The Black Plague

Help establish a new shark sanctuary in Raja Ampat, Indonesia

2010-07-08T17:59:00.004-04:00

I just signed this petition...please do the same right now HERE

HOPI BOTANICALS

2009-11-14T18:59:00.004-05:00

I've always been a huge fan of the FUCT label and Erik Brunetti's vision. It seems these days the label is getting more refined and wiser with age. I've been truly inspired by their forward progression. In 2010 look for Hopi Botanicals, creation of Emmelie Brunetti.

DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE MESSAGE

2009-11-10T19:15:00.000-05:00

WE ARE JUST PASSENGERS

2009-11-09T21:36:00.001-05:00

WHISPERS OF ANCIENT MARINER

2009-11-09T15:02:00.002-05:00

An albatross chick has been found dead with 272 pieces of plastic in its gut, which weighed a shocking total of 250g.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

EARTHRACE GETS A FACELIFT

2009-11-09T14:50:00.004-05:00

So this is pretty cool. The EarthRace has gotten a sleak, stealth, matte black paint job. It has joined the ranks of The Sea Shepherd and will float along side The Steve Irwin in hopes to save a few whales from Japanese Whale murderers.

EARTHRACE SITE

Pete Bethune, the captain of the sleek ship EarthRace, had enough fat taken out of his body to produce about 100ml of fuel, and two of his corpulent buddies have contributed some of their own personal lard, where the resulting 10 liters of fat will be enough to help the boat travel about seven miles.

But isn't the circumference of the world a bit more than 7 miles? Indeed it is, about 24,000 more miles will need to be navigated to make it all the way around. Bethune plans to use other biofuels (not made from human fat) to make the trip, in which he hopes to average around 29mph for 65 days in attempt to beat the current world record of 75 days. Never mind that fat publicity stunt, the real journey begins March 1st of next year.

posted on Gizmodo.

2009-11-05T23:32:00.001-05:00

BARNABY BLACK METUL I - AVAILABLE ONLINE

2009-11-04T19:39:00.001-05:00

11.10.09

2009-11-03T23:20:00.002-05:00

2009-11-01T20:14:00.001-05:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

2009-10-31T13:08:00.001-04:00

ONE MORE DAY TILL' HALLOWEEN.

2009-10-30T10:09:00.001-04:00

FINALLY!!!! THRILL ME!!!!!

2009-10-28T18:30:00.006-04:00

The wonderful news for this Halloween season is that after almost 24 years "Night of the Creeps" has been released on DVD. This is one of the greatest horror flicks of all time. Bad news is the cover art sucks. They should have just stuck with the original art (top) if they were going to half ass the thing.

HALLOWEEN PLAYLIST

2009-10-27T23:23:00.000-04:00

THERE COMING TO GET YOU BARBARA!!!

2009-10-25T23:20:00.002-04:00

HALLOWEEN LISTENING

2009-10-23T18:56:00.001-04:00

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ZOMBIE

2009-10-23T17:05:00.001-04:00

MORE INFO

2009-10-22T18:31:00.000-04:00

BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMB....

2009-10-21T20:24:00.001-04:00

ART INSPIRED BY STEPHEN KING

2009-10-14T23:40:00.003-04:00

CENTIPEDE PRESS

HELP THE VAMPIRES

2009-10-12T20:33:00.002-04:00

White-nose Syndrome has caused “the most precipitous wildlife decline in the past century in North America,” according to biologists. It has devastated bat populations across the northeastern United States during the past four years. BCI is working with agencies, organizations and individuals to understand and stop WNS and begin restoring these decimated bat populations.

Since WNS was discovered in a New York cave in February 2006, an estimated million or more hibernating bats of six species have been killed by the disease in nine states.

Mortality rates approaching 100 percent are reported at some sites. The disease moved beyond the Northeast last winter, reaching into West Virginia and Virginia and threatening some of the largest hibernating caves endangered Indiana and gray myotis. Ultimately, bats across North America are at imminent risk.

Federal funding for WNS is in jeopardy! Please contact your Senator and Congressperson immediately and urge them to provide funds for WNS research before it is too late. The House bill has already passed, but the Senate Appropriations Committee report (111-38, dated July 7) contains only $500,000 of the $11 million identified by the scientific community for immediate WNS funding. Read our letter to members or example text for your own letter to Congress.

REDA MORE HERE AT BATCON.ORG

JOSH KIRBY

2009-10-11T15:34:00.003-04:00

THE HALLOWEEN TREE

2009-10-10T20:59:00.003-04:00

Here is the opening to "The Halloween Tree" cartoon from Ray Bradbury.

WELCOME MY FRIEND...AUTUMN

2009-10-04T17:45:00.001-04:00

2009-10-03T23:25:00.000-04:00

SUNN O))) AT BROOKLYN MASONIC TEMPLE

2009-09-27T21:08:00.002-04:00

This was part of the review by BEN RATLIFF at New York Times. Thought it was spot on.

"The music of Sunn O))), despite the band’s typographical karate, despite its ability to seduce a large crowd into attending late-night shows of megaloud compositions with static guitar tones and Hungarian battle cries, despite its wall of mystery, is not higher math. It’s pre-math. It’s sniffing the air to get a weather forecast, watching the moon and tide to track your birthday. It’s banging rocks together and chanting, but with an expert knowledge of high volume. It is rare to see an important band alongside one that directly inspired it, but this was what happened on Tuesday at the Masonic Temple in Brooklyn..."

2009-09-21T20:55:00.001-04:00

LORDS OF CHAOS: THE MOVIE

2009-09-20T21:08:00.005-04:00

It was only a matter of time.

READ MORE HERE

PATAGONIA

2009-09-20T18:47:00.003-04:00

I've always loved Patagonia for their hiking boots and outdoor gear. For those of you with a curious and active eye towards environmental issues here is yet another reason to love them.

OFFICIAL PATAGONIA SITE

HEAVENLY PUSS

2009-09-17T17:13:00.001-04:00

ROADHOUSE BLUES

2009-09-15T07:43:00.002-04:00

So I am reposting this...i wrote it back in March 08' when I heard that Swayze had fallen ill. He hung on strong for a long time but I am sorry to hear that Patrick Swayze has died at the age of 57. Nothing much will change in my life now that he is gone...Roadhouse is the most aired on television movie of all time (somewhere around 35-40 time a year) and I know that watching it every time I see it on won't change either. I will clear my schedule.

I’m not sure why. I just can’t figure it out. And I’m referring to myself and not the entire worlds fascination with celebrity and please don’t think I have a fascination with celebrity but I am human and I do hold a certain guilty curiosity when the new issue of US Weekly comes to a friends house (never mine…hell no I don’t subscribe). Although the Britney Spears and the Paris Hiltons that haunt the pages of those rags make me sick, make my cynical view on humanity and society grow with every flash washed photo snapped of them, I still, every month find myself scanning the pages looking at them strutting, sluttin’ and whatever else it is they do. Moving on to my point…
When Heath Ledger died a few months ago I found myself for a brief moment left with an empty feeling like something great was coming to an end and something on a large scale. Perhaps bigger then we all can imagine. I never met the man and I don’t know much about him other than I liked his “10 Things I Hate About You” picture (and a few others and I just can’t wait to see him as The Joker) and that I never had it in me to watch more than a few seconds (the worst few) of “Broke Back Mountain”. So why did I feel that empty feeling? Well this rant isn’t about Heath Ledger so I won’t go into it but it has something to do with the unmistakable connection we as humans have with each other no matter how fucked up things are in the state of affairs in the world. No matter how much I fear getting my head chopped off by the terrorists. No matter how much I hate the assholes that live next door to me for staying up all night screaming and yelling like white trash, junkies. Moving on to my point…
This isn’t about celebrities dying or insane fanatics writing eulogies and lighting candles outside these dead stars apartments and fasting out of spite to somehow get even with the higher powers above for taking their precious and only reason for living away from them.
No this is about something bigger than that. This is about something Jim Morrison sang about back in 69’ and there where a ton of things he sang about that weigh big today but for all intents and purposes for the here and now we’ll just hang on one thing.
When I found out a few weeks ago that Bodi…um…Dalton…shit…Patrick Swayze had Pancreatic Cancer I found myself with that same sinking, lonely feeling I got when I heard the news about Heath. Why? I don’t know him. So why do I care? Must be that unwavering human connection we all share right? Well yes but something else (besides compassion). He was Dalton. He was Bodi. He was good times I had when those movies he was in played for the first time in theaters and every time since on the television (and yes I had the disease too…the one that doesn’t let you change the channel to anything else when Roadhouse is on or Point Break for that matter…your kid could be uttering it’s first words and if Dalton was yanking that guys Adam’s apple from his throat you could care less…video tape it honey!!!!!).
These are long gone days. Days when things where fun still. Before things got so uptight. Dare I mention September 11th here? Because that’s where I was when the fun stopped and everyday since it’s just been getting bleaker. Beers just don’t seem as fun and innocent and I know it’s that I’m getting older but still I maintain an eternal young at heart momentum that keeps me young and virile but with a sharp eye on the future and I want it. I want the change. I embrace it but still why does the fun have to stop? Well maybe it doesn’t (for most it does…call it ingrained) but it’s hard to be the only guy on the boat wearing the party hat.
I can see those days…smoke filled bar, neon splashing on dirty walls. Heavy, live blues jamming from a small stage tucked in the corner. The smell is sour and pleasant and filled with all the things we love to hate. A beer bottle goes flying across the room and an all out, bar brawl breaks out. Chicks in bad mini-skirts and fuchsia tube tops slink around bearing their big boobs and some guy walks out of there with a broken leg, nose, rib (or two) and worst of all a badly busted ego which will fester into a nasty case of cold revenge leaving an innocent farmers house burning, a honest working, car dealers dealership pummeled by Bigfoot’s massive monster truck tires and some poor, old, long, grey haired bouncer with a knife stuck in his chest…shit…
It won’t but the point is there was a time where we could dream. When the good ol’ times evoked by a movie or a song fueled long nights hanging out, going out, drinking and not feeling the pressure of high and getting higher gas prices.
And then it gets worse. Last week Jeff Healy dies and another huge chunk of that good ol’ time falls off and disappears forever. For me it’s a hard hit. Again I didn’t know Jeff and really I’m not afraid of dying or the whole mortality thing so it wasn’t a reminder for me that we all die eventually…no it was more. It was sign of things to come. A reminder of just how bad it’s getting out there. Of just how UN-fun it’s becoming. Now I know I’m a dreamer but I keep my feet on the ground for the most part even though I prefer the view from up in the clouds but that doesn’t mean I can’t see this for what it is. I sound like a fanatic myself going on about Roadhouse…some really cheesy, 80’s, action flick and although that may be the case I’m not lighting any candles near Jeff Healy’s gravestone and I’m not praying for Patrick Swayze (only because I don’t pray but my heart goes out to him…that human connection thing again at play here). I just see these dark days ahead and want the old, sunny ones back. And Jeff Healy dying just pounds it harder in stone that they ain’t coming. Patrick Swayze not being immortal like the characters he plays in his movies seem to be, etch it deeper that no matter how hard you try you just can’t relive what’s been lived already and these hard times getting’ harder just beckon me to stop trying.
…the futures uncertain and the end is always near.
Yeah this is the case. Yes The Great Depression v.2 is on the horizon…yes this is true but…what good would it do to throw in the towel now? So I ask you…what would Dalton do? I know what he wouldn’t do. So despite the nastiness around the corner I feel obligated to continue the fight for the champions of fun.
…the futures uncertain and the end is always near.
In these dark days of woe when all the heroes are gone, when it’s all Indians and no chiefs, when a beer at the local dive just ain’t as fun as it was not too long ago and if it kills me trying I will be the only one (if I have to be) standing with a beer in my hand when the last rays of the sun beam down on this wonderful world. If I have to name my first born Dalton to keep the moral up then so be it.
…the futures uncertain and the end is always near.
Until then I will play Jeff Healy loud and proud. I’ll watch Roadhouse even when it’s on USA and cut to shit by the hacks at the censorship boards. And I will always remind the guy sitting next to me that, “were going to the roadhouse, gonna have a real good-time.”

JAWS IN REAL TIME

2009-09-12T10:02:00.000-04:00

BLACK METAL BARBIES

2009-09-05T18:09:00.002-04:00

Black Metal Barbies was photographed by Antonella Arismendi for D-Mode magazine, October ‘08.

2009-08-31T22:33:00.001-04:00

DOOMRIDERS - DARKNESS COMES ALIVE

2009-08-29T16:19:00.002-04:00

New album comes out September 29th. Thomas Hooper did the amazing artwork for the album.

DOOMRIDERS INFO

HOOPER'S ELECTRIC

JUSTIN BARTLETT - NEW SITE IS UP!!!

2009-08-28T18:30:00.003-04:00

VBERKVLT

2009-08-26T22:58:00.000-04:00

A Tiger Swallowtail

They’re Greeeaaaat!!! Not great just different, not prize in the box
but they follow a path, seemingly and what’s greeeaaaat! About it is
you can imagine that it’s pre-determined or just dream and upon doing
you can. When she was younger we would walk, so small (jumping)
in huge puddles, ever so little and the Black Willows would say “get
out of our way”, pushing us out of the way, into ditches on dirt roads.
Over by the brook, green Gabbro rivulets, the Spicebush fellas where
smoking and would ask us if we wanted one. I would say “no” often
never sometimes she would say “yes” and we would walk on.
Sassafras and Hornbeam, they were blue-blooded as could be and
could most definitely be found hanging around, on top, casting lines,
chummed up good or under, smoking or swilling or (they had been
ostracized from town and every hop house from here to Valley Over),
the Wayward South Docks. There, sloops-o-war, schooners and ketch,
a corvette, dotted all about but we never went, only hear about it
(made plans to one day, together maybe pack a picnic, hold hands she
said). Back in the Bend beyond the briar, after school she would graze
my hand with hers and Joe-pye, who had the measels, would point and
sing songs about me sitting in trees, K-I-S-S-I-N-G (ing) and other
such things. Father Clover stopped us on occasion and would fancy
our imaginations with our, one-day-stories-of-woo, young love. That
was spring and now in autumn fire, she in Mexico walks down to the
shore and puddling with the others she drinks from there and me, she
forgot. There she wears all black usually but sometimes with little
polka-dots maybe paisley and often twall. She mimics someone she
doesn’t know, who dresses in all black and on one occasion I went to
visit her in Pipevine but only admired her from across the street in a
tavern dimly lit. Summer got to be burdensome and muggy, the town
wasn’t the same without her. And neither was I. Poplar Jacobs died
that year (Lung Cancer, smoked a whole bunch) and Old “Ironweed”
Smith came down with some Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever thing.
Susan, from the church she was walking home one lazy night and
caught the brunt of a bourbon scourge, the back end of Hornbeam’s ax
handle. She has black eyes now. May be permanent but what is in
this town. Not her and she was Greeeaaaat!!! Come back. Come
spring she might come back but not in black though in yellow and in
paisley, plaid, seersucker, dots, all of it vibrant, alive like spring ought
to be. For now I will wait by the brook, not smoke tobacco but skip
stones.

July06

GHOST FISHING

2009-08-23T16:31:00.002-04:00

Reuters - Tuesday May 5, 2009 - by Alister Doyle

Lost or abandoned nets in the oceans can keep on "ghost fishing" for years in a growing threat to marine stocks, a U.N. report said Wednesday.

About 640,000 tonnes of discarded fishing gear gets added to the oceans yearly, or 10 percent of the world total of marine debris, according to the study by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and U.N. Environment Program (UNEP).

Fishing gear "will continue to accumulate and the impacts on marine ecosystems will continue to get worse if the international community doesn't take effective steps to deal with the problem of marine debris as a whole," Ichiro Nomura, an FAO assistant director-general, said in a statement.

The study recommended measures such as cash incentives for fishing fleets to bring broken nets to port, better mapping of subsea hazards to avoid losses or new designs such as nets that dissolve if left in the water too long.

Nets sometimes snap in storms, get snagged on coral reefs or can get entangled in other fishing gear.

They can then start what the report termed "ghost fishing" -- pointlessly ensnaring fish or creatures such as turtles, seabirds or whales for years or even decades.

The report did not estimate overall damage to the oceans or economic losses to fishing fleets from gear littering seabeds from the South China Sea to the Mediterranean.

"It's very difficult to estimate the impact," said David Osborn, coordinator of UNEP's Global Program of Action on land-based sources of marine pollution.

"But we know that it's affecting fish take and it also represents a problem in terms of navigational hazards, like by fouling propellers," he told Reuters.

A 1992 ban on drift nets helped curb some problems, the study said. But gill nets, anchored to the seabed, can form a vertical wall between 600 metres and 10,000 metres (2,000 and 33,000 ft) long and can start ghost fishing if they break loose.

In Chesapeake Bay in the United States, an estimated 150,000 crab traps are lost every year of an estimated 500,000 deployed.

UNEP chief Achim Steiner said discarded gear was one of many threats to the seas along with over-fishing or acidification from greenhouse gases. He said all were damaging "ghosts in the marine environment machine."

Among recommendations, the report said fishing crews could be paid to report losses of nets or bring damaged gear to port. Marking nets could help identify offenders and track reasons for accidents.

New technologies can help. In some countries pots and traps have a biodegradable top that dissolves if it is in the water too long. Some nets for catching fish are designed to let turtles swim out.

DEAD WEATHER - TREAT ME LIKE YOUR MOTHER

2009-08-18T17:44:00.001-04:00

CRICKETS ARE GETTING COLD

2009-08-18T08:24:00.003-04:00

It wasn't a few days ago I was sitting out in my backyard, the sun had long gone down and a funny thing was happening. It was completely silent. I couldn't help but think of that movie "Arachnophobia". Did a horde of deadly spiders make it into my town from some Venezuela jungle and wipe out every living thing? Was I next? Well I rushed to the phone and dialed the University Entomology department and asked for the head guy in charge...he was on expedition...none of this is true except the part where i was listening to a dead silence in my backyard at night a few days ago. It was strange. Usually the metallic chattering of the summer canopy had started in full chorus. I wondered. Two nights ago i noticed...BOOM!! The orchestra had begun and summer had finally dug in.

Dolbear's Law states the relationship between the air temperature and the rate at which Snowy Tree Crickets, Oecanthus fultoni, chirp. It was formulated by Amos Dolbear and published in 1897 in an article called "The Cricke tas a Thermometer". Dolbear expressed the relationship in his formula which provides a way to estimate the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit from the number of chirps per minute.

Subsequently the following article just appeared in The New York Times":

It is very likely that the silence was related to cool summer nights, said Gary W. Felton, a professor of entomology and the head of the department at Pennsylvania State University. The situation has probably changed with recent warmer weather, he said.

“I don’t know what the temperatures have been like in the Philadelphia area, but in State College it has been a very cool summer, abnormally so,” Dr. Felton said. “Two weeks ago, I commented that we usually have a lot of tree frogs at night, but I had heard nothing. But now they are doing quite well. I suspect that is also temperature-related.”

In frogs and crickets, Dr. Felton said, the development period depends on temperature. “And there has been nothing sprayed on a wide basis that I know of,” he said, “so the most likely explanation is simply a cool summer.”

Cricket metabolism and chirping speed vary with ambient temperature, and the speed also varies by species. The snowy tree cricket is so dependable that a formula called Dolbear’s Law (after the physicist A. E. Dolbear, who reported his studies in 1897) provides a temperature gauge: count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and add 40 for the temperature in Fahrenheit.

SQUEAKY GETS OUT

2009-08-15T12:19:00.002-04:00

2009-08-13T21:46:00.000-04:00

FLOW

2009-08-13T08:53:00.001-04:00

OFFICIAL SITE

DUKE RILEY...Those About to Die Salute You

2009-08-11T21:50:00.005-04:00

This guy is amazing.

HIS SITE

READ ARTICLE ABOUT HIS LATEST PROJECT HAPPENING Thursday, August 13, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm, 2009

Duke Riley has always been interested in the space where water meets land within the urban landscape and is known for art work that is an idiosyncratic mix of performance art, sailor’s craft and historical re-enactment. Upon QMA’s invitation for an artist residency, Riley’s life-long fascination with the culture and topography of waterfronts, and proclivity for margins - of society, history, etc. - were immediately focused on the decommissioned World’s Fair Ice Rink adjacent to the museum. The sight of the vast oval arena, a sea of refrigeration tubing and white sand, brought an instant association with ancient Roman coliseums that were flooded to stage violent naval battles or Naumachia for the delight of spectators in the Empire’s effort to distract the masses from societal collapse by indulging them with free bread and extravagant spectacle.

TOOL SHRINE

2009-08-11T20:42:00.000-04:00

JOIN NOW

SAVE OUR OCEANS

2009-08-08T12:58:00.004-04:00

Nine shark bite victims pose in front of the US Capitol Wednesday. The group joined advocates in pushing for the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (S. 850/H.R. 81), which would strengthen the ban on shark finning in US waters and encourage shark conservation programs around the world. READ ARTICLE

Also sign these petitions to join the fight for our beloved oceans.

Petition to Palau: Stop Senate Bill 8-44 that opens up shark fishing

Petition to the Maldives for banning shark fishing

Petition: Remove shark nets in South Africa

MOMENT OF SILENCE...NOW!!!!!

2009-08-06T19:08:00.002-04:00

.a small piece of me is gone now.

NATURE DEFICIT DISORDER

2009-08-03T23:07:00.002-04:00

This is an interesting point made in an interesting article.

How to Lick a Slug

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: August 1, 2009

MOUNT HOOD, Ore.

While backpacking here with my 11-year-old daughter, I kept thinking of something tragic: so few kids these days know what happens when you lick a big yellow banana slug.

My daughter and I were recuperating in a (banana slug-infested) wilderness from a surfeit of civilization. On our second day on the Pacific Crest Trail, we were exhausted after nearly 20 miles of hiking, our feet ached, and ravenous mosquitoes were persecuting us. Dusk was falling, but no formal campsite was within miles.

So we set out a groundsheet and our sleeping bags on the soft grass of a ridge, so that the winds would blow the mosquitoes away. Our dog looked aghast (“Ugh, where’s my bed?!”), but sulkily curled up beside us. As far as we could tell, there was no other hiker within a half-day’s journey in any direction.

We debated whether to put up our light tarp to protect us from rain. “No need,” I advised my daughter patronizingly. “There’s zero chance it’ll rain. And it’ll be more fun to be able to look up at shooting stars.”

It was, until we awoke at 4 a.m. to a freezing drizzle.

The rain not only punctured the doctrine of Paternal Infallibility but also offered one of nature’s dazzlingly important lessons in perspective, reminding us that we’re just tenants — and ones without much sway.

Such time in the wilderness is part of our family’s summer ritual, a time to hit the “reset” switch and escape deadlines and BlackBerrys. We spend the time fretting instead about blisters, river crossings and rain, and the experiences offer us lessons on inner peace and life’s meaning — cheap and effective therapy, without the couch.

All this comes to mind because for most of us in the industrialized world, nature is a rarer and rarer part of our lives. Children for 1,000 generations grew up exploring fields, itching with poison oak and discovering the hard way what a wasp nest looks like. That’s no longer true.

Paul, a fourth grader in San Diego, put it this way: “I like to play indoors better, ’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.” Paul was quoted in a thoughtful book by Richard Louv, “Last Child in the Woods,” that argued that baby boomers “may constitute the last generation of Americans to share an intimate, familial attachment to the land and water.”

Only 2 percent of American households now live on farms, compared with 40 percent in 1900. Suburban childhood that once meant catching snakes in fields now means sanitized video play dates scheduled a week in advance. One study of three generations of 9-year-olds found that by 1990 the radius from the house in which they were allowed to roam freely was only one-ninth as great as it had been in 1970.

A British study found that children could more easily identify Japanese cartoon characters like Pikachu, Metapod and Wigglytuff than they could native animals and plants, like otter, oak and beetle.

Mr. Louv calls this “nature deficit disorder,” and he links it to increases in depression, obesity and attention deficit disorder. I don’t know about all that, although his book does cite a study indicating that watching fish lowers blood pressure significantly. (That’s how to cut health costs: hand out goldfish instead of heart medicine!)

One problem may be that the American environmental movement has focused so much on preserving nature that it has neglected to do enough to preserve a constituency for nature. It’s important not only to save forests, but also to promote camping, hiking, bouldering and white-water rafting so that people care about saving those forests.

One sign of trouble: the number of visits to America’s national parks has been slipping for more than a decade. Likewise, Europe and Canada have both done an excellent job of building networks of long-distance hiking trails, while the U.S. has trouble maintaining the trails it has.

One of our family’s annual backpacks is the 40-mile Timberline Trail circuit around Mount Hood, crossing snowfields and dazzling alpine fields of flowers. In years when we’re particularly addled, we hike it as many as three times. But a washout almost three years ago left part of this gorgeous trail — completed in the 1930s — officially closed, and unofficially rather difficult to get by. Here’s a spectacular trail that was built in the last depression, and we can’t even sustain it.

So let’s protect nature, yes, but let’s also maintain trails, restore the Forest Service and support programs that get young people rained on in the woods. Let’s acknowledge that getting kids awed by nature is as important as getting them reading.
Oh, and the slug? Time was, most kids knew that if you licked the underside of a banana slug, your tongue went numb. Better that than have them numb their senses staying cooped up inside.

SKOT OLSEN

2009-08-03T22:07:00.001-04:00

SEA HAG

2009-08-01T09:09:00.002-04:00

The more I think about it the more I realize I've been obsessed with this wench of the fathoms for a long time...I guess ever since I was introduced to the concept from watching old Popeye cartoons. Over the years she has resurfaced here and there (check out Burning Witch track from Towers record) and like most things involving the ocean to me I have embraced it like one would embrace the last floating piece of wreckage in a shipwreck...you hold it really close but still an uneasy feeling looms on the surface. And like the ocean she is mysterious. Stuff of legend.

Read More about The Sea Hag

2009-07-31T20:27:00.000-04:00

GRACIOUS WILLIAM

2009-07-29T18:11:00.005-04:00

This post is a bit late but better that than never!!!! I've been a huuuge fan of William Elliott Whitmore for a few years now. Understand I love music...can't go a day without discovering someone new...call it addiction if you will but I love music and all kinds of it. My absolute favorites are typically on opposite ends of the musical spectrum (Sisters of Mercy-Tool)...I mean the ones that really, really get in and stay there. The ones that you take everywhere and forever. It ebbs and flows and your tastes come and go and you sometimes rediscovery a band you loved a million years ago and love them all over again...that's the nature of the whole damn thing. This is one guy that has never gone with the tides for me. It's my nature to take this sound with me. It's my nature to take his words to heart.

Finally got to see him live in NYC on July 14th at City Wine. Humble and Gracious is an understatement. Funny and friendly. One hell of a rebel and musician. Fucking loved every note, every word.

CHECK OUT HIS WEBSITE

WILLIAM ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU

2009-07-23T21:57:00.001-04:00

Dante and Virgil in Hell circa 1850...click for larger view please

HOPE SANDROW - SHINNECOCK

2009-07-16T09:03:00.006-04:00

A friend of mine sent me this link to The New York Times piece on Hope Sandrow. She is an artist and photographer that lives in Shinnecock HIlls, NY. Her pics are really amazing and her vision unique. Her SITE is a little cryptic but it is still interesting...take the time an browse.

Watch this slide show (link below) from The New York Times. She says something cool about raising her chicken which are all sorts of strange breeds. The part I loved was that she plants flowers and grasses that look like these chickens to fool the hawks on the prowl up above.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/15/garden/20090716-chickens-slideshow/index.html

Discovery in Re-discovery

2009-07-15T22:38:00.002-04:00

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't naive. God I can't tell you how many woman I've given the benefit of the doubt!!! People never surprise me but they do...did you ever get that? This is being human and with all my cynical ways I still try to keep the faith in mankind. I guess if I didn't, at the very least, try I would've done myself in a long time ago. I sometimes let this said cynicism get the best of me and what I refer too in this very instance is music. I'm usually ahead of the game with music. I'm always on the prowl an din some cases i'll catch an artist before their fame but so help them if they become a scene. This triggers a mechanism inside me that automatically drops them. It's a strange thing really. Forget mainstream music that starts mainstream. They have no chance here. And this is what I'm talking about...sometimes I would just like to punch myself. I'm going to admit something that I am ashamed to. "Angel Dust" has always been and will remain one of my favorite albums of all time and with Faith No More on tour again (fucking elated!!!!) this has revived a certain tingly, spot in somewhere down in my cockles, but what I am ashamed of is when they peaked and leveled and continued to put out albums, and this being after "Angel Dust" I lost interest. Yesterday I bought a used "King For A Day..." CD...Need I say more? I'm an idiot. Although some of the tracks aren't the best, some are just unbelievable and I'm just discovering this now. I bow my head in shame for today in hopes that tomorrow I won't abandon just when the going gets good.

HOBO HIEROGLYPHS

2009-07-09T19:57:00.002-04:00

SUMMER EXCURSIONS

2009-07-07T18:11:00.003-04:00

SUMMER PLAYLIST - THE BLACK KEYS

2009-07-06T23:09:00.001-04:00

LOGOS FROM HELL - MARK RIDDICK

2009-07-06T20:52:00.001-04:00

This is pretty cool book from Mark Riddick showcasing the history of death and black metal logos.

Spring Fade Summer Smash

2009-07-01T20:44:00.005-04:00

What have I become? Where have I ended up in this...place? Am I feeling poetic or is this a scramble to hold onto what little left I feel I have. Has all of this become a fading memory that will take it's seat next to the few I have, that when I dredge up sets me free but in the same breath makes me sad to be in the here and now (because the here and now seems so pointless now doesn't it?). I have forgotten my way and wondered along a path...I do not write anymore. I do not discover. I do not walk and wander. I have no adventure. I am a solitary tinkerer chipping away at the fabric of a system. I am a builder constructing a new foundation and have forced myself to lay these bricks, one by one, so that one day, whatever it is I am creating can reach into the sky. I shall return...bolder, brighter, richer, refreshed. At my side new weapons to take on what it is I have, long ago, set forth to discover and discover it I will.

This other eye blind.

SUMMER PLAYLIST - MAD SEASON

2009-06-30T22:51:00.004-04:00

OK FOURS

2009-06-28T20:39:00.001-04:00

DEATH COMES IN THREES

2009-06-25T21:27:00.004-04:00

2009-06-24T20:24:00.006-04:00

Just go here...TITTAYCITAY...pure, gratuitous, mind-spanking fun.

80's FIX - BACK TO SCHOOL

2009-06-21T22:01:00.002-04:00

55 seconds is pure fucking comedy.

Jude Cole...great song, nice little hommage. and Derek Lutz is my hero!!!

THRILL ME!!!

2009-06-20T12:46:00.003-04:00

This is an amazing poster done by Alamo Draft House for a recent screening of "NIght of the Creep", one of the greatest 80's zombie flicks if not one of the greatest horror films ever!!! There was a reunion for the DVD release, coming in October. Fred Dekker was interviewed and said there where talks of a sequel...I just went from six to midnight.

Poster is available HERE

SNEAK PEAK AT JUSTIN BARTLETT DESIGNS

2009-06-18T18:30:00.002-04:00

JUSTIN BARTLETT INTERVIEW ON CRUSTCAKE

2009-06-18T18:12:00.003-04:00

Justin is almost completed with his designs for the fall collection. He was nice enough to mention Barnaby Black in THIS interview.

check out his site...www.vberkvlt.com

SAVE OUR OCEANS

2009-06-16T08:48:00.003-04:00

WATCH THIS AND DO SOMETHING!

Official Movie Website for "The Cove"

TAKE PART AND HELP CHANGE OCCUR

SUMMER PLAYLIST - TOM WAITS

2009-06-15T23:10:00.000-04:00

EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE

2009-06-05T22:39:00.001-04:00

I GOT MY FIST I GOT MY PLAN I GOT SURVIVALISM...

2009-06-04T19:25:00.002-04:00

SUMMER PLAYLIST - HASIL ATKINS

2009-06-03T21:23:00.001-04:00

WEEKEND EXCURSIONS

2009-06-01T20:40:00.001-04:00

WEEKEND EXCURSIONS...let's not forget

2009-06-01T20:34:00.005-04:00

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

2009-05-28T21:02:00.002-04:00

I saw this in the theater and it still remains one of my favorites...

Can you believe George Romero supposedly puked from the uncut scene where the kids head popped like a bloody zit?!!!!

VARG VIKERNES GETS OUT.

2009-05-28T16:57:00.004-04:00

This story has been haunting my brains since I heard it a few years back from a friend of mine, who is a Norwegian black metal follower. It's disturbing in all rites and all sense of the word but still it has been fodder for my stories. I have been writing a screenplay inspired by these events and in many ways this horror translates itself into many of my stories. I mean I watch "Marilyn Manson" in interviews and although the guy is very intelligient, you have to realize he's a showman. I even read somewhere that "Cannibal Corpse" is all about the "show". Regardless...

Not but a few posts ago I had written a quickie about the black metal band "Mayhem" and it being the quintessential (no acting here... like let's say a Marilyn Manson type character might be), fucked up, satan following, dark mongering musical collection. Just to recap...one of the original singers, Dead, killed himself and one his fellow band mates, Euronymous, took pics which later became the cover of a bootleg of theirs. Euronymous supposedly ate part Dead's brains and then collected parts of him to make bone jewelry out of. Who knows? Anywho...in August 93' Varg Vikernes of "Burzum" joined as bass guitar. Upon the release of their album "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", Euronymous and Vikernes had conspired to blow up Nidaros Cathedral, a church in Norway, which appeared on the album cover. Instead Vikernes stabbed Euronymous 23 times. He was susequently arrested for that and the arson of various churches. After all this only one member of "Mayhem" existed so naturally the band died as well.

After all these years Varg is released from prison.

THE DOOMED GENERATION...LISTEN NOW!!!!!

2009-05-26T19:15:00.008-04:00

TED is one of my favorite sites. If you have time to expand your mind go here and watch some of these lectures....everything from politics to the environment. Super interesting!!!!

James H Kunstler dissects suburbia. This particular lecture brings up interesting points about the direction of our society...that if we don't start thinking "sense of community" we are doomed. Not to mention he's pretty funny.

Check out James H Kunstler's info HERE

WHY ALL THE GOOD ONES?

2009-05-18T22:31:00.008-04:00

I just realized (better late than never) it was today in 1980 that Ian Curtis took his own life...

WITHNAIL & I

2009-05-17T19:26:00.001-04:00

Possibly the greatest film of all time....

SWINE FLU AT THE MELVIN'S SHOW

2009-05-16T17:35:00.003-04:00

It's not very typical of me getting ill but yesterday morning I awoke with a sour mind, racing with images of sex and horror!!!! I'll explain that at some other date but beyond that I felt downright flu-ish. This on the night The Melvin's were playing their 25th anniversary tour at Webster Hall in NY. Not only that but they were playing one of my favorite albums of all time (not being facetious or dramatic here), Houdini in it's entirety. My skin hurt, my stomach churned, the mear smell of food hit my gag reflex like a prize fighter hits the heavy bag and overall I wanted to die. I'm a trooper though. I went to work and sucked it up. I napped for an hour, awoke again for the second time that day, sucked it up, took the train in, met with a graphic designer who is doing work for me, sucked it up, met some friends for drinks on some mid-town, rooftop bar, and made way to the show. The whole time sucking it up. The smells of the city wafted in from every direction, good and bad, everything from rotting, garbage pail water to Subway (which by the way, garbage water is better)...roasting peanuts and burning gyro meat floated into my head, swirling it into a frenzy, turning my stomach with every sniff. Anyway...The Melvins came on and an amazing show started. They were powerful and clean...as clean as sludgy, murky metal can be and I was in a happier place. It wasn't until "Night Goat" came on, my favorite song an that album, that I started vomiting. Try to imagine "Poltergiest 2" when Craig T. Nelson barfed up that mutant, tequila worm. It was like that but only in the disgusting, piss soaked, bathroom, on the bottom floor of Webster Hall. After that I felt like ten thousand bucks at least. I can say this...I'm glad I managed through...it was well worth the price of admission. The Melvin's will always be one of my favorites.

SUMMER PLAYLIST - WILLIAM ELLIOTT WHITMORE

2009-05-14T23:19:00.000-04:00

GREEN OR DIE

2009-05-09T11:13:00.004-04:00

I am very excited to see the upcoming designs Justin Bartlett is doing for the Barnaby Black Fall Collection. For those of you who aren't aware of his work check out his site...HERE

This is his latest design you can get at SHIRTSANDDESTROY

SUMMER PLAYLIST - T-MODEL FORD

2009-05-06T23:12:00.001-04:00

REMAKE OBLIVION

2009-04-23T23:36:00.003-04:00

Listen I understand I'm only really doing this to please myself but with a little luck maybe some of you out there in idiot land will read this shit and get the fucking point. One of just a million I try to make here. So listen up. Do we really need a another remake. Where is the originality? The fucking vision? Oh it's sucked from you every time you turn on VH1!!!!! It drained from you when things like The Kindle become your new obsession in gadgetry (more to come on this travesty). Ok "Dawn of the Dead" wasn't so bad I admit but it doesn't compare and let us just pass over completely "Day of the Dead". Someone will get a slap for that one...Mena Suvari. Ving Rhames. Oh god, "Creepshow" and I don't even really know if there's a remake or another sequel or a remake of the remake going on there but h ell none of them needed to be made. I get it...you wnt to pay hommage to the greats who set the standards...or is it you want to oil the cogs in the money maker?!!!! Either way...why don't you come up with your own idea. Anyway...if you have to remake a horror movie (because you know the genre is dead) why not pick from th eplethora of interesting concepts that get overlooked. Tell me what's interesting about a guy in a hockey mask cutting up horny teens? There's not much there as far as story goes. How bout' this...An over-the-top gore hound, grindhouse, director shooting is his new film is tormented by his own horrific imagination. He can't escape the visions of sex and violence that consume his every thought. Or this...a mad scientist transplants a gorilla's heart into his dying son, saving his life but transforming him into a monstrous, ape-like creature who embarks on a rape and murder spree before being brought to justice by a female wrestler. Sound fucking stupid? Well here this...guy in hockey mask murders teens at summer camp.

THAI FULCI MOVIE POSTERS

2009-04-21T00:11:00.001-04:00

THE OLD BLUE POINTS CO.

2009-04-20T08:35:00.007-04:00

PURE FUCKING ARMAGEDDON

2009-04-14T16:21:00.000-04:00

This is old news but worthy of posting I think. This is life imitating art. As you may know Mayhem is a Norwegian Black Metal band formed in the 80's who pioneered that whole metal scene but what makes them the stand out amongst the crowd is the controversy surrounding their evolution. I won't get into details here but I will link to Wikipedia...lets just say suicide, alleged cannibalism, skull fragment necklaces, church arson and murder make for juicy metal. The image above is a photo taken by Mayhem's founder and guitarist/vocalist Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous) of vocalist Dead (aka Per Yngve Ohlin) after he killed himself. It was later stolen and used for a bootleg album.

Read more on MAYHEM

ONE MORE VICE...

2009-04-13T22:10:00.000-04:00

You know at first I thought blogging was just another stage in the de-evolution of human interaction and communication and in certain cases it is (please don't get me started on twitter) but I find myself digging deep in the plethora of information some intelligent bloggers put up. This is my favorite by far.

www.monsterbrains.com

WALTON FORD

2009-04-13T19:48:00.001-04:00

The Black Plague

Help establish a new shark sanctuary in Raja Ampat, Indonesia

HOPI BOTANICALS

DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE MESSAGE

WE ARE JUST PASSENGERS

WHISPERS OF ANCIENT MARINER

EARTHRACE GETS A FACELIFT

BARNABY BLACK METUL I - AVAILABLE ONLINE

11.10.09

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

ONE MORE DAY TILL' HALLOWEEN.

FINALLY!!!! THRILL ME!!!!!

HALLOWEEN PLAYLIST

READ MORE...

THERE COMING TO GET YOU BARBARA!!!

HALLOWEEN LISTENING

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ZOMBIE

BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMB....

ART INSPIRED BY STEPHEN KING

HELP THE VAMPIRES

READ MORE...

JOSH KIRBY

THE HALLOWEEN TREE

WELCOME MY FRIEND...AUTUMN

SUNN O))) AT BROOKLYN MASONIC TEMPLE

LORDS OF CHAOS: THE MOVIE

PATAGONIA

HEAVENLY PUSS

ROADHOUSE BLUES

JAWS IN REAL TIME

READ MORE...By the pricking of my thumbs...

BLACK METAL BARBIES

DOOMRIDERS - DARKNESS COMES ALIVE

JUSTIN BARTLETT - NEW SITE IS UP!!!

GHOST FISHING

DEAD WEATHER - TREAT ME LIKE YOUR MOTHER

CRICKETS ARE GETTING COLD

SQUEAKY GETS OUT

FLOW

DUKE RILEY...Those About to Die Salute You

TOOL SHRINE

SAVE OUR OCEANS

MOMENT OF SILENCE...NOW!!!!!

READ MORE...RAY BRADBURY

NATURE DEFICIT DISORDER

SKOT OLSEN

READ MORE...

SEA HAG

GRACIOUS WILLIAM

WILLIAM ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU

HOPE SANDROW - SHINNECOCK

Discovery in Re-discovery

HOBO HIEROGLYPHS

SUMMER EXCURSIONS

SUMMER PLAYLIST - THE BLACK KEYS

LOGOS FROM HELL - MARK RIDDICK

Spring Fade Summer Smash

SUMMER PLAYLIST - MAD SEASON

OK FOURS

DEATH COMES IN THREES

80's FIX - BACK TO SCHOOL

THRILL ME!!!

SNEAK PEAK AT JUSTIN BARTLETT DESIGNS

JUSTIN BARTLETT INTERVIEW ON CRUSTCAKE

SAVE OUR OCEANS

SUMMER PLAYLIST - TOM WAITS

READ MORE...

EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE

I GOT MY FIST I GOT MY PLAN I GOT SURVIVALISM...

SUMMER PLAYLIST - HASIL ATKINS

WEEKEND EXCURSIONS

WEEKEND EXCURSIONS...let's not forget

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

VARG VIKERNES GETS OUT.

READ MORE...

THE DOOMED GENERATION...LISTEN NOW!!!!!

WHY ALL THE GOOD ONES?

WITHNAIL & I

SWINE FLU AT THE MELVIN'S SHOW

SUMMER PLAYLIST - WILLIAM ELLIOTT WHITMORE