Sway and Sammy Merry

I'm currently reading "Sway" by Zachary Lazar. It's a great book (picked up on a whim) about the early days of the Rolling Stones, The Manson Family (esp. Bobby Beausoleil) and the film-maker Kenneth Anger (see a fantastic example of his work - with the 'Stones - here).

What Lazar does is re-tell, beautifully, recorded events from the lives of the people involved and embelishes them, essentially colouring the characters and drawing a dark web between them. I like this. I like that these events are raised to mythological status in his book, something we can all own a piece of.

I didn't intend this to become a book review blog, but this has really kick-started some connections for me and I have started researching the occult and symbolism. I am fascinated by the placement and layout of symbols, motifs and drawings. Are there symbols and codified words that when placed together have inherent meaning, or can any items be placed together and a deeper meaning attributed?

I feel the latter, but who knows?

As usual, I wouldn't expect any future work to be clearly an examination of this, but at the very least my imagination is running away with itself at the moment.

In other news, you should really look at Sammy Merry's website as he's a fantastic bastard with a unique talent for making art that manages to take the piss and somehow cut to the heart of the modern condition at the same time. Whatever that means. And he's going to be a dad, so spare a thought and some pennies should he try to sell you anything he's drawn on in the coming months.