Plutonic Rainbows

Back in the 1980s, British occultists in the know strove to get their hands on the releases from a series entitled Cornucopia - A Compendium Of Practical Occultism. A collection of private-press cassettes, these tapes were sound art compilations which oscillated between tales of magick, instructional spoken word, drone music and blissful ambiences that could have been described as new-age if they weren’t so intimately linked with the dark arts. This stuff comes off as woozy, often beautiful, rather than black-hearted.

The Cornucopia releases are some of those records which could easily have been lost to history. They are almost impossible to track down, even through internet search engines, and hardly any of the original copies are still in circulation. What a boon, then, that Folklore Tapes boss David Chatton Barker has managed to procure the audio of one Cornucopia volume for a new cassette release. Over two lengthy sides of tape, this record delivers a sort of hallucinatory, curious sound collage that serves as the missing link between Nurse With Wound and Hype Williams.

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I thought I would take a look at Django, a high-level Python Web framework. It may prove useful going forward.

I listened to quite a lot of stuff this year. These were my favourite things in 2019. The Boards of Canada entry is a compilation of other artists they curated for the Warp 30th Anniversary so it doesn't really belong here but was extremely good.

Some are albums from decades past that I rediscovered buried in my collection - musing on memory and in the process, unearthing some things I'd rather have forgotten.

• Mikron - Severance
• The Caretaker - Everywhere At The End Of Time (Stage 6)
• Fennesz - Agora
• 5HTTP - Since Then
• Duran Duran - The Wedding Album
• New Dreams Ltd (Vektroid) - Initiation Tape
• ... - No Title
• Pino Donnagio - Dressed To Kill
• Kim Carnes - Mistaken Identity
• A Guy Called Gerald - Black Secret Technology
• Midnight Television - Midnight Television
• Klaus Schulze - Silhouettes
• Barry De Vorzon - Night Of The Creeps
• Phenomena - Phenomena
• The Caretaker - A Stairway To The Stars
• Steely Dan - Gaucho
• Moon King - Hamtramck '16
• Konx-om-Pax - Ways Of Seeing
• Blue Chemise - Daughters Of Time
• Mort Garson - Mother Earth's Plantasia
• Virginia Astley - Hope In A Darkened Heart
• Coil - Theme From The Gay Man's Guide To Safer Sex
• Boards of Canada - Societas X Tape
• Julio Iglesias - Non Stop
• Cyclobe - Sulphur-Tarot-Garden
• Mark Isham - The Beast
• Tangerine Dream - Logos
• Basil Kirchin - Quantum
• Jim O' Rourke & CM von Hausswolf - In, Demons, In!
• Black Zone Magic Chant - Voyage Sacrifice
• HTRK - Over The Rainbow
• Maurice Jarre - After Dark, My Sweet
• Rafael Anton Irisarri - Solastalgia
• Mystery - Mystery
• Chris Spheres & Paul Voudouris - Passage
• David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees
• Plaid - Polymer
• William Basinski - On Time Out Of Time
• Rosie Vela - Zazu
• Shell Money - Family Tapes 89-93
• Xvarr - Echoes of Time

Another company promising privacy in a browser. I don't see what's so different about this compared to Firefox or Safari. Personally, I just use AdGuard which sits at the OS level meaning you are not tied to any one browser.

I think the Basic Attention Tokens that apparently run through blockchains is an interesting idea but will it take off? People don't like paying for things - that's the reason Facebook and Twitter have huge market share.

A very refined sandalwood fragrance but the opening is just too feminine for me.

In rotation for this Autumn/Winter are some things that you might like. These are all fantastic fragrances that I totally recommend.

• Tom Ford Noir Extreme
• Valentino Uomo Noir Absolu
• Dior Homme Parfum
• Carner Barcelona El Born
• Parfum Prissana Ma Nishtana

And if you can still find it, the EDT of Chanel Coromandel.

Jeffrey Van Camp writing for Wired:

For once, Google’s latest phone falls short. Its predecessor is just as good ... and cheaper

HBO’s Watchmen is a companion-piece to the Watchmen comics by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, set in present-day Tulsa, thirty years after the events of the comics.

First episode is quite compelling. Visually stunning and rewards a repeat viewing. There are a lot of great details you'll miss the first time. If you've seen it already and want a recap, there is one here.

HBO must have spent a fortune on this show. Looking forward to the remaining eight episodes. It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.

A script that gets a basic blockchain up and running.

import hashlib as hasher

class Block:
  def __init__(self, index, timestamp, data, previous_hash):
    self.index = index
    self.timestamp = timestamp
    self.data = data
    self.previous_hash = previous_hash
    self.hash = self.hash_block()

  def hash_block(self):
    sha = hasher.sha256()
    sha.update(str(self.index) + 
               str(self.timestamp) + 
               str(self.data) + 
               str(self.previous_hash))
    return sha.hexdigest()

import datetime as date

def create_genesis_block():
  # Manually construct a block with
  # index zero and arbitrary previous hash
  return Block(0, date.datetime.now(), "Genesis Block", "0")

def next_block(last_block):
  this_index = last_block.index + 1
  this_timestamp = date.datetime.now()
  this_data = "Hey! I'm block " + str(this_index)
  this_hash = last_block.hash
  return Block(this_index, this_timestamp, this_data, this_hash)

Create the blockchain and add the genesis block
blockchain = [create_genesis_block()]
previous_block = blockchain[0]

How many blocks should we add to the chain
after the genesis block
num_of_blocks_to_add = 20

Add blocks to the chain
for i in range(0, num_of_blocks_to_add):
  block_to_add = next_block(previous_block)
  blockchain.append(block_to_add)
  previous_block = block_to_add
  # Tell everyone about it!
  print "Block #{} has been added to the blockchain!".format(block_to_add.index)
  print "Hash: {}\n".format(block_to_add.hash)