NOW EAR THIS

In a new book, Van Goghs Ohr: Paul Gauguin und der Pakt des Schweigens (Van Gogh's ear: Paul Gauguin and The Pact of Silence), German scientists Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans tell the story of what happened when Vincent lost his ear Christmas Eve 1888 in the French city of Arles. According to the official version, the Dutch painter cut off his own ear with a razor after a row with Gauguin in 1888. Van Gogh then walked into a brothel and presented the severed ear to a prostitute called Rachel before going home to sleep. But, after ten years of research, the scientists say they are sure it was painter Paul Gauguin who cut off his friend and colleague's ear after a fight. (Click here for more)

The secret word is Slice

"But we're already dead, you dig? Now we can do any damn thing we like, and totally get away with it."

Pic lifted from Tom Sutpen

WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? (Leave those buffalo alone)

Another emergency message has come in from Francis at the NRDC…

“Right now, newborn wild bison -- better known as buffalo -- are grazing under their mothers' watchful eyes on the lush Horse Butte peninsula near Yellowstone National Park in Montana. But on May 15, this pastoral scene could turn ugly if the government begins hazing the buffalo back into the park with helicopters, horses and ATVs, as they did last year at this time. If this operation proceeds, some buffalo could die, including young calves and pregnant cows. Please speak out immediately to stop the government's annual hazing operation.This wildlife tragedy replays almost every year on Horse Butte -- a birthing ground for the buffalo. First, a helicopter invades the stillness, circling low to scare wild buffalo out of the woods, so that government agents on ATVs and horses can chase them back to Yellowstone. With no time to rest or nurse during this relentless chase, some calves collapse and even die of exhaustion before ever reaching their grazing grounds deep within the park. The saddest part? This senseless tragedy is unnecessary. The justification for hazing and killing buffalo is that they could spread the disease brucellosis to domestic cattle. That is why buffalo are generally not welcome outside Yellowstone Park in Montana -- and why thousands have been slaughtered or hazed back into the park in recent years. But the fact is, there has never been a documented case of brucellosis transmission from buffalo to cattle in the wild. More to the point, there are no cattle at all on Horse Butte, so there is absolutely no reason to haze and endanger Yellowstone's wild buffalo. So please, help us give newborn buffalo a better chance at survival this spring. As living links to the great herds that once thundered across America's plains, Yellowstone's buffalo are a national treasure. Please join me in urging our government to protect them -- instead of subjecting them to needless suffering. Tell the Secretary of Agriculture to intervene right away and prevent the hazing of wild buffalo in the weeks ahead.” Click here to register your protest.

THE ADVENTURES OF MARILYN (Part 401k)

In which Marilyn, in a rare quiet moment, reflects on all that has been lost and the little that has been gained in the absurd and endless conflict between Apollonians and Dionysian, and how she had never wanted to be involved in the first place. With a grim and weary smile, she wonders how long she can confront the fray and the mountain of problems that are none of her making, and still operate in the fragmented disorientation of a non-linear multiverse, with its Howdy drops and wormholes, its glittering nothings and towering green Martians, its clear and constant dangers, its anomalies and paradoxes, its lost tribes and extinct species, its strings and complex membranes, idiot authorities and absence of orgasm, and its vast quadrants of damaged Earth realities, all plunging to the random and insectoid oblivion of the Nineteen Ways. Marilyn sighs deeply. Why does she even have to know about all this? Why is she even aware of the Nineteen Ways? She reaches for the Nembutal.

(THE ADVENTURES OF MARILYN NOW HAS IT’S OWN PAGE SO THE WHOLE THING CAN BE READ WITHOUT SCROLLING. CLICK HERE)

SPACE OPERA (Wanna buy a used Viper?)

NBC/Universal is auctioning an actual full size Mark VII Viper Raptor fighter ship used in Battlestar Galactica. Also up for sale? A full size Raptor that has a “full, functional interior with light-up panels and monitors throughout...” Or so reads eBay's enthusiastic description of the 30-foot ship. After 43 bids, the price was $28,100.00 -- but this didn't meet the auction's reserve, which means it's still up for grabs at a "live" auction beginning May 8 in Pasadena. (Click for more)

The secret word is Frack

The secret message 5365656b20796f7572206c6f7374207472696265
2e

POT SUCKERS FOR SWINE FLU

Today is something of a grab bag. Too much on my plate to pontificate or even imagine too hard. Munz sent this over, and, although I figure it’s more of a PR stunt than anything else (and also having certain reservations about the medical marijuana movement in that there are times when it seems as much a loophole for the well-heeled stoner as a step to recreational sanity) I’d post it anyway out of a general will to subversion.

“Cannabis Science Inc., an emerging pharmaceutical cannabis company, reported today on the current state of development of its whole-cannabis lozenge in response to Homeland Security Administration Secretary Janet Napolitano's declaration of a public health emergency to deal with the emerging Swine Flu pandemic. The Company's non-toxic lozenge has properties that could alleviate many of the symptoms and harmful effects of the H5N1 bird flu and H1N1 swine flu viruses, and has offered its assistance to HSA today in a letter to Secretary Napolitano. The Company has offered to produce up to 1 million doses of its whole-cannabis lozenge, and provide them to HSA for distribution at cost. Cannabis Science Inc., President & CEO, Steven W. Kubby said, "We have the science and preliminary anecdotal results confirming the anti-inflammatory properties of our new lozenges and indicating they may present an effective and non-toxic treatment for minimizing the symptoms and harm from influenza infections.” (Click here for more)

The secret word is Linkage

The secret message is 4120626f6f6b2069732061206c6f616465642067
756e20696e2074686520686f757365206e657874
20646f6f722e

TRIVIAL PURSUIT

Stephen Saban is my old time homeboy from the SoHo Weekly News. He’s now editing a website called World of Wonder. If you like New York-style style trivial gossip that comes at you like it was really fucking important just click here.

Valerie has also hooked me up with a blog called Violet Planet which is just about the diametric opposite to World of Wonder but should checked out by clicking here.

EL TOPO

And finally Sea Urchin Ben has sent us the original 1970s trailer for Alejandro Jodorowski’s El Topo. Click here.

THIS BLOG IS STILL PROTECTED BY...

CARS VANISH...

Aeswiren sent us the following…

“Sara Watson, who is studying drawing at the University of Central Lancashire (Uclan), took three weeks to transform the car's appearance. She created the illusion in the car park outside her studio at Uclan's Hanover Building in Preston. The car is now being used for advertising by the local recycling firm that donated the vehicle. Ms Watson, a second year student, said: "I was experimenting with the whole concept of illusion but needed something a bit more physical to make a real impact." She was given the Skoda Fabia from the breaker's yard at local firm Recycling Lives. Owner Steve Jackson described her work as "amazing". "When I first saw the photos I was convinced it was something which had been done on the computer," said Mr Jackson. “But when you look more closely you see the effort and attention to detail she has put into it. It is just amazing."

...AND PARROTS DANCE

Both Aeswiren and Valerie flagged this story of avian hepcats…

"People aren't the only ones who've got rhythm. Two reports published online on April 30th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, reveal that birds – and parrots in particular – can also bob their heads, tap their feet, and sway their bodies along to a musical beat. The findings show that a very basic aspect of the human response to music is shared with other species, according to the researchers. "We've discovered a cockatoo [named Snowball] that dances to the beat of human music," said Aniruddh Patel of The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, lead author of one of the studies. "Using a controlled experiment, we've shown that if the music speeds up or slows down across a wide range, he adjusts the tempo of his dancing to stay synchronized to the beat." One of Snowball's favorite dancing tunes is none other than the Backstreet Boys' "Everybody." (Click here for more and click here for more plus videos)

The secret word is Cracker

SPACE OPERA

“In space no one can hear you squeal.”

And if the above is too sexist for ya, click here for an ancient episode of Space Patrol sent by Wendy..

BIG BROTHER IN CYBERSPACE

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that George Orwell conceived the idea of 1984, and the total surveillance police state in the United Kingdom…

“British Internet service providers and telecoms are being asked to retain individual user data for a year's time as part of a new move to solidify police crime surveillance. The British government has said the information is needed to keep tabs on criminal and terrorist activities and is not linked to anti-piracy lobbying and such, though opponents see it as a potentially oppressive big-brother move. The plan calls for the tracking of all e-mails, phone calls and Internet use, including visits to social network sites. reports British newspaper.
Originally, Britain's Home Office Secretary Jacqui Smith sought to create a centralized national database, which drew the ire of many critics and was shelved, she announced Monday. "My key priority is to protect the citizens of the UK, and communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies to track murderers and pedophiles, save lives and tackle crime," Smith told British media, including the BBC. "It is essential that the police and other crime-fighting agencies have the tools they need to do their job. However, to be clear, there are absolutely no plans for a single central store."
A state-run database run containing personal data was considered "extreme" and a great intrusion of citizen privacy. The government said with the new plan, its interest lies more in communications rather than content.
Companies such as BT, Virgin Media, O2 and others will be required to keep a customer's personal data with regard to phone and Web usage for up to 12 months. Law enforcement and other security agencies will have to request data from the ISPs and telecoms on a case-by-case basis. "What we are asking the industry will put a burden on them," Smith said, adding companies would be "recompensed" in some manner.
According to the Financial Times, the Home Office will spend 2 billion pounds (about $3 billion) over 10 years to pay for the new plan, which is still in the agreement stage with communications companies. British telecoms already provide data traffic information in some form to assist anti-crime and anti-terror units.”

The secret word is Data
The secret message is 44696420796f75207265616c6c79207468696e6b
20697420776f756c6420626520736f6d65746869
6e6720696d706f7274616e743f

Tom McGrath – RIP

FACECRIME

"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself--anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face...; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime..." – George Orwell, 1984

A BAG OF WEED

But it's Saturday, so lets leave the worry and paranoia for Monday. Click here to watch the Family Guy production number “A Bag Of Weed.” (Donated by the good Munz.)

MAYDAY

YESTERDAY...

“I found these rather fantastic photographs from Google’s Life magazine collection. They feature some teenagers at a ‘rave’ on Eel Pie Island at Twickenham on a Wednesday night August 31 1960. There is practically no other information other than the photographs were taken by a Peter Hall (I’m presuming not the theatre impresario who became Sir Peter Hall).”

When I saw the above (and the below) on the excellent Nickel In The Machine site, I suffered a definite pang. 1960 was in my first year in art school, I was a precocious 16 year-old junior beatnik, and such as these were the first girls I ever lusted after. They seem a little more self-invented than today, but, otherwise, what has really changed, except time has long-gone moved on and taken from me the glory of youth?

The secret word is Lost

The message is 5768656e20746865206d75736963e2809973206f
7665722c207475726e206f757420746865206c69
6768742e

WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG

Back when the world was young
Drunk on cheap well whiskey
And confused on mescaline
Walking rattlesnake curves
On sidewalks that refused to lay down
Resisting
Resisting
Resisting all the importunate invasions of reality
Back when the world was young
Searching for the gateway
To the Secret Garden
The Maps to the Labyrinth
And the Silver Key
With a woman in red shoes
Whose name was maybe Dolores
Dolores?
Or perhaps her name was...Laverne?

Back when the world was young
And fear was so perfectly academic
And the scales were so perfectly poised
That I could still pace the razor’s edge
Without cutting my feet or losing any further toes
And I believed
And I believed
And I believed in every fucking drop of rain that fell
Back when the world was young
And you had but to softly ask
The crushed whisper of velvet
The sheer innocence of pure desire
And the requested favor was granted and gratified
So will somebody give?
So will somebody give?
So will somebody please
Give the anarchist a cigarette?

This poem can be found, with accompaniment by Jack Lancaster, Wayne Kramer, and Doug Lunn, on the CD The Deathray Tapes (Alive Records)