The album art for Cul de Sac’s Death of the Sun has always intrigued me. Not having a physical copy of the album meant I had no access to the liner notes. I decided that I needed to know who the painter was, and put it up on Ask Metafilter. No luck, although they turned me on to Corot. One person had the contact info for the album art designer, whom I emailed – and shortly after got a reply from the main guy in the band. The artist is Antonio Fontanesi, a Barbizon school painter who actually lived in Japan during their 19th century policy of isolation.

There are a few of his paintings available in high quality here, including “Aprile,” (above) which was cropped down for Death of the Sun. Very desolate, very beautiful.

Great frame from Criminal, a relatively new comic from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

Zeitguised’s videos are interesting; they have a touch of Fleischfilm in their arbitrary noise, and a bit of RGBXYZ as well in the unrestricted use of CG.

This one is interesting as well.

(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)

There are in me the makings of a very fine loafer, and also a pretty spry sort of fellow.

Sherlock Holmes

If – which I heartily trust does not happen – a new Dr. Moreau could corrupt recent advances in cloning and create a hybrid, a “pig-man” is widely feared as the most probably outcome.

Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great (in a chapter on religious dislike of pigs)

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The Lovely Feathers – “Lowiza”
Fantasy of the Lot

Compared with Hind Hind Legs, this album is very tame. Of course, an exploding fireworks factory is tame next to Hind Hind Legs. But the pieces that made it great are still there. Great melody, fun lyrics delivered well, and a feeling that they’re not taking it that seriously. I’ve only listened through it two or three times and it’s already growing on me.