Whitechapel - Spirit Tracks 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/ Lussumo Vanilla & Feed Publisher Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=294952#Comment_294952 2011-05-18T01:15:26-07:00 2011-05-18T01:15:51-07:00 Flabyo http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1306 I know there's a thing here where people don't seem to read Warren's website. But right now, you really should be. (start at the bottom) One of the things I loved about 'Do Anything' was the ...
But right now, you really should be. (start at the bottom)

One of the things I loved about 'Do Anything' was the way Warren rambles through all kinds of connected elements to reach his conclusion, and this series of posts is doing the same thing. Brilliant.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=294954#Comment_294954 2011-05-18T01:53:26-07:00 2011-05-18T10:19:38-07:00 icelandbob http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=5250 i know i have been reading his posts intently over the last few says. My head has been spinning a bit... There seems to be a weird synchronicity/ideaspace thing going on here. This months edition ...
There seems to be a weird synchronicity/ideaspace thing going on here. This months edition of the wire has a section by Simon Reynolds, based on his new book "Retromania", about how the new digital culture has created an entirely new landscape that has completely made atemporal how we consumer culture, especially that of music. in the (analogue) past, time tilted forward with the chase and acquisition of physical objects to consume, but now the cultural time seems lateral and recursive. We now can experience spontaneity and permanence. Such as making tweets you can't remember an hour later, but the persistence of a past that you can access on youtube in an instant.

We are all starting to act like Quartermass in the way we consume our information these days, although whether or not this is a good thing, depends upon your viewpoint.

Also, post two describes memories of the past and phantoms from the future. This IMMEDIATELY made me think of this video, which was culled from the John Carpenter film "Prince of darkness"



what we are seeing here are a montage of the films dream sequences, where it transpired that they are actually broadcasts being made from the future to warn the lead character of impending doom in the present. But the final memory changes from the others. That's where it starts to get really confusing...

edited for crap spelling]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=294978#Comment_294978 2011-05-18T07:26:34-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 warrenellis http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2 I know there's a thing here where people don't seem to read Warren's website. And, as you can see, it's almost completely true. I know there's a thing here where people don't seem to read Warren's website.

And, as you can see, it's almost completely true.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=294979#Comment_294979 2011-05-18T07:35:30-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 taphead http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2284 Yeah, this has been firing up all sortsa synapses these last few days. Jesus, Warren. Careful now. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=294985#Comment_294985 2011-05-18T08:35:00-07:00 2011-05-18T08:37:33-07:00 Steven Thomas http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=462 Ohh, i've noticed it. Just been letting it all quietly crawl around in my brain. (Edit to add: The evolution/transformation of that Prince of Darkness transmission is probably one of my favorite ...
(Edit to add: The evolution/transformation of that Prince of Darkness transmission is probably one of my favorite moments in a John Carpenter film.)]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295008#Comment_295008 2011-05-18T12:44:31-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Cat Vincent http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=447 Quietly loving the piece, watching it evolve. Bravo, squire. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295013#Comment_295013 2011-05-18T13:21:38-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 cbkof http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=8811 Being quite the newb here I assumed there might be some kind of “wait and see it finish itself” rule. Have been following Spirit Tracks intently since it started and have been spreading the word. ... Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295016#Comment_295016 2011-05-18T13:38:11-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 mercurialblonde http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2444 I've been reading this in bites, because every one of them blows my brain apart. So it's taking some time. I'm glad I'm not the only one, ha. I'm really enjoying it. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295029#Comment_295029 2011-05-18T15:19:41-07:00 2011-05-19T01:34:18-07:00 icelandbob http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=5250 the posts have become very interesting now with the idea of ghosts as electromagnetic/radio energy. How strong electromagnetic fields, possibly aligned with the surroundings can affect our temporal ...
The idea of people seeing ghosts on their iphones via RFID? fucking madness (but brilliant fucking madness).

Also the way that machines and cards with RFID can contain so much information about a person (i remember a Docklands Light Railway inspector freaking me out by showing what info he could bring up me and my movements just by using my oyster card), we could end up seeing electromagnetic spirit doppelgangers of ourselves haunting our surroundings as they leech energy off our recorded actions. And then they try to contact us through our phones...]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295034#Comment_295034 2011-05-18T16:39:06-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 RenThing http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=155 Oh thanks for that, bob, new techy-nightmare fuel that is... Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295041#Comment_295041 2011-05-18T18:25:51-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Corey Waits http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=453 I've been marking the posts as unread in bloglines so I can come back to them later. Recently read Shivering Sands and the first volume of Bad Signal, so definitely in the mood for some more of this ...
Is this going to be Knock John, or Do Anything 2, or something else entirely?]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295047#Comment_295047 2011-05-18T19:04:45-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 James Cunningham http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2925 I've been enjoying Spirit Tracks quite a bit. Mini-Do Anything? Yes, I'm more than happy to give that my full attention. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295055#Comment_295055 2011-05-18T20:07:52-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 chris.bodhi http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=10140 Holding off on reading this until it's finished. Then I can dump all the posts into InDesign, print it out, & read it on the crapper. Quite excited.
Quite excited.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295059#Comment_295059 2011-05-18T20:32:54-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Warped Savant http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2376 I've been converting them and putting them onto my Kindle. It's been really good, but I can't help but think that Warren has talked about something called "spirit tracks" before. I think ... I think I'm going to have to decide that I was thinking of "Stealth Tribes" instead and stop trying to remember it...

It's nice to see little snippets of stories on Ellis' page again. I've missed reading them.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295061#Comment_295061 2011-05-18T21:11:59-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 StefanJ http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=961 It's been really good, but I can't help but think that Warren has talked about something called "spirit tracks" before. Actually, it was memories from the future you having read it just ... It's been really good, but I can't help but think that Warren has talked about something called "spirit tracks" before.

Actually, it was memories from the future you having read it just now trickling back through [REDACTED BY BUREAU OF CAUSALITY CONSISTENCY].]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295064#Comment_295064 2011-05-18T22:39:17-07:00 2011-05-18T22:40:03-07:00 Owen http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=5044 Really glad someone posted this, I've been reading them on the early shift (6.40am here in Wales) and it's been a fantastic wake-up call for the brain. It's enjoyable to plot all the associations and ... Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295070#Comment_295070 2011-05-19T01:12:13-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 nick3pointone4 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=4092 i've always found that scene in prince of darkness to be incredibly unsettling. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295072#Comment_295072 2011-05-19T01:36:20-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 icelandbob http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=5250 @nick3pointone4 it was weird that he used the latest Camcorder technology to record those scenes, Yet it still seems to retain this unsettling "grainy" atmosphere that allows for freaky ...
it was weird that he used the latest Camcorder technology to record those scenes, Yet it still seems to retain this unsettling "grainy" atmosphere that allows for freaky visuals like that....]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295080#Comment_295080 2011-05-19T03:33:21-07:00 2011-05-19T04:36:32-07:00 Oddcult http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=214 Your buildings and cities will come with pre-recorded Stone Tapes? My path towards interest in weirdness and where I'm at right now is almost identical to the one described here, although I've ...
My path towards interest in weirdness and where I'm at right now is almost identical to the one described here, although I've probably arrived in a slightly different place. It starts with some of the more fucked up Tom Baker Doctor Who episodes, through Target paperbacks and Usbourne kids' books on the Supernatural and UFOs, through to those mental magazines about The Unexplained and some of the Time Life and Reader's Digest books, which were essentially compendiums of news clippings with a salacious veneer of 'oooh spoooky' put on them, and the occasional guilty sneak at Misty and rare finds of slim pulp books on weird rituals and satanic panic, written either by the folk that went on to form the Alexandrian tradition, or by Ed Wood in a weekend whilst off his tits on speed.

You can't tell the difference between any of this and the stuff by Tolkein, Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Lovecraft, Dick, Moorcock et al and it doesn't matter, because it all sits there fermenting in your head. The world seems at once a fascinating and terrifying place. Monsters are fucking everywhere and the Daily Mail says that '1 in 10 people could be Satanists'. It's brilliant.

And then you find things like the Fortean Times, which says 'whoa, there's weird and cool stuff out there, but hang on and think about this for a minute' and it's 93/94 and you've got access to bulletin boards and ApraNet and UseNet and TelNet via Vax/VMS greenscreens at college, and then you can afford a 14.4 modem of your own and that crackle and hiss and pop of the carrier signal is like the first drink of the day hitting an empty stomach and although the Netscape browser is a pile of shite, the full horror and wonder traps you for weeks at a time. And David Icke actually gets on TV saying all that stuff that the online fringe is saying and he looks a bit of a twat. And the X-files has a decent pilot episode and then knocks it out of the park with 'Tooms' and you've got both a fantastical and a sceptical viewpoint presented to think about in interesting ways. And despite what became the cliche of Scully being a sceptic and missing everything, what you did cleverly have before the writers lost sight of it was that Scully was sceptical about aliens, yes, but believed in religious phenomena and Mulder didn't believe in this but kept seeing the aliens and monsters. And there's another glut of books, some of them actually pretty decent, about the paranormal which includes sceptical and rationalist viewpoints. And then there are all the X-files imitators and wannabees and somehow it all gets a bit fucking old and you grow up a bit and get a job and have to deal with dull fucking idiots for whom there's no wonder at all in the world.

And even more frighteningly, it looks like they might be right.

So you grasp at stuff like Paul Devereaux's earth lights work. And people who've looked into ayahuasca had common experiences and the links between reports of fairies and entheogens seem like there's something there and crop circles go from being crappy alien hoaxes to beautiful rural outsider art. And it starts getting interesting again.

Then, whilst Arthur C Clarke's line about 'sufficiently advanced technology etc' becomes an overused, dull, naff justification for poncing about in stupid clothing (or none) by people who spout rubbish about Quantum Theory and Chaos and who probably haven't even got a maths GCSE let alone any kind of decent understanding of physics at a high level, his more useful comment in the introduction to one of his 'Mysterious World' books about 'approximately 50% of the book is nonsense, but he doesn't know which 50%' goes up to 95% of it being nonsense, then 99%, then 99.9% of weirdness and the paranormal almost certainly being nonsense, but whilst the feeling of the world being full of weirdness and amazing things that boring people don't know or care about is gone, there's still something you just can't shake.

But then the boring and unintelligent people you hate dealing with get flooded with so much crap about the paranormal that (although there's always been a tradition of folk magic and ghost stories and working class spiritualism of sorts, that's quite different and in no way what I'm on about) it gets coerced into the mainstream in a banal and moronic way and you get called a close-minded fascist by people who want to charge you to give Reiki Healing to your cat, but whose eyes would glaze over if you started telling them about things Orgonone and Phlogiston or discussing whether Dorothy Clutterbuck's poetry supported Margaret Murray's theories or was just influenced by the missing chapter from The Wind In the Willows and what that meant or the ETH and Drake Equation and the things you end up finding interesting.

And you wake up in your mid-30s and realise that you're sick of it all and it's a load of shite but you still crave the hit that The Weird brings. And keep looking for it. And you do look to science for simulations or things to replace it. Augmented Reality might just be psychic methadone. Maybe technological weirdness is the best we can hope for. But, dammit, even Technoshamanism (involving actual techno...) is hard enough to find opportunities to partake in, due to the scene dying and you know, you're too old to gurn like a knob in a field somewhere, especially when it's now sponsored by Budweiser.

But there's something inside some of us that gets switched on by this. It's not adrenaline, but it's something just as addictive. It's not kicked off by psilocybin or weird electromagnetic fields in itself, but it kicks in when we hear about them, or other weird shit, and the rational, sceptical response isn't just an internal immune response, it's something that enhances the hit when it really comes.

If you've read this ramble this far, you damn well know what I mean, don't you?]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295086#Comment_295086 2011-05-19T05:53:56-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Casey Moore http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1275 Loving this. And as new ones are added I go back and start from the beginning again. Of course reading this makes work so damn dull and boring when no one wants to talk about anything exciting and ... Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295088#Comment_295088 2011-05-19T06:42:35-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Cat Vincent http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=447 So, who else collected The Unexplained and had their mum throw them out after they moved out? (A similar fate happened to my first 50 issues of 2000AD...) Those 70's partworks were a real boon to ... (A similar fate happened to my first 50 issues of 2000AD...)

Those 70's partworks were a real boon to a growing lad on the wrong side of the tracks. Between The Unexplained and All About Science, it made learning fun and available.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295090#Comment_295090 2011-05-19T07:03:16-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Oddcult http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=214 Water damage from a leaky loft stuck them all together. Same with my 2nd Gen Eagles and Battle/Action Force. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295094#Comment_295094 2011-05-19T07:29:47-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Neila http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=5582 I too am reading it in bits so as not to overwhelm my brainpan. All this talk of electric ghosts makes me think of SLIders (Street Light Interference -ers) . Has anyone else heard of the phenomena? ... SLIders (Street Light Interference -ers) . Has anyone else heard of the phenomena? Perhaps it's related to the energies left behind as ghosts?]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295097#Comment_295097 2011-05-19T08:10:52-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Kay Orchison http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=10078 Some things here, related but separate. Please forgive me if this goes on for a bit, I've been thinking about all this for a while and it's time to get it out there. I'll try and break it into useful ...
1. @Icelandbob - not so much Quatermass as Dirk Gently with the information consumption but I don't see it as necessarily bad. I expect that under the circumstances we ought to expect to be seeing a sort of Cayce Pollard effect emergent, probably in people with ADHD or dyslexia.

2. I'm utterly entranced by this latest from Mr Ellis at least partly because - for me at least - seeing all these disparate elements of my own previous research strung together in an apparently logical framework is like finally getting one of those Magic Image pictures to resolve.

And yes, for the record, I get that Our Man Upstairs is a science fiction writer and as such is likely to be teasing out narrative possibilities as much or more than positing actual hypotheses, so no I'm not about to try and found a religion around this. That said, it's been an experience a little like donning Persinger's God Helmet.

Ellis seems to do this from time to time - tap some kind of informational wildcat - and it always sets me off properly web surfing, skittering from notion to notion like I used to when the Web was new and I was stone ignorant. It's this sort of low-grade hypomanic state that helps the art and music resolve so I'm always grateful for it.

3. @Oddcult - I meant to say this when the Weirdness threads were floating in the sunlit shallows of Whitechapel, but it is equally relevant here: as a fellow long-term FT reader I've seen the same trajectory from wide-eyed wonder to tired scepticism in their pages like a sad decaying orbit. I think it's objectively real, not just in your head. That said, it's pretty straightforwardly explicable: social media and smartphones have made the gathering of evidence almost too easy, and evidence kills most of the truly fantastical stories stone dead.

The delicious frission of unheimlichkeit is gone because the strange news stories - of which there are as many as ever - are mostly now clearly comprehensible, and the mysteries they present are puzzles about missing facts rather than feral harbingers of paradigm-busting significance.

4. So back around to What Just Happened with the magic eye picture resolving and all that. What really kicked it off was Mr Ellis making mention of Alvin Lucier.

See, the reason I've never been able to separate visual art praxis from music making is that I get epic synaesthesia. Not the number-colour stuff but sound-colour-word-emotion matrices. I hear music in noise, melodies emerging out of fridge hum and crowd patter, that have shifting colours and sometimes fleeting images attached, along with key words and onieric connections to emotional spaces. I hear voices in rain like people talking in the next room. All this can be really distracting.

So as well as making images I try to note down those key words and use them to describe the overarching emotion in some sort of reasonably elegant way and then I get a stringed instrument - I've got loads of different ones, the process works best when I'm playing something in an unfamiliar tuning so I can't return to habits - and try and get the melodic, rhythmic and structural patterns down as best I can. At that point a song usually forms.

So then I'm just a guy singing a song with English language lyrics that largely make sense, playing a guitar or a mandolin or a banjo or whatever, and that's just fucking banal. It's also crude and sort of wrong, like "Hey I'm in love with this wonderful girl, I want you to meet her, so here's an x-ray of her rib cage." I've tried making field recordings as an alternative but the numinous sense of musicality always seems to get muted if not lost in them. I've tried layering sounds and using multiple instruments but it always sounds faked, forced.

So then Mr Ellis here wrote: "The middle section of the process sounds like EVP. And then it turns into music." I realised that although I'd read a fair bit about “I Am Sitting In A Room” I'd never actually heard the piece - and it turns out the Web is crawling with interpretations of it, and the tail end of many of them sounds like a crystallised version of my illusory melodies.

So I thought: what if I were to record a song and use Lucier's re-recording technique to try and backtrack to the original sound pattern? The two versions, clear and devolved, might also be layered to interesting effect. The band are up for it and rehearsal is tomorrow. I'm quite excited really.

There's more to it than this, there's stuff about EM sensitivity as well, but this post is too long already and that was really the stuff that I thought might be of interest here.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295098#Comment_295098 2011-05-19T08:34:08-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Flabyo http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1306 There were two part-works that I remember collecting as a kid that between them had a pretty major impact on the way my brain went in the end. The first was a history one called 'Discovery'. Each ...
The first was a history one called 'Discovery'. Each one focused on a particular bit of history (Cortez and the Aztecs, The Spanish Armada, etc...) and consisted of a magazine about it, a cut out and build model, and several duplicates of various relevant primary sources. Very clever stuff. It had a very early example of an ARG as a Christmas special that I seem to remember involved the Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The second was in a similar format, but about science, and called 'Quest'. So one issue might be about the space shuttle, another about plant biology etc... I remember having a little cardboard model of the HMS Ark Royal from that.

No idea what happened to any of them. Probably got binned when I went to uni along with most of the other stuff I left behind.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295103#Comment_295103 2011-05-19T09:38:40-07:00 2011-05-19T11:10:08-07:00 Sonny http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1167 I don't have much to add here in terms of content (this stuff is mind-blowing)... but I have been encouraging my friends to check out this series of posts, especially the ones who have read Ellis ...
*(Which, coinciding w/ Wordpress' new Dashboard layout, is utterly fucked.)

[Edited for footnote.]]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295108#Comment_295108 2011-05-19T11:02:28-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 HEY APATHY! http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=9019 in 2008 a 1973 miles davis came out of the record player and made love to my girlfreind while I sat there helplessly grooving to the funky sounds... just saying (spirit tracks is cool) Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295115#Comment_295115 2011-05-19T12:32:23-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 cbkof http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=8811 Typo in 24. I believe "Which is many places isn’t getting further than, say, publicly posted building permits..." should be "Which IN many places isn’t getting further than, say, ... Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295146#Comment_295146 2011-05-19T15:56:54-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 icelandbob http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=5250 @Flabyo i Remember quest VERY well i bought about 25 issues of that before the newsagent stopped stocking it. It had a whole slew of science-y fact and some rather unsettling articles about ...
i Remember quest VERY well i bought about 25 issues of that before the newsagent stopped stocking it.

It had a whole slew of science-y fact and some rather unsettling articles about things like sensory deprivation techniques, kirlian photography, UFO's, atomic energy and experiments on how to make you very own lie detector. What every kid in the 80s needed to know. I'm sure Warren was an intern at the publishing company at the time.....]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295163#Comment_295163 2011-05-19T17:24:26-07:00 2011-05-19T18:02:02-07:00 Warped Savant http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2376 Another error to note would be #23 being tagged as "Photography" instead of "Spirit Tracks" That would make finding all of them at a later date rather difficult. Neila -- Thank ...
Neila -- Thank you! I have been trying to remember what that thing was called for years but could never find it on the 'net. At times my Google-fu is found wanting.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295175#Comment_295175 2011-05-19T19:49:18-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Chris Blakeley http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=7914 I am really enjoying this series and can only hope that this comes out in some kind of published form like Shivering Sands. It's the sort of thing I want be able to savor away from the computer. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295185#Comment_295185 2011-05-19T21:22:50-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Neila http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=5582 @Warped Savant No problem, it's a tough thing to find info on. D: There was a book written at one point, but it's been out of print for awhile. I think one can find it online though as a PDF. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295219#Comment_295219 2011-05-20T05:54:28-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 warrenellis http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2 This ends today. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295223#Comment_295223 2011-05-20T06:18:51-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 city creed http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=4530 it always sets me off properly web surfing, skittering from notion to notion Yeah. I have around 40 tabs open here. Rapt. The Digital Cities idea as it's emerging through these is making me think ... it always sets me off properly web surfing, skittering from notion to notion
Yeah. I have around 40 tabs open here. Rapt.

The Digital Cities idea as it's emerging through these is making me think of On Exactitude In Science. Studying too much has warped my brain, I agree.
RFID is a mapping technology for machines, is that more or less fair? The informational model it produces coincides "point for point" with meatspace - an expert map system built invisibly throughout the territory and objects within it. Less an internet made of things and more a very big, multi-layered thing made of internets, universally interrogable (and editable?) via standard issue ghost box. I can see how that might have the potential to make the Unreal City real again, but not under the auspices of the Cartographers Guilds.

Any physical intervention.

Few freakangels cliffhangers have been as cruelly tantalising as this is. Is that the clatter of cloven hooves I hear?]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295237#Comment_295237 2011-05-20T07:17:14-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 warrenellis http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2 Catch up. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295255#Comment_295255 2011-05-20T09:56:38-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 bjacques http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2157 As a kid in middle school, I devoured all the science fiction, myths and legends, UFO/psychic phenomena and young adult ghost stories in a particular corner of the library. I don't think I really ...
If I want to follow Spirit Tracks or something like them, I'm going to have to break down and upgrade my not-especially-smartphone to something iPhoney aren't I? I expect the rusting broadcast TV and radio pylons are bristling by now with mobile phone repeaters and microwave tail links. If they haven't fallen over, they're probably still there, because they're valuable vertical real estate with rights of way, like unused railbeds with fiber buried in them.

I'm glad I caught this in time.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295262#Comment_295262 2011-05-20T11:08:46-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 icelandbob http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=5250 One small point on post 26. The Icelandic government doesn't actually spend all that money on fireworks. It's the people. Each year in the week before new year, the Icelandic fire service hold ...
The Icelandic government doesn't actually spend all that money on fireworks. It's the people. Each year in the week before new year, the Icelandic fire service hold massive sales all around Reykjavik selling the sort of fireworks that would be banned in most western countries (but are rather normal in China) to the public. In a case of "keeping up with the Jónssons", people spent astronomical amount of fireworks. The end result is that apart from a few official firework displays, the entire greater Reykjavik area looks like the Shock and Awe operation in the Invasion of Iraq. It's actually the biggest money raiser for the Fire service, which receives nominal state funding BTW. And then there's the crazy idea of the Fire Service selling very dangerous fireworks to the populace. Firelighters and arsonists and all that.

But... Warrens main gist is still correct. When Iceland was once of the richest nations in the world, approx 14% of the main road in Iceland (M1 in the UK, route 66 in the US), was still unpaved. We were swimming in money apparently, and yet they still couldn't pave the main roads of the country.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295278#Comment_295278 2011-05-20T12:26:46-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Cat Vincent http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=447 "There’s no such thing as ghosts. UFOs are just lights in the sky. And vodka is probably not improved by strontium." I just love where the 'probably' appears in this... I just love where the 'probably' appears in this...]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295279#Comment_295279 2011-05-20T12:58:42-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 rickiep00h http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2930 Warren:"It’s your job to make that real. It’s my job to remind you that I’m haunting you."Unf. Yes. "Then you're not a writer, are you?" is constantly prodding my brain ... "It’s your job to make that real.

It’s my job to remind you that I’m haunting you."Unf. Yes. "Then you're not a writer, are you?" is constantly prodding my brain stem thanks to the internet.

I, too, am curious if this is going to be officially published on dead tree. If not, I need to make sure I keep a copy.

Bob - The wonderful thing about the internet and its Facebook and Tumblr and Twitter is that as soon as you can't access it, it's gone. I often go back through my status updates and tweets, but one day it will disappear, and I'm not really sure what to do about that. It only has permanence so long as the company survives, the servers don't explode, we still have electricity, and so on. Granted, a physical history is similarly fragile, but I think our digital ephemera is significantly less permanent.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295280#Comment_295280 2011-05-20T13:02:37-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 hedmeat http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=10298 Bravo, Warren. Sorry to see it end.
Sorry to see it end.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295284#Comment_295284 2011-05-20T13:45:42-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 SilentObjector http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2587 Lovely tale, Uncle. Gave me quite a bit to think about while I was laid up at home with a great big swollen face. This is exactly why I read your works, you know. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295293#Comment_295293 2011-05-20T14:54:22-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 warrenellis http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2 Dead tree POD edition in the nearish future. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295303#Comment_295303 2011-05-20T15:58:49-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 taphead http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2284 Excellent. I think this may well be my favourite bit of writing from you, as odd as it may seem. It pushes all those nice buttons Burroughs hits for me. Rambly, off on tangents, and immensly ...
Now who do we need to throw money at to get you your own Twilight Zone type deal going?]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295512#Comment_295512 2011-05-23T06:47:37-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Kay Orchison http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=10078 Dear Mr Ellis Apropos of your Spirit Tracks blog posts, this may be of interest: http://ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-sydney-lecture-video.html Tim Horton is a philosopher who ...
Apropos of your Spirit Tracks blog posts, this may be of interest: http://ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-sydney-lecture-video.html

Tim Horton is a philosopher who posits a novel theory of time that has all sorts of implications for thought in the sort of direction you've been heading. He's also very amusing, throwing about references to stuff like My Bloody Valentine and being handy with a Michael Caine impersonation.]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295583#Comment_295583 2011-05-24T04:23:32-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Fauxhammer http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=27 I have a major fetish for strings of connections--this tickled my dongle in a satisfying fashion. Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=295684#Comment_295684 2011-05-24T19:31:29-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Warped Savant http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2376 I feel justified! This is why I was so sure I had seen something about Spirit Tracks mentioned on Ellis' site before... This is why I was so sure I had seen something about Spirit Tracks mentioned on Ellis' site before...]]> Spirit Tracks http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9875&Focus=298380#Comment_298380 2011-06-17T05:50:59-07:00 2013-05-23T05:51:26-07:00 Oddcult http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=214 Earthlights durung Japanese earthquake? Earthlights durung Japanese earthquake?]]>