So, we have a ton of amps, drums, guitars, and ego for Quenchers Saloon this Thursday. Seems to me that this watering hole is gonna get it hard in the back. We encourage you to come out and hear the new songs. We also condone consumption of alcohol if you are 21. If you are not 21 yet, you won’t get in, but are welcome to listen outside of the venue. Tie Fighter (-0-) and noman are supporting the night event as well! Bring money even though it’s a free show. Bring friends that bring money too!

- Brad

The room resembles an upper class flat in 1920’s New York. The walls are dressed in glorious red velvet, where there isn’t a wall; a window showcasing an illuminated city rests upon a dustless ledge. The stars shining through the night sky are still and tranquil with an eerie resonance reflected on the mirror opposite the window. A dying fire lies amidst day old ashes in a large fireplace. The mantle above is decorated with various candles and figurines. One is of a sweaty-toothed woodsman with a sack under one arm and an axe held in the other. Another is of an old woman cutting carrots and potatoes for a Sunday stew. There is one more, but is hard to make out because of its odd placing. Rather than facing the room like the others it faces the wall.

Inches from the mirror there is a tall wooden bookshelf filled with nameless books and a smaller one completely empty at its side. The floor is bare except for the expensive floor rug in front of the fireplace. Numerous chairs and couches are placed in seemingly random order around the room. A leather-buttoned recliner sits facing the door, while a horridly stained couch rests parallel to the shelves. The looming stench is the only thing out of the ordinary, a mixture of bleach and electrical wiring would come close, but it’s hard to know for sure. The broken thermostat by the door reads 57 degrees Fahrenheit. After a thorough walkthrough the chamber appears to be vacant of any persons until you notice the doorknob twist slowly.

In walks an older man, short and balding. He smiles and his face lights up when he sees you.

“Oh, I wasn’t expecting you for another 15 minutes or so”, he says as he glances at his watch. Then he simply stares at you. Time seems to give up; there is no use in trying. The fixed glare of his mystifying eyes reach in and grasps your soul, unrelenting and strong. “Should we begin?”

You sit in the leather chair by the fire and he pulls a small stool out of a closet you hadn’t noticed until now, and sits it in front of you.

“Well, I suppose you’re wondering why you have been brought here”, he says. You find this odd, considering that you weren’t brought here by anyone, you were in the middle of shopping with your wife when…

“…and then she had the nerve to tell me to make Lilly be quiet! Well, you can bet I had something to say about that. Anyways so when we got home I realized I forgot to turn off the porch light, so I went to go turn it off and that’s when I saw the Tompkins’s dog going through our trash again…” you’ve been listening to Sharon talk like this since you entered the frozen foods section.

“I’m gonna go grab a magazine real quick, I’ll meet you at the car in 10, okay honey?” you tell her.

“What? Okay fine, go get your stupid car magazine,” she says.
You make your way to the magazine rack, weaving in and out of shopping carts and glancing at the isle signs, when you are stopped by a small Asian woman. Her face is wrinkled from old age and her hair is ghostly white. She mutters something under her breath and puts her vein-ridden hand over your eyes. When you open them, you’re in the room.

“Yep, even though you didn’t know it, you were brought here”, he says.

“Wait, how’d you know what I was thinking? I mean… No, I don’t care. Where am I? Why am I Here? Where’s Sharon? Josiah? Lilly! Who are you?!”

The man is unperturbed by the shouting and you sit back down in your chair and try to calm yourself down. His eyes are closed and he’s talking to himself in a hushed whisper. Almost like he’s asking himself a question and waiting for an answer.

“Hey!” you lean forward and slap him on the cheek gently, trying to rouse him. He remains motionless; until, after a prolonged silence, he lifts open his eyes and smiles the same smile he gave when he first entered the room.

“Now we can begin”, he says.

“Begin what?”

“Have you ever heard of Soldiemitis?”

“No”.

“Soldiemitis is a medical condition, in which its recipients believe that they are the only person alive. Everyone else they encounter on a daily basis are figments of their imagination. They believe that, since everyone is artificial besides themselves, they are their own boss, their own leader, their own God. Anything they touch or smell or perceive to be real is all being generated by their own mind.”

“That’s insane”

“Since no one is real, that means all concrete ideas and boundaries you and I… er, I mean… you and everyone else follow or know to be real, do not exist. For example if I drop this ball”.

He takes out a small blue rubber ball from his coat pocket and tosses it in the air a few times before dropping it to the ground.

“The ball will go down. Even though we have no idea of the path that the ball will take; because of our self-created idea of gravity and the common knowledge engrained into our minds since childhood, we predict that it will go down and probably come back up, depending on how bouncy the ball is.”

“So…”

“So… if you suffer from Soldiemitis the ball could very well go up or sideways or circle around your head or fly out that convenient little window over there and soar right pass houses and skyscrapers and apartment building facades looking for the perfect little girl to thump on the head and kill instantly because ball’s don’t know any better.” His face was bright red as he chuckled loudly and slipped the ball back into his coat pocket. “But let’s save that fun for later”.

“Am I to believe that these freaks, because they think that they are the only existing humans on the planet, can do what ever they want and break any laws of physics that people have known to be true for millions of years?”

“Well, yeah”, the old man says, “but not just this planet, they believe that they are the only person alive in the whole universe, past and future.”

“What about present?”

“That is why you are here”, he says.

Instantly, the room fills with wind. Blustery, flowing wind that blows you slowly towards the man who is sitting peacefully on his footstool. He grabs you by the shoulders and whispers loudly into your ear:

“What would you think if I told you I suffered from this “disease”, this condition?”

“What!? I can’t hear you”.

The wind is rushing harder now; it’s blowing the nameless books from their shelves and molesting the window’s wild curtains.

“What would you think if I told you that 15 minutes ago you didn’t exist?”

“I can’t hear what your saying, you have to speak louder!”, you shout in the man’s ear. The wind is pulsating. Every fiber of your body is touched and tormented. It pierces deep inside of you and sucks the sweet innocence with its pursed lips.

“What would you think if I told you that you were next?”

You don’t even respond, the wind is so strong that you can no longer think, all of your mind is focused on this horrible intruder, and you are wishing more than anything for it’s painful reign to cease. The furniture is strewn across the room like dollhouse toys and the shelves have toppled over each other. The room begins to shake uncontrollably from the force and the window pane is shattered when the blue ball flies from the man’s pocket and soars through the night sky on it’s predestined course. Then, as soon as it began, it ends. The wind blew you on your knees, numb and kneeling before the unmoved man.

“I think it’s time I tell you what’s going on”, he says.

He walks you to the stained couch and you both sit.

“You’re an English teacher right?”

You respond with a weak nod.

“Good, then you’ll understand when I say that some things have to be learned by teaching and some by example. Whether you believe it or not, 15 minutes ago you didn’t exist. Nothing did, nothing except for me. 15 minutes ago I glanced at my watch and noticed that my time was up, it was my turn to find a new noman. This time it just happened to be you. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and see for yourself.”

He points to the figurines on the mantle and you walk over to them. Frightened, you scan each one until you come to the odd one. The one that’s facing the wall. Your hand trembles as you turn it around. It is an exact replica of you. You are walking somewhere with hills in the background, it looks like New Zealand. You are wearing those shoes you like so much and there is a puzzled look on your face.

“ Mhm, the funny thing is that this conversation were having is the first step into you assuming your new role. The first step is self-realization, committing to the fact that everyone else is artificial. Including me, as of 15 minutes ago anyways. You have no family anymore, no friends, no coworkers, no pets, no friendly mailman to hand you your packages, no lusty housewife next door to ogle at. They are all gone.”

“Why?! Why are you doing this to me?”

“No one is doing this to you Saul, you have to realize that now. Remember, there is no one. Nothing is real anymore. Only you can make things happen now. You are noman”

“You keep saying that! What is that? What’s noman?”

“Why are you asking me? I can tell you only what you know. For all it counts, you’re standing in an empty room talking to your self right now.”

Petrified and confused you go mad. You throw the figurines at a wall, but before being crushed into smithereens by the blow, they vanish in mid-air seconds before hitting. You try other objects. Books, end tables, lamps, they all do the same thing. They fly through the air with such promise but vanish moments before contact. Fuming with anger you clench your hands around the man’s neck. You can feel his neck pulsing with blood under your tight grip. His eyes begin to bulge out of his head like a puppet. His ears start dripping the shiny red liquid he has so craved for years. His mouth is moving. He is trying to tell you something. Let him tell you. His lips are forming words, but you continue to squeeze the life out of them. Soon, just like the others, he disappears within your shaking hands.

Presently everything around you fades away and you are left standing in an isolated and blank world with nothing but your thoughts to occupy you.

Nothing is happening, all is quiet. The silence of the universe is grossly soothing until it’s interrupted by a distant scream. Either from a woman or little girl, the sound was too far to discern. Then, for a split second you think you see a blue streak in the corner of your eye. When you turn, it’s gone, but still you go and investigate, wandering aimlessly into the deserted night because you don’t know any better.

Video gives you a good idea of the size of the crowds coming to these things. Strong words by the YSP in the YT article.

Security authorities crack down on rally activists

By: Mohammed Bin Sallam

ADEN, Jan. 16 - Security authorities arrested 11 citizens, among them five senior military officers, and threw them in various prisons over the rioting that accompanied Sunday’s Reconciliation and Forgiveness Rally, media sources said on Wednesday.

More than 16 citizens have been detained by the Aden security authorities since Sunday, bringing the number of detainees from rally-related riots to 27, some of whom were exposed to torture and beatings. Official sources at the Rally Preparatory Committee stressed that six people are imprisoned in Memdara prison, 15 in Sheik Othman Police Station and another 6 in the governorate’s Military Intelligence Detention.

The sources clarified that the Military Intelligence Bureau in the Tawahi area captured the officers at their worksites in the Mansoura-based public works camp. The five officers are part of the recently reinstated military servants from Al-Dhale’ governorate who were dismissed from their posts after the 1994 civil war.

Ali Monassar Mohammed, head of the rally’s preparatory committee, threatened to escalate protests in Aden and other southern governorates if the authorities continue their arrest campaigns against activists.

He demanded that those who opened fire on innocent citizens at the rally be referred to relevant courts for trial, and that the injured be transferred abroad to receive treatment at the state’s expense. The Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) leader claimed the government should free all the people detained during the rally and release confiscated cars belonging to citizens who came from neighboring governorates with the intention of joining the rally.

A meeting held by YSP leadership on Sunday labeled the security crackdown on citizens for joining the rally as “a criminal act and a new addition to the government’s arbitrary conduct against its citizens.” Regarding official reaction to the rally, the meeting’s participants said the government rejects any peaceful activities in all the Yemeni governorates.

Chaired by Yaseen Sa’eed Noman, YSP Secretary General, the meeting called on party leaders and staff to show a spirit of solidarity and cooperation during peaceful activities without hesitation. It also advised them to work harder for the sake of resisting any unjust policies and force the authority to respond to people’s demands.

The meeting released a statement saying that the security crackdown on the rally reveals that the administration is bankrupt and has no national project to solve the noticeable problems listed by peaceful protestors. “The authority has a project for dominance, use of force against citizens, legal violations and human rights abuses,” the statement read.

It continued, “The authority’s project doesn’t defend unity as it alleges and deceives people. It only defends corrupt and influential persons, who obtain wealth illegally by looting public and private property and plundering lands.”

“The government cheated the national democratic project begun when Yemen’s Reunification was established in 1990. After the 1994 Civil War, it started to adopt irresponsible policies, destroying all the forms of national partnership in power and wealth. It also destroyed all the agencies of the previous southern government, laying off military and civil employees, exercising property theft, supporting backward policies and fueling conflict and violent acts among citizens,” the statement further commented. “Through its practices and policies, the government works on splitting the nation’s social fabric, based on its belief that fragmentation, conflict and revenge killings will help it control people forever.”

Meeting attendees expressed their support for the idea of reconciliation and forgiveness, considering it a noble work and a step toward spreading the culture of forgiveness at the national level and reaching the kind of national reconciliation that helps rescue the country from the consequences of violence and war.

Mohammed Abdullah Al-Yadomi, Acting Chairman of the Islah Party, stressed the necessity of continuing peaceful struggle as an effective means of helping people get rid of injustice and oppression. According to him, peaceful struggle will also help the country get out of the “gloomy tunnel” it is passing through as a result of the ruling party’s successive governments and fake platforms.

Delivering a lecture Tuesday evening at Islah Party’s Students Sector in Sana’a, Al-Yadomi said the government’s poor policies are responsible for soaring prices in Yemeni markets and the destruction of ethics in society. “Bribery has become rampant over the past ten years, unemployment is at a record high and millions of people are forced to live under the poverty level due to the government’s weak programs and policies,” he stated.

He indicated that Yemeni society is currently experiencing strange phenomena because of the various wars and political conflicts the country has undergone in recent years. He pointed out that incidents of suicide, child trafficking and robbery were not seen in Yemen even before the north and south merged.

“We will continue the peaceful struggle in all the Yemeni governorates, districts and villages,” Al-Yadomi affirmed, attributing the escalation of protests and sit-ins to GPC polices that never allow any peaceful transfer of power. “The ruling party and its foolish government have taken us to such a dire situation, although the country is rich in natural resources and its people are enthusiastic enough to create solutions to any notable crises,” the Islah party leader expressed.

According to Al-Yadomi, the Reconciliation and Forgiveness Rally, staged Sunday in Aden, would have been a positive step toward reforming the government if it had not been accompanied by unnecessary rioting and bloodshed. He called on all the political forces to support any serous steps toward reconciliation and forget about past conflicts.

Al-Yadomi urged those who advocate secession to reverse their ideas and remain adherent to national unity. “We have to strongly defend our unity and not give secession advocates any chance to damage it,” he reacted.

Concluding his lecture, Al-Yadomi confirmed that only the JMP will be leading any peaceful protests and sit-ins nationwide, with the aim of reforming the country’s dire situation.

dfdfdfdfdf