Ranked music albums of 2013

Dawn of Midi - Dysnomia ↑↑↑
 
Ayreon - The Theory of Everything ↗↗↗

 Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest →→→

Roger Taylor - Fun on Earth ↘↘

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

"Krampus: The Yule Lord" - Brom

I have always enjoyed Gerald Brom's art. Fantasy art with a wide ranging themes, gothic and macabre, where gender sometimes seems insignificant; often ambiguous. This variegation follows through in the writing of this book. Morality becomes complex and indiscreet. This is not some "good verses bad" Disney story.

Briefly, it is a modern story involving a battle between Krampus, the Pagan elemental of Christmas, and Santa Claus, the Christian - mixed with some Norse mythology. This gets entangled with a side story about Jesse, a down and out musician, battling to save his family.

One of the reasons I felt inclined read the book, was because of the Native American aspects Brom had used for his paintings of the Belsnickels. I had feared he might have just appropriated some "cool" looking bits from native dress, but it turned out that these characters are actually of Native American origin, and because of the nature of the story, it makes perfect sense for these characters to be so.

It was the audiobook version that I consumed, and the narration by Kirby Heyborne really set the story alight. The voices and characterisations were perfect. With a few sound effects and a little less "he said - she said" parts, some of it could easily be turned into a radio play.

There is a nice epilogue where Brom describes the origins of his story, through analysis of the Krampus and Santa Claus folklore.

A photograph, left in the bathroom sink, for two weeks



Top shows the original condition. Bottom, the results of two weeks of daily activities. Damage mainly from hydrolic action.

What if... Home Alone was really a movie about time travel?


Admittedly, I'm not overly familiar with the conventional storyline anyway...

Contextualising technological advancement with trivial comparison of Alpine Skiing video captures from 1997 and 2013



1997 - Katja Seizinger, Vail. VHS recording of 576i YUV satellite transmission.
2013 - Victoria Rebensberg, Beever Creek. Live 1080p MP4 stream over phone line.



1997 - Stefanie Schuster, Vail. VHS recording of 576i YUV satellite transmission.
2013 - Nicole Hosp, Beever Creek. Live 1080p MP4 stream over phone line.

Horizontal noise




Reminiscent of "sparklies" associated with analogue satellite broadcasting.

Amnesty International, in context



Amnesty' are big fans of Russian "punk band" Pussy Riot. They stalk the Russian President wherever he goes, putting up their mocking yellow bunting. They suggest that Путин is directly responsible for the "evil" two year jail sentences given to the group, after they just "played some music" in a public place. I ask though, where is Amnesty's concern for Paul Begley, an Irish business man, jailed for six years, after committing the heinous crime of labeling garlic as apples. Why don't they blame the Irish President, Michael D. Higgins, for Begley's plight? Perhaps if Mr. Begley were anti-Russian, they might be more sympathetic.

And while we're at it, where is their concern for Wlodzimierz Umaniec, a Polish artist, who was given a two year jail sentence for doing exactly what Pussy Rot got up to, "performing his art" in a public place.