Non-motoring > Who is the more famous?	Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Crankcase	Replies: 36

New Thu 24 Dec 15 14:29   Who is the more famous? - Crankcase

I see there's been a house fire in Scotland. The house was once owned by Aleister Crowley, and later bought by Jimmy Page. Interesting how the headlines and articles seem to all assume you know who Crowley was (I would) and put him above Page (I wouldn't have known who he was). The BBC article has more to say about the occultist than the guitarist. I bet that's just me and more people know Page than Crowley though. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-35171061 Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 14:59   Who is the more famous? - smokie

Page for me. Not heard of the other one. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 15:09   Who is the more famous? - sooty123

Never heard of either of them. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 15:25   Who is the more famous? - CGNorwich

Jimmy Page was the most evil many in Britain. Aleister Crowley was the pontiff of power riffing. I think. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 15:29   Who is the more famous? - Zero

No Aleister Page was an evil pontiff. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 15:55   Who is the more famous? - Armel Coussine

Never heard of Jimmy Page, who he? Aleister Crowley was a strange fellow, not as wicked as he fancied. Indeed all that satanist Scheiss looks a bit innocent in this day and age, when worse occurs on TV every day. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 15:59   Who is the more famous? - Robin O'Reliant

>> Never heard of Jimmy Page, who he? >> >> >> A prominent member of a well known beat combo, M'lud. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 16:13   Who is the more famous? - Armel Coussine

>> A prominent member of a well known beat combo, M'lud. Oh, aaah, thank you RO'R... long-haired bearded minstrel type no doubt, sort of counterfeit satanist thing, hmmmm? Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 16:14   Who is the more famous? - Crankcase

I think it was the Daily Express who, in a typical fit of hyperbole, called Crowley "the wickedest man in the world", a reputation he was happy to nourish if would lead to more drugs, or money for drugs. So the tabloids haven't changed much. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 16:37   Who is the more famous? - Dog

Do what thou wilt ;) Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 16:50   Who is the more famous? - devonite

>>"the wickedest man in the world" didn't "The Sun" or some such once ask something similar about Tony Blair just before/after his election? Not sure whom I would nominate for that prestigious title. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 17:15   Who is the more famous? - Dog

A little something for the weekend: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaVi66qttZA Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 24 Dec 15 17:19   Who is the more famous? - Crankcase

You star, Dog. I shall look forward to that. I was just thinking about getting my copy of the John Symonds biography of him out again - very enjoyable read. As to the film, wonder if I can get my Scarlet Woman to watch it with me? Not much chance! Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 25 Dec 15 01:39   Who is the more famous? - Armel Coussine

>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaVi66qttZA Dear oh dear, what a frightful chap. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 25 Dec 15 08:54   Who is the more famous? - Bromptonaut

>> A little something for the weekend: >> >> www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaVi66qttZA What's the significance of 67-69 Chancery Lane to the story? I worked half a dozen doors down from there for more years than I care to remember. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 25 Dec 15 09:26   Who is the more famous? - Dog

>>What's the significance of 67-69 Chancery Lane to the story? I've not actually watched that particular YT of Crowley yet as I've read a few of his books, and articles about him over the years. I'll watch it when Steve Allen clocks orf :) Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 25 Dec 15 10:57   Who is the more famous? - Crankcase

Crowley had a "friend" called Alan Bennet (no, not that one), and in that property they allegedly conjured demons, kept a skeleton, had blood and sex rituals, that kind of thing. Nothing out of the ordinary really. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 25 Dec 15 11:15   Who is the more famous? - Dog

Sounds like an interesting character Cc. Cornwall is fool of characters, and saints. Maybe if he had come to Cornwall we could have straitened him out :) Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 25 Dec 15 12:31   Who is the more famous? - Ambo

Classic biography is Quest for Corvo by A.J.A. Symons. Anthony Powell is said to have based the character of Widmerpool on him in his novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time, in which he is played by Simon Russell Beale in the TV series. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 26 Dec 15 16:29   Who is the more famous? - John Boy

>> Sounds like an interesting character Cc. Cornwall is fool of characters, and saints. Maybe if he had come to Cornwall we could have straitened him out :) >> He was supposed to have put a curse on Hastings, Dog. Is that what drove you away? :) Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 26 Dec 15 19:42   Who is the more famous? - Dog

>>He was supposed to have put a curse on Hastings, Dog. Is that what drove you away? :) He drew his last breath in Hastings, John Boy. I was too busy tuning cars back then to be into 'that sort' of stuff. Nowadays though I'd be only too keen to meet someone like that, but, I wouldn't want to upset them! When we lived up on the Bodmin Moor, I used to walk Milo round to this church en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warleggan#/media/File:St_Bartholomew,_Warleggan_-_geograph.org.uk_-_365242.jpg every night, even though some locals wouldn't even go near it in the daytime apparently. I even went there one night at midnight on Halloween to see if I could stir up any ghosties, to no avail, unfortunately. Getting back to Crowley. I read a couple of his books, as I said, but I began to sense an evil presence around me on more than one occasion (seriously!) so I returned the books to the library and had nothing more to do with that game. I have in the distant past dabbled with the Ouija board, and also visited about 3 spiritualists o'er the years. A 'wise woman' lives 2 minutes walk from here, and she reads the Tarot cards I'm told. I will eventually pay her a visit one of these days, but as I say - I believe in everything, and nothing. ^_^ Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 26 Dec 15 20:14   Who is the more famous? - John Boy

>> >>He was supposed to have put a curse on Hastings, Dog. Is that what drove you away? :) >> >> He drew his last breath in Hastings, John Boy. >> Hoping to find exactly where, in Hastings, he lived, I found this page: listverse.com/2012/09/22/10-facts-about-the-great-beast-aleister-crowley/ Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 26 Dec 15 20:27   Who is the more famous? - John Boy

... and another page here: www.21stcenturyradio.com/articles/03/1001231.html Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 26 Dec 15 22:19   Who is the more famous? - Dog

Pansexual - I've never heard that term used before. I had many customers on The Ridge, but by that time 87-92 I dare say Netherwood had been turned into a modern housing estate, or even a caravan site. All I've ever read is that Crowley died in poverty, but reading that article it appears that his last days weren't too bad at all. S'funny that he should choose number 13. I was born on the 13th, and lived in a house numbered 13, which turned out to be rather lucky for me, as I purchased it for £215k and sold it under one year later for £310k :) Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 25 Dec 15 13:56   Who is the more famous? - Armel Coussine

>> they allegedly conjured demons, kept a skeleton, had blood and sex rituals, that kind of thing. That kind of boring, empty, grubby thing you mean Crankcase? WTF are 'blood and sex rituals' anyway? Nothing wrong with blood or sex in their places, but the very thought of 'rituals' makes a rational person's heart sink. Of course I read The Quest for Corvo decades ago. The prat annoyed me then just as he does now. An absolute screamer, although not entirely devoid of a sort of energetic originality. His company would soon have palled, I'm sure. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 25 Dec 15 15:47   Who is the more famous? - Armel Coussine

>> An absolute screamer, although not entirely devoid of a sort of energetic originality. And to be fair, quite a good writer if you can stomach the content. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 26 Dec 15 15:04   Who is the more famous? - Dutchie

Used to sit with the growing ups as a child in our village.The adults had these card games might have been Tarrot or something similair.Maybe all mumbo jumbo I don't know.One lady in the village could tell about certain things what would happen to people.My uncle was into these things recording voices on blank tapes.He also played in the village band trombone might have drove him potty.>) Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 26 Dec 15 18:31   Who is the more famous? - Armel Coussine

People used to claim they had felt 'presences' and witnessed inexplicable phenomena when they tried table-turning and the like, severely frightening themselves. I don't believe any of this guff. Anyone can agitate a table when they have their hands on it, and frankly allegations that the table rose into the air or something can be attributed to mischief or enthusiasm on some idiot's part. I'm quite observant, and jumpy in the dark, but I have never ever witnessed anything that had no rational physical explanation. The supernatural has snootily passed me by. :o} Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 27 Dec 15 16:28   Who is the more famous? - Ambo

>>I have never ever witnessed anything that had no rational physical explanation. I have had two examples of a poltergeist in two homes, nothing very dramatic, just a small object thrown a couple of yards from a shelf. The rational explanation I believe is that the ions of the object and the shelf come into line, such that, in magnetism, like repels like whereas as opposites attract. Three examples of other phenomena from the Far East: -A Hindu priest has two enormous silver meat hooks forced into the flesh of his back during a religious festival and uses them to drag a cart. There was no blood. I was a few feet from him when it was done but there was absolutely no sign of a puncture the next day. -The same man, the same day, makes everyone follow him to a certain spot in the fields. Now, a certain bird had to appear from a certain compass point and fly to a specified other point, otherwise we were all in for a terrible year. It did. I went to the same point at the same hour several times but never spotted the bird again. -In another location, a month long drought. Another priest and an acolyte say some prayers for rain in the estate's tiny Hindu shrine, while burning camphor and muttering prayers. Half an hour later, a real tropical deluge. Would posters care to offer rational explanations for these three? Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 27 Dec 15 17:33   Who is the more famous? - Zero

>> certain bird had to appear from a certain compass point and >> fly to a specified other point, otherwise we were all in for a terrible year. >> It did. I went to the same point at the same hour several times but >> never spotted the bird again. >> Would posters care to offer rational explanations for these three? I could quite easily reproduce that one on demand with the use of homing pigeons Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 27 Dec 15 18:01   Who is the more famous? - Armel Coussine

Actually after the burial of a gentle and harmless Rasta I knew in my youth, near the entrance to Kensal Green cemetary, I saw him flying away to the North-West, probably the lowest/shortest orbit back to Jamaica... I wrote it up like that anyway, and the conviction that it was really Priest hasn't subsided with the years. Nevertheless it was just a large wood-pigeon really. In a way a 'London sky-rat' would have been closer to the truth. Priest although a holy man was a well-known Notting Hill grass dealer, which was how I came to know him. We remained friends though even when he became a heroin addict, poor fellow (earthly love for an unsuitable object was to blame), and fell on very hard times. Used to bung him a fiver when I met him in the street but it wouldn't have gone far. It was a sop to my own conscience, not a very useful one. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 27 Dec 15 18:28   Who is the more famous? - Armel Coussine

>> It was a sop to my own conscience, not a very useful one. Priest, always a neat but unpretentious dresser and a much admired dancer, became an appalling spectacle in his last days, smelling like a goat, ragged and (after a lifetime of gentle confiding lisping, barely above a whisper), noisy and aggressive, berating passers-by in the street with a plethora of Jamaican oaths. He had gone so barmy that very few people dared talk to him. I'm proud to say I was one of these, and he never shouted at or berated me but remained courteous until his death at 59. Annoyingly, can't remember the exact year Priest died but it wasn't way back at all, early eighties I think. I'd known him about 20 years from early sixties. Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 27 Dec 15 at 18:30 Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 27 Dec 15 18:47   Who is the more famous? - Armel Coussine

>> I'd known him about 20 years from early sixties. 27 or 28 really, Priest was 31 when I met him and 59 last time I saw him. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 28 Dec 15 18:12   Who is the more famous? - Armel Coussine

Priest's funeral, written in 1989, for anyone not bored or annoyed by my historical mumbling. An extract from a much longer piece: " My suit had moth-holes in it but I made do with shirt, shoes, socks and tie in the correct colours. Jamaicans don't fuss unduly about such things although their dress sense is strong. They were chatting on the pavement outside the church on the corner of Talbot Road, mostly old-timers of whom I only knew one or two, long-time friends, people who knew what Priest was really like. A scattering of young Rastas, no dreadlocks or hardly any, cool severe-looking young guys in robes or plain anorak-and-trainers mufti, tidy, shaved, clean, the way Priest would dress if he was thirty again. A little stern, a little political and disapproving in Rasta mode adapted to 1980s pessimism: it may not be a battlefield but it's certainly a minefield: watch out. Fifty or sixty people, a dozen cars at the cemetery. The coffin arrived, the undertaker's crew with their shifty secret-police air. The church ceremony was brief, pared-down, high-church Anglican conducted by a young English vicar. The vicar spoke; a tall schoolmasterly greybeard who had been at school with Priest spoke very briefly, saying Priest had kept up his work for youth to the end. For family there was his God-daughter, child of a fellow old-time Rasta, a plump young woman whom I had last noticed as one of several children. She said the last time she saw Priest, months ago, she met him in the street and told him about some problems she was having. Despite his condition he had been supportive, reassured her, cheered her up. She had kissed him and said: "Goddie, I love you." I thought of his modest kindness, the way he never put himself first. To my surprise I knew the tunes of the Anglican hymns and sang them straight, leaning against the crazed descant sounds coming from three old-timers in the bench behind me. "I never hear you sing so well," Ezzreco murmured in my ear. I was surprised too. "Out of respect," I whispered back. "Priest was a religious man. I'm not. I'm doing it out of respect." .******* Ashes to ashes. A voice shouted "Balderdash!" and a hand shot skyward from the congregation rapidly clicking the action of a toy revolver. The vicar's eyes flickered but he carried on reading. The coffin went down the hole. Presently the vicar left. Some people threw symbolic handfuls of mud but Ezzreco grappled left-handed with a shovel. A very drunk light-skinned old-timer in a cloth cap teetered on the edge of the grave shaking an admonitory forefinger down at the coffin. "Didn't I told you so?" he shouted indignantly to Priest. "If Chingu not drunk," an old-timer murmured to me, "then you know something wrong." Two English gravediggers took over and filled the hole. The pile of raw clay was deemed distasteful and they went off with the dumper to get some proper earth from the other end of the cemetery. Priest's God-daughter, her mother and some other Rasta ladies took the flowers from their wrappings and tenderly planted them one by one in the earth. Splashes of brandy, pinches of cannabis-containing pocket dust, were dropped for Priest. More bottles appeared; people cried and laughed; twenty-four choruses of The Red Flag were sung, very blue, near enough out of tune in fact, by three big women whose gold-splashed smiles spoke of broad experience. The young Rastas stayed at attention. Half the mourners were holding a meeting off to the side but others were prolonging their goodbyes. "Before we go to Paradise ... " Chesterton's doggerel twittered annoyingly in my brain. I looked into the brilliant sky where three birds whirled. One magpie for sorrow, two for joy, wheeled and headed for the other end of the cemetery, the overgrown bushes, the generals and Victorian Catholic grandees. Another bird, a pigeon, not a London sky-rat but a large woodpigeon, a wild dove, pivoted alone where the magpies had been. There was something lame about its flight, as if its wings were entangled. It spiralled fluttering for a moment and then instantly, without a pause for recovery or any kind of glide, it was flying very fast, arrow-straight, to the north-west. His first name was Leopold. He was fifty-nine. See you man. Rastafari! " Last edited by: smokie on Mon 28 Dec 15 at 20:10 Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 28 Dec 15 18:18   Who is the more famous? - Armel Coussine

Aargh, the pink stripe strikes again! A bit unkind to axe the whole paragraph, although I suppose I understand why you did it. But I don't have to like it! No need to butcher literature, is there? Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 27 Dec 15 17:49   Who is the more famous? - CGNorwich

If you watch a stage magician saw someone in half I doubt you will see how it is done. That doesn't mean it is real. These things are just that : tricks. It usually needs a professional magician to explain how it is done. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 27 Dec 15 22:58   Who is the more famous? - Dog

>>Would posters care to offer rational explanations for these three? Try this for size: www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jasen01/texts/ChaosMagick.htm Reply to this message | Report message