Rath, the Ghost of the Navigator

By all the gods, this is awesome!

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:37:47 GMT

So, as those of you who read (lj)faithinfire will already know, yesterday I was formally diagnosed with depression. This is a good thing, arguably, as it gives me some framework for handling the overwhelming sense of "oh shit, universe falling to pieces" that I've been suffering for the last few weeks and assuming was somehow entirely my own fault.

So while I was at home feeling sorry for myself and very small indeed, koilungfish went out and came home with lookingforsigns, and they brought me presents! ♥♥♥ There were cookies! And Seiber bought me pizza! And... and, and, and...

There were also a whole five booster packs from the Pirates CSG that Seiber and me have been fangirling over lately! Including one from the "Fire & Steel" expansion that has the gorgeous Switchblade and Scorpion miniatures, which have tiny moving parts! Blades that turn on miniature plastic cogs! Now, Seiber had been lucky enough to get a Switchblade ship, HMS Salient, in our very first packs of boosters and I'd been profoundly jealous. But...

As I tore open the Fire & Steel pack, I saw the glint of silver. My eyes widened. Silver-stamped cards! Black super-rare corner tags! All of them! And...

...three entire cards that went to make up a great, pale, hideous monster of a ship. Grey and black and dust white, the pallid shade of old skin and the rotten muted red of dead, stripped meat. And dazzling, silver, twin scythelike blades...

A super-rare, Cursed-fleet Switchblade. Oh. My. GODS.

Her name is Skin Flayer and she is gorgeous. I cannot believe that a random booster pack my friends grabbed for me as a "please cheer up!" present could manage to be the single most coveted set in the whole expansion - witness the bit of paper that fell out after the Skin Flayer (not to mention the Silver Coffin, the Soul Mark treasure card, and Tabitha McWarren, the Cursed pirate girl who joined the crews of the damned when she threw herself from a clifftop for the sake of a dead pirate lover): a note that read "Congratulations! You just dug up the most sought-after treasure chest in the Pirates of the Cursed Seas Fire and Steel pocketmodel game! It contains every super-rare game piece in the set!"

I mean, how extraordinary is that, in those particular circumstances? I think something out there loves me at least as much as my friends do. ♥♥♥

Laters,
Rath

(Very short) dialogues with the infinite.

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:31:56 GMT

"Universe," said I, waving a hand from the depths of a half-proofread treatise on analytical theory, "everything sucks. I'm feeling bitter and resentful and nothing looks fun. Cheer me up!"

"No problem," replied the universe, riffling through its box of LPs (which, as we all know, is of infinite dimensions and contains every song ever written in all possible realities). "Here, you might try this."

"^_^!"

"Also, for the record, Gödel's incompleteness theorems are exactly the kind of kneecap-shot theoretical result you love. Go look it up."

"^____^!!!"

"You're welcome. ^_^"

There we go, all better now. Who says there's no benevolent Providence? ^_^

Laters,
Rath

Also, America, your president is awesome. (Film at 11, I know...)

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:12:14 GMT

Apparently Obama wrote a note for a girl who skipped school to see him at one of his public meetings, to get her out of trouble with her teacher. Story here.

Dude. I thought heads of state only did things like that in children's stories... ^_^

Laters,
Rath

PS: Her name was Kennedy. Heh.

[Music] IS DED

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:09:45 GMT

*IS TEN THOUSAND TIMES DED*

Oh my... I cannot articulate how much I love this, mostly because I am laughing too hard. But seriously, this has just given me an entire year's worth of joy in the space of five minutes.

Okay, everyone knows The Wind Beneath My Wings, right? Here's Michael Ball's version, which I happen to like, for reference (excuse the Xena, but this was the only version of it I could find on Youtube). Classic, slow, sentimental, much loved song you can play at weddings, funerals and your Dad's sixtieth birthday bash. You know the one.

Now, here are my beloved, beloved boys Sonata Arctica (YES, the Finnish metal band, for those of you sitting at the back) doing their version of this pop classic. I... am INCOHERENT, seriously. Oh, my BOYS. This is simultaneously utterly and soaringly gorgeous and the funniest thing I have heard ALL DECADE. ~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Dear power metal scene, and Sonata Arctica in particular, I love you very, very much. Please do not ever, ever change, and in particular please do not ever develop ANY sense of how you look to people whose senses of the ridiculous have developed beyond the embryonic. Please keep doing wonderful, ludicrous, utterly unselfconscious things like this for ever and ever, because the world could more easily spare a million scoffers than it could spare one band THIS AWESOME. ^_^

...I would totally dance to this if it ever got played in a club. And if they play it live next time I see them, I bet I cry. ^_^

Laters,
Rath

Y halo thar, Monday morning...

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:16:59 GMT

I just got a spam with the subject line "For his Hat was a hundred and two feet wide". I... yep, it's definitely Monday.

In other news I am concluding once again that gods can hear me panicking, and take great delight in watching the water level rise just over my nose before they extend a loving hand and unceremoniously haul me out by the scruff of the neck. Completely out of the blue, the Running Head (who I used to work for, long-term readers will recall) rang me up on Friday afternoon and offered me a proofreading job! They remember I exist after all! *happy dance*

And then I checked my email and had another editing job from BL, unprecedentedly quickly after the last one; and in an interesting case of one of those "audible series of clicks" moments, the book they want me to edit is the next one in a series that DT just sent me etexts of all the previous volumes of! How extraordinarily useful, really, is that?

Meanwhile, last night was the Rocksoc May Brawl, which I'll review properly over on (lj)faithinfire but which was great fun, and the night before that was Bump'n'Grindhouse and before that I went to the water park in Bedford with lookingforsigns, so this weekend was rather more physical than most. I've woken up this morning with a headbangover of middlingly-epic proportions, but I suspect it could be a lot worse, given how much dancing I've done. Not to mention taking a mild beating on the waterslides - the ones at Oasis are steep enough that they kind of throw you sideways on the bends and bounce you into the walls. However, the runoff points where the water from the slides pours back into the pool are a great source of free back massages, so, you lose some you win some. ^_^

Also, as already mentioned by Seiber, I have little ships! Pirates of the Cursed Seas is a... well, it's like the point where CCG meets tabletop wargaming, because you buy it in packs like cards, but then you pop out all the bits and assemble them and you have little ships that sail around the table! And you can actually get a game out of a single booster pack, which beats almost every other collectable fighting game I've EVER heard of. I haven't really trialled the game itself, because like Seiber I'm mostly distracted by going "zomg, little ships!" but it looks kind of basic... as a collectable gimmick, though, it's genius. Unfortunately, the company apparently got bought out a bit back and so the game may be dead in the water (so to speak) but... never mind. I still have little ships!

And (lj)lonescorpion just left me an email with hints on how to do the fourth mission in DoW, so I think that's my evening sorted, then!

So. How/what/who is everyone else doing today? ^_^

Laters,
Rath

[Music] So that's what Raths like!

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:43:41 GMT

Okay, does anyone feel like helping out a Rath? I need music recommendations, because I think I have just noticed an odd quirk in my musical tastes, and I want to see if there is a real pattern here or just an illusory one...

The thing is, W. was kind enough to give me the first Eisbrecher album (and the second one, but I haven't listened to that one as much yet) and I've been devouring it enthusiastically. My favourite tracks are, without question, Willkommen im Nichts and Fanatica. Schwarze Witwe is hanging around third place, tieing for now with Herz Steht Still (which is gorgeous but being left aside for now cos it doesn't fit the topic under discussion).

Now, what's interesting about these three tracks? All of them are quite heavy, quite crunchy, solidly rhythmical, but they have - either in the backing vocals (Schwarze Witwe), the main vocals (Willkommen im Nichts), or both (Fanatica), a bizarrely conspicuous pop influence. The prechorus of Willkommen im Nichts has a brilliant looping, dipping pattern that really does sound like a pop chorus in a horrible, black, spiky, grinning disguise, and the English chorus of Fanatica probably wouldn't sound out of place on a chart single if it weren't backed by distorted synths and being powered from underneath by a vocalist who sounds like he's snarling through a static generator.

Which got me thinking, now, what other bands and songs do I like that feel like this? And the list is interestingly long. Lordi - are a melodic hard rock band with a harsh lead vocal, using a lot of pop and rock lyrical concepts with a dark twist. Devilish Presley - feel like the Fifties like the Fifties never were, twisted sideways by Johnny and Jacqui's sneering snarls and skewed lyrical concepts. Marilyn Manson covering Sweet Dreams. Children of Bodom covering Bed of Nails. Carpathian Forest covering the Cure. Power metal versions of ABBA songs. W.A.S.P. ballads. The list goes on. And as far as I can nail down, the mystic link between them all is the combination of pop/rock melody structures and/or mirrorverse-style twists on mainstream musical ideas, with vocals that are theoretically too harsh for but nevertheless follow the conventions of the melodic structure.

So. Dear flist, do any of you have any songs that sound like they fit this description (any genre from metal to electronica to goth to whatever, guitars not obligatory!) that you think I should hear? Caveat: I still tend to strongly dislike filks, "novelty" covers or pisstakes, some of which would fall into the description above. Some degree of straight face and musical integrity has to be involved, so the band in question has to be doing this style because it's what they want to sound like, rather than because they're looking at the audience going "are we funny yet?" But that aside, I'm sure there must be more Stuff That Sounds Like This, so if anyone has any, please wave it at me? Thank you!

In other news, a) I am going against the trend and actually kind of gutted at what happened to Jeff Hardy at Extreme Rules (and I really hope his shoulder and finger heal up quick, best wishes Jeff!), b) I think I have a cold, and c) I need more sleep. >_< How are you guys?

Laters,
Rath

Viruses, malware, trojans and other bastards.

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:11:39 GMT

A quick crosspost from my LJ, for those who only read here, concerning various nasty redirect attacks that I've either run into myself or know my friends have had (including the Google Redirect Virus - if your Google search results don't go where they ought to, you've got it). Just a quick PSA, basically.

Right, BRB, going for a banana.

Laters,
Rath

ASDFGHJKL NOT A BUNNY

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:29:42 GMT

I just found out that RRW has, in an email to a client, referred to me as his accounts bunny.

'BOOTS!!! I need to borrow your icon! And I possibly also need a lawyer!

[Update: Oh, okay, apparently I'm allowed to be the accounts ebola-infested-flesh-eating-lizard instead. Fantastic, I can live with that. ~~And so can he.~~]

Laters,
The Navigator

Fire & Forget!

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:23:16 GMT

Just in case anyone's reading here but not on my LJ... behold, Fire & Forget on Youtube! Camerawork by (lj)ironlord (thank you!) and editing/posting by (lj)lonescorpion.

So yes, this is us. I am mostly invisible behind our singer, but you can see me from time to time... Enjoy!

Love,
The Navigator

Today is a good day to... everything!

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:08:11 GMT

Yesterday was a definite day of downswing. Mood, luck, Stuff, all rock bottom. Today? Is less than halfway through and already feels like that moment on the way up to the top on a swing, when your insides go over with the force of the lift and the iron frame around you shudders and lurches as your weight and momentum tug on its anchoring, and the wind and sun hit you in the face and it's all too exhilarating to be frightening even if it does feel like you're about to fall off. Today, so far, is good.

And this news article on measuring quantum effects without them realising that you're looking is just the icing on the possibly-existent cake. Apparently, if you can manage to observe reality without changing it, you discover that it is EVEN WEIRDER THAN YOU THOUGHT. Somewhere in the back of the universe, I can hear laughter. ^_^

In other more local news, it's so good to be awake and alive and not half dead with exhaustion for a change. ^_^ I even have a story blocked out in my head, which is great as I've been utterly useless at getting anything into pennable form lately. And today there will be pub food, and useful work, and friends, and also Judgement Day pay-per-view over at Mark's... yep, stuff is good. Life++.

Laters,
The Navigator

PS Also, new best thing ever: Body Shop's brazil nut body butter. I have no idea how it goes from smelling of warm and creamy and, well, brazil nuts in the jar, to smelling like WKD-Iron-Brew-over-hot-charcoal[1] on me, but the fact that it does is frankly just fantastic. Win!

[1] You will learn strange things from pouring alcoholic libations over a disposable barbeque. You may also discover the most unimaginably wonderful caramelised-sugar smell in the world, seriously... ^_^

Morning, everyone.

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Wed, 13 May 2009 10:04:20 GMT

A propos de rien, except that sternenstaub mentioned the Eurovision, I've just found the bestest photo of Lordi that I've seen in ages. Castle + monsters = win. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

WUS last night was completely off the sanity chart, since we got a prog set and a weird covers set right after each other. Word to the wise: don't cover Megadeth. You do not sound like Dave Mustaine, and consequently absolutely nothing you can do to the vocals will do anything but detract from the awesome. On the good side, I did get to headbang myself into rapturous oblivion to the Children of Bodom cover of Alice Cooper's Bed of Nails, which is one of the most brilliant things ever. There's this one moment in the chorus where the lead guitar line collides absolutely amazingly with the note Alexi's singing and it makes the back of my neck tingle every time. Eeeeeeeeee. *shivers*

There were also two (that I picked up) weird Manowar covers in there and now I have a terrible urge to listen to Manowar a lot. Okay, I don't think that's so terrible, but I bet everyone else does.

Meanwhile, I am so dead of tired right now. Luckily I am off work this afternoon. Downtime plz...

Laters,
Rath

Wasn't looking - found this.

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:22:54 GMT

Bon Jovi, Heartbreak Eyes.

This apparently is a lost demo from the first Bon Jovi album. The user who posted it has a ton of similar outtakes, demos and so on (man, gonna be here all night!), but Bon Jovi has a particular place in my heart, so this is something a little special for me.

Cos... one of the fucked up things, for me, about the invention of sound and video capture technology is that even while it gives us chance to have the past at our fingertips, it really rams home the fact that you can't have it all, ever. There's more material already on record than any one person could ever sift for everything they wanted to hear, and much of it locked in vaults or forgotten in attics where you couldn't get to it anyway; and that's before you start asking for the stuff that wasn't caught on the magic reels, the one-nights-only that nobody taped, the old episodes that the BBC threw out. The rehearsals where someone achieved that one perfect riff while the deck wasn't running.

And even what we do capture and get to general release, is never the same as being there. This is why I love eighties hair metal videos and watch them with tears in my eyes; they're like tiny perfect splinters, sent shattering to the winds when the nineties put a sledgehammer through my sonic birthright and sent the pieces flying through time on the precarious wings of VH1 Classic and fans' old tape collections. And somehow, miraculously, they survived until now, twenty years later, they can embed themselves under my skin and dump their small cargos of preserved light and sound and beauty into my veins. I'm staring through a Youtube-sized, pixellated window into an age that doesn't exist any more and probably never did outside the daydreams of a pack of fluffy-haired adolescents in tight trousers, and it hurts so much to know that it was broken before I ever got there - but I can never stop hunting for more pieces.

...maybe some part of me still does believe that one day I'll find them all and be able to put it back together. *soft smile*

Rath

Or, alternatively, I could just show you all this.

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:52:28 GMT

I was originally here to stuff a post on the religion filter which would basically have just been me rambling about stuff for my own enjoyment, but seriously, nobody needs to listen to any more of me being an irritating little ball of obsessiveness so I've locked that one down. Instead, here is something beautiful:

Lord of Nightmares, by Dianae on Devart.

Seriously, this is breathtaking. Go look. And even better, the development of the picture is all here on her forum thread so you can see all the layers of work underneath the final version. (Also, the final version on page eight of that thread is a bigger and better version than the devart one.) How awesome, seriously?

Laters,
Rath

On movies!

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:07:15 GMT

Okay! Prompted by rumblings from tribe sternenstaub's general direction, here is a list of Thirteen Films Rath Loves And Will Show At The Slightest Provocation (there are more, but I thought I'd limit myself a little...)

Trick or Treat (being the definition of what one certain strand of the eighties was ALL about, yes. Featuring Sammi Curr, the greatest fictional rock god of all time.)
Streets of Fire (rock opera. Only not. Only gritty and badass and snarky and slashy and amazing. This film makes me want to explode for joy. With added Jim Steinman songs! And Willem Dafoe in black vinyl!)
John Carpenter's Vampires (is sleazy and rough-edged and politically incorrect, violent and sexy and has an old priest, a young priest, a fantastic vampire, and James Woods being utterly brilliant)
Ghosts of Mars (because I want to see it again dammit and nobody ever wants to watch it with me. Primarily a visual-spectacle flick, recommended for anyone who likes glossy-edged, darkish, vaguely incomprehensible SF and anyone with a kink for sharp objects/piercings/body mods/black leather/pain.)
Last Action Hero (anyone who loves the way stories and worlds fit together should see this film. As should anyone who likes their villains intelligent, well dressed and dangerous. Warning: contains Arnold Schwarznegger sending himself up, which is dangerous levels of adorable.)
The Ninth Gate (I normally don't do the Johnny Depp thing, but when he's playing a complete bastard of a book dealer who's chasing down a book co-written by the Devil? Hell yes. Also, Frank Langella does his Bad Guy routine in this to wonderful effect. WIN.)
Batman Forever (because it's so slick and nineties and glossy and ridiculous and eye-candy, and I cannot get enough, ever, of this version of Two-Face and the Riddler - seriously, seeing is believing.)
David Cronenberg's Crash (I love this film and it's a lot more than just the shocker it was made out to be on its release, but just about everyone who has ever reviewed it has managed to make me go "What, no, YOU HAVE NO CLUE" so I always like rewatching it. But it's one that not many people I know have the stomach for, sadly. :/ )
Dracula (the 1979 version, for my money the finest portrayal of the Count ever, courtesy of Frank Langella. Beautifully sensual, ambiguous, subtle, and gorgeously shot, this is a lost classic of the highest order.)
Mortal Kombat (I will not try to be coherent about this film, never going to happen, seriously. Characters/design/fight cinematography/music/EVERYTHING++++++)
Ghost Rider (...obviously.)
Sin City (makes me cry and ache and cheer and gasp out loud every time. Best comic-noir movie ever made except, just possibly, Watchmen.)
The Shadow (most gorgeous America-that-never-was in the universe, Mongol warlords, and Alec Baldwin hamming it up. I love this film not so much for what it straightforwardly is, as for everything I can see just off the edges of the frame.)

If anything on that list sounds like something you want to see/resee/geek about, please leave a comment below and I will see what I can do! :)

Love,
Rath

Do you feel lucky, punk?

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:57:55 GMT

...why yes, yes I do, actually.

So we had Richard over last night for dinner and I did barbeque, since it was warm and bright enough to get away with it. Eating in the kitchen, sliding door open, cooking on the patio, back and forth I trotted...

And I suppose one can only go through a door so many times without running smack dab into Murphy's Law of Doorsteps. In the interests of fairness, let it be said that I'm not naturally a klutz. I may not always be poetry in motion, but I can carry three full pint glasses from a bar to a table and not spill, I can play vinyls without scratching them and I can be trusted not to, y'know, sit on a Ming vase or anything. Given which, I don't usually worry too much about the kitchen sill in our house - even though it's quite high, wooden lip on the outside, tiled step on the inside, and metal door runner along the middle. Let's just say it's a nontrivial obstacle.

You can see where this is going to end, can't you? Yes, I did. Tripped straight over the edge of the sill on my way back in from the garden, landing in a dramatic heap next to the freezer.

I have seldom felt so thankful as I did upon realising that, despite the awkward way I'd landed, despite the vicious metal and tile edges of the sill lying in wait for my blood, despite the incredibly small amount of space I'd had to fall in without crashing against the furniture, I appeared to have done almost no damage whatsoever. Visions of broken bones, torn toenails (yes, of course my feet were bare), sprained ankles and wrenched ligaments ceased to dance before my startled eyes as I picked myself up and discovered that the limit of the damage was a bruise on the top of my right foot and a wrench to my right knee which, while it still hurts this morning, isn't even enough to give me an observable limp. And by some minor miracle or possibly a very good catch by the house wights, I hadn't even broken the plate I'd been holding, although we did have to invoke the three second rule on the contents thereof. >.>

So I feel pretty damn lucky, because if fate had looked the wrong way for half a second there, I totally could've been typing this from Addenbrooke's. I'm very grateful that I'm not. ^_^

Laters,
Rath

PS And apart from that I had a really good evening and seem to have played about a ton of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, which may actually be my favourite console game of all time. Yay for weekends... ♥

Dammit, gotten possessed again.

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:24:20 GMT

If you can hear this sound somewhere in the distance:

./~BURN DOWN JERUSALEM
My wish is your command...!./~

it is almost certainly me singing along on the astral plane loudly enough to be actually audible. Cannot... stop... listening... to Dream Evil's Crusader's Anthem. And every time I play it I seem to be turning it up another notch.

Have not felt like this since was seventeen and playing air guitar while standing on bed listening to Dio and Manowar. Currently not sure which of mp3 player, heart, brain, and universe is going to explode first. \m/^_^\m/ ♥ ♥ ♥

SEND HELP. AND BIGGER SPEAKERS.

The Navigator

[Meme] That bang you just heard was me exploding. It's all good, nobody panic.

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:10:42 GMT

Praise the storm gods, it's FINALLY raining. I got joyfully soaked on the way through town and I feel so much better for it... life is good today, people. And you know what that means: a round of the six things meme!

1. The wonderful (lj)dastier has sent me the etext of the ultra-rare Lightning Tower/Dark King W40K chapbook, which contains two stories I absolutely HAD to have about two of my most beloved characters. I seriously, actually just exploded and had to respawn so I could post about it, I am so thrilled. Thank you D.T.! ^_____^

2. Speaking of presents, lookingforsigns got ~~home~~ back to Cambridge (huh, I totally typed that by reflex) yesterday and while this in itself is a Good Thing (call it 2a), good thing 2b is that she brought me a present! I now have... a little teeny New York snowglobe! ♥ It is exactly the sort of tourist-thing that nobody is EVER supposed to actually WANT to be given, and I adore it absolutely to bits. It has little tiny skyscrapers! And plastic snowflakes that drop out of its liquid air with all the grace of a small flurry of halfbricks! It is AWESOME. ^______^

3. I figured out where to get Koi-friendly pate! This is good because it means that on Friday night, I will be making venison Wellington for the four available members of the Triad using (lj)eviltwinemma's fantastic recipe. I am SO looking forward to this, both as a chance to test my culinary skills and as a cracking good excuse to eat until I fall over and stop moving. *grins*

(And related thing 3b, I have just discovered that there exists the "Eat Dangerously Cookbook". Sample quote from their Salad Nicoise recipe: There is a place in France where the naked ladies dance, and there is a salad in France that makes dancing ladies get naked. You'd think there would be a lady in France that dances naked on a salad, but there isn't. We checked. ...I think I'm in love.)

4. Music! My heart currently belongs, on the usual timeshare rules, to the following:

- Heather Dale's "The Farmer's Curst Wife" and "Crashing Down" (so sorry about the crappy intro and weird outro on the former of those, and the fanvids on both that I advise you ignore, but these are the only versions I can find online...)
- Hammerfall's Crimson Thunder, which I am completely in love with this week. Hammerfall have now been appointed Official Band of my Dark Redemption 'verse, because their songs keep on a) fitting and b) making me cry in the process. ^_^ Here, have a sample: "Hearts On Fire", complete with that awesome slow-build midsection that totally sounds like an invocation chant. I love it. ♥
- Songs where the very first chord makes me want to jump to my feet for joy. This is a bit of a special category but I have two good ones right here: Nightwish's "Know Why the Nightingale Sings" (again, sorry for the AMV but Nightwish songs get taken down off youtube a lot and I can't find a better version), and Cheap Trick's "Mighty Wings" from, er, the Top Gun soundtrack >.>. Anyone else have any songs that make them feel like that? ♥
- Root's "Aposiopesis", which turns out to have a video, to my surprise! I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this is the greatest Black Metal ballad I've ever heard. It's not like those are two concepts that normally sit well together, but this one sacrifices neither darkness nor emotion and the result is amazing. *shivers*

5. All the stuff that is living in my head at the moment, which is nothing short of awesome. I have around nineteen characters currently all taking it in turns to be up-front and I love all of them, and my ability to see both sides is being tested way past its limits and every damn one of them seems to be able to make me cry at the drop of a hat and it's just incredible. I wouldn't give them up for the world, seriously. ♥

6. And finally, I present, without further comment, this photo from one of NASA's orbital observatories. How unimaginably awesome is THAT, seriously?

Laters,
Rath

PS And I have another two things that didn't quite make the cut for the list, but:

- I went shopping yesterday and found candles that burn with coloured flames! Including purple ones! How cool is that?

- And this morning, I drank an entire can of Relentless Inferno on an empty-but-for-a-bit-of-chocolate stomach and am now consequently convinced that I CAN CONQUER THE UNIVERSE FROM HERE. Man, this stuff kicks ass. *_*

Late-night linkage!

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:07:07 GMT

...and I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of Man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels.

The above from the immortal William Wordsworth, but delivered into my field of awareness by being on the back of a Relentless can (yes, I do drink energy drinks at twelve o'clock at night, you think I got this way naturally?) Thus inspired in more ways than one, I seem to have gone off collecting pretty things - so here, I share!

[Warning - for safety, assume all the below are NWS.]
Ave Slaanesh. If you squint, this might arguably even be Proper Art. ;)
I EXIST, AND THIS IS MY NOISE. ^_^
And an older-school riff (sorry!) on the same concept.
CHAAAARGE! Not wholly sold on the execution, here, but this looks so like the kind of thing that occasionally goes careering across my headspace that I had to include it. ^_^
This horrifies the bejesus out of me on some levels and delights me on others. I find it uncannily plausible that this exists, somewhere.
This one on the other hand I include mostly for its artistic merit alone. Seriously, wow.
Ten points and a cookie if you can figure out what sex this character is. Not that it actually matters, of course, and the answer may well be "all of the above". Official GW art, this one.
This on the other hand is completely not official style at all, and arguably a bit too anime. Still putting it in here because I just damn well like it.
Temple of Slaanesh, no photoshop required. Because, yes, we do get everywhere, and we have pretty toys.
And finally... gods DAMN. I am completely in awe of this, and also get vertigo and shivers down my spine just looking at it. Seriously, YES, THIS.

(If you're commenting on this btw, please be invited to add art links of things that you love (any subject at all) - I want there to be as many beautiful things in this post as will possibly fit. ^_^)

Laters,
Rath

EDIT: I have just discovered the source of the Wordsworth quote above, namely "Tintern Abbey".

Which OF COURSE would also be the one with the line about: Knowing that Nature never did betray / the heart that loved her, wouldn't it. Of course it would. ♥

This post has pretty things in it. Mostly for lupie_stardust.

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:14:24 GMT

Lupie? Saw these and thought of you! (All SFW, the worst thing here is a lot of bare male torsos. *g*)

Servant of Tzeentch. Apparently one fairly high in his lord's favour, as well, to look at him. I absolutely love this.

Someone's version of the King in Yellow, whoa. I have no idea if this actually looks like him or not, btw, but that face(s) gives me the shivers. O_O

WOLF!

Necromancer type thing.

One in scarlet and one in white, which are so gorgeous I couldn't pick my favourite, and demonstrate exactly what you can do with a simple recolour. ♥

Meanwhile, as a matter of completely unrelated public record, I am currently listening to Hammerfall's Riders on the Storm and trying very hard to stay sitting down because it is a bloody awesome song. "Riders on the storm - one with the wind, defenders of creation-!"

Laters,
Rath

Links to odd things!

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:50:20 GMT

First, a link to the world's fuzziest form of graffiti! I admit I am mostly posting this in the hope of giving people like raisedbymoogles and sternenstaub and deepbluesquee ideas. ;) URBAN KNITTING!

Secondly, mostly for W. because I said I'd find it but also for the bemusement of other passers-by, why Hitler didn't bomb Blackpool. Logical I suppose - what's the good of taking over the world if you can't keep all the fun bits intact for your own use?

In other news: lookingforsigns, apparently my copy of the Batman Legacy set is on its way to me... are you doing anything next weekend? ;)

Laters,
Rath

And another meme, with even more ketchup!

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:43:52 GMT

And, 'nother meme! This one from zeldenthuis. You comment, I give you a letter. You post five songs that start with that letter, ideally with some kind of upload or link!

Apparently, annoyingly few songs I love start with an R. >.> Still, I can cheat if I have to, because the word "Rock" does indeed start with an R...

Rocka Rolla - Judas Priest. This one used to be a bit of a running gag at my expense, back when my Rocksoc friends found out I actually like this admittedly dubious title track off the Priest's first album. They're probably still laughing. To be honest, I certainly am, having just found this alternative version of it being performed live on the Old Grey Whistle Test! Oh my gods. Rob with hair! Terrible off-key bits! Hippie shirts! Hard to believe this is the same band I was watching on Saturday night rip Wembley Arena to shreds in wall-to-wall studded leather... <3

Ready or Not - Europe. I love Europe with a passion, and this sort of thing is why - because when they weren't writing very silly anthems about space travel, they were a beautiful, polished, sugar-sweet soft rock band with some of the loveliest vocals on earth. Their relegation to office-party discos is both undeserved and unfair.

...at this point, I interrupt myself for a Europe bonus track! This is the video to Rock the Night, which I've loved for years and used to dance to at night with headphones on, when nobody else knew - but I'd never seen the video. What an oversight. Because everything about this... YES. This is what being in a rock band should always be like, right down to the air guitar and the ketchup bottle. Because nothing is more awesome than one of your own songs coming back and meeting you. ^________^

Rock Me - Great White. Great White aren't much remembered, but dear gods, this song is amazing. I love the way it builds from its seductive, subtle groove, so slow and sensual and silky, and then suddenly explodes into that searing chorus that lights up everything for miles like some kind of sonic firework display. *shivers* Beautiful, nothing more I can say.

Raven Heart - WASP. I love WASP, I don't enthuse about them all that often, so here they are; with a pretty straightforward song about love, sex and darkness and how awesome the above are. All present and correct there, then...

Revelations - Iron Maiden. No, I am not posting up Run to the bloody Hills again no matter what. ;) Have this one instead. Actually my favourite thing about Revelations is the GK Chesterton verse at the beginning, where Bruce demonstrates - as he later would to stunning effect on his version of Jerusalem - that that voice can work its magic even on stuff that was meant to be sung in church. You'd never catch me singing along to it any other way, put it like that. ;)

Actually, there are more I could've included, but I'll be good and stop. Anyone want a letter?

Laters,
The Navigator

Meme catch-up.

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:58:45 GMT

Or possibly memes with ketchup. (What? I'm hungry.)

First, one from sternenstaub! The aim of this one - you comment, and I give you five words/concepts/things that I associate with you. You then trot back to your own journal with these thingies, and write about each of them in turn. Then do the same for anyone who asks for five of their own!

So, here are mine:

1. Dead things

Hah! Fair cop, to say the least. Actually, though nobody who knows me these days (or has for the last decade) would believe it, when I was a child I used to be utterly terrified of the dead. Decayed corpses in photos or, worse, in movies, and I'd cover my eyes (I still remember cringing from scenes in Indiana Jones movies over that!) And the dead that got up and walked? A million times worse.

Quite when that small frightened child turned into the Rath who loves her deadthings so much that she collects them in numerous formats and finds their empty-eyed, bared-teeth, crumbling faces more comforting than the stares of the living? I am not sure. But to be honest, I think a huge chunk of the blame has to lie with this guy. Good old Eddie. :) I think the click in my brain when I realised that it was possible to be on the same side as one of these horrifying creatures was what swept away the irrational fear and replaced it with a complete fascination that as yet shows no sign of going away.

On a more psychological level - I think if there's one aspect of my personality that's reflected in my love of the living dead, it's my utter hatred of being beaten. The idea of something that can drag itself back from the ultimate defeat by sheer force of will, is one that I find profoundly inspiring.

2. Cold

I have a love-hate relationship with the cold. To be exact, my mind loves it, and my body hates it. I blame my northern blood and my love of Black Metal for my appreciation; however, I also have mild circulatory problems that mean bits of me go white/purple/numb if I don't watch out for them. But I can survive cold weather very well when I have to; and I love snow, ice, and clear winter nights with a wild passion. Incidentally, according to the classic system my elemental affinity is to Earth; but I sometimes think there's something in the old alternative version that replaces Earth on the north quarter with Ice...

3. Music that's dark without being metal

Initially this made me double take, as surely metal is the first genre anyone ever associates with me; but actually, it's a very good call. Because the one thing that's most likely to drag me out of my sonic comfort zone is anything which conveys the same darkness that I love in my favourite kinds of metal. Whether it's E Nomine's sweeping gothic-classical, the D-Devils' gleefully twisted electronica, or Leonard Cohen's late-night laments, if I can hear the darkness in something that isn't "my" kind of music, it'll often find it's way into my heart anyway. And thinking about it I'm happy that that's the case, because it gives me a chance to find out more about genres outside my usual preferences, while giving me a coherent route by which to get out there.

(I'm still yet to hear anyone do That Which I Love in a classical piece, though. Maaaaaybe Night on Bald Mountain, but I know I wouldn't love that half as much if it weren't for what Disney did to it...

...oh no, wait, I lie. Hall of the Mountain King!!! \m/ ^_____^ \m/)

4. Marvel

If you're into comics, you're either a Marvel or a DC person (unless you're one of those people who only reads the indies). It's a bit like being a Beatles man or an Elvis man. For me it's Marvel, always will be. Mostly the fault of my favourite comic character Ghost Rider being Marvel; but also, Marvel's universe just seems to fit more comfortably in my brain. I'm not quite sure why, but... there you go.

5. Super-spandex

Ahem. Yes. Well... seriously. I've worn spandex. While it is an absolutely wonderful material, and I would wear it all the time if I thought I still had the figure for it, it is not the stuff of superhero costuming. It snags, it scuffs, the lycra threads snap and poke out through the fabric, and it gives you no protection whatsoever against either the elements or any kind of passing sharp or remotely scratchy object. Also, those awesome kicks, splits and dives that you see in the comics? I am not at all convinced the seams would hold up. >.>

Enter my mad scientist character Werner Wildstrom, who promptly explained that he invented super-spandex in the 1920s, which is why he is now semi-retired on the patent rights. ^_^ Because every supervillain and superhero in town is wearing his stuff, or one of the fancy modern variants. As an explanation it worked for me, and now super-spandex has become a bit of a running gag around here. *grin* That's it, really!

So, er, yes, those were fun, thank you Lupie, anyone who wants to play please comment below!

I was going to do two memes in one post but I think I'll split them... this is getting long...

Laters,
The Navigator

Driveby weird techno music!

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:03:20 GMT

Hello everybody,

I would just like to introduce you all, especially sternenstaub if it doesn't already know them, to the D-Devils, who appear to be made entirely of Belgian mad and things that go beep. But they look so awesome, and two of them even have matching vinyl trenchcoats, and I can't tell if the keyboard player is a boy or a girl or a N/A; and I am completely intrigued to discover that, apparently, darkness feels the same whether you wire it through guitars and amps or through synths and samplers. I normally don't find this kind of electronic stuff especially inspiring, but this is just... on one of my currents, so there you go. (Also, they have my official lyric of the week. "But remember, everything you say can and will be used against you... SO SHUT UP AND DANCE!")

Also, today I came into work in my New Rocks because I'm going out for dinner with Andy later (hey look at me, getting taken out to dinner! By an actual guy! I'm a real girl at last! *rotfl*) and I won't have time to go home and change. Consequently, for once, I passed all my Difficult Terrain tests on the way to work and can even go out of my way to step in the puddles with no negative consequences whatsoever. How cool is that?

Er, that was all, back later... *voom*

Cheers,
The Navigator

Tattoos and music-related woes

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:31:36 GMT

Hello everybody...

First, I'd like to just direct anyone who doesn't read my Livejournal ((lj)faithinfire) over there briefly to this post featuring a photo of my NEW TATTOO! ^____^ Mostly I posted this as a thank you to everyone who's donated to the Rath Tattoo Fund over the last couple of years - so if that's you, please go and see!

Meanwhile, in other news, I am having terminally bad luck with matters musical today. A moment of silence, please, for a fallen trooper - the half-dead ghettoblaster in our kitchen saw fit to irretrievably chew up my old cassette copy of the Last Action Hero soundtrack. :( It's not that I can't replace it, but that tape was one of my old tapes, from when I was a teenager; one of the ones I picked up for cheap in one of the tiny, dusty old record stores in Bradford that I haunted on Friday afternoons when I'd sneaked out of school. Those tapes, the ones I bought with stashed dinner money back before I was even old enough to go to gigs on my own, are practically like horcruxes or something - there's a piece of my soul in every one, and to have one of them die such a sorry death is more gutting than it has any right to be. "Farewell my friend, you will be missed!" :(

And in the meantime, I also just discovered I've lost my copy of The Rasmus's Dead Letters, which is really annoying because I've had the gorgeous "F-F-F-Falling" stuck in my head for a day and a half now and really want to play it again on something other than YouTube. Did I lend that CD to anyone, by any chance? *peers forlornly into the abyss*

Laters,
Rath

pthoo!

kit_rathenar@yahoo.co.uk — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:13:18 GMT

Yo, deepbluesquee, you remember when we were laughing last night about me putting clear tape over the address of that parcel in case it got wet in the mail, and saying how only an Englishman would send a waterproof parcel? Well, just guess what happened to it this morning while I was hauling it to town in the snow. *rotfl*

Why the hell I am in work in the first place is a whole nother matter (possibly some vague residual guilt for not making it on Monday) but at least the fens were absolutely beautiful when I was walking across them; I came in the back way so as to avoid the cars and general public assholery on the main road. Snow has this odd effect of making me hate the human race, because the buggers all stomp around in it making slush and noise and mess and snowballs and they won't just shut up, sit down and let me enjoy it. And they all complain like crazy. FFS! It's beautiful, it's wild, it gives you a perfect excuse to stay in bed and not go to work, now get out of my way and let me stalk around the place in peace dammit! </black metal>

Anyway, here's hoping I make it home in one piece, since it's not looking like to get any better out there... *peers out of window* How are you guys?

Laters,
Rath