Song for Saturday: Hoodoo Man

Junior Wells was born in West Memphis, Arkansas (maybe) in 1934 and learned to play harmonica by the age of seven.

Who Knew Sea Slugs Were So Awesome?

These sea slugs are really interesting. They can actually adapt cells from their prey for their own use including stinging cells and chloroplasts. The latter allow them to utilize photosynthesis. I want that awesome power for myself.

Lumerians -- Space Rock

Lumerians play "Black Tusk" on Dance Party Revival from m m on Vimeo.

The Lumerians are a band out of San Francisco by way of outer space. Please enjoy. Via Dangerous Minds.

Poem for Monday With Scary Ghost Ship Video

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue, and white.

And some in dreams assured were
Of the Spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow.

Excerpted from Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

National No Name Calling Week-- Jan. 24-28

From the website:

No Name-Calling Week was inspired by a young adult novel entitled "The Misfits" by popular author, James Howe. The book tells the story of four best friends trying to survive the seventh grade in the face of all too frequent taunts based on their weight, height, intelligence, and sexual orientation/gender expression. Motivated by the inequities they see around them, the "Gang of Five" (as they are known) creates a new political party during student council elections and run on a platform aimed at wiping out name-calling of all kinds. Though they lose the election, they win the support of the school's principal for their cause and their idea for a "No Name-Calling Day" at school.

Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day

Today in the Black Mansion we're celebrating Squirrel Appreciation Day. If nothing else, one can appreciate their incredible athleticism. Of course some members of the household are extremely enthusiastic about squirrels, if not in a way that actual squirrels would appreciate.

Several of them have met their end in the jaws of the black and white monster pictured here.

Jan. 20-- Happy Birthday David Lynch

David Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana on January 20, 1946.

"It doesn't do any good to say, 'This is what it means.' When you are spoon fed a film, people instantly know what it is. I like films that leave room to dream."

– (Lynch 1997, in Cinefantastique, April 1997)

"I don't like the word ironic. I like the word absurdity, and I don't really understand the word 'irony' too much. The irony comes when you try to verbalize the absurd. When irony happens without words, it's much more exalted.”

"I don`t think that people accept the fact that life doesn`t make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable. It seems like religion and myth were invented against that, trying to make sense out of it."

"I sort of go by a duck when I work on a film because if you study a duck, you`ll see certain things. You`ll see a bill, and the bill is a certain texture and a certain length. Then you`ll see a head, and the features on the head are a certain texture and it`s a certain shape and it goes into the neck. The texture of the bill for instance is very smooth and it has quite precise detail in it and it reminds you somewhat of the legs. The legs are a little bit bigger and a little more rubbery but it`s enough so that your eye goes back and forth. Now, the body being so big, it can be softer and the texture is not so detailed, it`s just kind of a cloud. And the key to the whole duck is the eye and where the eye is placed. And it has to be placed in the head and it`s the most detailed, and it`s like a little jewel. And if it was fixed, sitting on the bill, it would be two things that were too busy, battling, they would not do so well. And if it was sitting in the middle of the body, it would get lost. But it`s so perfectly placed to show off a jewel right in the middle of the head like that, next to this S-curve with the bill sitting out in front, but with enough distance so that the eye is very very very well secluded and set out. So when you`re working on a film, a lot of times you can get the bill and the legs and the body and everything, but this eye of the duck is a certain scene, this jewel, that if it`s there, it`s absolutely beautiful. It`s just fantastic." "Film exists because we can go and have experiences that would be pretty dangerous or strange for us in real life. We can go into a room and walk into a dream. If we didn`t want to upset anyone, we would make films about sewing, but even that could be dangerous. But I think finally, in a film, it is how the balance is and the feelings are. But I think there has to be those contrasts and strong things withing a film for the total experience."

"It`s better not to know so much about what things mean or how they might be interpreted or you`ll be too afraid to let things keep happening. Psychology destroys the mystery, this kind of magic quality. It can be reduced to certain neuroses or certain things, and since it is now named and defined, it`s lost its mystery and the potential for a vast, infinite experience."