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Transcription from Coast to Coast AM (June 11th 2006) with Art Bell.

Art: West to The Rockies, you’re on the air! Hello!
Caller: Yeah hi!

A: Hi! What is your first name?
Caller: Mike.

A: Mike! Where are you Mike?
M: L.A.

A: I beg your pardon?
M: L.A.

A: L.A. Okey!… Whazz’up?
M: Well, eh, you’re talking about […] Martin, right?

A: Yes, aha!
M: Well, uhm, I happen, myself, to be a layman who is a roman catholic…and I am a roman catholic exorcist.

A: You are?
M: Yes.. And when you spoke to […] Martin…aahm, one of those five times, I called in and spoke to him for a few moments

A: Yeah?
M: Told him about laymen doing it. He was not aware of it and I explained to him what I was doing, how I was doing it and he said “well, why not?”

A: I remember that call actually.
M: Yeah, and there’s not one in ten million catholics that know that lay catholics can do exorcisms, because it was hidden in the year 220…the knowledge of it.

A: Hm!
M: It was hidden in the year 220.

A: Well, yeah, lay people can do it, eh..m, sure!
M: And it’s very simple, you don’t have to do, use a ritual. You can say “Jesus Christ, God, The Son…”

A: Mm…
A: “…demands your demons to depart from me and save my” memory or my imagination or my health or my wealth or my…eh my family, my children, whatever. And you can just repeat that mentally or you can say it out loud or you can sing it in the shower. The point is that, hrm, if…every catholic layman, who was confirmed in the sacrament of confirmation and give you the power to do it, knew about this; you know that there would be no crime in the United States, you could stop all the crime? I’ve gone to criminal areas where, heavy crime areas and done exorcisms and have broken down the criminal activity.

A: Well…
M: Just one person.

A: Well…ah..alright..I…Sure! I suppose if all the demons where ex-or-cised then there would be no one left to do the evil that is so rampin’ out there right now… and father Martin did say that..eh..”the speed with which evil is increasing in the world is frightening indeed” and that was some time ago, he was refering about an 800 percent increase in New York..alone…and it seems to be on the increase everywhere, so…hm.

Object: Ghost in the shell II – Innocence (2004)
IMDB | Trailer

If a living being’s base is information that makes up its DNA then culture and society too are just huge centers of information, therefore cities reflect the society inside it.
Batô in GITS II

The first thing that strikes you about this picture and its predecessor is the vast diffence between the production technology used. In the first movie the whole language of the images speak of a more traditional technique which makes the characters movement stiffer and all together a more static picture. That makes the successor feel extremely deep and serious. But the whole difference is so big it feels like a whole lifetime passed by inbetween! The only continuence, talking about the techniques, is in the characters which has kept most of their look. It is very hard not to see GITS II as a completely stand-alone!

The plot is a quite simple one; Batô is a cyborg detective (we recognize him and many other charactes from the predecessor) in the year 2032. When a female modeled robot created for sexual pleasure slaughters its owner Batô and his associate gets the case. However, as much as this is a movie about a serach for a criminal, as much it is a movie philosophical movie about the boundary between man and machine; what would (will?) happen if that line gets erased? So if you’re just looking for action, you might get disappointed, but it is a movie very beatuiful in its images.

Two other compareable movies entered my mind when watching this; “Blade Runner” and “I, Robot”. A funny thing is that GITS II and I, Robot got released in the same
year, GITS II in March and I, Robot in July. And there are some scenes
that actually easily could have switched picture. But when I, Robot is just a “cheap” Hollywood interpretation of Isaac Asimovs great novel about logic and robots with the same name, GITS II raises almost the same questions, but in the estethics of Blade Runner where every step is dark and every movement filled with destiny. GITS II leaves the viewer with long moments of silence, giving a moment to step away from the plot and just think of the envirionment and the philosophy. Especially one scene sticks to my mind, and that is when the two detectives visit a zone of anarchy and there is this amazing carneval with huge dolls that just blows your mind. And I couldn’t even tell why it was there or why. There are moments in this movie you wish they never would end just because of the beauty of the picture…

Back to the comparation with Blade Runner. Both main characters are lonely men without family put face to face with existential questions. Batô is a cyborg and maybe has more similarity with the replicants in Blade Runner, but he faces the same question about what existence and life is? In one way it’s a bit of an irony that the characters in GITS II looks more hand made than the computerized envirionment they walk around in when they themselves has stretched their humanity into the world of the machines. There is also a quite hysterical kind of “Pandora’s box-place” similar to the home of the genetics designer in Blade Runner.

Now, do I have to give this movie a grade?

You are not allowed to speak in your mobile phone while riding the Stockholm subway trains. A strange rule possibly, since the difference between speaking to someone in a phone and speaking to one and other in the tram isn’t too distant to each other. Does it bother you when people are communicating? In general, no, you would probably say. Speaking out loud about private matters in a phone should be as annoying as talking about it face to face.

And when a face making looney for a man is playing his electric guitar, with ear phones luckily, next to you I would rather have him speaking in a phone. Maybe he’s just very addicted to playing guitar or maybe he likes doing it in front of others. Ok, so the every day travelling can be boring, but not that boring! And playing guitar is a lot more fun than reading crappy newspapers, even if they are free, but if your so addicted that you have to play it while getting a public transport you should be a bit worried…

Since we are so very much a part of that thing called The World and since it is so very many words intruding in the Swedish language, making it so very much more trendy, we absolutely believe that this Blågg must have an English section. Otherwise what would the world think about us and those Non-english speakers? Therefore I present to you The English Section, just for your amusement.