Gregor Schneider

"Inside, visitors confront alone an unnerving parallel universe, peopled by pairs of identical twins, with hints that something appalling has happened somewhere between the child gate barring the attic door and the bare mattress in the hidden cellar.

Die Familie Schneider is the first creation in Britain by a man with few challengers as the creepiest artist working today. For 20 years Schneider has been dismantling and rebuilding his parents' former home in Germany - the house of his own child hood - as a sinister warren of false rooms, tunnels, pits and dead ends. When he recreated the house at the Venice Biennale he won the Golden Lion for sculpture, and when Artangel invited him to make a piece in Britain he agreed."

German installation artist Gregor Schneider, has brought his work to the UK, and is exhibiting in the East End of London.

I saw a documentary on him and his house sometime last year...and as far as I'm concerned, at least, he's perfected the ability to re-create a childhood home's atmosphere. It's both wonderful, and chilling, all at the same time. Whilst the years we spend growing up can often be vibrant and amazing, we also catch glimpses of the adult world - the porno video on the top of the wardrobe, a dead grandparent, domestic violence. Find someone that hasn't, and you'll find a social outcast. Find someone who's had too much, and you'll find a social outcast. Schneider, in his completely dysfunctional obsessive way, is shit hot at pushing that realisation out into the world. He's an extremely valuable artist.

Biography.

Paint my wagon red.

Four year old Art Prodigy wows New York.

"A four-year-old girl is wowing the New York art world with paintings that are drawing comparisons with Jackson Pollock and Wassily Kandinsky. Marla Olmstead, from Binghampton, in New York state, has been painting since just before she was two years old. Using brushes, spatulas, her fingers and even ketchup bottles, she is creating canvases of six by six foot. The prodigy has already sold about 25 paintings, raising $40,000 (£22,000) and a new exhibition opens on Friday."

Now usually, I don't pay attention to these "child prodigy" stories. But look at what she's making :





This isn't the same as average four-year-old kid art. There's something interesting going on with her aesthetic eye, and there's most definitely a market for it. She's lucky that she has support and the finances behind her already. At the very least, she's painting her way into a good art school when she's older. Good luck to you Marla.

Intellectual Culturalisms.

• US Academics study Michael Jackson's Career.

"'He has grown up in front of us, so we have a great investment in him, even though some people today may find his image disturbing,' [said] Mr Silberman, who teaches race and gender at Yale, in New Haven, Connecticut. The two-day conference avoided details of the court case against the singer in California. He has pleaded not guilty to child molestation and conspiracy charges, and his trial is due to begin in January. But it did look at how the media looked at the case, and it also studied how allegations of paedophilia have fed into false stereotypes about homosexuality."

• "It was like being in jail" - Wong Karwai speaks to Howard Feinstein about his new film 2046.

"Set mostly in the 1960s, 2046 - the Cannes version - comprises three intersecting stories. The linchpin is Chow, played by Leung, who is reprising his character from In the Mood for Love. In the earlier film, set in Hong Kong in 1962, Chow, who takes a stab at writing martial arts novels, presumably never consummates a mutually sublimated affair with Maggie Cheung's Su Li Zhen, although they know that their spouses are seeing each other. Frustrated, he leaves for Singapore.

In 2046, Chow has returned to Hong Kong, but this softspoken man has become a hedonistic, mustachioed sleazeball. He has numerous one-night stands and earns extra money hosting dinners for low-lifes and letting out his room to their women. Still a writer, Chow is in the midst of penning a science-fiction novel set in the year 2046 - hence the title - on a train where people go to recapture their lost memories, but never return."

More about the film here. I'm a big admirer of Asian cinema, perhaps as much as non-Hollywood independent alternativia American films, and when I first heard about this film and saw the pictures, I thought it sounded amazing. After reading that interview, I now think that this movie is creeping closer to god than any other film has, in terms of sheer luxurious content, stories, acting and visuals. I strongly recommend both 2046 and the preceding film In the Mood for Love (just far more aching and beautiful than a film should ever be).

• Who Held a Gun to Leonard Cohen's head? As the old man himself turns 70, Tim de Lisle presents 70 facts about Cohen that you may or may not have known before.

"70: in 1994, Cohen said: "If you're going to think of yourself in this game, or in this tradition, and you start getting a swelled head about it, then you've really got to think about who you're talking about. You're not just talking about Randy Newman, who's fine, or Bob Dylan, who's sublime, you're talking about King David, Homer, Dante, Milton, Wordsworth, you're talking about the embodiment of our highest possibility. So I don't think it's particularly modest or virtuous to think of oneself as a minor poet. I really do feel the enormous luck I've had in being able to make a living, and to never have had to have written one word that I didn't want to write."

Slashdot Round Up

I've been reading a lot of Slashdot this week. Here's some of the most interesting threads that I've seen :

• Would You Hire a Hacker?
• Experiment Cuts Off Online Junkies from Internet.
• Google Local Launched in Canada. (I LOVE THIS TOOL!)

Get Pretty.

• Gothic Lolita Complex by Louis Templado.

"'Japan is still a male-dominated society, and it expects its young women to be cute and well-behaved,' says Licca Kayama, a popular psychologist and author on Japan's subculture. Fashion is simply fashion, she says, but the black veils and funeral imagery appeals to certain troubled souls.

'These women are saying women aren't just flowers, that they also have a cruel part in them. It's a protest against the male status quo.'"

• BBC News kindly provides a run down of the top ten looks of London Fashion week. In brief:

- tailored clothing : clinched waists, sharp trousers, pencil skirts. And lots of old "granny" style materials like houndstooth and tweed. Petticoats and wrap around skirts too.
- green is the new black : and from what I've seen, it's being teamed with chocolate brown and minimalistic fabric. Embroidery is out. Finally. Last seasons pink will also go well with these colours, so don't stress people!
- 70's garish retro look is also back : metals, hot pinks/greens/blues, big sleeves, chiffon...and uh...sequins. No idea how this mixes with the rest of the fashion around right now, so I'm skipping this one. Only looks good on boy-skinny chicks anyway.
- crochet is also in : think hats and scarves and loose sweaters of basic minimal colours.
- accessories = big and clunky : this is where you go over the top. Wedge shoes, big earrings, big pendant necklaces. Personally, I'll stick to my own style here too, I don't wear tiny chains and necklaces anyway (unless someone special happened to give me one). Some things just don't work in reality.

In other words, just think minimal, comfy and old fashioned. Yey.

London Fashion Week's official site.

Undergraduate Teaching Materials.

Forensic Medicine.

From Water Related Deaths-

"Corpses in water always lie with the face down and with the head hanging. Buffeting in the water commonly produces post-mortem head injuries, which may be difficult to distinguish from injuries sustained during life. The presence of bleeding usually distinguishes ante-mortem from post-mortem injuries. However, the head down position of a floating corpse causes passive congestion of the head with blood, so that post- mortem injuries tend to bleed, creating the diagnostic confusion."

From Fire Related Deaths-

"Heat contraction of the skin of a corpse often produces splits involving the arms, thighs and abdomen. These split artefacts may be misinterpreted as tears and cuts inflicted during life. The heat of the fire may fracture bones or make them so brittle that they are fractured during recovery of the body. "

From Drug Related Deaths-

"Drug misusers are typically in the age group 20 - 35 years and males outnumber females by approximately 3 to 1. Students and high achievers will usually confine their drug use to marijuana and stimulants by smoking or the oral route. The unemployed and low achievers tend to abuse a wider spectrum of drugs and more often resort to intravenous drug abuse. An unstable family background and poor social circumstances are common. Abnormal personality, characterised by inability to deal with stress is a common predisposing factor. Reasons for first experimenting with drugs include curiosity, bravado, peer pressure and a search for excitement, pleasure or relief of anxiety. Severe drug addiction is closely linked to crime, most commonly petty theft and burglary, in order to pay for a regular supply of expensive drugs."

FEED ME! FEED MY BRAIN!

Kill! Kill! Kill!

• Ewww, gross. Beware rampant fame youth, tonguing girls at parties in the age of phone-cameras will only end in mocking on the internet. Do you hear me Aaron Carter? (Thanks to the HM mailout)

• Who knew Mia Tyler was on MySpace?

• Tom Waits does a bit of beatbox and scratching on his new album. (Definition of beatbox here)

• First the Hero site gets hacked, then a photo of a 22 year old massacre appears on a Severn Bridge website, and now the shitty pop group Busted's site has gone down. Are there ties? What's going on?

• Who's more popular? Follow the BBC News US Election poll tracker. Apparently Kerry is currently standing at 41%. Who are they polling? Is it internet hype that's driving Kerry's popularity? Answers in the comments box below.

• Gwen Stefani's solo album looks like it's going to be a little cracker. Dr Dre and the Neptunes and New Order are said to be involved, and she notes her influences as being "Club Nouveau, Lisa Lisa, Prince, New Order and early Madonna". This girl rocks my world, and has done for close to 8 years. I can't wait.
  

CoolGov

If this wasn't American, I'd probably find this fantastic fun, so I'm posting this site as a gift to all my Yankee friends.

CoolGov is a spanky new blog (ergo : not much backlog) that posts quirky, fun and interesting snippets from American government sites. The most recent site is about Food Safety and other catagories include Nature, Law Enforcement and Spooks and Spies. Great for shits and giggles, but also reasonably educational (depending on how much you trust the American government, of course).

Enjoy!

GBrowser

I was going to post this New York Post article...but then I got lazy, and had a few non-blogging days, and Kottke.org beat me too it. Heck, he's a techie, so he can do it better.

Basically :

• Google have registered gbrowser.com
• There are developing links with Mozilla
• Google are hiring people from Microsoft's IE team as well as other people that could be used to develop a brand new browser.

I've been predicting a whole range of Google related software since Gmail was announced - G-IM (instant messaging) being the most probably step alongside the GBrowser. But what I really really want to see, and think will happen within the next ten years, is a Google Operating System - something that would easily lie over/next to any Windows, Mac or Linux installation, would be free, easier to install than any available OS (on any available system, be it old or new, a la Linux), non-buggy, non-complicated, non-heavy, with free anti-virus, adware/spyware/pop up blockers, and run all and any software that is out there, regardless of whether it's made for Mac or Windows. It could, legitimately, be our dream OS...like Google is the perfect search engine, and Gmail is the perfect online email account. The point of the internet, is that we are all allowed to dream, whether we're techie or not.

One thing I wonder though, is why Google don't just buy Mozilla. I'm not prepared to switch browsers anytime soon, although, I would certainly download and install it, like I have done with Opera. Another non-IE browser is always welcome, and Google's big brandname will certainly push a lot more people away from crappy Microsoft products, but why not put that behind the growing net revolution that is Firefox? Why not support what's out there, pump money behind developments, rather than make a whole new one? Is there something I'm not aware of?

Either way, it's great news. Hooray for Google.

We Walk Through War Cities and Madness.

• Metropolis - a review by Lawrence Norfolk.

"Polluting, parasitic, overcrowded and violent: cities have always been popular with humans. They've needed to be. From the 35,000 inhabitants of Sumerian Ur, 4,000 years ago, to the current chart-topper - Tokyo, home to 26 million - cities have consistently buried more people than they have produced. They also eat more food than they grow, drink more water than they collect and, the inevitable consequence, excrete more sewage than they know what to do with. But, for all their faults, we like these greedy, incontinent monsters. Half the world's population lives in cities, and that share is growing."

• "His Work Just Bores into You" - a collection of quotes from fellow musicians about cult underground bipolar artist Daniel Johnston.

"Tom Waits - I covered King Kong because it's classic Daniel Johnston, one of the great love stories of all time. My favourite line is: 'Just him and his screaming woman!'"

• Remember that secret Parisian catacomb? The group behind it reveal their methods, means and useage of the underground hideaway.

"Huddled round a table in an anonymous Latin Quarter bar, the group's members - of whom only Lazar wanted to be named - relate past exploits: rock concerts for up to 4,000 people in old underground quarries; 2am projections in a locked film theatre; art and photo exhibitions in supposedly sealed-off subterranean galleries."

• I watched a great Channel Four documentary a few days ago that explored the idea of Live Art. As fashionable as it is to dismiss the idea of Modern Art being a waste of time because it cannot be purchased, exhibited and dissected by a million philosophers, I love the alternative movements that are sprouting up in the inner cities of the world. New York, London, Beijing, Berlin - it's the art of the current age which symbolises how throwaway our popculture really is. Perhaps most people don't like how disgusting that idea can be - that although we are always documenting documenting documenting, with blogs and journals and books and digital cameras...that in reality, what we're documenting is as worthless as the infamous pile of garbage at the Tate Modern. I get it...do you?

• You know this picture if you know modern history. Eddie Adams, the man who took that stunning visual still of the Vietnam war, died this week aged 71. Far too young for a man who walked through wars.

Spread Firefox

When I found this site a few days ago, Andy Baio was claiming it had hit 720,000 downloads. When I clicked on the link, it was at 1 million. When I just checked, it's now standing at 1.5 million downloads.

Holy shit.

1.5 million downloads.

This is a great movement, and I hope that it hits 2 million by the end of the week, although at this rate, I think it's going to get there waaaaay before Sunday. So people, Spread Firefox! My sidebar will always have a Get Firefox link, so there's no excuse for running IE, no excuse at all.

It's human nature.

'Human' Hitler disturbs Germans.

"Should a monster be portrayed as a human being?" asked the tabloid newspaper Bild recently. The rest of the media has been eagerly discussing the same question for weeks now, long before the film was even premiered.

"There is for instance one moment where we see Hitler cry, but I think if you want to have an intelligent film on his last days you shouldn't do it like that," said Cristina Nord, a culture critic for the Tageszeitung newspaper. "It's important to make films about perpetrators, to show how they think. But seeing Hitler cry doesn't make me know what was going on there in the last days of the Third Reich," she added."

It's far easier to pretend that Hitler wasn't like us, that he was 'evil', the next Antichrist, somehow divided from the rest of the human race. But if you believe that, especially if you are German, then you forget the key lesson of the emerging survivors of the Holocaust. To believe that Hitler wassn't human, means that ourselves, as a human race are shedding the responsibility of what we did. We put him there, we let him do what he did, and in most cases, we helped him slaughter all those people. It doesn't surprise me that Germany wants to forget that that man that their parents, grandparents and even they themselves elected, was once just a starving artist on the Vienna streets, and would prefer to complain about how it's not historically accurate, and how it doesn't help them learn.

In my opinion it helps us all learn, providing we all accept that this man was only a man, and that we're responsible for allowing him to do the things that he did. Until that happens, this is just another thing for the German people to ignore. But when will we admit that we're all to blame? It will be a cold day in Hell before that happens.

Picture of the Year

Witty comments below, plzthkyou.

(From Oh No!)

Currently playing.

I'm ripping and reorganising my laptop collection of music in preparation for my return to Canada in 6 weeks time. Thought I would share the halfway point of my Winamp playlist with y'all. Some are downloads, some is music I own, and I won't divulge which is which...lets see if you can work it out...

1. Aenima (Great live Version) (4:09) [Tool]
2. A Perfect Circle - The Hollow (Bunk Remix) (2:03)
3. A Perfect Circle - Ashes To Ashes (Live David Bowie Cover) (4:02)
4. A Perfect Circle - Blue (James Iha Remix) (3:55)
5. A Perfect Circle - Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums (5:55)
6. A Perfect Circle - Diary Of A Madman (5:10)
7. A Perfect Circle - Eulogy (Tool Cover) (8:50)
8. A Perfect Circle - Judith (Renholder Mix) (4:26)
9. A Perfect Circle - Orestes (Billy Howerdel Acoustic Demo) (3:24)
10. A Perfect Circle - Over (Alternative Vinyl Version) (3:07)
11. A Perfect Circle - Over (Deep Sleep Remix) (4:00)
12. A Perfect Circle - Over (Live Heavy Version) (4:08)
13. A Perfect Circle - Renholder (Backwards) (2:24)
14. A Perfect Circle - The Hollow (Bunk Remix) (3:12)
15. A Perfect Circle - The Hollow (Mix 2001) (3:19)
16. A Perfect Circle - Vacant (Live from Tapeworm Project) (4:12)
17. A Perfect Circle - Weak and Powerless (Tilling My Grave Mix) (3:02)
18. Afghan Whigs - Miss World (4:06) [originally by Hole]
19. Air - Alpha Beta Gaga (Mark Ronson Vocal Remix) (3:22)
20. Annie - Me Plus One (3:38)
21. Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy (4:19)
22. Beethoven - Ave Maria (6:16)
23. Beethoven - Für Elise (Piano only) (2:54)
24. Big Black - My House (2:59)
25. Bjork - DO (3:31)
26. Björk - Mouth's Cradle (BBC Radio 1 Rip) (3:58)
27. Björk - The Pleasure Is All Mine (BBC Radio 1 Rip) (3:23)
28. Boney M - Daddy Cool (3:29)
29. Britney Spears - Cinderella (3:39)
30. Chris Rea - Road To Hell (4:31)
31. Christina Aguilera - Beautiful (3:58)
32. Christina Aguilera - Dirrrty (4:04)
33. Christina Aguilera - Fighter (4:10)
34. Des'ree - Kissing You (4:53)
35. Duran Duran - Sunrise (3:16) [Really shit, and I should delete this]
36. Elvis Presley - Hound Dog (2:18)
37. Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock (2:33)
38. Elvis Presley - Love Me Tender (2:48)
39. Elvis Presley - Pocketful Of Rainbows (3:15) [cute as fuck]
40. Gwar - Meat Sandwich (3:29) [roar!]
41. J Kwon - Tipsy (3:51)
42. Jay Z - Nigga Please (4:37)
43. Jimi Hendrix - Foxey Lady (3:20)
44. John Lee Hooker - Baby Lee (3:46)
45. Justin Timberlake - 10 (5:35)
46. Justin Timberlake - 11 (4:32)
47. Justin Timberlake - 12 (4:42)
48. Justin Timberlake - 13 (4:31)
49. Justin Timberlake - 2 (4:36)
50. Justin Timberlake - 3 (4:35)
51. Justin Timberlake - 4 (6:09)
52. Justin Timberlake - 6 (4:23)
53. Justin Timberlake - 7 (4:59)
54. Justin Timberlake - 8 (4:47)
55. Justin Timberlake - 9 (4:33)
56. Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River (4:51)
57. Justin Timberlake - Senorita (4:56)
58. Kelis - I Hate (4:08)
59. Kelis - Milk Shake (3:07)
60. Kelis - Milkshake Remix (3:09)
61. Leonard Cohen - The Future (3:49) [give me crack and anal sex]
62. Lindsay Lohan - Rumors (3:05) [leaked yesterday]
63. Mad Capsule Markets. - No Food, Drink or Smoking (Kawasaki remix) (7:56) [best remix ever!!!!]
64. Madonna - Human Nature (4:53)
65. Mamas and the Papas - California Dreaming (2:41) [reminds me of airport lobbys]
66. Marilyn Monroe - Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend (3:31)
67. Marilyn Monroe - I Wanna Be Loved By You (2:58)
68. Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing (4:05)
69. Maxim & Skin - Carmen Queasy (4:00)
70. Michael Gum - Toxic (3:40)
71. My Ruin - Burn The Witch (3:24) [buy this band]
72. My Ruin - Get Pretty (3:28)
73. New Order - Blue Monday (Original UK Release) (5:07)
74. nick cave - As I Sat Sadly By Her Side (6:12)
75. Nick Cave - Into My Arms (4:14)
76. Nine Inch Nails - March of the Pigs (live) (4:01) [all the Canadian pigs]
77. O Zone - Mai Ia Hii (3:53)
78. Oasis - The Masterplan (5:22)
79. ODB feat.Kelis - I Got Your Money (3:54) [I have a little problem with you NOT fuckin' me]
80. ODB Ft Neptunes - Pop Shit (3:22)
81. Organized Rhyme - check the o.r. (4:13)
82. Peaches - Kick It (2:31)
83. Peaches - Set It Off (3:15)
84. Pearl Jam - Do The Evolution (3:53)
85. PJ Harvey - Down By The Water (3:14)
86. Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up (5:40)
87. Public Enemy - Son Of A Bush (5:50) [vote vote vote you American people]
88. Queen Adreena - Kitty Collar (Live-from website) (2:38)
89. Rachel Stevens - Some Girls (3:33)
90. Radiohead - Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack (4:14)
91. Republica - Ready To Go (3:41)
92. Roxanne (3:14)
93. royal gigolos - California Dreamin' (3:47)
94. Sir Mix-A-Lot - Baby Got Back (4:22)
95. Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 (Moby Remix) (5:07)
96. Smashing Pumpkins - Ava Adore (4:20)
97. Smashing Pumpkins - Boys Don't Cry [Cure cover] (1:38)
98. Smashing Pumpkins - Dross (3:26)
99. Smashing Pumpkins - Everlasting Gaze (4:02)
100. Smashing Pumpkins - Saturnine (3:49) [yes, this is where my screenname comes from]
101. Smashing Pumpkins - Speed Kills (5:17)
102. Smashing Pumpkins - Untitled (3:53)
103. Smashing Pumpkins - White Spyder (3:32)
104. South Park - Medley (4:34)
105. squarepusher - beep street (6:37)
106. Squarepusher - Rebus (2:47)
107. Squarepusher - Tommib (1:20)
108. Stimulator - 78 Stimulator (3:33)
109. Sting & Police - Track03 (4:28) [Actually, it's "An Englishman in New York" and it's another that reminds me of travelling]
110. System Of A Down - Forest (4:00)
111. System Of A Down - Prison Song (3:21)
112. System Of A Down - Shimmy (1:51)
113. Tairrie B. - Schooll's In (5:25) [My Ruin's singer's early rap career with Eazy E]
114. Tairrie B. - Vinnie tha' Moocha (3:59)
115. Tatu - All The Things She Said (3:34)
116. The Cure - Love Song (3:30)
117. The Faint - Agenda Suicide (3:58)
118. The Faint - Mote (4:15)
119. The Libertines - Cant Stand Me Now (3:23)
120. The Twilight Singers - Hyperballad (2:24)
121. Toni Braxton - You're Makin Me High (4:29)
122. Tool - Hush (live) (2:40)
123. Underworld - Shy Boy (9:44)
124. William Shatner - I Am Canadian (2:00) [I AM CANADIAN! Almost.]

Update your software!

Mozilla has released new versions of Firefox and Thunderbird this week. I'm running both, and so far, I'm having no bug problems (they'll come though, as these are still techinically only developer releases), and they are rather sleek and sexy. The only drawback is that most extensions don't work (Foxytunes released an upgrade almost immediately, but I have no Google toolbar right now), so if you are particularly attached to the add-ons, I'd suggest you wait for them to issue upgrades and then grab the latest versions all at once.

Hotch Potch

Last week was very odd, no? I think it was pre-September 11th jitters. Like the universe was remembering. Anyhoo :

• Underground cavern found in Paris catacombs:
  

"After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access. Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.

Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs". There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.

A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said "The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."

Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us.""

• Slashdot discusses Intel's Internet 2.0 ideals (a second thread that extends from the earlier one).
• 
  
• The Rise and Fall of the Thong by Alex Kuczynski:

"The thong got skinnier and skinnier, and women got tired of it," he said. "And they got sick and tired of seeing string hanging out of the top of every celebrity's jeans. It's just gross. I think it went too far over the edge and enough is enough."

• Jennifer Aniston, pay your website fees!

• You would have thought Laura Bush would have cooked George W a hearty breakfast before the September 11th memorial service. He just looks hungry. Poor boy.

• And obsessive map of Springfield - can someone find me the lemon tree that divides Springfield from Shelbyville please?
  

Intel wants a new internet.

Saw this BBC article yesterday and nearly exploded. However, not having the complete techie upgrade installed quite just yet, I was waiting for Slashdot to yank it up and rant about Intel's suspicious motives. You can read their thoughts here.

It's just getting worse.

Who would have thought that [the image of the Twin Towers burning] would get worse with age? That it could possibly symbolise more than 2000+ people dying? That it was more than just a terrorist attack? How many people have died since because of those two planes? How many will die today? Tomorrow? How many times will this be used for political power gain? What will this be in another 3 years time?

Too many questions and not enough answers to go around.

BBC News reflects.

Wichita School cracks down on "Goth" clothing.

MTV News

This makes me extremely angry. Some select quotes :

"'There's always been a policy in our dress code against gang or group-related clothing,' Principal Cherie Crain said. 'Because there's power in numbers. When a group looks alike, they terrorize other kids or intimidate them. Sixth graders in particular were very intimidated by the cultist look.'"

" 'Last week, a parent told me her two kids were talking about this at dinner,' Crain said. 'And one of them said 'I'm so glad Ms. Crain did this, because a Goth sat behind me last year and every single day he'd hiss at me like a snake.' And that impeded his learning.'"

" 'I'll send students home until they want to come back to school dressed in clothes that do not violate the dress code,' Crain said. 'That's not the wholesome look that's conducive to students performing to excellence. I've got 1,050 kids here, and basically it's a clean-cut, good-looking group.'

Crain said she doesn't have a problem with students wearing black — after all, Wilbur Middle School's colors are red and black. But when black clothing is combined with dyed hair, make-up and painted nails, it becomes a concern.

'The problem is when kids go whole-hog with the look, then it takes on a sort of dark-side symbolism,' she said. 'And it upsets parents, it upsets kids and it upsets teachers. This is a place to go to school, and to be a kid. And I don't want kids being afraid or nervous. It's a wholesome environment.'"

This is bullshit. Why is wearing red lipstick different from wearing black lipstick? What's the difference between a Manson t-shirt and a Britney Spears folder? Why are the cheerleaders and football players allowed to be in a gang, but kids aren't allowed to collectively follow a fashion trend? Why is Abercrombie and Fitch OK, but Hot Topic and other alternative brand names not? Punish them for their behaviour, not the clothes they wear. Until then, this is a big dose of Hypocrisy. Plain and simple.

Sexy Corpse

Bookslut interviews Poppy Z. Brite:

"By the time Liquor takes place... well, since their relationship at least somewhat mirrors my own, I don't want to imply that they take each other for granted or aren't passionate about each other, but by the time you've been together that long, you'd better have more than sex or you're in trouble. This is the point being missed by readers who lament Liquor's lack of hot sex scenes, probably because they aren't old enough to understand that a passionate relationship could be about anything other than sex. In a novel like Drawing Blood, explicit sex scenes are necessary because the characters are discovering each other and learning about themselves. In Liquor, they'd just be beside the point. It wasn't my intention to hide the fact that Rickey and G-man are a couple -- you know that by the end of the first chapter -- but I did want to show that they live in a world, the macho kitchen world, where they're not apt to parade their relationship. They're not closeted by any means, but they don't advertise either. So far, gay readers seem to really like that fact; it's only the little girls with sticky panties who are disappointed by it."

White People

I have no idea who Handsome Boy Modelling School are (I think they could be hip hop), but the guestlist for their new album looks awesome!

Intro (featuring Father Guido Sarducci)
If It Wasn't for You (ft. De La Soul)
Are You Down With It (ft. Mike Patton (Faith No More))
The World's Gone Mad (ft. Barrington Levy, Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Alex Kapranos)
Dating Game (ft. Tim Meadows)
Breakdown (ft. Jack Johnson)
It's Like That (ft. Casual)
I Am Complete (ft. Hieroglyphics)
I've Been Thinkin' (ft. Cat Power)
Rock and Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This) Part 2 (ft. Mike Shinoda (that's him from Linkin Park, I believe), Finesse, Jazzy Jay, Grand Wizard Theodore)
Knockers Skit (ft. Tim Meadows)
The Hours (ft. Chino Moreno (Deftones), El-P, Cage)
First . . . and Then (ft. Dres)
A Day in the Life (ft. Mars Volta)
Good Hygiene (ft. Tim Meadows)
Greatest Mistake (ft. John Oates, Jamie Cullum, Paula Frazer)
The Runaway Song Part 2 Remix (ft. Kid Koala)

[From Popbitch]

Post-Emergency-Room Fun

Not one to talk too heavily about myself, but I just had to take a quick trip to a walk in clinic owing to crushing, stabbing chest pain. Something akin to a heart attack, but all the (Australian) doctor could find was a tender chest wall. Cue anti-inflammatories, and me feeling rather healthy, but a little bit shaken. The pain was tremendous, and I didn't enjoy having to take a free taxi (because we have no money) to the middle of chav-town (Knowle, although, that's not as bad as Knowle-West, which is pretty close, hence why there is a walk in clinic open at 1am) . I feel rather wobbly, and worried about why I have had these pains, and I hope they don't happen again. So far, my medical history has given me lots of fun, for no apparent reason. I don't drink, smoke or eat junk food on a regular basis (heck, I definitely don't smoke, with the way my chest works), yet I have paralysing migraines and a dodgy painful chest. That makes sense.

Anyway, Chris left a rather amusing image in the below blog's comment section. I love irony.

Pens! Ink!

Now, we all know how much I just hate to brag, but Popgadget made a mention of my favorite writing device, and I couldn't help but make a point of this.

I am done.

Gmail

I have six invites. I will give them to whoever is now lacking a Gmail account, stranger or friend. Maybe not foe though. Email me at the address on the side, and I'll send the invite as soon as I can.

FindForward

I recently added a small button to the sidebar of this blog. Whenever someone clicks on a link that leads to my blog, or part of my blog, FindForward emails me to let me know where they are coming from, and how many hits I've had so far since using this device. So far, most of my links have come via Echoing The Sound, a Nine Inch Nails/Nothing Records based messageboard (oddly enough, from a link I placed regarding Marilyn Manson's latest single, Personal Jesus, which is shit, so I won't link you to my entry). But in close second place, Joe. My. God. seems to be passing along a lot of readers. Which is great, because I can remember him when he was just a wee blogger, all those weeks ago, with barely any comments; and now he's racking up at least 10 per large entry. He's one of my favorites, so go read him.

But overwhelmingly, FindForward has revealed that the Blog Nav, one of the gorgeous new features that Blogger have implemented, is actually working. So far, people have been passing through include aRepublican sports blog and a nice little writing blog. So thumbs up to Blogger for the traffic.

(Side note, I just googled for a link detailing the Blog Nav, and discovered that I am 6th and 8th in the google results for mentioning it. How scary.)

You can get FindForward alerts here, and it does a lot of other funky things too, apparently.

If you are passing through, by the way, leave a comment. Let me know if I'm interesting, or boring as sin. It's lonely out here in a commentless world.

Fo'shizzle ma NIZZLE.

Good buddy of mine has dumped Livejournal and is starting up a proper blog. You can find him here. Things he will blog about may or may not include pictures of Snoop Dogg, Morrissey interviews, Bret Easton Ellis books, working the night shift at a video store, hot hipster pants, hatred of nu metal band KoRn and Kraft dinners. Please say hi.

Quick Pay Off

Michael Jackson has admitted that he has paid off past accusers of child molestation to avoid media scrutiny and embarrassment to his family.

"Years ago, I settled with certain individuals because I was concerned about my family and the media scrutiny that would have ensued if I fought the matter in court. These people wanted to exploit my concern for children by threatening to destroy what I believe in and what I do. I have been a vulnerable target for those who want money...I would never harm a child."

This was revealed hours before Dateline NBC reported that he paid $2 million to an employee's son who made allegations of child molestation, in 1990. That makes nearly fifteen years of child molestation accusations. I'm not a psychologist, but things I know about serial sexual offenders, is that they usually have a history of being arrested for, or accused of, the crime that finally takes them down. And that they never see what they do as harming a child.

Draw your own conclusions. I find it very hard to believe that every single family was out for his money and are lying about their children being abused; especially when it comes as a basic method of defence. If he was innocent, they wouldn't need to accuse the families of lying about something as horrific as child abuse. But again, we only know what we've been told. There's a gigantic gag order over this court case, and I for one can't wait for when the evidence gets released into a public domain.

Voyeur Disaster.

Russian School Siege
Hurricane Frances

More NYC Bullshit.

I mostly read New York blogs, for some reason, probably the same as why I read Defamer but not Gawker. I'm a bit queer like that. Anyway, from a small select bunch of sources, I've managed to pick up on even more NYC/Republican Convention bullshit.

Take for instance, the story of the photographer harrassed for taking pictures, when tourists milling around the same area were doing exactly the same thing. Could it be because of what the final picture exposes? (Here's a clue, it could be something to do with the colour of his skin!) Or yet another statement by one of the bikers arrested on the weekend.

It's out of hand. Seriously out of hand. Let's cut the crap, eh people? Taking pictures, riding bikes and protesting the Republican convention is not a reason to ostracise, attack or abuse your power to remove these people from society. How about you talk about freedom when we get a chance to exercise it. I have to fly out to Canada from London in a month or so, and I'm not going to happily go through a mental-rectal examination to do so.

Step up to the plate.

Satan's Laundromat barely suffered a blip, despite being arrested, and updated with pictures of the NYPD and pictures of the NY protests. Fight on people, fight on.

Disappointed...

...that no one noticed Laura Bush's bad facelift at last night's Republican Convention.