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Jan. 15th, 2011
Explain myself? I'm not sure I can.
Jan. 15th, 2011 12:21 pmHuman beings, looked at from the outside, are impossibly complex multi-dimensional shapes. Like Douglas Hofstadter's G-E-B solid, they show different things from different angles, and which way you look at them is up to you.
From one angle, I'm the son of my parents, and I carry their heredity, London and the Channel Islands coming together in me.
From another, I'm the product of my culture, born and raised in England and steeped in the landscape (the bits that didn't make me sneeze, wheeze and itch, anyway) and the history and art of my land.
From another, I've been shaped by my experiences, fifty-five years of good and bad knocking off my rough edges and occasionally carving divots out of me to make more.
EDIT: from another, I'm the bastard offspring of Mike Oldfield and Stephen Fry, with many of the faults and perhaps a pale shadow of the talents of both.
And from another, possibly, I'm a Sagittarian, born in the year of the Ram (or the Sheep or the Goat, depending which books you read).
There's far too much in any human being, even me, to take in all in one go. We're each of us a lifetime's work just to study the surface, and that's before you even start on the insides. And it's as much of a job for us ourselves as it is for anyone else.
So I think there's room for astrology, if you fancy it. If you don't, of course, there's no need.
From one angle, I'm the son of my parents, and I carry their heredity, London and the Channel Islands coming together in me.
From another, I'm the product of my culture, born and raised in England and steeped in the landscape (the bits that didn't make me sneeze, wheeze and itch, anyway) and the history and art of my land.
From another, I've been shaped by my experiences, fifty-five years of good and bad knocking off my rough edges and occasionally carving divots out of me to make more.
EDIT: from another, I'm the bastard offspring of Mike Oldfield and Stephen Fry, with many of the faults and perhaps a pale shadow of the talents of both.
And from another, possibly, I'm a Sagittarian, born in the year of the Ram (or the Sheep or the Goat, depending which books you read).
There's far too much in any human being, even me, to take in all in one go. We're each of us a lifetime's work just to study the surface, and that's before you even start on the insides. And it's as much of a job for us ourselves as it is for anyone else.
So I think there's room for astrology, if you fancy it. If you don't, of course, there's no need.
Tiles grouted
Jan. 15th, 2011 03:56 pmAnd now I shall practise with my guitar. (For twenty minutes, till I see something that stops me in my tracks. See next post.)
It takes a stronger stomach than mine to look at things like this and not believe that things must get better.
This is going to affect us badly. I don't know when, and I don't know how badly, but worst case (if all our benefits get stopped and I haven't found some kind of paid job I can do by then) it will reduce our monthly income by more than half. That's house, car, everything, gone.
This government--this governmental system--has got to go. It is irretrievably corrupted, and no election is going to fix it in the foreseeable future. I don't see any way fairness and decency can be restored short of a complete restart. And that, any way you look at it, would be horrific.
I believe that one day, the people of Earth, united in true equality and freedom, will reach out for the stars together. I believe we'll heal our wounded biosphere, overcome the greed and power-hunger of the old guard and make a new future for ourselves. But I think Britain will be long dead before that happens, and that makes me sad. And I know we will be.
This is going to affect us badly. I don't know when, and I don't know how badly, but worst case (if all our benefits get stopped and I haven't found some kind of paid job I can do by then) it will reduce our monthly income by more than half. That's house, car, everything, gone.
This government--this governmental system--has got to go. It is irretrievably corrupted, and no election is going to fix it in the foreseeable future. I don't see any way fairness and decency can be restored short of a complete restart. And that, any way you look at it, would be horrific.
I believe that one day, the people of Earth, united in true equality and freedom, will reach out for the stars together. I believe we'll heal our wounded biosphere, overcome the greed and power-hunger of the old guard and make a new future for ourselves. But I think Britain will be long dead before that happens, and that makes me sad. And I know we will be.
So the music for the latest ad for the "more fun" Fiat 500 is a song about a lonely, empty, directionless life in which one keeps oneself distracted with meaningless pleasures to avoid thinking about the unanswered questions. (At least that's how I read it. I could be wrong. It definitely seems a tad sombre, as one of the reviews said.)
Yes, I can see that working for a car ad.
More tellingly, I can see in my mind's eye how it could have been picked. The agency people are in the client's office playing a selection of possible tunes for the campaign. "Wait, stop the disc, what's that one again? Hmm, yeah, I like it. Violins, guitars, it's kind of like that 'Young At Heart' thing. What's it called? 'This Is The Life'? Sounds upbeat. I like it. Use it."
And the advertising people shrug, and make a note to arrange for permissions, and if one of them has a tiny little twisted smile as he leaves the client's office, nobody notices.
Yes, I can see that working for a car ad.
More tellingly, I can see in my mind's eye how it could have been picked. The agency people are in the client's office playing a selection of possible tunes for the campaign. "Wait, stop the disc, what's that one again? Hmm, yeah, I like it. Violins, guitars, it's kind of like that 'Young At Heart' thing. What's it called? 'This Is The Life'? Sounds upbeat. I like it. Use it."
And the advertising people shrug, and make a note to arrange for permissions, and if one of them has a tiny little twisted smile as he leaves the client's office, nobody notices.
I try to be reasonable. I try to be fair. I make every possible concession, I apologise when I've been offensive, I avoid dogmatism as far as I can, and I try to provide some kind of a bridge of understanding so that different mindsets can relate to each other. I try to say useful things, find new slants on ideas that don't seem to make sense, make a difference in some infinitesimally miniscule way to the discussion.
And I always, always, end up disappointed.
Matters not. Life goes on and all that. I'll be back tomorrow, because I am basically optimistic (or stupid, if you prefer). But for tonight I think I'm just done with the net.
And I always, always, end up disappointed.
Matters not. Life goes on and all that. I'll be back tomorrow, because I am basically optimistic (or stupid, if you prefer). But for tonight I think I'm just done with the net.