back from a few hours absorbing my fave vitamin, its nice to see the streets filled with friendly faces, despite the fact that most of them only seem to be able to talk about some weird game where men kick a ball around a grass field, yeah world cup, who cares, not me.
well i was playing some tunes from an old band i used to like, they are called Bauhaus, formed in London around 1978, kinda gothic in style and experimental in a radio head kind of way, very cool dudes, post punk, arty types, excellent musicians, i saw them play once and i have to say they were amazing, it was a frentic 2 hours of sonic sculpture and pete murphy the frontman (singer) was like a vampyre with st. vitus dance, he moved around on stage like iggy on speed, with unlimited grace and style, knowing when to be still, a cross between a bat and a stick insect with intermitant moments of firefly. Part theatre part rock, Bauhaus were years ahead of their time, very cool, i'm enjoying listening to them again. Flashes of Bowie, Bolan and a originality that makes them unique.
i've almost finished my book, 'This thing of Darkness.' It's turned out to be quite surprising as Darwin turns out to be the less likable and Fitzroy the Christian is a man of honour and integrity, caught between the folly of the english establishment and his belief in god, while Darwin although on the brink of understanding transmutation, is a slightly arrogent and nationalistic english snob. It's a good book, kept me entertained for days with lots of information, drama and some comic moments. I like reading about those voyages, they were amazing distances in their time, man dicovering his planet, pre computer, electricity, maps. In fact it is the Beagle's mission to chart the South American continent. The crew are all so young yet they are men, men shaped by years at sea, sights they can't even describe, a bond that can't be broken. I'm sure it wasn't all like this but it does appeal to my romantic sense of adventure. I can't imagine anyone taking on these types of journeys today without the back up of GPS and technology. Imagine being the first europians to see the Americas, or Australia. Imagine the veiw from the native's side. That would be akin to us seeing the alien spaceships zooming in over our cities.
Any advanced technology would appear to us like magick.
2 comments:
So good you posted it thrice...or is that me suffering hallucinogenic experiences? Hallo from England, the country where we're suffering mad flag disease, from the window, from the garden fencepost, from the car window and roof. Pity help you if you stand by the kerb and one of those things flaps around your physiognomy. Is Sydney too sophisticated for that sort of thing? And..what a wonderful experience to find there are some men who don't go gaga at the thought of men kicking balls around stadiums.
I'm going through a phase of being fascinated by blogs, and this is one I pass by regularly at the moment. Sometimes I find the discussions way above my head, me being told for years how thick I was, but at age 50, taking a degree. This is kinda relevant on two counts...I saw the latter-day Beagle just before it shot off to Mars and oh, poor thing, is still up there in solitude.
One of the things I'm studying and fascinated by is evolutionary psychology, Darwinism, that men are men and women are women and what's the point in trying to change any man or woman you meet 'cos basically they can't change and why should they in any case? That follows on from a previous posting on here I think, on relationships. I mean, if you meet someone you're attracted to, surely that's the person you want to be with, not some idealised stereotype you have in your mind. Otherwise why not look for that ideal person and if you don't meet them, keep on looking until you do. My ex changed me into his housefrau Stepford Wife ideal and it's taken me years to get over the trauma and become my old bohemian hippy self again. Anyways, I've gotten on my soapbox and digressed and that wasn't what you wrote about. But...the book you've read would probably give me yet another aspect on Darwin, I'm still learning so much right now, and there's so much out there to still learn about, that I wish I hadn't left it so late. And perhaps one day I'll feel intelligent enough to participate in interesting conversation, but I'm finding bits of this blog and the comments that come off an education in themselves! S'pose I should do one of them annoying winky smileys there. Thank you for the interesting reads though Cap't.
Mand
Mand- Hi welcome to, well, here i guess, nice to have you aboard. Yeah I am a refuge from ye Thatcher's UK, been here 20 years and now under the shadow of Howards third term, there is no escaping the legacy of the Iron Lady. Yes the clever country turned slightly stupid about 15 years ago.
Actually sydney, under the veneer of sophisticated, beautiful and hedonistic paradise is little more than a sunny version of the UK at the moment, although the foods better and there's less rain, hordes of people are now catching up with the one ingeredient that was lacking in australian culture, yeah soccer is all the rage, especially after winning against japan, it's been utter mayhem, on tv ecvery five mins, dominating every conversation, even the shadow pm made a big speech about it before being interveiwed, he then said, 'well that's the most important matter out of the way,' meanwhile the country is still at war with an unknown enemy, we seem to be under Indonisian occupation, the NSW economy is in the red as well as being the most regulated restrictive state in australia, our health and transport system is a mess and the new industrial laws are something outta dickens and yet it's a soccer match that keeps people distracted from these issues. Sport is the true opium of the masses. Fortunatly I have not seen to many flags on my travels but then i tend not to go anywhere where there may be people waving them.
Now don't pay any attension to those teachers, the same thing happened to me, I was constantly told how stupid i was and humiliated as i became dumber and dumber the more they edukated (hope you apprieciate the irony) me with false information and lies. Look at what we learnt in History and Physics, it's mostly all wrong, so you tell me, who are the dumb ones?
50 is the perfect time to do a degree, now it's not a matter of getting a cert or passing the exam, it's just the information and challenge of stimulation whereas at school the only things that stimulated me was sitting close to Helen Tie and Donna Metcalf.
Yes it's a intresting time to read about old Darwin as the conflict between the two forces, evolution and intelligent design, polarize people, personally i think they both have a place, i am pretty certain that humanity did not evolve from monkeys and that we are from panspermic origins. Well i am anyway.
Yeah i just finished the book, amazing story, it Fitzroy whom I found facsinating, he was a true explorer, i won't spoil the ending but his final voyage is so well writen it almost made me want to follow him.
Well please feel free to comment whenever you like, do not feel intimidated here by any of the information, i always try to make it accessible, there are many types of intelligence.
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