We have been thinking about the recent recognition of the supervillain esthetic as a legitimate design architectural theme and it seems to have a certain resonance (a deep-throated ground-shaking resonance) with some ideas we have been playing with on and off over the years. It's something about bursting the bounds of conventional form and in so doing expressing the way in which the owner cuts through the current structure of power to impose a completely new vision. Though the typical supervillain of our acquaintance would be more attentive to the dark and fell atmosphere that adds so much to a place where one does one's plotting.

At any rate, it is good to receive this sort of hommage from the established design houses, since it concentrates the malevolent aspirations of unestablished villains upon the grand undertaking which lies ahead.

Grinning Skull (friendfeed)

It turns out that the Kakos Transpolitikos gathering has indeed been cancelled, citing "financial exigencies," so I shall not be giving my talk on submarine rearguard fortresses after all, which is terribly, terribly disappointing. I mentioned it in this space a while back, and I do regret the inconvenience this will pose to those of you who had been looking forward to seeing me then. I had been planning eagerly to get together with some of my old cronies I knew would be there: Gislane de Montfoutoyon, Sir Estil Dunsmire Salix-Planchette, Xing Vuh Khan, maybe even Shukran Habeebi whom I used to knew when he was called LaDuane Pittston. Now it seems unlikely that we'll be seeing one another all in one place any time this year, seeing as how most of us really do not trust the others to have them over to the lair, and the rest have lairs that no one else would trust to visit, and meeting someplace that wasn't a stronghold would just be asking for trouble.

This whole global financial crisis thing would be a great deal more palatable if I could see that there was some sort of devilish mastermind behind the inconvenience whom I could choose either to oppose or to ally with. Instead, it just seems like a colossal piece of poor planning which draws attention away from the really interesting threats one might wish to pose.

Grinning Skull (friendfeed)

I compiled some statistics about the site over all time and put them up in the forum entitled Stats. The first couple of slots are no big surprise, but it is clear from some of the others that the visitors here are even more undisciplined and slackjawed than I had expected, and a shift in emphasis may well be in order. If the readers want to learn about what to wear and how to decorate their place rather than the ins and outs of theft and killing, more about style and not so much about evilcraft, it appears that is what they shall have. But there shall be a price...

I'll have Capella get on this forthwith.

Grinning Skull (friendfeed)

Truth may be beauty, but it can also be bad for business. The well-rounded villain should know the limitations of honesty and also know how to ditch it convincingly when one's aims dictate and you have to practice the art of How to lie to someone's face. I myself practice this gentle art at every opportunity I can get, partly to hone my technique, partly out of the sheer enjoyment of a good hoodwink.

One time I had prepared a potion of lethal intent, but had the opportunity to represent it as one which would confer immortality, making sure that this cover story reached the desk of a certain individual who was starting to cut into my dominion here and there. For months I guarded it fiercely as befitting its miraculous virtues, then the night came when my opponent and his operatives broke into my (sham) laboratory with no little discomfort to themselves, snatching the beaker from out of a massive safe. I arrived on the scene just a moment too late, which is to say precisely on time, to bestow a single wailing lie: "No!!!"

I never found out just what happened to that particular antagonist of mine.

Grinning Skull (friendfeed)

It has come to my attention that despite our best counsel, there are some who are still at a loss at cooking up sparkling new schemes to destroy and terrorize. Well, my gentles, now it simply cannot be more effortless to come up with a course of action, thanks to this form to create an evil plan. True, it simply takes your pulldown selections and inserts them Mad Libs-style into a step-by-step format which scarcely affords any sense of surprise and is lamentably short on the tactical details of your proposed caper, but on the other hand, an intoxicated orangutan could put in the same amount of effort as you, so it is unreasonable to expect much more. Although I wish they had more options involving brutalizing the innocent, and I cannot express support for their white-on-black page style which is an affront against all decent web usability standards.

Friends, do what you must.

Grinning Skull (friendfeed)