Build your own Absinthe Fountain
Submitted by disdain on July 16, 2008 - 5:59pm. DIYToday I picked up the spigots I ordered for my Absinthe fountain project... they are quite nice, although may need a bit of treatment to reduce the shine.
Since I first posted about this project on my journal, I found a glass reservoir of a better size, and have treated it's lid and base (originally a candle holder) with a pewter finish -- I think it looks far better than the shiny silver. Since I went with the pewter finish on some parts I thought brass spigots might be a nice contrast.
The Art of Darkness: Why gothic myths continue to resonate
Submitted by disdain on July 13, 2008 - 9:29pm. General InterestBy Ryan McNutt (See the original article at dalnews.dal.ca)
The vampire lurking through castle halls. The mad scientist whose dark experiment goes terribly wrong. The serial killer stalking unsuspecting teenagers.
These horrific images are ingrained in our collective culture. We encounter them in the stories we tell around the campfire, the books we read in bed and the movies we line up around the block to see. As the calendar creeps closer to Halloween, it’s worth asking why these gothic and horror myths continue to resonate even as they’re interpreted and reinvented generation after generation.
“When the gothic started as a form of literature, generally in the late 18th century, it was related to the Romantic movement,” explains Dr. Jason Haslam, assistant professor in the Department of English.
“The Romantic movement was about transcendence, about finding ways we can spiritually, physically and creatively transcend our surroundings and find some sort of universal human meaning. The gothic is usually figured as the dark underbelly of the movement… it reminds us of the supposedly negative aspects of our culture that we can feel separated from, that we feel we can transcend.”
Morbid Melody is... gone?...
Submitted by disdain on April 6, 2008 - 5:13pm. General InterestMorbid Melody has been updated, and given a new name... welcome Caustic Cassandra! She has many of the same opinions as your old friend Melody, and a few new ones. If you had previously linked to Morbid Melody, don't worry... all of your links are automatically updated so that Cassandra can carry on the tradition of darkly humorous sarcasm that y
Second Construct free music downloads!
Submitted by disdain on March 23, 2008 - 2:24pm. General InterestThe first three songs from the upcoming Second Construct release, tentatively titled "The Long Hard Fall", are now available as free downloads! To get the mp3 tracks, visit the official Second Construct website.
Tim Burtons' Sweeney Todd
Submitted by disdain on December 16, 2007 - 5:06pm. Reviews
I must admit I have been a bit dissapointed by Tim Burton's recent films. Not that I've hated them, but neither did they earn a place in my DVD collection. So, it can easily be said that I did not have terribly high expectations for Sweeney Todd.
Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised.
The first thing that really struck me was the production design, leaning heavily towards the dark, dirty underside of 1890's London. While this aspect is to be expected, it is the very theatrical handling of the violence seen later in the story that is interesting -- it is at this point that the movie takes it's final step into a "stage-like" realm, tempering the particularly bloody scenes.
