Fantastically executed video, but warning: it’s NSFW and potentially very disturbing.
Tag Archives | Fantasy
Interview With ‘Psychopomp’ Author Amanda Sledz
In her series Psychopomp, author Amanda Sledz takes a literary approach to writing about urban shamanism, magical thinking, tarot, telepathy and other themes usually reserved for the fantasy genre. The series follows four characters: Meena, a woman who has experienced a break with reality; her parents, Frank and Esther; and Lola, a teenager who is becoming a shaman whether she wants to or not.
The first book in the series, Psychopomp Volume One: Cracked Plate, explores mental illness, empathy, our differing experiences of place, immigration and cultural identity, and the way our experience of family shapes our identity — without resorting to the cliches of genre fiction or descending into boring academic prose.
An excerpt from the first installment is here. I recently caught-up with her to talk about Psychopomp, self-publishing and more. Via Technoccult:
Klint Finley: I understand you wrote a first draft of the first book in college — can you walk us through how the book evolved?
Welcome to the Sexy Internets
Via Laughing Squid:
In 1996 the internet was run by beautiful women who accessed the ‘tubes Lawnmower Man-style from hackerspaces designed by Frederick’s of Hollywood. Don’t remember that? You were probably too busy playing Neverwinter Nights on AOL. Thank God that Playboy does. Check out this remixed version of “Women of the Internet” to learn what you missed.
The Dangers Of Positive Thinking
Perhaps try harnessing the power of negative thought for a new path to happiness. Psych Your Mind writes:
When you walk through the self-help aisle of any bookstore, you are likely to see plenty of books based on the notion that positive thinking is the key to getting what you want. The message is clear: just keep telling yourself “I can!” and envision yourself accomplishing your goals. Success will surely come your way.
Not so, says years of psychological research. Certain kinds of positive thoughts, known in the research as fantasies, can actually be detrimental to performance. When we fantasize, we idealize our futures. Fantasies are not based on past experiences, meaning that we can have fantasies about achieving things for which we have no training or practice.
To understand why fantasies are a type of harmful positive thinking, let’s take a look at four negative consequences of them.
1. Reduced energy
Generating positive fantasies about desired outcomes can sap energy.
Beheaded George W. Bush on HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’
Via WFLA 540 AM:
In the DVD release for HBO’s Game of Thrones, Episode 10, showrunners Dave Benioff and D.B. Weiss admit to using the severed head of former president George W. Bush in the scene below. The show-runners statement follows:
“The last head on the left is George Bush. George Bush’s head appears in a couple of beheading scenes. It’s not a choice, it’s not a political statement. We just had to use whatever head we had lying around.” — Dave Benioff & D.B. Weiss
You can see the footage at the 1:10 mark in this video:
Graham Hancock: My Recent Book ‘Entangled’
I’m best known for my big non-fiction investigations of historical mysteries but I’m trying a new path as a novelist to celebrate my 60s and I’m grateful for any support my readers are willing to give me. My first novel, Entangled, explores big, cutting edge ideas about time-travel, out-of-body and near-death experiences, consciousness, pre-history, the battle of good and evil, and the mystery of reality but does so in the form of fast-moving tale of fantasy and adventure. Very few of my non-fiction readers have yet taken a look at this novel but at less than $1 for this week only why not give it a go?
Here are the links again: iTunes | B&N Nook | Kindle
Here’s a synopsis and some background information on the science behind Entangled, and a video trailer below. I hope you enjoy the book,
—Graham
Alan Moore Wants to Build a Statue of Harvey Pekar in Cleveland (Video)
Photo: Davidkphoto (CC)
Seems like a good cause to me. If you’d like watch the full two-and-a-half hour chat and/or read about the highlights, check out Bleeding Cool:
A few months back Joyce Brabner, the widow of comics legend Harvey Pekar, started a Kickstarter Campaign in the hopes of raising enough money to help fund a Harvey Pekar Library Statue in Cleveland.
Towards the latter half of the campaign it was made known that one of the incentives would be “A Cup of Tea and a Long Winter’s Chat With Comics Giant Alan Moore,” in which Moore would, for the first time, host a live video conference in which he would answer “impertinent questions” …
… Moore was the epitome of congeniality, proving himself gracious, rational and quite funny while speaking to all those present — even in the face of some potentially ire-raising issues (such as BEFORE WATCHMEN or the constant jabs made at him by Grant Morrison) …
More on Bleeding Cool… Read the rest
Storytelling As A National Security Issue?
David Metcalfe writes on Modern Mythology:
“If I were a betting man or woman, I would say that certain types of stories might be addictive and, neurobiologically speaking, not that different from taking a tiny hit of cocaine.”
—William Casebeer of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Despite the fact that it’s readily apparent Mr. Casebeer has never tried cocaine, DARPA’s current interest in narratives is an interesting development at an agency known for unique scientific inquiries. On April 25 and 26th DARPA held a conference called Narrative Networks (N2): The Neurobiology of Narratives. The purpose of this conference was to follow up a Feburary 26th event which sought to outline a quantitative methodology for measuring the effect of storytelling on human action.
We owe much of the early development of the internet to DARPA, along with remote viewing, remote controlled moths, invisibility cloaks and other wonders of the contemporary age.
A Continent Made Of Plastics
Taken from a 1940 issue of Fortune, a rendering of a map of an imaginary future continent, ‘Synthetica’, composed of synthetic materials and plastic debris. This is our magical future. Via Strange Maps:
“On this broad but synthetic continent of plastics, the countries march right out of the natural world – that wild area of firs and rubber plantations, upper left – into the illimitable world of the molecule. It’s a world boxed only by the cardinal points of the chemical compass – carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen. Rayon is a plastic island off the Cellulose coast, with a glittering night life.”
The Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Maze
Harry Potter mania in the UK is threatened only by the great phone hacking scandal. Check out the maze created by a farmer in the north of England, via the Yorkshire Post:
A Yorkshire farmer has created the world’s largest spot the difference competition as a tribute to Harry Potter.
Tom Pearcy has carefully cut out two portraits of the boy wizard in his crop of maize plants at his field near York. With some subtle differences between the two images it creates the world’s largest spot the difference competition. At over 50m in diameter each head is also believed to be the largest image of Daniel Radcliffe ever created.
The images have been painstakingly carved out of over one million living maize plants. The 10km of pathways form an intricate maze for visitors to explore. The York Maze is the largest maize maze in Europe and one of the largest in the world.
