The United Kingdom

(of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
is, according to environmentalist
and civil rights protector George Monbiot
 a country that now keeps hundreds of political prisoners, 
 a country in which you can get six months in jail 
 for marching slowly down the street. 

'When I was young'

in the 1940s and 1950s,
children had the right to roam. 
They played football in the street
(while I slunk past on my two left feet).

My friends and I explored
bombed houses and houses being built
to replace them.  We went off on bicycles
to pick blackberries or swim in the sea.

Our house was never locked (and upholding
a tradition, my own house here
in rural France is never locked, nor is my car).

Here, as elsewhere, no kids play in streets,
no kids are seen alone.
There is a children's Leisure Centre, highly supervised,
which has a locked door with a code and speakerphone.

Belfast 1950s

I used to play 'conkers'.

There were hopscotch and skipping etcetera
This is one of the few pictures showing middle-class children
(as I was) but it was taken in America.*

*BritIrish boys had to wear short pants until they were twelve,
and there was hardly any person of colour in the whole of Ireland.

This quiet corner of Athens

doesn't get many visitors.

photo by Danai Davlopoulou

Tester: a word I first came across last week.

Before the advent of window-glass, 
birds and bats (maybe flying foxes)
could fly into the bedrooms of the rich.

A tester (presumably connected
with French teste or tête),
was the covering of wood or material
(not quite a baldaquin)
supported by the posts
of a four-poster bed
(lit à colonnes in French) to prevent
the occupants being shat upon.

Curtains kept out the considerable
draughts from glassless windows.

Such beds are mentioned in Old Irish sagas.

A weak ending.

Attentisme

is a fine French word meaning literally
wait-and-see-ism.

In a French summer of continual heatwaves
and wildfires,

in a world of continual futile, cruel wars
environmental destruction
and moral slough

we are all reduced to being attentistes
and attentismatics now.

How I am enhancing

the ugly, greenless, unoccupiable
house opposite.

Homophobia rules.

Attacking a Pride march is only a small part of  it.

After all, to some pervertedly 'normal' people
a vulgar Pride march is a provocation.

Yet Queers are constantly bombarded
by offensive norms and Family Values
and the sexual paranoia of the breeders –
Christians, Muslims, Jews and even Atheists.

The whole structure of society is tightly
heterosexual, dynastic,
gynophobic, Abrahamic...

and, not least because of a kind of
epistemic convergence
there is no 'Queer Community'. 
Some Queers are rampant fascists, others
are Quakers and pacifists,
and some even ape the breeders
by surrogately producing children.)

But it was not thus in Ancient Greece
or Egypt or Celtlands...nor, I suggest,
on most of the peopled planet before the rise
of murderous forms of Christianity.

"Super-spreader diversity threat."

We seem to be stacking up
perfect storms
like there's no tomorrow.

And now this:

and this:

Chipping Norton

is a millionaires' village in the Cotswold Hills
in the centre-west of oppressive England.

This is a roof-boss in the church.
Does it represent the Ram of Israël's God
silencing Human Blasphemy
or just the human's dog ?

Not just the climate,

but social inequality, too.

On wildfires >

On social inequality:  

Economic analysis for the charity Crisis in 2018 estimated that permanently ending homelessness in Britain would cost £9.9bn over 10 years. But it would save £26.4bn by reducing pressures on the Health Service, criminal justice system and payment of allowances and benefits.

If you don’t have compassion for animals,

you won't have compassion for human beings."

– War-zone animal rescuer, Hussein Hamze,
southern Lebanon,

Doppelgänger.

In Belfast, my home-town, I once saw my Double
across the traffic on the other side
of University (or was it Botanic ?) Avenue.

On my favourite porn-site yesterday
I saw a squirting willy which was exactly
the same as mine. My Doppelwichser, maybe
(I didn't see his face above his beard.) 

As exciting as it was surprising:
a minor wonder to make me ponder.

Perhaps unviolated todgers carry something
of their owners' personalities ?
(Those with eyes to see...)

And the mentalities of the sadly circumcised
are sadly circumscribed ?  (Alas! O Israël,
O Jordan, Egypt, UAE and Palestine !)

(Just a passing fancy passed in confidence.)
(I'll spare you the photographic evidence.)

Australian sky

with radio-telescope.

'The State of the World' might also be a factor.

Moreover,

And "the slow cancellation of the future" speeds up
with every invention, every innovation.

The glory of Dolomite Romanesque.

Enormous feet, ecstatic serpent
with extra-good hearing:
the Garden of Eden at Bolzano (Alto Adige),
formerly Bozen.
What big nipples Adam has!

photo by the great Fabio Casalini

After over a day

of vaguely wondering about the charred-wood smell
when I go outside, I suddenly realise that
it's coming from the wildfires on the Atlantic coast
200 kilometres away.

(I have always been slow on the uptake.)

Pyro-cumulonimbus clouds near Bordeaux.

Out of character ?

Of course, I loathe
the fashion, couture
and cosmetics industries
which have turned women forever
into mannequins,

but I rather like this floral
and crustacean creation

by Manish Malhotra 

Tiresome mensuality.

It's the moon
I have to thank
or curse. Once
a month I am
'sexually active'
and have a wank.

Two questions

asked of Andrew O'Hagan,
brilliant author of Caledonian Road.

plus

My thought on the internet:
I remember the www being
an exciting tool of exploration
(Google Earth !)
Now it is a tyrannical instrument
of control and exploitation.

Perhaps Marcus Aurelius

didn't get it quite right,
and the quality of your life depends on
the fizziness of your thoughts ?

Ballad of the Skeletons.

This much-praised and very dated poem is at least as bad as some of mine

and much more tedious. 
Like most bad popular poetry it is written for performance,
not for the inner eye or intellect.

Said the Presidential Skeleton

I won't sign the bill

Said the Speaker skeleton

Yes you will

Said the Representative Skeleton

I object

Said the Supreme Court skeleton

Whaddya expect

Said the Miltary skeleton

Buy Star Bombs

Said the Upperclass Skeleton

Starve unmarried moms

Said the Yahoo Skeleton

Stop dirty art

Said the Right Wing skeleton

Forget about yr heart

Said the Gnostic Skeleton

The Human Form's divine

Said the Moral Majority skeleton

No it's not it's mine

       And on it goes...

Said the Buddha Skeleton

Compassion is wealth

Said the Corporate skeleton

It's bad for your health

Said the Old Christ skeleton

Care for the Poor

Said the Son of God skeleton

AIDS needs cure

Said the Homophobe skeleton

Gay folk suck

Said the Heritage Policy skeleton

Blacks're outa luck

Said the Macho skeleton

Women in their place

Said the Fundamentalist skeleton

Increase human race

Said the Right-to-Life skeleton

Foetus has a soul

Said Pro Choice skeleton

Shove it up your hole

Said the Downsized skeleton

Robots got my job

Said the Tough-on-Crime skeleton

Tear gas the mob

       Is it ever going to finish ?

Said the Governor skeleton

Cut school lunch

Said the Mayor skeleton

Eat the budget crunch

Said the Neo Conservative skeleton

Homeless off the street!

Said the Free Market skeleton

Use 'em up for meat

Said the Think Tank skeleton

Free Market's the way

Said the Saving & Loan skeleton

Make the State pay

Said the Chrysler skeleton

Pay for you & me

Said the Nuke Power skeleton

& me & me & me

Said the Ecologic skeleton

Keep Skies blue

Said the Multinational skeleton

What's it worth to you?

Said the NAFTA skeleton

Get rich, Free Trade,

Said the Maquiladora skeleton

Sweat shops, low paid

Said the rich GATT skeleton

One world, high tech

Said the Underclass skeleton

Get it in the neck

Said the World Bank skeleton

Cut down your trees

Said the I.M.F. skeleton

Buy American cheese

Said the Underdeveloped skeleton

We want rice

Said Developed Nations' skeleton

Sell your bones for dice

       Yes, there's more.

Said the Ayatollah skeleton

Die writer die

Said Joe Stalin's skeleton

That's no lie

Said the Middle Kingdom skeleton

We swallowed Tibet

Said the Dalai Lama skeleton

Indigestion's whatcha get

Said the World Chorus skeleton

That's their fate

Said the U.S.A. skeleton

Gotta save Kuwait

Said the Petrochemical skeleton

Roar Bombers roar!

Said the Psychedelic skeleton

Smoke a dinosaur

Said Nancy's skeleton

Just say No

Said the Rasta skeleton

Blow Nancy Blow

Said Demagogue skeleton

Don't smoke Pot

Said Alcoholic skeleton

Let your liver rot

Said the Junkie skeleton

Can't we get a fix?

Said the Big Brother skeleton

Jail the dirty pricks

Said the Mirror skeleton

Hey good looking

Said the Electric Chair skeleton

Hey what's cooking?

Said the Talk-show skeleton

Fuck you in the face

Said the Family Values skeleton

My family values mace

Said the NY Times skeleton

That's not fit to print

Said the CIA skeleton

Can'tcha take a hint?

Said the Network skeleton

Believe my lies

Said the Advertising skeleton

Don't get wise!

Said the Media skeleton

Believe you me

Said the Couch-potato skeleton

What me worry?

Said the TV skeleton

Eat sound bites

Said the Newscast skeleton

That's all Goodnight

       If you got this far, award yourself a medal.

Mr Skeleton, with Pacemaker and hearing-aids.

In H.G. Wells' and even George Orwell's time

it would have been ridiculous fantasy
to imagine that one could have bed-time
music (beside one's bed)
coming live (not by the world-wide-web
but by digital audio broadcasting) free, unpaid
for, on ABC Classics' early-morning
programme (with dawn chorus)
from Adelaide.

I have always hated 'strimmers'

(débroussailleuses in French).
They kill and destroy so much.
I'm not surprised that they might
even have started wildfires near Bordeaux.

View from the sea of wildfires near Bordeaux.

The successive heatwaves in France 
have caused considerable harm to wildlife.

Modern slavery.

Spare a thought also
for nubile, trafficked boys and girls
amongst whose duties
is the cutting of the toenails
of paedophile and aged billionaires.

Just as early Christian converts

might have been outraged
by shrines and sacrifices to Cybele and Pan,
Priapus and Artemis and Zeus,
at almost every street-corner,
so, too, am I, a mildly-vegetarian man,
sickened by the stink of the neighbours'
Satanic barbecues.

Perhaps all friends

are Fair-weather Friends.
A lot depends
on whether
and how they endure
your weather.

I am looking forward

to shock headlines
that read: WOMEN'S
DRUG RAPE GANG
TRAUMATISES
MULTIPLE MEN
DAMAGING THEIR WILLIES.

instead of

 

One of Ray Exworth's Sheds.

© Jem Southam

"Discovery

not God himself
Could now annihilate."

Indeed not, Deep Emily :
it will annihilate itself,
past, present and future
- and us all.

Heat-hub.

In this enhanced satellite image you can see
how France this past month
has been a rainless heat-hub - I would say
mainly because of the warm-air-sucking
influence of the Bay of Biscay.

Cumulus and strato-cumulus avoid France.

Maybe you can watch on your Tor browser.

CIVISE (France's Economic, Social and Environmental Council)
reports that every three minutes in France a child is sexually abused.

*

At this very moment, somewhere in the air,
female cabin-crew are being groped, propositioned, pawed,
insulted or shouted at...while bladder-weak
male passengers piss in their seats, or against the outside
of the occupied toilet door
on their way to a vacation in the sun.

What is it about human males (of which I am one) ?

Voltaic Agriculture

in Colorado.

The title

of this recent painting
comes from Patricia Highsmith's
idea of a dilapidated art gallery
that nobody visits, and probably
has no pictures.

The subject reads:
L'art privé : private, as opposed
to public, art.

Galerie Zéro, 2026.

Not so very long ago
there was a little game
played for fun
between and within villages,
 neighbourhoods
and towns in England,
originally with a pig's bladder
that was kicked by opposing teams
attempting to get it through goalposts
at either end of a fairly-level field.
Sometimes these were marked by 
a pile of clothes or old fence-posts.

This is what it has become.

As with everything it gets involved with,

the USA not so much accepted
the unAmerican football World Cup
(and a minor sport in North America)

as imposed itself upon it.

And indeed, Mr Belloc,

about the actual personality
or - say- night time behaviour
of the failed but famed Saviour
we know only his frugality. 

*Hilaire Belloc wrote a famous quatrain:

              How odd
              of God
              to choose
              the Jews.

Pelican doctors.

Pillicock sat on pillicock hill,

weeping in Shakespeare's time,

dribbling still.

from today's Guardian.

We live in an age of spectacle.

It surpasses substance. 

It vaults reason.
No outrage goes unapplauded. 

No bigotry  goes unblessed. 

Are we not entertained?

She might have been wrong.

“No collapse,
just a gradual shrinking/ of the present.” 

OKSANA MAKSYMCHUK

On The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.

Drinking
wine (for the tonguesome taste)
in solitude
can induce
philosophical thinking.

The danger
of knowing yourself
to be (apparently) very different
from other human beings
is to think yourself thereby superior.

A Dionysian-Khayyámian Thought:

On the Easyjet
of Existence
language
is excess baggage.

A robber fly in Cost Rica

and a hat in Vienna in 1910.

photo by Ronen Tivoney

The Fraudyssey.

I wouldn't dream of watching
a crude Christopher Nolan film.
Two lines of a review sum it up.

Homer’s Calypso is a great part. 
Nolan’s is some woman who runs a beach bar 
and is thinking of pivoting to psychotherapy. 

I guess it's the most recent equivalent of
The Robe or Quo Vadis, both of which
I saw in ill-spent youth.

Interesting distinctiion

Dirty Linen (with overtones of shit)

washed at home in France and not at the public wash-place
or pond = keeping problems and quarrels  and perhaps scandals within the family :
« laver son linge sale en famille »

washed in public in Britain and not in the private laundry-room or wash-house = letting everyone know your family quarrels and problems and perhaps shameful things : « to wash one;'s dirty linen in public »

The meaning of dreams.

What to make of the dream in which
the dreamer discovers
a little bird living in his anus ?

The meanings of dreams (as of life)
this book suggests, may lie in 
the very absence of meaning.

Harmless pornography

has entered a new dimension
with micro-cameras
that women can insert
deep into their vaginas
(or men into their recta ?)
to photograph the mechanics
of fucking. Quite fascinating
and educational. 

However:
one man or woman's exciting bit of letch
is another one's excellent reason to retch.

"No man knows a rapist,"

wrote a female victim in The Guardian yesterday...

apart from penis-buddies in the same
drug-rape ring or squad

and the young guys forcibly buggered
by their uncle or their dad... 

FALSE CURRENCY ?

And what will it be worth
in 50 years ?

Gold-plated, of course.

The triviality of 'news media' (snob's view)

In the midst of almost world-wide war :

Sudan, Ukraine, Palestine, Mali, Iran,

Burkina Faso, Burma...

the BBC's chief headline and 5 minute report

this morning was England's deserved defeat

by Argentina in the infantile football world cup.

The Guardian, one of the world's top newspapers

is filled with fashion, lifestyle, silly menus, sport,

gossip, pop music and video-games reviews 

and has very little news.

J-P Sartre :

'When you accept despair,
you can stop expecting the world
to be co-operative,
and get on with life.'

Beware the fridge-aware bear !

 

Monsieur Degas finishes

a painting

buttoning his fly.