Thought for the day- imagine a competitor in the Olympics, World Cup, Wimbledon etc…being asked ‘So you must be very proud to be representing Team GB (pick country) at this prestigious event?’ and replying ‘Well actually I’m not particularly patriotic. I tend to see my country of origin more as a geographical accident than anything …
Big sporting event= presumed nationalism and pride Read More »
‘War Is A Racket’ was written in 1935 by Major Smedley Darlington Butler. A racket is defined by the Oxford English dictionary as ‘an illegal or dishonest scheme for obtaining money’. The word is most commonly used when describing a protection racket, as run by the Mafia. Smedley Darlington Butler was born in Westchester, Pennsylvania …
In a remote mountain village, the head of the village died and leadership was passed onto his son. Now the people had lived for many years under the control of a huge monster who loomed like a huge shadow over the village. Whenever anyone tried to find freedom, this large shadow appeared with a loud …
What is the 4-letter word that rules the world?? (traditional story) Read More »
(written in 2015) I’ve recently had the good fortune to become part of the musical community of Madrid and to encounter a group of fun, interesting and creative people. Like me, they appear to be curious, sensitive, restless and occasionally troubled souls, searching for the elusive and using performance as a way to simultaneously attempt …
Creativity, Communal Experience and Mental Health Read More »
(some of the content of this post, outside the introduction and conclusion, regarding advertising techniques and solutions is adapted from a you tube video by Edward J Harshman, but passages expressing opinions and giving comments on the bigger picture outside advertising are my own.) Advertising in its infancy was simply designed to make people …
It has recently (re)occurred to me that society and its people are held together by drugs, if you take this in a fairly broad sense. The word itself has always been used in mainstream life to refer to the illegal kind, while the medical establishment prefers to use the word ‘medication’ or ‘medicine’ to describe …
(written in 2014) This is an examination of a weaponised piece of language which has a profound effect on how important criminal events and behaviour are viewed. In fact, it is the bane of an entire movement, called variously ‘the alternative movement’ or ‘the alternative media’. INTRODUCTION Two friends, who we’ll call James and Bill, …
Sources: A Night To Remember by Walter Lord (book) On A Sea of Glass by Tad Fitch, J. Kent Layton & Bill Wormstedt Titanic: Death of a Dream, The Legend Lives On (documentaries) Wikipedia Various survivor testimonies In 1898 American writer Morgan Robertson brought out a book called Futility, which detailed the plight of an …
Legends And Folly: The Remarkable Story of R.M.S. Titanic Read More »
Parent to their teenage child: ‘Now son/daughter, let’s do a little cost-benefit analysis of smoking in case you’re thinking of taking it up as your new hobby like your friends. Costs- a cigarette is tobacco leaves (which are held sacred in their natural state in many ancient tribes and used in rituals) wrapped in paper …
This story was written by Louis Even and brilliantly explains in a simple way the insanity of the money system. The following is a summary of the story’s narrative with my own comments in bold. It should be noted that until widespread attention was given to this subject via the Internet, and possibly still even …
This is not a formal review as such but just a few thoughts on a valuable book which makes telling observations on the underclass (and sometimes merely the unlucky) of society. This book was published in 1933 and is apparently based on Orwell’s real experiences living on the edge of poverty in Paris and London. …
Reflections on ‘Down And Out In Paris And London’ Read More »
Please note – this post presumes that the endurance feats described did actually happen and were not fundamentally an illusion themselves, and also does not comment on the moral aspects of an unnecessary starvation for no particular cause or officially-stated reason. If this is a problem, I suggest thinking of it as a story …
The Many Sides of David Blaine’s ‘Above The Below’ Read More »
Bullfighting (‘corrida de toros’ in Spanish) is alternatively a ‘blood sport’, ‘barbaric spectacle’, ‘fine art’ or ‘culturally important tradition’ which has existed since at least the 4th century and very possibly for many centuries previous to that. Its continuous existence was largely unopposed until recently, but in just the last 15 years polls have seen …
notes from ‘War By Other Means’, a film by Australian journalist John Pilger, made in 1991 and released in 1992, with additional observations by this author in bold. Although the film is over 20 years ago, the problem that it addresses is if anything worse than it was then, and the general information it provides …