RKNet Blog... Thing

Jezebel’s got the pics to prove that in the September issue of the French edition of Vogue, they’ve apparently decided “Devil Worship is the New Black”.

The pagan/satanist/wiccan references seem unresearched and over-the-top in a hokey to me, but I certainly wouldn’t consider it offensive. I can’t help but wonder if this shoot will make it to the good old USA. I have serious suspicions that as tame as this spread is, it may cause a row among any fundamentalist Christian readership in the US.
Anyone with the September issue of Vogue US care to confirm whether or not the same story is present? I realize each of the Vogue editions is technically its own thing, but I’m so curious.

They may do this - or something like it - for the US October magazine. That would be more timely, given the long time association of “witches” with Halloween, the history of all 3 practices in this country (sporadic fads producing popularity that dies out, but almost always a few constant practitioners) and the legit holiday(s) which falls around Halloween.

If this is the way fashion’s going to run, then bust out the black, the ouija board, the absinthe and the chickens: It’s gonna get freaky up in here.

http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/complaints/fye-bait-and-switches-wii-buyer-gamer-calls-for-boycott-215895.php

So just when I thought I’d hear all kinds of horror stories regarding the PS3 launch, as it turns out, the two worst stories I’ve heard so far have surrounded the Wii launch.

Sadly it can’t be happily flipped back at the company, allowing fanboys and anti-fanboys to have their various “I told you so” wars. Nope, the two Wii launch horror stories are completely in the realm of regular human stupidity.

The consumerist.com link above points to a YouTube video created by someone who had a pretty wretched experience with FYE. I don’t like FYE anyway, they’re overpriced, their selection is dubious at best, and their store is set up to inspire annoyance at least and paranoia more often than not. (Nothing like walking into a store to have someone paid to look at you funny. If I wanted that treatement, I’d head over to Sam’s Club, they’re experts at it.)

The other story I’d like to share is the unfortunate tale of a good friend of mine. He lined up outside the local Walmart with the rest of folks waiting for a Wii yesterday. Rather than try to paraphrase it, I’ll just share his own telling of the events.

Salty I go line up at Wal Mart for a Wii
Salty now, an important thing of note here
Salty I have some sort of digestive infection or issue going on
Salty meaning that either I’m alright for about 4 or 5 hours
Salty or I’m about a hairs-breadth away from shitting my pants every 20 minutes.
Salty So, I’m in line
Salty about 5 minutes until the doors open
Salty and it’s just like, “Oh. Fuck. This isn’t going to be good.” as something deep within attempts to punch its way out of my colon.
Salty I look at the guy next to me, “Either you hold my place, or I’m shitting my pants.”
Salty “Yeah man no problem.”
Salty Wal Mart employee is there
Salty so I fucking hightail it to the nearest place that has an open bathroom.
Salty Come back, get inside the now-open Wal Mart to line up in my old spot
Salty Employee is like, “Hey asshole no cutting in line.”
Salty “I’ve been here since 6:30 this morning dude.” “No you haven’t, get to the fucking back.”
Salty Guy who said he’d hold my spot doesn’t say A FUCKING WORD

That wasn’t even the end of his trials and tribulations that day, but I’ll leave it at that.

In a happier tale, you can watch this toolbox play his Wii for a week straight if you’re so inclined. http://www.shawnhogan.com/2006/11/watch-guy-play-wii-live.html but why would you want to?

You want to know why I don't take the time to write out my dreams? Because if I did that, all I would do is sleep and write. It would take that long.

Here are some highlights, though!
A journey between an painted, huge, old school building type place, and a mountain.
Exploring hallways with monsters and going the basement to find the spiral stairs unstable and the man at the bottom becoming a less-than-friendly/stable willy wonka. (Gene Wilder style, adulterated tragically.)
Brainwashing of various persons (the reason for the journey away from the painted place monsters aside).
Verbal child abuse.
Observing various persons' and groups' flights from the painted place.
One girl was dressed in so many layers of stuff she looked like a flapper crossed with a gypsy spraypainted with the neon palette from the 80's, and had this blond, Brittany Murphy air about her.
She fled late in the game, panicing, and got pinned in some corner by a bunch of black dogs and one big wolf thing.
She should have had a goat, it was another dog, being flayed alive and turning insane and viscious.
I remember standing with someone in some kind of post or ticket office remarking how unsettling it was that Todd from work seemed to be programed to look snooty, but that it didn't take entirely, because sometimes he'd smile and be a whole different person.

The golden dagger!!!!
This was one of my favorite parts. The golden dagger was pilfered from a camp of male witches. They all had dark clothes (like a deep grey wool) with light trim, and muskateer sort of hats with pentacles on them. (Just the star, actually, no circle to be had.) We (the party and the individual whose head I rode in - it wasn't me) were scrambling by there, still fleeing the painted place as fast as we could. The mountain was known to be dangerous, full of monsters and crazies and the like. The witch-men didn't really seem to notice our presence all that much. Stumbling about in the grass, SWIM noticed something shiny and snatched it up with a furtive backward glance. Cut to the old man. He's behind a counter, and on it he places a small golden box. He pries the lid open with the golden dagger - which SWIM had found - and inside are a bunch of gold coins. I think there was another demonstration of really bendy gold, but I can't remember. Anyway, I notice the tip of the daggar isn't really pointed at all. The little old man pushes a button and from the plateaued top of the daggar comes a tiny silvery key which is pushed up by two smaller telescopic levels of the deep yellow gold. Another trigger and a small, silvery keyhole appears in the side of the thing. Dreams assume a lot sometimes, and from this inferrence, a panel opened in the broad side of the dagger. It was a camera! There was an appeture on one side and a view square on the other. (They lined up perfectly, but no matter… or does it?) Ah, but above the view square was a line of tiny pictures, like slide pictures, backlit, of the painted town, the painted old building, some other things relating to this vast, spooky conspiracy. There was a camera pan moment, because at one moment they were too small to really see much of, and then next not only were the 4-5 times that small size, but moving! Each picture in the line (6 or 7 of those) starting moving, displaying life in short, repeating segments.

It all flowed together from there and moved on to other things. Lots and lots of other, weird things.

See what I mean? Sleep and write, that'd be it. I'd never maked it through a week!