guns N' Roses fans - over 16 years ago - the band left us with the Use Your Illusion albums and since then it's been a rough ride. If you've been following the people involved, itching to hear something, anything - that FEELS like Guns N' Roses then you've probably been sorely disappointed. Slash's Snakepit, Duff McKagan's solo album, Izzy Stradlin's decent but unrevolutionary work and the Weiland-inspired disaster that I've personally found Velvet Revolver to be - have all failed to deliver the bite, the wall of heavy groove and the cry of unabashed unambigious almost painful honesty, the sheer depth of what the best Guns N' Roses tracks have ever offered.

Does this read like a long lead up? Then take the short end of it - Chinese Democracy is brilliant. It's not brilliant all the time, nor could it possibly be - even if it were not for the sheer weight of expectation that surrounds it. But - when it is what it aims to be it is nothing short of awe-inspiring greatness.

If you're still wondering where I'm going with this - get the damn thing. Pay the man, and get it. Or get it now, and then pay the man. Whichever, in both cases, do both.

Some of the tracks harken back to the Gn'R sound - and they are a tight manifestation that shows quite clearly that, despite all the fan nostalgia for the old band members, Axl can, quite simply, pull that off.

Just like that.

You'll find that on tracks like the title track 'Chinese Democracy' as well as tracks like 'I.R.S.', 'Street of Dreams', and 'Catcher In The Rye'.

The title track, 'Chinese Democracy', for example - has a long-ish intro with some music and layers of chinese murmers, and then it kicks into song proper. The main riff is a super-charged guitar line that really signals the side to side headbang that a proper Gn'R track is known to illicit. Axl is still Axl, and the unmistakable twist to the step of the groove is right here.

Where things get a lot more interesting - in terms of sheer sound and overall direction - is with tracks like 'Better', 'There Was A Time', 'Madagascar', & 'Prostitute'. These songs don't just kick a phenomenal load of butt - they do so in absolutely wonderful ways. You'll know that Axl's up to something as soon as you hear the starting part of 'Better', for example, but even when you're well into the bit that's as close to a chorus as the song might have you still won't quite see what's coming next. There are quite a few surprises here :)

'Better' is a bit of an iconic track, a signal in many ways. Of the first leaks it was easily the one I immediately got into. The second it starts you'll know you're listening to something fresh, and when both the guitar and Axl kick in, it's a solid, bendy, hard groove that chugs beautifully and powerfully along - with some brilliant vocals. The chorus is a bit difficult the first couple of times you hear the song, but when you get a grip on how it moves, it's just peachy keen. It's a kicker.

'Prostitute' is sheer genius. Let me say that again - absolute sheer genius. The music and lyrics just move along together with massive amounts of passion and power. It feels like every bit of a Gn'R song - even though it doesn't really sound like a Gn'R song. If that sounds confusing - you'll soon see what I mean. It doesn't sound half as good if you don't know the lyrics because then the musical changes don't carry the meaning they need. Just look up the lyrics somewhere and play this track and see what Axl says, and how he says it, and just scream along like a total maniac and fall in love with this song. Yeah, do it. You can read this crap here any time ;)

'Madagascar' is a slower track, starting off with horns and strings and sounding epic in a grave sort of way - and the instant Axl comes in singing 'I won't be told anymore / that I've been brought down in this storm / and left so far out from the shore / that I can't find my way back / my way anymore" you know you're 'in'.

If you've heard the 'Oh My God' single from the End of Days movie soundtrack, then you'll find that the industrial tones of 'Shackler's Revenge' and 'Scraped' refine that aesthetic into a tighter more perceivable groove, but even these take a few listens before you adapt to their feel.

There are softer tracks on the album - 'If The World', 'Sorry', & 'This I Love' are all much mellower than the rest of Chinese Democracy. And even though I tell you clearly that Axl will surprise you - you still won't see these coming. Nope.

I sure as hell didn't.

So first impressions (based though they be on over year of listening to the occasional demo-leaks) - are that the only thing 'wrong' with Chinese Democracy is that not every single track is a monster of a song.

That Axl does not yield miracles 14 times in 71 minutes ;)

The closest to a clear headed review that I've read online is by Chuck Klosterman who despite not 'getting' Estranged had this to say in conlusion:

"The final truth is this: He makes the best songs. They sound the way I want songs to sound. A few of them seem idiotic at the beginning, but I love the way they end. Axl Rose put so much time and effort into proving that he was super-talented that the rest of humanity forgot he always had been. And that will hurt him. This record may tank commercially. Some people will slaughter Chinese Democracy, and for all the reasons you expect. But he did a good thing here."

This won't stop the bashers of course. I've already seen reviews of the album that don't even talk about the songs - they basically bash Axl for existing. It's easy to do - The Botox rumors, the cornrows...being rich and reclusive is always a draw -  and the flip side of an icon is always a cartoon. So they make jokes.

It's quite clear they haven't heard the music, though - and by the way - you can find the whole album right here on their myspace page.

The big hope, of course, is that the release of this album might finally signal the start of a trilogy of albums which would finally allow us to hear some of the +60 songs that Axl's rumored to have worked on during the last 16 years.

We wait.

He does make the best songs :)

PS: Riad & The Bedouins does not exist.