irony

i just got my first radio commercial series voice-over gig in more than five years and i get to play a particular leader of the free world known by a letter at the end of the alphabet.

if my father were alive, i know he would have a good chuckle about it.

Don't let the Cat in

Yusuf Islam (the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens) was recently denied entry to the US because of his alleged connections to terror groups despite him being a well known moderate Muslim (as long as you don't count the supporting of the fatwah on Salman Rushdie). One has to wonder if this is caution being taken to the level of paranoia.

I'm all for making sure people don't commit terrorist acts, but it's not so clear as to be able to condemn one specific group just because the media emphasizes the religious fanatics amongst it. I mean, Christianity would come off just as bad if not worse if we looked at the wars and destruction done in it's name. It's the religious fanaticism and lust for political power that are the real enemies, and these "evils" are not confined to one race or religious preference.

A "war on terror" is only going to perpetuate a dualistic warring mentality: us and them, friend or foe. I think Jesus came to take away that mentality. I find it ironic that the political right in the US portrays itself as embodying good Christian values.

British Diplomat Gaffe

I found it amusing that someone leaked a comment from a British dipolomat that terror groups would rather have Bush in the Whitehouse than Kerry.

Although the current US administration would have the world believe it would be safer with it in power after the next election, one does have to mention that the current polarised situation was created by the current administration...

Shihad spits the dummy

i was encouraged today when i read that the NZ rock band formally known as Shihad (pronounced 'she-had') and presently known as Pacifier has decided to revert to it's previous name. the main reason they changed their name in the first place was due to the post 9/11 mentality and similarity of their name to the word 'jihad". their motivation was to be able to sell albums in the USA.

on their website, the band members state:

"The events surrounding the name change and our choice to be known as Pacifier are well documented. As much as we believed in what we were doing, and the reasons for doing it at the time - the truth is we were wrong. "

to me the reversion to their previous name signals that the world is waking up from the madness of conformity to the conservative social norm created by 9/11. the first casualty of a semi-militarised state is freedom of expression and dissent. i hope that with greater experience of the dubious nature of political truths and narrowminded agendas, people won't be duped or controlled to the same extent in the future.

i'm off my soapbox now. time to smell some roses...

Something from the beat days

this poem tapped me on the shoulder unasked this morning as i was waiting for the green orbiter bus to arrive.

i wrote it more than three years ago when i was reading a lot of beat poetry. it happened one morning when i was getting dressed. suddenly the first two lines popped into my head. i had to stop buttoning my shirt and write them down. then the next lines came. i was able to finish getting dressed eventually and hop in the car to work, but the poem kept coming. i held an old receipt on my steering wheel and scrawled the lines on it with a pen as i drove. when i got to work, i quickly typed it all up and this is what came out. mind you, the editor in me came out eventually and made a couple of minor tweaks and changes, but this is mainly the product of inspiration which i was fortunate enough to get out of the way of and just let happen.

in some respects, i didn't write the poem so much as just write it down...


It Is What It Is

Poetry?
Infamy, the last of me,
Simpleton logic in Zen-like trances,
Dances of the mind-ballet,
Steps, hopes, long pregnant stares
Past the rows of chairs into the foyer
Burst through the double door of brain lock habit thought
From naught to ought in commercialesque prose.

Don't alienate,
Incorporate bland commonality
So it sparks energy, heart-life squeezes.
Please the knees of the march men,
The beat song, the sweet song
Hoarse with enthusiasm, applause,
Cause and effect.
Reject the spiderstep entry.
Speak your mind, brother!
Decline the whine to line the stacks and spines
Of whines that line the stacks
Backed in rows for your perusal,
Refusal to bow down to the push of apathy
Sympathy to the word sinews
The mouth thews of utterance
Spewed in elegant soliloquy.

Salivate the wait state.
Hate the silence,
Love the rhythm schism
Syllables split
Ground down into primal motion, emotion, motivation,
Exhalations of me on the windowpane of the morning bus ride
That divides my prehistory.

So you ask me of poetry?
And the answer is.
13/3/01

For those of us who are nosey

Now PC users can follow their nose to surf the web with greater ease...

Batman does Buckingham

It seems like elections this year are bringing out the more outlandish and provocative who aren't above a shameless publicity stunt to gain popularity....

Smelly Robots Eating Flies

Who would have thought that a tasty fly could serve as a useful energy source? These London scientists did...

freedom

freedom is a mirage
freedom is a catch-phrase to enlist the impoverished
freedom is a lever for the ignorant
freedom is a carrot on a string
freedom is a whip on broken skin

america is no more free than the soviet union was
america doesn't want freedom
america wants ordered voracious consumers,
independently wealthy money-makers,
happy service industry slaves
and wide-eyed watchers of tv.
“a well balanced breakfast is toast, juice, milk and cereal.”
have you ever mixed juice and milk?
can you say lobbies, kickback, and campaign contributions?

people are upset by this thought
they act surprised and outraged as if their sacred cow was shot
they've marched for freedom
fired guns for freedom
formed hate groups for freedom
stuffed their faces for freedom
made porn for freedom
killed foreigners for freedom
given up civil liberties for freedom
and the media watched it all and recorded every second
“god bless america,” they yelled,
“land of the free (spending)
and home of the brave (sports enthusiast).”

americans don't really want freedom
they want comfort
and there’s comfort to be had
at a price
and that price is their freedom
and the freedom of the rest of the world

freedom is the smell of one new empty shoe
freedom is the promise of desert rain
freedom is a willing chain of slavery for the poor
freedom is a fireworks display
freedom is a scapegoat
freedom is a christmas tree
freedom is a slot machine jackpot

freedom is just a lullaby

A Bush Makeover

Here's a place where you can make the leader of the free world look however you want him to...

i've posted this before...

but i liked it so much i thought it was worth repeating...

technology advances
and grows and shrinks
and penetrates and magnifies,
but the content remains the same:
us
are we so special that we deserve this much attention?

pehaps we have nothing better to focus on,
nothing more interesting or noble.

we can watch tv on 100" projection screens
with 300 channels
with dvd commentary
in dolby digital dts stereo,
but in the end all we see and hear is
sheer fantasy and fabricated rubbish.

garbage in garbage out -
everything is a marketing excercise

even death and trauma gets packaged in sanitary bright wrapping
because we have such high standards...

A Lightshow for Couch Potatoes

Apparently, watching plasma screen HDTVs is not enough. Philips had to come up with a way to coordinate the backlighting of a room with what you're watching onscreen. It's called Ambilight. Don't worry if you can't quite afford it yet. I'm sure the $15,000 price tag will come down when they come out with the next generation of sets complete with a laser lightshow in a year or so...

a walk in the park

Walk with me in this garden
Holding a thermos full of lukewarm tea
Holding hands over the splatters of bird poo
Dog doo smells ride on a muggy breeze
A Setter barks and splashes in the Avon
Chasing ducks and rocking gondolas
Children chuck bread at geese and gulls
Birds flock and cackle over crumbs
Kids on roller blades holler
A father yells at his evasive daughter
The sun pokes through leaf canopies like a stick
Gnats flit in clouds in humid patches over grass
Tourists gasp at the green fountain spray

We spend our day off here
Recovering.

Microsoft Suffers from Geopolitical Ignorance

Apparently, Microsoft has lost business and respect due to blunders of ignorance. But that said, it isn't easy as a multinational to keep abreast of all the political changes and specifics of every country in the world.

Here's a snippet:

"Perhaps the best known, and one of the most expensive, errors was a colour-coded world map showing time zones, which showed the disputed Jammu-Kashmir region as not being in India - an offence under Indian law. The mistake led to the whole of the Windows 95 operating system being banned in the country, losing large sales. For its replacement... Microsoft removed the colour coding and sold 100,000 copies in India."

Ahhh, there are many pitfalls to the path of world domination...

Smokin' in the Chimp Cage

Here's an interesting article about a female chimp in china who took up smoking because of lack of a particular kind of contact...

I guess emotional displacement works for all primates...

epiphany

from the moment i saw you
in the condiment aisle
hand on the mustard
i knew
you were the one
to invite
to my barbeque

27/8/04

Ironing with an Edge

Ummm....

I suppose it's a sport who's time has finally come...

Here is a snippet:

What is extreme ironing?
The sport that is 'extreme ironing' is an outdoor activity that combines the danger and excitement of an 'extreme' sport with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt. It involves taking an iron and board (if possible) to remote locations and ironing a few items of laundry. This can involve ironing on a mountainside, preferably on a difficult climb, or taking an iron skiing, snowboarding or canoeing.

A Chris Rock Instructional Video

I believe this one might go back a few years, but it's pertinence cannot be underestimated.

Kudos to CR for his philanthropic urgings.

PS - Please don't watch it if you are offended by profanity....

Mother - Grandmother, Uncle - Nephew

I found this interesting tidbit in an NZ paper, but I was only able to find it online in a Pakistani website. Go figure...

I believe synchronised birthing might make an excellent Olympic event....

I Feel Vindicated

This substantial article in The Guardian UK looks at the evils of the Protestant work ethic and the value of indolence.

I, of course, always understood this.

Here are some excerpts:

"Greatness and late rising are natural bedfellows. Late rising is for the independent of mind, the individual who refuses to become a slave to work, money, ambition."

and

"Idleness as a waste of time is a damaging notion put about by its spiritually vacant enemies. Introspection could lead to that terrible thing: a vision of the truth, a clear image of the horror of our fractured, dissonant world."

and even

"God himself set a good example... after working for six days, he rests for all eternity."