orbis quintus

The Believer has a profile of Ignatius Donnelly in its new issue. I’ve run across him many times before as the primary culprit of resurrecting Atlantis as a historical fact, but more recently as a 19th century science fiction writer, under the name Edmund Boisgilbert, MD, as part of the mammoth Early Science Fiction tome compiled by Everett F. Bleiler. Here’s the entry for one of his works of fiction, published in 1890, Caesar’s Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century:

Ideal societies of the future, and a romance. One of the more influential political novels of the day, written from the point of view of splinter populism, it sees our civilization as ready to collapse from internal misdevelopment. Apart from certain ethnic prejudices of the author, the book is much more realistic than the euphoric Looking Backwards. The world, as of 1990 or so, is a plutocracy, where a small cabal of greedy, ruthless, irresponsible, self-indulgent billionaires rule, despite nominal elections and figurehead politicians.

Remarkably prescient! Unfortunately, it turns out that Donnelly’s billionaries happen to be Jewish, and it winds up having as much in common with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as Jules Verne (Donnelly predicts the internet!) or George Orwell.

Towards the end of the Believer article, there’s an interesting comparison with Donnelly’s vision of man versus Walt Whitman, who was well aware of Donnelly’s antics, but it doesn’t quite pay off, as unfinished as a blog entry.

More please…

You did know that Fred of Vain, Selfish, & Lazy is back, right?

If you likes ze glitter rock, please go check out his post about Boobs: The Junkshop Glam Discotheque. I only recognize about two of the names on that compilation. He has a great song by the Rats up for the moment.

Finally i was able to watch the video of Gruff Rhys performing in an elevator in Amsterdam. Last time, i posted it, it was only on Lou’s assurance that it was great. (That’s good enough for me, but it’s nagged me not to see it myself.) I was surprised how well it flowed, particularly the performance of “Pwdin Wy 2,” (“Egg Pudding 2″) which could very well have been edited, and released as a stand alone video. (It’s the bit where he decides to keep hitting the buttons so that the elevator goes back and forth between the first and fourth floors. It’s hard to tell whether he did it to avoid being interrupted or because the scrolling walls and floors looked visually pleasing.)

Serge Gainsbourg “Vu du l’exrerieur” I should have caught this years ago, but i didn’t. It’s not as if any particular song that Gruff does is lifted from Serge, but they have a similiar sense of absurdist wordplay, or so i’m led to believe as i can read neither French nor Welsh, with Serge being more scatalogical obviously. Gruff has mentioned reading a certain Gainsbourg biography before, talked about him in this bit about his influences:

He perfected a kind of beautiful subversion. The Sex Pistols could subvert with high-energy rock music, which was exciting because they were 20 years old and “God Save the Queen” and “Anarchy in the U.K.” were incredibly powerful. Serge Gainsbourg made a reggae version of the French National Anthem that had the same impact [in France], but he was in his 40′s and a bit chubby, so it was far more honest for him to subvert in more subtle ways. He had a kind of musical perversion, where he was willing to test people’s tastes. His Vu de l’Exterieur is a concept album about sh*t, but it’s also a beautiful album, you know? I can imagine it winding a lot of people up. Because I don’t speak much French, I lose a lot of the subtleties. His 1971 album Histoire de Melody Nelson is a great piece of music, but I’m glad I don’t understand the lyrics. Some French people have translated it to me and it’s a very dirty album!

Now i’m hearing Serge in the SFA as much or more than the Beach Boys. Obvious to probably any other fan, but i’m clotheared and hardheaded.

Ha ha! i’m back up 33% closer to the capacity that i once had in harddrives before the big crash. Believe it or not, without the mp3s handy, i’m too disorganized to keep CDs in any kind of order to find any of them.

Just being self-indulgent…

The Primitives “Thru the Flowers” Chew on that, Raveonettes. Shoegaze-lite, ’60s girl-pop.

Now i gotta see what else is lurking on this drive.

While i shouldn’t be reading Zembla anyway, as it’s far too glossy, looking far more like a fashion zine than a literature one, something jumped out at me. On the way to read the David Mitchell piece, i flipped past the interview with the actress Asia Argento. No comment on her now, as she proselytizes about Bruno Schulz. How can i gripe about that?

However, the interviewer opens that interview with a bit about going into the Colosseum with her. He makes a throwaway remark about hearing someone picking out Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah.” It’s Leonard Cohen, godamnit to hell. It drives me insane when jetsetting hipsters bungle a detail like that. His editor obviously didn’t catch it either.

For some reason i run across this particular mistake again and again. It’s less frustrating when it’s a casual acquaintance who refuses to believe me, forcing me to provide proof from the internet or an album cover (for an album i don’t even own. Never connected with Buckley much.) It’s infuriating to read from people who are paid to know more than i do (or give that illusion,) and have other people paid to make sure that they don’t fuck up that truth or illusion miss these kind of mistakes.

I wonder if this is the new equivalent to casually informing the reader that Joe Cocker wrote “With a Little Help from My Friends.” Bastards.

Oh yeah…. that David Mitchell piece on Johnson and Boswell didn’t do anything for me. Ouch.

It’s easy for me to take the American Analog Set for granted. Frequently i forget that they exist, even though they are high profile enough to wind up on KLSU’s playlist now and then. I swore that they broke up for awhile, but what do i know? They do that small, quiet, churning space headtrip so well.

American Analog Set “The Green Green Grass” Why this one instead of the others? I have a little fetish for loops of backwards guitars.