Odd bedfellows   
03:24pm 13/05/2008
 
mood: amused
music: Joy Division- Transmission
I've been working pretty steadily recently on the on-going novel project that is Hallowed. Music plays a big role in my writing preocess to the point that I will compile playlists on itunes even for some of my short stories. While writing Hallowed I've leaned pretty heavily towards Devotchka for their mariachi influenced indie rock sound, with the occasional Mexican folk or Norteno song thrown in from Last FM for good measure. Oddly enough though I've come to find that the entire tone of the novel is best encompassed by Joy Division, a band and style that would be if not completely foreign to my protagonist and his general social group, at least strangely dissonant.		  
     
wax poetical
 
And today I'm wearing my Chuck Taylor's, damnit!   
12:34pm 07/05/2008
 
mood: awake
music: Dresden Dolls- Bad Habit
In a few minutes I'll be heading off to give my last final at Ma and Pa's Down-Home Community College and Chicken Shack. It's a small class so I'll grade them, total up the grades and turn all my stuff in after the final. I'll be saying goodbye to the place forever, and it's a slightly melancholy but mostly good feeling. I'll report more on this and the plans for the rest of the summer later.

Yeah, and I'm wearing tennis shoes to work today.		  
     
wax poetical
 
Unspeakable Horror correction   
03:37pm 01/05/2008
  It seems the editors of Unspeakable Horror have decided to reveal their authors and table of contents not on the blog, but rather in the virtual pages of Dark Scribe Magazine. Same drill as before, I believe but it will just be happening here. Go check it out, as I said before, good stuff.  
     
wax poetical
 
Red numbers   
08:19am 01/05/2008
 
mood: curious
music: Tori Amos- Professionial Widow
Lucius Shepherd over at [info]theinferior4 mentions some of the turmoil going on in Asia, mostly within the context of the continued clusterfuck that is the Beijing Olympics. Amongst this he mentions some rumors seeming to have their origin in Cambodia. It seems a panic set in recently when word spread that cell phones were receiving calls from a dreaded "red number" which killed people. There's a brief story out of Bangkok here.

Shepherd comments that this "sounds like something out of a J Horror film, and I couldn't agree more. I'm also intrigued by this passage in the article:

"Rumours such as this are not new to Cambodia, where people are deeply superstitious and believe in sorcerers and spirits but have nevertheless embraced texting technology as a national passion."

Speaking from an artistic standpoint, I think that's one of the things that makes certain Asian horror so interesting. I thought that both Ringu and its American remake The Ring both fell short of the mark (though if you could have taken the two versions and mashed them together I contend you would have had a near perfect film), but the use of the technology within was what was really chilling. These rumors of course recall Takashi Miike's One Missed Call (recently remade in the U.S. badly from what I hear). I haven't seen the original or remake of Pulse but it too seems to embrace modern technology and use it as a vehicle for the supernatural. It's a hard thing to do, but when it's done well it's impressive.

The thing though that is so chilling about these news reports (and the thing that gives me those "wonderfully creepy" goose bumps I've talked about) is the way that this has left the screen or the page and entered people's actual consciousness. It's one thing to expect that answering a phone call could have deadly results in the dark of a movie theater. It's quite another thing to learn that that belief has made it's way outside of movieplex and into the day to day world of thousands of real people.		  
     
wax poetical
 
Happy Walpurgis Night!   
12:36am 01/05/2008
 
mood: awake
music: Thea Gilmore- Even Gods Do
In honor of this evening's significance I wanted to mention that the editors of Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet are introducing the anthology's table of contents one each day over on their blog. Watch that space over the next few weeks for some very good stuff.

More in the spirit of the evening:

Yesterday I was walking home from work through the seminary grounds. It was rainy and grey out. However all of the trees have new Spring buds and the grass was so intensely green. It was this beautiful mixture of heavy gloom and the preternatural colors of a hard-won Spring. It was striking, and I was sorry I didn't have my camera. But I've been mulling it around in my head and I've wondered about the possibilities of springtime horror. I can't say that I've grown tired of October Country and all that season entails and grants to fiction, but I'm becoming more and more interested in ways to bring these things into the light so to speak. I've experimented with it to varying degrees of success I think, but I something I want to continue to explore.		  
     
wax poetical
 
Houses of the fantastic   
03:50pm 22/04/2008
 
mood: calm
music: Danzig- Can't Speak
A while back [info]ellen_datlow posted a link to houses fit for fantasy and scifi. I thought the following house we saw in Provincetown would fit right at home in an urban fantasy tale:



( more behind cut )

So your task, if you choose to accept it, is to write up the scenario surrounding this house. Any takers?		  
     
wax poetical
 
Whale Watching A-Go-Go   
10:00am 21/04/2008
 
mood: calm
music: Boston Marathon Coverage on TV
Erika and I spent this past weekend in Provincetown with my parents who came up for a few days. P-Town sits at the end of the hooked peninsula that forms Cape Cod. It is literally land's end as far as Massachusetts is concerned, and it is a strange and interesting place. P-Town is home to about 3800-4000 year round residents, but every summer it is descended upon by tens of thousands of tourists and seasonal residents. It is the place where the Puritans signed the Mayflower compact yet now harbors an intensely out gay community. It is a cool place to visit this time of year before the hordes descend, filled with places that are just opening for the season and the sounds of friends who haven't seen each other in years.

We walked around Provincetown, enjoying the streets. We ate some phenomenal meals. However, the highlight of the whole experience was going whale watching. Cape Cod is home to one of the most populated whale feeding grounds from April through November. A normal whale watch usually sees one or two whales, (though sometimes none are spotted), but this season is unlike any other in recent memory:



We saw sixteen Humpback Whales, three North Atlantic Right Whales, and two Finback Whales. The Right Whales are critically endangered (it is estimated that there are between 320 and 350 of them left on the planet). There were moments when the boat couldn't actually move because of the amount of whales surrounding us. It was bloody amazing.

The whales are so huge. I knew that going into the whole thing, but you can never really understand until you are there witnessing the immensity. It was pretty amazing watching an entire boat ranging from the age of three to eighty reduced to jabbering children at the site.

( more whales )		  
     
2 comments|wax poetical
 
I have thrown my hat in the metaphoric ring   
06:40pm 16/04/2008
 
mood: amused
As of just a few minutes ago I have officially started running for ICFA Student Caucus representative.

Erika: So you're running for student council?

Me: Yeah that's pretty much it.		  
     
1 comment|wax poetical
 
Things we won't miss about Boston   
04:38pm 15/04/2008
 
mood: exanimate
music: Neko Case- Maybe Sparrow


It's a sickness really. We've spent the past three years praying in various turns for various outcomes for the Red Sox. Not because we care about the Red Sox, but primarily because we are the collateral damage. In the beginning of the season we pray that the Sox win, because then at least the hordes of drunk fans riding the train home from the game will be happy, (and god help you if you ever end up on a train after a losing game). Then once regular season play is over we pray for a quick merciful death to the team in the playoffs, preferably at an away game, (less local fall-out that way). The longer they are in, the longer we non-sports folk suffer. Baseball season has just begun again, and I for one am glad that I won't be around here for the tail-end.		  
     
wax poetical
 
Narcocorrido   
09:30am 08/04/2008
 
mood: awake
music: Chalino Sanchez- El Contrabandista
I've been reading Narcocorridos: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas. I love researching for the books I write. It gives me an excuse to read things I'm interested in but would probably never get a chance to examine in a more formal way Narcocorridos is simple and journalistic, and it seems to be a good introduction to the concept and history of drug ballads. When I'm finished with this I'll move on to something a bit heavier: El Narcotraficante: Narcocorridos and the Construction of a Cultural Persona on the U.S.-Mexico Border.

Narcocorridos are an interesting thing. I've always been fascinated by various forms of murder ballads. In some ways narcocorridos seem to be the logical evolution of a standard element of folk culture. I suppose what's really intriguing (as well as disturbing) is their embrace by those who perform the violence They are status symbols. Wald makes an analogy between the narcocorrido and the early days of gangsta rap, however he, I think rightly, points out that the narcocorrido is much closer to the source and is often commissioned by the perpetrators of the crimes they detail.

So what role is this going to play in Hallowed? Well I'm introducing a corrido writer who is going to be a major plot point. I'm not sure exactly how the introductory scene will work but its forming Exciting stuff.		  
     
4 comments|wax poetical
 
meme, ripped from the pages of [info]esmeraldus_neo   
11:25pm 06/04/2008
 
mood: awake
music: Johnny Cash- Mary of the Wild Moor
1. My username is sacredchao23 because I created this journal on the tale end of a Discordian kick. Sacredchao as many of you know is meant to be pronounced as sacredchao. A chao according to the Erisian set is a singular of chaos. 23 is one of those Important Numbers and much information on that may be found elsewhere. It has nothing to do with the age I was when I formed this journal (I created it shortly before my 22nd birhtday).

2. Apparently what the second question actually is remains obscure.

3. My journal is titled "The Twenty-First Century Dandy" because a number of years back Liz Hand signed a copy of Bibliomancy to me "To Jude, a Twenty-First Century Dandy". I liked it and used it for my title. I have various dandyish pursuits, or at least pursuits within the fields of dandyism, most notably Oscar Wilde, Walter Pater, and other decadents.

4. My friends page is titled "Strange Creatures: Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know". Strange Creatures is kind of obvious, most of you are at least slightly off kilter. "Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know" is how Lady Caroline Lamb described Lord Byron


5. My default userpic is the Celtic triskel design tattooed on my right shoulder. It was done by Darlene of Fat Ram's Pumpkin Tattoo in Jamaica Plain. It is my favorite piece of work.		  
     
wax poetical
 
Manatees don't smoke   
06:41pm 06/04/2008
 
mood: tired
Florida was fun if exhausting. My favorite photo of the few we took:


This is at the Manatee Viewing Center by the Tampa electric plant. Manatees failed to show.

( more photos behind the cut )		  
     
7 comments|wax poetical
 
Free broken Ipod   
04:38pm 01/04/2008
 
mood: awake
My first Ipod crapped out a couple of years ago. I don't know exactly what went wrong with it, but I hung on to it for whatever reason. It was recently unearthed from my old laptop bag, and I thought I might offer it here to anyone who wants it for technological or artistic usages. I imagine there are exciting bits inside of it that could be harvested for various sundry purposes. Or maybe not.

Any takers?		  
     
2 comments|wax poetical
 
Books   
11:06pm 27/03/2008
 
mood: calm
music: David Bowie- The Heart's Filthy Lesson
I recently received a belated Christmas present from in-laws and sundry other near and non relations. It was gift card for Barnes and Noble and today I received my package. I'm sometimes very amused by the variety of my bookstore purchases, and this one is itself fairly eclectic:

Map of Dreams by M. Rickert.
Narcocorrido: A Journey Into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas by Elijah Wald.
And a copy of Le Morte D'Arthur because really I should have a decent markable copy if I'm going to work on its appropriation by Victorians.		  
     
wax poetical
 
ICFA in brief   
12:17pm 25/03/2008
 
mood: awake
Back from ICFA which was as always a wonderful time.

I saw some excellent panels, and some really excellent readings. Unfortunately I had to miss Peter Straub and Andy Duncan's readings as I was presenting at the time. I did have the urge to tell everyone in my session that they should really head down the hall and see Straub and Duncan instead of my ramblings about Dracula. But yes great readings by the likes Liz Hand, Ellen Klages, Bret Cox, Steven Erikson, and Stefan Hogberg, another to be added to the contingent of Stefan's (and another Swede to boot). I saw loads of lovely people who I am sometimes astonished that I can consider friends.

I also visited a Hooters for the first time. It was a troubling, troubling place . . .

In other news it looks like I'm going to run for the IAFA Student Caucus Representative. I got a lot of encouragement from a few fronts, and so what the hell, I think I can do a good job.

And now to try and track down a few new acquaintances, (and some old ones who I've recently learned have web presences).		  
     
9 comments|wax poetical
 
Dispatch from Florida   
08:39pm 18/03/2008
 
mood: thoughtful
music: David Bowie- Thru These Architect's Eyes


These are two of the sand cranes that live in area around my parents' development. They'll come up to you bold as brass and stand within three feet of you. It's a pretty incredible thing having these three and a half foot birds just hanging out, watchful but not intimidated. We were greeted by the cranes along with a cheeky squirrel and a gluttonous rabbit upon our return from St. Augustine this afternoon.

I'll always love St. Augustine. It still is one of my favorite places even though my time there is over. I love it despite the tourists, and despite the certain air of cheesiness that the tourism can engender. Things have changed. Dave's old apartment where I practically lived while visiting after I moved away has been completely redone and looks on the verge of becoming a bed and breakfast. Still there are those things that will never change: the scent of the incense in the St. Photios shrine, the way the air feels thick and pregnant with unseen things, and the way the uneven stones cradle underneath my feet.

I saw a number of people unexpectedly today. I was spotted by both Cyn and Sami, and then accosted (nicely of course) by Hayden, but the biggest surprise today was learning that Jacque was in town and getting a chance to have lunch with her, her brother, and Cyn.

Tomorrow it's off to Orlando and the conference. My paper is a reasonable length now, though it needs some serious read-through editing. I need to count how many times I use the words "complicate" and "dynamic".		  
     
4 comments|wax poetical
 
Things we'll miss about Boston   
09:49pm 11/03/2008
 
mood: awake


This is Erika's birthday cheesecake from Mike's Pastry a Boston institution seated in the North End. You've not lived until you've experienced the inspired madness of Mike's. I went there Saturday in the pissing rain to pick up Erika's cake. Despite the weather Mike's was packed. They only accept cash and the ladies who work the counter are wondrous yet frightening people. They are savage harpies of their trade who will devour the indecisive. Its a tough thing to be in that dizzying place with tremendous pastries wall to wall and keep your cool. Its a pretty amazing experience from the crowds of pushing locals and tourists, to the sometime-scowling sometime-smiling cannolli mavens behind the counters.		  
     
13 comments|wax poetical
 
Unspeakable Horror update   
05:44pm 08/03/2008
 
mood: awake
The cover art for Unspeakable Horror where "Cask" will appear has been released. Contributers had gotten a sneak peek at the art, but the editors asked us not to reveal it until they did so officially. So if you're interested in taking a look click on the above link. It's lovingly pulp.		  
     
wax poetical
 
Das Linkspam   
03:13pm 04/03/2008
 
mood: quixotic
music: Bauhaus- Black Stone Heart
These are pulled from all over the damn place from various points over the past few weeks (maybe months), so please forgive me if i don't credit whoever brought each of them to my attention:

The Echo Park Time Travel Mart. I don't know whether to call it concept art or not, but I will call it pretty damn cool.

Icaro Doria's "Meet the World". This Brazilian artist works statistics into nation's flags. Its much cooler and more insightful than it sounds when I write about it.

A great article on Diamanda Galas

Very cool project

A man making a pilgrimage to India on foot. He is carrying no money, and will not accept any.

Strange Maps. 'Nuff said.

Behind the scenes at a funeral home.

-end transmission		  
     
wax poetical
 
Decadence and Catholicism   
01:46pm 04/03/2008
 
mood: awake
music: Nine Inch Nails- Capital G
Over the last few months i've been steadily, if not easily, making my way through Ellis Hanson's Decadence and Catholicism. It was one of the recommended books last year in the Wilde and Pater class I took, and its an interesting, and at times amusing read. Hanson has a pretty good sense for wordplay:

It has been said that romanticism is a spilt religion. For this phrase to have any force we have to imagine a religion that is immutably placid and upright, self-contained and categorically pure- and this is a commonplace illusion that I no longer feel obliged to accept. In decadence, we might find art as a spilt religion, but we also discover a far more intriguing possibility: religion as spilt art. At any rate, we cannot read decadent writing on Catholicism without feeling a trifle moist. The categories of religion, art, and sexuality, so pure in the abstract, are in practice always already overturned, a little tipsy, forever spilling onto one another, and the decadents were never the sort to cover up a stain. (6)

Huysmans longed for a Theban cave with all the comforts of home and all the freedoms of the modern artist. (154)

There's more, but i prefer not to keep combing through the text. Its a hard book, though its fascinating. Particularly interesting is Hanson's treatment of Wilde and Wilde's on-again off-again relationship with the Church. He points out nicely that Wilde's irony regarding religion does not mean he was insincere. I'm not going to try and reconstruct the argument, but its a nice one. Still, the thing that really knocked me for a loop after plodding (and yes it was a plod at times) through everything was the conclusion. Hanson's conclusion discussing queer theory, postmdernism, religion, and the present day politics is a sudden smack of simple and lucid insight. And while the book itself is good, its completely worth reading just for the conclusion.		  
     
wax poetical
 
 
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