Thursday, February 28, 2019
A Portrait of the Artist as a Patient : the eyes of James Joyce
Read the entire article here on The BMJ
Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine
Pink Floyd
Astronomy Domine
from the lp The Piper At the Gates of Dawn
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
The Chocolate Watch Band - Dark Side Of the Mushroom
The Chocolate Watch Band
Dark Side Of the Mushroom
Digger’s Dreamland: The true story behind this extraordinary abandoned record warehouse
Five years ago, we shared photos from inside a secret record warehouse, literally drowning in vinyl. Now, for the first time, we discover how this astonishing place came to be.
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Brian Eno - Back in Judy's Jungle
Brian Eno
Back in Judy's Jungle
from the lp Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
800-year-old 'Crusader' mummy decapitated at Irish church Thieves make off with head
An 800-year-old mummy, believed to be the remains of a Crusader, has been decapitated by vandals at a church in Ireland.
South Africa funeral firm to sue pastor for 'resurrection stunt'
A group of funeral directors in South Africa say they will sue a self-styled prophet who claims to have resurrected a dead man.
A viral video of Pastor Alph Lukau shows him shouting "rise up" to a man lying down in a coffin who then jerks upright to cheers from worshippers.
The funeral companies say they were manipulated into being involved.
Monday, February 25, 2019
Books 'I can't even look at the cover': the most disturbing books
From hiding from a copy of The Exorcist to being unnerved by the likes of Shirley Jackson, Stephen King and Iain Banks, here are your most alarming reading experiences
Read the full article on The Guardian
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Propaganda Due: Italy’s Rogue Masonic Lodge
In 1976, the Masonic Grand Orient of Italy withdrew its charter
for the Propaganda Due lodge, otherwise known as the P2 Lodge. At
that time, they were surrounded by controversy. Overseen by the
notorious Licio Gelli, the organization had been involved in
political scandals, violent crime, money laundering schemes and
conspiracy. The P2 Lodge were deeply committed to far-right politics
and a number of prominent Italian men were connected to it. Whether
their ideas and practices had much impact on the real world, or even
a realistic chance of having any influence at all, is a matter up for
debate.
The lodge originally opened its doors in 1877. Initially simply
called the Propaganda Lodge, its highly exclusive membership was
limited to the elitist of the elite in Italian upper-class society.
Otherwise, it was unremarkable; an ordinary Masonic lodge that mainly
functioned as a social club for the rich and well-connected. The
Propaganda Lodge went into decline; the members of the fraternal
order lost interest and eventually it was little more than a list of
names. When Benito Mussolini and the fascists took over in the 1930s,
Propaganda, as well as all Masonic lodges, were banned by law. After
the Axis defeat in World War II, ex-fascist Licio Gelli revived the
defunct lodge with a plan to use it for his own nefarious purposes.
Born in Tuscany, Licio Gelli started his political career as a
liaison officer for the Italian fascists and Germany’s Nazi party.
With fascism apparently dead, the American government encouraged the
Italians to ratify a new law allowing freemasonry to flourish in
Italy once again, mainly as a bulwark against communism and a haven
for free-thinkers and pro-democracy theorists. The Grand Lodge of
Italy appointed Gelli to re-open the Propaganda Lodge, thereby
renaming it Propaganda Due. The center-left Christian Democrat party
was in power so Gelli used his contacts in right-wing extremist
circles to build up a network of quasi-fascist businessmen and other
people of influence; some of them were never formally initiated into
Masonic ceremonial but were considered members nonetheless. Included
in this consortium were high ranking members of the establishment
including politicians, judges, journalists, bankers, police
officials, secret service agents, mafiosi and Vatican
representatives. The son of former king Victor Emmanuel belonged as
did then media magnate and future prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
They soon would embark on a plot to permanently rid Italy of all
leftist politics.
By the end of the 1960s, the left-leaning government started
growing suspicious of the Masons. They asked for a membership list.
When Gelli submitted his list of P2 members, it mentioned only the
“sleepers”, the people associated with P2 who had never actually
been initiated into the rites of the brotherhood. This made the Grand
Orient of Italy suspicious and, deciding that P2 was too hot to
handle, they revoked their charter in 1976 and officially banned them
from practicing freemasonry. Gelli himself claimed their charter had
only been suspended and the lodge continued to operate under the
radar without official standing.
Five years of secret activity came to an end in 1981 with the
death of Roberto Calvi, the president of Banco Ambrosiano. Calvi’s
corpse was found in London. At first, the police deemed it a suicide
but subsequent investigation revealed that he was murdered. The Banco
Ambrosiano had collapsed and investigations into Calvi’s death
revealed a trail that led through Mafia hitmen to the Vatican and
finally to Propaganda Due itself. The bank apparently had been
laundering money for the Vatican who were funneling funds supplied by
the American Central Intelligence Agency to the P2 Lodge in an effort
to combat the Communist Party of Italy who were growing in popularity
and becoming the biggest communist party in Europe.
The scandal of the Banco Ambrosiano led to the discovery of the
P2 Lodge who had been operating clandestinely since being banned half
a decade earlier. When police raided Gelli’s home, they found a
list of P2 Lodge members. Then in 1982, a Propaganda Due manifesto
was discovered in the false bottom of a suitcase belonging to Gelli’s
daughter. In an attempt to flee the country, officials found the
document when she tried to clear the airport’s passport control in
Rome. The papers laid out detailed plans for infiltrating, at the
highest levels no less, all the major institutions of Italy for the
sake of establishing a dictatorial regime to permanently govern the
Italian nation. It all seemed clear, especially since Licio Gelli had
once, in a newspaper interview, claimed that he aspired to be the
puppet master of Italian politics.
A further revelation was that the P2 Lodge was somehow
associated with terrorist activities. On the morning of August 2,
1980, a bomb exploded in the central train station of Bologna, Italy.
80 people were killed and more than 200 were injured. The police
prosecuted a neo-fascist group called the Armed Revolutionary Nuclei
as the perpetrators of the attack. The group proclaimed their
innocence and the trial was not conducted well; that is possibly
because it was later learned that a couple high-ranking police
officials were P2 Lodge members who had used their influence to
hamper the investigation. Whether Propganda Due orchestrated the
attack or not has never been proven.
The long term effects of the P2 Lodge were mostly legal and not
in the organization’s favor. The Italian government passed
legislation banning secret societies. Although fraternal orders are
still allowed to remain open, government officials are forbidden to
join them. Propaganda Due may no longer exist but when Silvio
Berlusconi became the prime minister of Italy, Licio Gelli declared
that it was a sign that the P2 Lodge was being reborn. Gelli died in
2015. Now with the current swell of neo-fascist and right-wing
extremist groups emerging again in Europe, some with
Masonic-associated names like the Golden Dawn in Greece and the
anti-Muslim Knights Templar orders in other countries, we should be
aware that, regrettably, the spirit of the P2 Lodge lives on.
World's finest oil paintings suffering from destructive 'art acne', scientists discover
Hundreds of the world’s most precious oil paintings are suffering from a destructive “art acne” disease, experts have warned.
Masterpieces including seminal works by Rembrandt and Van Gogh are being damaged by chemical reactions manifesting in pin-sized dotswhich eventually crust and flake off.
The Vampire Sound Incorporation - Psycho Contact No. 1
The Vampire Sound Incorporation
Psycho Contact No. 1
from the lp Psychedelic Dance Party
Ghosts at No. 9 (Paris)
Ghost at No. 9 (Paris)
experimental film with Cut Ups by Antony Balch
featuring Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs
Saturday, February 23, 2019
An Interview with Genesis P-Orridge
An Interview with Genesis P-Orridge
s6K Entertainment short film (2002)
Friday, February 22, 2019
Clown Motel
Oh, just a motel on the edge of the desert decorated with thousands of clowns conveniently located next to an abandoned graveyard.
David Thomas and the Pedestrians - About True Friends
David Thomas and the Pedestrians
About True Friends
David Thomas and the Pedestrians - The Crickets In the Flats
David Thomas and the Pedestrians
The Crickets In the Flats
The History of Cassettes
by Larry Waldbillig 2012
The advent of the cartridge style tape began with the usual seven words that begin the road to any invention. Fourteen if you count those other seven nasty words (that usually precede these):
"There's GOT to be a better way!"
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Diamanda Galas On the Evening News
Diamanda Galas on the Evening News
She hopes that people can relate to her music.
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
William S. Burroughs and J.G. Ballard
An In-Depth Account Drawing on Interviews, Correspondence, and Unpublished Documents
Towers Open Fire
Towers Open Fire
short film directed by Antony Balch (1963)
starring William S. Burroughs
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Monday, February 18, 2019
The Space Age Is Over: Penthouse Magazine's Interview with J.G. Ballard
By Dr. Charles Evans
Penthouse: Science fiction is supposed to reflect the future. How well do you think it has done that over the years?
Ballard: I think it's been amazingly accurate, not necessarily in terms of the technology itself, but in predicting society's response to technology. Jules Verne, over 100 years ago, was the first writer of any kind to respond to the impending transformation of society by technology, and from his time onwards science fiction has picked out the main preoccupations and anxieties of the Industrial Age, identifying them way ahead of their appearance. Incidentally it has also anticipated the present unease about science which has recently become a public issue, but which was featured in SF as far back as the 1930s. I suspect it will also turn out to have been extremely accurate in the way in which it is now predicting or anticipating the peculiar affectless quality of life in the 1980s and 90s.
Ballard: I think it's been amazingly accurate, not necessarily in terms of the technology itself, but in predicting society's response to technology. Jules Verne, over 100 years ago, was the first writer of any kind to respond to the impending transformation of society by technology, and from his time onwards science fiction has picked out the main preoccupations and anxieties of the Industrial Age, identifying them way ahead of their appearance. Incidentally it has also anticipated the present unease about science which has recently become a public issue, but which was featured in SF as far back as the 1930s. I suspect it will also turn out to have been extremely accurate in the way in which it is now predicting or anticipating the peculiar affectless quality of life in the 1980s and 90s.
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Kilroy Was Here: The Cryptic Graffiti of World War II
The design was
simple. A straight line with a bald egg-shaped half head with two
pinpoint eyes on the top, a long nose resembling a load of French
bread hanging down below the line like a flaccid phallus, and four
fingers hanging down over the line as well on either side. That was
all. Scrawled on the side were the words “Kilroy Was Here.”
During World War II this simple graffito appears in theaters of war
all across rhe world. It mostly came to be associated with the
American military, though in actuality it was scrawled on walls by
soldiers from all the countries of the allied powers. No one knows
who, where or why Kilroy began appearing but most likely this famous
graffiti did not originate in America.
So what could
be the possible origins of Kilroy? England is the most plausible
answer. The English people themselves do not call Kilroy by his
American name but actually refer to him as Chad, among other names.
If we were to trace the simple figure of Chad back a few thousand
years, we could plausibly note its resemblance to the Greek letter
omega, a symbol used by Great
Britain’s Corps
of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers; they used the omega
symbol as shorthand for an alternating current which can also be
written as a straight line with a sine wave through it. It is rumored
that engineers at that particular institution used to draw the omega
letter with plus and minus signs for eyes, indicating a positive and
negative charge. This would sometimes be drawn with the words “Wot
no leave?’ beside its head. The
Chad figure also resembles Alice the Goon, a cartoon character in
the Popeye comics of the 1930s, drawn by a comic artist named George
Edward Chatterton; people called him “Chat” for short and this
nickname could possibly have transmuted
into “Chad.”
The
link that takes Chad into the heart of World War II goes directly
into Britain during the time of food rationing. The round-headed and
long-nosed figure began appearing on walls throughout London with the
caption saying “Wot no bread?” or other gripes against the
insufficient diets being forced on the English people.
At
some point American servicemen, as well as troops from other nations,
took on the practice of leaving their territorial mark of graffiti
wherever they went. The figure of Chad began appearing on bathroom
walls, sides of ships, public buildings and anywhere else you might
imagine. As a symbol taken on by Americans, the captioned complaint
written besides the man’s head was replaced by the phrase “Kilroy
Was Here.” What was especially perplexing was the way the drawing
appeared in places before American troops actually arrived as if some
joker snuck off the ship and scrawled the doodle on something to
greet them. It was as if the
artist wanted to prank the fighters by saying “look I got here
before you did.” One notorious sighting located Kilroy on a giant
rock on Bikini Island; the air force arrived there to test their
nuclear bombs before moving on to Nagasaki and Hiroshima and there it
was to welcome them ashore. Kilroy
also showed up in other inaccessible places like inside sealed off
sections of ships’ hulls, inside air ducts, or on the bodies of
airplanes which were only accessible to people with high security
clearances. During the Potsdam conference of 1945, Joseph Stalin came
out of
the bathroom and asked who Kilroy was; apprently someone had written
a Kilroy Was Here in the stall of the VIP men’s room, giving the
dictator something to wonder about while he sat on the toilet.
Historians
of the war have tracked down the name of “Kilroy” and come up
with two possibilities as to who he was. An American shipyard
inspector named James J. Kilroy is one culprit. The all-too-obvious
conclusion is that he wrote the words and symbol on the sides of
ships to indicate that he had completed his inspection and the boat
was ready to go. Another suspect is one Sgt. Francis J. Kilroy who
came down with the flu when he was scheduled to arrive at an air
force base in Florida. To indicate his delayed arrival, somebody
wrote “Kilroy will be here next week’ on the barracks wall.
Kilroy later died in the hospital and his grief stricken friend from
the bed beside him was sent
off to sea on a warship.
He began writing “Kilroy was here” with chalk on walls to
commemorate the death of his comrade. Then
the graffiti spread like wildfire, probably
being written by people who had no idea what it meant.
Historians
appear not to have every found anybody who claims to have drawn the
symbol during wartime.
Did
it mean anything? Adolf Hitler convinced himself that the Kilroy/Chad
figure was being used as code by spies since
it kept showing up on the allies’ equipment seized by the Germans.
He sent a couple too many men to search out information about what
message it intended to send, only to have them come back without any
useful theories. Maybe that is why the graffiti
caught
on; the human mind has an unrelenting capacity to see patterns where
they do not actually exist. Many hard thinkers have spent countless
hours of time pursuing the meanings of fruitless mysteries that lead
them to dead-ends, the tortured logic of conspiracy theories or goofy
conclusions that do not make any sense to anyone but themselves.
Reisner, Robert.
Graffiti: Two Thousand Years of Wall Writing. H.
Regnery Co., 1971.
Saturday, February 16, 2019
“Rest in Vinyl” – A Company Will Press Your Ashes into a Working Vinyl Album
David Bowie released Ashes to Ashes on vinyl in 1980. Though the Thin White Duke was ahead of his time, even he couldn’t have foreseen how prophetic the release was… a radical way of treasuring departed loved ones is proof of this.
Friday, February 15, 2019
A Modern History of Satanic Panic in South Carolina
Equal parts lurid and absurd, Diana Vaughan's story quickly spread across 1890s Europe. She had, many claimed, given herself over to Satan during her time in Charleston. The Holy City. What better place for the devil to wed?
Two years had passed since Diana allegedly escaped from a secret Satanic temple on the coast of South Carolina, finding safety in the confines of a French cloister. Forced to remain hidden lest she be silenced by assassins, Diana's memoirs were the talk of France. Going on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies and gaining favor among the Catholic Church's top officials, the confessions of this former Luciferian high priestess-turned nun detailed the alleged unholy rituals carried out among an all-controlling sect of Freemasons headquartered in Charleston's so-called "Infernal Vatican."
Thursday, February 14, 2019
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