A notice from His Lordship

While Lord Bassington-Bassington tends to find the hairless apes populating planet Earth amusing, there's no denying that this rock orbiting the Sun has its share of idiots. Some of these idiots are members of the dogmatic left (and no, we're not talking about worker-dandies or other sensible leftists) whose idiocy can lead them to produce blog posts like this.

So to make matters perfectly clear (readers of normal intelligence can just skip the rest of this post) here's a short statement from Lord Bassington-Bassington.

I AM NOT A FASCIST.

Thank you.

More entertaining posts will appear soon.

Old, old, OLD school gangster

Surely this concept screams out to be tackled by a certain gentleman rhymer. Though the idea seems to have been nicked already...

Sartorial front

While not normally a big fan of T-shirts, Lord Bassington-Bassington really fell for this one by Spiritual Front. The shirt is inspired by Russian prison tattoos, and has Cyrillic script that makes His Lordship recall many a language lesson in younger years.

And speaking of language lessons, Lord Bassington-Bassington feels quite certain that wearing one of these shirts will make you pronounce your Italian perfectly, as demonstrated by Spiritual Front headman Simone Salvatori himself, in a small restaurant in Rome's Testaccio district last year.

A wickered tribute

One of Lord Bassington-Bassington's favourite films gets a great tribute.

Summer is a coming in!

Fezzy feline

There's been a bit of a Luciferan vibe on the Chronicles lately, and Lord Bassington-Bassington thinks there's time for a bit of balance by plugging an Abrahamic creed instead. So what could be better than a feline in the ultimate Islamic headgear, incidentally also providing proofs that some cats truly match their human companions?

Islamic cat etiquette as demonstrated by Sheik Nazim.


While Muslims tend to have problems with canines, cats hold a special position in Islam, especially within Sufism, as is elucidated in this article.

Thousands of Sufi stories include cats; lovely stories such as shaykh Ashraf's Madrasa cat, which helped the teachers to bring order to the school, even sacrificed itself for the sake of the dervishes-(disciples), or the tale of the Sufi master from Baghdad, Shaykh Abu Bakr al-Shibli (d. 945) who was seen by one of his friends in a dream when he passed away, On being asked what Allah had done to him, he said that he had been granted admission to Paradise, but was asked by Allah if he knew the reason for this blessing. Shaykh Shibli enumerated all his religious duties but none of his acts of piety had saved him. Finally Allah asked him, ‘Do you remember the cold day in Baghdad when it was snowing and you were walking in your coat when you saw a tiny kitten on a wall shivering with cold, and you took it and put it under your warm coat? For the sake of this kitten We have forgiven you.’


Lord Bassington-Bassington feels quite certain that The Gentleman of Providence would have enjoyed this story.

Competitive dressing

While it goes without saying that no hairless primate can ever be as naturally stylish as the noble Basset hound, Lord Bassington-Bassington quite appreciates it when humans try to make the most of the sad deal that nature has given them. To steal a phrase that has been attributed to several fashion designers, there are no ugly humans in the world, only lazy ones.

So His Lordship has, for the last few weeks, been absolutely hung up on of Esquire Magazine's finalists for Britain's best-dressed man 2010. As the round-up clearly shows, there are many ways for the human male to look stylish, as long as you put some creativity and principle into it.

Yes, His Lordship is fully aware that this article is, in a fashion sense, impossibly dated. But His Lordship isn't very interested in fashion anyway, and thinks that what was stylish in 2010 is surely as good as what is stylish today or in 1910.

We here at the Chronicles have taken the liberty of reproducing three of His Lordship's favourites below, with some comments. But please check out the original article.



Michael Munro-Dunn shows what any human male can hope to look like in his older days. Never having met the chap, Lord Bassington-Bassington has no idea about his personality, but His Lordship likes to imagine that Mr. Munro-Dunn has a charm on par with that of Major Hoad.



Jack Vaughn makes a living selling Lord Bassington-Bassington's favourite brand of footwear, and has a style that perfectly matches his occupation. In an ideal world, so-called "gothic" or “metal” males would look like Mr. Vaughn. In reality, however, things are very different.



According to Esquire Magazine, Jack Murray "chooses to adopt alter-egos when he dresses. When wearing tweed, for instance, Jack prefers to go by the name of Cecil". A wonderful idea indeed! Henceforth, Lord Bassington-Bassington will, whenever wearing grey college sweaters, insist on being addressed as "Biff".

Thank Lucifer It's Friday

It's Friday here at Bassington Manor, and Lord Bassington-Bassington is shaking his ears to the sound of King Dude's latest record.



And it perfectly complements the somewhat Luciferian vibe the manor has been grooving to lately.



Sing along, everybody!

The sun finally rises

Solblot's debut album, För mig finns ingen väg från hemmets dörr, is finally here. Not exactly hot on the heels of their first seven inch, but highly anticipated here at Bassington Manor. Lord Bassington-Bassington has followed these Scanian chaps from their very beginnings, been involved in organizing two of their concerts and generally tried to help out (despite tripping over His ears now and then, sorry about that).



If they don't fall victim to sabotage the album should be out in March. Not only will this record be highly entertaining, it is also available on both black and yellow(!) vinyl. Yes, you can guess which colour Lord Bassington-Bassington pre-ordered...

In meme-oriam

Yes, Lord Bassington-Bassington likes memes. Especially when they can be combined with music His Lordship appreciates.

Headwear explained

Alhamdulillah! The most stylish of headwear is now de-mystified. Thanks to Mr. Huseby for the tip.

But, good heavens, someone's even created a poster with a Basset puppy wearing a fez! Lord Bassington-Bassington needs to take a break now, as his brain is imploding.

For the love of books

As predicted, Lord Bassington-Bassington's solemn promise to not acquire new books for a month has led to His Lordship's bibliophilia running berserk. So today, a short ode to His Lordship's favourite bookshop.

Imagine walking (or waddling, in Lord Bassington-Bassington’s case) down a rather non-descript street in downtown Oslo, and suddenly spotting a bookshop that seems to specialize in second-hand books.



You enter, greeted by friendly staff, and suddenly is strikes you: It is as every book on the shelves is selected with you in mind. At least if your tastes are remotely similar to those of Lord Bassington-Bassington.

This is not by chance, either - the founders of the shop travel around the world seeking out fine books to bring home, to create a second-hand bookshop not cluttered by the crap that can make second-hand bookshops such a trial. And it sure feels good to know that there is at least one bookshop in the world without Dan Brown thrillers.

On Lord Bassington-Bassington’s last visit, His Lordship left with a book about heretical art, a Norwegian poetry magazine, a novel by Bård Torgersen, Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers by Tom Wolfe (perhaps the best book His Lordship has read on race), Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and a few other choice items. All this made possible by Cappelens Forslag’s eminently reasonable prices.

Oh, and this Yule His Lordship got a book about witchcraft persecutions in New England as a present. How Lovecraftian!



By all reckonings, shops such as Cappelens Forslag should not exist, at least not outside of short stories by Borges. But still, there it sits, centrally located in Oslo.

If you live close enough, and you care about independent shops, you owe it to yourself to drop by. If you don't live in Norway, you can always look them up on Facebook - most of their stock is in English and if their mail order service is anywhere near what they offer face to face, you are in excellent hands. Their selection of art prints is also very covetable.

It seems as if one is a particularly good customer, one might be invited to some spiffing parties.

The Satanic influence of television

Bassington Manor does not have a television set. There are several reasons for this.

One reason is that Lord Bassington-Bassington grew up in a household inspired by the anthroposophical teachings of Rudolf Steiner, which holds that modern technology (such as television sets) is Ahrimanic - i.e. Satanic. So while a puppy, His Lordship had his access to television limited. This led to the fact that when the long-eared one left home, he hadn't developed a taste for the boob tube. This taste did not develop later, either.



Television sets, in His Lordship's not-so-humble opinion, were there to be connected to video cassette recorders so that one could watch obscure cult movies. And here at Bassington Manor, the VCR had been replaced by a projector.

The things worth seeing on TV (such as Sherlock Holmes and The Avengers) can be had on DVDs, while the things that should be avoided are best, well, avoided.



There are moments, however, when His Lordship realizes how great television could have been if it had been more in tune with his tastes. One such moment occurred while viewing the video blog by the Reverend Kevin I. Slaughter, Satanist and all-round intriguing person. In another, and certainly better, world Rev. Slaughter would have a nationally syndicated TV show. And Rudolf Steiner's theory would be proven right...



Lord Bassington-Bassington also highly recommends the short film The Devil's Ponies starring Rev. Slaughter.



And to balance out the Satanic rays there would be good to have some programs starring proper devotees of God.



If TV was more like this, it is conceivable that Bassington Manor would have a television set.