Out There in the Dark

Why I love the Cramps (and the inimitable Poison Ivy) 

Ready to Rumble

I first heard Link Wray’s “Fire and Brimstone” on a Neville Brothers album, and of course they gave it the Full Neville, a richly textured barn burner. But Wray’s original version is pure hand-made wildness, recorded on a 3-track in a shack. And yeah, that’s foot-stomping and a can of nails being shook in lieu of drums. One of the great indigenous rockers screaming down to his roots.

You Can’t Spell LSD without “Ditko”

 Doctor Strange, Steve Ditko

Christmas Gift Suggestion, for Kids!

I had the hand-held version of this toy gun. It had two functions: (1) damaging siblings' eardrums and (2) traumatizing cats. But if you really want to do some damage, just ask Kurt Russell.

Nature Corner!

A video of two things I never get tired of: funkadunkie music and deep-sea bioluminescence.

How Many Tor Is Not Too Many Tor

 

Thanks to Vinnie Filippini for posting on Underground Comix, ETC! (originally in Heavy Metal)

Today’s In Memoriam!

Yeah, good ol Bob Dole: Nixon’s hatchet man, partisan bill-blocker (including the Clinton health plan), a man whose wit exposed his mean-spirited nature, one of a few Republican “leaders” who supported trumpolini in 2016, and a great statesman who, in an effort to win an election, laid the dead of WWI &II and Korea at the feet of Democrats. And oh boy: a disabled person who came out strong for disabilities rights. Too bad he wasn’t poor; would’ve found the heart to help out poor people.

"Merry Stories and Funny Pictures"

"Merry Stories and Funny Pictures." Don't you believe it. Here's Heinrich Hoffman's 1845 hair-raising—and finger-amputating, and dog-beating, and "Black-a-Moor" teasing (you have been warned), and self-immolating, and self-starving—Big Little Book of Unflinching Moral Lessons. There is no evidence that one of these merry stories directly inspired Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, but if you're sucking your thumb right now, I'd advise you to stop. No, really, stop. Oh jeez, please stop.

Get the Lead Out: Molybdomancy and You!

 

Today's word: "Molybdomancy."* Melt lead or tin, drop it in cold water, and use a little (here comes today's word #2) pareidolia to tell the future. I want to do this right now.

                                                                                       

*GHOST TRAIN is not responsible for any hazard to your soul if you click on this site. We clicked on "Black Magick Training" and the resulting sounds were enough to make us toss our phone into a fire.

These Associates Were Scientific Researchers

 

Here's a nice British archivist discussing the SRA Reading Laboratory, a graduated color-coded system for developing reading comprehension skills. Any kid who, as I did, thought this was fun on a bun was immediately shipped off to the Future English Teacher Camp for Extraordinarily Nerdy Dorks, where we spotted main ideas from canoes, hiked through dense prose, learned to build a fire while self-scoring, and were secretly relieved that the increasingly difficult readings weren't numbered, since we couldn't remember the order of colors anyway. To this day, if I see a two-page article or a piece of flash fiction, a thrill of expectant spazz-ness courses through my febrile frame; but the day I start making up questions for them is the day that I—well, that will be the day when I will feel fulfilled as a person.