Have you ever listened to the public words of a government official and wondered just what the hell it is that he or she is trying to say? Or rather, not to say? Have you ever suspected that government figures deliberately speak in opaque and confusing terms, the better to “say something” without really saying…
135 Shots That Will Restore Your Faith in Cinema (SHORT COMPILATION FILM)
Quick: What’s the common theme linking The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi, Days of Heaven, Akira Kurosawaâs Dreams, What Dreams May Come, Legends of the Fall, Lawrence of Arabia, El Topo, La Dolce Vita, The Tree of Life, Chinatown, Barry Lyndon, Hero, Kagemusha, The Black Stallion, Vertigo, Manhattan, Apocalypse…
Sight (SHORT FILM – dystopian SF)
Is it possible for a short film to pack the same punch — philosophically, artistically, culturally, spiritually — that a longer one does? Is it possible for a short film to be as artistically and culturally significant as a feature-length one? If the answer can be “yes” for other storytelling forms, such as written fiction…
Shame for Fame: The New Path to Stardom in the Age of the Status Cult
The Extinction Papers â Chapter Two I am routinely wrong about many things. The enduring popularity of televised talent shows. The assured success of former Raider Bill Callahan as the new head coach of my 2004 Nebraska Cornhuskers. The viability of something called Twitter. While the second one caused me more pain (barely edged…
Parapsychology and Intellectual Integrity: Words of Advice from Dr. Krippner
Forgive me; I just returned from this year’s Parapsychological Association conference, and my mind is still digesting five days of intense engagement with the scientific study of exceptional human experiences. So this column will necessarily be very brief. Rather than regurgitate some half-chewed material, Iâd like to share a few insights from Dr. Stanley Krippner,…
Scientists forecast a century of drought, warn of a catastrophic “new normal”
This appeared in The New York Times last Saturday. It’s written by three scientists: Christopher R. Schwalm, research assistant professor of earth sciences at Northern Arizona University; Christopher A. Williams, assistant professor of geography at Clark University, and Kevin Schaefer, research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. [I]t is increasingly clear that…
Initiation by Nightmare: Cosmic Horror and Chapel Perilous
When the first of my sleep paralysis attacks occurred in the early 1990s, I had no idea that it was the onset of a period that I would later come to recognize or characterize as a spontaneous shamanic-type initiation via nightmare.
Recommended Reading 20
This week’s recommendations cover the history of Wall Street’s addiction to inhumanly fast and economically abstracted trading practices; the history of “dark money” in American politics, culminating in the current game-changing dominance of hidden funding; the rise of real-life “cyborgs” via the burgeoning body-hacking movement; a couple of considerations of what it means for human…
Facebook, ‘Fahrenheit 451,’ and the crossing of a cultural threshold
One of the most subtle and subversive pieces of social criticism in Fahrenheit 451comes early in the book when Montag, a fireman (i.e., book burner) who eventually wakes up to a recognition of his society’s essential character as a fascist-totalitarian dark age, chats with a teenaged girl named Clarisse. Or rather, it’s she who chats…
Teeming Brain columnist T. E. Grau in “Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities”
May saw the publication of the horror anthology Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities, edited by Henrik Sanbek Harksen and featuring a story by Teeming Brain columnist T. E. Grau. As you’ll recall, T. E. writes The Extinction Papers for us, and as you’ll see if you read his bio on our Teem page or check out…