Below are the 13 most recent journal entries recorded in Marco's LiveJournal:

Sunday, February 26th, 2006
1:40 pm	Christ, you know it ain't easy... To continue on last week's theme of religion, I have another gripe. Recently, my brother had the opportunity to speak to one of the six people who were supposedly visited by the Virgin Mary, calling herself the Queen of Peace, in Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia. To this day, one of the six still has visions every day shortly after 6.00pm. Another one of the six receives a message on the 25th of every month. Now this is all well and good, but my question is this: if these visions really are apparitions of the mother of Christ, then why are her messages so vague and general? For instance, the latest transmition was on January 25th, 2006, and this is what was said: "Dear children! Also today I call you to be carriers of the Gospel in your families. Do not forget, little children, to read Sacred Scripture. Put it in a visible place and witness with your life that you believe and live the Word of God. I am close to you with my love and intercede before my Son for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call." Every single other message reads something like this one. From this I come to one of three conclusions. Either God exists and these visions are real, but He isn't exactly the brightest light in the universe (least likely scenario). Or, God exists and just doesn't give a shit, making these visions simply a tease, maybe a Divine joke. Or, finally, God doesn't exist and these visions are simply delusions or inventions. The latter is, to my mind, the most likely of the three. Had I been one of the recipients of these messages, and given that these people can supposedly converse with the apparition, I would have asked some practical questions. And, tempting though it may be, my question wouldn't involve winning lottery numbers. But how about, "global warming: any ideas?" or, "bird flu, AIDS, other killer diseases on their way up...what can we do?" Apparently, some people are above pragmatic questions. Instead, we're given nonsensical Hallmark-style drivel. Another fine example, this one from a message recieved on April 25th, 2005: "Dear children! Also today, I call you to renew prayer in your families. By prayer and the reading of Sacred Scripture, may the Holy Spirit, who will renew you, enter into your families. In this way, you will become teachers of the faith in your family. By prayer and your love, the world will set out on a better way and love will begin to rule in the world. Thank you for having responded to my call." Some say the quest for knowledge is what life is all about. It has been said that if God were to offer you a choice between all the answers to every question or the journey to find the answers (with no guarantee that you'll find them), one should always choose the journey. That's a load of shit. Knowledge is the ultimate goal, and if there is an opportunity to gain more of it, why waste it? If someone's in conversation with a divine being, why not ask more pertinent questions? Prayer is great, but it doesn't solve anything. It doesn't cure illness. It doesn't stop wars. And there's no way anyone will ever convince me otherwise. Prayer is a meaningless excercise; it may bring a person peace and comfort, but if you pray for the cancer that's eating away at your body to be gone, what are the chances that God will listen? If I were a gambling man, I wouldn't bet on it happening. And finally, here's my last point, while we're on the subject. I just read a summary of Benedict XVI's first encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) and a thought occured to me. We're told to have faith in God; blind faith without asking too many questions. And yet absolutely everything we know about God is man-made. And every ceremony, doctrine and all the dogma are human creations. Am I the only one who sees a major flaw in this? Presumably, if this whole religion thing is what it's advertised to be, somewhere along the line after Christ came and went, man was told how to do things. He was told what was good and bad; he was told priests were to be celibate, gays were to be demonised, women were to be seen as inferior and banned from the priesthood, sex without marriage was evil and contraception was a creation of Satan's. Unfortunately, none of this came from above; it was created by man, who deduced this from yet another man-made creation, the Bible, and so, if you are a faithful Christian, bear in mind that when you go to Mass on Sundays (which few of you so-called believers actually do...but that's another matter) you may pray and take communion and celebrate the Eucharist, but all you're doing is paying lip service to a large, well-fed group of men who dictate and have dictated how things will be done, God or no God. So go and pray to your golden calves and your crucifixes and other idols. But just remember that even crossing yourself, father, son and holy spirit, is man-made. Which one of the three told us how to do it? Where did we learn it from? Christ certainly never did it. And that's just a tiny part of a huge infrastructure and philosophy that claims to be divinely inspired, but is nothing more than a celebration of the dominance of the few powerful over the weak masses. Peace and Love, Marco Current Music: "Carry on my Wayward Son" Kansas (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 25th, 2006
11:53 pm	Insanity I Tell You! It seems that the Arab world is more determined than ever to incite the anger of the West and to show the rest of us that they are, in fact, an extremely primitive society. Now, I'm very much in favour of peaceful coexistence, whether it be on an international level or on a neighbourhood level. As long as no one is convinced of their superiority over the other or take themselves too seriously, I don't see how, regardless of background, people can't live together. But this week's embassy burnings have really been too much. Two cartoons, published IN SEPTEMBER in a Danish newspaper incited these riots. One of them (admittedly pretty hilarious) shows the prophet Mohammed at the gates of Heaven turning away a large group of suicide bombers, telling them "please leave. There are no more virgins!" Of course, some people believe their religion to be inviolate and beyond humour; I say, every time someone makes a Jesus joke, we start rioting and burning buildings...in Riyadh! A taste of their own medicine perhaps? I hate to start sounding like a conservative, right-wing wingnut, but frankly, enough is enough. When will these people join us in the 21st century? To be offended by the cartoons is fine; write a letter or have a sit-in. To riot and burn embassies demonstrates extreme ignorance, fear and, let's be honest, primitive behaviour. When will people stop taking themselves so seriously?! When will people stop taking God so seriously? Marx was right. BAN ALL RELIGIONS! DESTROY THE CHURCHES! DESTROY THE SYNAGOGUES! DESTROY THE MOSQUES! That's my message, and I'm sticking to it. Peace and Love, Marco Current Mood: Smash them all! Current Music: "Father and Son" Cat Stevens (Comment on this)
Friday, February 24th, 2006
1:56 am	Say It Ain't So Dear Friends, As you are undoubtedly aware, Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party won today's election with a minority government. And I just have one question: when did Canadians become so closed-minded, ignorant and scared? What are we running from? A corrupt Liberal government? What government hasn't been corrupt? The only difference now is that this is a corrupt Conervative government, instead of a Liberal one. Greed, extreme capitalism and a political agenda so far to the right it'll make the Americans blush is what we're headed for. However, on the bright side, it's my extremely inexpert opinion that this government won't last a year. The NDP, Liberals and the Bloc have somewhat overlapping ideologies and can, potentially, work together in a minority government situation. It seems to me though, that the Conservatives are so far removed from the opposition parties in terms of ideology that getting anything done will be impossible. Hopefully, and with a little luck, people will see an impotent and potentially dangerous Tory government for what it is: namely, impotent and dangerous and vote with less anger and frustration next time around. Until then, remember to support your local NDP candidate. Non-perishable food items are greatly appreciated, and if you have an extra bedroom or couch, be sure to let them know. Peace and Love, Marco Current Mood: Socialismo o muerte!!! Current Music: "1913 Massacre" Woody Guthrie (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 22nd, 2006
11:35 pm	Lean into the burning bush and read this... It was back in the year 9000000 BC that two friends (friendship having been invented by them the previous evening over many buckets of wine, which they had invented early that morning)invented the concept of God. Being two very modest people, they spread the rumour that this "God" had created the world in 7 days (which was a lie; the world had been created the previous week after a long walk through nothingness made the friends kind of bored). These two friends are Marco and Danny. They are still around today and can sometimes be seen together, inventing away. The list of soon-to-come inventions includes everything. From the concept of humanity as a long-running joke, to the joke that makes people cry, the world is their oyster (a delicious shellfish invented 76 years ago this week) and they plan to suck it dry. (in a non-sexual way. Sexual innuendo was also invented by them many years ago, and so they often feel free to dispense with it, as it is their baby.) One of their weaker moments of self-indulgence included the invention of racism, which came about when humanity got a little boring and peaceful. Humanity itself was something invented by the dynamic duo (Batman copyrights are also their invention, so fuck off) and when their ill-fated attempt at diversifying the musical scene backfired with the creation of techno, they decided they would sit back for a few centuries and see how things would unfold (those were the Dark Ages. Dark Age inventions by them include a relatively small number of grisly contraptions, like the battle-axe, the stake for burning people at and the Crusades. Also, Danny, in a poorly-timed attempt at a solo career, invented the Black Death.) So until next time, keep reading, and remember! Leave the inventing to the pros. Peace and Love, Godz Current Mood: Godly... Current Music: 'Roll Over Beethoven' Chuck Berry (Comment on this)
Monday, January 16th, 2006
12:47 am	Conservatives? Liberals? Who will you vote for? Conservatives tell you they want reform the country. To change things around to suit so-called "conservative Canadian values". But what will they do? Well, for all you millionaires and owners of large corporations, prepare yourselves for massive tax cuts. Don't have a big enough mansion? Don't worry! Stephen Harper will fix that for you. Are you tired of waiting for your medical treatments along with the people your factory employs and who smell like cabbage? Vote conservative and private clinics will be yours for the asking. And the best part is, poor people won't be able to afford them! As an added bonus, all the best doctors will go work in for-profit clinics! It's a win-win situation, really. The Conservative party claims it will change this country. In that they're absolutely right. Except that we have seen what a changed Canada would like. It's called America. Next up we have the Liberal Party. Will I vote for them? To answer that, I must ask a few other questions first. Am I stupid enough to vote for a party that has consistently stolen from me and lied to me? Am I stupid enough to vote for a party that promises a programme will cost $2 million and instead ends up costing over $2 billion? Am I stupid enough to vote for a man who, as Minister of Finance under Jean Chretien, knew nothing of the corruption in his own department? Am I stupid enought to vote for a man who refused to resign when it was duty to do so as a matter of principle? Am I stupid enough to vote for Paul Martin, shameless, spineless opportunist who is always ready to back the winning horse? The answer is no. The Liberals are a party who, in the words of Gilles Duceppe "campaign like the NDP and rule like the Conservatives." My vote is going to the NDP, a party who has an intelligent platform of social programmes, environmental reforms and left-wing policies aimed at making Canada what it can and should be, a great country. I don't want to tell people who they should vote for, but I will say this: The conservatives haven't had a succesful government since God-knows when, and the Liberals since Trudeau. The NDP doesn't have a history of governments, succesful or not. Let's give them a chance. Peace and Love, Marco Current Mood: Democratic... Current Music: "Bad" U2 (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 15th, 2006
5:16 pm	Thanks buddy Danny, as usual your thoughtful insights and gentle corrections of my fast-paced ranting is much appreciated. You see things in a much more subtle way than I do. And for that, I salute you (also because you're about to rock...) ALSO! Stay tuned tomorrow for Marco's view on the upcoming federal election. It's bound to be simplistic, exaggerated and very possibly profane! Current Mood: I have one. It's 20/20. Current Music: "Waiting on a Sunny Day" Bruce Springsteen (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 12th, 2006
3:10 am	A slight correction... To Danny, who posted a comment about my entry from a couple of days ago about rap and places that play rap. He makes a very good point. I do agree that some rap songs have lyrical and/or musical merit, but in most cases that's lost in the image. Rap is, or has become, so concerned with its image, with its appearance as a gateway for gangsters and pimps to give credibility and legitimacy to their lifestyles that whatever merit there may be in a few songs is all but eclipsed. The saddest part, for the rap fans at least, is that in my experience, it takes someone who is not in the so-called loop to realise the difference between the good, intelligent rap songs and the rest. The rest are too busy buying into the imagery and attitude to get beyond that and into the music itself, where the music does actually have merit. Peace and Love, Marco Current Mood: I'm alive, aren't I? Current Music: "Shake, Shake, Shake" Harry Belafonte (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 11th, 2006
12:25 am	Greatest Song I've Heard in Years This isn't my usual tirade. It's just a quick note to let the two people who read this know that there's a song that I've heard many times before, but which only recently struck me as being possibly one of the most beautiful ever written. The original is by Leonard Cohen and is flawless, but a version I recently discovered by Rufus Wainwright eclispes even the master's. The song is "Hallelujah". Download it, buy it, steal it. Just listen to it. Peace and Love, Marco Current Mood: Beautiful Current Music: "Hallelujah" Rufus Wainwright (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 8th, 2006
2:16 pm	The Greatest Show On Earth! You think you're a badass because you blast Fifty Cent from your car stereo? Or because you can do that obnoxious spank-the-ass-in-front-of-me dance? Fuck off. In the words of the legendary George Carlin, "you ain't cool. You're just chilly, and chilly ain't never been cool." Looking around the places where they actually take the trouble to play this music, I realised that around ninety percent of the people in there were circus-worthy fuckwits who wouldn't remember a single song they hear today six months from now when the next been-shot-more-times-than-you ringmaster comes along. "Well I just like the music. It has a good beat." Fuck you. Koko the gorilla likes music because it has a good beat. Music should affect you on a more complex level than just physically. And anyone who tells me taste is entirely subjective, that to every person good and bad are relative, I agree. Except that choosing to like something is your business, but so are the consequences of your choice. Peace and Love, Marco Current Mood: How you doin'? Current Music: "Corneilles" Jean Leloup (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 5th, 2006
1:46 am	Spit It Out!!! Has it occured to anyone else that life is hard? Of course it has. And has it also occured to anyone that we make it a lot harder than it should be? Probably. So why do we do it? Because we're supposed to. That's what we're told to do. Is it right to walk up to someone and tell them you'd love to sleep with them? Despite it being honest (that was yesterday's theme, remember?), it's considered rude, or innapropriate. What about telling someone you're interested in them? Seems normal enough, but even here we encounter that dreaded foe, the rule book. You can't just blurt it out like a moron. It's important to hint at it, to, in the words of so many couples, let "one thing lead to another". Having had limited experience in this field personally, I must rely on other sources for most of my information, but it seems that what leads to what exactly is as great a mystery to me as to those for whom one thing led to another. It seems like a fairly straightforward situation, but alas, it isn't. In this age of digital mastery and quantification of everything, can it be that there still remains an indefinable unkown? Let's take an example: two people, for arguments' sake we'll say it's a man and woman, are out for drinks. They get back in the guy's car, who drives her home. One thing leads to another, he's facing a paternity suit nine months later. What did he or she say or do that caused this chain of events? Did she simply grab him and have her way with him right there in the driveway? Or the other way around? Or was there some mind-numbing, idle chitchat which caused them both to laugh at their encyclopedic stupidity, at which point their eyes met and both knew what was the right thing to do? I don't know. I don't get it. My point, buried somewhere about two hundred words ago, is that life would be so much simpler and above all, easier, if we simply said what we were thinking. If "Holy Jesus, I'd love to bang you like a Salvation Army drum" didn't have to be "hey, wanna go out for apple martinis? And we can discuss our fave episodes (people actually talk that way, I'm not abbreviating) of Sex and the City and I'll tell you how much I heart your shoes (again, I'm quoting)." Isn't that so much simpler? And cheaper? Don't get me wrong; if all you want is company while you drink, that's fine. But let's not bullshit each other any more. What do you say? Peace and Love, Marco Current Mood: Optimist, huh? Blow me. Current Music: 'Mexico' Les Porn Flakes (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
4:46 pm	Confusion Here's a thought: we should all be honest with each other for one day. Friends, family, everyone. Complete, total, brutal honesty. If your mother asks you where you're going, you tell her. That may make for some embarrassing admissions, but it's all worth it in the interest of preserving a sense of integrity. MOM: Timmy, where are you going? TIMMY: I'm going to my room, where I'll surf the internet, jerk off to broadband-speed porn videos, and later I'm going out to make out with Johnny from across the street in his basement while his parents smoke weed in the kitchen and beat their daughter with Nerf baseball bats. MOM: Make sure you're home by 11. If you aren't your father can't get it up and then I have to blow him for hours before he even gets a semi. TIMMY: Okay, mom. MOM: Love you! You see? What an open, frank discussion between a mother and her son. And it could be the same between friends, too. These are good ideas, people! One day I'll be recognised for the genius I possess. Meanwhile.... Am I the only one who saw the Pope giving his pre-Christmas blessing and telling everyone off for being too concerned with the commercial aspect of Christmas? He was wearing a Hugo Boss suit and Bruno Magli shoes. He also frequently wears Gucci sunglasses. Just thought I'd drop that one in there. I think that's enough for now. Remember, let's try to be honest with each other! Or at least be honest with me. Tell me what you think of me. Not that I care, but it would be interesting to see how many people I've pissed off, amused, entertained, saddened and so forth. Or maybe I'm so insignificant I didn't affect anyone in any way. In any case, it would be fun to know. And remember: if you want to sleep with me, all you have to do is ask. I'm not very discriminating; I have an equal-opportunity policy towards sex. Peace and Love, Marco Current Mood: I give up... Current Music: 'Bella Stronza' Marco Masini (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, January 2nd, 2006
11:51 am	Top of the Morning! Well, here we are at last. New Year's Eve out of the way for one more year, some of us making bigger fools of ourselves than others. Apparently, flashing your friends and acquaintances is the new form for 'hey, what's up?' in '06. Ever the trendsetter, Dave. Question: is it possible to eat something that you get all over your face, and not remember having eaten anything the next morning? Drunkeness aside, is this feasible? I didn't know someone could be sober enough to hold a fork and eat dessert, and yet too drunk to remember doing so. What a world. Imaginary Conversation Between Two Strangers in Line at Costco Frank: Hi there. I'm Frank. Bob: Hi, I'm Bob. Nice to meet you, Frank. Frank: Nice to meet you, Bob. What do you have there? Bob: A family-size box of condoms. Frank: Family-size? What does that mean? Enough for the whole family? Dad, little Timmy, Grandpa, Uncle Mike? Or can you just fit your family into one of them? And if you could, wouldn't that be ironic? Your kids standing with you in the very place they would have died as sperm had you been sober enough to remember to put it on your dick instead of your nose. I'll tell you one thing, Bob, this Costco's got a hell of a sense of humour. Bob: I never thought of it that way, Frank. That IS funny! Wait'll I tell Mom! She'll bust a gut laughing! She always does when I go buy her condoms, because she knows I get embarrassed sometimes when the guy she's fucking that week from the Bingo parlor wears a Small. But this time, she'll really laugh when I tell her what you told me! Thanks, Frank! Frank: Anytime, Bob. Anytime. And that's it for today. Until next time, friends, peace and love. Marco Current Mood: Come along, Sancho! Current Music: 'Ti Cul' Les Cowboys Fringants (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 1st, 2006
5:18 pm	A New Year, A New Heap of Bullshit Dear Friends, Enemies, Well-Wishers, etc., This is my new blog. Awhile ago I sent out a weekly commentary by email. I find this is much more efficient. And I still get to shoot my mouth off about anything I feel like. So on a regular basis I'll be posting various rants, comments, critiques and other highly biased, opinionated and often loud-mouthed pieces. I hope you all tune in on a regular basis! Enjoy! Current Mood: Ain't no Prozac gonna help me. Current Music: Billy Joel, "River of Dreams" (2 Comments |Comment on this)