Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 24: A Word from Ray Villafane

| October 24, 2014

“‘Darkness’, as it inspires me, isn’t limited to expressions of evil, mayhem, and bad outcomes. Something can also be considered “dark” if it is unknown, misunderstood, or incorrectly interpreted.” ~ The Book of Dark Sentiments The Artistry of Ray Villafane (sample above) and his fellow Artists Andy Bergholtz and Chris Vierra who together form the creative […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 22: In Case of Vampire

| October 22, 2014

The label above would have been included with one of the ornately turned out and beautifully boxed kits consisting of masterfully crafted weapons and accessories created for defense against, and if necessary the destruction of, vampires, that were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Timing and anecdotal evidence suggest, although fall far […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 20: An Aside About Cannibalism

| October 20, 2014

Back in the early 1980’s, a young man came to work for a company I was consulting for, and it fell to me to train him in the arcane arts of installing and troubleshooting security and fire alarm systems. I befriended him in  a mentor kind of way, and learned he had spent much of […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 19: A Few Words from Terence Hanbury White

| October 19, 2014

The world is at war. With everything. The world of humans strives for unbridled growth, and in so doing either sheds all care, or cooks up justifications for its extravagance, to the peril of everything that isn’t us. Religion is still being used as a reason to kill everyone else who doesn’t belong to “the […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 18: Privacy, Secrets, and the Sliding Scale

| October 18, 2014

If there is one very dark pit modern society is hell bent on careening headlong into, it’s the dangerous, dangerous, and I emphasize really fucking dangerous idea that demanding privacy is somehow suspicious, and tantamount to an open admission that you – indeed anyone who wishes to have it – must have “something to hide”. […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 16: The Bum Puff Fairy

| October 16, 2014

Today’s Dark Sentiment is about things that some people permit to smell bad but shouldn’t, for there have been times and places in history, including very recent history if you get around much, when the olfactory senses have found themselves in need of assistance that has to be nothing short of supernatural. The poem that […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 7: Slenderman

| October 7, 2014

Back in October of 2010, I wrote about the Wendigo – ” … a malevolent forest spirit that comes in winter. It needs human flesh to feed but can only slake its hunger by possessing a human that it then uses to hunt, kill, and devour its prey. The Wendigo comes to us through the […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 5: Film Noir

| October 5, 2014

Film noir / film nwär / noun: A style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace. The term was originally applied (by a group of French critics) to American thriller or detective films made in the period 1944–54 and to the work of directors such as Orson Welles, […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 2: A Fairy Tale

| October 2, 2014

Fairy Tales, as they were originally written, weren’t the saccharine offal children who don’t belong to Mrs. LFM and me, or a few notable Friends, grew up with. They were intended to convey valuable life lessons to the offspring of people who lived a lot closer to reality than most in the so called “first […]

When Zip Met John

| September 20, 2014

“If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it.  The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury.  Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim.” ~ Jeff Cooper, Principles of Personal Defense If you hang out here, you […]