==pla|\|ing lakes==

a forest called Simmer Down, wrapped in plastic
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This is Gordon Osse's blog.




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"He who does not at some time, with definite determination consent to the terribleness of life, or even exalt in it, never takes possession of the inexpressible fullness of the power of our existence." -- Rilke




Love,
        the powering,
                the Widening,
                light
                unraveling
                all faces followers of


                All colors, beams of
                woven thread,
                the Skin


                alight that
                warms itself
                with life.


-- Akhenaton, "Hymn to the Sun"







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Mount Hope Wholesale
Wholesale nuts, grains, fruits and spices (and more) shipped from Cottonwood AZ
(Tell them you heard about them on Gordon's blog!)





WHAT I'VE SEEN LATELY:

MOVIES
(r) = re-viewing

God Told Me To (1976, Cohen)

Whispering City (1947, Otsep)

Times and Winds (2006, Erdem)

Dirty Money (Un flic) (1972, Melville)

10th District Court (2004, Depardon)

RFK Must Die: The Assassination of Bobby Kennedy (2007, O'Sullivan)

The Furies (1950, Mann)

In a Lonely Place (1950, Ray)(r)

The Adjuster (1991, Egoyan)(r)



TV

Mad Men
The Buddha of Suburbia
Intelligence (2006, Haddock)
Family Guy




SUGGESTED VIEWING:
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2004, Curtis) [available for streaming/download here]





READING NOW:
(r) = re-reading

The Blonde - Duane Swierczynski

Swansea Terminal - Robert Lewis







LISTENING

vaccine - v/a [hot flush]

skin diagram - david tagg

microcastle - deerhunter

saturdays=youth - m83

the serpent in quicksilver - harold budd

index of metal - fausto romitelli

Rocket to Russia - Ramones

and then one day it was over - elian

monsoon point - amelia cuni & ali gromer khan

set or performance - richard chartier

the world that was surrounded by a deep forest and warm light - ryonkt

cocoon materia aurora










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Saturday, February 26, 2005

FBI vendetta spirals out of control

Following up on the ridiculous and criminal persecution of Steven Kurtz of the Critical Art Ensemble

Visit the Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund for more info.

10:03 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


"Backers of front-running films such as Martin Scorsese's The Aviator and Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby have spent an estimated $15 million (£8m) on lobbying for votes - more than the entire production budget for some of their rivals"

What else can I say? [link]

9:53 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


I keep forgetting to post about this -- it goes back to last summer -- then I saw Ricci on The Daily Show last night which reminded me

Pondering why the movie version of Prozac Nation -- with Christina Ricci, Jessica Lange and Anne Heche and directed by promising Norwegian director Erik Skjoldbjaerg (the original Insomnia) -- has yet to be released (except in Norway) after 2 years in limbo
"It's a truthful depiction of depression," says Frank Deasy. "And I think the reason Miramax has struggled is the fact that it doesn't have a traditional dramatic structure, in terms of a clear, unqualified ending. Look at the book: Elizabeth is very clear that Prozac has helped her, but you're left with a dilemma, because perhaps she no longer knows who she is. We didn't want to come down heavily on one side or the other. People who've experienced depression like that aspect of the film, but a lot of people don't like it. Miramax certainly don't seem to like it."

Larry Gross, meanwhile, has a fascinating explanation of the endless hold-ups. The 9/11 comment, he says, is of only trifling importance; far more crucial is a recipe for paralysis based on the book's reputation, Wurtzel's pre-eminence in certain New York circles, and Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein's keen awareness of the possibility of failure.

"Harvey might buy an obscure Japanese film and release it, knowing there's a chance it won't work, because no one will pay it the kind of attention that will rebound against him," says Gross. "Prozac Nation is in the backyard of the people who look at what he does for a living. So any failure to put it over will be looked at very carefully. And that's a reason not to distribute it."

"What you have to realise about New York," he continues, "is that people there think Woody Allen's movies are popular, because they all talk about them. With Wurtzel, it's, 'We talk about her stuff all the time, therefore it must be huge'. So if Harvey didn't deliver a commercially successful film on a nationwide level, they'd be like, 'How did you drop this ball?'"
Stupid Hollywood.

Enjoy the Oscars.

1:40 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Last post on HST: tributes from Steve Gilliard and gonzography [both via James Wolcott]

Gilliard's thoughts on the connection between blogs and Thompson's ethos -- and how writing courses have turned writers away from the world -- are particularly good.

1:28 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Thursday, February 24, 2005

Ghostbusting fair in India

7:37 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Cannon fodder, "Whoops!", and where were you when the fun stopped?

The Denver Post's collection of articles on Thompson
Douglas Brinkley, a historian and author who edited some of Thompson's work, said the founder of "gonzo" journalism shot himself Sunday night after weeks of pain from a host of physical problems that included a broken leg and a hip replacement.

"I think he made a conscious decision that he had an incredible run of 67 years, lived the way he wanted to, and wasn't going to suffer the indignities of old age," Brinkley said in a telephone interview from Aspen. "He was not going to let anybody dictate how he was going to die."


6:24 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Monday, February 21, 2005

R.I.P. Hunter S Thompson
There can be a world of difference between encouraging amateurs and inspiring brilliant craftsmanship, and perhaps it is Thompson's achievement that, like Hemingway, his example has always done both. "What I learned from Hemingway mainly," Thompson told Charlie Rose in 1997, "was that you can want to be a writer and get away with it. ... And, uh, that was very important at the time." [link]
I remember him talking somewhere about how his legend had taken over and it would be better if he wasn't around to get in the way, something like this.

You were wrong Hunter.

You will be missed.

*********************************

Christine Othitis has a good site on him, The Great Thompson Hunt.

For a good sample of his writing, here's the Nixon obit, a highlighted page I link because the Atlantic link requires subscription to the magazine.

12:12 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


Sunday, February 20, 2005

Lots of good stuff -- particularly for Burroughs fans -- at archive.org's Naropa Audio Archive

More on Burroughs at Reality Studio (don't think I've linked here yet...).

8:22 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


More evidence fish are disappearing off the face of the earth

8:02 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Writers' Guild winners are the 2 movies I can see giving awards to (I mean any awards), out of the Oscar bunch: Sideways & Eternal Sunshine

OK, now that I check the nominees, I can see Jamie Foxx, Vera Drake, Hotel Rwanda, Finding Neverland and Maria Full of Grace being of merit. And the only ones I've seen are Ray & Eternal Sunshine, as I'm limited to DVDs for a couple reasons.

Guess I'm just disappointed as usual with the emphasis on commerce and accumulated merit trumping creative accomplishment.

8:00 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


This looks like a fine Canadian blog on deep politics/conspiracy theories, and critiquing same: Rigorous Intuition, the latest post on the number of therapists seeing victims of US government Mind Control experiments [bloggerly grandfather robot wisdom]

You might want to switch your browser to "no graphics" though (if you have a dial-up) -- I was up to 15 minutes when I finally stopped the photos from downloading.

On the subject of mind control, you might check out Judith Moore's Song of Freedom, a first hand account that is more a rite of passage than a book. Caveat emptor.

12:39 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


"Anti-terror" police in the Philippines can confiscate your CD-Rs on trains and the like if they have any suspicion they contain pirated files [null device, a good place to visit anyway]

12:13 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


Saturday, February 19, 2005

Just had to use euro symbol in a post, and this page gave me the numeric reference

The caveat about browser capability seems void now: the latest version of Opera has no problem with it, nor does Firefox.

1:11 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


3 good ones from the UK Guardian

Heckler who called Italian gangsta PM Berlusconi a "buffoon" fined €500 (about $654)

Murder of nun/activist prompts Brazilian gubment to immediately enact legislation to protect forest land

Respected German anthropologist lied about missing link skull, throws accepted scholarship on man's history between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago into twilight zone


12:57 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


Friday, February 18, 2005

Magnetar event

A highly magnetic neutron star released a huge amount of energy on Dec 27
"We figure that it's probably the biggest explosion observed by humans within our galaxy since Johannes Kepler saw his supernova in 1604," Dr Rob Fender, of Southampton University, UK, told the BBC News website.

One calculation has the giant flare on SGR 1806-20 unleashing about 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. We have observed an object only 20km across, on the other side of our galaxy, releasing more energy in a 10th of a second than the Sun emits in 100,000 years," said Dr Fender.


7:39 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Thursday, February 17, 2005

Exhaustive rundown of the differences in the new Donnie Darko disc

I'll stick with the original cut for now, after seeing the deleted scenes in the first DVD release. Less is more.

11:22 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Publishers will try to boost flagging sales by making books -- and print -- bigger

The article wryly closes:
The innovation will also come as a relief to those authors who may have mistakenly felt that people were not buying their books because of something they had written.

Rather than being concerned about such old-fashioned literary gimmicks as plot, character and the careful choice of appropriate language, they must now recognised that the key to successful writing is to change the font size setting on their computer and to invest in some heavyweight paper at the stationers.
ADDENDUM: I can think of several reasons right off:
-- netflix

-- obviously people are spending time online - reading, no doubt, some of the time.

-- books are too bloody expensive.

-- the state of the world is pretty distracting, at least for me these days.
This being said, I've always found that fonts I dislike do have an effect on my reading experience. It would be nice if you could pick the font you'll be reading.

9:01 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Tuesday, February 15, 2005

You;ve probably heard that chastened Virginia lawmakers immediately dropped the ludicrous and demonizing underwear fine when the media got ahold of the story and they were widely ridiculed

But I love the extraordinary comment by (natch) Republican Thomas Norment:
"I find that an indignation, which dampens my humour"
Like the idea of someone actually criticizing these demented little fascist farthogs was disturbing their snufftaking after high tea in the Rectory.

9:07 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


Monday, February 14, 2005

Aotearoa Stonehenge is a tool for teaching astronomy, ancient and modern -- and it's wired for sound for ceremonies

"Aotearoa" is Maori for New Zealand.

11:34 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Sunday, February 13, 2005

Link to underreported.com's occasional series on the media's fear of blogs

Jeez, I wonder if the popularity of blogs has something to do with how the media only report what they're told to by vested interests and their government handlers, and people are finally catching on?

9:27 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


John Cage and Morton Feldman quibbling in outer space on WBAI, in 5 downloadable segments [via the redoubtable disquiet]

As Marc mention, I'm sure it's more fun to listen to than read, if you can even find a copy.

9:19 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


Imprisonment is freedom file

Elementary school near Sacramento makes electric ID badges mandatory

1:31 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


Saturday, February 12, 2005

Death of Freedom of speech file

CNN news exec resigns after "boldly" claiming journos killed in Iraq were targeted by US military

The sickening toadying of the US media continues, even when defending their own being assassinated by the shrub junta.

9:34 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


ADD drug Adderall XR taken off market in Canada and the FDA tries to kill study critical of arthritis drugs knowing its poodle status with BigPharma is at stake

9:24 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


New strain of untreatable HIV in meth users

9:21 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


End of (another) era in Beijing's shopping district
They can hardly be mourned on aesthetic, historical or ethical grounds, but the demise of Beijing's two most notorious tourist traps is likely to induce at least a twinge of nostalgia in any foreigner who has visited the city in the past 10 years.

In less than two months the Silk Market, one of the world's hotbeds of brand piracy, has been shut down and South Bar Street in Sanlitun, the city's most popular collection of watering holes, has been demolished.

Until the last stallholders were evicted last month, the Silk Market was a vibrant, cramped and gloriously messy reminder of China's conversion to capitalism. Its traders were among the first to exploit the economic revolution launched in 1979.


9:13 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


Dim the lights

R.I.P. Arthur Miller
Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, who also directed the film of The Crucible, called him "the last of the great titans of the American stage".

He added: "With Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams he brought to the English speaking theatre a poetic urgency and tragic sweep that had been absent since the Elizabethan era. His models were the great classical tragedians and, more recently, Ibsen; and I have no doubt that plays like Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge will always stand with the masterpieces of Ibsen, Shakespeare and Sophocles."

The American playwright Edward Albee said Miller had once flattered him by describing his plays as "necessary"': "I will go one step further and say that Arthur's plays are essential."


9:10 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Headlines for history file

Doctors Say Loss Can Cause a Broken Heart

9:51 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Nicholas Negroponte is close to developing laptop cheap enough to distribute to 200 million kids at $100 a pop

9:26 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Xmas tsunami quake upgraded to a 9.3, the second largest ever recorded

9:20 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Demonizing the young file

Showing underwear gets you $50 fine in Virginia

9:16 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Sunday, February 06, 2005

Are we not men?

Scientists and creationists duke it out in the Red States over schools teaching evolution

Personally, I believe evolution explains some of earth's history, but not all of it. But discounting it completely in favor of daft religious dogma is willful ignorance. The reality may well be more complex, and threatening both to people who are religiously scientific and people who believe scientific reasoning annihilates spirituality.

9:07 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Is there a word in Japanese for fear of cultural evolution?

Rigid and complex Japanese language etiquette appears to be eroding due to word-processing software and the pernicious influence of foreign words

8:51 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Saturday, February 05, 2005

Some new film links in left column

10:43 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Catholic child abuse chapter 4335

New child abuse scandal implicates founder of the Legion of Christ, second only to Opus Dei in Papal influence
"This is a very delicate case," says José Luis González, a Mexico-based expert on the Catholic hierarchy. "None of the other scandals has involved someone so close to the Pope."

Maciel, now 84, formed the ultra-conservative Legion of Christ in Mexico in 1941 in the wake of religious wars that pitted Catholics against the anti-clerical revolutionary regime and ended with an uneasy mutual tolerance. The order grew quickly, fed by deeply religious families happy to put their boys under the protection of its charismatic young leader. The recruits, too, were enthused by the prospect of a life fighting for God.

"At the time the idea of missionaries conjured up images of hunters and explorers and it sounded adventurous to us boys," recalled Barba, who was 12 when he joined the Legion in 1949. "We were told we were going to save the world from the communists, and that gave us a sense of importance."

Maciel picked out his favourite pupils and took them to study, first in Franco's Spain and then in Rome. They lived in tightly controlled isolation, instilled with the belief that their leader was the epitome of holiness. But at the same time as preaching the strictest moral code for others, Maciel allegedly indulged an addiction to morphine and a warped sexuality.


10:00 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Face cancer has cut Tasmanian devil population by half, with no cure in sight

9:52 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Fun with Music Gangsters file

Music Industry Sues 83-Year-Old Dead Woman
"Our evidence gathering and our subsequent legal actions all were initiated weeks and even months ago," said RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy. "We will now, of course, obviously dismiss this case."


10:12 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


Must-read on neo-con "reality"

Perhaps the best explanation I've seen of the post-9/11 American world-view/psychosis promulgated by the Fear Lords: xymphora's post referencing a David Suskind article from last fall and an old article by Robert Anton Wilson called "Creative Agnosticism"

xymphora sums up:
We can perhaps see why so many otherwise sensible middle-aged American men - Christopher Hitchens comes to mind - were driven mad with revenge fantasies in the wake of 9-11. The inability of some to see the possibility that the United States had it coming - an issue raised again in the current imbroglio over Ward Churchill, which is a repeat of similar nonsense concerning Chomsky, Rall, and Sontag - is just another part of shirking responsibility. Americans edit reality to create a 'Real' Universe where the United States has never done anything wrong, and thus whatever terrorists do must be baseless evil which merits the most violent response posssible. The good news is that the constant self-editing of the realities of the world mean that the neocons will eventually fail spectacularly...
If your read nothing else about the state of America now, read this post and these 2 articles.

9:45 AM - [Link] - Comments ()


Friday, February 04, 2005

Gangsters run the energy industry file

New evidence Enron "deliberately aggravat[ed] California's crippling 2001 blackouts with the aim of raising prices"

8:35 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Rumors of the discovery of an ancient mercury plasma engine in Kashmir (scroll to "The India-China UFO Story"), which people like Peter Thomson think was the site of a nuclear war between 2 civilizations around 11,000 years ago

8:30 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


The passing of two honorable men

R.I.P. Ossie Davis ("a giant of the stage, screen and the civil rights movement") and Max Schmeling, who knocked out Joe Louis in '36 and was beaten by him in '38, was kicked out of Germany when he refused to be a Nazi mouthpiece, and later became a friend of Louis's

Schmeling would've been 100 in September.

8:09 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Thursday, February 03, 2005

Fashion ad inspired by The Da Vinci Code, parodying Da Vinci's Last Supper banned by Milan authorities

10:57 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


Wednesday, February 02, 2005

I didn't remember that absinthe was invented by the Swiss: it's about to become legal again there after a hundred year ban

8:53 PM - [Link] - Comments ()


The day before yesterday, tomorrow

50-50 chance the Gulf Stream will stop, freezing Britain; while the rapid desertification of Africa will no doubt accelerate

9:32 AM - [Link] - Comments ()





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Rarely has reality needed so much to be imagined. --Chris Marker