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By Akira The Don on Monday, July 16th, 2012

From Digital Journal:

A former Swedish naval oficer and World War II expert Anders Autellus has said that sonar scans suggest that the “UFO” at the bottom of the Baltic Ocean could be part of a World War II Nazi anti-submarine device.

According to Autellus, the object could be the base of a device the Nazis developed as part of the war effort. Autellus said the Nazis built anti-submarine device using wire mesh to confuse submarine radar and lead the enemy craft to crash.

Autellus explains that the “UFO” structure could be an anchor or base of one of the German Nazi military devices for blocking British and Russian submarines in the area.

The Daily Mail reports that Autellus says the steel and concrete structure could be a very important World War II history find. An expert said: “The area was vital to the German war machine because most of the ball bearings for its tanks and trucks came from here. Without them the German army would have ground to a halt. This device dwarfs anything ever found before and is an important weapons discovery.”

Autellus told the Swedish newspaper Expressen, that the Germans built anti-submarine devices to make navigation more difficult for Soviet submarines during World War II. He said the British also built similar structures during World War II.

Autellus said the object was possibly constructed using “double-skinned” concrete which serve as anchor for holding steel wire mesh structures designed to interfere with radar signals. He said that the wire mesh structures might have have eroded away over the years leaving the holes shown on the images provided by the Ocean X team.

Stefan Hogeborn, a professional diver and member of the Ocean X team, agrees with Autellus. He said: “It is a good candidate for the answer to this mystery. The object lies directly underneath a shipping route. It would be of enormous weight in steel and concrete.” He notes, however, that the known “Nazi anti-sub anchoring devices were nowhere near as large.”

According to Guerrilla Explorer, during World War II, the Nazis were in control of the Baltic Sea. But Soviet submarines would sneak into it from the Gulf of Finland. The Soviets had destroyed more than 20 German ships by 1942. In March 1943, the Nazis installed a 30 nautical mile long anti-submarine net across the Gulf of Finland, using two layers of steel mesh.

Guerrilla Explorer explains that what Autellus is saying is that the circle of the Baltic UFO was an old anchor for one of these nets with the actual net either removed or rusted away. The website says that according to Autellus’s theory, “The strange ‘egg shaped’ hole found on the Circle could be an old attachment for the net… Also, the net could’ve caused the tracks… it might’ve dragged along the seabed at one point. Or it might’ve just sank and spread out.”

Although Hogeborn thinks Autellus’s theory is credible, Peter Lindberg, a member of the Ocean X team, expressed doubt in an interview, saying that he was 99% certain the “Circle” was a natural formation. He says the anti-submarine anchor theory doesn’t explain the blackened interior of the “Circle,” nor does it explain the lack of silt in the area.

Guerilla Explorer also points out that the major difficulty in Autellus’s theory is that the circular anchors the Germans used were very small (see video above, at 0.33) compared with the “Circle” in the Ocean X object which is about 200 feet in diameter

Digital Journal reported that the Ocean X team investigating the underwater object say they have had difficulty conducting a close scrutiny of the object because their electrical equipment stop working when they approach within 200m.

The Daily Mail reports that according to the professional diver Hogeborn, some of the team’s cameras and the team’s satellite phone stop working when they are directly above or close to the object, and start working only after they have sailed away. Hogeborn said: “Anything electric out there – and the satellite phone as well – stopped working when we were above the object. And then we got away about 200 meters and it turned on again, and when we got back over the object it didn’t work.”

It is uncertain, however, why an anchor for a wire mesh anti-submarine device should disable electrical equipment.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/328411#ixzz20oI20Q2O

— By Akira The Don on Monday, July 16th, 2012

By Akira The Don on Monday, June 18th, 2012

“Why would I want to do that? In space you have to wear diapers!”

Following her big week as the Twitter mouthpiece of the mighty country of Sweden, the author of the single gretaest national Twitter account of all time reflects.

I am starting to think this human is the living reincarnation of Bill Hicks.

— By Akira The Don on Monday, June 18th, 2012

Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

Bore Da Brawdren! Your buddy ATD is back like cooked crack with another DON VLOG, this one recorded on the auspicious date of the twelth of the sixth twenty twelve.

In this legendary vlog I pour righteous ire upon the foolishness of that goddamn Prometheus Space Jesus Bollocks theory that everyone and their mum has been tweeting at me of late – wherein it is suggested that the reason the engineers in Prometheus were pissed off with us is that they sent Space jesus to save us 2000 years ago and we kil’t his Voldemort-looking un-semetic ass – which some feel explains the film and proves that it is not retarded crap written by the screenwriting equivalent of Rob Liefeld but in fact amazing theological deep shit that’s been flying over the heads of us doofuses like so many homing doves carrying THE TRUTH back up to the heavnes from whence they came. Well I say BOLLOCKS to that swinedip, and if you really think that Ridley Scott and DayMUHN’s rehashing the plot of Chris de Burgh’s A Spaceman Came Traveling is creating something of such depth we mere mortals cannot understand it I have a Justin Bieber LP for you to spend the next week dissecting the theological worth of on your cotdurned Livejournal.

“When two thousand years of you life have gone bye… the song will return once again.. to a xeno’s cry… and it went

SKRAAAAAGH AAA AAAA AAAAGH!”

Lord have mercy on us all.

Elsewhere in that vlog up there I answer your burning questions, that you left on my Facebook page yesterday. Thank you for your interest, and feel free to hit me up with any questions or requests you have for next week’s vlog.

Now let’s hand over to the channels, and some of the stuff I have been receiving.

That was my birthday last year. What a great day! People email me asking when I am touring again most days, and I am afraid I simply haven’t the time or resources to out one together on my own, so I am gonna focus on my album and hire some people to help me do it. I am however plotting a special one off gig for the end of summer, and I will give you details of that as soon as I have them.

I did a bunch of massive post runs last week, which took the best part of three days and covered me in paper cuts, but it is always hugely gratifying to see people’s reactions when they get their swag in the post. As mentioned previously, last week’s stock check has revealled tme to be stupidly low on almost everything (2 Superman Ts in medium! 3 Revolution in medium! Etc!), so I suggest you get in there quick and grab everything before it’s gone for ever.

Meanwhile I am working on a bunch of NEW STUFF, including some designs based on your lyric T suggestions as posted on my Facebook page. As ever, feel free to hit me u with sugggestions for stuff you’d like me to make for you. I live to serve.

Speaking of which, I reupped 3rd hand Wire Riffs to the mixtape section, as it was mysteriously absent. Holla if you spot anything else amiss and I shall endeavour to fix it.

And with that, I must bif you a fon farewell. I have a 60 minute mix to complete for tomorrow lunchtime, the sequel to an ambient one I did on Sunday. It’s a private comission, to be played at the )2 as part of some festivities, but maybe I’ll be able to let you hear it some day. it is beautiful and i love it, and it remidned me what I loved about my early mixtapes, all that chopping up fragments of audio and weaving together slabs of other people’s music in an evocative fashion. Maybe I’ll do another TAD tape in that mould. Or maybe I’ll carry on making ever more ambitious post-album projects. WE SHALL SEE!

Oh, and before I forget, make sure you check out the @sweden feed on twitter, manned by regular humans who change on a weekly basis. It’s amazing. Earlier I noticed it’s hilarious, but I later noticed it is also RIGHTEOUS!

Shout outs and high fives then, to this week’s Sweden Tweeter, Sonia Abrahamson, “ a 27-year old womanlike human being from northern Sweden [where] people there are relatives and they all own tractors… I’m a single and low educated mother, but at least I don’t do drugs and prostitution.”

Amen.

PS!

I put Thunderchrist on Youtube as a track separated playlist! For your convenience! I LIVE TO SERVE!

— Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

By Akira The Don on Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

Sweden, the country, has been doing this ill-ass thing wherein they let a regular Swede take over the account for a week, and Tweet whatver they like. This week’s has been causing a great big shit storm for not being particularly politically correct, and is evidently some kind of comedy genius. Also, her question regarding Jews is totally valid, I had the exact same question when I was younger. I was genuinely baffled as to how white people could be racist against other white people. I remember asking my history teacher, “how could they be racist against other white people though? How could they tell who was a jew and who wasn’t? Was it the curly hair?”

EDIT: The Curators of Sweden site reveals that all this legendary behaviour is courtesy of one Sonia Abrahamson, who provides the following bio:

My name is Sonja and I’m a 27-year old womanlike human being from northern Sweden. I grew up in a little itsy bitsy village called Latikberg, witch means cloudberry montain in native swedish (samiska?). All people there are relatives and they all own tractors. In the autumn we had to pick up potatoes, in the winter we shoveled snow, in the spring we were confused and the summer forced us into growing thick skin and made us the bad motherf*ckers we are. Because of the big swarms of mosqitos that will drain you on blood until death unless you can take it.

When I was 19 years old I took my stuff (including my boyfriend) and moved to Gothenburg. Then I got pregnant two times in a row. Now I’m a single and low educated mother, but at least I don’t do drugs and prostitution. Instead I have a blog and I write things, and I also talk on national radio from time to time. I dont know what I want to do in the furure. Thinking about the future is not my speciality, apparently. But I’m excited to know if we all die the 21st of December.

I’m happy to leave my ordinary Twitter account @hejsonja (witch means hellosonja) to tweet for @sweden. I’m gonna tweet about my thoughts and being me, about having children and living my life and what not.

Ms Abrahamson also shares my views on television. RIGHTEOUSNESS AND RIGHTEOUSITY! @sweden is the best national twitter feed of all time. Amen.

— By Akira The Don on Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

By Akira The Don on Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

From Red Ice:

In this special two hour program, we discuss the disturbing story of a child, Domenic Johansson who was abducted by Swedish social services over ludicrous claims. The child’s father Christer Johansson explains the outrageous actions by the Swedish government. Christer and his wife Annie wanted to homeschool their child as he did not feel well in the noisy state school. At this time, homeschooling was still legal in Sweden. The family had planned to move abroad to India, Annie’s home country and take part in humanitarian work, bringing their son. The then-7-year-old homeschooler was abducted from an airplane bound for India by police after his parents refused to stop educating him at home – and that was in June of 2009. The boy remains in state custody, completely isolated from his parents. We’ll discuss the inhumane, cruel treatment of Domenic and his parents and the lie that says Sweden is the “social utopia.” We uncover the dirty tyrannical government of a seemingly ok society. Christer also mentions that he is not alone. Thousands of children have been taken by Swedish authorities for ridiculous reasons, one because the mother “talked too much on the phone.” Where are the children? Why aren’t Swedes saying anything?

— By Akira The Don on Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Friday, March 30th, 2012

Ungoogleable Swedish dream pop group Air France, with whom I collaborated on my version of their brilliant No Excuses, are no more.

In an atypically honest statement, they revealed the main reason for the split to be a lack of confidence in their own material an an inability to “finish anything.”

From their Tumblr:

We’ll make this brief, because it hurts too much.

During the first year of Air France, somewhere in the middle of the last decade, everything seemed to come so easily. At least it feels like that right now. We’d meet on friday nights to drink wine, listen to music and picture ourselves far off, somewhere on the outskirts on the big map Henrik had on his wall. The songs we made during those nights weren’t really supposed to ever leave the hard drive, but somehow they did, and somehow they took us to almost all the places on that big map we had dreamt about. We got to play records at the Rough Trade store in London, we went to the Red Square, we woke up on Iceland during a volcanic eruption, we drank beer at the cliffs of the Niagara, we spent a night in a freezing staircase in Warzaw (otherwise a fantastic weekend), we saw dolphins in the waters of LA, we got a smile from Larry David as he passed us on a street in Paris, watching us trying to open a bottle of wine, we played records for 4 hours under a blistering July sun in New York, we spent a day in the most beautiful spa in Budapest, we’ve heard our nervous voices on radio and TV, we’ve played records after two sold out Saint Etienne shows (but to be honest, only a handful stayed behind to see us), we’ve written a song together with our idol Clare Grogan (although we did managed to botch it) and we got sampled by Lil B. But it’s the little moments that has been the most dear to our hearts, like the days and nights in Brackenbury Village that we spent in our manager’s back yard with his wonderful wife and sons, who made us feel like part of the family, or being drunk on airplanes, just the two of us, and all the people we’ve been fortunate enough to get to know, if only for a night.

And we have probably produced 7 albums since No Way Down; a UK Garage record, a house record, an r ‘n’ b record… but we’ve never been able to finish anything, nothing was ever good enough. We have tried so hard, and we truly gave it all we had. And now we have decided to stop trying, even though it breaks our hearts. But for all the reasons mentioned above, and for a thousand more, we don’t regret a thing.

You can read the rest here.

I had been pestering their manager and my old frield and label boss David Laurie about them intermittently all year, and he had shared their frustrations. I suggested they send me some of their “unfinished” work  - which I suspect to be Great and Beautiful – so I could finish it. And rap all over, it obviously. David thought this would be a good idea, and I was going to chase him about it this week.

Ah vey.

For the sake of our world, which needs beautiful music in order to Not Be Shit And Unbearable, I hope they reconsider, or someone manages to liberate some of that music they couldn’t finish. So I can finish it. I am a finisher. It is one of my greatest talents. If I had ever listened to the little voice telling me “it’s not good enough” and “it’s not finished” I would have never realsed anything at all. As it is I have a fine and ever expanding back catalogue of beautiful music that – while I might not personally listen to it a lot, because as the creator I can sometimes only hear the mistakes and ways I’d do it differently now – brings great joy to a great many people all around the world. They send me messages every day. “Dear Akira The Don, that song you think you could have done better makes me feel alive every time I put it on, thank you.”

So peace and love to Air France. I hope they find inspiration in whatever new form they will surely take, and I look forward to their future creations. They are too good to really stop.

I hung out with them at one of David Laurie’s house parties once. They told me they didn’t feel like a “real” band until they heard my remix of their song. So here it is:

No Excuses.

— Friday, March 30th, 2012