The Far Side of the Moon, as photographed by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
• “It goes against centuries of traditional belief to accept that the moon is barren, that it is indifferent, that it is innocent of any role in monthly spikes in the crime rate or in the cycles of menstrual unreason. When telescopic observation had found nothing on the near side (Roger Boscovich had established by 1753 that it lacks even an atmosphere), the far side still remained a site for the projection of fantasies of a different, neighbouring world.” Justin EH Smith working his way towards a history of the dark side of the moon.
• “It shocks me that movies still lean in so hard to all these outmoded gay narrative tropes: coming out, coming of age; very identity-oriented representations of gay characters. It’s much easier to represent a gay boy who’s repressed in high school and comes out and makes friends. It’s very mainstream, and kind of played out.” Bruce LaBruce on cinematic trends in relation to his new film, a gay-porn take on Pasolini’s Teorema.
• At Cartoon Brew: Pavel Sannikau explains how he developed his own techniques of digital animation in order to create the ever-expanding Floor796.
• There’s always more Poe: Mysterium, Incubus et Terror, Poe-inspired music by a variety of artists, plus illustrations by John D. Chadwick.
• At Smithsonian Magazine: The results of a themed contest in the Close-Up Photographer of the Year Challenge.
• Mixes of the week: In Praise of the Saddest Chord at Ambientblog, and The Funky Eno Pts 2 & 3 by DJ Food.
• Steven Heller talks to Hungarian artist István Orosz about his Escher-like drawings.
• At Unquiet Things: Caitlin McCormack’s ghostly chains of knotted memory.
• At Spoon & Tamago: Intricate and organic sculptures by ceramicist Eriko Inazaki.
• New music: Illumina by Call Super with Julia Holter.
• Dark Side Of The Mushroom (1967) by The Chocolate Watchband | Dark Side Of The Star (1984) by Haruomi Hosono | On The Dark Side Of The Sun (live) (2003) by Helios Creed
When I was a kid in US Elementary school (Primary school in Britain?) one of my teachers asked the class to draw what we thought was on the dark side of the moon. I can’t even remember what I drew but my friend Jeffrey thought it was where Heaven was and drew God sitting on his throne with an angel on each side. I don’t know whatever happened to Jeffrey and I’ll bet he doesn’t even remember it but after all these years I’ve never forgotten. How odd memory is!
ps That ‘In Praise of the Saddest Chord’ mix is terrific, an almost seamless edit.
Yes, primary school is the equivalent of elementary, and secondary school is the same as high school. Sort of, since we don’t have middle school here.
Hard to imagine anyone could sustain a belief in angels on the Moon when so many vehicles (and people!) had been spinning around it and photographing the place.