all this useless beauty

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Is it better to have been loved and lost, than never to have been loved at all? These sites, galleries of photographs of an abandoned Japanese amusement resort (click on the pictures for more) raise some intriguing questions about the nature of beauty and loss.

roller coaster in fog

If we’re being honest it seems pretty clear that, had we seen this place when it was going strong, we would probably (as the jaded grownups we have become) consider this to be a pretty tacky amusement park, which is a bit like calling something a pretty water-resistant duck. Amusement parks are amusing, but they are rarely sophisticated or ironic. And they are rarely beautiful.

But now look.

roller coaster

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Technorati me!

quiz: which of the Ancient Greek Muses are you?

Polyhymnia 

And so we continue on Intellectual Day, here at the ol’ raincoaster blog. This quiz reminds me of the time one of the guys at the station on Barney Miller was giving a costume party and Wojo wanted to go. “Great,” said Dietrich. “It’s Come As Your Favorite 4th-Century BC Philosopher.” Of course, I would have to be ahead of my time…by about two centuries.

You scored as Polyhymnia. You are Polyhymnia, the muse of sacred poetry. Religion is the biggest part of your life, and you’re not afraid to let everyone else know. You are kind of shy and not great at letting people know who you really are.

Polyhymnia
88%
Thalia
81%
Erato
69%
Calliope
69%
Terpischore
69%
Clio
63%
Melpomene
63%
Euterpe
63%
Urania
50%

Thalia...but she's weirder looking than Polyhymnia, so I had to use her instead

Which of the Greek Muses are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

pic o’ the day: a mystery picture!

Can you guess what it is? Click to find out.

click to solve the mysterious mystery

Cthulhu versus the World: a YouTube Masterpiece

In which the Great Cthulhu discovers the joys of pure evil,
and puts paid to a panda over pounding punk. 

“Wha? Batman? This doesn’t even make sense!

Like that’s bad.

yes, it’s back: Fashion Week Tehran!

Fashion Week Tehran!Try to contain your excitement. Or, if you can’t contain it, hide it under one of these: you could probably hide the complete works of Rumi plus a couple of dervishes (dervishii?) under there with room to spare.

From the Manolo, who makes a delightfully obscure and intellectual reference in his brief commentary, keeping up the standards of Intellectual Day on the ol’ raincoaster blog.

But seriously, there’s just no excuse for that seam!