New Far record AT NIGHT WE LIVE out TODAY! 
“we need to get back to the time machine!”
I just had the most vivid and strange dream. I won’t go into details because it was very long and complicated but I feel I need to share one bit of it. There was a girl, she was beautiful and she told me she loved me. I woke up soon after. I realized it’s been so long since a girl has told me that in a romantic sense that I almost forgot what it was like. I wish I could make her real but I can’t. We were trying to make it to a time machine before the world was destroyed when she told me. I need to stop playing video games right before bed.
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Brian from lxxi.net and I discuss atheism, religion and preconceptions.
There are no monsters under your bed.
I think we can agree that we all share one sphere of reality that we try to represent in our thoughts. That being said, I’m finding it difficult to reconcile intelligent people who continue to believe in superstitious and dogmatic bullshit. Thinking about religion and the absurd and fallacious reasons given in the name of it, I don’t understand how one can defend it anymore. We see people flying planes into buildings based on these same principles and yet nothing is learned. Religious moderates are to blame for much of the problems we continue to face. Unless we get to a point of realizing it’s merely a case of good ideas vs. bad ideas we will continue to pay the price. What I’m saying shouldn’t be considered provocative or divisive. What’s provocative is someone believing that the devil exists and if you don’t accept Jesus as you savior you’ll burn in hell for eternity. Divisive is sectarian disputes that go on everyday in the Middle East. If we continue to cling to dogmatism and fail to see humans for humans and not ideology, then we can throw any idea of a global civilization into the ditch. I believe transforming the way people think about this existence and changing the expectations have of our neighbors is important.
Many of my friends have been asking me to leave the issue alone and to stop being so confrontational lest I burn any bridges. I could worry about burning bridges if I call out Scientology for instance, but someone has to call it like it is. We need to be able to call a spade a spade and not handle religion with kid gloves anymore. I believe it’s intellectually dishonest to not acknowledge the causal reasons between what people believe and certain actions especially when those actions have become dangerous. If we were allowed to really look at religion critically we can continue to evolve our ideas and move forward more quickly. If we taught the bible the same way we teach the Iliad or the Odyssey and not as an inerrant prophecy then this would all break down within a generation. Because face facts, the bible cannot sustain a true critical look or read. There’s a place for the profound in our lives but we don’t need to lie to ourselves about it. At a certain age we stop believing there are monsters under our beds. The next logical thought would be that there is no supreme being in the sky either.
The bottom.
I feel the need to preface this with an explanation of sorts. I assume that most of you who read this know me well. Then there are those of you who know me on the surface, and those who don’t know me at all. I am not one of the sons and daughters of the privileged elite. I didn’t go to prep school; I don’t understand lacrosse and I’ve never even been on a yacht. My trust has no funds and my passage is far from paid as I’m not a fortunate son of industry or inheritance.
I’ve seen so many people moonlighting. I’ve watched them enjoy their tenure of slumming it in some feeble attempt of re-invention. They fail to realize when they tire of their time in the slums and return to the comfort of blood and connections, I’m always left behind. In my life the ghosts of people who’ve moved up and away abound. I’ve watched people I know become successful, famous, get married, have children, find happiness. I’m left in the dust perpetually rushing the gates always one step behind. One could never say it’s for lack of trying and it feels like I’m always almost there.
Almost there…
I get asked a lot lately why I keep doing what I do. I keep doing it because I love it. I keep doing it because it’s all I know and it’s the only thing I’ve never quit or given up on. I keep doing it because I have something to prove. I may never reach the level of success I dream of but there is a small consolation; after all the pain it’s caused and everything I’ve lost because of it, I meant every word I sang. I’ll keep singing because you’ll never be able to sing it like I sing it. Where there’s pain there is a song to be sung and the sons and daughters of unfortunate circumstances will listen and relate.
I get compliments all the time on my ripped, torn and faded all black high-top converse. If they knew the path you have to walk for your shoes to look like mine I’m sure they wouldn’t have paid the compliment.
Until you show me a unicorn…
It seems to me that the notion that belief grows deeper over time or that some sort of transcendence in a religious sense can be reached over time is facile. What I’m finding as I get older is that more and more of the people I know are coming to the reasonable conclusion that there is no god. My generation is seeing first hand the consequences of fanatical religious beliefs and superstitions and many are responding appropriately and seeing it for the bullshit it really is.
Richard Dawkins says he’s not “absolutely convinced” that there is no God. He also says he’s not convinced there are no unicorns. Why more people can’t admit even that much I’ll never understand. Try to let go of your presupposed ideas of the universe and open your mind a little more, you’ll be richer for it.
Columbine ruined Marilyn Manson.
I recently watched the new Marilyn Manson video for “Running To The Edge Of The World.” and it gave me pause. No, not the fact that it’s a mock snuff film, but the fact that I feel the man is genuinely in pain. We live in a world that’s becoming more and more connected everyday and now any asshole on the street can voice his or her opinion. I’ve been a fan of Marilyn Manson since 1994 so I feel comfortable speaking on the subject.
I’ve been aware of recent comments about him being “fat” now, and I must admit I found myself cracking wise about it too, but not after today. I think it’s pretty presumptuous to sit behind your computer and make fun of Marilyn Manson for being fat. I would ask what you have done of importance. Nothing? That’s what I thought, shut the fuck up. Try putting yourself in someone else’s shoes for a minute. I’m sure we’ve all been in love only to have our hearts ripped out and dreams trampled on. Did you resort to drinking heavily? Drugs? Eating? All of the above? It’s easy to pretend to be above reproach and go after the easy target from the comfort of your easy chair.
Marilyn Manson has been the easy target for years now, before and especially after the Columbine massacre. Think back to when it happened. Mechanical Animals had been out for less than a year; the band was on a successful and headline grabbing tour and then Columbine. Fundamentalist Christians everywhere were gleefully screaming “we were right!” and essentially for Marilyn Manson, the battle was already lost.
Of course what got lost in all the static was that Mechanical Animals was a great album. The amount of superficiality in this country is sickening. I mean, does it really matter that Marilyn Manson packed on a few pounds or who some Hollywood starlet is or isn’t fucking? It’s the people that make fun of Marilyn Manson for being fat who killed Kurt Cobain.
At the end of the day what’s important is the art and that’s what people fail to remember again and again. The other important thing to keep in mind is that these are just people, whether you love them or hate them for whatever reason. How quick people can turn on someone, one day you’re an Antichrist the next you’re a sad dopey clown. Have a heart, the guy has had a rough couple of years maybe instead of talking shit you could just say thanks for the good times.
Official video for The Secret To Living Is Dying Well directed by Shawn Butcher.
State of intellectual emergency.
It’s often times difficult to have an intellectual conversation about atheism without my argument being dismissed as merely seditious or even elitist. Unfortunately we live in a world where it is still taboo to explicitly challenge a persons religious beliefs. I believe the dangerous absurdities perpetuated by organized religion need to be challenged if we are to survive as a species. It’s irrational to believe that religious people are above reproach and get a free pass from criticism. We are in a state of intellectual emergency where misguided beliefs that presuppose superstition and rationalize violence inform our world. Religious irrationality poses serious obstacles to human betterment and evolution of ideas.
People often cry “Faith!” in defense of their belief in a god, I say faith is deaf, blind and dumb, unreasoned thinking. There is a misconception by some that as an atheist I’m merely being anti-Christian in my criticism of religion. I’m very non-discriminatory in my criticism of religion, it’s all numinous and superstitious bullshit to me, from Christianity to Scientology. People often perpetuate the idea that an atheist is to be pitied for their empty and godless existence. I am aware that there are things beyond human life and understanding. I would argue that the world can still be a beautiful place and life can be amazing and full of wonder, even through the eyes of a skeptic. My point is simply that we need to advocate free-thinking, intellectual honesty and reason if we are to survive.
Turn the page.
I’ve lost so much of myself and who I was that I don’t recognize old photographs of myself. Last week it felt like I came full circle, it felt like completion. It started with me leaving the deserts of west Texas and it ended in the desert two hours outside Los Angeles. I feel like I delivered on my promise to myself of creating art and recording music that was honest. As I prepare to head to the pacific northwest to continue chasing this dream, I find myself for the first time able to objectively look back on the past two years. I have done everything that they said I couldn’t do. To those of you who have stood by me, old and new friends, I owe you everything. I’ve met so many amazing people over the past two years and I’m left inspired. I lost everything I loved, I lost my faith but I gained so much more.
I’m armed with the truth and I won’t let anything get in my way. New songs are near completion and I’m ready to spread my message.
Am I really like Icarus? Did I fly too close to the sun, did I burn my wings and drown? Maybe instead I will still someday rise Phoenix-like from the ashes. I’m ready to turn the page and find out.
-Daniel
And hopelessness reigned…
I dreamt of an extraterrestrial being who came to me and explained the mysteries of the universe. He told me they were coming to free us and we could explore space together in peace. I dreamt that fundamentalist Christians found us, believed he was the Antichrist and fucking killed him. And hopelessness reigned…
I AM THE ICARUS - EP available 08/18/09
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