The Real Stuff

I keep on rediscovering the Human Clock in my Favourites, or running it on a spare PC at work (to glance at - it IS a clock, after all).

Although it is a nice piece of group creativity it does remind me that everyone is taking pictures now. I am on cctv on the way to work and in work (but not in this room as far as I know). I am not sure how we are going to filter all this stuff, when every bum scratching his arse (or is that asshole scratching his bum?)is being photo'd on his mate's mobile, and transmitted round the planet. Every tourist taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower is in everyone else's picture. Every lurching group of binge drinking teenagers is texting and sending pictures to every other teenager on the planet as reality tv and chat-up.

Filtering is going to become really important...

And if you think taking the filters off your mind and senses with acid was overwhelming, imagine how much more so it will be when you sense what 6 billion people are doing and seeing and thinking and feeling...(or was that acid, anyway - errr, I can't really remember, it's so long since I had the real thing).

We used to have telepathy, now we have mobile telephones; we used to have natural cycles and synchronicity, now we have clocks, calendars and appointments in personal organisers; we used to have ploughs pulled by horses, that ran on locally available fuel, contributed the by-products back to grow more fuel, were self-healing, reproduced/replaced themselves at no extra cost and were warm and friendly, and when finished with you could eat them or feed them to your dogs. Now we have tractors, running on fuel transported from thousands of miles away, polluting the air, expensive to maintain and replace, and are noisy and compress the earth they are supposed to be ploughing up. Ah, progress!

This is Han-Shan and his mate, Shih-te, having a laugh while sweeping up leaves. Notice how serious the people are who have the high-status jobs - and then decide if you prefer to laugh.... There's a little more about the pair of fools here

High IQ - Low Ambition

Countdown to Bob - one more day of work, and then I am home here to welcome the Somerset posse and go to the show...

Dig those moves

That'll be the spiral then....

The month of Gidouille is named after the spiral on Pere Ubu's costume.

It's still pretty hot here in the UK

And the waterfall is running now

Happy Bloomsday! 10 Gidouille 132 E.P. St Lucullus - amateur

I do sometimes wonder if I am part of a very small group of people who have actually read Ulysses right through (once). I enjoyed it, although it was a kind of immersion and go with the flow experience.

I read it when living in Paris, as there was very little in English around the atelier we were squatting, and I used it when I was getting too bewildered by the fact that French people do not speak the language that they had spent six years teaching me in school (but then again, Mr Marsh and I never got on - so if you hate your teacher, you hate your subject, and learn nothing).

I have also dabbled in Finnegans Wake, which makes me laugh (as Joyce intended) but I have certainly not read all of that. My only contribution to Joyce scholarship is my suggestion that FW should be published ringbound (as it ends in the middle of the sentence which starts it) so you could literally open it anywhere and start reading...the problem with a linear book being that you tend to open the middle...I offer that up, for what it's worth...

Go Ape

I am really not sure if this piece of scientific work was launched on April 1st - but it appears deadpan.

Briefly: Scientists in London are looking for groups of volunteers to help in a research study that will explore the behavioural links between chimpanzees and humans, according to Sky News.

Participants will be asked to replace their usual methods of communication with a combination of grunts and hand gestures, which correspond to the gestures of chimps in their natural habitat.

Handshakes and greetings could be replaced by a back rub or grooming session, while baring your teeth could be used to show a colleague that you disagree with them.

How do you think it would go down in your workplace?

Comments welcome.

Wrapping it all up at 3.15 am

What a day! Hi to K&K!

Thanks to Deep Leaf for the invite.

Another nice one from HPB:
"To obtain the knowledge of self, is a greater achievement than to command the elements or to know the future."

Get a taste of duende at Flamenco World

Yes, and good night - and peace to all sentient beings.....

(I didn't mean to offend anyone) Well, er, politicians can assume I meant it...

Oh, and no I don't have any attachment to 666, that was just to scare people off - actually my own personal 23 is 528, which I got from my friend Mick, who said it was the key given to him by the time travellers (or whoever they were). We joked about it for a while - after all it was our phone number - and we looked out for it (of course), so imagine my surprise when Crowley told me it was a triangular number, with a side of 32, and that 529 was 23x23 (528 + 1, a year and a day, etc).

Then I came across the 'key' reference in The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order, by Paul Foster Case, and even Mick didn't buy it....

OK OK I'll get his book online soon, but it may just be another PKD weird day....

Amor et Hilaritas

The last post was the 600th to this blog - as if it matters - you can count the next 66 if you care - but it cheered me up.

What more can you ask? I lost my computer reading glasses earlier today, even emailed all my workmates - got fed up and went back to my den at home and took Ken Campbell's advice, (you can either wait for Harvey to have his little joke or) just walk into the den that you have searched from top to bottom and say firmly "Be There!" and there they were.

It would be spooky if I didn't spend half my time trying to remind people of Uri Geller's "little tricks" - trying to convince people about David Blaine's levitation being a simple trick (that Muhammad Ali used to do - check out the reference in The Tao of Muhammad Ali) "floating like a butterfly", Balducci, music-hall, etc, (oh use yer Google) and a lot of belief - and being very impressed with Derren Brown's shows. And still synchronicity works when I least expect it.

Oh wow man - half a chance

I have just got an invite to take a place at the Maybe Logic Academy

I can't explain - to those of you who don't know how exciting this feels - a jump into the unknown sounds like a great plan.

Whether I can edit out the verb "to be" from my correspondence - hmm, I can already feel myself drying up. Ah well.

For those of you who don't understand my glee - fnord - have a little fun, make a little money, do a little good.

Be Seeing You.

All good stuff

We are having a training day here, on Social Inclusion, which I am enjoying (this is the tea break). The trainer is excellent, and it feels as though we are generating ideas which could be put into practice - not just another dull day of training, which is forgotten the day after.

A lot of it has to do with the perception of libraries (dull) and library staff (duller) which just are not keeping up with the way we are, and what we offer. Unfortunately, those cliches about librarians are no doubt in the minds of politicians, council members, etc. They don't know that some of those supposedly quiet buildings are now virtually Internet Cafes, with bunches of youths squabbling - that we offer latest videos and DVDs, CDs, and books....(ah, books, reading, school, boring and/or frightening).

Anyway, I am not going to compile my notes here....just taking a breather. OK, back into the fray for the last hour or so.

A slightly better report later.

A Peaceful Thought for the day

I get a regular email from the Theosophists, but a lot of the quotes are a bit jargonish for me, all that karma and will stuff. Today's I liked:

THE TRUSTING MIND

To live in the Great Way
Is neither easy nor difficult,
But those with limited views
Are fearful and irresolute;
The faster they hurry, the slower they go,
And clinging (attachment) cannot be limited;
Even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment
Is to go astray.
Just let things be in their own way
And there will be neither coming nor going.
One thing, all things;
Move among them and intermingle,
Without distinction.
To live in this realization
Is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.
To live in this faith is the road to non-duality,
Because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.
The Way is beyond language,
For in it there is
No yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.

HSIN HSIN MING

Small pleasures - no pressure - I hope Bob has had a pleasant break, and arrives here refreshed - but let's face it, live shows have always been a gamble.

Sir, I soon saw Bob was no Osiris.

This may be an old joke, but it was new to me....

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those that understand binary, and those that don't".

And checking it on the web, I see there are people quoting it who didn't really even get it...as in...

There are ten types of people on this world. Those that understand binary and those that don't.

Perhaps it depends on whether you read visually or sub-vocally....

Well, duh, coffee is good if you've been drinking alcohol

I might have to put this into whichever website publishes inflated scientific budgets which have proved the obvious:

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters Health) - Coffee and other caffeinated beverages may provide some protection from liver damage in people at risk for liver disease, according to research presented here at Digestive Disease Week.

Using data from the third US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted between 1988 and 1994, Drs. James E. Everhart and Constance E. Ruhl assessed the association between caffeinated beverage consumption and liver disease.

Among people at risk for liver disease due to excessive alcohol use or other factors, drinking more than two cups of coffee per day seemed to protect against liver damage.

Compared with people who didn't drink the beverage, those who did were 44-percent less likely to show evidence of liver damage. The risk reduction seen with consumption of any caffeinated beverage was even higher, at 69 percent.

Big hello to the other dogs out there, you know who you are....(Click on the picture if you don't know the words)

Apologies to the artist (as ever)

I enjoyed Big Fish - always been an Albert Finney fan - and I like Tim Burton's story-telling - great circus - the oldtime hiding place for unusual people (not just physically, but mentally)

Strange Days Indeed, most peculiar Momma

I heard Reagan's dead (that's one down, still a few to go...)

which reminds me of a joke from the Thatcher era:

Q: What do you call twenty Conservative Members of Parliament at the bottom of a river?

A: A good start.

The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (Without a Net)

It's odd, having spent my whole atheist life trying to work out how the world REALLY works, to be told I don't appear very adventurous.

The definitions change. This next generation seems to think it is daring to go to Australia - scuba diving (say). They set off with a return ticket (!) travel insurance (!) a line of credit (!) and a pre-booked hotel - to go diving with highly qualified (!) insured (!) trainers, and then return to swap adventures and photos with co-workers, who went to Africa to take pictures of lions on an organised safari tour. It all sounds about as daring and dangerous as crossing the road to me.

But I am old fogey. Don't get me wrong - I am glad my mate recently got an insurance payout from Equity insurance when he hurt himself training; I am glad for both performers and audience that some insurance firm is now betting 'it will never happen' with their public liability insurance cover.

It's just that to be told you're not very daring when you have just spent 40 years without a return ticket, without travel insurance, without personal injury insurance (we're not talking my negligence here, but not being able to find any insurance people willing to take the risk!), without savings or credit or pension or inheritance to come - and as often as not swapping dangerous skills with people who may not have been 'qualified' - I learned fire-eating in Mexico, tightrope and trapeze in London, tumbling in an uninsured space. I did stilts and unicycle with people I trusted - and that was the best I could hope for. I chose my own teachers on trust, and they did me proud. I enjoyed it all, and I am still as on the edge as I ever was. I am not bragging - MOST people on the planet depend entirely on their wits, their friends and family, or the kindness of strangers. Very few are part of the card-castle of mutual cover that the middle class and the rich offer each other, here. I FEEL as though I am in the majority (planet-wide), but in a serious minority here in the 'safe' world.

Anyway - here I am ranting in the small hours again - just for being told I am not very adventurous. Macho rankling, like the Monty Python sketch "When I was a boy, we were so poor...." "They don't know they're born..."

The Great Man

It's not by chance that I give the impression of drinking more than I did in my youth.

I did a little drinking in my teens, but once I discovered dope I gave it up. It seemed like the stupid drug of the older generation. I remember tripping in a pub in the North of England and getting Hunter's Fear and Loathing.

I did drink a little wine in Paris, of course...and a little tequila in Mexico...but once I became a juggler I virtually gave it up. Not just for the co-ordination, but the economics - I got more fun out of training, and preferred to use my money to pay for classes in everything I could think of. Funnily enough, I was just thinking of my wonderful acrobatics teacher Ronji Cruz the other day, but can't find news of her through Google. She it was who one day invited me out for a "quick half" and stopped me being so puritanical about it - over that half pint she invited me to teach her class the following week, which started me off on the teaching part of my life. Thanks Ronji!

Still didn't drink much. Saw too many stupid drunks at the medaeval banquets (being a Court Jester was a small but steady income - staying sober and acting tipsy was the best way to work). It wasn't really until I ended up in Barcelona that I started 'proper' drinking. Alone and despondent, there wasn't much to do but busk up some cash and then sit around in bars. And the Spanish didn't have any health issues with smoking and drinking (I still believe that it is worry that is a major contributor to illness - failing to do things joyously is fatal - that sub-text of "naughty but nice", "I really ought to give this up", etc). Either do it and enjoy it, or don't do it.

When living with people who don't drink it is a lot easier not to drink. And the reverse is true. When I went to Bristol and ended up with Marmora as a landlady (Hi Marmora!) I drank a great deal, which was partly from feeling 'over the hill' in terms of teaching (a self-fulfilling prophecy). Fortunately I ran away to join the circus, where a stout constitution was an asset (we worked hard and played hard - NoFit State parties were the best I have ever been to).

And now I live in Cardiff. The Welsh drink quite a lot, and pub culture is a way of life, so I get drawn in. I also like a bottle of red wine at home.

Listen, at the beginning of the Twentieth Centurythe last Ale-Taster in Cardiff was nicknamed "Toby Philpot" after the Toby Jug character, who, like Robin Hood and John Bull, is a classic British archetype, described in an 18th Century song (tune here - lyrics here). My dad may have been a teetotaler, but he named me after the most famous drinker in the land. Not a lot I can do about that. I researched the name when working on publicity angles (Toby Juggler, etc). This other Toby has published most of the same stuff, so I won't bother.

And, of course, when I took up juggling my hero was W.C.Fields (The Great Man), not one of those 'clean-living, drug-free (sure) Olympic athletes in the circus.


Hero with feet of clay...or something...

Stuck Inside of Mobile....

Bob's gonna be here soon, to start his European Tour...

Always look forward to his gigs

Desert Island - Discuss

Bob's on his way to Cardiff, and I am looking forward to it. He's not popular in my house (younger people seem to hear a grumpy old man, or, not having actually listened to him, just think of him as some has-been old Sixties protest singer). They don't know he has a great sense of humour, and gathers the best musicians around him, to play an eclectic mix of every music style of the 20th century, really well. Blues, Gospel, Rock, Folk, you name it.

It's weird to me, but not very weird. While people talk of cars, I talk of surrealists; while people talk about pensions, I talk about silent movies; when people talk about diets, I talk about Neuro-Linguistic Programming (the secondary gains); when people talk about mortgages, I talk about mysticism; when people talk about soap operas, I talk about astrology; when people talk about money, I talk about anything else....

Bob's been like an older brother to me, he's always going through stuff a year or two ahead of me. And no, it's not all parallel (I was never born-again) but there's stuff you go through at certain ages, whether you are a millionaire or a peasant.

I am sure that my mother would have preferred that I had more Shakespeare quotes in my head; my school teachers might have preferred more Bible (who knows?) Those were base texts for education in the UK for so long that they are a 'given' if you go on Desert Island Discs, a long running radio show which says "if you were on a desert island which 8 records would you take with you?" Of course, that dates back to windup gramophones, and single tracks. It all got a bit confused when you might now want to take album sets. Still, they give you a luxury and a book (and they throw in The Bible and Shakespeare).

Weird, again. I might want Shakespeare, but I'd trade the Tao Te Ching, or Catch-22 for The Bible, and then choose the Greater Oxford Dictionary for my book. And no, don't ask, I don't know what my luxury would be, but I'd lean towards a bag of really good grass seeds fnord... ya gotta have a nice lawn to sunbathe on....

The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life

In my tea-breaks (and at home) I surf the net. Research is my drug of choice.

Looking at those juggling interviews led to Andrew Conway's collection of Heckle Stoppers (one of the researchers was The Butterfly Man, Robert Nelson, who I met at Castellar - he seemed to be having fun, he found the showers and breakfast - and ended up doing his boffer act with a prison guard when we did the show in Algeciras prison - one of the best spin-off shows I have seen at a convention). Those Heckle Stoppers were published in Volume 11 of Maledicta. Please don't visit this site if mere words upset you.

The title quote for this posting is from George Carlin's one-liners. His site contains its own warnings and disclaimers. His site is blocked by Cardiff Council on our People's Network PCs, as being "extreme", but you can pick up some links here, if necessary...

Enjoy! - "they're only words, but words can mean so much...."

I was a manualist...

Sorry that blog PS's go upwards, but I noticed in the tongue twister the name Ramo Samee. That's not all nonsense verse: being a juggler and conjuror I recognised the name - he was very well known in the UK (A David Blaine of the day) in the early Nineteenth Century.

You can find material about him in the juggling archive here

Where I first saw him mentioned was in Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, a huge book, of several volumes, which my dad turned me onto. It is the most extraordinary snapshot of street life of the period. Roughly contemporary with Dickens, Mayhew was a journalist rather than a novelist, and went out to interview all the street workers. He then published the interviews as monologues (eliminating the questioner). I looked up the relevant street performers when I was starting out. Here's the juggler, just for a sample of these treasures.

I remember seeing the strong man's monologue done straight, in a London Bubble theatre show many years ago. It was a powerful piece. This is a rich resource for writers and performers.

This one's for Keili (who loves a bit of language)

While checking out Toby Jugs (see The Great Man, above) I came across this gem, a tongue-twister game dating back to 1824 (you had to make your own amusement's then!) The site explains it, here's the text:

TOBY PHILPOT sat tippling with UMPO, VUMPO, and WILLY WIDEMOUTH of Wolverhampton, when X and Y, two officers, brought in the culprit, while Saccharum Sweet Tooth said nothing, while Ramo Samee really swollowed a sword, while Sly Kia cried Quack! quack! quack! And turned into a duck, to escape from Poniatowsky, who said, To jail with the Juggler and Jade, as Mother Bunch on her broomstick cried, here's a to-do! as Nicholas Hotch-potch said, Never were such times, as Muley Hassan, Mufti of Moldavia, put on his Barnacles, to see little Tweedle gobble them up, when Kia Khan Kreuse transmogrofied them into Pippins, because Snip's wife cried, Illikipilliky! lass a-day! 'tis too bad to titter at a body, when Hamet el Mammet, the bottlenosed Barber of Balasora, laughed ha! ha! ha! on beholding the elephant spout mud over the 'Prentice, who pricked his trunk with a needle, as Dicky Snip, the tailor, read the proclamation of Chrononhotonthologos, offering a thousand sequins for taking Bombardinian, Bashaw of three tails, who killed Aldiborontiphoskyphorniostikos.

This is what passes for an advertising budget around Splott

spotted today

Refugee

Wandering around in my skin, I realise other people extend into their environment further than I do. Sure I have clothes and a Walkman (poor man's iPod) but I never really extended physically any further than that, no bricks and mortar, no fences, no furniture. The planet all 'belongs' to someone else.

That's fine, I can wander around most of it without much hassle, although I mustn't loiter anywhere too long, apparently.

So, I find conversations about mortgages, and gardens and cars and stuff quite distressing because I literally don't really understand. Apparently this big old free world I always took for granted can be 'bought' from me for a string of beads, and as I don't really understand what they intend to do with it when they 'own' it I agree - I take the beads, the smallpox blankets, and the bottle of whiskey I can't digest, and let them have it. hmm. (my usual romantic twaddle)

Anyway - today I was walking along, and in my head I could hear Tom Petty singing "Refugee", but it was coming out "No you don't have to live like the bourgeoisie, don't have to live like the bourgeoisieee..."

Just one of those things in my head. It ain't nothing important. And it's pretty stupid, coming from a man who now has a regular job.

We got some thin' we both know it,
We don't talk too much about it
Ain't no real big secret, all the same,
Somehow we get around it
Listen, it don't really matter to me
Baby, you believe what you wanna believe
You see, you don't have to live like a refugee

Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have
Kicked you around some
Tell me why you wanna lay there,
Revel in your abandon

Honey, it don't make no difference to me
Baby, everybody's had to fight to be free
You see, you don't have to live like a refugee
No baby, you don't have to live like a refugee

Honk if you're stupid

Outside the office window is a bedlam of noise - lorry drivers and car drivers complaining about the cost of petrol/diesel. Admittedly a lot of the cost in the UK is tax (but that does pay to fix the roads and bridges) - but the Green's have been telling us to reduce our dependency for many years now (I know, I wrote a paper about it in 1994 - ten years ago, and I certainly was not ahead of the game).

And, of course, the oil producers have us over a barrel (heh) - and the oil millionaires (Bush, Bin Laden, etc) have little motivation to reduce the price - they've cunningly run it up in the first place, with artificial shortages, and other alarums and excursions.

Sorry, guys - get the canal boats going again - change the railways back to freight, instead of yuppies with laptops and mobile phones - get those airships going - complain about something else.

You don't get the junkies running around with froghorns, complaining that heroin went up in price...dilute it, find a substitute, change your habits - do something active.

I moved from London to Cardiff, and got a job where I could walk to work. Regular walking is the poor man's gym; poor man's treadmill with weights is carrying the shopping home; etc.

I think we should give priority to taxis (rented car, always on the move, no parking); professionals (ambulances, circuses, deliveries, etc) and old people, oh, and maybe single parents.

Young fit people should be the last in line for a car - drinkers should be given an either/or option. Yeh, cars turn me into a grumpy old man....

The water is in, and the pond is taking on a life of its own

Outside the back door....

The smell of death (barbecue season)

Nice to have a day off - and sleep until I wanna get up. I still love that. If I am a little queasy today it was not last night's drinking, but today's kitchen smells.

Part of the problem with being a vegetarian is staying where the air is clean and sweet. It's not easy. I have often had to settle for restaurant smells in cheap lodgings in (say) Spain. Indeed, I often have to put up with restaurant smells when eating out with people (unavoidable) like the "best restaurant in Paris" that I was taken to last year, which had trouble coming up with anything that didn't have meat in it (and I am not even a vegan, so I think I am pretty flexible). It was a pretty smelly place, to me, though.

And I am not one of those veggies out to convert anybody. I am no more judgemental about meat-eating humans than I am of cats for catching birds. It's how they are. I am a veggie the way a sheep is a veggie, it's not a choice.

Recently my home changed. "Atkin's rules" means the kitchen smells of fish and chicken (as often as not).

The lodger eats mammals, too, so all in all there are a lot of pervasive smells. I try not to care. I remind myself that when I had a dog, or cats, I got used to these smells, and even braced myself to go into a butcher's a couple of times. I'm tougher than I was. It's just the smell I can't get over. I guess other people don't smell death.

Bless'em - it seems to make them happy - so it's my problem.
I just can't help feeling queasy, at the moment.

And when I look at The Meatrix I know I should really give up the cheese, too....

Lomography - and circus for the children of Iraq

Well, I strolled out for a late lunch, and stopped into Ozone - the organic snack place on Charles Street (highly recommended). On their wall was a montage of photos of Cardiff. What caught my eye was a picture of DevilStick Peat (jugglers know him) - who has been working on circus for kids in Iraq. All power to him - please visit the site, and see if there is anything you can contribute to help them out. Years ago some friends of mine did Jugglers for Peace tours of Nicaragua, and several of these sort of expeditions have emerged from the joyful and generous juggling subculture. It's great to hear it continues. How about a good news station?

On closer examination I realised that this display was from a lomography group in Cardiff. No, I hadn't heard of this before, but as a snap-happy world phenomenon it suits me better than some sort of perfectionist approach to photography.

So, I'll be logging on there, and joining in, maybe. Be Seeing You....

Pekar to Crumb

Wanting to check out Harvey Pekar more, I ended up on the Crumb Family site - which was a fun place. I came across this weird photo of Uncle Bill Burroughs which I liked, but then I liked the drawing of Burroughs that Jesse did (second picture down).... as well as his Lenny Bruce.

I'm a Monkey!

I recently enjoyed "Mean Genes" - a popularist digestion of the sociobiological field. Deliberately written in bite-size chunks, and without all the academic notes/proof/citations for their assertions (which can be found on their website) it was funny and enlightening. I think you will find some new stuff here, even if you have read similar things and are familiar with a certain number of the examples, as I was.

Recommended for people who don't think we were designed by a god, but just kind of grew...

Note for Keili

Hi K (I think I finally managed to be the tiresome, uncool dad when I misunderstood Childe Gideon - progress!)

I came across this interview with Richard Bandler, in which he makes it clear he has little to do with the misapplication of NLP, the phoney certification, the misuse of the technologies he invented. It's a good read. However, if you want to spend some one-to-one time with him it'll still cost you $10,000.
Perhaps it is just like the Treasure of the Sierra Madre - and a battle of the alpha magicians, trying to out-influence each other with their magical words, sigils and secret hand signals, to get all the gold.

Amazing, the amount of money sloshing around in the system.

Anyone else, looking in, I do find this stuff interesting, but have always been too poor to train. Or have been unwilling or unable to show my 'committment to change' by finding the money (as if it was just a matter of effort). I have real guru resistance - which they could cure if only I would let them....fnord

heh

PS: If I was going to succeed and influence people I'd prefer to do it the way Douglas Adams did, by writing something really funny....

American Splendor

Just watched the movie, and enjoyed it a lot.

Harvey Pekar's comic books never summed up my own life, but the depression is familiar. Anyone who lives around me knows that I may appear jolly and lovable when I am out and about, but that's my act (that was my act - but I still find it useful).

Let's face it more people live that way. Not the truthfulness, but the small and helpless life. I don't have any desire to save the world, I don't kid myself I (or anyone) could. All anyone can do is contribute in some small way. My friend Mick always dreamed of writing his way out of the corner, but (sadly) it never happened. He contributed in so many ways, but that next level of recognition escaped him. We can't all be a Bukowski. Macho, sensitive, alcoholic, violent - this stuff can still sell, even if it isn't politically correct.

It's harder to make art out of timid, hopeless losers and nerds. So it was nice to see it can be done.

And the truth is that under the gruff attitude there is a nice enough guy. (I'll leave you to decide if I mean him or me...)

Most bodacious indeed

When I went into Blogger today I found they were now offering free picture hosting with software called Hello - courtesy of Picasa (who have picture sorting software that I may well invest in - once I am happy with the trial run). I haven't had pictures in my blog since 2001, when my ISP (ntlworld) decided that they didn't like having my blog on their server (with the website) so I reverted to a blog on Blogspot (but sadly without pictures).

Excellent stuff, after a few minutes fumbling around.

Thanks people - what a rest from typing....

Mr Jules is doing a reconnaissance run to an 'exotic' location for a juggling convention in 2005 - watch this space for further details

All my own work....

Be aware that large water features can take over your garden... 

15 Merdre 132 E.P. (Saints Serpents d'Airain) 1 June 2004 A.D.

I spend a lot of time wondering about other people's beliefs. I never claim to be that well-informed, as the stuff I find interesting is mostly fairly obscure. I talk to people who have sports statistics down; others who know all the gossip about stars and/or fictional characters in movies and soaps; but there are also people who actually appear to understand what is going on in politics; or to understand how money works.

So, I know my little area of specialist knowledge and interest may seem as trivial to the serious folks as soaps and football results seem to me (and don't get me wrong, I love a good game - ask my long suffering partner - it's just that I don't have any particular allegiance to a team or country). I am a classic 'neutral'.

I do rather badly on trivia quizzes - what's the capital of Norway, who's the president of France, etc. The problem for me is that people who are fully informed about the latest events in the news are also being focussed by that intense beam of media interest - as if there is only one war on, for instance.

So I am not really surprised to hear from the USA that:

"64% of the people interviewed believed that Osoma
Bin Laden came from Iraq and was in Iraq"
"A British professor at the University here in Springfield really couldn't believe that percentage was true so he surveyed his students and found 57% of them believed the same,some even believed the 9/11 terrorists were trained in Iraq."

It would be great if the public was properly informed, but most of us aren't. The only edge that a distracted person like me (who prefers reading books about the past than watching the news) is knowing that I don't know, and so reserving judgement. However, not having an opinion seems to be considered to be negligent, thoughtless and indecisive - which is why the people with simple, clear, unambiguous views often bully their way to the position of power.

Hmmm.

Back to the Tao - the only useful guidance I ever found for living under warlords.

Ars longa, vita brevis (insurance man's panic)

In amongst all the war and stuff, you may have missed the tragedy of the Saatchi art collection being trashed (sic). It's weird, really, here I am a fan of Duchamp and Jarry, Joyce and Dali, etc and Modern Art, generally (although the original meaning of modern - contemporary - has gone now) - but I can't stand most post-modern art.

If I had been one of the guys named on Tracy Emin's tent "Everyone I Ever Slept With" I would definitely be asking to have my name taken off. But is that the point? Is she bragging? Getting her own back? What? And why so twee? "slept with!" Are we talking fucking here, or aren't we? I've slept with people I didn't have sex with, just as many of us must had sex without staying to sleep over. So is this brave art, or stupid euphemistic twaddle? [OK, did my research, it included teddy bears, grannies and unborn foetuses, so that's OK then]

I admit that is the first time I have let rude language out in my blog, but it's crucial sometimes. W.C. Fields gets quoted as not drinking water because "fish make love in it" - which completely loses the phrasing of the gag - what he originally said was apparently "I never drink water. Fish fuck in it!" Now that's funny...
And British TV doesn't bleep after 9pm, and The Guardian newspaper (the only one, I think) uses that word where appropriate) I think I have to go that way, too - even out here in hypersensitive cyberspace.

C'est la vie (14 Merdre 132 E.P. St Sphincter - profès)

I was on a countdown to Mr Wilson's latest book - with an apparent publishing date of June 1st - but just came across a reference to this not being available until 2005. I hope that's not because Uncle Bob is ill.

Just played through Murray Roman's "A Blind Man's Movie" - but it does sound dated, and doesn't grab me quite as much as "You Can't Beat People Up and Have Them Say I Love You" - but it comes from the days when rude words were bleeped, and is sort of pre-hippie, more like the jazz beats - who thought that being black was the essence of cool - Mailer's "White Negro". Part of the 60s shift was that white boys started scoring their own dope, and playing their own take on the music (so white boy blues got re-exported from the UK to the USA). Hey ho, so it's a period piece, but I was researching the Snow White bit - (see previous posting on 16th May).

need to know basis

Anyone who has met me in person knows that I think the world is made up of greater and smaller conspiracies. I am deliberately picking that unfashionable term because I think it is accurate.

It isn't by chance that 'conspiracy theory' has become linked with the lunatic fringe. There can't be any better place to put it if you are part of the British Establishment (running the City, the Tory Party and the Security services). That way, any hint of insider trading, disinformation, masonic involvement in large contracts, 'jobs for the boys', etc can be dismissed as left-wing paranoia. Magic! They are just conspiracy theorists...

I am reading "Smear" at the moment, which is precisely about this subject in relation to Harold Wilson's Labour government of the 60s - and what a battle he had at the time with the old money and embedded power (and how he has been portrayed as a failure ever since).

Of course, I am fascinated by the lunatic fringe, too. I particularly enjoyed the crop circle nonsense -(try "Round in Circles" by Jim Schnabel for a good chuckle about that). This mostly comes from my interest in how people are capable of believing just about anything (even a Creator god) - and my real interest is whether we can usefully distinguish between these kinds of special interest groups and belief systems - or even say anything useful about 'reality'.

It's still the Dark Ages as far as I am concerned, with tiny pockets of people hanging onto the civilised possibilities of humans - I remember being naive enough to think religion was withering away (!) - when that was just the Church of England.

I still live in hope of an integrated humanity, somewhere out there in the future, with a real grasp of our position as crew of Spaceship Earth, this fragile jewel hanging in space (and equally, the fierce old mother Gaia, quite capable of eating her own young), and our place/role in these complex systems.

But I am getting old, so I know it is probably just the remnant of my youthful 'hippie' dream.

People are crazy.

But if you don't have a lot of time, and want a quick, rational overview try the pocket essentials "Conspiracy Theories" by Robin Ramsay. Short and thorough, and to the point. Or, for the most up-to-date picture, check out his website Lobster.

13 Merdre 132 E.P. Sainte Lunette - solitaire

A little break from work, now, and time to think.

I am currently brooding about Derren Brown's magic of the mind show - so much more interesting to me than David Blaine veering from card tricks to 'hard man' stunts. Derren's show has caused me to rummage back through my brain and books - looking again at NLP (Frogs Into Princes, etc) - mental magic (book tests, billet reading, etc) - Gellerism - etc.

I found sound samples online, of Joseph Dunninger doing radio mentalism back in the 40s. I decided to buy Ian Rowland's book on Cold Reading, as it is supposed to be state-of-the-art. I came across a bit of Chan Canasta in my video archives....

And if I am talking in jargon, you may have to do a little research of your own, because this is a public place, and a lot of people don't want to know how things are done (fair enough). Also this is almost totally theoretical for me, it's not an act I was planning to do - unless I lose this steady little job of course, and find myself back on the street.....

PS: if you wonder what all this calendar stuff is about read this

Amnesty International's 'birthday'

Apparently, Amnesty International was founded on May 28th, 1961.

good work, people - against this ever-rising tide.....

This can't be right! I'm only smart, not a genius....

A few weeks ago I did an online IQ test which I didn't have a lot of faith in - they are dubious enough at the best of times - as it only took a maximum of 13 minutes. I think I took about 10 (and I get credits for being old, too).

It says I am a genius. Normally IQ tests mark me out in the 135 range, but this one gave me 162. I don't believe a word of it (it's too simple a test) but of course I am telling you all about it! I decided to go and look at their breakdown (for a few dollars). Perhaps they just set it on the flattering side to make their bucks.

I am not bragging so much (heh), as asking other people (especially people who have been measured before) to go try, and tell me whether it is hard or not. Perhaps one or two of the questions were similar to things I have seen before, or something...

It's free (unless you want the detailed report) and it takes a maximum of 13 minutes...so try it, and come back and use 'comments' to let me know....

And no, I didn't cheat on the time.....in fact it says I am a slow old thing....I probably shouldn't have gone back for a quick double check of my responses before posting it...

Welcome to the Pentaphiles

I just dropped in on the pentablog and came across a link to this blog, so in case you arrived from there I will give you this link to get back (will this throw the internet into an endless loop?)

The 'Nazi coca-cola' link was in my posting on the 26th May. Mark Thomas is a British equivalent to Michael Moore (kinda) but much funnier, and slimmer, and ruder. But then again, he started off as an alternative stand-up comic.

I don't know if the exhibition is still open to new contributions, but it is certainly already open in London....

This was the invitation
Check out this modern robot toy advert with swastikas(!)
And here is a bit more background about it all - from The Independent
Or check out this book, reviewed at The Edge

I did have a link to Mark Thomas's article in the New Statesman that woke me up to this, but since then the link has changed and takes you to a page which demands a subscription payment. So you'll have to put "coca cola nazi" in Google, scroll down a little to find the New Statesman, and then look at the cached version (if you don't want to pay that is). - and you can enjoy his conversation with the man from McDonald's, talking about corporate responsibility: "I found this conversation incredible. Coca-Cola was being criticised on ethical issues by McDonald's!"

Fighting all over the world

I caught most of a programme last night which sums up the best of what the BBC does. A calmly told story of 16 people around the planet, and what they were doing on 22nd March 2004.

The twist being that they were all involved with wars. Short term, long term, high profile and low profile - if you want details (and to see video clips, etc) go to the BBC's webpage here.

Watch it and weep.

I have managed to stay out of the frontline most of my life - but I fully understand why 'freedom fighters/terrorists' try to draw our attention to the plight of so many other people on the planet. I don't like their means, but I understand their motivations.

Here we all are, complaining about obesity, or traffic jams, or not being paid enough - unaware that we are top of the heap on this planet, living a life of (relative)luxury and (relative) security.

These people can't talk about 'early retirement' or 'unlocking wealth from their mortgage' or 'holidays' - they aren't worried that there is a shortfall in their pension plan. They are lucky to live one more day and get one more meal. I guess it was my realisation about, and identification with, that kind of life (far more common on this planet than middle-class office workers) which forced me to live as humbly as possible. I just felt really uncomfortable with any kind of privilege.

I know it doesn't help them much, to simply 'identify' with people living hand-to-mouth - but I have always felt like a landless serf; I lost (well, mislaid) my dad when I was 5 and my mum when I was 12; hated the religious education (indoctrination); hated the assumption of superiority (white, British); felt completely helpless when confronted by the weight of the opinions of the majority who surrounded me. Although I grew up in a home which my grandad had bought, by the time I was 19 I was homeless, and it has been rented rooms and borrowed sofas, tents and sleeping bags ever since.

It's hard to get a job without an address. It's hard to keep belongings when always on the move. And yet I have had it pretty easy. Look at me, 58 years old, fairly healthy (for my age), reasonably happy (all things considered), relatively secure (now that I work for society rather than myself), and with more happy memories than bad ones.

I shouldn't complain about anything, ever.

11 Merdre St Memnon - vidangeur (cess-pool cleaner)

I have a soft spot for Alfred Jarry - not only was he so far ahead of the game that it is silly (Ubu Roi was published in 1896!) - but he always sounded like a man after my own heart. This is from Barbara Wright's intro in the Gaberbocchus Press edition. "He was a brilliant and original boy, indepependent, curious, eager to live; obstinate, fierce, sarcastic, shy. In 1883 he entered the Lycee at Rennes where he learned with extraordinary ease but would take orders from no-one. He worked when he liked and not otherwise, he was a superb wrecker of classes when he felt inclined; he applied himself to sabotage with wit and intelligence."

I'd bettter go and start on that bottle of absinthe immediately....

10 Merdre St Barbapoux - lover

OK, I'll change calendars again, soon. It's just the insanity that surrounds me that tends to push me back off into absurdist realms. Just as I find it hard to talk to people about money (if they think it's real), I am finding it very hard to talk to people about what is going on in Iraq.

Have you seen that Major General Geoffrey Miller! Makes General Jack D. Ripper look almost human. He doesn't need dogs to scare prisoners, surely. Even military dogs must run away with their tails between their legs, whimpering, if he gives them a 'look'. I mean, that's not just the school bully, that's surely a psychopath.

And no, I am not qualified to assess people, especially not just by their looks and their voice, and sure, it's just my opinion...but did you also see Donald Rumsfeld saying "I've stopped reading the papers - I'm a survivor" and doing that smug shit-eating grin, hoping the soldiers will see him as "well hard". What an asshole - no class at all. If it wasn't for the fact that they would jump on me, hack my computer, do a character assassination and bust me with no human rights I would hint that those are the kind of politicians that need assassinating. (Is that incitement to crime? I dunno). I never felt that way about anyone before, except perhaps Mrs Thatcher who messed this country up completely (and we still are suffering the consequences, even now).

I don't think ranting or radical politics is the right approach, but I have no game-plan for geting rid of such entrenched stupidity/arrogance/greed. I am just a humble peasant, mumbling under my breath as the Sheriff of Nottingham rides by.

Oh,and PS to the rant below

I am currently getting a daily Theosophical quote. No, I don't belong, yes my dad did for a bit when he was young, no I don't think they are right about everything, yes I am glad they brought Eastern religious insights to the West, no I don't think everything they believe is true, yes I know the Nazis used some of their ideas (but they used Darwin as well) - I could do this all night - anyway, today's quote seemed right, when I realise I may be seriously upsetting family and friends with my ranting:

There is more courage in facing the world with undisguised truth,
than in descending into a wild beast's den.

Farewell to Arms....

I went for a farewell drink with a library staff member who has given up on our neglected and underfunded service, and gone to get a proper job.

I enjoyed it, even if this was the second night this week, of drinking too much.

When home, I always sober up before going to sleep (my only good tip for not having hangovers). Unfortunately I ended up watching yet another programme about US torture. I can't be surprised at this particular stuff - appalled, yes. Soldiers have to learn to do horrific stuff.

I am a bit startled to hear soldier's attorney's using the "they were only following orders" defence - as over here in the UK we have always used that line as a sick comedy line about certain Germans during the second world war (sic) who tried to deny any human moral responsibility with that defence. Like, you shouldn't defy bad orders...

And I understand what kind of personal threat THEY were under if they didn't follow orders, of course. The British have been shooting or humiliating deserters and conscientious objecters for centuries. It isn't just Israeli Intelligence inventing torture methods - a lot of them were honed by the British while building an empire, and some were (closer to home) really polished up in Ireland (which I take a bit more personally). And the religious aspect can't be left out. Christians have famously tortured anyone who got in their way for centuries. As an atheist with witchy tendencies I would have been burned at the stake anywhere in the last few hundred years "to save my soul". Check out the Spanish Inquisition.

When the Cathars quietly pointed out that this 'God' seemed to be a minor, arrogant, bullying demiurge (a local planetary ruler) in this great unknown universe, (really just a demon or fallen angel) they found themselves in a Hell of eternal torment staffed by Christians....When they said this life was a fall of spirit into matter, and that this life was the low point, a purgatory, they found themselves condemned to live through the Christian's own image of hell STAGED by Christians. What is that description of hell (demons with hot pokers, etc)? Where did you end up in this life, if you didn't believe that was where you ended up after death? Right. A torture chamber. Magic, huh? You don't believe in our Hell? We'll show you....

You may wonder why I quote surrealists and 'pataphysicians, but it's because (to me) most of the debates are avoiding the obvious, denying any straight human thinking, so basically absurd and completely evasive. And they always have been. I didn't want that 'British Empire' training (Church and State joined), which is why I dropped out in The Sixties. I am not claiming to have done a lot of good since then, but (Hippocratic Oath) at least I tried to minimize the harm I did, while being (unavoidably) a white English-speaking male.

And although I am glad this stuff is coming to light, I am really shocked both at the prurient 'reality tv' aspect, and at the hypocrisy of the people who funded it all - in denying that they knew the kind of tactics being employed.

'Rules of war' always made me laugh (I come from the first sick joke generation) - surely if you can agree on rules you could agree on an alternative to fighting - once you are fighting there can't be any rules "Rules?In a knife fight? No rules!".

When I was growing up we were told the Germans and the Japanese ignored the Geneva Convention - sure, and the British aren't famous as possibly the best at dirty tricks....we won fair and square. Sure.

Sick to my stomach - and now sober - I am going to bed.

Fanta for Nazis

yay for Mark Thomas, who is putting on an exhibition of art with the theme of Coca Cola's connection to the Nazis.

Now on in London

9 Merdre - Vidange

I have been playing my old game of look for my friends in the library. It's the old-fashioned version of putting your name in Google.

When I first started working here I found one of my dad's books in The Stacks; I found my friend Mick on the last page of Coincidences, by Brian Inglis, and in the Encyclopedia of Social Inventions; then I found a picture of me performing in "The Masterpiece:Award-Winning Fishknife" with Bruce McLean and Michael Nyman (don't ask); I found Caroline Noh in the Local Studies dept - when she worked with Moving Being; I know I am in the New Statesman (Covent Garden Hat Fair article) but I have no idea what date; a couple of days ago I found John Trigger on a video.

Of course, show business is like that. If I looked for people I have known or worked with I would find dozens (Jim Henson, David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg etc et name-dropping cetera....) So I restrict this kind of stuff to my personal friends and other minor show biz folks....

8 MERDRE 132 E.P. COCUAGE DE M. LE P. UBU

I am using the 'Pataphysical calendar, just to confuse the issue. (The world seems to have gone mad).

Went drinking last night with Jules - ended up in a subCULTure of which I was unaware here in Cardiff. Short film makers. Now I know the Star Wars fans do 'fan films', and I was only recently filmed for a low budget vampire movie called "Dornröschen" being made by some German friends, but I didn't realise it was thriving so close to home.

Always surprised afresh by humans.

Late British comedian Spike Milligan, the creator of landmark radio series The Goon Show, has finally been given his choice of inscription on his gravestone -

"I told you I was ill".

Two years after Milligans's death at the age of 83, the epitaph has been added to a Celtic cross above his grave at St Thomas's Church in Winchelsea, southeast England, it was announced on Monday.

The headstone carries the sentence in Gaelic - Milligan's family originated in Ireland - which the comedian had always joked was his chosen final message to the world.

Music of the spheres (and listening to Keili)

I was ducking out of a party tonight, and downloading some bits of music from Keili's site. (look under Audio)
I am really enjoying Settingrine (got it on a loop).

Go listen.

Elephants limp free at last

I have been involved with non-animal circuses, and I am a lifelong vegetarian, so I have never really enjoyed zoos or animal circuses ever since I became conscious of other beings....although, when I was young,it was fascinating to be taken backstage at the London Zoo, and handle snakes and baby alligators and stuff.

I just always felt real empathy for fellow mammals. It's the eyes. I wasn't brought up to think humans were a 'special creation'. We're mammals.

So it was excellent to hear from Crissie that a couple of middle-age elephants are going to walk free. Detroit Zoo is letting 45-year-old Wanda and 51-year-old Winky go to a more spacious sanctuary, with other elephants for company. It's like hearing Nelson Mandela was getting out. No-one could ever apologise enough - the thing was to go forward, and use what time is left. Mr Mandela's ability to forgive was what was so impressive.

I hope the elephants can forgive us, even if they can't forget...

And it reminds me that the very first show that made me want to be a performer was Le Grand Magic Circus (no animals), who had on their poster the subtitle "et ses animaux tristes" - or, in English, "with it's sad-eyed animals" - who were the human performers, of course.

mammals, all... "I miss my mammary!"....."Thanks for the mammaries..."

KINKS

Ray Davis was on the box the other night, he's making a solo album. A fellow Muswell Hillbilly, I have always had a certain affection for the band that didn't break into America. Hard enough for the Beatles (more famous than Jesus) or The Stones (attitude), but to get banned just because your name sounded 'kinky' (sigh)

Anyway, he kept that English music-hall feel, and I loved it. Of course, I realise how old I am, and how overlooked they are when they played Waterloo Sunset and Julie (quite a lot younger) said that she always thought that was a Beatle song...

The one real flash for me was Celluloid Heroes - I forgot what an utterly brilliant song it was, and how I sang it (off and on) through the 70s when I was trying to get into show biz.

Everybody's a dreamer and everybody's a star,
And everybody's in movies, it doesn't matter who you are.
There are stars in every city,
In every house and on every street,
And if you walk down Hollywood Boulevard
Their names are written in concrete!

Lots of wonderful rueful gags about stars being walked all over by tourists...ending in:

I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
And celluloid heroes never really die.

Now I remember why I don't want a mobile phone...

Crissie sent me a photo in that old-school Auguste clown outfit I was given as my role in The Raree Show back in 1973 - a costume which alternated with Gloria, the friendly Gorilla, (and that character costume, with 4 inches of padding ALL OVER was a great persona/outfit for learning acrobatics and pratfalls). In the photo we are grabbing a sandwich and a beer after a show, and she is 'taking a call' on my mobile phone. It was an old-style phone (we are talking 30 years ago) and it was pinned into the 'magician' back pocket of my tail-coats.

It was a gag about being interrupted when you are concentrating...I've enjoyed the same gag in Father Ted, when the people he rings are skiing, or driving fast, or whatever, and totally, disastrously, distracted from what they were doing when the phone goes...

At 'wrong' moments in my street show my mobile would ring, and give me the chance to take a call from anyone on the planet; or even turn to the crowd and ask "If there is a John here?" - Yeh? - It's for you....and then stand, phone coming out of jacket on short wire, while some poor guy would try to improvise a phone conversation. Hey. some of them were great - and it gave me breathing space, too. It's hard work doing a solo street show, especially on your own.

Walking unwillingly into work on a bright blue day

It reminded me of the joys of self-employment (I would have given myself the day off).

It also reminded me of the story about George Santayana (adjusted for May, and no inheritance!)

The philosopher had received a sizable legacy and decided to retire from the faculty. The room was packed for his final appearance and the lecture went very well. During his concluding remarks, he glanced through the window at a forsythia that was beginning to blossom in a patch of muddy snow. He stopped abruptly, picked up his hat, gloves and walking stick, and made for the door. Then he turned and softly said,

"Gentlemen, I shall not be able to finish that sentence. I have just discovered that I have an appointment with April."

Ah, sorry, yes - Old hippies only will remember this

I mentioned Murray Roman, without thinking how obscure that reference might be. He was a comic in the 60's. We were easily pleased - a comedy record with great music riffs, stereo sound effects, subversive jokes - it seemed great to me at the time.

More like Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In than Lenny Bruce, and yes, I guess a touch of George Carlin. I tracked down a worn old vinyl album of "You Can't Beat People Up and Have Them Say I Love You", but I can't fully get the stereo sound out yet - it was made to play on Mono or Stereo record needles (!)

Anyway - I thought it was funny, even the 60's bits that sound sexist today...non-PC though they are. Here's a reference if you care, and here's a little quote from that site:

Murray Roman's masterpiece of sick comedy was to title an album "Blind Man's Movie" and issue it with a completely black front and back cover, and a black gatefold.
His albums are more hip than dark, as he tried unsuccessfully to be the Lenny Bruce of the late 60's. But the late Mr. Roman often had a dark, telling line or two. From his first switched-on comedy album (he liked to collage rock music between the bits) there's this little gem: "Hey, why doncha call the police department at three o'clock in the morning and speak to them in German. If they answer in German, you got 'em, babe..."
It was Roman, by the way, not Carlin, who first thought up the idea of a drugged out version of Snow White: "Get high one day and read it. Sleepy would be a downer freak, into Seconals, droppin' up all day. Dopey would be a grass smoker...Sneezy was a coke sniffer. Grumpy was a speed freak. Happy was an acid head: "I love you, I love you." Bashful was a juicer. And Doc was the connection. Dig where that is. And Snow White...was their fantasy!"

Oil prices up? No surprise there, then

Steve Grad and his buddies were shocked at the price of petrol (gasoline) here in the UK. Of course, they got a bad exchange rate (weak dollar against the pound) - but we are not subsidised in the same way that the Americans have always been. I am not saying we pay the 'real cost' of course (the real cost to the planet is something much bigger).

The papers are full of how, if the war in Iraq was about oil resources, then it has backfired, with the prices soaring.

I think that's crazy. What makes you think George Bush and Bin Laden and the other oil billionaires are fighting to reduce prices at the pumps, for the ordinary consumer?

The price of oil going up might well be exactly the desired outcome, if you are invested in oil.

Or am I missing something? Perhaps they want to save the planet by reducing our dependency on cars and planes?

Remembered this quote, and tracked it down....

"It's easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting."

– Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity
If more Christians were like this, I would have a lot more respect for organised religion.

Applying Jesus’ Economics

Habitat’s economic philosophy is based upon what Fuller calls the “economics of Jesus.” The no-profit, no-interest components of the program come from a passage in the Bible (Exodus 22:25) that says those lending money to the poor should not act as a creditor and charge interest.

PS to Bob's thang (or is that thong?) - see previous post, below

I guess I am just similarly ambiguous about women and relationships, and moving towards 60 myself...

Run this by me again. Victoria's Secret is pornographic? It's a lingerie catalogue for f sake. That used to be jerk-off material back in the 50s when there was nothing else, but nowadays I see sexier women advertised as accessories to a car (by implication).

Sorry? It's the guys who are sad is it? Not the women who want "a man of wealth and taste"? Not the women who wax and paint and dress and act and simper and fake orgasms to get what they want? See, I can do boring old pig-bloke, no problem.

Personally, I think women mostly dress up for other women, but I could be wrong. After all, blokeish 'blokes' don't even notice a new hairstyle or new shoes. It sometimes seems to me that most women want a 'real man' except when they are grooming, in which case they are more 'fag-hag' and just wish guys cared about clothes and hair and perfume, and cleaning house, and relating, etc. Male models have designer stubble (a bit of rough), husbands have to be clean-shaven.

I am just writing to annoy, of course (which doesn't mean I don't think this stuff). It triggered a memory of "You Can't Beat People Up and Have Them Say I Love You" by Murray Roman [a 60s comedy album). He had a bit about the difference between the magazines men look at, and the magazines women look at. To paraphrase him "All the women we dig have tits!" You look at Vogue, or something, with (as it was then) Twiggy, and you can see "that it's a dyke thing", no tits. Weird.

A woman gardener in the UK doesn't wear a bra, and all the women viewers are up in arms - didn't we sort this out 30-40 years ago? (and at least their men folk now join them in watching the gardening programme!) Then I tune into "Sex and The City" and topless jiggling and nipple outline is apparently OK in these particular role models.

I'll never claim to understand.

Bob gets people's knickers in a twist

I came across a thing yesterday, that Bob was not just selling one of his tunes to advertising, but actually appearing in a Victoria's Secret ad!

Well weird, but quite funny. Why people are shocked, I don't know. Perhaps because they still describe him as Bob Dylan the protest singer (!) which is only a 40 year out of date description...and they forget he has a sense of humour, or might just fancy hanging out in Venice with a load of models (could do worse).

This is it. And here's a slightly saner comment on the uproar...emphasising that there are more important things to be getting upset about...as for the real hysterics, hinting that it is a paedophile ad - ah come on people, not all paedophiles are over-60, and those models are certainly not under 16 (Adriana Lima is 23) so what ARE you on about? Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones together in a movie? (even bigger age gap than Michael Douglas the husband...) These are grown-ups for goodness sake...and Bob ain't claiming to be wiser (that was the arrogant speed freak adolescent) - he seems to be having fun. Is that so bad?

And it could be as simple as this:

"Behind it all, this is a very funny joke, and those who would criticize Dylan for what he's done should lighten up. At a December 3, 1965 press conference in San Francisco, Dylan was asked: "If you were going to sell out to a commercial interest, which one would you choose?" After a brief pause, the 24-year-old Dylan replied, "Ladies garments." It was funny then, and it's even funnier now, nearly 40 years later, in light of the Victoria's Secret commercial. Dylan is an immortal artist of Shakespearean stature who has always walked to his own drummer, and anyone who expects him to nurse a guilty conscience over something so inconsequential and amusing will be disappointed."
Brantley Brock

And here's the track list of the CD you can buy at VS shops....

And advertising is getting people talking. it worked, didn't it? I hope Bill Hicks would allow Bob to be an honorary Willie Nelson.....for the gag...or is that for the gaga?

The Masters of Wisdom

I have been getting a Theosophy quote of the day email for a bit. I liked this, today:

Like signal-fires of the olden times, which, lighted and
extinguished by turns upon one hill-top after another, conveyed
intelligence along a whole stretch of country, so we see a long line
of "wise" men from the beginning of history down to our own times
communicating the word of wisdom to their direct successors.

- Isis Unveiled, II, 571 HPB

I realise that there is a certain chauvinism in this, but the same thing could be said about women's 'mysteries' being passed down the generations, too. It's just the major religions which seem to have become dominated by men. Is that typical? Not the skills of midwifery and cooking and interpersonal skills, etc. No, men are out there doing useful stuff like speculating about whether the universe is finite or infinite, and whether there is a creator or not. The important things in life. fnord

All good stuff

Great connections...Jay signed into the Guest Book (for lack of a published email address); Crissie sent me a couple of pictures of Raree Show days (I'll stick them up when I get a chance), which took me back to 1973; Keili added a comment, so I know he is alive and kicking out there, working on his album and on his website, etc.

Julie finished her old job today, is taking a bit of leave, and then will start her new job - more flexible hours, standby mode (sleeping) a lot of the time...

Brand new Blogger

I am at work today, so I will not be able to play with this - but Blogger seems to have launched a brand new version, and my templates and all that stuff may soon change.

There is a comments option, and all sorts of new stuff like that.

More about the blog's title

Here's an online encyclopedia on memes - language as a virus, etc

Well, well, well...

Anyone who knows me knows that I spend a lot of time thinking - hacking the biocomputer - and also thinking about thinking, learning how to learn, etc. What else is there to do? They can take away my stuff, or I can abandon it, or lose it, but even in solitary you have your biocomputer. That's probably why they torture people, I guess. If you are not torturing people to extract specific information, then you are doing it (maybe) just for kicks, or to demoralise the person (stop them thinking clearly).

There's not a lot you can do about being captured by sadists, of course, but I am startled at the response to (possibly fake) photos of soldiers tormenting prisoners. I know about the so-called 'discipline' of armies, but since when did you send a lot of testosterone filled young men into an adrenaline situation which they might not survive, and not expect them to do a bit of 'raping and pillaging'. I don't approve, of course, but I am hardly surprised.

[update 14th] Here's someone putting that point better.... "To attribute the scandal at Abu Ghraib to "a few bad apples" or to "individual failures" is poor psychology and self-serving pseudomorality. "

****************************

Anyway - I riffled through a book called software for the brain, and I liked this quote:

I believe you can get everything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want." Zig Ziglar (whoever, or whatever that is - sounds like someone from H2G2).

Star Wars pilgrimage

It was great to talk to Steve Grad and the guys last night - they've travelled a long way to meet up with us all, and I am still very honoured that people should go out of their way to come and meet me.

Thanks guys - it was a great evening - hope to meet you again sometime.

Dylan was very funny last night

As Julie doesn't like Bob Dylan, I bought her tickets to Dylan Moran instead...(I'll go see Bob with someone who appreciates him).

He was excellent, very funny. Touches of Bill Hicks (onstage drinking and smoking in front of an audience who can't, general misanthropy), and (the rambling approach) Eddie Izzard...but I don't really like comparisons.

He is hilarious in Black Books, anyway, and a lot of the crowd had come because of that television show...but we had both seen him do ten minutes of stand-up on tv, before...so a whole evening was a real treat. Only problem, I drank too much wine (in honour of the occasion) so it's a little hard this morning.

Coen Brothers' dialogue

'I'm not Mr Lebowski, you're Mr. Lebowski. I'm The Dude. So that's what you call me. That, or His Dudeness, or Duder, or, you know, El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.'

Oz Tentacles -

A bit of random browsing led me to notice that "Oz: a rock and roll road movie" is finally being issued on DVD.

This was the movie made by friends of mine in London (the people who let me live in the shed at the bottom of their garden) which I thought was very funny indeed, but it got a bit overshadowed by the release of The Wiz (!)

In this version the Cowardly Lion is a timid Hell's Angel, the Scarecrow is a spaced-out surfer, the Tin Man is a greasy mechanic, the Wizard is a Bowie-like rock star, the Wicked Witch of the North is a sinister truck/truck driver......I leave the rest to your imagination....

I even tracked down a copy in an OZ video store a while ago, but couldn't talk them into selling it to me. So FINALLY I can get to see it again. It's a pre-order for May 19th

Recommended!

Big hello to Chris Lofven and Lyne Helms!

Beta Testing Gmail

Because everyone seems to be worried about the ads tied to free email in Gmail, I thought I'd put in a few buzz words to find out, and guess what? It picked up my address from the sig file. This is what I put in, and I got tourist information for Cardiff...

Amazon books

William Burroughs

Neurolinguistic programming

movies

Lord of the Rings

owls

laughter

What will Google make of that?

Toby Philpott

Cardiff Libraries CMT

Living, working and sleeping in the library...

I was much amused by the story of the guy who lived in the library at NYU, as a way to economize and get to stay in school.

They found his blog so the truth is out, but they have been very civilized about it and re-housed him for free.

And talking of change...

Q: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

A: One. But only if, deep down, the light bulb is willing to change.

How Real is Real?

On my ebay ID page I have a picture of me reading a book with this title, back in 1986 (when I was 40!) It is a great book about communication and reality - not dry, but funny and thought-provoking.

I also recommend The Situation is Hopeless, but Not Serious (The Pursuit of Unhappiness)
It was from this book (and various texts of R.D.Laing) that I developed my resistance to the Catch-22 of the 'Be Spontaneous' command, i.e.

'The author finally unsheathes the most powerful weapon of all in his armamentarium, the "Be Spontaneous" Paradox. It's use is demonstrated below by two unhappiness experts: "Do you love me?"
"Yes."
"If you really loved me, you'd say so without my asking you."

Any request or command for a spontaneous act will cause other persons to be unable to perform the act spontaneously. Whether it's to: "Go to sleep", "Show me you love me", "Be happy", or even "Do a good job", the mere gracing of their ears with the request will make it difficult or impossible for them to perform as requested. This is the reason why actors before a stage performance are told to "Break a leg". Since breaking a leg can only happen spontaneously, it will not happen on command, and the actors are not stuck in the exquisite "Be Spontaneous" paradox of being wished to "Perform well tonight". Even the simple request by a photographer to "Smile" will evoke a faked or posed smile in place of a genuine one. True unhappiness enthusiasts are experts at the "Be Spontaneous" paradox. '


Paul Watzlawick doesn't seem to be around in his website much, but there is one page still active.

Happy Landings...

good to hear that Rachel and Keili have arrived safely back - and good to hear about all the news.

And who knew that Mr Copeland might now be into bellydancing.... I guess it's the 'coming thing'...it's always good to be on the wave...

R.H.Blyth and the Zen Classics

When I lived in London, I used to go to the Camden Library a lot. It was very well stocked, and at the Holborn branch they had a complete set of R.H.Blyth's Haiku books (the four seasons) as well as his Zen in English Literature book. Wonderful, dry witty stuff - not the new age approach to oriental culture.

On the Web, this seems to be the quote from him which is most often remembered:

"Thus we see that the all important thing is not killing or giving life, drinking or not drinking, living in the town or the country, being unlucky or lucky, winning or losing. It is how we win, how we lose, how we live or die, finally, how we choose."

So I'll stick in a bit of his translation, too:

THE HSIN HSIN MING

There is nothing difficult about the Great Way,
But, avoid choosing!
Only when you neither love nor hate,
Does it appear in all clarity.

A hair's breadth of deviation from it,
And deep gulf is set between heaven and earth.
If you want to get hold of what it looks like,
Do not be anti- or pro- anything.

The conflict of longing and loathing, --
This is the disease of the mind.
Not knowing the profound meaning of things,
We disturb our peace of mind to no purpose.

John Lilly crossed my mind today

I was much interested in Lilly's work. I have never swum with dolphins, but his books about dolphin research (done as if they were at least as smart as us, if not more so - rather than 'dumb animals') kept my spirits up throughoout the 1970s.

That such a smart brain might believe that something could be learned from taking LSD, rather than just lost, was helpful, too. Although I must admit his experiments with 'Vitamin K' (what he shyly called ketamine at the time) did seem to have taken him into some far out places. And he was putting implants into monkey brains when he started out, having survived a Catholic upbringing, and was into a high protein (meat) diet - so he wasn't entirely a 'nice man' or hippie guru....

"In the province of connected minds, what the network believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the network's mind there are no limits."

The Times they are a'changing

Cardiff Library has added an electronic newspaper search (for members only) to the website. There are various papers in digital form for the last ten years, but there is also The Times archive, going back a couple of hundred years. As a test I checked my family out. I found a tv listing for me working with Justin Case and Peter Wear in 1980; I found three theatre reviews which mentioned my mum favourably from the 50s; I found the actual listing for my dad's tv puppets in 1932. That was in the radio listings, and actually says that between 11-11.30 there will be a "Television broadcast by the Baird process (vision); A.R.Philpott;Rosemary Reynolds (dancer);Jack Crosbie (cartoons);Cyril Smith (accompanist) (Sound on 395.9m)"

Virus theme perpetuates itself

Following the theme of the blog I have actually left out one obvious link, and that is to Richard Dawkins' comment that religion is (or resembles) a virus. I hasten to point out that this is not to do with denying a sense of mystery at the root of universe, or even of mystical experiences - more to do with the passing on (unchanged) of arbitrary beliefs and rituals by society's institutions.

Memes - viruses of the mind

More on the Blog's title

These are Laurie Anderson's words to 'Language is a Virus' on Home of the Brave.

"Paradise Is exactly like
Where you are right now
Only much much
Better.
I saw this guy on the train
And he seemed to gave gotten stuck
In one of those abstract trances.
And he was going: "Ugh...Ugh...Ugh..."
And Fred said: "I think he's in some kind of pain.
I think it's a pain cry." And I said:
"Pain cry? Then language is a virus."
Language! It's a virus!
Language! It's a virus!
Well I was talking to a friend
And I was saying: I wanted you.
And I was looking for you.
But I couldn't find you.
I couldn't find you.
And he said: Hey!
Are you talking to me? Or are you just practicing
For one of those performances of yours?
Huh?
Language! It's a virus!
Language! It's a virus!
He said: I had to write that letter to your mother.
And I had to tell the judge that it was you.
And I had to sell the car and go to Florida.
Because that's just my way of saying (It's a charm.)
That I love you.
And I (It's a job.) Had to call you at the crack of dawn (Why?)
And list the times that I've been wrong.
Cause that's just my way of saying
That I'm sorry. (It's a job.)
Language! It's a virus!
Language! It's a virus!
Paradise Is exactly like
Where you are right now
Only much much (It's a shipwreck,)
Better. (It's a job.)
You know? I don't believe there's such a thing as TV.
I mean - They just keep showing you The same pictures over and over.
And when they talk they just make sounds
That more or less synch up With their lips.
That's what I think!
Language! It's a virus!
Language! It's a virus!
Language! It's a virus!
Well I dreamed there was an island
That rose up from the sea.
And everybody on the island
Was somebody from TV.
And there was a beautiful view
But nobody could see.
Cause everybody on the island
Was saying: Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!
Because they all lived on an island
That rose up from the sea.
And everybody on the island
Was somebody from TV.
And there was a beautiful view
But nobody could see.
Cause everybody on the island
Was saying: Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Why? Paradise is exactly like
Where you are right now
Only much much better. "

Does that help?

Here's a neat spin-off

I mentioned Gmail (Google's new webmail concept) on April 5th. Now, as a regular blogger, I have been invited to test Google's new email concept in beta.

Far out!

If you want to help me test it you can write to me at toby.philpott@gmail.com

A lot more words to go with what is below

I have grabbed a larger chunk from RAW's book, from the section on language as a conspiracy:

Language as a mind-control device has been discussed by such philosophers as Vico (18th century), Stirner and Nietzsche (19th century), and Wittgenstein (lOth century). The most radical scientific critics of language in our time include Count Alfred Korzybski and Dr. Richard Bandler.

Korzybski, who grew up in a house where four languages were spoken (Polish, Russian, French, German) and learned English much later, observed that the words we use influence our perceptions and conceptions of the world-e.g., even in the same language, a book may be called "realistic" by one reader and "pornographic" by another, and each will tend to perceive/conceive the book that way more and more automatically if they repeat their label ( "realistic" or "pornographic") over and over. This underlies the mechanism of hypnosis, as Dr. Bandler discovered later. It also explains why you won't make much progress preaching radical equality to somebody who continually uses the word "nigger," or defending the first amendment to somebody who keeps saying "smut" (or "sexism").

But Korzybski made a more radical discovery, namely, that our perceptions/conceptions (reality-tunnels) are also shaped the structure of the language we use. A Native American, African, a Chinese, etc. - anyone using a non-Indo-Europe, language structure - will live in a different universe than those who only know Indo-European. Considering mathematics a language, Korzybski also claimed that the mathematically literate live in a different semantic system than those who only know verbal structures.
From these starting points, Korzybski arrived at a devastating diagnosis of most of our culture's habitual linguistic structures (which he called neurolinguistic structures because they act as the software with which our nervous systems, including our brains, process data). Our worst habit, he thought, lay in the constant assumption of identity implied in most uses of the verb "is. " Such sentences as "The photon is a wave," "The photon is a particle," "Beethoven is better than Mozart," "The thing I saw was a spaceship," would become, in Korzybski's system, "The photon behaved like a wave when measured with this experimental apparatus," "The photon behaved like a particle when measured with this different apparatus," "Beethoven seems better than Mozart to me," "The thing I saw seemed like a spaceship to me. "
English including "is" and its cognates ("was," "be," "will be," etc.) appears as E in the writing of some of Korzybski's students, and English without "is" and its cognates appears as E' (pronounced E-prime.)

I keep forgetting how shocking this blog's title might seem...

Here's a quote from "Everything is Under Control" by Robert Anton Wilson

Novelist William S. Burroughs, who studied general semantics with Korzybski, has developed these notions into the surrealist theme of language as an invading virus, found in most of his novels. This virus, according to Burroughs, creates our thoughts, feelings, and sense impressions. Without the virus metaphor, Korzybski would agree, and so would Dr. Richard Bandler.
Dr. Bandler, out of the study of Korzybski and the verbal structures used by Dr. Milton Erickson (often considered the hypnotist of his time), developed Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), which shows how verbal structures create the world we think we live in…….

Magic Words

I came across a paper copy of Magic Words by Nalungiaq - a poem both Mick and I loved a lot - we found it in "Shaking the Pumpkin" Ed:Jerome Rothenburg (Doubleday/Anchor) but I see it has escaped to the Web:

Follow your Bliss!

I was always a great fan of Joseph Campbell. I read the Hero with a Thousand Faces in Crete; I worked my way through all four volumes of Masks of God; I have read smaller works like Myths To Live By. He suffered poverty and unemployment and simply retreated into studying all the great myths and legends, which he said were sufficient to pull him through. I remember an interview with a Macrobiotic magazine, who wanted to steer him towards diet, and he said his diet of books was his only yoga.

I mention this because I am digging back through old notes about the four elements, which originally led me to study astrology for a couple of years. Nothing to do with predictions, and cosmic influences, I hasten to add! I was fascinated by such a complex and ancient system of description of cycles - life cycles, planetary cycles - the measure of time, and the qualities of different times and seasons; and of psychological types, as well as phases of life. It was a rich source of myth - and it was story-telling that I was investigating.

I find it sad that people do not understand how myths can be 'truer' and more resonant than simple historical events.

It's worth looking at the 2003 Blavatsky Lecture if you are interested in myths and mystical experience (rather than dogma, whether religious or New Age).

"Every occultist worth his or her salt is a romantic, be they aware of this or not. Whether they be called William Blake, Eliphas Levi, or Mme. Blavatsky, and before them Valentinus, Basilides, and Ammonius Saccus, all such persons were primarily concerned not with passing on factual information but with engendering that majestic sense of wonder that one glimpses to a minor degree in sunsets, grand landscapes, fairy tales, and hoary legends, and to a major degree in great art and in the experience of the 'wholly other' in ecstasies of the spirit.
Mystics and Gnostics speak the language of myth, not of cold logic or scientific fact. Yet it must be remembered that some such persons have the misfortune to live in an age that has an inadequate appreciation of myth. The author of The Secret Doctrine belonged in this category. There was no word in the dictionary of nineteenth century intellectuals for 'psychological model of the cosmos'; C. G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and their fellows had not come upon the scene yet to rehabilitate myth and symbol. What was H.P. Blavatsky to do?"

"Myth was the favourite and universal method of teaching in archaic times. [3]
Fairy tales do not exclusively belong to nurseries; all mankind - except those few who in all ages have comprehended their hidden meaning, and tried to open the eyes of the superstitious - have listened to such tales in one shape or other, and after transforming them into sacred symbols, called the product Religion. [4]
There are few myths in any religious system but have an historical as well as a scientific foundation. Myths ... are now found to be fables just in proportion as we misunderstand them; truths, in proportion as they were once understood. [5]" Isis Unveiled HPB

And in Joseph Campbell's last interview, with Bill Moyers, you'll find the Star Wars link which brings it all full circle:

"Moyers also finds the perfect hook for a global audience, examining Campbell's admiration of George Lucas's Star Wars saga as a popular tapestry of ancient myths, and Lucas himself is interviewed in a DVD bonus segment ("I'm not creating a new myth," he says, "but telling old myths in a new way"). Campbell's seemingly endless well of knowledge reaches a simple conclusion: we need myths to survive like we need oxygen to breathe, as a life force with which to understand our existence--past, present, and future."