The Satellite has again left orbit...

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Peter Steele crosses over...

Rest in peace, brother...

Restoration Revelation: Goddess of the North

It looks as if the Druids are rising once again in the British Isles:

Work is to start on a giant sculpture of a naked woman which is to be carved into the Northumberland landscape.

The "Goddess of the North" will be made from 1.5 million tonnes of earth from the Shotton mine, near Cramlington.

It will stand 34 metres - 10 metres higher than the Angel of the North - and will be 400 metres long.

Once developed, it is believed it will be the largest human form to be sculpted into the land, in the world.

UFO on the M5

From The Sun:

TWO fighter jets are filmed whizzing over the M5 - apparently in pursuit of a UFO. A mystery cameraman took footage of the military aircraft chasing the shiny orb. The 30-second clip is believed to have been taken from a West Midlands service station car park.

Expert Nick Pope, who probed UFO sightings for the MoD, said: "This is one of the best videos I've seen. It could be a new drone - that might explain the military jets.

It certainly could be, but Pope notes that this isn't the time or place to test a drone, and we still haven't seen any confirmed drones with no external architecture, such as stabilizers and antennae.

Fringewatch: S2 Ep 17

This was a good solid ep, if not a bit on the serviceable side. We start out expecting a standalone and end up back in the Mythology. The Jacksonville motif seems increasingly creepy in light of the of the scandals emanating from the Vatican, not to mention the daycare scares of the 80s. That being said, I'd like to see Olivia begin to manifest some interesting powers herself, aside from the vision thing.

The real treat this week (aside from the hypnotic Vancouver ambiance) was an uncredited guest appearance by Diane Kruger of Troy and National Treasure fame (and Joshua Jackson's GF, the lucky bastard). Sadly, it looks to be a one-off...

Non-US readers click here.

Malcolm McLaren 1946-2010

Malcolm McLaren, the man who irreversibly changed the face of British music as manager of the Sex Pistols, died yesterday, aged 64.

He had suffered from cancer for some time and, despite a recent period of good health, his condition had deteriorated rapidly in recent days, according to his spokesman. He died in Switzerland yesterday morning and his body is expected to be flown home to be buried in Highgate cemetery, north London.

Those paying tribute to him last night included John Lydon, who poignantly signed his statement in the name of Johnny Rotten, the nom de guerre that the one-time enfant terrible used during his Sex Pistols days.

In the Strangest Places, pt. 3,419

Asia was a punchline in The 40 Year-Old Virgin, but they were made up of some heavy duty prog vets from Yes, ELP and King Crimson who decided to to forget all of the wonky time-signature stuff and play the Top 40 sweepstakes. Matt from X-Files Lexicon sent along this video, with some fascinatingly incongruous Ishtar/Kali/Sekhmet destroyer-goddess imagery...

Dying, Rising

I don't agree with Acharya S on any number of topics you can name, but I do appreciate her astounding research skills. She's revealed the complexity and diversity of indigenous European mythology, a topic that's usually dumbed down to the point of tedium. But for me the point is not to bash Judeo-Christianity as it is to unveil the rich heritage of indigenous European mythology and religious traditions, which has been hidden away from us by the collusion of the corporate, religious and academic power structures.

You can't truly control a people until you steal their gods and Europe's native gods were stolen almost 1700 years ago. But such is their power that they eventually colonized the colonizers and created a rich and dynamic culture throughout the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. And even today this process continues to evolve, as I wrote about in Our Gods Wear Spandex and in my upcoming book.

And now we see the old gods entertaining millions in movies, comic books, TV shows and video games in both their old guises and in new, which is as it should be. Bloodthirsty tyrants like Theodosius and Justinian didn't realize it at the time, but by relieving the gods of their cults and their priests and all of the whining supplicants they set them free, and allowed them to fight and fuck and fly across the imagination of billions of people across space and time.

The old gods were tired and worn out by the time of Caesar- the Church rendered them truly immortal.

Stations of the Sun, Redux Aeternus

A classic song that still languishes in Bootlegville.

First line: "It was spring, so call it Easter.."

The Saturn Award

The New Outer Limits won three of these for best anthology series. Fascinating design, don't you think?

TVOD: Fringe Rules, or The Sacred City of Sci-FI

There's been a countless parade of X-Files imitators over the past 17 years, but only one show has risen to the level of the original. And have done so by peeling away all of the elements they borrowed from the X-Files in the first season. But also by undoing- reversing, really, The X-Files' great and tragic mistake by picking up stakes and moving the show up to Vancouver, the Sacred City of the Ongoing Sci-Fi Revelation.

Gratuitous Anna Torv eyecandy

The X-Files' ratings folded like a cheap suit after leaving Vancouver, a downward slide that stabilized only during the epochal Season Eight but then collapsed again after Fox forced a ninth season. I know Fringe's exodus was down to budgetary concerns, but it seems the old spirits of X-Files' past were waiting for Abrams and company there, and have inhabited the fledgling show like the XF Mytharc's Walk-Ins.

Keep it coming, guys. Non-US readers, click here to soak in the latest revelation.

Strangest NASA mission posters

Here's a nice treasure trove of inhouse imagery from NAZCA NASA, which doubles as an interesting peek into their psyches. Seems that geekery is well-represented there, but then again geekery is becoming so dominant it may need to be called something else. Check out the gallery here.

The Holy Fool

Representing a Secret Sun classic....

The jingling of bells during the dance is meant to frighten evil spirits and the clashing of sticks represent the fight between good and evil. The dancer who weaves in and out of the team of dancers is known as the Fool and whilst his dance seems to be that of a random nature, in fact his is a very intricate dance and represents the naivety of man. A dancer who is dressed as an animal character shows mans reliance on nature. Handkerchiefs emphasise the hand movements during the dance.- Crop Fertility Rituals

The Kalends of April are sacred to Venus, as is the entire month, and this day has been called the Veneralia. Public games, ludi, would be held in honor of the deity. This day was also known as All Fools Day to the Romans, and they would spend the entire day celebrating with comic hilarity, doing things backwards, wearing women's clothes, dancing in the streets, and generally carrying on in the most in the most foolish and congenial manner. This is one of the few Roman holidays that has preserved some of its original character, under the modern name April Fools Day. In Egypt, this day was celebrated as the Birthday of the god Hathor.- (link)


The Anglo-Saxons called April Oster-monath or Eostur-monath, the period sacred to Eostre or Ostara, the pagan Saxon goddess of spring, from whose name is derived the modern Easter.- Wikipedia

It's probably no coincidence that April Fools' Day is celebrated at the same time that two other similar holidays are celebrated. In ancient Rome, the festival of Hilaria was thrown to celebrate the resurrection of the god Attis. Hilaria is probably the base word for hilarity and hilarious, which mean great merriment. Today, Hilaria is also known as Roman Laughing Day. -How Stuff Works

Perhaps the biggest change came from the initiated version of the Tarot that the original Golden Dawn (and its later offshoots) used. In that deck, the Fool is represented as a naked child of indeterminate sex, who is accompanied by a wolf on a leash, who is reaching up for a rose. In Golden Dawn, the Fool represents the god Harpocrates, the Egyptian god Horus as a young child. - Associated Content

"The four magic symbols, the sceptre, the cup, the sword and the pentacle. The fool always carries them, although he has long since forgotten what they mean. Nevertheless they belong to him, even though he does not know their use. The symbols have not lost their power, they retain it in themselves. - P D. Ouspensky