Brooke Greenberg: The Girl Who Does Not Age

Take a good look at the little girl sucking her finger in this picture. How old would you say this girl was. In toddlerhood, right?



Wrong. This photo was taken on her 12th birthday. That's right folks, this little finger sucking medical mystery is not at all a toddler in the conventional sense.
Her name is Brooke Greenberg, and she was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 8th, 1993. So yep, she turned 16 this year.
The other people in the photo are left to right sisters Caitlin, Emily, mother Melanie and sister Carly.
Caitlin is 19 these days, Emily 22, and Carly 13.

At age 16, wee Brooke is 2-and-a-half feet tall and weighs only 16 pounds. She doesn't speak, and her brain is that of an infant of around 6 months to a year in age. She is however very aware of herself and her surroundings, and has managed to develop a means of getting about the house, as the following video clip from 2005 shows.



As you can see, Brooke has not had an easy time of it. In her In her first six years Brooke went through a series of medical emergencies from which she recovered, often without explanation.
She has survived surgery for seven perforated stomach ulcers. She suffered a brain seizure followed by what was diagnosed as a stroke that weeks later left no apparent damage.

At age 4 or 5 (some of my reference sources say 4 and some say 5, so I'm not 100% certain what age), she developed a mass in her brain and fell into a coma that caused her to sleep for 14 days. This was diagnosed by doctors as being caused by a brain tumor and the Greenbergs prepared for her death, but then she stunned the family by waking up, having suffered no ill effects and with the tumor having completely disappeared.
That's some pretty hefty resilience huh?
But in spite of this, because of her medically fragile nature the state of Maryland has provided two nurses to take care of Brooke 16 hours a day. It takes her many hours to eat each day, by means of a feeding tube inserted in her stomach.


So why is she like this? Well, nobody really knows for sure, but doctors believe she has developed a mutation of the gene that controls aging and development. Brooke’s aging and development genes have in effect been "turned off". Greenberg's doctors have termed her condition Syndrome X, which is a name that along with sounding suitably "mad sciencey" is very reminiscent of the chemical that made the Powerpuff Girls so uhh.. "powerpuffy". She's the only person in the world who has this condition. Her bones are that of a 10-year-old, her teeth are 6-years-old, her brain stopped developing at a very young age, and the only things that have continued to grow on her from age 4 onwards are her hair and nails.
This however, does not account for her seemingly superhuman ability to combat the various medical emergencies that have in the past threatened to snuff her truly unique little self out.

She's some kind of.. super psuedobaby O_O



And she may just outlive us all. Mwooohahahahaaa!!
Okay, so technically the title of this post is in fact a bit of a misnomer. But "The girl who stopped physically developing at age 4 and looks and acts a few years younger" is a pretty fucking cumbersome title*.
I for one am pleased that Brooke is in spite of all this lucky enough to have such a loving family that obviously cares very much for her, and a safe home environment where she can be herself without any outside hassles.

Because my word, 16 years worth of nappy rash and changing diapers must surely be a bit of a trial.

♌♍ Chloé

*(Other rejected titles include Brooke Greenberg: Child Trapped In Time, You Can Stick Peter Pan Up Your Ass: Its Brooke Greenberg! and Brooke Greenberg: The Überbaby.)

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello

Today I'm writing about a short film that was released in 2005, which has been lurking about on a couple of my hard drives these last two and a half years. So its been out awhile, and chances are you've already seen it, or at least heard of it, but for those who haven't here's a brief rundown.
Jasper Morello and the Lost Airship is the first film in the Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello series, and as its the only film of the series to be released thus far I'll be concentrating on that for this journal post.

A few things about the film:
• The film is set in a world not dissimilar in style and societal preciosity to that of Victorian England, although this world has many elements of steampunk archetypes, such as steam powered computers and iron airships. Y'know, lots of cogs n stuff. Steampunk!
• The cast and the vast majority of the foregrounds are animated in a two dimensional silhouette style, similar to that of Indonesian Wayang shadow puppet theatre.
• It was directed and conceptualized by Australian director and animator Anthony Lucas, and scripted by Mark Shirrefs.
• After it had been written, the film took around a year and a half to make.
• The film employs a number of different animation techniques to achieve its look, with characters drawn on paper, cut out and scanned into Photoshop, where they could then be manipulated digitally. 3d models were used to create the airships, and CG was used to create the sky and atmospheric effects.



All in all, the design, style and innovative methods and techniques used in the construction of the film are a great mix of the old and the new.
Because its a fairly short film I'm not going to get into the plot too much, as I don't wish to spoil anything for those of you who haven't seen it. But I will point out that the majority of the film takes place in the sky, as the titular hero of the film is employed as the navigator of an airship that sets out on a voyage to place signal beacons for a new trade route. This mission however, soon diverges into something decidedly more sinister.
Its a film I am really rather fond of, and I look forward to the release of the next film in the series. I'm going to shut up now and leave it up to you to have a watch of it if you have a spare 26 minutes.
1° can make a world of difference to the course of a navigator's life.





That's one cool critter huh? The official Jasper Morello website can be found here.
☠ Chloé

The Hopetails Revolution

Hopetails. "WTF are Hopetails?" you may be asking yourself, though probably not in acronym form. Hence the handy picture I have provided to go with this block of text. But why call them Hopetails? Well, my dear wee friend Hope Avelina, someone who is quite well known for wearing her hair in bunches, recently had the notion that "pigtails" is a rather ungainly name for said bunches, so decided to rename them "Hopetails".
Personally, I think that's a way better name than pigtails. Pigtails doesn't even make any sense. At least Hopetails are named after someone who actually wears the hairstyle.
And I'm not the only one who thinks changing the name from pigtails to Hopetails is a mighty fine idea. The Hopetails revolution has begun people, and is gaining momentum at a sprightly rate. Below are a series of examples of people's growing support for the movement.

First up is a strip & a picture by Christopher J. Paulsen, featuring characters from his comic Precocious:




The Below The Fold Collective has also lent its support to the movement, with Hopetails themed pictures from 3 of its members.
First up, here's a picture from KayLoveMeow, featuring Kris & Max, characters from her webcomic Art School Sub Rosa:


And here's a lovely sepia-toned pic from Hopeless artist/co-writer Tom Brown:


And one from Maxwell Vex. Having this picture posted in this journal isn't breaking down any fourth walls at all:


Further examples of Hopetails support are springing up on places such as twitter too.

And people are doing things with their hair.

I thought it would be a good idea to collate these various divergent examples (or, examples that I am so far aware of at least) in this journal, as I am quite a fan of the hairstyle myself as you may have noticed.
What can you do to lend your support? Well, merely referring to the hairstyle as Hopetails instead of pigtails will suffice. If you get any strange looks from your friends for doing so, just point them in the direction of this journal post. Or kick them in the crotch. Doing so will help make the world a slightly better place I'm sure. And with that, I shall leave the final bit of this journal entry to the lady herself.



☠ Chloé

New Zealand Songs of F*cking Angst pt. 1

Welcome to the first installment of New Zealand Songs of F*cking Angst, a short series of blog posts that I will be doing intermittently over coming months, focusing on a selection of songs by New Zealand bands, songs which feature a healthy dose of good old fashioned drama and turmoil.
I'm dedicating this post to ZombieHamster, because I told him I would.
So, first up in the series:

Headless Chickens: Gaskrankinstation


For those of you not familiar with the band Headless Chickens, here's a brief rundown.
Headless chickens started out in 1986, formed by ex- Children's Hour Members Chris Matthews (vocals & guitar) and Johnny Pierce (bass) plus a fellow named Michael Lawry.
They put out a self titled mini-album with this lineup full of their soon to be trademark strange sounds and dark humour, then Johnny took his own life.
Grant Fell (the other Children's Hour guitarist) had just returned to NZ from Australia, and during this sad time joined HC as bassist. Ex-Children's Hour drummer Bevan Sweeny also joined up as their drummer around this time.

This lineup released the album Stunt Clown in 1988, after which co-vocalist Fiona McDonald joined the band. They then released the seminal 1991 album Body Blow, which both of the tracks featured in this post are taken from, and which is in my opinion one of the finest albums to come out of New Zealand.
You can find out more about the band by starting here, if you so desire.

And thus, the mighty Gaskrankinstation:

Click here to see a fullscreen version of the clip.

Now, this brand of angst is far removed from the whiney dross that started appearing in popular music after the early nineties "grunge revolution" changed the zeitgeist of music culture, nor is it the limp wristed misery posturing of today's "emo" bands.
No, this is the sound of sheer choking proletarian desperation, which cuts right down to the bone, wrenches the soul, and genuinely means something.
Listen to that sweeping, exhilarating guitar solo & the middle 8 that follows. That's pure soul right there guys. This is raw social commentary. This is something that matters. I fucking love this song with every fiber of my being.
Ivan's tale of frustrated, impotent rage here is a testament to how life itself can very easily eat you up whole, or in Ivan's case, life is content to just chew him up over the course of 20+ years.
Its a fucking bitter place to dwell, in the unrelenting maw of life's indifference.


Look at how much smaller than everyone else Fiona is.

But don't go getting the impression that Headless Chickens were just some one dimensional monger of nasty. Here's another side to the band, the gorgeous, shimmering and haunting song Juice.

Headless Chickens: Juice


Click here for a fullscreen version.

This song... I've listened to this song hundreds of times over the years, and it never fails to put a big lump in my throat and a feeling of wonder in my jaded wee heart. And that's really saying something about how awesome I think it is. If you change the lyrics from "back in '77" to "back in '97", well, its pretty much me all over. This song also features one of the creepiest little middle 8's you'll ever hear.

SO, in summation. Headless Chickens. A band well ahead of its time (without HC there would be no Garbage, or many of the bands of that ilk which followed in the wake of Garbage's popularity). A band capable of being both scathingly vicious and hauntingly beautiful. For all the things that this band was (and now is, as they reformed recently), they were always innovative, sincere (even at their most sarcastic), and never ever dull.

Highly recommended.
☠ Chloé

Murder Burger

Whew. Let me just preface this post by saying that the last few days have been exhausting for me, as I've been caught up in helping the cops find a missing boy. He was found yesterday, in part because of my hunch that he was in a certain room of a certain hotel, against his will. It feels good to use my divinatory abilities to help others.


Click to embiggen.


Anyway. on with the post.

That cat wants to nibble on your fleshy bits.


Murder Burger is a burger place located on Ponsonby Street in Auckland, New Zealand.
As you can see, they have no qualms about any potential offense they might cause non meat eaters, or any other members of the public for that matter. Just check out their adverts and you'll see what I mean. My favourite adverts there are the first and last ones. I actually have a flyer featuring the first ad in that list on my refrigerator.
The whole vibe this place throws out is pretty much one big celebration of meat. Meeeaaat, coupled with this somewhat laddish sense of humour.
If you peruse their menu you'll see that even their salad is comprised of nothing but different types of meat. Even their website is "powered by meat". And look at their shirts, which are ironically something you could wear to a Morrissey show and probably be commended for in the minds of fellow gig goers not in the know.

Is the food any good? I honestly can't say from personal experience. I've only been in the store twice, and that was with friends who were ordering food there, and I didn't order anything. Said friends quite enjoy the food there though.

Something that is well worth doing on this site is going through the blog archives, as the blog posts are almost exclusively comprised of photos of cool, interesting and sometimes quite hilarious random things.

I hear if you say "Moider Boiger" three times whilst looking into a mirror, a portal will open up over your head from out of which a bucket load of pig blood will fall, dousing you à la that famous scene in Carrie.

Mwooooooohahahahahaaaaa!!!
☠ Chloé

ROBOGEISHA

Killer robot geisha, armed with an array of weaponry, such as various blades, missiles, flesh melting breast milk and (at least in the case of one of them) the ability to turn into some kind of fucked up tracked vehicle from the waist down. A giant shiro robot that smacks buildings and makes the buildings bleed. Cheesy special effects and even cheesier music. Handicap gun. Fried shrimp!
Yes, its the trailer for RoboGeisha, the latest offering from writer-director Noboru Iguchi (The Machine Girl) and special effects whizz Yoshihiro Nishimura (the director of Tokyo Gore Police).


And by the looks of this trailer, the movie comes replete with many of the trademarks (inordinate amounts of gore, over the top special effects and, ahem, "unconventional" weapon placement) associated with these two Japanese film reprobates.
Looks to me like this film will be a continuation of the gloriously irreverent randomness these two have made a name for themselves for over the past few years.

But arguably not a very suitable movie for a first date.

Warning: TRAILER NSFW




☠ Chloé

Animal Collective(s)

Hi all. First off, I apologize for the lack of a journal post last week. I've been very ill, and also very busy watching youtube clips of idiots.

Anyway, names for groups of animals. Or more specifically, the sometimes fitting, sometimes downright odd names used for animal groups. Most people will be quite familiar with a flock of sheep, a pack of wolves, and a pride of lions. But of course, for every type of animal out there, there is a name for a group of them together. Sometimes there are several names for a group of the same creature. Some of these names are very apt. Some of these names sound like whomever came up with the name just decided to take the piss completely (a "swarm" of bees, fine, that makes sense. But a "bike" of bees? What the fuck?)
So after a bunch of hours of research (trawling through the ASPCA website, a few different zoo's websites (most notably the San Diego Zoo site), plus smattering of reputable zoölogy sites & such, I have come up with a list of the most apt, ridiculous, silly and/or downright mystifying names for animal groups. This is by no means a comprehensive list, these are just the names that I could find that had conclusive proof of their authenticity.



alligators: congregation
apes: troop, shrewdness
badgers: cete, colony, set, company
bats: colony, cloud ~aiiiieee! I am being besieged by a vicious cloud of bats!!!
bears: sleuth
beavers: family, colony
bees: grist, hive, swarm, drift, bike
boars: sounder, singular ~so a group of boars is called a "singular". You people are weird.
buffalo: obstinancy
bullfinches: bellowing ~taking the "bull" part of this bird's name a little too literally aren't we?
butterflies: flight, flutter, (plus many more unconfirmed names, names like "kaleidoscope")
buzzards: wake ~as in the funeral wake they'll have after tearing your carcass asunder & devouring all but the bones. Or not.
camels: train, caravan, flock
cats: clowder, cluster, dout, glaring, glorying, pounce, nuisance ~well they do glare, and they can be a nuisance. Unfortunately "rowdy bunch of mangy flea-bitten bastards" isn't an official agnomen.
caterpillars: army ~a group of frogs is also referred to as being an army.
cheetahs: coalition ~that is fucking awesome.
chickens: brood, peep
cockroaches: intrusion ~just like on "Joe's Apartment".
cormorants: gulp ~if you've ever seen one of these birds eat a fish you'll know why they have this name.
cows: kine
crows: horde, murder, parcel, storytelling ~I suspect "storytelling" is a pretty old name for a group of crows.
crocodiles: bask, float ~why not a "deathtrap"?
doves: arc, dule, flight, pitying
eagles: aerie, convocation
emus: mob
ferrets: business, cast, fesnying
finches: charm
flamingos: stand, flamboyance
foxes: earth, lead, leash, skulk, troop ~skulk = totally cool name.
giraffes: herd, corps, tower
goldfish: glint, troubling ~I'm never going to look at a goldfish the same way again.
grasshoppers: cloud
hawks: boil, cast, kettle
hedgehogs: array ~I say Chauncy! What a delightful array of hedgehogs I spied on the grounds this morning!
hippos: bloat
hornets: nest, bike ~again with the bike thing.
hyenas: cackle ~so very apt
jellyfish: smack, brood
larks: exaltation
leopards: leap
lions: pride
lizards: lounge ~Yep. A lounge. Sourced from San Diego Zoo. I'm as surprised as you are.
mice: mischief ~heeeee! ^__^
midges: bite ~aw c'mon, that's not even trying!
monkeys: barrel, cartload, troop, tribe ~yes, barrel. According to the San Diego Zoo, barrel is indeed a proper, accepted name for a group of monkeys. WikiAnswers provided "cartload". I couldn't verify these two words from any other source though. Fucking monkeys, always giving me the runaround.
mosquitoes: scourge ~yes, that too is very apt.
otters: romp, bevy, family, raft
owls: parliament ~I thought owls were supposed to be "wise". Everyone knows a parliament is full of fools.
parrots: company, pandemonium
peacocks: muster, ostentation, pride
porcupines: prickle
prairie dogs: coterie
rabbits: warren
raccoons: gaze
rattlesnakes: rhumba ~sadly, cobra "polkas" is merely a name I just made up now.
ravens: unkindness ~a bunch of crows might murder you, a bunch of ravens will just be mean to you. Pussies.
rhinoceroses: crash, stubbornness ~an "irritability" or a "myopic brouhaha" would also work well I reckon.
seabirds: wreck
snails: escargatoire, rout, walk
spiders: clutter
starlings: chattering, murmuration
storks: mustering
squirrels: dray, scurry ~why not a "skitter" or a "scamper" of squirrels then?
thrush: mutation ~that's so lovely.
tigers: ambush, streak ~an ambush. Ho ho ho how deliciously sinister.
turkeys: rafter
vipers: generation
vultures: colony, venue
vultures (circling): kettle ~as you lie dying in the desert, be aware that your flesh will soon be ripped apart & consumed by that kettle circling overhead.
weasels: pack, colony ~I don't know about you, but the phrase "a pack of weasels" brings such joy to my heart.
wombats: wisdom
woodpeckers: descent
zebras: herd, zeal



Hopefully you've found at least one name you hadn't heard of before that tickles your fancy. I sure found a few! :D

☠ Chloé