If on a winter's night four travellers

Check out this free video game. It's a short pixel-art point and click adventure. I don't want to spoil the story but it's very well done.

posted by na on March 11, 2021 20:32

The invisible man

posted by na on March 4, 2021 18:20

Wonder Bread Fetish

posted by na on March 4, 2021 17:48

Last Wave

I really like this They Might be Giants song and when it came up in my playlist today I went online to try to learn more about the exceedingly dark lyrics:

We die alone, we die afraid

We live in terror, we're naked and alone

And the grave is the loneliest place

Last wave rolling by

Final wave don't ask why (I'm happy)

There goes a wave rolling by

Last wave

I'm so tired of the waiting

My heart is cold

The sky is dark

I'm curled up in the ashes

What I found was fantastic:

"Last Wave" was originally written by watching the 1986 Aerosmith/Run-DMC music video "Walk This Way" on mute and trying to write a song that corresponded to it, which accounts for many of the surreal lyrics.

Here's the video:

posted by na on February 3, 2021 06:22

Dinosaurus

posted by na on January 20, 2021 19:23

The Burney Relief

This is a Mesopotamian terracotta plaque dated from 1800-1750BC of an unknown goddess.

From the wikipedia page

Thorkild Jacobsen identified the figure as Inanna (Akkadian: Ishtar) in an analysis that is primarily based on textual evidence. According to Jacobsen:

The hypothesis that this tablet was created for worship makes it unlikely that a demon was depicted. Demons had no cult in Mesopotamian religious practice since demons "know no food, know no drink, eat no flour offering and drink no libation." Therefore, "no relationship of giving and taking could be established with them";

The horned crown is a symbol of divinity, and the fact that it is four-tiered suggests one of the principal gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon;

Inanna was the only goddess that was associated with lions. For example, a hymn by En-hedu-ana specifically mentions "Inanna, seated on crossed (or harnessed) lions"

The rod-and-ring symbol, her necklace and her wig are all attributes that are explicitly referred to in the myth of Inanna's descent into the nether world.

Jacobsen quotes textual evidence that the Akkadian word eššebu (owl) corresponds to the Sumerian word ninna, and that the Sumerian Dnin-ninna (Divine lady ninna) corresponds to the Akkadian Ishtar. The Sumerian ninna can also be translated as the Akkadian kilili, which is also a name or epithet for Ishtar. Inanna/Ishtar as harlot or goddess of harlots was a well known theme in Mesopotamian mythology and in one text, Inanna is called kar-kid (harlot) and ab-ba-[šú]-šú, which in Akkadian would be rendered kilili. Thus there appears to be a cluster of metaphors linking prostitute and owl and the goddess Inanna/Ishtar; this could match the most enigmatic component of the relief to a well known aspect of Ishtar. Jacobsen concludes that this link would be sufficient to explain talons and wings, and adds that nudity could indicate the relief was originally the house-altar of a bordello.

I like the logic behind the argument saying that because demons don't eat or drink it's impossible to form a meaningful relationship with them.

posted by na on January 20, 2021 19:17