A loving animated tribute to goth subculture by Joren Cull, from moody post-punk spinoff, hard-edged industrial music to good aul’ teenage black-hoodie moping.
Four decades after its birth, Goth is better than alive – it is undead.
Yearly Archives: 2016
Will St Leger tweetz:
A graph of new HIV diagnoses among gay/bi men in Ireland over last decade. 2016 – one new HIV diagnosis every 18hrs…
Yesterday: Acquired Indifference
He’s back!
Are Ya Having That writes:
LeatherJacketGuy and JohnSharpson take the Are You a ‘Boy or Man‘ Test’
From top: A roadside billboard in Havana, Cuba; Dan Boyle
Cuba was not, nor is it, a socialist Nirvana. Nor is it a Hades. The Cubans like people anywhere, aspire to better things from life and the society they wished to live in.
Dan Boyle writes:
I had a long held desire to visit the place while Fidel was still in control. As a TD I got to know the Cuban Chargé d’affaires in Dublin. A very impressive woman who was far from being an ideologue. That summer I arranged to take a family holiday there, informing her of our intentions.
We flew through Paris. The 90 minutes at passport control was not the most auspicious of starts.
The trip from the airport to our hotel was through streets with many crumbling buildings. The upper stories in some of these buildings were left unoccupied through being unmaintained.
There was the kitsch charm of the 1950s Cadillacs and motorcycles. I suppose we wanted more to absorb what was different and unique about the place.
Much of that there was. I will always enjoy the memories of travelling along the Malecón towards Habana Vieja. The main thoroughfare of O’Reilly Street offered proof that the Irish had already been there. There at a bar, while sipping pina coladas, there was a sublime sense of enjoying a three piece of guitar, upright bass and big, brassy singer.
At a art market I bought a local artist’s take on Warhol – A Campbell’s soup can in Revolution flavour. My daughter, then a young teenager, was invited to visit the Socialist Youth Movement. She found it a bit intense but was given some nice posters.
I found myself being summoned to a meeting with the member of the Politburo who had responsibility for Europe. The Politburo building, a bleak functional 1960s building, was located by the Plaza de la Revolución.
For two hours I was harangued there. The obsequiousness of the European Union towards the US embargo on Cuba was resting heavily, and fully, on my shoulders. I nodded sympathetically. The US embargo towards Cuba was and remains immoral.
I did point out that Cuba didn’t encourage appropriate support by holding some poor human rights positions, particularly in relation to gay rights. It didn’t help his mood.
We were there during the celebration of the Revolution. The three available TV channels all carried Fidel’s four hour speech live.
What capped the holiday for us was something of a mugging. While walking near our hotel we met two men, very much an odd couple. They claimed to be former Olympians. One short and squat claimed he had been a wrestler. The other long and lanky claimed to be a member of the national basketball team. We were wary but they convinced us to let them give us a tour of the backstreets of Havana.
It was fascinating. We were shown the animist shrines, some voodoo related, that were put up in many streets, in this officially atheist state. There were small signs of some private enterprise taking place, cafés and the like.
We ended up at Basketball player’s family home. We had to wait for the daily two hour power outage to end before we were offered some cool drinks.
Then came the scam. We were ‘encouraged’ to buy a lot of cigars from a family member who obtained them as a fringe benefit of working with the cigar company. I didn’t really mind as it was well worth the cost for that kind of access.
We spent the second week of our holiday at the could have been anywhere location of Varadero. This was my compact with the women in my life, who wanted to soak up the Sun’s rays than have to endure any more political tourism.
The journey to there from Havana through rural Cuba showed a national wealth spread even less thinly. Hoardings along the roadside advertised, not McDonalds or Coca Cola, but Castro and The Revolution.
At the resort, other than the people working there, the only Cubans we met were doctors. A paid holiday there for them and their families, was seen as part of their remuneration.
Cuba was not, nor is it, a socialist Nirvana. Nor is it a Hades. The Cubans we met, like people anywhere, aspired to better things from life and the society they wished to live in.
They gave no impression of being oppressed. They spoke with an openness, an articulacy and an intelligence I wish I heard more often in Irish politics. They were, and are, impressive in their resilience. Viva Cuba!
Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle
Rollingnews
The site where a replica of the Titanic will be built in Suining, Sichuan province, China.
The Chinese decided to float
The idea of rebuilding a boat
But this time they think
The Titanic won’t sink
As they’re keeping all oceans remote.
John Moynes
Pic via Getty
Patsy McGarry, in The Irish Times, reports:
The Garda and child and family agency Tusla are investigating an alleged incident at a major Dublin boarding school, following a claim that a 13-year-old boy was sexually assaulted in a dormitory with a hockey stick by eight other pupils.
The incident is alleged to have taken place late last Thursday night at the 450-year-old Church of Ireland-governed King’s Hospital secondary school in Palmerstown
However, it was not reported to the Garda, Tusla, or the Church of Ireland authorities until Tuesday.
… In February 2008, King’s Hospital and Swim Ireland agreed to pay substantial damages after a 10-year dispute to 13 female victims of convicted sex abuser Derry O’Rourke, who had been employed by the school as a swimming coach.
A four movement ‘visual EP’ (sometimes cacophonous, sometimes calm) inspired by Minnesota’s land and climate. To wit:
In 2016, musician Tyler Tholl visited four state parks across Minnesota, one park per season, to record sounds found in nature. He manipulated those sounds and incorporated them in a new, four-movement piece of music inspired by Minnesota’s land and climate. The project, MN Mimesis, includes lyrics written by Tyler’s brother, Collin, and features Minnesota musicians from classical, jazz, pop, country, and folk backgrounds.
Health Scare
at
Mannequin Challenge – viral videos turned into 3D scans by Rich Oglesby using a Structure From Motion software called COLMAP – a range imaging technology that recovers 3D structure from 2D projected motion.
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