Time for history that doesn’t get talked about. Back in 1938, the well-known UK magazine Homes and Garden spent time at the lovely home of Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler, and did a nice article with photographs of the gardens and rooms of Eva and Adolf, for its readers. Go take a look at At Home With Hitler.
Alcohol is a fairly brutal and primitive drug which governments don’t mind because it keeps the slaves happy, and they can earn tax money from it. With that perspective in mind, take a look at everything you ever wanted to know about Sake – the drug of choice for the Japanese and Japan-fan foreign devils like us, at Sake World.
Remember Iraq? That place filled with weapons which were about to be used, but now can’t be found? The place where various companies were desperately keen to get oil pipelines running so that they could start the ‘oil for food’ process to help feed all the poor Iraqi citizens? (It’s funny how you don’t hear anything about how the feeding process is going now, just daily body counts). To get a sense of what’s going on in Baghdad, read these weblogs by an anonymous writer who also writes a column for the UK Guardian. Try Baghdad Burning>.
So you own a large green toy that’s shaped like a cousin of Kermit the Frog… Do you keep quiet about it, or do you make a website showing the photographs of your frog in a wide range of countries and places? Cancel the windows asking you to install the Japanese fonts, and go to Kawaso Goes Travelling.
The slide towards fascism in the US continues, illustrated by the recent story of an 18-year-old schoolkid who wrote an essay — and got sent to jail. Read the Wired news item called Write A Story — Go To Jail.
As a vegetarian (I don’t eat meat, I only eat vegetarians) the next site is fairly gross, but hey, that’s no reason not to point you towards something that’s decidedly odd. It has to be a joke, it has to be. You’ve heard of a milk shake – but can you imagine drinking a Meat Shake.
It’s quite funny seeing the prices quoted for high end systems now (a fairly top of the range PC should cost you around 4 – 5 thousand bucks, any more and you’re in rip-off territory) But once upon a time, back in the ancient days of the 1980s, computers were different. And they were sold differently. Take a look at the cute ads for Vintage Computers.
The end of privacy is fast approaching. Take a browse through this next site that focuses on keeping an eye on the ever increasing numbers of surveillance cameras everywhere. Check out Camera Watch.
Cell phone calls are encrypted using the GSM (Global System for Mobile) system. Well, it’s now been hacked and so anyone with the knowhow can intercept your calls and steal your info. Read the news report at GSM Hack.
To give you faith in the ability of humans to screw things up, no matter how authoritarian the baddies in charge might try and make it, go take a look through the bizarre and dumb stories to be found at Stupid Security.
A BBC series featuring exposes on how Thatcher’s government used secret committees to make decisions and institute dirty tricks is up for sale on the Internet. Read the news item before it sinks from site, pun intended, at Government By Secret Committee.
Then something to show that the BBC isn’t all bad, is the news that they’ll be soon putting all of their TV and Radio archives online for free download, making data geeks worldwide very happy campers. Read the news item BBC Archive To Open.
Read this frightening but informative Miami Herald article on Guantanamo Bay, the secret island jail where prisoners can be tried, executed and buried without anyone knowing. Note the mention of the fact that the jail has been built by Vice President Cheney’s former company, Haliburton, the same folks who also got the contract to ‘reconstruct’ Iraq. Hmmm. Read Detention Camp.
You’ve heard the whispers about Arnold Shwarzenegger’s past. (I’ve covered links to his father’s Nazi history in previous columns). Here’s another link to a pic of Arnie Snr’s Nazi ID Book). Here’s some excerpts from the 1977 interview Arnie gave with Oui magazine, talking about drugs, orgies and beyond: Arnold Interview.
Language is interesting whether you go with the Laurie Anderson statement that “language is a virus from outer space” or not. Point being, there are lots of words which are falling by the wayside now, consigned to the scrapheap of history. If you’re curious to see examples of words which you may never have been confronted with in real life or tough Scrabble games, but which our ancestors routinely used at each other, go to The Compendium of Lost Words.
A blast from the past. Back to the glory days when music was individual and not the corporate produced rubbish that oozes out of local music radio, waiting to be used in adverts for consumer products created by other branches of the same corporate conglomerates. Once upon a time, music was unique, created by artists. So were haircuts. Take a look through the galleries of pix at New Wave Photographs.
And staying with what you may have thought was the past. He’s considered one of the musical greats. He’s played with Rick Wakeman and ZZ Top, taught Joni Mitchell guitar, sang background vocals on “Lovely Rita Meter Maid” with The Beatles, and he’s also a personal friend. (I’ve told him I’ll be his roadie if he does any Far East tours, so any local agents who want to set up Japan tours, make contact and I’ll pass on the info to him). Go have a look at Shawn Phillips.
Remember a film called The Goonies from a couple of decades back? Well, it seems to have struck a resonant chord in the makers of this next site who’ve made it their life’s work to hunt down the locations used to make the movie. Go hunt for treasure at The Goonies.
Then, History reduced to great Wallpaper and Clipart time. Go do some happy looting of the goodies to be found at Medieval Art Resources Online. And for a look at often creepy but very fascinating adverts selling assorted psychiatric tablets and devices, (and hopefully this isn’t just another front for the dianetics cult weirdos), go stare at The American Gallery of Psychiatric Art.
Then finally for a curious glimpse into recent hidden history, you can’t do better than an archive of Lesbian paperback artwork from the 50’s and 60’s, entitled Strange Sisters.
Until the next time, if the Home and Garden editor doesn’t get me.
Ian Fraser is a playwright, author, comedian, conspiracy nut, old-time radio collector and self-confessed data-junkie. Winner of numerous Vita and Amstel Awards, he’s been an Internet addict and games-fanatic since around 1995, when the Internet began to make much more sense than theatre.