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November 23, 2004
Dancing / Partner
I have to admit that sometimes I get lonely for a woman (but only if she asks nicely - ha ha).
If I was forced to choose, my choice would have to be a good dancer. The reason being that to be a good dancer requires enough discipline to learn the movements and enough of a carefree nature to throw all the lessons to the wind, go with it and end up clearing the dance floor.
I like to dance, and sometimes I'm even good at it - when I get my shit together. I have cleared many a dance floor in my time - one time I was actually dancing!
Hey, it's not like I'm blowing my own trumpet, I only have one afternoon of shit-togetherness planned for this year. Hopefully I will be near a dance floor and in easy reach of a woman at the time. Who knows, I might even get her phone number :)
Posted by dottie at 1:51 AM
November 17, 2004
Modern music
Sometimes I despair of modern music. I look at the bands in the charts. Most of them can barely play or sing. They are just there to look good and be the latest target for sexual frustration and darts from the media.
Take it as read then that everyone is used to the idea that bands dont write their own tunes. Next thing will be teenage girls walking down the street - 'god yer man is so sexy, you know they write their own press releases yeah?'.
Taken to its logical conclusion the bands will outsource their public appearances to political refugees and take off to dark basements / tropical islands / spanish castles / whatever to write edgy editorials on how the life of a political refugee is the new rock and roll (experimenting with using a limited palette of verbs, exchanging nouns for verbs wherever possible and generally expanding the whole vocabulary of like vocabulary, you know?)
Simultaneously they will be seeding the public with tales of the shadowy real life of a political refugee. How it is filled with drug fueled parties, blond scandanavians with breast implants (not necessarily female...) and numerous love children fostered out to the Romany gypsy begging cartel for 100 euros a week (extra for the specially maimed ones...)
Or maybe not.
Posted by dottie at 8:14 PM
November 10, 2004
Voting machines
This is my last post on the American 'democratic' system for a while - I promise. Read my lips - no new blog entries on the USA ;)
The one thing that puzzles me about the 'election' they just performed (and I mean performaed in the off-broadway sense....) in the US is the voting machines.
The average person demands accountability for many things in their life. When they go out and use their credit card to buy dinner for their bethrothed, or deal out some more virutal money for some geek books from Amazon, or even slap down some real cash for some stationery down at their local post office, they expect to have a receipt that can be tallied with information that the shop owner keeps on record in case there are any problems with the ofen sub 20 Euro transaction that just took place.
Compare that with the US election where every transaction, whether, financial, moral, physical or otherwise is going to be affected, and not just in the US, this is an election that affects the entire world - you better believe it!
This vastly important crux in so many millions of peoples lives passes off with a simple - 'trust us' from what is essentially the shop keepers of democracy. No receipt is issued, there is no paper trail - the vote(s) are just 'counted' and thats it.
This, to my mind, is actually the ultimate support for the western way of life - we are all saying (and like the green party - of you aint part of the solution...) that there should be more accountability for the purchase of a cup of coffee than there should be for the future of the world.
We are being asked to buy into the belief that people are basically good by people who are thouroughly rotten to the core - it will happen here....
Posted by dottie at 9:56 PM
November 7, 2004
One for the road...
Conservatives know what they want (usually money, power and influence in that order) and liberals (that's the rest of us, you know, the ones with 'common sense' and all that...) dont really know what we want.
That's why we always lose.
me? I've rationalised the whole thing I'm a liberal who wants to lose - I couldn't be happier... :)
Posted by dottie at 1:05 AM
Damn...
Only early yet and I'm running out of wine - I'm already onto the bottle of WHITE* Piat d'Or at the back of the cupboard.
Fuck it - its not like I have to get up for anything tomorrow (mass, girlfriend, fill in the blank...)
* Red wine is the drink of poets, gods and champions. White wine is the main ingredient in spritzers - enough said...
Posted by dottie at 1:00 AM
Popular vote my ass...
I for one appreciate the (sometimes laugh out loud) statements on this page.
While the repugnants in the USA are declaring a landslide and claiming that more people than in the history of the US have voted Bush into power -with a 51-48 split I would keep in mind the corrolary of that statement - some US citizens (in fact almost half the country) are as pissed off as we are that a dim-witted, sociopath is in control of the most brutal and effective army (due to their superior firepower) and the largest ORGANISED nuclear arsenal.
Personally I think we are all fucked - you will see me frequenting bars and indulging in more ill-advised sexual liasons with young ladies, than normal [not difficult :) ]
Posted by dottie at 12:57 AM
Democracy
The difference between theory and application are funny.
In theory absolute democracy is anarchy - the people choosing for themselves, think about that for a second - imagine what life would be like if everyone chose their own path! In reality at best it becomes a federation, at worst - like the route the U.S. is taking - a facist state.
Theocracies, monarchies, communists utopias, etc. most of the rest are in fact plutocracies - government by the wealthy, for the wealthy. The names that are given to political affiliations of countries are usually a lie peddled to the majority backed up by the equivalent - 'you are with us or against us / heretic / communist / capitalist' - basically just misdirection, sleight of hand - ignorance is strength, war is peace.
And of course anyone who calls themselves an anarchist usually end up being a facist.
me? I like to style myself as a secular humainst, along the lines of Kurt Vonnegut. Even though I have many self-imposed restrictions and limitations I like to think I am liberal and even libetarian. I dont think this is double-think as I believe that you should be liberal in what you demand from others and conservative in the demands you give in return - so I guess even through my secularism I have at heart the essence of what it is to be an upstanding member (theoretically) of any major religion :)
Watch the TV for my new evengelical show - 'foxy boxing, feminist, anarchist, lesbian christians teach you stock trading in 6 days (including how to properly 'rest' on the seventh)'
Posted by dottie at 12:20 AM
November 6, 2004
Brands
Brands arent dead, but they do smell funny...
The tide IS turning against them though. Brand loyalty, at least for electronic goods, is going the way of the dinosaurs. Who in their right mind would buy a Sony DVD player that costs a smal lfortune and STILL doesnt do multi-region. needing a 'chipping' at additional cost. The alternative is to buy a sub pony priced unit that plugs in ready to go with multi-region. OK so you might not have full 9.3 dolby super surround sound with chair shakers, but who has a living room that could accomodate a proper Dolby system (and the time and energy to tweak such a beast).
We are entering the age of mini-brands, where local producers provide the best bang for buck and make a killing usually only for the trend-life of the product before closing down or retooling for the next profit-fat trend.
The term 'local' is a little misleading, perhaps I should have siad 'cottage industry' as these producers could be across the globe and still ship their goods to you and me with a profit margin to make it worthwhile - when real 'local' suppliers learnt the tricks and musceled in with prices that didnt have to reflect transport across continents, the originator could rethink, retool and catch the crest of the next wave, to repeat the process.
'quality control!' you cry. This is the digital age my friends. Each manufacturer would need to have a digital signature tied into a trusted database of suppliers that would rate their quality compliance and trustworthiness. To do business you would have to follow the google imperative and appear in the top ten or effectively not exist.
Current brands push the market whichever way they want (think Coca-cola, Disney, Nike, democracy...) - future 'local' brands will automatically appeal to the market - if they dont they will have no power.
Posted by dottie at 11:35 PM
November 3, 2004
A poisoners tale
The USA sprays millions of tonnes of a deadly chemical over Parts of South America. This chemical hangs in the air for hours afterward forcing the locals to breathe it in, causing pnemonia, headaches, lesions of the bronchial tubes, erosion of the intestinal tract, disturbing womens fertility cycles, causing tumours in glands and resulting in birth defects.
Much the same hapens to insects and animals that come into contact with the chemical. The ground is made barren as the chemical interferes with nitrogen fixing in the soil resulting in poor crop growth and increased disease. What crops do grow show significant traces of the chemicaland act as another vector for ingestion of the dangerous substance.
This has been going on for years with the full knowledge and even backing by the international community.
Why is this done?
Cocaine.
The USA is 'waging a war' against drugs. In its usual cack-fisted manner it decided that spraying herbicides over large tracts of sub-rain forest area in Bolivia and elsewehre would destroy the drug barons cah crop - the coca plant. And it did. But it didnt stem the tide of the drug and caused massive hardship and depredation to peasants trying to live off the land with some food and cash crops like cocoa bean (for chocolate), coffee and of course cocoa plant.
Recently, a strain of the coca plant has been developed that grows super big, produces far more leaves and yields more and stronger 'salt' per weight than normal plants. The biggest change - its resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide that the USA sprays on a weekly basis.
The point is now that there is no more reason to spray. The USA should stop now. If they dont they are hurting innocent people for no reason.
I'll take even bets that it will be years before the spraying stops and will only happen under huge international pressure and probably after the population of the affected regions is sterile, sick and dying.
All so the bible belt of the USA can get a warm fuzzy glow knowing that they are doing gods work to benefit other white people just like them.
Posted by dottie at 8:50 PM
Election day
Who said politics is boring?
I'm on the edge of my seat here...
Posted by dottie at 12:28 AM
Zombie sunset
Went to a friends house tonight ate some damn fine Indian, drank some even finer food, enjoyed the good company and watched 'Shaun of the Dead' and '28 Days Later'. Excellent stuff. Shaun of the Dead is a total pisstake while still keeping the menace - very delicate line to balance and done so well!
28 Days later - scary stuff! There are so many scenes in that movie that I think I will never forget. Excellent photography and direction, clever take on the whole zombie thing.
Then as I was waiting for the bus to come home a guy was walking up the road toward the bus stop.
He was limping.
No.
He was stumbling.
I reached for my machete....
He had me going for a moment...
Posted by dottie at 12:24 AM
November 2, 2004
Pray! Pray for the right result!
If you have an ounce of spirituality in you (or whatever passes for even remotely religious belief in your worldview!), spare a thought for the outcome of the election in the US tomorrow.
Pray that the black voters in Florida and around the US dont get intimidated into not voting (the republicans have been sending threatening letters to all registered black voters in certain parts of the US explaining that the fact they were registered by anyone but a White Anglo Saxon Protestant meant that they were registered illegally) and when they do vote, they vote for Kerry.
Pray that the 'swing' voters all over the US suddently start gagging on the smell of bullshit coming from the current US administration and vote for Kerry.
Pray that the soft conservatives, on hearing of all the most recent tramplings of civil rights in their own country by a self-confessed alcoholic, malfeasant, mendacious, simple-minded, aggressive, deluded, arrogant, selfish, ignorant mouth-breather like Bush and realise jut what the national prayer breakfast is all about and finally understand that Jimmy Swaggart and his ilk are the spawn of the devil and that the war in Iraq really as about money after all and as such their own hands are gory through associated guilt - that they change their mind and vote with their conscience - for Kerry.
Pray that all the troops stationed in the line of fire with inadequate firepower, no kevlar vests, sitting unwashed for days due to lack of water recycling equipment and sitting cramped in unarmoured humvees regularly sent into ambushes against rocket launcher toting insurgents - will realise what a raw deal they have and tell Bush to stay the course right up his ass and vote for Kerry.
Lets hope all the tired, the poor, the hungry, the huddled masses, who spent months learning the previous presidents of the US, and learning more about the constitution than the average supreme court justice, that after putting up with midnight raids on his family home because his white bread neighbours heard him talking something like Arabic - this Hindu Sikh will pray to Ganeesh for guidance and vote for Kerry.
Pray that all the millions of women across the US who will be denied further rights to choose how to live their lives, will remember the bad old days of the rhythm method and back-lane abortions that will render them infertile or worse and vote for Kerry.
Pray that all the millions of people with a so-called alternate lifestyle will realise that styling yourself as a cowboy is in fact choosing an alternate lifestyle, and they will remember how their hopes of being married to their life partner until death do them part was shattered when the supreme court annuled all their marriages and will vote for Kerry.
Pray that the stoned, slacker youth will realise that not voting at all is the same as voting for 'the man' and will switch off MTV / Playstation / X-Box and go and cast a vote for Kerry.
Pray that it will be a landslide for the democrats that the US has not seen since Washington was voted into the office for a second term - unanimously.
Wake up America! Get out of your bed, get down to the polling station and pray that John Kerry WILL make a good president - god knows he is your only choice and the rest of the worlds only hope.
Posted by dottie at 2:08 AM