• Magic Goes to War - Gordon Rutter on the role of magic in bringing hostilities to a satisfactory conclusion.

• The Modern Mentalist - Derren Brown: psychic or master manipulator?

• Eye Spirits - Macular degeneration: an eye disease of particular relevance to forteans.

• Dreamer of the Dark - Was HP Lovecraft a believer in the paranormal?

Enlightening reading!

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FUR CARE CHINCHILLA KEEPING 101

CHINCHILLAS CAN DIE FROM HEAT STROKE VERY EASILY!

Always keep 'em cool & fluffy!

Oh, and don't forget to knit wooly hats for 'em!

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VOLUPTAS

(MEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWW!)

Neeeeeed to get the new Calendario Romano 2005 for immediate wanking praying purposes!

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CONFESSIO

When I'm old and crumbly, I want to die like a real blogger...

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CELEBRATIO

(© Monster Fetish - click to enlarge)

© Margot Knight: "Torso"

For over ten years, Paul Verhoeven and the corrupt film mafia have been trying to convince us with expensive movie posters and ever so secret bonus material DVDs that Basic Instinct is a subtle and arousing erotica thriller. Well, they failed. Horribly. It's neither erotica, nor a thriller. It's not even a sock. It's nothing!

However, there's this one scene that hasn't left my mind ever since I saw it for the first time. And it has become one of my top 10 movie scenes - not just because I can relate to it, but because it's raw, archaic and honest:

CATHERINE
(a long beat)
Do you think I told her to kill you?

NICK
(softly, with intensity)
No.

CATHERINE
(after a beat, near tears)
Everybody that I care about dies.

NICK
(soothing)
It's OK. It's OK.

CATHERINE
(quietly, almost begging)
Make love to me.

Now, Mr Verhoeven, listen very carefully: This is it! That's cinématographie sensuelle, filled with piquanterie and suspense! That's brilliant, psychologically intense script writing that does more to ones libido than hours of vulgar pseudo-lesbian cocaine sniffing toilet nonsense. Reduce and focus please.

I realized that another favourite sex scene of mine can be found in one of the crappiest movies in the history of film making ever: Enemy at the Gates.

Yes, I'm talking about the grotesque piece of mute spastic masturbatory shagging amongst corpses, mines and mud in the middle of the movie. Performed by Vassili Zaitsev (a.k.a. Jude Law) and Tania Chernova (a.k.a. Rachel Weisz) in the most ridiculous yet arousing manner. You're gonna like that even if you're not a necrophiliac. I guess.

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ANTIQUARIAN FIND DU JOUR

(click image to enlarge)

Give her ten years and she'll be the hottest girl in town.

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METAPHORICAL VISUALIZATION OF MY MOOD

(click image to enlarge - © Jean Bailly)

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THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO "AWWWWW!"

(click image to enlarge - based on this image)

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VARIA OBSCURIA

La Comtesse de Sang
Can you recall
The faces
The bodies
The voices
The blood that flows each dawn
A chemical nightmare
Just look in the mirror
Stain of your image
Burnt into metal

- Excerpt from "Buried Dreams" by Clock DVA (... who are still as brilliant as almost 30 years ago!)

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IN CLOACA

Archaeological sensation of the century:

→ German archaeologists find lavatory where Martin Luther launched the Reformation of the Christian church in the 16th Century

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IN LITTERIS

Please sign the online petition to save the French Imprimerie Nationale - a unique and priceless historic collection of books, letterform and character punches from the 16th century to the present.

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IN CELLULOIDO

I'd be very grateful if someone could point me to an online gallery with good quality publicity shots of Theda Bara in "A Fool There Was". Thanks.

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VANITAS

(click image to enlarge)

I'm currently looking for an experimental Switzerland-based photographer who doesn't run away the first time he sees me for various projects involving gasmasks, power-tools, chainsaws, guillotines and horse carcasses. Oh, and lemons! that I have in mind. Please email me if you are a photographer or know of one.

I also updated the gallery section with some new images and removed old and dusty ones.

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RES FAMILIARIS

I put my brother's little portfolio website online.
It's still a test version - please let me know whether it shows up correctly on your browser(s). Cheerio!

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(1)

PICTURE INDEX

(From top to bottom, left to right)

A. Bavari: CD booklet for JANUS
A. Bavari: Insecta Queen
A. Bavari: Il giardino di Jerome
A. Bavari: Tre Voyeur
A. Bavari: Citta' di Gomorra

Alessandro Bavari is currently exhibiting new works at the Salon Art Paris - held at the Carrousel du Louvre. Other selected artists include Aurélie Ben Barek, Katrin Fridriks, Eric Bottero, Tashi Bharucha, Cyril Anguelidis and Gianluca Fratantonio.

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VISUAL DESCRIPTION OF MY CURRENT MOOD

(click to enlarge - via The Horus Archive of
Found Photography)

Strange Attractor on air at 9.30 PM (UK time) on London's Resonance 104.4 FM covering the topic "London - What Lies Beneath".

27th October 2004

© b3ta

I-ii-ii-t's... Monty Python's Flying Circus John Cleese's 65th birthday! Would you believe it?!? The chronically underfed and Creutzfeld-Jacob infected lemurs in John Cleese's basement have created this beautiful online birthday card and they want YOU to sign it.
Run awaa-aaaay!

28th October 2004

Pictoplasma Conference in Berlin, GERMANY, featuring globally renowned design artists such as FriendsWithYou, Rinzen, Gary Baseman, François Chalet, Pete Fowler and many more.

30th October 2004

A whole bunch of events:

→ Hardact Night with yummy breakcore and dark electro noises @ Amalgame Club in
Yverdon-Les-Bains, SWITZERLAND.

→ ForteanTimes Unconvention 2004
@ Friends House in Euston Road, London, UNITED KINGDOM.
This year's speakers include Ken Campbell, Paul Devereux, Gail-Nina Anderson and John Downes, with topics ranging from "The Quest for Ectoplasm" to "The Mad Gasser of Mattoon". Yaaaay!

→ Bride of Spookycon in San Francisco, US of A. Confirmed guests include Warren Ellis as "Guest of Honour" (Weeeeeee! Go Warren!), Tatiana Maslany, Christa Faust and Brett Sullivan.

→ Opening of the "Things With Wings" Halloween group show at M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs,
US of A, featuring entre autres the stunning artworks of Heidi Taillefer.

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RELEGATIO MEDIALIS

I recently stumbled upon two newish fortean blogs. I'm not too sure about the rather confusing (or should I say "magickally kaotick") concept behind "Key 23", but I quite enjoyed reading "Haroeris Astrum":

• Key 23

• Haroeris Astrum

... and in other news, Pinstruck got dug up from the grave and is finally back online for your digital voodoo pleasures!

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THINGS YOU NEVER ALWAYS WANTED TO LEARN

• How to Scientifically Dissect a Mermaid

• People Are Human-Bacteria Hybrid

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• More on Oscar Wilde's birthday over @ BBC

• Messrs Temple & Darkwood's essential book
"Around the World in 80 Martinis"

→ Online gallery of Corinne May Botz's works
→ Scan of last week's NYT article on Frances Glessner Lee
→ "The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death" on Amazon

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P. TO THE S.

→ Usama Alshaibi - previously featured here - will be presenting his short film "Convulsion Expulsion" in the "Courts métrages expérimentaux" competition at the Lausanne LUFF 04 on Thursday, 14th October 2004, 8.30 PM.

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AND IN OTHER ECOLOGICAL NEWS...

Dave Walsh is out on Greenpeace's Esperanza blogging on bottom trawling.

.... and meanwhile, WWF Japan discovered an extremely rare new Domo-Kun species...