![\"orator.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/orator.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It’s a curious feeling when a drawing which is nearly 26 years old makes it out into the world. The image above is the cover of a new 7″ single release, Dominion of Avyaktam<\/em> by metal band Orator<\/a>, the picture being something I drew in 1984<\/a> entitled Mahakala<\/em> after the Tibetan deity<\/a> which it depicts. The inspiration was the cover of another recording, a Nonesuch Explorer album, Tibetan Buddhism \u2013 Tantras Of Gy\u00fct\u00f6: Mahakala<\/em><\/a>, and also the track Mahakala<\/em> by 23 Skidoo from their 1983 album The Culling is Coming<\/em><\/a>. The skull is drawn from a real one I was given. Looking at this today none of the elements seem to work together\u2014and the landscape stuff looks like a lazy way of filling in space\u2014but it’s nice to see it find a home. Dominion of Avyaktam<\/em> is out now<\/a> on the Legion of Death label.<\/p>\n \u2022 Surprise of the week: two books I’ve worked on were nominated for Nebula Awards<\/a>, Jeff VanderMeer’s Finch<\/em><\/a>, and Kage Baker’s The Hotel Under the Sand<\/em><\/a> whose interior I designed.<\/p>\n \u2022 More music: a recording of Paul Sch\u00fctze’s Third Site<\/em> played live in 1999 (with Clive Bell, Raoul Bj\u00f6rkenheim, Simon Hopkins & Thomas K\u00f6ner’s voice) is now available as a free download<\/a> on his website. More Sch\u00fctze: Paul Sch\u00fctze & Simon Hopkins<\/a> playing a set at the Horbar in Hamburg on December 28, 2009.<\/p>\n \u2022 The incredible pinscreen animations of Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker are finally available on DVD<\/a>. Also new to DVD, Alan Bennett at the BBC<\/em><\/a>, a four-disc set of some of his TV plays including a particular favourite of mine, his Kafkaesque drama The Insurance Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u2022 More Ghost Box<\/a> business: Jon Brooks aka The Advisory Circle has a blog<\/a>. And Ghost Box’s Jim Jupp was interviewed recently by Peter Bebergal at Mystery Theater<\/a>. Related (forgot to mention this last week): The ASDA Mix<\/em><\/a>, a great mixtape of spooky retro weirdness by Moon Wiring Club<\/a> available for free at The Wire<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u2022 The trailer for Mellodrama<\/em><\/a>, a documentary about the Mellotron by Dianna Dillworth.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Parajanov Festival<\/a> will be screening some of the director’s films in London and Bristol.<\/p>\n \u2022 Lots of weird and wonderful exhibits at the ~Wunderkammer~<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"