“A clay death mask crafted by the Tagar culture more than 2,000 years ago, which was first discovered among about 15 sets of cremated human remains in a burial mound in eastern Siberia in 1968, actually contained the skull of a ram.”
From Archaeology Magazine on IG.
I’m in a certain zone for a thing. It occurred to me that maybe I could do part of my boarding and materials stockpiling here, and I need to figure out how to categorise and locate things.
There are two copies of this left at forged-river.com as I write this. Or you can buy the digital download. Mark Williamson is among our most important British landscape artists, and also our most inventive ambient musicians. I feel very lucky to have been able to grab a copy of this.
The sun is out and the frost has gone. Within a couple of days, everyone in Britain will stop complaining that it’s cold all the time and will start complaining that it’s warm all the time. Lockdown does at least spare us the sight of men deciding that it’s now time to wander around the high street wearing nothing but trainers and the shorts that fit them perfectly when they were 14 years old.
This story document is giving me hell. It just doesn’t want to go. It stutters and stops. So today I need to take it from the top and see if it flows. If it doesn’t, then the story idea is broken and I need to start from scratch. It happens.
Inbox 15, marking up the boards and pulling down CDs from the shelves for today’s soundtrack. Good morning.
I just got pointed at this tweet. Details are over at this link here.
Yes, there is an evil Batman who is also a T-Rex. This is a thing I discovered when I was asked to write a two-page short comic about an evil Batman who is also a T-Rex. This is out on August 25.
This is lockdown psychosis in full effect. “Hey, Warren, Scott Snyder invented an evil Batman who is also a T-Rex. Can you do me a two-page origin story of The Evil Batman Who Is Also A T-Rex?” And I say yes. Obviously.
Yes, I’m supposed to be working. I was just having a cigarette (and still need to cut down some more) and thinking about a title for a thing, and my brain alighted on “Sleeping Gas.” Where did that come from, I asked my brain. It was a Teardrop Explodes b-side on a white-label 12″ issue of something or other by them that I bought in the 80s from the record shop in Rayleigh high street. It was on the b-side next to “Tiny Children.” Which I loved. I suspect I loved it more than whatever was on the a-side. This is a thing that often happened to me.
Like, I used to play this to people while hiding the sleeve and asking them to tell me who they thought it was. Obviously, I can’t do that here with a YouTube embed, but, seriously, it did not sound like them — until right at the end.
This was the b-side of “Running Up That Hill.” I had a girlfriend at the time who I strongly associated this with, and it still makes me think of her and smile.
B-side of “Victoria,” I think.
One of the more famous b-sides of the period.
I could go on for an extended period of time, but, yes, work to do.
B-sides. That was a whole thing in my life, way back when. Damn.
There is still no elegant low-click way to send podcasts from Downcast to WordPress. In fact, since the Press This bookmarklet went away, this is all more hands-on than I’m used to. Anyway, here’s Hypnagogue 296, which is very much my thing today.
Huh. I wonder if I can just strip the audio in here. Is that a bad thing to do? Hmmm.
Start Ashtoreth, Rite II, Rites I & II
16.24 Edu Comelles, Paisatge – Solc, Línia Pedra Paisatge Solc
32.08 Wastelanders, Expanding Mental Universe, Cosmic Despair
46.23 Slow Dancing Society, The Red Summer Sun, Priest Lake Circa ’88
59.31 Steve Roach, Wren and Raven, Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces
1.14.15 Indiana Drones, Indiana Drones Part 5, Indiana Drones
Hypnagogue is one of my favorite things. More power to you, John Shanahan.
My blu-ray software stopped working this morning, and insists I haven’t paid for it. This is truly the most bullshit timeline. Having the Chernobyl of blind privilege over here.
It’s actually a mild pain in the backside, because I need to arrange for deep focus today, which means putting films on the big screen on mute, playing ambient musics over the top, and turning the internet off.
Aaaaand I’ve just been reminded that I need to start the newsletter today. ffff
Inbox 10, because I’ve pretty much checked out of the human world now. I need to land at least one outline today, and ideally two, but I can feel the rewrite of HEAVEN’S FOREST 107 calling to me — I can see the new scene it needs, so I may end up going into that as well. Doing that now would buy me a few extra days to think about 108. It’s all about borrowing time, sometimes.
We’re down to our last bottle of red wine. Fucking Chernobyl over here, mate.