Man, my musical memory can't be bigger than a square micrometer of brain tissue - I guess it's just full. It can take me several weeks to learn the names of bands or albums that I really, really, really love by heart. So here's an apology to all of those bands whose albums were being reviewed by Serge while I was doing other things and of which I thought: I NEED to remember this one! Here's a new year's resolution: I'll write you down... :-)

Here's my lists that the external memory named Serge helped me remember. Not in any particular order. 

CHVE (Dunk! Festival)
Zion Train (Het Bos)
Illuminine (Dunk! Festival)
Ashtoreth (Het Bos)
The Nutcracker performed by De Filharmonie and conducted by James Tuggle (Stadsschouwburg Antwerp) - I'm not really a dance lover but musically it kicked ass

Benzaiten is a 1974 album, by Japanese musician Osamu Kitajima. Now an experienced musician sixty seven years old, this album was released when Kitajima was only twenty five, and it was the first album released under his own name (Kitajima had previously released an album under the pseudonym Justin Heathcliff). 

Although Benzaiten highlights a point in his career upon which Kitajima was being deeply influenced by western music, the musical axiomatic axis of this record is still exceedingly rooted, as well as undoubtedly and strongly indebted, to traditional Japanese music. With an underlying score of serene complacence, the overall sound of this album overwhelms and precedes the strong involvement that Kitajima would develop to New Age Music.

With a vast array of influences, which goes from electronica to psychedelic rock, the music of Osamu Kitajima works on many sources and components, absorbing inspirations from a vast panel of artists, genres and styles of music. Nonetheless, it has a strong and cohesive identity, which sees in serenity and calmness the basic principles of its objectives, perspectives and overall aesthetics.

Working also on a vast range of instruments, Kitajima is an audacious artist, that doesn’t have any fear of experimenting, evolving and developing, and this is pretty much explicit in the music delivered in Benzaiten. Sculpting splendidly musical details in a primal panoramic soundscape of unorthodox beauty, Osamu Kitajima develops a very personal precept of musical understanding, that inserts the listener into a world of sensible diversification and ambivalent evaluation, amplified by the scope of a masterly creative artistry, courageously built by the authorial quest of a musician that is never afraid to show the true genuine aspects of his uncommon art. 

Elevating what he has assimilated on traditional Japanese music to a standard upon which he deliberately showcases the marvelous upheaval of a deeply gracious sonorous beauty, filled with the most subtle aspects of his music, Osamu Kitajima delivers a formidable spectacle that is not only wonderful, but is also astoundingly spiritual and poetic at the same time. Seeing the possibilities music has to offer as a means of educating the individual, as well as purify his spirit and cleanse his soul, as well as his character, Osamu Kitajima foretells a journey that has his music as the basic component of an erudite understanding of art, delivering a sonorous experience whose main antagonistic purpose seems to rule over the calmness of human nature.    


Wagner

Human society as a whole is bound by hatred, but why are we so incapable of suppressing negative and detrimental sentiments? 

When I think of fatalities, like the one who occurred in Berlin recently, on December 19, I feel the urge to understand the general disturbances and grievances that undermines human civilization as a whole, and I throw it out in the air the question: are human beings really civilized? Or are we animals, with lust for hatred and destruction? Well, most human beings are, indeed, educated and civilized. Human beings are complex, and we can’t make whatsoever any general statements in what concerns human nature. Human beings have so many individual peculiarities – and yet, we are bound by so many similarities, because the human nature, obviously, is applicable to everyone that is human – that you can’t risk any analysis on the matter, without sounding superficial. History has demonstrated to each and every one of us that very good human beings can become bad, and that very bad human beings can become good. It deeply depends on their morals, character, behavior and circumstances in life. But there are also people that never change: people who have inherently a very good and decent character, and remain as such for the rest of their lives, and malignant people, who remain malignant for the rest of their lives, too. 

But the danger in malignant people and malevolent characters becomes real when they reveal themselves to be a danger to others. What lies beyond the horrendous threat of terrorist activities that has victimized Europe so ostensibly this year? We all know the answers to that. Since extreme jihadists has entered into the continent, they extensively proved the fragility of the overall migration policies of the vast majority of countries in central and western Europe, as well as the vulnerability represented by the Schengen area. But since I don’t believe in intolerance, aggression, the demonizing of a culture or religious belief, and hatred speeches even less, I can only point it out the fact that the complexity of a situation like this is above any personal conclusions.

I just want to highlight that, unfortunately, unbeknownst to us all, hatred is always out there, working in the darkness, in a multitude of forms and plans, to cause damages and death tolls to innocent humans. Evil and hatred are always working secretly, in the shadows, confined in solitude, to ignite an aggressive and deadly conflagration when we least expect. Nonetheless, I don’t want to sound as an alarmist. Deep inside, each one of us sincerely has hopes to live in a world where evil does not exist. But how can we achieve such a degree of prosperity? 


​Wagner

Hostility is something hidden deep inside each and every one of us, and we always demonstrate this sordid aspect of the human nature now and then, towards someone close to us. And in these moments, we have to try to show complacence, self-control and domain of character. But there are instances in life, upon which exhibiting a circumspect trace of behavior like this is much more problematic and terrible.  

The recent homicide of the Russian ambassador to Turkey has generated a media fuzz of diplomatic tension, and a dramatic episode like this one reveals itself as a morbid demonstration of political fanaticism, although it does serve for analytic purposes: in this case, to analyze this particular situation under its peculiar stances. Someone advocating a cause, trying to achieve a specific goal by hostile and homicidal means. What the perpetrator expected to accomplish, with such an evil deed? What this event revealed in full was the converging of hostility with political goals, although this is a commonality within the wider spectrum of international politics. Which country doesn’t resort to hostility, war and aggression, when its governmental agenda is fully inclined to achieve its objectives, no matter the cost?

Nonetheless, this specific event of international politics is more clouded in mystery than what we think. The reasons of the shooter for his dramatic decision to kill the Russian ambassador remain unclear. But the point that I’m trying to highlight and clarify here is why madman are driven by an irrational hatred. Eventually, evil resolutions, deeds and objectives will be all tied together. Hatred begins as an emotion filled by resentment in the human mind. Men that don’t suppress this primal urge of aggression and fury will be driven to commit atrocities and acts of hostility.

Men undoubtedly have a belligerent spirit, inclined to war and aggression. But why this hasn’t changed over the years, or along the generations, or centuries? The human nature is compelling, and men abide to a degree of instinct, that sometimes is more intense than his intelligence, principles and intuition. We have learned throughout the history of civilization that men are driven way more by its vices, ambitions, personality flaws and rudeness of character than any possible virtues. But these are the general rules of behavior, or are we talking about exceptions? Maybe this doesn’t apply to everyone.

For certain, hostility is only one aspect of human behavior. Like a creature driven by emotion, the human beings revealed themselves to be creatures difficult to study or understand. But we can always make a personal effort to suppress our negative impulses, and let only what we have of graceful and joyful to touch our fellow human beings. Unfortunately, this would not end violence in the world. Hatred, hostility and aggression are terrible diseases, for which humankind has yet to find the cure.     

   
 Wagner

Have you ever acknowledged the existence of languages like Occitan, Ladino, Friulian, Aragonese, Alsatian, Ligurian, Flemish, Bundeli, Brahui, Urdu, Koraga, Tregami or Vasi-vari? I bet you haven’t been introduced to none of them. Well, nobody knows for certain, but it is estimated that between 6.000 to 7.000 languages are spoken in the world today. To further complicate the matter, there is not a correct, academic or fully defined boundary between language and dialect. For example, the Galician language, widely spoken in Galicia, a region of Spain, is considered by many to be a language, while others point it out Galician as a dialect of the Portuguese language, and there is no firm consensus. To be precise, these two languages were born from the medieval Galician-Portuguese, and, subsequently, this language divided into two branches, each one following its own natural course to become a language by its own right. We know that all Romance languages developed directly from the Latin language, the official language of the Roman Empire. So, the Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, and Catalan languages – as well as many others in fact – developed naturally as vernacular forms of the Latin spoke in the Iberian Peninsula, a former province of the roman civilization. Nevertheless, all of these languages that were born from Latin never went static; they continued to develop, and many other languages and dialects were born from this never ending process of linguistic mutations. The ramifications went further, with even Rhaeto-Romance languages coming into existence.        

Since language is a correlated study to sociology, that is linked to society, population and immigration, we can go even further on the explanation. Since I live in Brazil, I will make my own country the starting point. A vast and diverse country, it is one of the most multiethnic countries on earth, home to immigrants, and their descendants, from 60 different countries. In Brazil, you will find Arab, Lebanese, Japanese, Korean, Austrian and Chinese people, just to name a few. In the southern states – although not exclusively – German and Italian immigrants really left a remarkable presence in the country, to the extent of certain cities, like Gramado and Nova Petrópolis having a distinctly Germanized culture, obvious in the architecture, the food and in the local cultural traits of its citizens, to the extent of having the Hunsrückisch, a dialect of the German language, being widely spoken by its inhabitants today. It’s like having a small part of classical 19th century Germany located in the vast scenario of southern Brazil.      

Being myself a product of this environment, I’m proud of my multiethnic background, since I am a direct descendant of Portuguese, Italian and German peoples. But the country had in the past dictatorial governments that tried to suppress all other languages spoken in Brazil, other than the Portuguese language, trying to convey Brazil as a national homogeneous country – something which Brazil never was and will never be – with the condition of speaking Portuguese seen as a requirement for a citizen to be considered a Brazilian national. This was done during a period of hard nationalistic feelings imposed by the government. 

The punishments were hard for people caught speaking other languages. Some languages were able to survive this horrible ordeal, while others haven’t. By this reason, the family of my maternal grandfather was forced to abandon for good their ties to German culture. On the other hand, the Italian side of the family never did this. My maternal grandmother, in her childhood, only spoke Talian – a regional dialect of the Italian language – learning the Portuguese several years later. To this day, she speaks Talian proficiently, having done that for her entire life, especially with her sisters, and other family members. Nevertheless, she didn’t passed the traditions, nor the language, to the younger generations. For this reason, her daughters, and grandchildren – myself included – do not speak Talian. And this is the reason why regional dialects and languages die altogether. The older generations don’t pass to the younger ones. This is the main motive why, although being a country with a multiethnic background, most people in Brazil doesn’t speak any language other than Portuguese. A very similar trait is found in the USA. While it is also a country of immigrants, most people can’t speak another language, other than English. While in Brazil most languages are suppressed by the Portuguese, in the USA most languages are suppressed by English. Either way, it is a curious, but almost irreversible phenomenon of cultural assimilation. Nevertheless, what we have here is a complex layered multifaceted cultural outlook. In Brazil today, more than 300 languages are spoken, but most of these are endangered languages spoken by the indigenous peoples of Brazil. As a parallel, the very same scenario exists in the United States. More than 300 languages are spoken today in the country, but most of them are indigenous languages, some of which are in great danger of extinction. Nonetheless, some really cool efforts are being made in the US – some of them very successful – to resurrect languages that were formerly dead. One such example is the Massachusett language; being extinct for almost a century, it experienced a revivalist movement that revitalized the language. Now, some children are native to the language, and hundreds of adults are learning it, as a secondary language. The language received its name after the Massachusett people, the tribe who originally spoke the language (although the language was not exclusive to them) and as you probably have guessed, the US state of Massachusetts was named after the tribe. The United States has a tradition in naming some states after its respective local indigenous populations, being North Dakota, South Dakota, Massachusetts and Missouri some examples. The first translation of the Bible to an indigenous language in the United States was done in the Massachusett language.        
                
Today, in the American continent, the four main languages – French, English, Spanish and Portuguese – are widely spoken because, in the past, the four European global empires – the Spanish, the Portuguese, the British and the French – competed with each other vehemently, looking for territorial possessions all over the world. In the 15th century, all four invaded the American continent, exterminating most of its indigenous populations, and imposing dramatic changes for once and for all, in an irreversible way. The British and the French fought against each other in the North, while the Spanish and the Portuguese fought against each other in central and southern America. Several times, the church tried to intervene, and reconcile the parts – the famous Treaty of Tordesillas was an example – between the Portuguese and Spanish, that frequently entered in agreements, that were always disrupted, sooner or later. The final result of this European hunger for conquest was the following: Spanish America broke apart into several small countries, Portuguese America remained intact, being only one giant country, Brazil, as well as British America, being the United States born out of the English dominance. And what about the French? Well, French is a language spoken in Canada today, as well as in some US states bordering Canada, but sincerely, Canada doesn’t count, since it is just a strip of land of people living north of the United States border. 88% of Canada is uninhabited territory. Just an enormous piece of frozen ground and endless snow! In this way, it is very easy to be the second country in the world in terms of size, with only 35 million inhabitants.  

Language studies will always be correlated with sociological ones, since people are in constant motion throughout the world – they born in one place, but live in another –, language changes in human society will always be happening. For this reason, even very small countries are multilingual, like Switzerland, with Italian, German, French and Romansh (a fine example of a Rhaeto-Romance language, derived directly from the Vulgar Latin spoken in the region in roman times) being the four main languages, although there are other minor languages being spoken to some extent, like the Franco-Provençal (also called Arpitan), a Gallo-Romance language, that it is spoken also by small groups of people in France and Italy. Luxembourg has three main languages, German, French and Luxembourgish. Luxembourgish, being the least spoken language amid its population – that uses it as a merely spoken language, rarely using it in the written form –, is a very distinctive one. Being born as a dialect of German, it has incorporated more than 5.000 words of French, turning itself into a very peculiar amalgamation of Germanic-romance language. Nevertheless, it is such a difficult language, that only a small percentage of Luxembourgers uses it as a first language. Unfortunately, culture in Luxembourg paid the price for this ordeal, having no literature of its own. The vast majority of Luxembourgish writers prefer to write their works in French, or in German, giving their own national language a marginalized status in the literary art.   

France is another great example of a multilingual country. More than one hundred languages (and dialects) are spoken in France today, and, like Brazil, it endured a period in the past of language suppression, with the French being overwhelmingly highlighted and all other languages being marginalized, forbidden or ostracized. Between all those languages, Breton is probably one of the most widely known, being reminiscent of a language spoken by Celtic tribes that emigrated from Great Britain to France. By virtue of the Roman Empire, France – like Spain, Portugal and Italy – went to be a natural birthplace for Romance languages, that spread throughout the world by the Spanish, French and Portuguese empires, all of them European Superpowers. Spain, Italy and France – as well as parts of Switzerland, and some other neighboring areas – would also be a major place of development for the much more complex and intricate ramifications of Rhaeto-Romance, Gallo-Romance and Occitano-Romance languages. Awkwardly, but comprehensively, because of some similarities, people erroneously think that English is also a Romance language, which is not the case at all. English is a Proto-Germanic language, that, indeed, received influences to some extent from Classical Latin during Anglo-Saxon times.      

Well, now that you have learned all this stuff, what about learning another language? But you have to learn Mandarin, Greek, Arab or Japanese. If you learn another language that uses the same alphabet that your natural language, the process will be so easy that you will not improve cognitive skills. Although it is another language, your brain is able to recognize the symbols and signs that you already know as letters. But if you learn an entirely different language – a language that uses a different alphabet – this will create and activate other sections of your brain, your reasoning capabilities will greatly improve, and your cognitive abilities will expand. But remember, it doesn’t matter how good a student you can be, you will never be able to speak, understand or express yourself fluently or as good as someone who is native to the language.  

Well, do you think 7.000 languages are that much? Take into consideration that I haven’t entered into the field of extinct languages! This would greatly increase those numbers. The Andaqui, Barawana, Catuquinaru, Charrúa, Cocoliche, Gayon, Hamuoé, Koeruna, Munichi, Natú, Omurano, Payagua, Purí, Puquina, Saraveca, Taparita, Tequiraca, Tupí Austral and Yabaâna are only a few examples of some indigenous languages of South America that become extinct. It is possible to make a list with a thousand names or more! Well, what can I say? Sometimes we do forget the fact that the American continent already had a lot of history, before the arrival of Europeans.   


​Wagner
              

Julius Streicher was a prominent individual of the Third Reich, that working as a journalist and editor, was the main responsible for the articulation of Nazi propaganda, as well as disseminating anti-Semitism in Germany, going as far as publishing children’s books with anti-Semitic themes. Born in 1885 in Fleinhausen, in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Julius Streicher was a military combatant in the First World War. Having acquired profound political interests as the war ended, he absorbed deeply the anti-Semitic ideology way before the Nazi Party came to power. Becoming one between the hundreds of thousands of Germans seduced by the loquacious and scathing rhetoric of Adolf Hitler about Pan Germanic goals, the restoration of the Homeland, and the defense of national-socialist ideals, in 1921, Streicher visited Munich just to hear a speech by the future dictator of Germany. This experience, apparently, caused him great personal commotion. Soon after this event, Streicher had become a party member, completely incapable – like most of his contemporaries – to foretell the horrors in long term that the hostile and totalitarian character of the national-socialist values would bring – not just for the entire country – over Europe and, by extension, to the rest of the world. In 1923, Streicher founded a newspaper, Der Stürmer, whose main purpose was to be a vehicle for the anti-Semitic ideals of the party, and, soon afterwards, Streicher would take part on the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, the first frustrated attempt by Adolf Hitler to seize power.

As evidence suggests, Streicher was so estimated by Hitler for his loyalty and dedication, that he managed to become one of his few confidents. A fanatic with a hostile character, Streicher attributed everything going wrong in Germany and in the rest of the world to the Jews: from the 1929 financial crisis to the social and moral decline of the German society, from the unemployment to the inflation, from congenital diseases to prostitution, he used all kinds of arguments to – in a very abusive and outrageous manner – vilify Judaism, using excuses to harm or to attack even specific Jews, that, for one reason or another, were disturbing to him. When the Nazi party was not yet in fully control of Germany, Streicher, in several moments, was punished for his prejudiced and defamatory attitudes towards the Jews, obliged to answer to the law and pay for his transgressions, with no other options besides facing the legal penalties that subdued him, as a consequence for the ideologies he defended, as well as the slanders he published on his newspaper. Nonetheless, when the Nazi Party took power, one of the first measures Streicher has taken was to organize boycotts against Jewish commerce, fully committed to purge Judaism from the religious life of Germany. In 1938, Streicher apparently demanded a large synagogue in Nuremberg to be destroyed, soon afterwards using it’s architectural style as prerogative to justify the evil deed. Nonetheless, his arrogance would be his downfall, and the several enmities he had cultivated within the party, especially between Nazi officials of the highest ranks – like Hermann Göring – would eventually become his ruin. Expelled from his position as Gauleiter in 1940, the beast of Franconia – moniker by which his detractors used to call him – relocated to Austria when Germany surrendered to the Allies, just to be captured in a matter of days. 

At the Nuremberg Trials, although Julius Streicher was not a member of the army, nor had any direct role during the Holocaust, he was accused of crimes against humanity, given his radical racial militancy against the Jews. At his trial, Streicher, still profoundly contaminated by the subversive racial ideologies that he so ardently defended, exhibited the characteristic traces of arrogance, egocentrism and stubbornness that were so peculiar to his personality, never showing any remorse or regret in the slightest degree, during the process. Sentenced to death by hanging, before being executed, on October 16, 1946, he apparently said, with pride and vanity, “Heil Hitler”. Nonetheless, something terribly wrong occurred during the execution. Apparently, the rope on his neck was put in the wrong level – whether deliberate or accidental, it is not known – and Streicher, which by standard procedure should die immediately, something that was being systematically executed by the responsible authorities, instead, suffocated and agonized by several minutes, before finally dying. His executor, American official John C. Woods, not just gave his word in what concerns the following of standard procedures, guaranteeing the fact that all executions were carried out with perfection, but he said to be “proud” of his work. Dead at 61 years old, and still profoundly shackled by the national-socialist ideologies, Julius Streicher, in the end, was just one more man fooled and deceived by Adolf Hitler, and by the aggrandizing ambitions of his immensurable ego. In the corners of despair, like the vast majority of Germans, Julius Streicher deeply believed in false hopes, that apparently would resolve all the problems of the Homeland, with unwavering fastness. Nonetheless, they forgot to measure up the expensive horrors that, all along the way, would deflagrate the most catastrophic tragedy ever, to shake the world. Whipped by an irrational hatred, as well as an insensible, perfidious and inhumane anti-Semitism, in the end, Julius Streicher was one more Nazi individual that, ultimately, had to face the terrible consequences of his sordid and cruel transgressions. A fate shared by everybody who believed in the well dissimulated treachery that the Third Reich revealed itself to be.


​Wagner

Hermann Wilhelm Göring was a prominent German military official and political commander that, besides the fact that he was one of the most influential individuals of Nazi Germany, was a First World War veteran, one of the leaders of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and one between many other individuals responsible for Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. He was also directly responsible for the creation of Gestapo. Born January 12, 1893, in Rosenheim, Kingdom of Bavaria, son of a military official that, once a cavalry officer, had been also Governor-General of the German Protectorate of Namibia, Hermann Göring very precociously acquired taste by the military career. Since he was a child, he used to play with little toy soldiers, and was frequently seen wearing a small military uniform that his father gave to him. With versatile and dynamic abilities, being a very sophisticated individual, in his youth, Hermann Göring became an alpinist, and an IQ test conducted on him by a psychologist in 1946 revealed a surprising result, pointed out as 138. 

In 1912, fully able for the military service, Göring became a member of the 112th Infantry Regiment of the Prussian army, and when the First World War was ignited, in 1914, the young and fearless Bavarian was eager to show his abilities in the battle field. When he became a pilot, he was assigned with bombing and recognizing operations, soon to be highlighted from his peers by his fierce level of commitment, dedication and courage, besides a deep sense of obligation and duty. Despite being repeatedly wounded in combat, Göring always denied the possibility of being exempted from his military duties. When the First World War was over, Göring had a total of twenty two victories, becoming the recipient of several honors and military decorations, among them the Iron Cross, first and second class, and the coveted Pour le Mérite. Nonetheless, always proud of his military accomplishments, his arrogance and his cynic and egocentric sense of superiority made him an undesired individual between the men of his squad. Like the vast majority of Germans, deeply resented with the defeat of Germany in the war, Göring subscribed to the belief of the “Stabbing in the Back” theory, created to explain that the German defeat occurred mainly as a consequence of the monarchy being subverted by a conspiracy of Jews, republicans and communists, that sabotaged the social, economic and political foundations of the Prussian tradition, at the behalf of their own “sordid interests”. His disappointment obviously made him seek political solutions to fight the ensuing social chaos that ruined Germany after the war. Like many of his contemporaries, Göring became a NSDAP member in 1923, after listening to a speech by Adolf Hitler. In a matter of time, Göring became a person admitted in the circle of trust of the future dictator of Germany, being contemplated with a position of command of the Sturmabteilung, the Detachment troops better known as SA, and soon after he ascended in the ranks of the paramilitary organization. 

His incontestable support to Adolf Hitler was proved when Göring actively helped him in the doomed Beer Hall Putsch, in Munich, accompanying him personally to the Ministry of War. Having been shot in the leg in ensuing confusion – that ended up with fourteen party members and four policemen dead – with the help of his wife, the Baroness Carin von Kantzow, Göring managed to avoid prison, escaping to Innsbruck, where he was submitted to a surgery, treating himself with morphine, becoming addicted to the substance in the process, which would deeply consume him throughout his life, being the source of several and severe personal problems. Nonetheless, until the Third Reich become a reality, a series of troubled events would occur in the life of Hermann Göring, as to known, besides his addiction to morphine, which would become worst as time passed by, and would force him to undergo a series of several tempestuous hospitalizations, his life would be shaken by financial, matrimonial and familial problems. His wife, suffering from precarious health, had – besides cardiac problems – tuberculosis and epilepsy, and would eventually die in 1931. At this time, the popularity of the Nazi Party begun to grow exponentially, and with it, came the consolidation of power. The burning of the Reichstag, the German Parliament, in February 27, 1933, gave the Nazis the perfect excuse for the hunting of communists, although much later Göring himself would be implicated in the fire by General Franz Halder, in the Nuremberg Trials, despite Göring categorically denying any involvement in the incident. Nonetheless, nowadays it is generally accepted as plausible the theory that members of the Nazi Party were the actual culprits behind the fire, since this act would give them the prerogative they needed to fully achieve their political goals. With the rise of Adolf Hitler, and the consolidation of power, Göring would become Minister of Forestry, Minister of Prussia and Minister of Aviation – besides a number of other positions and titles – as well as the creator of Gestapo, which would eventually become one of the most deadly, brutal, hostile and cruel instruments of the Third Reich.

​Like all individuals in Nazi Germany of the highest ranks, Göring has amounted for himself extensive political and military power. Nonetheless, the ephemerality of the Nazi regime meant the downfall and the dissolution of the established powers, as evidence was becoming more and more clear that – years after being declared – Germany would never have the means to win the war. In 1945, when Göring knew about Adolf Hitler’s intention of committing suicide, Göring dispatched a correspondence to the Führer, asking him permission to take his place, to fully control the Reich. Filled with anger, hatred and wrath, Adolf Hitler considered this attitude a nameless act of treason. After depriving Göring of all his titles, he ordered his arrest. Nonetheless, after negotiating his freedom, Göring became a free man, only to surrender himself to the Americans, after a few days. Considered guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, at the Nuremberg Trials Göring was sentenced to death, but committed suicide before the sentence was executed. A depressing fate, shared by almost everybody who was fooled by the grotesque, arrogant and biased farce that the Third Reich revealed itself to be.  

Wagner

Shaye Saint John is the main character behind a creepy website, full of sinister videos, images and creepy stuff, which grew to be quite a mystery on the internet, whose popularity has been growing, to this day.

Being the main subject of a web page filled with random dreadful and frightening things, the main purpose of this site appears to be just to scare people, doing absolutely nothing more than this. To be bizarre just for the sake of being bizarre. This appears to be the main (and only) goal of Shaye Saint John’s web page. 

His site is certainly beyond description. It has nothing valuable to offer you, except lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of weirdness. Purposeless videos, dark imagery, grotesque figures, and frightful stuff, all inserted in an especially scary platform, the Shaye Saint John website is the place for the most bizarre, infamous and obscurely random things you could possibly see in the world wide web.

And I couldn’t avoid asking myself who could possibly have created such a page? With what specific purpose in mind?     

She also has her own YouTube account, full of equally disturbing videos, called Elastic Spastic Plastic Fantastic.

Well, to be fair, it certainly helps to say opinions go both ways, even in this case. Some people say Shaye Saint John’s videos are not disturbing at all, but it is in fact a great display of dark humor. A perfect sketch of bizarre and rebellious behavior, contrary to society’s modern standards, which is far more worried about beauty and appearance, than more profound and human personal values. But Shaye Saint John is more complex than that. And this is just one way of seeing things.     

Personally, I find her videos so disturbing that I delete them from my YouTube history after seeing them. Shaye Saint John is one of those rare cases, which you have to see for yourself, in order to possibly believe. 

Nonetheless, contrary to other obscure internet mysteries, the Shaye Saint John case was totally solved, and revealed to the public: a creation of tortured avant-garde artist Eric Fournier, he designed Shaye Saint John as a glamour model, who had her whole body damaged in a horrific accident. After recovering, Shaye Saint John reconstructed her damaged body parts, replacing them for mannequins. Horrible, isn’t it? But this is just fiction, the creative work of a forgotten artist, whose fair share of a decent place in the artistic world had gone for good.   
 
Fournier died middle-aged, at 42 years old, in 2010, on unspecified circumstances. Some sources report it was consequence of alcohol-related issues.  

Well, it doesn’t matter. Fournier has been deceased for more than six years now, but Shaye Saint John remains a popular presence on YouTube, and her site is still active, scaring people all over the world. At least, a creepy internet urban legend, that proved itself to be innocent, which by the way turned itself to be the greatest legacy of a crap artist.   


​Wagner

I know that Jack Torrance is the main character of Stephen King’s The Shining, but today’s talk is about another Jack Torrance: a freaking and terrifying YouTube channel. Jack Torrance – whose name was obviously inspired by the aforementioned character – is a creepy and sinister YouTube channel that has a lot of found footage videos, some of them terrifyingly creepy, dark and disturbing.

The channel claims these videos are all real, and that they were found at an estate sale, near Austin, Texas. Now, the person who runs the channel is digitalizing all those videos, to upload it on YouTube.   

Some videos are really creepy and disturbing. Apparently all of them decoded, they are usually very short and sinister. In less than half an hour you can see them all. The two minute video Found Footage Super 8 Reel 13.49585.76: Fragment 86t shows what appears to be a person in a dark place, with a flashlight. The individual enters an elevator, and suddenly, passing ahead of this person, there is a dark, unrecognizable figure, and breathing in fear and agony, the person who is filming the video goes to the panel of the elevator, and try to push the buttons to another floor, in an attempt to escape whatever the dangers the mysterious figure could possibly inflict. A very vague reflex of this person can be seen in the elevator door. When this person reaches another floor, after a few steps, an acute noise is heard, and the video suddenly finishes. 

    The almost sepia forty three seconds video Found Footage Super 8 Reel 97.16521.61: Fragment 5s, shows disrupted images of a girl playing, when, in the end, what appears to be a thin, long cryptid arm with enormous, giant fingernails, goes towards the little girl. The thirty seconds Found Footage Super 8 Reel 45.876.78: Fragment 87t, although it has a very unclear image, shows someone inside some place sinister. After opening a creaking door, the person sees the frightening figure of a long-haired dark apparition in a rocking chair, and then the person shooting the video tries to escape.   

The one minute and a half video Found Footage Super 8 Reel 15.656.9: Fragment 5b it is one of the most mysterious and disturbing videos of the channel. It is set in a creepy place, with a lot of bizarre objects. You can see skulls, old photographs, a demonic mask hanging from a wall, a strange hand-like chandelier, and a fox mask, encircled by candles burning, in what appears to be the place of a ritual. Afterwards, you will see a mysterious unidentified object, and a shadow embracing it, that suddenly disappears (obviously, through editing), and someone with a bizarre, horrible mask comes along, in front of the camera, for the rest of the video. 

The Found Footage Super 8 Reel 10.4566.26: Fragment 44X shows a very nervous and anxious person, breathing deeply in affliction, investigating a dark place. When he (assuming that it is, indeed, a male person) opens up a curtain, we see a dead corpse (again, assuming that it is one, the image is very dark and distorted), and the person apparently panics, and a strange noise suddenly disrupts over the video. If you freeze the image in a proper time in the one minute and five seconds Found Footage VHS Cassette 031 Fragment 25n video, you can see what appears to be a demonic figure slowly appearing behind some clothes in a wardrobe. You can freeze the image several times throughout the video, and caught the demon in different positions, as it is moving forward, pushing away the clothes. It has gigantic hands, and a very large, ugly face.   

Not all videos are interesting: some of them have just ordinary images, or dull sequences. But most of them are intriguing, to say the least. Of course, this could be just a hoax, given the fact that practically all videos have, very conveniently, distorted, vague and unclear images, to give the impression that they are old. At least, the product of antique film reels, or Betamax format, like it is explained, in the channel description. Despite being curious, the channel failed to attract attention from a lot of the more mainstream web mystery solvers. Some of them probably think that the channel simply doesn’t worth their time. But the question here is: these videos are authentic, or not? At least, some of them could be real? What do you think? Could we solve the mystery behind the channel Jack Torrance someday?

Personally, I think it is a very cool, but somewhat misleading and pretentious hoax. Certainly, from the perspective of someone who analyzed some of the creepiest and sinister YouTube channels, I think Jack Torrance is more like an entertaining, funny joke. Sure there are some cool videos, but a lot of things simply don’t match. To make fake videos nowadays is so easy, especially if you have the correct technological paraphernalia… if you own a Macintosh, a good digital camera, and really knows how to handle movie programs, to shot this kind of video, and set all the arrangements to give it a dark and old style impression is easy beyond any possibility… but we have to recognize the creativity – at least in some of the more well finished videos – of whoever it is behind this project. Despite being an inferior enigma, especially if compared to the more sinister YouTube channels, in my personal evaluation Jack Torrance remains being a very interesting YouTube mystery, that deserves, at least, a little attention. 


​Wagner