Who's Side Are You On?

I don't think the U.S. is really on anyone's side except its own anymore (if they ever did at all).

Bash! Bam! Kapow! Splurt!

You'll never look at comics the same way again.

Dream 7

Fear of a black planet.

Then I wake.

The Ultimate Police State

"In a sense, we’re policing ourselves and that’s the ultimate police state, where people are terrified of challenge."

J.G. Ballard from an interview in the summer of 1997.

Communication Breakdown

Although I love Led Zepelin, at one time the soundtrack to lust, actually finding out about this stuff kind of puts a little damper on things. Not much really, but enough. Ah, I'm just naive.

A list of some of the songs Zep stole from other artists:

"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" - A folk song by Anne Bredon, this was originally credited as "traditional, arranged by Jimmy Page," then "words and music by Jimmy Page," and then, following legal action, "Bredon/Page/Plant."

"Black Mountain Side" - uncredited version of a traditional folk tune previously recorded by Bert Jansch.

"Bring It On Home" - the first section is an uncredited cover of the Willie Dixon
tune (as performed by the imposter Sonny Boy Williamson).

"Communication Breakdown" - apparently derived from Eddie Cochran's "Nervous
Breakdown."

"Custard Pie" - uncredited cover of Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On Down," with lyrics
from Sleepy John Estes's "Drop Down Daddy."

"Dazed And Confused" - uncredited cover of the Jake Holmes song (see The Above
Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes).

"Hats Off To (Roy) Harper" - uncredited version of Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On
Down."

"How Many More Times" - Part one is an uncredited cover of the Howlin' Wolf song available on numerous compilations). Part two is an uncredited cover of Albert King's "The Hunter."

"In My Time Of Dying" - uncredited cover of the traditional song (as heard on Bob Dylan's debut).

"The Lemon Song" - uncredited cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" - Wolf's publisher sued Zeppelin in the early 70s and settled out of court.

"Moby Dick" - written and first recorded by Sleepy John Estes under the title "The Girl I Love," and later covered by Bobby Parker.

"Nobody's Fault But Mine" - uncredited cover of the Blind Willie Johnson blues.

"Since I've Been Lovin' You" - lyrics are the same as Moby Grape's "Never," though the music isn't similar.

"Stairway To Heaven" - the main guitar line is apparently from "Taurus" by Spirit.

"White Summer" - uncredited cover of Davey Graham's "She Moved Through The Fair."

"Whole Lotta Love" - lyrics are from the Willie Dixon blues "You Need Love."

I'm not listing covers that the band credited to the actual authors ("You Shook Me") or the less blatant ripoffs (the "Superstition" riff in "Trampled Underfoot").

Delta Of Venus

The other strange thing I've found in my travels through the blogosphere is the amount of sex blogs. You know the ones. Where bored housewives write about secret dirty encounters and bored husbands post nude photos of themselves. They're almost as scary as the hot christian chicks. But not quite.

Food Of The Gods

Just one word today: Chocolate. It's been that kind of day.

Dream 6

I'm in a Vietnamese restaurant. I'm the only non-Asian in there and I'm ordering food for take-out. Everyone is eyeing me threateningly, with avarice. The staff and patrons are looking at me with open hostility. I try to avoid eyes and concentrate on the artwork on the walls but look around very often. The food seems to be taking too long. I am feeling very paranoid and afraid. As I look around, one very beautiful girl seems to be less angry with me. But as I stare at her a little longer, I feel as if she is attempting to lull me and then put a spike through my heart. I wake.

Hot Chicks

Following up on an earlier blog, during my travels through the blogosphere I can't help but notice how many of these new-born/new-found Christian chicks are really hot...I mean, it is a far greater percentage than that of the goth chicks or sensitive poetry chicks or new soccer mom chicks. Anyway, I just found it curious is all.

Notice: If you found the above message offensive, please note that the message says more about it's utterer than it's subject. And it also says more about the offended person than the subject represented. In fact, it says almost nothing at all about it's subject. This is a reality that most of us are unable to comprehend. And if we could, there'd be lots less self-righteous anger and violence around.

Fault

Three ways to discover our faults: ask a friend; ask an enemy; recognise a fault in others.

Robert Fripp

Music Of The Spheres

Music, music, music. If only I had the talent I would be playing some weird combination of Crimson, GYBE, David Sylvian, Shakti, The Hip and Zeppelin with a hint of interstellar space or maybe early Tangerine Dream and a dash of Miles. I think I need to get me a keyboard and just start creating sounds.

An Uncommon Affliction

“…they were very cheerful and friendly and I avoided them strenuously.”

An Unexpected Light - Travels In Afghanistan by Jason Elliot, Picador, London, 1999 - page 394.

An uncommon affliction. I seem to do the same, preferring even more so to be by myself most of the time. Or at least to be in silence even while next to someone. “I’m not afraid of your silences,” she said to me and I fell in love and married her.

The Story So Far

“…a journey was a kind of story in itself, providing one had the will to read it, just as a story too could be a journey, providing one had the experience to bring to it, and both found their mark differently in different people.”

An Unexpected Light - Travels In Afghanistan by Jason Elliot, Picador, London, 1999 - page 290.

The Self Made Man

“He is not concerned with acquiring powers but of uncovering something already within.”

Jason Elliot on a Sufi. An Unexpected Light - Travels In Afghanistan by Jason Elliot, Picador, London, 1999 - page 270.

Guitarzan

Robert Fripp was born today (in 1946 I think).

I thank his parents (both natural and spiritual) for his music and his writings.

Happy Brithday!

Enriched

I had a conversation recently with a colleague on bringing value to our lives that doesn’t involve enriching our employer to our own psychic detriment.

Couldn't be done, we concluded.

And there, we just did it.

Just Let Go

“Always there is this kind of suspense on a journey where you are both isolated and robbed of your own language. Under such conditions the means by which you make sense of things begins to be transformed; you can no longer rely on familiar signals but a cryptic sequence of tiny events, the pattern of which you sense more keenly as your isolation grows. It leads to a kind of parting of the ways; you either let go of your worries and put your faith in the natural unfolding of events or are plagued with anxieties which multiply as darkness falls.”

An Unexpected Light - Travels In Afghanistan by Jason Elliot, Picador, London, 1999 - page 191.

Just let go.

Lose The Habit

"In ordinary life you know yourself from your surroundings, which become the measure and the mirror of your thoughts and actions. Remove the familiar and you are left with a stranger, the disembodied voice of one's own self which, robbed of its usual habits, seems barely recognizable."

An Unexpected Light - Travels In Afghanistan by Jason Elliot, Picador, London, 1999 - page 144.

We gain and gather these habits over a lifetime and from our ancestors, and do not even realize it. Lose the habits and find yourself.

...trust in the spirit of the journey...

"...trust in the spirit of the journey..."

An Unexpected Light - Travels In Afghanistan by Jason Elliot, Picador, London, 1999 - page 80.

Sometimes you just have to let go and start walking.

Won't You Help Me Sing

Bob Marley died this day in 1981.

The impressive influence of his music reached even my extremely northern and very cold high-school, about as far removed from the beaches of Jamaica (in a sense, as was Marley as well) as you could possibly get. That power, careening around and through the atmosphere or at least our hearts, must do something...

Limits

"Ah", he replied solemnly, as if I had hit on a notion of importance. Then he lit a cigarette, and a coil of smoke spiralled upwards before his face. "If a man does not reach his limit," he pronounced, a flicker of enquiry surfacing into his eyes as if released from a great depth, "how can he discover the way to go beyond it?"

An Unexpected Light - Travels In Afghanistan by Jason Elliot, Picador, London, 1999 - page 72.

Sometimes I read passages such as this and it makes me want to give up writing forever. Luckily I only stop for a short while.

Staring

"...the faint sense of trespass implicit in the act of staring..."

An Unexpected Light - Travels In Afghanistan by Jason Elliot, Picador, London, 1999 - page 4.

This was my own reaction to the veiled women of Syria and the strangers on the subway in Canada. No matter the goodwill intent behind the staring, it is still intentionally rude.

Journeys Part 2

" I had in mind a quietly epic sort of journey..."

An Unexpected Light - Travels In Afghanistan by Jason Elliot, Picador, London, 1999 - page 17.

Mine are all like that too. At least...in my mind...

Journeys

"...journeys are sparked from small and unlikely things rather than grand conviction."

An Unexpected Light - Travels In Afghanistan by Jason Elliot, Picador, London, 1999 - page 4.

Could be true. A tale of lost love, a story about a street or river, a wall or mountain. A brief passage in a book such as...'When James left Ulan Bator, the winds had turned the skies pink'. The reader then wonders, why is the sky pink in Ulan Bator? I'd like to see this for myself. And off they go...

Moving Day

I was thinking today that government policy has made it far easier to move capital and goods (including drugs and money from drugs) than to move people between countries. What does that tell us about what is important to governments.

I Feel Good

James Brown was born today May 3rd. Get the funk out!

Cheating

Thoughts on cheating:














Yeah, as if!!!

Time Dilation

It was 100 years ago this year that Einstein published his theory of special relativity. One of the consequences of this theory is that as you get closer to moving at the speed of light, time slows down. This is also known as time dilation.

I once had a conversation with my spouse about time seeming to be going much faster for us since the children were born. It really does seem to go faster because, ironically, we're not taking the time to enjoy the time.

I;ve said it before and I'll probably go on saying it. In fact many, many others far cleverer than I have said it as well and in far superior ways. Live in the present moment. Make each second pass as though it were your last second and I guarantee you that time will slow down until it seems like forever. No need for a special spaceship.