tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52369382011-04-21T18:09:11.172-07:00Neil StarmanBlog for 'Practical History' and 'Red Giant' sites, plus other stuff.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.comBlogger111100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236938.post-1071873116614664652003-12-19T14:31:00.000-08:002003-12-19T14:52:59.826-08:00It's the end of the world as we know it:
the last days of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'.
The last ever episode of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' might have made me sad but it did not disappoint. Instead it demonstrated why over its seven year arc the programme remained the most interesting thing on television.
Buffy represented a conscious effort to create a female superhero(ine), but it was much moreNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236938.post-1056830596925298092003-06-28T13:03:00.000-07:002003-06-28T13:03:16.816-07:00Buffy, Bush and Baghdad Museum
The controversy about what happened at Baghdad museum in the aftermath of the Anglo-US Invasion continues. There are differing accounts of how many ancient treasures were looted, and by whom, but a strong suggestion that some items were professionally removed rather than randomly picked up in a mass smash and grab. The whole thing reminds me of one of those Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236938.post-959181012003-06-22T09:19:00.000-07:002003-06-22T09:19:31.280-07:00FRANKLY, MR DURSLEY
Summer solstice weekend and the streets are full of witches... most of them children heading to and from bookshops in the midst of 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' frenzy. I was interested to see JK Rowling popping up on the recent 'The Importance of Being Morrissey' documentary proclaiming her undying love for The Smiths. I will certainly be reading the new book Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236938.post-949512972003-05-27T11:48:00.000-07:002003-05-27T11:48:05.430-07:00SOUTH LONDON MAGICAL LANDSCAPE
I am doing a talk on Monday June 9th for South East London Folklore Society on the' South London Magical Landscape'. It will be a search for South London's spirits of place via a whistlestop tour of its forgotten sacred sites, springs, groves, burial grounds, and more. I am not sure how much of my unmanageable collection of random South London esoterica I will be Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236938.post-949503752003-05-27T11:21:00.000-07:002003-05-27T11:28:17.000-07:00GAMES FOR MAY
My May festivities started off with with my talk on 'May Days in South London' for South London Radical History Group. Use Your Loaf Social Centre in Deptford was decorated with flowers and incense as well as its usual anarchist posters which complemented the talk's theme of the interrelated red and green strands of May Day. There was a good crowd with a nice mix of anarcho and Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236938.post-929448822003-04-20T13:42:00.000-07:002003-04-20T13:42:50.576-07:00SPACE SUPERIORITY COMPLEX
This month saw the 19th Annual National Space Symposium in the USA, heralding a frightening acceleration of the militarisation of space. An excellent article on 'The Post-Iraq Space Superiority Complex' on the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space site (follow the links to latest news for this article) reports: 'explicit decisions by Air Force SpaceNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236938.post-928527932003-04-18T12:28:00.000-07:002003-04-18T12:28:21.966-07:00SUBTERRANEA
Earlier this week Justin Woodman gave an interesting talk to South East London Folklore Society on 'Subterranean Worlds and Underground Civilisations', taking us on a journey through modern mythologies of hollow earth, alien bases at the Antarctic and Nazi quests for lost secrets. As Justin observed, in a world where everything visible has been mapped and accounted for, what lies Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236938.post-923076052003-04-09T12:02:00.000-07:002003-04-09T12:02:22.716-07:00MAY DAYS IN SOUTH LONDON
In a couple of weeks I'm giving a talk to South London Radical History Group on 'May Days in South London'. The talk will cover ancient Beltane celebrations, folk customs such as May Queens and the Jack in the Green, and International Workers' Day celebrations south of the Thames. Along the way I will be mentioning the Illuminati, Walter Crane, Gerald Gardner, the Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236938.post-919309712003-04-03T11:21:00.000-08:002003-04-03T11:24:36.000-08:00THE WRITING'S ON THE WALL
I've been reading 'From the Ashes of Angels' by Andrew Collins, which seeks to demonstrate that Biblical and other ancient legends of fallen angels (and their giant half-breed human offspring, the Nephilim) are actually memories of a lost civilization. I haven't got the time or inclination to write a full review. Suffice it to say that it uses the 'Von Daniken' Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236938.post-918588702003-04-02T10:44:00.000-08:002003-04-02T11:21:49.000-08:00THE PATRIOT GAME
Earlier this week David Beckham dedicated England's victory in Liechtenstein to British forces in Iraq with the words - "if an England win can lift them, let's hope it did tonight". Football in England has always acted a loyal supporter of the war machine. In World War One, football matches were used as recruitment rallies for the army. A poster aimed at it Chelsea fans read (Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236938.post-918572752003-04-02T10:16:00.000-08:002003-04-03T11:36:08.000-08:00HELLO, GOOD EVENING, WELCOME... TO NOTHING MUCH
Everyone knows the internet is a playground of assumed identities and multiple-personalities. I've had a web presence for years in various guises, and it amuses me what assumptions people make about you based on the different stuff you put out there. For some people I am the anarcho-communist antiquarian of Practical History website, for others theNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10245404366680541693noreply@blogger.com0