News from hell

Are we there yet?

not by a long shot! I want action on post 12 Anarchy!

All's quiet on the western front.

1
You'll know when your cabernet begins to boil...

Hey, Lola - you were in Siberia. I'm surprised that you didn't hear it:

http://www.creationists.org/hell.html

Added:

Concerning the alleged screams from Hell recordings, this appears to be a clever hoax.

No shit, Sherlock. Pretty damn hard to fool a young earth creationist!

Joshua Landis' blog about Syria collects several Anglo opinions:

Ignatius Lesch, Seale, Tisdall, Khalaf, Fadel on Assad and Syria

Stay strong, Bashar!

My ex is scarier than that recording.

9
Per yesterday's NYT Book Review, there is a new book out by Deborah Lipstadt called The Eichmann Trial.

In other diabolic news, here is something from a favorite blog that fits into this thread nicely:

http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2011/04/tomorrow-night-ronni-thomas-on.html

This was always my favorite apothegm for meditation on the idea of an intelligent deity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMG-LWyNcAs

And the deliciously dear tumor of the Perigord, the truffle, which may be detected by pigs, or, like any fruity species of rot, by swarming flies.

Odd place, Périgord. Good food and witchcraft.

You know you're getting old when your main addictions are deep heating cream and activia!

;-(

I'm now old enough to know my way around...except now I don't feel much like going.

#14

I've been there!

...or have I?

Any stamp collectors around?
http://www.librarything.com/pic/239876

I don't collect stamps, but I'd buy that one. Beautiful eggplant tone too.

I am actually originally from nearby the Périgord. And no, I don't like truffles much. As for witchcraft, well, it's mostly old grannies remedies. You wouldn't believe the stuff I have had to bear with when living there.

Nothing like a pipe and coffee in the morning.
http://www.librarything.com/pic/240163

@19 - natural remedies, hey!

Life is too short to read over-rated trash. For me, trash includes bloated, historical novels. Dickens, Hugo or Tolstoy fall into this category.
Most literary "classics" are over-rated, not necessarily trash though. Fame and notoriety seems to be little indication of quality.

rubbish tros.

Pass it over.

More people killed in Syria after the army entered Deraa:

En Syrie, "le verrou de la peur a sauté"

La répression s'abat sur Deraa et ailleurs en Syrie

Aleppo and Damascus still quiet.

RE >16 tros: We're busy over here dying off. http://www.librarything.com/groups/stampcollectors

A gentle booklover, lost to the world.

I wonder if the I See Dead People's Books group has started.... It feels sinful to snort, but snort I will. *snort*

...logging Osama's library? That's hilarious.

Was it Hannah Arendt who spoke about "the banality of evil"? What about the evil of banality? It looks like he had a consultant choose his volumes for him - his shelves resemble those "arranged for effect volumes" one sees in model homes or an attorney's office. They appear as unviolated as his stacks of heavenly virgins hitherto were.

Seriously, I hope they shot those books as well - or at least had them rebound ;).

21 - I loved Bleak House and Drood and Notre Dame of Paris! An overrated classic is something like Dracula. I read it as a teen and tried to pick it up again last Fall - horrible stuff. Or The Catcher in the Rye. I was hoping the whiny little punk would get defenestrated (or catamited and cutleted) by the burly pimp.

Talking about classics, one of the things you learn when reading in different languages is that a lot can depend on their *translations/translators*. Some of the French translations can be pretty awful, and they get worse if they're printed in cheap book clubs subscriptions. I mean, even with Dracula in its original form, you still have a certain '19th C' language quality that those translated Danielle Steel don't have ((shudders)).

Oh I love 19th c language quality (writers of stylistic quality in this the 21st have that 19th c. sensibilty down: I'm thinking Paul West, Alexander Theroux and Peter Vansittart... the only few I read ;). Stoker took purple into another spectrum. I'm with you regarding translations. I have yet to have come across a decent English translation of Les Fleurs du Mal (which I've ranted about elsewhere).

Probably best to write your own!

@31 - I love Beaudelaire! :-) Recently, I translated in English a song from Brel ('Ne me quitte pas'), which was a nightmare, since he loved running sentences... Actually, the person I translated for appreciated my version better than the 1970's crappy song rewrite by some singer or another.

32: My favorite literary characters: Belacqua and Oblomov.

Once upon a time I translated L'invitation au voyage - but there was a(slight) paycheck involved. And my students were staring at me with those eyes they get. Or used to get.

L'invitation au voyage

Ah, you just made my day -- not by mentioning Baudelaire's poem (which is in itself wonderful), but by summoning up from my subconscious that haunting setting by Duparc...

I know I'm probably the last person to know this... so, Amazon is now a publisher too?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/05/amazon-launches-romantic-books-impri...

#36

"bringing readers the freshest, most innovative and compelling love stories possible".

That sounds a bit freaky!

>25 LolaWalser:
Is that a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul on the bookcase?

>25 LolaWalser: , yes, ooooooooh, and look, a copy of 100 Pork Recipes!

#38, 39

har! @ you two

Hey, pgmcc, has it been ten days already? Was France actually belle? Welcome back.

Why not our own imprint: Hellfire Romance?

Following the Death of Authors, the Ghosts of Colonialism, and the End of Philosophy, a new race of Transexualian Vampires have begun to rise nightly from the crypt, resurrecting the once settled Culture Wars. And now, nocturnal raven-haired maidens in tight, ripped corsets, with moist lips and Modern Languages degrees, must battle to preserve the Western Canon and their virginity. Against the intellectually impregnating armies of the Postmodern Necropolis, there is no escape. Will Blabberella, our vapid heroine, survive her hidden crush on the buxom, bespectacled Vampire Queen? At stake: the very future of eschatology!

I can see a multi-billion dollar franchise in the offing.

hahahaha!

Existanai, that was hilarious and really quite brilliant. I would buy that book!

#40

Hi, Lola,
Thank you for the welcome back!

In answer to your quesitons, yes, it has been ten days, and more; et oui, France est tres belle! (Good food; good wine; early morning markets for white asparagus and oyster mushrooms; great service in a Michellin Restaraunt; making new French friends; fantastic thunder storms; etc...). Going back again on June 4th. :-)

Managed to read The Fall of the House of Usher on the flight to Tours; read my LT early reviewers book, Our Tragic Universe, quite good with review coming this weekend; and started LT author, M Clifford's book.

I am now anticipating my follow-up on promises of photos et al for Hellfire Club threads. I must also arranged a trip to the Hellfire Club in the Dublin mountains an post photographs of the visit, that is if I survive!

#42, 43

Thanks and thanks. :)

There would be several installments, of course - Part 2: The Continuation, Part 3: The Final Chapter, Part 4: Almost There, Part 5: Really No Seriously The End, and Part 6: A New Beginning, followed soon after by Part 7: A New Beginning: The Sequel and Part 8: A New Beginning: The Sequel (Redux).

#44

For every memorable moment you have in France in our absence, you will owe each of us a meal at that Michelin restaurant.

#45

My trip to France seems so long ago that I can't remember where that restaraurant is. What a pity. I would love have hosted a get together at auberge de la croix blanche in Veuve.

D'oh!

#43

I keep telling E. he could--and SHOULD--self-Kindle that Amanda Hocking phenom out of the water. But does he listen? No, and no, and no.

#44

early morning markets for white asparagus and oyster mushrooms

Civilisation! I knew it once!

Have you seen the film Les choses de la vie, pgmcc (adapted from the eponymous novel)? One of the things the mind of the protagonist keeps going back to - if I remember correctly, it's been years since I saw the film - is a lavish spread on a lunch table in the countryside... I could do with a meal like that more often.

#48
Existanai - No, I haven't seen it, but I will put on my "to see" list. I like French films. They tend to take a different view on life (if you excuse the pun) from that expressed in Hollywood movies.

Stepping away from matters French, but staying with food, have you seen Ang Lee's film, Eat Drink Man Woman? It takes the veiwer through every emotion possible and most of the action/discussion takes place at the dinner table.

What about 'Delicatessen'? The Jeunet and Caro movie?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicatessen_%28film%29
French post-apocalyptic cannibalistic weirdness... Still, this is a good movie.

#50

One of my faaaves! Goes a bit soft in the end, but still fun. Have you seen Micmacs..., Sonia? Has Jeunet got too schticky?

Gingrich Set to Run, With Wife in Central Role

@51 - haven't seen this one, but I love 'The City of Lost Children' more:
http://youtu.be/CNYG9cXTSds

Oh yes, that was wonderful too. Those evil Siamese twins--unforgettable.

An old article, but only came across it today: China's dark side: On Yellow River, corpses mean cash

The family members who come to claim them whisper about a father who, unable to make ends meet with low pay, killed himself by jumping off a bridge. Wei also has retrieved bodies with gagged mouths and bound hands, the hallmark of criminal gangs and corrupt police. Finally, there are the remains of young women whom no one recognizes, which Wei eventually cuts loose back into the river, he said.

"Most of the bodies that are not claimed by relatives are female migrant workers who had moved to Lanzhou," said Wei, who drives a red motorcycle and wears large circle-rimmed sunglasses. "Most of them have been murdered. ... Their families don't know; they think they're still working in Lanzhou."

What the hell, people? Seriously, what the hell? 39 members in this group (with one inconstant, shadowy member), and no one has anything to say?

It's enough to drive me to drink, in precisely 6 minutes, Arizona time.

I don't know what's more shocking: the bodies, or that he charges families to retrieve them.

China.

Who's the "inconstant, shadowy member"? Ben? Ben the Shadow? Seems appropriate, somehow. ;-)

Reuters this thread is not.

I just picture everyone softly moaning crushed under basalt rocks, with fire ants roaming over protruding limbs.

#59
Why "basalt" rocks?

Wouldn't Freud like to know!

Uhmmm... because volcanic! Because black! Because igneous!

Lola:

Now, I'm assuming by saying, crushed under basalt rocks, with fire ants roaming over protruding limbs, and, because volcanic! Because black! Because igneous! you want to describe freshly erupted rocks that have crashed down upon everyone. If that assumption is wrong, the the subsequent paragraphs should be ignored.

If it had just erupted, the lava that will become basalt would be molten and flow, and only break into bolder type rocks after it has solidified through cooling and been subjected to weathering and other disturbances, such as landslides, etc..., over a period of millenia, and longer. A fresh eruption that will produce basalt will involve very flowing lava flowing over the ground, and even forming rivers of molten rock which would burn anything they come in contact with, thereby reducing the time a fallen person would have for moaning before being incinerated and would deprive the fire ants of the protruding limbs.

If you want fresh, just erupted solid rocks, then you would need to go for something more acidic, that would come from the types of explosive volcanoes one gets along the Andes, which would have similar rocks to Mt. St. Helen. However, this more viscous, explosive magma tends to be ligher in colour due to the higher proportion of silica with its consequent effect of producing light coloured rock.

If you want your black, basalt rocks to crush someone, then you would need somewhere like the east coast of Northern Ireland where the 30 million year old basalt that constitutes the Antrim Plateau is subject to landslides. However, where then would you get the fire ants?

Of course, if you were to settle for 30 million rocks crushing everyone, then the volcanic/igneous nature of the rock would be irrelevant. If you insist on black you could select from a range of rocks including some mudstones, even limestones, and, of course, as you say, basalt.

:-)

Of course, some people should be crushed under a pile of shist.

I take it you mean schist.

:-)

Aaaaaaaargh!

The misspelling was, of course, intentional.

Well, here's some news: marriage equality has just passed in New York. Coincidentally, the Gay Pride parade in New York City is Sunday.

Meanwhile, in lovely likable liberal Canada, the Toronto mayor has declined to attend the gay pride parade, Conservatives are trying to rush through back-to-work legislation to break the nationwide Canada Post strike, and delegates abroad voted against classifying asbestos as a hazardous chemical. As some wisecrackers suggested, it's so safe they ought to insulate the office of the Prime Minister with it.

#62

Right, was picturing hard and cold basalt rock, not fresh molten.

where then would you get the fire ants?

But EVERYTHING is possible in hell, the timeless, spaceless dimension. The fire ants are there because they MUST be there. Like every other torment.

But tell! A geologist or a volcanologist amongst us?

#68

Why would anyone WANT Rob Ford in their parade is beyond me. I bet he was invited only so to give him the opportunity to refuse.

#69

But EVERYTHING is possible in hell, the timeless, spaceless dimension.

I'm glad you cleared that up.

But tell! A geologist or a volcanologist amongst us?

Lapsed geologist who takes every opportunity to bore his friends with geological details to make up for not actually earning a living from the discipline in which he was trained. One must get some return on the years of study and hours of examination.

Of course, by definition a volcanologist would also be a geologist, volcanology being a sub-section of geology; while not all geologists would be volcanologists. (See; what did I say - who takes every opportunity to bore his friends with geological details ?

:-)

I promise, no more geology-speak.

a volcanologist would also be a geologist

I know, I was refining.

Don't worry, you are not the only scienterrifically-minded latent "bore" in here... ;)

Speaking of "boring", it's geological puns just waiting to happen.

#71

Speaking of "boring", it's geological puns just waiting to happen.

I like the way you think.

Of course, your refining is probably more to do with the petrochemists among us. ;-)

This holocene is getting too heavy for me.

(I'm hopeless at puns. Excellent at l'esprit de l'escalier and unintended slapstick, though.)

Speaking of puns, can you spot the pun in the photograph that can be viewed by following the link below?

http://pgmcc.livejournal.com/122041.html

Ummmmmm... staring gargoyles as surveillance?

I think you're looking at the right things, but not getting the pun.

By the way, there are no gargoyles in the picture.

I think you're looking at the right things, but not getting the pun.

Story of my life.

NEXT!

#76

Clue, if not answer, provided here:
http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/Gargoyles-and-Chimera

I'm not sure that I get it either... Surveillance in Paris is a real chimera?

"camera" = room. A surveillance camera, a room where one is under surveillance (by creatures).

Just looked at the second link: under surveillance by chimeras?

...who takes every opportunity to bore his friends with geological details

*I* see what you did there.

I got the pun, I got the pun!! First time. Before the hints!! No helpies!! Really!!.

Damn. I'm too late.

A-haa...

I think you read a pun into it, though, pgmcc.

Ok, so my mind is twisted.

As soon as I saw the shop window "surveillance chimera" jumped into my head. I even started thinking about designing some chimera with miniature camera eyes.

:-)

So I got it right? Is there a prize?

A prize? Hmmm!

Is your sense of achievement not sufficient?

Of course, as in games of charades the winner gets the chance to set the next challenge.

Well done. It's your turn!

#81

:-)

#85

Maki, I think you get a rock.

Roquentin's pebble. To go with your blues.

Interesting news about a not exactly timely but still interesting subject: Lorca's final hours revealed (Note, as always, I recommend completely disregarding comments at the Guardian website as these folks give Daily Fail readers a run for their money in terms of sheer, blantant, unapologetic stupidity. It's apparently a requirement that one must be certified intellectually incompetent to comment at the Guardian website. You have been warned.)

I never read the comments anywhere unless advised to do so...

Lorca's last hours: I had read that he was tortured and raped in the days before execution. Those bastards had every reason to keep quiet.

Yes, Virginia. Still it hells. The hells are never still.

Yes we have no Virginia. It was sucked into the bowels of the planet yesterday. A moment of silence, please, for the loss of the nation's largest concentration of rural speed traps.

Good riddance. Ex-beau got caught in one once driving my new car. VA HP has no smiles for an out of state tag.

To my eastcoasterly compatriots:

They say that one day the eastern seaboard will snap off and sink into the Atlantic.

Blessed be the angelenos, for they shall inherit it all. Rock 'n roll, baby.

Signed,

Californian through-and-through.

I hate to be a bore*, but it's California that is more likely to drop into the Pacific rather than the eastern seaboard drop off into the Atlantic. The Atlantic is creating new crust along the mid-Atlantic ridge. The San Andreas Fault is attempting to rip California from the rest of the North American landmass.

Sorry!

*Or maybe I'm not.

;-)

You are, of course, correct, Rocky.

As an (almost) native Californian, I grew up hearing that....I just thought this might be an appropriate occasion for parody.

Oh well, one person's sarcasm is another's...fallacy.

God save California. Florida avocados are inedible.

Scratch that. I can get them from Mexico (etc.).

At least the left coast doesn't have hurricanes. Looks like Irene is going to be a vindictive bitch. Hunker down, Ben.

Nasty weather, but great view of swaying stuff from my 10th floor perch.

I do miss my morning chile relleno burrito from Los Burritos, near the corner of Riverside & Whitset... N. Hollywood, omphalos of world porn.

The subtropical hideousness of this summer, and two depressing deaths one after the other, and illness, and I just got back from helping out with the preparations for a library sale, going through the posthumous rests of a library that could be a twin--all right, a cousin--of mine... If this mood doesn't pass soon, I'll be ditching everything I own by the evening. THERE IS NO POINT.

THIS may cheer you up.

(Watch to the end...)

haha fabulous!

Lola, would a hug from a friendly cat help? murrrrrpurrrrrrr

#102 Bob, that was great!

#101 Lola, I'm thinking of you. I wish there was something I could do to help. Hopefully Bob's fish brought a smile to your face.

Bob, you devil! I must have those!! I've been thinking about balloons in my ex-factory space, but it's so dull if they just sit there on the ceiling, withering slowly like little old ladies. Unbelievable. A need answered, just like that.

Murr, pgmcc, thanks, I'm actually doing pretty well, considering the dead people. Especially the dead people with relatives who didn't want their fabulous libraries, sigh sigh.

#105
Lola,
I always find the death of a close friend or relative puts everything in perspective. It just dwarfs everything else.
And those poor books! That doesn't help.
Peter

The balloons are around. E.g.

http://www.mandmtoys.com/air-swimmers?zenid=d42a07d2fbc909d94ffc4bafa595180a

I guess you get helium from a party-supply store; though there's a strong temptation to cook up your own hydrogen and play fish 'Hindenburg' with them. (OH, THE HUMANITY!)

#106

On the moderately bright side, I think I'll be buying a lot of those books! In loving memoriam...

#107

SOLD OUT! I aimed at the combo immediately.

cook up your own hydrogen and play fish 'Hindenburg' with them

If my name ever gets in the newspaper, it will all be your fault.

As in: CRAZED WOMAN CAUGHT BREAKING INTO BALLOON FACTORY

Or: BALLOON THIEF BLAMES IT ON BOB

Or: "AIR SWIMMERS FUELED MY NEED TO CARTHART"

Or: STEALING NEMO!!!

And look at that: it's safe for both boys and girls.

#108 I'll be buying a lot of those books! In loving memoriam...

Great excuse!

#111

The bell tolled for me and summoned my inner vulture...

#110

Only girls with braids. Easily remedied, though.

Israelis show that one of them is worth a thousand Palestinians: now that's style!

They are certainly all about swank, aren't they?

Ha! Well, some of them try. A friend once gave a (officially un-sanctioned) fashion show where the catwalk was basically on the "line" separating West and East Jerusalem. Amazingly, people came--even ordered clothes. No one died, not that day anyway.

I was just wondering how many of the 1000 will be alive by the end of the week ;). I was cranky that day. Again.

That is a very good question, though.

Zounds! My copy of Escape to hell and other stories is suddenly worth MONEY on Abe. But with a title like that, how could I ever give it up?

Gloat moment: 'twas purchased for a dollar--Canadian--off BMV's street bins. Undiscerning Philistines.

Now that he has escaped, I don't assume there will be much chance to get it signed - but I had no idea he was an author! Is there a list somewhere of poetically sensitive despots?

Benito Mussolini authored a novel, so did Joseph Goebbels... there must be more....

Saddam of Iraq reportedly wrote some romantic novels. Mussolini wrote more than one book (plus god knows how much journalism), at least one of the books being "sexy". Trawling through history, I'm sure one could come up with quite a list...

Mao! Wrote poetry.

Ayatollah Khomeini:

Open the door of the tavern and let us go there day and night,
For I am sick and tired of the mosque and seminary.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/jan/29/dictator-lit-ayatollah-kho...

Well, well...

122
This sounds like fairly standard Sufi poetry, and frankly rather derivative from the work of Rumi et al.. Seems somewhat surprising coming from him, but I have no idea to what degree Khomeni was influenced by Sufism.

what a horrible fucker that Khomeni was.

Stupid and evil deaths:

http://zepworld.blog.lemonde.fr/2015/01/07/adieu-cabu-wolinski-tignous-charb/

("Cabu? For once you're ahead of the deadline.")