Friday, May 23
Well I started last post by saying we'd had a few days of contrasting but symmetrical experience. Then I totally failed to explain how. It was to do with the fact that it involved the two most shamanistically bombarded individuals we have ever met and their different paths & coping strategies. Once you've had your helmet cracked & experienced just how arbitrary the nature of our interpretive selves can be, it's just a question of getting on with trying to find out just what human behaviour to take seriously.
Well I got a glass guardian angel from our friend Linda, and MV brought me a space pen. Due to its' pressurised cartridge, this implement will allow its thixotropic ink (what mean?) to write under water, over grease, at 200 to minus20 degrees and in zero gravity. It also makes a good pokey instrument for cigarette type tubes! This was because for the next fortnight I am numerically 3 times older than my son, but who knows how old he really is in "soul group round the block terms"?
Saw the first Matrix again last night, what with all the hoo-haa about the new one. It struck me that it's about everything and nothing. I agree with Ben that its' philosophical thrusts were compromised by way too much over the top gratuitous special effects type violence. What I couldn't decide was which reality side to be on. Within the matrix, humanity having fucked over the planet, was safely stacked as batteries to power their own right-wing American urban culture, which is to be expected from any Hollywood product! Outside the matrix, the escapees lived a life of "free will" involving terror, immanent demise, keyboards & screens, not to mention being fuelled by some semen\semolina gruel (as opposed to juicy venison from virtual deer which I would have no compunction eating!). But at least these lives had the warmth of the analogue about them! I just didn't know whose side I was on. Hollywood is getting very good at producing mind fodder that is about everything & nothing.
I don't know how to enter hyper text links yet, but if you type the following into Google you will find one of many roads toward the true enemy. "American Enterprise Institute" or "Project for the new American Century".
Hopefully this is a corrected form of yesterdays post.....
Well I got a glass guardian angel from our friend Linda, and MV brought me a space pen. Due to its' pressurised cartridge, this implement will allow its thixotropic ink (what mean?) to write under water, over grease, at 200 to minus20 degrees and in zero gravity. It also makes a good pokey instrument for cigarette type tubes! This was because for the next fortnight I am numerically 3 times older than my son, but who knows how old he really is in "soul group round the block terms"?
Saw the first Matrix again last night, what with all the hoo-haa about the new one. It struck me that it's about everything and nothing. I agree with Ben that its' philosophical thrusts were compromised by way too much over the top gratuitous special effects type violence. What I couldn't decide was which reality side to be on. Within the matrix, humanity having fucked over the planet, was safely stacked as batteries to power their own right-wing American urban culture, which is to be expected from any Hollywood product! Outside the matrix, the escapees lived a life of "free will" involving terror, immanent demise, keyboards & screens, not to mention being fuelled by some semen\semolina gruel (as opposed to juicy venison from virtual deer which I would have no compunction eating!). But at least these lives had the warmth of the analogue about them! I just didn't know whose side I was on. Hollywood is getting very good at producing mind fodder that is about everything & nothing.
I don't know how to enter hyper text links yet, but if you type the following into Google you will find one of many roads toward the true enemy. "American Enterprise Institute" or "Project for the new American Century".
Hopefully this is a corrected form of yesterdays post.....
Thursday, May 22
I started the below entry by pasting from "WORD", and then discovered that it decided that many punctuation points should be changed into question marks. I then corrected on my Blogger page, but no change to "Shit the Art Gallery", so I tried to delete the below post. The lower half of the page assured me that I had, but the beast refused to budge. Apologies. technophobia grows apace. I will talk about what really happened to Hitler another time if I pluck up the courage! Peace in our time.
Tuesday, May 20
We start this blog after three days of contrasting but somewhat symmetrical experience. On Saturday we went up into the wilds of Wooly County to visit “A” an old friend who has been deemed psychiatrically challenged by the Brain Police.
He has been diagnosed schizophrenic, said diagnosis updated to Acid Psychosis, whew! What a relief. “A” is partnered by “B”, she is diagnosed Manic Depressive and together with 2 Alsatians she is the leader of the pack. It is part of B’s psychopathology that she avoids contact with the world of humans as much as possible. This she achieves by living in a remote place with “A” and her two territorially confused dogs. She shifts her attention and concern from one of the dogs to the other and then “A”. The resulting dynamic is that the dogs can’t stand each other as they are always in competition for her attention. “A” just tries to keep a low profile.
“B” is away visiting relatives, and thus we became the only people to have come to stay the night in their cottage, 20 feet below the surface of a reservoir at the base of the dam wall. We arrived, after a peaceful & spacious journey, to incredibly loud barking from the dogs “C & D”. Since C & D fight each other they are usually only allowed out of their “beds”, which consist of cages made of strong fireguard wire, separately. When we arrived they were both caged. The unholy racket halved after 5 minutes when dog C settled down. This however served to make dog D more enthusiastically infuriated at our intrusion on their space. “A” stuck John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” on the turntable, but dog D didn’t.
We expected, as we quietly sat there posing no threat to the dogs, that D would settle down. After 16 tracks of the John Lennon collection this had not happened. D was now biologically compromised. Foaming at the mouth, baring all her teeth in a snarl, she had to take barking breaks as she was panting faster than we have ever heard any dog do. We discovered that as long as we neither moved nor spoke in her hyper- intense aggressive presence, she would remain quiet. Thus began our weekend of the tyranny of the reservoir dogs!
Never have we seen a house so given over to Dogkind. Before leaving, pack leader “B” had left notices of instruction over all walls of the house for poor “A” to follow. These were to be carried out with religious fervour, and concerned the dogs’ welfare. Only let them out one at a time; feeding instructions; medical instructions should they come down with an encyclopaedia of possible doggy diseases; keep doors & windows shut etc. The walls and shelves had no pictures of humans or landscapes, just pictures of Alsatians! “A” is not a simpleton but is treated as a specialised member of her pack.
“A” has two coping strategies which he reveals to few people and they began to make perfect sense to us.
1. He affirms that the U.F.O’s will be arriving soon to take him away. This is OK by him as he has met the King of the galaxy, and is promised to one of his daughters. She is very beautiful, it goes without saying.
2. He plans money making ventures which always involve travel to Morocco and points east in a transit van, as he has lived this life in the past, and is full of Rudyard Kipling type stories for the hippy generation.
We must stress how much we love A; he is a gentleman and a man of peace. His life needs are minimal and apart from occasionally hitting policemen & prison guards, (mostly in his mind as he is all of 8 stones in weight!) has never been heard to speak ill of anyone he meets. We just never realised how severe his life circumstances were until this point.
As we sat looking out of his kitchen window at the days dying light, lined up on a bench like the three wise monkeys, neither speaking nor moving save to pass the biff back & forth, in case D should detect our presence through the serving hatch and get upset again, an ocean of thoughts went through our heads concerning the dynamics of our circumstances. A random selection follows:-
We felt humbled & privileged to be invited into this strange personal world. Normally we only see “A” in Newcastle during his once a fortnight escape to visit his mum (80yrs old) & friends. We felt that we were undergoing some strict Zen training that the universe had brought to our attention, how could we both be, yet not be, present! How much pack leader “B” had turned into a dog, and the powerful werewolf magic that this had engendered. How this strategy was part of a plan to let two dogs and one human cope with her mental illness. How, even in her absence she attempted to be in total, unremitting control of the situation. “A” was not to leave the dogs for longer than the 2 hours it took to get to the nearest town for provisions, and was under NO circumstances to have any friends visit. She phoned in once a day and the house fell silent as even the dogs recognised her presence in the weird magic box.
We arrived home on Sunday to immediately strip and shower, whilst putting our clothes in the washer, as the density of dog hairs in the house was astounding; the constant agitation of dog D resulted in an atmosphere of floating dog hair in one room!
O Monday I spent a very pleasant day in the company of Mike V in the afternoon, he was teasing me mercilessly for professing to be “highly intelligent” in the area of human dynamic interactions. I do take his point, whatever our life skills may be; it never does to start thinking of oneself in those kind of terms.
Then Ronan & Becky arrived, two people whom we secretly perceive of being highly intelligent! The state of the modern education system is a constant source of pain and amusement to both, and for me the ability to be amused by the painful is a sign of said intelligence. Then Big Dave came following his first day back at work after tearing his neck muscles. He was singing the praises of that old codeine. Then Nick arrived to set up this blog for us. I thank him greatly for this. He does not seem to recognise his importance as centre of our local blogverse, and it amazes me that he never seems to find his duties as Blogmeister General, in any way onerous. All praise to Nick!
My evening concluded with a visit from the Owl & Owlette, both of whom I, in my arrogance, deem to be capable of high intelligence! Owl in particular can hit my sense of humour spot bigtime!
Meanwhile Jan went with an old friend (who has recently escaped from Bushes’ America with her husband and son) to see MM and wife. They had not seen each other for about 30 years. MM used to be almost a guru figure in the 60’s local musician & hippy mythos. He first encountered LSD when it was still a legal drug and became a sort of Alpert/Leary figure. I’m glad that I knew him, as he taught me to treat the above as a sacrament. This was too powerful an experience to treat recreationally. MM however, I feel, fell on hard times during the 80’s, and his constant questing for a relationship with the divine brought him to Jesus (who shall be known as Yshua), and now back to square one, which in his case is Judaism. I hope that he finds peace in the full circle of his journey. Even as a little boy, he was always going to be a rabbi!
I can assure any of our blog readers that this will be an uncharacteristically long blog entry, so please don’t assume it will always be this much heavy weather; it’s all been an accident of timing! As has most of our lives!
He has been diagnosed schizophrenic, said diagnosis updated to Acid Psychosis, whew! What a relief. “A” is partnered by “B”, she is diagnosed Manic Depressive and together with 2 Alsatians she is the leader of the pack. It is part of B’s psychopathology that she avoids contact with the world of humans as much as possible. This she achieves by living in a remote place with “A” and her two territorially confused dogs. She shifts her attention and concern from one of the dogs to the other and then “A”. The resulting dynamic is that the dogs can’t stand each other as they are always in competition for her attention. “A” just tries to keep a low profile.
“B” is away visiting relatives, and thus we became the only people to have come to stay the night in their cottage, 20 feet below the surface of a reservoir at the base of the dam wall. We arrived, after a peaceful & spacious journey, to incredibly loud barking from the dogs “C & D”. Since C & D fight each other they are usually only allowed out of their “beds”, which consist of cages made of strong fireguard wire, separately. When we arrived they were both caged. The unholy racket halved after 5 minutes when dog C settled down. This however served to make dog D more enthusiastically infuriated at our intrusion on their space. “A” stuck John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” on the turntable, but dog D didn’t.
We expected, as we quietly sat there posing no threat to the dogs, that D would settle down. After 16 tracks of the John Lennon collection this had not happened. D was now biologically compromised. Foaming at the mouth, baring all her teeth in a snarl, she had to take barking breaks as she was panting faster than we have ever heard any dog do. We discovered that as long as we neither moved nor spoke in her hyper- intense aggressive presence, she would remain quiet. Thus began our weekend of the tyranny of the reservoir dogs!
Never have we seen a house so given over to Dogkind. Before leaving, pack leader “B” had left notices of instruction over all walls of the house for poor “A” to follow. These were to be carried out with religious fervour, and concerned the dogs’ welfare. Only let them out one at a time; feeding instructions; medical instructions should they come down with an encyclopaedia of possible doggy diseases; keep doors & windows shut etc. The walls and shelves had no pictures of humans or landscapes, just pictures of Alsatians! “A” is not a simpleton but is treated as a specialised member of her pack.
“A” has two coping strategies which he reveals to few people and they began to make perfect sense to us.
1. He affirms that the U.F.O’s will be arriving soon to take him away. This is OK by him as he has met the King of the galaxy, and is promised to one of his daughters. She is very beautiful, it goes without saying.
2. He plans money making ventures which always involve travel to Morocco and points east in a transit van, as he has lived this life in the past, and is full of Rudyard Kipling type stories for the hippy generation.
We must stress how much we love A; he is a gentleman and a man of peace. His life needs are minimal and apart from occasionally hitting policemen & prison guards, (mostly in his mind as he is all of 8 stones in weight!) has never been heard to speak ill of anyone he meets. We just never realised how severe his life circumstances were until this point.
As we sat looking out of his kitchen window at the days dying light, lined up on a bench like the three wise monkeys, neither speaking nor moving save to pass the biff back & forth, in case D should detect our presence through the serving hatch and get upset again, an ocean of thoughts went through our heads concerning the dynamics of our circumstances. A random selection follows:-
We felt humbled & privileged to be invited into this strange personal world. Normally we only see “A” in Newcastle during his once a fortnight escape to visit his mum (80yrs old) & friends. We felt that we were undergoing some strict Zen training that the universe had brought to our attention, how could we both be, yet not be, present! How much pack leader “B” had turned into a dog, and the powerful werewolf magic that this had engendered. How this strategy was part of a plan to let two dogs and one human cope with her mental illness. How, even in her absence she attempted to be in total, unremitting control of the situation. “A” was not to leave the dogs for longer than the 2 hours it took to get to the nearest town for provisions, and was under NO circumstances to have any friends visit. She phoned in once a day and the house fell silent as even the dogs recognised her presence in the weird magic box.
We arrived home on Sunday to immediately strip and shower, whilst putting our clothes in the washer, as the density of dog hairs in the house was astounding; the constant agitation of dog D resulted in an atmosphere of floating dog hair in one room!
O Monday I spent a very pleasant day in the company of Mike V in the afternoon, he was teasing me mercilessly for professing to be “highly intelligent” in the area of human dynamic interactions. I do take his point, whatever our life skills may be; it never does to start thinking of oneself in those kind of terms.
Then Ronan & Becky arrived, two people whom we secretly perceive of being highly intelligent! The state of the modern education system is a constant source of pain and amusement to both, and for me the ability to be amused by the painful is a sign of said intelligence. Then Big Dave came following his first day back at work after tearing his neck muscles. He was singing the praises of that old codeine. Then Nick arrived to set up this blog for us. I thank him greatly for this. He does not seem to recognise his importance as centre of our local blogverse, and it amazes me that he never seems to find his duties as Blogmeister General, in any way onerous. All praise to Nick!
My evening concluded with a visit from the Owl & Owlette, both of whom I, in my arrogance, deem to be capable of high intelligence! Owl in particular can hit my sense of humour spot bigtime!
Meanwhile Jan went with an old friend (who has recently escaped from Bushes’ America with her husband and son) to see MM and wife. They had not seen each other for about 30 years. MM used to be almost a guru figure in the 60’s local musician & hippy mythos. He first encountered LSD when it was still a legal drug and became a sort of Alpert/Leary figure. I’m glad that I knew him, as he taught me to treat the above as a sacrament. This was too powerful an experience to treat recreationally. MM however, I feel, fell on hard times during the 80’s, and his constant questing for a relationship with the divine brought him to Jesus (who shall be known as Yshua), and now back to square one, which in his case is Judaism. I hope that he finds peace in the full circle of his journey. Even as a little boy, he was always going to be a rabbi!
I can assure any of our blog readers that this will be an uncharacteristically long blog entry, so please don’t assume it will always be this much heavy weather; it’s all been an accident of timing! As has most of our lives!
