Rigorous Intuition

Don't show me no picture show or give me no book to read - Bob Dylan

Well this says everything anyone needs to know about how together I am. I'm having a book launch on Wednesday, December 17, and I haven't posted anything here about it.

Conspiracy Culture bookstore, 7 to 9 pm, 1696 Queen St. W. Toronto. More details here.

Hope to see you there. Or maybe, hope to see you first.

A genuine update coming. Honest.

Memorizing politics of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow - Bob Dylan

Just because there's a Democrat in the White House is no reason to stop reading Lovecraft.

From "The Shadow in the Attic":

There was a moment that was as if the Earth had taken a half turn backward or something of that kind, and I had not gone along with it but were suspended somewhere far out in space at the instant before plunging into orbit of my own - and then the moment passed, the Earth resumed its regularity of turning, the room lightened, the flame in the lamp steadied.

The buyin' power of the proletariat's gone down
Money's gettin' shallow and weak - Bob Dylan

News, some good and some meh, before shaking out the mothballs.

"Judgement day," he said, in a mocking voice. "Ain't no judgement day, old man. Cept this. Maybe this here judgement day for you." - Flannery O'Connor, "Judgement Day"

I wish I could blame all my bad blogging upon writer's block, but it's not just the words that have been lacking; it's been any sensible thought to penetrate America's strange dreamtime. And unlike Sarah Palin, I'd rather say nothing when that's all that I know. And that's just sad, because as novel as these events seem, they are still all recurring dreams, though we greet them like goldfish seeing the world anew every time we circle the bowl.

"Possibly Gilman ought not to have studied so hard. Non-Euclidean calculus and quantum physics are enough to stretch any brain; and when one mixes them with folklore and tries to trace a strange background of multi-dimensional reality behind the ghoulish hints of the Gothic tales and the wild whispers of the chimney-corner, one can hardly expect to be wholly free from mental tension."
- HP Lovecraft, The Dreams in the Witch House

The more things strange, the more I want to stay the same.

Half the people had turned into squealing pigs, the other half were cooking - Nick Cave

There's a Kids in the Hall sketch in which Mark McKinney plays a loner who's injured his toe. By the swelling, the pus and the change of colour he knows it needs attention, but he can't get motivated to go to the hospital, because "as it is, I'm fascinated by the process!" His leg has gone numb below the knee, and he can stick a fork in it and not feel a thing. "Now that," he says, "is interesting!"

Here's the thing.

...and I'm finding it harder than expected to look back.

I'm working on a lengthy post that touches a number of subjects but it hasn't jelled for me quite yet. I'm hoping to have it up in this space soon. (That's the illustration for it.) Regardless, there's always the forum.

I have lots to cover, and lots to pull together for the next post. Which I was hoping would have been last week. Early next, more likely now.

Blogger apparently blinked out on the last entry and began refusing comments. I don't imagine there was much left to be said, but I apologize for that.

See you in a few days.

Finally, with apologies. The new material follows the subhead "The Madness of Crowds."

"I could not but feel that some noxious marine mind had declared a war of extermination upon all the solid ground" - HP Lovecraft, The Crawling Chaos

The Deep Ones

Updating today.

On edit: It's been the longest day.

Seriously: today.

"I could not but feel that some noxious marine mind had declared a war of extermination upon all the solid ground" - HP Lovecraft, The Crawling Chaos

The Deep Ones

Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much - Bob Dylan

Reposting the earlier segments together with new material. As it should have appeared in the first place.

People are crazy

I've been thinking a lot this week about last week's leaked internal memo from Associated Press. Frank Baker, AP's LA assistant bureau chief, issued the directive that "Now and for the foreseeable future, virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal." I've been thinking how right and how proper this is.

People are crazy and times are strange - Bob Dylan

[Not done yet; I'll try to wrap it up tonight.]

Times Are Strange

Crazy people see things. Most everyone who's not crazy knows that. You'll likely remember than when it's your turn to see something, and be circumspect about to whom you tell it.

People are crazy and times are strange - Bob Dylan

People are crazy

I've been thinking a lot this week about last week's leaked internal memo from Associated Press. Frank Baker, AP's LA assistant bureau chief, issued the directive that "Now and for the foreseeable future, virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal." I've been thinking how right and how proper this is.

one more doomed time and without much hope
going round and around to nowhere - Nick Cave

The genius of the Christian Hell isn't the suffering; it's the suffering in perpetuity.

Iris Dement

Still low with the flu, but my spirit is lighter than it was last post and I wanted something up here to reflect that.

New content next week. Have a safe and encouraging holiday.

Gottfried Helnwein, "Epiphany I: Adoration of the Magi"

Blogging has been suspended until the new year to accommodate the seasonal influx of illness and spiritual anguish. But there's always fresh meat on the discussion board.

"Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer daemoniacal hints of truth which make it a thousandfold more hideous."

And a Merry Christmas to you, too, Mr Lovecraft.

"Well what do you think they're going to say?"
Alex Cox introduces The Parallax View

There ain't no Jesus gonna come from the sky
Since I found out, I know I can cry - John Lennon

'Nuff Said

Even when there's nothing funny about it, satire's a funny thing. The better it's executed, the fewer people you can expect will get it. This affords satire a particular value under tyranny as a vehicle for dissent, when dissent can endanger life or livelihood if the wrong people get it.

Tell me great hero, but please make it brief
Is there a hole for me to get sick in? - Bob Dylan

Putting up the art now, because I want to put up something, but the text is still on the way. I'll try to get some up today and the rest over the weekend.

On edit: Sorry; hard weekend. Today.