From the Glasgow Herald… Boredom’s not all bad Phil Miller � Review of A Philosophy of Boredom, Lars Svendsen, Reaktion Books, £14.95 ‘ "Boredom is life’s own gravity" is a wonderful conclusion. Also one that is entirely fitting for this amusing, learned, and articulate philosophical study of one...

Top Ten Search Engine Phrases for visitors arriving at this site in August (American-style punctuation ensures we get two versions of Ballard’s initials, along with the usual celebrity death cults and ‘member extenders’): 1. ballardian | 2. phalloplasty | 3. jg ballard | 4. penile hypertrophy | 5. princess diana crash | 6. jeanette [...]

Over at who2.com, they write: “Ballard, like actor Matthew Broderick, is an honorary member of our loop Death By Car“. He’s joined by the usual Ballardian suspects – Princess Di, Jimmy Dean – as well as the likes of ‘Left Eye’ Lopes.

Work has already started to turn the 166 acres of the former B52 airbase near Cambridge into the first J.G. Ballard entertainment park of what will become a world wide chain of themed resorts based on the work of the infamous British SF writer. Expected to open in 2007, Ballard World will be [...]

From the Guardian, August 7, 2005. The King of Kinky "Helmut Newton was a photographer who never saw the point of not overstating the obvious: in one infamous shoot, he placed a horse’s saddle on a beauty posing in riding jodhpurs on a bed on all fours; in another the women sported medical corsets...

Lonely hearts among the business parks of the M4

The New York Times recently reported on the phenomenon of Los Angeles paparazzi inventing their own photo ops by crashing their cars into those of their celebrity targets. “Ms. [Cameron] Diaz recalled walking in the street with Mr. [Justin] Timberlake and a friend and his dog about two years ago, when a photographer in a Toyota [...]

From the Capri Films website: TITLE: HIGH-RISE (Feature Film – in Development) SYNOPSIS: From J.G. Ballard, the author of the best sellers, COCAINE NIGHTS and EMPIRE OF THE SUN, comes an unsettling and unforgettable tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control. The tower’s affluent...

Ballard-referencing article on the gentrification/renaissance of high rises.