Month: October 2006
To Hell or Howth: The Hostel of the Red God
Halloween Special: This is an expanded version of an article I had published recently, as part of the programme for Conor McPherson's play The Seafarer, currently being staged at the National Theatre in London. I was asked to write a piece dealing with the mythology of Howth and places in the Dublin landscape. I soon discovered a sinister relationship between some of these places... It's a dark winter's night in the Dublin Mountains. The wind and rain howl around a skull-faced building overlooking the city. In the womb-like warmth inside, members of the Hellfire Club play cards, betting recklessly money, horses, land, and women. They are all prominent members of the ruling class - MPs, Lords and even the City Sheriff. A knock comes on the door - a well dressed, but saturated traveller is ushered in, bade to warm himself by the turf fire. He joins the card game,...
UFO YouTube
In addition to whacky music videos, horse porn, mind-bendingly dull video blogs, Chuck Norris fight-scenes and flesh-crawlingly cute kittens on record turntables, YouTube is also a portal for all class of UFO shenanigans, allowing as it does, for the easy sharing of 'UFO movies' from around the world. Theoretically, this should be a goldmine of Forteana: the very cream of what the UFOlogical community has to offer. However, YouTube's strength is also it's weakness: the ease with which you can upload a file means that many people don't bother to explain the provenance of the footage. The result is a mixed bag. No matter, it's been far too long since we had any hot UFO action around these parts, so I decided to strap-on my bullshit detector and wade in to the thick of it. Frankfurt The following is a vieo clip filmed over Frankfurt, which at first glance seems...
Robert Anton Wilson Needs Your Help (updated 6th October 2006)
If I was to name two writers who have inspired me to keep blather.net running over the last nine and a half years, it's been Flann O'Brien, and Robert Anton Wilson. For the last decade or so that I've been reading them, Wilson's books have awed and inspired me. They've also made me guffaw with a deep belly laugh that few other writers have drawn from me. now, Bob, or as he's also known, RAW, needs our help. They say (who the fuck are they?) that you should never meet your heroes, as you'll only be disappointed. I've met the man called Robert Anton Wilson twice, and had a whale of a time. He's one of the funniest and most gentle people I've ever had the chance to encounter. Mind you, Bob seems to have been reading blather.net for a long time, before I knew that he knew that I...