John Rimmer (the Brentford Polonius) is in the centre of this recent quite remarkable photo. He is in a good mood after just finishing writing a new Magonia Editorial trashing all things transcendental, mystical, sacred, holistic, occult, New Age, or UFO-related.
John Harney (left) has just arrived back from the "Paranoid Need to Disbelieve Conference" at the Fortean Convention. He is in an equally good mood after writing an article trashing all UFO "abductees" as impostors and fantasists.
Young (relatively speaking) Mark Pilkington (the Deep Penetrator) is standing with his back to us, also pleased after writing another crop-circle trashing article. Unfortunately the MSS of this article appears to have created the strange anomalistic hole which can be seen in the middle of the table. The MSS itself can be seen under John Rimmer's left foot, though how it got there will be the subject of much speculation. None of the people here will be pleased that such a strange event has occurred. The mysterious hole may well be connected to the sudden appearance of Harney, no doubt sowing yet more somewhat occult suspicions abroad. To complicate the plot further, Mark's right leg appears to have fused into the leg of the table. The "explanation" for such a thing will no doubt be manufactured, secreted, tooled, or back-engineered within the very near future.
The current Editor of the UK Fortean Times is in the black sack behind the open door, anxious not to be seen in such company, lest he be accused of High Fortean Treason.
Ignore the young-fogy clothing. That’s the way things are in this quaint olde Brentford world of Magonia magazine.
For those interested in historical detail, this photograph was taken on Christmas Eve 2009 in the self-service Quorn Wrap’n Roll Dining Snug of Brentford Leisure Centre. Note the pasteurised Quorn GM Hay and Maize sausages Mark is obviously hiding from Harney. Perhaps Mark fears that Harney who might well do to the sausages what he might have done to the top of the table.
Suspicions all round on Christmas Eve.
But to more pleasant matters.
Mark certainly has good culinary taste. These Lutheran Genetically Modified sausages, as well as restoring proper well-balanced social-democratic demeanour, are guaranteed to remove all impurities from Mind. They will remove all anomalies, contradictions, absurdities etc, and send them all back beyond Calais, where all such non-English nonsense came from in the first place. This metaphysical cleansing will leave the Mind fresh and clean as a newly purchased set of Labour Party Election Manifestoes. Young (relatively speaking) Mark will love the new reborn National Horizon. After eating a Lutheran Banger Special, the universe will be conceived as uniformly social-democratic throughout, flat as a road-rage hedgehog, and as suicidally inspiring as a UK Fortean Times Editorial, or a Ken Livingstone appeal for a Gay Traffic Cone Charter.
The books we see behind John Rimmer are almost all dedicated to the idea of separating absolute facts from absolute fictions.
The sweat of many a manically-depressed Magonian brow marks every page.
The Snug is an interesting place full of memorabilia and mementoes donated by various Ango-Saxon Fortean Fogies over the years.
On the bookshelf we see a well-thumbed copy of Peter Brookesmith's famous Treatise on Intellectual Suicides Caused by Induced Sceptical Dementia is on the extreme left, top row. Paul Devereaux's portrait hangs on the wall. He is the author of English Gnomes and Tracks. Combat Diaries Remote Viewing Intelligence has revealed that this book has been signed by Bob Rickard, another veteran UFO-trashing person and author of Brentford Hobbits I Have Known, and Fortean Stalinism for Beginners.
Generally speaking, as a scene from contemporary consumer life, the above photograph has been much praised as sceptical art form.
CB