Not-to-miss Lucius Shepard review of a book of photography that tells us the future we've been abducted into.

So Webern used the SATOR magic square to write a piece of music with? Interesting. I once created this square:

    S E R A C
    E L E N A
    R E F E R
    A N E L E
    C A R E S

to mimic its properties with all words from my collegiate dictionary ("anele" is an obsolete form of 'anoint'; "Elena" is the Italian 'Helen'; "serac" is an ice pinnacle), only to find out while poring through back issues of Word Ways, that it had been discovered 15 years earlier by a computer...

'After three years of experience as a painter, Congo discovered the ellipse and the circle, and soon afterwards the painting materials became inadequate to occupy the brimming vitality and enjoyment of play of the young male chimpanzee, by now a very assertive personality. Congo drew ellipses with ever-increasing ardour until he lost concentration completely. Intoxicated by circular forms, Congo's painting regressed into pure gesturality.' --Thierry Lenain, Monkey Painting (1990, tr Caroline Beamish 1997)
(I was like that after i discovered anaglyphic painting.)

I hear they're doing a remake of "The Alamo": not only is every detail historically accurate, this time it's told from the point of view of Santa Ana.