Further proof we're still living in the times of Ballard's Atrocity Exhibition

The gusher will be choked to death by a "top kill," in which heavy mud and cement will be shoved down the throat of the blown-out well.


It's true I could serve coffee using my rear as a ledge (Jennifer Lopez)

[Two statements witnessed side by side on a TV playing in a bar]

Enthusiasm in the dark

Sex, which many enthusiasts thought they had invented in the sixties, here makes its appearance in the science-fiction film. The relationship between sex and science fiction, or, more to the point, its virtual absence from the genre, has always been a puzzle - explained, I would guess, by the fact that science-fiction writers constitute an authentic community of naifs, generally nervous of change, politically ultraconservative, eager not to think about what adults do after dark.

- Ballard, on Barbarella

"Bear me away to the necropolis of the wind"

Hey Londoners,

A Ballard-inspired art exhibition when I'm not there? Really? Funny how that almost makes living amongst the lumbering redwoods and yoga-tribes not worth it.

I will remedy this by crashing a light-aircraft into a pelican breeding ground outside of the flow of time. Anyone who knows where I can find either, let me know.