As the US presidential election nears, the shamans of Peru have been displaying their own methods for ensuring the success of their chosen candidate, Barack Obama. Watch the video as Dan Collyns reports from Lima. Hell, I’ll match my shamans against your prayer group anyday!

Grace Jones was good on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, but she’s even better on “Later With Jools Holland”, watch part one and part two. Her latest release “Hurricane” is unusually good and if you’re smart you’ll pick up the handful of amazing remixes posted to Hype Machine.

Just a quick mention, if you are a homophobic hetero-moron living in California, stay home on election day so others can Vote NO on Proposition 8, that’s the proposition which threatens to rewrite the state constitution banning same sex marriage. The days of treating U.S. gays and lesbians like second class citizens are over. If you’re out of state and want to donate to the cause you can do so here.

Barack Obama’s half hour special was (i’m gushing) wonderful. It was real class, the way he left out any mention of McNasty and Caribou Barbie. Seriously, the Republican campaign has been so poorly run, so surprising, so divisive that some smart television writer ought to pitch that fiasco as a sitcom titled Kooks. If McCain gets in as President expect rioting and a mass exodus of brain power.

Blogs are so 2004 and they’re dead according to Paul Boutin in Wired; “Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug.”

It’s all about the micro-blog these days, everyone’s bursting forth on their favorite micro-service with 140 characters or less. I’m not complaining, I’ve just been accepted as Suzi Quattro’s friend on Facebook.

Vintage Pics Capture ‘Halloween in the Time of Cholera‘

“This Halloween be on the lookout for all the righty bloggers dressed as drama queens. They’ll be the ones looking as if they just escaped from Sam Fuller’s Shock Corridor, swatting away invisible mites as they battle a bad case of Obama on the brain pan. It’s been quite an inglorious spectacle, watching these wracked souls lose their shit as they swing from the belfry.”

- James Wolcott “Presidential Monster Chiller Horror Theater!”

Pop diva Grace Jones, the woman who received a lifetime ban from all Disney parks for flashing her tits, will release her 11th album Hurricane on The Wall of Sound label, November 11th in the U.K..

The long awaited studio album produced by Ivor Guest sees Grace working with various music legends and pop luminaries like; Wally Badarou (Level 42), Tricky, Brian Eno Wendy and Lisa, John Justin, Martin Slattery, Philip Sheppard, Paulo Goude (French pop star and son), Robert Logan, Don-E and Tony Allen, with recording engineering duties by Cameron ‘Engine’ Craig. See official Grace Jones Hurricane Site. Watch Grace talking about the record at the Q awards last week.

The long awaited album follows Jones performance at Massive Attack’s Meltdown festival in London on 19 June 2008 during which she performed four new songs from the album including “This Is Life,” a track which leaked out onto the interwebs. The music video for “Corporate Cannibal” was premiered at the festival and released onto YouTube on 4 July 2008 with e-mixes by Atticus Ross, Robert Logan, and The Bug (aka Kevin Martin). “Williams’ Blood” is listed on Amazon.com UK as the second single, to be released on 01 December. Although there seems to be a few Danny Tenaglia bootleg remixes of “Hurricane” floating around the shops.

A small January 2009 U.K. tour is set in support of the new LP with dates as follows;19 Jan – Birmingham – Symphony Hall
21 Jan – Gateshead – Sage
22 Jan – Glasgow – Clyde Auditorium
24 Jan – Manchester – Apollo
25 Jan – Bristol – Colston Hall
27 Jan – London – The Roundhouse
28 Jan – London – The Roundhouse
Ticket price is £40 in London and £35 in all other areas. As with all things Grace, expect the unexpected, usually she arrives late, and goes on stage late, her shows are notoriously bumpy and spontaneous, but incredibly fun. Brace yourself for a Grace Jones flashback, singing with Pavarotti via YouTube.

The Paris-based Rugby club Stade Français have yet to win Europe’s most coveted club tournament, but they continue to make a fashion statement, every kit gets flashier and flashier (gayer?) as each season passes. The team has chosen to adopt a Warhol inspired pop-art print for their third team shirt (the primary team kit color is pink) which features serial image of a French queen, Parisienne 13th-century heroine Blanche de Castille, the wife of Louis VIII to be exact. The shirts are all part of media mogul Max Guazzini’s colourful hands on ownership which raises the profile of the team while challenging macho stereotypes, i.e. over the top Rugby kits and homo-erotic calendars like “The Gods of Stade”.

Arnaud Marchois : “Touches moi pas….”

“William Claxton, a photographer of the famous who used his charm to lure jazz musicians from their dark, smoky natural habitat to pose on sunny beaches and carousels, then made stunningly intimate images of legendary loners like Steve McQueen and Frank Sinatra, died on Saturday (October 11th) in Los Angeles. He was 80.” His portraits of Chet Baker are particularly beautiful.

The New York Review of Books asked some of their contributors for their views on the upcoming election, the best of what amounts to a collection of fascinating essays comes from Ronald Dworkin. Read through Russell Baker, David Bromwich, Mark Danner, Andrew Delbanco, Joan Didion, Ronald Dworkin et al.

“These reasons why Obama should be president make the stakes in this election even greater. Our economy is near catastrophic and worsening, unemployment and foreclosures are increasing, our foreign and military policies are disastrous, the Republican president is ridiculed and despised, the Republican candidate flails and lies. Even a mediocre Democratic candidate should win easily. If a remarkably distinguished candidate like Obama loses, this can be for only one reason. We Americans can do something great in November. Or we can do something absolutely terrible and then live with the shame of our stupid, self-destructive racial prejudice for yet another generation.” Ronald Dworkin American legal philosopher, current professor of Jurisprudence at University College London and the New York University School of Law, and former professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford.

Devo with special guests Chrissie Hynde and The Black Keys to benefit the Obama/Biden campaign at the Akron Civic Theater was great fun. Chrissie looked especially well and sounded even better with her quick acoustic set; Devo was of course in rare form performing for an appreciative hometown crowd.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing…

Somewhere around the 8th year anniversary of this site (last month) I dropped off the blogging bandwagon. I suppose it’s only natural considering job and life enter into the time pie leaving less and less time for entries and what not. So, ummmm yea not dead yet, just on a bit of a hiatus working on other projects. Still watching Mad Men and it’s as entertaining as ever, main character Don Draper keeps tuning in but dropping out; I think he’s living my early 1960s Palm Springs mid-century modern fantasy. Although I worry I’m watching another yuppies’ TV version of a love letter to the past. The inclusion of Faulkner’s “Sound and The Fury” nods to existential themes and universal truths rather than death? The handling of Kurt’s (Edin Gali) gayness was/is amusing. The show is still brilliant and an overall feast for the eyes and an art directors dream.

Anyway, it’s Monday, my brain fog is reaching into the afternoon but a surprising little mix by BBC mash-up queen Annie Mac’s is bloopy and bloppy enough to keep me awake, the Guardian U.K. describes; “The mix kicks off with a terrific mash of MIA and Salt-N-Pepa, before surging though half an hour of strident electro which is obscure enough to make Mac look cool, but uplifting enough to get you bouncing around your kitchen.” or ummm office, tracklisting anyone?

The Octagon Ultimate Fighting Championship Book is a deluxe oversized art book that weighs in over 50 lbs. and measures 20 x 26 inches in size. The collection by photographer Kevin Lynch (forward by David Mamet) features over 800 stunning photographs of the highly skilled athletes that compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, illustrating their training, lives and rituals as mixed martial arts fighters. Lynch was given unprecedented access to document the sport both ringside and behind the scenes.The Deluxe Collector’s Edition ($7,500) is a hardcover book nestled in a handmade leatherbound clamshell box, limited to an edition of 150, the collection includes a signed and numbered 16 x 20 chromogenic print. A collectors edition limited to a run of 450 is also available for $2,500 US dollars.

Los Angeles based Kevin Lynch is internationally recognized for his portfolio of conceptual portraiture ranging from celebrity, fashion and advertising to fine art images. His work has appeared in such diverse publications as Harpers Bazaar, GQ, Wallpaper and American Photo. I’m not entirely sure of what photographs are included in the Octagon book, I’m hoping we see some of his before and after UFC Fighter portraits (above), they are particularly beautiful and raw. A less expensive version of The Octagon Book ($26) is set for a December release? Thanks to Reece for the big heads up on the book!

The original line-up of DEVO will return to Ohio to play a special benefit concert in their hometown of Akron. One of new wave and punk’s most innovative and successful bands, will perform THE ENTIRE “DUTY NOW AND FOR THE FUTURE” LP at the Akron Civic Theater October 17, 2008 8:00 pm to raise money for Barack Obama and The Summit County Democratic Party. Tickets are on sale now for $150.00, $50.00, $35.00 and $25.00, more information can be found on Club Devo.