The philosopher and the wolf

The Philosopher and the Wolf is the story of Mark Rowlands' 11 year relationship with Brenin, his pet wolf and best friend. Many years ago when I worked as production assistant at CITY-TV we had some wolves and their owner as guests on a show I was working on. They were just like big, beautiful, lovable dogs and I wanted to bring them home with me. I'm a sucker for a good animal story, especially when the first paragraph makes me cry:

Brenin never lay down in the back of the Jeep. He always liked to see what was coming. Once, many years ago, we had driven from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, all the way to Miami - around 800 miles - and back again. And he stood every inch of the way: his hulking presence blocking out much of the sun and all of the rear traffic. But this time, on this short drive into Béziers, near the village where we were living in the Languedoc, he wouldn't stand; couldn't stand. It was then I knew he was gone. I was taking him to the place where he would die.

The Philosopher and the Wolf : Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death and Happiness' by Mark Rowlands

Barack Obama's favourite painting

It is Barack Obama's favourite painting: this famous canvas by the visionary Victorian artist George Frederic Watts arguably set the President-Elect on his long path to the White House.
In 1990, Obama was captivated by a sermon delivered by the Rev Jeremiah Wright, his controversial former pastor. The focus of the sermon was Hope, Watts's melancholy painting of a hunched and blindfolded girl who sits atop a globe and tentatively plucks at a single string on her crude wooden lyre.

Th-th-th-that's all folks

I picked some roses and a couple of hydrangea blossoms today but it's supposed to snow tomorrow so I don't think there'll be many more.

Don't leave home without it

A complete and authentic vampire killing kit — made around 1800 and complete with stakes, mirrors, a gun with silver bullets, crosses, a Bible, holy water, candles and even garlic, all housed in a American walnut case with a carved cross on top — attained $14,850 in the Jimmy Pippen estate sale by Stevens October 3–4 in the new Natchez Convention Center.

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Andy Warhol - Selected Works

Guns and knives and shoes and stuff.


Paul Kasmin Gallery - Andy Warhol - Selected Works
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Furniture For Serial Killers

After a hard day of stabbing, gouging and strangling scumbags Dexter likes to curl up in a bloody armchair with a good mystery novel.


Dexter-inspired collection from Amy Lau Design
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How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You

IF U LIV WIF KAT UD BETTR CHECK DIS OUT.
SRSLY.
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Oradour-sur-Glane

My sister, Dawn, sent me a slideshow of the massacre in the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane. I hadn't heard of this tragedy before.

In the afternoon of 10th June 1944 a detachment of SS troops arrived in Oradour-sur-Glane, a peaceful town near the city of Limoges in central France. The troops sealed off the entrances to the town and rounded up the inhabitants, including those they had collected from nearby farms on their way in.

At the end of the day, the SS had murdered a total of 642 men women and children.

Following the war the French government decided to preserve the town in its ruined state as a memorial to the murdered inhabitants.

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A bumper feast of Burroughs

Bestselling author, heroin addict and all-round beat generation visionary William S Burroughs is to be the subject of two decidedly unseasonal Christmas exhibitions. The Royal Academy of Arts, London, will be dusting off portraits of him by Robert Mapplethorpe, David Hockney and Annie Liebovitz, as well as several of Burroughs' own films and artworks inspired by him.

Mitch Mitchell found dead

Drummer for Jimi Hendrix found dead

Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the 1960s and the group's last surviving member, was found dead in his hotel room early Wednesday. He was 61.

This Aug. 21, 1967 file photo shows Noel Redding, left, Jimi Hendrix, center, and Mitch Mitchell, of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, at Heathrow airport in London. Authorities say Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the 1960s, has been found dead in his Portland, Ore. hotel room.