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MonthNovember 2008

Horror Bloggers United: A Roundtable with The League of Tana Tea Drinkers

November 29, 2008 /

“Blogging has become something of a pop culture phenomenon. It’s a virtual platform that gives everyone – from novice to novelist – a unique voice and presence on the vast World Wide Web. The ultimate in self-publishing, upgraded for the 21st century.

But like the virtual social networks that bring people from around the world together, it seems like a natural progression then that bloggers would branch out from their individual self-expression and seek group affiliation. In the horror arena, a group of stalwart bloggers joined forces earlier this year to form the peculiarly named League of Tana Tea Drinkers (or LOTT D). The brainchild of John Cozzoli, who has helmed his own long-running blog called ZOMBOS CLOSET OF HORROR which explores the horror genre as reflected in all media and pop culture, LOTT D now includes 29 member blogs and continues to grow. Impressive in its variety, the LOTT D boasts member blogs covering everything from Frankenstein to Godzilla, slasher films to zombies, and childhood terrors to comic books. Spend a few hours perusing the LOTT D’s member blogs and you’ll find everything you need for a serious horror fix — from serious film commentary to some of the funniest genre observations, insightful original essays to button-pushing opinion pieces, and heaps of useful book and films reviews from classic to current.

The mission of the LOTT D is outlined on its virtual homepage:

“Our mission is to acknowledge, foster, and support thoughtful, articulate, and creative blogs built on an appreciation of the horror and sci-horror genre. Horror bloggers are a unique group of devoted fans and professionals, from all walks of life, who keep the horror genre, in all its permutations and media outlets, alive and kicking. Often spending long hours to keep their blogs informative and fun, horror bloggers share their unique mix of personality, culture and knowledge freely to fans of a genre difficult to describe, but easy to love.”

DSM recently caught up with Cozzoli (aka ILoz Zoc) and five of his LOTT D compatriots for an informal discussion about this groundbreaking new consortium of horror bloggers. Joining him are Stacie Ponder, FINAL GIRL proprietress and AMC columnist extraordinaire, Lance Vaughan (aka Unkle Lancifer), co-creator of the childhood terror site KINDERTRAUMA, August Ragone , author and renowned authority on Japanese film and culture who helms THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND GODZILLA, John Morehead, academic and explorer of the social, cultural, mythic, archetypal, imaginative, creative, and even spiritual aspects of the fantastic at his blog THEOFANTASTIQUE, and Mike Petrucelli (aka Pax Romano), witty commentator on the queer subtext of horror films from BILLY LOVES STU.”

(via Dark Scribe Magazine)

World Record BASE Jump

November 29, 2008 /

“Recently it was discovered that the tallest building in the world – the Burj Dubai – had been the scene for a world record (and highly illegal) BASE jump. 1 British man attempted the jump and was successful, while a second man, a Frenchman, was caught before he could jump. They were both arrested and held in Dubai.

What is not known to either the authorities or the world in general, is that 2 men had already succeeded in climbing the tower and base jumping from it without being caught: another Brit and the same Frenchman who was later caught attempting a second jump. They were the first and have gone down as legends in their sport, for claiming the latest jewel in the crown of the sport. This is the story of that jump.”

(via Current. h/t: David Thompson’s Blog)

Liberating Wednesday – 52 times more radical than buy nothing day

November 28, 2008 /

Trevor Blake points out that pm’s “Liberating Wednesday” is 52 times more radical than “Buy Nothing Day”

On Wednesdays friends get together, every house is an open house, conflicts are talked about, neighborhood problems are discussed. The Machine can only be dismantled if new, noneconomic social forms emerge. People with the same ideas about life must get together, develop common visions and practical plans. It is not necessarily so, that your actual neighbors are the people you would try to live a new life with. The accidents of the real estate market are not the best basis for new communities. So you eventually gather from across the city or a whole region.

On Wednesdays you can also do practical work. Communal gardens, neighborhood lounges, workshops, soft energy systems, house repairs, communal baths, restaurants, swimming-pools, require work. You can also call it “learning”, social activity, creating independent communities, being together or just fun. Ultimately only relatively large (500 people) communities, that are semi-autarcic on food, energy and health-care can safely get us off the hooks of the Machine. To create such communities (bolos) we need some time now, we need some training, a strong cultural identity.

Wednesday will be our think-day, social day, cultural day, ecological day, community-day, bolo-day, land-day (each bolo needs about 250 acres some place outside the city), planet-day, exchange-day (barter-markets), health-day (work some, but not too much), squatting-day, anti-car-day, anti-work-day etc. On Wednesdays everything that is now repressed, forgotten, divided, being neglected will find time and space.

Full Story: OVO

PDX Occulture has its meetups on Thursdays, so we kinda miss the mark, but I find it in the same spirit.

Justin Boland has an interesting Wednesday habit – World Design Wednesday.

More from pm: bolo’bolo

Shameless self-promotion: The Swift Fox – accessories for urban mobility

November 27, 2008 /

axio tekno

Just in time for the holidays, I’m joining the ailing retail business with my online store, the Swift Fox. The Swift Fox sells accessories for urban mobility – laptop bags, iPod cases, etc. We’re just getting started, expect more soon.

The Swift Fox (featured above: Axio Tekno hardshell backpack)

surrealestate

And if you’d prefer to buy hand made items, be sure to check out my girlfriend’s business, surrealestate crafts – knitted cats, hats, iPod socks, and wallets.

The Swift Fox – accessories for urban mobility

November 27, 2008 /

Just in time for the holidays, I’m joining the ailing retail business with my online store, the Swift Fox. The Swift Fox sells accessories for urban mobility – laptop bags, iPod cases, etc. We’re just getting started, expect more soon.

The Swift Fox (featured above: Axio Tekno hardshell backpack)

surrealestate

And if you’d prefer to buy hand made items, be sure to check out my girlfriend’s business, surrealestate crafts – knitted cats, hats, iPod socks, and wallets.

The Nature Of Forgiveness

November 27, 2008 /

Once again it’s Thanksgiving in America. After enduring long lines at the liquor and grocery stores, and before deciding to slam a relative’s head in the cranberry sauce, here’s a thoughtful article on forgiveness. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, and to all our friends outside the U.S., have a great November 27th!

“Forgiveness can be a very beautiful and healing act. We can learn to forgive ourselves for some perceived inadequacy, or set aside rancor as we come to terms with the harm someone has done. Nonetheless, forgiveness is not something we should either universally or casually hand out. The word “forgive” comes from an early Germanic word meaning “to give whole-heartedly,” and was first derived from the Latin perdonare, meaning to pardon. A pardon is a release from penalty and obligation, something that may be highly inappropriate in the cases of repeated spousal abuse or the continued logging and burning of the world’s vital rainforests.If anything, surely those who cause harm out of self-interest or greed should be held accountable. Perhaps criminals should do acts of service for the people they have robbed, or vainglorious Wall Street managers should pay restitution to the public that they’ve wronged.

It’s important to remember that the opposite of forgiveness is neither hate nor holding a grudge, but holding someone responsible for their words, acts and omissions. And we need to hold each other as well as ourselves accountable for those things unworthy of being excused or condoned, not by punishing wrongdoers or submitting to punishment ourselves, but by insisting that they, like us, are honest about their actions, doing everything possible to rectify, heal and thereby be redeemed.

Redemption through caring and courageous acts is one of the most ennobling and compelling of human accomplishments, which is why it has been a core theme of much of our finest literature and film. This is not to say that it can nullify what we’ve thought and said before. Though I might wish otherwise, doing something right or even noble can’t erase the reality or the results of prior harmful actions. Redeeming ourselves does not “wipe the slate clean” or allow us to “start over,” the acts of which may not necessarily be desirable to us, since we distinguish ourselves through willful shift and conscious transition. We gain inner power not only from what we do, but from how far we have come.”

(via Vision Magazine)

Disabled teen becomes world’s first person to do a backflip in a WHEELCHAIR

November 27, 2008 /

Aaron Fotheringham

“A daredevil teenager has become the first person ever to perform a backflip in a wheelchair. Aaron Fotheringham, 16, who is known to friends as ‘Wheels’,  finally landed the official world record after learning the amazing acrobatic stunt two years ago. Aaron, who was born with spina bifida and has been in a chair since he was three, said: ‘It feels awesome to have the record.’

The American teenager is also credited with creating the sport of ‘hardcore sitting’ where daring stunts adapted from skateboarding and BMX are performed in a wheelchair. ‘It’s wonderful,’ said his mother, Kaylene Fotheringham after he was accepted by the World Records Accademy last month. ‘We always thought he was the first one to do it but today we know he has the world record.’ He began doing stunts at the age of nine when his elder brother Brian took him to their local skate-park in Las Vegas.Brian encouraged him to go down a ramp and the obsession was born.

Now Aaron gets flown all over the world to perform stunts and spends at least three hours a day practicing.‘I love being in a wheelchair,’ said Aaron. ‘Everyone thinks “Oh you’re disabled that’s such a terrible thing” but I think it’s positive.‘It’s like being able to carry your skateboard everywhere with you. People don’t realise how much can be done in a chair.'”

(via The Daily Mail. There’s a better video of his backflip and his struggles to get it right, here.)

The intriguing saga of the dragonfly drone UFO

November 27, 2008 /

dronecraft1

dronecraft2

After Trevor Blake showed us Drone’s “Strange Craft” video, my girlfriend went digging for more information on the dragonfly drone UFOs. Here’s what she found out:

it started off as several videos and photographs in big basin, CA, lake tahoe, and alabama. two similar impressive and otherworldly crafts were supposedly seen by several different eyewitnesses. the main witness spreading info in the UFO community was a mysterious guy named “raji”. well, when more and more people tried to contact raji, he disappeared.

internet forums blew up as a guy named isaac started posting about the crafts, and supposed official CARET documents.

isaac’s info however, did not hold up against internet forum scrutiny. posters shared that the computer company alienware had announced a contest that required entrants to crack an alien code; and the code was the exact code on the CARET documents.

Full Story: surrealestate22

U.S. Court Allows Abuse Case vs. Vatican

November 26, 2008 /

“A federal appeals court has permitted a lawsuit over alleged sexual abuse to proceed against the Vatican, creating potential liability for the seat of the Roman Catholic faith for the activities of Catholic clergy in the U.S. Monday’s ruling, issued by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, marks the first time a court at so high a level has recognized that the Vatican could be liable for the negligence in sexual-abuse cases brought in the U.S.

The ruling is seen as a breakthrough by those allegedly abused by priests. Investigators and grand juries have found several instances where the church failed to report alleged abusers and covered up alleged misdeeds to protect them. Jeffrey S. Lena, the attorney for the Holy See, said he was not “presently inclined” to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision. It remains to be seen whether the Vatican, which is a sovereign state recognized by the U.S. government, will make further arguments that it is immune from U.S. civil proceeding.

Catholic dioceses in the U.S. have paid out at least $1.5 billion to alleged abuse victims, most of this since the scandal broke open nationwide in 2002. The appeals court found that the church government may be held liable for actions taken in the U.S. based on the Vatican’s policies or directives.”

(via Wall Street Journal via WSJ Law Blog)

As Taboos Ease, Saudi Girl Group Dares to Rock

November 26, 2008 /

“They cannot perform in public. They cannot pose for album cover photographs. Even their jam sessions are secret, for fear of offending the religious authorities in this ultraconservative kingdom. But the members of Saudi Arabia’s first all-girl rock band, the Accolade, are clearly not afraid of taboos.

The band’s first single, “Pinocchio,” has become an underground hit here, with hundreds of young Saudis downloading the song from the group’s MySpace page. Now, the pioneering foursome, all of them college students, want to start playing regular gigs — inside private compounds, of course — and recording an album. “In Saudi, yes, it’s a challenge,” said the group’s lead singer, Lamia, who has piercings on her left eyebrow and beneath her bottom lip. (Like other band members, she gave only her first name.) “Maybe we’re crazy. But we wanted to do something different.”

In a country where women are not allowed to drive and rarely appear in public without their faces covered, the band is very different. The prospect of female rockers clutching guitars and belting out angry lyrics about a failed relationship — the theme of “Pinocchio” — would once have been unimaginable here. But this country’s harsh code of public morals has slowly thawed, especially in Jidda, by far the kingdom’s most cosmopolitan city. A decade ago the cane-wielding religious police terrorized women who were not dressed according to their standards. Young men with long hair were sometimes bundled off to police stations to have their heads shaved, or worse.”

(via The New York Times. h/t: Professor Hex)

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