Peace Frog

You know,

I have come to enjoi this -

the silence...


Nothing but the frogs calling
at the end of a sullen grey day...

'Twas like this at Joe's Place in Nara
when I visited in June

'Twas like this in Hakata
where I lived in '94...

The kairu, the traffic, the voices, the still night;

the peace...

I wanna walk out on the balcony
& see the tambo stretch before me...


Peace

and

frogs

in this beautiful night


enjoi


lerevdr on Wed 30-Nov-2005 @ 21:45 e.s.t [permalink]
[Care to comment on this article?]

 Distractions

I have, of late,

been somewhat distracted...


I am in the middle of things


and, as much as I am prepared for & resigned to the oncoming deluge,

I anticipate its denoument

and really look forward to
the subsequent cuddling & snoozing...

and the smug sense of fulfillment that it brings...


SO,

now, when I'm 'round 'bout aphelion,
I read 43 Folders -
to see How Other People Get Things Done

and, since The Luvverly Interweb
is nowt but a serendipity/synchronicity device

I find Mr Paul Ford -
proprietor of Ftrain, perpetreur

and (pro-Amish but non-Luddite) Man Who Gets Things Done!


more below - on the New! Working! Link!


lerevdr on Wed 30-Nov-2005 @ 00:57 e.s.t [Click here for more SALVATION]
[Care to comment on this article?]

 Things are Looking Up!

It is rumoured that there is an ancient Chinese curse:

May you live in interesting times


Waal, I certainly do.

This So-called Life

Lurches from Crisis to Crisis ™


However,

things have, of late,
been looking up.

The shiny, new, sexy, black interweb device
is consuming almost all of my time -
and I am discovering all manner of wonderful things!

The thing that has really cheered me up, though,
is my new fridge!

Somewhat smaller & rather more 60's, heavy and filthy than the last one,
it is, nonetheless, a source of quiet joi.


Life, it appears,

is getting better...



THANK YOU, GENTLEMEN!

lerevdr on Mon 28-Nov-2005 @ 21:16 e.s.t [permalink]
[Care to comment on this article?]

 The Rise of Middle East Crime in Australia

I remain unsure, Parishioners,

as to whether this article

continues the theme of


This Bird is Sinking

or

Racism


This is serious now,

you decide

Some quotes:

I BELIEVE that the rise of Middle Eastern organised crime in Sydney will have an impact on society unlike anything we have ever seen.

The police were either too scared or too lazy to do anything about it.

IT WAS ABOUT 1995 to 1996 that the emergence of Middle Eastern crime groups was first observed in New South Wales.

When the Middle Eastern crime groups emerged in the mid -to -late 1990s no alarms were set off. The Crime Intelligence unit was asleep. I know personally that operational police in south -west Sydney compiled enormous amounts of good intelligence on the formation of Lebanese groups such as the Telopea Street Boys and others in the Campsie, Lakemba, Fairfield and Punchbowl areas. The inactivity could not have been because the intelligence reports weren't interesting, because I have read many of them and from a policing perspective they were damning. Many of the offenders that you now see in major criminal trials or serving lengthy sentences in prison were identified back then.

The extent to which Middle Eastern crime gangs have moved into the drug market is breathtaking. They are now the main suppliers of cocaine in this city and are now developing markets in south-eastern Queensland and Victoria. They are major suppliers of heroin in and around the inner city, south-western Sydney and western Sydney.

The Middle Eastern crime groups and their associates number in the thousands, not the hundreds as the government and senior police would have you believe. It is the biggest crime problem we have ever faced, and it is growing. Hardly a day goes past without some violent crime involving a "male of Middle Eastern appearance ", though I see lately that description is watered down now to include "and / or Mediterranean appearance ". To an operational policeman, there is a noticeable difference between an Italian and a Lebanese male.

There is no investment in the future. It is about looking good day by day. The Peter Ryan-style policing of day-to-day media spin is still present. No one seems to have the courage to say that this is a problem that we need to fix before it gets worse. The time when the Middle Eastern problem really takes root in this city, the point from which there is no return, just like Los Angeles, is but a few years away. The leaders of our government probably hope this will be another government's fault and that they won't be around to see their legacy. Maybe we should all buy a property in southern New Zealand.

THAT

is fucking *frightening*

I don't want that to happen here!


the whole thing is below

or go here



lerevdr on Thu 24-Nov-2005 @ 22:07 e.s.t [Click here for more SALVATION]
[2 Comments]

 David Dundas

Whoda thunk it?!


Due to overwhelming interest

and, in the spirit of Thomas Aquinas,

we go deep into David Dundas

& find Some Interesting Things...



This is an almost straight transcription of stuff found on
The Luvvery Interweb.

We begin thusly:

Biography
David Paul Nicholas Dundas, born 2 June 1945 in Oxford, England, the son of the Marquess of Zetland, son of Lawrence Aldred Mervyn Dundas, the 3rd Marquess of Zetland (1908-1988) His brother, Lawrence Mark Dundas (born 1937) is the 4th and current Marquis.

Dundas' original vocation in life was as an actor, mainly playing minor roles on stage, television and film, at one point working alongside Judy Geeson and David Niven [goodness!] in Prudence And The Pill (1968).

Eschewing the actor's life, Dundas' claim to fame in the music world came when, as an advertising jingle writer, his work for the Brutus jeans advert on UK television spawned the hit single "Jeans On". The Dundas composition was fleshed out with help from Roger Greenaway, and released on the Air/Chrysalis label, eventually reaching number 3 in the UK charts in the summer of 1976. The tune also reached the US Top 20 in January the following year. His only other UK chart entry came in 1977 with "Another Funny Honeymoon" which reached number 29.

He released two, for the most part, unremarkable albums for Chrysalis before taking up a career as a composer.

His television and movie credits include How to Get Ahead in Advertising (for Bruce Robinson/HandMade Films), Sometime Never (for SelecTV), Dark City (for Film Africa/BBC), Sleepers (BBC), and Freddie as F.R.O.7 (BBC) He and Rick Wentworth co-wrote the score of Withnail and I (for Bruce Robinson /HandMade Films) In addition to collaborating with Greenaway and Wentworth, Dundas' "Jeans On" has also been covered by Andre Williams and sampled by Fatboy Slim.

Rock Discography
1977 David Dundas
1978 Vertical Hold

Film and TV
1982 Fourscore - music for the launch of Channel Four, still used over 10 years later
1983 Daybreak - Startup music for TV-am in the early years, also used as the theme to the hour-long early morning news programme of the same name (also on TV-am), initally presented by Robert Kee (There is an .rm copy here)
1987 Withnail and I original score
1989 Get Ready - for the rebranding of ITV by English Markell Pockett
1999 Another ITV rebranding, under the title Television from the heart for FutureBrand English & Pockett.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack for Withnail & I, while out of print now, was available on Silva Screen Records, Silva House, 261 Royal College Street, London NW1 9LU, England.

There is more on IMDB

and you can sing along - the lyrics are here


Withnail & I?

Waal, hell!

Now let's get ahold of the soundtrack - all assistance greatly appreciated!


Finally,

this looks uncannily like one of our Parishioners...




lerevdr on Wed 23-Nov-2005 @ 23:27 e.s.t [permalink]
[Care to comment on this article?]

 Fearless

I am, unashamedly,

A Man of God


AND

I maintain great respect for Scientists.


Today I learned this:

Gene turn-off makes meek mice fearless

Deactivating a specific gene transforms meek mice into daredevils, researchers have
found. The team believe the research might one day enable people suffering from fear - in the form of phobias or anxiety disorders, for example - to be clinically treated.

"This is a good sign for an eventual clinical application that could let people deal with their fears in an entirely different way," says geneticist Gleb Shumyatsky, at Rutgers University in New Jersey, US.

Waal,

I'm all for science & such,

but, to paraphrase those famous words, haven't we already got one?



This is all blurry & such but only cuz I shrank it.

The real thang is here

Go see Achewood - go see it every single day!


PS: stathmin is a stoopid name for a protein


lerevdr on Mon 21-Nov-2005 @ 21:52 e.s.t [permalink]
[Care to comment on this article?]

 Last Test?

Forgive me, Parishioners,

for the deluge of pings -

I have been trying to fix the site

and can't think of a way to check the Subscribe box

without using it on everyone.


Apologies,

please delete the chaff,

thank you in advance for your understanding.


But it works -

AND it validates!


lerevdr on Sun 20-Nov-2005 @ 22:29 e.s.t [permalink]
[Care to comment on this article?]

 Bertie Blackman

Brother D kindly loaned me a copy of the Bertie Blackman CD Headway.


WOW!


It begins with some shitty Missy Higgins me-too/bandwagon crap

but, in a few moments

we are transported!

YEA!

Favourite Jeans!

is, perhaps,

The Most Laid-back Rock Song EVER!

I bet it just GOES OFF live!


Put on your favourite jeans / you can take them all

Hell / you can do anything!


ALLRIGHT!



SO - here are some of my favourite jeans songs:

#1. no question - Adelita's lovely story. I too have been on the train with a mind-numbing headache

#2. David Dundas - who can forget the che che*? (Conspiracy Theory - is he the same DD that does the sound for The Glasshouse?)

#3. Kris/Janis - busted flat in Baton Rouge

#4. Cheer up, sleepy Jean doesn't count, nor does Jean Genie

Can you think of any more?



Now, to the album - see below



lerevdr on Sun 20-Nov-2005 @ 13:34 e.s.t [Click here for more SALVATION]
[One Lonely Comment]

 Racism

There has, of late,
been quite a bit of enthusiasm for

racial profiling,

stereotyping

and

flat out racism.



I Hate England by A.A. Gill
is an interesting take -

it wanders quite a lot

but makes some very interesting points.

I don't like the English. One at a time, I don't mind them. I've loved some of them. It's their collective persona I can't warm to: the lumpen and louty, coarse, unsubtle, beady-eyed, beefy-bummed herd of England.

Replace "English" with "Americans", "French" - any nation, really -

and it works - pretty much universally.



Now, here, replace "English" with "Australians"

and it pretty much sums up my feelings:

Although I live here among them and have done for virtually all my life, although I sound like them, I've never been one. Never thought of myself as one. After more than 50 years of rubbing up against the English I still resist assimilation. I don't stick out, but neither do I fit in. My heart doesn't syncopate to Land of Hope and Glory. I don't want three lions on my chest or the cross of St George on my windscreen.

The truth is — and perhaps this is a little unworthy, a bit shameful — I find England and the English embarrassing. Fundamentally toe-curlingly embarrassing. And even though I look like one, sound like one, can imitate the social/mating behaviour of one, I'm not one.

There are some great moments here:

...the caricature that the Scots make of the English... That snobbish, stuck-up, two-faced, emotionally retarded, dim, foot-in-mouth prat and his good lady.

...so dreadfully English. So impervious to fondness, sympathy or attraction.

English comedy is war by other means and it still is the actual last war...the purpose was bullying and ridicule. There was barely a laugh in England that wasn't at someone's expense...

The English are dulled to numbness by the constant resort to humour to deflate anything that might be painful or complicated.

The monkey noises at black players, the bellows of abuse at anyone who's admitted in passing that they read The Guardian; the relentless nailing of ugliness, of weakness, of foreignness. [my emphasis]


This country shares many of these faults.


The whole thing is below - I welcome your thoughts.


lerevdr on Fri 18-Nov-2005 @ 21:36 e.s.t [Click here for more SALVATION]
[One Lonely Comment]

 Pearls Before Swine

I must confess, Parishioners;

I must confess...


THAT image -

Joey's Girl with Pearls,

Teeth

and,


perhaps,


The Most Beautiful Chin Known To Christendom

has touched me profoundly.



It reduces me to tears -


tears o' joi I hope...



I have tried to figure out why -



could be this:










One of the saddest stories I have ever read;

I''m SO glad they changed the ending in the movie.



Here's that heartbreakingly nihilist plea Moon River


PS: here's a man who has led a strangely sheltered life for a writer:

Paul Varjak: I don't think I've ever drunk champagne before breakfast before. With breakfast on several occasions, but never before, before.


lerevdr on Thu 17-Nov-2005 @ 02:38 e.s.t [permalink]
[Care to comment on this article?]

 The Most Tasteful Mugger Ever

Parishioners,

we're back!


Brother Tann has provided a new server,

we have a new, sexy, rather expensive black box
(albeit *much* larger, faster & less noisesome)

and it is correct

that we open with an homage to A Softer World -

a site of beauty and imagination


that has, on occasion,

led me to tears...


Iidren, I give you




Also, Joey has a novella
(which should become a whole grown-up novel)

and you can get one!

"We've already got more than our share of gay Ghandi's.

We need a General Patton"

lerevdr on Tue 15-Nov-2005 @ 22:20 e.s.t [permalink]
[Care to comment on this article?]

 More Turkish Nanny

One Thousand Pardons, Parishioners,

for my neglect.

The computer

which I came to rely upon

and Love


went BANG!


I should be back next week...



In the interim,

here's something we prepared earlier:


A simple Google™ search on turkish nanny + melek gets this:


The number one hit is "23-year old Turkish Au Pair seeks AuPair job in United Kingdom"
It links here:


SALVATION doesn't get a cassock...

Hey, this was on toriamoscom.com (Official Tori Amos Site Forum Index???)

"Weirdest thing I've ever seen"

Yeah - why are people hanging shit on this?

It is FAR better than The Nanny -
Melek is dumb & pretty & sexy, Mr Omer is cool, Pertev the butler is funny;
even the wicked bitch Suzan is sexy!

There are a number of other links, such as IMDB
"Dadi" (2001) [TV-Series]
and I quote

"A Turkish remake of "The Nanny", one of the most successful sitcoms in US in 90's."

HA!

And remember - this is Turkey!

This is probably why England won't let the Turks into the EC...


lerevdr on Thu 03-Nov-2005 @ 00:20 e.s.t [permalink]
[One Lonely Comment]