My eyes!

And yours too - probably after going to link - a Hello Kitty tram (yes it's pink you have been warned).

L’Obama!

A contemporary opera, via Eine Kleine Nichtmusik

Puts it in perspective

Hat tip to Elizaphanian

Tuesday Teaser - 27 Jan

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

In the world of the novel, when all this has been said, everything is still to play for. And the attempt to approach human affairs as if they belonged to the world of evidence and determined outcome is bound to end in violence-ideological violence to the understanding of what humanity is, literal violence toward those who will not be convinced

A book about novels rather than a novel..Rowan Williams - DostoevskyLanguage, Faith and Fiction and inevitably it is taking some concentrated reading!! Andrew Brown says:

Rowan Williams, like Christ, renounces these powers; but when an Archbishop renounces powers he does not abolish them, he hands them to his enemies. Like Christ in the parable, Rowan's response to the Grand Inquisitors of the world is to kiss them on their bloodless lips and then slip out into darkness and obscurity through the door they have held open for him. When Christ kisses him, the inquisitor is touched in his heart but his beliefs and his actions do not change. Fresh heretics will burn when morning comes.

. Guardian review (also by Brown) is here:

There were times when I wondered whether I was struggling through the worst prose ever written by a poet. Sometimes the thought disintegrates entirely, like a jellyfish dropped in a jacuzzi

You may get a sense of that in the above! But there's lots that is worth reading.

Shhhhhhh!

Thanks to the mandriva expert list is this link to a WH Smith's e-book page. I quote:

Reading aloud: not allowed

Oh the delights of DRM....
You are allowed to read this posting aloud!

Skydivers

I picked up a copy of Pauline Stainer's 'The Lady and the Hare' before Christmas and am enjoying it!

They fall outwards
as if from the calyx of a flower
each smaller than a falcon's claw
their target a gravel circle
in the Byzantine barley

They fall like the hushed flame
where once the sun's disk
was ploughed from the furrow
coupling, uncoupling
above the drop-zone.
...(Skydivers)

A Guardian review of this work is here
Also ona poetry theme, Manchester Theological Society has a meeting on RS Thomas this Thursday. Alas, I have two other meetings that night and I'm going to miss it!

Edgy religion

I laughed - too much - at this....

Mutterings - 25 Jan

And from Unconscious mutterings this week:

1. Unwanted :: lost property
2. You’d better :: behave
3. Woman :: Man
4. Weighed :: in the balance
5. Upright :: moral
6. I feel :: pretty
7. Ill :: recover
8. It’s like :: parable
9. Poor man :: cherry stone
10. Great :: expectations

English!

Wats the wurld coming to:

Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist.

Obama's Use of Complete Sentences.... Grammar Rulez! Gov Palin says:

Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also

.. via Wounded Bird

Invisible but amongst us

On Wednesday, a trip to Silk Screen to see Nick Broomfield's Ghosts, a tale of the events leading up to the death of 23 Chinese in the sands of Morecambe Bay. A fascinating, depressing study with many insights, I was interested in the various power hierarchies that were working there - even among the victims.
Here's the trailer:

Looks like the website of the fund for the victims http://www.ghosts.uk.com/ - as they received no help from the British Government - is down. I found it an interesting conjunction as the night before on the BBC news there'd been the story of a British lorry driver, Chris Mason, deported from Canada after being injured - we were told that the British government was much better - clearly not always.
I'd recommend the film, a great performance from Ai Qin Lin (a non-actor!!). a review is here as well as more on the issues. I was born on the Lancashire coast - so the film rang many bells and the exposure of modern day slavery just below the surface of our so civilised society will haunt you!
I've just been reminded by opinionated old fart of Langston Hughes I, too, sing America- his context is Obama - where it is very powerful, but there are echoes here too!

I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed–

I, too, am America.

wonderfully set by Bernstein in Songfest.

Woof!

In other news:

Former French president Jacques Chirac was rushed to hospital after being mauled by his own 'clinically depressed' pet dog.

What I miss by not reading the Mail - I just hope the dog wasn't Blair.

30!

Overheard - well it was hard not to! - in Sainsbury's this week (paraphrasing slightly)

I'm thirty years old. She (pointing) asked me for proof of age. I want her sacked!

I did wonder about sidling up to him and asking to double check which employee it was, so I could take some alcohol through, in the hope of being asked for age verification!

Things have changed

.. at last Keep them to it! and may we support them in that

Mutter 18th Jan

Unconscious mutterings gives me:

1. Arrival :: aeroplane
2. Vomit :: aeroplane
3. Fit :: tailor
4. Stutter :: frustration
5. Lifestream :: river
6. Tread :: tyre
7. Desire :: love
8. Freezing :: winter
9. Permit :: allow
10. Crinkle :: crisps

Youth Club Thames Cruise 1977

Youth Club Thames Cruise 1977
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Further to the reunion plans, I've been uploading some ancient photos - not all mine! The collection is here

Cross site javascript

.. and it appears to be scary stuff! - do stay awake at the back.
Looks as if only having a single tab open in a browser when you're accessing on line banking is recommended - and close the browser afterwards before moving to another site!

Facebook bug?

As a result of a discussion elsewhere, I googled someone and discovered a facebook page of someone with that name - wasn't them unless its a very old picture! Logged out of facebook - from my home page (on that site). When I next login the first page it shows me is this:

as you see, I appear to be one of their friends! I'm sure there's the makings of a security hole here... not to mention the way logging in produces an unexpected page! Also clicking on one of those friends (apart from me) produces another friend list - for someone else - which also includes me! shades of Zelig?

Me?!

Thanks to David Keen and the Typealyzer I now now that this weblog is....

ESTP - The Doers

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

Too many problem solving posts recently!

Meanwhile in the White House

ROTFL

Tuesday Teaser 13th Jan

Well it was Tuesday when I was reading it!

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

'"This Old Testament prophet gets cut off short in drought" - five letters' he queried aloud, oblivious to who was speaking. He was on unfamiliar territory with the Bible - American Indians were his thing.

From Salley Vickers 'Mr Golightly's Holiday - only just started it!