The Order of Death by Public Image Limited
This Is What You Want… This Is What You Get or better say “The Order of Death” by Public Image Limited.
This is angry Bob. The man with the industrial DICK! Cumming at you loud and clear on WAR RADIO! As for the good news, there is no fucking good news!
The song “The Order of Death” appears on the soundtrack of the 1990 sci-fi movie Hardware (see video above) and The Blair Witch Project. It was featured as well in the Miami Vice episode, “Little Miss Dangerous” (see video below). The classic The Order of Death is a reference to the film Copkiller (l’assassino dei poliziotti) released in 1983 and featuring John Lydon – Public Image Limited singer.
This is what you want, this is what you get! This is what you want, this is what you get! This is what you want, this is what you get! This is what you want, this is what you get! This is what you want, this is what you get! This is what you want, this is what you get! This is what you want, this is what you get! This is what you want, this is what you get! This is what you want, this is what you get! I can listen to this all day long!
Meeting my maker
“I am ready to meet my maker. Whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter” – this was said by Winston Churchill. Wise guy you’d say. Well, as far as death quotes are concerned I prefer this one: “Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back”. The author, Marcus Aurelius was a Greek philosopher ages ago. But that’s just me. (more…)
Out of bed at midday
And so I crawl out of bed at midday after drinking what had to be a *full* bottle of vodka last night and I think, well as far as birthdays go, that wasn’t too bad.
Actually, it kinda rocked. I was reminded of a birthday party I had ten years ago which was rather good and I was thinking I was about due for a good time. And there it was. The rest of you should read all this wicked stuff and thank me for making them write it! Damn straight!
So there was a party and I wasn’t too neurotic (well not after the third vodka anyway). A friend of mine got wildly drunk and crashed his bicycle (the non-motored kind) on the way home. He’s fine – just a twisted hip and a day at home lying on the couch taking painkillers. There’s a lesson in that, kiddies.
And one of my birthday gifts was a knitted iced doughnut. Yes, knitted. It’s made by a group called “Starving Artists” and apparently they did a whole supermarket of art. I really wish I had a my digital camera back so I could take a picture of it because it’s something else. I also have the chocolate cheesecake (mmmmmmm…). So now I need to go and eat hangover food…
Plans for the future
Well, the last month has definitely been one of consolidation and integration. This is the first of what I intend to be (at least) monthly updates on my blog, so you can expect more of these going forwards. If we appear to be less than communicative of late, I can only be the one to shoulder the blame for that; because I have been so “face down, bum up” (as we say here), it hasn’t left much time for forum postings, decent responses to emails, or much else.
Richard has been kept busy tweaking the forums and underlying content management system that drives the web site. Plus he has been getting some cheese into an almost completed state. (Well, he would have a couple completed already if I didn’t keep sticking my nose in!) I have been well and truly occupied with books — editing, writing, scanning, image editing, cross-referencing, and a whole lot more. I even managed to crank out a draft layout, using the opening “Inheritance” chapter, as a mockup for one possible book interior “look”. Once I have some better artwork for this, we’ll look at posting a couple of versions on the web site so you can get a taste of what the new books will look like. On top of all this is the administrative elements, for which we have been doing some “other stuff”, the results of which will become evident over the next few months.
There is a *lot* to do — a lot more than I thought when we first looked at this licence — and the workload doesn’t seem to get smaller! My wife and family think I am glued to my chair, as each time they wander past the home office where I spend the majority of my time, I’m always “stuck” there. They have been extremely supportive, as have Richard’s family, and we are blessed in that regard. Thankfully, we are also working with some great people at the moment, who are volunteering a lot of their time assisting us. For the record, I am *extremely* grateful for the assistance we have received to date; without it, we would not be as far along the track as we are now! And that thanks extends to those of you who have taken the time in email and on forums to offer assistance. We haven’t forgotten that you have asked, but for the moment there are advantages in keeping the development group smaller and tighter. Your time will come, don’t worry…
An Earthdawn Terminology
One of the new additions to the Compendiums is a Glossary of terms referenced in the Earthdawn rules. At present, this is being worked on and added to as we work through the rules: adding an entry here, trying to provide a concise description for that term, and cross-referencing as we go. (more…)
Quotes about courage
I collected some quotes about courage. Hope you like them as much as I do.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important. – Ambrose Redmoon
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. – Mark Twain (more…)
I did something fun on my birthday
Boss insisted I did something fun on my birthday. Since I was too busy Wednesday, I took myself (and Eve) to the cinema tonight. Figured I better see what all the (fic) fuss was about and got a ticket for I’d better not tell what.
It was bloody fucking brilliant.
Dialogue’s sharp, effects are just what’s needed and no more. It’s been a long, long time since I left the cinema out of breath (from all the laughing and whooping and gasping). The only smudge is the soundtrack. They shouldn’t have bothered writing an original ‘track’ and just said they were going to steal Gladiator’s.
I have no illusions. I must be number 14385654 to claim Magdalene as my secret girlfriend, but how can I not? The woman can wear make up and look better in it than I do. You’ve got to respect that.
I found myself a desktop wallpaper inspired by Joshua’s modern art portrait of Alec in The Berrisford Agenda. Outside, pretty colors. Tricks and treats. Inside–darkness, confusion.
It would be nice to keep the buzz going until February. Eve is slippery, an empathic sociopath, a chameleon–nature versus nurture versus environment in action. I can feel myself reaching the boundaries of Daniel’s psyche too fast. That infatuation is not going to last. Even Shanks’ performance in Lifeboat didn’t reach me, didn’t move me. I need another treat; I am restless in my bones. Eve and her unstable, revolving personality would be more of a challenge.
I watched The Berrisford Agenda and Hello, Goodbye (again) while I worked last night, and noticed how tight both scripts are. TBA is a good flashback storyline, a rarity. Enough happens in HG to fill three episodes, but it never feels crowded. I’m more curious than ever about what S3 could have been, had the writers remained at the top of their game.
I also noticed how versatile Jensen Ackles is–action, drama, romantic interest, comic relief, prettiness that shades into beauty and strength, sarcasm, gorgeous angst, shamelessness, lovely, expressive face. He reminds me a little of Browder. I wonder what he could do with more demanding scripts, if there is still room for him to stretch. He eclipses Weatherly, and at times it seems that the writers feel it too. They try to right the balance, they try too hard. It leads to unbelievable circumstances, such as Logan beating Alec at pool, or saving Alec’s ass in a fight. These moments aren’t at all in keeping with the characters’ established skills.
The scenes are designed to paint Logan as the alpha, because if Logan isn’t the alpha, why is he getting the girl? (They should have thought of that before introducing a secondary character who seems tailor-made for Max, who is, literally, her ‘breeding partner’, her mate; bad move.) This is all guess work, of course. I have no meta knowledge whatsoever of this show.
Books I read this year
I could tell you it’s about books I read this year – Methos and Kronos in an Immortal rock band at Woodstock, and I could watch you frown in bemused suspicion, but it would only scratch the surface.
It’s hard to believe that this hasn’t been recommended all over the place, if only for the I-dare-you factor; then again, not so hard, because this is one of those stories which seems to spring from a fandom of its own, which leaves its original material ass-first in the dust, bruised and confused (as, in my ideal-world, my world of Ideas, fanfiction would always be if only we understood what we were doing, truly). It knocked my heart sideways–it did–and this is Kronos to me now, when Methos is every Methos to me.
And the music… I feel like an ODG groupie back from NY State, still covered in mud, flower petals and other things.
I haven’t gotten to the rest of Dargelos’ stuff, yet I can’t imagine it’s anything but worth a try. In the meantime, get stoned and well-loved with the Old Dead Guys of White Rabbit, and balance on the edge of madness in the sort-of-prequel, the haunted Pomegranate Seeds.
I discovered Sylvia Volk’s Highlander playground today, and the lady’s Methos is an old man of beauty. Perhaps not technically the best writer I’ve come across lately, but gifted when it comes to grasping what characterisation is, in essence. May I also warmly recommend Sleeps With Coyote’s stark, erotic Horsemen-verse with Fire, That Which Suits A Part Infects The Whole, A Promise Of Hunger, Acherusia and Reconsidered, Margaret Turner’s scorching Though Lovers Be Lost, Kai’s startling Degrees of Separation and the prose-poetic Fertility Rites.
Aside: I should truly never watch Cometh A Horseman again. Time after time I root a little louder for Kronos to decapitate MacLeod. This can’t possibly be what the writers intended; they would never have such vision.
Thoughts on my life
I’m watching CNN, pondering the legality (and sheer sense) of taking economic sanctions against your trading partners as a means of political retaliation. This second installment of European reconstruction funds? Kiss it goodbye. Seriously, what next? (more…)