One of life’s mysteries is the asymmetric shipping cost when shipping a cd from US to Sweden or vice versa. I often buy used cds. I know, the term "used" is rather meaningless when it comes to cd, since “used” in almost every case is similar to almost new. I usually buy used cds from Amazon (UK and US). However, the shipping cost is completely different: £1,82 ($3) from Amazon UK, and $14,95 from Amazon US. On the other hand, the cds are more expensive on Amazon UK, so “what you gain on the roundabouts you lose on the swings” (slightly modified proverb). The cds that I’m interested in are often only available from the US (and Amazon US). Several times I have bought hard-to-find cds for less than $2 and then paid $14,95 for the shipping (the factor is >7 between cd and shipping). This is totally incomprehensible and also very offensive. Let’s dissect this phenomenon in more detail. Of course, there are costs associated with distributing packages for here to there (salaries, transport costs and other costs). The Amazon US standard domestic shipping rate is $4, which is almost the exact the same level as standard domestic shipping rate in Sweden (28 SEK). This seems to be a fair price. So far so good. The shipping rate for sending a cd from Sweden to US is 60 SEK ($8,50), while the Amazon shipping rate to Sweden is $14,95. The factor between domestic and international in the US is 3,75. The same factor is 2,14 in Sweden. The difference is almost the double. Something happened between domestic and international. Is it more costly to ship in one direction (from US to Sweden, that is)? Some may argue that this is the case. Let's scrutinize the postal and shipping components. It's the same standardized service in both countries, while salaries for postal employees are lower in US, gasoline prices are considerable lower and jet fuel are slight higher in US. All in all, US has cost advantages compared to Sweden. There should also be considerable economies of scale in US. It should therefore be cheaper to ship from US to Sweden than from Sweden to US. Postal service is a public good and its price should be held at a minimum to promote trade, prosperity and building up my record collection.

Today I pre-ordered "Those Poor Bastards" upcoming album with the title "Vicious Losers". The official release date is October 7th 2014. Those Poor Bastards writes: "This is your final warning". The album will be available in almost every format there is (or was) except cassette. There will be three different versions of limited edition vinyl (200 copies each): gold with black splatter, red and deep purple A side B side, and bone/clear half and half, CDs and digital downloads. I ordered the cd, of course, since it's my preferred format. The album cover is very interesting. The Minister and Lonesome Wyatt in a old barn somewhere in rural Wisconsin (?). The Minister has complemented his burqa-curtain like mask with a feathered war bonnet, while performing a Native American dance (?). Lonesome Wyatt seems to make a reverse (with left hand) benediction gesture. This goes to show that everything is just as it should be. Those Poor Bastards maintains a high and consistent quality level in their album production. There is no reason to assume any deterioration. Their last album "Behold the Abyss" was released in 2012 and contained great songs like "Everything Is Temporary", "Your Faith Shall Be Tested" and "Sacrificial Lamb". Some of the titles on the new album sounds very promising: "Let Us Rot", "Give Me Drugs", "Born To Preach" and "Today I Saw My Funeral". What can we expect from the new album? Those Poor Bastards (who refers to themselves as the "Prophets of the Country Doom") are very clear on this point: "Get ready for the gloom". You can pre-order the album here.

The eleventh and last song on "Psalms for the Spiritually Dead" leaves me speechless. The "lyrics" of "Psalm of Slumber" are authentic tape excerpts from the so called “Jonestown death tapes”, a 45 minute audio recording of Reverend Jim Jones giving his last fateful sermon, while people are dying around him in a mass suicide or perhaps more correctly, in a murder-suicide. On November 18th 1978 over 900 people (men, women and children) died in "Jonestown", Gyuana. This horrible event is well covered elsewhere so I will not go further into this here. However, I can't let go of the song. Zebulon Whatley made the selection of tape excerpts for the song, the editing and the music. The content of the tape excerpts in the song is an illustration of a man who exercises absolute power over "his" people. The people have transferred all power over their own lives to him. The sermon is slurry and sometimes inaudible. It would be almost impossible to make a transcription of the excerpts on "Psalm of Slumber" without the full transcription of the “Jonestown death tapes”, which is available here. Here is the complete transcription of "Psalm of Slumber":

No more, no more, no more
- - -
it's just not worth living like this ... not worth living like this
- - -
it's gonna be a catastrophe
- - -
...take our life from us, we laid it down, we got tired.
- - -
I can't live that way. I cannot live that way. I've lived for all and I've died for all. ...
- - -
We've been so betrayed, we have been so terribly betrayed
- - -
All they're doing is taking a drink, that takes, to go to sleep... That's what death is, sleep ... I know, but I'm tired of it all
- - -
we are done in as far as any other alternative
- - -
Can some people assure these children of the relaxation of stepping over to the next plane? 
- - -
I've been living on a hope for a long time
- - -
Well, someday we're gonna die, someplace that hope runs out. 'cause everybody dies. I haven't seen anybody yet that didn't die. And I'd like to choose my own kind of death for a change. I'm tired of being tormented to hell, that's what I'm tired of.
- - -
I have never, never, never, never seen anything like this before in my life.
- - -
But to me death is not ... death is not a fearful thing, it's living that's treacherous...
- - -
and we are sitting here waiting on a powder keg. I don't think it is what we want to do with our babies. I don't think that's what we had in mind to do with our babies. It was said by the greatest of prophets, from time immemorial, "No man takes my life from me, I lay my life down."
- - -
So my opinion is that we be kind to children and be kind to seniors and take the potion like they used to take in ancient Greece, and step over quietly because we are not committing suicide. It's a revolutionary act. We can't go back. They won't leave us alone. They're now going back to tell more lies which means more congressmen. And there's no way, no way we can survive.
- - -
Tired of people's lives in my hands and I certainly don't want your life in my hands and I'm going to tell you, without me, life has no meaning. ... I'm the best friend you'll ever have.
- - -
Well, you will regret that this very day if you don't die. You'll regret it if you don't ... that you don't die. You'll regret it.
- - -
Paul said, "I was a man born out of due season." I've been born out of due season just like all we are and the best testimony we can make is to leave this God-damn world. ...
- - -
... what I do, I do with weight and justice and judgment
- - -
... please get us some medication. It's simple, it's simple, there's no convulsions with it, it's just simple, just please get it before it's too late. The GDF [Guyanese Defense Force, my remark] will be here. I tell you get moving, get moving, get moving ...
- - -
... how many are dead? Oh, God almighty, God almighty ...
- - -
[inaudible words]
- - -
Please, please. Can we hasten, can we hasten with that medication. You don't know what you've done ...
- - -
Please ... for God's sake, let's get on with that we've lived ... we've lived as no other people have lived and loved. We've had as much of this world that you're gonna get. Let's just be done with it. Let's be done with the agony of it ... 
- - -
Lay down your life with dignity. Don't lay down with tears and agony. It's nothing to death, just like Max said. It's just stepping over into another plane. Don't, don't be this way. Stop this hysterics...
- - -
... But children, it's just something to put you to rest ... Oh, God ...
- - -
... mother, mother, mother, mother, mother, please, mother, please, please, please, don't, don't do this, don't do this ...
- - -
If you'll quit telling them they're dying, if you adults will stop some of this nonsense ... Adults, adults, adults, I call on you to stop this nonsense. I call on you to quit exciting your children when all they're doing is going to a quiet rest. I call on you to stop this now. If you have any respect at all...
- - -
Hurry, hurry my children, hurry. All I say, let's not fall in the hands of the enemy.
- - -
Hurry my children

I know very well that my music taste is pretty obscure. But how obscure? Without any accepted standards or parameteters there is a high risk of ending up in endless discussions about obscurity in general and if x is really more obscure than y in particular. Fortunately, there is now a legitimit and scientific way to answer the question and settle all disputes, namely the Obscurometer (see link here). The Obscurometer measures the obscurity of an artist from 0 (no obscurity) to 100 percent (total obscurity). You can read how the overall obscurity level is computed in more detail on the Obscurometer website. The average artist obscurity according to the Obscurometer is 93,2 percent. This is a very high figure, but bear in mind that there are nearly 370 000 artists in the database (of which some are known only by the artists themselves). Some statistics so you get the general idea: Lady Gaga 10,9 percent, Taylor Swift 28,5 percent and Garth Brooks 50,9 percent. I put all artists in the 42 articles on the website in the Obscurometer and here is some basic statistics: average mean 85,6 percent, first quartile 79,6 percent, median 86,9 percent and third quartile 91,2 percent. The result is fairly as expected. The most obscure artists in the article series are American Sinner (98,5), Pushin Rope (97,5) and The Blackthorns (96,7) percent. The least obscure artists in the article series are 16 Horsepower (65,6), Murder by Death (65,8) and The Handsome Family (68,6) percent. After studied the result I have three general conclusions:

1) Obscurity is a good thing

 "Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong." - Oscar Wilde 

2) Obscurity is desirable

In my opinion, the higher obscurity level the better. Obscurity level should not be less than 66,6 percent. And never under 50 percent.

3) Obscurity is, however, not an end in itself

“Money may not buy happiness, but I'd rather cry in a Jaguar than on a bus.” - Françoise Sagan

Below is a complete list of overall obscurity level (all artists in 42 articles).

Note: Data was retrieved from Obscurometer 2014-09-01.

I almost choked on my coffee when reading an advertise in the morning paper the other day. Bluntly presented as "The country event of the year". Yeah, right. By many swedes, November is perceived as the darkest and most unbearable of all months. It's only natural to gild this dark time of the year with a "Nashville country night" on November 29th. A swedish cover band including some unamed musicians from Nashville (maybe the anonymity was a condition for their participation) will be playing hits by Dolly Parton, Rascal Flatts, Johnny Cash, Dixie Chicks, Taylor Swift, Elvis among others. The venue Hotel Rival is placed in the central of Stockholm and, ironically enough, owned by former ABBA-musician Benny Andersson. Hotel Rival is, despite this, a nice place. I can already visualize this: never-ending wailing sessions (that no auto-tuning in the world can fix), dreary arrangements and crowd-pleasing water-downed country with a modern pop twist. That being said, who is really the target group for this "dumb country"? You don't pay for this spectable out of your own pocket. The business concept requires that somebody else pay. My assessment is that not a contemptuous proportion of the target group consists of companies and their employees. It's, of course, a tax deductible activity. In my opinion, they might as well burn the money in a worn-out oil barrel in front of their employees. For what is the upper management really saying to them. In my opinion, they say: "We don't care much for you". Personally, I would go home and review my curriculum vitae. This worst-case scenario has not yet occured (but you if you want peace, prepare for war). Supporting underground country can be compared with participating in a low intense war without any prospect of victory. Still, it's a war that must be fought untiringly on all fronts. Dark night in Stockholm. Trust no one. Enemies are everywhere. Keep calm and carry on.