Shit to scratch your head to.....

Hitler and the Occult, on the National Geographic Channel....damn interesting. Admittedly, the word "occult" is what attracted me, but I'll also admit that while watching it my once-prominent wanna-know-more gene was woken up some, bringing me back to the days of grade school when I carried around Civil War books and showed them to my surprisingly-intrigued 4th grade classmates. I was pretty hardcore in old-time war studies, specifically the Civil War, a subject that my dad is extremely fluent with...like father, like son, they say.

But yeah, I'm a sucker for dark shit and supernatural topics, so "occult" was all the hook I needed. [I;m sort of like that freaky Goth chick you'd seen walking aimlessly in the mall, except I'm social and mix in grays and blues with my black] Quite glad I checked this NatGeoTv program, though. It's late and I'm too tired to go into detail, but it was all about how Hitler and the Nazi movement had then-secret roots in Pagan beliefs and occult-focused authors and mentors. The first day of the Nazi regime, in fact, came on a Pagan holiday...as did the last, when Hitler and Eva Braun both committed suicide. And then there was this S.S. meeting castle, which had a basement where a table would hold ritualistic sitdowns for Nazi commanders to convene.

It's all seriously horrifying and hard-to-comprehend. Seeing video of Nazi rallies and their slaughter never goes down smooth. More like a rock pill, with no cup of water in sight.

Another thing this special triggered in-mind is this obscure rap album cover, which quite truthfully may go down as one of my favorite album covers ever. Just for the sheer "huh?" force of it, and how unconventional and ballsy it was/is. It's from Goretex, one-third of the no-defunct and too-slept-on Brooklyn trio Non Phixion (The Future Is Now = shamefully underrated rap album right up there with Screwball's Y2K). Album title: The Art of Dying (as in, living is the "art of dying," being that every day is one step closer to your death....yeah, Goretex was a bit more morbid and twisted than, say, DJ Unk).

Fact: I was all about this album when it dropped back in '04, and frequently, to this very day, revisit in my work-computer iTunes with headphones firmly on....though, at that time, I was a closet fan of everything the whole Psycho+Logical crew put out, but I'll delve into their repertoire at a later date; that's worthy of it's own post. But check this album cover out, and tell me it's not some other shit (and kinda brilliant):


One thing's for sure---you've never, nor will you ever, see another album cover like this before/again. Am I right?

I remember when this album came out, some bored, lonely chap posted in the HipHopSite forums a detailed breakdown of each and every Pagan symbol and cult reference included in that shot. Goretex put tons of thought into it, it seems. What a weird dude. Not that there's anything wrong with that....

***This also reminds me of the Italian cult classic of depravity, 1975's Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom....not a film I'll ever feel like enduring again (what a sick, nasty, appaling piece of cinema, but what a powerful one, in that, though), but one I'm kinda proud of having seen....Nazis were the perps in it, too. And, worth noting, Goretex has a song called "The Last 100Days of Sodom" on above-mentioned album. See how things all come full circle?