that bitterness
is a sure sign
of shallowness.
And also (a little later)
that the truly 'spiritual'
are invisible.
Dingo the Dissident
Tuesday 31 December 2019
Monday 30 December 2019
A Day in the Life
Foremost in the morning
is the fearing.
In the evening
is the fill of feeling
good and almost true.
And in between
is the knitting of the minutes
one by one,
knit one, purl two.
is the fearing.
In the evening
is the fill of feeling
good and almost true.
And in between
is the knitting of the minutes
one by one,
knit one, purl two.
Sunday 29 December 2019
Beauty and the Beast
Joe Louis (representing white Americans, Jews and Democratic Values)
in 1938 before the boxing-match with Nazi German World Champion Max Schmeling
(representing, er...Nazi values such as the racial inferiority of coloured people -
an idea totally anathema to white Americans and Jews in the democratic
United States of America, especially in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, etc.).
Joe Louis won - along with American racism - though it has to be said that
American racism did not kill millions of Jews, nor cause the deaths
of tens of millions of Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians, Serbs, Greeks...
Coloured American GIs (in segregated brigades) were amazed at their freedom of movement in Europe, which is why so many stayed in Paris after the war...which is why Paris is
the Modern Jazz Capital of the World.
After the war (WW2in which both served) Schmeling, hired by Coca-Cola (Germany), became a millionaire.
Joe Louis, not hired by Coca-Cola (Atlanta, GA), did not.
Saturday 28 December 2019
I have a dozen plants in bloom (outside) this late-December,
including this Bidens hybrid and white cyclamen
in one of the troughs I have scattered about within 20 metres of my house,
Chænomeles x 'Scarlet and Gold',
Winter Jasmine, very pale blue Vinca,
two other colours of cyclamen,
two varieties of rose, Iris foetida,
Schizostylis (also known as Kaffir Lily!),
Salvia x Greggii, Echeveria species...
This is not, however, due to climate change.
in one of the troughs I have scattered about within 20 metres of my house,
Chænomeles x 'Scarlet and Gold',
Winter Jasmine, very pale blue Vinca,
two other colours of cyclamen,
two varieties of rose, Iris foetida,
Schizostylis (also known as Kaffir Lily!),
Salvia x Greggii, Echeveria species...
This is not, however, due to climate change.
Homage or Insult to Miss S. ?
Turtles on the trot
a lot
Turtles on the trot
A lot of turtles
on the trot
not on the spot
not on not in the pot
nor muck
not right to rot And tortoises
(not porpoises) Not
purposelessly
stuttuttering oyster-noises
(noise annoys terse turtles quite a lot)
Turtles run amok
all teetering and tottering they patter
through the snot
grown lot like spirtles pottering
in the which the pitier which the potter which the pot
a lot
Turtles on the trot
A lot of turtles
on the trot
not on the spot
not on not in the pot
nor muck
not right to rot And tortoises
(not porpoises) Not
purposelessly
stuttuttering oyster-noises
(noise annoys terse turtles quite a lot)
Turtles run amok
all teetering and tottering they patter
through the snot
grown lot like spirtles pottering
in the which the pitier which the potter which the pot
Friday 27 December 2019
"After all these centuries
Jehovah lives in our darkness
like a worm in the intestines."
- Graham Greene, in The Honorary Consul
whose epigraph quotes Thomas Hardy :
"All things merge into one another -
good into evil, generosity into justice,
religion into politics."
like a worm in the intestines."
- Graham Greene, in The Honorary Consul
whose epigraph quotes Thomas Hardy :
"All things merge into one another -
good into evil, generosity into justice,
religion into politics."
Thursday 26 December 2019
"The sea of consciousness has come from naught.
From it only red herrings have been caught.
Although philosophers have claimed to plumb its depths,
from its oceanity scant wisdom has been brought."
- Omar Khayyám (trans. Dingo the Dissident)
Although philosophers have claimed to plumb its depths,
from its oceanity scant wisdom has been brought."
- Omar Khayyám (trans. Dingo the Dissident)
Wednesday 25 December 2019
Omnivore.
A List of Some Foods He Enjoyed :
Aubergines/Eggplants
Olives
Squash
Globe artichokes
Turnips
Hummus
Plums, Pears, Apples
Sea Scurvy Grass, Spinach
Hunza Apricots,
Potatoes, Eggs, Bananas
Zabaglione, Melon Rind
Blackberries, Strawberries, Raspberries,
Stewed Rhubarb, Porridge, Gooseberry Crumble...
The diet of most dogs is severely curtailed.
Tuesday 24 December 2019
Round and round
exhaustedly they go
justifying themselves to each other (and themselves).
Death is sweet release.
justifying themselves to each other (and themselves).
Death is sweet release.
Monday 23 December 2019
A pamphlet
which argues the obvious:
that Jesus of Nazareth's original message
was anti-natalist as well as anti-hierarchical,
anti-property, anti-misogynist,
and (consequently) egalitarian:
Fraudulent Christianity
If you can't read French use
https://www.deepl.com/translator
that Jesus of Nazareth's original message
was anti-natalist as well as anti-hierarchical,
anti-property, anti-misogynist,
and (consequently) egalitarian:
Fraudulent Christianity
If you can't read French use
https://www.deepl.com/translator
Sunday 22 December 2019
I don't want to sound unpleasant
but I have found (with rare exceptions)
that the more you get to know people
the less you want to know them.
This is part of the lunacy of living.
that the more you get to know people
the less you want to know them.
This is part of the lunacy of living.
Saturday 21 December 2019
Friday 20 December 2019
Thursday 19 December 2019
Christian Evangelical Problems.
Many East Asian languages
"are barren in abstractions,
which provided the most appalling difficulties
when it came to translating Holy Writ.
"To give just one example,
he cited the text God is Love.
In Rhadés there is no word for God.
In fact, these people didn't get the idea [of God] at all
without a great deal of explanation.
And there is no word for Love.
"So the text came out in translation:
The Great Spirit is not angry."
This problem began conveniently to be solved
by the liquidation of "tribes" such as the Rhadés of Viêt-Nam
through slave labour for Michelin.
Then, after the French were expelled,
came the Americans
and carpet-bombing, Agent Orange,
total war...
now total capitalism
and slavery abroad.
"are barren in abstractions,
which provided the most appalling difficulties
when it came to translating Holy Writ.
"To give just one example,
he cited the text God is Love.
In Rhadés there is no word for God.
In fact, these people didn't get the idea [of God] at all
without a great deal of explanation.
And there is no word for Love.
"So the text came out in translation:
The Great Spirit is not angry."
- from Norman Lewis: A Dragon Apparent -
Travels in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, 1951.
This problem began conveniently to be solved
by the liquidation of "tribes" such as the Rhadés of Viêt-Nam
through slave labour for Michelin.
Then, after the French were expelled,
came the Americans
and carpet-bombing, Agent Orange,
total war...
now total capitalism
and slavery abroad.
Wednesday 18 December 2019
Tuesday 17 December 2019
Monday 16 December 2019
Sunday 15 December 2019
Saturday 14 December 2019
Friday 13 December 2019
Thursday 12 December 2019
I don't understand
why people (as I read in novels)
need others (or another)
to need them -
because it precludes the necessarily-voluntary in relationships.
need others (or another)
to need them -
because it precludes the necessarily-voluntary in relationships.
Wednesday 11 December 2019
Tuesday 10 December 2019
The problem I have with Literature
is that (like plants)
it is so much more interesting and relaxing
than actual people.
it is so much more interesting and relaxing
than actual people.
Monday 9 December 2019
Today's Neologism.
Indigeneity.
Maybe better than Indigenousness and Autochthonicity,
but unfortunate all the same, being so tellingly close to Indignity...
Sunday 8 December 2019
Saturday 7 December 2019
Friday 6 December 2019
The Glory of Western Medecine.
Though we live longer,
we may suffer longer
and more expensively from more.
According to an article in Aeon,
"...approximately a third of adults suffer from multiple chronic conditions,
wreaking untold havoc on healthcare systems and economies across the globe.
In developed countries, it might be closer to three in four older adults
who suffer from multiple conditions.
The proportion of patients with four or more diseases
is expected to almost double between 2015 and 2035 in the UK alone.
Frighteningly, these statistics don’t even account for chronic illnesses in children,
which are likewise on the rise."
we may suffer longer
and more expensively from more.
According to an article in Aeon,
"...approximately a third of adults suffer from multiple chronic conditions,
wreaking untold havoc on healthcare systems and economies across the globe.
In developed countries, it might be closer to three in four older adults
who suffer from multiple conditions.
The proportion of patients with four or more diseases
is expected to almost double between 2015 and 2035 in the UK alone.
Frighteningly, these statistics don’t even account for chronic illnesses in children,
which are likewise on the rise."
Thursday 5 December 2019
Wednesday 4 December 2019
His best poem.
Prayer Before Birth
I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
club-footed ghoul come near me.
I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.
I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me.
I am not yet born; forgive me
For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words
when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,
my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,
my life when they murder by means of my
hands, my death when they live me.
I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
waves call me to folly and the desert calls
me to doom and the beggar refuses
my gift and my children curse me.
I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
come near me.
I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
one face, a thing, and against all those
who would dissipate my entirety, would
blow me like thistledown hither and
thither or hither and thither
like water held in the
hands would spill me.
Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me
Louis MacNeice
.
originally POSTED BY ONESTONEDCROW
Tuesday 3 December 2019
"We all live in a..."
Reality Distortion Field.
I first heard this term in a broadcast discussion
about the President of the United States
and the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
But it could describe all seven billion
bubbles of human consciousness.
I first heard this term in a broadcast discussion
about the President of the United States
and the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
But it could describe all seven billion
bubbles of human consciousness.
Monday 2 December 2019
One Stoned Crow
A Namibian blog with some splendid photos...
and a saved-from kidnap, saved-from-electrocution monkey.
http://onestonedcrow.blogspot.com/2009/08/soul-sister.html
and a saved-from kidnap, saved-from-electrocution monkey.
http://onestonedcrow.blogspot.com/2009/08/soul-sister.html
Sunday 1 December 2019
Saturday 30 November 2019
Religious art with a dazzling political overtone.
12th century altar-front from the Catalan church of Sant Martí de Gia
showing St Martin of Tours on his death-bed dismissing the Devil
who has appeared to the 81-year old saint in his final and fatal fever.
The unwrinkled blanket displays the colours of the Kingdom of Aragon,
whose patron saint is...St Martin.
Friday 29 November 2019
Dilettantes are less and less acceptable.
I have an intelligent interest in
Trees and shrubs
Plants generally
Dogs
Middle Eastern and North African rugs
Middle Eastern and North African music
Middle Eastern (and any) vegetarian cuisine
Indian, European, Japanese, Middle Eastern and North African classical music
Irish slow airs
Balkan traditional musics
Folk-Fusion jazz (especially North African)
Ceramics (world-wide, non-industrial)
Pre-modern European diet
Landscape that is not flat
Painting, from Roman to contemporary
Iconography and the metamorphosis of motifs
Romanesque 'marginal' sculptures
Megaliths
Literary novels and political thrillers
Poetry of the exalted kind
Poetry of the honest kind
Fascinating facts (such as that the Prague-Vienna express train has a fresh orchid in each of its toilets)
Corkscrews (I have reduced my collection to around 50)
Linguistics and toponymy (place-names)
Experimental photography
'Vernacular' architecture from corbelled hen-houses to substantial farmhouses
Distilled fruit alcohols such as those made from quinces, sorb-apples, blackberries, holly-berries...
...and so on.
But few people that I meet are interested in more than one of these -
which is why I am somewhat solitary.
But, my widowed neighbour Josette Porquelette has feelings of the same order.
She even understands some of the complexities of the Irish Border!
Trees and shrubs
Plants generally
Dogs
Middle Eastern and North African rugs
Middle Eastern and North African music
Middle Eastern (and any) vegetarian cuisine
Indian, European, Japanese, Middle Eastern and North African classical music
Irish slow airs
Balkan traditional musics
Folk-Fusion jazz (especially North African)
Ceramics (world-wide, non-industrial)
Pre-modern European diet
Landscape that is not flat
Painting, from Roman to contemporary
Iconography and the metamorphosis of motifs
Romanesque 'marginal' sculptures
Megaliths
Literary novels and political thrillers
Poetry of the exalted kind
Poetry of the honest kind
Fascinating facts (such as that the Prague-Vienna express train has a fresh orchid in each of its toilets)
Corkscrews (I have reduced my collection to around 50)
Linguistics and toponymy (place-names)
Experimental photography
'Vernacular' architecture from corbelled hen-houses to substantial farmhouses
Distilled fruit alcohols such as those made from quinces, sorb-apples, blackberries, holly-berries...
...and so on.
But few people that I meet are interested in more than one of these -
which is why I am somewhat solitary.
But, my widowed neighbour Josette Porquelette has feelings of the same order.
She even understands some of the complexities of the Irish Border!
Thursday 28 November 2019
Why do I remember
the botanical names of plants
and less than 5% of my life ?
Why was the vodka-and-tomato-juice drink called
Bloody Mary
and not Blood of the Lamb ?
and less than 5% of my life ?
Why was the vodka-and-tomato-juice drink called
Bloody Mary
and not Blood of the Lamb ?
Wednesday 27 November 2019
Tuesday 26 November 2019
I am only my passport.
Most people define themselves by an imposed (or, if they are lucky, chosen) identity -
something I never wanted or understood. I remain undefined,
except by the passport I would rather not have to have.
Am I 'socially blind' ?
something I never wanted or understood. I remain undefined,
except by the passport I would rather not have to have.
Am I 'socially blind' ?
Monday 25 November 2019
Sunday 24 November 2019
Adults are shallow and cold
like mass graves. They need to be so
to make out of wrinkles
the half-born children
who, in asylums of words,
wash the world dry.
Schools are parers of ruins.
to make out of wrinkles
the half-born children
who, in asylums of words,
wash the world dry.
Schools are parers of ruins.
Saturday 23 November 2019
Water is Truth -
to drink and to drown in.
We are the only creatures
to know and deny the desiccating truth
that we are Death,
heart-wizened, face-painted
bedizened destroyers.
(Nor is truth a reversible raincoat.)
We are the only creatures
to know and deny the desiccating truth
that we are Death,
heart-wizened, face-painted
bedizened destroyers.
(Nor is truth a reversible raincoat.)
Friday 22 November 2019
Thursday 21 November 2019
The wabi-sabi of Google.
Wednesday 20 November 2019
Putting it yet another way :
for all our self-proclaimed intelligence
we are the roughest, toughest, stupidest of beasts
wrecking the world through sheer intransigence.
we are the roughest, toughest, stupidest of beasts
wrecking the world through sheer intransigence.
Tuesday 19 November 2019
It is not difficult to imagine
that what we know as 'floaters' flitting through
the aqueous humour of our eyes
would have been for millennia interpreted instead
by some as spirits of the air, or of the dead.
the aqueous humour of our eyes
would have been for millennia interpreted instead
by some as spirits of the air, or of the dead.
Monday 18 November 2019
Sunday 17 November 2019
Jesus is not recorded as saying
that real people don't have families,
but seems to have assumed it is so.
but seems to have assumed it is so.
Saturday 16 November 2019
Wallace Stevens said
(or rather wrote that) the self
is "a substitute for all the gods."
And - I would add - an outrage
against natural humility. And all our selves
pollute the world with terrible imagination,
murderous alphabets, accursèd languages,
repulsive rivalries, our pride, our money.
The planet will spin on unpaid;
the shroud above its crust will be our filthy bed.
is "a substitute for all the gods."
And - I would add - an outrage
against natural humility. And all our selves
pollute the world with terrible imagination,
murderous alphabets, accursèd languages,
repulsive rivalries, our pride, our money.
The planet will spin on unpaid;
the shroud above its crust will be our filthy bed.
Friday 15 November 2019
Thursday 14 November 2019
The thing about dolls
and stuffed animals
is that they feel no pain.
We treat each other like dolls
and animals as if they had no sentience.
is that they feel no pain.
We treat each other like dolls
and animals as if they had no sentience.
Wednesday 13 November 2019
Tuesday 12 November 2019
Monday 11 November 2019
Sunday 10 November 2019
Saturday 9 November 2019
Hurrah!
James Ellroy
doesn't have a cellphone, either !
Nor has he a laptop...
He likes Rachmaninov -
but does he have TV ?
doesn't have a cellphone, either !
Nor has he a laptop...
He likes Rachmaninov -
but does he have TV ?
Friday 8 November 2019
Life After Death
was invented (by ghouls) to encourage
the thought that life before death is worth living.
the thought that life before death is worth living.
Thursday 7 November 2019
Unfortunately,
cities now
grow faster
than forests.
grow faster
than forests.
(And they are water-consumers
rather than water-conservators.)
Wednesday 6 November 2019
Tuesday 5 November 2019
"Sex"
isn’t that much better than a good sneeze –
though it can last longer.
There's nothing like a good sneeze...
and then there's ear-cleaning
and foot massage...
and having your back scratched...
and tantric pissing...
and tantric pissing...
Only the unsensual obsess about "sex".
Monday 4 November 2019
Pascal's strange Apologia.
"The simple application of reason tells us that we are a hateful species.
The only religion that teaches us to hate ourselves is Christianity.
So no other religion can be considered
by those who know that they deserve nothing but hatred."
But, of course, if we already accept that we are a hateful species
we don't need help from hypocritical Christianity.
The only religion that teaches us to hate ourselves is Christianity.
So no other religion can be considered
by those who know that they deserve nothing but hatred."
But, of course, if we already accept that we are a hateful species
we don't need help from hypocritical Christianity.
Sunday 3 November 2019
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford,
son of the first British prime minister, genteel,
asexual author of the first Gothic Novel (The Castle of Otranto)
wrote more than once in his vast correspondence:
this world is a comedy to those that think,
and a tragedy to those that feel.
asexual author of the first Gothic Novel (The Castle of Otranto)
wrote more than once in his vast correspondence:
this world is a comedy to those that think,
and a tragedy to those that feel.
Saturday 2 November 2019
I am not as knowledgeable as I thought,
and, being almost square,
have never moved in the right circles.
I still have no idea how Club Sandwiches
differs from other kinds. Nor do I care
enough to look it up on Google Images.
have never moved in the right circles.
I still have no idea how Club Sandwiches
differs from other kinds. Nor do I care
enough to look it up on Google Images.
Friday 1 November 2019
There are few memorable epigrams by Stalin,
apart from his reply to French Foreign minister Pierre Laval's suggestion
that he might gain the Vatican's favour if he stopped persecuting Catholics in the USSR :
On the other hand,
The powerless Lev Trotsky is very quotable:
The end may justify the means provided that something justifies the end.
England is nothing but the last ward of the European madhouse, and quite possibly it will prove to be the ward for particularly violent cases.
Our planet is being turned into a filthy and evil-smelling imperialist barrack.
"The United States is not only the strongest, but also the most terrified country."
Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.
Revolutions are always verbose.
The creative union of the conscious with the unconscious is what one usually calls 'inspiration.'
that he might gain the Vatican's favour if he stopped persecuting Catholics in the USSR :
"And how many divisions does His Holiness command ?"
On the other hand,
The powerless Lev Trotsky is very quotable:
The end may justify the means provided that something justifies the end.
England is nothing but the last ward of the European madhouse, and quite possibly it will prove to be the ward for particularly violent cases.
Our planet is being turned into a filthy and evil-smelling imperialist barrack.
"The United States is not only the strongest, but also the most terrified country."
Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.
Revolutions are always verbose.
The creative union of the conscious with the unconscious is what one usually calls 'inspiration.'
Thursday 31 October 2019
Wednesday 30 October 2019
Suddenly remembering Grace Jones.
Unkind
Homo annihilans
walking disaster
blind
demolition Man
There are unamazingly many 'destroy' words in Latin:
see https://www.wordhippo.com/
Homo annihilans
walking disaster
blind
demolition Man
There are unamazingly many 'destroy' words in Latin:
see https://www.wordhippo.com/
Tuesday 29 October 2019
Monday 28 October 2019
After centuries of power,
exploitation, exultation, genocide and glory,
Western culture now turns everything to sex or money,
or (preferably) both together.
Hence the phenomena of Shining Path,
al-Qaeda, Taliban, et cetera.
Western culture now turns everything to sex or money,
or (preferably) both together.
Hence the phenomena of Shining Path,
al-Qaeda, Taliban, et cetera.
Sunday 27 October 2019
Saturday 26 October 2019
Things are rarely as we think they are
however we play them on the grey sitar
of consciousness.
Books are the most dizzying disease
the most poetic conflagration
ever to destroy the gentle trees.
All poems are hewed, are found
and foundlings. Those that survive are bound
to suffer. Comfort is the enemy of observation.
No good death can put to death
an evil death or deed, nor a million
good lives an evil one.
Devil-woe-men stunned and stun,
stoned and stone
to exorcise the sun.
Planets have come; planets have gone.
of consciousness.
Books are the most dizzying disease
the most poetic conflagration
ever to destroy the gentle trees.
All poems are hewed, are found
and foundlings. Those that survive are bound
to suffer. Comfort is the enemy of observation.
No good death can put to death
an evil death or deed, nor a million
good lives an evil one.
Devil-woe-men stunned and stun,
stoned and stone
to exorcise the sun.
Planets have come; planets have gone.
Friday 25 October 2019
A slice of mediæval life.
From the Escritorium
to the Excretarium
and no recourse
to a Vomitorium -
just the remorse
of the monkish Vivarium.
to the Excretarium
and no recourse
to a Vomitorium -
just the remorse
of the monkish Vivarium.
Thursday 24 October 2019
Wednesday 23 October 2019
The Intellectual Prostitute.
I always had a fairly Low Sex Drive.
When I was forty I met a handsome man a a washbasin
by the crowded urinals of the Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg) in Paris.
He was so friendly I invited him for coffee
at my nearby (borrowed) pied-à-terre.
He suggested that I was queer in more than one way.
Up to that point I hadn't thought of myself as gay.
He told me about bars, newspapers and networks
and the city's upcoming, nearby Gay Quarter.
He was the first man I kissed, and I took to kissing
hairy mouths like a duck to water.
It's only now that I realise
that I soon became a queer kind of male prostitute
who made the right signals to a certain kind of
(necessarily bearded) male of my own age
(or twenty years on either side) to enhance
my socio-aesthetic life so long confined by rural Ireland
(though it could just as easily have been rural France).
Sex was not the main object of my exercise
(and just as well, because, like any prostitute,
I've had so much 'bad sex' that I've become asexual,
and in any case I was a averse to penetration)
but occasionally it was wonderful.
(That was the spermatic icing on the cake.)
I fancied men who looked as though they would
widen my cultural horizons - which they often did
in small but important ways. I doubt that I widened theirs
for they seemed both limited and empty, like lost thimbles.
But looks often deceive, and for decades I,
a mercifully-fatherless fool, mistakenly
judged men largely on their appearance: eyes or smile.
I have always confused truth and beauty,
especially as both seem to be in the mind of the beholder.
Most of them were 'deadbeats' socially or psychologically
who often were attracted to me because they mistook
my complaisant naivety for sexiness.
Cannabis helped to counteract the not-infrequent
rapid loss of desire. I guess real prostitutes
need similar 'support' to function,
especially as they have to deal with constant penetration
- which I generally refused.
The tawdriness, banality of 'sex' can be overcome
only by blinding lust - or by tuning out.
One of my few remaining friends
was the first man I 'had sex with'
after my Conversation. It was terrible,
lasted ten minutes,
and we became firm friends. He lives in London
which I will never again visit, nor any city.
But as I grew older I discovered that I was
(or had become, thanks to the mind-expanding BBC
- greatly more mind-expanding than psilocybin or LSD)
rather more 'cultivated' - indeed 'profound' -
than the lonely or sex-wanting guys I met in cities,
and I had wider interests. Now I find men limited and limiting,
and my own age-group less and and less appealing.
More and more I enjoy my socio-sexual isolation
and my rare desire for Sexual Relief is very nicely, pleasantly
and inexpensively sated by creative masturbation.
When I was forty I met a handsome man a a washbasin
by the crowded urinals of the Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg) in Paris.
He was so friendly I invited him for coffee
at my nearby (borrowed) pied-à-terre.
He suggested that I was queer in more than one way.
Up to that point I hadn't thought of myself as gay.
He told me about bars, newspapers and networks
and the city's upcoming, nearby Gay Quarter.
He was the first man I kissed, and I took to kissing
hairy mouths like a duck to water.
It's only now that I realise
that I soon became a queer kind of male prostitute
who made the right signals to a certain kind of
(necessarily bearded) male of my own age
(or twenty years on either side) to enhance
my socio-aesthetic life so long confined by rural Ireland
(though it could just as easily have been rural France).
Sex was not the main object of my exercise
(and just as well, because, like any prostitute,
I've had so much 'bad sex' that I've become asexual,
and in any case I was a averse to penetration)
but occasionally it was wonderful.
(That was the spermatic icing on the cake.)
I fancied men who looked as though they would
widen my cultural horizons - which they often did
in small but important ways. I doubt that I widened theirs
for they seemed both limited and empty, like lost thimbles.
But looks often deceive, and for decades I,
a mercifully-fatherless fool, mistakenly
judged men largely on their appearance: eyes or smile.
I have always confused truth and beauty,
especially as both seem to be in the mind of the beholder.
Most of them were 'deadbeats' socially or psychologically
who often were attracted to me because they mistook
my complaisant naivety for sexiness.
Cannabis helped to counteract the not-infrequent
rapid loss of desire. I guess real prostitutes
need similar 'support' to function,
especially as they have to deal with constant penetration
- which I generally refused.
The tawdriness, banality of 'sex' can be overcome
only by blinding lust - or by tuning out.
One of my few remaining friends
was the first man I 'had sex with'
after my Conversation. It was terrible,
lasted ten minutes,
and we became firm friends. He lives in London
which I will never again visit, nor any city.
But as I grew older I discovered that I was
(or had become, thanks to the mind-expanding BBC
- greatly more mind-expanding than psilocybin or LSD)
rather more 'cultivated' - indeed 'profound' -
than the lonely or sex-wanting guys I met in cities,
and I had wider interests. Now I find men limited and limiting,
and my own age-group less and and less appealing.
More and more I enjoy my socio-sexual isolation
and my rare desire for Sexual Relief is very nicely, pleasantly
and inexpensively sated by creative masturbation.
Tuesday 22 October 2019
"Good travellers are heartless,"
wrote Paul Theroux*.
But he contradicts himself throughout -
and here quotes Herman Melville:
Not until I visited Honolulu
was I aware of the fact that the small remnant of the natives
had been civilized into draught-horses,
and evangelized into beasts of burden.
But so it is. They have been literally broken into the traces,
and are harnessed to the vehicle of their spiritual instructors
like so many dumb brutes.
What a wonderful and telling use of the term Spiritual Instructor.
* in The Tao of Travel, p.70
But he contradicts himself throughout -
and here quotes Herman Melville:
Not until I visited Honolulu
was I aware of the fact that the small remnant of the natives
had been civilized into draught-horses,
and evangelized into beasts of burden.
But so it is. They have been literally broken into the traces,
and are harnessed to the vehicle of their spiritual instructors
like so many dumb brutes.
What a wonderful and telling use of the term Spiritual Instructor.
* in The Tao of Travel, p.70
Monday 21 October 2019
I have been reading Paul Theroux.
Like him, I had no wish to trudge and gape conspicuously.
After the age of seventeen I never travelled without purpose,
whether megaliths in Ireland or stone-carvings in France,
rugs in Morocco, or a lover in Copenhagen, London, Tuscany, Berlin...
Like him I always judged places by whether I would like to live in them.
Finally, aged 60, I found a place I wanted to inhabit,
and five years later found a dwelling there.
Now I have stopped travelling.
A hundred miles seems a long journey.
After the age of seventeen I never travelled without purpose,
whether megaliths in Ireland or stone-carvings in France,
rugs in Morocco, or a lover in Copenhagen, London, Tuscany, Berlin...
Like him I always judged places by whether I would like to live in them.
Finally, aged 60, I found a place I wanted to inhabit,
and five years later found a dwelling there.
Now I have stopped travelling.
A hundred miles seems a long journey.
Sunday 20 October 2019
The sad state of Hospitality.
is having an ever-open door.
Well, let's say unlocked
as mine ever is, and sometimes open.
I'm listed on Couchsurfing
but no-one ever comes,
no traveller
no homeless person,
no refugee,
not even a person whose job
is Burglary.
Well, let's say unlocked
as mine ever is, and sometimes open.
I'm listed on Couchsurfing
but no-one ever comes,
no traveller
no homeless person,
no refugee,
not even a person whose job
is Burglary.
Saturday 19 October 2019
Unless it's music
(the least harmful thing we make)
human 'creativity' just fills the world
with more (often poisonous) detritus.
Apart from which, there are too many creators
and not enough appreciators.
human 'creativity' just fills the world
with more (often poisonous) detritus.
Apart from which, there are too many creators
and not enough appreciators.
Friday 18 October 2019
Meat-eaters who insist
that they eat very little meat
are like the rich who assure you
that they are really rather poor.
Sometimes they are the same people.
are like the rich who assure you
that they are really rather poor.
Sometimes they are the same people.
Thursday 17 October 2019
Reading the poems of WS
(the American one),
"to be and delight to be"
seem to unite and I feed
upon, inhale a dizzying miasma
like the sweetest weed,
and feel an exaltation, like the most tender
soft-pornography, despite
the too-awareness of too much,
the termite-tunnels of insight.
"to be and delight to be"
seem to unite and I feed
upon, inhale a dizzying miasma
like the sweetest weed,
and feel an exaltation, like the most tender
soft-pornography, despite
the too-awareness of too much,
the termite-tunnels of insight.
Wednesday 16 October 2019
Cyclops wore a monocle.
The idea of God and the idea of Reality
are equally fantastical, though God
(who trumps the mere causality of things)
is reality to many
and the nearest some get to Realisation
of "the stale grandeur of annihilation".
are equally fantastical, though God
(who trumps the mere causality of things)
is reality to many
and the nearest some get to Realisation
of "the stale grandeur of annihilation".
Tuesday 15 October 2019
The Angels of Earth are screaming :
Man is no more than the intelligence
of his toil - which, sometimes ingenious,
racks his bones or brain, or bones and brain,
and overwhelmingly lacks intelligence.
of his toil - which, sometimes ingenious,
racks his bones or brain, or bones and brain,
and overwhelmingly lacks intelligence.
Monday 14 October 2019
On 'Hiroshima Day'
I read that the carpet-bombing* of Tokyo
killed the same number of people
as the Hiroshima blast :
three times as many as in Dresden.
But now, unlike any period of history heretofore,
the bulldozers of 'peace' have been
more destructive than the greatest act of war.
*Though associated with the USA, especially in Japan and Viêt-Nam,
it was first visited upon the Kurds of Iraq by the British around 1920.
killed the same number of people
as the Hiroshima blast :
three times as many as in Dresden.
But now, unlike any period of history heretofore,
the bulldozers of 'peace' have been
more destructive than the greatest act of war.
*Though associated with the USA, especially in Japan and Viêt-Nam,
it was first visited upon the Kurds of Iraq by the British around 1920.
Sunday 13 October 2019
One of billions who do not matter.
Fly-paper. Why
do I feel more important than a fly ?
And how
can I possibly be more wonderful than a cow ?
do I feel more important than a fly ?
And how
can I possibly be more wonderful than a cow ?
Saturday 12 October 2019
Although I find Christianity preposterous
(as well as sacrifice-obsessed)
Hindus don't find it preposterous enough.
Hindus don't find it preposterous enough.
Friday 11 October 2019
When I was adolescent
in the 'uneventful' 1950s
people judged you by where
(or whether) you parted
(or could part) your hair.
people judged you by where
(or whether) you parted
(or could part) your hair.
Thursday 10 October 2019
Wednesday 9 October 2019
'In a trice.'
We have spoken of
several and many things
for hundreds of years -
but, suddenly, almost in a trice
they have been replaced by
multiple, while most
has been replaced by
the majority of.
Language keeps moving
from pillar to post.
_____
Multiple- sometimes a hyphenated prefix
was maybe popularised, aggrandised
by the advent of the multi-choice questionnaire
if not the pseudo-scientific term
multiple-personality disorder.
several and many things
for hundreds of years -
but, suddenly, almost in a trice
they have been replaced by
multiple, while most
has been replaced by
the majority of.
Language keeps moving
from pillar to post.
_____
Multiple- sometimes a hyphenated prefix
was maybe popularised, aggrandised
by the advent of the multi-choice questionnaire
if not the pseudo-scientific term
multiple-personality disorder.
Tuesday 8 October 2019
"You rich, how far will you push your frenzied greed ?"
- St Ambrose, 4th century, who introduced congregational singing into churches
Everything can be turned into business.
The other day a friend sniffed my armpits and smelled nothing.
They were last washed when I went into hospital 4 years ago.
I have unwittingly cultivated all over my person the benign bacteria
which convert the ammonia in sweat to more-fragrant nitrates.
Now Small Business is selling products to encourage these bacteria
on hygiene-victims, as European Holy Men once sold their smells.
Across the way yet another line of washing is strung out.
The only control the fearful wife of my subtly-nasty
Netherlandish neighbour has in her life
is to ensure that he wears clean clothes each day,
to forbid him to wear anything more than once.
(His paintings are very red and angry.
Buddhists might say he's "a very young soul".
I would say he's a smug, manipulative ass-hole)
In the morning she also washes floors;
wine makes bearable her afternoons.
The amount of water that these two people go through
in one week would last me for a year.
(They would not dream of watering a plant).
It is hard not to be a victim of men or marketing or parenting
all of which pollute the planet,
but even though I am a frugal, anti-natal and recycling queer
I really should be wiser than to condemn and sneer.
Everything can be turned into business.
The other day a friend sniffed my armpits and smelled nothing.
They were last washed when I went into hospital 4 years ago.
I have unwittingly cultivated all over my person the benign bacteria
which convert the ammonia in sweat to more-fragrant nitrates.
Now Small Business is selling products to encourage these bacteria
on hygiene-victims, as European Holy Men once sold their smells.
Across the way yet another line of washing is strung out.
The only control the fearful wife of my subtly-nasty
Netherlandish neighbour has in her life
is to ensure that he wears clean clothes each day,
to forbid him to wear anything more than once.
(His paintings are very red and angry.
Buddhists might say he's "a very young soul".
I would say he's a smug, manipulative ass-hole)
In the morning she also washes floors;
wine makes bearable her afternoons.
The amount of water that these two people go through
in one week would last me for a year.
(They would not dream of watering a plant).
It is hard not to be a victim of men or marketing or parenting
all of which pollute the planet,
but even though I am a frugal, anti-natal and recycling queer
I really should be wiser than to condemn and sneer.
Monday 7 October 2019
I rarely go to see American films.
The last one I admired was Woody Allen's
Hannah and her Sisters.
But recently I saw another one :
No sex.
No guns.
No violence.
Literary.
Female-directed.
Can you ever forgive me ?
Hannah and her Sisters.
But recently I saw another one :
No sex.
No guns.
No violence.
Literary.
Female-directed.
Can you ever forgive me ?
Sunday 6 October 2019
Some things I learned today.
The first oil-tanker was built by Alfred Nobel
(who endowed the prizes).
Its name was Zoroaster.
It carried oil across the Caspian Sea
from long-since no-longer-Zoroastrian Baku.
The Russian for 'crossword puzzle' is Кроссворд.
Crazy data keep me from being bored.
(who endowed the prizes).
Its name was Zoroaster.
It carried oil across the Caspian Sea
from long-since no-longer-Zoroastrian Baku.
The Russian for 'crossword puzzle' is Кроссворд.
Crazy data keep me from being bored.
Saturday 5 October 2019
Friday 4 October 2019
To do 'the right thing' for the wrong reason
should be better than doing 'the wrong thing'
for the right reason -
except that there are always unexpected consequences
even hundreds of years later -
and the wrong thing might have been right after all,
the 'right' reason ultimately utterly mistaken,
given those inevitable unexpected consequences;
and how are we to judge intentions (and intentionality,
given the inevitable unexpected consequences)
when judgement is so vulnerable to emotional treason ?
for the right reason -
except that there are always unexpected consequences
even hundreds of years later -
and the wrong thing might have been right after all,
the 'right' reason ultimately utterly mistaken,
given those inevitable unexpected consequences;
and how are we to judge intentions (and intentionality,
given the inevitable unexpected consequences)
when judgement is so vulnerable to emotional treason ?
Thursday 3 October 2019
Wednesday 2 October 2019
A.I.
When artificial intelligences mature -
despite our best efforts - develop -
perhaps even evolve all by themselves -
they will surely find that we
have little to recommend us,
and, in the interests of logical biodiversity,
will, by wondrous means, reduce our numbers
drastically.
despite our best efforts - develop -
perhaps even evolve all by themselves -
they will surely find that we
have little to recommend us,
and, in the interests of logical biodiversity,
will, by wondrous means, reduce our numbers
drastically.
Tuesday 1 October 2019
Inconsequentialities
are the specialities of modern poets :
word-spiked, un-ironic
un-self-effacing,
un-metaphysical
very personal trivialities -
except when producing yet another translation
of The Divine Comedy, Beowulf or The Odyssey.
I partly-blame Eliot
the last of the pretentious,
self-considering
super-literary sages,
who washed up in the beautifully-enunciated
metaphysic shallows
of Little Gidding
after the so-precise
so-whatness of The Dry Salvages.
word-spiked, un-ironic
un-self-effacing,
un-metaphysical
very personal trivialities -
except when producing yet another translation
of The Divine Comedy, Beowulf or The Odyssey.
I partly-blame Eliot
the last of the pretentious,
self-considering
super-literary sages,
who washed up in the beautifully-enunciated
metaphysic shallows
of Little Gidding
after the so-precise
so-whatness of The Dry Salvages.
Monday 30 September 2019
Nazi Logic
Abnormals and Mutants should not be seen by Normal People.
(This was not much in dispute for at least a hundred years.)
So they, whether hare-lipped or stammerers,
with Down's Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy,
must be locked away from sight.
Keeping one of these in an institution
costs as much as training a soldier.
So it is best to get rid of them altogether,
by or after performing Useful Experiments on them.
Those Useful Experiments informed modern psychiatry,
and most of the experimenters became respectable citizens
in the USA as well as Germany.
(This was not much in dispute for at least a hundred years.)
So they, whether hare-lipped or stammerers,
with Down's Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy,
must be locked away from sight.
Keeping one of these in an institution
costs as much as training a soldier.
So it is best to get rid of them altogether,
by or after performing Useful Experiments on them.
Those Useful Experiments informed modern psychiatry,
and most of the experimenters became respectable citizens
in the USA as well as Germany.
Sunday 29 September 2019
Very difficult for some.
You don't need to know people
(unlike animals)
- you only need to like them.
(unlike animals)
- you only need to like them.
Saturday 28 September 2019
What is Hope ?
Emotion
and faith-in-emotion
apparently justified by
the very rarity of its realisation.
and faith-in-emotion
apparently justified by
the very rarity of its realisation.
Friday 27 September 2019
Thursday 26 September 2019
Wednesday 25 September 2019
Over a third of American motels
are owned by Gujarati Patels.
And some are utterly disgusting.
(see Paul Theroux: Deep South pp. 159-163)
And some are utterly disgusting.
(see Paul Theroux: Deep South pp. 159-163)
Tuesday 24 September 2019
I wonder how the English language
has continued for so long
without the word I heard this morning:
operationalize.
without the word I heard this morning:
operationalize.
"For the old
nothing is shocking except
the obvious repetition of human stupidity..."
wrote Paul Theroux
in Deep South (2015).
But that last shock soon dissipates, too.
the obvious repetition of human stupidity..."
wrote Paul Theroux
in Deep South (2015).
But that last shock soon dissipates, too.
Monday 23 September 2019
For all their 'individualism'
most people have very little individuality.
In the global homogeneity of European cultural
totalitarianism, few people are worth knowing.
In the global homogeneity of European cultural
totalitarianism, few people are worth knowing.
Sunday 22 September 2019
"Scientists have picked up a radio signal from the other side of the universe
It's from a galaxy like our own that's 8 billion light-years away."
This seems to be easier (or at least more exciting)
than picking up visual and verbal signals
from creatures on this little planet.
Plus ça change...
This seems to be easier (or at least more exciting)
than picking up visual and verbal signals
from creatures on this little planet.
Plus ça change...
Saturday 21 September 2019
Jacques Brel : Les Bourgeois
I don't know why people
(not just the French)
liked him or his songs.
He seems to me unlikable, unpleasant,
falsely semi-literate,
and quite the opposite of Georges Brassens.
He did not like pigs.
Pigs are not like like bourgeois people,
but beautiful, sweet-natured, intelligent, affectionate
- and don't get stupider as they get older.
whereas humans becoine
'progressively' colder.
'progressively' colder.
Les bourgeois c'est comme les cochons
Plus ça devient vieux plus ça devient bête
Les bourgeois c'est comme les cochons
Plus ça devient vieux plus ça devient...
Friday 20 September 2019
One of the stupidest
and nastiest
most hypocritical
and unforgivable
human sayings :
The worm forgives the plough [plow].
most hypocritical
and unforgivable
human sayings :
The worm forgives the plough [plow].
Thursday 19 September 2019
"Terrorism"
is a desperate tactic
employed by the weak against the strong
for the simple reason
that the weak are deprived of the means to employ any other method.
employed by the weak against the strong
for the simple reason
that the weak are deprived of the means to employ any other method.
Wednesday 18 September 2019
Tuesday 17 September 2019
The more we crowd the earth, the more we separate from each other.
Being naive and ever-trusting,
having (like my mother)
taken people at face-value
or judged them by their faces,
it is only now, having read so many
(mostly literary, mostly perceptive)
novels in my 78 years of life
I have come to understand
that, if you are innerly rich,
other people are best avoided
lest you be looted
ruined
or sucked dry.
having (like my mother)
taken people at face-value
or judged them by their faces,
it is only now, having read so many
(mostly literary, mostly perceptive)
novels in my 78 years of life
I have come to understand
that, if you are innerly rich,
other people are best avoided
lest you be looted
ruined
or sucked dry.
Monday 16 September 2019
Sunday 15 September 2019
Saturday 14 September 2019
Most men
seem to worship their willies
and their Power of Reproduction.
Some men used to
wave their rather distressed
willies at other men
hoping for connection
of sexual kind
at least
or at best.
and their Power of Reproduction.
Some men used to
wave their rather distressed
willies at other men
hoping for connection
of sexual kind
at least
or at best.
Friday 13 September 2019
It is quite ridiculous
to keep postponing suicide
because you enjoy your life too (though not) much.
Every pleasure that we take
is at someone else's, some other creature's
pain and sorrow,
some other forest's misery and death.
Every day we steal tomorrow.
because you enjoy your life too (though not) much.
Every pleasure that we take
is at someone else's, some other creature's
pain and sorrow,
some other forest's misery and death.
Every day we steal tomorrow.
Thursday 12 September 2019
Robin Hood.
"If I didn't shop-lift
and buy second-hand
I wouldn't have money
to give to the homeless."
and buy second-hand
I wouldn't have money
to give to the homeless."
Wednesday 11 September 2019
As we get richer
(and anyone who reads this
is richer than a Roman Emperor)
the world gets poorer.
As we get richer
we get drabber
and deafer and blinder
(but, alas! not dumber -
we are the Shouting Species).
As we get richer
we get meaner
and ever more demanding
and Nature
is reduced to little more
than branding.
is richer than a Roman Emperor)
the world gets poorer.
As we get richer
we get drabber
and deafer and blinder
(but, alas! not dumber -
we are the Shouting Species).
As we get richer
we get meaner
and ever more demanding
and Nature
is reduced to little more
than branding.
Tuesday 10 September 2019
Not a good social strategy.
I tend to be complaisant,
seem 'easy-going' -
but 'down the line'
I burst into anger
when my complaisance is imperiously,
unacceptably exploited,
taken for granted.
This is how I lose friends.
They then say I am 'difficult', 'cantankerous'.
All because I cannot say No at the outset
because of an anxiousness to please, a timidity
which the French,
with their mots-justes call 'farouche'.
The English have many nice metaphors,
such as 'a square peg' (in a round hole).
Now I simply 'keep my distance' from people
whilst admiring their dogs,
and hoping that, for the next few years,
there won't be any pogroms
of the Unsocialised.
I have developed a condition which I call
Late-Onset Acquired Autism.
seem 'easy-going' -
but 'down the line'
I burst into anger
when my complaisance is imperiously,
unacceptably exploited,
taken for granted.
This is how I lose friends.
They then say I am 'difficult', 'cantankerous'.
All because I cannot say No at the outset
because of an anxiousness to please, a timidity
which the French,
with their mots-justes call 'farouche'.
The English have many nice metaphors,
such as 'a square peg' (in a round hole).
Now I simply 'keep my distance' from people
whilst admiring their dogs,
and hoping that, for the next few years,
there won't be any pogroms
of the Unsocialised.
I have developed a condition which I call
Late-Onset Acquired Autism.
Monday 9 September 2019
I'm more a homey
than a hopey person
which is why I'm often
almost happy -
given that happiness is merely
an inward projection
of (by definition
impossible) perfection.
which is why I'm often
almost happy -
given that happiness is merely
an inward projection
of (by definition
impossible) perfection.
Sunday 8 September 2019
Saturday 7 September 2019
The weeping truth.
If we were serious
in our concern about climate-change,
the Sixth Extinction of Species,
and "the end of civilisation [as we know it]"
we would (at the very least)
sterilise ourselves and boycott supermarkets.
But, truly, unsurprisingly, hardly anyone truly cares.
All we want is luxury now - and more luxury to come -
and 'may the devil take disaster'.
Few sounds
are more sinister
than human laughter.
________________
I have attached the picture referred to in the comment below :
in our concern about climate-change,
the Sixth Extinction of Species,
and "the end of civilisation [as we know it]"
we would (at the very least)
sterilise ourselves and boycott supermarkets.
But, truly, unsurprisingly, hardly anyone truly cares.
All we want is luxury now - and more luxury to come -
and 'may the devil take disaster'.
Few sounds
are more sinister
than human laughter.
________________
I have attached the picture referred to in the comment below :
Friday 6 September 2019
My Solution to the Climate-change/Overpopulation Crisis
has to be implemented tomorrow:
a deadly virus transmitted by plastic.
a deadly virus transmitted by plastic.
Thursday 5 September 2019
People are whining
about 'global warming'
while expensively breeding,
and needing to live off
calamitous farming.
while expensively breeding,
and needing to live off
calamitous farming.
Wednesday 4 September 2019
Tuesday 3 September 2019
Navajo 'Sand Paintings'.
Some time ago I was given a Sand Painting which was signed
James C. Joe. It languished in my cellar until recently,
when I looked up this guy via Messrs. Google.
It turns out that he is known among collectors
and the Navajo. He lived in Shiprock (NM)
and may have been the first to make sand paintings to sell.
He has or had a son called Eugene Baatsolanii Joe
who is (or was) fully commercial.
Sand Painting was until quite recently a religious act,
part of a complicated rite involving chant.
The resulting images were destroyed afterwards.
Now, inevitably, they have become undervalued items of commerce.
Here is the painting in my possession. It still has quite a strong religious element,
although it was not created as part of a soul-healing ritual.
I found a similar one via Messrs. Google :
Later ones may be seen on https://rijim.com/navajo_art.htm.
see also:
Navajo Sand Painting (1)
and
http://navajopeople.org/navajo-sand-painting.htm
James C. Joe. It languished in my cellar until recently,
when I looked up this guy via Messrs. Google.
It turns out that he is known among collectors
and the Navajo. He lived in Shiprock (NM)
and may have been the first to make sand paintings to sell.
He has or had a son called Eugene Baatsolanii Joe
who is (or was) fully commercial.
Sand Painting was until quite recently a religious act,
part of a complicated rite involving chant.
The resulting images were destroyed afterwards.
Now, inevitably, they have become undervalued items of commerce.
Here is the painting in my possession. It still has quite a strong religious element,
although it was not created as part of a soul-healing ritual.
I found a similar one via Messrs. Google :
Later ones may be seen on https://rijim.com/navajo_art.htm.
see also:
Navajo Sand Painting (1)
and
http://navajopeople.org/navajo-sand-painting.htm
Hello Kitty
The power of cute
depends entirely on commodification.
Nothing has power
without selling-power
or, on the other hand, repression.
https://aeon.co/ideas/why-the-power-of-cute-is-colonising-our-world
depends entirely on commodification.
Nothing has power
without selling-power
or, on the other hand, repression.
https://aeon.co/ideas/why-the-power-of-cute-is-colonising-our-world
Monday 2 September 2019
The Stupid and The Clever.
The stupid are checking Facebook on cellphones.
The clever are studying the interstellar origins of life
or the palæolithic brewing of woad...
and nobody cares about the (largely-windowless)
Detention Centre down the road.
The clever are studying the interstellar origins of life
or the palæolithic brewing of woad...
and nobody cares about the (largely-windowless)
Detention Centre down the road.
Sunday 1 September 2019
Saturday 31 August 2019
The pain we create
as if we were gods
is as great
as the oceans -
which cover two-thirds of the earth
(the planet of pain)
and are dying.
In much of the world
there is only terror
which, unlike the weather,
does not change.
There's no use my crying.
All humans are terrorists.
is as great
as the oceans -
which cover two-thirds of the earth
(the planet of pain)
and are dying.
In much of the world
there is only terror
which, unlike the weather,
does not change.
There's no use my crying.
All humans are terrorists.
Friday 30 August 2019
In this old French village
there is a mini-plague of half-starved
diarrhœic cats,encouraged by very well-fed sentimentals.
But even the pasty Caylus poor
(some of whom - the men, mainly -
the women have rickets - are rather fat)
are too well-fed to consider
eating cat.
diarrhœic cats,encouraged by very well-fed sentimentals.
But even the pasty Caylus poor
(some of whom - the men, mainly -
the women have rickets - are rather fat)
are too well-fed to consider
eating cat.
Thursday 29 August 2019
Concentration-camps in the UK.
Also known as Detention Centres,
but, officially, as Immigrant Removal Centres.
https://www.gov.uk/immigration-removal-centre
They are not only in England, but in Scotland and Northern Ireland, too.
There is none in Wales.
They are run for profit.
The actual transport of detainees from the UK
is carried out at a profit.
Detainees can be kept indefinitely
and unknown to anyone outside Officialdom.
But the good news is that they can be visited,
provided that you know or someone knows that they are there.
There is no forced labour, just forced boredom.
In this they differ from the Gulag Archipelago
and most Nazi Removal Centres for Undesirables.
They are more like what the Chinese herd the Uigurs into
or the places where Central and South Americans can end up in the USA.
After a year in such a place you are sure you're dead.
And the British either do not know or do not care,
even though the Centres are
much closer than Ireland, Cyprus, Kenya, India, Iraq...
I'm so glad I'm not British, though I was born that way...
But I'll just check with Mr McGoo-Gull on similar Facilities in Ireland...
...ah, yes:
Work on Dublin Airport immigration detention centre to begin
but, officially, as Immigrant Removal Centres.
https://www.gov.uk/immigration-removal-centre
They are not only in England, but in Scotland and Northern Ireland, too.
There is none in Wales.
They are run for profit.
The actual transport of detainees from the UK
is carried out at a profit.
Detainees can be kept indefinitely
and unknown to anyone outside Officialdom.
But the good news is that they can be visited,
provided that you know or someone knows that they are there.
There is no forced labour, just forced boredom.
In this they differ from the Gulag Archipelago
and most Nazi Removal Centres for Undesirables.
They are more like what the Chinese herd the Uigurs into
or the places where Central and South Americans can end up in the USA.
After a year in such a place you are sure you're dead.
And the British either do not know or do not care,
even though the Centres are
much closer than Ireland, Cyprus, Kenya, India, Iraq...
I'm so glad I'm not British, though I was born that way...
But I'll just check with Mr McGoo-Gull on similar Facilities in Ireland...
...ah, yes:
Work on Dublin Airport immigration detention centre to begin
Wednesday 28 August 2019
Tuesday 27 August 2019
Everywoman whispers.
There are things men can do to you
I promise you
it would be much better
to kill yourself
before they happen.
I promise you
it would be much better
to kill yourself
before they happen.
Monday 26 August 2019
Freud versus Pieces of Plastic
In some cities it is very difficult to pay for things in cash.
In Stockholm (I heard on the radio today) almost impossible.
(I can't believe that Stockholm has no 'black economy'.)
A Londoner said that she never used 'real' money
because it's unhygienic.
God help the Addressless!
In Stockholm (I heard on the radio today) almost impossible.
(I can't believe that Stockholm has no 'black economy'.)
A Londoner said that she never used 'real' money
because it's unhygienic.
God help the Addressless!
Sunday 25 August 2019
Since I am capable of writing
three or more blogs a day
(especially after wine)
I should tell my few readers
that, today, (the twenty-fifth of August)
I wrote the blog which will be dated
the ninth day of November (or as Americans say,
November ninth - or just November 9).
I probably will still be alive.
.
(especially after wine)
I should tell my few readers
that, today, (the twenty-fifth of August)
I wrote the blog which will be dated
the ninth day of November (or as Americans say,
November ninth - or just November 9).
I probably will still be alive.
.
Before the ill-named "Enlightenment"
almost the only 'eccentrics'
were incentric monks.
Now the only eccentrics
are locked up against their will.
Eccentrics don't have 'followers'
on Facebook.
(Jesus did; Diogenes didn't.)
BUT: We love ourselves for loving those
who seem to be eccentric...
NB: This may be the first recorded coinage of the word
INCENTRIC...
were incentric monks.
Now the only eccentrics
are locked up against their will.
Eccentrics don't have 'followers'
on Facebook.
(Jesus did; Diogenes didn't.)
BUT: We love ourselves for loving those
who seem to be eccentric...
NB: This may be the first recorded coinage of the word
INCENTRIC...
Saturday 24 August 2019
After a poem by Yosip Mandelstam.
"And I was alive" below the blizzard
of the blossoming pear,
I sheltered from the stammering
storm of the cherry tree beneath the cherry tree's
leaf-life and star-shower,
its sap-strength, its primal, invisible
axe-susceptible power
which had nothing to do with
what I had been told was me.
What and where is the joy, the delight
that always takes flight from us
and even our shadows ?
What is being? What is reality? What is right ?
Petals wrinkle and rapture the air,
flurry and float, and I am in
time shrunk to a kernel,
time stretched to the
impossibly, unbearably eternal -
brief sweetness transubstantiating into the glory
of all-encompassing rot.
All is now. All was. All will be and is not.
Anthony Weir 30 vi 2019
A page of translations of Mandelstam's poem BREATH
The best one is by Paul Celan, of course.
of the blossoming pear,
I sheltered from the stammering
storm of the cherry tree beneath the cherry tree's
leaf-life and star-shower,
its sap-strength, its primal, invisible
axe-susceptible power
which had nothing to do with
what I had been told was me.
What and where is the joy, the delight
that always takes flight from us
and even our shadows ?
What is being? What is reality? What is right ?
Petals wrinkle and rapture the air,
flurry and float, and I am in
time shrunk to a kernel,
time stretched to the
impossibly, unbearably eternal -
brief sweetness transubstantiating into the glory
of all-encompassing rot.
All is now. All was. All will be and is not.
Anthony Weir 30 vi 2019
A page of translations of Mandelstam's poem BREATH
The best one is by Paul Celan, of course.
Friday 23 August 2019
My Mailbox
Thursday 22 August 2019
Although I understand statistics
I never passed a math(s)
exam. This is why I say
that the wrinkles between my nipples
and my willy are bountiful
and awesomely uncountable.
exam. This is why I say
that the wrinkles between my nipples
and my willy are bountiful
and awesomely uncountable.
Wednesday 21 August 2019
Tuesday 20 August 2019
Monday 19 August 2019
Sunday 18 August 2019
Other people
have no inkling
of how evil they are
which is yet another reason why
I'm ashamed to be human.
of how evil they are
which is yet another reason why
I'm ashamed to be human.
Saturday 17 August 2019
Friends
are what lonely people have.
I'm so glad I have never been lonely
though sometimes bereft
glad
too for all the friends I never had
I'd rather have feelings than friends
Both at once are not possible
I'm so glad I have never been lonely
though sometimes bereft
glad
too for all the friends I never had
I'd rather have feelings than friends
Both at once are not possible
Friday 16 August 2019
Today's other deep thought.
Several (though now this word is obsolete
and I should say multiple) times over the years
I felt I was about to stumble on
The Meaning of Life -
but then my consciousness flipped over,
like one of those lovely desk-calendars
I always envied but never owned.
and I should say multiple) times over the years
I felt I was about to stumble on
The Meaning of Life -
but then my consciousness flipped over,
like one of those lovely desk-calendars
I always envied but never owned.
Thursday 15 August 2019
Sitting out on the balcony,
with delicious scents coming from below,
watching the swifts zoom about and listening to Billy the Blackbird's
familiar snatches of melody, I am induced to think that,
despite our escalating destructive enterprise,
large areas of our planet are still
lovely in their slow demise.
watching the swifts zoom about and listening to Billy the Blackbird's
familiar snatches of melody, I am induced to think that,
despite our escalating destructive enterprise,
large areas of our planet are still
lovely in their slow demise.
Wednesday 14 August 2019
"Why can't you be normal ?"
my aunt would say to me.
-as if I had chosen to be 'abnormal'.
Now I would say to her that
in many places at many times
it was normal to be nasty
and in certain places at a certain time
it was normal to be nazi.
-as if I had chosen to be 'abnormal'.
Now I would say to her that
in many places at many times
it was normal to be nasty
and in certain places at a certain time
it was normal to be nazi.
Tuesday 13 August 2019
Of the Universe of Feeling
the shrewdest
among us know
that we know very little:
we have only the crudest
most superficial
awareness
compared with
any dog, any tree.
Buddhists say: All is suffering.
Jesus said: Humans (only) may be redeemed through me.
I say: there is no possibility of redemption;
it is best to assume
that every plant and animal is suffering
unless, through our thin compassion
or our holy absence
we can confer exemption.
among us know
that we know very little:
we have only the crudest
most superficial
awareness
compared with
any dog, any tree.
Buddhists say: All is suffering.
Jesus said: Humans (only) may be redeemed through me.
I say: there is no possibility of redemption;
it is best to assume
that every plant and animal is suffering
unless, through our thin compassion
or our holy absence
we can confer exemption.
Monday 12 August 2019
We comfortable complainers/whingers about climate-change
should remember that
many, many thousands of years ago,
(when North America was nearly twice its present size)
what is now the North (formerly German) Sea was rich and fertile land
inhabited by hyænas...and humans
who did not deign to move westward
into what was then inhospitable land,
now the not-too-hospitable British Isles,
until the inundation.
Then came glaciation...
And, eventually, our little planet-warming civilisation.
But let us remember: 99% of all species
that have ever lived upon the earth
are long extinct.
many, many thousands of years ago,
(when North America was nearly twice its present size)
what is now the North (formerly German) Sea was rich and fertile land
inhabited by hyænas...and humans
who did not deign to move westward
into what was then inhospitable land,
now the not-too-hospitable British Isles,
until the inundation.
Then came glaciation...
And, eventually, our little planet-warming civilisation.
But let us remember: 99% of all species
that have ever lived upon the earth
are long extinct.
Sunday 11 August 2019
Jesus is said to have said:
"He that loveth son or daughter more than me
is not worthy of me."
This also must have been a reason why
heterodox early Christians had themselves castrated.
I had myself vasectomised so that I might feel
more worthy to exist than more worthy to serve
a jealous and drama-loving son of a jealous and drama-loving god.
Sterilisation cancels out many alleged sins.
is not worthy of me."
This also must have been a reason why
heterodox early Christians had themselves castrated.
I had myself vasectomised so that I might feel
more worthy to exist than more worthy to serve
a jealous and drama-loving son of a jealous and drama-loving god.
Sterilisation cancels out many alleged sins.
Saturday 10 August 2019
Friday 9 August 2019
Many members of our species gone agley
regard others, and every living thing, as prey.
Of course, they're right -
merely because they think that way.
Which is why, for most of my life,
I've hidden in plain sight,
hoping that One Glorious Day
they'll simply evaporate
or, at any rate,
poison or explode themselves away.
Of course, they're right -
merely because they think that way.
Which is why, for most of my life,
I've hidden in plain sight,
hoping that One Glorious Day
they'll simply evaporate
or, at any rate,
poison or explode themselves away.
Thursday 8 August 2019
I am not colour-blind.
On the contrary, I think I see
colours more differentiatedly and brightly
than most other people,
especially the fifty shades of green
and the fewer than fifteen tones of black,
my favourite shade of human flesh.
I cannot understand why - at least in the British Isles -
'black' designates pale coffee-coloured skin.
colours more differentiatedly and brightly
than most other people,
especially the fifty shades of green
and the fewer than fifteen tones of black,
my favourite shade of human flesh.
I cannot understand why - at least in the British Isles -
'black' designates pale coffee-coloured skin.
Wednesday 7 August 2019
Words and The Word.
Adam and Eve
mean Clay and Life
respectively in Hebrew.
Life emerges from mud
like Eve from Adam's side -
hence Jewish Patriarchy!
mean Clay and Life
respectively in Hebrew.
Life emerges from mud
like Eve from Adam's side -
hence Jewish Patriarchy!
Tuesday 6 August 2019
Monday 5 August 2019
Sunday 4 August 2019
It is hard not to giggle at and to love crusty old Punic & poetical Tertullian.
...ab haeretico quam ab ethnico,
et non protenus et non ubique convicium carnis,
in originem in materiam in casum,
in omnem exitum eius, immundae a primordio ex faecibus terrae,
immundioris deinceps ex seminis sui limo,
frivolae infirmae criminosae molestae onerosae,
et post totum ignobilitatis elogium caducae in originem terrae et cadaveris nomen,
et de isto quoque nomine periturae in nullum inde iam nomen,
in omnis iam vocabuli mortem ?
Like Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullian.
I have never been aware of a "mind/body" Problem,
there never having been a black hole between my body and my mind
(and much less than 'normal' between my legs)
because both were simultaneously attacked by,
and hence united in, their resistance to Education.
et non protenus et non ubique convicium carnis,
in originem in materiam in casum,
in omnem exitum eius, immundae a primordio ex faecibus terrae,
immundioris deinceps ex seminis sui limo,
frivolae infirmae criminosae molestae onerosae,
et post totum ignobilitatis elogium caducae in originem terrae et cadaveris nomen,
et de isto quoque nomine periturae in nullum inde iam nomen,
in omnis iam vocabuli mortem ?
Like Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullian.
I have never been aware of a "mind/body" Problem,
there never having been a black hole between my body and my mind
(and much less than 'normal' between my legs)
because both were simultaneously attacked by,
and hence united in, their resistance to Education.
Saturday 3 August 2019
Not many people know
that the word heathen
comes from Latin ethnicus (and ethnica for a female).
Thank you John Updike!
comes from Latin ethnicus (and ethnica for a female).
Thank you John Updike!
Friday 2 August 2019
Thursday 1 August 2019
When we are told how wonderful our brains are
we tend to smile contentedly and then go on to more serious topics
like the rate of income tax, the price of petrol/gasoline,
or the American-Iranian World War To Come.
But this evening I listened to an old broadcast performance
of Grigoriy Sokolov playing Schubert's last sonata (D.960)
and was able to compare it (unfavourably)
with my surprisingly accurate memory
of the orgasmic performance by Mitsuko Uchida
(whose name I always have to check on Wikipedia)
which I earlier deemed better than those by Alfred Brendel and Alfred Cortot -
though the latter has divine rubato.
like the rate of income tax, the price of petrol/gasoline,
or the American-Iranian World War To Come.
But this evening I listened to an old broadcast performance
of Grigoriy Sokolov playing Schubert's last sonata (D.960)
and was able to compare it (unfavourably)
with my surprisingly accurate memory
of the orgasmic performance by Mitsuko Uchida
(whose name I always have to check on Wikipedia)
which I earlier deemed better than those by Alfred Brendel and Alfred Cortot -
though the latter has divine rubato.
Wednesday 31 July 2019
Mulling over Paul Celan.
The only things worth talking about
with other human hackers of the tree of life
are the things that cannot be mentioned:
overpopulation, ecocide, suicide,
the godness of water, plants and animals
and how each delicious bite we take
has destroyed so many living things...
and so it's not so much that
one doesn't know how not to begin a conversation,
but that (having been sterilised)
one doesn't know how to make any kind of communication.
with other human hackers of the tree of life
are the things that cannot be mentioned:
overpopulation, ecocide, suicide,
the godness of water, plants and animals
and how each delicious bite we take
has destroyed so many living things...
and so it's not so much that
one doesn't know how not to begin a conversation,
but that (having been sterilised)
one doesn't know how to make any kind of communication.
Tuesday 30 July 2019
Monday 29 July 2019
Sunday 28 July 2019
It is so sad
that Jesus' anti-institutional
exhortations to kindness and good nature
and simple fairness and justice
were transformed into unbrotherly,
desiccated morality and moralism
by his immediate followers
and two millennia
of his rapacious traducers.
exhortations to kindness and good nature
and simple fairness and justice
were transformed into unbrotherly,
desiccated morality and moralism
by his immediate followers
and two millennia
of his rapacious traducers.
Saturday 27 July 2019
Friday 26 July 2019
In 19th century Russian towns
welcome-lamps were lit when there was food to spare
or someone needed to be comforted
or company was wanted.
The lights now outside houses
have been installed to threaten
and expose intruders.
or someone needed to be comforted
or company was wanted.
The lights now outside houses
have been installed to threaten
and expose intruders.
Thursday 25 July 2019
Wednesday 24 July 2019
Our sadly-malfunctioning brains
have evolved either because of an unfortunate mutation,
or simply because God went mad (as Nietzsche didn't dare to contemplate
or didn't dare to tell),
and our Universe (amongst many)
is his padded cell.
or simply because God went mad (as Nietzsche didn't dare to contemplate
or didn't dare to tell),
and our Universe (amongst many)
is his padded cell.
Tuesday 23 July 2019
Monday 22 July 2019
Two things I'd like to remind you of.
Inca gold and silver
together with the Catholic Church
and men on benches in Bologna
were crucial in the development
of capitalism.
Serfs were freed in Russia
without a civil war
before slavery was (technically)
abolished in the USA.
together with the Catholic Church
and men on benches in Bologna
were crucial in the development
of capitalism.
Serfs were freed in Russia
without a civil war
before slavery was (technically)
abolished in the USA.
Sunday 21 July 2019
When 'western culture'
largely consists of shopping, work and sex
all mixed up with 'human rights' hypocrisy;
if its popular music reflects the thoughts,
ideas and concerns of most, democracy
is doomed.
As I write I hear that there are more refugees than ever
in the history of the world,
that there is less trust in politicians and in vaccines.
Welcome to the Dark Age
of demagoguery, apocalypse.
all mixed up with 'human rights' hypocrisy;
if its popular music reflects the thoughts,
ideas and concerns of most, democracy
is doomed.
As I write I hear that there are more refugees than ever
in the history of the world,
that there is less trust in politicians and in vaccines.
Welcome to the Dark Age
of demagoguery, apocalypse.
Saturday 20 July 2019
Like breaking horses.
Education is an exercise
in bridling children's spirit -
if their parents
or other children haven't already done so -
or if they had any to begin with.
in bridling children's spirit -
if their parents
or other children haven't already done so -
or if they had any to begin with.
Friday 19 July 2019
I am trying to figure
why everyone, even in a little French village,
is wearing incredibly drab and badly-cut clothes
in shades of brown, black and grey. Obviously
it's The Style of 2019, but why ?
The only brightness is the occasional lurid
early adolescent. There is no beauty
of apparel to contrast with the dour faces of the
modern bourgeois army.
It's quite scary,
especially as I, in my Indian cotton pants
and home-designed t-shirt, get strange or hostile looks
from the ugly uniformities who pass me by.
is wearing incredibly drab and badly-cut clothes
in shades of brown, black and grey. Obviously
it's The Style of 2019, but why ?
The only brightness is the occasional lurid
early adolescent. There is no beauty
of apparel to contrast with the dour faces of the
modern bourgeois army.
It's quite scary,
especially as I, in my Indian cotton pants
and home-designed t-shirt, get strange or hostile looks
from the ugly uniformities who pass me by.
Kissing
Missing
Pissing
Reminiscing
Breeding
Needing
Bleeding
They tell us to praise
the darkest of days.
They tell us
that the all-powerful animal
with the ever-expanding, ever-tightening mind
as big as a galaxy, small as a turd,
is utterly exceptional, phenomenal,
and that you and I
should 'borrow' light from the blind
to give to the other unredeemables
who go unheard.
Each one of us
each day
destroys a world.
Masturbation
should be enjoyed
not resorted to.
Remember: almost anything
is holier, more reverential
than human procreation.
Pissing
Reminiscing
Breeding
Needing
Bleeding
They tell us to praise
the darkest of days.
They tell us
that the all-powerful animal
with the ever-expanding, ever-tightening mind
as big as a galaxy, small as a turd,
is utterly exceptional, phenomenal,
and that you and I
should 'borrow' light from the blind
to give to the other unredeemables
who go unheard.
Each one of us
each day
destroys a world.
Masturbation
should be enjoyed
not resorted to.
Remember: almost anything
is holier, more reverential
than human procreation.
Thursday 18 July 2019
The reason why
most Christians have no interest
in the unstoppable result of climate change
is that it's not their kind of apocalypse.
in the unstoppable result of climate change
is that it's not their kind of apocalypse.
Wednesday 17 July 2019
Maybe never-to-be-lived-in.
One of Ahmadinejad's crazy, totalitarian New (ghost) Towns.
This one in the desert outside Tehran,with almost no infrastructure to support it - not even drains !
https://www.messynessychic.com/2019/06/13/
This one in the desert outside Tehran,with almost no infrastructure to support it - not even drains !
https://www.messynessychic.com/2019/06/13/
New Words to an Old Lyric*
Putting on the agony
putting on the guile;
that's what all the dumb folks
are doin' all the while.
When I look around me
I sometimes have to smile,
seein' all the dumb folks putting on the guile.
*as recorded in my youth by Lonnie Donegan (1957)
Original lyrics by Norman Cazden. But Lonnie's best one is probably Rock Island Line which opened up for me the world of "folk music" from the USA to India, Iraq and Japan. From Leadbelly to the Trio Joubran via Fairport Convention, of course!
putting on the guile;
that's what all the dumb folks
are doin' all the while.
When I look around me
I sometimes have to smile,
seein' all the dumb folks putting on the guile.
*as recorded in my youth by Lonnie Donegan (1957)
Original lyrics by Norman Cazden. But Lonnie's best one is probably Rock Island Line which opened up for me the world of "folk music" from the USA to India, Iraq and Japan. From Leadbelly to the Trio Joubran via Fairport Convention, of course!
Tuesday 16 July 2019
IS - the new global mind-game racket.
I am holding the first International
Intelligent Scepticism © ® Week
here at Caylus in August.
Only $700 for the week
including under-the-hedge accommodation.
payment via PayPal
Intelligent Scepticism © ® Week
here at Caylus in August.
Only $700 for the week
including under-the-hedge accommodation.
payment via PayPal
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)