Announcement
- I am quite addicted to martial arts movies, which is odd when you consider that I hate violence. But when I declaim my love for these films my offline friends start back in horror and make warding motions with their hands. I am quite, quite alone in my obsession. My goal in joining Alive not Dead is to skulk around the forums and read other people’s pages and pick up some information on my favourite genre of films.
My blog
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Books I have read recently...
Tuesday, Sep 8, 2009 11:21AM / Standard Entry
Witches Incorporated by KE Mills. Promoted as a “rip-roaring Harry Potter for grown ups” (Herald Sun) on its cover this book is a fantasy set in a world (representing Victorian era Britain) where the use of magic is commonplace and where most of its major characters are witches, wizards and their supporters. The book is reasonably entertaining with a good plot but I actually prefer the Harry Potter novels. One thing I didn’t like was that the 4 main characters constantly squabbled. I think it was meant to be witty and flirtatious banter, but I found their dialogue to be tedious and thought that the book lost momentum when they interacted too much.
Children of the Night: The 6 Archetypal Characters of Classic Horror Films by Randy Loren Rasmussen I can recommend this book for avid fans of black and white horror films. I have seen only a few. My television arial does not work so I rely on DVDs for my viewing entertainment. The DVD collection of Northcote Library has been an absoluter boon as it has quite an interesting collection of DVDs that covers not just movies, but documentaries and television series as well. In the interests of filling the long, cold, dark, lonely nights at home (cue violins) I frequently load up with DVDs, including some I would not ordinarily watch (just to fill in the hours). I don’t mind this at all as I think it is probably a mind broadening exercise that will shore up my knowledge in pop culture and challenge preconceptions I have of certain films and programs. Because of this I have watched a few black and white horror films. I hate modern horror films. I am an abject coward – it takes very little to frighten me and, unlike horror fans, I don’t like being scared. I also hate brutality and the explicit tortures that are lovingly filmed in detail in modern horror films leave me sleepless for days on end. But the old horror films, while still not among my favourite films, are far less scary and rely on creating psychological thrills (rather than close ups of minced flesh) for effect. This book has a very good premise for examining these films. The author makes a strong case for there being 6 archetypes – heroines, heroes, wise elders, servants, mad geniuses and monsters. The basic structure of the book is that there is a chapter devoted to each character type, and a brief paragraph devoted to a specific character in a specific film. The upside of this is that Rasmussen is able to undertake a very comprehensive survey of characters, the downside is that it all starts to get a bit sameish. I struggled to sustain my interest towards the end of the book, but die hard fans of the genre may find it more interesting.
Also:
Ulysses by James Joyce
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Eat the Rich by PJ O’Rourke
The Illustrated Virago Book of Women Travellers edited by Mary Morris with Larry O’Connor
Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon.
Why did it have to be snakes by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg
Death Sentence – the decay of public language by Don Watson
Miss Marple Omnibus by Agatha Christie
The Mating Season by PG Wodehouse
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett
To the Ends of the Earth by Paul Theroux
Discovering King Island by Jean Edgecombe
The Prester Quest by Nicholas Jubber
Mr Wong Goes West by Nury Vittachi
City of Shadows – Sydney Police Photographs 1912 – 1948 edited by Peter Doyle
Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchett
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exorcising your spirits while exercising your lungs
Monday, Sep 7, 2009 1:14PM / Standard Entry
This is another old blog from my 360 archive. It was written in response to a Halloween themed tour that was facilitated by a blogger called Rural Diva. On 360 we would have regular tours where one blogger would suggest a theme and whoever wanted to would respond by writing a blog in response to that theme. We would all post these blogs on an appointed day. The host would list these bloggers on his or her blog and we would read and comment on each other’s blogs. I remember that this particular blog elicited a couple of truly terrifying stories (remember yours, Jacqui BB?). Anyhow, below is the blog I wrote. Sceptics should look away now.
I do not have an actual story to tell about ghosts. In that I mean that my encounters with the supernatural have been a matter of a brief encounter here and there rather than a full blown and self contained sequence of events. The word ‘story’ suggests to me a narrative along the lines of ‘I was here, I saw this, so my friend suggested we do that, and then THIS happened, and I hid there, and we waved that, and we all said “Ah Ha!” and then we went home.’ My encounters have been a matter of a glimpse, a scream, thinking “I don’t believe I saw that”, and then leaving the lights on for the rest of the night.
Such encounters include once hearing the ghost of my family’s cat Blackjack shortly after he died – hearing his little feet pad softly across the floor just a couple of feet in front of me and hearing him meow (even though there was nothing to see). Another time I was staying at a lovely bed and breakfast in Edinburgh. One day I saw the figure of an elderly man dressed in modern grey jacket and pants standing at the foot of my bed with his head bowed. I shrieked and he faded into nothingness. Yet another time in my life, over a period of several weeks, I would suddenly smell a woman’s perfume around me. The smell would arise in odd circumstances where it could not otherwise be explained, and then just as suddenly disappear.
There is a ghost attached to the theatre run by the organisation I used to work for. I saw him a few times. He is a young Caucasian man, tall with light brown hair cut short and wearing a dark brown top. I saw him backstage and also sitting in the seats out the front – I get the impression that he liked watching us rehearse. And I have corroboration on this one – a set designer for one of our productions a few years ago saw him as well. There is one part of backstage – our loft costumes are stored – that had a definite atmosphere. Our director in residence said that she didn’t like being alone there and neither did I. Yet I didn’t get any malicious vibes from this boy – he just quietly sat and observed.
About 10 years ago I lived in a bed-sitter in North Melbourne. My mother came to visit me and slept over one night. We both heard foot steps walk across the floor several times during the night. Quite often when people think they hear ghosts walking in a house they are actually just hearing wooden floor boards expanding or contracting due to a change in temperature as night falls. This was not the case here – the floor was carpet on concrete.
During the encounters I have so far described my behaviour has been consistent. To my shame I have to admit that it is nothing to be proud of. I am a wimp. A coward. A scaredy cat extraordinaire. A glimpse of anything eerie elicits great yells of alarm, vigorous and colourful blaspheming and inventive streams of profanity. And after I calm down and, eventually, stop trembling I feel like such a booby. You see, none of the aforementioned ghosts did anything threatening. None of them evoked an atmosphere that was menacing or sinister or evil. The worst I can say of them was that their appearances were unexpected. Furthermore, if I got any impression from them at all, it was that of sadness. There was something forlorn about their appearances. And, in retrospect, I feel like such a churl. Imagine being a ghost. Imagine being stuck in the same old place all the time, maybe feeling confused or traumatised about your new disembodied state. Imagine girding your non existent loins, grinding your spectral teeth and finally managing to manifest in front of some helpful looking person… only to have them shriek and swear at you.
A few weeks ago I was in a bar on Lygon Street and I went to the toilet. Here I encountered the shade of a young girl who had died there. I was astonished (as I always am) but fortunately a little more mindful. I suggested to this girl that there were better places for her to be, and that she didn’t have to spend eternity in a toilet. So maybe I am improving.
But not all of my brief encounters have involved entities that deserved or invited sympathy. I awoke one evening to find 3 tall figures, 2 men and a woman, clad in dark cloaks gathering around my bed. They had sallow faces, dark hair, and the expression in their black eyes was intent and cruel. I instinctively sat bolt upright and screamed “Who the hell are you?” at each one in turn. And as I did this each one in turn disappeared. Another time I was walking around my bedroom when an entity that was shaped like a black cloud exploded into the room. I spun around and just instinctively roared “NO!” and that entity then disappeared too.
But you should have heard me the night I found the nasty boy in my bed. I had hopped into bed, turned off the bedside lamp, pulled my nice warm doona up to my chin and, prior to shutting my eyes and going to sleep, turned on my side to find my face inches away from that of a young man. He lay with the side of his face on my pillow. He had wavy brown hair, a pointed chin but round cheeks. He laughed into my face and the impression I got was one of enormous malice. What I yelled during the next few seconds is literally unprintable. His expression froze and then he, too disappeared. Fortunately I never saw him again. Maybe my choice vocabulary scared him off.
I have read that harmful ghosts or demonic entities should be dealt with by saying a prayer or evoking the name of your chosen guardian spirits, angels or Gods. Does “Jesus F*&%#ing H Christ” shrieked at the top of one’s lungs count as prayer or invocation? If it does then I am safe for life. I have also heard that any work against the occult forces should be performed with a clear intent and a strong focus of magical will. Is roaring “F*&%# OFF!!!” at glass shattering intensity sufficient to achieve this, do you think? I certainly hope so, because it seems to be my knee jerk reaction to any visits from the other plane. The funny (but true) thing is that they do seem to have done the trick… Perhaps as a relatively harmless human being, albeit with a terribly offensive vocabulary, I have more grace than the most determined demon. That is a comforting thought.
I will sign off here. I haven’t told you the story about the black demon snakes in my laundry basket or about the time I was visited by the angel. These are true stories but sound a bit way out in the telling, and I am too shy to expose them to the gaze of the sceptics in blogland.
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I Please your uterus. You kiss my toes. It's fair
Friday, Sep 4, 2009 11:56AM / Standard Entry / martial arts films
The standard of subtitling in Kong Kong action films seems to have arisen dramatically and recent DVD releases features natural, correct English. However this genre of films was once notorious for risible subtitles. I have done a quick search of the internet and come up with the gems listed below:
http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/humour/kungfusubtitles.htm
I have been scared like a mouse too much lately.
How dare you seduce man at such critical moment! (Evil Cult)
http://writersdreamtools.com/view/humor/view.asp?HumorID=31&offset=
I am damn unsatisfied to be killed in this way.
Fatty, you with your thick face have hurt my instep.
Gun wounds again?
Same old rules: no eyes, no groin.
A normal person wouldn't steal pituitaries.
Damn, I'll burn you into a BBQ chicken!
Take my advice, or I'll spank you without pants.
Who gave you the nerve to get killed here?
Quiet or I'll blow your throat up.
You always use violence. I should've ordered glutinous rice chicken.
I'll fire aimlessly if you don't come out!
You daring lousy guy.
Beat him out of recognizable shape!
I have been scared shitless too much lately.
I got knife scars more than the number of your leg's hair!
Beware! Your bones are going to be disconnected.
How can you use my intestines as a gift?
The bullets inside are very hot. Why do I feel so cold?
This will be of fine service for you, you bag of the scum. I am sure you will not mind that I remove your manhoods and leave them out on the dessert flour for your aunts to eat
Yah-hah, evil spider woman! I have captured you by the short rabbits and can now deliver you violently to your gynecologist for a thorough examination.
Greetings, large black person. Let us not forget to form a team up together and go into the country to inflict the pain of our karate feets on some ass of the giant lizard person.
http://www.innocentenglish.com/funny-english-mistakes-bloopers/funny-movie-captions.html
I threat you! I challenge you meet me on the roof tonight for a duet!
I will kill you until you are dead from it!
You are too useless. And now I must beat you.
A normal person wouldn’t steal pituitaries.
Your spear is useless… You better use it for mixing excretory.
Now I feel flatulent, and you did it.
My innards have all been disturbed by him.
That may disarray my intestines.
I please your uterus. You kiss my toes. It’s fair.
This is the Martial Arts Competition, not a place for fighting! (from Kung Fu)
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Word Thursday: Jactitation, hypnagogic, kanashibari
Thursday, Sep 3, 2009 1:11PM / Standard Entry / words
NOTE: This is a blog I wrote a few years ago when I was blogging on 360. It is a favourite of mine and so, as I don’t have much time to write a new blog from scratch, I am going to republish it here:
The Meriam-Webster email bulletin recently delivered this word of the day to my inbox:
jactitation \jak-tuh-TAY-shun\ noun
: a tossing to and fro or jerking and twitching of the body
Example sentence:
“It is clear that Mrs Y.'s tics are far more complex in form than mere Parkinsonian jerks, jactitations, or precipitations….” (Oliver Sacks, Awakenings)
Did you know?
In the 17th century, lawyers began tossing around the word “jactitation,” which can be traced back to the Latin verb “jactare,” meaning “to throw.” Originally, “jactitation” was used as a word for a false claim or assertion being publicly thrown about to the detriment of another person. Run-of-the-mill slander and false claims of being married to someone were two common types of jactitation brought to court. Before long, “jactitation” had jumped over to the medical profession, where it continues to serve as a word for restless, jerky, or twitchy body movements. In 1761, British writer Laurence Sterne threw “jactitation” into his novel Tristram Shandy as a substitute for “discussion,” but that meaning never caught on.
I have treasured this word for years. I first read it in a novel by Kinggsley Amis called The Green Man. Now, I must re-read this because I was in my teens when I read it the first time but it has stayed with me. It was a very vivid novel. Check out this web link for more information -
http://www.answers.com/topic/the-green-man-1
UPDATE 3 September 2009: I have reread this novel and enjoyed it far less, as I found the protagomist to be a self indulgent wanker.
The main character in this novel suffers from jactitations and when I read this I said “Ah ha!” because I suffered from them too! I will be forever indebted to Amis for supplying me with the name of this irksome habit. Surely you have suffered from that thing that happens at night when you are just settling down to sleep when, all of the sudden and with no warning whatsoever, your body gives this huge convulsive and violent jerk. It’s just horrible. As a youngster I used to suffer from them often, and by the second year of my undergraduate degree at University I was having them EVERY NIGHT. It was nightmarish. I don’t suffer from them now but that is because I discovered that I wouldn’t have them if I slept on my stomach. Now I make sure that I fall asleep on my tummy.
Here is a link to some information from Wikipedia on the word jactitation –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jactitation
Wikipedia provides commentary on both the meanings of this word mentioned above (ie. The legal and physical meanings). Interestingly it mentions that jactitation is a hypnagogic happening. This is how Wikipedia describes hypnagogia –
“Hypnagogia (also spelled hypnogogia) describes vivid dreamlike auditory, visual, or tactile sensations, which are often accompanied by sleep paralysis and experienced when falling asleep or waking up”
I have never had sleep paralysis (thank god) but I have had hypnagogic hallucinations (mainly visual but sometimes aural). This is when you wake up but you are still dreaming. Basically when I have a hypnagogic hallucination I will open my eyes and see something frightening and bizarre. This has ranged from spiders, and slime on the wall, to demonic entities. Sometimes I have seen things that are so bizarre that they literally defy descrīption. I will know I am awake because I will be able to move and talk. This is usually manifested by me trembling, screaming, swearing, running around the room and turning on the light. These things are not fun, and I usually get them when I am stressed. The first few times I had them I honestly thought that I really was going mad – that they were the onset of psychosis. I also scared the hell out of a couple of boyfriends. A counsellor I was seeing at the time was able to put my mind at rest. But she suspected that I was heavily into marijuana, as apparently heavy dope users can experience hypnagogic hallucinations as a result of their drug use. I have never taken drugs but I had the devil of a job persuading her that this was so (“Oh c’mon Meredith… you are in the Arts after all!”).
I found out about sleep paralysis when I taught English in Japan for 2 years. Sleep paralysis is a state whereby a person wakes up but they can’t move at all. Sleep paralysis can be accompanied by hypnagogic hallucinations, commonly that someone or something is pressing down on the chest of the person who is being paralysed. It is also common for this person to have auditory hallucinations and to see the presence of a demon or witch. This is why sleep paralysis is known as Old Hag Syndrome in some countries. In Japan they call it kanashibari which means “bound or fastened with metal”. I got this definition from this Wikipedia article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanashibari
I found this syndrome to be quite fascinating, and plagued my students with questions about it over the 2 years. It is incredibly common in Japan. The vast majority of my students had experienced it and 100% of them knew some one else who had had it. I choreographed a dance work to Henry Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary about it. I called it kanashibari.
What unusual things do you do when you are asleep? I also talk and walk in my sleep a lot. My family and aforementioned ex boyfriends have some strange tales to tell in regards to my nocturnal antics. But I am blissfully unaware that I do these things so that’s OK.
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All welcome: Drink and Think Artist talks
Thursday, Sep 3, 2009 9:39AM / Standard Entry
Romaine Logere sent a message to the members of Drink+Think research presentation evenings:
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Subject: Drink+Think 090909 :: "The Getting of Wisdom" Edition
Spring has sprung, and the drink+think bounty is RRRRRripe for the harvest! This month is an exercise in the sacred and divine, as the holy twins of interactive research across Melbourne and Sydney hold court at the design hub gallery.
The first Saint to bear witness is the blessed Bruce Mowson. Bruce is currently completing a PhD in fine art and will be discussing one of his research projects, birdland. The project aims to produce new material and understandings about audiovisual installation art and immanence. Immanence describes a subjective state that emphasises an embodied sense in time and space. It is explored in the project artworks by using materials and techniques that heighten one’s sense of being a receptor – of seeing and hearing, rather than being an identity formed in language. The research works through the derivation of my notion of immanence from my environmental listening experiences. He has used artistic and philosophical material to aid and extend these concepts in relation to their investigation through the practical works.
Next comes the sanctified teachings of St. Martin Tomitsch. Martin received an MSc in Informatics in 2004 and completed his PhD in 2008, both at the Vienna University of Technology. His research deals with user interfaces that go beyond traditional desktop computing applications. In his PhD thesis he explored the concept of architectural display, focussing on the architectural ceiling for visualizing information at the periphery of user attention in everyday environments. He is especially interested in synergies between architectural concepts and ubiquitous computing environments. He is also involved in industrial projects, where he works as a usability consultant and interaction designer, and teaches courses in user interface design, usability engineering, and human-computer interaction.
Divinity can be reached@the design hub gallery [110 Victoria Street, Building 91, ground floor], on Wednesday 09th September from 6pm onwards. The Boss’s blood will be available but it may not have been bottled at His best moment and you will be expected to make a $2 donation to the "church" with every cup. Far better to byo your own grapey salvation.
For further information on this manifestation of miracles call or text mssg 0400 507412, or direct a glad heart to: http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.sial.rmit.edu.au/Events/Current_&_Upcoming.php
Halleluj!
: ))(( :
R
