Large Fierce Mammal

“Twenty-first century human culture worldwide still tolerates murder, torture, and eradication of entire cultures on religious grounds. Before, after, or entwined with all that, we have that covetous constant called greed. No matter the driving force behind it, we’ve proven ourselves to have a tendency to accept attack on dissent, or even attack on those daring to be different from what is graciously granted the definition of “normal”, based on the premise that such deviations represent the thin edge of the wedge for the entrance of evil into the world. This is done by forcefully equating the dissent with specific alternate agendas that are defined as evil in the extreme, thereby creating an “us or them” framework of the power monger’s devising. The alternate agendas always turn out to be little more than being contrary to the interests of people of means who have an agenda of their own, a big part of which normally includes maintaining those means at the expense of people they want to keep under their heel. Good news though. It’s not just our society of today that’s prone to this. It’s ALL societies that have ever existed, because if there’s one thing we learn from history, it’s that people don’t learn anything from history. Oh sure, some of us do, but society is a really big crowd, and elections prove my thesis that any crowd is only as smart as its least intelligent and drunkest member.” ~ Dark Sentiments Season 1 – Day 15

On day 15 of Season 1 in this series, we made reference to the National Film Board of Canada‘s Women and Spirituality Trilogy., and featured the first title in that series — The Burning Times. Tonight’s Dark Sentiment will be a revisit to that subject matter in the form of all three documentaries followed by own commentary. (more…)

Throughout the world there are tales of places and artifacts afflicted with unfortunate residual influences left over from their previous denizens or owners. Whether this other kind of “human remains” come to be seen as a curse or a haunting is predicated on whether it is believed to be the cause of physical harm (curse), or simply an effect running the continuum of annoyance from a sense of disquiet to extended sleep deprivation (haunting).

We are all familiar with allegations of cursed Egyptian tombs, spread to keep superstitious grave robbers at bay, and it’s interesting how easily those tales made their way into the ever so scientific minds of the Victorian Era. Much more on that another day.

Another school of thought holds that certain types of antiques require special treatment to strip away any residual otherworldly interest, or unwholesomeness, they may have accumulated whether through having been much loved in another person’s life, or having been used, even simply present, at a particularly horrible time in that of another. Even today there are businesses that specialize in such cleaning services, and of such cleansing, an entire genre of dark entertainment has sprung, cinematic and otherwise.

Tonight’s Dark Sentiment dips a toe into this pool, but at the dirty end where no cleansing exists. The Jigsaw is an award winning short film by Sibling Films starring Pedro Monteiro and Darragh O’Malley. (more…)

A sample view of Guillermo del Toro’s sanctum sanctorum — Bleak House in Los Angeles (Click image to enlarge. Photo © Josh White/ JWPictures.com. Source: Art Gallery of Ontario)

Guillermo del Toro: At Home With Monsters is the name of an exhibit currently appearing at the Art Gallery of Ontario until 7 January 2018, and consists of items from the private collection of the man himself. From the Exhibition Overview:

From the fantastic to the frightful, don’t miss this rare glimpse into the world of renowned filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and his cabinet of curiosities. Taking inspiration from del Toro’s extraordinary imagination, At Home with Monsters reveals his creative process through his personal collection of art, artefacts, books, and props, all culled from Bleak House, del Toro’s creative haven located in Los Angeles.

First broadcast 27 September 2017 on the CBC Radio show Q, host Tom Power interviewed Guillermo del Toro about his creative influences, his vision of monsters, and afore mentioned AGO Exhibit. For tonight’s Dark Sentiment, here’s From the crib to the AGO: Guillermo del Toro’s lifelong kinship with monsters. Click the title to read the intro, and then settle back for the 20 minute interview that you’ll find in this grotto right here. (more…)

“But darkness came on fast, and the paths of the wood seemed but imperfectly known to the marauders.” ~ Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott

Sad to tell, most people with a taste for Dark Sentiments don’t always go looking for it in moonlit forests, ancient basements, forgotten burial grounds, remote moors, hoary caves, or sexual adventure. Not enough go to literature. Most to cinema. A few go out to dine.

Last season we spoke of a dish that most would rather not see, let alone taste or smell. Today we’ll delve into a chain of restaurants with a far more appealing menu, and that specialize in keeping patrons literally in the dark, ensuring the blindest of blind dates. Welcome to Dans le Noir.

Described by one reviewer:

“Dans Le Noir employs only blind waiters and you depend on them completely, especially if you’ve had too much to drink and really want a wee-wee.

Our waitress, called Lizza, was very patient and polite with us. She warned us every time she placed something in front of us, and slowly explained how to pour water and wine into our glasses.” ~ The Blond discovers: a taste of darkness – Dans Le Noir?

With restaurants sprinkled world wide, including London, Aukland, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Nantes, Nice, and St. Petersburg, Dans le Noir operates on the philosophy that the removal of one sense will result in a heightening of the others. This may or may not be true for everyone, but from my own experience with more than satisfactory success employing sensory deprivation in the service of other appetites, why the hell not? (more…)

Unless you haven’t been paying attention, or were born  to such privilege that you didn’t have to, you will at least by now have come to the suspicion that the world is not fair, and all people are not created equal. All that stuff about rights to free expression, and all people being “created” equal are entirely about legal protections against our loving governments infringing in areas that might contradict either of those, and for the most part, daily interactions in the world are between people, neither of whom are the agents of government. In that realm, no such guarantees exist.

Speaking your opinion in the wrong place and time could get your teeth knocked out, or worse, and if that happens, you have certainly been assaulted, but your rights have not been infringed. I read recently of a disabled man who equated being turned down for sex during a date with a woman with a level of discrimination that ought to be punishable under the law. His meritless argument is not about equal opportunity so much as the personal responsibility to find a way to get out from behind any eight ball the universe bounces in front of you on the great pool table of life, so if you can’t charm your way into woman’s pants, you’re even more disabled than even you thought.

All this being said begs the question of who has it “easier”, across the board. I could delve into the advantages of looks, wealth, wit, and I will in time, but for today we’ll focus on an easy question, with the able assistance of none other than that most inimitable chronicler of the Human condition of both then and now. Speaking to us, “… while on a walk on a sunny day through woods in Switzerland, never far from a rather noisy river …”, the intrepid and ever so brave Lindybeige admits to addressing, “Too big a topic for one short video, but I give it a go.”

The question being answered is taken from his Q217 series in which Lindybeige says, “I shall attempt to come up with at least something faintly interesting to someone somewhere in answer to 217 questions from a list.”

Today’s question was, “Which sex do you think has it easier in our culture? Have you ever wished you were of the opposite sex?” (more…)

If you’re unfamiliar with films like The Blair With Project, and Trollhunter, or haven’t even heard of them, then I’m at a loss to explain how you got here. Notwithstanding that, let’s soldier on together, and we’re glad to have you.

While I’m not a particular fan of the faux documentary genre in general, I do appreciate the methods I’ve seen used to present such films in all their shakey, unedited raw footage found in an abandoned car glory. And so we have today a mere two minutes of nightmarish and beautifully inexplicable imagery with the usual pseudo historic back story:

“Recently a piece of evidence from a Japanese police station was leaked on the internet. The video is part of the ongoing investigation of the disappearance of Sayomi Takahashi, a young 3D artist working for an independent video game company in Tokyo.

“The images come from a project based on the works of Camille Flammarion, a french author who delved into psychical research. At first sight, the sequences don’t make much sense, but since the release of the video several people believe there’s a hidden message regarding the artist’s disappearance.

“‘it must keep on playing… 10 hours… deadly wish….'”

I would interpret this as meaning that you’ll get the curse on you if you don’t keep replaying it for 10 hours, but this being art imitating strife, I wouldn’t go for that level of authenticity if I were you. And as to Camille Flammarion, go ahead and look him up; or don’t. We’ll be looking in on his life and times before this season is out. (more…)

“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 (or are growing) 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 world” do now, and the stories routinely employed animals as representations of very real dangers and foul intentions. One you’ll recognize immediately is the Big Bad Wolf in Red Riding Hood who represented all that was evil at its ravening, grandmother killing, child devouring worst.” ~ Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 2: A Fairy Tale

So began our DS Season 5 presentation of an animated version of Charles Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood, adapted to The Little Girl and the Wolf by James Thurber. Tonight’s Dark Sentiment returns to that subject matter. (more…)

Lessons

By LFM

To raise a child is one of Nature’s fundamental things,
For offspring must be taught to thrive amid the hurts and stings.
The world abounds with things that rend the heart, that bruise, and pierce,
And bitter Truths, like he may lose, however True and Fierce.

Some curses will be comely while some blessings be disguised.
Some enemies you’ll have to make, some need be recognized.
The smoothest, brightest path’s not always where your feet should walk.
The sharpest blade has met the stone ere cuts the thorny stalk.

The wise are called to Learn and Teach, and do in equal measure.
Seek thee not those ones who’d teach, but solely for their pleasure.
And through your life you’ll find a mentor’s tied to time and place,
As when you’d learn to shoot a gun, or tie a proper lace.

There’s time to sit in quiet, and there’s time to stand and fight.
There’s time to be the darkness, and a time to be the light.
The greatest skills are learned when “simple” things elude your ken,
And down is but the trail head on the path to up again.

“We have everything to fear including fear itself, and the bad news hasn’t yet hit, I don’t think. You’re running into a losing struggle. No one has ever beaten these odds. I’ve looked up ahead, or if you prefer, down the road. I know what’s coming. I know no one beats these odds, and it’s a matter of getting used to that and growing up and realizing that you’re expelled from your mother’s uterus as if shot from a cannon towards a barn door studded with old nail files and rusty hooks. It’s a matter of how you use up the intervening time in an intelligent and ironic way, and try not to do anything nasty to your fellow creatures. That leaves us with the question of why should we care. Somehow I’m glad that at least that bit of our innate nature is useful. But if we praise ourselves for what’s innate, we’re going to be praising a lot of unpleasant things too, and there’s no way around that. There’s only the pretense that there’s a way around it.” ~ Christopher Hitchens

As many of you no doubt know, after a lengthy bout with Christopher Hitchens, the tumor that had been growing on his esophagus passed away on 15 December 2011. Unfortunately it took the rest of him with it, but not before its ungrateful host had the chance to bear witness for the rest of us to the matter of a certain inevitability and the experience of meeting it headlong. (more…)

“The Queen was in the Parlour” (1860, Valentine Cameron Prinsep). Eating bread and honey, perhaps while she wonders where her clitoris, labia, and nipples went.

We’ve all had that annoying relative who insisted in cornering us as children with threats of, “I’ll get your nose!”, ultimately tweaking it and displaying their own thumb protruding between index and middle fingers as proof they’d done it. To the people involved with tonight’s Dark Sentiment, this is even more annoying.

“No one is entirely sure when magical penis loss first came to Africa.”

So begins A Mind Dismembered — In search of the magical penis thieves. Written by Frank Bures and appearing in the June 2008 issue of Harper’s Magazine. If ever an opening line was written that was guaranteed to draw in even the most reluctant reader, this has to be it.

Mr. Bures continues:

“One early incident was recounted by Dr. Sunday Ilechukwu, a psychiatrist, in a letter some years ago to the Transcultural Psychiatric Review. In 1975, while posted in Kaduna, in the north of Nigeria, Dr. Ilechukwu was sitting in his office when a policeman escorted in two men and asked for a medical assessment. One of the men had accused the other of making his penis disappear. This had caused a major disturbance in the street. As Ilechukwu tells it, the victim stared straight ahead during the examination, after which the doctor pronounced him normal. ‘Exclaiming,’ Ilechukwu wrote, ‘the patient looked down at his groin for the first time, suggesting that the genitals had just reappeared.'”

This account describes a typical case of magickal penis theft as it was occurring and being reported in Nigeria in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, except that the alleged perpetrator was actually brought in by police instead of being summarily lynched by a fearful mob after being pointed at in the street by someone crying, “He stole my penis !!!“ (more…)