Was it only six years ago that I had enough personal free time to play in a band and read a novel a week? Is it the terrorists, the capitalists, or the technologists that have stolen my time away? Who do I sue?
RIP, noisily
Per Bart: Funeral for a Friend. Helen Hill gets laid to rest in NOLA. Alternafreaks lay claim to the foundations of American culture and win a stake to the title by blood right. Get the fuck out of the way, dammit.
Flood
Thanks to Mugu Brainpan, I wonder if the triumph that is the They Might Be Giants LP Flood moughtn’t relate to the ‘hermetic artist’ Robert Fludd.
In a previous online life, copious speculation on a graphic-design email list I belonged to led to the enunciation of a postulated theory of hermetic design, as modernist design principles are closely founded upon medieval European traditions of harmony and good measure, which, in turn, stem from Greek-enunciated principles of harmony and proportion. Careful readers will be unsurprised to learn that it has long been my opinion that the closest students of these lessons in the middle ages were persons operating within the expanding economies of the Islamic sphere of influence.
Islamic geometry
Here’s the Beeb on that story about the advanced geometry of Islamic art I was flappin’ my gums about at Greg and Stacey’s t’other day. The coverage doesn’t capture the “NO SHIT, SHERLOCK” sense I had as I listened to the coverage, but the last time I really had the same sense of the obvious was listening to Colin Powell lie his head off about WMD in Iraq to the UN. In each instance I was shouting at the radio.
Oysters!
Erster stew. Mmm, did this come out good.
Vampire's Kiss redeems Skull Cyclist
E. Steven chez SIFFBlog stands the fuck up for Nick. The New Yorker review (I think, can’t recall exactly) celebrated the performance as well. Citing other reviewers’ appreciation of my own fave Cage vehicle, the gotta-see-it-to-beleive-it-Vampire’s-Kiss (best if watched as the lead-in on a double bill with Repulsion), he builds to this inescapable, irrefutable truth:
Lastly, and most importantly, despite all its shortcomings, the film is basically a bunch of images of a demonic, flaming skull-guy on a motorcycle. Maybe it’s the Scorpio Rising fan in me, but that right there is pretty much a movie.
I’ll buy that for a dollar!
Fez Domination
Let the predominance of the League be known amongst the fez wearers of our land!
Fezzicists
Tom noticed this too: League: Rize up!!! [del.icio.us].
Being over 40, I dinna see how a barin mought add to the party, alas. I’ll dredge my age-weakened brain-cells thru the intrickacy of a weekend.
Roolay
Happily, Bart found Another Day in NOLA to be heartening this week. Here in Seattle, I merely served red beans and rice followed a day later by some truly astounding salmon, but you fucking bet i was thinking of the Crescent City all week. And not only Baghdad – I also thought of New Orleans and her import to that nation!
See ya, Doctor
The Stranger: RIP, Charles Gocher of Sun City Girls
(Confidential to Alice Dee: oddly, I don’t think I woulda linked to this if we’d not spoken. It’s the first day of Lent, and all day I have been plotting a delicious fish feast. Perhaps this relates to the untimely passing of Dr. Gocher, fellow venturist.)
UPDATE: A commenter on the Line Out post above links to this fantastic picture of Charlie, one of the ways I will always remember him.
