The occult powers of Chelsea were tangible as artist Tracey Moffatt took over the backroom of Steven Kasher Gallery to perform arcane tea-leaf-reading rituals for select guests, a sure demonstration of her native Australian Aboriginal powers.


And while Moffatt was spinning and tapping the tea cups, just one block away at Metro Pictures the artist Gianni Motti was summoning the “Spirit of John Lennon” via a 40-minute séance with the psychic Luhren Loup.


Important revelations were made to the medium, among them that Lennon would appear or “express himself” soon in the space of the gallery. Indeed, infrared cameras were installed to try to capture any sign of the spirit of Lennon.


Motti himself may well be “channelling” that art group Archive who have long been using mediums to hold séances with dead artists, including summoning Joseph Cornell at the Whitney Biennial.


Source: The Art Newspaper

This is hysterical - some Australian religious nut thinks that the humble banana proves the existence of God.

Somebody once told me that the octopus's compound eye was all the evidence he needed to prove that the almighty was on his side.


Click on Bananas!

(Map altered to fit)

Largest Country not on the list: Indonesia
Smallest Country on the list: United Arab Emirates


A friend of mine from Hong Kong pointed me towards the Forbes Richest list. He was bragging that his small country has the most billionaires per capita in the world.

Impressive? Hell no.
I've long held that a sure sign of success in the world is a high GDP with a relatively even distribution of wealth. Without wishing to sound all Commie, I can't help noticing how many of the countries listed above are among those with the most uneven balance between rich and poor. Of particular note are Israel, Ireland, Turkey and the US.


Which leads me into my point:

Wealth is always perceived as being the primary indicator of success. Everybody thinks that Donald Trump, for example, is a 'Somebody'. Why? Its purely because he's rich, isn't it? What do we know about his charitable contributions or how well he treats his dog?


Its hard to tell who are worse, the people who devolte their lives to the sccumulation of huge wads of cash or the rest of us who parasitically pander to them.


I'm not naive enough to suggest that this will ever change, but there is one statistic that would have a huge impace (in the US at least), and that's the Forbes list itself.


You know for a fact that as soon as the list comes out, a fair proportion of the world's wealthiest people (I consciously avoid the word 'elite') can't wait to take a look to see where they're ranked.


Some of them even hold back on their philanthropic gestures in case the couple of bucks they give to the Pensacola Donkey Sanctuary puts them just behind Sir Johnny Heafty-Options.


What would happen, if Forbes, instead of printing a list of the 'world's richest', printed a list of the world's greatest philanthropists?


I'll bet we'd see a few more billionaires stepping forward to do something magnanimous instead of buyingup large chunks of the Caribbean.

The simple fact of the matter remains that a coincidence is just that, a coincidence. There is no religious or 'other-worldly' significance, its just a coincidence. When you consider the fact that almost every coincidence is more likely to happen that a person filling in a random series of numbers, which go on to win the lottery. However, nobody evey thinks 'Wow, somebody won the lottery!'

"The most astonishingly incredible coincidence imaginable would be the complete absence of all coincidences."

John Allen Paulos, Mathematician


Top 15 Strangest Coincidences


15. Mark Twain was born on the day of the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1835, and died on the day of its next appearance in 1910. He himself predicted this in 1909, when he said: "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it."


14. Oregon's Columbian newspaper announced the winning Pick 4 lottery numbers for June 28, 2000 in advance. The newspaper had intended to print the previous set of winning numbers but erroneously printed those for the state of Virginia, namely 6-8-5-5. In the next Oregon lottery, those same numbers were drawn.


13. In 1979, the German magazine - Das Besteran - ran a writing competition. Readers sent in unusual stories, but they had to be based on true incidents. The winner, Walter Kellner of Munich, had his story published . He wrote about a time when he was flying a Cessna 421 between Sardinia and Sicily. He encountered engine trouble at sea, landed in the water, spent some time in an emergency dinghy and was then rescued. This story was spotted by an Austrian, also named Walter Kellner, who said that the German Kellner had plagiarized the story. The Austrian Kellner said that he had flown a Cessna 421 over the same sea, experienced engine trouble and was forced to land in Sardinia. It was essentially the same story, with a slightly different ending. The magazine checked both stories, and both turned out to be true, even though they were nearly identical.


12. Morgan Robertson's 1898 novella 'Futility' had many parallels with the RMS Titanic disaster; the book concerned a fictional state-of-the-art ocean liner called Titan, which (like the Titanic) eventually collides with an iceberg on a calm April night whilst en route to New York, with many dying because of the lack of lifeboats. Various other details in the book coincide with the Titanic disaster. Later, she wrote a book, Beyond the Spectrum, that described a future war fought with aircraft that carried "sun bombs". Incredibly powerful, one bomb could destroy a city, erupting in a flash of light that blinds all who look at it. The war begins in December, started by the Japanese with a sneak attack on Hawaii.


11. On July 28th 1900, the King of Italy Umberto I was having dinner in a restaurant in the city of Monza. It turned out later that the restaurant's owner looked identical to the king. The restaurant owner's name was Umberto, his wife's name was the same as the queen's and the restaurant was opened on the same date as the king's inauguration. The Restaurant-owner Umberto was shot dead the next day. So was King Umberto.

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These are pretty funny


THEY COME FROM A CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEST. KIDS WERE ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS ABOUT THE BIBLE WERE WRITTEN BY CHILDREN. THEY HAVE NOT BEEN RETOUCHED OR CORRECTED.
INCORRECT SPELLING HAS BEEN LEFT IN.


1. IN THE FIRST BOOK OF THE BIBLE, GUINESSIS. GOD GOT TIRED OF CREATING THE WORLD SO HE TOOK THE SABBATH OFF.


2. ADAM AND EVE WERE CREATED FROM AN APPLE TREE. NOAH'S WIFE WAS JOAN OF ARK. NOAH BUILT AND ARK AND THE ANIMALS CAME ON IN PEARS.


3. LOTS WIFE WAS A PILLAR OF SALT DURING THE DAY, BUT A BALL OF FIRE DURING THE NIGHT.


4. THE JEWS WERE A PROUD PEOPLE AND THROUGHOUT HISTORY THEY HAD TROUBLE WITH UNSYMPATHETIC GENITALS.


5. SAMPSON WAS A STRONGMAN WHO LET HIMSELF BE LED ASTRAY BY A JEZEBEL LIKE DELILAH.


6. SAMSON SLAYED THE PHILISTINES WITH THE AXE OF THE APOSTLES.


7. MOSES LED THE JEWS TO THE RED SEA WHERE THEY MADE UNLEAVENED BREAD WHICH IS BREAD WITHOUT ANY INGREDIENTS.


8. THE EGYPTIANS WERE ALL DROWNED IN THE DESSERT. AFTERWARDS, MOSES WENT UP TO MOUNT CYANIDE TO GET THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.


9. THE FIRST COMMANDMENTS WAS WHEN EVE TOLD ADAM TO EAT THE APPLE.


10. THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT IS THOU SHALT NOT ADMIT ADULTERY.


11. MOSES DIED BEFORE HE EVER REACHED CANADA. THEN JOSHUA LED THE HEBREWS IN THE BATTLE OF GERITOL.


12. THE GREATEST MIRICLE IN THE BIBLE IS WHEN JOSHUA TOLD HIS SON TO STAND STILL AND HE OBEYED HIM.


13. DAVID WAS A HEBREW KING WHO WAS SKILLED AT PLAYING THE LIAR. HE FOUGHT THE FINKELSTEINS, A RACE OF PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN BIBLICAL TIMES.


14. SOLOMON, ONE OF DAVIDS SONS, HAD 300 WIVES AND 700 PORCUPINES.


15. WHEN MARY HEARD SHE WAS THE MOTHER OF JESUS, SHE SANG THE MAGNA CARTA.


16. WHEN THE THREE WISE GUYS FROM THE EAST SIDE ARRIVED THEY FOUND JESUS IN THE MANAGER.


17. JESUS WAS BORN BECAUSE MARY HAD AN IMMACULATE CONTRAPTION.


18. ST. JOHN THE BLACKSMITH DUMPED WATER ON HIS HEAD.


19. JESUS ENUNCIATED THE GOLDEN RULE, WHICH SAYS TO DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO ONE TO YOU. HE AL SO EXPLAINED A MAN DOTH NOT LIVE BY SWEAT ALONE.


20. IT WAS A MIRICLE WHEN JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD AND MANAGED TO GET THE TOMBSTONE OFF THE ENTRANCE.


21. THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOWED THE LORD WERE CALLED THE 12 DECIBELS.


22. THE EPISTELS WERE THE WIVES OF THE APOSTLES.


23. ONE OF THE OPPOSSUMS WAS ST. MATTHEW WHO WAS ALSO A TAXIMAN.


24. ST. PAUL CAVORTED TO CHRISTIANITY, HE PREACHED HOLY ACRIMONY WHICH IS ANOTHER NAME FOR MARRAIGE.


25. CHRISTIANS HAVE ONLY ONE SPOUSE. THIS IS CALLED MONOTONY.


I know that this is out of keeping with the theme of this blog, but I found it entertaining and wanted to share it. It was sent to me by a good friend who's a devout Catholic.

Thanks Ian


Like Jesus, he's a carpenter and he does some great work - see his stuff by clicking on Eldridge Wood Design