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countdown
pencil, watercolour, pen, politics; blair is on the ropes, will he name the date? bush on the other hand, well i wouldn't hold your breath, carol. Over to dick-cheney corner. |
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2.9.06 21:48 |
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CRIKEY! Steve Irwin is dead!!! About thirty seconds ago I glanced upon the headline on the bbc website that said the 'crocodile hunter' (an obvious misnomer for someone who was promarily interested in croc conservation) had been killed! Steve Irwin, who has braved crocs, snakes, spiders, scorpions, even He was diving, apparently, and may have been stung by a deadly stingray. Blimey! I'm really sad for him, and his family. I was a big fan. Nevertheless, the way he lived so dangerously with animals, there was always the risk that it would be the end of him one day. I was almost relieved to hear that it had been a stingray that killed him, rather than just being run over by a bus or falling down the stairs. Jeez. This guy was a real icon, one of the world's true characters. As he would say, however, "it's nature's way."
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4.9.06 07:32 |
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don't mention the civil war
watercolour pencil, pencil; bush denies it, the pentagon suspects it, the iraqi people damn well know it, and rumsfeld, well, he might go the way of browny if he aint too careful. |
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4.9.06 10:01 |
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keeping tabs on musicians The Ibanez saga has finally come to a conclusion, and I have decided to keep my shiny new electric guitar, after buying an amplifier yesterday. It sounds incredible, it really does, and I'm really really happy with it! Now I want to go and find some interesting riffs and songs to learn, try to improve my playing. Except... You may be aware of the music industry crackdown on those sites that offer free transcriptions of guitar tabulations from thousands of songs, largely worked out aurally by individual musicians, shared with the rest of the global guitarist community. This online wealth of guitar tabs has long been a source of learning for budding guitarists, from the spotty long-haired teen in his suburban bedroom to the grey-haired smart-shoe-wearing Stratmeister in his personal countryside studio. And now the music industry fascists (I know, everyone's called 'fascists' these days, it's very fashionable) have deemed that this practice is illegal and must be stopped right now. Quite how this affects the music industry bigwigs' massive profits is uncertain; sharing info on how to interpret popular music is not the same thing as actually downloading music, it doesn't have a negative effect on CD sales and only serves to promote the artists. Hah! they say. We don't care! You'll have to buy the official printed version! Well, in most cases (high 90s, percent-wise, a statistic I'm basing on no data at all) this is unavailable. But this new online witch-hunt is deeply concerning, and opens the debate about how far the intellectual property laws should be realistically enforced. We all know about the downloading and filesharing purge; but where are the lines drawn? It is, for example, not illegal to sell a CD you bought, but it is illegal to sell a file you downlaoded, or even give it away; it is even illegal to sell an ipod which has files on it. But guitar tabs? They'll start fining people, then making money from those fines, and they'll think hello, $$$, and get bigger nets, go for more and more people. Traffic wardens and speed-cameras of the world-wide-web. If there is cash to be made, every penny counts. Do you think the musician will see much of it? Many musicians, even those with million-selling albums, openly encourage the guitar tab sites, for they promote their goods and make it more likely that people will buy their albums or go to their gigs. If someone learns the guitar riff to, for example, Formed a Band by Art Brut, they aren't then going to say, well I don't need to see them live now, I can just play it myself. What next? Will it be illegal to whistle Justin Timberlake songs to yourself while walking down the street (and I realise that that specifically should be illegal) , as it constitutes 'public performance'? Teaching a friend how to play a certain song? Or even describing a song, as that is essentially interpreting someone else's art? Corporate Totalitarianism, folks, it is here, it is everywhere, we cannot escape, we must only obey. I'm off to play my guitar; I think I'll write my own songs, except some of the notes may be copyrighted... |
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5.9.06 20:56 |
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Week Forty-Nine: Gold Rush While this week was laborious for New Labour in the UK, it was Labor Day in the US, a three-day weekend of shopping deals, sunshine and the last-chance for those Americans dictated-to by fashionistas to wear white. The whole 'don't wear white after Labor Day' rule is a mystery to me; what do Ku Klux Klan members do, for example? Asa we enter the autumnal months, as the nights get longer and the heat starts to migrate further and further south, surely it woule make sense to wear more white, as firstly you'd be easier to see by motorists after dark, and secondly when it snows you would be perfectly disguised from the threat of polar bears (not that you get many of them in California). Having gone across the Yolo Causeway bought my new guitar amplifier, I decided to spend Labor Day in Old Sacramento, where they were having some sort of event celebrating the Gold Rush days, the historic period that pretty much created the State of California as we know it. The old riverside downtown in California's capital is pretty much the city's main tourist pull, a collection of old cowboy-era buildings preserved in time, with dusty boulevards and wooden sidewalks. It grew up near the old Sutter's fort, and these days is officially preserved as a state park. The builidngs mostly house souvenir shops and candy stores, as well as a few decent eateries. The bars are full of paraphernalia - Fanny Ann's for example is dressed head to toe in old americana such as license plates and old carts hanging from the rafters, as well as a surprising collection of antique British Rail station signs. From the outside they look like old saloons; you half expect some unshaven whiskey-soaked wreck to come flying through the doors and into the horse-trough, followed by raucous jeering and a visit from the sheriff. For the Gold Rush celebrations, the cobbled roads were covered in dirt, hay and horse-muck and lined with people in Wild-West costume. I felt almost naked not wearing a Cowboy Hat. There were horses and stagecoaches parading all over, mostly carrying packs of young serious-faced children. Tourists crowded outside the saltwater taffy stores to watch wrinkly old gunslingers with names like 'Doc' and 'Earl' shoot slugs of imaginary justice into weasly villains, much to their whooping delight. I suppose it makes a change from the real-life gun-fights on the streets of parts of south Sacramento. The Wild West never went away down there. There was definitely a bit of Back to the Future III in the air. The sun was beating down hard, but there was a nice breeze down by the Sacramento river. There's an old steam-engine that chugs down the waterfront to its terminal in Old Sacramento, a relic of the days when the great iron railroads first united the States of America to its mythical, golden West. On the river itself there is an old sternwheel riverboat, the Delta King, which makes you think more of the slow broad waters of the Mississippi than the rattlesnake west, but then Sacramento is known as the River City. Nearby stood old-time stalls and tents treated tourists to 'authentic' blacksmiths, gun-makers and an old Injun practising the ancient native art of making balloon-dogs. I'm glad I wasn't around in the Old West. Sure there was money to be made panning for gold in tham thar hills, but I just couldn't live in a historic period where everybody made me think of George W Bush. Hang on a minute, no, I'm confusing the Westworld of the past with the Planet of the Apes of the future. |
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7.9.06 04:22 |
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one lump or two, george? Oh, George, can you hear yourself? Is the world so simplistic to you? Tonight The Decider was on CBS, being interviewed by Katie Couric, having also appeared in front of the Press today to make a big announcement: the secret CIA prisons do in fact exist (yeah, George, we all know), and that they have some pretty high-up terr'rsts, and no, they aren't torturing them for information, oh no, they are going to go to Congress for approval to try them, oh yes, look at us, we do things by the book now we've had our wrists slapped by the Supreme Court. Ball's in your court, now, Democrats-who-hate-democracy-and-want-the-terr'rsts-to-win. So George, what ya got to say about Iraq, then? "We weren't in Iraq on September 11th, 2001!" he smirks, apparently bemused. "Well the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi," the interviewer replied. King George simply responded by saying that he puts all these people together, these jihadists. They're all the same. Take a look at this article on the CBS website; look at the comments section. There is a guy (Tank611) who, responding to someone's question why the US focused on Saddam when Bin Laden was the target, says that the US is at war with the whole Middle East (and furthermore has the right to be so). There really are people who think we're at war with all of the Middle East, all of the Arabs, all of Islam. This is why King George is still in the White House. And why do Muslims turn on the West when the leaders perpetuate this sort of simplistic view? He likes to lump people together. Only yesterday George likened Bin Laden to Hitler and Lenin. Hitler, and Lenin. So Islamic fundamentalists are the same as Nazis are the same as Communists. They're all the Enuhmy. Oh, and those who protest at what he's doing are appeasers to the Enuhmy, and no better than those who appeased Hitler before World War II. And let's not forget that wonderful phrase Islamo-Fascists. Let's just blur fascists with muslims! People don't need to know the difference! CBS News have no problem doing the same. In a report tonight about the Iranian President Ahmedinedjad, who has offered King George the chance to debate publicly with him at the UN in New York (he really should be working with Don King), they had a large picture of Bin Laden with the headline "War On Terror" splashed across the screen. This was not a mistake. Nor was George's flippant remark about Hitler and Lenin. This is how the public are brainwashed. Subliminal Associations. Gently, simplistically, thoroughly. Mention Venezuela with Iran long enough, and Iran with Hezbollah, and bingo, you get Venezuela must be terr'rsts! Hasn't happened? It is happening. Back to George's retort that we weren't in Iraq on September 11, though. Yeah, people say that we've created terrorists by invading Iraq, George, they are not I repeat not saying that they didn't exist before then. They are saying that your ill-planned and bloody invasion and subsequent (ill-planned and bloody) occupation has created the environment where terrorists can not only flourish but have a brilliant cast-iron reason. Why did they attack on 9/11? It had nothing to do with 'hating democracy' (you would have too, had it truly worked in 2000 and 2004), or 'hating freedom' (al qaeda absolutely love the freedom we've given them in Iraq, they never had that when that other guy was there). You yourself admitted it had absolutely nothing to do with Saddam. Osama wanted him gone, too, so you made him gone. Could it possibly have had anything to do with the US military presence in Saudi Arabia, the holy land of Islam, home of Bin Laden and the hijackers, that was established during the Gulf War? And didn't you subsequently end that presence, giving them what they wanted? Isn't this all filed under Appeasing the Terr'rsts?. But you know, Associations, George, it won the people over for a bit, lump Saddam in with Bin Laden (even though they were diametrically opposed to each other - did nobody teach you to keep your enemies divided, George?), and bingo. Green light for a money-spinning arms-selling oil-grabbing and profit-making invasion. But you're having trouble keeping it up, aren't you George? "One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the War on Terror," George told Couric tonight. Well, Yer Highness, if the two were connected in the first place, it wouldn't be so hard. |
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7.9.06 07:39 |
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well, whaddaya know King George was handed a great big 150-page-long "I Told You So" by the US Senate today. What was his reaction to the news that Saddam Hussein definitely had nothing whatsoever to with Al Qa'ida? "Well, Osama Bin Laden thinks Iraq is to do with it!" Yes George, Iraq is to do with it now, because you have made it so! But these guys were not supported by Saddam Hussein, and you got rid of their enemy. Bin Laden used previous US aggression towards Iraq as a pretext to win support for his cause among Arabs, but not because he and Saddam were big pals. Al Qa'ida hated us, Saddam hated us, yet they really hated each other...and that inconvenient truth didn't fit with your plan. Which means that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with catching terrorists. So why d'you do it? We all know it had flip-all to do with WMDs. Saddam was a terrible person, truly terrible, who presided over a regime of torturers and murderers. The Iraqi people needed him gone, nobody doubts that. But he was no friend of Bin Laden. Nor was he a friend of Iran. Nor was he a religious fundamentalist. They all wanted him gone, and so again you gave them what they wanted. Well done, George. Are we really safer today, just because you say so? I can't help but think we'd be even safer if we didn't have a President that did Bin Laden's bidding. You know what, though? This Senate document will not make the tiniest bit of difference. It may as well have been a waste of three years' work. The Bush Junta ignored it all then and said what they wanted to believe, and they'll ignore it again now, arguing with smug smirks on their faces. |
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9.9.06 02:54 |
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i want to ride my bicycle
pen, paper; my bike blew a flat tyre (or 'tire' as they say here), leaving me sans-velo temporarily. Well, the UCD bike-barn to the rescue; they replaced it for very few dollars, and it was like a brand new bike, they even adjusted the seat for me! This is my tribute. |
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9.9.06 07:40 |
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the trees, those useless trees
.01 fineline pen and paper, a bench beneath a tree beside the historic hunt-boyer house, downtown davis.
the same .01 fineline pen and paper; this noble arbre lives on the ucd campus quad, giving shade to generations of scientists, writers and aspiring animal doctors. There's a family of squirrels who live there, and they drop acorns and other heavy things onto their heads, unwittingly giving them all great ideas. The squirrels just want them to sod-off. |
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9.9.06 08:02 |
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three acts of varsity september
july
june
pen, pencil, paper, watercolour blocks, watercolour pencils, and the varsity theater in davis. Three snapshots taken in different summer months; each sketch i feel lacked something which if you put all three together you probably would get. The ice-cream shop opened while this triptych was being created.Very fifties. Mark Lamarr would love it. |
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9.9.06 23:11 |
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