Malta has huge ancient structures that are now dated as 9000 years old or older and are said by orthodox archaeologists to be the oldest stone ruins in the world. The oldest evidence of man’s presence on the island in Ghar Dalam – the Cave of Darkness, which, besides the evidence of the first human settlement, contained remains of animals and evidence from about 180 000 years ago. Ghar Dalam was discovered in the 30’s by an Italo-German paleontologist.  A long time ago there were dwarf elephants,  deers and hippos, who joyfully ran around this piece of land. During the ice age period, many animals got trapped in that cave, so, when discovered, this cave was like a box of wonders for the historians. When these remains were found, there were theories that the skulls of dwarf elephants were actually the skulls of long forgotten cyclopses – the hole in the middle of the skull was thought to be the 3rd/middle eye socket. The Ghar Dalam museum has an extensive collection of teeth, tusks and bones which were found throughout the times.

Dwarf elephant and dwarf deer skeletons

The cave itself is about 140 meters long, but you can only go as far as 80 m, they won’t let you go further. It has some nice stalactites and stalagmites, and some of them look pretty indecent.

The cave

Ghar Dalam outside

Right. So I’ll leave the readers to their wild imaginations and that will be it for today. I bet my 55 readers ( these are some loyal dudes ) will be very excited about my coming back.

First thing:

How can someone who can sing like this -

spend most of his time singing like this-

Underlying facts: this is Jahn Teigen, Norwegian singer. The first video is from the musical based on a story from Malleus Maleficarum – “Which Witch”, where he plays the evil executioner. Obviously, he has a great powerful voice and is a good actor. When we see something like this, we don’t want to miss it and try to find out more. We did. And we found the second video and many more like the second one. My question is – why waste your talent on something that people that cannot sing well do? The singers that sing the type of songs from the second video, would not, at least most of them, would not be able to sing something like the executioner’s part in Which Witch. That is one of the reasons they sing cheesy romantic songs for mediocre ladies.

Second thing:

How can this:

be compared to this :

Underlying facts: First one – Jesus Christ Superstar 1973, the greatest musical, second one – Godspell 1973.

- Godspell the musical came out before Jesus Christ Superstar and was obviously influenced by the musical Hair and took the visual and musical ideas from it (hippie musical taking place in NYC) – therefore it’s not original.

- Godspell has no coherent storyline and no deepness to it – they just take pieces from the bible and act them out in a circus fashion. It doesn’t push any boundaries, it’s not challenging and thought-provoking, and it seems that it would go well with the age group 5-8, since there’s lots of clown-like goofy acting, which reminds one camp counselors at a summer camp. The “crucifixion” scene is completely ridiculous.

- It doesn’t take a master singer with a wide vocal range to sing in Godspell

- Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera, which has a 32-piece orchestra and a rock band playing, while Godspell has probably just 5 dudes playing.

Despite all of this, the critics of the time raved over this musical, it was successful and it was mentioned often that it was far superior musical to JCS. In my opinion, comparing these 2 musicals is just like comparing Tom and Jerry to Lord of the Rings. Godspell can not even be mentioned in the same sentence together with JCS. It does have same religious topic, but it’s way too inferior to JCS and comparing these two or putting them side by side as a recommended watch is insulting.

]]> http://www.ladyomega.com/web-20-cat/feed/ 0 http://www.ladyomega.com/web-20-cat/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LadyOmegaDesignArtMusic/~3/bwKoMH-YElE/ http://www.ladyomega.com/kaiaphas-at-winter-ball-2009-in-tel-aviv/#comments Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:06:12 +0000 omega http://www.ladyomega.com/?p=285 Yeah and exactly in 1 month after the party happened, i am posting my impressions and photos of it. Cuz i’m both busy and slow. I’m trying though. So, last month we were hosted by Vulgart ppl in Tel Aviv at a goth winter party, where Zhyin and me played a 2-hour dj set. The party was nice, we enjoyed playing. Some people tried to speak Portuguese to me, and some continuously asked for Rammstein, but this too will pass . Afterwards we got good feedback from the crowd and that was very pleasing to hear. Here are photos of me and Z dj’ing, a short video with a terrible sound and our awesome dj-set, which i rendered some days later in Ableton Live. So that everyone can listen and dance.

Photos

The DJ set:

[See post to listen to audio]

1.Rudi Schuricke – Frauen und Wein
2.Das Ich – Kannibale (Inline Sex Terror rmx)
3.Agonoize – A cut inside my soul
3. Hocico – The day the world stopped
4. Solar Fake – Lies
5. VNV nation – Chrome (SITD rmx)
6. Frozen Plazma – Tanz der Revolution
7. Kaiaphas – Kuenstliche welten
8. Mind in a Box – Amnesia
9. Encoder – When it rains ( Ethereal Sedition rmx)
10. Miss Construction – Kunstprodukt
11. Kaiaphas – Satan is Real
12. Psyclon Nine – Better than Suicide
13. Tactical Sekt – Xifixation Hellfire (SITD rmx)
14. Miss Construction – Schaufensterpuppenarsch
15. Hocico – Fed Up
17. Negative Format – Photon Ring
18. Peter Heppner – Alleine Sein
19. Kaiaphas – Vile Vermin
20. Miss Construction – Totes Fleisch
21. Agonoize – Staatsfiend
22. Kaiaphas – Diabolicon
23. Hocico – Poisoned and Silenced
24. Nachtmahr – Ein Spiel
25. Distatix – Regenerator
26. Kaiaphas feat. Kenji Siratori – Insane Asylum
27. Heino – Wir tanzen Polka, denn wir lieben Germany

Video

My interview just came out in Designer in the Spotlight weekly feature of Jacob Cass’ JustCreativeDesign.com

It’s rather long, but for those of you who are ardent fans of my persona, or want to find out the dark secrets of my existence – here’s the link to the interview: Designer in the spotlight – Lady Omega

Here’s their flyer :

…and the Facebook event link

More parties will be coming up!!!

Moving

We’re in the process of moving to Europe, and for the past couple of months we’ve been working hard packing a 3000 lbs container to ship it over to our destination. I’ve never done so much packing in my life, and now i can say that i am a professional packer able to produce my own custom made boxes, and my hands are still recovering from the staples, tape and paper cuts. Here’s a photo of one of the last days of packing:

Taking pictures

In between the moving business, i managed to take some photos of the fall in Virginia. This was the first fall i saw since 1999, so it was really exciting for me to remember once again that the trees can be different colors. Here are some photos and you’re welcome to check out my Fall set on flickr.

…and then we escaped the winter and went to Israel, where it’s still pretty warm, and got to go to the Dead sea where i took a couple of photos as well.

Making music

The long-awaited Encoder album, “Slivers of Time” came out, with my guest vocals on the first track, “When it rains” and 2 more remixes of it by Ethereal Sedition and Liquid Newt. I like Ethereal Sedition remix really a lot and i think they did a great job. I’ve posted the original song here before, so here’s the Ethereal Sedition remix:

• [See post to listen to audio]

Lord Kaiaphas / Zhyin also made a guest appearance on the upcoming album of an American black metal band, Arcane Asylum. The song is called “Atrocity is Silent”:

• [See post to listen to audio]

He also has just played a Minimal Criminal live set at Moksha’s Hanuka party last weekend, and got a great reaction from the crowd:

Working

Yeah and on top of all that i’ve been doing lots of work, which you can check out in the updated portfolio of Elune Art.

So, i surely have lots of excuses of not writing much in my blog. I’ll be more organized in 2009

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

This is a trippy French vampire flick, it has a groovy psychedelic soundtrack, a lot of the movie is shot at a castle and around the graveyard, has lots of nudity and almost no dialogue. The vampires are also quite amuzing, and they have cheesy-looking fangs. We had a good laugh with this movie and enjoyed it.

This movie is extremely bad. We were really disappointed because it didn’t quite correspond to its’ description on the cover. It is shot with a home camera and most of the action happens in one room. The movie was supposed to show “the dark side of the new age”, but we only saw the dark side of german low-budget cinematography.

Now this is a true classic. Haxan is a Danish/Swedish silent film depicting witches and the European witch hunt throughout the ages. Many of the classic medieval images of Satan, demons and the Black Mass are shown in this brilliant film. Parts of this film were used in a video from Danish satanic metaller King Diamond, “Sleepless Nights”.

This is a rather disappointing Asian horror flick. It’s not scary at all, in fact, it’s quite slow and lacks the spooky atmosphere of other Asian films, such as Ringu and Ju-On.

This is a Hammer House film about a young student, who is haunted by the visions of her dead mother. I would say that this movie is more suspense than horror, unlike the other, more famous Hammer House films starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

I liked this movie a lot. It is a rather original vampire movie about a vampire grandpa and a mysterious golden scarab, built by a medieval alchemist. The scarab grants immortality but with a deadly price. The plot unfolds at a steady pace, keeping the viewers interested throughout the entire film, and the visuals are really good as well.

This movie is a bit cheesy, but i still like the character design. If this film was remade nowadays, it could be quite a good movie.

This is an early 70’s Italian horror flick, starring the brilliant Christopher Lee. It’s a great film, similar to the Witchfinder General, but much better in my opinion. The director Jess Franco is famous for injecting quite a bit of erotica into his horror films, and this movie is no exception.

Another good Jess Franco film about a perverted priest, who witnesses hippies engaging in a mock Satanic rituals / orgies, and decides to exorcise the participants through sadistic torture. Jess Franco himself plays the priest.

This is a film by the director of Tetsuo, the Iron Man – the Japanese sci-fi cult classic. Although not nearly as good as Tetsuo, Hiruko is still a strange and interesting film, filled with gory cyber images. Hiruko is the goblin sent to earth, who has to behead many girls and assemble their heads onto spider bodies.

This is a cool 80s vampire horror/comedy, starring the unusual pop-singer Grace Jones. She is wonderful as the main vampiress in a gloomy strip club, located in a bad part of town, mostly inhabited by ghouls and vampires.

This is not a horror film at all, but an adult psychological thriller. basically, the movie is about a bunch of British kids, who go play in the forest and come across a creepy stranger who psychologically tortures them. Although this is a pretty low budget production, it is quite an interesting and original film

We saw this movie at a Spooky Movie Film festival in Virginia. This is a very low budget film, but quite enjoyable, with a dark comedic touch. The story is told from the point of view of a goth teenage girl, who hates her cheerleading sister and decides to put a voodoo curse on her. This film is very unpredictable, and surprisingly original, considering that it’s basically a vampire flick.

This is one of my favorite directors, who has proven himself again with his latest apocalyptic picture. This is, perhaps, his most shocking film to date. The basic storyline is that a mysterious plague has infected the USA, where people suddenly stop what they’re doing and immediately kill themselves. There is something of an environmental statement made in this film.

A neat Danish ghost story film, that is similar to some of the modern scary Asian horror movies. It’s really well done, good plot, good cinematography, good acting and the creepy soundtrack. There’s a good deal of violence in the movie, which seemed unrealistic to me, because I can’t picture nice Danish people being violent.

This is a Finnish movie starring the guys from the shock rock band, Lordi. It’s a haunted hospital flick, which also seems to be inspired by Asian horror films. It’s actually quite good and has a scary atmosphere, great CG, however it would have been a lot more scary if Lordi guys were not in the movie, except for the girl, because they created a great CG image for her, while the dudes in their costumes just made it look more comical.

This is a horror movie with 3 short stories, all starring the same actress, Karen Black. The first story is a bit boring and forgettable, the second one is interesting, but not scary, and the third one is awesome. The 3rd story talks about a little african witchcraft doll, which apparently comes to life, once it’s little chain is removed.

This is another cool Italian horror movie, about a village being terrorized by a ghost of a dead little girl. Inspector Kruger goes to investigate the case and gets into deep sh*t. The little girl is the best part of the movie, and the title “Kill Baby Kill ” has nothing to do with the actual story.

H.G. Lewis was famous for making several ridiculously gory and cheesy films in the 60s and early 70s. This one is , obviously, a very gory movie. We had fun watching it, because most of the characters are pretty ludicrous, as well as most of the gore scenes. Yet the film still has its’ charm.

This is the classic in the Film Noir genre, with great use of shadows and light. If you like kittycats, watch this movie.

This is the sequel to the previous film. We didn’t like it because there’s no cat action except for a one little black kitty on a tree in the beginning of the movie.

This is another classic film about a naughty little girl, who does mean things but nobody notices except for her poor mother. It’s a good movie, but not as shocking today as it must have been in the 50s.

This is the movie starring the terrific Crispin Glover, who plays a psychotic guy who commands rats to do his bidding. I thought the movie was fun, and i liked the big gloomy rat named Ben.

This is another movie from the Ghosthouse Underground collection, which is also quite good. I can definitely recommend renting movies from this company. This one is also Danish, and it’s about a very evil teacher, who has a special mission. I won’t give out the details, because it will be a spoiler.

This is not one of Dario Argento’s best movies. The colors and cinematography of the film are cool as always, but the story is lame and confusing. However, the film score by Keith Emerson from the British prog rock band, Emerson, Lake and Palmer is quite groovy.

These are two classic black and white werewolf movies. First one is about a scientist who gets bitten by a Tibetan werewolf, and has to use the special moon flower to prevent his lycanthropic attacks. The second one is about a woman who’s afraid of having inherited the family’s werewolf curse, and thinks that she goes out at night killing little children. First movie was much better.

We don’t remember much of the movie, but we remember that we liked it and that it had a cool gothic atmosphere.

This is another Hammer House movie, following the classic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This one stars Christopher Lee, who plays the secret lover of Dr.Jekyll’s wife.

This is yet another Mario Bava movie, but has little to do with horror, and more with suspensefull Hitchcockian film noir. It’s more of a detective story, which has an interesting plot, and an awesome song by Italian pop singer and actor Adriano Celentano .

We were rather disappointed after watching this classic film for the first time. Even though it is a stylistically great movie, the birds only come out in the end! We thought there would be several bird attacks throughout the movie and that it would actually be creepy, like Psycho. But it was not.

Do not rent this movie, unless you want to have the god-awful Alice Cooper song looping in your head for the next 2 weeks. The terrible song i’m referring to is frightfully catchy and absolutely dumb. The movie itself is not total crap, but it’s not very good either. I think that Alice Cooper was not taking anything at that time, and that is why he agreed to do this terrible film. I wanted to see this movie, because i actually like Alice Cooper, but i felt bad after renting it.

We like the films by Lucio Fulci very much. This is a cool zombie movie with terrific gore and a sinister atmosphere. We highly recommend other films by Lucio Fulci, such as Zombie and The Beyond

Who wouldn’t watch Halloween on Halloween? This is the movie that started the whole subgenre of horror films, known as Slasher movies. This is a stylish and timeless film.

Thus concludes this year’s Shocktober film fest!

Since the beginning of October, we have watched quite a handful of movies. I thought it would be fun to make a list of the ones we’ve watched so far, so here you go (in more or less chronological order):

We started out with -

I’ve seen this movie before but not all of it. I always liked Evil Dead 1 and 2, and this one is also very entertaining and funny, I enjoyed it a lot, but there’s nothing scary about it whatsoever, it’s more of a fantasy than a horror movie.

This is a Portuguese exorcism/cursed house movie. The atmosphere of the movie is good, you get to see the grim places in Portugal, but the story unfolds a bit slow, and the “grand finale” is too short and a little confusing.

This is one of the first movies of George Romero, it’s about a suburban housewife who gets interested in witchcraft and slowly goes crazy. It’s more of a suspense movie than a horror. It has a great 70’s atmosphere, so it is quite interesting to watch, not so much for getting scared though. In the 70s this movie was probably considered scary, but today it wouldn’t, because our minds are too accustomed to horrific and truly scary images and stories.

They did a good job but I liked the original, Gin gwai, much more. The American versions of The Ring and The Grudge are far superior to this movie.

This Brazilian movie is pretty awesome and very entertaining. Coffin Joe plays an evil gravedigger who doesn’t believe in any supernatural powers, pisses people off and kills them if they get in his way.

Total crap. A movie about a bunch of friends who share a trauma from the past, being brought up in an asylum where they were experimented on. They come back to the place and die one after another. The storyline is pretty dull, not much going on throughout the movie, not so many good effects, and the movie leaves you with a thought – what the hell did i just watch and why did i choose this movie?

These are 3 short movies based on Edgar Allan Poe’s stories: “Metzengerstein”, “Toby Dammit” and “William Wilson”. It’s a must-see classic.

A very interesting Asian ghost movie, really good storyline and great effects. It’s both horror and sci-fi, which makes it more original than many Asian ghost story movies.

This remake of the 1970’s movie is pretty confusing and hard to follow. After watching it, we were trying to figure out what exactly was going on in the movie, but eventually gave up. It’s always good to have some mystery in a movie, but this one has too much of it. Although i haven’t seen it, i am sure that the original movie by Herschell Gordon Lewis is much better.

The Holy Mountain is one of the most artistic and awesome movies I have ever seen. This was the first movie of Alejandro Jodorowsky i’ve seen, and i am planning to watch more now. Every single set in the movie is a perfect work of art. The movie has lots of symbolism and occult connotations. A must-see for everyone (although it’s not a horror movie).

Really weird movie by Coffin Joe, has strange sex and drug-taking scenes.

It was not bad, but i like Dario Argento’s old movies more. Some parts of the movie were pretty funny. Also, the soundtrack in the end is pretty ridiculous. One of the best things about the old Argento movies is that the soundtracks were written and performed by the spooky Italian progressive rock band, Goblin, thus making the movies very special.

This movie is an unusual vampire flick, set in an obscure town in Alaska ( actually filmed in New Zealand ). It has a really spooky atmosphere, great cinematography, pretty decent film score and lots of good gore. The vampires in the film are not the elegant sophisticated types, but rather savage and vicious killers who speak some weird unknown language.

This movie has 3 different short stories: “The Telephone” – more of a suspense story, “The Wurdalak” – a vampire story featuring Boris Karloff and “A Drop of Water” – a creepy ghost story with a scary looking dead granny- the best one in my opinion. This is the movie, which the band Black Sabbath took their name from. It was pretty amusing to imagine Ozzy shivering with fear on the chair in the movie theater, pleading to go home and Tony Iommi trying to calm him down.

To be continued….

Samael did a great job at the show, the sound was excellent, the setlist was well-balanced between the old and the new material + at the very end they played my favorite song – “My savior”. I’ve never seen Samael perform before, so i was full of joy and delight

As to Amorphis – unfortunately, i have not been following their music career so much, so i was surprised to see the new singer in the band. Apparently, that was the 3rd new guy on vocals, and he had the longest dreads ever. It was pretty dangerous to stand close to the stage, because you could easily get your eye taken out by these dreads when the dude was headbanging. The music was good and they were doing a good job, but it’s just not exactly my taste.

I leave my plethora of readers with another one of my favorite songs of Samael.

Here are some photos i took:

A character from Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)

Me and Tony Todd – Candyman .

Now i am not afraid to say “candyman” 5 times in a row.

Some nice freaky dolls:

The werewolf dude:

I loved the Dracula doll! (Creations of Terry Cruikshank)

Regan MacNeil and more puppets (Creations of Terry Cruikshank):

Some more stuff:

Army of Darkness book:

# 13

Ater - Finnish death/doom metal from 1991. Does not exist anymore, but has some precious photos on the site.

# 12

Darkified- Swedish black/death metal band, which liked Lovecraft a lot. Split up in 1993, later went on to the Edge of Sanity and Marduk. As it says on their myspace – “The little devil in the logo is watching you” (while you’re figuring out what the logo says).

# 11

Bestial Summoning- one of the first black metal bands from Netherlands. The little Satan skull kinda makes it easier for one’s associative mind to guess the words. They have some really precious stuff on their page .

# 10

Multiplex - Early 90’s death metal pioneers from Japan, kinda like Japanese version of Napalm Death.

# 9

Impiety - Black/death metal from Singapore, still going on, fans of Genghis Khan. This is the first logo of Impiety, now they have a new, more readable but less curly one.

# 8

Baxaxaxa - now that’s a pretty awesome name for a band. This is a German, Bavarian atmospheric black metal band from the early 90s as well. They also have changed their logo to a more readable one.

# 7

Absu - the evil American band from Texas. They call themselves “mythological occult metal”. They have been going on since 91 until now (and i never liked the music ). Here are the 1st 2 logos of the band – they are obviously very creative, and now they have a new one. I couldn’t decide whether i like hairs or branches more, so i put both of the early logos.

# 6

Equimanthorn - Another Texan occult-dark ambient band. Their new logo is a bit less hairy.

# 5

Filii Nigrantium Infernalium - a Portuguese band with an awesome, easy-to-remember name and logo, started out as black metal and turned into thrash. No matter how hard i tried, i cannot decipher at least where the first letter “F” is. Illegibility achieved.

# 4

Prosanctus Inferi -an American black/thrash band from Ohio. Started out in 2005, so far have 2 demos. I bet they liked botany class in school.

Behold the 3 most awesome ones

# 3

Forgotten Land -another band from Ohio. A one-man band, the only member is called Lord Tetrarch. He is truly evil. Here we can see that christmas trees have some serious roots.

# 2

lol
Korgonthurus - Finnish black metal. Look at that! That is just pure art. The band has absolutely no intention whatsoever for anyone to ever be able to read their band name from the logo. Plus they seriously like trees.

# 1 – the ultimate winner

Is that hay, a bird’s nest or camel spit? This logo receives the ultimate illegibility award. No one on this planet could possibly read anything from it. This is the most awesome logo i have ever seen in my life. If i ever feel sad, i’m sure if i look at it i won’t be able to stop myself from laughing. They even had a little flash intro on their myspace before with that stuff flying around ! However, they changed it to a new one. It’s also not so bad, but i just love this one.

And this is…
Waking The Cadaver – A brutal deathcore band from New Jersey. They started out in 2006, and already have almost 3 million plays on MySpace – logo did the magic i guess, cuz the music is

Each one of the 8 floors is like an art gallery, but the fun thing is that you find different styles of art with almost every step – one space would have modern-style, surrealistic paintings, the other one would have photography, the next one would have junk art, and the next one would have something totally weird you won’t even know what to call it. The other 2 floors have live performances and the bar.

I did 5 floors of art only, and that was more than enough impressions and inspiration. It was great to find out that there are so many young artists in the area, with very interesting ideas and ways of expressing themselves. I took loads of photos and artist’s flyers to check their sites. Here are some of the photos of the art i found the most interesting for me:

The Peep Show

The Peeps are marshmallow-inspired creatures made by different people for the Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest. The dioramas display all kinds of iconic images from the present and the past, political situations, well-known movies, and just funny stuff. These are definitely worth noticing.

If you want to check out more photos i took, visit my Flickr and the Artomatic pool.

Smashing Magazine textures contest

I participated in Smashing Textures contest – i didn’t win, but i got featured in 2 galleries of the best textures the Smashing crew selected in the end of the contest, and i’m happy about that. Two of my textures got featured in Sand and Earth gallery and in Stone, Walls, Brick gallery. Here are some textures i submitted + the ones i was considering to submit, but since there was a limit of 5 only, i couldn’t include all of them:

You can download these textures here, if you like.

Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth show

We went to Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth black metal show at 9:30 club, Washington D.C.

It was a cool show, i enjoyed it – both bands played well and had a great image and stage show. The sound in the club was perfect. It was nice to hang out a bit with Nergal, since Zhyin has toured with him back in the Ancient days – so they had some fun stuff to remember.

Miami

We went to Miami for 1,5 days to check it out , since we’re going to be moving there soon, for a year. I liked it because i love hot weather and hate cold. Can’t say more than that, because it was only a 1-day visit, but it seemed nice. We even managed to find a very nice place to live already, which we didn’t expect. ( the following photo is not the place we found – it’s just a pretty view from the hotel we stayed at )

We also visited the World Erotic Art museum, which is a collection of approximately 4,000 objects and antiquities dating to as early as 200 B.C. and hailing from lands as distant as Asia, Africa and India. Among the sculptures, the museum has the original phallic prop from Stanley Kubrick’s classic A Clockwork Orange. The collection belongs to Naomi Wilzig. Unfortunately, no photos allowed, only in the shop.

Sanatorium Altrosa

I bought the limited collectors edition of Sanatorium Altrosa – the new creation of Sopor Aeternus. Besides the cd itself, this edition comes with lots of fancy things – a bag, a shirt, a book with photos, etc. Well, i liked the fancy things the most. And sadly, this would be the first time i am saying something like that about Sopor Aeternus.

]]> http://www.ladyomega.com/pieces-of-the-present-and-the-recent-past/feed/ 7 http://www.ladyomega.com/pieces-of-the-present-and-the-recent-past/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LadyOmegaDesignArtMusic/~3/lleaASCbAjg/ http://www.ladyomega.com/my-return-and-the-promised-mp3s/#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 17:23:14 +0000 omega http://ladyomega.com/test Once again i have forsaken my blog for a long time. I was tired, sick, busy, lazy, working and what not, and couldn’t spare some time to write something meaningful or not.
I think i am back now. We’ve almost settled in our house in the usa, though there’s still work to be done. My company, Elune Art, is also renewing our old site, so there’s a lot to be done as well.
Anyway, as i have promised Julian and some other people that i will up put some mp3s of the projects i participate(d) in – finally it’s here. I hope you enjoy the tunes.

Kaiaphas – the ebm/electro/futurepop project, which consists of Zhyin (a.k.a. Lord Kaiaphas) (everything), me (female vocals, sometimes lyrix and some help with everything), and Lienhard (guitar). These tunes are pretty old, since we are in the process of writing our debut album, which will come out pretty soon, and the sound will be better and newer!

• KAIAPHAS – Your Bloody Requiem (music and lyrics by Zhyin)
  [See post to listen to audio]
• KAIAPHAS – Kuenstliche Welten (music and lyrics by Wolfsheim)
  This is our cover of the song of Wolfsheim, a famous synthpop band from Germany.
  [See post to listen to audio]
• KAIAPHAS – Always Invisible (music by Zhyin , lyrics by Lady Omega and Zhyin)
  This one came out on Orkus compilation cd last year.
  [See post to listen to audio]

Minimal Criminal – a dark minimal progressive psytrance project by Zhyin and Echoes. I contribute some vocals and some effects here and there, + the web design . Minimal Criminal have been released on various compilations since 2005, and keep being progressively successful in the minimal trance scene.

• Minimal Criminal – Unnatural life (music and lyrics by Zhyin)
  [See post to listen to audio]
• Minimal Criminal – Graverobbers from outer space (music by Zhyin)
  [See post to listen to audio]

Thokkian Vortex – I don’t do anything in this project, my part here is just the design . This is the recent black metal solo project of the Lord Kaiaphas (Zhyin), which had its’ first release this year on a split cd with Aetherius Obscuritas via Sleaszy Rider rec., which cd cover i designed . So i am posting these 2 tracks just to show off how talented Lord Kaiaphas is and how awesome his vocals are

• Aetherius Obscuritas feat. Lord Kaiaphas – Freedom of Hatred (music and lyrics by Aetherius Obscuritas, all vocals by Lord Kaiaphas)
  [See post to listen to audio]
• Thokkian Vortex – Huginn and Muninn in the realms of mist (music and lyrics by Lord Kaiaphas)
  [See post to listen to audio]

Encoder – an american futurepop project, which features me on one of their tracks of the upcoming album, Slivers of Time.

• Encoder feat. Lady Omega- When it Rains (music and lyrics by Encoder)
  [See post to listen to audio]

That will be all for now

As i have promised, this post will be about Mdina dungeons. Mdina is the old capital of Malta, which is about 7000 years old. Besides being an outstandingly beautiful place, one of Mdina’s attractions is the dungeon museum. The underground dungeons of Mdina recreate the dark parts of the history of Malta, starting with the Romans and ending with Napoleon. The wax figures in the Mdina dungeons portray the ingenuous cruelty of human minds expressed in torture – the dramatic scenes from the ancient past and the characters who were either the victims or the executioners.

Mdina dungeons – the entrance

The Roman period

From early times, Romans treated prisoners with great cruelty. Torture and punishment adopted by them took many forms, and consisted mostly of flogging, beheading or crucifying. St.Agatha, who is reputed to have dwelt in catacombs in Rabat, was atrociously tortured by having her breast cut off.

When the Roman empire got split up, Malta was assigned to the Byzantine part. In AD 637 a conspiracy took place against Emperor Heraclius, in which Teodorius, the Emperor’s nephew, was an accomplice. Teodorius was arrested and exiled to Malta, where on his arrival on the island he had his nose cut off and foot amputated as a further punishment.

The Arab period

The Arabs occupied Malta in AD 870. At this time it was recorded that Manas, Bishop of Malta, was imprisoned in Palermo, Sicily for having provided the Byzantine army with grain during the Arabs’ struggle for Sicily. The Moslems had their own punishments, one of which was pressing where the victim was crushed beneath a pile of stones after being tied spreadeagled on the ground

The illustrated examples refer to tortures supposedly inflicted on Christian slaves by Muslims in the Middle Ages. From the time of the Crusades onwards, Christians and Muslims enslaved each other without remorse.
The tortures illustrated reflect a 17th century christian fear of enslavement rather than realities of the Muslim treatment.
In the Muslim world, slaves were mainly used in domestic service, and the only widely practiced cruelty was emasculation to provide eunuchs for harems.

Bubonic plague

Since the Medieval period, Malta has suffered numerous outbreaks of Bubonic plague, which were increased by lack of hygiene and undernourishment. Sometimes plague reached Malta through visiting ships.The victims’ corpses were loaded either on mule-driven death carts or on uncovered stretchers by criminals acting as corpse-bearers. Victims were administered Holy Communion by priests using long pincers to avoid contact.

Feudal Lords

During the Middle Ages the Maltese Islands were ceded to feudal lords, who were little better than tyrants, by the Sovereigns for services rendered to the crown or for monetary gain. In 1425, the islands passed on to Don Gonsalvo Monroy, the last Feudal Lord, who through iron-fisted rule reduced the populace to misery. Weary of his oppression, the inhabitants revolted and drove Monroy out of the island. In 1427 the Maltese were given their charter of liberty by King Alfonso.

The Slaves’ conspiracy

Following the failure of the slaves’ conspiracy in 1749, 38 of the presumed ring-leaders were tortured in the most hideous manner. Those condemned to death were transported through the main streets of Valletta where at intervals the executioner tore bits of flesh from the culprits with red hot pliers and poured boiling pitch on to the open wounds. 8 of the conspirators were branded with the letter “R”, signifying “Ribelli“, whilst 2 were quartered in the Grand Harbour.

The execution of Muslim leaders

Reproductions of contemporary watercolor paintings depicting the trial and execution of Muslim leaders involved in the assassination plot against Grand Master Pinto in 1749.

The Rosarians

The fraternity of the Holy Rosary was set up in Valletta in the church of Our Lady of Porto Salvo in 1575 and its members assisted comdemned prisoners in the last days of their lives. Members of the Confraternity walked the streets of Valletta in a white habit, with black rosary beads tied to their waist, collecting alms in a small tin box. Half the alms were given to the next-of-kin of those condemned whilst the other half were used to celebrate mass for the repose of their souls.

The Knights’ period

During the period of the Knights times were hard and so were the laws of the land. What today seems trifling, was then severely dealt with and some of the following offences were established by law. Blasphemy was severely punished, and those found guilty of the first offence had their tongues pierced with a needle. Slaves who refused work had their ears cut off. Criminals were liable to be punished by having their hands chopped off.

Cumbo’s horse

One of the most painful forms of torture was that of the Cavaletto. This consisted of placing the accused in a sitting position on a type of wooden horse with weights attached to the feet. The notorious 17th century judge, Giulio Cumbo, condemned some 120 criminals to death whilst holding office. At that time, the torture horse became popularly known as “Il cavallo di Cumbo“.

Jean Parisot de la Valette

Jean Parisot de la Valette was born in Gascony, France in 1494. In his early years he was notorious for his firey temper. He was temporarily unfrocked from the order at one stage and in 1538 for four months was imprisoned on the island of Gozo for having been foung guilty of attacking a private citizen. Elected the Grand Master of the Order in 1557 he achieved fame for his valour and leadership during the Great Siege of Malta by the Turks in 1565.

La Cassiere

In 1572 Jean Levesque de la Cassiere was elected Grand Master. La Cassiere was renowned both in the Knights’ Convent and the Courts of Europe. However, as a Grand Master, he turned out to be stern and intransigent. Great discontent arose in the Order and a group of rebel knights, led by Romegas, imprisoned him in Fort St.Angelo. After his reinstatement by Pope Gregory 13th, both La Cassiere and Romegas died in Rome.

Defeat in battle

In July 1570 Jean Francois de St.Clement in command of the flotilla of the Order’s galleys was surprised by an overwhelming force led by Lucciali, a Turkish general. St.Clement fled after losing the Capitania, the San Giovanni and the Sant’Anna – only the Santa Maria della Vittoria escaped. A general outburst followed and on his return St.Clement was tried, found guilty and stripped of his habit. Condemned to death, he was strangled in prison, and his body, enclosed in a sack filled with stones, was thrown into the sea.

Mattew Callus

With the coming of the Order of the Knights of St.John the privileges of the Universita, which represented the local Comune, were gradually eroded. Grand Master de la Valette removed further a number of privileges which led to widespread discontent among the citizens. In 1561 the prominent physician, Mattew Callus was bold enough to address the protest directly to King Philip II of Spain, but his letter was intercepted. He was then arrested, tried by a civil court, found guilty of sedition and hanged.

After the priests’ revolt

Following the abortive revolt of the priests in 1775, during the Magistracy of Grand Master Franceso Ximenes, three of the rebels were executed and their gory heads were stuck on long poles and displayed in public.

The Stocks

Stocks consisted of a timber frame with holes for feet, and sometimes hands, in which the offender was confined, secured in a seated position and forced to suffer the insults and ridicules of passers-by. Offenders were sometimes punished by means of “boccaglio“, a crude instrument of torture, which was placed over the head.

Witchcraft

Superstitions and witchcraft were among the most frequent problems for an Inquisitor in 17th century Malta. The deep-rooted catholic faith of the Maltese was undermined by such beliefs where sometimes people sought the help of women renowned for their healing powers. Fear of the evil eye remained strong amongst the population so the people resorted to talismans and amulets for protection. Muslim slaves were the most common source obtaining such potions and superstitious objects. Superstition was looked at by the authorities as a malaise to be held in check.

Masks of Shame

Those being punished had to wear these masks for public displays of their shame. There was a “Flute of Shame” for bad musicians, “Swine Mask” for men treating women poorly, the “Hood of Shame” for bad students, and many more masks of shame.

Abolishing the inquisition

In 1798 the French under Napoleon occupied Malta. The inquisition was abolished. But when the French confiscated property belonging to the Maltese Church, the Maltese revolted, and the patriots were executed executed by firing squad on the Place de la Liberte in 1799.

Malta is a 7000 year old island, which is situated 93 km south of Sicily. Though it’s a small country, it has a very rich historical past. It has been invaded by several cultures – Sicilian, Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Turkish, Arabic, French, Spanish and British, hence the variety of styles in Maltese architecture and their peculiar language. Maltese language is considered a Semitic language, however it’s the only Semitic language which uses Roman alphabet.

The climate in Malta is great – when we arrived to Malta from Germany, we were wearing winter clothes, but we had to take them off immediately, since it was very warm and some people were even sunbathing on the roofs of the hotels. I was very happy about that, since i dislike cold weather very, very much. We stayed in Sliema, one of the cities on the coast. The day we arrived, we decided to go for a walk and check out Sliema, but by walking around for about 3 hours we ended up going through 3 cities – Sliema, St.Julians and Gzira. Malta is small but very beautiful.

Sunset in Sliema

Kinnie – a maltese drink

I like trying new food and drinks. So, one of the first drinks i tried in Malta was Kinnie. Some people may like it, but i thought it was pretty nasty. Kinnie is a non-alcoholic drink, made from bitter oranges and aromatic herbs, and it was too bitter for me. It was invented by Mr.Cisk, who produces Maltese beer.

Gzira – Immortal cat

They sure do have cats in Malta, and plenty. This particular one is obviously a fan of Immortal. And i think, it looks more evil than Abbath.

The next beautiful city we saw was Valletta – the capital of Malta. Valetta has amazing Baroque architecture and is also full of history. The city was found by the French Jean Parisot de la Valette in 1566, who fortified the city to maintain the hold of the Knights of Malta. The city was planned to be a refuge to care for injured soldiers and pilgrims during the Crusades in the 16th century. Most inhabitants of Malta preferred to reside in Valetta, since it was strongly fortified.
Nowadays Valletta is one of the main tourist attractions, with its amazing view of the Grand Harbour, the Barrakka Gardens, cathedrals and various places of entertainment. You can take a ride on a horse carriage around Valletta and feel like you are in the middle ages.

Valletta walls

Lower Barrakka Gardens

Lower Barrakka Gardens offer an amazing view of the Grand Harbour of Valletta.

The Grand Harbour

The Grand Harbour of Malta has been used since the Roman times.

Valletta street

Valetta is the “new” capital of Malta. The old one was Mdina. Mdina is truly a medieval town, with narrow streets and amazing architecture. Mdina has been there since 4000 BC, and was fortified by Phoenicians in 700 BC. Mdina is called “The Silent City”, therefore you are not allowed to make noise, especially after the sunset. It is an unforgettable experience to walk in Mdina at night.

Mdina walls and orange trees

Medieval horse ride

The horse may not see what’s around it, but it can still make faces at you.

A fountain

Mdina alley

Mdina walls

You can view almost the entire Malta from Mdina walls, since Mdina is in the centre of the island. Many brave young people go on top of the walls, lay there and relax, enjoying the great view.

Mdina, of course, is full of things to see – there’s chapels, cathedrals, a natural history museum, a benedictine monastery, and Mdina dungeons – the museum of medieval torture. We surely visited it, but that will be a whole new post

In Israel they usually don’t put cats into a pound. Instead, the Cat Welfare Society of Israel comes, takes the cats away, neuters them, gives them the necessary shots, and returns them back to where they were. The Cat Welfare Society also arranges adoptions of cats. Though some people might disagree about neutering the cats, but i think it’s way better than mass killing the cats, as it’s practiced in some countries.

Here are some photos i took of the kitties:

The little green box

These 2 kittycats were very cold and kept following me at night, so we got them a box to keep them warm, they were happy and stayed there every night since then.

I summon the demons

Another cute kittycat, i took care of him when he was sick and coughing.

Wilma Ferrell

Wilma Ferrell is her name She often has a look on her face like she has no clue about what’s going on. Now it’s the mating season for cats, so she’s the last one who got lucky ( i was the witness ), after that she was hiding for 3 days. Now there’s gonna be more Wilmas!

The reincarnation of the pet cemetery cat

This kittycat has a bad attitude, but he loves to eat!

Travelling in style

Many old people live in Arad, and when they’re gone, this is what happens to their transport.

The bush kitties

2 cute kitties in the bush, right in front of our house.

Whatcha lookin’ at, huh??

No comment.

I hath the wisdom

This is the Shaolin cat, living next to the pool we go to.

This!!! Is!!! Catland!!!

Another living-by-the-pool cat, it makes the longest meows i have ever heard in my life.

Feed me, the giant one!

I bet he was feeling pretty warm and happy

The process of cat-feeding

And that’s not all of them!

You can see more photos of the kittycats in my Flickr stray cat set

Shin Tanaka

Shin Tanaka is a graffiti artist, paper toy creator and designer from Fukuoka, Japan. His site features supercute papercraft toys – Spiky Baby series, T-Boy, Boxy and others. Some are available for download.

Josh McKible

Josh McKible’s Paper Birds are adorable. He is a very successful graphic and visual design artist from New York, living in Tokyo.
The birdies are available for download!

Brian Castleforte

Brian Castleforte is a designer from LA. His site – Nice Bunny has a vairety of his papercrafts as well as of the other guest artists. The toys are available for download.

Atom-Glue² chronicle

Here are the brilliant works of Atom, a japanese artist: the papercraft reproduction of Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights‘ creatures – the Helmet bird, and the Letter bird from The Temptation of Saint Anthony.

Paper Critters

Paper Critters is an online paper toy creator site, where one can make his own paper creature, get a chance to be showcased in the top 10 critters, and see some of them out in the wild!

Readymech

Readymech’s papercrafts are free, flatpack toys for you to print and build. The site features a great variety of cute creatures.

Speakerdog

Speakerdog – yet another site with cute downloadable papercrafts. Make your own speakerdog!

Dragon illusion

This dragon is lots of fun. I already have one at home, it’s pretty cool. The little dragon is made out of paper – you cut it out, stick it together, and stand it on a table or window ledge. But when you move around, the dragon’s head seems to follow you around the room. There is a video on the Grand Illusions site, which shows how it works, and it’s available for download.

Papercraft Robots Gallery

Robot Tairiku site has a big gallery of papercraft robots, available for download:

Skull-A-Day papercraft:

And here’s a papercraft skull from Skull-A-Day:

Now here’s a weirdness to be proud of.

Here are the videos in 2 parts, with English subtitles.

Part 1

Part 2

It’s a book from NYPL digital gallery – The punishments of China : illustrated by twenty-two engravings : with explanations in English and French, dated 1804. Here are some pictures, please go to the original site for more.

Torturing the fingers

Punishment of the wooden collar

Punishment of the swing

Twisting a man’s ears

A malefactor in cage

Burning a man’s eyes with lime

Klaus Nomi died in 1983, he was one of the first artists who died of AIDS. Sadly, when he was dying in the hospital, no one came to say good bye to him, because they were afraid of this disease.
Had he be around today, he would probably be performing gothic music with an operetic flavour.

Here are 2 videos of Klaus Nomi:

The Nomi Song

The Cold Song – from Purcell’s “King Arthur”

In 2004, a documentary “The Nomi Song” came out, produced by Andrew Horn, about the life of Klaus Nomi. (I own this documentary of course).

I hope that this art will not be forgotten.

ISA Server can block cross site scripting by inspecting the HTTP requests and identifying commands and tags that are common in server responses but are not common in client requests. For example, you can expect a server to run a command in response to a client request. However, that same command in a client request may be suspect, and could be the result of the client unintentionally running code that is hidden in a Web page. By blocking requests containing those commands and tags, the attack can be stopped.Continuing the example of using in a posting, would be a valid tag for a server response, but not for client requests. By adding a signature to detect in the requests passing through ISA Server, the attack will be blocked. Read more here

Well, i called my ISP and shortly after 30 min being on hold i got to talk to a worker. The conversation went as follows:(O-me, TS-TechSup)

O:: Hello, i want to let you know that you are blocking my javascript. I am a web designer and i cannot work properly, since you are blocking it. When i access my .js files, there’s nothing but a blank page and even my yahoo mail isn’t functioning.

TS:: Uhm….what’s the number of the error?

O:: You see, there are different errors on different pages, when i check the error console, it gives many various errors.

TS:: Ah, ok, please open your Internet Explorer….

O:: I don’t use IE i use Firefox

TS:: Ohhh…hold on a second then…..

(waiting on the phone for 10 min)

TS:: Hey, are you there?

O:: Yep

TS:: Ok, the problem is solved, you just have to install JAVA tm!!!

O:: WTF??? …i was talking about Javascript, not Java Sun Microsystems, besides that, i have it installed.

TS:: Can you give me a link to see the number of the error you are getting?

O:: Nope, i can’t give you the link of the sites i’m currently working on….

TS:: Ahhh, you’re a web designer

O:: That’s right (duhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!)

TS:: Well, i think it’s a problem with your computer, you should check it.

O:: Nope, there’s no problem with my computer, since i have other computers in the house and when i connect via other computers i get same problems. There’s no way that each pc i have is configured in a wrong way.

TS:: Well, i can give you a phone # of the local hardware company so that they can check it.

O:: ????? I don’t need a hardware company, my problem is not hardware.

TS:: Uhm….hold on a sec

(another 10 min go by)

TS:: You there?

O:: Yep

TS:: You see, you’re the only person that contacted us about this problem, so we can’t really help you

O:: Ok, can you check Yahoo for example and see if it will work ok on your computer at least?

TS:: We don’t have that kind of thing.

O:: ????????????? What kind of thing – Yahoo?

TS:: Yes madam.

O:: Do you know what Yahoo is?

TS:: Yes but we don’t get any popups with errors from it.

O:: Popups?

TS:: I can give you the number so that you can check your hardware.

O:: No, thanks i guess we’re done here……good bye.

I guess if i redirected them to the link about .js blocking mentioned above, it would be too challenging….

How to clear your cache

SnuzNLuz alarm clock

The SnuzNLuz uses the very complex psychological phenomemon known as ‘HATRED’. Basically it’s human nature to wish harm upon your enemies. Similarly, it’s human nature not to give your enemies gobs of cash so that they can grow big and dominate the world with their totally wrong, stupid and invalid point of view. ThinkGeek realized that. That’s why everytime you hit the snooze button, the SnuzNLuz will donate a specified amount of your real money to a non-profit you hate. The problem of sleeping in is solved.

Robby the robot alarm clock

Cool Robby the Robot Alarm Clock beeps, lights, swivels at it’s hips and flashes to wake you up. Point the infrared remote control “gun” and shoot once for “snooze” and twice for “off.” Works up to 15 feet away. Includes talking time plus hourly chime sound effects.

Paper watch

E Ink Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, and Seiko Watch Corporation created the world’s first watch to utilize an electronic paper display. This ‘Future Now’ design incorporates an easy-to-read, ultra-thin, low-power display integrated into an eye-catching curved band.

BPM watch: for DJs and runners alike

This multipurpose timepiece dons a stainless steel face, spits out the time in digital fashion, keeps track of the date, and includes a “mini-torch” backlight to find your way to an empty seat when entering a theater seven minutes late. The standout feature, however, is the built-in beats-per-minute mode, which allows you to “tap the button to the rhythm of the beat” or monitor your current heart rate. Additionally, BPM mode brings out textual inspiration in the form of random DJ phrases that are presumably meant to get you even more amped up.

Clocky

The alarm clock that runs away and hides to get you out of bed. Clocky gives you one chance to get up. But if you snooze, Clocky will jump off your nightstand and wheel around your room looking for a place to hide, beeping all the while. You’ll have to get out of bed to silence his alarm. Clocky is kind of like a misbehaving pet, only he will get up at the right time. Created by Nanda.

Time Sphere

Gideon Dagan’s new clock captures the essence of pure, minimalist design. A seemingly gravity-defying ball travels around the dial to mark the time, creating an eye-catching illusion.

Made in the USA of injection-molded ABS polymer, the clock features a high-torque, precision quartz movement.

Day and Night pair

The design represents a pair of 2-sided watches. One is for showing accurate time and the other side, being divided into 24 portions, is for showing the 24 hours.

When the “Day” and “Night” watches are placed together, you will see the digital screens joining together in 24 portions on the background. Each portion glows according to the actual time. For example, at 4pm, 16 sections will glow like a regular clock, as shown as in the diagram. The back of each watch is featured with an EL backlight screen to form the glowing portion. The front and back screens combined will present a full display of the time.

The “Day” and “Night” are also featured with rotational watchcases that can turn fully around to suit 4 ways of wearing. Created by Amie Lim.

The Da Vinci alarm clock

The Da Vinci Alarm Clock works on a very basic system. The Dot Matrix display will always show either Sleep or Awake. When the product is first switched on the display will immediately show the word Awake. This will continue to be displayed for 3 hours at 30 minutes.At this point the clock display will change to show the word Sleep and a high-pitched alarm will signal this change in state. This will continue to sound until the user presses the alarm-reset button. The word sleep will continue to be shown for the next 30 minutes, at which point the display will revert back to show the word awake, the alarm will also sound at this point to signal that a change in state has occurred.The 4-hour cycle will repeat itself six times over the course of a 24-hour period and will continue to do so until the clock is switched off. If the user follows the directions given by the clock then they will be able to enjoy the benefits of a 21-hour day, with little of the associated tiredness they would normally experience.

Sarah flower clock

Designer Jim Doan named this beautiful, graceful piece after his fiancée–just as he named his company after her. And what a compliment: with its flexible graphite stem and unmistakably botanical appearance, the Sarah Clock is like the one perfect flower that puts any bouquet to shame. Plus, it tells time.

AlarMe – the watch for hearing impaired

Designer Nikita Golovlev has created a watch for the hearing impaired. AlarMe is a very unique and stylish design that has the ability to alert those who cannot hear an audible alarm by vibration on the watch. The watch has two built in multidirectional microphones that measure the surrounding ambient sound levels. Once the sound changes frequency, the vibrating alarm alerts the user that there is a situation going on and they need to leave the area. The LED lights and face alert the user as to what the alarm is, and if it is a serious situation or one where only caution needs to be had.

TO:CA ‘wood’ LED clock by Kouji Iwasaki

These clever clocks have a very thin layer of veneer that permits the LEDs to shine through.

Available in two styles : a long version, ideal for use as a alarm clock for your nightstand; and a tall version, which is ideal for wall hanging or placement on a mantle.

Space Invaders alarm clock

The Space Invaders alarm clock actually forces you to play video games the second you wake up. Well, not really. But whatever time you set the alarm to, that’s when the little aliens start marching from side to side on the screen to the Space Invaders theme song. To turn it off, just bonk your blue-and-white alien on the head.

Carpet Alarm

In order to turn off the Carpet Alarm clock, you have to get up and step on it. If you really want to make it a challenge, place it far away from your bed. Of course it wouldn’t be a clock if it didn’t have and LCD screen to indicate time too.

Designer: Sofie Collin & Gustav Lanberg

Sleep Tracker watch

The SLEEPTRACKER watch is unique in that while it tells you the time and has a built-in alarm like every other digital watch, this one actually monitors your sleep and wakes you at the moment that your body would best adjust from moving from a sleeping state to being awake. I think it’s pretty useful for anyone who’s biorhythm-conscious. On the back there is an interesting chart that shows the typical adult sleep pattern.

Tempus fugit : the Flying alarm clock

The Flying Alarm Clock wakes you up with a loud shrieking alarm coupled with a little propeller-driven key that leaps off your nightstand. To turn off the horrible racket, you have to get out of bed and retrieve the key. The propeller flies the key high into the air and off into some dusty corner. You have to force your sleep addled brain into wakefulness, move your stiff legs and retrieve the key before the alarm goes off. By the time you’ve done so, you’re awake enough at least to go make a pot of coffee.

Pull-handle alarm clock

Designer Duck Young Kong is hoping his hip new concept clock’s pull-cord operation is charming enough to keep you from hucking it out the window. To set the alarm you simply pull the cord on the bottom of the unit until the numbers on the LCD screen reflect the time you wish to get up. The cord then slowly retracts into the clock as your awakening approaches, until it reaches the end and the alarm sounds.