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!

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!

Leslie Hall: the whitest woman in rap

Gawd help the gene pool if she teams up with Mr. White and Nerdy; she so white she make him look like Jay-Z. Here, via the superfantastic Manolo, is Leslie Hall‘s rap in praise of gem sweaters. And the bedazzlers of the world give thanks…and the rest of us run for the exits. The glasses…the beehive…the ill-fitting lamé…spandex is a privilege, people, not a right! I think I’m going to need to wear matte black Gucci for three solid days just to cleanse myself psychically after watching this suburban goddess’ soul cry.

If only I could afford Gucci

and from the comments of the Manolo:

As a woman whose sainted mother-in-law ran a successful knitshop in Chicago for thirty years & more, I am conflicted upon viewing this video. Surely the woman has swallowed a sequin topped with LSD or absorbed some ecstasy-producing dye from the purple angora. I am all for creativity, and encourage even more silly dancing, singing & outrageous sweaters for the delight of the snowbound &/or snowblind of any sort. As for the gold lame w/insignia divulging areas of anatomy better kept en matte, I am left totally speechless.

Lyrics over the jump: Continue reading