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February 25, 2005
The Collector
"Collecting since I was very little...
Below are some pictures of some of my collections and how I have displayed them."
Tony's Trading
via Joe Mcnally
Posted by Mark at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
February 22, 2005
Superman is a dick!
"Jimmy, this gift you got me for father's day makes me sorry I ever adopted you as my son. I'll have to destoy it to teach you a lesson!"
And other ill-mannered covers from Lois Lane, Superman's Girlfriend and other comics you wish you had, over at National Lampoon.
It seems tact just didn't come with the super package...
Via Adi Tantimedh
Posted by Mark at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)
Hell is a place on Earth
It's in Thailand actually...
Do the Chapman bros know anything about this?
via Erik Davis
Posted by Mark at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2005
26.02.05 : Night of Iridescence
Posted by Mark at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)
"These humans are crazy..."
"Two former employees of the Gorilla Foundation, home to Koko the "talking" ape, have filed a lawsuit contending that they were ordered to bond with the 33-year-old female simian by displaying their breasts."
Posted by Mark at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
February 16, 2005
Miike Takashi's Izo review
from Adi Tantimedh
IZO
Basically, this is Miike doing late period Godard.
First some background: Izo (film website) was a real samurai who was used as an assassin by an ambitious young lord to rid himself of rivals in his bid for power in the government in 19th Century Japan. When he became a liability, Izo was imprisoned and sentenced to death by Crucifixion. This story was played straight in a samurai flick in the 1960s called HITAKIRI (aka TENCHU, which roughly means "punishment") directed by samurai auteur Gosha Hideo and produced by original ZATOICHI star Katsu Shintaro, who also played Izo. A young Yukio Mishima also played a doomed samurai, and it was rumoured that his estate has suppressed this film from being shown after his death in order to preserve Mishima's status as a god-like literary figure as opposed to a working actor on top of his career as a renowned author. (I saw it on a bootleg DVD last year before I knew about Miike's film.)
Miike's IZO could be said to be a completely whacked-out sequel to HITAKIRI, but that's just for starters. It barely has a plot as it follows Izo after his execution, now resurrected as a spirit of nihilistic, murderous revenge moving through Time and Space killing Everything, especially all the symbols of spiritual and political authority. That bare-bones premise lets Miike make this movie many other things as well. It's a deconstruction and spoof of the Samurai and Japanese action movie genres. It's a punk-anarchist attack on government and how it uses power, control and lies to keep the people down as the undead Izo makes his way toward the mythical version of the Japanese government headed by "Beat" Takeshi Kitano in an extended cameo. It's a nonlinear cinema-essay on the male destructive urge, endless and unquenchable from a starting point of spiritual questioning. It's a Buddhist treatise on Endless Suffering in a vision of Hell. It's also like a videogame where the main character moves from one scenario to the next hacking and slashing his way through various adversaries like a First Person Slasher game, stopping for the odd interlude like encountering the Mother Goddess who gave birth to all living things and having wild sex with her. It even obeys the universal rule that "all movies would be improved if somewhere in the story, VAMPIRES ATTACKED!" by having Izo attacked by two vampires masquerading as real estate agents in cheap polyester suits.
That's right, real estate agents.
Since the story takes place outside Time and Space, all Time and Space can pop up in the story. Thus, Izo can fight a squadron of Special Forces troops with body armour and machine guns in a medieval village on one hand, and be confronted with a cadre of medieval constables in modern-day Tokyo. He'll encounter zombie soldiers from WWII in one sequence, then mythical samurai guardians of temples in another, then 21st Century Yukuza with baseball bats and handguns in the next, hacking and slashing his way through all of them because he's unstoppable. He's unstoppable because he's Rage, he's Revenge, he's Irrationality, and he's the Contradiction to All Things. And all the while, he's quietly stalked by a sad-eyed woman who may be the anima to his animus, who may be a part of his fractured soul, and who may or may not offer some kind of redemption or peace if he would take it...
As you might have guessed from the above, this is not a realistic movie at all. Its blatant disregard for basic narrative logic or continuity, hopping from the past to the present and back again and then mixing up people and details from different periods and even different movie genres, combining low pulp with high philosphy suggests the kind of movies late-period Godard makes, except Miike is coming from a Buddhist perspective instead of a Marxist one. Anyone who's ever sat through a Godard film made after 1967 would have no trouble understanding this film.
In many ways, this is a kind of career and thematic summation for Miike. You get the feeling everything he knows about filmmaking is in this movie. The blood and gore, the absurd sense of humour, the influences from theatre, from Kabuki to agit-prop Brechtian alienation techniques like stilted dialogue that states the themes outright, the travelling troubadour in the simple suit who sings increasingly angry working class ballads to accompany Izo's Path to Slaughter.
A lot of people hate this movie, a lot more are baffled by it. This is the most challenging, refreshing and maddening movie I've seen this year. I doubt anything is going to beat it.
Posted by Mark at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)
Musick That Destroys Itself CDs again available
Following the collapse of its distributor, a small number of CD copies of Musick That Destroys Itself by Mount Vernon Astral Temple (aka Drew Mulholland of Mount Vernon Arts Lab) have been returned to their creator and are being made available via this web site.
The album, originally released on Coil's Eskaton label in late 2002, features two pieces of dense and intense multilayered electronic tones, each clocking in at 20.02 to celebrate the palindromic minute of 20.02 20.02 2002. A full-length bonus CD includes several unreleased live and studio pieces. Cosmi-catastrophic sleeve notes and photography are by Mark Pilkington, design by Peter Christopherson.
This new edition will be "specially treated" by Mr Mulholland, though we don't yet know exactly what this entails.
The Professor informs us that any copies remaining at the end of April will be consumed by fire in a Beltane purification rite.
CDs are £12 (£10 plus £2 p&p)
For ordering information, please email us at the further address.
Posted by Mark at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)
Radon Projects site now online
The website of Guinea Pig CD6 artists Radon Projects, featuring SAJ2 contributor Betsy Heistand is now up. You can download songs, look at the slightly disturbing pictures, buy stuff and all the rest.
---> Radon Projects <----
Posted by Mark at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2005
The Death of Dorothy Stang
... and what you can do about it.
(via Dave Walsh)
On Saturday 12 February, 73 year old Sister Dorothy Stang, an American nun and Brazilian citizen who defended the Amazon national heritage from land grabbers was cruelly assassinated.
Sister Dorothy had lived for more than 30 years in the Amazon and had dedicated nearly half her life to give a voice to rural communities, defending their land rights, and fighting for a development model that would not result in forest destruction. She tirelessly insisted that a strong presence of the Government in the remote regions of the Amazon was necessary.
The murder of Sister Dorothy was a tragedy, but not unexpected. Because she peacefully fought to defend the Amazon, she received death threats many times and was unjustly accused of inciting violence. She also denounced the participation of the civil and military police in the expulsion of small landowners from their land by farmers and landgrabbers in the region.
The State of Pará has the biggest rate of assassinations related to land disputes in Brazil. Between 1985 and 2001, almost 40 percent of the 1237 deaths of rural workers in Brazil occurred in Pará. It is still the champion state of deforestation, illegal logging, land grabbing, slavery and plays a leading role in both environmental abuse and human rights violations as documented in the Greenpeace report "Pará: State of Conflict", launched in October 2003.
Take action!
Urge the Brazilian government to implement concete measures to end the causes of this violence like land grabbing and illegal logging, and guarantee a sustainable future for the Amazon forest and its inhabitants.
The story is here, at Greenpeace.
Posted by Mark at 09:12 PM | Comments (0)
Arthur 15 available online
The fine folks over at Arthur magazine have put the entirety of the latest issue online.
This is the perfect opportunity for anyone who has yet to feast on editor Jay Babcock's mighty organ to do so. It's usually available for free in the US, but remains elusive to those of us on Further shores.
It's the consummate underground rag for the 21st century, occupying the space between International Times and Sounds, and seeing as both of those uniquely British institutions are long gone, currently exists in a world of its own. And they let me write for them! The godz must be crazy.
Issue 15 features a lengthy interview with Ben "Six Organs of Admittance" Chasny (check the Plan B site for an upcoming - um, when I've written it - live review by yrs truly), pieces on Henry Darger, Art in Troubled Times, album reviews by Thurston Moore and Byron Coley, a new regular column by Douglas Rushkoff and truckloads more.
Posted by Mark at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2005
Evil genius!
via Erik Davis:
Posted by Mark at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)
electronic krautrock utopia
MAR 5 2005
kosmische club
9ish > very, very late
Barden's Bourdoir
38-44 Stoke Newington Road, London N16 7XJ
[click image to enlarge flyer]
Chrome Hoof
deploying an arsenal of synths, trumpet, fiddle, percussion, town crier, guitar, bassoon, bass and drums
Prey
featuring Barry 7 (ex-Add N to (X), superstar DJ) a filthy, noisy machine running on a heady concoction of Krautrock, Medieval references, disco and punk
the projects
UK/Swedish/French 5-piece who conjur up super fantastic postpop krautrock disco with angular guitars and a human heartbeat
Asja auf Capri
German/American electronic duo: LP, Novi Ronde(Difficult Fun). "a deep pop sense of space and colour in the electronic backdrops, along with a seductive rhythmic awkwardness" The Wire
Stella Maris Drone Orchestra
improvising 8-piece ambientdoomkrautraga allstar freakout ensemble in the finest kosmische tradition
kosmische DJs
Hans Free, Jim Backhaus, Mink Pelican, Tango Mango, Marcelo Madrid and special guest DJ Pete Woodhead (Sons of Silence, O Yuki Conjugate, Clock DVA) play an intoxicating mix of fast and furious krautrock, electronica and music from all our futures
Posted by Mark at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)
February 10, 2005
More on microwaves
From Mark Blacklock
Some info which may be of interest on microwave weapons - if the US military are using them in the field they've come a long way fairly quickly. At InfoWarCOn 2003 (September time) I sat in a small, windowless room with about five others and listened to Glaen Shwaery of the University of New Hampshire's Non-Lethal Technology Innovation Center give a talk about the latest developments in non-lethals and problems they were encountering in developing and testing them.
With regards the microwave devices (or directed energy devices), as I remember (and my notes confirm) the problem was "scaleability". I seem to remember him saying "there's a fine line between making someone's skin itch and cooking their brain".
There's no mention of these concerns in this, otherwise thorough, run-down.
This mentions immediate discomfort to those in the beam but Shwaery outlined a different problem: that it takes a while to get the skin cells to the painful temperature of 130 degrees (my notes say 54, I'm so centigrade it hurts) - and once you've started cooking someone, you can't just shut down the process by switching off your device - the body keeps cooking, then overcompensates, making you freezing cold, before reheating again enormously. It is this process that kills people and this process that can't be controlled. I recall a graph with a couple of parabola, the second reaching higher than the first and breaking through the danger/death line.
In short, less than two years ago they couldn't make them work without killing people. At the same talk, there were murmurings about how hard it was to test these things without human subjects but the global security site says they have been using human test subjects in the US.
Now while yer man Will Thomas isn't the most trustworthy source, seems to me that the opportunity for proper field-testing of ADS (ie, this one goes up to eleven) on human subjects would be welcomed, regardless of whether or not it's finetuned. Suppose the clever thing to do would be to look in Iraqi hospitals for people whose brains have been boiled.
Posted by Mark at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)
February 09, 2005
Strange Attractor news
*** Journal Two ***
*** PO BOX change ***
*** Pestival call to antennae ***
Hi folks
Several items of Strange Attractor news for you:
***Journal Two***
First up, Alison Hutchinson and myself are knee deep in the unholy mountain
of material that will soon be Strange Attractor Journal Two.
It's already shaping up to be another fine edition, likely to weigh in at
close to 400 pages. The format remains essentially the same, though we're
tweaking a few design elements and smoothing a few rough edges - with
apologies to those of you who particularly liked those rough edges.
I don't want to reveal too much about the content yet, as we all like
surprises, but it's safe to say that if you enjoyed J1 you're going to love
this. While continuing to occupy the same liminla spaces within history,
science, ethnography, art, literature, and magic, this time we're moving a
little deeper into terra incognita.
I don't want to start taking orders just yet as our publication date isn't
set in stone, but with any luck J2 will be rolling out into physical reality
at the end of March, or early April. There may be a small price hike to
cover extra pages and postage costs. Watch this space for more info about
limited editions, launch events etc.
*** PO BOX change***
After a year pretending to be based in Wiltshire, Strange Attractor now has
an address nearer to home. As of 14 February, please send all snail mail,
including Journal orders, to:
Strange Attractor
PO BOX 51339
LONDON
N1 3XY
***Pestival antennae rising***
Strange Attractor is helping to curate the first International Pestival
later this year, celebrating insects in art and the art of being an insect.
Organised by writer and naturalist Bridget Nicholls, this promises to be
quite an event: two days of lectures, demonstrations, music, film and
real-life insect action at London's Conway Hall. The cicadas of time haven't
yet given us an exact date, but it'll be sometime in May or June.
Right now we're interested in seeing your insect films - kitchen sink
dramas, action flicks, pheremone-laden romances - and hearing your insect
sounds. Please contact me via the usual Strange Attractor email, or send
materials - no insects please - to the new PO Box address.
The Pestival promises to be a real antenna raiser, with super-special
guests, screenings of rare insect films, live performances from insects and
humans and mounds more. We'll keep you posted as the event unfolds.
That's all for now!
Posted by Mark at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
Plan B out now
Issue 4 of Plan B, the independent music magazine, is out about now.
Featuring Lydia Lunch, Comets on Fire, Lightning Bolt, Deerhoof, Smoosh, Jeans Team, Six Organs of Admittance and a hundred other bands you might want to hear. Plus a tonne of music, gig, book, film and video game reviews.
Posted by Mark at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)
London Wyrd Walks
More from Steve Ash of the Dionysian Underground:
* Sun 13th Feb at 3pm*
Templar Walk (the 'truth' about the Knights Templar and their alleged survival) Meet outside Church of Holy Sepulchre, Snow Hill, opposite City Thames Link (down rd from St Paul's tube, head towards Snow Hill).
* Sun 20th Feb at 5:15pm *
Fortean Ghost and Monster Walk (definitely last one this year) Meet outside Barbican Tube
*Sun 27th Feb at 5pm *
The Trail of Spring Heeled Jack (and other 19th century weirdness)
Meet outside Bow Church DLR station (and bring travel card for journey to Whitechapel, Limehouse and back to Bow)
All walks £5 (unless you have a wyrd voucher)
Posted by Mark at 09:41 AM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2005
Coming soon...
Posted by Mark at 01:04 AM | Comments (0)
Circlemakers?.... That'll do nicely
Via John Lundberg:
Posted by Mark at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)
Microwaving Iraq
Variations on a theme.
First this...
from a slightly kranky news source.
Then this
New non-lethal weapon lets troops microwave hostile crowds
from a sensible one...
Who to believe?
Posted by Mark at 12:44 AM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2005
Natural Selection
Two intriguing stories about animal aesthetics:
Posted by Mark at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)