Oh I wonder...

Anno 2004, things are pretty okay in Kopparberg, everyone lives on as usual in the little community. But it was soon going to be affected by some heavy attention, Opera På Skäret was its name. As you understand from the name, they built an opera house. Sure, Kopparberg was in dire need of some attention, but from where do you suddenly get the idea to build an opera house in Kopparberg? Firstly, it was some terribly spent money. There is hardly anything to do in Kopparberg and the youth culture is crying for a sign of the slightest care. But as usual in a country like Sweden, the money was given to old people that naught cared for any the youth, but only their own cultural consummation.

You might think I'm talking straight from my ass, but that's not the fact, I assure you. It all started about hundred years ago, with the liberal primeminister Karl Staaf who created the pension, instead of investing in the defense. And that was some daredevil move by him, considering the First World War that was ongoing to the left and right of us. But that's at least how the ageism started. Old people here in Sweden really hate young people and always refer to them as "those younglings". Sure, I bet that's how it is in every country, but here it's extreme. As soon as they get a chance, they talk down on us remorselessly. We tackle it with a laughter, but the fact is that those people are the ones that'll get a say if anyone ever asks them what should change, not the youth. Not the generation that will soon take over.

But back to Opera På Skäret. Which in my opinion was an investment that no young person would have any use of for the closest years. And when people speak about investing in the youth here in Sweden, they speak about meeting houses in which they put 12-16 year olds so that they can stay busy for a while and feel "communion". I say grow up, Sweden. We live in a state (not nation, because a nation needs community) where people turn dead silent as soon as another person walks into the same room and only passes whispers to one other. This country is so badly desocialised that there is no hope for it. Take Finland for example, one starts to speak and even complete strangers could answer, no silence there, no. And I really look up to that, I really wish there was more of that communion here in Sweden. But there isn't, so I wonder why people try to house the youth.

Because really, if it's impossible to feel solidarity and community with others, then there is no reason in investing there. I say, invest in things that will promote the individual, so that everyone can feel inspirational and creative on her own instead of feeling dependant and having to rely on others. The same with tasks in school, why would I want to be put in a group with other people when I can choose for myself whether I'd like to do it on my own or if I'd like to choose my own partner. It's terrible having to rely on someone you don't entirely know, making it stressing and negative in every possible way.

The school also seems more and more "old-friendly" to me for each day that passes. Take the other day for example, it was pure censorship, when we found out that the school has got access to every students email. And that we had to find out on our own, not by a public announcement.

For the love of GOD! SNOW?!

Hello, who'd had thought, more snow! That's stupid! Well, a minor setback for the making of "Salvation", but merely a minor one. Kopparberg at War will soon show results in form of BTS clips. We just printed out some of our posters and will turn them in to Kulturglimtar (who actually just warned us to not create anything offending, which quite offended me. I mean, they put the mark of racist, skinheaded bastards upon us. That's not acceptable, those prejudices are wrong, probably Lindeskolan's fault) so that they have something nice to look at for once. You can see the results of our printing on the picture. We'll soon print some more, and get some that's even twice that size, it's good to have resources!



Thought I could introduce some of my editing tools. This is the full list of the tools that I've learned to know:
Sony Vegas Pro 9
After Effects CS4
Photoshop CS4
Sound Forge 10

How pro, don't you think?

Internet Censorship - No Thanks

Sex, violence and bad language are all a part of life. The previous generation was exposed to all of the above, and they still turned out well, so what's the issue? If no one is ever exposed to anything like that, they won’t be able to deal with life later on. I'm 16, I've been exposed to all that and my reaction is not as people might think. The presence of violence and the likes is always going to be all around us and that’s a fact, that’s what attracts interest among the people and it can’t be prohibited. The Kopparberg At War videos or YouTube videos in general are no worse offenders than any other media giants. If you think about it, do our videos make that much sense? It’s not like our fictional characters are killing anyone for real, it’s not like it’s anything else than fictional.

Certain words in a video or one event in a video are ridiculous targets. Anyone can speak their minds, everyone can make a joke now and then, it’s not like people put any great weight on it. We’re actually doing the same, but on tape. And if people will press repeat over and over again, of course it will sound as if that certain joke is serious, offensive, inappropriate, terrible, etc. But here is a little advice, if people would just let it pass by. A harmless joke perhaps just is a harmless joke?

People get smarter and smarter, we get more independent and we learn to become more sceptical to what we see. The past generation could sit down and watch the telly and get all kind of shit pushed into their brains, now people can surf on the internet and check different sources and learn the truth. And contrary to popular belief, your children can’t be kidnapped through the internet. And if anything, it should be the parents’ responsibility to monitor their own children’s behaviour and what they watch. But one should keep in mind that shielding them off completely won’t take them anywhere in this fast evolution that we’re facing. The nature of the internet is to be a forum for the exchange of ideas and information. To limit that remove many positive aspects of the internet as a whole. If people are afraid of their kids seeing something they don't want them to on the internet, implementing some control on their own computer (software that's widely available for free) should be the suggested solution instead of attempting to change the internet.

American television has an endless amount of "content guidelines" that are supposed to protect kids, but end up being laughable. Much of what we’re showing and much of what we’re saying would have been censored in the U.S. and it’s rather silly, they censor small things, very small things at times, but still they do it. Things like jokes about politicians and the likes, and what kind of a society is that? Where fear controls humour? Can we really imagine that here? We’re soon the generation that’ll reign here and most sure will the mainstream of our believes and views take charge of this planet rather than the past generation’s. And I think everyone should be rather careful, more and more laws start to push the limits of our freedom.

Internet censorship bills are currently working their way into law in the UK, Australia and the U.S. legislate for government powers to restrict and filter any website that it deems to be undesirable for public consumption. What about freedom of speech? And free access to information?

Posters!

Hello, time for us to start printing our posters. I'm so proud of what we've done in so little time. Today we'll just test print one, but we'll show you the result later.

It really feels that in the last couple of days we've been able to reach out to even more people across the world. That's really helpful for us, a greater fanbase, and hope to achieve that through the internet rather than local contacts to become a more international business. I love it when Kopparberg at War is growing, and it seems to be happening in good rhythm with the spring!

In other words, I love spring as well, it's the first sign of summer in my opinion, and summer is absolutely fantastic. This summer will be particularly special, considering all the things that'll happen.

Remember to stay updated!

Welcome to the Blog

Hello everyone, this is the KAW-crew. Lots of things happening right now, we'll even manage it all just for you, our beloved fanbase! Here we'll write everything that's too long for a status update on Facebook or Twitter. But this blog will be tied to the two others so that you'll know when something new is posted.

Linus Eriksson,
Co-Founder of KAW