"Alone, even doing nothing, you do not waste your time. You do, almost always, in company. No encounter with yourself can be altogether sterile: Something necessarily emerges, even if only the hope of some day meeting yourself again." (E.M. Cioran)

Monday, July 31, 2006

Quote For Today


"There is something deeply suffocating about life in the prosperous west. Bourgeoisification, the suburbanisation of the soul, proceeds at an unnerving pace. Tyranny becomes docile and subservient, and soft totalitarianisam prevails, as obsequious as a wine waiter. Nothing is allowed to distress and unsettle us. The politics of the playgroup rules us all".
- J.G. Ballard -

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Whinge-o-rama

After a week at home - sick with a bad cold - it's a sunny day, so I decide to venture out into the city to try and find a copy of an elusive new 7" record by a favourite music group (such are the pleasures of my - generally useless - existence). Bad move. An excursion to town these days only serves to further embitter me towards my fellow humans, despite having spent the last few days mulling over the importance of compassion towards others. Oh, well..
Everywhere I go, hordes of people teem, filling up any piece of available space; escalators clogged with the overfed bodies of inseparable couples who, clutching each other's hands, use these modes of transport as joyrides upon which they can remain static, whilst kissing and fondling one another like characters in their own movie, oblivious to the backlog of fellow travellers behind them. The need for refreshment is fatal. Food halls housing a multitude of globalised, corporatised, franchised outlets have replaced humble cafes and are, again, filled to the brim with teeming multitudes, all gobbling down their cakes and sushi, sandwiches, crepes and stuffed potatoes - drinking trendy drinks from franchise 'juice' bars (which are composed mainly of bacteria-laden crushed ice), crapping on about their inane purchases, as if it was of actual world-shattering importance.
Women are the worst. Why are they so gullible to this bogus, manipulated ('consuming is cool') idea of "retail therapy"? Could someone please explain the therapeutic value of being stuck in a designer shoe store sale, for example, with throngs of women squawking and grabbing at products like starving seagulls? And on that note, what exactly is this psychotic desire in women to purchase ridiculously impractical shoes, regularly, with the ostentatious swagger of victory, as if each item collected represents a major achievement. It's out of control.
Cluttered with designer bags, gabbling on about how "those shoes would go well with a short skirt" or "that top would look good with my new jeans" etc. etc. to their friends and hapless partners (I admit I've been guilty of this myself!) and all the while, their husbands are just following after them - pushing prams, carrying shopping, listening to this endless crap - just (seemingly) happy to be part of it. Something to build a life around, I guess. Get me out of here!

Saturday, July 22, 2006

July war


I'm gobsmacked. I know that my view is basically irrelevant, but I have to say that, in my opinion, what Israel is doing - in the name of destroying Hezbollah - is simply WRONG - on every level. Wiping out Hezbollah? How far do they have to go before this is done and how will they actually know that their mission is accomplished? Surely, killing huge numbers of civilians will breed more terrorism and encourage more rocket attacks, as has already happened. Retaliation for the kidnap of two soldiers? Don't the Israelis hold hundreds of members of Hamas and Hezbollah captive? Self-defence? Israel is the biggest military and economic power in the region, so how long can they play the victim card? Why should Lebanon be used as a chessboard in which to play out these grievances? How can Israel expect its Islamic neighbours to remain weak and divided while they prosper?
Obviously, I'm no expert, but even Blind Freddy can see that Israel's mission can never be accomplished. How can we expect the people of Lebanon (as with Iraq) not to feel resentment towards their aggressors? Anyway, I think these pictures speak volumes more than anything anyone could ever say.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Velcrow Ripper's 'Scared Sacred'

I just found out about this film via an email. It's an apparently "powerful documentary", by filmmaker Velcrow Ripper (love the name!), who goes on a 5-year odyssey to 'Ground Zero' locations around the world - including post-September 11 New York, the minefields of Cambodia, war-torn Afghanistan, the toxic wastelands of Bhopal, Bosnia, Palestine and Israel. His quest is to discover whether humanity can transfer the scared into the sacred. Sounds intriguing. There's a special screening in Sydney on 1 August, so I'll try my best to get there. In the meantime, there's a blog...

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Dream

Had a dream last night that I was in an American city - Boston, apparently - but it was the late 1970s and I was having an affair with (a still quite youngish) William Shatner. (Don't ask, ok? I mean, I like his album 'n all, but this is ridiculous!) Anyway, we were like teenagers in love as we hung with his buddies - a great bunch of intellectual 'art' types and I was exuberantly telling them how I'd come from the future and about the differences between their time and mine. They were reluctant to believe me and who could blame them, but they were all the while reminding me of better, more tolerant and hopeful times, so I told them all about my world.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Stinky Flower


the close-up flower is a an `amorphophallus titanum', which literally means: 'huge distorted penis'

Thursday, July 13, 2006

After posting the comments last night, and seeing '24' again tonight, I have to say that the camp, high-tack thrills are wearing into full-throttle sleaze. Heavens to Betsy! How many cliches can you throw at a viewer at once and how many locations can Jack simultaneously be in? The scenes with Jack and Kim were weirdly nauseating and there's even a bit of torture thrown into the mix. Yuk. What a disaster.

'24'


My favourite tv show is '24'. Why do I love it? It delivers entertainment, at its fast and furious best. It is thrilling, tense and nail biting. It is tacky and unpretentious (unlike 'Lost', for example, that tries - infuriatingly and unsuccessfully - to be profound). It has great characters - like the stressed-out staff at CTU, who you can never completely trust because there could always be a traitor in their midst; the President's wife, who does women proud by continually confounding and annoying her weak husband by being a pain; the terrorists, who are complete cliches of cold war nastiness and, of course, Jack himself - the indestructible, terrorist killing machine. Makes winter nights at home alone so much more fun.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Mall Life

Dizzying drive with stvbee around and around the underground carpark levels AT THE MALL trying to find a spot, my hangover still lurking. Some snooty, eastern suburbs bitch stared down her nose at my lazy weekend old clothes in the lift. Feeling momentarily insecure about this, I appealed to my companion for his opinion. Did I look like shit? "Of course not. You're perfect for the mall". Wow. I'm loving today.