CRUMBLING PILLAR OF WISDOM

Just to gratuitously stoke the fire a bit more -
www.atheists.org/Islam/mohammedanism.html

BOTCH

news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/europe/5294548.stm - if you (rightly) thought the UK police, or the US's FEMA, were Keystone Kops, check this one out. Beslan was one of the most disastrous examples of strategic planning since the Charge Of The Light Brigade. (Although the House Of Culture theatre gassing in Moscow runs pretty close.)

FJORDS

Really looking forward to the Numusic Festival next week in Stavanger. Last time I visited Norway was, believe it or not, a cruise trip through the fjords and discovered a fascinating country full of echoes of mysterious ancient traditions. And I don't mean that in a 'Death In June'-way...

UNLIST

Yo Blair's army desperately continues to attempt to persuade, if not subtly coerce, young and naive youth to sign up through expensive glamorous adverts promising 'passion', 'adventure' and 'excitement'. Yeah, right. Truthfully, while they train you to be a dangerous serial killer, all that should read as 'institutionalised bullying', 'probable death or serious injury', 'endless time away from family and loved ones', 'fighting pointless wars for Halliburton', 'pathetic wages', 'long term health risks', and 'lifelong psychological trauma'. Today's government spin is about increased recruitment, carefully not mentioning 25% drop-out rate, thousands going AWOL, and all the aforementioned deaths and serious injuries. Consider me a traitor.

PREMATURE

I so love the tone of this strange old short story, published here online.

TORTSOV

Acting is far more difficult than we often give credit for, and when you get a good one, it's something exceptional to behold. Just as in music however, so many love the mirror so much they prefer to watch the outside and ignore the inside. I saw a play last night of competent, mechanical actors, yet they were all so clearly (and tediously) self-conscious of us, the audience. I love the genial Keith Johnstone's perfect solution of doing maskwork, while merely providing dentist mirrors to his cast.

'THE BASE'

www.xopl.com/blog/2006/08/10/crockofshit.html - no further comment required.

KAZOO MAN LIVES

The so-called biggest annual arts festival of the world, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, commenced here at the weekend. The city is, as usual, full of kazoo-playing juggling clowns on unicycles, various 'living' sculptures, multi-coloured dungarees, Shakespeare in a bouncy castle, and the usual faux controversial plays and exhibitions, in addition to the other 20,000-odd shows that are reputedly on. You'd think there must be something worth seeing...

SEATTLE

Cannot sleep at all well lately, I don't think there's anything on my conscience... ;-) I guess it must just be this summer's strange weather conditions.

By the way, thanks to all those who have added comments - really not sure what's motivating me to write this blog, but it's definitely nice to know some people are reading it.

CORRUPTION IN MIAMI

Commendably, Miami Vice is rather difficult for a mainstream movie, and hard men with guns aren't my thing but I did enjoy the way the dialogue seems wilfully impenetrable at times, either through loud extraneous noises, Gong Li's dubious prosodic features (but great looks), the constant mumbling, or their talking over each other that reminded me of the amazing sequence in Fire Walk With Me that takes place in the disco.

AGE OF AQUARIUS 2

Tibet just sent a friendly and as always charming email regarding my original AoA posting, this is the relevant bit here: 'I must say I NEVER said that AIDS was a message from God (Tiny Tim did, maybe they are confusing us!); I just said that increasing disasters everywhere are a sign of apocalypse (or, from your angle, a sign we are in for lots of sunshine!)'. Fair enough, even though 'sign of apocalypse' or 'message from God' seems to me like a minor semantic difference, I do know that magazines can misquote, or take things out of context, and things get even worse when bits are sloppily retranslated and recycled on blogs like this one. Heathen that I am however, I can't resist adding that since religious believers are the ones traditionally responsible for the disasters that have caused most human bloodshed, agree with me or not on the premise, might it not therefore behove them to follow the original advice?!

OPEN KEY

Currently working on a follow-up to the two thematic songs Cut Hands Has The Solution and Killing Hurts Give You The Secrets.