Large Fierce Mammal

“The Hatpin Peril” Terrorized Men Who Couldn’t Handle the 20th-Century Woman ~ Smithsonian Magazine

“The thorn defends the rose, yet it is peaceful and does not seek conflict.”

As you will surely know Goode Reader, I make little attempt to keep my appreciation for cold steel and those who deftly wield it any kind of a secret around here. Tonight, please join me in revisiting a representative rhyme from years past to season the pan, as it were, for a lively ditty from none other than Elsa Lanchester. (more…)

“The Watchstone” (LFM Photo — click to enbiggen)

In the spirit of Stonefall, tonight’s Dark Sentiment reflects on another case involving rocks moving around with outside assistance, mixed with a little imaginative historical interpretation.

The actual stone on which this is based, pictured above, is the largest of a small cluster of “glacial erratics” — stones picked up by advancing glaciers in the most recent ice age and later dropped when melt released them as global temperatures warmed. Depending on the type of stone and its resistance to rough handling, “The distance of transportation may range from less than 1 km (0.6 mile) to more than 800 km (500 miles)”. These erratics can be quite enormous, the one in the picture standing approximately 2.4 meters (8 feet) at its highest point being far from the largest I’ve seen.

Now, oh learned and Goode Reader, mindful that when you watch the stone long enough, so too does the stone watch you, I invite you to consider tonight’s offering.

The Watchstone

By LFM

By a ruined road through forest lands,
A boulder called the Watchstone stands.
Who named it that is lost to ken,
In all the years to now from then.

Now solemn Hemlocks hold their sway,
They know the tale but cannot say,
The oldest crone is far too young
To understand their Hemlock tongue.

Who stood this watch that named the stone,
O’er bawling ox and cartwheel groan,
Along this road now gone to dross,
Long overgrown and claimed by moss?

But men forget how short their day
To stones that came from leagues away
In icy age now long agone
That knew the mighty Mastodon.

No answer carries on the breeze
From stones that came before the trees.
The oldest crone is far too young
To understand their granite tongue.

Source: exurb1a

About Exurb1a

Exurb1a likes fiction with a metaphysical backbone. He enjoys trying to write that kind of stuff himself.

He also runs a subpar YouTube channel of the same name.

His words, not mine.

We’ve previously met our feature artist only yesterday in Thoughts From Your Deathbed. Tonight we’re going back. (more…)

Persistence of Memory, 1931 by Salvador Dali

Money’s like a crop that can
Be sown and reaped anon.
Time is as a bottled dram,
That, once it’s drunk, is gone.

~ Waste Not Your Dram ~
(Excerpt)

Pissing your life away and regretting it in your dotage is a recurring theme in both art and life. (more…)

Mrs. LFM photo

In past seasons I have written here of such Dark Sentiments as True Love, how to tell when it is, and its perils when unrequited. You can roll around in some samples from this list of links:

• Dark Sentiments – Day 28 (True Love)
• Dark Sentiments Season 9 — Day 21: When is Love “True”?
• Dark Sentiment Season 9 — Day 25: Unrequited Love

Even as these are essential reading for the budding Men Mrs. LFM and I are rearing, I posit Fathercraft to be a Dark Sentiment in a realm of its own as it contains all the aforesaid elements and such other non-trivialities as previously spoken of in Dark Sentiments Season 7 – Day 16: The Magick of Words, Dark Sentiments Season 11 — Day 30: Immortality, and Courage, to name but a few. (more…)

There hasn’t been enough musicality threading its way through this season and tonight’s Dark Sentiment aims to set that right with the lot of you.

“Broken Peach is the Rock&Soul band. Formed early 2009, creating a new way of merging music with entertainment. BP differs from the typical cover bands, giving a personal sound to each of the songs they perform, including also some mashups. One of BP best assets is using an extravagant aesthetic, giving a visual freshness on their live shows.”

What you will find here tonight is an LFM selected playlist consisting of Hallowe’en Specials and otherwise organic darkness from this endlessly entertaining group of musical performers with their eye catching editing and signature dance choreography that looks like stop motion animation and chaos had a kid. Put on your toe tapping shoes and let’s get to it! (more…)

Source: WIRED

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV)

Modern technological society is obsessed with surveillance, both the doing of it and the having it done to you. And so it has come to pass that on any given day on any given street, even in small rural towns, it has become impossible to scratch one’s ass without the act being recorded from multiple angles to greater or lesser degrees of advantage, and as often as not absent context. Was the ass in question actually itchy? If so, why? If not, was the scratching a signal to someone else, unseen by the camera? Stay tuned!

Video surveillance is the most prolific and (literally) in your face expression of surveillance, the mere presence of a visible camera aimed more or less in your direction is just the tip of the iceberg beginning with who is or can observe through it? What capabilities does the camera possess that might enable it to “see” outside the visible spectrum, detecting body temperature or what might be hidden under clothing? Beyond who “owns” the camera and the data it collects, who else may have access to what streams from it, now or at any future time?

Recent events highlight how far this has gone, both centered around Chinese “tech giant” Huawei. For most people, this began with the much hyped expansion of wireless communication into its 5th generation (5G) leading to a rather late breaking public exposure to Chinese domination in such a critical area of daily life. Then there’s this: (more…)

Alexander Goudie, self-portrait

I have written here in seasons past of the mystical magick manifest in Womanhood, from assorted angles and shades. It takes little effort to discern that much of what afflicts modernity both misses these lessons and has always been thus, so not unlike the defining character of Canada writ large upon the ages, nothing is ever fucking settled.

As an illustrative reading list, I would submit these, Goode Reader …

• A Bit About Extra Time
• Dark Sentiments 2011 – Day 8: The Burning Times
• Dark Sentiments 2012 – Day 2: Laura’s Pie
• Dark Sentiments 2012 – Day 23: Spirit Quest
• Dark Sentiments Season 10 — Day 13: Weep Not for the Willfully Blind
• Dark Sentiments Season 12 — Day 3: Bloodletting

Tonight’s Dark Sentiment is The Art of Witchcraft – Secret Knowledge, first broadcast on 29 August 2013 by BBC Scotland —

“Artist Lachlan Goudie presents a highly personal documentary, inspired by his father, in which he investigates why witches have cast such a powerful spell over generations of artists.”

The “Art” of Witchcraft, most literally. (more…)

That’s a size 13 boot. (LFM Photo)

On the heels of our last foray into the subject of inner monsters, tonight’s Dark Sentiment is about letting it out to play. Based on matters of which I may have some personal acquaintance, albeit not in the form of action but rather a promissory note. I am happy to report that the message was received and at least lower case “wisdom” won the day. Fertile fields and all that.

Coyote Love

By LFM

Someone crossed a line today
Who’d had two warnings prior,
Instead of taking heed he seemed
Compelled to take it higher.

As my Mother always said,
“Who won’t listen has to feel,”
The time for talk now over,
It was time to serve the meal.

I know a few Coyotes
Who’ll let nothing go to waste.
Tonight there’s not a single one
Who hasn’t had a taste.

Venom (Source: Sony Pictures)

“None are innocent. There are only those weak enough to believe they are, and those strong enough to revel in the knowledge that they are not.” ~ Jacob Strauss, Magus of the Shining Hill, London 1940

“The monster within” has found a lot of traction lately, most eloquently addressed by Dr. Jordan Peterson. Naturally, the mere mention of the Dread Prophet Peterson has come to raise a hue and cry of its own, but no matter. Let us continue, and view tonight’s Dark Sentiment in the best possible way — through unaverted eyes. (more…)