Showing posts with label Spence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spence. Show all posts

Monday 16 November 2020

Think Fast, Caped Crusader.




It’s not only The Joker who specialises in poisoning with his own signature chemical toxin but a number of Batman’s other chemically-altered or drug-crazed members of his Rogues’ Gallery, most notably The Scarecrow (who uses his gas compound to inflict mortifying, soul-trembling Fear, Bane (who juices himself with the fast-acting military-grade Super Steroid, Venom before engaging a foe in single combat),and Dr. Hugo Strange (who pionneered his use of a hormonal serum that causes men to permanently mutate into a viscious but servile brutish form of Giant Statue, which he dubbed Monster Men.)

Batman is GOOD at coping with exotic, mind altering poisons and chemicals, both mentally, psychologically  and physiologically — he gets them thrown all over him, A LOT, he always has done, and he has become an expert at recognizing the effects, coping with and/of completely dismissing or disregarding them and counteracting them, either through physical action, mental discipline, physical tolerance or through the isolation and synthesis of a specific antidote.

He can think his way out of almost any trap, get back on his feet, walk it off, and get himself to the Help he needs or the facilities and resources whe will needs in order to stay alive, wake up and save himself.


Think Fast, Caped Crusader —





The Sacred Masculine is Dynamic, Forward-Moving Energy.
....occasionally moving in fast, tight circles when it HAS to (as in a Grave or Locked Box).

A Person who becomes Fatigued when Unhappy is Useless.

“I need you to get me out.

Alfred is ALIVE.

And Alfred is on MY Side.

I Need Your Help.

If I die, we BOTH die.

If I LIVE, you live on in My Memory.

You Know Me now as well as ANYONE.

I’ll FIND The Men Who Killed You.

Need a Jolt to Get You Moving...?"





“...it is said that much Sake, Self-Pride and Luxury are to be avoided by a samurai.

There is no cause for anxiety when you are unhappy, but when you become a little elated, these three things become dangerous. Look at The Human Condition. It is unseemly for a person to become Prideful and Extravagant when things are going well

Therefore, it is better to have some Unhappiness while one is still Young, for if a person does not experience some Bitterness, his disposition will not settle down. 

A Person who becomes Fatigued when Unhappy is Useless.”






Ketamine hydrochloride, also known as Special K, Kit-Kat, or simply K, belongs to a class of drugs called dissociative anesthetics. These drugs, which also include nitrous oxide and phencyclidine (PCP), separate perception from sensation.

Ketamine was created to be an anesthetic. Doctors still use it for general anesthesia in certain circumstances. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [Trusted Source] also recently approved a nearly identical drug, esketamine, for treatment-resistant depression.

People also use it recreationally for the floaty effect it provides in small doses.

In higher doses, it can produce dissociative and hallucinogenic effects, which are collectively called a K-hole or K-holing.

Sometimes, these effects can occur in smaller doses, too, even if taken as prescribed.




What does it feel like?

People describe a K-hole as an out-of-body experience. It’s an intense sensation of being separate from your body.

Some say it feels as if they’re rising above their body. Others describe it as being teleported to other places, or having sensations of “melting” into their surroundings.

For some, the K-hole experience is enjoyable. Others find it frightening and compare it to a near-death experience.

Several things can affect how you experience a K-hole, including how much you take, whether you mix it with alcohol or other substances, and your surroundings.

Generally, the psychological effects of a K-hole can include:

feelings of detachment or disassociation from yourself and your surroundings

panic and anxiety

hallucinations

paranoia

changes in sensory perception, like sights, sound, and time

confusion

disorientation

The physical effects can be pretty unnerving to some people, too. 

When you’re in a K-hole, numbness can make it difficult, if not impossible, to speak or move

Not everyone enjoys this feeling of helplessness.

Other physical effects can include:

dizziness
nausea
uncoordinated movement
changes in blood pressure and heart rate

Everyone is different, so it’s impossible to predict how the experience will go down for a person.

When do the effects set in?

How fast it kicks in depends on how you use it. It’s most often found in powder form and snorted. It can also be taken orally or injected into muscle tissue.

TIMELINE OF EFFECTS

Generally, the effects of ketamine kick in within:

30 seconds to 1 minute if injected
5 to 10 minutes if snorted
20 minutes if ingested

Remember, everyone reacts differently. You may feel the effects sooner or later than others.


How long can it last?

The effects of ketamine typically last 45 to 90 minutes depending on the dose. For some people, effects can last for several hours or even days, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).


Why does it happen?
Ketamine blocks glutamate, a neurotransmitter in your brain. 

In turn, this blocks signals between your conscious mind to other parts of your brain. That results in the dissociative feeling of being separate from yourself and your environment.


Are there any risks involved?
Using ketamine or entering a K-hole does come with risks, some of them serious.

Keep in mind that not everyone has a good experience with ketamine, even in low doses or when taken as prescribed by a doctor. And having a bad experience can involve some pretty uncomfortable physical and mental symptoms.

These can include:

paranoia
extreme panic
hallucinations
short-term memory loss

When used in higher doses or frequently, risks include:

vomiting
long-term memory problems
addiction
urinary problems, including cystitis and kidney failure
liver failure
slow heart rate
slow breathing
death by overdose

Being in a K-hole also carries risk. When you’re in a K-hole, you may be unable to move or speak. If you do try to move, the numbness may cause you to fall, and that can injure yourself or someone else.

Entering a K-hole can also cause a person to become violently agitated, putting themselves and others at risk for harm.

Also, while you’re in a K-hole, people around you may not be able to tell if you’re in distress and in need of help.

Is there any way to do it safely?

Not really. There’s no way to guarantee having a perfectly safe experience with ketamine if you’re using it outside of doctor supervision. And compared with some other drugs, ketamine’s effects can be extremely unpredictable.

Harm reduction tips

Again, there’s no truly safe way to recreationally use ketamine or enter a K-hole. But if you’re going to use it, these tips might help you avoid or minimize certain risks:

Know what you’re taking. Ketamine is a controlled substance that can be difficult to get. As a result, there’s a chance that what you believe is ketamine is actually a counterfeit drug that contains other substances. Drug-testing kits can confirm what’s in the pill or powder.

Don’t eat for an hour or two before taking it. Nausea is a fairly common side effect of ketamine, and vomiting is possible. This can be dangerous if you’re unable to move or ensure you’re sitting upright. Avoid eating for 1 1/2 to 2 hours beforehand to reduce symptoms.

Start with a low dose. You can’t predict how a drug will affect you. Start with the lowest dose possible to minimize your risk for a potentially dangerous reaction. Also, resist the urge to dose again until you’ve given the drug plenty of time to kick in.

Don’t use it regularly. Ketamine carries a high risk of dependence and addiction (more on this later).

Choose a safe setting. High doses or being in a K-hole can cause confusion and make it difficult for you to move or communicate, putting you in a vulnerable position. For this reason, ketamine is often used as a date rape drug. If you do use it, be sure you’re in a safe and familiar place.

Don’t do it alone. No one can predict how a drug will affect them, even if they’ve taken it before. Have a friend with you. Ideally, this person won’t be using ketamine with you but is familiar with its effects.

Practice safe hygiene. Good hygiene is important for reducing the risk of infection or injury. If snorting ketamine, do it on a clean surface with something sterile (i.e., not a rolled-up dollar bill). Rinse your nose with water when you’re done. If injecting ketamine, use a new, sterile needle, and don’t ever share needles. Sharing needles puts you at risk for hepatitis B and C and HIV.

Don’t mix it. Taking ketamine with alcohol, other recreational drugs, or prescription medications can cause dangerous interactions. If you’re going to use ketamine, avoid mixing it with other substances. If you take prescription medications, it’s best to avoid using ketamine entirely.

Take care of yourself after. The major effects of ketamine may wear off quickly, but everyone’s different. Some people experience subtle effects for hours or days after taking it. Eating well, staying hydrated, and getting exercise can help you feel better.

Healthline does not endorse the use of any illegal substances, and we recognize abstaining from them is always the safest approach.

However, we believe in providing accessible and accurate information to reduce the harm that can occur when using. If you or someone you know might be struggling with substance use, we recommend learning more and consulting a professional to get additional support.

How do I recognize an overdose?

Being in a K-hole is an intense experience. You might mistake some of those intense sensations for an overdose. Knowing the signs and symptoms of overdose is important so you know when you or someone else needs help.

KETAMINE OVERDOSE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

Seek immediate help if you or someone else is experiencing:

vomiting
irregular heartbeat
high blood pressure
slow or diminished breathing
chest pain
hallucinations
loss of consciousness

If you’re unsure whether the symptoms are those of a K-hole or an overdose, err on the side of caution.

Call 911 or your local emergency services. Make sure you tell them that ketamine was taken. Keeping this information from the emergency responders could prevent someone from getting the care they need, resulting in long-term damage or even death.


I’m concerned about my use — how can I get help?

Ketamine has a high potential for dependence and addiction, especially when used in high doses or frequently.

Here are some signs that ketamine use might be developing from a dependence into an addiction:

You need a higher dose to get the effect you were getting before.

You can’t stop taking it even though it’s negatively affecting your life, like with work, relationships, or finances.

You use it as a way to cope with feelings of unhappiness or stress.

You have cravings for the drug and its effects.

You experience withdrawal symptoms when you go without it, like feeling rundown or shaky.

If you’re worried about your ketamine use, you have a few options for getting support:

Talk to your primary healthcare provider. Be open and honest with them about your ketamine use. Patient confidentiality laws prevent them from reporting this information to law

Tuesday 24 September 2019

1966





“Eleven years later, cycle 20 reversed the polarity. By 1966, hair had become longer, clothes were looser and more flamboyant, music became more involved and sophisticated, and the drugs were mind expanders like LSD.

In 1966 The Cosmic Wave entered the comics, to bring with it the gods of Thor, villains like The Anti-Matter Man, and John Broome’s psychedelic Flash stories. 
 
The new heroes were anti-establishment “Freaks” and Mutants.”

Excerpt From
Supergods
Grant Morrison


HUNTER :
Kill The Body and The Head will Die.
Ali-Frazier Fight.
Crazy Shit.

THE ABSOLUTE CREAM OF THE NATIONAL SPORTING PRESS :

A proper end to The '60s.
Ali beaten by a Human Hamburger.

HUNTER :
Both Kennedys murdered by Mutants.





1955


The Hidden Unity is Obi-Wan Kenobi





In 1955, when our planet was bombarded by cycle 19 solar magnetic waves, young people in the West responded like needles in a groove with rock ’n’ roll’s tight jeans, short hair, biker JD aggression, short, fast songs, and widespread use of stimulant drugs like speed and coffee.

Silver Age comic-book punk was embodied by crew-cut Barry Allen in his speed suit. “Chemicals and Lighting” could have been a song or a band. 

The tight suits, establishment men, and emphasis on science and rationality are all typical, as are Stan Lee’s realistic superheroes such as the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.







Textbook Joseph Campbell.

The way Campbell explained it, 
Young Men need a Secondary Father to finish raising them.





Beyond their Biological Father, they need a surrogate, traditionally a minister or a coach or a military officer.

The floatsam and jetsam of a generation washed up on the beach of last resort.

That's why street gangs are so appealing. 
They send you men out, like Knights on Quests to hone their skills and improve themselves.

And all the TRADITIONAL Mentors -- 
forget it.

Men are presumptive predators. They're leaving Teaching in droves.

Religious Leaders are pariahs.

Sports Coaches are stigmatized as odds-on pedophiles.

Even The Military is sketchy with sexual goings-on.




James Stark :
Suppose you had to do something.
You had to go someplace and do this thing that was...
You know, it was very dangerous.
But it was Matter of Honour.
And you had to prove it.
What would you do?


Well, is there some kind of trick answer?

James Stark :
No, what would you do?


Pinnie :
Well, I wouldn't make a hasty decision.
Tell you what, Jimbo.
Let's get a little light on the subject.
Blood.
Jim, what happened?
What kind of trouble are you in?

James Stark :
The kind I was telling you about.
Now can you answer me?


Pinnie :
Nobody can make a snap decision.
It's one of those things that you...

James Stark :
You can't.
That's all there is to it.
It's something that you... 

Pinnie :
You just don't.
We've got to consider all the pros and cons.

James Stark :
I don't have time.


Pinnie :
We'll make time.
I'll get paper and we'll make a list.
And then if we're still stuck... we'll get some advice.

James Stark :
What can you do when you have to be a Man?

Pinnie :
Well...

James Stark :
No, you give me a Direct Answer!
Are you going to keep me from going?


Pinnie :
Did I ever stop you from anything?
You're at a wonderful age.
In ten years, you'll look back on this and wish...

James Stark :
Ten years?
I want an answer now. I need one.


Pinnie :
Listen, Jimbo, I'm just trying to show you how foolish you are.
When you're older, you'll look back at this.... 
and you'll laugh at yourself for thinking that this is so important.
It's not as if you were alone.
This has happened to every boy.
It happened to me when I was your age, maybe a year older.


Ratbag :
What's all the excitement?
I've been working hard getting this house in order...

Pinnie : 
Jim had blood on him.
He just ran out.


Ratbag :
And you didn't stop him?











That's The Edge.
That's The End.

Jim Stark :
Certainly is.

You know something?
I like you.
You know that?

Why do we do this?

You got to do something...
...now, don't you?



JAMES STARK :
Listen... I know a Place. 
Plato told me before. 

It's an old, deserted mansion...up by the planetarium. 
Want to go up there with me? 

You can Trust me, Judy. 


NATALIE WOULD :
Okay. 





•Unbelievable• that Old Biff could've chosen that particular date!

It could mean that that point in time contains some cosmic significance... Almost as though it were the temporal junction point for the ENTIRE space-time continuum...!

....on The Other Hand it could just be an INCREDIBLE coincidence.”


IT’S NEITHER

Old Biff from The Future is from 2015 in a stolen Time Machine he cannot operate, without instructions, or a manual —  he just pressed CTRL + Z on the keypad 3 times until he found somewhere he wanted to go — November 12th 1955.



As a shorthand toward understanding the two maximum states we flip between, Spence suggests we can regard one pole as having a “punk” character, while its opposite may be thought of as “hippie.”

In Spence’s lexicon, at least as I understand it (his own website will set you straight if.   wrong), punk maxima can be identified in a fashion vogue for short hair, tight clothes, short, punchy popular music, aggression, speedy drugs, and materialism. 

He focused on youth culture trends on the basis that young nervous systems registered the magnetic reversals most profoundly and reflected them back in the lineaments of the art and music they made or consumed. So far, so good.

In 1955, when our planet was bombarded by cycle 19 solar magnetic waves, young people in the West responded like needles in a groove with rock ’n’ roll’s tight jeans, short hair, biker JD aggression, short, fast songs, and widespread use of stimulant drugs like speed and coffee.

Silver Age comic-book punk was embodied by crew-cut Barry Allen in his speed suit. “Chemicals and Lighting” could have been a song or a band. 

The tight suits, establishment men, and emphasis on science and rationality are all typical, as are Stan Lee’s realistic superheroes such as the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.


Tuesday 17 September 2019

Ladies and Gentlemen of The Class of 1999




At the prom. Everyone is standing, watching the stage. Xander is miming anticipation. 

Announcer: 
And the award for Sunnydale High's Class Clown for 1999 goes to — Jack Mayhew. 

  The winner puts on a balloon hat and acts silly. 

Xander: 
Please! Anybody can be a prop class clown. 
You know, none of the people who vote for these things are even funny. 

  Buffy is at the punch bowl, ignoring the ruckus. 
The announcer urges Jonathan to the microphone. 

Jonathan: 
We have one more award to give out. 
Is Buffy Summers here tonight? 
Did she, um... 

  The crowd turns and finds her. 
She looks nervous at the attention. 

Jonathan: 
This is actually a new category. 
First time ever. 
I guess there were a lot of write-in ballots, and, um, 
the prom committee asked me to read this. 

"We're not good friends. 
Most of us never found the time to get to know you, 
but that doesn't mean we haven't noticed you. 
We don't talk about it much, but it's no secret that Sunnydale High isn't really like other high schools. 
A lot of weird stuff happens here."

The Chorus :
Zombies! 
Hyena-People! 
Snyder! (laughter

"But, whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, 
you seemed to show up and stop it. 

Most of the people here have been Saved by you, 
or helped by you at one time or another. 
We're proud to say that the Class of '99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history. 

(applause from the crowd) 

And we know at least part of that is because of you.  
So the senior class, offers its thanks, and gives you, uh, this —

  Jonathan produces a multicolored, glittering, miniature umbrella with a small metal plaque attached to the shaft. 

It's from all of us, and it has written here : -

' Buffy Summers —
Class Protector ' 

  The crowd breaks into sustained applause and cheering. 
Buffy walks to the stage and takes her award. 
 
  Cut to Buffy, watching the dancers. 
Giles comes up behind her. 

Giles: 
You did Good Work tonight, Buffy. 

Buffy: 
And I got a little toy surprise. 

Giles: 
I had no idea that children en masse could be gracious. 

Buffy: 
Every now and then, people surprise you. 

Giles: (looking past her) 
Every now and then. 




“Iain Spence published Sekhmet Hypothesis: The Signals of the Beginning of a New Identity as a book in 1995, but it wasn’t until two years later that I came across his ideas in an article he’d written for the magazine Towards 2012. As an illuminating way of reconsidering the familiar, I’m particularly fond of the Sekhmet Hypothesis, which never fails to get people talking at parties. As usual, please remember that this is just a framework; a way of ordering information into meaningful patterns in the service of creative lateral thinking, if you like. You may be able to find all kinds of examples to refute this data, but first bear in mind that I’ve used this predictive model to great effect and no small financial reward, and trust me when I say I’m passing it on as a tip, not as a belief system. If this book has made any point clear, I hope it’s that things don’t have to be real to be true. Or vice versa.

Soon you’ll notice how many advertisers and trend makers are aware of this theory and have been applying it to product placement, design, and the seasonal shifts of the rag trade since Spence published it. The more people know about it and react against it, or try to preempt it, the more the effect is likely to dissipate or find different ways to express itself. That may already be happening in the windblown halls of popular culture, although as I write, in 2010, Spence’s broad predictions are accurate still.

Sunspot activity follows a twenty-two-year cyclical pattern, building to a period of furious activity known as the solar maximum, then calming down for the solar minimum. Every eleven years, the solar magnetic field also undergoes a polarity reversal. It’s a little like a huge switch that toggles on or off, or the volume slider on a mixing desk, with loud at one end and silent at the other, and each period is given an identifying number. Cycle 23, for instance, had its maximum in 1999.

Spence suggests that these regular rewirings of the solar magnetic field naturally have an effect on the human nervous system, which leaves its traces most clearly in our cultural record—like a desert wind carving the shape of its passage into the dunes of fashion, art, and music. As a shorthand toward understanding the two maximum states we flip between, Spence suggests we can regard one pole as having a “punk” character, while its opposite may be thought of as “hippie.”

In Spence’s lexicon, at least as I understand it (his own website will set you straight if.   wrong), punk maxima can be identified in a fashion vogue for short hair, tight clothes, short, punchy popular music, aggression, speedy drugs, and materialism. Hippie, as I’m sure you’ll have guessed, is associated with signifiers from the converse end of the spectrum, like long hair, loose or baggy clothes, longer-form popular music, psychedelic or mind-expanding drugs, peace, and a renewed interest in the spiritual or transcendental. He focused on youth culture trends on the basis that young nervous systems registered the magnetic reversals most profoundly and reflected them back in the lineaments of the art and music they made or consumed. So far, so good.

In 1955, when our planet was bombarded by cycle 19 solar magnetic waves, young people in the West responded like needles in a groove with rock ’n’ roll’s tight jeans, short hair, biker JD aggression, short, fast songs, and widespread use of stimulant drugs like speed and coffee.

Silver Age comic-book punk was embodied by crew-cut Barry Allen in his speed suit. “Chemicals and Lighting” could have been a song or a band. 

The tight suits, establishment men, and emphasis on science and rationality are all “wrong), punk maxima can be identified in a fashion vogue for short hair, tight clothes, short, punchy popular music, aggression, speedy drugs, and materialism. Hippie, as I’m sure you’ll have guessed, is associated with signifiers from the converse end of the spectrum, like long hair, loose or baggy clothes, longer-form popular music, psychedelic or mind-expanding drugs, peace, and a renewed interest in the spiritual or transcendental. He focused on youth culture trends on the basis that young nervous systems registered the magnetic reversals most profoundly and reflected them back in the lineaments of the art and music they made or consumed. So far, so good.

In 1955, when our planet was bombarded by cycle 19 solar magnetic waves, young people in the West responded like needles in a groove with rock ’n’ roll’s tight jeans, short hair, biker JD aggression, short, fast songs, and widespread use of stimulant drugs like speed and coffee.
Silver Age comic-book punk was embodied by crew-cut Barry Allen in his speed suit. “Chemicals and Lighting” could have been a song or a band. The tight suits, establishment men, and emphasis on science and rationality are all typical, as are Stan Lee’s realistic superheroes such as the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.

Eleven years later, cycle 20 reversed the polarity. By 1966, hair had become longer, clothes were looser and more flamboyant, music became more involved and sophisticated, and the drugs were mind expanders like LSD.


In 1966 the cosmic wave entered the comics, to bring with it the gods of Thor, villains like the Anti-Matter Man, and John Broome’s psychedelic Flash stories. The new heroes were antiestablishment “freaks” and mutants.

Nineteen seventy-seven brought a shift back to punk, as expressed in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s fifties-influenced clothes and music, bondage and restriction, amphetamine sulfate use, and angry, confrontational politics.

The comics boom of that cycle gave us Judge Dredd, Frank Miller’s gritty noir, Alan Moore’s harsh logical realism.

Nineteen eighty-eight saw ecstasy, or MDMA, as the favored drug, accompanying long-form trance, ambient and dance music, Manchester “baggy” fitness wear as street wear, grunge beards, and a return to long hair. In comic books, this was the time of Deadline, Doom Patrol, Shade, and Sandman.

Spence didn’t get as far as 1999 in his Towards 2012 essay, but he imagined the rise of a “Stormer” generation of what he called “imperial youth.” As it happened, his predictions were more or less accurate. In 1999, we had nu-metal, The Matrix, tight clothes, short hair, No Logo anticorporate demos, the emergence of bondage styles, and the Goth underground moving into the mainstream, a revival of popularity for cocaine, and, more significantly, perhaps, the jittery rise of Red Bull, Starbucks and coffee society. Comics gave us proactive world-changing superheroes and villains in Authority, Marvel Boy, and Wanted.

This book will be published in 2011, when the fruits of the next wave will be hard to avoid. As I write, the word psychedelic is being used so often on TV and in magazines that it’s barely funny. Avatar’s hippy eco-vision of an interconnected natural world and the massive success of Alice in Wonderland (always popular during hippie periods) exemplify this current, as do the vampire heroes who have occupied the imaginative place once taken by sixties Pre-Raphaelite and Edwardian dandies. In comics, the “realism” boom has been quietly left behind like an unfashionable pair of trousers. The new superhero books are becoming more fantastic, colorful, and self-consciously “mythic.”

Spence’s article does not, nor will I, attempt to track the alleged effects of these undeniably real solar magnetic events on non-Western cultures. 
Neither does he extend his argument backward to consider the ways in which the popular arts scene of 1944 could be described in “hippie” terms (LSD, however, was synthesized in 1945), or that of 1933 as “punk” (although perhaps Weimar decadence and the art of George Grosz could build a case there). And so on. I leave that contemplation to skeptics who choose to debunk the idea or to zealots who want to believe it.

Unless Terence McKenna’s “Timewave Zero” theories are correct, and we collapse into an atemporal singularity on December 21, 2012, 2021 will bring the cycle back around to “punk,” and if this seesaw sounds horribly predictable and repetitive, be assured that it will all seem fresh to the young people who take their own inspiration from the solar trade winds.

As for me, I intended to bring my run on JLA to an end along with the century. The Invisibles, too, was scheduled to wrap in 2000, and I planned to re-create myself again to complement the change in the weather. I was almost forty, had never felt better, and wanted to be ready for the harsher spirit I’d decided was on its way in the wake of the Labour election win, the death of the former Princess Diana, and the commencement of cycle 23.
I’d also just met my future wife, Kristan, a stunning, brainy blonde who dressed like Barbarella to go to the pub, worked as a corporate insurance broker, and read Philip K. Dick. It would be another three years before our paths crossed again and we were able to get together, but that die was already cast.

On a trip to Venice, Italy, I bought my first real suit—Donna Karan—and was encouraged to go corporate. Smart tailoring and the jargon of advertising, motivational speaking, instead of fractal-patterned shirts and druggy psychedelia, seemed the way to go in cycle 23. At heart, I’d always been an uptight Presbyterian anyway. I’d never been “able to get back to the radiant world I’d reached in Kathmandu, and I’d begun to “suspect it was because in some way I was already there. I had very little doubt that I’d “wake up” in that place at the moment of death, like a game player looking up from the screen where his avatar lies bleeding, only to realize he’s home and safe and always was.

“The drugs don’t work, they just make you worse,” sang the Verve, and after eight years of experimentation, ruthless self-examination, ego inflation, and ego loss, I had to admit they were probably onto something. The shallow hedonistic spirit of the nineties was too fragile to endure the cold of the vast twin shadows cast backward by an onrushing age of terror. Darker times were on their way, demanding a new clarity and rigor of thought.

I tried to articulate the outlines of the next trend by introducing to the pages of JLA a military-funded superteam called the Ultramarines, whipped up by Uncle Sam to keep the Justice League in check should their internationalist stance ever compromise US military security. By the end of the story, the Ultramarines had split from their paymasters and joined with a group of like-minded DC heroes in a hovering city-sized headquarters named Superbia, there to announce a bold new manifesto for change :

SUPERBIA HEREBY DECLARES INDEPENDENCE FROM ALL NATIONS AND OPENS ITS GATES TO SUPER-CHAMPIONS FROM THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH. WE INTEND TO SERVE AS A FIRST-STRIKE GLOBAL PEACEKEEPING FORCE. WE WILL KILL IF WE HAVE TO. IF WE HAVE TO, WE’LL LET YOU KNOW. TERRORISTS, DESPOTS, CORRUPT BUSINESSMEN … THE INTERNATIONAL ULTRAMARINE CORPS IS HERE. THERE’S NOWHERE TO HIDE.

As it happened, I’d almost exactly described what the next big development of the superhero concept would look like.

Meanwhile, I prepared myself for the oncoming zeitgeist by listening to Chris Morris’s bleak, brilliant, bad-trippy Blue Jam on Radio 1 every Thursday after John Peel. Oddly enough, I was beginning to find humor in all the things that had once frightened me. The prying eye of Big Brother, the aging process, loneliness, failure, and death were all just punch lines to the joke. I loved to listen over and over again to HAL 9000’s death scene from the soundtrack to 2001 : A Space Odyssey, and when Jarvis Cocker and Pulp released their masterpiece comedown album, This Is Hardcore, its unflinching evocation of middle age, stale waterbeds, and tinny bachelor pad music made me rethink my own lifestyle.

I was about as alien as I’d ever wanted to be, but I’d grown tired of one-night stands, drink, drugs, and the dating game.

It was time to get serious.”


Papa Roach


End of Days
Gabriel Byrne - Rod Steiger - Kevin Pollock
Miriam Margolyes



Nhu8



The Duel of The Fates

Fight Club

Clubbed to Death


Earshot

The Columbine Clues

EgyptAir 990