Chuck Palahniuk is supposed to be updating his audioblog today with a post about the whole EW controversy (see below). If you're interested, watch his audioblogs. I'm pretty much done with this.
He has since deleted his original audioblog post about the whole thing and asked fans to back down. And initial overviews of the EW article show that nothing about his personal life was revealed. Weird.
It seems to me that Chuck jumped the gun and all this has led to him coming out. He's gotten a lot of support for that on his Web site and good for him. But what a weird way for this all to come about.

I listened to a sample album from Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles magazine. It's got songs by a whole bunch of metal bands. Lots of death metal, which gets real boring, real fast. There was one good death metal song, a band called Moonspell's song "The Southern Deathstyle." It had a strong gothic influence and the growling vocals weren't completely incomprehensible. I liked it enough to check out more by them.
The best song on the album was "Feed Part 1: Stone by Stone," which had a very Tool-like feel. The review in the magazine says the band, Dead Soul Tribe, plays a very '70s style metal. I didn't hear that at all. Still, it was catchy and wasn't going to turn away people who don't regularly listen to metal (no opera-style screamers, no death metal growling). Anyway, it was an interesting sampling, but could have used a few more power metal bands to give an overall feel of what's going on these days in metal.

Indian minister's call for occult studies: "With two cobras coiled around his neck, a federal minister walked on fire, honoured village exorcists and vowed to promote occult studies, a news report said today."
They just don't make politicians this interesting here.
(By the way, both this and the last item come via The Anomalist, another great Fortean site.)

Giant insects are destroying a 40 foot tree in an old woman's back yard. "Their tails open up like a fan,'' said Hanson. "Their bodies are 5 or 6 inches long and the tail that looks like a stinger is just as long.'' Apparently a neighbor captured one in a bottle and the woman promises to take pictures and video tape them. I hope that turns up on the Internet soon.

Following up on the Chuck Palahniuk story (who, by the way for those who don't know, is the author of "Fight Club," "Survivor," "Lullaby" and "Diary" among others), the author has put up another audioblog telling his fans to cool it and back off from Entertainment Weekly. I wonder what's happening? He says he's having some "misgivings." Hmm. Am I the only one who finds this interesting? It would probably be for the best if that was the case.

Since I'm short on giant squid news today, allow me to direct you to the Giant Squid Center for all your giant squid needs.

Phineas P. Gage's name alone makes him cool. The fact that he had a metal rod through the head, and lived and became a celebrity, is just a bonus.

In Chuck Palahniuk's audioblog he outs himself before Entertainment Weekly can do it for him. It's kind of sad, you can tell this wasn't the way he wanted it to happen. He also takes a couple of shots at the writer (which are perfectly legitimate if what he says about her is true, and I have no reason to think they are not.)
I'm interested to read the article now, to see if the writer gives some reason for it. Was it really off the record? And here's a tip for anybody talking with a reporter: If you want something off the record, don't tell the journalist about it, there's no point. If they can't use it in the article, they shouldn't hear it. And if you are going to go off the record, well, make sure you say that BEFORE you say what you got to say. Otherwise it doesn't count.
These are the rules. Learn them well.

The Write Hemisphere is back up. This is the best blog around for your science fiction/fantasy/horror fiction needs. I really missed it while it was down these last couple of days.

It's Banned Books Week, so go out there and read a banned book. Or just read a book. Or make faces at a censor, or something. Just celebrate it somehow.
I like this quote from the ALA Web site: "'Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us." --Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
You tell 'em Douglas.

OK, I'm done today. I've got nothing else. I'll try to be more blog-a-rific tomorrow (but don't hold your breath.)

I've found a rarity among heavy metal e-zines, an intelligent one. It's called Transcending the Mundane, and if there's anyone who reads this who is actually interested in heavy metal, check out the editorials. Some are very insightful, especially the one about Nevermore's songwriting and it's links to Timothy Leary.

Well, seek and you shall find. Here are Psychiana Lessons 1 through 20 written by the religion's founders. They're far too long for me to read now, but look interesting.

Here's an interesting article on what (at least at one time) was the United States' eighth largest religion, Psychiana. I wish there was more about the religion's philosophy on the site, rather than the founder's attacks on Christianity. Ah well.

This story, Remains not those of missing Briton, is so focused on the missing backpacker that it barely registers that someone mistook a large animal's corpse for human. Why is that? How is that? Too many questions here. Of course, we all know the real reason they're avoiding the question: Aliens. Oh, you better believe it.

They blame this boat's mysterious fate on pirates. But we who have seen Ghost Ship know the real score. It's those damn bars of gold again.

It turns out Hurricane Isabel did have an effect on Connecticut. It dropped a rain of alligator eggs on Berlin.

Here's a short tour of the Voynich manuscript. I find this thing fascinating. I think I linked to Web sites about it in my old diary. It's this manuscript (currently held at Yale's Beinecke Rare Books Library) which has hundreds of strange pictures and all annotated in a strange language. People have tried to crack it as a code, but it has been impervious. Anyway, read the site, it's a fascinating object.

I've read this story: BBC NEWS | UK | Urban myth exposed by trial twice now and I'm still not sure how all the pieces fit together. Whatever, it's fascinating. Check out this quote: "He believed that some time in the 1940s an alien from the planet Atlantis, called Dr Thor De Allah Kahn, met Earth officials at a rest stop in Virginia and handed over some bonds which were supposed to be distributed to improve Third World countries."
The article is filled with stuff like that.

Arr! Give me back my anchor you barnacled bilge rat!