:: meanders ::

:: That Time of Year -- The Turner Shortlist
Is the Turner Prize Rubblish or Relevant? VOTE RESUTS Rubbish-- 89.60% Relevant-- 10.40% 4518 Votes Cast Results are indicative and may not reflect public opinion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4518 votes is a statistically good sample, however, who knows who may have voted twice or even five times if particularly incensed. Or perhaps Traditionalists have ganged up to vote en masse, which would clearly skew the results. In early articles last year, the BBC did a good job of focussing on the likely front-runners, no reason to believe their touch has gone cold.

The Turner Prize often causes controversy, and this year's nominated works include a billboard describing a pornographic film and a suspended Perspex ceiling."

Cast your vote!

:: The Wind and Halloween
The past few days have been amazingly beautiful and autumnal, especially the WIND. It howled and screamed, whipping trees, leaving vortices of huge colorful leaves in its wake. Seems no matter where I've lived Halloween ushers in such winds, reminding me always of Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes". What a story teller! Bradbury could make chills run right up your spine and insinuate a damp clammy fear out of the mists that are the unknown right in our own backyard. That is what makes that story so scary-- the downright ordinariness of it all. Odd how we seek a thrill in getting frightened. The orgy of slasher movies at this time of year is epidemic. It's become so extreme and graphic. The fear in Bradbury's story is far more subtle and in its own way, more memorable. I've not seen the Disney movie version, but Jonathan Pryce notwithstanding, it is said to be too prettied up. That is a remake I'd like to see, rather than the 30th version of Pride and Prejudice or Hamlet. Below is a sophisticated rendition for a bookcover by artist JK Potter. The "Reap the Wild Wind" is a bonus image-- WOW! That captures the nature of wind!
image credit: Cover Illustration for Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury), (c) JK Potter, www.jkpotter.com