Creepy cave-dwelling sword guy teaches the wee ones to become teenage ninja masters. Just think, if you had been this well ninja-trained that young, how awesome would your life be today?

(Via Everything is Terrible)

 
Ian Dury, lead singer for British New Wave act Ian Dury and The Blockheads, had his warts-and-all life story open up on UK screens last weekend.  Back in the day, Dury, who passed away from cancer a decade ago, was by no means my cup of musical tea (I much preferred his Stiff label-mate Wreckless Eric, or —thanks, Richard!—Jilted John), but with Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, and Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, there was no denying his ability to craft a hooky song.

And while biopics of a musical nature typically leave me cold (I’m Not There), or incensed (What We Do Is Secret), I’m looking forward to catching Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (trailer below).  It stars the fantastically expressive Andy “Gollum” Serkis, and, as Dury’s father, that Sexy Beast himself, Ray Winstone. 

It’s no stretch to imagine Ray Winstone playing domineering authority figures, but I still remember his slim, punk-rock self costarring with Diane Lane in one of that era’s best musicals, Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains.  A.K.A., the film with the forever-humbling line, “You’re just an old man living in a young girl’s world!”

 
(via The Guardian)

 
Since Michael Jackson and the Beatles are, respectively, the best and third best-selling artists of the decade (with music that wasn’t even recorded this millennium in Jackson’s case and that is four decades old in the case of the Fab Four) the record industry seems to have realized that (Taylor Swift aside) most people actually want good music rather than bland, marketing department driven ditties. Or is that the reason? Of course there is also the old music biz adage that “the only good artist is a dead artist” (lookit Elvis, for f’s sake, to say nothing of Tupac and Biggie Smalls). There’s big money in death, it’s a great career move (although one difficult to enjoy), so it comes as no real surprise that the Jimi Hendrix estate announced today that they’d be releasing a 40 year old bunch of recording Jimi made with Billy Cox and others back in ‘69, called Valleys of Neptune. There has been a fair amount of posthumous Hendrix material ranging from great to not so great. Who knows, this Band Of Gypsys era material seems like it may actually be pretty good.

From Geoff Boucher’s cover story in today’s LA Times:

South African native Eddie Kramer was the lead producer on the album, and he was also the engineer in the studio with Hendrix during the original sessions. Kramer spent months using vintage analog approaches and the latest digital tools to excavate the material. “I felt like an archaeologist using a brush who finds, underneath the dust, this marvelous gold artifact,” he said.

Kramer said the music of “Neptune” comes primarily from 1969, a time of “both frustration and real excitement” for Hendrix as he pushed his way toward “a new direction.” The guitarist had brought in an old friend, bassist Billy Cox, to play on some of the tracks; on Friday, Cox, now living in Nashville, said he is giddy at the prospect of hearing the results of his work with Hendrix.

“I can tell you that Jimi was on his way to a powerful new thing, a new direction completely, he was going back to his roots and he wanted a sound with more soul,” said Cox, later in Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys. “Who can say where it would have led him if he hadn’t died?”

 
Jimi Hendrix fans have a new experience in store (Los Angeles Times)

 
Here’s a Japanese television reenactment of a Usain Bolt running victory.  Watch and try to not have your head explode as you tease out the possible cultural meanings of the “runner up’s” wearing of what appears to be a Michael Jackson mask.

 
(via JapanProbe)

 
Found inside a long-neglected international railway timetable from the ‘70s, eight etchings by British artist and mystic, William Blake.  Tate Britain, which purchased the etchings for ?Ǭ

(Austin Osman Spare)

(The Writings of Austin Osman Spare)

Second installment of a two-part, in-depth conversation with cultural engineer Genesis Breyer P-Orridge on the occasion of the publication of THEE PSYCHICK BIBLE: A New Testameant, a compendium of Gen’s writing on magick, the occult and sexuality. Part one is here.

 
Tantalizing short excerpt from The Harvard Psychedelic Club over at The Daily Beast.  Don Lattin’s new book looks at the moment in time when Dr. TImothy Leary, Dr. Richard Alpert (AKA Ram Dass), Huston Smith, and lifestyle guru Andrew Weil (then a student) crossed paths at Harvard in the early 1960s setting off a revolution in consciousness that is still felt today. It’s fascinating to see Leary’s influence on culture beginning to become rehabilitated a decade after his passing. His legacy is difficult to ascertain, to be sure, but the man had a huge, huge effect on so many people’s lives—whether directly or indirectly via the fact that LSD use became widespread, you cannot untangle Leary from that fact. He certainly had a huge influence on me. I can’t wait to get my hands on this!

From the book:

Weil and Winston had both read The Doors of Perception, Huxley?

 
This is disturbing. Can you imagine being responsible for responding to this on a governmental level? Talk about a mine field, you’d be getting this from all sides no matter you you did.
Clearly, though, they’ve got to do something. It just won’t be easy. Or popular. Yikes.

Police have identified children as young as seven being groomed for terrorism, with some expressing a wish to become suicide bombers.

Up to 10 primary school pupils, aged between seven and 10, have been placed on a government outreach programme for individuals considered at risk of being radicalised and turning to violence.

Some have taken inspiration from jihadi websites or after viewing extremist material in Islamic bookshops.

One child was referred to the programme by his teacher after writing on a school book: ?