Well, not completely.  If you haven’t already figured it out, the main page isn’t the view source page.  If you are so interested, the source tags are available in your browser and if the plain format of this site hasn’t bored you shitless enough, just wait until you look at the developer view.

More to the point, there are some very obvious references on the main page and throughout the site.  (If you've cheated your way here early, good look making any sense of this.).  They are homages to creative people and works that I’ve enjoyed and, in some cases, who have influenced my work, which has consisted of 20 plus years of solitary typing done while staring at a wall.  Here, I wanted to cite those artists, both to show my appreciation and highlight their work and also to avoid any lawyerly bitching lest some attention-seeking counselor with an open calendar would like to sue for a portion of this website’s losses.

Speaking of losses, there are some direct links to those below who may benefit from or actually need some motivated patronage.  If there aren’t links but you have further interest, I’m guessing this very same internet will sort you quickly.

Citations:

The Doorway: “The Doorway”, Times of Grace, Neurosis: “The Doorway” is generic enough that it doesn’t need any legal attribution but Neurosis’s “The Doorway” is what came to mind when I had been thinking about whether to dump uninitiated visitors directly into the website or to greet them with an opportunity to turn back.  The song itself is seven and a half minutes consisting of a full length album’s worth of elemental metal riffing and joint dislocating percussion.  If I played a clip of the audio on this site, it may well be the best thing on it.  http://www.neurosis.com/

View Page Source format: While not invented or copyrighted by Mr. Robot, I took a nod for the main page look from the show while watching Elliot hack about in the summer of 2015.  (The look took more effort than expected.)  To Mr. Sam Esmail, thank you for 10 great hours of TV.

Kill the body and the head will die: From “What a Day”, King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime, Faith No More.  Mike Patton is fearless, artistically and generally.  Time away from early mainstream success only improved the quality of Faith No More’s output.  I’ll always be partial to Angel Dust but if you can handle the stylistic shifts of King for a Day, it is every bit as great a listen.  The “Kill the body” line winds together this particular piece but another part of the song, “If you can look it in the face/ And hold your vomit,” conveniently sums up the trio of articles on these voodoo goats of animated bile from creation's least deserving maggot colony. 

The sun never sets. The blood never dries: From “The Master Butcher’s Apron”, Surgical Steel, Carcass.  To say that they are not everyone’s cup of tea would probably still multiply by 10 the fanbase of these British godfathers of grindcore.  Dense, intense, difficult to listen to extreme metal with lyrics that require a reference manual, they are an acquired taste along the lines of pickled cucumber overproof German schnapps.  But, unlike the latter, for those who can parse it, they have their specific rewards. 

I'mma dig a ditch: "I'mma dig a ditch, bitch, and throw yo' ass in."  from “When Will They Shoot?”, The Predator, Ice Cube.  Long before Ice Cube got paid for being a family movie actor, he had been arguably the best rapper of his time (Sorry, Chuck D, although you are my sentimental pick.  And you never showed up in Are We There Yet?).  All early Cube (AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, Death Certificate, The Predator, and Lethal Injection) is required listening for those who like their rappers political, angry, and cunningly entertaining.

You were lucky, friend: From “Buried”, Blind, Corrosion of Conformity.  Corrosion of Conformity deserves a paperback, at minimum, for being the rare group that could shift from being a staunchly underground band of hardcore political punks to 90s hard rock radio staples and then charge defiantly back to their independent roots.  “Buried” has always been a favorite of mine from their anomalous, October overcast album Blind.  Lines like, “Ignore the future or bury your head in the sand,” may not be of the Celan canon but it is tough to argue that a song ostensibly about being buried alive doesn’t snap correctly into the rest of these nearby pieces.


"God, I'm bored.  Take me somewhere else."

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