Ghost of a flea

Eloi Eloi!

Kate Beckinsale is hesitant at the idea of a (public) appearance as Wonder Woman for the same reason she turned down a Bond Girl role. It turns out... oh, so difficult to type these words... she is concerned about embarrassing her family.

Catwoman remains a possibility for Beckinsale "Because I have a thing for black latex. I do, I know we all do." So there remains a star to be seen through Mordor's gloom.

The Smiths: Oscillate Wildly

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Three Little Pigs

As read by Christopher Walken.

Keep the faith

To get to Eagle Mountain, go to Lehi and drive west. The Deseret Morning News calls it Utah, only more so. The weekend starts with Fetish Friday, apparently.

Though, being Utah, the place is alcohol free. Which is twisted.

Pinback: Fortress

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance

Greedo Does T-Dot

There is something about Greedo on the TTC I find enormously appealing. A little local colour for anyone curious about Toronto too.

Related: No Doubt performing The Imperial March; I like the little ska twist at the end. Sadly, no Gwen Stefani in Stormtrooper armour. Imperial Death Star Gunner armour, say. Hot.

Still no help for the widow's son

Depending on how Mitt Romney's bid to buy the Republican presidential nomination works out for him, we are going to be learning more than we ever wanted or needed to learn about the Latter Day Saints. This plus my love of all crackpot nineteenth century Masonic cults - and the sneaking suspicion I am, myself, a Mormon* - has lead me to reading more and more on the subject. That and Chloë Sevigny, obviously.**

Two YouTube videos are snarkworthy. First, and following some generalized griping about LDS Church reactions to dissent, an ex-Mormon takes issue with the role of women in the LDS; she was excommunicated for harping on about the subject. Second, a gay Mormon couple convinced they are going to be excommunicated for going public on ABC News. Watch if you will. Or take my word for the summary: These people are annoyed their high-handed, authoritarian cult will not accommodate their being women/gay. It's discrimination! One of the gay chaps even goes to far as to say that who gets into heaven is not up the LDS Church; it is up to God.

News flash to these disgruntled Mormons: You are not Mormons; you are Protestants (with some peculiar archeology and some sketchiness about the Trinity). If you want to have female priests or gay Latter Day Saints you need to start your own absurd religion. The United States is not yet run by a Dark Ages religious dictatorship so enjoy your religious freedom while it lasts. In the meantime, this sort of dissent reminds me of trolls attempting to direct the editorial policy of my blog and, failing to do so, accusing me of disregarding their "freedom of speech". I have no sympathy whatsoever for Mormons who feel excluded from their community due to their refusing this or that specific doctrine of salvation.*** As a non-Mormon I cannot set foot in their Temple and presumably am already condemned for all eternity.

So welcome to the club.

* What with my clean living and off-again-on-again love of Battlestar Galactica.
** Related, Chloë Sevigny on high-waisted jeans.
*** Particularly given that having repudiated The Principle most so-called Mormons are already apostate.

Pete Heller: Big Love

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

She blinded me with science

Cambridge mathematicians have identified Jessica Alba as having the perfect wiggle. Funny, I was just thinking earlier that there is probably more than a coincidental resemblance between a wiggle and an infinity symbol...

Via WWTDD? who illustrates the case for Jessica Alba rather forcefully. Related, Jessica Alba swimming in slow motion.

Vex'd: Thunder

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

God, Honour and Homeland

The Polish Army; a tribute. I suspect you could put this music* over me standing in line at Tim Horton's and it would be (more) epic but, still, this is awesome. Love the F-16s. I will take one Polish ally over the rest of Western "Europe" put together.

* That being "Lux Aeterna" by Clint Mansell.

Pro bono

Warren Ellis' Sunday Hangover column is up at Suicide Girls. It has the usual dose of exemplary snark. What it does not have is any acknowledgment of the Suicide Girls lawsuit against photographer Philip Warner, aka Lithium Picnic; this despite my note to Ellis' literary agent a week ago. I can only conclude Ellis either believes Suicide Girls is right in its case or that he is not much bothered so long as he keeps getting paid for his weekly column.

Aside from the immediate tragic of an Apnea-deprived internet is to learn this case has been dragging on for months. The PVC Straightjacket pictured above was sold at auction months ago toward legal fees. And so a door closes until the end of time (more on that subject re. archaeology and supposed anthropogenic global warming tomorrow).

Common feat. Dwele: The People

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Slave Leia

Slave Leia makes it on E! Countdown. Slave Leia photo shoot at DragonCon. Leia Live at ConnectiCon 2006. Slave Leia bellydances to Tusken Raider's drum at MegaCon. These posts write themselves.

Kirk would know what to do

It terrifies me there are Flea-readers who knew of the existence of Casey McKinnon and said nothing, assuming I too must know of her existence. But no. No cable; which is no excuse given her podcast fame*. Somehow my psychic abilities had let me down... until now.

Well earned, I am certain. Casey McKinnon has a blog, btw. Loads of A Comicbook Orange to be found on YouTube; I loved her thoughts on Frank Miller. Just engrossing.

* Arguably nsfw link, but who cares, you only live once; also these interview questions.

Paul Oakenfold feat. Brittany Murphy: Faster Kill Pussycat

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Also, some H.R. Giger: Ready Steady Go.

Not your typical Myers-Briggs personality types

The benefit of science. Still, reassuring to have ones intuitions confirmed. Now looking for a Mad Scientist...

L

Showing its usual flair for reducing the inherently interesting to pablum, ABC News considers celebrity fashion lines. Eva Mendes, Eva Longoria, Liz Taylor, Sarah Jessica Parker, Britney Spears, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, J. Lo, P. Diddy; these are just a few names about which no analysis need be offered. Keywords! Branding! Sex sells! And how they conclude Gwen Stefani's line is in any sense Vivienne Westwood-inspired is beyond me. Note to Phillip Blotch: Analogy is not the same thing as homology.

Admittedly, Gwen Stefani's own characterization of her work is a bit rocky.

Yes, all those English Great Gatsby garden-party girls... still, such confusion is to be expected. I have always contended artists should avoid comment on their own work. Flea-readers need not despair on informed comment, however, Stefani's new L.A.M.B. frangrance, "L" is well represented by the auteuse. Agent Bedhead has the video.

Nina Hagen: Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance (via Unicorn Bacon).

Megnézed a bélyeggyûjteményem?

Something interesting is happening in Hungary. Take Sturmast, Larrnakh and Romokon, for example.

Clippers of the clouds

"Distinguished inventors of marvelous machines in the line of steam and electricity," the Reade Family - Frank Sr., Frank Jr., Frank III, and Kate - were the original steampunks.

Big Red Hair offers a thrilling introduction including an astonishing profile of robots of the Victorian era; Boilerplate must be the best robot name until R2D2.

Garmarna: Vanner Och Frander

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Shoewawa Report

The Manolo reports on Moscow, St. Petersburg and Berlin's High Heel Racing events (via LGF).

Imperial Moon

Francis Drake, Henry Hudson, James Cook and, of course, Robert Scott; that is how we used to make them. Greg3 presents "steampunk in 1/6th" with a Victorian space explorer and a tale of the first Moon landing (hat tip to Gregorgoth). Now not only counter-factual but sadly, entirely fictional.

Spiritual Front: Slave

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.*

* More here.

A very British Olympiad

Eddie Izzard presents a case for performance debilitating drugs (nsfw language).

A game of chants

RugbyHeaven calls it "a game of chants' - rather clever, that - and lists some varying responses to New Zealand's national rugby team pre-game ritual; purportedly the words of Ngati Tao chief, Te Rauparaha, by all accounts a charming fellow. There are varying degrees of disapproval.

But this New Zealand All Blacks vs Ikale Tahi, Tonga's Sea Eagles demonstration of the Haka* and Tonga's Sipi Tao is perhaps the most awesome thing I have ever seen on the internet (via the Drink Soaked Trots). Related: A Samoan Siva Tau, a Fijian Cibi and, last but not least, Scotland's response to the Haka.

* Loving the Flea-ish version from 1924.

New Order: Everything's Gone Green

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

The tip of the iceberg

A news crew lands by helicopter on an iceberg off the South Island of New Zealand. Spectacular.

Ladies and Gentlemen; it is almost midnight!

While I would hesitate to agree it is a masterpiece of architecture*, I will concede BMW Welt is impressive as US$275m showrooms go.

Which is to hyperbolize. The central cyclonic feature is certainly suggestive of a numinous presence - I too would have been watching construction with interest - and what with my brand proclivities there is some part of me which finds it difficult to imagine owning anything but a BMW.** But turning an auto purchase into a religious act is a bit of a stretch even in these post-moral times; especially at €457 ($630) for the privilege. Though I expect the place will make nice mosque down the line.

* Blogging should involve something slightly more than reprinting corporate press releases.
** I shudder as I type these words.

Trentemøller: Evil Dub / Moan

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Update: Remix.

Now with less Basra

The British Army updates its recruitment ads; love the regional accents. Still, they are going to find it hard to compete with the Royal Navy in fleeing the field. Though I notice civilians are doing a fine job of that task without the benefit of the Queen's shilling.

She's like so whatever

I have been meaning to write about Avril Lavigne because she is AWESOME. (Seriously.) What Would Tyler Durden Do explains.

Paris is our Vietnam Update: k-punk's latest withering attack on pop-ism or, to his mind, more properly a species of Deflationary Hedonic Relativism seems à propos. Particularly given my anarcho-dandyist tendencies, so readily confused with a "Wildean/ Warholian celebration of superficiality."

Nelly Furtado: Do It

Also vivid and awesome: Nelly Furtado. I have been studying this video as if it was for an exam. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal

A fine view of Sydney Harbour and a rather closer look at Sydney Harbour Bridge than I have the stomach for.

Coming out of the coffin

Fans of Deadwood and, to a lesser degree, Rome, having wandered far in the deserts of HBO, may now at long last hold out some small hope for True Blood, which looks to me to be their rejoinder to Blood Ties (no matter what reading the book purely by chance and could not put it down as HBO tanks and, oh, look, Lifetime is doing well with this Tanya Huff property Alan Ball says). Anna Paquin is set to play Sookie Stackhouse, sure to irritate fans of Charlaine Harris' novels, but I think an excellent choice.

More developing news may be found at the True Blood LiveJournal community, itself a clue to the women-with-cats fanbase of the series. Here's to hoping Anna Paquin's tits* will bring in the X-Men side of fandom. Also set to feature? Utilikilts. I gather these give utilikiltarians a sense of "freedom".

* I struggled with this expression, but not for very long. On a related note: Is Snape good or bad... What? More in this vein tomorrow, I'm afraid.

Digital Mystikz: Haunted

Dump your low-end speakers. Get into sub-bass... Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Every boy who reads at all

Christopher Hitchens reviews Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But for an entirely unnecessary - if inevitable - foray into God not being great, it is a fine summary (via the Drink Soaked Trots). I am particularly grateful for his pointing to a corner of Orwell's oeuvre that had escaped me.

Quite. One might ask the same of all these Muggles reading about magick. George Orwell's "Boys' weeklies" is available on-line.* It is an astonishing read... Orwell has anticipated the heart of Hogwarts with uncanny accuracy.

* My favourite passage:

Orwell goes on to address another question, viz why is there no such thing as a left-wing boys' paper? With her pro-Muggle, pro-House Elf and Slytherinophobic leveling ideology, one might argue J.K. Rowling is the first to achieve something close to it with Harry Potter.

Related: Christopher Hitchens is not just for breakfast.

Laurie Anderson: Smoke Rings

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Oh wait, is that the maid's house?

The Daily Show considers Big Wind in Nantucket.

Free Apnea

Apnea is off-line thanks to a reported lawsuit launched by alternate totty empire, Suicide Girls against independent photographer Philip Warner, aka Lithium Picnic. Apnea explains.

Apnea goes on to explain Philip is selling his Houston studio and much of his photography gear. Nightmarish. Due to his writing a regular column for Suicide Girls, I sent a note to Warren Ellis about the controversy. Flea-readers with pertinent legal expertise might also consider volunteering some time to the cause; surely there is none better.

Emilie Autumn: Dead is the New Alive

Live at Wave Gotik Treffen... something to shoot for.* Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

* I'm melting!

Back to Iraq

Normally I would make fun of Bill Ardolino but he is going back to Fallujah so one is obliged to admire his bravery and seriousness of purpose.

Support independent journalism!

Update: INDCJournal video... Fallujah Police Headquarters: January 12, 2007. The folding chair would have got to me too. Probably left me with flashbacks. "Fallujah. Sh*t. I'm still in Fallujah", and so forth. This is what gets the chicks. (Seriously, though, this is fascinating material.)

The bourgeoisie and the rebel

Brownfield formed/spawned/congealed in the Golden Horseshoe, Toronto-based VOSQQ (pictured above) claim to "redefine the state of unified, renewable undeath." Love it. Wishing they had a video to link; I am a fan of violinists.

Soon to be Ottawa-based Synkro "started making noisey music in his mothers womb. No wait...in his fathers testicle." He is also shares the Flea's mastery of Jägermeister shots.

The entrancing Notaform is a self-classified "sample junkie". Must ask what she sampled for the introduction to "Venus"...

John Kameel Farah is redefining electronica by drawing from "Middle Eastern and Western Baroque to 20th-century serialism and minimalism, as well as the deep, complex percussion loops of the dance floor." Which is a lot of isms to bodyguard subtle, beautiful music.

Notaform and John Kameel Farah play Savage Garden, August 30 while VOSQQ and Synchro are booked to play Savage this coming September 27; both nights are Toronto Noise Promotion Technical Glitch events. Also awesome, September 13 a new harsh noise night begins at Savage begins, F*ck'd. And for my sins, I will be playing all three nights.

Depeche Mode: Strangelove

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead

What may be a life preserver from the Edmund Fitzgerald has washed ashore 200 miles from the cite of the famous wreck. James Lileks elaborates in verse (via Instapundit).

Good artists borrow

Saying suicides are "given less of a grace period than those who die young in accidents or from illness", the New York Observer reports from Jeremy Blake's funeral and references some of the lurid reportage following the death of Blake and Theresa Duncan (via The Seaword*). While not discounting the more unfortunate accounts of her life, this passage about Theresa's blog moved me.

There are some people who would read irresponsible fantasy, even duplicity, into creating a second life like this. Oscar Wilde had a different name for the practice, viz Art. William Blake, the Imagination.

On a related note, my comment especially.

* The image lifted from another post at The Seaword, "young, sexy & dead". A propos Theresa argument, I am fully expecting a film about the couple... vampires will continue to feed, even on the dead.

Ibid Update: The Seaword offers a sensible rebuttal. Though I should add Americans - and Canadians - tend to take the view that every reference must be made explicit in order to be legitimate. This is not the case in French scholarship. In a country where it is still possible to assume a readership with a classical education there is no need to telegraph an allusion to Plato. Sadly, the English-speaking world has a created a culture where sensible people can quote Scripture or Shakespeare and have not a clue they are so doing.

Tenjo Chiki: Piranha

Not claiming to be deep here. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Satan versus Her Majesty The Queen

The Rhino Party is back. Or it will be once Satan sorts out Elections Canada.

By the Grace of God, King of England and France and Lord of Ireland

The great mysteries of the internets - and of our increasingly pixelated life - are new forms of entertainment. Homemade videos on YouTube come to mind, radio stations from everywhere with no need of a shortwave - newspapers too for that matter, and every manner of commentary on any subject conceivable. Much of the latter quite unanticipated by forerunner media.

Take an ongoing Europa Universalis II after action report, for example. Mr. Taylor had impressed upon me the merits of the game; we both find setting taxation rates to be recreational. But it is only reading his counter-factual history of Europe (in progress, Part I and Part II) that I get a sense of the imaginary scope of the game.

And of Europe, I should add. Through Mr. Taylor, Henry VI had restored some gloire to the true Plantagenet Kings of France. He has acquired considerable territory on the continent and some very different history plays from the Bard a generation or two down the line. I was particularly impressed by some self-imposed victory conditions.

Quite right on all counts. We should have reclaimed Calais after the War. Also interesting: A new word, viz ecorcheurs. Must work that one into conversation today.

Nina Hagen: Habanera

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance (via Unicorn Bacon).*

* And, once again, the masterpiece.

The latest from the dextrosphere

John Hawkins posts the results of his latest poll of right-of-center blogs on the subject of most and least preferred Republican presidential nominees. Fred Thompson takes it in a walk.

They are building a clone army

Or, rather, air force. Gateway Pundit observes Iran's recently announced Azarakhash "Lightning" jet (above) holds an uncanny similarity to their Saegheh "Thunder" jet (below) announced last September. As commenters to Rantburg note, Xerxes' descendants appear to have mastered a new manufacturing process using Photoshop. Note to Iran: your saber-rattling works best if you crib pictures of something with more oomph than an F-5, let alone pictures of the USAF flight demonstration team.

Slightly more serious is the possibility of two-hundred and fifty Su-30MKM Flankers and twenty Il-78MKI Midas aerial tankers supposedly on order from the Russians. Though even this prospect fails to impress comment at DefenseTech. Cynics there suggest a six billion dollar appropriation for sixty F-22s may have incentivised the story for the USAF and/or Lockheed Martin. The whole of the DefenseTech piece is worth a read particularly for discussion of "Cope India", a joint air combat exercise between the USAF and the Indian Air Force featuring Su-30s.*

* More on Cope India from Aviation Week & Space Technology. I believe it would be a mistake to write this incident off as a budget scare; particularly given my assumption the PLA air force would be as flexible as the Indians. Not to mention using rather more "grey market" tech than the IAF and asymmetric tactics disallowed in an exercise and, apparently, in the thinking of Western defense planners.

Doc Walker: Driving With the Brakes On

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Vanessa Paradis: One

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Sometimes I feel like

Because we don't have enough to worry about with ceiling cat. Popular Mechanics offers tips on preventing hackers from peeping in via your webcam (via Instapundit). Their solution is reassuringly lo-fi. William Gibson is with us in truth.

Sang-froid

Writing for Newsweek, Jerry Adler describes a new practice of cooling patients so as to interrupt the complex process of dying from a heart attack.

So, God bless Dominique-Jean Larrey for that. It takes a rare mind to actually observe about the world, make reasoned inference from observation and act on it. He is long in the grave and still saving lives. More thoughts on the creation of the flying ambulance. Yet more on the man for French-speaking Flea-readers.

Faithless: God is a DJ (live)

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Sixty children on the bus. Sixty children alive.

James Lileks writes about the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

The Lunar Society of Los Angeles

Jeremy Blake's body has been identified. Kate Coe's piece on the life and death of Theresa Duncan appears in LA Weekly. Quoting Duncan:

There is more than a touch of the Great Gatsby about the tale; I have always been a fan of the Great Gatsby. One thing I know for a fact: Having publicly, strenuously disagreed with Theresa I found her gracious not only in the course of the disagreement but once we realized we were never going to agree. In fact, I was most surprised by my own reaction to the encounter. I have, it has been observed, a Mercurial nature.* Theresa managed to side-step it by sheer charisma.

I expect once I am in the ground it will be easy for people to characterize me as having had a with-me-or-against-me temperament; I cannot say I found this to be true of Duncan whatever her disagreements with others. Heaven knows I have irritated enough people who will be glad to take a shot once they think they are clear of me.** Particularly if a summary of my life were to rely on the wrong former business partner and the wrong ex-girlfriend.

Kate Coe introduces her article by explaining she knew Theresa Duncan. Yes, at parties. But we can say what we like once people are gone and I expect Coe is best placed to tell this side of the story. Such are the second acts of American lives.

* And I appreciate those of you who choose to put up with it.
** They are wise to wait. Otherwise I suggest approaching from beyond my line of sight and by stealth.

Tegan and Sara: Back in Your Head

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

Baphomet, etc.

My ongoing investigations into places nobody can hear you scream lead me back to the Giger Tarot, more properly the Baphomet Tarot, the product of an off-the-wall Swiss occultist, Akron and H.R. Giger. Flea-readers may be unsurprised to learn I own a copy; mine was purchased at a hobby store in wind-swept, storm-tossed and becastled Lancaster in the darkest north of England. I am a collector of these things so could hardly turn it down but given the deck consists of repackaged Giger paintings and is limited to the Major Arcana its utility as a working tarot deck is strictly limited.

Nonetheless.

I found an interview with the delightfully creepy Mr. Giger on the subject of tarot and this lead to something yet more interesting; an awesome take-down of pomo anti-occultism.* Having come to a post-Hermetic phase in my thinking, I am nonetheless committed to the idea one needs to study something properly before attempting to improvise on one's own. Picasso, after all, could paint like a Master when the mood struck him. It seems the braintrust behind the Baphomet Tarot is yet another of today's tarot establishment arguing for feeling over proper study: All Jung (without having read, let alone understood, Jung) and against Crowley (without having read, let alone understood, Crowley).

Quite right. It is amazing how people who talk up a relativist line manage to conclude with lock-step, unvarying and utterly inflexible platitudes as their bedrock. I hear the words "healing" or "consensus" and I reach for my gun. Though in fairness Mary Greer is very nice.

* Sometimes called "newage"... to rhyme with sewage.

Bryan Ferry: Limbo

Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.