So we’re back from our honeymoon, and the lessons just keep coming and they keep getting better. Mexicana – Always Late. Air pollution is relative – Mexico City is the embodiment of Natural Beauty compared to Havana. You’ve heard of Eco-Tourism? Well, in Cuba they practice Socialist Tourism. It’s something along the lines of, … [...]
One Word is one of those sites that’s effective precisely because it is glaringly simple. simple. you’ll see one word at the top of the following page. you have sixty seconds to write about it. as soon as you click ‘go‘ the page will load with the cursor in place. don’t think. just write. One [...]
I have long since given up on Bush and his refashioning of American foreign policy founded upon a glaringly obvious Electra complex*, so much so that his rants – his Bushisms – elicit only disinterest. But his latest Bushism, a juxtaposition of ignorance and blinkeredness, beggars belief. Members of Congress need to stop making political [...]
How elusive is time? I last clicked on the “Write Post” button of this blog more than six months ago, in early September. Much has taken place since then, not least my impending marriage to Jenny (see here for her one and only post on this blog). Yes, I’m guilty (and it’s true): love has [...]
My circle of friends is a narrow one, comprising of less than a dozen individuals. Each was exhaustively selected, processed and acquired during a lifetime of wandering and growth. Nothing esoteric unites them, except some form of association with me; none, as far as I know, are particularly well-known, endowed with special talent, especially unique [...]
The misery continues. After my last post on despair – on the withdrawal from reading life, or the duplicity that is Amazon’s recommendations – I embarked on Robert Fisk’s monumental The war on Civilisation, its 1283 pages traversing the life of Bill Fisk and the modern Middle East that was bequeathed to us by his [...]
For two successive days this weekend, I wandered around Kinokuniya determined and a little anxious to make a purchase; not just any purchase, of course, but a “something” that will restore some semblance of balance between the forces of light and darkness, wisdom and ignorance. A tall order, and no doubt a reflection of recent [...]
You know the old series of cartoons with the boy and girl that led with “Love is …” (They have a site here)? Well, I have an original to contribute. Love is … remembering that Tom once mentioned The Posies 8 months ago in a meaningless conversation and reminding him that they will be playing [...]
Philosophical Myths of the Fall, by Stephen Mulhall, is my 15th purchase of 2006. It is a fine book, and follows his earlier effort On Film. Stephen taught at Essex’s Philosophy department during my time in the mid-1990s; he lectured in an always clear and exhilirating manner, free from the ego-dramatics that consumed Mark Sacks [...]
We were asked to each bring an object to class the following day. I brought a three-pin plug. This was placed with other objects on a table, from which we selected an item. I chose this. The lesson I learnt was that we could write about anything – if we tried! the piece: There at [...]
