Stock-footage poet laureate Adam Curtis hits the world off with some wisdom courtesy of the beguiling Charlie Brooker.

— By Akira The Don on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

On cranks the disclosure machine. From The Wrap:

A new documentary about Mayan civilization will provide evidence of extraterrestrial contact with the ancient culture, according to a Mexican government official and the film’s producer.

“Revelations of the Mayans 2012 and Beyond,” currently in production, will claim the Mayans had contact with extraterrestrials, producer Raul Julia-Levy revealed to TheWrap.

“Mexico will release codices, artifacts and significant documents with evidence of Mayan and extraterrestrial contact, and all of their information will be corroborated by archaeologists,” said Julia-Levy, son of actor Raul Julia.

In a release to TheWrap, Luis Augusto Garcia Rosado, the minister of tourism for the Mexican state of Campeche, said new evidence has emerged “of contact between the Mayans and extraterrestrials, supported by translations of certain codices, which the government has kept secure in underground vaults for some time.”

He also spoke, in a phone conversation, of “landing pads in the jungle that are 3,000 years old.”

Raul-Julia claims there is proof that the Mayans had intended to lead the planet for thousands of years, but were forced to escape after an invasion by “men of dark intentions,” leaving behind evidence of an advanced race.

“The Mexican government is not making this statement on their own — everything we say, we’re going to back it up,” he said.

The film will be directed by Juan Carlos Rulfo, who won the Humanitas Prize for “Those Who Remain” in 2009 and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for International Documentary for “In the Pit” in 2006. Juan Diego Rodriguez Gonzalez will serve as the Guatemalan executive producer, and Eduardo Vertiz as the Mexican executive producer.

And yes, they expect people to take this seriously, because the messages he plans to impart are crucial to human survival, Julia-Levy insisted.

Read the rest here.

— By Akira The Don on Thursday, September 29th, 2011

I really wanna see this. I love Lawrence. From BFI.org:

As lead singer with Felt, Lawrence was responsible for some of the most precious music of the 1980s. On touchstone indie labels such as Cherry Red and Creation, the band released ten albums and ten singles – one for each year of the decade. Though few releases troubled the charts, Felt’s cult status was assured and a mission of sorts was accomplished. Lawrence went on to form Denim and Go Kart Mozart, bands that revelled in referencing 1970s glam and novelty rock while slyly critiquing the contemporary pop scenes. There’s been an air of tragi-comedy about Lawrence’s career at times. Felt were bumped from the cover of the NME when editors favoured a blacked-out cover to illustrate a feature on youth suicide, while Denim’s infectious 1997 single ‘Summer Smash’ was scratched from radio playlists when it was released in the week Princess Diana died. Paul Kelly’s intimate, smart doc portrait, a labour of love filmed over the last eight years, follows Lawrence between Go Kart Mozart albums, weighed down by the chips on his shoulders while still dreaming of being a pop star who rides in limousines and dates supermodels. He appears as, perhaps, he always has; a man out of time, touched by rare genius.

Michael Hayden

— By Akira The Don on Monday, September 19th, 2011

Genius. Dictionary definition. One of the most important creators on the planet. Giger’s work is The truth.

And this is a fascinating film.

— By Akira The Don on Saturday, September 17th, 2011

A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.

“This is the power of tsunamis,” head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.

“It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that’s pretty much what we’re talking about,” said Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who lead an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis.

To solve the age-old mystery, the team used a satellite photo of a suspected submerged city to find the site just north of Cadiz, Spain. There, buried in the vast marshlands of the Dona Ana Park, they believe that they pinpointed the ancient, multi-ringed dominion known as Atlantis.

The team of archeologists and geologists in 2009 and 2010 used a combination of deep-ground radar, digital mapping, and underwater technology to survey the site.

Freund’s discovery in central Spain of a strange series of “memorial cities,” built in Atlantis’ image by its refugees after the city’s likely destruction by a tsunami, gave researchers added proof and confidence, he said.

Atlantis residents who did not perish in the tsunami fled inland and built new cities there, he added.

The team’s findings will be unveiled on Sunday in “Finding Atlantis,” a new National Geographic Channel special.

While it is hard to know with certainty that the site in Spain in Atlantis, Freund said the “twist” of finding the memorial cities makes him confident Atlantis was buried in the mud flats on Spain’s southern coast.

“We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archeology, that makes a lot more sense,” Freund said.

Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2,600 years ago, describing it as “an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules,” as the Straits of Gibraltar were known in antiquity. Using Plato’s detailed account of Atlantis as a map, searches have focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic as the best possible sites for the city.

Tsunamis in the region have been documented for centuries, Freund says. One of the largest was a reported 10-story tidal wave that slammed Lisbon in November, 1755.

Debate about whether Atlantis truly existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato’s “dialogues” from around 360 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the iconic city. Plato said the island he called Atlantis “in a single day and night… disappeared into the depths of the sea.”

Experts plan further excavations are planned at the site where they believe Atlantis is located and at the mysterious “cities” in central Spain 150 miles away to more closely study geological formations and to date artifacts.

Article from: reuters.com, via Red Ice

— By Akira The Don on Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

“He stopped breathing. I was like, yo, send somebody NOW. By the time the ambulance gets there, they just out the blanket over his face… You watch ER… you think they got their chock machines, they gonna use everything they have to save him. They just put the blanket over his face.”

All I know is Dirty was the fucking truth, that he spoke directly to my soul, and I loved him, and I always will.

Thanks to Donovan Hubbard for sending the video my way.

— By Akira The Don on Thursday, March 3rd, 2011