seige mentality

elephant and castle tube station, london, at the height of the blitz. This is a somewhat lazy post, drawn as it is from a comment left earlier over on the excellent Eighty Thousand Times The Word “Fuck”: “I don’t know. There’s been a lot of people sniffing and sneezing in the lifts here of late.

if thy right eye offends thee…

illustration by ib. Siblings. Your silence is deafening.No commentary on any new post in the last ten days and counting. Despite some healthy incoming traffic.I am almost tempted to check that I haven’t inadvertently disabled a function or two in the settings somewhere.Indeed, were it not for those statistics helpfully thrown into focus via StatCounter

line dancing on the tet offensive

photograph by robert burroughs.It took 28 years, but the Oklahoma born son of a preacher man finally got what was pinned there off his chest. ▼ JIMMY WEBB: WICHITA LINEMAN from “Ten Easy Pieces” LP (Guardian / Angel) 1996 (US)

purple heart, first edition

peace march, LA: april 22nd, 1972. photograph by bill eppridge. Composed by Mel Tillis, and originally recorded by Johnny Darnell.“johnny got his gun”Arranged by Glennn D. Hardin;Produced by Jimmy Bowen. ▼ KENNY ROGERS AND THE FIRST EDITION: RUBY (DON’T TAKE YOUR LOVE TO TOWN) from “The First Edition ’69” LP (Reprise) 1969 (US)

three fates, or two ?

lucifer descending: gustav doré’s “paradise lost” engravings, 1866. At•ro•pos |ˌatrəˈpɒs| Greek Mythologyone of the three Fates. ORIGINGreek, literally ‘inflexible.’ acherontia atropos; the death’s head moth. Synanthesia: Dennis Homes: vibes, guitar, vocals;Jim Fraser: alto/soprano saxophone, oboe, alto/nose/concert flute;Les Cook: guitar, bongos, violin, mandolin, vocals. ▼ SYNANTHESIA: FATES from “Synanthesia” LP (RCA Victor) 1969 (UK) ▼ THE

cuts a circle

“the moon-woman cuts a circle“, 1942. Classified ‘4-F: unfit for service” in 1941 on psychological grounds, Pollock began work on a series of paintings which would form the basis for his first solo exhibition, at Peggy Guggenheim’s ‘Art of This Century’ gallery two years later. This new period coincided with the dissolving of the WPA

my painted tomb

“lucifer“; 1947. “When the 35-year-old Pollock finished Lucifer in 1947 he had to ask his wife, painter Lee Krasner, “Is this a painting?” Lucifer is a green, black and pearly discharge, a phosphorescent radioactive snapshot of what America looked, felt and sounded like in 1947.”– Jerry Saltz, The Tempest.Interesting fact: initiated in Phoenix, Arizona, 1981

after martha’s graveyard

springs, new york, april 1949. photograph by martha holmes. de•lir•i•um tre•mens |ˌtriːmɛnz| |ˌtrɛ-| noun a psychotic condition typical of withdrawal in chronic alcoholics, involving tremors, hallucinations, anxiety, and disorientation. ORIGIN early 19th cent.: from Latin, ‘trembling delirium.’ untitled, 1951; ink on paper.A smell of sea, saltwater on your lips.You open your mouth andit all comes

an andalusian dog

luis buñuel and salvador dalí’s “un chien andalou“, 1929.I remember seeing this short film for the first time when I was about five years old. In short trousers clasping a glass of spilt milk. Right after “Watch with Mother“; back in those days when the BBC was less inclined to wrap its viewers in cotton

mayfly

may•fly |ˌmeɪflʌɪ| noun ( pl. –flies) a short-lived, slender insect with delicate, transparent wings and two or three long filaments on the tail. It lives close to water, where the chiefly herbivorous aquatic larvae develop. • Order Ephemeroptera: several families and many species. • an artificial fishing fly that imitates such an insect.Happy birthday, Gus.

blood and soldering wire

jean cocteau: “le sang d’un poete“, 1930. Recorded and mixed at Record Plant, Saualito, CA, February 4th, 1976 – April 9th 1976. Minus the overdubs, and oddly slight without the grounding weight of bass. ▼ FLEETWOOD MAC: DREAMS (DEMO) from “Rumours (Remastered + Expanded)” 2 x CD (Warner Bros.) 1977 / 2004 (UK / US)

gaunt

The bird – rotund; a ball of downy copper and rust – appeared wedged between an outcrop of rock and the packed soil of the bank. The only thing sharp about it was its tiny beak. Jabbing the air in tense circles like the frail arms of a punch-drunk boxer. A featherweight. It did not

dos

cami: photograph by obra gráfica. “For eleven January evenings in 1973, the Morroccan sitar of Lula Cortes and the 12-string of Lailson de Holanda Cavalcanti haunted the northeastern shores of Brazil. When the fire died down and the body finally cut loose the duo went their separate ways.”– Big B. Lailson was from the verdant

apostle of the strung-out

Figure 3-29.–Correct way to take out a kink in wire rope. kink |kɪŋk|noun a sharp twist or curve in something that is otherwise straight : a kink in the road.• figurative a flaw or obstacle in a plan, operation, etc. : though the system is making some headway, there are still some kinks to iron

king leopold’s ghost

“mistah kurtz, he dead.” The world is seemingly populated with souls who would deny the Holocaust. Blink, and you will have missed it. Events which echo those horrors bring them tumbling out of the woodwork like so many blind worms, quick to point the finger of conspiracy even as they conspire. The planet is full

interview with a soapdodger, charlatan and charismatic miscreant

let me introduce you to the family: “wanna buy a f@ckin’ lady bic ?” II One has to be careful… when picking up the soap. In many penitentiaries, it’s perhaps better not to bathe at all. If one can get away with it. An act of self-preservation well suited to those family values subsequently adhered

musics; cassettes: i was depressed

oh, manolito.Written and performed, muthaf@ckers, by Adam Helal; Julia Nagle; Mark E. Smith; Neville Wilding; and Tom Head. Ah. Oranj. I am perpetually under the isobars and those cold atlantic fronts. ▼ THE FALL: DR. BUCK’S LETTER from “The Unutterable” LP (Eagle) 2000 (UK)

you what ?

BELL 1216 B. From the cruel and unusal dream tag team of Paul Gadd and Mike Leander; quite possibly the most perfect three minutes of proto punk ever committed to vinyl. Cheap and spectacularly nasty.▼ GARY GLITTER: ROCK AND ROLL, PART 2 from “Rock And Roll Part 1 b/w Rock And Roll Part 2” 45

the curtains, they’re filthy…

S CSBS 5664. “‘Complete Control’ was voted No. 9 in the 1977 John Peel Festive Fifty, No. 2 the following year, No.5 in 1979, No. 15 in 1980, No. 18 in 1981, No. 19 in 1982…” “On the last tour my mates couldn’t get in, I’d open up the back door but they’d get run

02/03

Tau•rus |ˌtɔːrəs| 1 Astronomy a constellation (the Bull), said to represent a bull with brazen feet that wastamed by Jason. Its many bright stars include Aldebaran (the bull’s eye), and it containsthe Crab Nebula and the star clusters of the Hyades and the Pleiades.• [as genitive ] ( Tauri |ˌtɔːriː|)used with a preceding letter or