Weirdness: January 2006

http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html

The Raven was first pulbished on this date in 1845...

Happy Birthday W.C. Fields!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001211/

http://www.louisville.edu/~kprayb01/WCQuote.html

Uncle Wendell

Wendell Cutting is a pretty remarkable guy. If I remember correctly, he was the youngest mayor ever elected in California, (San Jacinto); and as a young man, was an influential operative in that state’s Republican Party. He went on to success in private industry and government, (you can read a fuller biography here: http://www.rescuetaskforce.org/pages/wendell.html). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, he's been a key member of an extraordinary group called the Rescue Task Force, which I’d recommend folks check out at: http://www.rescuetaskforce.org/index.html . A very interesting person, and quite fun to hang out with.
I’ve only done so once, and although it was thirty years ago, I still remember it with great affection. I was vacationing in California, and visiting various relatives. I’d been in the town of Santa Maria with my Uncle Edward and his family. From there, my cousin Rosemary and I drove up to visit her brother Lee in the suburbs of San Francisco. We arrived late Friday afternoon at his house. He already had one guest in residence – his old college chum, Wendell. I still remember walking into the living room to meet Wendell, and there he was – wearing some khaki boxer shorts and a dirty undershirt, sitting in Lee’s easychair, surrounded by a hill of empty beer cans. Lee made introductions, and his friend insisted we call him “Uncle Wendell”. Knowing my interest in politics, Lee also brought me up to speed on Wendell’s own experience and interests and we were off! (Despite being from rather opposite sides of most questions, true politicos can always find common ground for fun and understanding). I quickly unpacked the wine I’d brought along and proceeded to play catch-up, (no Boy Scout is better prepared than me for social challenges). It was a grand time – talking politics while watching The Towering Inferno on TV and making rude comments about the story. Lee had a date that night, and in a magnanimous gesture, dropped a few sawbucks on the table for us to get dinner as he exited the premises. The conversation, and drinking, continued into the evening. Finally, it was decided to go down to the nearest pizza parlor to take out some grub. Rosemary drove, being the only one capable at that point. She and “Uncle” Wendell climbed into the cab of her pickup truck, while I hauled myself onto the back bed. As we started down towards the pizza shop, I, (inspired by the recently released film of Patton), stood up behind the cab and proceeded to yell out orders and challenges to various cars and pedestrians that we passed. Upon witnessing this, Wendell was not to be denied and he immediately ordered Rosemary to stop the truck, at which point he joined me in the back, providing a stereophonic element to my Patton imitation, and we bounced through the neighborhood while Rosemary did her best to hide behind the wheel, acting as if total strangers had somehow materialized in the back of her truck. Shame radiated from the cab. It was a wonderful ride.
We eventually reached the pizza parlor, and as I remember it, managed to somehow order, pay for, and retreat with pizzas with a minimal loss of life or dignity. The rest of the evening was a wonderful blur of more drinking, the handicapping of Reagan’s chances at winning the Presidency, and running out of beer. Saturday I spent sightseeing and Sunday morning we left, but I’ll always remember that as a very funny, charming, and interesting time. Wendell and I exchanged an email or two a few years ago, but other than that I lost touch with him, totally unaware of the fantastic and rewarding turns his life had taken.
I asked cousin Lee about Wendell a short time ago, and was told that he’s now dying of cancer, and not expected to last long, (he’s only about ten years older than me). I always wish I could say something profound or helpful when others face death, and I always fail to come up with anything beyond that of sorrow, fear, and sputtering outrage. I can only state that, for all the briefness of our encounter, I really liked him, and would have enjoyed hanging out with him more. And I’m sorry for what he’s going through, and for what he faces. And sorry we couldn’t have had a few more beers down the road.
Take care, Uncle Wendell…

The Electric Prunes on the Mike Douglas Show!

http://bedazzled.blogs.com/bedazzled/2006/01/the_electric_pr.html
(warning - this clip takes about 5 minutes to download)

Performing my two fave Prune tunes: I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night, and Get Me To The World On Time (marred by a lame attempt by Barbara Feldon to play along).

Tee Hee!

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/44690

Happy Paul Pitcher Day!

http://wilsonsalmanac.blogspot.com/2004/01/216-blogmanac-january-24-cornish.html

Wasn't there a U2 song about this?

http://www.wftv.com/news/6360553/detail.html

Now you're cooking...

http://www.dolphinbayhilo.com/cook.html

Yoko's competition...

http://www.pastlifewithjohnlennon.com/

Google catches a flying car

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/23/flying_car/

Happy Birthday Bluto!!!

http://www.bbring.com/

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000004/

nice appreciation of Wilson Pickett

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/20/AR2006012002046.html?referrer=emailarticle

Palm device beaming and spying

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/24/wspy24.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/01/24/ixportaltop.html

Happy Birthday Neil Daimond

Someday, I'm gonna write a long essay on why Neil Diamond is a lot cooler than you think he is. For the moment, I can only direct you tunes like Solitary Man, Shilo and and Cracklin' Rosie (the national anthem for winos). He is the direct link from Tin Pan Alley to the Brill Building and the singer/songwriter movement.

http://www.neildiamondhomepage.com/

http://www.diamondville.com/

neat article on behavior altering parasites

http://www.corante.com/loom/archives/2006/01/17/the_return_of_the_puppet_masters.php

death by banana

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17882109-1242,00.html

Almost forgot - Happy 100th Birthday Robert E. Howard!

http://www.conan.com/

http://www.rehoward.com/reh-bio.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Howard

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

http://www.blackmask.com/books82c/dcvgr.htm#1_0_2

Cool!

The Horror Newsletter

http://www.horrornewsletter.com/

CthulhuWiki

http://www.yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Flesh Sucking Sex Fiends!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/what-lurks-beneath--fleshsucking-sex-fiends/2006/01/20/1137734154394.html

(At first I thought this article was about 14th Street in 1976...)

Sea Monkey Harvesting

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060120/ap_on_bi_ge/brine_shrimping

Tee hee!

http://www.bustedtees.com/shirts/southkorea

Super Ultra Trek

http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=90727

The Trek Harmonic Convergence...

OMG OMG OMG!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4625332.stm

This could be so cool! MCA has all sorts of stuff lurking around the vaults - Motown, UNI, and I think, Dot. I hope they get to releasing out-takes and B-sides....

Deer On A Car

http://www.alldumb.com/item/22208/

The Kinkster on 60 Minutes!!!

Apparently, Kinky Friedman, the Asshole From El Passo, is going to be interviewed on 60 Minutes this Sunday (1/22). Tuen In!!!

new rocket engine!

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=16902006

update on direct energy weapons

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10805240/

Poe's annual visitor...

http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/news/6242591/detail.html

Let Us Pray - And Do The Time Warp...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060119/od_afp/britainreligiongoths_060119171149

Happy Birthday Bones, RIP

http://members.tripod.com/~Nimoy_Kelley/kelley.html
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001420/

http://www.kilroywashere.com/sarah/main.htm

feeling old...

"Meet The Beatles" was released on this date in 1964. My life, and a lot of yours, was never quite the same again. I know I've mentioned it before, but I'm still struck by how my grade school class was almost instantly transformed. One day we were just a bunch of kids, the next one, every girl had Beatles notebooks, collecting cards, purses, etc. The guys all pathetically tried to give themselves bangs and make their hair look longer. A dude with Bealtes boots was cooler than God. Great debates raged on who was the best Beatle. For a million of us, our parents would never again be able to get us to a barber shop without a huge fight. (Oh, and I thought John was the coolest...).

beautiful Cthulhu sculpture

http://www.geocities.com/kburruss/index

Wilson Picket, RIP

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=1523122

Happy national Popcorn Day!

http://www.popcorn.org/index.cfm

Prince Mongo

http://www.newtimesbpb.com/Issues/2006-01-19/news/norman.html

Happy Birthday Edgar Allan Poe!

The Master...

http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/poe/poe.html

http://www.eapoe.org/

http://www.poemuseum.org/

http://www.online-literature.com/poe/

Happy Birthday Pearl!

http://www.officialjanis.com/

http://www.janisjoplin.net/

A sad, sad life. I still think her interview with Dick Cavett is one of the most interesting, touching, and revealing ones, ever.

Sulu Lives!

James Cawley and Jeff Quinn, who play Kirk and Spock on Star Trek: New Voyages (of which Cawley is also a longtime executive producer) announced that they are in talks with George Takei (Sulu) to appear on the fan video series, following a recently produced episode with Walter Koenig (Chekov). Speaking to G4's Attack of the Show, Cawley said that they were in negotiations with Takei and "It looks like he's going to step up to the plate and come back to Star Trek." When the host joked that he would need permission from Howard Stern, on whose radio show Takei is now an announcer, Cawley and Quinn said that they had heard Stern was a big Star Trek fan and they would be glad to have him too.http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/ "NBC foolishly cancelled the show," Cawley noted, explaining that, as fans themselves, they wanted to be part of that universe. The New Voyages team decided to pick up where the original Star Trek left off. Quinn was not a big fan until he met Cawley, he said, explaining that he needed a crash course in portraying the beloved character made famous by Leonard Nimoy and feeling concerned because this wasn't a situation like James Bond where several actors had made it their own; there was only one prototype. As for Cawley, as "kind of the financier", he decided that even though everyone wanted to play Kirk, "the big chair was mine!" Now, noted Quinn, it feels remarkable "to be validated by some of the people, the pros, who have been working on Star Trek since its inception back in the 60s." He named Rod Roddenberry and Koenig as just a few professionals connected with Star Trek who have been involved with New Voyages. The original interview can be streamed from here.http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/blog/AOTB/post/545865/James_Cawley_and_Jeff_Quinn.html

No More Loompanics!!!!

http://www.loompanics.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/shophome.html?E+scstore

Ah, 'tis a sad day, folks. Loompanics was by far the most interesting mailorder bookstore - ever. A one-stop source for thugs, criminals, libertarians, anarchists, discordians, terrorists, surrealists, hate-mongers, fascists, mercenaries, separatists, conspiracy nerds, paranoids, suvivalists, and every outcast, outlaw nutcase. A true gem. RIP.

neat article about military blimps

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-blimp17jan17,0,1946470.story?coll=la-homepage-calendar-widget

Star Trek - the REAL final frontier

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/17/AR2006011701460.html
Satire is dead. How can anyone compete with this kind of reality?

Glen Baxter has a website!

http://www.glenbaxter.com/

I LOVE this guy! If you enjoy the humor of Charles Addams and Edward Gorey, you'll love Baxter.

Wargamer Humor

Recently seen on a bumper sticker:

DON'T MAKE ME ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!

Happy Birthday Martin Luther King, Jr.!

http://www.holidays.net/mlk/

http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King%2C_Jr.

Happy Birthday Chuck Berry!

http://www.chuckberry.com/index.php

http://departments.colgate.edu/diw/pegg/chuck.html

The real King of Rock'n'Roll!

"I Park Like An Idiot" bumperstickers

http://www.iparklikeanidiot.com/

I could go broke buying these for Crystal City alone...

Jim Morrison film

http://www.greylodge.org/occultreview/glor_017/HWY.htm

I've not seen it yet, (looks like it'll be a mother to download).

a plug for those into personal finance

http://hybridinvestor.blogspot.com/

My friend Tim has started a blog on his hobby of investing and making gobs of money. Most of it is beyond me, but for those of you into that sort of thing you might wish to check it out. Tell him Karl Marx sent ya...

a sign of the times in Northern Virginia

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/fairfaxfocus/2006/01/part_of_wilson_.html

new Lovecraft ebook!

http://fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook34446.htm

Putin on Judo!

Yes, the premier of Russia has written a book on Judo. Go to Amazon if you don't believe me. What's most interesting about this is what it can mean for Kremlinologists. I sincerely believe that one is heavily influenced by the sports and games one grew up with. In the past, I'd of argued that Russian geopolitical strategy was based on that nation's love affair with Chess. China's is based on Go, and America's has gone from poker to football, (I suspect charades in France's political culture). At any rate, Judo has it's own mindset, (I know next to nothing about it), and it'd be interesting to have someone who is an expert compare that mindset with Putin's method's of governing. There's a doctoral paper in this somewhere...

tire sculptures

http://www.fugly.com/media/download.php?cat=IMAGES&id=10760&sort=&order=&rating=&per_page=

goldfish synchronized swimming

http://www.danerd.com/Show.php?vid=1427&ref=13

tres weird

the wine trick

http://www.alldumb.com/item/21877/

Fangs For The Memories

http://www.vampfangs.com/shop/index.php?cPath=3

images of atomic blasts

http://www.michaellight.net/100suns/images.html
An interesting set of photos of U.S. atomic bomb tests. I believe my father was present at the tests pictured in #1 and 2, and was part of the post-test analysis team for #4.

Happy Birthday Clark Ashton Smith!

http://www.eldritchdark.com/
One of my favorite fantasy authors. A genius. The Emperor of Dreams...

a traditional candidate

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060112/ap_on_fe_st/impaler_for_gov

A return to tried and tested values and policies.

The Doomsday Vault...

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18925343.700

nice article on Patti Smith's poetry

http://www.slate.com/id/2134082/

Glow-in-the-dark green pigs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/4605202.stm

It seems to me that leaving ham out for three or four days will result in the same phenomena.

nice satire of the ipod

http://www.nytimes.com/video/html/2005/06/29/technology/highbandwidth/windowsmedia/20050629_GUEST_VIDEO.html

(Thanks for the link, Nancy!)

Happy Birthday Big Man!

http://www.clarenceclemons.com/

The King of the World, Master of the Universe!

Happy Birthday Alexander Hamilton!

http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/hamilton/

One of my faves...

interesting article on the genesis of Kong

http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-ca-ingagi8jan08,2,3536535.story

Happy Peculiar People Day!

Happy Birthday Jim Croce

http://www.jimcroce.com/

I've always disliked Croce's pseudo honky tonk rockers like Leroy Brown and Rapid Roy. Irritating stuff. But his sad and sweet ballads are a near perfect encapsulation of loss. Alabama Rain, Photographs & Memories, Walking Back To Georgia - classics all. And when the narrator of Operator says that she can keep the dime, it's a wonderful symbol of how pathetic we can get when romance doesn't work out. These are tunes for a Winter day that's too grey, or a summer night that's too humid. Jim was an underestimated poet of longing.

Happy Birthday Mod Rod!

http://members.aol.com/smilerfrg/rod/sminfo.htm

Yes, I know the late 70's and early 80's were a deep sell-out of his talent. But those lp's from the early and mid 70's are still classics, and Every Picture Tells A Story is as great an album as any that the decade produced. Not a weak cut on it. And Rod shows more love and respect for American Soul than any half dozen Michael Boltons...

new Cthulhu figurine!

http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PFHPL01#top

(Thanks for the link, Nick!)

Happy Birthday Angel Eyes!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001812/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Van_Cleef

http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/leevancleef.html

Another fave of mine. Catch him in the immortal western - For A Few Dollars More. His character is every bit as cool as Clint Eastwood's, (and in my opinion, more so). In The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Death Rides A Horse, and many more movies, he brought a sure and deadly menace. An amazing talent.

Happy Birthday Little Buddy, RIP

http://www.bobdenver.com/

I've always liked the character of maynard G. Krebs, and I always have thought Gilligan's Island was a lot more entertaining than most people gave it credit for. And remember my dictum - NOBODY knows the words to the National Anthem, but EVERYBODY knows the words to the Gilligan's island theme song!

I knew library bindings were special, but...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/01/07/some_of_nations_best_libraries_have_books_bound_in_human_skin?p1=email_to_a_friend

Wacky Warning Labels

http://www.wackywarnings.com/

Happy Birthday Ziggy Stardust!

http://www.davidbowie.com/

http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/

We can be heroes, just for one day...

Happy Birthday Graham Chapman!!!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001037/

http://www.pythonline.com/plugs/chapman/index.shtml

Happy Birthday Charles Addams!

Essential.

http://www.westfieldnj.com/addams/

http://www.bpib.com/chasaddm.htm

http://www.morticiasmorgue.com/addams.html

Travels With Rick

We’ve all been lost once in awhile. Sometimes we remain that way the rest of our lives. And sometimes we need to ask directions. Sometimes we just have to admit that we don’t know where the hell we are and how to get to where we want to be. Most people understand this. My friend Rick never did. Throughout the seventies we’d go tooling along in his car, and almost invariably end up going the wrong direction. Now Rick was a professional partygoer. In fact, he was Mr. Party. He always knew when and where one was happening, and if not, he could find one almost effortlessly just by driving about. But there was always a cost to be paid on these sojourns. He could never get there in a straight line, and was always making twenty wrong turns while heading to the next get together. I’ve never met anyone with a worse sense of direction, particularly in his own god-damned home town. It didn’t help that riding with him was like entering some sort of low-rent Hunter Thompson nightmare. He’d drive by my folks’ house and I’d go out to get in the car, hoping the parents weren’t going to notice the clouds of smoke billowing from the cab. Once inside, I’d almost immediately go into system shock, if not from the acrid haze, then from the sheer oxygen deprivation within, (it should surprise no one to learn that at least one of Rick’s lungs collapsed around this time). Ash was everywhere, the ashtray itself having given up any hopes of competing with the derrick loads it was expected to handle. The upholstery might have been shot, but you’d never know it, given the comforting dunes that lay upon it. An army of stoners would have been content for weeks of sucking on my jacket after I’d sat in that car for a few minutes.
The routine for an outing was pretty simple. After having lit up for the tenth time that evening, Rick would announce that night’s social gala, and we’d start off, usually with a quick stop at 7/11 for cheap wine, (ah, Tyrolia, sweet nectar o’ the parking lot). Now, within minutes, I could always count on Rick to make a wrong turn. Soon, we’d be going east instead of west, up instead of down, etc. I’d point this out, and he would deny it, claiming he knew a “better/quicker/secret way”. All bullshit, of course; by now the smoke would be so thick that he could barely see to the windshield, much less turn Sacagawea on me and forge a virgin path through the Alexandria wilderness. Each time I would manage to grab enough oxygen to choke out another protest, he’d glibly reply with more of the type of assurances that one can only get from the hopelessly potted.
And predictably, the further we’d get from our intended destination, the more our maneuvers would resemble a pinball as Rick turned, bounced and swerved the car from landmark to landmark in a beleaguered attempt to get us back on track – a tactic I now call pachinko navigation.
They say that smoking dope can make you paranoid. Wrong. It’s hanging around with sloppy dopers like Rick that makes one paranoid. Careening and zig zagging crazily around town in a car full of smoke while sitting in several feet of ash; I’m surprised he didn’t just install a blazing neon light in the rear window announcing “Hey Pigs - Bust Me & Win Valuable Prizes”. Still, I suppose these little adventures had their moments. For one thing, the music. The car had an 8-track, (of course), and although Rick only owned about five of the little contraptions, he did have Rory Gallagher’s live album – a fantastic chronicle of drunken electric blues and boogie which he’d play at top volume, (probably so he wouldn’t be able to hear me complain about his suck-ass sense of direction). There’s something about the memory of making a U turn on Van Dorn Street in the middle of the night trying to get back on track while Bullfrog Blues is playing at 5 million decibels that is still quite moving to me. And eventually we’d usually get to whatever party it was we’d set out for, or find another along the way
His sense of direction was also projected. During his birthday party (or some other pagan orgy), we had to interrupt the festivities and move to a different site, (I believe the penthouse he’d rented for the party was closing). Five different carloads of people received directions to the new locale, and five carloads of us arrived at the same place – the WRONG place. Rick had apparently found his way – but he’d sent the rest of us into the bowels of Shirlington. Amidst great anger, derision, and gnashing of teeth, we decided to travel several miles away to Ron’s place to continue the debauchery, all the while cursing Rick and his geography-challenged mind. The caravan got to Ron’s with no problem (Of course! We KNEW where we were going!). But Rick’s party instincts were not to be trifled with. He arrived about an hour later (having no idea where we’d traveled to and having never been to Ron’s). He’d just traveled around until he’d found us – the man was an idiot savant when it came to tracking hedonism. I am not making this up.
It was not all bad with Rick, like the pilots say: any landing you can walk away from is a good one – and we walked away. And it is interesting to note that I now remember our attempts to get to these soirees much better than most of the events themselves. And I am reminded of a quote from the great sportsman, Arthur Ashe, "Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is usually more important than the outcome”, (but then Art never had to ride with Rick…). I’m not quite sure why I wrote this little tale down. It’s been over a year since I’ve seen Rick and god knows how long since I’ve ridden with him. I might listen to Bullfrog Blues once in a blue moon, whenever I feel lost, but once it’s on, I know I’m headed home…

Happy Birthday Sherlock Holmes!

http://www.sherlockian.net/world/

http://www.sherlock-holmes.com/ppandt.htm

Weirdness

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Monday, January 30, 2006

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Uncle Wendell

Friday, January 27, 2006

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Monday, January 23, 2006

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Friday, January 20, 2006

The Kinkster on 60 Minutes!!!

feeling old...

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Sulu Lives!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Monday, January 16, 2006

Wargamer Humor

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Putin on Judo!

Friday, January 13, 2006

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Happy Peculiar People Day!

Monday, January 09, 2006

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Friday, January 06, 2006

Travels With Rick

Happy Birthday Sherlock Holmes!

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Happy 12th Night!!!

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Monday, January 02, 2006

Happy Science Fiction Day!