JANUS FACED REDS AND BLUES
It has been a great day. This afternoon listening again to recordings of the likes of Richard Harris and Richard Burton. Their spoken words spoke more than mere words as they shared an expressive emotion and demanded both affection and angst. As a New Year celebration rightly makes a carnival it also rightly fills us with lost memories. The acts of Harris and Burton reciting poetry reminds me of Dusty Springfield singing a song about " I'm Going Back". Going back too to those times when I knew so well in my youth. The Janus face here looks backwards with love and still yet direction. I cannot revive Richard Burton from the grave but i do still play his LP recordings. So, with this in mind I do, before I drop or droop under the heavy influences of New Year plonks, I do try to present a short edited version from one Erich Heller from his book called "The Disinherited Mind". I quote :-
Listener : Stop. Poetry is not dead.
Speaker : Nor is true order. But all signs, and above all the signs of poetry, point towards a grave disturbance.
Listener : We cannot go back to your single-minded symbolic order of the Middle Ages.
Speaker : Clearly not. But from this it does not follow that we must rush forward. The order is neither behind us nor before us. It is, or it is not. The sensible movement is in another dimension.
Listener : I wonder.
Speaker : So do I. Maybe we differ only in degrees of wonder.
Happy New Year to you all that suffer and have fun with both lark and cactus.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
ROCKER DALI HILLYBILLY BAND
It is not often that a new band comes on the scene that not only shows real promise but is actually needed. Let me introduce to you the "Rocker Dali Hillybilly Band.
In the 1840s it was Rochdale that saw pioneers and cooperative efforts to sing good songs to counter the nasty brutish and short-sighted capitalism. The cooperative movements in general were the best hope in an otherwise hopeless global world of Capital on the wild. Today that pioneering spirit is to be drunk again tonight. Trade unions from around the world have been talking for years about international cooperation and now it has begun to show itself. From Europe through to the USA labour unions unite and there are many waiting to join the fray. What is OK for the goose ( that is the ruthless and wild capitalism for the few) is OK for the gander ( the everyday working folk). Thomas Hobbes turns in his grave and the Bush and Blair brigades have already ordered overtime work for their spin doctors.
This is a singing with new words attached to a traditional songline. This is a band that many will begin to get angry about or be told they should be angry about and there is no quick fix in the lyrics. However the globalisation of capital for minority power groups is now, at long last, beginning to be countered. Maybe a Happy New Year is possible afterall. Hope so.
It is not often that a new band comes on the scene that not only shows real promise but is actually needed. Let me introduce to you the "Rocker Dali Hillybilly Band.
In the 1840s it was Rochdale that saw pioneers and cooperative efforts to sing good songs to counter the nasty brutish and short-sighted capitalism. The cooperative movements in general were the best hope in an otherwise hopeless global world of Capital on the wild. Today that pioneering spirit is to be drunk again tonight. Trade unions from around the world have been talking for years about international cooperation and now it has begun to show itself. From Europe through to the USA labour unions unite and there are many waiting to join the fray. What is OK for the goose ( that is the ruthless and wild capitalism for the few) is OK for the gander ( the everyday working folk). Thomas Hobbes turns in his grave and the Bush and Blair brigades have already ordered overtime work for their spin doctors.
This is a singing with new words attached to a traditional songline. This is a band that many will begin to get angry about or be told they should be angry about and there is no quick fix in the lyrics. However the globalisation of capital for minority power groups is now, at long last, beginning to be countered. Maybe a Happy New Year is possible afterall. Hope so.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
POESY FOR LAVENDERBLUE under the light of the moon
Shall I compare thee to a Szwagier Sonnet ?
Thou art more temperamental and more joyous.
The darling winds of Duck ?
The damning sins of Quack?
Nay thou art more mischief-like than that.
I shall send you chocs
In a forever-new box
Within sight of a silvery spoon.
Shall I compare thee to a Szwagier Sonnet ?
Thou art more temperamental and more joyous.
The darling winds of Duck ?
The damning sins of Quack?
Nay thou art more mischief-like than that.
I shall send you chocs
In a forever-new box
Within sight of a silvery spoon.
Food For Thought
" Things fall apart ; the centre cannot hold ;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned ;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
No prizes for guessing the poet but much value, perhaps, in considering those words again as 2007 looms ahead. Far better than tuning in to those hanging videos on the world wide web to glorify both killing and spectatorship. Sick !
" Things fall apart ; the centre cannot hold ;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned ;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
No prizes for guessing the poet but much value, perhaps, in considering those words again as 2007 looms ahead. Far better than tuning in to those hanging videos on the world wide web to glorify both killing and spectatorship. Sick !
A SAD DAY AT THE END OF ANOTHER SAD YEAR
The hanging of Saddam may well be celebrated by brutal barbarians like George W Bush and many others but it is yet another sad dent in any civilisation process. This morning was another sick sign of wretchedness. It was already said quite clearly and by many that the Nazi atrocities brought with it the end of art and poetry and any sense of the worth of cultural civilising processes. To listen to classical high-culture music just after working to murder Jewish folk was, it was said, the end of the educational value of the liberal arts. It seems to me that the Western world(s) have yet to handle that demise from Nazi times.
Today, fueled by yet another crises-ridden condition of capitalism and fueled by an increasing mechanical version of ethics, the West(s) are lacking all courage and lacking any sense of character to counter the prevailing currents of overt and covert acts of oppression and torture and murder. As a new totalitarianism takes hold in the West it must be time to rekindle those radical sparks of dignified revolt. Civil disobedience is again necessary and radical alternatives again necessary. That is the best I can find to say on yet another sad day like this where to sit and moan or even weep would be understandable.
Of course Saddam himself is just a public and worldwide example of this demise and of course humanitas and caritas is never measured in numbers.
The hanging of Saddam may well be celebrated by brutal barbarians like George W Bush and many others but it is yet another sad dent in any civilisation process. This morning was another sick sign of wretchedness. It was already said quite clearly and by many that the Nazi atrocities brought with it the end of art and poetry and any sense of the worth of cultural civilising processes. To listen to classical high-culture music just after working to murder Jewish folk was, it was said, the end of the educational value of the liberal arts. It seems to me that the Western world(s) have yet to handle that demise from Nazi times.
Today, fueled by yet another crises-ridden condition of capitalism and fueled by an increasing mechanical version of ethics, the West(s) are lacking all courage and lacking any sense of character to counter the prevailing currents of overt and covert acts of oppression and torture and murder. As a new totalitarianism takes hold in the West it must be time to rekindle those radical sparks of dignified revolt. Civil disobedience is again necessary and radical alternatives again necessary. That is the best I can find to say on yet another sad day like this where to sit and moan or even weep would be understandable.
Of course Saddam himself is just a public and worldwide example of this demise and of course humanitas and caritas is never measured in numbers.
Friday, December 29, 2006
A ZOLA SNIPPIT
Blogs and websites are deeply personal. Blogs have feelings. Those that would deny this would be those that switch on an electric light without ever appreciating that human labouring hands facilitate that switching on. It is a big shame when some say that blogs and comment pages are not personal. Tragedy? No farce and alienation I say.
Furthermore when the heated disputes on the CiF site were raging then it was, often, feelings that were hurt. OK no more blogs on blogs for this week.
Blogs and websites are deeply personal. Blogs have feelings. Those that would deny this would be those that switch on an electric light without ever appreciating that human labouring hands facilitate that switching on. It is a big shame when some say that blogs and comment pages are not personal. Tragedy? No farce and alienation I say.
Furthermore when the heated disputes on the CiF site were raging then it was, often, feelings that were hurt. OK no more blogs on blogs for this week.
DUMBING DOWN E-WAYS
Every now and then blogs and comments pages on the net go though periods of heated discussion whereby all manner of chat and reporting is set free. It seems that the last few weeks have been just such a time. The hot spot right now is the Frank Fisher site ( see my links ) where the chat is moving between damned good comment and damned good anger set free. These sites are communication sites within communities that differ in their individual make-up as one would expect from a vital human community. As the good Hermann Hesse would write back in the 1930s : oh how different we all are together and oh how much that is beautiful in humanity.
But many feel and have said in no uncertain terms ( a tell tale sign there in itself) that these blogs and sites are dumbed down. Decent standards are lost and content is lost to a playfulness. Of course one big debate here is that of the larger scene of Modernity and postmodernity but Zola would be better to allow this debate to open up below if folk so wish. The point is that this blog site is not an academic discourse. Indeed most academic discourses have been a miserable failure for most folk. Perhaps blogs and comments pages can reach those places that over-academic "papers" fail to reach.
Yet a few questions remain. Just what are these "appropriate standards" anyway. Who decides and who the guardian of the gates and why?
How do most folk really learn?
Well if Zola carries on this way for too long there will be zero comments and the world will drift into a new dumbness called boredom and doze. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Perhaps a reasonable comment from Zola is this : Principles are best made as the happenings actually happen with and through folk. principles are terrible when passed down from above as if on tablets of stone. Perhaps these blog sites are busy right now in finding out in togetherness those principles that make good sense.
Every now and then blogs and comments pages on the net go though periods of heated discussion whereby all manner of chat and reporting is set free. It seems that the last few weeks have been just such a time. The hot spot right now is the Frank Fisher site ( see my links ) where the chat is moving between damned good comment and damned good anger set free. These sites are communication sites within communities that differ in their individual make-up as one would expect from a vital human community. As the good Hermann Hesse would write back in the 1930s : oh how different we all are together and oh how much that is beautiful in humanity.
But many feel and have said in no uncertain terms ( a tell tale sign there in itself) that these blogs and sites are dumbed down. Decent standards are lost and content is lost to a playfulness. Of course one big debate here is that of the larger scene of Modernity and postmodernity but Zola would be better to allow this debate to open up below if folk so wish. The point is that this blog site is not an academic discourse. Indeed most academic discourses have been a miserable failure for most folk. Perhaps blogs and comments pages can reach those places that over-academic "papers" fail to reach.
Yet a few questions remain. Just what are these "appropriate standards" anyway. Who decides and who the guardian of the gates and why?
How do most folk really learn?
Well if Zola carries on this way for too long there will be zero comments and the world will drift into a new dumbness called boredom and doze. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Perhaps a reasonable comment from Zola is this : Principles are best made as the happenings actually happen with and through folk. principles are terrible when passed down from above as if on tablets of stone. Perhaps these blog sites are busy right now in finding out in togetherness those principles that make good sense.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Lucky Escapes
As news comes in of more helicopter crashes and the death toll increases again and again I was reminded of a few frightful moments on those death-traps. One will suffice here.
Five minutes from take off and all is ready to fly out of Bergen in Norway. Sitting there dressed up with silly safety clothes and then... You have been changed to another flight comes my news. Off i go back to the airport waiting room.
Next I hear, after about 24 hours, was that I was missing believed dead after my helicopter crashed. Phone calls from the UK and Finland trying to check the nasty details as my name had remained on the flight list. But my death was too early. I was lucky that time. However this is a good time to ask for those death-trap-machines to be finally abolished. Far too many deaths in far too few flights by these helicopters.
As news comes in of more helicopter crashes and the death toll increases again and again I was reminded of a few frightful moments on those death-traps. One will suffice here.
Five minutes from take off and all is ready to fly out of Bergen in Norway. Sitting there dressed up with silly safety clothes and then... You have been changed to another flight comes my news. Off i go back to the airport waiting room.
Next I hear, after about 24 hours, was that I was missing believed dead after my helicopter crashed. Phone calls from the UK and Finland trying to check the nasty details as my name had remained on the flight list. But my death was too early. I was lucky that time. However this is a good time to ask for those death-trap-machines to be finally abolished. Far too many deaths in far too few flights by these helicopters.
Surviving Silly Season Blues
From Xmas and through to New Year is sometimes considered to be a very silly season indeed. Some blogger-types seem to hate this period and do their level best to put us into shame mode. Xmas brings out the worst in those logical and lonely and loveless souls that refuse personal involvement, humour, serious play and humility. It maybe the spirits of Christmas and New Year that facilitate silliness but let us remember that Xmas is only a practice for the real New Year thing.
But at the risk of being cut down to size Zola pleads for silliness. A wonderful Xmas has been had as we, as a family, lived again under the same roof. A joy to have all the kids back home even if the kids seem to have aged rather much.
Yesterday Bruce Springstein ( playing old Guthrie inspired stuff ) helped us all avoid dead-bloggers blues. Oh Billy don't you weep don't you moan.
Hope this blog is not 2 personal !!!
From Xmas and through to New Year is sometimes considered to be a very silly season indeed. Some blogger-types seem to hate this period and do their level best to put us into shame mode. Xmas brings out the worst in those logical and lonely and loveless souls that refuse personal involvement, humour, serious play and humility. It maybe the spirits of Christmas and New Year that facilitate silliness but let us remember that Xmas is only a practice for the real New Year thing.
But at the risk of being cut down to size Zola pleads for silliness. A wonderful Xmas has been had as we, as a family, lived again under the same roof. A joy to have all the kids back home even if the kids seem to have aged rather much.
Yesterday Bruce Springstein ( playing old Guthrie inspired stuff ) helped us all avoid dead-bloggers blues. Oh Billy don't you weep don't you moan.
Hope this blog is not 2 personal !!!
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
A Bildung : Reindeer Folk Ways, Education Through Experience
As so many abuse poor reindeer cultures ( even at this time of the year ) Zola feels a little upset. Therefore a little tale will be told.
Tourists visting Lapland. The tour bus stops. Out go the wise customers to see the little wigwam dressed up with folk of colour and hats of the four winds. Out go tourists to see the Lapps and the reindeer.
One American ( with a family tradition of the UK) gets out of the bus and goes to see the Lapp who is sitting by the road and wigwam.
The Lapp is making little balls with his fingers as a smoker would roll fags.
The Lapp is placing all the now-ready-made balls into a pile.
The Amercian tourist asks the Lapplander : " What are those balls and are they good for me to buy?
The Laplander replies that these little balls are not balls at all. They are "Learning Pills".
How much do these learning pills cost?,, comes next, as the tourist gets interested.
They cost 30 Euro each, is the reply - as the Laplander meets the tourist.
How many of these learning pills is needed? The tourist is interested to learn culture.
Only three I think, says the poor Lapplander .
Tourist buys three learning pills.
Tastes the first one and looks around to see if anybody else is watching.
Tastes the second one and swallows quickly.
Eats the turd one and yells out loud - " Tastes Like Shit"!!!!!!
Lapplander says : " These learning pills work rather well don't they".
Moral of this story? Reindeer shit pays.
As so many abuse poor reindeer cultures ( even at this time of the year ) Zola feels a little upset. Therefore a little tale will be told.
Tourists visting Lapland. The tour bus stops. Out go the wise customers to see the little wigwam dressed up with folk of colour and hats of the four winds. Out go tourists to see the Lapps and the reindeer.
One American ( with a family tradition of the UK) gets out of the bus and goes to see the Lapp who is sitting by the road and wigwam.
The Lapp is making little balls with his fingers as a smoker would roll fags.
The Lapp is placing all the now-ready-made balls into a pile.
The Amercian tourist asks the Lapplander : " What are those balls and are they good for me to buy?
The Laplander replies that these little balls are not balls at all. They are "Learning Pills".
How much do these learning pills cost?,, comes next, as the tourist gets interested.
They cost 30 Euro each, is the reply - as the Laplander meets the tourist.
How many of these learning pills is needed? The tourist is interested to learn culture.
Only three I think, says the poor Lapplander .
Tourist buys three learning pills.
Tastes the first one and looks around to see if anybody else is watching.
Tastes the second one and swallows quickly.
Eats the turd one and yells out loud - " Tastes Like Shit"!!!!!!
Lapplander says : " These learning pills work rather well don't they".
Moral of this story? Reindeer shit pays.
Monday, December 25, 2006
BREAKING WIND E-NEWS
The Queen of Blatcherland gave her Christmas speech this afternoon. Sources say that the wicked Baron of Grandom, alias Maggie Thatcher of the Darling Buds of May, was the script writer. The Queen was not amused when she found this out a few minutes before the speech was due to be broadcast by her on TV.
But Prince Charlie boy and missus were very content. The speech was changed by the Queen just in time. The readings between the lines were that Prince Charles is now to replace his mum in the very near future. When? Apparently at the same time as Blair is finally thrown out of labour misgovernment.
Labour whips are happy at this good sense of timing by the most Royal intelligence.
You heard it first from Zola.
The Queen of Blatcherland gave her Christmas speech this afternoon. Sources say that the wicked Baron of Grandom, alias Maggie Thatcher of the Darling Buds of May, was the script writer. The Queen was not amused when she found this out a few minutes before the speech was due to be broadcast by her on TV.
But Prince Charlie boy and missus were very content. The speech was changed by the Queen just in time. The readings between the lines were that Prince Charles is now to replace his mum in the very near future. When? Apparently at the same time as Blair is finally thrown out of labour misgovernment.
Labour whips are happy at this good sense of timing by the most Royal intelligence.
You heard it first from Zola.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
With apologies from the Jury for the 2006 Picture competition. After a heated, but not bent, jury meeting it was agreed to give a "Turd Way" prize. The above picture is therefore included ( after much protest and debate).The caption for this photo-story is, as yet, unavailable. The professionals have not yet come up with a firm thing.
But some of the brain storming lot have said :-
a) Blair gives a xmas present to his bottom line
b) Best Xmas yet says Conservative government in UK
c) Blair fed up with camels and comes back home for Xmas
My source says that this picture has been moving around the underground railway stations for some time now.
Zola only refuses to pay reproduction fees.
Christmas Words from Zola ( nicked of course )
" On everyside you look, 'behold the wall !
No pleasing intricacies intervene,
No artful wildness to perplex the scene..."
But then behold that brick in the wall,
That brick which art not me or we.
No jolly Boy Scouts
No schoolmaster clouts.
But community yes that is me.
" On everyside you look, 'behold the wall !
No pleasing intricacies intervene,
No artful wildness to perplex the scene..."
But then behold that brick in the wall,
That brick which art not me or we.
No jolly Boy Scouts
No schoolmaster clouts.
But community yes that is me.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Caption : Central and nearly North European Abuse of Reindeer Yet Again
2006 PHOTOGRAHY AWARDS
Above ( with provisional caption ) is the best pic sent to Zola in 2006.
The winner has asked to remain anon and Zola has no money so forget trying to make a case against this site.
The Winner is :- Lurkin around your own garden so beware.
Celebrations Finn Style
Finland celebrates Xmas mainly on what brits call Christmas Eve. Santa arrives in Finnish homes already one day early from a UK perspective. He has so much work and travel to do you see. Santa actually lives in Korvatuntari which is way up north and close to the Russian border. I hope this satisfies all those questions from the Duck.
As for other questions : Reindeer are often on heat and they are real buggers when in this state. The main problem with this is trying to find a good looking one. As for trying to find an intelligent one forget it. That should satisfy our Antikanter.
Poland, this year, has sent letters to Santa Claus in Finland and many. Never before have Polish folk written so much to Santa. The UK is still the most prominent lot letter writing to Santa although Holland and Germany and France are also heavy writers. If my information is correct there were over 45 million letters this year to Santa and many addressed simply : Santa Claus, Lapland, Finland.
Finland celebrates Xmas mainly on what brits call Christmas Eve. Santa arrives in Finnish homes already one day early from a UK perspective. He has so much work and travel to do you see. Santa actually lives in Korvatuntari which is way up north and close to the Russian border. I hope this satisfies all those questions from the Duck.
As for other questions : Reindeer are often on heat and they are real buggers when in this state. The main problem with this is trying to find a good looking one. As for trying to find an intelligent one forget it. That should satisfy our Antikanter.
Poland, this year, has sent letters to Santa Claus in Finland and many. Never before have Polish folk written so much to Santa. The UK is still the most prominent lot letter writing to Santa although Holland and Germany and France are also heavy writers. If my information is correct there were over 45 million letters this year to Santa and many addressed simply : Santa Claus, Lapland, Finland.
Friday, December 22, 2006
A WEB-MASTER HAS NOT A HAPPY LIFE, happy life
Yet again this rather conservative ( clean in thought, word and deed ) site has been attacked from behind. Through the back door photographs have been delivered.
The pictures are possibly hurtful to UK sensibilities or anti-UK Blairites. This master of the web is feeling a little awkward right now. Publish and be damned? Well that used to be OK but today it is publish and pay the costs and the fines and the rest. This site and the master does not mind the being damned bit. However the poor Zola cannot afford to pay those costs. But if enough decent and respectable visitors to this site demand then, of course, those naughty pictures will be published. With one proviso : those that demand will set up a save the Zola fund. ( BTW : one picture was very fishy indeed but the artistic value would be undisputed).
Yet again this rather conservative ( clean in thought, word and deed ) site has been attacked from behind. Through the back door photographs have been delivered.
The pictures are possibly hurtful to UK sensibilities or anti-UK Blairites. This master of the web is feeling a little awkward right now. Publish and be damned? Well that used to be OK but today it is publish and pay the costs and the fines and the rest. This site and the master does not mind the being damned bit. However the poor Zola cannot afford to pay those costs. But if enough decent and respectable visitors to this site demand then, of course, those naughty pictures will be published. With one proviso : those that demand will set up a save the Zola fund. ( BTW : one picture was very fishy indeed but the artistic value would be undisputed).
Natural Whacking Sticks are better Than Plastic
According to an expert team in Finland the traditional branches and leaves are far superior for whacking ourselves in the sauna than are the new plastic versions. The plastic versions, it was found, wither too quickly. Foreigners visiting Finland are advised to trust in the real Finnish nature.
The moral to this story is that plastic withers when the heat is on.
According to an expert team in Finland the traditional branches and leaves are far superior for whacking ourselves in the sauna than are the new plastic versions. The plastic versions, it was found, wither too quickly. Foreigners visiting Finland are advised to trust in the real Finnish nature.
The moral to this story is that plastic withers when the heat is on.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Breaking Wind E-News
Latest gossip on the town. The Duke of Westminster has been in tow with a certain Ms G.I.(A)Greerable. If recent information is to be believed then the portfolio, as personal development(s), was always the very same that was hidden. The female property remains to be identified and we must wait until they both come out of the cupboard. Rumour has it that the Huffing(ding-dong)ton Post is on to this story already. But "Time" will tell as the story needs more male muscle behind it as yet.
The Guardian has already, we hear, refused to entertain us with this story ( even the Women's Pages seem wobbly on this one) even if there is a real social history here that remains valid today.
Remember you heard it first from Zolainkspots.
( If you have not got a penny a half will do and if you can't afford a mere half then God bless you)
Advertise here? See the Awkward Squad CEO Pike Fisher
Latest gossip on the town. The Duke of Westminster has been in tow with a certain Ms G.I.(A)Greerable. If recent information is to be believed then the portfolio, as personal development(s), was always the very same that was hidden. The female property remains to be identified and we must wait until they both come out of the cupboard. Rumour has it that the Huffing(ding-dong)ton Post is on to this story already. But "Time" will tell as the story needs more male muscle behind it as yet.
The Guardian has already, we hear, refused to entertain us with this story ( even the Women's Pages seem wobbly on this one) even if there is a real social history here that remains valid today.
Remember you heard it first from Zolainkspots.
( If you have not got a penny a half will do and if you can't afford a mere half then God bless you)
Advertise here? See the Awkward Squad CEO Pike Fisher
2006 Memories Re-Visited
If hegemony is active then the hearts and the minds ( souls?) of folk must be somehow together with that hegemony condition and practice. Go to war for democracy and freedom for all kind of thing. Hegemony is a subtle social, psychological and cultural institution. Here then is why I claimed yesterday that 2006 will go down as the death of US-UK hegemony.
There are now enough examples from China, Europe, Latin America and certainly from Middle East folk-actions that display a total disregard for USA-UK ways. The fact is this and simple. Nobody trusts or respects or believes in the USA-UK axis anymore.
Of course it remains to be explained just why or how this came about.
If hegemony is active then the hearts and the minds ( souls?) of folk must be somehow together with that hegemony condition and practice. Go to war for democracy and freedom for all kind of thing. Hegemony is a subtle social, psychological and cultural institution. Here then is why I claimed yesterday that 2006 will go down as the death of US-UK hegemony.
There are now enough examples from China, Europe, Latin America and certainly from Middle East folk-actions that display a total disregard for USA-UK ways. The fact is this and simple. Nobody trusts or respects or believes in the USA-UK axis anymore.
Of course it remains to be explained just why or how this came about.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
2006 Memories
Would be nice to say something nice but ... ...
2006 has shown the death of too many people and things related to USA-UK politics that it is impossible to even try to think nice.
Yet something comes out of it all. The death of USA-UK hegemony.
If a look on the bright side of life is still OK then we may think that USA-UK folk will wake up to the new dawn that shows itself.
Take back the streets is the basic answer.
Then take responsibility.
2006 will go down in history as the death of USA-UK hegemony.
Would be nice to say something nice but ... ...
2006 has shown the death of too many people and things related to USA-UK politics that it is impossible to even try to think nice.
Yet something comes out of it all. The death of USA-UK hegemony.
If a look on the bright side of life is still OK then we may think that USA-UK folk will wake up to the new dawn that shows itself.
Take back the streets is the basic answer.
Then take responsibility.
2006 will go down in history as the death of USA-UK hegemony.
Picture A Suzy With Kayaking Eyes
From the words of a worst selling book I quote :-
"My kayak glided effortlessly on the windless, smooth-topped lake. My mind was dimly aware of the hilly mass ahead and with no conscious decision I headed for the island of Hiidenvouri. The feeling of waking up when travelling on the wild side is a jolt, at first, to the "me" that we all carry on our shoulders in everyday life. The wilderness has begun to work its wonders on us. Then slowly becomes a metamorphosis with each and hesitant step forwards until it is necessary and right to stop and rest awhile on the nearest calm, soft patch or rock. A change has taken place on our outlook on Life. The wilderness is now less "outside" and much more a feeling.
A sensual sort of awareness sweetly seeps into your mind. Answers come along to long lost questions of childhood. Something has been found that before was lost, hidden, in the maze of uncertainty that is spoilt by habit. Our new-found confidence shows itself in friendly interest and amazement. You see.
A squirral still on a branch sees you and you realise that he realises. He need not be frightened this time. Your heart beats with a solid quickness that can only lead to song as your body wishes to flow with the seagull wind. You are young. Even the left-behind city becomes quite natural and fitting, like spider's web of design and labour, woven by human hands to an artist's will.
The tables have been turned and the city dustbins make music in the wind. Nature has taken you by the hand and led you through your first day at school. It matters not a drop that you get wet boots as you skip over the stoney stream. You are balance itself at play. You laugh and sing and your mind knows nothing and wishes nothing to prevent it."
A Xmas present to our SuzyQ.
From the words of a worst selling book I quote :-
"My kayak glided effortlessly on the windless, smooth-topped lake. My mind was dimly aware of the hilly mass ahead and with no conscious decision I headed for the island of Hiidenvouri. The feeling of waking up when travelling on the wild side is a jolt, at first, to the "me" that we all carry on our shoulders in everyday life. The wilderness has begun to work its wonders on us. Then slowly becomes a metamorphosis with each and hesitant step forwards until it is necessary and right to stop and rest awhile on the nearest calm, soft patch or rock. A change has taken place on our outlook on Life. The wilderness is now less "outside" and much more a feeling.
A sensual sort of awareness sweetly seeps into your mind. Answers come along to long lost questions of childhood. Something has been found that before was lost, hidden, in the maze of uncertainty that is spoilt by habit. Our new-found confidence shows itself in friendly interest and amazement. You see.
A squirral still on a branch sees you and you realise that he realises. He need not be frightened this time. Your heart beats with a solid quickness that can only lead to song as your body wishes to flow with the seagull wind. You are young. Even the left-behind city becomes quite natural and fitting, like spider's web of design and labour, woven by human hands to an artist's will.
The tables have been turned and the city dustbins make music in the wind. Nature has taken you by the hand and led you through your first day at school. It matters not a drop that you get wet boots as you skip over the stoney stream. You are balance itself at play. You laugh and sing and your mind knows nothing and wishes nothing to prevent it."
A Xmas present to our SuzyQ.
Breaking Wind E-News
Chaos In UK Airport Again. Huge lines of incoming passengers waiting for passport control to solve problem. A Yellow Duck and family presented their webs for check ups but the data checking system crashed. A certain Mr Reid was called in because nobody knew what to do with these ducks. Last we heard was Ducks in Jail waiting to be barred and re-feathered without the right of appeal.
Send your protests now in support of the Duckies. Send to Goldsmith.con C/o Blair.uk
Chaos In UK Airport Again. Huge lines of incoming passengers waiting for passport control to solve problem. A Yellow Duck and family presented their webs for check ups but the data checking system crashed. A certain Mr Reid was called in because nobody knew what to do with these ducks. Last we heard was Ducks in Jail waiting to be barred and re-feathered without the right of appeal.
Send your protests now in support of the Duckies. Send to Goldsmith.con C/o Blair.uk
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Can Anybody Help Here?
I have been sent an e-mail from Australia. I did not open the attachment. But the message was clear enough. Mrs Blair of the UK wants a new life. The rumour is that the UK is no longer sexy enough. The Primes they are changin. Remember : you heard it from big Zolainkspots first.
Advertising folk just click HERE.
I have been sent an e-mail from Australia. I did not open the attachment. But the message was clear enough. Mrs Blair of the UK wants a new life. The rumour is that the UK is no longer sexy enough. The Primes they are changin. Remember : you heard it from big Zolainkspots first.
Advertising folk just click HERE.
In Praise of Reason Taking a Holiday
Granting the good Toby Lewis a Spanish break over the Xmas the board acted in a way that should be a beacon to the Blured Way of slave labourers. Toby, always with that double-edged sword of reason never slipping from his hand, is reasonable enough to know that reason itself needs a break sometimes from itself. One cannot eat reason and one cannot cuddle reason in a bed of roses. Long live the deserved long holidays in search of the Spanish delights of both body and mind away from pure reason.
We are reminded here of Homer. His writings were always alive and well in a world where each and every hero needed to eat and drink and actually live a real life. Shame that so many novelists live only inside of their own abstract selves as they are fed by others. We are also reminded that the New Zealand example remains significant. All working folk deserve a paid holiday and sometimes long holidays unless they are to be slaves to the market and used as mere prostitutes satisfying those that pay.
Granting the good Toby Lewis a Spanish break over the Xmas the board acted in a way that should be a beacon to the Blured Way of slave labourers. Toby, always with that double-edged sword of reason never slipping from his hand, is reasonable enough to know that reason itself needs a break sometimes from itself. One cannot eat reason and one cannot cuddle reason in a bed of roses. Long live the deserved long holidays in search of the Spanish delights of both body and mind away from pure reason.
We are reminded here of Homer. His writings were always alive and well in a world where each and every hero needed to eat and drink and actually live a real life. Shame that so many novelists live only inside of their own abstract selves as they are fed by others. We are also reminded that the New Zealand example remains significant. All working folk deserve a paid holiday and sometimes long holidays unless they are to be slaves to the market and used as mere prostitutes satisfying those that pay.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Days In The Life of a Scribbler
It is clear enough today that even hallowed writers think again. In one good sense this is like the song "Flower of Scotland" where to "think again" is OK. But there is much more to this. Chris White ( see links) asks for feedback and response. He senses a possible new way of journalism with folk. He asks the questions. At the same time Anticant ( see links) inspires through both experience and power via words without waste. Writing in public or for the public or with the public is no straight-forward thing. Coleridge would have said that our writing was to BE with a public but S.T. Coleridge was a Romantic. Was he not? Chris White and Anticant seem to struggle with those age old questions. Authenticity? Blogs? The trustworthy worder of words - the verber of nouns? The great refusal of mere labels. One way towards authenticity? Philospher Kings?
Writing in the public domain hit me hard before I even knew it. I was translated. My original text was moved into another culture. ( I got paid for it and agreed beforehand and I cannot complain). I and "my" text was or were translated. Then readers asked a few questions. What to do with that ? Perhaps it is a business thing where the big.org must answer. Maybe it is my stupidity for trusting this risky society. Whatever I can say long live the questions of Chris White and the inspirations that spring from Anticant.
Maybe a public domain might remain less private. Maybe private troubles may become public issues again ( C.Wright Mills needed his motor bike to stay sane).
By the way the song "Flower of Scotland" was also sung when England played their best at sport and still lost the big game. Would it be that the big Liberal Press would even begin to work with such a sense of democracy? Two Cheers for Bloggers but only one cheer for the still remaining Guardian of the gates of " their" free comment.
If there are any mistakes above please contact the editor. She normally fucks upwards.
It is clear enough today that even hallowed writers think again. In one good sense this is like the song "Flower of Scotland" where to "think again" is OK. But there is much more to this. Chris White ( see links) asks for feedback and response. He senses a possible new way of journalism with folk. He asks the questions. At the same time Anticant ( see links) inspires through both experience and power via words without waste. Writing in public or for the public or with the public is no straight-forward thing. Coleridge would have said that our writing was to BE with a public but S.T. Coleridge was a Romantic. Was he not? Chris White and Anticant seem to struggle with those age old questions. Authenticity? Blogs? The trustworthy worder of words - the verber of nouns? The great refusal of mere labels. One way towards authenticity? Philospher Kings?
Writing in the public domain hit me hard before I even knew it. I was translated. My original text was moved into another culture. ( I got paid for it and agreed beforehand and I cannot complain). I and "my" text was or were translated. Then readers asked a few questions. What to do with that ? Perhaps it is a business thing where the big.org must answer. Maybe it is my stupidity for trusting this risky society. Whatever I can say long live the questions of Chris White and the inspirations that spring from Anticant.
Maybe a public domain might remain less private. Maybe private troubles may become public issues again ( C.Wright Mills needed his motor bike to stay sane).
By the way the song "Flower of Scotland" was also sung when England played their best at sport and still lost the big game. Would it be that the big Liberal Press would even begin to work with such a sense of democracy? Two Cheers for Bloggers but only one cheer for the still remaining Guardian of the gates of " their" free comment.
If there are any mistakes above please contact the editor. She normally fucks upwards.
Tree Taughts For The Turd Way
As so many of Awkward Bloggers seem so interested in language and actions it is clearly time to come clean again and again. That is remain betwixt and between that which is solid and reasoned and totally Enlightened. Remain that is in exile.
I admit :-
1) I have enjoyed a humbug and I have even offered a humbug or two to others.
2) I firmly believe that MySpace is a trick and treat of capitalism and YouTube could never have been so successful if it called itself Y-Fronts.
3) I have always lost the game when I have turned over the money tables.
4) I cannot use the word "value" because it has no value at all.
5) I have never been much good at mathematics or projects or policy making.
As so many of Awkward Bloggers seem so interested in language and actions it is clearly time to come clean again and again. That is remain betwixt and between that which is solid and reasoned and totally Enlightened. Remain that is in exile.
I admit :-
1) I have enjoyed a humbug and I have even offered a humbug or two to others.
2) I firmly believe that MySpace is a trick and treat of capitalism and YouTube could never have been so successful if it called itself Y-Fronts.
3) I have always lost the game when I have turned over the money tables.
4) I cannot use the word "value" because it has no value at all.
5) I have never been much good at mathematics or projects or policy making.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Breaking Wind e-news
Due to the terrible amount of complaints this site now receives the author feels that it is time to take authorship seriously and to be responsible and fair to both Finland and the European Union.
So with this in mind let me break wind over a non-EU country. The UK.
According to the Sunday press in the UK millions of Brits fail to read karaoke texts that are said to be at the skill level for an 11 year old. It could be even over 30% that cannot read a Robbie Williams song words text. Comment from government offices? A certain Holt guy said that these song words are often more complicated then we appreciate. But rumour has it that the UK government offices for training and skills are following the USA under the invitation of GW Bush.
Blair and Brown may, it is said in private, change the goalposts and rules.
New skill level standard for university applicants would be ba belopa ....bob bop with an extra point for a baybe in there somewhere.
Now that should keep Finns and Europeans happy.
Due to the terrible amount of complaints this site now receives the author feels that it is time to take authorship seriously and to be responsible and fair to both Finland and the European Union.
So with this in mind let me break wind over a non-EU country. The UK.
According to the Sunday press in the UK millions of Brits fail to read karaoke texts that are said to be at the skill level for an 11 year old. It could be even over 30% that cannot read a Robbie Williams song words text. Comment from government offices? A certain Holt guy said that these song words are often more complicated then we appreciate. But rumour has it that the UK government offices for training and skills are following the USA under the invitation of GW Bush.
Blair and Brown may, it is said in private, change the goalposts and rules.
New skill level standard for university applicants would be ba belopa ....bob bop with an extra point for a baybe in there somewhere.
Now that should keep Finns and Europeans happy.
JUST A RUMOUR BUT REASONABLE
Today a truly remarkable piece of news came my way from a European politico. This news might send shivers down the spineless spines of most traditional EU career politicians. The news is this :-
New EU member politicians are working hard. They are quite industrious. Many have a firm work ethic built upon a religious background. But this fact is putting the fear of God up many an old-EU rep.
It seems that the Left wingers might move away from win(g)e-ing and dining and really get back to work. But the UK would not comment when asked about this possibility although it was said that they were too busy getting a Turkey for Xmas food. Anyway from more reliable sourses the EU itself is "very concerned" about this new work ethic that is a "threat" to stability.
Today a truly remarkable piece of news came my way from a European politico. This news might send shivers down the spineless spines of most traditional EU career politicians. The news is this :-
New EU member politicians are working hard. They are quite industrious. Many have a firm work ethic built upon a religious background. But this fact is putting the fear of God up many an old-EU rep.
It seems that the Left wingers might move away from win(g)e-ing and dining and really get back to work. But the UK would not comment when asked about this possibility although it was said that they were too busy getting a Turkey for Xmas food. Anyway from more reliable sourses the EU itself is "very concerned" about this new work ethic that is a "threat" to stability.
Are Mobile Phones Really Handy?
Old tale. Nokia connects people but disconnect families. Advertising execs did not like that quick comment from Finns a few years back. But it may be worse than that.
Recent report. Death of young man in canoeing tragedy. Basic info was : Three 20-something men canoeing and one gets into trouble and stuck in the river only a few metres from the riverbank. The remaining two run to get their mobile phones. Man stuck in river dies through drowning.
Recent report ( UK) : Mountain rescue teams fed up with mobile phone use by inexperienced mountain walkers who call for help and have no idea where they actually are.
Recent report : Without a mobile phone we do not know what time of the day it is !!!
Wow is this how Finland and Nokia land will go down in history?
Old tale. Nokia connects people but disconnect families. Advertising execs did not like that quick comment from Finns a few years back. But it may be worse than that.
Recent report. Death of young man in canoeing tragedy. Basic info was : Three 20-something men canoeing and one gets into trouble and stuck in the river only a few metres from the riverbank. The remaining two run to get their mobile phones. Man stuck in river dies through drowning.
Recent report ( UK) : Mountain rescue teams fed up with mobile phone use by inexperienced mountain walkers who call for help and have no idea where they actually are.
Recent report : Without a mobile phone we do not know what time of the day it is !!!
Wow is this how Finland and Nokia land will go down in history?
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Nokia Land Does It Again
When Finns, through their tax paying money, subsidised Nokia they did not know then just what the result to be. What was the result? More unemployment by slow and subtle means. Today Nokia is laughing again all the way to the bank. Siemens is the brand new excuse to make more unemployment in "our" Europe through legal ways of the waste producing market. Let us just wait for those thousands of unemployed to wake up to the ways that their own money is and was wasted !! Just wait.
When Germany takes over from Nokia-Land Finland, as the EU socially responsible cuntry, then, will there be an improvment for everyday folk? Waiting! Waiting.
When Finns, through their tax paying money, subsidised Nokia they did not know then just what the result to be. What was the result? More unemployment by slow and subtle means. Today Nokia is laughing again all the way to the bank. Siemens is the brand new excuse to make more unemployment in "our" Europe through legal ways of the waste producing market. Let us just wait for those thousands of unemployed to wake up to the ways that their own money is and was wasted !! Just wait.
When Germany takes over from Nokia-Land Finland, as the EU socially responsible cuntry, then, will there be an improvment for everyday folk? Waiting! Waiting.
Just a Tit-Bit : Informing the Underdogs
The blog below was obviously mistaken in assuming that most Europeans actually knew that Finland was their Presidential power over the last six months. Apologies for this assumption. There is no need now to keep on flooding my e-mail systems. I have explained.
stop press - Zolainkspots
The blog below was obviously mistaken in assuming that most Europeans actually knew that Finland was their Presidential power over the last six months. Apologies for this assumption. There is no need now to keep on flooding my e-mail systems. I have explained.
stop press - Zolainkspots
EU From Finland With Love and to Germany
Well Finns can relax over Christmas as most still want to do. Family stuff over Xmas remains important to the majority of Finns. Holiday time. No longer are Finns seen as being a kind of manager of EU things. After December it is Germany that takes this gift from the democratic Greeks. Germany will be presidential. But over the last 24 hours the Finnish establishment has been putting words into journlists mouths and succeeding to get them repeated in print. The words say that Finland is satisfied, all went rather well and pats on backs everywhere.
But for some time a few writers and broadcasters have tried to get closer to the truth. This last 6 months has done but 2 things. One for Finland and the second a little bit of help against UK-USA foreign policy in the Middle East. That is about all. Six months of hard work, toil and expertise and ..... ?
All the rest was a quite typical EU cock-up of predictable proportions. Turkey? Global warming? ........ Russian cooperation ........ and more. All rather much of a failure say the "other voices" that managed to get into print.
Finland gained a new centre for chemical quality control, an EU agency ( over 500 jobs), to research and test and inspect the use of chemicals. Good for Finland and Finns and we hope good for Europeans too. Success. OK ( So long as bad chemical weapons of mass destruction are included in all this - which they most certainly will not !!!) But anyway this EU agency was needed.
A Finnish diplomacy, along with others of course, did manage to soften the blows dealt by Bush and Blair in the Middle East. Problem is Bush and Blair learnt nothing from that process. Bush and Blair do not do "learning by doing with others". Bush-Blair ways are knowing and doing against others. So this Finn-EU success is limited. So that is the two things really ... Oh sorry ... EU consitutional matters ... umm ... over to Germany.
Mrs Germany is saying that she will do a little better ( no examples given yet). Maybe she means that Germany will keep a little bit and change a little bit of the "Constitution" and also put on hold a little bit. That would be a real success now for the EU.
Well Finns can relax over Christmas as most still want to do. Family stuff over Xmas remains important to the majority of Finns. Holiday time. No longer are Finns seen as being a kind of manager of EU things. After December it is Germany that takes this gift from the democratic Greeks. Germany will be presidential. But over the last 24 hours the Finnish establishment has been putting words into journlists mouths and succeeding to get them repeated in print. The words say that Finland is satisfied, all went rather well and pats on backs everywhere.
But for some time a few writers and broadcasters have tried to get closer to the truth. This last 6 months has done but 2 things. One for Finland and the second a little bit of help against UK-USA foreign policy in the Middle East. That is about all. Six months of hard work, toil and expertise and ..... ?
All the rest was a quite typical EU cock-up of predictable proportions. Turkey? Global warming? ........ Russian cooperation ........ and more. All rather much of a failure say the "other voices" that managed to get into print.
Finland gained a new centre for chemical quality control, an EU agency ( over 500 jobs), to research and test and inspect the use of chemicals. Good for Finland and Finns and we hope good for Europeans too. Success. OK ( So long as bad chemical weapons of mass destruction are included in all this - which they most certainly will not !!!) But anyway this EU agency was needed.
A Finnish diplomacy, along with others of course, did manage to soften the blows dealt by Bush and Blair in the Middle East. Problem is Bush and Blair learnt nothing from that process. Bush and Blair do not do "learning by doing with others". Bush-Blair ways are knowing and doing against others. So this Finn-EU success is limited. So that is the two things really ... Oh sorry ... EU consitutional matters ... umm ... over to Germany.
Mrs Germany is saying that she will do a little better ( no examples given yet). Maybe she means that Germany will keep a little bit and change a little bit of the "Constitution" and also put on hold a little bit. That would be a real success now for the EU.
Friday, December 15, 2006
YOUNG FINNS TO VOTE AT 16 ?
There have been rumours and a few real debates in Finland recently. Many, it seems, are wanting the voting age to drop to 16 years of age. This, it is claimed, might help the perceived alienation of young folk when it comes to politics. Even right of centre politicos have come out in agreement here. However easy it might be to trash this move there is a need, I think, to tackle the big stories involved.
The alienation condition is at least three dimensional and involves both the individual living a productive life / the human being with a species nature society and thirdly the human being with Nature itself. I suspect that any non-alienating futures will entail a few very revolutionary changes before they are realised.
It might also be good to hear from those that want voting at 16 to say just how such an act of citizenship will be reasonably attended to when schools are hardly democratic in themselves and where any critical or even liberal studies are thrown out as being a waste of human resources and inappropriate for markets.
Maybe it is all about showbiz and image and celebrity politics.
There have been rumours and a few real debates in Finland recently. Many, it seems, are wanting the voting age to drop to 16 years of age. This, it is claimed, might help the perceived alienation of young folk when it comes to politics. Even right of centre politicos have come out in agreement here. However easy it might be to trash this move there is a need, I think, to tackle the big stories involved.
The alienation condition is at least three dimensional and involves both the individual living a productive life / the human being with a species nature society and thirdly the human being with Nature itself. I suspect that any non-alienating futures will entail a few very revolutionary changes before they are realised.
It might also be good to hear from those that want voting at 16 to say just how such an act of citizenship will be reasonably attended to when schools are hardly democratic in themselves and where any critical or even liberal studies are thrown out as being a waste of human resources and inappropriate for markets.
Maybe it is all about showbiz and image and celebrity politics.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
ZOLA IS SLOWLY GETTING BETTER BUT STILL UNWELL
Yesterday I had another meeting with the devil. It was a hard meeting too. It used to be that those good Guardians of the Pearly Gates would tempt me into chanting away that devil. Get behind me Satan was one of those chants. But, godamit, all I got was pain with no gain on my side. There is only one place for the devil. Up front and in the open and never rearing up behind me. Ms Whiplash will get the point soon enough.
But as the Awkward LavenderBlue and SuzyQ fight over me and me kayacks I thought I would present a little poem to ease into the ring. Here it is :-
Little river was descended
With a little kayak
With a darkened skylight
And the skylight helped it
Make the journey downwards
Make the downward journey
To the worlds of feeling
And the feelings helped it
And the skylight took it
From the river
From the kayak
To the skylit river
To the skylight kayak
In its journey downwards
In its downward journey
Darkened as it drifted
Drifting in the darkness.
Yesterday I had another meeting with the devil. It was a hard meeting too. It used to be that those good Guardians of the Pearly Gates would tempt me into chanting away that devil. Get behind me Satan was one of those chants. But, godamit, all I got was pain with no gain on my side. There is only one place for the devil. Up front and in the open and never rearing up behind me. Ms Whiplash will get the point soon enough.
But as the Awkward LavenderBlue and SuzyQ fight over me and me kayacks I thought I would present a little poem to ease into the ring. Here it is :-
Little river was descended
With a little kayak
With a darkened skylight
And the skylight helped it
Make the journey downwards
Make the downward journey
To the worlds of feeling
And the feelings helped it
And the skylight took it
From the river
From the kayak
To the skylit river
To the skylight kayak
In its journey downwards
In its downward journey
Darkened as it drifted
Drifting in the darkness.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
THE LAPLAND SCENE
Last month the snow fell and the cold began to bite a little. December, now, in Lapland is wet and windy and all the snow is gone or going. The cat still hunts in the grass and wants to be out all night long. The squirrals remain active and the birds confused. The garden shows signs of thinking it, maybe, Spring time again. The ice-breaker ships are lost in a lost world with unemployment just around the corner. Could this be the first "Green" Xmas for me and Lapland? May-Being in Lapland?
Further south in Finland rivers are beginning to flood. In Sweden there is a move to rename it Scotland. The Nordic lands and Scandinavia must change political climates before we lose the real Santa Claus.
Last month the snow fell and the cold began to bite a little. December, now, in Lapland is wet and windy and all the snow is gone or going. The cat still hunts in the grass and wants to be out all night long. The squirrals remain active and the birds confused. The garden shows signs of thinking it, maybe, Spring time again. The ice-breaker ships are lost in a lost world with unemployment just around the corner. Could this be the first "Green" Xmas for me and Lapland? May-Being in Lapland?
Further south in Finland rivers are beginning to flood. In Sweden there is a move to rename it Scotland. The Nordic lands and Scandinavia must change political climates before we lose the real Santa Claus.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
AWKs and the NHS OK
Had some good news yesterday. I visited the doctor. Feeling low I was. Then the good news came and it bucked ( with a B) me up. Maybe this news makes the front ( spelt FRONT) page? Maybe. See already the medicine is working.
Anyway the doctor diagnosed and came up with the following : I was suffering from what is called "AWKs" which has symptoms relating to, a) lack of concentration ; b) failure to follow logical progressions ; c) a perceived need to trash anything and everything ; d) a total lack of decent discipline and e) a disgusting habit or two hidden away in the cupboard. All this is termed as "AWKs".
The doctor gave me medicine and what was big news was that it is freely available on the National Health Services within Europe. Should i tell you what was in the medicine? Of course not. Get yer own doctor.
Had some good news yesterday. I visited the doctor. Feeling low I was. Then the good news came and it bucked ( with a B) me up. Maybe this news makes the front ( spelt FRONT) page? Maybe. See already the medicine is working.
Anyway the doctor diagnosed and came up with the following : I was suffering from what is called "AWKs" which has symptoms relating to, a) lack of concentration ; b) failure to follow logical progressions ; c) a perceived need to trash anything and everything ; d) a total lack of decent discipline and e) a disgusting habit or two hidden away in the cupboard. All this is termed as "AWKs".
The doctor gave me medicine and what was big news was that it is freely available on the National Health Services within Europe. Should i tell you what was in the medicine? Of course not. Get yer own doctor.
Monday, December 11, 2006
WHAT ABOUT THE REAL FARMERS IN FINLAND?
Today in Finland a few little things MIGHT be revealed. You may have heard that Finland is voted by some to be the least devious and most open EU country in things like freedom of the press and government. Let us wait and see.
As greedy pundits from the globalisation gang constantly hit farmers and agricultural folk we might, today in Finland, see just why. Agri-Culture has been branded as traditional and out-of-date in this global risk mis-economy. The State itself has been blamed for this mess. Oh dear me what does all this debate really mean we ask.
But Finns learn ( hopefully learn more soon) that many of the biggest ( secret) deals under the European Union for subsidies have been going to big business leaders. That is the TRADITIONAL ABSENTEE LANDLORDS. Bosses from big companies that own farmland seem to benefit as Finnish farmers ( real working farmers) suffer and are abused by EU and newspaper propaganda as being traditional. Traditional? The power elite remains in power I suggest. Power Elite tradition benefits here !
But today in Finland is a test case for any freedom of information act.
The State run news service, YLE ( a bit like the BBC), needs patience here and much support especially as their budgets keep getting cut.
Does this story ring any bells to anyone else out there?
Today in Finland a few little things MIGHT be revealed. You may have heard that Finland is voted by some to be the least devious and most open EU country in things like freedom of the press and government. Let us wait and see.
As greedy pundits from the globalisation gang constantly hit farmers and agricultural folk we might, today in Finland, see just why. Agri-Culture has been branded as traditional and out-of-date in this global risk mis-economy. The State itself has been blamed for this mess. Oh dear me what does all this debate really mean we ask.
But Finns learn ( hopefully learn more soon) that many of the biggest ( secret) deals under the European Union for subsidies have been going to big business leaders. That is the TRADITIONAL ABSENTEE LANDLORDS. Bosses from big companies that own farmland seem to benefit as Finnish farmers ( real working farmers) suffer and are abused by EU and newspaper propaganda as being traditional. Traditional? The power elite remains in power I suggest. Power Elite tradition benefits here !
But today in Finland is a test case for any freedom of information act.
The State run news service, YLE ( a bit like the BBC), needs patience here and much support especially as their budgets keep getting cut.
Does this story ring any bells to anyone else out there?
Sunday, December 10, 2006
WHY NULABOUR BLAIRISM IS NOT LIKED IN FINLAND
Although there are many friendly and diplomatic links between the UK and Finland there are a few major differences. One of these has been seen rather clearly as talk of the so called "Blairism For Europe" was debated heavily a few years ago. One official response from the Finnish Foreign Minister, Erkki Tuomioja, said it all. He said that the only kind of Blairism Finns would accept is that from Eric Blair and a refusal of totalitarianism as in George Orwell. Rumour had it that Blairites and their "turd way" were not amused.
But the UK has never really liked the Nordic ways where a third-way political economy was happening well before the gospels of Tony Blair even emerged from the wet nurses. Of course Blair since has resented wet nurses - something psychobolical about that i guess. But Blair and New Labour became totalitarian in their cloning of Maggie T. The Finns were right to support a George Orwell position as history has since proven.
Although there are many friendly and diplomatic links between the UK and Finland there are a few major differences. One of these has been seen rather clearly as talk of the so called "Blairism For Europe" was debated heavily a few years ago. One official response from the Finnish Foreign Minister, Erkki Tuomioja, said it all. He said that the only kind of Blairism Finns would accept is that from Eric Blair and a refusal of totalitarianism as in George Orwell. Rumour had it that Blairites and their "turd way" were not amused.
But the UK has never really liked the Nordic ways where a third-way political economy was happening well before the gospels of Tony Blair even emerged from the wet nurses. Of course Blair since has resented wet nurses - something psychobolical about that i guess. But Blair and New Labour became totalitarian in their cloning of Maggie T. The Finns were right to support a George Orwell position as history has since proven.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
WAKE UP, WAKE UP THE POLES ARE COMING
Summer 1988 in Finland. The phone rings in the early hours of the morning about three o'clock if I remember. The stumble to the phone was bad enough but the shock quickly brought me to my senses. It was the police calling. Oh dear what have I done now? The Finnish Police are, in the main, trusted by Finns but one does not mess with them. They are straight talking even if usually fair. If they tell you to get out of bed and catch the first flight out from Finland you best believe me they mean just that. Do not even bother to make excuses like first I need to get my clothes on. It does not work. Get out means just that and it means now not later. A Scottish guy made this mistake once. He ended up half naked in the airport although the police found him clothes later. So you will understand my concern.
The matter-of-fact policeman said : " We have a bus load of Polish people here in the centre of town. They say that you are responsible for them!!!"
I thought inwardly then... ( but no laugh)... that me...? Me... responsible? Responsible for Poles in Finland? Recipe for disaster I thought but did not say so at the time. The policeman continued . " They are parked on the main high street. They speak little or no English and no Finnish. They are blocking the street. They cannot stay there like that". What this really meant was do something about it and do it now and quick. I got the message. Early work for me and no debate. Take reponsibility for a bus load of Polish people at three in the morning. Orders are orders and so they were.
How did this all begin? Good question. About one full year before this 1988 summer I had been asked to advise on international groups wanting to make canoeing trips in Finland and to begin with a group from Poland. Poles had been asking to visit for their canoeing holiday. I received a telefax from a place called Gdansk in Poland and from what seemed to be a Trade Union social and sports club. I replied in a few hours. Waited about 3 weeks and a reply came back. I replied that same day and waited about 6 weeks for the next telefax from Poland. But by this time a bus load of Polish people had agreed to visit Finland in the summer of 1988. I sent many telefaxs more but no replies. I tried, after about 4 months of no contacts, to insist upon the details for this trip. Another 4 or 5 telefax messages were sent. No replies. I assumed that I was wasting my time. Gave the whole thing up as a no go.
The next thing I know is ( you guessed it ) bus load of Poles blocking up main street in the early hours of the morning. Police say I am responsible. Also the police said that the bus was not altogether suitable for Finnish standards and I must explain such things to them myself. Orders were orders and I was left in no doubt about just who was responsible here and now.
To cut a long story short I gathered up help and we fixed up cabins for the group to sleep in and canoes for them to use. The group had their own food in their bus which was a good thing because they had VERY little money. In fact they had as much money as they had language skills. I was responsible. I found an organisation to handle the financing thank god and helped their transport through mini-bus systems. They had a great one week. Strange that they did not canoe very much. A few individuals did canoe for a few hours in the week but the majority had no idea or intention about canoeing. I was now responsible but I was also, now, learning and fast.
I learnt, after about 3 days of difficult translation work and patient dialogue, that this whole idea should be a cooperative thing. I did not mention the total lack of replies by that telefax. But apparently they would host a group of Finnish folk to visit Poland and canoe. I began to understand the ways in Poland at that time. Why not - coop OK for the likes of me. It seemed like those Poles needed to disguise themselves as a canoeing club in order to get travelling abroad. I never did get to understand fully all the details.
On the final evening the group invited me and a few co-workers for food and drinks and sing songs. Wow ! What a night. Beautiful spread of food buffet style and as much ( no much much much ) vodka type drink. The singing was great and I saw the incredible strength of Polish folk at play. I will never forget that final night. They also presented me and the town various gifts from Poland. They had no money but my god they had character and they had vitality. That large cabin rattled and raved that night. Good time? Yes.
But never did that return trip to Poland. Maybe one day. Hope so.
Summer 1988 in Finland. The phone rings in the early hours of the morning about three o'clock if I remember. The stumble to the phone was bad enough but the shock quickly brought me to my senses. It was the police calling. Oh dear what have I done now? The Finnish Police are, in the main, trusted by Finns but one does not mess with them. They are straight talking even if usually fair. If they tell you to get out of bed and catch the first flight out from Finland you best believe me they mean just that. Do not even bother to make excuses like first I need to get my clothes on. It does not work. Get out means just that and it means now not later. A Scottish guy made this mistake once. He ended up half naked in the airport although the police found him clothes later. So you will understand my concern.
The matter-of-fact policeman said : " We have a bus load of Polish people here in the centre of town. They say that you are responsible for them!!!"
I thought inwardly then... ( but no laugh)... that me...? Me... responsible? Responsible for Poles in Finland? Recipe for disaster I thought but did not say so at the time. The policeman continued . " They are parked on the main high street. They speak little or no English and no Finnish. They are blocking the street. They cannot stay there like that". What this really meant was do something about it and do it now and quick. I got the message. Early work for me and no debate. Take reponsibility for a bus load of Polish people at three in the morning. Orders are orders and so they were.
How did this all begin? Good question. About one full year before this 1988 summer I had been asked to advise on international groups wanting to make canoeing trips in Finland and to begin with a group from Poland. Poles had been asking to visit for their canoeing holiday. I received a telefax from a place called Gdansk in Poland and from what seemed to be a Trade Union social and sports club. I replied in a few hours. Waited about 3 weeks and a reply came back. I replied that same day and waited about 6 weeks for the next telefax from Poland. But by this time a bus load of Polish people had agreed to visit Finland in the summer of 1988. I sent many telefaxs more but no replies. I tried, after about 4 months of no contacts, to insist upon the details for this trip. Another 4 or 5 telefax messages were sent. No replies. I assumed that I was wasting my time. Gave the whole thing up as a no go.
The next thing I know is ( you guessed it ) bus load of Poles blocking up main street in the early hours of the morning. Police say I am responsible. Also the police said that the bus was not altogether suitable for Finnish standards and I must explain such things to them myself. Orders were orders and I was left in no doubt about just who was responsible here and now.
To cut a long story short I gathered up help and we fixed up cabins for the group to sleep in and canoes for them to use. The group had their own food in their bus which was a good thing because they had VERY little money. In fact they had as much money as they had language skills. I was responsible. I found an organisation to handle the financing thank god and helped their transport through mini-bus systems. They had a great one week. Strange that they did not canoe very much. A few individuals did canoe for a few hours in the week but the majority had no idea or intention about canoeing. I was now responsible but I was also, now, learning and fast.
I learnt, after about 3 days of difficult translation work and patient dialogue, that this whole idea should be a cooperative thing. I did not mention the total lack of replies by that telefax. But apparently they would host a group of Finnish folk to visit Poland and canoe. I began to understand the ways in Poland at that time. Why not - coop OK for the likes of me. It seemed like those Poles needed to disguise themselves as a canoeing club in order to get travelling abroad. I never did get to understand fully all the details.
On the final evening the group invited me and a few co-workers for food and drinks and sing songs. Wow ! What a night. Beautiful spread of food buffet style and as much ( no much much much ) vodka type drink. The singing was great and I saw the incredible strength of Polish folk at play. I will never forget that final night. They also presented me and the town various gifts from Poland. They had no money but my god they had character and they had vitality. That large cabin rattled and raved that night. Good time? Yes.
But never did that return trip to Poland. Maybe one day. Hope so.
SNIPPETS FROM A SPORTING LIFE
It is Saturday today and after a long week is is good to get into something less serious and more sporting. I will scribble a few things about football. But first why football?
My school years, or what I remember of those years, were times of hell and fury or times of boredom and waste. I was never big enough to play good rugby but somehow the school kept me in their team. Damn them. it was hell. The "up and under" stuff hurt. Too many times I stood waiting for that high ball to descend into my shaking arms as the mob rushed towards me. Courage I used to say to myself. Get ready for that clean catch and dig that booted heel into the turf. But always, if I remember, the mob crashed down on me before I had that safe heel dug dowm. Black and blue and bones crunched by the mob. Later I managed to get transfered to the wing. Thought I could dodge and out run those hefty types. Same again. Crunch. Black and blue. So rugger is not really a good happening for my Saturday
Cricket? I guess OK when batting or bowling but for the rest total boredom. Never understood why those white clothes were necessary either because they always turned out with green stains or red-ball stains. The food was also over-rated. So football it will be today.
My earliest memories of football are simple and wonderful. Lads just playing on the grass with the basic minimum of equipment. Just one ball needed. Goal posts were clothes thrown into two piles at each end of the field. Later I was to play for money as a semi-professional and that helped my beer consumption stay at a reasonable level during university. But after two broken legs it was advisable to quit or just watch. I did that for awhile until I became fed up wuth the loutish behaviour of too many.
As a young child going to a football game would be a social happening. Young kids would be passed down to the front on the heads and shoulders of the big men. They helped us see the game that way. Alas that sociable behaviour vanished. But there were fun memories of loutish behaviour too.
A young university student, a female, asked me to take her to a football game. I was the gentleman, of course. She was a rather sheltered woman more into "posh" things than football. Anyway she merged with the standing crowd and began to talk loudly in a posh accent. This was a mistake. After many awkward looks from around I knew I ought to advise her to be quiet. Too late. She turned to me and said : " Somebody has pissed on my legs". I escorted her away and home. She never spoke to me again.
Oh another memory too with my own loutish behaviour this time. I was playing at right back and the winger from the opposing team was well known. He was fast and agile and very good at fooling defenders. The manager gave me orders. Take that winger out as soon as possible he said to me. he is too dangerous. So I began the game in a hard way. I gave little or no joy to that fast super winger and I was there, at him, even before the ball reached him. I was, at it were, biting his legs. But according to one spectator from the stands I was a "paid monkey". He rushed out from the stands and over the rails and attcked me shouting "monkey...monkey". The winger smiled at me. I had been biten now and in front of the spectators. My poor image! Humbled.
What else do you expect on a Saturday?
It is Saturday today and after a long week is is good to get into something less serious and more sporting. I will scribble a few things about football. But first why football?
My school years, or what I remember of those years, were times of hell and fury or times of boredom and waste. I was never big enough to play good rugby but somehow the school kept me in their team. Damn them. it was hell. The "up and under" stuff hurt. Too many times I stood waiting for that high ball to descend into my shaking arms as the mob rushed towards me. Courage I used to say to myself. Get ready for that clean catch and dig that booted heel into the turf. But always, if I remember, the mob crashed down on me before I had that safe heel dug dowm. Black and blue and bones crunched by the mob. Later I managed to get transfered to the wing. Thought I could dodge and out run those hefty types. Same again. Crunch. Black and blue. So rugger is not really a good happening for my Saturday
Cricket? I guess OK when batting or bowling but for the rest total boredom. Never understood why those white clothes were necessary either because they always turned out with green stains or red-ball stains. The food was also over-rated. So football it will be today.
My earliest memories of football are simple and wonderful. Lads just playing on the grass with the basic minimum of equipment. Just one ball needed. Goal posts were clothes thrown into two piles at each end of the field. Later I was to play for money as a semi-professional and that helped my beer consumption stay at a reasonable level during university. But after two broken legs it was advisable to quit or just watch. I did that for awhile until I became fed up wuth the loutish behaviour of too many.
As a young child going to a football game would be a social happening. Young kids would be passed down to the front on the heads and shoulders of the big men. They helped us see the game that way. Alas that sociable behaviour vanished. But there were fun memories of loutish behaviour too.
A young university student, a female, asked me to take her to a football game. I was the gentleman, of course. She was a rather sheltered woman more into "posh" things than football. Anyway she merged with the standing crowd and began to talk loudly in a posh accent. This was a mistake. After many awkward looks from around I knew I ought to advise her to be quiet. Too late. She turned to me and said : " Somebody has pissed on my legs". I escorted her away and home. She never spoke to me again.
Oh another memory too with my own loutish behaviour this time. I was playing at right back and the winger from the opposing team was well known. He was fast and agile and very good at fooling defenders. The manager gave me orders. Take that winger out as soon as possible he said to me. he is too dangerous. So I began the game in a hard way. I gave little or no joy to that fast super winger and I was there, at him, even before the ball reached him. I was, at it were, biting his legs. But according to one spectator from the stands I was a "paid monkey". He rushed out from the stands and over the rails and attcked me shouting "monkey...monkey". The winger smiled at me. I had been biten now and in front of the spectators. My poor image! Humbled.
What else do you expect on a Saturday?
Friday, December 08, 2006
THE GREAT OUTDOORS and ADVENTURE (blog-eclectic style)
An adventure has always been attached somehow to those wild and free spaces. When I used to kayak with the sea there was always a "special kind of freedom" as a most wonderful happening. Frank Goodman, from the UK, first used that "special kind of freedom" comment, if I recall well enough from the 1970s, although the first writer to insist upon such a theme was R.L. Stevenson. In one of his early books, from 120 odd years back, Robert Louis Stevenson tried to escape his strict Scottish and church-like life to go canoeing through Europe. The book was called an "Inland Voyage". A voyage of the mind for sure but outdoors and peradventure. Would anybody name their canoe today like a ship would be named? What about the name "Cigarette"? RLS would be seen today as a very bad role model for youth and society.
The "Outdoors" has always been a special kind of place and space. The more the city makes a mind the more the outdoors rebels through many folk. The "outdoors" is a kind of dirty place. Mary Douglas, a wonderful culural anthropologist, used to say that in an age of clean and well ordered systems to be a bit dirty was to be "out of place" and out of order. The special kind of freedom of my kayaking days were out of order, wet and wild and windy and always a bit dirty. Such was the adventure.
I am beginning to look upon the internet voyages in a similar way. The electronic way of virtual waves miss, of course, the real sea mist and wetness and real high waves, but in one limited sense the great outdoors and the adventure finds connection with what can only be called a BLOG-ECLECTIC arena. There is also a special kind of freedom in this blog-eclectic domain and just as the sea and the kayak demands care so to this virtual world. The blog-eclectic wilderness is dirty and out-of-place vis-a-vis the well ordered and clean places. This jetsam-flotsam face of the internet waves is a different kind of inland voyage but still it deserves care and attention.
An adventure has always been attached somehow to those wild and free spaces. When I used to kayak with the sea there was always a "special kind of freedom" as a most wonderful happening. Frank Goodman, from the UK, first used that "special kind of freedom" comment, if I recall well enough from the 1970s, although the first writer to insist upon such a theme was R.L. Stevenson. In one of his early books, from 120 odd years back, Robert Louis Stevenson tried to escape his strict Scottish and church-like life to go canoeing through Europe. The book was called an "Inland Voyage". A voyage of the mind for sure but outdoors and peradventure. Would anybody name their canoe today like a ship would be named? What about the name "Cigarette"? RLS would be seen today as a very bad role model for youth and society.
The "Outdoors" has always been a special kind of place and space. The more the city makes a mind the more the outdoors rebels through many folk. The "outdoors" is a kind of dirty place. Mary Douglas, a wonderful culural anthropologist, used to say that in an age of clean and well ordered systems to be a bit dirty was to be "out of place" and out of order. The special kind of freedom of my kayaking days were out of order, wet and wild and windy and always a bit dirty. Such was the adventure.
I am beginning to look upon the internet voyages in a similar way. The electronic way of virtual waves miss, of course, the real sea mist and wetness and real high waves, but in one limited sense the great outdoors and the adventure finds connection with what can only be called a BLOG-ECLECTIC arena. There is also a special kind of freedom in this blog-eclectic domain and just as the sea and the kayak demands care so to this virtual world. The blog-eclectic wilderness is dirty and out-of-place vis-a-vis the well ordered and clean places. This jetsam-flotsam face of the internet waves is a different kind of inland voyage but still it deserves care and attention.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
THERE GO I BUT FOR THE GRACE OF ODDS AND SODS
Making mistakes on the blogs? Yeehaa we are all gonna die.
Mistaking the making of blogs? I don't wanna die
I just wanna ride on me motor sigh.
Its Ok this is just a little ditty to remind me of tings.
I cannot think of a mistake possible that I could not make myself.
Maybe i stick that poster-bill on a tree somewhere or on the gates of wisdom.
If I do then I would stick myself.
Today ( early morning ) Billstickers wished me a happy independence day but admitted that he was late.
Thanks Billstickers for the kind thought.
I am a slow learner too.
Making mistakes on the blogs? Yeehaa we are all gonna die.
Mistaking the making of blogs? I don't wanna die
I just wanna ride on me motor sigh.
Its Ok this is just a little ditty to remind me of tings.
I cannot think of a mistake possible that I could not make myself.
Maybe i stick that poster-bill on a tree somewhere or on the gates of wisdom.
If I do then I would stick myself.
Today ( early morning ) Billstickers wished me a happy independence day but admitted that he was late.
Thanks Billstickers for the kind thought.
I am a slow learner too.
COMMENT IS FREE ?
Yesterday, in Finland, Independence was celebrated strongly and peacefully. However many critical voices remain questioning this or that aspect of Finnish life. Over the last year Finns have been hit by many conservative editors of newspapers and the message has been : Join NATO. Many politicians agree and try to influence public opinion. In terms of business there is no question because NATO pays and much of the downside costs would be footed by the tax payer. NATO, for business wars, is a win-win. In other words there has been a fairly obvious move by those with some power of media to get the Finnish public to accept NATO membership.
But thankfully Finns remain saying a rather big NO. Still, after this marketing of NATO, somewhere between 65% and 75% of Finns say no to NATO. Just how long this will continue as a firm no is difficult to say. However yesterday the Finnish Prime Minister came out and said that NATO was not a good bet for Finland. Being an active member of the European Union was enough to satisfy basic national security. Such a no to NATO would also avoid ruffling the Russian feathers. But the point I would like to emphasis is this. Comment is not free or as free as we might think here. The media elites always have subtle or even "Whiplash" power vis-a-vis public spheres. But if there are available spaces for free comment then then the public voice may be a check and a balance to media business and political power.
Also yesterday thanks to a few bloggers and especially Chris White ( see links) I had the strange pleasure of listening to the "Comment is Free" tape where Guardian Unlimited elite chatted about their new toy on the blogging scene. I am sure the Chris White site will feature many a comment concerning this tape recording of Guardians of the gates. Suffice to say here that it seems today that this "Comment is Free" (CiF) business plan is reaching the desired objectives and aiming at targets. But it is yet another nasty arrow in the eye of real free comment and an open critical society. The next step will be that Grevious Bodily Harm will be done by the said "Miss Whilash" as she sells her bows and arrows, her indicators and her targets through a grading and de-grading system. Whiplash promises to rank and file us all although we should be happy at this because our "time will be saved" ( never understood just how time can be saved when it cannot even be possessed but there you have it) through her giving, with help from her audience, a litttle star system. I guess Whiplash wants her new toy to serve as a "Centre of Excellence". Pugwash I say.
But what can we expect from a slick market(mouse.co)teer.
Yesterday, in Finland, Independence was celebrated strongly and peacefully. However many critical voices remain questioning this or that aspect of Finnish life. Over the last year Finns have been hit by many conservative editors of newspapers and the message has been : Join NATO. Many politicians agree and try to influence public opinion. In terms of business there is no question because NATO pays and much of the downside costs would be footed by the tax payer. NATO, for business wars, is a win-win. In other words there has been a fairly obvious move by those with some power of media to get the Finnish public to accept NATO membership.
But thankfully Finns remain saying a rather big NO. Still, after this marketing of NATO, somewhere between 65% and 75% of Finns say no to NATO. Just how long this will continue as a firm no is difficult to say. However yesterday the Finnish Prime Minister came out and said that NATO was not a good bet for Finland. Being an active member of the European Union was enough to satisfy basic national security. Such a no to NATO would also avoid ruffling the Russian feathers. But the point I would like to emphasis is this. Comment is not free or as free as we might think here. The media elites always have subtle or even "Whiplash" power vis-a-vis public spheres. But if there are available spaces for free comment then then the public voice may be a check and a balance to media business and political power.
Also yesterday thanks to a few bloggers and especially Chris White ( see links) I had the strange pleasure of listening to the "Comment is Free" tape where Guardian Unlimited elite chatted about their new toy on the blogging scene. I am sure the Chris White site will feature many a comment concerning this tape recording of Guardians of the gates. Suffice to say here that it seems today that this "Comment is Free" (CiF) business plan is reaching the desired objectives and aiming at targets. But it is yet another nasty arrow in the eye of real free comment and an open critical society. The next step will be that Grevious Bodily Harm will be done by the said "Miss Whilash" as she sells her bows and arrows, her indicators and her targets through a grading and de-grading system. Whiplash promises to rank and file us all although we should be happy at this because our "time will be saved" ( never understood just how time can be saved when it cannot even be possessed but there you have it) through her giving, with help from her audience, a litttle star system. I guess Whiplash wants her new toy to serve as a "Centre of Excellence". Pugwash I say.
But what can we expect from a slick market(mouse.co)teer.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
IN PRAISE OF GRUMPINESS
I guess our strange ole world needs a bit of the grumpy here and there. Where would those seven little dwarfs be without Grumpy ( or the dopey, doc and sleepy) ? It takes all types to make our strange little world as they say. Let us celebrate each and every seven dwarfnesses at work I say. OK so far so good.
Now there is something more. To be grumpy is also a sign of feeling and a sign of a kind of heaviness that balances out any lightness of being for itself alone. Grumpy OK. In any society that is hell bent on indifference or mere irony then to be grumpy means much. To be grumpy displays a feeling that is not indifferent. Grumpiness is one part of a Moral Culture.
But praise too to ole Happy and Sneezy et al.
Difference without indifference : oh yes.
Moral Culture?
Now that is a term most fancy fashionable and "Guardian" types avoid.
Wonder why I do.
I guess our strange ole world needs a bit of the grumpy here and there. Where would those seven little dwarfs be without Grumpy ( or the dopey, doc and sleepy) ? It takes all types to make our strange little world as they say. Let us celebrate each and every seven dwarfnesses at work I say. OK so far so good.
Now there is something more. To be grumpy is also a sign of feeling and a sign of a kind of heaviness that balances out any lightness of being for itself alone. Grumpy OK. In any society that is hell bent on indifference or mere irony then to be grumpy means much. To be grumpy displays a feeling that is not indifferent. Grumpiness is one part of a Moral Culture.
But praise too to ole Happy and Sneezy et al.
Difference without indifference : oh yes.
Moral Culture?
Now that is a term most fancy fashionable and "Guardian" types avoid.
Wonder why I do.
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF IT ALL
As December 6th comes around again there are some things that do not change. Over on the good Yellow Duck site the old Nick ( the Santa of Holland) is remembered as a kind of life and death thing. The kids there in the Netherlands needed to be good if life was to continue well for them. On another celebrated site, at Szwagier and the Pirates lair, it becomes today all existential. Not only is Szwgier feeling "unwell today" but the old pirate ponders upon sickness and health. Still moving around the ring of awkwardness we find Anticant swimming firmly in the deep waters of real illness or sickness or the existential shocks that relate to a human body that knows it is not well. I guess somethings never change in life or at least I guess a few basics remain.
No matter the ways that sickness, or illness or whatever the correct term is, is sometimes made into a nasty stigma or a label of untouchableness - no matter these matters - there remains something deep and difficult here. Easy to fool around with or make black ( dark side) jokes about but this life and death existence itself is the only wise smile about.
Finland today, December 6th, is a rather special day for so many. Indepedence for Finland was and is no easy thing but Finns are a very independent lot. Tonight about 18.00 hours, damn it a six, Finns will by the thousands and thousands gather around at different cemeteries throughout the land. It will be dark and usually with a full white snow cover. Then the candles will be flickering. Hundreds of candles everywhere. A foreign visitor is usually amazed at this sight. It is an atmosphere that has power and emotion. But the point is this. This atmosphere is one of respect for those now long since deaprted. It is a new life being given through the memory with death.
This may be called a religious or spiritual experience or not. What I have felt from this dec 6th night of candles is really a respect for life and death itself and a warm feeling for others. Connection is the word that springs to mind. I cannot give another interetation as I am not a member of the church.
But tonight around 6 on the 6th of December I will join the candle burning folk.
There maybe be some that might sense a black-act at work - but no I will not light six candles.
I will however be impressed again to remember and connect with folk and life and death.
As December 6th comes around again there are some things that do not change. Over on the good Yellow Duck site the old Nick ( the Santa of Holland) is remembered as a kind of life and death thing. The kids there in the Netherlands needed to be good if life was to continue well for them. On another celebrated site, at Szwagier and the Pirates lair, it becomes today all existential. Not only is Szwgier feeling "unwell today" but the old pirate ponders upon sickness and health. Still moving around the ring of awkwardness we find Anticant swimming firmly in the deep waters of real illness or sickness or the existential shocks that relate to a human body that knows it is not well. I guess somethings never change in life or at least I guess a few basics remain.
No matter the ways that sickness, or illness or whatever the correct term is, is sometimes made into a nasty stigma or a label of untouchableness - no matter these matters - there remains something deep and difficult here. Easy to fool around with or make black ( dark side) jokes about but this life and death existence itself is the only wise smile about.
Finland today, December 6th, is a rather special day for so many. Indepedence for Finland was and is no easy thing but Finns are a very independent lot. Tonight about 18.00 hours, damn it a six, Finns will by the thousands and thousands gather around at different cemeteries throughout the land. It will be dark and usually with a full white snow cover. Then the candles will be flickering. Hundreds of candles everywhere. A foreign visitor is usually amazed at this sight. It is an atmosphere that has power and emotion. But the point is this. This atmosphere is one of respect for those now long since deaprted. It is a new life being given through the memory with death.
This may be called a religious or spiritual experience or not. What I have felt from this dec 6th night of candles is really a respect for life and death itself and a warm feeling for others. Connection is the word that springs to mind. I cannot give another interetation as I am not a member of the church.
But tonight around 6 on the 6th of December I will join the candle burning folk.
There maybe be some that might sense a black-act at work - but no I will not light six candles.
I will however be impressed again to remember and connect with folk and life and death.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Do Blogger-Types Have Feelings ?
After a few trials of my own and after learning something about the trials of others I might ask, now, a few questions. But oh how much I would wish for a Dennis Potter to be still around. All wired-up? A head that is lost so much? Feelings that fret and feelings that vibrate enough to make the machine itself tremble a little.
Of course bloggers have feelings.
How to handle those feelings that mix with a virtual world? That is a big question. The so called on-line community or on-line-rings tries to ignore this kind of question through rules and regulations. Usually this means "their" rules and regulations. But there are many other ways happening too. I guess one helping hand comes from the words of Samual Taylor Coleridge when he asked us to "Never treat people as things". I think this might be good advice for a new blogger like myself.
But does this mean no awkwardness or no dispute? NO, NO and NO. All words and texts are somehow alienated and distant from our face-to-face morality. But this does mean that I, as a new blogger, must never treat people as things.
Will there always be fuck-ups? Yes, of course. Here is one question. How might we handle the fuck-ups? Could some old fashioned honesty make a return here ? Can we "come out" through the virtual image world and be open in an open society?
I guess many can and will and do this ok but that only so long as no business is behind or up front or in the middle of human communications.
After a few trials of my own and after learning something about the trials of others I might ask, now, a few questions. But oh how much I would wish for a Dennis Potter to be still around. All wired-up? A head that is lost so much? Feelings that fret and feelings that vibrate enough to make the machine itself tremble a little.
Of course bloggers have feelings.
How to handle those feelings that mix with a virtual world? That is a big question. The so called on-line community or on-line-rings tries to ignore this kind of question through rules and regulations. Usually this means "their" rules and regulations. But there are many other ways happening too. I guess one helping hand comes from the words of Samual Taylor Coleridge when he asked us to "Never treat people as things". I think this might be good advice for a new blogger like myself.
But does this mean no awkwardness or no dispute? NO, NO and NO. All words and texts are somehow alienated and distant from our face-to-face morality. But this does mean that I, as a new blogger, must never treat people as things.
Will there always be fuck-ups? Yes, of course. Here is one question. How might we handle the fuck-ups? Could some old fashioned honesty make a return here ? Can we "come out" through the virtual image world and be open in an open society?
I guess many can and will and do this ok but that only so long as no business is behind or up front or in the middle of human communications.
OUR RISK SOCIETY and the death of culture
It is not only the "bums on seats" evaluations of so called education today that baffles as bullshit - baffles all brains - it is also the lost mystery and character with life itself that is under torture from this risk-based and banal society. The numbers game is as dumb as dumb can be. As the poet Pope (1688-1744) would warn us and write : " See mystery to mathematics fly ...... and unawares morality expires". Or again from Pope : " The varying rainbows die away .... art after art goes out, and all is night."
A society ruled through both the business and business-politics of "risk" is one where we will need to struggle rather much to even find a human touch of character displayed on those dear streets of life. Good luck and thanks I say to all graffitti artists, to all the wonderful street performers and yes --- to all internet bloggers that try to take back the street. To the story-tellers and to the "varying rainbows" good luck and thanks.
This rather fancy and frantic mysterious world is needed to combat the risk society that is absurdly instrumental ( you cannot play with my football ; go get yer own football kind of thing). Winners and losers? I got a bigger one than you have? The only real insurance policy against this risky society is to say NO. Just do not NEED it!!!
Perhaps this approach to life is childlike ( never childish) and often an approach that will fall flat upon the cactus. But better that than ......................
It is not only the "bums on seats" evaluations of so called education today that baffles as bullshit - baffles all brains - it is also the lost mystery and character with life itself that is under torture from this risk-based and banal society. The numbers game is as dumb as dumb can be. As the poet Pope (1688-1744) would warn us and write : " See mystery to mathematics fly ...... and unawares morality expires". Or again from Pope : " The varying rainbows die away .... art after art goes out, and all is night."
A society ruled through both the business and business-politics of "risk" is one where we will need to struggle rather much to even find a human touch of character displayed on those dear streets of life. Good luck and thanks I say to all graffitti artists, to all the wonderful street performers and yes --- to all internet bloggers that try to take back the street. To the story-tellers and to the "varying rainbows" good luck and thanks.
This rather fancy and frantic mysterious world is needed to combat the risk society that is absurdly instrumental ( you cannot play with my football ; go get yer own football kind of thing). Winners and losers? I got a bigger one than you have? The only real insurance policy against this risky society is to say NO. Just do not NEED it!!!
Perhaps this approach to life is childlike ( never childish) and often an approach that will fall flat upon the cactus. But better that than ......................
In Praise of PEA SOUP
After a bad weather Monday, yesterday, this blog would be wise to stay nice and dry today. But lessons are there to be learnt and as a final comment ( a free pee ) on yesterday let me respect those old poets of the past who knew what to say and where, when and why. In the old trains, before the 1970s in the UK, there would be posted an official notice on the wall of the toilet. It read : " Refrain from urination when the train is in the station". Much better that than today methinks. Today? "Piss only when running". No mention of the wind direction or ...... Anyway let me get serious again. Learning procees.
In praise of PEA SOUP.
Pea Soup is one good Finnish tradition. It used to be, not so long ago, that pea soup was always on a Thursday. Alas that has mainly gone now but the pea soup thing remains still strong. It is not good to try and blog yer way into stardom but I must claim a certain expertise here. In the 1980s, in Finland, I was featured on TV because of my pea soup recipe. Nearly 40 minutes of fame ( beats that 15). But the main point is that pea soup is a saviour. If you do not believe me then just ask Finns.
December 6th in Finland is Independence day. It is a celebration of those men and women who went against the might of the Soviet Union and Stalin. Finns had the guts to say a very BIG NO. That history remains in many hearts of folk even young folk today. To fight against a huge army and to basically win ( with many pay-back consequences ) is still today respected as a tradition. December 6th also is a memory of winter warfare. With no disrespect here I ask those that are interested to look at the history books and stuff. But just think what even living in winter is like at minus 25 or 30 or even 40 degrees centrigrade? Then an idea of survival and "will" is slowly forged into mind.
One of the basic foods for survival was PEA SOUP. Not however the pea soup that I displayed on the TV because that was namby-pamby stuff fit for spoilt aristocratic brats like myself in contemporary times. No this pea soup for survival was with the minimum of peas and the maximum of hot juice. It was rumoured that Finnish soldiers would search with their spoons for the peas in the soup. Fate was the master of this act ( just like finding dry salt packets in UK Crisps or finding a salt packet at all in those good old UK days) but the juice remained. Finland battled on against the might of the Soviet Bear from the East and pea soup helped the victory.
Today whenever I feel a little down and out I can help myself with pea soup. OK I add a few bits of mint and i add a few chuncks of meat and a few slices of carrot but the feeling remains good. No I will not give you my famous pea soup recipe that was on TV before cooking programmes were just the thing for cheap broadcasting.
I know it is Tuesday but I celebrate pea soup today anyway.
Pea Soup Rules OK
After a bad weather Monday, yesterday, this blog would be wise to stay nice and dry today. But lessons are there to be learnt and as a final comment ( a free pee ) on yesterday let me respect those old poets of the past who knew what to say and where, when and why. In the old trains, before the 1970s in the UK, there would be posted an official notice on the wall of the toilet. It read : " Refrain from urination when the train is in the station". Much better that than today methinks. Today? "Piss only when running". No mention of the wind direction or ...... Anyway let me get serious again. Learning procees.
In praise of PEA SOUP.
Pea Soup is one good Finnish tradition. It used to be, not so long ago, that pea soup was always on a Thursday. Alas that has mainly gone now but the pea soup thing remains still strong. It is not good to try and blog yer way into stardom but I must claim a certain expertise here. In the 1980s, in Finland, I was featured on TV because of my pea soup recipe. Nearly 40 minutes of fame ( beats that 15). But the main point is that pea soup is a saviour. If you do not believe me then just ask Finns.
December 6th in Finland is Independence day. It is a celebration of those men and women who went against the might of the Soviet Union and Stalin. Finns had the guts to say a very BIG NO. That history remains in many hearts of folk even young folk today. To fight against a huge army and to basically win ( with many pay-back consequences ) is still today respected as a tradition. December 6th also is a memory of winter warfare. With no disrespect here I ask those that are interested to look at the history books and stuff. But just think what even living in winter is like at minus 25 or 30 or even 40 degrees centrigrade? Then an idea of survival and "will" is slowly forged into mind.
One of the basic foods for survival was PEA SOUP. Not however the pea soup that I displayed on the TV because that was namby-pamby stuff fit for spoilt aristocratic brats like myself in contemporary times. No this pea soup for survival was with the minimum of peas and the maximum of hot juice. It was rumoured that Finnish soldiers would search with their spoons for the peas in the soup. Fate was the master of this act ( just like finding dry salt packets in UK Crisps or finding a salt packet at all in those good old UK days) but the juice remained. Finland battled on against the might of the Soviet Bear from the East and pea soup helped the victory.
Today whenever I feel a little down and out I can help myself with pea soup. OK I add a few bits of mint and i add a few chuncks of meat and a few slices of carrot but the feeling remains good. No I will not give you my famous pea soup recipe that was on TV before cooking programmes were just the thing for cheap broadcasting.
I know it is Tuesday but I celebrate pea soup today anyway.
Pea Soup Rules OK
Monday, December 04, 2006
BRIT-FATIGUE DOWN DOWN DEEPER AND DOWN
According to the awfully middle-class gossip rag - Observer Magazine this last Sunday, there is a trend observed where the UK celebrates difference vis-a-vis the nether regions of cele-brats-pees and sees.
It has been the case that some male bands have tried their best to parade on stage naughty bits with testicles and unmentionable things attached to this pubic relations stunt. Shame about the poor bloke on the drums but they are, it is said, wanking on that already. Display yer dirty bits say the Brits. Oh yes and recently one female piss-artist of fame wet her pants on stage and did not even smell it. Rumour had it that the prompt ( that poor person hidden away and close by and under so that the singer would be able to remember the words from the help of the scroll) decided to have a shit. This just in reply and as a big thank you for all that smell of moist stinking rivulets running down the piss-artists legs. But the big pee-for-romance now comes from a continuation of the boring "anything goes so long as it pays" kind of stuff that journalists from Observer Magazine get paid to write.
Now, we are told in print, that Brit Spears finds her new power of self-esteem through displaying her nether naughty bits in public. Did this Brit get an extra few stiches put in after the birth? Or, as some have joked about in private conversations, are those brains-between-the-legs of Brit Spears just getting closed up again. But the Observer Magazine, in the wisdom of gossip rags, finds a new kind of self esteem popping out here.
Comment?
OK : After seeing a fair amount of nether regions in the past and after washing them after the normal human movements I just cannot see the big deal here. After sun bathing naked I say so what. After a good family sauna I ask : what the hell is this Brit thing? Is there a problem with the Brit-Bodies? Why the hell does this type of thing make the money to keep rags like Observer magazine going?
Bring back our "Muffin the Mule"?
According to the awfully middle-class gossip rag - Observer Magazine this last Sunday, there is a trend observed where the UK celebrates difference vis-a-vis the nether regions of cele-brats-pees and sees.
It has been the case that some male bands have tried their best to parade on stage naughty bits with testicles and unmentionable things attached to this pubic relations stunt. Shame about the poor bloke on the drums but they are, it is said, wanking on that already. Display yer dirty bits say the Brits. Oh yes and recently one female piss-artist of fame wet her pants on stage and did not even smell it. Rumour had it that the prompt ( that poor person hidden away and close by and under so that the singer would be able to remember the words from the help of the scroll) decided to have a shit. This just in reply and as a big thank you for all that smell of moist stinking rivulets running down the piss-artists legs. But the big pee-for-romance now comes from a continuation of the boring "anything goes so long as it pays" kind of stuff that journalists from Observer Magazine get paid to write.
Now, we are told in print, that Brit Spears finds her new power of self-esteem through displaying her nether naughty bits in public. Did this Brit get an extra few stiches put in after the birth? Or, as some have joked about in private conversations, are those brains-between-the-legs of Brit Spears just getting closed up again. But the Observer Magazine, in the wisdom of gossip rags, finds a new kind of self esteem popping out here.
Comment?
OK : After seeing a fair amount of nether regions in the past and after washing them after the normal human movements I just cannot see the big deal here. After sun bathing naked I say so what. After a good family sauna I ask : what the hell is this Brit thing? Is there a problem with the Brit-Bodies? Why the hell does this type of thing make the money to keep rags like Observer magazine going?
Bring back our "Muffin the Mule"?
Friday, December 01, 2006
NOISE with Background NOISE : all together now?
I was, yesterday and today, taking a look at one blog written by a wonderful old fashioned blogger. By this I mean that this old fashioned blogger does not need slick and nasty words to make a point. So i read this blog through slowly and with thought. A pleasure. This old fashioned blogger has been called in humour and warmth "AntiqueKant". But the real name is "Anticant". ( see links). God bless this non-conformist voice. ( oh dear me I have buggered up there because Anticant is really not that kind of God fearing soul and Anticant is always with a kind of wicked sense of humour.) Anticant does not play with the postmodern words-world. We might suspect that words and deeds fuse as horizons widen. With this kind of atmosphere at work I try to agree with this old fashioned blogger. Yes. Too much damned noise! Too much background noise to support the noise that is already there.
What did Anticant say? ( see the link and see for yourself). For me I understood quite well the absurdity of certain TV and film techniques. Clapping and laughing everywhere. All made by the machine. The noise of most TV is doubled up by the background noise. But this pays and sells and the absurd fairground grows through a kind of Daily Mail SUN that lives with a Mirror. Absurd? Yes. A TV world? Not OK for Anticant. Absurd-Value may be the "value-added" ideal for a UK government but for Anticant this is not OK. Anticant does not agree with an idle audience. Perhaps Anticant has lived before the stage that seperates performers from participants or has lived before the Bank of Blairism finally divided professionals from clients. Clap now! Join the fray! Clapping is Free! Be a free spectator with us or just play along willingly as you think.
All this reminded me of a "free ticket" to a TV show in the 1960s. I was then given prompts to laugh or clap or sigh. People with bill boards stood up whenever we, the audience, should be clapping or laughing or sighing. The words on those boards said clap now or ..... But was this crap first now in the 1960s? Sorry to all ye new turd world (blamers and shamers of youth and we uncouth). But this crap was already going on yonks before and a very long time before. Just to give a recent example from the 1930s in the UK we need only to read "English Journey" by J.B.Priestly. He complained about machines that "made" us laugh or cry in the new fairgound occasions and where all real human fun was now machined so long as we pay to play the game.
It is not suprising that a 1960s Cat Stevens would sing : "Switch on Summer with a slot machine". It is not a coincidence that the American professor, C Wright Mills, would write , in the 1950s, about the "Coin of Fun". It is not a big mystery that the likes of a Bush and Blair enjoy to play their image games with no content and with much popular support. Bullshit pays in an age of contented robots.
I was, yesterday and today, taking a look at one blog written by a wonderful old fashioned blogger. By this I mean that this old fashioned blogger does not need slick and nasty words to make a point. So i read this blog through slowly and with thought. A pleasure. This old fashioned blogger has been called in humour and warmth "AntiqueKant". But the real name is "Anticant". ( see links). God bless this non-conformist voice. ( oh dear me I have buggered up there because Anticant is really not that kind of God fearing soul and Anticant is always with a kind of wicked sense of humour.) Anticant does not play with the postmodern words-world. We might suspect that words and deeds fuse as horizons widen. With this kind of atmosphere at work I try to agree with this old fashioned blogger. Yes. Too much damned noise! Too much background noise to support the noise that is already there.
What did Anticant say? ( see the link and see for yourself). For me I understood quite well the absurdity of certain TV and film techniques. Clapping and laughing everywhere. All made by the machine. The noise of most TV is doubled up by the background noise. But this pays and sells and the absurd fairground grows through a kind of Daily Mail SUN that lives with a Mirror. Absurd? Yes. A TV world? Not OK for Anticant. Absurd-Value may be the "value-added" ideal for a UK government but for Anticant this is not OK. Anticant does not agree with an idle audience. Perhaps Anticant has lived before the stage that seperates performers from participants or has lived before the Bank of Blairism finally divided professionals from clients. Clap now! Join the fray! Clapping is Free! Be a free spectator with us or just play along willingly as you think.
All this reminded me of a "free ticket" to a TV show in the 1960s. I was then given prompts to laugh or clap or sigh. People with bill boards stood up whenever we, the audience, should be clapping or laughing or sighing. The words on those boards said clap now or ..... But was this crap first now in the 1960s? Sorry to all ye new turd world (blamers and shamers of youth and we uncouth). But this crap was already going on yonks before and a very long time before. Just to give a recent example from the 1930s in the UK we need only to read "English Journey" by J.B.Priestly. He complained about machines that "made" us laugh or cry in the new fairgound occasions and where all real human fun was now machined so long as we pay to play the game.
It is not suprising that a 1960s Cat Stevens would sing : "Switch on Summer with a slot machine". It is not a coincidence that the American professor, C Wright Mills, would write , in the 1950s, about the "Coin of Fun". It is not a big mystery that the likes of a Bush and Blair enjoy to play their image games with no content and with much popular support. Bullshit pays in an age of contented robots.
NOISE with Background NOISE : all together now?
I was, yesterday and today, taking a look at one blog written by a wonderful old fashioned blogger. By this I mean that this old fashioned blogger does not need slick and nasty words to make a point. So i read this blog through slowly and with thought. A pleasure. This old fashioned blogger has been called in humour and warmth "AntiqueKant". But the real name is "Anticant". ( see links). God bless this non-conformist voice. ( oh dear me I have buggered up there because Anticant is really not that kind of God fearing soul and Anticant is always with a kind of wicked sense of humour.) Anticant does not play with the postmodern words-world. We might suspect that words and deeds fuse as horizons widen. With this kind of atmosphere at work I try to agree with this old fashioned blogger. Yes. Too much damned noise! Too much background noise to support the noise that is already there.
What did Anticant say? ( see the link and see for yourself). For me I understood quite well the absurdity of certain TV and film techniques. Clapping and laughing everywhere. All made by the machine. The noise of most TV is doubled up by the background noise. But this pays and sells and the absurd fairground grows through a kind of Daily Mail SUN that lives with a Mirror. Absurd? Yes. A TV world? Not OK for Anticant. Absurd-Value may be the "value-added" ideal for a UK government but for Anticant this is not OK. Anticant does not agree with an idle audience. Perhaps Anticant has lived before the stage that seperates performers from participants or has lived before the Bank of Blairism finally divided professionals from clients. Clap now! Join the fray! Clapping is Free! Be a free spectator with us or just play along willingly as you think.
All this reminded me of a "free ticket" to a TV show in the 1960s. I was then given prompts to laugh or clap or sigh. People with bill boards stood up whenever we, the audience, should be clapping or laughing or sighing. The words on those boards said clap now or ..... But was this crap first now in the 1960s? Sorry to all ye new turd world (blamers and shamers of youth and we uncouth). But this crap was already going on yonks before and a very long time before. Just to give a recent example from the 1930s in the UK we need only to read "English Journey" by J.B.Priestly. He complained about machines that "made" us laugh or cry in the new fairgound occasions and where all real human fun was now machined so long as we pay to play the game.
It is not suprising that a 1960s Cat Stevens would sing : "Switch on Summer with a slot machine". It is not a coincidence that the American professor, C Wright Mills, would write , in the 1950s, about the "Coin of Fun". It is not a big mystery that the likes of a Bush and Blair enjoy to play their image games with no content and with much popular support. Bullshit pays in an age of contented robots.
I was, yesterday and today, taking a look at one blog written by a wonderful old fashioned blogger. By this I mean that this old fashioned blogger does not need slick and nasty words to make a point. So i read this blog through slowly and with thought. A pleasure. This old fashioned blogger has been called in humour and warmth "AntiqueKant". But the real name is "Anticant". ( see links). God bless this non-conformist voice. ( oh dear me I have buggered up there because Anticant is really not that kind of God fearing soul and Anticant is always with a kind of wicked sense of humour.) Anticant does not play with the postmodern words-world. We might suspect that words and deeds fuse as horizons widen. With this kind of atmosphere at work I try to agree with this old fashioned blogger. Yes. Too much damned noise! Too much background noise to support the noise that is already there.
What did Anticant say? ( see the link and see for yourself). For me I understood quite well the absurdity of certain TV and film techniques. Clapping and laughing everywhere. All made by the machine. The noise of most TV is doubled up by the background noise. But this pays and sells and the absurd fairground grows through a kind of Daily Mail SUN that lives with a Mirror. Absurd? Yes. A TV world? Not OK for Anticant. Absurd-Value may be the "value-added" ideal for a UK government but for Anticant this is not OK. Anticant does not agree with an idle audience. Perhaps Anticant has lived before the stage that seperates performers from participants or has lived before the Bank of Blairism finally divided professionals from clients. Clap now! Join the fray! Clapping is Free! Be a free spectator with us or just play along willingly as you think.
All this reminded me of a "free ticket" to a TV show in the 1960s. I was then given prompts to laugh or clap or sigh. People with bill boards stood up whenever we, the audience, should be clapping or laughing or sighing. The words on those boards said clap now or ..... But was this crap first now in the 1960s? Sorry to all ye new turd world (blamers and shamers of youth and we uncouth). But this crap was already going on yonks before and a very long time before. Just to give a recent example from the 1930s in the UK we need only to read "English Journey" by J.B.Priestly. He complained about machines that "made" us laugh or cry in the new fairgound occasions and where all real human fun was now machined so long as we pay to play the game.
It is not suprising that a 1960s Cat Stevens would sing : "Switch on Summer with a slot machine". It is not a coincidence that the American professor, C Wright Mills, would write , in the 1950s, about the "Coin of Fun". It is not a big mystery that the likes of a Bush and Blair enjoy to play their image games with no content and with much popular support. Bullshit pays in an age of contented robots.
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