Nessie is 30

A few days ago a british theme-park has announced that their next attraction will be a rollercoaster themed to "SAW", the torture porn franchise. I think that this is equally brilliant and sad at the same time.

Most certainly "SAW: The Ride" will never gain the iconic and legendary status of another coaster that effectively scared and astounded passengers and onlookers with an effective visualization of a wicked myth.
The "Loch Ness Monster" opened thirty years ago at Bush Gardens. It´s interloocking loops are still an amazing sight and they made "Nessie" one of the most famous and iconic coasters in the world.


The video, which was made to promote the ride manufacturer, celebrates the coaster with beautiful slo-mo shots, Vincent-Price-y narration and juicy disco-sound. A great time-capsule

Throwing the Muse

Grace Jones photographed by Chris Cunningham for Dazed. A pin-up for the 40+ set. Also worth reading to keep up with the coming Hurricane: State of Grace in the Guardian.


It appears that Grace and her team are trying to tick all the right (if obvious) boxes this time around.

EDIT: I fear that the "ticking the right boxes" ended with the (proposed) cover design:

A 1000 No 1s in Heaven

This could be the best present for your best friend or best enemy: The Neimann Marcus Christmas Book offers to ship you a vinyl-wave of tsunami-esque proportions. For just $ 275.000.00 (shipping not included) you can become the proud owner of each and every 45 RPM vinyl record that was listed on the Billboard Top 100® Rock and Pop charts from Jan. 1, 1955, through Dec. 31, 1990. Absolutely every disc for 35 years, every No. 100 up to every No. 1. There are some 18,400 records total. Some are even autographed.

Now there are some pretty valuable and great things in there, but I am sure that the amount of not-so-hot-singles must be gigantic!
I really don´t know if this is heaven or hell! In the words of Blixa Bargeld: "How do you listen to this?!"

Would you believe?

Titles

Screen-shots of movie titles, in alphabetical order, hundreds of them! I love the simple idea and I spend far too long on the Movie Titles Screens Page.

Browsing through these pictures I wondered how few titles I could actually remember.

Ready for Doze-Off

Swedish Hotel owner Oscar Diös bought a grounded 747-200 jumbo-jet, built in 1976 from a bankrupt airline and is currently converting it into the worlds first Jumbo Hostel, right next to the Arlanda airport in Uppsala.

Jumbo Hostel will offer 25 rooms with three beds in each. All together, the hostel offers 85 beds; some of the more luxurious are to be found at the plane´s upper floor.
The rooms are circa six square meters wide and measure three meters from floor to ceiling. All rooms have a flat screen TV where you can, among other things, watch the times of departure for all flights.


Everywhere in the jumbo jet you have access to wireless broadband. All rooms offer a shower and toilet in the corridor, except for a few luxurious rooms upstairs which boast their own shower and WC.

The aircraft’s cockpit has been converted into a de luxe suite with parts of the original interior saved as curiosities. From the suite’s panoramic windows you have a unhindered view of the airport.


Jumbo Hostel will be ready for bording in December.

Telecoma

Telecom keeps me hanging on! Still off-line and my days are beginning to feel like this:

The New Flesh

New Puma ads (click to make big) for a line of soccer shoes are once more playing with the man-becoming-machine-animal-centaur-cyborg-theme.
Although, the first thing that came into my mind was "Paralympics"! Is this a deliberate association?
After all I think that the Paralympics are becoming more and more fascinating each time. The clunky and horrible "spareparts" of yesterday have turned into sleek and fully functional new bio-mechanic bodyparts.

The transformation of man into a chimera of flesh, metal and plastic is fully exposed during the games. Gone is the sappy sentiment of "Oh, look what these poor people can do" and a new form of voyeurism has taken its place. We all become visitors of an exhibition of the most advanced medical and biological prothesis.

When I was three I must have been so fascinated by a neighbour, who was wearing a wooden leg, that I began to simulate his hunchback walk. My parents didn´t see the connection and sent me to various doctors who could not find the cause for my strange walk. Apparantly my mimikri lasted a full six weeks before I grew tired of it and decided to walk like a "normal" person again.

Another thing that immediately caught my eye on the ad: The buildings in the right, upper corner are clearly "inspired" by my psychotropic dreamhome

Burning Car

She was dressed in a white suit
and she looked like a bride too

...Then I looked at the sunset
and it felt like a stage set

...As I looked at my watch and face
I remembered the time and place

...and I breathed in the night perfume
as we met in the dark room.

It´s a burning car.

Burnt Out Car

The papers
The photos
Things were found in the fire
A change of hair colour
Clairol baby-blond
I'm not quite used to it
It never takes too long
No makeup
No earrings
Nothing to identify me