Monstrum in animo (1955) by Yves Laloy.
• This week’s obligatory Bumper Book of Magic links: Alan Moore World has more of my ongoing comments about the creation of the book, while Séamas O’Reilly talked to Alan about the book itself and its connections with The Great When. The latter piece lowered my already low opinion of the late Genesis P-Orridge.
• At Timeless: A reprint of Bright Lights and Cats With no Mouths by John Balance. Still in print is The Cupboard Under the Stairs, a selection from JB’s notebooks.
• If you enjoy sleight-of hand magic—and I most certainly do—then Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants (1996) is 58 miraculous minutes by a master of the art.
• Mixes of the week: Winter Solstice 6 at Ambientblog; a mix for The Wire by Rafael Toral; and Reflection on 2024 at a Strangely Isolated Place.
• “Whatever the reason, there is something sorrowful about the disposal of art, whatever the perceived quality,” says Steven Heller.
• New music: The Path Of The Elder Ones by Nerthus.
• Bright Lights (1959?) by Wade Curtiss & The Rhythm Rockers | Bright Lights, Big City (1961) by Jimmy Reed | I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight (1974) by Richard & Linda Thompson
>The death of Simon Magus from the Nuremberg Chronicle
reproduced in the Moore interview automatically called to mind
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Temptation_of_St_Anthony_(Schongauer)
More here:
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temptation_of_Saint_Anthony_in_visual_arts
A true saint Lord Wotton rejoinders:
“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it”
TjZ
That Schongauer engraving is a favourite although it looks more like a scene of torment than temptation.