An open thread where you can, at your weekend leisure, discuss whatever you like.
Apologies for the unwonted lateness of this post. I’ve been out tonight and I’m in such a weird mood that I’m now – having arrived home – listening to Dido’s first album.
Maybe it was all that Greek heroine stuff… subliminably (to quote George W. Bush) and all that…
Large night, then, Mark?
No, not in a drinking sense, weathergirl. I met up with LP Kate for a quick coffee, then with my friend P for our regular Friday night glass of wine – and my friend Carol came along as well – then I twiddled my thumbs for a while while C went and got a haircut – then we went to the Casino’s Asian fusion-y type restaurant for dinner where I had the $25 Seafood Combination Fried Rice (believe it or not – worth it!) – then off to the Writers Festival for a bit where we had a bit of a chat to Andrew Stafford – then we sat in New Farm Park having a yarn – then to home!
Second. Damn.
Third, in fact.
Or thrid.
What about the Valley Fiesta! I would so be there right now…
And my depressing second was actually a third…
You’re Frist btw, wg!
That’s the tomorrow night project, mick.
Too much on at the moment – Valley Fiesta and Writers Festival!
Yeah. I didn’t dare say, though. Just in case.
You should have! After all the effort Dr Pavlov’s Cat went to to get in Frist at least one week!
Anyway, bed time for me – I want to go to Writers Festival stuff tomorrow – have only been able to go to the night time sessions so far because of work – so I plan to fill up my Saturday with it…
Damn, I have a weekend of talk writing ahead of me. Care to trade Mark?
No thanks, mick.
If it’s any help – I’ll have to work Sunday.
Night! I’m off to bed too. Just checked in to clean Birdy’s comments out of the moderation queue… just one of the evening chores, like emptying the dishwasher.
You’ve got a better equipped kitchen than us, wg. We don’t even run to a microwave!
Night!
Chucked out the microwave years ago, and never missed it. Slow food’s the go in this household.
Night.
Don’t let the bed bugs bite people…:) Great blog site by the way. Seems to be more than a few Queenslanders on here so I thought I might post an excerpt from a comment I made on Road to Surfdom a coupla days ago:
>>Over the last couple of days there has been a media storm constructed up here in Logan, QLD. Aussie kids from various Pacific Island backgrounds have been accused in a deceitful media campaign via radio jocks, rags & current affairs of using American gang tactics & creating ‘terror in society’. My wife, a teacher, knows plenty of Pacific Islander kids & they tell her that reporters seek to create stories & that some of their friends are willing to spout BS to the media because they ‘think it’s cool…& that’s what they (The reporters) want’…most of these kids are passive, friendly w/ a touch of normal adolescent cheekiness…but are being portrayed as ‘menaces to society’ & all painted w/ the same tar brush. Turns out that one major media organisation’s crew were discovered via surveillance cameras, setting kids up outside a railway station & getting them to use gang signs they’d learnt via films, album covers & TV. Despicable!!!!
This is outright exploitation of our children for ‘fear mongering’ purposes. These deceitful practices are being continually used by media outlets & Government agencies in order to divide society for political gain…not to mention for blatant profiteering. Let your local members know ‘it’s not good enough’…demand they vote ‘NO’ on media law changes. We have the power together to stop this abuse of our children & those who dissent from the narrow POV of these media giants. No more bullying of Australians!!!!
—————————-
Night all
Hang on Mark, this is weird now. But were you the fellow sitting on his lonesome swilling a wine near the column at Aromas at around 7.30pm on Friday?
I was sitting with a group of well-dressed (& VERY moderate) young Liberals at a nearby table making fun of religious conservatives!
Always hard to tell if a random is actually a net-personality!!! If so, Brisbane is too small!
17th – or thereabouts – I believe.
Nasking:
I share your disgust at lazy news-and-entertainment wallahs putting the egg-beater into a story instead bothering to do a bit of research first – a quick look around first might have stopped a stuff-up like the one you mentioned.
There are real and relevant stories to be found among young Pacific Islander migrants – your wife is probably aware of them – but the TV mob, in trying to LosAngelize the situation, missed those stories completely. What dumb bunnies!
Nothing changes. A couple of decades ago, a TV station brought together, each unbeknown to the other beforehand, a group of Viet-Nam War veterans and a group of Vietnamese refugees. The cameras were ready to catch the punch-up. Fortunately, both groups realized very quickly that they had been set-up and no punch-up happened. The TV crew packed up and left; nothing went to air. So beat-up stories are still all the go up on Mt Coot-Tha are they? No wonder only the stupid and the gullible believe what they see on TV these days.
I thought this was quite good.
This too.
Careful with that Greek heroin, Mark. Strong stuff.
Speaking of which, a moment’s silence is called for in which to remember Abe Saffron: we’ll not see his like again.
Earlier this week neo-con shil Greg Sheridan opined that “history will vindicate George W. Bush, just as history vindicated Harry Truman”.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20407585-25377,00.html
According to Sheridan, Bush is like Truman.
Let’s see.
1. Greg sez that Truman framed the Cold War. Bush framed the GWOT.
But Greg, Truman identified the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and set US policy intelligently in the light of this analysis. Bush’s policies are a shambles.
2. Truman didn’t declare war on a rival superpower. Conversely, Bush declared war on “terrorism”, an abstract noun. Truman sought to win without war. Bush declared a “war” that can’t be won.
3. Greg sez “Truman’s war was Korea.” Korea was a conventional war fought under the auspices of the UN. Chimpo’s Iraq is a war fought in the face ofUN opposition against a hydra-headed insurgency. Iraq isn’t Vietnam, but it’s much closer to Vietnam than it is to Korea. But neo-con shils don’t like using the V-word: too many bad vibes.
4. Greg sez that Truman faced disloyalty from MacArthur. “Bush has not fallen out with his generals but he has faced a continuing insurrection by the CIA. The CIA contains many dedicated folks who do a fine job. But it has a poor record on Iraq and many of its leaders have been consistently disloyal to Bush.
“In a democracy, it seems to me, you have a pretty clear choice. You can campaign against government policy, or you can work for an intelligence agency. Many CIA folks have done both. Bush should have fired more of them, as Truman fired MacArthur.”
So, where’s the parallel Greg? Didn’t Bush have the bottle to sack a few faceless spooks? That’s a much easier task than firing MacArthur.
In any case, Truman sacked MacArthur because he exhibited maniacal tendencies. Greg reckons that Chimpo should have sacked some spooks because they declined to assist Chimpo to tell lies.
Jeez, Greg. Looks like your attempt to compare Chimpo with Truman has simply resulted in confirming the fact that Chimpo is an idiot and the worst disgrace in history to the Oval Office.
(PS. Love your work.)
definitely, tho i’m not certain we can attribute same to viewers of Dateline & NewsHour w/ Jim Lehrer…& 7:30 Report & Media Watch & The Cutting Edge have their moments of integrity…but on the whole I reckon most TV news & current affairs is ‘full of it’.
This values debate is getting farcical.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/embracing-old-and-new-now-thats-cricket/2006/09/15/1157827160798.html
I’ve been in this country 16 years and I don’t know the first thing about what must be just about the most mind-numbingly boring sport any civilisation is capable of producing. And cricket wasn’t even produced in Australia in the first place.
I love you Katz.
I want you deported, Soon.
We can’t have the likes of you around undermining our attempt to wrest back the Ashes.
What do you mean “getting”, Jason?
Ratty had better watch it. Many Pakistanis have forgotten more about cricket than many Australians will ever know, and that’s not what he wants at all.
I actually turned up here to beg the Brisvegans (and Kate) to blog the Writers’ Festival in as much detail as you can, please please please. What genius managed to get Kruddy in to talk to Sun Shuyun?
Kate’ll be blogging it, I’m sure, PC. I think so far she’s been too busy attending it.
Yep, that was me waiting for Carol, Antonio.
Were you at the table where there was a girl wearing a yellow top?
As I’m sure you weren’t the guy with a thick pink tie on who looked like a young Christopher Walken…
Jason
Cricket is by far the most subtle and complex bat and ball game ever devised. Just imagine for a minute the number of variables that are in play… The strengths and weaknesses of the batsmen, the style of bowler, where it is pitched, the condition of the pitch, the positions of the fielders, the comptetence of the umpires, the atmospheric conditions of the day, the ground they are playing on… Add all those 2gether and you get a game where there are literally millions of combinations (or is it permutations) that emerge. If that don’t make for an engrossing and intricate game, then I don’t know what does. Plus with cricket you get genuine individual on individual contests that rise to the top, and briefly, dominate the game until either a bowler gets a wicket or is caned out of the attack. The tension as a truly great batsman like Brian Lara, out of form for the past few months, walks to the crease is amazing. So he settles in to try and bag his way back into form. And if he does, you will see something truly beautiful, truly special and truly rare. And if he fails, as he might, then you will have seen yet another episode where life doesn’t work out the way we wish it would… All this is purely on an intellectual and aesthetic level, of course. In reality cricket is played by boofy uncultured idiots who seem to think that insulting each other (sledging) is the way to go. But that is by the by. But if you take the time to get into it, cricket will well and truly repay you. Cricket is Hermann Hesse’s Glass Bead Game brought to life…
Cheers…
If Bush really were Truman he would have done the equivalent of dropping two atomics. That is he would have fast tracked a just outcome for Palestine and Kashmir. This would help persuade the vast majority of Muslims that there was a future in a generally peaceful outcome.
And if he really were Truman he would have sacked the two-headed gung-ho
‘general McArthur’ that is the Cheney/Rumsfeld hydra.
And if Bush really were Truman he would be a reasonably attractive intelligent and articulate democrat.
” If you want to live like a Republican -vote democrat” H. Truman.
What-ever Sheriden is smoking I want some.
My first ever converation in the United States was a values subverting one with an Indian taxi driver about cricket.
What Mick said about cricket.
Sorry I realise I just sounded like Thomas Friedman.
Correct Professor Rat.
The ineluctably structural fact of the matter is that these days the US simply cannot afford to fund a Marshall Plan. Even if they did, the locals would buy their stuff from China, Japan and Korea. US manufacturers would be left out of the loop.
No, the only multiplier effect available to the US economy these days is military Keynesianism. Hence, Bushite crony capitalism and lots of big bangs in Ragheadistan.
Hey, thanks Mark. This thread sure beats arguing with someone who shall remain nameless about a topic that will remain unspoken of…
Cheers…
Speaking as a convert, Jason, I think you probably find cricket mind-numbingly boring (as I once did, oh the shame) because you ‘don’t know the first thing about it’. Of course it’ll be boring if you don’t know the rules. I speak as a person who would rather chew off one of my own hands than watch ten minutes of golf.
I bet you twenty bucks that if you sit down in front of the teeve on Boxing Day morning with a mate who understands cricket and get him/her to explain what’s happening as it’s happening, you will be a total convert by stumps.
Yes we were laughing about the pink tie man as well. Did you notice that Jon English also made an appearance?
We were indeed sitting at the table with the female with the yellow top. I myself was sitting next to her wearing a stripey shirt.
Brisbane really is too small.
How about that Jeff Seeney eh? *shudders*
Vale Ann Richards, passed away at 73, former groovy Governor of Texas. Right now she’s up in the clouds, comparing notes with Ma Ferguson…
Mick Strummer — surely you can’t be serious. Please re-adjust your goggles. Baseball is in fact not only the greatest bat-and-ball sport of all time, but also the greatest, most intricate and most satisfying sport of any kind, ever invented in all human history. It combines the intellectual rigor of chess, the physical hyper-precision of tennis, and the spirituality of Za-Zen. Compared to baseball, all other sports are like two homeless drunks quarreling over the chunks of a dog’s vomit.
As for other bat-and-ball sports, number two would be stickball. Number three, arc-ball. Cricket logs in somewhere around 43.
Jason Soon — you are mistaken: cricket is only the second-most boring sport of all time. The honor for first place belongs eternally to soccer. (Actually, cricket is not all that boring — it’s kind of interesting, really, except that it doesn’t compare at all to baseball. Soccer, on the other hand, is a torment fit for the damned.)
Katz — you seem not to understand what the Marshall Plan was actually about.
This is, well… it’s a nice little website you kids have heah. I like it. I do. But I got one thing to say.
The next guy on this thread who compaeahs me to somebody wearing a pink tie, I break theah thumbs.
That is all. Got it?
My partner just pointed out the irony in a citizenship test that “the terrorists” would pass with flying colours, but that the Americans would fail.
Do tell, j_p_z.
j_p_z_ your are a goose.
Any sport with homers in it has to be stupid!
Of course it could be the only sport where the world champions do not have to play any other team in the world only those in the US of A.
Oh goodie. Another argument about the relative merits of cricket and baseball.
Like Elvis impersonator siamese twins joined at the sternum arguing about who is the bigger chick magnet.
My ultimate fantasy involves Katz and Weathergirl. Just sayin’
And incidentally, cricket is sacrosanct, and any argument to the contrary shall result in pain.
Playing Deputy to Jason Soon’s Sherriff, we’re rounding up a posse to meet Mark in Sydney. Jason’s self-appointed and subject to market forces, while my deputisation seems to be that of employee. It’s OK though: he can’t touch me, I’m part of a union.
I vote for golf, or basketball. Im sure they’re fun to play n all, but for sheer viewing tedium, they cant be beaten.
Alex: “…cricket is sacrosanct, and any argument to the contrary shall result in pain.”
Heh heh heh! — it is to laugh. (in case that wasn’t implied by the foregoing ‘heh heh heh’.) Bring it on, Wendy!
My Louisville slugger shall decimate yr puny cricket bat. (except of course in “Shaun of the Dead” — but, if we do a Hollywood remake, you shall see us triumph there, too! Besides, in case of Z-Day, we’re all on the same team, killing zombies.) Plus, I get to wear a bizarre oversized leather glove, and cleats! (which I think you don’t… all you get are those weird-looking jockey’s hats, unless I am mistaken…) Plus I also get to wear a strange-looking modified flannel business suit — not the most threatening of gear, mind you, but I shall make up for it with my impenetrable jargon!
In short — victory is assured! (diabolical laughter, momentarily interrupted by swallowing a Skoal chaw, then resumes)
Lefty E — good picks. Both golf and basketball are excruciatingly boring… each, interestingly, for different reasons, yet the result’s the same. Snoresville. (Incidentally, basketball isn’t even any fun to play. At least in golf you get to yell “Fore!” and lounge at the club afterwards…)
Yet neither, for all their turpitude, can come remotely close to that great overweening Bore-meister, the Mother of all Snores, soccer. Sorry, it appears nothing can be done; ’tis just the nature of the beast. We’ll be air-lifting brandy and smelling salts to yr poor, benighted continent, in a humanitarian effort to rouse you from the sluggard waters of soccer-hypnotized Lethe…
Greg Smith just beat Pru Goward for preselection in Epping.
Sad day for the NSW Liberal Party and a STUPID electoral choice. Watch this space for a moderate independent to run against the former head of the NSW Right to Life.
Yep, Antonio, it’s a victory for the forces of stupid. In the ministerial offices up at Governor Mussolini Towers they’ll be cracking open the sparkling white.
Might have one myself later on tonight to celebrate the decline of a once-proud State Liberal Party.
So you’re saying you’d rather be John Howard than George Bush, Liam?
If I didn’t have this week’s Sunday Video post picked already, I’d have used the Steve Irwin death video.
Isn’t the ultimate stupidity that the libs had two quality candidates competing against each other like this? It’s not as though talent is so thick on the ground for the NSW libs (or labor, for that matter) that they can afford to burn it off like this.
Gee Robert, I can’t tell if this guy is serious or seriously weird. I’m leaning to the latter!
Geez the Broncs were good tonight. My heart went out to the Knights after about 60 minutes. Poor buggers. What a walloping.
Gonna be a cracker of a round of finals games next weekend.
Where to start with this delusion of JPZ’s? Bizzare oversize leather glove? Yeah we have to actually catch the ball, with our hands. Its harder, therefore more pure. As for kit, haven’t ever seen batsman in pads and helmet? And jargon?! I mean you are trying for a short seamer but, I’m afraid the umpire will have to call it a wide. Your best hope is for a bye to the fine leg boundary for the extras. Stick to line and length lad, keep it on the off or middle stump, remember line and length and hopefully you won’t get whacked over mid-off for too many sixes.
So given the recent news of copyright laws, who here know that today (Saturday) was software freedom day?
Bruce
Indeed. Obviously the Countdown “Spectacular” is/was in town – hence the ageing rock stars coming down for a ciggie at Aromas…
Antonio – dare I say that I thought the yellow shirt girl was cute? Could she be converted to better politics? Or ignore political differences for the dating purposes?
Just askin…
– Pavlov’s Cat
- Tyro Rex
Kimberella
<img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/swimsuit.JPG"
Kim — hotcha! (wanders off to find cool washcloth to put on forehead)
Heh.
Thanks, j_p_z – for a short time – around about 76 hours ago – the video of Kim was available on YouTube…. but it was removed for site policy violations.
It was either the vintage girdle… or the boobies…
Awaiting correspondence to explain from Mr Murdoch…
Ps – I love that swimsuit!
It’s not mine – grrrr – I was wearing it for a photo shoot I did – it’s the genuine vintage 50s swimsuit hotness – but belonged to the photographer and not to me. I asked for it as my fee – but he preferred to write me a check – as he wasn’t under any circumstances going to let that swimsuit go…
Tyro Rex: “…Yeah we have to actually catch the ball, with our hands. Its harder, therefore more pure.”
Or maybe just more sissified. Me, I think a small, hard, amusingly-seamed ball thrown with immense precision and profound inflection at 110 m.p.h. is pretty fucking pure, bud. Let *that* into yr, uh, ‘wicket’. And call me when you learn to pick off a runner leading at second.
There’s the challenge.
Mark thought the yellow shirt girl was cute. Antonio now reveals he was of the $7 cocktails on Friday night party at Rock* Cafe – will Antonio facilitate a cross-ideological hookup?
Or does Antonio not care enough to do the arranged hookups?
*Remembering the Shakespearian responsibilities that those called Antonio owe to their fellow humans*
Kim: “…Or does Antonio not care enough to do the arranged hookups?
*Remembering the Shakespearian responsibilities that those called Antonio owe to their fellow humans*…”
And it ain’t just Shakespeare, my dove.
“My name would be Antonio
And all my bridges I would burn
And if I gave ‘em some, they’d know
I’d expect something in retuuuurn.
I’d have to get drunk every night
And talk about fertility
With some old grandmother who might
Be decked out like a Christmas tree…
And though pink elephants I’d see,
Though I’d be drunk as I could be,
Still I would sing my song to me,
About the time they called me Jackie…”
–J. Brel, (in translation) “Le Chanson de Jackie”
Indeed.
Let me give something away.
Mark still carries a torch for a woman we will call “E”…
When – after a variety of vicissitudes, the said “E” isn’t any longer as close to him as he would like – then the appropriate song is in (Quebecois) French:
Saturday nights are sad, are they not?
But returning to my (execrable) vanity… once upon a time… at the start of my blog commenting career – I used to use the nick “Yellowvinyl” – Why?
And, in other news…
Vale Oriana Fallaci, virtuous gadfly, connoiseur of chaos, and all-too-necessary pain in the ass. Here’s hoping she’s inspired a new crop of spikey voices in the wilderness.
“A dire induction am I witness to…”
–Queen Margaret, “Richard III”
“A. A violent order is disorder; and
B. A great disorder is an order. These
Two things are one. (Pages of illustrations.)”
–Stevens
“The pensive man… He sees that eagle float
For whom the intricate Alps are a single nest.”
–Stevens [same poem]
That’s the sad bit.
For all of us.
It translates -
C’est vrai, mon aimèe…
La vie – c’est la souffrance…
If vanity leads to more pictures like those, then let’s have more vanity!
Jason – heh!
(tiptoes quietly out of the room in reverse, away from the private conversation…)
Kim, you remind me of Antonia Kidman somehow.
Nice to see you in real life today Mark btw.
And you too, Tanja!
Am Anfang war das Feuer/La Guerre du feu
2001 delayed
the awakening
“Je tache, en restant exact, d’etre poete.”
– Jules Renard
Great shoes in that pic, Kim…
I mean – shoe…
Paul Verlaine
Nevermore
That was written in 1866.
Ernest Dowson
After Paul Verlaine
Ernest Dowson
O MORS! QUAM AMARA EST MEMORIA TUA HOMINI PACEM HABENTI IN SUBSTANTIIS SUIS
Ernest Dowson:
VAIN RESOLVES
Ernest Dowson:
(this one really is a tribute to Verlaine…)
AMANTIUM IRAE
And vainly there foregathered…
QUID NON SUPREMUS, AMANTES?
They get you from the cradle to the grave
They never had any intention
Of revealing
The dirty little
Secret
Governments
Decked w/ elites
Bereft of imagination
Twisted souls
Sailing on an ocean
Of their own fab times
Wheeling, dealing, killing
Broadsiding
Without reserve
Lest
It
Can be traced
To the savings & loan
Freedom
& Terrorism
wars of kin
shock & stunt
in the dance
of the enfant
the maelstrom
replayed
in
that primeval
whistling
cave
let’s get retarded
in the dumbing down
as two hideous phrases
make the foremost grade
win the race
Martin Luther’s & Lincoln’s gains
eradicated
in the TV reign
have little hope
as
mates
such as
Darwin are chained
Emaciated
Flayed
as the Creationist refrain
Exults
The divisive
Moment
Enraptured
By the Beast
Of mythology
Lots of ‘as’…
The deceivers
Smile…as public houses burn
As they often do
Extending the up thumb
as
Spartans & Prussians
Work in unison
to
Fling
The enlightened
Into the abyss
whilst the theologies
Secular
In that puff of peace
Now rise
In flames
Fall into the play
Of the insane
Salem unchained
The time
In between
Before
The cunning
Shift
In the pendulum
In the absorb
Of the populist
As Empires
Deplored
Implode
Replaced
By one & near same
Uranium
The game
This day
The new aristocracy
Busy w/ smiles
Vampiric eyes
Haunted frowns
Scatter
As we grab
Truth
Become wisps
Tendrils
Of stench
Rise
To penthouses
And
Enjoy the view
Then reform…
The Metamorphosis
Comes
As it always does
In the moment
The brightest
Only to conjoin
As shadow
Ever prepared
To consume
The new eclipse
Begins
Phantoms
In the
Shadows
Are real
(N’…18th Oct. 2005)
Eternal song
Why
Why
Must I witness this again
Too, so many times
Brothers weep
Laugh insane
Searched
For
In bits
& falls to pieces
After too many hours
Years
In pits
& blasted holes
Haunted, Gaelic
Islamic
Mandarin
voices
Remind
Deep into caverns of remorse
Searches for truth
The beginst
The origins
Of the stale
& wicked winds
of war
so easy to sit
as man
w/ teared can
& consume
on adrenalin
&
fear
jeered
to look to an old time
new age pride
& usefulness
anger
explodes
into craze
to tear
fabrics
of rationality
& garden
obsessions
apart…
vulnerable
to the sound
of the fair
& the balanced
instigates
the new mood
the new nationalism
the disposable
common enemy
echoes
the one who takes your job
your security
encompasses
the grains
of your very sand
your pond
your God’s is an…
in the daily
Times
Do you hear my lady?
Can you not quell?
to send
in feigned pride
the child
confused
by
need for tax
& welfare
to foreign lands
to forget
they are truly yours
to forget
they are your kin
to forget
they have meaning
to forget
that peace
once
meant
everything
to remember truly laughter
what heart have you?
to see
two
cultures
collide
for the sake
of the vain
the morally
deprived
What place you?
to lust for blood
in rivulets
between
two men
who could shake hands
as
warriors
of peace
respect
amidst
the graves
that be
to want
more
what role you?
to abandon
the pathways
the future
they provided
the thinkers
the brave
those
who died
on both sides
of the religious divide
without clarity
for she
unwilling
to stand
up front
to gaze into that sun
for what
for why
strewn across sands & mud
my loves
my friends
my could have beens
lighted
by fires
&
stars
that took hold
of our innocent skies
can she not walk
find courage
amongst
clouds
& end it
when needs be
without
revenge
desire
for power
can she not
see
the effects
the affect she has on me
man
if you truly be Gaia
then
look upon your world
& bring…bring…
for I am tired
of playing your hero
of fighting
phantoms
in the dark
your fears
your dark
lift me
(N’ 22nd oct…2005…written to music of ‘Immortal Memory’ by Lisa Gerrard/Patrick Cassidy…& film ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, directed by Ridley Scott…et al)
DREGS
A Last Word
Libera Me
Not quite the last word…
Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae
No.
Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetat Incohare Longam
What is love?
Amor Profanus
…
(???????)
Do you ever wonder
If sinkin’ into tar pits
Is faster than quicksand?
Why maelstroms
Are images
Close to the singularity?
Where travel
Seems determined
To be one way?
Why some of us
Think death
In the finite
More than our neighbours?
How the stunned react
At parties
Where you down & intrigue
The early birds
Confuse, terrify late arrivals?
Ever thought you were lonesome
In the midst of mall mayhem
Where souls drift in & out
Voices
Make it for a split moment
Under the forest
Barelife of your dreams
And shatter?
Did you ever steal
What was rightfully yours
Without ever seeing
Nor recognising
A life you’re told is yours?
Have you ever blurted out
‘This is not real!’
Suspected you’re a character
Least not
In the real
The numbered game?
Did you ever witness firebirds fly
Then disintegrate
In realms
Known as a dream
A heart raced nightmare
Cash & carry
Bomb & plunder
Exterminate & surrender
Shock & awe?
Did you ever contemplate
Loss…& visualise
Before it happened
In hearts & familiar minds
In the configuration
Of the gathering storm?
Have your friends ever walked the plank
On the edge of achievement
Looked back at the diner
A happier fate
Seemed to contemplate
Milkshake & the neon way?
Or did they turn to an alternative road
My mates, our smiles & the Highway
Rolled out the stoned way
Mile by kilometre
On dirt & tarmac
In fog & filtered
In the search for the blinding light?
Have you ever thought
After all the films
The bias & the sights
Of apocalypse platoons
How you’ll adjust?
How we will we treat them
When they come home
From their home
Away from home?
Iraq
Have you ever?
Did you think?
Why did you feel?
Have you ever tried?
What did you see?
Did you realise?
How did they know?
Why did you?
Do you ever wonder?
If
You…they…
Will
Get fooled
Again
(????????)
N’ (24th March, 2006)
C’etait les jours de ma vie…
Bonsoir!
xx
Saturday nights are sad, are they not?
too often in the past decade…
Yes.
To reprise:
A Last Word
Turn them into dust…
À bientôt, j’espère…
xxx
Libera Me
Libera nos
Libera nos
xxx
xxx
Les enfant du paradis…indeed, love will always overcome…even in the darkening of the light…c’est bon!…here in the corner i switch off the lamp…& move onwards…for this is the time of ‘le pacte des loups’…a time of mythos & deceit…& some must in the the grayness of the fog, venture forth & reveal the LIE for that which it is. It is for the lovers, les amants, & les miserables we do this…
Ever onwards…into the net…my weapon, merely words…
sleep well…mon amis…
‘Tis the morn ….
It would be a shame if I disturbed the tranquility after such a nice night of poetry with replies to Katz, j-p-z and Antonio on such banalities as politics and history.
Kim:
That is a very nice photo – composition, colour and, of course, subject.
Or, in the cold light of morn (actually it’s a perfect blue-and-gold Adelaide day) and if we are using our literary tastes to process our sad endings,
‘She did not see why he should preserve his good opinion of himself at her expense. It was refusing these small encounters that exhausted her … She had walked away from him. She did not think he had expected this precisely; but all that was left, as she saw it, to do, was to uncreate him in her mind. If she could have worked through the relationship, unhindered, if she could have cast him off, and held him as an interesting memory when they had nothing more to say to each other, she would not now feel so stunted, so trapped in his view of her then … There was nothing to do but behave as though he had never been.’
From a page of A.S. Byatt’s The Game that has had its corner turned down since 1984.
Not that it’s any of my bizness, but I think sometimes, instead of quoting poetry, it’s a whole lot better to just make up, get down, and make a little po’try of yer own. Know wh’a'm sayin’? Why waste a perfectly good Saturday night? As the great poet Mr. James Brown once put it,
“Get it together,
Right on right on.”
Or, as another merrie olde soule once said,
“Now let us sport us while we may..”
But enough.
It having been one of *those* sorts of weeks, I’ve now wasted my whole Sat. afternoon (“arvo”, is that right? it’s still yesterday here) drinking Woodford Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon (not as good as Makers Mark, yet ten bucks more expensive!), staring at my beautiful enormous Joan Mitchell (just a litho, folks, I’m not yet zillionaire enuf to get an original), and listening to PJ Harvey’s 1993 masterpiece “Rid of Me.” Haven’t heard it in a while, and nearly forgot how magnificent it is.
I saw/heard Miss Polly Jean during the 93 (or 94?) tour for that record, at the Hollywood Palace, or was it the Paladium? Either way, her band was tight and evil: Messrs. Moore and Ranaldo, and Mistah Don Van Vliet, woulda been proud.
“Tell you
My name:
F.U.
C.K. –”
She spent the whole concert rooted stock-still in front of the mic: a tiny wisp of a thing, barefoot, wearing a little summer dress as I recall… and the most unearthly, Linda-Blair-versus-Mercedes-McCambridge-in-The-Exorcist sounds kept emanating from her throat. Then she’d finish up some grand, gargantuan epic of emotional Bosch and twitter “Thank you so much” in a demure English country-girl accent. Quite a thing. Ever since, I’ve been waiting for her to score a “Medea” for, I dunno, maybe Priscilla Smith. Polly, where are you? Let’s talk!
Well, there’s still two inches of Woodford left in this trying-way-too-hard-to-be-classy bottle…
“Mor-ning
Glo-ry.
Lay it
All on me.
No sweat.
I’m clean.
Nothing
Can touch me…”
Did Dido have a second album?
Romanes ite domum!
What a lovely way to close out National Poetry week.
Hot Damn Kim, I think a little vanity is justified!
Fans of those heavenly bodies Xena and Gabrielle will now have to learn to love Eris and Dysnomia.
Zarquon — I think, at the very least, you mean “Romani(i)” ite domum. I’m not sure I know who the ‘Romanes’ are.
Also, to get the full flavor of what is meant, you might need something a lot less elegant, like “Romani, recedite ad patriam vostram ipsam.”
A lot less funny, I know; which is why that Plautus dude is also less funny than Aristophanes. And why neither is as funny as “Talladega Nights.”
It should really be Romani ite domum but I forgot to check. I really meant to write “Romanes eunt domus” anyway.
Been away down the Coast for the weekend so I am just catching up on this thread.
Mark, said yellow-top girl just went through a pretty vicious breakup with another Young Liberal so who knows. I think her faith in the truth and honesty of the Howard Government (TM) is the only thing getting her through this difficult time. In other words, your chances are slim big fella!
On the topic of the NSW Liberal party, well the problems there are endemic. Apart from the actual ideological factionalism (a rarity in the world of personality factions that is the modern Liberal party), the current NSW Lib State Director (Graham Jaeschke) is possibly the most incompetent political operative in Australia. He started as the State Director of the SA division and lost an election, then he moved to Queensland and lost two elections, then he moved back to SA and lost an election, now he is in NSW where the Division is falling about around his ears and I’m quite sure will lost let ANOTHER election. Put simply, he has NEVER won an election!!! Lets put aside that he has also been formally accused of sexual harrassment by ordinary party members in at least two states that I know of.
This is the quality of talent running the state Liberal divisions. So so sad…
Sorry Antonio, I can’t resist. What do you think of the Julian Sheezel, who’s running the Victorian Liberal Party? (I knew of Julian Sheezel at Qld Uni in the early 90s.)
I’m heading off in a few minutes, to the Irish Club for the All-Ireland final… carn Mayo!
(Anyone who’s still up, can’t make it to a venue that’s showing the big match, but wants to watch, can stream it through the Setanta website for US$10.)
Julian Sheezel is an interesting character. He is very competent at his role but a highly factional person. It will be interesting to see how he handles Baillieu in the coming months. I would be concerned that like in Queensland, precious resources will be diverted towards factional allies during the election.
Ideally, the State Directors should be competent administrators drawn from outside the party. However, given that the state admin committees appoint these people, they are always factional and rarely competent. For all their slavish admiration of everything yankee, the Liberals could REALLY learn a thing or two about competent political party administration from the Americans.
Antonio:
Why persist in calling them Liberals …. wouldn’t Howard’s United Australia Party (Mk II) be a more appropriate name so late in their history?
j-p-z:
Indeed vale Ann Richards. Not well known in Australia but a truly outstanding and inspiring American.
Katz [at 9:29am 16th Sept]:
You’ve really got Greg Sheridan’s measure on this.
On Item 3 though, I think there may be American generals whose complete undivided loyalty is to the United States rather than exclusively to America’s most notorious gangplank-dodger.
or Neo-cons…or The Imperial Party…or…no, I won’t go there…fortunately a few decent, compassionate, well rounded individuals in that Party ensure for now that they haven’t gone thru the complete transformation to that ‘ideological’ status yet. It’s not that Howard, Downer, Hockey, Vanstone, Ruddock & their ilk haven’t tried tho…thank crikey for the mod Libs…more deserved of that moniker, I might add.
I concur wholeheartedly. Truly inspiring.
Rovian slime ball tactics probably did a great deal of damage to that wonderful lady’s health in her later years.
Granted, & sadly, the smoking & hard drinking probably contributed… but hey, it was the done thing for many an up & coming young gal & guy in that pre- Vietnam War era …the TV & radio were restricted to a few owners…ads flourished, as did the propaganda…the pressure intense on people to consume & smoke…she belonged to a generation of jazz clubs & the ‘Rat Pack’, ironic men in suits, card sharks & Hustlers …& tough and charming hombres in cars & grand prix…& ‘film noir’…tough ladies who could chug & drag on a ‘butt’ w/ the best of ‘em…& pot filled rooms w/ beat poets…& folk singers such as Guthrie observing the first dying of the natural light…& conversely, rodeos & country music, Marlboro Men & films recording the mythos of the ‘cowboy’ & the journeys of the last of the ‘long riders’……Con men & BIG BIG car salesmen…oil men & method actors…civil right’s abusers like McCarthy & gutsy, REAL newsmen like Edward R. Murrow…and the early raised voices of black activists, too often ‘strung up’ for airing the TRUTH…& women being forced out of jobs when they married…& gays having to live a double life…& dissidents being fried for airing their views…tough & racy times…times where many people fell to the lure of conservative rantings about ‘Reds under the Bed’…& like Reagan, dobbed in their mates…& fear mongering that led to the disastrous Korean & Vietnam conflicts…& exponential growth in the energy, armament & property development companies…hmmm…haven’t we come a long way?…
More than just a politician, Ann Richards was a teacher (history & social science), film lover, avid supporter of music (see Austin City Limits Festival), writer (wrote a book that outlined her fight against crippling osteoporosis)…& tireless campaigner for civil rights, stricter gun laws, gay rights & the ‘right to choose’.
She even guest starred in one of my fave animated shows, King of the Hill.
Her courage, sense of humour, unflagging belief in ‘a better world’, common-sense, wide thinking & ability to understand what a ‘New Deal’ really meant…and of course, passion for life, will all be sorely missed.
…but obviously not by that tormentor Rove & his cohorts.
You did good Ann.
Good comment Graham Bell.
It’s deeply ironic that high military officers and intelligence personnel are playing the role of Loyal Opposition to Chimpo’s military adventurism.
Meanwhile , the Democrats, cribbing several chapters from Blancmange Beazley’s “Small Target Playbook”, are betraying the best interests of the US, not because they’re idiots like Chimpo, but because they’re profoundly gutless and devoid of vision.
Katz:
Sadly for Americans, you may be right about the Democratic Party turning gutless and failing to be a real alternative government.
Nasking:
Excellent post on Ann Richards …. now can you write a post of similar length and style ready for when Mr G W Bush gets the guest-seat on Old Sparky so that undergraduate students can do Compare-And-Contrast essays based on your posts? All in the interests of advancing English Literature, of course.
Everyone:
This is Monday and I unashamedly draw your attention to a small band of dedicated volunteers working on a shoestring trying to preserve part of Australia’s heritage: the Central Queensland Military and Artifacts Museum in Rockhampton; they do deserve whatever help they can get …..
http://ungrateful-troublemaker.blogspot.com/2006/09/more-of-australias-heritage-at-risk.html
nasking — interesting requiem for the splendid Governor Richards. But still, I’d have to take you to task on a couple of points, simply because they cast light on your frame of reference…
“…fear mongering that led to the disastrous Korean & Vietnam conflicts…”
There was nothing disastrous about the Korean War; the only problem was that we settled for less than complete victory. As proof, I suggest you do a quick compare-and-contrast study of the difference between South Korea and North Korea. How easily these things are forgotten in a world of freedom! And how easily it might have been the other way, had it not been for those who made sacrifices in the, um, ‘disaster.’
“…tough & racy times…times where many people fell to the lure of conservative rantings about ‘Reds under the Bed’…”
Of course, back in the day, there really WERE Reds under the bed. Have a look at any Soviet archive. I know plenty of “Red diaper babies” you could talk to. So much Left rhetoric is really just sarcasm, and forgets the world we actually inhabit, where dogs eat dogs and so on. It’s a common mistake of people who live in the wake of a great victory to take it for granted, and to think that no actual fight to ensure the victory was warranted; or indeed, to think that the fight never even took place.
“…You
wouldn’t have known who
was who, though. Those
were intricate days.”
(Frank O’Hara, ‘The Threepenny Opera’)
Nothing? The initial steps taken by the UN forces were generally warranted. To push back the invading N. Koreans to the 38th Parallel understandable, at least justifiable based on the Security Council’s mandate & the atrocities committed by the invading Communist force.
But once again we see the US military juggernaut over-reaching. The encirclement of China, take down the ‘communist virus’ at any cost, motivation as driving forces.
Well intentioned goals undermined by impetuous & occasionally irrational thinking.
Apparently the US made its move regardless of the knowledge in some influential circles, that the Chinese hierarchy tended to place more emphasis on its own unification process (an addiction for most rulers of this vast land) than worrying about empire building. By penetrating the 38th Parallel & moving beyond this region, the American Army led by General MacArthur , enhanced Chinese fear that US ambitions would lead to a wholesale, forced molding of their neighbours into Capitalist States that would become bases, eventually used as staging platforms to attack China itself & overthrow Mao’s regime…this consequently led to a firming of distrust between the US & China & the rapid mobilization of Chinese forces for use in the Korean conflict..
So having earlier achieved their goal by ensuring the North Koreans were pushed out of the South, & in doing so gaining strategic dominance over the region South of the 38th Parallel – through the brave & courageous efforts of many a fine soldier from the host nation & various participating Nations – the US army once again was exploited by ‘over-ambitious’ zealots both in the US administration & UN…& was directed to go beyond its original mandate. Remind you of any other period?
Similar to Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, the Americans took a military & strategic victory & transformed it into a ‘defeat’ of a kind…sacrificing numerous soldiers & civilian lives & contributing to the deleterious effects on the local environment & culture…tho in their case they were able to retreat to their former positions along the 38th parallel, rather than losing the ‘War’ outright.
Consequently, I’d argue that elements of this war were a disaster & had a dreadful impact on military morale & the public mood at home. The war led to the deaths of at least 33,000 American soldiers, 8,000 MIA, near a thousand UN soldiers, almost 2 million civilians…a great deal of this occurring post-the initial successful campaign to drive the Communists out of Sth. Korea. Pretty disastrous imho.
The TV show M.A.S.H., based on & set during the Korean War, gives an effective sense of the horrors & cockups of that war…
Similar to what we are witnessing now in the Middle East…I’ve always believed that the US Neo-Cons are convinced that China’s authoritarian form of Capitalism will eventually collapse due to environmental, economic & worker/peasant demands & a neo-socialist or authoritarian militaristic Government will supersede it, eventually using extreme Nationalism (possibly enhanced by the Olympics & Space Race) to firm up unification, dispose of ‘rampant Capitalists’ & justify the invasion of US imperialist ally Taiwan…& subsequently destabilize Japan via conflicts in the straits in order to gain total access to energy reserves etc.
Due to this fear, somewhat outlined by Condi Rice in a Uni paper & also the infamous Report/manifesto stemming from the Neo-Con ‘think tank’, Project for A New American Century, the Neo-Cons seem to perceive the Middle East as a strategic jewel w/ its proximity to oil reserves, opportunity for placement of permanent bases & access to strategic routes that assist in the ‘encirclement of China’.
Fair enough, if you relate to their long-term paranoia, the fear-ridden assumptions, & vendetta mentality towards China for damage done to US interests & military in the Korean & Vietnam Wars…& obvious desire to resort to ‘pre-emption tactics’ rather than the use of diplomacy & more rational, and generally less chaotic, ‘Cold War’ strategies.
Considering the present over-heating of the Chinese economy & reliance on US/Australian/European cooperation on the trade front – countries that are seeing a growing disquiet in their citizenry w/ China’s domination of exports, possible human right’s abuses, contributions to ‘global warming & overall pollution index due to mass use of coal-based energy, establishment of railway to Tibet etc…combined w/ rapid growth of its military…there’s certainly a possibility of the worst case scenario occurring – China crosses its own Rubicon & goes Empire to gain energy & resources & to mobilize the people against a ‘common enemy’ in order to quash dissent… & as one who has no love for extreme & authoritarian regimes, I can see the advantages of such a strategic move by the US & its allies…& why Australia, taking into account its geo-political position, is playing a pivotal role in the Wars in Iraq & Afghanistan etc…& has become such a ‘place of interest’ (an energy/resources/refueling etc. paradise).
The problem I have w/ the Neo-Con’s policies tho, apart from emulating some aspects of the Fascist regimes, is they demonstrate little understanding of cultural sensitivities, they’re bullish in the extreme & undermine overall effectiveness of said/possible plan(s)…furthermore, they’re losing ‘moral authority across the globe’ (Colin Powell said similar) & driving away natural allies…depleting their forces of essential military equipment & personnel, or diminishing their effectiveness due to PTSD…& placing undue pressure on dwindling energy reserves. They are generally perceived now as being more concerned w/ creating ‘religious divides’ (Crusades’ style) & accumulating wealth/assets for an elite group of Corporations & family dynasties, than actually getting the job done appropriately.
Just so you know, I originate from both military & education-based families…one Grandparent, a Conservative Mayor who I played Scrabble w/ on a regular basis…I spent my early years devouring books on military strategy…& was infected by Dr. Who, StarTrek & UFO…became obsessed w/ Lord of the Rings, Dune & various Heinlein & Arthur C. Clarke novels (roots of my love for the Sci-Fi genre)…then onto Sherlock Holmes, James Bond novels…followed by Alistair Mclean, Ludlum & Le Carre (interest in intrigue & political machinations) …various classic, modernist & post-modernist texts…some memorable, including the ‘The Prince’ by Machiavelli, Catch 22, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, 1984, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Macbeth, The Magus, The Haj, Trinity & To Kill a Mockingbird….
…& in Gr. 10 moved into political studies by way of researching the Nixon impeachment (read the bulk of New York Times, Washington Post articles relating to that sad event)…felt compelled to subscribe to MAD & Cracked magazines…at Uni I focused on the role of media & propaganda during the Mao years…& the Fascist & Nazi regimes in Italy & Germany…& the role of politics/religion in the US film industry during the post-WW2 years…combined w/ travels that took in most of Western Europe, the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Britain, India, Malaysia…& North America (where I lived for nigh on a decade)…a 2 year stint on a generally self-sufficient farm…a few years doing manual & blue collar labor, picking fruit & veges across the world being the most back breaking (thank crikey for good music & Greek grog to soothe the pain)…tutored Taiwanese & Cantonese students…assisted people w/ disabilities…worked for a number of years as a teacher of various disciplines including History, Social Science, Film & TV, Citizenship Education & English…coached soccer & baseball, participated in various Film & Poetry clubs…suffer thru a chronic back & neck injury…potter around a lovely garden…am privileged to have an ongoing friend in my wife (13 years yesterday) who is also an educator but of the Science/Maths persuasion…& over the years these experiences have led me to vegetarianism/primarily veganism & a ‘Progressive semi-Left’ stance…I still retain a luv for alternative & foreign films, music & art…occasionally indulging in the odd mainstream classic or blockbuster.
Therefore, I feel safe in stating that my views are not deriving from a merely inexperienced & ignorant POV. So please, if possible, spare me any asinine comments if you feel the need to comment on this post…I’m wearying of the droll, inane BS that keeps popping up of late on too many blogs…instead of serious debate/discussion. A wee bit of humour helps the sh*te of the world go down…but these are serious/grave times & I’m damned if I’m going to resort to ‘stand-up’ comedian in every post in order to mollify the depressed, the edgy & the ill-tempered. Tho I might add, I’m not averse to utilizing the occas. witty political cartoon, providing links to political satire shows & ending on a bloody funny quote…cracking a smile a few times a day is a healthy habit & avoids accusations of being a ‘complete intense & miserable bast*rd’. My Gravatar icon is a Griffin…family connections etc…& I have a tendency to indulge in poetry & prophetic comments when I’m pissed on Chilean wine…or any red for that matter…usually on Saturday nights…
So that’s me, in case anyone gives a sod.
Sorry for the length.
Thanx Graham…& it would be an honour…:)
nasking — quite a thoughtful post. Lots of interesting info (that’s why I like these blog thingies… new education always around the corner!) I think I’d disagree with you on a few points w/r/t China (& maybe also Korea), but then again I’ve let my China-watching skills go rusty. [It's more a matter of gestalt, I think -- we all have a tendency to fight the last war in our heads, instead of the new one.] Though I do agree that the neo-cons are arrogant and sort of shallow thinkers/planners, who are not doing the world any long-term favors.
Also, I think that the issues of ‘encirclement’ w/r/t China have to be viewed in a very complex context, and we should avoid quick judgements and reliance on old models; the twentieth century was long and grueling, but the emerging economic imperatives and interrelationships of the 21st cent. promise to be as weird as the ones of the 20th cent. were crushing and calamitous.
In other, more vital realms, I’m glad to hear you subscribed to MAD, but… Cracked? Really? Some time you’ll have to point out its virtues to me. (though John Severin wasn’t a bad artist…) So, are you more of a Don Martin man or a Sergio Aragones man? (I met Sergio once. He was very cool.)
JPZ – I only came to MAD via Cracked. Cracked was very much the poor man’s version and certainly didn’t have the schoolyard cachet of MAD (but was better than the dreadful Crazy). However, I did miss John Severin when I made the transition – he hid little jokes everywhere through his movie parodies. Cracked also had Bill Ward, if I remember correctly, who specialised in unfeasibly buxom women in the entirely innocent setting of that magazine. I was shocked – shocked! – to discover that he was also a prolific contributor to a sex-gags mag called Sex to Sexty which was highly popular grade 7 contraband despite the cartoons being only dimly comprehensible.
nasking, that’s some life you’ve had there.
On the Korean War, I was a kid in short pants when it happened, just getting to wear long ones. At the time I saw it in terms of goodies and baddies. This is how I remember it.
The North Koreans overran the South and nearly pushed the opposition into the sea. The US/UN forces finally got their act together after being rolled back with the South Koreans and pushed the Northerners back to the 38th parallel and then just kept going. When they were getting near the Yalu River the Chinese were getting very edgy and MacArthur was talking about carrying straight on into China.
The Chinese then came in and pushed the UN etc right back down well past Seoul. The UN then beefed up their effort pushing the North Koreans and Chinese back to where they are now, where they struck a deal. That meant that Seoul changed hands four times.
This figures pretty well with the Wikipedia entry. This neat graphic gives the story in a nutshell.
The embellishments include the successful landing behind the enemy lines at Inchon in the initial UN advance, which I now remember. Wiki says the MacArthur wanted to bomb US bases in China but doesn’t exactly say he wanted to invade.
This is a worry:
nasking, with your reading of military history you may be able to comment on whether this statement is fair:
“Cracked also had Bill Ward…”
Is that what he did after he quit Black Sabbath?
Bismarck — yeah, I nearly forgot about ‘Crazy,’ it was just horrible. Maybe I’ve repressed it. Have you ever seen the really old MAD, the Harvey Kurtzmann days, when it was a comic book instead of a magazine, and was completely insane? There are reprints of it still around if you can find them, it’s worth taking a look, quite startling.
It’s still hard to beat Mort Drucker’s movie parodies in the early 70s (wish I could remember the names of the writers, a lot of the jokes were brilliant.) Ever see the one where they did a feminist “My Fair Lady” in reverse, with Gloria Steinem betting Betty Friedan she can transform Burt Reynolds into a demure, castrated ‘sensitive’ male? The song “I Could Have Danced All Night” became, “You’ll Wear the Pants, All Right.” And their insane Gilbert-and-Sullivan musical version of the Nixon White House? (Spiro Agnew and John Dean singing “I’ve got a little list”!) Man, that was back when folks were really *funny*.
Everyone:
Mad magazine …. and Dave Berg. Very few people have been so successful at putting ordinary/regular Americans onto the printed page – Garrison Keilor, John Steinbeck and Dave Berg.
Nasking:
An arcane question out of idle curiosity (won’t be offended if you don’t answer it). When at uni, you weren’t a Hums-bum or at MAS, were you?
Mad magazine’s founder, Harvey Kurtzman, gave Terry Gilliam his first break and through which Terry met John Cleese.
There’s a wonderful late 20th century comedy DNA chart lurking in all this somewhere. Six degrees of imadination and all that. And it continues to this day. Alfred E. Neuman as POTUS. But I betcha not even Harvey, Terry and John saw that one coming.
Harvey K was also the Aaron Sorkin of Little Annie Fanny which I think deserves be revived and reappreciated as a pretty damn good “Candide” attempt at drawing the US discovering sex as a lifestyle and consumer product during the roaring seventies.
granted, it is far too easy to reduce complex events to absolutes & ‘truisms’…certainly the Wars have as much to do w/ psychological quirks of some of the main instigators, the desire to experiment w/ weaponry of the time (didn’t Truman even seriously consider dropping the ‘bomb’ at one point in the Korean War?..Dr. Strangelove not so strange)…& of course gun & drug running…television ratings, mag & newspaper sales…plenty of money to be made in Wars if you’re in the right business…pretty grizzly stuff when ya think of the sacrifices made.
Yea, I’m more than a wee bit worried that their obligations to many Corporate connections eclipses their ‘patriotic duty’ to get it right…they’ve caused chaos…& chaos seems to benefit the ‘no-bidders’ & various other companies more than anything…& the fact that as a group w/ the fate of the US in their hands at a time of a continually touted War on Terrorism’ they’re more ‘back-seat drivers’ rather than experienced military participants…kinda pisses me that they send their agents of smear to take down John Kerry, Max Cleland, Gray Davis & Murtha…the following list got me swallowin’ back bile:
http://www.democrats.us/beta/forum/view_topic.php?id=1896&forum_id=9
Sure, Cracked was a blatant rip-off…I’m sure it was the drawings I was attracted to more than anything…the odd wise-crack…Severin’s work was outa this world for a youngun, early teenage years when I gave up on the Stan Lee comics & gravitated to the more cultural/political satire…I’m sure the final days of the Vietnam War (remember watchin’ that last helicopter takin’ off & the sense of melancholy & urgency that oozed from the reporters on TV)…& Nixon years fired up my curiousity in ‘things bigger’…certainly MAD stood out for its inventiveness & satire…& ya had to have the latest Alfred E. Neuman cover – amazing how much Bush resembles that little guy…:)
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blbushwhatmeworry2.htm
…both Don & Sergio had me in the palm of their hands…cool you met Sergio. Another reason I support multi-culturalism, from what I hear Sergio couldn’t speak much English when he joined up…I’m sure he mighta had a real hard time w/ a ‘dictation test’…:)
Darn site older than me…I was born as that offensive wall went up…my first introduction to the ‘forgotten war’ was in front of the tele w/ my Dad awestruck by the action/war flick ‘Bridges at Toki-Ri – they had a habit of killin’ off the heroes in those days (great book too I might add)…so I’m apt to take your memory of events Brian over most films…tho I did see a powerful doco series called The Korean War: ’Fire & Ice’ a while back on the History channel (?), blew me away how the Americans got themselves into this harsh landscaped, soul destroying, retreat that was their lengthiest in history. Another amazing film that gave some more insight was: Je-gyu Kang’s ‘Brotherhood of War’ (available now on DVD)…sure it’s overly corny in parts…but it sure gets across the message that ‘war is hell’…certainly was one savage war…nuthin’ like a Korean perspective.
Well, when one reflects on the serial atrocities the US military has committed in the name of ‘freedom’ you’d have to conclude that ‘War is Hell’ & the US do tend to go overboard to make a point…let’s begin w/ the fire bombing of Japan, in the words of (infamous Secretary of Defense during Vietnam War), Robert McNamara:
Add to this the use of atomic bombs in Hiroshima & Nagasaki…dreadful stuff considering some historians now believe Japan had signaled before the drops that they were willing to surrender…
then one MUST include the pounding of Seoul & other regions in Korea
(see Rogun-Ri massacre:
http://www1.korea-np.co.jp/pk/161st_issue/2001052704.htm
&
http://www1.korea-np.co.jp/pk/154th_issue/2001012511.htm
…Bombings in Vietnam & Cambodia (including use of Napalm & Agent Orange):
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/timeline/tl3.html
the Panama invasion:
http://www.apfn.org/thewinds/1996/09/panama_invasion.html
& of course the recent events in Fallujah (from what I’m hearing/seeing/reading this is not going to be written in the History books as one of the American militaries finest moments):
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/9/22038/7886
now, there are those who will demand that I put all this in context…& fair enough…certainly some events may have been described using hyperbole due to the bias of witnesses…or the political/ideological intentions of the filmmaker/reporter/commentator etc…& furthermore, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that we are ‘Monday morning quarterbacking’/judging from a position of hindsight…& that the opposition committed a number of outrageous crimes themselves in their prosecution of War…certainly these are all valid points…not having been involved personally in a War or suffered due to enemy action, I feel reluctant to judge those who’ve experienced such Hellish events & had their back up against the wall (my grandparents experienced the ‘blitz’ in London & related ‘hairy’ stories to me as a child that offered no hint of sympathy for the Germans & Japanese as they were being bombed)…
but…that doesn’t forbid me from assessing historical evidence, listening to oral histories, viewing footage of war atrocities…& coming to a general conclusion…so in my estimation, the US military have resorted to excessive measures in order to ‘win’ or ‘stalemate’ in certain conflicts.
again from the mouth of McNamara, a major participant & occas. instigator of some of the previous events:
&
(Source: The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara…
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317910/)
never heard of them Graham…can you elaborate?
…i initially went to a Uni in Toronto, but dropped out twice as a youngun due to an addiction for travel & desire to do the ‘on the road’ bit. After high school graduation I spent many days & nights hunkered down in the cinema to take in newies & oldies, now I was old enuff to get access to ‘R’-rated films: Apocalypse Now, Deer Hunter, The Tin Drum, 1900, The Conformist, Vanishing Point, Badlands, Le Cage Aux Folles, Easy Rider, L’Avventura, The Passenger, 8 ½, The Last Detail, Coming Home, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Panic in Needle Park…a cornucopia of verisimilitude (or so I thought)& hard hitting flicks…
combined this w/ absorbing various K. Vonnegut, E. Hemingway, J. Steinbeck, J. Conrad, S. Beckett, F. Scott Fitzgerald, H. Hesse, A. Solzhenitsyn, Albert Camus, E. Bronte, Tennessee Williams, E. A. Poe & & a few ‘Beat poets’
…lit a fire under my butt so I kinda got this urge to do the rebellious thing & take off…w/ the trusty Stephen King scare feasts as companion & a guilty diversion……
wasn’t til 17 years on that I re-entered the hallowed halls of tertiary education…some institution in Sth. East QLD known for subversive attitudes, wide thinking & environmental science…kinda screwed w/ my foundations…& opened these eyes & mind up a wee bit more…realised by the end of it all what a Darwinistic nightmare I musta seemed to some of my peers…ya get that way when ya spend a decade plus livin’ on the road or town to town, occasionally hand to mouth…:)
The supporters of Chimpo’s GWOT are increasingly being confronted with internal contradictions. These contradictions have impressed themselves upon me in light of the responses to the Regensburg Lecture.
In broad terms, supporters of the GWOT can be divided into two camps.
1. Maximalists.
These folks believe that there is something innately wrong and evil with Islam. The logical consequence of their policy is that the GWOT won’t be over until Islam as they understand it is wiped off the face of the earth. Military action is the only answer to an urgent and dangerous peril posed by a huge number of unappeaseable enemies of civilisation.
2. Non-Maximalists.
These folks have a wide range of beliefs and attitudes. The pro-GWOT minimalists believe that Islam is just hunky-dory, but is being exploited by a small and unrepresentative band of fanatics who might be able to achieve the same outcomes by exploiting any system of beliefs. Military action is justified because the job is small and manageable.
Now it should be clear that these positions start from starkly different points of view, and they have starkly different attitudes about the nature of the military mission they have hitherto supported.
I guess it’s now time for the non-maximalists to decide how far they should run in harness with the maximalists.
And while they are doing that, perhaps they could also consider who is being whose useful idiot.
Nasking:
Hums and MAS were Schools at Griffith Uni a few tears back ((I meant to type “years” but “tears” looks more apt so I’ll leave it)); something you said made me think you had been there.
The DVD you mentioned “Brotherhood of War” isn’t the story of two brothers on opposite sides who met in battle, is it? If it is, there’s a monument outside the War Memorial and Museum in Seoul which depicts the incident as repesenting the divided Korean people.
crikey, now I’m certain the years of pounding my brain w/ vino is shrinking the ‘little gray cells’…be rollin’ out my ears soon enuff…:)…of course I know these departments…Humanities & Modern Asian Studies.
What’s yer relationship w/ them Graham?
As for the tears…just a few in those days…plenty of time huntin’ down film mags in the library (incl. Cahier du Cinema which turned out to be a nightmare read thanx to my capricious understanding of the French language courtesy of an immersion class in Gr. 8/9 that was filled w/ bi-lingual Canadian kids & one recent arrival from Aussie whose only experience w/ French was Hornblower novels & the back of mini-cereal packs on the trip over)…
…yea, plenty of boozin’ it up, The Smiths & Dead Kennedys (thanx to one fellow piss head & brainiac) & typin’ film reviews whilst listenin’ to Died Pretty & Mona Lisa Overdrive in the basement where they hid the student union…tho this is came after i got over the hordin’ books (some will adamantly deny I ever did kick that habit) & dilligent as a mole during spring kinda thing.
Met my wife there ya know. We danced to R.E.M. whilst walkin’ thru the adjacent graveyard.
Ahh, the good old days.
That’s the one.
Nasking:
Did MAS way back in the early days, couple of years after I got out of the army. Had either taken part in some of Asia’s tumultuous history or knew people who had …. so to avoid embarrassing anyone, I would sometimes wander off to Hums or AES and audit lectures, watch films, etc. That’s how I first got to see Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin”.
Thanks for info about Korean DVD.
A good movie. Like a Korean Patton.
Liam:
Thanks.
Everyone:
Update about volunteers a historic barracks ….. and possibly about the Prime Minister pork-barrelling (though I hope not).
OOps sorry. Lost the link. Here,try this
And again
I’ll spell it out
http://ungrateful-troublemaker.blogspot.com/2006/09/more-of-australias-heritage-at-risk.html
lol…that’s exactly where I saw it for the first time…was it on celluloid? In a little booth?
>>Thanks for info about Korean DVD.
yer quite welcome…if you haven’t seen them, try out:
The Burmese Harp (1956)(Japan)…really moving.
1900 Pts. 1 & 2 (1976) (Italy)…outstanding look at atrocities & fear during Fascism
Red Sorghum (China)
Stalingrad (1993) (Germany)…drags you in…winter scenes amazing
Come and See (Russia) Harrowing…must see.
Big Red One (US)…guts & glory bared for all to see
Regeneration (1997)…the poet,WW1 & the loss of a generation
Love & Death (1975)…Woody Allen is hilarious during Napoleonic War.
Paths of Glory (1957) (UK) Kubrick being prophetic
strange how Patton died eh?
& two by the late great Tarkovsky…
“Ivan’s Childhood”
and
“Andrei Rublev” — or, “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City, Especially When the Tartars Keep Burning It to the Ground”
‘Andrei Rublev’ is a ‘run, don’t walk.’ Do not miss.
j-p-z:
Thanks. Never heard of them. True. Only Russian one I saw with Tartars of that era in it (peripherally) was the 1938/1963(?)re-edit of “Aleksandr Nevsky”.
Nasking:
Thanks too. Yes, “Battleship Potemkin” was on celluloid but shown in a lecture room near reading pit.
Have tried to see “1900″ for years (it keeps hiding from me). Is “Paths of Glory” still banned in France? Should be shown to all military recruits along with “Zulu”, “All Quiet On The Western Front”, “Stalingrad”, “BattleCry”, “Big Red One” and “Go Tell The Spartans”.
Saw “Harp Of Burma” many years ago …. “your enemy is never a bad fellow in his own eyes”.
chills…walked out of the living room ready for a discussion on Tarkovsky. I believe his under-estimated film is ‘The Sacrifice’…after watching a crude but interesting American TV show tonite called ‘Jericho’ it got me strangely thinking of Tarkovsky. We are in duplicitious times, where all we hear is not necessarily what is….Solaris…hmmm…the sense that life, reality is an illusion…I have the original Stanislaw Lem…these writers/film makers were always aware of the underlying GAME…that which plays games w/ our minds…& even has the indecency to do so w/ our hearts on occasion….I must see Stalker.
which illicits memories of Andrej Wajda…’Danton’, ‘Ashes & Diamonds’…& the ultimate series of films bar none…except the Apu series…can you guess which?
on the 12th Oct. 2001 i wrote the following poem:
———————————————-
Kabul Reality (& the Cycle)
for a moment
he stood alone in the street
lights gathered in the sky
then…She was before him
eyes expectant, cracked, dry, beautiful grin
they gazed upwards
held hands tight
in awe
in wonder…the wait
then
it rained in thunderous applause
dusty sparkles
rubble strewn, blood littered
smiles narrowed, dissipated
he huddled in shadow of terror
enlightenment ensued
deafened
distanced
the fireworks of an innocent
incendiaries addressed to a fundamentalist
a parent…neighbour…brother…land.
westerners in starbucks smiled…safe by illusion
as tears became a flood
on desert plains
She swirls in the wind
cinders…& sand meld
He turns a face to Heaven
& pledges…
the rain will fall
N’
———————————-
kinda sad when you think of how right I was…but I guess that comes from a study of History…the Brits at the Khyber pass & the Ruskies (see movie: The Beast) gave ya a pretty good idea of the folly of this exercise.
I did my thesis on Soviet cinema but I don’t think I’ve ever stayed awake through a whole Tarkovsky.
“I did my thesis on Soviet cinema but I don’t think I’ve ever stayed awake through a whole Tarkovsky.”
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Are you fucking kidding me? Your obscurism also stretches to cinema?
Jaysus. The yoof of today.
*shakes head, fetches cardi and slippers*
I almost made it through Sacrifice. So close, but dozed off and next I knew stuff was on fire.