A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

What is this recurrent Sunday afternoon urge to post pictures of scantily clad women? Of course, I do have a genuine aesthetic appreciation of what used to be called cheesecake, and maybe an extra urge to indulge now the Content Warning brands me as a degenerate, but I fear it goes deeper than that, all the way to a place were desire too easily spawns depression and all those seemingly vanished days when Sunday afternoon was the torn-stocking aftermath of Saturday night and intimate strangers revealed their hungover reality as they gathered their wits and their underwear and tried to remember each other’s names.

Click here for Charlie Rich

Click here (by way of a bonus) for Jerry Lee’s version

The secret word is Recall

MARILYN SEZ...

“You need to get laid.”

THIS IS ONE GREAT MOVIE!

And weirdly psychedelic/surreal. It was never released the west, (more fools us) but it can be rented.

Click here for a trailer

Click here for more Godzilla

DON'T YOU MISS THE 20TH CENTURY?

Click here for Bob’s Warhol screen test (Thanks Jenny)

IF YOU GOTTA BE SHOT DEAD…

…how much better to be shot dead with an environmentally friendly bullet.

ABERDEEN, Md. (AP) — The Army will be demonstrating new "green" ammunition at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. The military began providing the lead-free round last June to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. It replaces ammunition used since the early 1980s. A live-fire demonstration will be held Wednesday morning at the post. Soldiers will fire the new and old rounds, as well as a third type, to compare the performance of all three on identical targets. The targets will include a parked vehicle, steel plates and building materials. The Army says the new ammunition is the first developed as part of a "greening"' effort for small-caliber ammunition.

Click here for Dead Flowers (Thanks Izzy)

The secret word is Ammo

LET SLIP THE CATS OF WAR

Click here for more war cats

GERONIMO IS NOT OUR ENEMY

A little more sensitivity when you’re assassinating, okay?

“Leaders of the Onondaga Nation blasted as “reprehensible” the code name used for Osama bin Laden in the commando assault that killed him: “Geronimo.” “We’ve ID’d Geronimo,” U.S. forces reported by radio Sunday to the White House. Later, word came that “Geronimo” was dead. “Think of the outcry if they had used any other ethnic group’s hero,” the Onondaga Council of Chiefs said in a release Tuesday. “Geronimo bravely and heroically defended his homeland and his people, eventually surrendering and living out the rest of his days peacefully, if in captivity.” “Geronimo is arguably the most recognized Native American name in the world,” the chiefs said, “and this comparison only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes about our people.” “It’s typical,” said Onondaga Tadodaho Sid Hill, the nation's spiritual leader. He said Geronimo was a hero to American Indians and it was incomprehensible that “they use him to identify a man like Osama Bin Laden. All they know is just cowboys and Indians, the stuff they saw on TV.” (Click here for more)

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Kim Sun Frozdick really believed he was dating Buddy Holly.

IF I WAIT LONG ENOUGH

Now there’s a Rocky Erickson bobblehead, maybe – one day – I’ll get one too. But I’d rather be an action figure like Lemmy.

Click here for I Walked With A Zombie

GRATUITOUS LOHAN

Just to demonstrate we aren’t totally living in the past.

GOD HAS MIXED EMOTIONS

I really shouldn’t mock Christians, but, damn it, they make it so easy.

“God’s emotions, like humans, are complex and not always black and white as some portray them to be, writes Piper, founder of the ministry Desiring God, on the group’s blog this week. It is true that He delights in the death of the wicked, but at the same time death does not bring God pleasure. Citing Ezekiel 18:23, 32, Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, points out that the Bible records, “I do not pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.” But in other verses, the Bible records that God finds pleasure in the judgment and death of unrepentant evil doers. In Ezekiel 5:13, the Bible records, “Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself,” and in Proverbs 1:25-26, “Because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you.” “My suggestion is that the death and misery of the unrepentant is in and of itself not a pleasure to God,” writes Piper. “God is not a sadist. He is not malicious or bloodthirsty. The death and suffering considered for itself alone is not His delight.” “Rather, when a rebellious, wicked, unbelieving person is judged, what God has pleasured in is the exaltation of truth and righteousness, and the vindication of His own honor and glory.”

Click here for the Rolling Stones

The secret word is Inexplicable

BUT PALIN MAY NOT HAVE EMOTIONS AT ALL…

…and perhaps only half a functioning brain and a massive self-interest. Some wag retorted to her tweet “Show us your tits first.” Offensive, but apt.

WHAT MORE CAN I SAY?

Click here for Gay Stoners

DON’T SAY WE DIDN’T WARN YOU ABOUT THE AGENTS OF CTHULHU

ON DOC40 CUTE IS STRICTLY RATIONED

Click here for extra cute (From HCB)

SKYNET MOVES CLOSER

As we wait for the Terminators of the Singularity and the HAL 9000 decision that humanity is redundant and should erased, I have to challenge a remark in the story below. “If they are shot down, no lives are at risk.” I would say that the lives of the poor bastards the Phantom is shooting at would be very much at risk. And war becomes a trillion dollar video game.

"The US military is making ever more use of unmanned fighters and intelligence gathering aircraft. The great thing about this type of aircraft is that they can loiter over some far away battlefield for a long time, and if they are shot down, no lives are at risk. The Boeing Phantom Ray Stealth UAV made its first flight this week and is on its way to becoming the first stealth UAV in the arsenal. The Phantom Ray is the size of a fighter aircraft, and its maiden voyage took it to 7,500 feet and a speed of 178 knots. “The first flight moves us farther into the next phase of unmanned aircraft,” said Craig Brown, Phantom Ray program manager for Boeing. “Autonomous, fighter-sized unmanned aircraft are real, and the UAS bar has been raised. Now I’m eager to see how high that bar will go.” (Click here for more)

Click here for The Byrds (remastered)

The secret word is Accountable

BUT I GUESS ONE OF THESE IS OUT OF THE QUESTION?

I’M CONFUSED

Is it the End of the Word or the Rapture that’s coming in a couple of weeks? (And who the hell was Zephaniah?)

A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Click here for poor quality but rather unique Bob

THE LONESOME DEATH OF YVETTE VICKERS

I though this kind of Norma Desmond story was the province of Hollywood Babylon and the 20th century. But this horror tale from E! Online – sent by our pal DTA – makes it clear that Hollywood (as I know first hand) can be still a terminally lonely place of misplaced dreams, exhausted illusions, and frightening isolation. Maybe the poor woman should have had a cat or a dog like Marie Prevost. At least the animal companion could have eaten her. That’s the deal I have with Finn. (Now scroll down for Ms Vickers in better days. Maybe from Playboy? Maybe tasteless and offensive? I dunno, I just figure I’m old enough and far enough down the Lost Highway to joke about death. It makes the inevitable prospect more manageable)

“Former Playboy pinup and B-movie actress Yvette Vickers died at the age of 82. But it wasn't until a year later—last Wednesday—that her mummified body was found in her Beverly Hills home. Neighbor Susan Savage found the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman star lying on the floor of an upstairs room, after pushing open a barricaded front gate, "scaling a hillside", climbing through a broken window and pushing through stacks of "clothes, junk mail and letters" to reach her. Although Vickers generally kept to herself in the neighborhood, Savage decided to check on her after seeing cobwebs and old letters in her mailbox. "The letters seemed untouched and were starting to yellow," Savage said. "I just had a bad feeling." Vickers' body, which was lying on the floor that entire time, was so decomposed that it was unrecognizable. "We've all been crying about this," Savage said. "Nobody should be left alone like that." In spite of the circumstances, police suspect no sign of foul play, and the cause of death has yet to be determined by the Los Angeles county coroner's office. During her career, Vickers starred in horror flicks like Attack of the Leeches and What's the Matter With Helen? and earned a bachelor's degree in theater arts from UCLA. She quickly rose to fame after playing Honey Parker, mistress of Allison Hayes (the titular giantess)' husband in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.”

Click here for Van Morrison

Click here to watch Yvette in all of Attack Of The Giant Leeches

The secret word is Fleeting

JULIAN SEZ...

If the following statement from Julian Assange is correct, the intelligent agencies of Corporate Global will be sifting through a close to infinite supply of self-indulgent, misspelled irrelevancy. I try to imagine what misconceptions they might glean about me from Facebook or Doc40. What would a NSA analyst make today of the odd resonances I feel about the death of Yvette Vickers – or the Frozdick family for that matter?

“Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has leved an accusation that Facebook is "the most appalling spy machine that has ever been invented." Assange said he believes Facebook is a giant database of names and records about people, maintained voluntarily by its users but developed for U.S. intelligence to use. “Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook, they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies, and building this database for them,” Assange said. While Assange doesn’t claim that Facebook is actually run by U.S. intelligence agencies, the fact that they have access to its records is — in his view — dangerous enough. “Now, is the case that Facebook is run by U.S. intelligence? No, it’s not like that. It’s simply that U.S. intelligence is able to bring to bear legal and political pressure to them,” he said.” (Click here for more and a video)

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Reparata Frozdick was a melting fool for men in uniform.

SER ILLYN PAYNE – THE TONGUELESS EXECUTIONER

That's the character played by our old pal Wilko Johnson making his acting debut in the HBO series Game of Thrones. That’s him second from the left. (Pic from UK Steve)

GRATUITOUS YVETTE (A requiem)

THE REAL MARIE PREVOST

Click here for Nick Lowe (who spelt her name wrong.)

ARE WE FOSTERING A DANGEROUS ILLUSION?

Our outspoken pal Chris Hedges seems to think so.

“I spent a year of my life covering al-Qaida for The New York Times. It was the work in which I, and other investigative reporters, won the Pulitzer Prize. And I spent seven years of my life in the Middle East. I was the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. I’m an Arabic speaker. And when someone came over and told Jean and me the news, my stomach sank. I’m not in any way naïve about what al-Qaida is. It’s an organization that terrifies me. I know it intimately. But I’m also intimately familiar with the collective humiliation that we have imposed on the Muslim world. The expansion of military occupation that took place throughout, in particular the Arab world, following 9/11 – and that this presence of American imperial bases, dotted, not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Doha – is one that has done more to engender hatred and acts of terror than anything ever orchestrated by Osama bin Laden. And the killing of bin Laden, who has absolutely no operational role in al-Qaida – that’s clear – he’s kind of a spiritual mentor, a kind of guide … he functions in many of the ways that Hitler functioned for the Nazi Party. We were just talking with Warren about Kershaw’s great biography of Hitler, which I read a few months ago, where you hold up a particular ideological ideal and strive for it.” (Click here for more)

Meanwhile, over on the right, the shit is stirring. Here is a selection of comments from the loathsome Michelle Malkin’s website.

“Obama simply took Bush’s work and used it to his own political advantage. Thanks Georgie-boy. More proof he was really a leftist.
Since when have you seen a crowd of college age people that would celebrate a victory for the US? They are brainwashed everyday to hate our country and everything it stands for just like our fearless leader.
Do they really expect us to believe that this is spontaneous and that people carry 2008 Obama campaign signs and flags with them? Do you know any student that owns a flag?
THANK YOU PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH FOR TRYING TO PROTECT THIS NATION!!! YOUR HARD WORK AND OUR AWESOME MILITARY DID AWESOME….GOD BLESS YOU!!! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Some moronics have a sign that says Obama 1, Osama 0. What a libtard. Liberals have NO shame. None at all.
I do give Obama credit for being willing to give the order to pull the trigger. At least he did do more than fire some cruise missiles at empty tents, which is all the first black president managed to do. I notice Obama kept many of the same methods that Bush used, as he should since those policies were much better and wiser than candidate Obama ever gave him credit for.
This should have been the press conference: Barry: “Despite of all my actions to the contrary, Osama Bin Laden has been killed”.
And don’t forget, we used “torture” to get the pertinent information we needed to get that a-hole. Shame on us!
Is it too early to place bets on how soon college Liberals start wearing OBL’s face on their defiant, latte stained tee-shirts?
I said it before and I’ll say it again…BUSH.DID.IT! This was not a victory for Obama. He (and Holder) fought against EVERYTHING that should have been done. And in spite of him, our military prevailed. He is taking full credit, of course. But this victory goes to George W. Bush.”
(Click here to see for yourself. At Doc40 our concepts of free speech are close to absurd.)

Click here for Robert Johnson

The secret word is Figment

THE AGENTS OF CTHULHU ARE EVERYWHERE

This is more than just a funny hat at a royal wedding. Much more! (We thank Aeswiren for the warning.)

Click here for the Miss Lovecraft and the hideous truth. (From our pal Ed)

HOW THE MIGHTY ONCE FELL

Fortunately after failing to sell too many Toppers, Harley scrapped the piece of crap in 1965.

GRATUITOUS KAREN GILLAN

RESTRAINT THY NAME IS MURDOCH

LETTER FROM TOKYO

The Western media have lost interest. No more dramatic pictures are coming out Fukushima so screw it. Why bother? Better to concentrate on the unseemly dancing in the streets after the death of Osama Bin Laden. Fortunately we have our very good friend Yukiko writes to keep it fully in our minds…

“There's not much left for me to write about what's going on at Fukushima. The human race simply hasn't reached the stage of evolution in which they can control atomic power. Soon, the highly contaminated water will overflow one of those "trenches" and go into the sea (at one of them, it's about 3 feet up to the edge). And just yesterday, they detected some radioactive substances in breast milk. I feel humbled for the people who've been working so hard at the disaster site. The Japanese absolutely have a very special notion regarding bodies of the dead. Do you know that the Japanese government still sends a ship to Iwo Jima every year to pick up bones of the soldiers? So, you can imagine with how much care and attention they are clearing the debris given more than 15,000 people are still missing. Also, it's amazing even to me that they are actually trying to "recycle" the debris by dividing the rubbles. A few days ago, the bullet train operation was reinstated throughout the extensive disaster site, connecting the area with the rest of Japan, which is admirable if we imagine how much reconstruction work and safety check was necessary. Since the new school year begins in April in Japan, most of the schools reopened last month, which required substantial restructuring of the system to utilize the school buildings that were left relatively intact. The seismologists say the seismic map under Japan have completely changed by the 3.11 earthquake, which means their accumulated knowledge is almost no use to predict what will happen next. Given the frequent aftershocks we've had all around Japan (in fact I had one while I was writing this), there is a good chance that Tokyo will also hit by a major quake before long.”

Click here for Bob (while it lasts)
Click here for Jimi

The secret word is Invisible

Henry Cooper – RIP
Andy Dunkley – RIP

BUT THE NUCLEAR BARONS REFUSE TO LEARN A DAMN THING

Yukiko may make the commonsense statement, “The human race simply hasn't reached the stage of evolution in which they can control atomic power”, but the global energy corporations and even the President of the United States continue to tout nuclear power as though nothing had happened.

“The nuclear industry has promised the world cheap, safe, and clean energy for over 60 years. As the Japanese government continues to extend its nuclear evacuation zone around the Daiichi nuclear complex in Fukushima, the pushers of nuclear power--including President Barack Obama--still demand that Congress approve ever-larger subsidies for new reactors. Wishful thinking about energy generation has apparently induced both temporary blindness and long-term amnesia about the history of nuclear "mishaps." In 2009, the government subsidized the nuclear industry with $18.5 billion in loan guarantees, which failed to anticipate the total costs of "the next generation of plants." The Nuclear Energy Institute--the industry's lobbying group--now wants $20 billion more in loan guarantees to get the so-called "nuclear renaissance" underway. Before ramping up funding for the nuclear gang, lawmakers should look beyond the current catastrophe and into some of the numerous U.S. nuclear accident reports.” (Click here for more)

DANCING ON THE MOON

Here at Doc40 we are huge fans of the legendary animator Max Fleischer, so imagine our delight when we came across a colour cartoon we’d never seen before. Click here to be equally delighted. 

GRATUITOUS JACKALOPE

DEAD?

It would seem so. I'm still trying to think through the ramifications.

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

This is the second Sunday Doc40 breakfast partaken behind the iron curtain of a Blogger Content Warning. For those of you who are not involved, the topic is probably getting boring, but what-the-fuck? It’s pissing me right off. A couple of times this week I was about ready to quit the whole thing and find some other means to waste my free time. It wasn’t the simple matter of the actual content warning. As some well-wishers on Facebook suggested, it was something of a badge on honour. The real problem is that it royally screwed up search engines and consigned the accumulated Doc40 random data-fest to inaccessible oblivion – and there is some vitally arcane stuff in the Doc40 archive. Traffic dropped by 40% and I was at a loss. I had dug into the non-human circular labyrinth of Blogger and achieved nothing. No explanation or appeal was offered. I had considered restarting the whole thing on Wordpress or some other platform, but I had to ask myself just how much time could I really devote to what is, after all, a piece of unpaid internet performance art. But then I realised something. The traffic might be dwindling, but the readers who have stayed with me are the hardcore regulars and I value our mutually created virtual funhouse too much to simply dump it. Also I began to suspect that the content warning was somehow screwing up my tracker. I was seeing no referrals even from my own Facebook links and blogs in the same philosophical neighbourhood, when I knew that they existed. Thus I wasn’t even certain of the figures. I also became recalcitrant, because I strongly suspected that my troubles were the handiwork of trolls with a new weapon. They can flag as offensive anything they don’t like or with which they disagree, and create the kind of damage that has just caused me almost to quit the business. Then I saw a story on Dangerous Minds about how the mega-blog Ars Techina had been royally screwed on Facebook by what seemed to be malicious copyright complaints. The culture wars continue being fought in cyberspace and the trolls have found a new weapon. Unfortunately my moral scruples will not allow me to use it against anything I might find offensive. This whole business requires thought, discussion, and definite pressure on Facebook, Blogger and other providers to check more thoroughly that complainants are legitimate. In the meantime, I carry on while wondering what the fuck will happen next.

The secret word is Struggle  

MARILYN SEZ...

“You partake of breakfast?”

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Dolly Frozdick had a quite unusual interpretation of “casual Friday.”

KEITH RICHARDS PLAYS BUDDY HOLLY

Our pal UK Steve has sent over a couple of fine, fine music links.

Click here for Keef playing Buddy
And click here for Willie and Bob playing Pancho & Lefty (before Sony pulls it down)

THIS IMPLAUSIBLE DOLT COULD ACTUALLY BECOME THE LEADER OF A SUPERPOWER WITH CONTROL OF A NUCLEAR ARSENAL.

My friends in the US know why I came home. I think they sensed the madness of the wind before I did.

"Since the election of Barack Obama, the Republican Party has proved that one of its central intellectual arguments was right all along. It has long claimed that evolution is a myth believed in only by whiny liberals – and it turns out it was on to something. Every six months, the party venerates a new hero, and each time it is somebody further back on the evolutionary scale. Sarah Palin told cheering rallies that her message to the world was: "We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way!" – but that wasn't enough. So the party found Michele Bachmann, who said darkly it was an "interesting coincidence" that swine flu only breaks out under Democratic presidents, claims the message of The Lion King is "I'm better at what I do because I'm gay", and argues "there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows carbon dioxide is a harmful gas." That wasn't enough. I half-expected the next contender to be a lung-fish draped in the Stars and Stripes. But it wasn't anything so sophisticated. Enter stage (far) right Donald Trump, the bewigged billionaire who has filled America with phallic symbols and plastered his name across more surfaces than the average Central Asian dictator. CNN's polling suggests he is the most popular candidate among Republican voters. It's not hard to see why. Trump is every trend in Republican politics over the past 35 years taken to its logical conclusion. He is the Republican id, finally entirely unleashed from all restraint and all reality.” (Click here for the rest)

Click here for Buddy Holly

The secret word is Unthinkable

EIN VOLK, EIN REICH, EIN MICKEY

THAT OLD TIME FUNDAMENTALIST LOGIC

FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE ISSUED LATER

GRATUITOUS TWIGGY

SUPERMAN RENOUNCES US CITIZENSHIP

UK Steve alerted me to this crucial story in the hope that it wouldn’t be swamped by the tedious royal nuptials. Needless to say, rightwing commentators have their red, white, and blue knickers in a twist that The Man of Steel has moved to truth, justice, and the humanitarian way. Here’s a typical example…

“Since the 1930′s, DC comics were oozing with American patriotism in the Cold War era, where it was vital to rally young minds to the American cause. Well, the times have changed and the elite’s agenda too. Today, it is about the elimination of national boundaries and a world government. It is about a New World Order.
Despite being an alien, Superman has long been seen as a symbol of “truth, justice, and the American way”. But in the latest issue of Action Comics which hit newsstands on April 27, 2011, said he intends to renounce his U.S. citizenship in a speech before the United Nations. The symbolic implications of this gesture truly define at the direction where the “Agenda” is heading. Despite very literally being an alien immigrant, Superman has long been seen as a patriotic symbol of “truth, justice, and the American way,” from his embrace of traditional American ideals to the iconic red and blue of his costume. What it means to stand for the “American way” is an increasingly complicated thing, however, both in the real world and in superhero comics, whose storylines have increasingly seemed to mirror current events and deal with moral and political complexities rather than simple black and white morality.
The key scene takes place in “The Incident,” a short story in Action Comics #900 written by David S. Goyer with art by Miguel Sepulveda. In it, Superman consults with the President’s national security advisor, who is incensed that Superman appeared in Tehran to non-violently support the protesters demonstrating against the Iranian regime, no doubt an analogue for the recent real-life protests in the Middle East. However, since Superman is viewed as an American icon in the DC Universe as well as our own, the Iranian government has construed his actions as the will of the American President, and indeed, an act of war. Superman replies that it was foolish to think that his actions would not reflect politically on the American government, and that he therefore plans to renounce his American citizenship at the United Nations the next day — and to continue working as a superhero from a more global than national perspective. From a “realistic” standpoint it makes sense; it would indeed be impossible for a nigh-omnipotent being ideologically aligned with America to intercede against injustice beyond American borders without creating enormous political fallout for the U.S. government. While this wouldn’t be this first time a profoundly American comic book icon disassociated himself from his national identity — remember when Captain America became Nomad? — this could be a very significant turning point for Superman if its implications carry over into other storylines.” (Click here for more)

Click here for Laurie Anderson

The secret word is Bird (or is it Plane?)

UNCLE BILL ATTACKED BY TURKS

I thought I had problems with Blogger, but our whacky Uncle Bill – who has been dead for 14 years – is being put on trial for corrupting Turkish morality. (Which triggers the germs of a number of really offensive jokes.)

“The Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into Burroughs’ novel The Soft Machine, which was recently translated and published by Sel Publishing House in January. Tukey’s English Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review reports: The court referred to a report written by the Prime Ministry’s Council for Protecting Minors from Explicit Publications that accused the novel, The Soft Machine, of “incompliance with moral norms” and “hurting people’s moral feelings.” Sel Publishing issued a press release that included parts of their testimony in the court. “It is impossible to understand the insistence in sending books written and published for adults to councils that specialize in minors. If we consider things from this perspective, then dozens of such reports could be written about TV channels, newscasts and thousands of books,” read the testimony given by the publishing house. The testimony also argued that the Prime Ministry’s council had no credentials in literature, aesthetics or translation, thus causing what the representatives of the publishing house called a “freakish” decision by the council. The council also accused the novel of “lacking unity in its subject matter,” “incompliance with narrative unity,” for “using slang and colloquial terms” and “the application of a fragmented narrative style,” while claiming that Burroughs’s book contained unrealistic interpretations that were neither personal nor objective by giving examples from the lifestyles of historical and mythological figures. None of the above, argued the publishing house, constitutes a criminal act. The council went further and said, “The book does not constitute a literary piece of work in its current condition,” adding it would add nothing new to the reader’s reservoir of knowledge, and argued the book developed “attitudes that were permissive to crime by concentrating on the banal, vulgar and weak attributes of humanity.” (Click here for more)

Click here to have your mind read.

I REALLY DON’T GET THIS

And I also don’t like it. Sean Penn at least ought to know better. As with drugs, the problems of transactional sex are created by illegality and social and religious repression. In an ideal world, the interaction between sex worker and client is no one else’s fucking business, as long as health and privacy basics are observed. On a more personal level, I’ve spent my life hearing twisted and judgmental assholes telling me what “real men” do and don’t do – and then watched them react violently when their supposed machismo was challenged.

DON'T YOU MISS THE 20TH CENTURY?

YES FOLKS, IT’S A FREE E-BOOK

It’s been a busy day working on the music and there will be a major announcement in the next couple of days. But right now I’m beat, so all I can do for you good friends who have braved the heinous content warning (which I have tried and failed to remove) to offer a free e-book copy of the complete (UK) version of “The Song of Phaid The Gambler.” (The link came from our own Elf Hellion.)

Click here for the pdf file.

And here’s a glowing review by Glen Young...

“They used to say of Graham Greene that his books evoked an atmosphere of grim seediness. You could almost taste the grit, the gloom, the decay. They called it Greene-land, and it was instantly recognizable. Perhaps it is invidious to compare Mick Farren with Graham Greene (though I will not say to whom) but certainly Farren’s characters live and move through a Greene-land of the future where culture is decayed, morality is egocentric and people are only tools to use. Happy is the man who can say, “Screw you Jack. I’m alright.“
The book opens cinematographically with a close up of a hotel; half-swallowed by the jungle. Gradually the viewpoint pulls backward and more detail slowly appears in the picture. A riverbank, a broken dock, an overgrown clearing. Hot and humid; the back end of nowhere. Phaid is a gambling man, stranded in a torrid zone without the price of the long ride back to civilization. And so the plot begins. An old and classic one. Homer called it an Odyssey, and it was old even when he pinched it from the Babylonians. We have a quest, a mighty journey with adventure all the way.
We travel with Phaid as he lies, cheats and steals his way along the slow and rocky path back to the good life (for there must be good life somewhere). It’s a struggle. Farren’s villains are right bastards and so are his heroes. Even the bright light of Revolution is dimmed by self-seekers trying (and succeeding) to milk the idealism for a fast buck. If you want to sum up this odyssey, consider it as an exercise in applied cynicism. (Even the Androids have off days.)
Like Greene before him, Farren has a genius for evoking atmosphere and character. You will not like or admire the people in the book (I hope you don’t anyway), but you will admire the skill with which Farren manipulates them throughout the course of this long and absorbing tale.” – Glen Young

The secret word is Literate