Saturday, October 18, 2008

STEAMPUNK ROCK & ROLL? (Somehow I doubt this is the new Elvis)


Our pal TPG sent the following report from The Guardian of London. Seems like a steam punk version of rock & roll has evolved over in the old country, which – even though promoted by the offspring of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren – I must confess appears a little behind the cultural curve. Steam punk was the science fiction big thing some years ago, but then rather wore itself out. I even tried it myself – at the strict instigation of Tor books – and while kinda fun, it didn’t end well, although in one of the books I did feature a steam punk band with huge acoustic metal speakers.

"You can define steampunk as visions of the future that never was, as seen through the technology of the Victorian era, when things were made of pistons and steam rather than silicon and transistors," says Slater, who is dressed in a ruffled white shirt, pegged trousers and spats. "It's an aesthetic, a geek culture, a craft culture." It's certainly all those things; steampunks take pride in their ability to make 19th-century-style clothes and gadgets from found objects, creating intricate gizmos from brass, leather and rivets. A London-based American musician called Thomas Truax even makes his own instruments: there's one called the Hornicator, made from a gramophone horn; another, known as Mother Superior, emits steam when played.” (Click for the whole confusing story.)

OUR WHACKY UNCLE BILL


Uncle Bill drives the kids off his lawn with extreme prejudice.
(Pic lifted from Sibling Shot)

SATURDAY MORNING FUN CLUB



Inanimate pornography!

The secret phrase is Think About It

Friday, October 17, 2008

PADDY CLAIMS IT’S A DONE DEAL



Elf Hellion sent this report of mixed portents…

"DUBLIN, Ireland - The race is over as far as Ireland's biggest bookmaker is concerned. Paddy Power PLC says it is so sure Barack Obama will win the U.S. presidential election next month that it paid off Thursday on all bets it had taken backing the Democratic candidate. It said it shelled out more than euro1 million, about $1.35 million. "We declare this race well and truly over and congratulate all those who backed Obama — your winnings await you." Paddy Power has a long tradition of winning free publicity by paying off early, particularly on political contests — and it also has a recent record of getting the result spectacularly wrong. In June, the company paid out early in favor of people who bet Irish voters would approve the European Union's latest treaty in a referendum. The next day, a "no" result sent shock waves across the 27-nation EU, and cost Powers a hefty sum since it ended up paying off both sides of the bet.The same thing would happen to Powers if it guessed wrong about the U.S. election. The pro-Obama bettors would keep the winnings paid out Thursday, while John McCain backers would cash in, too. Powers said the biggest winner among the Obama bettors was someone who gambled euro100,000 and got back a total of euro150,000. The most visionary bettor, though, was the "punter" who put downeuro50 on Obama in 2005. At the time, Obama was listed at 50-to-1, sothe bettor got euro2,550. Despite calling the contest, the Dublin-based bookmaker said it is still taking new bets on the race. A John McCain victory Nov. 4 on a bet placed Thursday would pay off euro5 for every euro1 bet. By contrast, each euro1 bet on Obama would net just 11 euro cents."

Of course, whatever Paddy has decided, you Americans STILL HAVE TO VOTE!!!

The secret word is Vig

HIDE THE KRYPTONITE


As today’s news cycle progressively revealed that perhaps Joe the Plumber (Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher) is not quite the Joe Six Pack entrepreneurial paragon lauded by John McCain, the ugly possibility looms that John McCain has been evilly hoodwinked by (yes, you guessed it) none other than arch-criminal Lex Luthor.


“What do you mean there's a depression and you can’t afford to give me a goddamned cracker?”

Thursday, October 16, 2008

RAY LOWRY -- RIP


Gene Vincent by Ray Lowry.
Bernard Slater wrote...
"Sad news Mick, used to buy NME for you , Kent, Charlie Shaar and Lowry."
All I can say is goodbye, mate.
For a gallery of Ray's work click here.
And click here for a Mojo obituary.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

GLOBAL WARMING OKAY, BUT...


…this is absurd.

The secret word is Phew

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 49


People have been asking how come the free download of my ancient rock novel The Tale Of Willy’s Rats (with it’s hideous cover) hasn’t been available lately on the Funtopia site. The answer is that the server died, but it’s back now. (Thanks Rich) Just click here.

MY SPACE IS NOT THE PLACE



Every few days, I get an email telling me I have a message on My Space. The problem is that I don’t have any truck with My Space. I did have an account but I ripped it out by the roots. I loath My Space. It’s cumbersome, it’s invasive, it’s silly, it leaks data, and it’s owned by Rupert Murdoch. If you want to get in touch just use Byron4d@msn.com. (And the Doc40 fundraiser is still going on if any kind soul wants to make a PayPal donation.)

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

AT RISK OF SEEMING TO SUPPORT TERRORISM



In the middle of all the propagandist furor over Bill Ayres, maybe a little background wouldn’t be amiss.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated. Chicago police had brutalized demonstrators and media at the Democratic Convention. Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were murdered in a Chicago police raid. George Jackson was shot by prison guards. The war dragged on with hundreds of thousands of young Americans being shipped out to the jungle as Cong-fodder. The Weathermen formed as a splinter group believing that only violent action would grab the nation’s attention to the ongoing horror. Later, after a nod and a wink from Richard Nixon in a speech referring to anti-war protesters as “campus bums”, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on unarmed demonstrators on the Kent State campus, killing four, while two more were slain at Jackson State. The Weathermen – named for Dylan’s line, “You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," formed as a splinter group, believing that only violent action would grab the nation’s attention. In contrast to the official body count – which, in addition to those already mentioned, included tens of thousand of Vietnamese civilians killed in saturation bombing raids in which John McCain participated – the Weather Underground caused no fatalities, except when three Weatherpeople blew themselves up in the basement of a Manhattan townhouse. While not wholly supported by the counterculture, their actions were at least understandable to many of us in those terrible times when it seemed that Nixon was prepared to prolong the Vietnam war as long as it suited his historical vanity. As Weatherperson Naomi Jaffe put it…

“We felt that doing nothing in a period of repressive violence is itself a form of violence. That's really the part that I think is the hardest for people to understand. If you sit in your house, live your white life and go to your white job, and allow the country that you live in to murder people and to commit genocide, and you sit there and you don't do anything about it, that's violence.”

Ultimately, after nearly two decades underground Bill Ayers turned himself in 1980, Charges were dropped, and he was rehbilitated.

More terrorists?
The secret word is History

AT RISK OF BEING ACCUSED OF STALINISM



I've never previously removed a link from Doc40 except where a website had vanished or was out of business, but I don’t feel inclined to keep the link to People’s Daily Brief. During the 2004 election, PDB was an energetic and valuable asset. Lately, though, it seems to have gone off on some weird, a-pox-on-all-their-houses tangent that I find wholly negative and destructive, and I’ve been shocked and dismayed by recent posts like these quoted below…

“That foul skank of duplicitous, disingenuous ordure that is Barack Hussein Obama. How anyone at this dark hour could pull the lever for this arch insider is truly and completely beyond me.”


“So voters for evil, after your fairy godmother Barack Hussein "Afghanistan" Obomber voted to help bush loot The People's Treasury, his boy blunder Diamond Joe "Drug Bust" "Bankruptcy Reform" Plagiarizin' Biden followed the same with some more lies from the dark heart of Camp Manchurian.”

And the scarcely believable...

“Palin may be flawed, but she was fresh as a daisy, strong, competant, and youthful. No wonder coastal women can't stand her. They'd kill to have half of what she has.”

Okay, fine. PDB has every right to make its point. I just don’t feel inclined to steer Doc40 readers in its direction at a time when I feel we’re fighting for our cultural, if not actual survival.

(Shit, but this is a grim day. And I’ve got no reefer.)

Monday, October 13, 2008

BE PARANOID, BE VERY PARANOID



It may actually be a one of the natural laws of high anxiety. When things start looking good for a change, we cast around for reasons for it all to go wrong. Such is the nature of paranoia. (The following story was sent by Peromyscus.)

“Here is the latest big-picture conspiracy theory, which has been gathering strength on the blogosphere the way a hurricane feeds on Caribbean waters: It is widely believed, both online and, increasingly, offline, that the Bush administration intends to declare martial law and postpone next month's elections. To prevent Barack Obama's inevitable ascension to the Oval Office, obviously.
This theory/rumor/delusion dates back almost a year and a half, with the appearance on the White House website of National Security Presidential Directive 51, which outlined a policy for "continuity of government" in the event of a national emergency. Such emergency is defined as "any incident . . . that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the US population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."
(Click for the full story)

On the other hand, Ireland's largest bookmaker, Paddy Power, is now laying 20-1 that the American election will be postponed, odds which have shortened from 40-1 in just one week. We can only pray (to paraphrase The Pioneers) this longshot kicks the bucket. There will be no weepin' and wailin'.

The secret (and venerable) phrase will be Rising Up Angry

DRAGGING ME BACK IN (and on the 13th of the month no less)



I keep trying to ignore the demagogue Palin, the big noise from Wasilla (meth capital of Alaska.) But stuff keeps happening that I just can’t resist, like the above graphic, or this ad that was posted on Craigslist LA, but then withdrawn after 24 hours…

“Sarah Palin look-alike for an adult film to be shot in next 10 days. Major adult studio. Please send pix, stats etc. ASAP Pay: $2000-3000 No anal required.”

OUR WHACKY UNCLE BILL



Uncle Bill orders a Manhattan, but insists on selecting his own Maraschino cherry.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

THE ADVENTURES OF MARILYN (Part 999)


In which Marilyn, emerging instrument-blind. and with arms bared, from the Null Void of Xlnwr, after completing the Challenge of Dormandu, finds herself in a heavily distorted, blind-alley time variation in which Amazon Treen refugees from the Mekonta purges shoot Zoms for sport from magno-ornithopters, and where the only subsistence industry is the mass production of pornographic garden gnomes, and the sole means of mass communication are rumpled and folded copies of The Hollywood Reporter in which the news is always bad. Then a crescent formation of Adamski discs, possibly under the command of the Dread Xpbcqwzpuc, appear overhead. “Quick Marilyn,” cry the Tree Wenches, “look up before it’s too late!”

THEY DON'T STAGE SHOWS LIKE THIS ANY MORE #8



But we still go out walking after midnight.