#dogstar Conspiracy

[animeraider]

New music this week from Dogstar, The 413s, Miami Conspiracy with Priscilla Sunshine, Copperstone, The Scurbats, Georgia, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Omega Theory, Dexys Midnight Runners (!) and much more. Enjoy!

As always, these songs have been added to the playlist at Radio Free California, the Internet Radio Station (embedded below and available at the app store). For those of you who don't like Spotify you can tune in this week at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm Pacific Standard Time (PST) this Wednessday August 2nd to hear the playist in full. On Thursday of this week we will play the album "Euphoric" by the Georgia. That will be on August 3 at 9am and again at 9pm PST. This might be their best album in years and they've released a lot of albums over the years.. I hope you tune in! On August 6 at 10am and again at 10pm PST will be of course our new show 10 at 10, featuring 10 great songs from 1 great year. We're really digging into the vault for this one, so please tune in!

[deadpanwalking]

What movies and books do you rec for people (I'm people lol) going stir crazy during the Succession hiatus?

This is a loaded question because my shit idiot brain can, should, must, and will connect Everything in a nightmarish Pepe Silvia-style conspiracy corkboard. Instead of the nice @kendallroy style reclist you expect and deserve, I basically just free-associated for 5 minutes and came up with some movies and books that are thematically connected to family, trauma, power, wealth, crumbling empires, and/or failsons—props to @emmabovvary for pointing out the Comedy of Manners connection all those months ago.

Movies:

American Psycho

Dogstar

Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street

The Royal Tenenbaums

The House of Yes

The Age of Innocence

The Lion in Winter

Death at a Funeral

L'Argent

Ordinary People

El Angel Exterminador

Glengarry Glen Ross

The Queen of Versailles

The Big Short

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Parasite

Gosford Park

Addams Family Values

Best in Show

Citizen Kane

Books:

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Petersburg by Andrei Bely

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Marquez

The Custom of the Country and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Ada, or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

The Myth of Sisyphus and The Fall by Albert Camus

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Takeover by Muriel Spark

The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

Howards End by E.M. Forster

The Darlings by Christina Alger

The Power Broker by Robert Caro

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Crazy Rich: Power, Scandal and Tragedy Inside the Johnson & Johnson Dynasty by Jerry Oppenheimer

The King of Content: Sumner Redstone’s Battle for Viacom, CBS, and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire by Keach Hagey

An Oresteia: Agamemnon by Aiskhylos; Elektra by Sophokles; Orestes by Euripides tr. Anne Carson

The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde

She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith

The School for Scandal and The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekov

Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes by George Bernard Shaw

[rh35211]

The Bible Of Mysteries: The 23 Enigma

***2/3= .666 the number of the beast

The New York Yankees won the World Series 23 times

The Uranium isotope used in Nuclear bombs is U235

AOL chat rooms only allow 23 people at a time

In the film Airport, the mad bomber has seat 23

***There are exactly 23 charicters, numbers and letters, on the face of all U.S. coins

***Every 23rd wave crashing on a beach averages twice the size as normal

In the film Airplane II, the name of the spaceship is XR-2300

230 people died in the conspiracy plagued TWA flight 800 disaster

The Unibomber killed or wounded 23 people

The address of the Freemasons lodge in Stafford, England, is 23 Jaol Road. In New York City it's on 23rd street.

***The letter W is the 23rd in the alphabet and has 2 points down and 3 points up

The first Apollo landing on the moon was at 23.63 degrees east; the second was 23.42 degrees west.

April 19th the date of the battle of Lexington, the holocaust at Waco, and the Oclahoma city bombing is written 4/19 by Americans and 19/4 by Europeans. Either way it adds up to 23.

In Star Wars Princess Lea was held in cell AA-23

***Shakespeare was 46(2*23) when the King James Bible was published. Psalm 46(2*23) has it's 46th word "shake" and the 46th word back from the end is "spear".

On the Seinfeld show, Kramer hides an Air-Conditioner on levl purple 23 of a parking garrage.

***William Shakespeare was born on April 23,1556 and died on April 23, 1616.

51, as in Area 51 breaks down to 23 + 23 + (2*3)=51

August 23,1305 William Wallace was exicuted for treason.

August 23, 1970 River Pheonix was born.

The original Star Trek, as well as Babylon Five are set in the 23rd century

***The human Biorhythm cycle is 23 days

***It takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate through the human body

***Julius Ceasar was stabbed 23 times by the assasans.

X-Files: 10.13 productions.10 + 13 = 23

"Scottish Rite Freemasonry" has 23 letters.

A technological singularity has been predicted by "experts" in the near future. It is expected around 2030 AD.

***Geosynchronous orbit occurs at 23,000 miles above Earth's surface.

Psychic Edgar Cayce started having visions of lost Atlantis in 1923.

Hitler joined a secret society in 1923.

Avagadro's number as used in the ideal gas law is 6.02 * 10^23

The CIA headquarters in McLean, VA is located on rt. 123.

***The tilt of Earth's axis is roughly 23o accounting for the changing seasons and the procession of the Zodiac.

***Homo sapiens are given 46 chromosomes from their parents, 23 male and 23 female.

***The Dog Days of Summer begin on July 23 when Sirius the Dogstar rises from behind the sun.

Sydney Carton was the 23rd man beheaded in the climax of Dickens' Tale of Two Cities

Accordidng to Noam Chomsky over half of the national media is owned by 23 companies

The average smoker inhales 23 ciggarettes a day

There are 23 chapters of the Cult Awareness Network

Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints was born on December 23, 1805.

On December 23, 1805 the Federal Reserve Act passed i

n congress.

***According to ancient Mayan prophesy on December 23, 2012 the world will end.

***In both ancient Sumaria and Egypt July 23 is the start of the new year.

The Nissan car takes its name from "Ni" which means 2 in Japaneese and "san" which means 3. Nissan means 23.

The articles of Impeechment used against Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton are under Article 2, section 3 of the constitution.

The United States set off 23 atomic bombs at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

Lines 22-23 of Book I of Milton's Paradice Lost "What in me is dark/ Illumine, what is low raise and support."

In a recent film version of Alice in Wonderland a stuffed

Rabbit comes alive and runs away from a case numbered 23.

***The first prime number in which both digits are prime and add up to make annother prime is 23.

It is believed that Adam and Eve had 23 daughters.

It is believed that the verses of the Qur'an were revealed over a period of 23 years. There exist hadith that support this figure, but many more that give other lengths of time.

[art-n-life-blog1]

10 stunning facts about Keanu Reeves: Be simple, be like Keanu!

1) His first name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian.

2) In high school, Reeves was never into academics but took a keen interest in ice hockey (as team goalie, he earned the nickname "The Wall") and drama. He eventually dropped out of school to pursue an acting career.

3) In 1991, Reeves began playing bass guitar for the grunge band Dogstar. The band is no longer together, however, music has remained a huge part of his life.

4) When making "The Devil's Advocate," Reeves agreed to take a big pay cut of a few million dollars (a few million dollars) so the producers could also afford to bring on Al Pacino.

5) Tragedy struck Keanu Reeves in December 1999, Reeves's girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, gave birth to a stillborn daughter. Ava Archer Syme-Reeves was born prematurely, following an eight-month pregnancy. Eighteen months later, Syme died in an automobile accident. She was the sole passenger of the vehicle at the time of the accident.

6) Reeves was paid $10 million upfront to film the first "Matrix" and ended up earning $35 million total after the film became a huge hit.

7) Reeves is a motorcycle enthusiast and has recently started manufacturing his own bikes, Arch Motorcycle Company.

8) Keanu's set up a private cancer foundation to help a number of children's hospitals. When his sister, Kim, was diagnosed with leukaemia, he became her main caregiver and has spent $5 million on her treatment. On top of that he supports PETA, the SickKids Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer.

9) Reeves is neither Buddhist nor atheist, despite frequent listings to the contrary. He has previously claimed to be non-religious, while also citing an intense interest in Buddhism. In September 2013, when asked if he was a spiritual person, he replied with: "I don't know? I don't know the spiritual Richter-scale measurement! That's a weird answer, isn't it? I don't know. Do I believe in God, faith, inner faith, the self, passion, and things? Yes, of course! I'm very spiritual ... Supremely spiritual ... Bountifully spiritual ... Supremely bountiful. [Laughs.]"

10) There's a bizarre conspiracy that Keanu is immortal. Yes, seriously. Fans have pointed out how closely the star resembles Paul Mounet, a French actor born in 1847, and how remarkably youthful the actor looks for 50.

This person inspires me. Be simple, be like Keanu!

And what interesting facts do you know about Keanu Reeves? Write in comments.

Our sponsor: You know what to do :) https://go.oclaserver.com/afu.php?zoneid=1763805 

[thecorvidrotation]

So now that I’m thinking about my very first impressions of TRC again....

When I first read The Raven Boys, it ticked all the boxes for a specific kind of fantasy series for me: a series with weight and consequence, a series where fate’s hand is never far from the characters’ shoulders, a series where every moment comes together and builds into a crescendo of magical wonder. The kind of fantasy series that oozes with intention. I was expecting riddles, destiny, the characters slowly discovering that all of them represented past figures from Glendower’s tale, shaped into the individuals they are by the modern age they’re living in and their own free wills.

One of the reasons I initially fell in love with Homestuck -- roll with me -- was the revelation that everything, everything was connected, and every action affected something else in the story, creating a series of very specific moments elsewhen in time. Homestuck was hardly the first. The destiny hook is the reason I got into Redwall. The promise of prophecy is 100% why I read Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe, even though I definitely didn’t have the free time to tackle such a monster when I found it. When I rescued Alison Goodman’s late-90s scifi book Singing the Dogstar Blues from the weeded books pile last year, what ultimately won me over was the ramifications of predestination the time travel plotline had on the characters’ futures.

TL;DR: Characters fulfilling destined archetypes/roles in a narrative within the narrative (ideally making said roles their own in the process) and taking action because in the grand circular scheme of time they have already taken that action (yet simultaneously acting out of free will) is a story construction I eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

So you can understand why when I read TRB, I immediately had visions of something....... grander. TRB has a feeling about it that I associate with sweeping conspiracies of fate and time, and those grand cosmic/temporal battlefields. I assumed there would be a final confrontation with the great evil and whatever it represents to the characters, and I assumed we would always feel the weight of consequence. I also expected hints and whispers sprinkled throughout each book culminating in some sort of great reveal, the kind that would make you grab the previous books off the shelf again and scour them for all the clues you missed. (again.... that Homestuck feel....)

But for all that to happen a book series requires consistency and a strong sense of history/presence within the fictional world, and as much as I genuinely love TRC, it misses the mark on both of those after The Raven Boys. If I had to pick a point where it starts to fray, it would be in The Dream Thieves with the wrecking of the Pig, or more specifically when the wrecking of the Pig is entirely forgotten and ignored once Ronan provides a replacement for it. That’s roungly 2/3 through TDT, which isn’t so bad. From then on though things start to unravel. In the end TRC is still an enjoyable story with characters I love, but it’s not truly cohesive.

The last glimmer of the kind of fantasy story I expected is in Blue Lily when we find out about the tapestry women who have Blue’s face. I was immediately excited when I first read that, because I thought we’d get a glimpse of prophecy. But like the wrecked Camaro, the narrative ultimately leaves the tapestry women and their consequences for the story behind. 

I haven’t been able to put any of my feelings about how the series played out into words until now really... but yeah, I really liked TRC a lot and yet I was a little disappointed by how it ultimately played out.