The Lardnanny

Hilarious interview with Mike Patton 1991-92

2008-03-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

The entire interview is done as he eats a large delicious sandwich.

Part 1: tinyurl.com/233xvf

The rest can be found here: tinyurl.com/yo6c4w

Q: “What would you like to see happen that would put your faith back into music?”

A: (Mike Patton) “I don’t know. People banging on dead bodies?”

A prophesy of things to come? –Fantomas? He also mentions the (incredible) San Francisco band, Grotus. A band that should have never gone away…

On a side note I was at a Grotus show around the time of this interview, they were playing the (old) DNA Lounge & Mike came out & did vocals for a few songs clad in a zippered leather mask (to ensure anonymity?) my friend Seb & I knew who it was because Juice (the drummer for Grotus) was a friend. I sort of recall something about Patton drinking a mysterious fluid from a woman’s shoe. Considering his reputation at that time, it wasn’t difficult to extrapolate what that liquid might be. But that was years ago, I was under the influence of many substances, it was the end of the show & my condition may have influenced what I thought I was witnessing.

thr photo of Fantomas came from: http://www.fotolog.com/_patton_

Brandan Kearney interview from markprindle.com

2008-03-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

http://www.markprindle.com/kearney-i.htm

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Brandan Kearney - 2002

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Brandan Kearney is one of the great unheralded movers and shakers from the 80s-90s SF underground rock scene. He has played in such nationally known acts as World of Pooh (with Barbara Manning) and Caroliner (crazy SF freaks with handmade album covers), as well as oodles of other bands of every stripe and color (including Faxed Head, the Three Doctors and the Bon Larvis Boogie Woogie Blues Band, all of which also featured Zip Code Rapist Gregg Turkington and famed Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance), and best of all, he's the guy on the right on the cover of the Thinking Fellers album Mother Of All Saints! He has co-authored a record review guide with Gregg Turkington that will be published by Drag City in October 2002. But this isn't any old ordinary record review guide.. Read on for no details! We conducted our interview via AOL Instant Messenger - brought to you by AOL! My words are in bold, his are in plain text.

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Okay, here goes: You were part of an extremely cynical underground scene in early 90s SF, yet your philosophy seems completely different from that sort of "murder is cool, Manson is cool" stuff. Could you describe your philosophy and how it differs from a lot of the types of people that you used to play music with and to?

I don't think I'd glorify what's in my head with a word like "philosophy." And most of the people I've ever played music with are just fine, ethics-wise...just like most people are.

You could sum up what I believe in as "compassion." I can give of bunch of fancy intellectual justifications for that stance, but that sort of detracts from a position that would ideally be automatic and thoughtless.

Can you elaborate? I remember you mentioning once that everywhere you went on tour, people wanted to show you movies of people dying and "edgy, underground" things like that. That detached "hip" attitude is so easy to fall into when everybody around you is into it, but you seem not to have fallen prey.

I suppose I understood that evil was monotonous, and that the imagination that responds to evil is impoverished. It tries to make up for that by having grandiose dreams in which evil has actual power, but that doesn't help...any more than a drab little building would be helped by being made a hundred times larger.

I think that for most of those people, it was just a phase anyway. I didn't get with that program, because I was old-fashioned enough to recognize the humanity of the people in those movies, and to believe that life is something that needs to be respected in and of itself. I don't get a thrill out of schoolyard fantasies of power and dominance. I'm not interested in power, and I'm not interested, especially, in asserting an individual consciousness. Basically, I try to live my life the way reasonable people always have: I try to be cooperative and fair and compassionate, and to put other people before myself to the extent that I can. And needless to say, I reached that point only through years of being a confused and confusing jerk, and being cruel to people I cared about.

What I'm trying to say is that the right way to live, for me anyway, is neither revolutionary nor philosophically complex. People all over the world behave compassionately every single day. So I'm describing a process of arriving through great mental and physical toil at a philosophical stance that is really a human birthright...one which I always accepted as correct, intellectually, but couldn't always act on because I let stupid things get in the way.

Tell us about this crazy town where you grew up (hippies, famous people living there).

Jeez. Famous people? The Jefferson Airplane had a summer place there. We used to climb the fence and sneak into their pool. Hippies? There were a lot of hippies there. I don't know...Bolinas was Mecca for a lot of poets and painters and so forth. So you had artists, with all the usual flaws of the artist compounded by the use of hallucinogens and alcohol. And then you had the sort of naive wide-eyed hippies who'd flock around artists like those birds who pick flesh from the teeth of crocodiles. And they in turn attracted the sort of biker lunatics who'd prey on the naive for sex, drugs, and money.

Oh, suddenly Jim Carroll of "Dry Dreams" fame isn't famous enough to be mentioned?

Well, he lived down the street from me. We had the layout sheets for "The Basketball Diaries" littered all over the goddamn house, because he and my father had the same publisher.

Can you talk about the nutjob stalker? Or would you prefer not to? I guess I'm trying to pull together all the crazy shit about your childhood and then ask you how you feel it affected what you are like now.. or something. Who knows what the hell I'm doing.

Christ, I don't know. To make a long story as short as possible, one of the more aggressive lunatics out there burned our house down in 1979. We barely got out with our lives. After that he stalked us for--I don't know, a couple of years or so. He was camped out behind our rented house for a while. There was a lot of tension.

When did you finally get out of that hellhole? And did you go straight to San Francisco?

I didn't really think of Bolinas as a hellhole so much, believe it or not. What happened was I'd reached a pretty low ebb around the time I was 15 or so. I was an absolute mess. I'd flunked out of school, I was miserable about any number of things, and so on. So somehow, I pulled myself out of it, took the GED and started going to college. I met a girl there who had gone to school with me in San Francisco and we started dating. The catch was, she was moving to Canada in a month or so. I was pretty broken up when she left, so I hopped on a Greyhound bus and moved to Toronto for a while. Eventually, we both moved back to Bolinas. But we were always driving to San Francisco for shows and movies and whatnot, and it seemed sensible just to move there. Moths to the flame!

What year this was, and what was going on in SF? Was Jello Biafra still "hot"? Who WAS hot? What was going on? And how did you, as a new kid on the block, assimilate yourself into the underground culture?

I never did assimilate myself, I don't think. I couldn't give myself over wholly to anything. I never really dressed liked a punk or anything. I mean, by Bolinas standards I did and I got a lot of flak for that out there, but in San Francisco I probably seemed pretty tame. As for who was hot...fuck, I don't remember. At the moment, we're talking about the years between 1981 and 1985, excluding '83, which I spent in Toronto.

Biafra was making a pest of himself, of course. There was a lot of death rock, precursors to the great Goth movement. Flipper was happening; I was a big fan of their brand of entertainment. I saw a show in 1984 with Caroliner and Glorious Din and Faith No More...that was a "formative experience," I guess.

Oh! You weren't a founding member?

Of Caroliner?

Yeah, I thought you were.

Oh, no. They were going for about three years before I joined.

Was this when Gregg Turkington was still drumming for them?

Gregg was drumming when I saw them in 1984, but I think he quit pretty soon after.

But no records?

The first record came much later, like a year or so before I joined. Probably 1986.

What was the first record you were on?

Hmm. I think it was this "To Sell Kerosene Door to Door" double-album that Eric from Glorious Din put out in 1987. It had Caroliner, World of Pooh, Archipelago Brewing Company, and Dog Food. You know, back then you could put out cassettes and still be valid, man.

Were you on the first Caroliner LP though?

No. That's probably why it's so good!

HA! Which ones were you on? Because the others DON'T MATTER.

Second through...tenth? Except for "Rings on the Awkward Shadow." They really didn't mind if I sat that one out, as Jethro Tull would say.

Hey man, if you ain't on "Doots," you ain't on SHIT.

That's one way of putting it.

You've explained that Caroliner was really Grux's baby, as far as the songwriting and image and whatnot. What role did you play in the band? How do the non-Kearney records compare to the Kearney-era records?

I feel bad even discussing this, really. The band was supposed to exist without personalities, and I still respect that to an extent, even though it was always kind of an open secret. As far as comparisons, I think people have given me way too much credit, because if you look at the first record, or "Rings on the Awkward Shadow," they're great, and I had absolutely nothing to do with them. I think if I'd never joined they still would have made good records...maybe even better ones. But my specific role had mainly to do with recording and arranging things...production, I guess you'd call it. I didn't write the songs, and I often played within the confines of what Grux wanted to hear...on record, at least. Getting away from the band itself, I'd say that of the things I've done, the Caroliner records are probably what I'm happiest with, artistically. But was the band qualitatively better with me than without me? I don't think you could necessarily say that.

You seem to get involved in a lot of bands that "exist without personalities." Am I even allowed to say that you're in Faxed Head? Or the Bon Larvis Boogie Woogie Blues Band?

You just did, asshole.

OH NO!!!!

Brandan signed off at 2:35:56 PM.

Brandan signed on at 2:36:00 PM.

Got cut off there for a minute. I have a shoddy modem held in with tape.

Whew! For about four seconds there, I was afraid that that whole "Faxed Head revelation" had destroyed our friendship. But getting back -- What's with all the "joke" bands? Faxed Head? Bon Larvis Band? Three Doctors? Did you treat these as "serious" jokes? Or was it just all a goof? Or were you just following Turkington's lead? I never did understand why he spent so much money releasing albums that weren't even MEANT to be enjoyed.

I guess they were "serious jokes," in that they were intended as a sort of commentary. (I think it used to be called satire.) And I don't see why I should be getting grilled about "joke" music by Mark Prindle. That's like being called a faggot by Freddie Mercury.

Or being called a faggot by Mark Prindle! No, wait..

The financial thing needs to be put in perspective, too. For instance, how much would Sonic Youth or Sting spend on one of their albums? I think we're to be praised for making bad music so economically. And the money we saved went to support vegan restaurants.

Actually, what would be helpful to the reading audience would be if you could quickly name all the bands you were in, with a short description of each one.

How would that be helpful to ANYONE?

Let me rephrase: I personally am very curious as to how you would describe all of the different work you've done. Because a lot of it is almost unclassifiable in its strangeness. And you've done a LOT of stuff.

Oh well, if you put it like that...World of Pooh started out as this childish keyboard-heavy trio in 1983, then mutated into pretty straightforward indie-rock by 1987 or thereabouts. Archipelago Brewing Company started out as drunken improvisation in a studio at Hunter's Point. We'd just lie on the floor banging on things with the volume all the way up. Eventually it turned into a sludgy garage rock band with ten members, most of them incompetent girl drummers.

Caroliner? Never mind...I'm not even sure if I was in that band. Steeple Snakes was a parody of noise groups; it was supposed to be so lame that it would cast a pall over the entire genre. At least that's what I thought; other members may have had different motives. Job's Daughters was dedicated to cover versions of 60s-70s pop music. Heavenly Ten Stems was devoted to cover versions of Asian pop music and Indian film music, partially because it was more challenging to play, and also because we had a spillover of Asian material from Job's Daughters. And of course, it was also a vehicle for promoting our white supremacist worldview.

Horse-Cow was conceived as something that would change for every release, and wouldn't even necessarily involve me. I still have plans for the name, but everything released under it so far has been noise. The Three Doctors Band was a tribute to vanity pressing bands of the seventies. They're still going in Venezuela, with all new members. I hear they're a lot better than we ever were.

Wednesday Morning 3 AM was an "industrial folk group" starring Eric Cope of Glorious Din, who wrote about a thousand songs a week, all in the same key and tempo. I played clarinet. Dog Food was WM3AM stripped down to a duo...Eric on acoustic guitar and me on electric. There's a completed album that never came out, and I've never heard it. Faxed Head? I was never actually a member or anything... I just filled in at a couple of shows when the real bass player was too sick to leave Coalinga. Tarnation was a sort of country-goth outfit started by Paula Frazer, formerly of Frightwig; I played lap steel in the short-lived original line-up. My biggest contribution to their later success was realizing that I was dreadful, and quitting. Totem Pole of Losers was a studio band in the tradition of Alshire Records. I played guitar on one track, which was recycled later as an Easy Goings track (again in the spirit of Alshire). I think that's it.

Wait, no it isn't. Colonel Truth and the Berkeley Street Gurus was a hippy improv band; I went under the name "Hermes." If there are any others, I can't think of them right now.

There! Now see how helpful that is to all of the readers?

I hadn't noticed it 'til you mentioned it.

MAN - it is thundering and lightening like crazy here.

The Gods are angry with you for investigating the secrets of the SF costume-rock scene.

Hey, dig this Jack. What was up with that crazy thing that happened at that Heavenly Ten Stems show? What happened and what were your feelings about it?

The free press needs a muzzle, if you ask me.

Was it "overly PC," or do you think that their perception of the band was understandable, considering that they didn't know you from Adam?

Their perception was understandable. It was willfully ignorant, emotionally crippled, and more than a little unfair...but still understandable. I honestly don't think that they were wrong to be concerned, but I think their way of expressing it wasn't too constructive, for them or for us. What happened is that we were playing covers of pop songs from India, Japan, and China. The singer, Lara, was wearing Peking opera make-up. She also had a dress on that was supposedly a Korean wedding gown. I say "supposedly" because we were told this by the people who attacked us, who were fountains of misinformation in other areas. But for the sake of argument, let's say it WAS a Korean wedding dress.

Mark Davies painted his face with gold paint, which seemed to bug these people, but I didn't understand that. He didn't want to look like himself, but he wasn't trying to look specifically Asian, or even specifically human. I think Mark, like me, looked at shows-- any shows--as a chance to take on a completely new appearance. I saw what he was wearing as pretty abstract. Asians don't have metallic gold skin. No one does.

Alex, the keyboardist, had on a sari. Well, she was white, and she was wearing Indian clothing. Guilty as charged. Roshani, our violinist, was wearing traditional Pakistani clothing. But she's Pakistani, so she's allowed, it seems to me.

The other three members--me, Phil Franklin, and Brently Pusser-weren't wearing anything remotely Asian. In fact, I was wearing the same clothes I'd worn at a Steeple Snakes show not long before.

So in the middle of one song, there was a lot of shouting. Then this woman jumped on stage, said something like "They forgot one thing," and threw a container of yellow paint on us. There was a bit of a scuffle...I remember one of the women who attacked us tearing at poor Roshani's Pakistani scarf and screaming, "What IS this shit? What are you wearing? What do you think you're doing?"

Who WERE these women? Did you ever find out?

Yeah, one of them was actually someone whom Lara had previously considered a friend. And somewhere she had gotten these other two demented women to join forces with her. That's the thing that really got to Lara, was that this woman knew about the show--she'd been invited, in fact--and she could have called Lara and made her feelings known at any point. And Lara wouldn't have worn the clothes or the make-up and that would have been that. But they were going way beyond the clothes...they were saying that we were just making up faux-Asian lyrics, just making nonsense sounds. The fact is, we worked hard to get the lyrics down, and when Mark's Cantonese co-worker heard them, he could understand them. And both Lara and I were studying Cantonese at City College.

So they were pissed because they thought you were MAKING FUN of Chinese culture? That was their point?

Well, to some extent. I mean, we explained that we weren't doing that. But the thing is, even if we could have been exonerated from that one alleged act of wrongdoing, they could still have come up with a thousand more. What it came down to, I think, is that we made them uncomfortable. That's why I don't want to come down on these people too much. You figure there's legitimate pain involved, and when someone else is acting out pain on that level, you want to step back and give them some room. I'm not them and I don't know what it's like to be them. I know that racism exists, and I'm sure they've had to deal with it. But at the same time, you strip away the revolutionary rhetoric and these were very assimilated young ladies. They listened to indie rock and French pop and they hung around with white people. And I don't know to what extent we were breaking some sort of magic spell. I do know that we were an easy, easy target. No one had to worry about getting beaten up for protesting us, unlike at a Klan rally. Or a Dwarves show. I suspect we were a convenient lightning-rod for people who had some tremendous-and probably legitimate--pent-up resentments. Which would have been fine, if they'd treated us like reasonable people who were capable of dialogue, instead of using us as an opportunity to strike self-mythologizing poses.

Speaking of Klan rallies, would you mind telling the good people about the high times at Unnamed Chemical Company? Between you, Gregg, John Singer (Gregg's partner in the Zip Code Rapists) and Margaret Murray (of U.S. Saucer and Three Doctors Band), you had quite a large chunk of the SF music underground inhaling noxious fumes on a daily basis!

Let me finish up my thought on the HTS thing first.

Oops! I'm sorry. While you're doing that, did you guys continue performing in makeup and costumes after that incident?

Yeah, for the one show we played after that. But no one wore anything that was in any way "ethnic." For instance, Lara dressed as a Midwestern farm girl, and I dressed in drag...a black velvet gown and high heels. I always felt that gay transvestism displayed a certain level of hostility towards women, yet it was kind of a sacred cow in the Bay Area- -especially among women--so that seemed to be the way to go.

There are a couple of things that sum the whole situation up for me. There was one woman who wrote a letter criticizing what we were doing, and passed it out at our show...the same show where we were attacked. I thought she was kind of loopy, and I was very angry about the whole thing, but I nonetheless ended up talking to her for a while a few weeks after the show...not least because she'd told me that she thought the woman who'd physically attacked us had some emotional problems that went beyond the racial issue. Besides that, she was at least willing to debate the issue face to face, unlike these people who'd thrown paint at us and then vanished down the rabbit hole.

One thing I told her about was the support we'd gotten from people who weren't white. Lara had spoken to a touring Chinese opera singer who was excited about the band, and gave her make-up tips. Mark's Chinese co-worker translated the songs into English for us, and helped him with certain phonetic things. An Indian family in Nashville helped us find the soundtracks we needed, and they were really happy that we were doing those songs. I told this woman all these things, and she said, "Well, some people are more assimilationist than I am."

And I thought, "Here's someone who runs an underground record store, selling odious shit like Pavement and the Mountain Goats, and she considers herself less of an assimilationist than Indians running an Indian music store in Nashville? Or a Cantonese opera singer from Kowloon?" The Indians had never had a friendly conversation with a white person in their lives until we came in their store! And it burned me up that I was supposed to accept the opinions of two Asian women from the Bay Area as the last word on the subject, and simply dismiss any Asians or Indians who had different ideas as "assimilationist."

Anyway, like I said, we dropped the Asian or quasi-Asian costumes for our next show as a gesture of goodwill, but these folks ended up calling in threats to the club. When that didn't work, they sent observers from some sort of Asian-antidiscrimination group. They were smiling and applauding by the end of the show, so I guess they weren't too bothered by us. And we didn't do any more shows after that...it wasn't worth the trouble. I'm glad we did that last show, though.

Again, I don't really have a huge problem with what those people did. The people I think are unforgivable are the ones who made judgments about the show without being there. Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill, for instance.

What did that talented chanteuse do?

Oh, there was an article in "Rollerderby" on the whole situation, and Kathleen Hanna wrote in a complaint about how it was biased. Lisa was giving aid and comfort to the enemy, I guess. The thing is, she had completely misread the article. She was complaining about how we'd compared the people attacking us to Hitler, when in fact it was they who'd compared US to Hitler. And she was holding forth about what happened on stage, basing her observations on an article by a San Francisco Bay Guardian columnist who also wasn't at the show. Lisa was actually at the show, and had a videotape of it, and that tape does not bear out the version of events these people were putting forth. I think that it was amoral at best to distort what happened, when a videotape was available...she could easily have gotten the tape from Lisa and watched it before writing that letter.

I guess you can become reactionary--as so many people have--and start saying that anyone who is vehemently opposed to racism or sexism is ipso facto as stupid and vindictive as Kathleen Hanna. But that's not true, to say the least. What you finally have to recognize is that there are people of good will and people of ill will...people who put finding common ground first, and people who prefer to exaggerate the moral distance between themselves and others.

Now, what was that next question?

Well, now it will just seem frivolous! I was just asking about Unnamed Chemical Company.

Oh, yeah. What about it?

What happens when four people as ridiculous as you, Gregg, Margaret and John get thrown together in an extremely toxic environment every day?

What happens is the Zip Code Rapists, Three Doctors Band, stuff like that. And then later, of course, you get the cancers and whatnot.

Are you concerned about that?

Yes and no. I mean, it's done. What am I supposed to do about it? I lead a reasonably healthy life these days.

The thing about Unnamed Chemical Company is that it paid us enough money that we could release things like the Three Doctors Band or the Easy Goings. It was also a breeding-ground for depression and anxiety and rage, and we all know that those are the ingredients for good music. On top of that, it was the kind of environment that gave rise to obsessive behavior. If someone came to my house and tried to play Roger Daltrey's "Ride a Rock Horse" even once, I'd be inclined to punch his lights out. But at Unnamed Chemical Company, we could play that over and over again. It's like an isolation tank. Pouring cyanide and listening to Roger Daltrey. You get ideas. Not necessarily good ones, but unusual ones.

Was this atmosphere conducive to the friendships of those involved? Or were there negative repercussions to that?

Well, in some cases it was conducive. In others, it wasn't. Kind of like a foxhole, I guess.

Did the bad atmosphere BOND you, or make you bitter and hate each other?

Gregg and John and I have always stayed on good terms.

BUT WAIT! I'M SHARP AND I NOTICE ONE NAME MISSING!

It's true...none of us got along with Livingstone that well. It's because he was black, if you must know.

Well of course not. How can you get along with a guy who you know is just going to steal your money for crack and lousy hip-hop albums?

Livingstone didn't like hip-hop. He liked the oldies. Gary Puckett, Ricky Nelson, stuff like that. And he didn't use drugs, except for the coffee that he squirted out his ass at 680 psi every morning. Although he did get sort of giddy from pouring this one mixture of methanol and mercuric chloride.

Speaking of "fox holes," what are your thoughts on our current War against the Country of Terror?

America has always been a country at war with itself.

Okay, let's get to the goods - the reason we're here - THE NEW BOOK.

The Prayer of Jabez?

What the hell is The Prayer of Jabez?

Some schmuck found one little tiny line in the Bible that seemed to suggest that God wants people to accumulate riches on earth, and now it's printed on coffee mugs and God knows what all. It was a big bestseller.

That's stupid! What about the "eye of a needle" crap?

See, "The Needle" was really a narrow gate in one of the walls of Jerusalem. So it's difficult, but not impossible. Or so they say.

Oh wait! I've heard that theory! I heard it from a crazy Christian nut taxi driver that drove me to the airport in Boston a while back.

Yeah, it's probably pretty reasonable. I mean, murderers can go to Heaven if they repent, right? So you could take it to mean that the temptations involved in being rich will doom almost all of the wealthy. Which history seems to bear out. Dick Cheney seems like the textbook definition of "unrepentant."

The Taxi Driver was saying, "They used BIG GIANT needles back then!" I was like...umm... ok?

Yeah, well...heroin was a big problem back then, just like now. You thought it was IG Farben who invented it? Actually, it was old Pharaoh. To keep the Children of Israel in bondage.

IG Farben invented heroin?

Sure, and aspirin. And Zyklon-B.

Well, I'll be darned. And all this time, I've been giving all the credit to Orville Redenbacher.

No, he invented phosgene.

Every answer invites new questions. For example, "What the hell is phosgene?"

Poison gas. A chemical weapon, in layman's terms. A bummer, in hippy terms.

Do you want to continue on the religious route of discussion or cut to your book? Your call.

It's up to the so-called interviewer. I mean, I'm doing all the talking here...what is this?

Tell about your book now!

The anagram book I wrote with Gregg? Or my monograph on the polyphonic motets of Lassus?

Oh - I thought they were going to be included in the same volume?

No, Drag City wouldn't have it like that.

Drag City? More like DRAG City, if you know what I mean. (Cross-dressing).

Let's go with Book A.

Well, what do you want to know? I demand incisive, hard-hitting questions!

Nobody in the world knows anything about this book. Would you mind giving its title, explaining what it is, how it came into being and then give a few examples if you could? I'm trying to help you move some units here. Seriously - I have the STUPIDEST readers in the universe. Just say the name of the book and these morons will rush right out and buy it. Trust me.

The title is "Warm Voices Rearranged," and it's a sort of metaphysical record review guide. It should appeal equally to fans of Dave Marsh and Eusapia Palladino. As for how it came about, it's yet one more of the homunculi we cooked up at Unnamed Chemical Company. I think all the other details are supposed to stay under wraps for now.

Oh! Okay. Makes sense, I guess. So I'll just emphasize that it's unlike any other record review guide ever written, so ask for it by name in October. Is it getting national distribution? Do you know how many copies they're printing?

Sure, it'll be national. It better be! I don't know how many copies. A fair amount, would be my guess. I don't think anyone needs to pitch a tent outside the bookstore. Unless you read "pitch a tent" as slang for getting an erection.

Why do the book details and my erection have to stay under wraps? Are they planning a big launch?

Yeah, I think they want to "strike while the iron's hot."

While you and Gregg are at your most popular?

My popularity peaked over a decade ago. Gregg's is yet to come. His peak, that is. Not his popularity.

Does your father know about the book? How does he feel about you "following in his footsteps"? A chip off the old block, you might say! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

Of course he knows. I think he'd rather I was doing more, actually. He's always urging me to get more stuff out there.

Do you have an urge to create? I know it sounds like a faggoty question, but I'm serious.

Well, I must, or I wouldn't have done so much stuff. At this point, it would probably be more like an urge to communicate. I don't really care about art so much. But there are things I feel obliged to express.

Having to do with what?

Lots of stuff. Gilded emptiness and embroidered lies. Bloodless inanity and cyclopic senselessness. Rigid and alphabetic poverty of the mind. Maybe some scene reports, too.

Are we talking writing, music, art, or all three and more?

Jeez, probably writing. It's really the only skill I have. I like playing music, though. But that's not communication. At least, not the way I go about it.

Are you still "all over" Pro Tools? What have you been doing?

Samplitude, not Pro Tools. I'm just fucking around. I spent so many years knocking my brains out trying to do things with tape that are easy on the computer. I'm just amusing myself. Flipping through the outdated magazines in God's waiting-room.

Wait a second. How? That doesn't make any sense. Do you mean like a doctor named Dr. God or something?

Oh wait - you were using a metaphor.

Look, let's take the spotlight off of me for a moment. As far as you know, are any of your bands still active? Probably a couple are hibernating, like herpes.

Oh wait! That reminded me of another question: are you really going to release a CD by the Bon Larvis Band? What record company would release something like that?

Gregg has a label in Australia that wants to do it. Knows a label, I should say.

Wow.

Yeah, I don't get it either.

And I'm still selling my CDRs for $4 through the Internet. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

Maybe you should play a little boogie-woogie blues instead of all this lo-fi experimental horseshit.

There's nothing experimental about rock and roll!

Well, I still say the blues is the answer. The boogie woogie blues, to be precise.

I suppose when you get right down to it, I'm kinda out of questions. Was there something you really wanted to say that I missed?

Here you are talking to one of the greatest minds of your time, and you're out of questions? Why don't you ask me if I think Pat Benatar was a strong role model for today's female rockers?

Okay then, the final question: Did the terror of your youth affect the person that you are today? If that guy hadn't burned down your house and all that, do you think you would be a different person today?

That's obviously a pretty complicated issue. I could have said, "Gee whiz, that was terrifying. I don't ever want to be in that position again, so I'm carrying a gun from here on out." I used to sit up nights with a shotgun, and I was mentally prepared to kill this guy. I mean, if he'd opened the door or climbed in the window, I definitely would've shot him dead. I could've extrapolated from this that guns equal strength or safety, but I don't believe that. I believe that they are more often crutches for the wounded and weak. I could've supported the death penalty, but I don't. I think some people could've easily used those early experiences as a foundation for beliefs that are the exact opposite of mine. Instead, I think that power gained over other people by force or dishonesty is false power that will come to nothing, and needs to be rejected. So how did I get to that position, which I consider to be the correct one? Grace, I guess.

I have to add that I wasn't actually terrified. I really wasn't scared of anything at that point in my life.

How on Earth could you not have been scared? You mean the fear had been beaten out of you by the fire? Or are you just a weird guy with no fear?

I mean that there's a point where you feel you don't have much to lose. It's not necessarily realistic; it's just the degree of dissociation required to get through it all. You're numb enough to do what you have to do at the time. The fear only comes later when you see the extremes you were driven to, chief among which is the lack of emotion.

So is the fear back now that you're married, and have something to lose? Or do you just have what would be a normal amount of concern? Like a "normal" person?

Gee, why would you be asking me that?

I always had things to lose, and I don't really think anyone is normal. I think you have to separate images that are essentially mental tape loops from actual reality, which in certain limited aspects is much worse than whatever specific negative image you might choose to focus on. But when you come right down to it, we either live in a completely mechanistic universe where death is ultimately as meaningless as life, or we live in some other kind of universe in which life and suffering have some sort of a point. Either way, there are limited grounds for complaint. You could look at it like G.K. Chesterton, or Epictetus: it's a miracle that you get to wake up on a single day, so why complain that you don't get to wake up every day, forever? There's a certain ingratitude in thinking that what you've got at a given moment is worthless unless you can keep it forever. And I've certainly been guilty of that sort of ingratitude. But deep down, you have to realize that it's pretty stupid.

That whole thing you said about separating the mental tape loops from actual reality strikes me. I can't do that. The harder I try, the stronger the loops get.

Yeah, but you're nuts.

That's true - I do have a nice set of testicles.

I mean that sincerely. You know you're crazy, right? So of course you think crazy things. That's what crazy people do, by definition.

Are you crazy?

Yeah, I'm pretty screwy. And everything I'm advising here is difficult for me personally.

Luckily, we have sane, stable people in the government and leading our businesses, so it's okay for us artistic types to be a few bricks shy of a tire on a car missing.

Sure. Besides, what are you going to do? The thoughts you're talking about are thoughts about real things that are happening to people as we speak. You can't say they're unrealistic or impossible. But you can assume that a fixation on them, to the exclusion of everything else, is useless and crazy. And ungrateful.

Only when I'm drunk! That's honestly when I'm the calmest. Luckily, I can't stand how it makes me fall asleep so I only drink a couple times a week.

For 3 and a half days at a time.

What a lightweight! But aren't your fears predicated on the loss of some potential happiness that, when it comes to pass, might actually consist of the same old demented worrying? Like, "What if so-and-so drops dead? What will I do then? What will become of my bed of crimson joy?" Well, did you really have any joy, or were you just completely abstracted and lost in a world of horrible mental images?

No, no.

Doesn't it sometimes seem like you're destroying what you have now, for fear of losing it later? Isn't that a self-fulfilling prophecy?

My "normal" state is very happy. That's how most people know me. It's just very hard for me to get stressors out of my mind when it's something important to me. (post- interview note: when I read this section to my wife, she disagreed vehemently. She says that I do not at all come across as "very happy," but in fact "very moody." Go figure! I guess I don't express myself very well.)

Yeah, but I'm not talking about your normal state. I'm talking about your miserable state. And besides, your normal state is pharmacologically induced!

Like when my website went down a few weeks ago - I couldn't get over it.

Who could? That makes crucifixion look like a piece of cake.

I felt like everything I'd ever written was lost forever, and had all been worthless. Even though I KNOW it wasn't true. In my head, www.markprindle.com equaled Mark Prindle. My website WAS my identity.

But that's obviously crazy, wouldn't you say? Brenda didn't marry a website.

But the dozens (hundreds? TRILLIONS?) of people out there who really like me and make me feel talented -- I was lost to them. I still appreciated Brenda. I just felt like I had lost my connection to the people who actually appreciate what I'm trying to do (whatever that is). My site is my diary.

I can see that. I'm just trying to say that isolating certain thoughts or behaviors as crazy or painful or counterproductive, and then treating them as inescapably integral to your being, is probably a mistake.

Oh, it's definitely a mistake. But you don't think I'm doing it on purpose, do you? I couldn't think myself out of it. HOWEVER -- Let me say that I DO recognize and VERY MUCH appreciate the fact that if that's my biggest problem, my life is pretty goddamned wonderful.

Yeah, that's the problem. Thinking yourself out of things doesn't work very well. You have to understand your way out, which is a different hovercraft full of eels. And once you've done that, you can start working on understanding how lame the Ramones are.

"A different hovercraft full of eels"? I'm so moved by that turn of phrase that I am unable to read the rest of the paragraph to see what else you may have said in it! Okay, should I get to a final summation and conclusion to this interview thing? I've kept you for like 15 hours now.

Yeah, fine...whatever you want.

I know you have some shitty vegan food you could be eating.

Yeah...my own sperm, for instance.

HEY! I found an AWESOME tofu meal the other day. FINALLY!

What was that?

This mango tofu dish at the Malaysian restaurant Penang - unbelievably great.

Oh yeah? I'll have to try it.

I think I'm far enough from having eaten meat to where I can really appreciate the "textures" they create with the tofu. I was eating it going, "Wow! It kinda feels like real meat!"

Glad to hear it. It's pretty hard being vegetarian if you don't like vegetarian food.

Darn tootin'. Up to that point, I'd just been eating bowls of grated cheese morning noon and night.

My brother's got the same problem...felt driven to vegetarianism, but hates vegetables.

Okay - here's the stupid final question. It's not very imaginative but I like it as a summation to a long interview.

Shoot.

As you look back over your long, sordid life, what do you take the most pride in? And I don't mean "pride" in the bad way!

Boy, that's a brain-teaser. I don't know if there is any specific thing. You do the best you can, and hope you'll fuck up less in the future. I honestly can't think of anything! I know that anytime you can avoid causing someone pain, you're on the right track. Unless they're at a Bon Larvis Band show, in which case it's open season!

Thanks, Ted Nugent! And if I don't like it, I can just KISS YOUR ASS!

(But the little woman might appreciate it if she read the interview and saw you saying "I'm most proud of my wife, of course, whom I love very much.")

Yeah, but I'm not proud of being married to her in that sense. I can't feel like it's something I did. It's about her being so great that she can deal with me, not about me winning her hand through mesmeric powers or whatever. I feel like she loves me despite me, not because of me.

(Which sounds unbelievably fucking stupid when written out in stark black-and-white text. Hey, maybe I'm even more of a dumbshit than I thought!)

But it IS something you did - it's something you ARE. Her love is affirming that you are a good person who deserves to be loved.

I guess. But it's hard to take pride in what you are, especially when what you are is sort of haphazard.

True.

But believe me, I try to look at it that way! And going back to what we were saying about mental loops, I know that it's true. So I have to focus on what the reality MUST be, rather than what it appears to be. Thus is materialism laid low! Take that, Christian Smith! From Hell's heart, I stab at thee.

JESUS! Do you realize how everyman Joe Blow Christian Smith is going to react when he sees a member of CAROLINER mentioning him in a nationally published interview? He's gonna cum! He's gonna cum hard! He's gonna cum and cum and cum and cum and cum til his balls are bone-dry and his house is floating down the street in a river of semen!

So - Any final words for the interview?

Rock bands'll come, and rock bands'll go. But rock and roll's gonna go on forever!

Brandan Kearney:

There's one tiny thing I have to clarify about the Heavenly Ten Stems incident. At one point in my blitherings on this subject, I say: "...these folks ended up calling in threats to the club." I want to make it clear that the woman who wrote the letter that was passed out at our show--the woman I discuss right before this quote--was NOT responsible for calling in these threats, or for purposefully misrepresenting the nature of the attack on us to the SF Bay Guardian. I want to make sure there is an absolutely clear distinction between this Asian woman--who did not condone the violence against us, and was willing to discuss her issues with us face to face--and the multiracial trio of women who attacked us physically, lied about us, and refused to be questioned by us, or by any non-allied journalist. Debates and even arguments are healthy, and I'm always up for them, with anybody. Trying to shut people up through intimidation or deceit is cowardly and weak-minded at best. This seems like an appropriate time, politically, to insist on a recognition of this elementary point of ethics.

More Caroliner Rainbow

2008-03-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

Part of a long line of avant-garde weirdoes from the Bay Area, Caroliner -- aka Caroliner Rainbow -- often described itself as "industrial bluegrass," which was likely the closest anyone ever came to pegging their uncategorizable sound. Their songs were rooted in 19th-century Americana and the sort of primitive folk found on the Harry Smith Anthology, but usually came wrapped in a thick crust of experimental noise and a bone-dry, dadaist sense of humor. Their records were just as likely to recall musique concrète or early industrial as country, folk, and bluegrass; everything in between was fair game as well, from early jazz to Eastern music to electronics. Their arrangements tended toward the minimal -- usually centered around banjo, violin, organ, and bass -- but often veered into noise-rock or elaborate orchestrations as well. Often sung by tape-altered voices, Caroliner lyrics were littered with pioneer and cowboy imagery from the Old West, but from a distinctly twisted perspective, with a flair for the macabre. The results often drew comparisons to Bay Area peers like the Residents and Sun City Girls, not to mention Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 (with whom they shared personnel); other commonly cited influences were Throbbing Gristle and Captain Beefheart, and members of Mr. Bungle was rumored to be involved with Caroliner as well.

Although Caroliner didn't guard their identities as jealously as the Residents, they were perhaps even more obscure in practice. Members did hide behind an ever-shifting array of ridiculous stage names, and the band's name changed from album to album -- the first two words were always Caroliner Rainbow, followed by an inscrutable phrase from one of the album's lyrics or titles (Caroliner was the official fallback name, however). Their live performances were low-budget theatrical extravaganzas with elaborate costumes and Day-Glo stage decorations augmented with blacklight. Their albums were released on vinyl only, usually on the Nuf Sed label, and were pressed in limited quantities. Each album was packaged individually with its own handmade art and hand-written lyric sheet, and usually arrived in some found-object packaging (pizza boxes and diaper disposal bags were two of the most notorious). In keeping with their Western Gothic concept, Caroliner even created its own mythic folklore to explain their origins. The group claimed to have inherited its entire repertoire from Caroliner the Singing Bull, a magical 19th-century creature whose owner took it from town to town, where it performed and learned new songs from the locals. When the owner was forced to eat the bull one lean winter, the remnants of its carcass continued to sing.

Caroliner was founded in San Francisco in 1983 by a lead singer commonly known only as Grux (though he, too, switched aliases at will). The original band was a trio including a percussionist who played a bucket, but the ranks soon swelled to normally include six to eight members at a performance or recording session. Personnel came and went freely, and those who stayed changed their aliases from album to album. Their first record, Rear End Hernia Puppet Show, arrived around 1985, and kicked off a rise to local-legend status that peaked by the early ‘90s; their reputation slowly spread to a wider experimental-music audience, helped by periodic tours of the U.S. and one of Japan. Their next three albums -- I'm Armed With Quarts of Blood, Rise of the Common Woodpile, and The Cooking Stove Beast -- were generally noisy affairs, but their fifth, Strike Them Hard, Drag Them to Church, began to bring out their quieter, folkier side, resembling an Asian-tinged Palace. The orchestrated yet chaotic The Sabre Waving Saracen Wall came next, followed by Banknotes, Dreams and Signatures, which featured one of the band's most-quoted songs in "Old Eggwipe" (about a horse that was half scrambled eggs). By this time, some of the band was also active in a side project called Commode Minstrels in Bull Face. Eighth album Rings on the Awkward Shadow was a double LP, and was followed in 1995 by Sell Heal Holler, the notorious diaper-bag album. The live compilation Our American Heritage, Vol. 1 appeared in 1996 or 1997 and wound up with greater distribution than most Caroliner releases. Lower Intestinal Clocks & Gut featured two side-long tracks, and was followed by the quiet and haunting Toodoos in 1998.

Cheated by an unscrupulous printer during the production of Lower Intestinal Clocks & Gut, Caroliner temporarily went bankrupt and was forced to take a four-year hiatus. During that time, several members embarked on independent side projects; Grux performed with Rubber O Cement, while Chris Cooper started the solo noise project Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase and also played with Deerhoof. Guitarist Brandan Kearney, who'd played on the vast majority of the band's records, joined Amarillo Records honcho Gregg Turkington in the mock death metal band Faxed Head. Caroliner finally returned in 2002 with the double LP Wine Can't Do It, Wife Won't Do, and embarked on their first tour of the new millennium. ~ Steve Huey

from: http://www.answers.com/topic/caroliner?cat=entertainment&nr=1

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

2008-03-14T15:03:00.000-07:00

My friend Jennifer Holmes (Danger angel) posted this link to an incredible lecture from Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor describing a stroke from the inside out.

http://tinyurl.com/3athtn

"Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another."

Caroliner Rainbow

2008-03-05T15:44:00.000-08:00

One of my (many) favorite bands in 1990.

info from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroliner

Caroliner (formed in 1982, in San Francisco) is an Industrial Bluegrass/Experimental/Noise conceptual art Costume Rock band, dedicated to creating a fever dream of American psychedelia - utilizing bluegrass music instruments, weird effects, other-worldly pageantry, and day-glo character outfits similar to those of a "Disneyland ride with a Spike Jones and his City Slickers sense of individuality." For example, band member Puppy Whowoundup built an actual spinning heliotrope animatic cap that revolved on top of her head. Member The Brazen and Meticulous Pintle sports a spinning Brittleback wheel as a codpiece for her stringed instrument.

Jamie Rake, in Sound Choice, described Caroliner's music succinctly:

"Caroliner is the sound of atrophy, the noise of salvation and damnation's collision in a parallel dimension to purgatory, the random rumbling of the bowels of the universe turned inside out to become a semblance of music complete with lyrical vantage points so convolutedly arcane to make comprehending them impossible, save for the few gnostically inclined aspirants bent in similar psychic permutations." [1]
According to the band, "Caroliner formed as a tribute band to the singing bull of the 1800s who had the same name. Influences include most and foremost The Skillet Lickers, Barrel Gordon Trio, and Dock Boggs, also making nods along the way to The Hoosier Hotshots, Spike Jones, Tiny Tim, and buckets of nails being kicked down the stairs. The Caroliner name stands alone (as seen on the cover of the organ based long play record "Toodoos"), to represent the band on most printed materials. The following "rainbow" word is only used when it is in conjunction with a line from Caroliner lyrics. The possibilities are endless: "Caroliner Rainbow Charlie Stink Creek", "Caroliner Rainbow Bowed Wart at the Turn", "Caroliner Rainbow Moth in the Waves", " Caroliner Rainbow Double Snap-Passion of Vaunted Elderly Fashion." Every 10 LPs results in a 'live' LP that sums up the next ten albums with some "songs in progress" between the live "hits"."

Doey Didduoghlbulch, a "Caroliner Rainbow Legs Tied Round the Ankles" member for the last 10 years, described the band as such:

"We are a tribute band to Caroliner the Singing Bull of the 1800s. If we were singing something from the Dampton Lice Brother's hymn book we would figure out another name. If we did a modern fuzzy hullybaloo thing, like that music you hear in a showy window shoppe, that would be a band called Fuzzy Hullybaloo Thing."
Alex Ross of The New Yorker noted:

"On top of the visual extravagance, Caroliner has somehow forged an original musical style. The songs typically fuse together a grinding, relentless bass line, country-ish banjo strummings, spastic vocals ranging across several octaves, a wheezing organ drone, and screeching violin tremolos. Despite the splintered aesthetic, a lumbering grandeur gathers ...... Space does not permit a description of the lyrics, which purport to interpret the prophecies of a 19th-century Wisconsin cow." [2]
Successful tours of Europe and Japan resulted in "stick to your gums" USA tours. The band is reportedly awaiting the "building of a horticulture twist spindle farm of 1844" for the next tour that will "hopefully include face roulettes", and "fantastic new deformed sheep faced instrumentalists".

[edit] Discography
Studio Albums

(1986) Caroliner Rainbow Hernia Milk Queen - "Rear End Hernia Puppet Show" (Subterranean Records)
(1990) Caroliner Rainbow Stewed Angel Skins - "I'm Armed With Quarts of Blood" (Subterranean Records)
(1991) Caroliner Rainbow Open Wound Chorale - "Rise of the Common Woodpile" (Nuf Sed)
(1992) Caroliner Rainbow Susans and Bruisins - "The Cooking Stove Beast" (Nuf Sed)
(1992) Caroliner Rainbow Wire Thin Sheep Legs Baking Exhibit - "Strike Them Hard - Drag Them to Church" (Nuf Sed)
(1993) Caroliner Rainbow Fingers of the Underworld & Their Unbreakable Bones - "The Sabre Waving Saracen Wall" (Nuf Sed)
(1994) Caroliner Rainbow Scrambled Egg Taken For a Wife - "Banknotes, Dreams and Signatures" (Nuf Sed)
(1995) Caroliner Rainbow Grace Blocks Used in the Placement of the Personality - "Rings on the Awkward Shadow" [double LP] (BullsHit)
(1995) Caroliner Rainbow Customary Relaxation of the Shale - "Sell Heal Holler"(BullsHit)
(1996) Caroliner Singing Bull of The 1800 Memorial Band "Our American Heritage, Vol. 1"'' [live recordings](BullsHit)
(1998) Caroliner Rainbow Stand Still or Fight Beans and Sunstroke - "Lower Intestinal Clocks b/w Gut" (7" as a 12") (BullsHit)
(1999) Caroliner -"Toodoos"(BullsHit)
(2003) "Wine Can't Do It, Wife Won't Do!"[double LP] (BullsHit)
(2004) "1800 An Instrumental Revue"(BullsHit)
(2005) "Transcontinental Pinecone Collector"(BullsHit)
(2006) "Smoke Tour For Lunation (7"as a 12"/Woodpatty Chickenclimber"(BullsHit)
7" Singles

(1993) Caroliner - "Bead Trail to Jardunne" b/w "The Cooking Stove Beast" (Nuf Sed)
(1993) Caroliner - "Legs Go, Mind Goes, Lungs Go" b/w "The Ballad of Hamdrags" (live) / River Wearing Children Limbs" (instrumental) (Vertical Records)
(1994) (split) Caroliner Rainbow Tongue On The Fingermill of the Paste Demon - "Wrap Your Rattler, Bring Your Coat" or "The Bringing of Electricity to Monclova County" b/w Eeyore Ass Guzzler (a.k.a. Eeyore Power Tool) - "Broken Fence of the Battered and Buried"
(1995)) (split) Caroliner / Culturcide (Birdman)
(199?) (split) Caroliner Rainbow Gumcuppers - "Fixing and Mixing Cracked Skulls" b/w Commode Minstrels in Bullface - "Theme From the Destruction of the Turd Man" (P Tapes)

Video:

http://tinyurl.com/296pwd

Myspace page:

http://tinyurl.com/2hh829

Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp

2008-03-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

From: http://www.70slivekidvid.com/lancelot.htm

"In a world where there are chimpanzees instead of humans, Lancelot Link was one of the top agents of A.P.E. (Agency to Prevent Evil), an secret organization that protected the world from evil wrongdoers. Link's partner was Marta Hairi and his supervisor was Commander Darwin. A.P.E.'s evil counterpart was C.H.U.M.P. (Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan), an evil organization bent on world conquest. Baron Von Butcher was the evil leader of C.H.U.M.P. and was assisted by other evil apes including Creto, Wang Fu, the Duchess, Ali Assa Seen, and Dr. Strangemind. Most episodes consisted of Lancelot and Marta Hairi fighting the evil members of C.H.U.M.P..
Besides the main story, the chimps also appeared in musical segments of the show as the psychedelic Evolution Revolution (they even released an album)."

Clips:

SURFIN' SPY 1970

http://tinyurl.com/2czv5f

Mata's Milkshake Dance:

http://tinyurl.com/2an8cx

http://tinyurl.com/2d84l7

Victoria Reynolds Meat Paintings

2008-02-19T09:06:00.000-08:00

Yummy.

http://www.richardhellergallery.com/dynamic/artwork_display.asp?ArtworkID=233

Balloon Man visits a nursing home

2008-02-19T09:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tovzk8GPIxE

"In 1996, Addi Somekh and Charlie Eckert began traveling to different places in the world to make balloon hats for people and take photos of them. The goal was to show people all over the world laughing and having fun, and to emphasize the fact that all human beings are born with the ability to experience joy. In total, they visited 34 countries and have over 10,000 pictures."

website: www.balloonhat.com/

"The Other Gods" animated silent film

2008-02-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

Another excellent “silent” offering in the same vein & quality as the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s “The Call of Cthulhu”. Absolutely brilliant in its skillfully crafted simplicity! Cut paper puppets hauntingly reveal a story of the “other gods”…

The Other Gods - Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW6wWSCBCf0

The Other Gods (full)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97bxMPJ2wnw&feature=related

Website:

http://www.maddogmovies.com/theothergods/

"Barzai the Wise, a high priest and prophet greatly learned in the lore of the "gods of earth", or Great Ones, attempts to scale the mountain of Hatheg-Kla in order to look upon their faces, accompanied by his young disciple Atal. Upon reaching the peak, Barzai at first seems overjoyed until he finds that the "gods of the earth" are not there, but rather the "other gods". Atal flees and Barzai is never seen again."

THE ZOO RACE

2008-01-18T18:53:00.001-08:00

Mere words cannot describe how utterly bizarre this clip is. It’s a promo piece for a christian zoo race game. You can shoot horses out of cannons! This thing is so strange it’s a masterpiece. You REALLY need to hear the voice acting on this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfV2OzEHwg&eurl=http://www.zoorace.com/

"After laughing and teasing her friend Rueben about believing in the Noah's Ark story, then Hannah the librarian has a dream about it. In her dream, her friends are re-shaped into animals and she herself changes into a racehorse and participates in the race "Games of Celebration" after the world flood. Watch how Hannah's friends are reshaped into animals and then have the funniest and most thrilling times of their lives."

Links:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=CougarInteractive
http://www.zoorace.com/

Boomerang

2008-01-09T14:43:00.000-08:00

Today, as I was walking down the street to lunch & stopped at an intersection I noticed a small, ratty little sketch pad. A Strathmore 400-1 4”x6” multi use. I know this because I used to work in an art supply store for 7 years in & just out of art school…

When I got back to the office, I flipped around the pad & looked for a contact address so I could return it (an unspoken code among artist) there were half a dozen or so charming little drawings & thumbnail sketches as well as various “to do” list & class notations. The usual filling one would find in an artist sketch book. the information I gleaned from the contents, I was able to deduce the owner was probably a female printmaker. Etching. The very last page had a delightful illustration of a dragon standing on its hind legs with an extremely barbed tail end. I assume this was done by a child-relative of the owner.

Anyway, the most peculiar/wonderful part of this find was the little tags on the front and back. On the front was a price tag & on the back was an anti-theft sticker with the “check-mark” add-on to mute the anti-theft devise.

The kicker is this, the price tag on the front of the pad had the name of the exact art store I worked at with the phone number I still know, the price AND the date: 07/01/89.

When I worked at the store.

Because one of my many task was to price all incoming art papers and pads, its dead on that I put that price sticker on the front and the anti-theft sticker on the back. Heck, I probably even rang it up on the register.

19 YEARS AGO.

I wonder what path this pad went down after it left my hands all those years ago only to find its way back into my hands, today.

(Judas) Hufu

2008-01-04T12:22:00.000-08:00

Hufu is a tofu-based product which was marketed as resembling, as realistically as possible, the taste and texture of human flesh.

Hufu was touted as "the healthy human flesh alternative" for "cannibals who want to quit", as well as a product for anthropology students studying cannibalism.

Judas hufu is that same flesh alternative marinated in the sweat of all members of the heavy metal band Judas Priest. Each tin is signed and endorsed by J.P. front man, Rob Halford.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060209025919/http://www.eathufu.com/home.asp

monster drawing contest

2008-01-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

The Guardian asked kids to send in monster drawings for a contest.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandhealth/gallery/2008/jan/04/thecomic?picture=331949227

“It’s so empty, it’s full” A small piece of history and a commendation for John Law.

2007-01-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

Labor Day weekend, 1989. I, with my roommates Miss P., Dawn & a mutual friend Cindy attended a wind sculpture event in the Black Rock desert sponsored by Planet X pottery in Gerlach Nevada. We hauled a lightweight mobile canopy bed (our sculpture) on top of a tiny sedan out to this remote, inhospitable area. The surreal local combined with mobile sculptures was both incredible and inspiring. That weekend was one that had a great & lasting impact on my life. I never wanted to leave. The desert attracted & stirred me, & I knew I had to go back.

Dawn once said “it’s so empty it’s full”.

When I returned to the Bay Area & started my final year in art school, I rallied a few friends & schoolmates around the idea of planning a Labor Day weekend trip to the Black Rock desert. I had been reading Hakim Bey’s “Temporary Autonomous Zone” & his ideas struck a chord. At that time I was into the youthful notion of destroying parts (if not all) of my artwork as a meditation on impermanence & the importance of flexibility. These concepts fused into a plan of generating a “creative incident” in the Black Rock desert with a central theme, the ritual destruction & immolation of both structures & artwork (a lager manifestation of the “meditation on impermanence & the importance of flexibility”). For an impoverished, young & naive art student, this vision seemed far too grand & expensive to accomplish alone. I decided to present the scheme to my good friend John Law (whom I had met through my involvement in The San Francisco Cacophony Society) and that was when the idea for “Zone trip 4, Bad day at Black Rock” was officially hatched as a cacophony event. I approached this individual because I sincerely considered he was (& is) person of great veracity & he would respect and lend a hand in my somewhat delusional concept. I was correct in my impulse & the event was to happen. Along the way, a few months from the target date of the Zone trip, I attended the Baker beach burn of the Burning man. Fortunately, (via the intervention of both the San Francisco police & fire departments) the monolithic figurine was not razed. Amidst chants of “burn it anyway!” and pagan-like drumming, a few of us cacophonist including Miss P. & Dawn thought it would be a great idea to invite Larry & his man along for our strange ride out to the Black Rock. If anything, he had the biggest, most expensive & elaborate piece of firewood that would make a glorious conflagration. It was a magnificent, awe-inspiring weekend. I would return and participate for the next 4 years, 1995 being my last year. (In all, 6 years every Labor day)

The event morphed from a Cacophony event into Burning man. In my opinion, it eventually got too big, supercilious & aloof. It had lost its soul (For me at least) & I felt a profound need to no longer contribute or attend. A year later, after the disastrous 1996 event, John and a few other key participants would renounce. In following years, other members of “the old guard” would trickle away for (I believe) similar reasons. This is not to diminish the importance of what others have contributed & experienced in the years since. The event is what one makes of it & I know countless have had their own, life changing occurrences in that desert. Since 1996 I’ve silently watched in admiration as numerous fresh & astonishing examples of creativity debut on the playa. I’m delighted to know that so many have had that same “feeling” I did Labor Day weekend so long ago.

This is severely circumcised history of my experience, but I feel I needed to regurgitate further the early conception of that desert “art” festival. A more concise history may be found in Brian Doherty’s “This is Burning man”.

That said, I wish to wholeheartedly express my support of John Law & his decision to go forward with his current legal actions. In the 20 or so years that I have know this man, he has been a wonderful and loyal friend, part of my family (he was the minister at my wedding) and an individual of great integrity. He has brought countless invaluable, “eye opening” & enriching experience to my life & the life’s of many others. In short, I would not be who I am today without him. For that I am forever grateful.

-Kevin Charles Evans
January 12, 2007

LED Throwie Rat

2006-10-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.instructables.com/id/E7Y1MAP6SOET2JXPD2/?ALLSTEPS

(More) Bizarre Taxidermy

2006-10-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

http://ueba.net/hosted_pages/Bizarre-Taxidermy-20061008

ACT NORMAL

2006-10-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/answers/rants/X0001_ACT_NORMAL.html

(NENSLO)Date: 20 Dec 1994
In light of Dr. Neutopia's recent expression of surprise/dismay at being labeled a "kook" by operatives of the Universal Media Conspiracy (UMC-Uniform Mind Control) one of our research associates exhumed the following essay from the Graveyard of Dead Rants. Enjoy. That's an order.
ACT NORMAL!
Who is it that gets together in mobs and hunts down, tortures andkills people who are different from them? Who is it that teaches modesty,courtesy, and generosity but lives in depravity, rudeness, and greed? Whois it that can gather together the time, energy and money to murdermillions and destroy cities, for the sake of a flag, deity or economicsystem? Not weirdos, not kooks or cranks or nuts. It's the "Normal"people who do those things.
It's the "Normal" people who believe there's only one "real world"and it's the one THEY'RE living in. It's the "Normal" people who killeach other over differences in that reality, and if someone can't trickthemselves into ignoring the millions of inconsistencies or can't glossover the gaping flaws in that reality-construct, or can't even pretendconvincingly that they believe that flimsy and self-contradictory world isALL TRUE, rather than have their own illusory stability undermined oraccept that other ways of thinking and seeing might be valid, the "Normal"people imprison those "mentally ill," and experimentally destroy theirpersonalities by use of drugs, electroconvulsion, and brain surgery.
I saw a letter to Ann Landers from a poor couple whose son tooksteroids and later began to think he was JFK. Unusually sensible doctorswouldn't agree with them that it was a Disease called Schizophrenia, andwouldn't keep the fellow locked up and drugged as his loving parentswanted. (They had looked up Schizophrenia in a book and thus knew allabout it.) Their son eventually killed himself, and the parents cautionedall young men against the use of steroids. I felt sorry. Not for theson, who is now free, but for the parents who drove him to final escape bythe continuing refusal of the validity of his primary goal in life, "to goto Washington and help people with their problems." Rather than take thetime to teach their son to use his strange gift, they succumbed to theirfear of the unusual and destroyed the creature they helped create.
It's the "Normal" way of thinking to label things and file themaway so they don't have to be thought about any more. If "idea x" islabeled as "stupid" it can be discarded. All subsequently encounteredideas bearing any resemblance to "idea x" can also be so classified anddiscarded, saving valuable time and energy for watching TV or thinkingabout movie stars. If something new or different comes along, the"Normal" way is to classify it as quickly as possible according to theguidelines set down by reputable authorities so it may be conveniently andsafely filed away. This might not be such a destructive system if it didnot cripple or entirely halt the learning process, but once a "Normal"person learns to use this technique, consideration of new or unusualthings or ideas is only necessary when the classification system itselffails or is too limited in scope to encompass the thing seen or thought.
It is the duty and function of "Normal" people to classify, labeland file the whole of existence and experience. Sadly, a description ofthe nature of the object is frequently taken as a distillation of theessence of the object. In the unwritten sequel to the classic poem "TheBlind Men and the Elephant," we go a thousand years further on the lineartimescale to a world in which vast temple complexes have been built by thefollowers of each of the seven theoreticians and holy war is waged againstall who dispute the fact that an elephant is very like a tree, a wall, ora rope. Even worse, cults arise venerating fans and ropes AS ELEPHANTS,and devotees plant bombs in the automobiles of those who insist that awall is just a wall,and not an elephant at all.
It's the "Normal" way of thinking to believe that we call a thingby a name and classify it as a certain kind of thing because that is whatit IS. Regardless of well-known classical allusions to roses and othernames, "Normal" thinking dictates that name defines nature, that a thingis what you say it is and you say it is what it is because that's WHAT ITIS. "Normal" thinking disregards the fact that two different people canlook at the same object in the same place at the same time, and reach twoentirely different conclusions about the nature of that object: notbecause the object itself is variable or has two or more natures, butbecause each individual bases conclusions and deductions on the whole ofexperience and their likes and dislikes, or physical and emotional stateat any given moment. Thus, one person may glorify as a symbol of thehighest ideals of humanity the image of a man being tortured to death andbrand "obscene" the image of a child with no clothes on, and someone elsemight consider such thought idiotic. Some persons may maintain theirright to hold their own opinion based on their own tastes and experiences,and others might interpret that as a blanket condemnation of all they are,and fear for their lives ever after.
I don't wish it to be thought that "Normal" thinking isessentially a bad thing. Very few people actually require an open mind orthe ability to reason in the course of their everyday lives. A donut-shopcashier does not need to consider the ethics of selling blobs of greasydough, and a philosophical and ethical outlook would be an outrightdetriment to a nuclear warhead assembly plant worker or oil-companylawyer. It is vital for most people to continue to act "Normal." Withoutsuch behavior the wheels of commerce and progress would grind to a halt. The excesses which make life in this modern world so simple for those whoare free from the confining systems of dissatisfaction and complaint wouldsuddenly cease to be. Without the ridiculously expensive and painfullyloud car stereos, the mindless repetition of pop-song lustmongery,elaborate hairdos, huge jewelry and ten-thousand-dollar wristwatchesdangling before the sleepwalking hordes there would be no cheap crummyapartments, discarded art supplies, inexpensive healthfood, or goodsecondhand clothing.
For the most part, the existence of "Normal" behavior is a goodthing for those who require nothing more. But for people who care aboutthings or think about things, who examine their lives and their place inthe world, acting "Normal" is insanity, a trap which leads to constantdissatisfaction and eventual destruction. Acting "Normal" for such peopleis hating, complaining, finding fault, holding grudges, being afraid, andlimiting themselves to the small world of everyday existence, the worldeven "Normal" people pay most of their money to escape from by buyingdistractions, or getting loaded and laid as much as they can before theydie.
When it is possible to choose not to live in the small world ofreaction to stimulus, to act by choice and to choose the good, to seebeauty and find enjoyment anywhere, there is no need to escape, no placeor person to escape from. When emotional and physical states are seen astemporary and subject to will and choice, when the past is seen only as apicture in the mind and the future as a dream not yet dreamed, to live andto enjoy living become, not "Normal" but NATURAL, essential, a part ofeach individual nature.
POSTSCRIPT: This essay was written years before the wide publicparticipation in internet. If it were being rewritten now it wouldcertainly include thoughts to the effect that it is "Normal" people whocritique the grammar or typography of literature which contains ideas theydon't understand. It is "Normal" people who display the height of theirintellectual and crative capacity by using the anonymity of a mailingaddress to take one-line wisecrack potshots at people who actually try toTHINK about things and express those thoughts through imperfect physicalinterface. ...and so on, delineating some of the common ways that stupidintolerant people use to attempt to bring down to their own level anyoneon the net who displays any earnestness or sincerity in the desire to makethe world a better place for everyone.
Peevishly,NENSLO

Terranaut Vehicle Lets Fish Explore On Land!

2006-09-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

This Blood Parrot fish rolls the contraption around just by swimming around in its bowl. The sensors and the onboard computer detects which direction the fish is swimming in, then directs the wheels accordingly.
If you ask me, this is a dangerous precedence. First we help fish roll around on land, next we're going to teach monkeys how to fly and use firearms. Why don't we just hand over the keys to our civilization already? – Jason Chen

http://technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=741#terranaut

Korgoth of Barbaria!

2006-09-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

Korgoth of Barbaria is an animated television series created by Aaron Springer, the storyboard artist of SpongeBob SquarePants.

"In a dark future wasteland, the cities have fallen, primordial beasts have reclaimed the globe and thieves and savages populate sparse, dirty towns. Korgoth emerges from the frozen north, and his merciless savagery may be his only key to survival."

Here’s the first episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaQX-Rj5ZpM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9TOu3xx6h8&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=/watch%3Fv%3DvbfLo--TPQg

PARK(ing) Day

2006-08-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

"Anyone can join PARK(ing) Day by transforming a parking spot into a PARK(ing) space on Thursday, September 21st, 2006."

http://www.rebargroup.org/projects/parkingday/get_involved/index.html

Zoologisches Institut: Department of Ecology und Parasitology

2006-08-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

Anguillicola crassus, a parasitic nematode from Asia in the swimbladder of the eel (Anguilla anguilla)Opened Swimbladder heavily infected with A. crassus

http://www.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/~dc20/index.en.html

Bowling Pin Art Show at Asbury lanes

2006-08-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

Amazining, painted bowling pins! Bowling Pin Art Show at Asbury lanes
( Jersey)

http://www.asburylanes.com/galleries/Pins/index.html

Giant nests perplex experts

2006-08-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

MOBILE -- To the bafflement of insect experts, gigantic yellow jacket nests have started turning up in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities across the southern two-thirds of Alabama.
Specialists say it could be the result of a mild winter and drought conditions, or multiple queens forcing worker yellow jackets to enlarge their quarters so the queens will be in separate areas. But experts haven't determined exactly what's behind the surprisingly large nests.
Auburn University entomologists, who say they've never seen the nests so large, have been fielding calls about the huge nests from property owners from Dothan up to Sylacauga and over into west-central Alabama's Black Belt.
At one site in Barbour County, the nest was as large as a Volkswagen Beetle, said Andy McLean, an Orkin pesticide service manager in Dothan who helped remove it from an abandoned barn about a month ago.
"It was one of the largest ones we've seen," McLean said.
Attached to two walls and under the slab, the nest had to be removed in sections, McLean said.
Entomologist Dr. Charles Ray at the Alabama Cooperative Extension System in Auburn said he's aware of about 16 of what he described as "super-sized" nests in south Alabama.
Ray said he's seen 10 of them and cautioned people about going near them because of the yellow jacket's painful sting.
The largest nest Ray has inspected this year filled the interior of a weathered 1955 Chevrolet parked in a rural Elmore County barn. That nest was about the size of a tire in the rear floor seven weeks ago, but quickly spread to fill the entire vehicle, the property owner, Harry Coker, said. Four satellite nests around it have gotten into the eaves of the barn, about 300 yards from his home.
"I'm kind of afraid for the grandkids. I had to sneak down there at dark and get my tractor out of the barn," Coker said. "It's been a disruption."
Coker said he may wait until a winter freeze to try to remove the nest.
In previous years, a yellow jacket nest was no larger than a basketball, Ray said. It would contain about 3,000 workers and one queen. These gigantic nests may have as many as 100,000 workers and multiple queens.
Without a cold winter to kill them this year, the yellow jackets continued feeding in January and February -- and layering their nests made of paper, not wax. They typically are built in shallow underground cavities.
Yellow jackets, often confused with bees, may visit flowers for sugar, but unlike bees, yellow jackets are carnivorous, eating insects, carrion and picnic food, according to scientists."They were able to find food to colony through the winter," Ray said in a telephone interview.
He investigated a nest near Pineapple, measuring about 5 feet by 4 feet, that was coming out of the ground on a roadside. A southwest Pike County house in Goshen had a giant nest spreading into its roof.
Goshen Mayor G. Malon Johnson said he consulted Ray in removing it because he was concerned that children playing nearby could be attacked.
A colony has a maximum size in early July and August. The hot, dry conditions could force the yellow jackets out of ground nests.
"Normally it starts declining in the fall," Ray said.
He said the "super colonies" appear to have many queens.
"We're not really sure how this multiple queen thing works," Ray said. "It could be that the daughters of the original queen don't leave the nest or that the queens have developed some way to cooperate."
Ray examined a collected nest from Macon County to count the queens in it.
"We found 12 queens so far, so that's definitely a factor," Ray said Thursday.
Dr. Michael D. Goodisman, a biologist at Georgia Tech who has studied large nests in Australia, said he's heard of some large ones in Georgia and Florida, but not as big as those in Alabama.A 6-foot by 3-foot nest on a pond stump in Bulloch County, Ga., was featured July 12 on CNN.
"I'm not sure people know what triggers it," he said.
U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist James H. Cane said he's familiar with a nest in Florida 10 or 15 years ago that engulfed a big easy chair. Cane said the monster nests reported in Alabama are intriguing and agreed with Ray that they could be the product of multiple queens in a single nest.
The nest usually dies out each year. "All that overwinters is the future queen," he said.
Given a queen's egg-laying rate, he said, there's no way a nest with a single queen could get that big in a growing season.
But in a multiple-queen colony, Cane said, there must be space where queens can't get at each othe

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060717/NEWS02/607170317/1009

The Kunstkamera

2006-08-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

Russia’s first museum was a freak sideshow with delightful exhibits of mutant animals, wooden bugs & pickled punks.

The Kunstkamera is a unique Russian landmark. It is Russia’s first museum. Its history is entertaining and its purpose was to be different. Through a bizarre twist of fate, the Kunstkamera has a misleading reputation in the world. The gruesome details about the museum are readily available. Meanwhile the flattering characteristics of the Kunstkamera are multitudinous, but poorly publicized.

http://it.stlawu.edu/~rkreuzer/pseyse/kunstkamera.html

http://it.stlawu.edu/~rkreuzer/pseyse/building1.html

Blorp!

Monkey Jockeys!

2006-08-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.freeinfosociety.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=14&page=1

Christian Zionists and false prophets

2006-08-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

The following appeared in the TimesSelect on the one line New YorkTimes web site

By Daoud Kuttab, Ramallah, West Bank

As if we don't have enough problems with Muslim and Jewishfundamentalists, we are now confronted with yet another -ist.Christian Zionists, mostly from the United States, are trying tothrow their weight behind one of the parties, in effect calling forthe continuation of the war and carnage in Lebanon.A small minority of evangelical Christians have entered the MiddleEast political arena with some of the most un-Christian statements Ihave ever heard. The latest gems come from people like PatRobertson, the founder and chairman of the Christian BroadcastingNetwork, and Rev. John Hagee of Christians United for Israel. Hagee,a popular televangelist who leads the 18,000-member CornerstoneChurch in San Antonio, ratcheted up his rhetoric this year with thepublication of his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," in which he arguesthat a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition forArmageddon (which will mean the death of most Jews, in his eyes) andthe Second Coming of ChristIn the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States mustjoin Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfillGod's plan for both Israel and the West. Shortly after the book'spublication, he launched Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which,as the Christian version of the powerful American Israel PublicAffairs Committee, he said would cause "a political earthquake."With the outbreak of the war on Lebanon, he and others have calledto their followers to pray for Israel, and for the continuation ofthe war on Lebanon. They have demanded that Israel not relent inwhat they call the need to destroy Hezbollah and Hamas. They seem tohave completely forgotten the very core of the Christian faith.I have been watching many American evangelicals trying to distancethemselves from the calls in the name of the Almighty for the war tocontinue. As Christian leaders of all persuasions, including leadersof evangelical churches, are calling for Mideast peace and animmediate cease-fire, these Christian Zionists want their followersto pray only for Israel.One e-mail message that was making the rounds came from a prominentU.S. evangelical Christian totally upset with an interview that PatRobertson gave to the Jerusalem Post. In it, Robertson appears morepro-Israeli than the Israelis themselves and expresses anger at thenotion that Israelis might not completely finish off Hezbollah — atask that he somehow sees as God's will. The author of the above-mentioned e-mail message, Serge Duss of World Vision, a Christianrelief organization, called the Robertson interview "a perversion ofthe Gospel of Jesus." Duss writes that he is sure that manyevangelicals strongly disagree and would gladly refute Robertson'sdistorted theology.Duss insists that American evangelicals are praying for 1) thepeople of Israel and Lebanon; 2) for a cease-fire, so that liveswill be spared and 3) for peace with justice for all people in theMiddle East.The discussion has reminded me of so many calls I heard as a youngChristian boy growing up in Bethlehem and Jerusalem: the falseprophets that have predicted the end days and the presence of theanti-Christ are too numerous to list here. But I vividly rememberthe very same Pat Robertson in 1982 as he spoke on C.B.N.'s "700Club." He stood in front of a map of the Middle East, opened up acopy of the Old Testamant and claimed to know what a particularprophecy meant in geopolitical terms. As the Begin-Sharon army atthe time was besieging Beirut, he pointed out exactly what he saidwould happen next. In particular he was keen to repeat that theP.L.O.'s leader at the time, Yasir Arafat, was none other than theanti-Christ himself.Less than 13 years after that international broadcast, Robertson wasfilmed visiting Arafat in Gaza, delivering food and milk toPalestinians and applauding the peace agreement that Arafat hadsigned with Israel's Yitzhak Rabin.Christian Zionists who use religious rhetoric to justify politicaland military actions are no better than Jewish or Islamicfundamentalists who make similar outlandish claims. Peace in theMiddle East should be about the liberty, independence and freedomsof all the people of the region, and not about whose promised landthe Holy Land is.For the time being, I, as a Christian Palestinian, prefer to followthe words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. "Blessed are thepeacemakers for they will be called the sons of God."

Theater Effects: Lacerations

2006-08-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.instructables.com/id/ENWC15VO4QEQHOA8HH/?ALLSTEPS

Bacardi Rips-Off The Cacophony Society

2006-08-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

From Laughingsquid:

http://laughingsquid.com/2006/08/13/bacardi-rips-off-the-cacophony-society/

Wow this is amazing, alcoholic beverage maker Bacardi totally ripped-off San Francisco’s infamous underground prankster group The Cacophony Society with their recent “Bacardi Salmon” television commerial.
Since 1994, The Cacophony Society has had their salmon running in the opposite direction during the annual Bay to Breakers 12K race through San Francisco. The salmon would enter at the mid point of the course and then spawn their way upstream. The salmon are mini-celebrities at the race and always get a huge cheer as they go by. This Cacophony event is known as Breakers to Bay and more salmon info can be found on Tribe.net, as well as photos on Flickr and video on YouTube.
So I was pretty surprised when I was sent a link to the “Bacardi Salmon” commerical. It was developed for Bacardi by the ad agency RKCR/Y&R (Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe, the UK office of Young & Rubicam) , who used the production company Hungry Man, with Jim Jenkins as the director of the spot. The ad steals the entire concept of The Cacophony Society’s Breakers to Bay event, featuring salmon spawning upstream during a foot race through New York (instead of San Francisco). They make no attempt to give any credit to the event’s origins or the person who came up with the idea for the event. In fact, I shot video of the 1996 Breakers to Bay salmon running and this commerical is eerily close to my footage (which has been in circulation for ten years), even including the salmon showing up at the bar at the end.
Well I guess if you can’t come up with something orginal, you can just follow Bacardi’s lead by co-opting someone else’s idea and “run upstream” with it. Oh yeah, be sure to drink a bunch of rum first.
UPDATE 1: Here’s an entry on the vfxtalk.com forums discussing the CG effects used by The Mill to create the ad. Well our salmons don’t need no stinkin’ CG.
UPDATE 2: Here’s a production news article from the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting. My favorite quote from the article is “The agency wanted the Marathon and they wanted the Verrazano bridge. This couldn’t have shot anywhere else”. Um yeah, I guess unless you count the 12 years that it was shot in San Francisco. Man, does anyone ever fact check?
UPDATE 3: It turns out that this was not the first time a major corporation has stolen the idea of the Cacophony salmon run. Perviously Nike make a billboard using the concept. I’m looking for more info on this, including the year, if anyone knows.

The Frog Museum

2006-08-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.museedesgrenouilles.ch/html/froesche/index.htm

A bit twee perhaps, but nonetheless compelling in its unusualness, the Frog Museum in Estavayer-le-Lac, Switzerland is a collection of 150-year-old satirical tableaus of domestic life in the 19th century – all involving stuffed frogs.
* See also Walter Potter’s curious taxidermy dioramas.

From: http://www.kirchersociety.org/blog/?p=826

(WFMU) More Mutants!

2006-08-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

So many mutants, so little time.

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/08/more_mutants.html

Blooming of Amorphophallus titanum (corpse flower) at BBG

2006-08-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

"BBG's Spectacular Titan Arum Is About to Bloom...

The titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) is one of the world's most remarkable plants. Native to tropical forests in Sumatra, it produces a monstrous four- to seven-foot-tall flower head, which releases a monstrous stench of putrefaction at peak bloom (another name for the plant is the corpse flower!). The species rarely flowers in cultivation—the last time one bloomed in New York was 1939. However, Brooklyn Botanic Garden's ten-year-old specimen has recently begun to flower. It's expected to reach full bloom at the end of the second week of August."

http://www.bbg.org/vis2/2006/titan/

http://www.bbg.org/vis2/2006/titan/photos/

We Are The Web

2006-08-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

A few “internet celebrities” have come together and have created a dorkadellic rap song to help fight for Net Neutrality. It features Leslie Hall, Peter Pan, The Tron Guy and a few other surprise guests.

http://www.wearetheweb.org/

Turn your house into an elderly, rotting haunted mansion...

2006-08-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

This tutorial explains how to photoshop a picture of a house into an elderly, rotting haunted house.

BTW, this house is just around the corner from me on Alameda!

http://www.seb4d.com/tutorials/Mattepainting/mattepainting_english.htm

Dagen då larverna kom till Flogsta

2006-08-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

http://user.it.uu.se/~svens/larverna/normal.html

Strange photos of a carpet caterpillar infestation in which bicycles and trees are completely covered in cocoon that's filled with masses of writhing larvae

Hurra Torpedo

2006-08-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4462791062611472906

Hurra Torpedo is Norway's most famous kitchen appliance band, formed in the early nineties. They are a part of the artistic collective Duplex Records, and all members of the band also play in a variety of other bands in Norway.

Dangerous Beauty: The Art of the Shiv

2006-08-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.designobserver.com/archives/016492.html

William Drenttel

Dangerous Beauty: The Art of the Shiv

A shiv is a weapon crafted from the limited resources of a prisoner’s closed world. Crudely constructed from such things as spoons, shoelaces and upholstery tacks, shivs lie somewhere between the graceful and the grotesque. They’re primitive, too — like outsider art, but produced deep on the inside.
The individual parts that make up a shiv tend to be everyday objects, innocent things furtively reconstituted as lethal weapons. Each design choice is essential, but what’s particularly notable is that shivs, at their core, are not so much evocations of minimalism as they are symbols of survivalism. A shiv is all about masked utility: it’s an innocuous object with improbably toxic intent (whether used to attack others or to protect oneself...).
The shivs shown here, from the collection of designers Chris Kasabach and Vanessa Sica, were confiscated more than twenty years ago from New Jersey’s Rahway Prison (now East Jersey State Penitentiary), a maximum-security facility that houses more than 1,500 inmates serving sentences of twenty-five years to life. The designers saw each shiv in their collection as a piece of evidence, and over time, came to identify a kind of unique design pathology. Their observations are fascinating, as are the artifacts that inspired them and the circumstances surrounding each object's unique method of manufacture. You’ll never look at a typewriter the same way again.

Mechanical Secrets of Movie Gorillas

2006-08-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

Land walker robot suit

2006-08-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/08/land_walker_robot_suit.html

Kitler

2006-08-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

"Does your cat look like Adolf Hitler? Do you wake up in a cold sweat every night wondering if he's going to up and invade Poland? Does he keep putting his right paw in the air while making a noise that sounds suspiciously like "Sieg Miaow"? If so, this is the website for you."

from: http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/

Summer Reading

2006-08-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

George W. Bush: Messiah? "William "Bill" Smatt has written what appears to be a delightful nonfiction book revealing that George W. Bush is the Messiah."

http://www.themessengerofgod.org/

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2006/07/seedy-of-lebanon.html

"The Anatomy of a Pygmie"

2006-07-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2006/07/anatomy-of-pygmie.html

The above image has been scanned from a first edition (1699) copy of 'Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris: or, the Anatomy of a Pygmie compared with that of a Monkey, an Ape, and a Man. "Edward Tyson (1650–1708) was an English physician and member of the Royal Society. Beyond his medical duties and publications (both of which were significant and extensive) he had a deep interest in comparative anatomy, an area of scientific investigation in which he is one of the leading early protagonists. In 1680 he had already outlined this interest in 'Phocaena or the Anatomy of the Porpess' in which he not only systematically described cetacean structures but also wrote of "the importance of a comparative approach to anatomy and attempts to develop a plan for a natural history of animals." He performed dissections on many different species and published his findings in the 'Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'.

Soy sauce made from human hair

2006-07-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

Interfax reports that media exposure has forced the government to respond to a scandal about soy sauce that was being made from human hair: "The Chinese government has shown an unusually high level of concern as a result of a bold media exposure towards a scandal in which human hair was used to make soy sauce. The government has now ordered an immediate inspection of all domestic food seasoning plants before the end of January. China Central Television (CCTV), the state television station, first raised public worries over the quality of domestic soy sauce by uncovering a substandard workshop in central China's Hubei Province, where piles of waste human hair were found. The hairs were treated in special containers to distill amino acid, the most common substance contained in soybean sauce. Human hair is rich in protein content, just like soybean, wheat and bran, the conventional and legally accepted raw ingredients for the production of soy sauce."

Delicious.

"China Central Television (CCTV), the state television station, first raised public worries over the quality of domestic soy sauce by uncovering a substandard workshop in central China's Hubei Province, where piles of waste human hair were found. The hairs were treated in special containers to distill amino acid, the most common substance contained in soybean sauce. Human hair is rich in protein content, just like soybean, wheat and bran, the conventional and legally accepted raw ingredients for the production of soy sauce."

*this is from a 2 year old news clipping

http://www.danwei.org/internet/soy_sauce_made_from_human_hair.php

Strange Fish Found on Beach Near Seaside

2006-07-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

The extremely rare fish's name stems from Indian lore when it was believed that the King of the Salmon led the smaller species back to the rivers to spawn.

Photo courtesy: Seaside Aquarium and BeachConnection.net

(SEASIDE) - There was a strange find on the Oregon coast this weekend, not too far from Seaside. Keith Chandler and Tiffany Boothe, of the Seaside Aquarium, say they got a tip about a strange fish that washed up at Sunset Beach, just south of Astoria and it led to a most unusual discovery.

Boothe and Chandler went to the beach and discovered a very rare find: a fish called King-of-the-Salmon (Trachipterus Altivelis), which normally lives around 1600 feet under the sea.
“He belongs to the family of Ribbonfish,” Boothe said. “There are four other species of Ribbonfish along our coast, but the King-of-the-Salmon is the largest; growing up to and possibly exceeding six feet. This one measured almost exactly 6 feet. They can be found down as far as 1600 feet from Alaska to Baja and along the Coast of Chile.”
Chandler said this was the first time he’d ever seen this in his 27 years of marine science career. He said he did not know what conditions could’ve brought the creature up this far above its normal environment.

“The name, King-of-the-Salmon, originated from an Indian legend which describes this fish as the 'king' who leads the salmon back to the rivers to spawn,” Boothe said. “They are rarely seen, but fisherman have been known to catch them both in nets and on line (though it is not too common). The adults eat squid and juvenile rockfish.”
Another interesting note from the coast this weekend is glowing phytoplankton that has been making itself seen on the beaches at night.
Visitors in Newport have seen the phenomenon, which is visible as tiny, faint bluish sparks in wet sand or pools of water that have been standing some time. They are created when you move your foot along the sand, kick the sand or pound your foot in the sand or in those pools of water.

This sighting – unusual for the Oregon coast, but more common in warmer waters of the world – is created by dinoflagellates, a form of phytoplankton which is bioluminescent, not unlike fireflies.

Plushy monkey paintings

2006-07-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

"We all love monkeys, especially the younger, cheekier ones who are so much fun and always full of life. Deeply sensitive and very bright, they are always alert and interested in their surroundings even when they are thoroughly engaged in conversation and chatter. Monkeys know how to be funny and provocative, how to amuse and entertain with their sparkling wit and that famous monkey magic. They are honest, imaginative, motivated individuals, and can easily sympathise with other animals so even the most shy creatures open up to them. Sometimes monkeys can be unexpectedly emotionally reserved, and they can also be surprisingly calm in situations where most other animals would panic. However, even the sharpest monkey in the tree can sometimes take things a little too literally and then because they are so honest and serious they can become irritatingly law-abiding in a most un-monkey-like way. But even the most honest and law-abiding monkey can be mischevious and manipulative when persuing a desire, and then they will delight in breaking the rules and bending the truth to gain what they want."

http://www.fred-london.com/index.php?mode=artists&id=16&PHPSESSID=f292ac75672dc0295c50b2718599244a

Tampon Shooter

2006-07-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

"Inspired by marshmallow shooters, this air-powered tampon gun turns your feminine hygiene products into high-flying projectiles. Have a shootout between rival tampon brands, or use it as a fun alternative to paintball. The tampon shooter has a range of 10 to 20 feet depending on your ammo and lung capacity. The matching bandolier lets you carry a full “clip” (i.e., box) of 20 tampons, so you’ll never be caught short in the heat of battle."

http://www.tamponcrafts.com/gun.html

'Zombies' arrested in downtown Minneapolis

2006-07-25T14:34:00.000-07:00

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Six friends spruced up in fake blood and tattered clothing were arrested in downtown Minneapolis on suspicion of toting "simulated weapons of mass destruction."
Police said the group were allegedly carrying bags with wires sticking out, making it look like a bomb, while meandering and dancing to music as part of a "zombie dance party" Saturday night.
"They were arrested for behavior that was suspicious and disturbing," said Lt. Gregory Reinhardt, a police spokesman. Police also said the group was uncooperative and intimidated people with their "ghoulish" makeup.
One group member said the "weapons" were actually backpacks modified to carry a homemade stereos and were jailed without reason. None of the six adults and one juvenile arrested have been charged.
"Given the circumstance of them being uncooperative ... why would you have those (bags) if not to intimidate people?" said Inspector Janee Harteau. "It's not a case of (police) overreacting."
Harteau also said police were on high alert because they'd gotten a bulletin about men who wear clown makeup while attacking and robbing people in other states.
Kate Kibby, one of those arrested, said previous zombie dance parties at the Mall of America and on light-rail trains have occurred without incident. Last fall, nearly 200 people took part in a "zombie pub crawl" in northeast Minneapolis.
Kibby said they were cooperative and followed the two officers to the station where they were questioned and eventually loaded into a van and booked into jail.
"It was clear to us that they were trying to get a rise out of us," KIbby said.
Members of the group could face lesser charges like disorderly conduct, police said.

http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S17817.html?cat=1

Pepto-bismol ice cream!

2006-07-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

Make Pepto-bismol ice cream!

Eggs (6 yolks). Vanilla pods (2). Milk (250ml). Pepto-Bismol (1 bottle). Cream (250ml). Sugar (50g).

Simple. We start by splitting the vanilla pods and scraping out the tiny seeds. The seeds get added to the cream, sugar and eggs.

This custard is taken off the heat as soon as it’s close to boiling (the point at which the liquid can curdle), and rapidly cooled over a bowl of iced water.

pour in the medicine, stir.

pour the compound into an ice cream maker, light the blue touch paper, and retire.

"The taste? Actually, it’s quite nice. The vanilla and sugar temper the metallic bitterness of the medicine, giving the end result a flavour not too dissimilar to black cherry. And as a hangover cure? Initial studies are encouraging, with no negative side-effects experienced as yet. A mild mid-week drinking session provided the first test, and while my cross-breed concoction certainly didn’t eliminate the suffering altogether, the benefits did not go unnoticed. Obviously, if I’m to suggest to P&G that they approach Ben & Jerry’s to produce a commercial version, there will have to be proper clinical trials, with control groups and placebos and suchlike, but I’m hopeful. It’ll sit nicely on the shelves next to my paracetamol bacon roll."

http://www.blogjam.com/2006/07/20/pepto-bismol-ice-cream

"Why Have a Lesser Evil For Breakfast?"

2006-07-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

From:

http://www.deadprogrammer.com/?p=1681

Strange statues around the world

2006-07-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

Frogner Park, Oslo, Norway

http://haha.nu/funny/strange-statues-around-the-world

A few years back I was doing internet images searches for miscellaneous bronze sculptures. At that time I was considering taking a casting class & I wanted to see the various aesthetic options. As things usually go when I do image searches, the strange came to me. I found a website with photographs of this really bizarre statue of a man stomping on babies. (As well as a pissed off baby crying-stomping) I’d used the angry baby sculpture as my avatar several times & a few people ask where I’d found it. I would often tell ‘em about the “mad-man” piece too, unable to turn up the old site containing the image.

I found it, here. Enjoy!

Yummy!

2006-07-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

It was supposed to be a relatively simple evening. Sit on the couch & watch “The Hills Have Eyes”. A sort of celebration of getting the clogged bathtub unclogged. I put the DVD into the player & tried to switch the TV over. The remote switcher thingy didn’t work. It seemed to be an easily remedied situation. I went into the kitchen to dig around for new batteries. Set the remote down & noticed a syrupy reddish brown substance on my fingers. Since Maude had finished cooking her dinner & I was rooting around the kitchen I figured it was a condiment or something. So, I decided to taste it. Bad idea. Instantly, it felt like someone jammed a hot poker into the tip of my tongue. I was at the kitchen sink in the blink of an eye, flushing the burn area for around 10 mins or so. Maude called 911 & they wanted to send an ambulance. She quickly wriggled out of that one, as it was unnecessary (we live across the street from a hospital) she then called poison control. They suggested I continue to flush the area another 5 mins or so & I would be fine. If any blisters popped up, I was to head across the street. In the end, it all turned out ok. The tongue feels like I burned it with hot coffee OR I’m continuously licking a dying battery. The ooze from a leaking triple A battery makes good hot sauce!

CITY'S BEAUTIFUL BUT HIDDEN SAND DUNES

2006-07-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

...Unfortunately, they're beneath 300 feet of water outside the Golden Gate.

San Francisco long has been renowned for its hills, bay and bridges -- but not for expanses of sand dunes. That's liable to change.
It turns out there are more than 2 square miles of dunes right next to the city, and world-class dunes at that: Only a few sites around the globe have larger dunes of this sort.
Access, however, will remain difficult unless you're a sand dab or Dungeness crab. The dunes are just west of the Golden Gate, submerged in 100 to 350 feet of sea water.

http://tinyurl.com/oj9e3

Rubber Johnny

2006-07-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7382676545570345084&q=Chris+Cunningham

Rubber Johnny documents a 16-year-old, inbred mutant's solitary existence, locked in a pitch-black basement by his ashamed parents. They ... all are TV-addict rednecks who occasionally feed Johnny and yell at him for making noise. Johnny's only company in the basement is his little horrified Chihuahua dog. His dog's I.Q. far outstrips Johnny's, who is a completely insane, bi-polar imbecile. Capable of morphing his body, he spends his life trying to amuse himself and his dog

Dynosphere AUTO Runs on One Wheel

2006-07-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

THE wheel is one of the oldest inventions of man and has been used for ages on all sorts of vehicles, but it has remained for an English inventor to build a complete vehicle out of one wheel.
As shown in the photo above, the “dynos-phere,” as its inventor calls it, consists of a wide-rimmed latticed wheel with a power plant inside its circumference, where the driver sits. There is also room for a companion in the seat alongside him.Inside the wheel, on either side, tracks run completely around. The motor is geared to the track so that, when the engine is started, the motor pulls the track toward it and so starts the wheel in motion. Center of gravity is low to prevent the wheel from tipping over.
The weight of the motor and driver is sufficient to keep them always parallel with the ground—if the driving apparatus were sufficiently light, the motor might conceiv-ably climb up the geared track instead of pulling it and the attached wheel around.
Dr. Purves is the inventor of the dyno-sphere, which has been tested on the beach at Weston Super Ware, England. Speeds of thirty miles an hour, with two occupying the seat, have been comfortably attained. The lattice-work in front of the driver’s eyes disappears when the wheel is in motion, flashing past so rapidly that he has a good view of the road he is traveling.

THE HORRORS - SHEENA IS A PARASITE

2006-07-18T16:11:00.000-07:00

Directed by Chris Cunningham, the guy who did the Aphex Twin videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZMrwZItOGE&search=the%20horrors%20sheena

Chris Cunningham's directorial work is well known in the worlds of music video, commercial, and video art. He first achieved notoriety in 1997 with the horrific and comic clip for Come to Daddy by Aphex Twin. In quick succession he created six memorable and highly individual clips, each borne of his ability to extract a song's subtleties and pour them into a visual form. Mr. Cunningham's commercial work have also shown a bit of his ability in developing an interesting and subtle vignette out of a small bit of script.

More stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60rjCC2kr44&search=CHRIS%20CUNNINGHAM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB08leFMRnM&mode=related&search=CHRIS%20CUNNINGHAM

http://www.director-file.com/cunningham/

Lemmy talks Hawkwind, wrecks hotel room

2006-07-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaQq_Qq7biQ&search=Hawkwind%20

Lemmy & Philthy in an old interview for French TV. at one point they jokingly hold the interviewer at knifepoint, then shred a pillow singing "happy birthday" & "Merry Christmas"...

Emperor Norton's Grave

2006-07-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/pwuex

Joshua Abraham Norton (ca. 1815 – January 8, 1880), also known as His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, was a celebrated citizen of San Francisco who proclaimed himself "Emperor of these United States and Protector of Mexico" in 1859. Some sources list his date of birth as February 14, 1819. Although he had no political power, and his influence extended only so far as he was humored by those around him, he was treated deferentially in San Francisco, and currency issued in his name was honored in the establishments he frequented. Norton also wrote to Queen Victoria, and he was referred to as His Imperial Majesty by local citizens and in the newspaper obituaries announcing his death. Though he was generally considered insane, or at least highly eccentric, the citizens of San Francisco (and the world at large) in the mid-to-late 19th century celebrated his presence, his humor, and his deeds—among the most notorious being his "order" that the U.S. Congress be dissolved by force, and his numerous decrees calling for a bridge to be built across San Francisco Bay. The King in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is reportedly modeled after him. He is considered a saint by the followers of Discordianism and is referenced repeatedly in the seminal work of the religion, the Principia Discordia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton

http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/nort.html

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php3?tip_AttractionNo==138

T H E B I K E R O D G A L L E R Y

2006-07-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

http://mywilson.homestead.com/gallery0.html

Fish Art

2006-07-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

Yumi-NaBowfish.

Fishbone bow.

The spinal column stretchesby drawing a bow...

http://www.novmichi.com/naki/introduction.html

Lard Candle

2006-07-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

From: www.cockeyed.com/

http://www.cockeyed.com/science/candle/lard.shtml

Propeller Drives Homemade Flying Merry-Go-Round

2006-07-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

A FLYING merry-go-round in their own back yard is the pride and joy of young” Christopher Elliott and his sister Maureen, of Beccles, Suffolk, England. Built by their father, the novel whirligig has a two-passenger open gondola suspended from twin booms that revolve around a central post firmly set into concrete. Driving power for the unusual homemade flying machine is furnished by a one-horsepower gasoline engine that whirls a twenty-three-inch wooden propeller incased in a protective cowling of wire and metal. Cross bracing between booms and center post adds stability.

Forestiere underground gardens

2006-07-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

5021 West Shaw Avenue Fresno, CA 93722

Like the name implies, these gardens are underground. Working alone during his spare time and using only hand tools, Baldasare Forestiere spent some 40 years sculpting an underground complex consisting of: A Network of Underground Rooms, niches, courts, patios and passageways numbering almost 100. An Underground Garden Home consisting of kitchen, nook, living room, 2 bedrooms, library, bath, fish pond, and aquarium. Arches and Stonework patterned after the catacombs of Ancient Rome. An Auto Tunnel running the length of the gardens, almost 800 feet long! A Chapel and Chapel Garden. Baldasare adorned these areas with a unique variety of trees including Strawberry, Carob, Jujube, numerous citrus (many on one tree), Pomegranate, Mulberry, Date Palm, Avocado, Quince, and Persimmon.

http://www.platial.com/kevans/places?detail=100007&zoom&title=Forestiere%20underground%20gardens

The Albion Castle

2006-07-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

From: http://pauldejong.com/~castle/

The Albion Castle, 881 Innes Avenue San Francisco Ca

The Albion Castle was built as a brewery in 1870. During prohibition it was closed down since they could not sell their beer. Parts of the building burned down during that time. The castle was rebuilt by a sculptor in 1939. The wall and the caves are from 1870, but most of the wood is from 1939. See more images and details at AlbionCastle.US. The building consists of a 6 story square tower attached to a small building and castle ruins which run into the terraced gardens. There are tons of great spaces to hang out in. There are also some caves and underground pools fed by fresh spring water. The caves were built/dug as part of the brewery in 1870.

http://pauldejong.com/~castle/imagesPage.cgi?castle

http://laughingsquid.com/2005/04/27/albion-castle-update/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foolio/10585367/

http://www.platial.com/kevans/places?detail=100300&zoom&title=The%20Albion%20Castle

The ElectriClerk

2006-07-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

The ElectriClerk is a fully functional 1988 Mac with a 1923 Underwood typewriter made by Andrew Leman...

"Built for a game of Cthulhu Lives! that has yet to be played, this piece was inspired by the retro-futuristic machines in the movie Brazil by Terry Gilliam. It was one of the most difficult and time-consuming pieces I've ever attempted. Despite the ridiculous amount of abuse I subjected it to, and despite the fact that all its components are now exposed to the air, the 1988 Macintosh SE which forms the heart of this piece still works just fine."

http://www.ahleman.com/Props/ElectriClerk.html

Giant Catfish Protected From Fishing in Thailand

2006-07-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

Fishers in northern Thailand netted this huge catfish in the Mekong River on May 1, 2005. Nearly 9 feet (2.7 meters) long, the fish tipped the scales at 646 pounds (293 kilograms).

Last month more than 60 fishers in northern Thailand promised to stop catching the critically endangered giant fish, in honor of the King of Thailand's 60th year on the throne.

Bonobos

2006-07-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

Bonobos at the San Diego zoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mEI6Yak_Vs&mode=related&search=

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Bonobos%20&btnG=Google+Search&sa=N&tab=wi

POV Space Shuttle Launch

2006-07-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what a space shuttle launch looked like up close? Here are 2 stunning videos, two viewpoints. One looking down, one up.

http://tinyurl.com/hls5z

http://tinyurl.com/sx5f9

Rhleh

2006-07-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

Lovecraftian CGI short film

http://ryleh.free.fr/

Cthulhu Lego!

2006-07-07T19:09:00.000-07:00

A Lego movie based on "At the Mountains of Madness"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7704188619497058952&q=cthulhu

The Common Cult

2006-07-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

The Common Cult; Night Sentries
by George Sterling

Up to the House of Mammon, from dawn to sister dawn, Called by remembered voices the sons of men are drawn; By noon the dust goes skyward, by night the torches flare, On veining roads that mingle-- and you and I are there. Around the House of Mammon, like ruined cities' stones, The stubborn and the haughty have left their trampled bones. They were the few in number that would not enter in, Saying, "The god is evil." Saying, "To kneel is sin." The ebony House of Mammon goes up against the sky; The north wind and the south wind before its portals die. Its towers go near to Heaven; its vaults go nearer Hell, And all are fat with favor to some who serve them well. Before the House of Mammon stand you not overlong, But enter to the worship, unnoted in the throng; There it is ill to parley, to ask the why or when, For he whose line would prosper shall be as other men. Within the House of Mammon august the twilights are, Across whose gulf the portal gleams smaller than a star. The bucklers of the mighty in rust and ruin melt, Above those deep foundations where king and pontiff knelt. Within the House of Mammon low thunder of loud pray'rs Rolls from the burdened pavement and coiled, colossal stairs-- Petition and obeisance, when each makes known his need, Begging the flamens hearken, begging the largess speed. Within the House of Mammon his priesthood stands alert, By mysteries attended, by dusk and splendors girt, Knowing, for faiths departed, his own shall still endure, And they be found his chosen, untroubled, solemn, sure. Within the House of Mammon the golden altar lifts Where dragon-lamps are shrouded as costly incense drifts-- A dust of old ideals, now fragrant from the coals, To tell of hopes long ended, to tell the death of souls. Within the House of Mammon there is no need of song, And faced by them who doubt not, no doubt endures for long; Tho twilight hold the temple, there yet each one shall see The Word of Words, the letters that spell "Necessity." Beyond the House of Mammon there is no need to go, And other fanes are shadow, whose figments melt and flow. Grown weary of the service, no scoffer long derides, For past the veils and darkness, a very god abides.... Above the House of Mammon, the hours and ages tread, Nor find the ramparts shaken, nor see the sentries fled, Till o'er the massy columns, broken like those of Tyre, The long-awaited Morning go winged with crystal fire. Night Sentries Ever as sinks the day on sea or land, Called or uncalled, you take your kindred posts. At helm and lever, wheel and switch, you stand, On the world's wastes and melancholy coasts. Strength to the patient hand! To all, alert and faithful in the night, May there by Light! Now roars the wrenching train along the dark; How many watchers guard the barren way In signal-towers, at stammering keys, to mark The word the whispering horizons say! To all that see and hark -- To all, alert and faithful in the night, May there be Light! On ruthless streets, on byways sad with sin -- Half-hated by the blinded ones you guard -- Guard well, lest crime unheeded enter in! The dark is cruel and the vigil hard, The hours of guilt begin. To all, alert and faithful in the night, May there be Light! Now storms the pulsing hull adown the sea: Gaze onward, anxious eyes, to mist or star! Where foams the heaving highway blank and free? Where wait the reef, the berg, the cape, the bar? Whatever menace be, To all, alert and faithful in the night, May there be Light! Now the surf-rumble rides the midnight wind, And grave patrols are on ocean edge. Now soars the rocket where the billows grind, Discerned too late, on sunken shoal or ledge. To all that seek and find, To all, alert and faithful in the night, May there be Light! On lonely headlands gleam the lamps that warn, Star-steady, or ablink like dragon eyes. Govern your rays, or wake the giant horn Within the fog that welds the sea and skies! Far distant runs the morn: To all, alert and faithful in the night, May there be Light! Now glow the lesser lamps in rooms of pain, Where nurse and doctor watch the joyless breath, Drawn in a sigh, and sighing lost again. Who waits without the threshold, Life or Death? Reckon you loss or gain? To all, alert and faithful in the night, May there be Light! Honor to you that guard our welfare now! To you that constant in the past have stood! To all by whom the future shall avow Unconquerable fortitude and good! Upon the sleepless brow Of each, alert and faithful in the night, May there be Light!

Why Does the "Hawaiian" Episode of The Brady Bunch So Haunt Us?

2006-07-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

Glen's essay on the Brady Bunch: No sooner does the child of the seventies hear the word "taboo" than rings in his ear a five note palindrome, tapped out on a Bontempi organ ("recorder" setting), and best approximated verbally by the phrase "diddle-iddle-oo". The music passes, often unnoted, and the young person resumes his discourse on the kinship traditions of southern Africa's !Kung society, shaking off an inexplicable chill. This phenomenon is no accident. It is my task to show how the creators of The Brady Bunch exposed their society's psychosexual norms as fragile make-shift seawalls, unfit to protect us from even the slightest of the universe's self-assertive tidal waves. The episode-proper begins when an idol is found on a Hawaiian construction site. A young laborer scoffs at a wizened crone's talk of "taboo" (diddle-iddle-oo) and "bad luck"; he tosses the artifact into the grass. It is here, where men are excavating--hollowing out an artificial womb in the great mother to erect a phallic monument to male intellect, science, and capitalism--that Bobby finds the talisman, calling it "neat". Mother nature has given birth to a tiny charm (admired by Bobby for its outward, aesthetic form), which is actually a radioactive source of blind Dionysian amorality. When Jan puts the idol in her bag, a hideous island spider follows, contaminating Jan's pristine womb and breaking the sanctity of her virginity. Jan--an everygirl archetype--becomes an unknowing carrier of uterine filth. Jan's defilement is heinous because she is the protected middle child, nestled safely between Cindy (the Magic Child) and Marsha (the Femme Fatale). Through the idol, nature has shown the idealized Jan to be a social lie, a virginal pretender made doubly laughable by her ignorance of her sin. This theme finds resonance in Jan's fellow middle child, Alice. (For analysis of Alice's sibling rivalry with her elder sister Myrtle in Seattle, see The Brady Bunch, "Monkey in the Middle"). While hula dancing, in a grotesque attempt to emulate the lithe pagan nymphs of Honolulu, Alice experiences a pain in her side: a displaced menstrual cramp in an apparently sexlesss, post-menopausal matriarch. By attempting to "go native" in a grass skirt, Alice has ventured ouside her role of Domestic Virgin Mother. Once again, cthonian narure mocks the dubious sexual masks the members of this microcosmic "bunch" ritually wear. The idol is responsible for several near-deaths. While Peter and Bobby engage in homo-erotic horseplay on their hotel bed, they are almost crushed by a gigantic wall-hanging. The artifact has brought out the latent libidos of the family's two youngest males, and consequerntly, they are almost annihilated by society's rigid law, represented by the heavy piece of iron artwork. The idol has its most chilling effect on Greg, the muscular Beautiful Boy of Golden Age Athens, who uses his long, sleek surfboard with consummate skill and strength (the epitome of classical arrete) to conquer the angry Pacific Ocean, representative of the uncharted and deadly liquid reality of female nature. But it is nature's talisman he wears, and so he must fall, knocked senseless by his own phallic instrument. That Mike must save the failed youth from drowning in the chaotic sea perverts the Telemachean search for father, which always ends in water. Greg emerges, limp and waterlogged, utterly conquered and robbed of his virility by an indifferent female opponent. One can read the disgust on Mike's face. Salvation, such as it its, is finally found in the person of a mysterious, overtly homosexual father figure (Vincent Price), who first holds the boys in his hermit womb of asocial contemplation, but eventully gives in to the architect father's "calm cool reasoning". (For analysis of Mike's failure to appease Buddy Hinton's barbarian father, and the ultimate victory of Peter's brute violence, see The Brady Bunch, "Baby-talk, Baby-talk"). Thus, civilized, Apollonian norms appear to win out, with the outcast hermit's reabsoption into society and the "sensible" reconfiguration of all the horrifying misfortunes as "good luck". In other words, the magic is clearly not destroyed, but only rechristened by a terrified intellectual patriarch seeking to regain his family's faith in an unnamed Providence and a benevolent universe. The "taboo" (diddle-iddle-oo) cannot be destroyed, but only reburied and reset in an innocuous commemorative matrix, until such time as another luckless bastard unearths it, once again unfettering its chaotic influence. This episode is our momento mori, a keepsake to remind us that our heroic efforts to "somehow form a family" are always contingent on keeping the death's-head of "taboo" (diddle-iddle-oo) underground, and therefore, they are doomed."

Art of Stephen Berkman

2006-07-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

The History of Dread, A Guide for the Perplexed

http://www.stephenberkman.com/ambrotypes/index.htm

http://www.stephenberkman.com/

Significant Gesture Creation And Use by Icky Bob

2006-07-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

Create and document a significant gesture.

Use the gesture in your everyday life.

Icky Bob’s gesture:

“Satan’s Bird”

Instructions: with one hand you flip the bird, the other make the sign of the horns. Overlay the two. Enjoy! Two great taste that taste great together!

... And scream it like Rob Halford!

I now use this gesture in lieu of "flipping the bird". Unfortunately, it doesn’t work well when driving.

The Meat Cyborg

2006-07-07T18:53:00.000-07:00

From: surrealcoconut.com Sarah T-068's features include: * Internal computer control of all cybernetic functions with state of the art anti-hijacking and anti-virus organic software. The implants do not interfere with or control natural brain activity. * 100% genuine telepathic meat gloves for communicating with loved-ones. A must-have for any meat cyborg! * versatile body coolant system to prevent overheating and to serve as a personal lubricant * highly sensitive telepathic nipple array for detecting poetic phenomena * photosynthetic light-capture organs and external chloroplast circulatory system * bionic legs for kicking CEO's, politicians, priests, soldiers and other agents of oppression and exploitation. * whipped cream and olive array for generating Anti-Yahweh telepathic shielding * ninja meat mask for stealth operations * symbiotic genital banana slugs, for comfort and protection * generous line-in/line-out options * and a whole lot more!

http://www.surrealcoconut.com/surrealism_gallery/assembled_objects/meat_cyborg/main.htm

"A giant centipede killing and eating a mouse"

2006-07-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

"A giant centipede, scolopendra gigantea robusta, killing and eating a mouse. This specimen was not yet full grown but as you can see, it was already an impressive size"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CL2hetqpfg

"Matthew Barney: The Occidental Guest"

2006-07-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

New sculptures and drawings that continue to explore Barney's signature themes of "resistance as a pre-requisite for development and a vehicle for creativity," drawing parallels between the biological system of situation/condition/production and the artistic manifestations of psychosexual drives.

http://barbaragladstonegallery.com/barney.asp?id=605

“La Llorona”

2006-07-07T18:49:00.000-07:00

Ooh, the horrible ugly one, ugly one When you gonna drown some kids, La Llorona Ooh, you make the children run, my children run Skin is coming off the bone, La Llorona Never gonna stop, or give ‘em up Such a evil mind Always crying for the the younger kind La, La, La, I-ieeeee L-L-L- La Llorona Don’t get near her, ah will ya huh Close enough to look in her eyes, La Llorona Keeping a little mystery It gets to ‘em Floating down the length of the river, La Llorona Never gonna stop, or give ‘em up Such a evil mind Always crying for the the younger kind La, La, La, I-ieeeee L-L-L- La Llorona [Instrumental Interlude] When you gonna get to me, get to me It is just a matter of time, La Llorona Is it just destiny, destiny Or is it just a game in my mind, La Llorona Never gonna stop or give it up Such a evil mind Always crying for the the younger kind La, La, La, I-ieeeee La, La, La, I-ieeeee L-L-L- La Llorona L-L-L- La Llorona L-L-L- La Llorona

3 to the 3rd on KQED

2006-07-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.kqed.org/arts/places/profile.jsp?id=7401

Varnish's show, 3 to the 3rd (April 18 trhough June 3, 2006) celebrates the gallery's third anniversary and features work by metal sculptor Eric Elliot in his Bay Area debut, along with intaglio printmaker Kevin Evans and ceramic sculptor/installation artist Elizabeth Orleans. Elliot's metal pieces, cast in stainless steel or bronze, measure about 27" high, 11" deep and 18" wide. Using the female form as his starting point, Elliot creates round and robust figures that are uniform in their grace and strong presence. Evans's intaglio prints are muted and pale with gentle washes of subtle colors creating visceral imagery recalling the likes of H.R. Giger, the otherworldly landscapes of HP Lovecraft and Blake's mysticism. Sculptor Orleans works in clay uses her creations to tell "ceramic tales." Her work appeals to the imagination and invites you to come in for a closer look to see what story can be told in the clues she puts into her sculptures. Where: 77 Natoma St. (between 1st and 2nd Sts.), San Francisco Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday from 11am-6pm (wine bar open until 11pm), Saturday from 1pm-5pm Phone: (415) 222-6131

DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME!

2006-07-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

English Lessons!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5qoMfBJUeI

Japanese dancing girls and salarymen uttering defensive rebuttals in English

Shades of DEVO

2006-07-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbAo6vgGdo0&eurl=

graveyardhaulerz.com

2006-07-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

Neet website.

http://www.graveyardhaulerz.com/

Tale of How by The Black Heart Gang

2006-07-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

A CGI mini movie of amazing art and expressition.

http://www.fabricari.com/blog/2006/05/black-heart-gang-tale-of-how.php

"Tyger"

2006-07-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

If you like Blake, you will love this.

http://guilherme.tv/tyger/

Burning Safari

2006-07-07T18:16:00.000-07:00

Stunning and charmingly funny animation about a bunch of robotic tourist visiting a prehistoric earth & introducing themselves to the primate natives. Bits of "2001" leak in as inspiration.

http://www.gobelins.fr/galerie/animation/gen2006-1.htm

by "Gobelins" “students of the formation draughtsman of animation”

The Museum of Jurassic Technology

2006-07-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, California is an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic.

http://www.mjt.org/intro/genbroch.html

Gallery of fantastic creatures

2006-07-07T18:12:00.000-07:00

Gensou Hyouhon Hakubustukan (”Museum of Fantastic Specimens”) is an online collection of creatures “curated” by Hajime Emoto. The three-story virtual museum consists of 9 rooms chock full of water- and land-dwelling monstrosities from all corners of the globe. Each specimen has a thumbnail that displays more photos and historical and background information (entirely in Japanese). The cafeteria in the basement serves dishes prepared using some of the beasts featured in the museum. All of the creatures showcased in the museum are sculpted from paper, modeling paste and bamboo and are completely imaginary, claims Emoto — disheartening news for believers in the legendary tsuchinoko (pictured above, on the right in the middle).

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2006/07/gallery-of-fantastic-creatures/

The disgusting, completely unrecognizable animal in the basket trick

2006-07-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

"The recipe called for a disgusting pet bundled in a blanket that would shock just about anyone who dared to have a peek to see what was 'free to a good home'. Once this little guy was slimed up with special effects gooey slobber, he was ready to make his television debut at a local pet store. The reactions of onlookers was exactly what was intended; horror and disgust in the highest order. Most people couldn't bear to even look at it for any duration."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMYvAomeo5Q

"Arbitrary & Disembodied"

2005-08-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

Irrational trepidation and dejected reckoning of substance impulse shepherds the federation into mad hysteria. Heads of state lay claim to blessing of divinity and their obscured hydra incites society towards an irrational consuming fear.

Forecasting theorist devoid of standard and sightless advocates bear a resemblance to each other. In bedlam of collective distrust and quarrel of wisdom, they that command are unwell and gruesome perpetrators in quest of cataclysmic disproportion.

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

“Concrete Decorated Elephantine”

2005-07-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

Those that have calculated the expanse and proportions and study the precise center of mass establishing the trajectory of the varied satellites;

those that clutch the statistics of expanse and dimension of seemingly inexplicable far-flung entities, all with an entourage of celestial adherents, each administered via the exact definite perfunctory commandments and externally obligatory powers.

It can only be tenuously imagined what the primal experienced in consideration to the lustrous arrangement. A cosmos animate, characters with might and authority, strange and outside grasp.

An immense sentient beast or a militia in compassion or contrary to humanity. The whole was vagueness and a wonder, and the lights conversed to the essence in a perceptible tongue.

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"Corollary of Venison"

2005-07-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

I.)

They pursue unpaid helpers and traveler to realize infinite will. Salvage the unbroken congregation! Rebuke the charlatan and bring to an end to the infringement bordering the benumbed population. Miniature timbre suppurates with divest! Gaudy protrusions unchain a duplicate stance of contaminant and continue the quarrel of display,

Corollary of Venison!

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"Graze or Exhume?"

2005-07-26T23:31:00.000-07:00

The gallant marathon is a potent territory gradually constructed jointly. An impressive sequence of laudable action, the unusual capture of chaos. The populace, void of Instance makes it ripe and precious. Original conduct, if lucrative ought to demonstrate an audience’s curiosity. Account is redundant. The exploit of development in partnership with other utensils is a chief and essential conduit of declaration & materialization. It is in our nature to choose.

Remains of its previous nature, glancing from uncovered stratum. Specters of previous arrangements, Lone slice existing as a separate.

Faithful judgment will be branded.

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"Plague assassinates myriad"

2005-07-26T23:25:00.000-07:00

Uniqueness of incentive and truth; the illustrious achievement that crafts genuine the superior. Designer and discoverer upend archaic minimalisms. Unawareness is occupied in the labor of manufacturing gradations and mock ambiguity, the Illogical and gruesome fascist of authenticity. Reflex culture complies with the deceased; beliefs of antiquity are commandments of the contemporary. The procedures of environment are twisted by protracted unnoticeable measures. Only the vocation of vicious ruin and injury is immediate. Plague assassinates myriad in a day; tempest encumbers the soil with crushed nations and cumulative struggle. An unnoticed element of haze unites to form the vapor and billow that descends on yearning expanse to consecrate the vast emerald hinterlands. They fabricate unhurriedly and obliterate instantly.

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"End Age"

2005-07-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

It raises a dreadful symbol of fate in the occurrence of urban. The instruction of previous era is forceful and grave, the account of misbegotten riches is the narration of sedition and collapse. In fraudulent exalted persona of nationalism and creed, it sends a sacrificial army to gather the time of menace and misfortune. Without charge are the progeny of comfort, excess, and opulence.

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"Clone Pilasters"

2005-07-24T23:24:00.000-07:00

The clone pilasters in order to sustain must linger divided and analogous. When it is endeavored by aggression to merge, they are upturned and the structure cascades on the recklessly unsighted. Synchronization is the outcome of the irregular prevalence of influences. Controls that are opposing furnish motion. If a center seeking dynamism should conquer the periphery seeking, the symmetry terminates and the system is obliterated. In place of amalgamation, the sum total would be ravaged into chaotic flotsam and jetsam.

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"Pummeling Sanity"

2005-07-23T23:23:00.000-07:00

Murky template is closing extent for recline. In catalepsy, infantile combine mounts from disembark, identifying region to be a common mode. Unenthusiastic sienna trickle splatters the side malarkey. Traumatized boost sways sideways, crashing into the pre-cast perpendicular vessel. Bewildered subdivision associates as the responsibility to ejection. Gateway unlocks and the loutish swarm gushes into lobby, pillaging municipal and private justness. The percolating drove lingers, enthusiastic to hoist. All chambers clutch a unique shedding. Piquant intense bouquet of an abundant whiff! Ancient depraved vegetables inseminating an unclean splotch!

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"Newborn Legions of Insect"

2005-07-22T23:20:00.000-07:00

II.)

A lion’s portions of torn dissertation casings propel unrefined airdrome expulsion, a confine near wayside vestibule. It is an invalid postulation as to what manner of apparatus it is. a nebulous veterinary implement worn in an obsolete modus operandi? The cunning preserve detached prospects to monitor the resolution fade, urbanizing a familial ecosystem. Idler drains away! The Legion of insect and epidemic swaddles the core and knows not the connotation of dissolution.

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"XIII"

2005-07-22T23:15:00.000-07:00

In the mind's eye a sequence of expressions personifying no concrete implication, an impenetrable maze of nuance flourished. The lone imposing scheme always materialized and arose foremost, fixed above a blistering bedlam of upheaval. Observe the conclusion of the immense theory and machination of relic; the definitive obliteration of senselessness.

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"Σφυρί και αμόνι"

2005-07-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

It is demolition, it is shells. It is not escalation and evolution. Vigor unfettered is squander! Craving is the solitary escort. Deliberation is ignored. Unawareness and Suffering! Vices and corruption reek and seethe! Throw it into kiln to be cleansed by inferno and grow to be imposing jewel! They hold the visceral might, a strike that facilitates the majestic prompt.

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"XXIII"

2005-07-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

Impediment to achievement incorporates lethargy, vacillation of the egotistical and a supine unconcern for a more meaningful existence. The snarl, devastation and blind urgency of subsistence and industry combines with a superficial distracting clamor and the pandemonium of government. Those that venture to transcend and improve, face a seemingly unconquerable antagonist. Disbelievers vomit nauseous portent and inane fanatics sermonize the absurdity and pointlessness of the endeavor. The world is polluted and overrun with this degraded plague; it must be conquered and eradicated.

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"XXIX"

2005-07-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

“Mislead and overstate worth to those in privileged bloc!” Machine of endorsements is prosperous in harvesting discontent and insecurity. -The ownership of a simple justification. Assertions hoisted in opposition to the disparity are hushed with incarceration! It would render the ceaseless exertion a fraction simpler. I’m convinced I need to shelter myself into some remote undersized hut, far away with no contact to the exterior. My medication copulates with fusty digestion, administering episodic catnaps.

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005

"XLVII"

2005-07-16T23:10:00.000-07:00

Hour of obscurity discharges a chatter above the miserly ripened broadcast. Paid only in Gossip demonstrations to override furnace swell hospitality, This notification of pending whiteout summons a dispatch. Lasts on the pike await emigration. Icy moisture forces an entry and the door cracks. Opaque colorless envelope. A stucco partition of cold. -Far-flung from protective edifice. A decided best to descend unaccompanied, escorted only by affiliates of the daily patrol to native safety. Open back black window related to depart from freezer’s exposed boiling head supports. At least the rain will wash heat and floating smog. As I lay on my back inspecting paved promoted condition, the delirious yearn for an immediate amend of stage. an entire trip transition budged with feeble swiftness as unbearable drudge of the tread helm drenched all reverberation, an available unhindered wearing of thick wool sweaters, sweating liberally. All the people melt to malls, movie theater complexes and cleaved tarpaulin apertures to aid advancement of the bleak load to nowhere. How do they navigate this vehicle?

*words & illustration by k.evans, c2005