talking about rugs . . .

has reminded me of this:



Imagery like this was first seen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 80's.

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And, was Alexis de Tocqueville a Racist, or a Racialist? Read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Tocqueville

This is (sort of) related . . . .
A long time ago somewhere on the web, I joked [rather weedily] that the Whitehouse was probably built on an Old Injun Burial Ground.
Perhaps I was actually onto something when I read the Wikipedia entry on "the Bonesmen":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonesman


This is a charming picture of the Bonesmen when the first George Bush (to the 'right' of the clock) was a member.
George Bush II joined the ranks too, instead of doing something useful.




Geronimo's skull and thigh-bones are reputed to be kept in the Bonesmen's frat house known as "The
Tomb".

Finish[ed] ?

After a little while I was amazed at myself for jettisoning so much of the stuff I'd collected during the university years while I was trying to find a place where I'd be happy to settle.

Things that I miss are a number of books, tools, instruments and recordings; and a number of other objects like the camera and the bicycle that were 'liberated' in broad daylight.

The stupidest losses were the gradual disappearance of my portfolio: evidence showing that I went through a period of discovery, and quality, which I believed would just be the start of what I'd achieve.

Anybody else lost anything they should have kept hold of?

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From MIT Press, OCTOBER:



This is a screenshot of my favourite issue of one of the periodicals that I found were a must-read during my oh-so-brilliant academic career.
In this one there is a fantastic/phantasmagoric essay by Susan Buck-Morss, called 'Aesthetics and Anaesthetics: Walter Benjamin's Artwork Essay Reconsidered'.

What a feeling, or should I say what "not feeling".
I'm having the start of what is another relapse, but it is quite serene. My limbs are starting to seperate. They have their own weight, and they have their own lives. They are like they are part of me, but can't command them to do my commissions for me.
I always think of Marc Chagall, with his floating characters that are all important, but aren't joined.

American Bison

From Wikipedia :
Bison are among the most dangerous animals encountered by visitors to the various U.S. National Parks, especially Yellowstone National Park. Although they are not carnivorous, they will attack humans if provoked. They appear slow because of their lethargic movements, but they can easily outrun humans—they have been observed running as fast as 35 miles per hour. Between 1978 and 1992, over four times as many people in Yellowstone National Park were killed or injured by bison as by bears (12 by bears, 56 by bison). Bison also have the unexpected ability, given the animal's size and body structure, to leap over a standard barbed-wire fence.

Well I'd never have figured out that Bison might not like getting riled. Or perhaps featuring this item on the daily changed homepage a tool of satire.

Remember remember the 7th of November

What a just and useful end to the poison of such a powerful gang of bullies.

Congratulations to all who participated in this good result!

Has No-one A Handcart-To-Hell That Will Fit The Party Of Sham & Shame.

Best wishes and luck for all the battles to come for the de-Bushification of the Whitehouse.

Burn the Guy

My land is such a bizarre mix and every year this uneasy wierdness is marked by danger, patriotism, and a great, unexamined love of outrage, with our "Bonfire Night". It is a yearly commemoration of the foiling of "the Gunpowder Plot" of 1605, in which twelve people had planned to implement a return to the Papal Supremacy of Rome by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during the state-opening by Charles I, who was not only King, but the symbolic head of the Protestant Church of England. These people, including their explosives expert, Guy Fawkes, were rounded up, tortured on the rack, had 'confessions' extracted, tried, hung, drawn, and quartered. All these centuries later, the burning of an effigy — 'a Guy', and fireworks is still played out.


Ironically, just 44 years after the Catholic plot to kill King Charles I, he was executed by the protestant puritan 'roundheads' led by Oliver Cromwell. Republicanism and Anti-Monarchy was also bound up in the urge for revolution back then, regardless of all the religious differences, and the anger about the profligate ruling classes was also a nationalist anger about the amount of revenue crossing into Scotland.

This night is really the culmination of Hallowe'en — which has morphed into a long week of festival chaos: The 'foiling' of Anarchy, and the preservation of Order is just a pretext; a message to those who'd want to impose another power above the idea of Britishness is just a vain hope. Its a state endorsed Anarchy; about virility; the rituals of burning the wicker men; smudging against ghosts; purification; and the Celtic festival of Samhain which celebrates the end of a fruitful summer with an exhortation to battle the relentless wintertime.

I was quite relieved to tell a friend that I wasn't well enough to go to the famous one last night in Lewes village just north of Brighton. This event has a serious deal of baggage to unpack: There are lots of bonfires, but there is a really appalling procession of burning crosses representing protestant martyrs such as Cranmer and Ridley. The KKK originally came from Scotland, but this burning cross picture is a disgusting symbol right from the Anglo-Saxon heartland.


I am under seige, I hate fireworks, just like the dog I'm looking after. But unlike her I don't like crowds: I don't start to salivate at the prospect of a joining a hunting frenzy.

Is this whole picture sounding a bit confused? Well that's only because it was a mess back then, and some people still thrive on exploiting this simmering nature, and we have been betrayed by the yearly cycle, again.