The amazing Fortean Times are throwing their annual meeting of the strange this weekend in London. The Uncon, which has been running since 1994, is always one of the better Fortean get-togethers of the year, and normally boasts some really interesting guests, exhibits and workshops.    This years spooky-speakers include: Gail-Nina Anderson, Jan Bondeson, David Clarke, Mike Dash, Jon Downes, Patrick Huyghe, Kittie Klaw, Theo Paijmans Mark Pilkington & John Lundberg, Andy Roberts and Ian Simmons Of course, our roving reporters Ken Eakins and Mark Foster will be attending and hopefully getting enough material for a UnCon/Sittingnow podcast episode. We will also be writing up coverage of the event as well as getting some feedback from the attendees!   As far as we are aware there are still tickets available for the event, which can be obtained via We Got Tickets. Or follow links on www.forteantimes.com for more details.

  Raymond Wiley and Joe McFall, formerly of OutThere Radio, launched their new show 'The DisInfoCast' today. Raymond, you'll probably be familiar with from many of our shows, and Joe from episode 1.    To kick off events, the dynamic-duo interview Sphinx-obsessed Robert Bauval, who just recently released his latest opus 'The Egypt Code' earlier this month.  The new show, released monthly, is complimented by a weekly news rundown 'DisInfo World-News' which will feature Ken and Claire of this very site, as well as our latest guest Austin Gandy. We'll be joining the fray in November presenting the latest DisInfo news with a European slant.   Subscribers to Out There can get the first few episodes of the show via the old feed before it totally migrates accross to the new Disinfo.com page.    The crew here at SittingNow are excited to hear some new material from the guys, and wish them all the best for the show...break a leg guys!

  Millennium, arguably one of the best TV shows of the last decade, is set for a possible reboot at the hands of a mass-online campaign by its hardcore fan base.    The show, which lasted for three seasons, stared Lance Henrikson as criminal profiler Frank Black. It begun its episodic routine with a 'monster of the week' theme, similar to its sister show The X-Files. However, once in the hands of Morgan and Wong of Willard fame, the show took a more 'mythology' theme with the 'Millenniun Group' taking on the role of a shadowy occult group. Season three saw the show returning to the hands of Chris (I killed the X-Files forever) Carter, and took a less conspiracy-based turn.    Sadly, as with anything good on TV these days it seems, the show ended three years young. However, this wasn't the last time Frank Black would grace our screens. Yes folks, in what should have been the cross-over show of the 90's, Henrikson's Frank Black made a one-off appearance in the X-Files. Unfortunately for us, however, the show...well...kind of sucked. Barely any tangible connection to the original Millennium show was present and Frank Black and Fox Mulder end up fighting zombies in a basement. ...

 George T. Mortimer is the editor and webmaster of the amazing Media Underground, as well as being the author of The Probationer's Handbook, and The Key of it All. Each week Mort will be teaching you ways of keeping 'The Man' on his toes, and all from the comfort of your home.    Mortimer’s Guide To Armchair Anarchy   A couple of weeks ago, Ken invited me on board the Right Where You Are Sitting Now team to contribute a regular column... but what the hell to write about?   “What do you want to write about?” was Ken’s response.   That’s when I realised that being given total freedom is sometimes more complicated than simply being told what to do - which is probably why the planet is in the appalling state that it is today.   Western civilisation, it seems, has degenerated into a society of numbskulls - its population has become decadent, self-obsessed, submissive and soft. All the signs are there for total collapse and, in my opinion, this collapse is well deserved.   As political institutions throw tax-payers money at failing banks, the population inwardly release a sigh of relief, hoping that this temporary fix ...

When Scott offered up his first review, and it turned out to be Preacher, I cursed the skies for not calling shotgun on reviewing that classic series first! However, not to be outdone, I eyed up my own collection of oddball comics and imediatley landed on Lucifer....must be the devils work (drumroll please).   Now, you may be suprised to hear that I actually do not like Neil Gaimen's Lamented goth-fest Sandman, in fact, a mere glimpse of it's 'Sisters of Mercy-esque' covers bring bile to my throat. I might have to re-read the series, however, as my hatred spawns not just from the work per se, but more from the pretensious idiots that idolise it! I swear to god, if I see one more girl trying to dress like 'Death' from the book, I will actually go insane!   Anyway, bearing this in mind, I naturally avoided this long-running spin-off for many years, but the devil got the better of me (ow! they keep coming), and a couple of years ago I found myself flipping through the first book whilst trying to kill some time.  An hour, and a dirty look from the comic-shop's manager later, I decided that I should probably invest in ...

Our 'Guest-Feature' series continues with another great essay from active magician Taylor Ellwood. If you want to learn more about Taylor and his great writings, you can check the links at the bottom of this page, or listen to Episode 13 of the show in which he did a great interview with us...   The Power of Being Open in Magic   In one of my recent articles, I discussed the path of least resistance and how it can work within a magical model. In this article, I expand on how this paradigm works by examining how being open can simplify both your relationships with other people and with magic itself.   One of my philosophies when it comes to interactions with people and interactions with magic is fairly similar and based on understanding that the less complicated a situation is, the easier it is to navigate the situation. This isn't to say that magic and people aren't complicated. They can both be very complicated, but a situation doesn't have to be complicated. Ideally if you remove the complicated factors that you have control of in a given situation, it consequently sets a person at ease, or in the case of magic, makes it much easier ...

The Heretic's Guide to Thelema By Gerald Del Campo Megalithica Books   Thelema. This ancient Greek word meaning ‘will' first took prominence in Rabelais' famous 16th century religious satire Gargantua and Pantagruel. Rabelais' book featured the ‘Abbey of Thelema', whose monks and nuns proclaimed no law other than ‘Do as thou wilt'. Conceived as a humorous literary criticism of the strictures of late medieval religious hegemony, the book caused considerable controversy in its day for daring to poke fun at the establishment. In fact, the book's cultural impact was such that it heavily influenced the various Hellfire Clubs that came into vogue amongst the European gentry some two centuries later. By 1922, an English occultist by the name of Aleister Crowley was to form a real Abbey of Thelema, based on his own magickal and mystical system of the same name. Crowley's Abbey was doomed to failure, but his version of Thelema with its oft-misunderstood central maxim of ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law' lives on to this day. Crowley's writings, now in much wider circulation than they ever were during his lifetime, have since gone on to spur generations to seek after the hidden truths at the heart ...

In this weeks show we chat with the fantastic Austin Gandy about the basics of Magick. Austin knows his subject and delivers the goods this week in another great interview. Fans of our friends Out There Radio will know Mr Gandy from his work on the 'Invisible College' episode of the show, as well as being their guest for some of the best episodes. In this episode we look at the real basics of magick, as if the listener was a would-be adept, walking through their local occult bookstore, pondering where to get stuck in!   Claire delivers once again with her awesome Weekly Weird News, and we make a desperate plea for attention from our fans! Next week we'll hopefully be heading back into the paranormal world with an interview about Crypto-Zoology!   Music this week comes in the shape of Kid606, you can download this track for free here, background music this week comes from Earth and Don Cab!   See you next time!

Each week we send our Queen of the Weird, Claire Lumiere, into the wilderness of the Internets to find the weirdest reports from the Underground, CounterCulture and the Paranormal mileau! If you have news that you feel demands the attention of the SittingNow community then drop us an email at wwn@sittingnow.co.uk    The BBC reports that a large study on near-death experiences is soon to be carried out on cardiac arrest survivors. The study, coordinated by Southampton University will take about three years and is going to investigate whether people without brain activity or heartbeat can have ìout of body experiences.î Head of the study, Doctor Sam Parnia, says, "If you can demonstrate that consciousness continues after the brain switches off, it allows for the possibility that the consciousness is a separate entity.   Within just ten years, Australia's other favorite marsupial might be extinct. Researchers say that Tasmanian devils are plagued with a facial cancer that their bodies simply don't recognize. Zoos are being turned to for breeding while scientists are working on a vaccine to prevent the cancer. If interested, on the zoo's website is a link to donate to the conservation of the species.   On a similar note ...

Title: Hanson Brothers - 'It's a Living'  Label: Wrong Records/Southern Records Released: Available Now Format: CD/DVD & Double Vinyl         I love it when I get pleasant suprises, and this the latest opus from NoMeansNo's oddball Bar-comedy-punk side-project The Hanson Brothers, has plenty of them!   The first thing that surprised me was my own lack of any observational skills, and how I should probably eye-ball the press release a bit before slamming CDs into my Mac. This CD has a DVD on the otherside, which really baffled for a second! (I had put the disk in the wrong way!)    First up, the music! THB play a blend of punk rock that harks back to the good-ol days of the Ramones and The Ruts-era Punk, but with the added twist of cleverly placed (and actually funny) odd-ball comedy. The CD is setup to sound like a live radio-session, interspersed with band interviews and rants, which actually works really well. If, like me, you are a fan of NoMeansNo, you will instantly recognise the 'sound' of this record...in fact this kind of reminds me of their earlier releases, but with more of a, dare I say, comedy-concept.    The DVD, which I ended up rewinding once I realised my mistake, is, ...