Nothing has changed

As Obama becomes Bush III, we hear more "stay the course" rhetoric for fighting a useless war.
More Americans die in a country that not even Alexander the Great could subjugate.
The British tried.
The Russians tried.
It seems everyone has tried.
Only the Taliban has succeeded. And that was even a nominal success.

30,000 more troops sent to control an uncontrollable situation, started in the heat of the moment at everyone's behest. But rather than filling people with dread, they heard the words Afghanistan, Taliban, Al Qaeda, and War, and immediately thought that the American war machine could do anything it wanted to.
8 years later we slog on.
It didn't even take us this long to subjugate Germany. Twice.

And then there was this:

"For our values are not simply words written into parchment - they are a creed that calls us together, and that has carried us through the darkest of storms as one nation, one people."


The speech writer should be fired for that.  All that was missing was "one leader." I shudder to think what would have happened there...

Whatever happened to the anti-war

Every year the stickers go up and the posters, too,
Calling for a march on Washington!
Calling for and end to the war.
"Not in our name" they always said.
But now they're gone.
Does the President in their name now mean the war is in their name, too?
Still humans are dying half-way 'round the world fighting a war they have no business fighting.
What about the promises?
What about putting an end to it quickly?
And by quickly, not just moving soldiers from one corner of the Middle East to the other.
Reductions in Iraq lead to buildup in Afghanistan
Still soldiers are dying.

And now to honour the man who perpetrates this with a peace prize?
Where's the peace? And what peace are we talking about?
People still die in Iraq.
People still die in Afghanistan.
People still die in Darfur.
People still die in Israel.
People still die in Palestine.
People still die around the world.

It seems that words have replaced action.
And intentions have replaced deeds.
Combine these with a cult of personality and
that's enough for some.

Give the peace prize to someone working on actual peace.

Bowie in berlin - subgrav in New York

Bowie
Emo
Fripp
is that Iggy
looking tall and drawn?
Low and Heroes
brings me back to the beginning
when music was simple
and different
and odd

Has New York ever been like Berlin?
Not likely.
But then again, Berlin is not like Berlin either.
With the wall gone, what physical scar inspires the psychological
or the aesthetic?

Save me from McDonalds in the Hauptbahnhof!

Rulers in rehab

Stalin a hero?

What's next?

Mussolini a patriot?

Hitler a good guy?

Forbid it!

History filled with despots who claim absolute power

and corrupt themselves absolutely.

Yes, each one leaves a legacy of something,

somewhat,

remotely,

plausibly

positive (?)

...dare we say?

But the blood of the victims washes the deeds away.

And the deeds of selfish power-hunger

eats them to the bone.

Every one of us is capable of

....falling

...into the trap!

of abandoning self for a greater cause

or a greater ruler.

We love our heroes

and overlook their flaws.

On both sides of the spectrum, too.

Just look at the US elections of 2008.

or 2004,

or 2000,

1996,

1992,

1988 (well, maybe not this one)

But infidelity and stupidity are not cold blooded murder and hatred.

And Stalin's image in rehab is worse

...much worse

and a dangerous sign of things to come.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/14/stalin-grandson-court-fight

Enough...

Rhetoric rules the day

as both sides hurl accusations of

fear mongering…

over-emotionalism…

lies…

ignorance…

across the aisle.

Yet little time is put on true debate.

And less, even, on intellectual honesty.

How can you support liberty and freedom and necessitate participation?

Or claim to be compassionate and let the unfortunate suffer?

Tabula rasa

Wipe it clean and start again.

Twelve people - four months - one room.

Like "Twelve Angry Men" = let them work out their

frustrations

prejudices

emotionalism

narrow-mindedness

and get on with a plan that could actually work.

:::::::::::

Noisy commuters

Clickety clack, click clack, click click

The keyboards pound away at furious tempos.

Whilst

Thump thump, zwiiiiuuuuuung, thump

goes the classic rock on the middle-aged, balding man's iPod.

A little air-drumming to show the young commuter in the short dress that he still "has it."

She's engrossed in her Oprah Book Club selection, blissfully oblivious until

[insert the dulcet tones of an incessantly bad "island beat" ring tone]

bla bla bla bla bla and then I told him bla bla bla

spoken in a conspiratorially loud whisper so that everyone can hear.

Is there no end to this cacophonous nightmare?

At least someone in Australia may have the right idea:

http://tinyurl.com/ll8mr4

Frustrating living

Coke - the real thing (real what?)

Budweiser - the king of beers (where? in suburbia? The Czech brewmasters surely will argue)

Avis - we try harder (do you really?)

BMW - the ultimate driving machine (superior, perhaps, but ultimate?)

We could go on. slogans make people feel good - a sense of comfort and belonging - dare we say complacency. But what ends when the slogans are stripped away? Business as usual, I'm afraid.

The Orb

Mellow moments fill my mind as the Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld trickle out of the speakers. A good Monday, if there can be one.

It was a good weekend, as well, with warm but not entirely unpleasant weather. I met some old friends at a tapas bar and discovered that the lure of the suburban life - the normal American dream - has an inescapable pull on almost everyone. Even those who, as young people, placed themselves outside the norm now find themselves driving to peewee baseball matches with their toddlers. But maybe the stereo continues to play subversive music - some Thrill Kill Kult, perhaps? - while the car rolls toward a date with destiny.

A new entry

Mellow beats and bleeps pour out from the speakers. A quiet day, waiting for the storm to come. Maybe from outside? It is looking dark and gloomy. More likely inside - comments from clients are lurking behind every ring of the phone and behind every ding of incoming email.

We wait with anticipation at the forthcoming news. Will we have a weekend free of worry about our concepts? Which will they choose, or which will they modify beyond the scope of that which is considered good creative?

Back to the music: Global Communication's 14 31, a brilliant composition, both melancholy and uplifting at the same time. A true masterpiece of the ambient chill scene. I highly recommend you buy the entire album now! I'd give you an iTunes link, but sadly it is not there.

And a final word on the design: still coming, so please be patient. I've yet to devote the time needed to make this page look presentable, so please excuse the untidy mess for the time being.