Ascending Coherence

merlin: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins - “I Put a Spell On You”

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:20:36 -0500

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins - “I Put a Spell On You”

Now that’s an interview! Simon Hattenstone sits down with...

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:44:00 -0500

Now that’s an interview! Simon Hattenstone sits down with George Michael in the Guardian:

“As if Bono gives a shit what I do with my private life… Elton just needs to shut his mouth and get on with his own life. Look, if people choose to believe that I’m sitting here in my ivory tower, Howard Hughesing myself with long fingernails and loads of drugs, then I can’t do anything about that, can I?”

Lady Miss Kier's photostream

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:19:20 -0500

Lady Miss Kier's photostream

How did I live before The Woods came out? I can’t...

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:30:54 -0500

How did I live before The Woods came out? I can’t remember.

Spice Girls cover of “Christmas Wrapping”

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:47:21 -0500

Spice Girls cover of “Christmas Wrapping”

I love this dog.

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:13:31 -0500

I love this dog.

Photo

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:08:00 -0500

"I think it’s bad luck to talk about something before you do it, it makes it not happen. But I’ll..."

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:28:55 -0500

“I think it’s bad luck to talk about something before you do it, it makes it not happen. But I’ll tell you a little bit. Fruitcake is a little kid who’s in a very functional family in Hampden–no, not in Hampden, he’s in a different neighborhood in Baltimore. And his family is a family of meat thieves, which we have in Baltimore. They knock on your door, and say “Meat man!” And you go downstairs with them and say, “I want two porter house steaks, some pork butt, and a roast chicken,” and they go steal it and you pay half of what’s on the supermarket label. So, Fruitcake’s family is a very functional family, but they steal meat. But on Christmas Eve, Fruitcake gets greedy and gets caught trying to steal a fruitcake, and he gets separated from his parents, and teams up with a little black girl whose bad gay parents are forcing her to have ‘gay Kwanzaa,’ and they run away together, and then try and fight their way back home through the slush of Christmas Eve in Baltimore to their parents.”

- John Waters, on a Christmas movie called Fruitcake that he is trying to make. Click link to read the entire, very enjoyable interview in the Washington City Paper.

When Heaven Was More Interesting Than Hell

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:21:23 -0500

When Heaven Was More Interesting Than Hell:

Interesting short piece on Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s 14th century frescoes showing The Effects of Good and Bad Government on the City and Countryside.

by Tom Gauld

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:18:17 -0500

by Tom Gauld

“Blame It On the Girls” by Mika. He makes me laugh...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:19:40 -0500

“Blame It On the Girls” by Mika.

He makes me laugh on this one. That crazy kid.

WHOA! Emma Goldman’s autobiography is dynamite! I’m...

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:57:27 -0500

WHOA! Emma Goldman’s autobiography is dynamite! I’m barely 100 pages in and her main lover, Alexander “Sasha” Berkman has attempted to assassinate the dastardly Henry Clay Frick. He’s arrested, of course. Meanwhile, Johann Most, her one-time mentor (who always disliked Sasha) is publicly downplaying Sasha’s courage and motives (despite the fact Most always encouraged revolutionary violence of this kind). Emma is pissed.

The world Most had enriched for me, the life so full of colour and beauty, all lay shattered at my feet. Only the naked fact remained that Most had betrayed his ideal, had betrayed us.

I resolved to challenge him publicly to prove his insinuations, to compel him to explain his sudden reversal of attitude in the face of danger. I replied to his article, in the Anarchist, demanding an explanation and branding Most as a traitor and a coward. I waited for two weeks for a reply in the Freiheit, but none appeared. There were no proofs, and I knew that he could not justify his base accusations. I bought a horsewhip.

At Most’s next lecture I sat in the front row, close to the low platform. My hand was on the whip under my long, grey cloak. When he got up and faced the audience, I rose and declared in a loud voice: “I came to demand proof of your insinuations against Alexander Berkman.”

There was instant silence. Most mumbled something about “hysterical woman,” but he said nothing else. I then pulled out my whip and leaped towards him. Repeatedly I lashed him across the face and neck, then broke the whip over my knee and threw the pieces at him. It was all done so quickly that no one had time to interfere.

Holy crap! I did not see that coming!

1892 drawing from Harper’s Weekly of Alexander Berkman attempting to assassinate Henry Clay Frick via Wikimedia Commons.

“Vienna” by Ultravox I looove this song, but...

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:22:07 -0500

“Vienna” by Ultravox

I looove this song, but hadn’t thought to look up the video til today. Fabulous! It exists in the same universe as Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” video. Plus: Midge wearing a mustache—squeal!

So I just started reading Emma Goldman’s autobiography,...

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:10:27 -0500

So I just started reading Emma Goldman’s autobiography, Living My Life, the other day. I didn’t expect so much sex! She’s so upfront about her experiences. It’s like some kind of miracle that a woman of her time and background could be so cool about her own sexuality. And, of course, since she’s Emma Goldman, she’s fierce about maintaining her independence. I’m 82 pages in, and there’s already a lot going on with her various revolutionary admirers.

I tried several times to tell him [Johann Most] about my trip, hurt to the quick that he had not asked about it. He had sent me forth against my will, he had been so eager to make a great speaker of me; was he not interested to know whether I had proved an apt pupil?

Yes, of course, he replied. But he had already received the reports from Rochester that I had been eloquent, from Buffalo that my presentation had silenced all opponents, and from Cleveland that I had flayed the dullards with biting sarcasm. “What about my own reactions?” I asked. “Don’t you want me to tell you about that?” “Yes, another time.” Now he wanted only to feel me near — his Blondkopf, his little girl-woman.

I flared up, declaring I would not be treated as a mere female. I blurted out that I would never again follow blindly, that I had made a fool of myself, that the five-minute speech of the old worker had convinced me more that all his persuasive phrases.

Photo from the Emma Goldman Papers Project

kellydeal: Prince // When You Were Mine// Dirty Mind 1980 This...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:21:29 -0500

kellydeal:

Prince // When You Were Mine// Dirty Mind 1980

This song is so beautifully simple, you just want to add the hand claps yourself, just because it so wants it.

by Sroop Sunar, via OK Great

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:45:00 -0500

by Sroop Sunar, via OK Great

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in ages. via The Big...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:56:33 -0500

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in ages. via The Big Picture, from National Geographic’s International Photography Contest

Nazroo, a mahout (elephant driver), poses for a portrait while taking his elephant, Rajan, out for a swim in front of Radha Nagar Beach in Havelock, Andaman Islands. Rajan is one of the few elephants in Havelock that can swim, so when he is not dragging timber in the forest he is used as a tourist attraction. The relationship between the mahout and his elephant usually lasts for their entire lives, creating an extremely strong tie between the animal and the human being. (Photo and caption by Cesare Naldi)

Samantha Fox’s “Touch Me” video My friend...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:27:52 -0500

Samantha Fox’s “Touch Me” video

My friend Kelli and I *loved* this video when it came out. You can see why: ’80s rock cheese perfection. I remember we debated whether we’d wear jeans with rips near the butt when we grew up. We also thought that the guy who comes on stage was mentally impaired. We would be like, “Ohh, that’s so sad that he thinks Samantha likes him.” We thought he was just wandering onto stage confused and Samantha was grinding on him from pity or something.

"I really, really liked it. It’s like nothing else, I laughed out loud in the bathroom."

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:12:19 -0500

“I really, really liked it. It’s like nothing else, I laughed out loud in the bathroom.”

- David Byrne, in a book blurb on the back cover of My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist by Mark Leyner. Maybe my new favorite book blurb.

Dictionary of Carny, Circus, Sideshow & Vaudeville Lingo

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:00:00 -0500

Dictionary of Carny, Circus, Sideshow & Vaudeville Lingo