So I googled "moogle" just now for reasons that are not particularly important, and I am now in stitches over this. (Read the whole way down - this is a rare, golden exception to the "never read comments on the internet" rule!) I also discovered that moogle.co.uk is the homepage of a National Lottery syndicate, bizarrely. I am very confused as to why, and also I thought that was illegal/against the Lottery rules. Someone needs to buy that domain and fill it with actual moogles, stat.

In other news, zeldenthuis, I've just found something for the strange covers collection, in case you haven't heard this: Monumentum doing "Fade to Grey". Italian goth-dark-metallers do weird things. O_O

I'm also currently in love with Mono Inc's "Grown", which I can't find on Youtube but the lyrics are here. Because, well, yes. O_O (Although whoever transcribed those lyrics didn't have a very good ear, but they're close.)

[The administration thanks you for your time. This post was brought to you by http://www.relentlessenergy.com, because there are so many empties around the house now that even I'm starting to wonder if I have a problem. >.> ]

Laters,
Rath

Just for the record, I am so in love right now with Bai Bang's cover of the Sweet's X-Ray Specs that I may actually explode from joy. Man, the Swedish glam scene is awesome. Here, have a random pic of their bass player, to demonstrate just why the idea of this band being able to see through people's clothes can't be all bad... ^_^

Meanwhile, anyone who reads here but not LJ should probably refer to this post for important State of the Rath information. Also, I've been to Wacken if that sort of thing is of any interest - full review later!

Sorry if I missed anything while I was gone - if you need me to see anything, please let me know! Hope everyone is okay. Now, since it's four in the morning, I crash. Night guys!

Laters,
Rath

"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

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

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... ^_^

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

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

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

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

...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!

( Slaanesh-themed art links. )

(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. ♥

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

Calling all stations... come in, England...

IRON MAIDEN have been nominated for the Brit Awards under "Best British Live Act"! (Along with, if anyone cares, Coldplay, Elbow, Scouting For Girls and the Verve - do any of those people do anything interesting onstage? I wouldn't know...)

Now, this category is judged by public vote - and you all know what happens when the words "Iron Maiden" and "fan support" turn up in the same sentence. *grins* So if anyone would like to join me in contributing to the metal scene's greatest mass polling exercise since Eurovision 06, please walk this way and get clicking!

Ithankyou!

Laters,
Rath

If there's any truth at all in this, it's one of the creepiest things I've seen all year:

Numerous blond, blue-eyed twins of Brazilian town may be the handiwork of Josef Mengele.

This sort of thing is what still sets the Third Reich apart from every other evil empire I can think of. Plenty of other regimes have been amoral, immoral, bloodthirsty, genocidal... but I can't call to mind any other that throws up this kind of pure, spine-crawling, uncanny wrong with quite such macabre effectiveness. Even now, sixty years later, and this sort of thing still pops up.

Of course, I have no idea how good the research in this particular book is. But even if it's all made up, the fact that it's considered worth a news story is in itself a comment on exactly what place people like Mengele still hold in the popular imagination. Brr.

Laters,
Rath

For special entertainment of my darling (lj)yvesilena and also because I think it was doing me good. Since I've missed a couple of weeks these aren't all from today, but here are six things that have made me happy today or at least recently:

1) W40K! I've been reading a bunch of Black Library stuff and found a couple of fantastic Chaos stories; it's soooo nice to see various members of the Traitor Legions being written as real characters rather than just one-dimensional bad guys. The bloodshed, the camaraderie, the exhilaration, the altered but definitely still real codes of honour and brotherhood - and, yes, the pain of being caught between worlds and between oaths for all time, and having to handle it by any means that lets you (figuratively) sleep at night. This is the stuff I want to read, and wish people had started writing a lot earlier. Not just a bunch of grinning arseholes with axes any more - these are Chaos Champions. *nods* ♥

2) Discovering just now that actor/wrestler Kevin Nash, of whom I'm something of a fan, is apparently going to be let out of hospital tomorrow and should basically be okay! Given that two days ago the reports were that he might have anything up to MRSA (*shudders*), I am SO relieved to hear this. Fingers crossed that nothing else goes wrong for him! *sends fanhugs*

3) Getting the next session done on my epic Ghost Rider tattoo! For the record, it looks amazing. And my brain is apparently permanently rewired, at this point, to accept a certain type of "pain" as being An Okay Thing, because I no longer seem to feel any animal urge to pull away from the needle at all. Also, the afterburn (for those who aren't inked, it feels kinda like a graze or a bad sunburn) seems to now register as an actively pleasurable sensation, which is fantastic because it means that the outer curve of my left arm, from shoulder to elbow, is now one solid wall of ohhellyeah whenever it gets knocked or I stretch too far. Niiiiice. ^_^

4) I have my ticket for Lordi in February! Nuff said. ^____^

5) Finding a very, very cool photo of one of my favourite wrestlers showing off his car. Behold, Edge in a black '69 Camaro! (Man, if I hadn't fancied him already... *g*)

6) Getting my "we sent you money" slip from GW, meaning that I can afford to live and fight another day AND go to see my mum and dad next weekend! This gives me much joy as I do miss them, and home, really a lot.

So yeah. Not everything is perfect at the moment, but I'd rather post about the stuff that is than the stuff that isn't. I know which I'd rather read back over six months from now, anyway. ^_^

How is everyone else?

Laters,
Rath

PS, Oh, and one more cool thing that didn't fit in the list: Scan from somewhere in Marvel Secret Invasion. There's having God on your side... and then there's being the Avengers. *loves this page*

Allegedly, David Bowie invented the credit crunch!

It's pretty obviously just someone drawing a silly conclusion, but I almost wish there was something more in it because it would be pretty damn rock'n'roll. ^_^ I mean, we all know David Bowie is badass, but being the guy who made the entire world economy collapse? That would be its own whole new kind of badass, albeit probably not the kind anyone would invite to parties any more...

Anyway. How is everyone today? I've just noticed I haven't posted here in ages...

Laters,
Rath

Dingo, House Without A Name - I would never have heard of this song if Lordi hadn't done very evil things to it. Thank you Lordi, as ever!

Domination Black, The House of 1000 Eyes - someone, somewhere, will love this song as much as I do. Right?

Also, I have succumbed to temptation and now own a DX belt buckle, as an early Christmas present to myself. Ah, DX shinies - the ultimate mixed message. "Yes! I'm a rebel - and I have twenty bucks worth of corporate merchandising right here to prove it!" ~~God knows god knows I love this perfect world...~~ ^_^

Rath

I can't, cos I'm in CB2s, but never mind, because I always knew the Eagles were cooler than people gave them credit for. This song is just... yes. Exactly like this, dammit!

And a tribute to the power of the OTP that is Google/Youtube, too! All I had of this song was the chorus refrain and a memory of how the guitars sounded, and from that, I found it in less than fifteen minutes. How cool is that?

Laters,
Rath

Obama vows to close Guantanamo Bay.

So relieved. Thank you Barack, because it looks like you really do mean to turn America back into a nation such that people won't back away from me when I tell them I want to live there. Thank you for being someone to whom the word "moral" means "we can't go around torturing people" rather than merely "we do everything it says in this dumbed-down edition of a dusty two-thousand-year-old book and everyone who gets hurt in the process, it was their own fault, y'see?"

I could hug the man, I really could, and I can't remember ever wanting to hug a politician before in my life. *throws flowers*

Laters,
The Navigator

I have a new bed - well, sort of a bed. It's actually a large bean bag that was given to me by deepbluesquee, and Koi took a photo of me curled up in it with my nose sticking out of the duvet, and... well, see above. ^_^

Interestingly, though, it seems to make me sleep a bit differently. More lightly, I think, to be precise. I seem to wake up in the middle of the night more often (which is cool, as the full moon has been shining straight through my window for the last couple of nights and it's absolutely magic getting to see that at five am when nobody else is awake). But the one difference I've really noticed is that I seem to be dreaming more than I was, and this is a good thing because when I don't dream, I feel wretched when I wake up and am well below optimal levels of functionality for the rest of the day.

Does anyone else notice what effect their dreams have on their wellbeing, out of curiosity? Or am I just weird? (If Freddy Krueger ever shows up, of course, I'm proper screwed...)

Meanwhile, in other news, I went in Body Shop yesterday and treated myself to some new bath things. Their Christmas range this year (amber/cranberry/vanilla) is fantastic. Especially the Vanilla Spice body lotion, as it's got gold shimmer in it and leaves you sparkling all over like some kind of demented Mary-Sue while also being incredibly good for your skin. I shall definitely be using this more.

Now, though, I'm stuck at work and miserably bored. Entertain me? Anyone? Please?

Laters,
Rath

PS And in the news today: Obama's new Secret Service codename is "Renegade". I like it. ^_^ Meanwhile, there's finally a proper sighting on a planet orbiting Fomalhaut... iä, Cthugha!

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20081016/tuk-what-does-outer-space-smell-like-dba1618.html

Apparently, out there in the void between the worlds, it smells of frying steak and welding - or at least, that's the rather prosaic description provided by astronauts sniffing things that have been out there.

I have to admit, the idea that the sensory bottom line of our universe is flesh, fire and hot metal makes me very, very happy.

I really hope that the attempts to duplicate this scent are successful and that it's somehow made commercially available. I'm not sure I'd ever wear anything else again.

Laters,
The Navigator