Complementary pair of short stories from J.G Ballard and Alfred Jarry.
Ballard profile. "The only true alien planet is earth."
The 1967 short story, typed in by someone.
Ballard interview. "The chief role of the universities is to prolong adolescence into middle age, at which point early retirement ensures that we lack the means or the will to enforce significant change."
Bizarre but innovative Russian designs for jewelry and houses and things. (And agh, another strong Ballard tangent, cf. the "Colortime" watch.)
"A Japanese invention that turns petals and leaves into amplifiers." (I've just recently read Ballard's 1956 singing-plants "Prima Belladonna".)
"I try to write about 1,000 words a day in longhand and then edit it very carefully later before I type if out. I have been known to stop in the middle of a sentence sometimes when I've reached my limit."
More folklore: "Perhaps elections and the ballot box are little more than a folkloric ritual, along with parliament itself. [...] The chief function of election campaigns is to convince us that politics and politicians are still important."
"Cabin crew perform a strange folkloric rite that involves synchronised arm movements and warnings of fire and our possible immersion in water, all presumably part of an appeasement ritual whose origins lie back in the pre-history of the propeller age."
A weblog of Ballard news and links and randomly misleading parody. "Expected to open in 2007, Ballard World will be the perfect day trip for stressed out Londoners."
"These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice." Reminiscent of the semi-mythological dead-astronaut stuff Ballard wrote in the 60s.
"The incongruity of the crashed cars and this celebratory social event was further compounded by the alcohol-induced removal of social constraints and the distancing effect of guests watching themselves on closed-circuit television monitors."
"Drained swimming pools in suburban landscapes, gated communities with their security video surveillance, highway embankments, deserted airport concourses, the post industrial nightmare of the end of the western empire."
Transcript. "I see myself as a weatherman. I look at the sky, read the weather - that's all I think I'm doing actually. I can see a storm coming. I think we live in frightening times."
"Could consumerism evolve into fascism? There is nothing to stop some strange consumer trend becoming a new ideology. Church and monarchy are dying on their knees, and politics is just another public utility, along with sewerage and the gas supply."
The Ballard Chamber of Commerce
Seattle Plumbing Heating Boiler
list of places in Ballard
store with many eclectic items
Fremont Market