Lazarus

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu was fantastic. An excellent film featuring character names including Virgil, (Doctor) Anghel and of course, Lazarescu. The two leads were great, especially Ion Fiscuteanu - you can see the fear in his eyes grow to sheer terror as he becomes incoherent, detached from the immediate world around him. Alas, it's a tale repeated all too often in reality.

It is rumoured to be the first of six films about Bucharest by the director, Cristi Puiu - a director to watch.

It rounded off a day of fine company, meeting Chapman (a lovely chap) in Holborn and then Mia in Soho. Shame I was babbling incoherently after too many dwinks. Something I will be repeating again this Friday at the CAMRA shindig for the Cistern Kid's birthday.

Yes, this post is incoherent. My energy levels have totally collapsed. I need to sleep. Ciao.

The life of 'e'

With Web 2.0 upon us, just what happened to 'e'?

Not attending: Brasil Brasileiro at Sadlers Wells this evening. I have stacks to do, and a very busy day in the City tomorrow - there is barely time to play with myself.

Damn the reviews!

On Monday evening, I hunkered down and read Da Bomb's comments (made early last year) on my first two years worth of poetry, spanning 2003-2004. Until now, all the poems have been kept in one MS Word document (it's a kind of motherlode of piss-poor poetry). The document is divided into four sections; ballads, blues, spirituals and comedies (the split frankly doesn't work, I know). I read through the ballads and concluded that 90% of them were shit. Most of them were written as a knee-jerk response to certain events in my private life, and they ended on an over-dramatic note. Of course, there were a few good ones, but generally I believe I cannot write a decent love poem for toffee (maybe because I was never really in love, just infatuated).

Across the document that Da Bomb reviewed, there are many poems from that era that require editing. Some will require a major rewrite. But for 90% of the ballads, its a one way ticket to the trash can. Thankfully, few people have seen them (and even fewer have them), so I can consign them to history and forget I ever wrote them.

Woe betide anyone who reminds me of them in the future.

It warmed my heart (and other parts)

I thought a whole load of wankers in one place was the UK's House of Commons. But there is also this. I really want the iPod Perv to enter this competition. He has been preparing for something like this (or so it seems) for his entire life.

Hope I get to see 'The Death of Mr. Lazarescu' this week.

Today's word of the day is 'Iraq'. I mention that in case you forgot about it (as the US & UK Governments hoped you did) while the World drags its feet over Lebanon. Canny observers will note that even the current Iraqi PM thinks that the disaster in Lebanon will just makes things worse for everybody. Condi is now in the region, but because she feels the water is too hot, she appears to be sticking to sunbathing.

Reading: 'Death in Samarkand' by Craig Murray

Boyz N Da Hood

'G8 Deviate' (aka 'Open Mic')

Foreign policy decisions.
You can take them, or...
confer and defer them.

As the reality of the
'special relationship'
insults the ignorance of
the diplomatically-challenged,
it is only left for the PM to ask,
if you would like fries with that.

Bored in Bed (NTTW™), 23rd July, 2006


Blog of the day: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, Aged 51 1/2

Listening to: BBC 6 Music (it's on DAB)

Sipping on Sunday

A warm and interesting article on tea.

There are those who love to get dirty and fix things,
They drink coffee at dawn, beer after work.
And those who stay clean, just appreciate things,
At breakfast they have milk and juice at night.
There are those who do both, they drink tea.

Gary Snyder

Terrorism/Extremism, Diplomacy, Copyright & Freedom of Information - and pure bullshit

Craig Murray is a former ambassador to Uzbekistan. He has written a book. It is apparently an excellent, revealing and timely work, judging from the reviews. It opens up a massive can of worms. No, it is not fiction. Yes, the Government is trying to put the kybosh on it. That's not on, and is an abuse of copyright, as well as freedom of information.

Follow the links, have a read, sleep on it, find more to read, and decide where you stand.

It's your World.

If you have time, you may also want to have a quick scan of 'Lawless World' by Philippe Sands QC.

"You love the motherland, but does the motherland love you?"
Quote from 'Ku Lian' (Unrequited Love) by Bai Hua

Slowdown Saturday

Listening to: Dom Chapman (i'll be able to listen to it more when I get the CD rather than streaming off the 'net), Mulatu Astatke (EthioJazz) on vinyl & some Joe 'La Botella' Bataan recordings from 2004, which sound like the compositions were written and recorded in the mid 70s.

Reading: nothing

Doing: nothing

A rubberband week

As usual, the jetlag hit me 3 days after my return. That, combined with a WW sales meeting to participate in, urgent actions resulting from the two week APAC tour, one attractive new female employee joining* and moving into a new office (lots of crates to unpack) just fucked my fun, so to speak.

I skipped the Kew concert last Friday, missing Eliades Ochoa, and I also skipped the concert of the last surviving Godfather of Afro-Beat, Tony Allen. I have no idea when I will next get a chance to see him (sod's law says he might croak it before he returns to the UK). Thankfully, I have a very understanding employer, who picked up the tab for my unused tickets.

I did however get to see the West Java 15-piece unit Samba Sunda. I last saw them with Kam at WOMAD in 2003. They were amazing. Colour and life swirling around me. We all had to get on down.

* Yes, I did assure both her line manager and her departmental PA that I would behave myself. Honest.

Ah

OK, so it didn't quite work out. The booking service called me during my osteopathy session to explain that Ognisko didn't have a table, so the iPod Perv (40GB and counting) and I lunched at Gaby's. Ok, the staff are miserable as getting a butt-kicking beside a kebab van during a wet weekend in Telford, but the Salt Beef Special is perhaps the World's most filling sandwich (the latka is pretty decent too). We couldn't eat for the rest of the day.

As for '40 Shades...', the acting was top notch (especially the leads), none of the characters were sympathetic (okaaaay) and the script was...(very) thin. The soundtrack was sublime, with some original compositions by Dickon Hinchcliffe of The Tindersticks.

Now I must clear up the mess at home. My office moved while I was away, and although most of my gear is in several crates in the new building, some of the stuff is actually here with me - as well as my stuff from the two week trip away.

Listening to: Tom Ze, Rita Lee, early Os Mutantes & Charles Trenet (Boum!)

It's Saturday!

Couldn't get a table at the Fat Duck for this evening, so me and the iPod Perv are off to Ognisko in South Ken for fantastic Polish fare, and will also catch '40 Shades of Blue' at the Curzon. '40 Shades...' won the Jury Prize at Sundance, but the reviews have not been kind. Still worth it to see the great Rip Torn (what a name).

Weather and Warfare

Landed at Heathrow 5am this morning. I managed to catch the last flight out of Taipei before the airport was closed as Typhoon Bilis came (typhoon season is July to October). I made it to Hong-Kong, met with HL, then flew onto London.

I love storms, I derive great pleasure and excitement from observing them and walking in them. I really wanted to stay and catch Bilis, but I was under significant pressure to get out, and my flight wasn't cancelled, so I lost my ace (it was the same story with Typhoon Longwan last September).

According to Tropical Storm Risk, Bilis is now visiting China.

I missed Mia's birthday. Oops.

On the upside, I managed to finish 'Blindness' by Jose Saramago, nearly four years after I purchased it. It is an amazing piece of literature. It demands a second read. I can't wait to get my copy of his latest book 'Seeing'.

Israel, Hizbollah and Hamas are at it again. The politicians will all live to fight another day, but the civilians will not. Meanwhile, Lebanon, a country I love, is being burnt.

Listening to: Dean Reed (the 'Red Elvis'), and plenty of Def Jam

Musing over: the average breast size in my home town

Introducing...

Checkout the Man and his music.

Shenzhen, baby

First time in Shenzhen. After a long (4 1/2 hours) meeting, my host kindly drove me to Shekou district. It's actually rather lush and beautiful out here. It's also very hot and incredibly humid.

Seeing: trees of moustaches.

I need to sleep.

Will hopefully see Tosh tomorrow (happy 30th matey).

Reading: 'The Solution' and 'Concerning the Label Emigrant', poems by Bertolt Brecht

Flight MU586 blues...

This trip has been something quite rough and tumble. I think i'll write about it - working title 'Are We There Yet?'

But no, I won't write it yet.

However, I did write a handful of shorts.


'Confession'

Beards
and
sandals
make me
throb
and
pray,
so
I done
told
my
momma
that
Jesus
made
me gay.
Amen.



'Clash of Belief Systems'

Revving up the righteousness
and incandescent indignation,
you thwack me with your
metaphorical tambourine.

Avenging my lack of
adherence to your zero-sum
religious ideology, I must
make one confession
as you prepare my cross -

this isn't quite what I meant
when I said I wanted
to be nailed by you.



'Showdown at HoJo's'

Smacked down
in the heart of town,
Nasty shuffles away
vowing to fight another day.

Exit Nasty, stage right!

The generously voluptuous lady,
her face still flush with anger
and nursing her trembling, throbbing palm,
takes centre stage, and begins to sing.

The bystanders applause,
as a divorce lawyer appears,
as if by magic.

HoJo's: Howard Johnson hotel

Stranded in a Monsoon, China Eastern Airlines flight MU586, not leaving Shanghai for Beijing, 4th July 2006