another submerged future — j g ballard’s drowned world

“Just as psychoanalysis reconstructs the original traumatic situation in order to release the repressed material, so we are now being plunged back into the archaeopsychic past, uncovering the ancient taboos and drives that have been dormant for epochs… Each one of us is as old as the entire biological kingdom, and our bloodstreams are tributaries [...]

freakangels hits week 3

so, all us eager bunnies who follow every thing that mr ellis does got our third instalment of freakangels today. in 3 6 page instalments thus far we have been introduced to a lot of ideas and tantalising hints already. the characters are well drawn storywise and the artwork by paul duffield is exquisite. as [...]

Lester Bangs

So, when did Lester Bangs first enter my consciousness? God knows. I think I had heard about some legendary interviews with Lou Reed. I got into Lou Reed through Heroin which was on The Doors movie soundtrack. I got into The Doors because Echo & The Bunnymen covered People Are Strange on The Lost Boys [...]

wattoo wattoo

there sure were some weird as shit cartoons on the tv back in the day and this one of the weirdest — about this weird black and white bird. the most culturally significant contribution to animation from france in the 2oth century? maybe not, but it would be a great thing to watch with a [...]

sun zoom spark magazine

i was just thinking about some of the shit that really used to inspire me with both my writing and my interest in art and it was usually magazines and comics and shit like that. one of the magazines that stuck in my head and resonated down through the years was sun zoom spark from  [...]

mr lonely — harmony korine’s new film

 
i have enjoyed the work of harmony korine since i first became aware of him with kids which he wrote the script for. gummo was an acquired taste which i loved not just for it’s weirdness but for the resonant emotional core that typifies all his work. next came julien donkey boy — another challenging [...]

new star trek film

This film just strikes me as a really bad idea. I would never call myself a trekkie but I grew up watching all of the series and I have seen all of the films. I think part of the reason I am so nervous is Star Wars — that franchise if ruined for ever after [...]

4AD — My favourite Label

4AD: it was and is a great label with some brilliant groups on — The Pixies, Throwing Muses and Lush just to name a few. I think that I was in love with the whole aesthetic of it. The bands seemed to be different –the designs of the record covers and the subscriber club I [...]

TB at new high

Thanks Bruce Sterling for drawing my attention to this — seems scarier to me maybe because my father spent time recovering from TB in a sanitarium ( a long time ago, but still — it has a special place in my nightmares):

Drug resistant TB ‘at new high’
By Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva
TB bacterium
TB is not ‘last [...]

The Silver Jews

American Water was the album that introduced me to The Silver Jews and the wonderful mind of David Berman. I had been buying Uncut magazine and they had just started with their obsession for new country music and had put out a compilation called ‘Sounds Of The New West’ and Random Rules was on there. [...]