a bit of... ,,,, ;;;; :

What love do you give to a ‘rescue’ dog or indeed a parrot when you welcome them and say lucky. Merry. Something!

There was an ordinary ‘exquisite’ guest on the Colbert Late Night Show…who wished for a Lucky canine whilst disseminating 1st draft Xmas cards (seek and e ye may find..). Not disimliar to Colbert’s 1st draft Trump Xmas congrats- we/yearall from the Cathoklic (did yu winterize the …) – dn’t want those pipes ‘r’ callin’ freezed///south begin northy, YE HEAR! Oh: for a human Mormon voice! …I hate to give too much info- draw attention to someone beautiful who could easily be Manhattanized La  Nova-[they will never gknow Now- they lib NYs cn’t no more …y know…(not Colbert’d)-smart cards don’t get better.. …if you got Cb’d then Mr.Cberd  would be on that  ffinbg button..wait..which one..I was’d told theres was just r/b/b/ me Jbbbstwnyz !!!!

The weather in Finland this evening was as it was for 2 centuries.
LIke : yo: what is that ...OK you were right. Finland is challenged. Even after Kaurismäki!

I did know where I was goining with this..but hang out ith the Tanks that got Finned: yad yada ydad !

RE-tuning ...hang in there as youfreeze....

I may nave diem!  my brain is finally disintegarting by watxhing Ken Xiang Loach!  If there is a film for ulimate ..... it is Xiang Loach Ken's I, Daniel Blake

Was going to say that there isn’t a wrong note in that Ken Xiang Loach's Piano Concerto ‘Blacked’. Me: not not the ‘north’. The South. London. There is only, ever: London etc an the North. ! Not much know about how the ‘north is more ‘abused’ than equally if not more so used. ‘Used’.

All the facts in the film are painfully true! To a Londoner. The north or England is a different place to the south. But so the so ‘centers’ we are startin’ to talk Snowpiercer 
here…are so startingly sane, cogent,…maybe so/not so in retrospect.

I was thinking in bed last few knights ago, that Ken Loach was again Ken L. K.L is always. But never again. THAT is what is extraordinary. One could easily argue that he is K. L. But never again. This is indeed a new story.  I hate social realism/political cinema. But I love cinema that is the imagination of reality. Therein lies the difference. Loach is never again. Always Loach. Inevitably the greatest Italian neo-Realist of British cinema. You can try and take that away from him. But forever in vain. ! He has been severely challenged to write an ending where his downhearted sprogs have even seemed ‘De Sica’ esqes , riding off on Spielberg (de Sica borrowed) broomsticks.

Methinks both stories are equally valid.

The only notes I would question (and I am NOT a fan of Engels) !)

And this needs no 'spoiler': But when Daniel's speech is read by Katie in the finale: shouldn't it just be the mention of his name: I, am Daniel Blake. 

Marx says there is a period of instability where capitalism will be shaken erschüttert, and Engels crosses that out (before he publishes the text) and says zusammengebracht (I brought about into collapse [together]). Thereby hangs one of the greatest mis-interpretations of Marxism. Like that is new in Western/Jewish democracy☺ ? Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion (Gareth Stedman Jones)

This may interest those researchers.....

In 2005 The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) awarded Atos Origin a £500m seven-year contract(originally signed by Sema in 1988, the company Atos bought for $1.5bn in 2003 from SchlumbergerSema) for the delivery of medical advice and assessment services (also to the Ministry of Defence Veterans Agency). The company had just signed a $400m application management outsourcing deal with car manufacturer Renault. Atos’s longer-term aim was to eliminate paper from the DWP system.  (roughly paragraph 17)

These 26 Companies Pay No Federal Income Tax

U.S. Moves to Thwart Use of Foreign Inversions as Tax Dodge

Tax Inversions

President Obama on Tax inversions

The 'Red House' (dispiace…I keep thinking of Mr.Trump’s plans to repaint the ^%^%&^ House. If you’ve ever met ‘it’ in person it could do with a make-over. (Trump's hair fairs better methinks) The ^%^%&^ House isn’t exactly the definition of ‘white’;) Hello!….Did I keep that clean?;)……

Unknown Marxist/Aristotelian text of frogs and mermaids....:)

FFFFFing TARANTINO on your doorknob

Pardon my futur antérieur...?

January 2016: Sioux Center, Iowa 
President elect Trump said :"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." 

Sat 12 Nov NY protest rally (that photo from March, 2016)
Trump Tower!     

anyone remember that 1974 movie The Towering Inferno- hey it's a Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden. Anyone remember that President Bush used tax-payers money paying Hollywood screenwriters et al good money to come up with possible post 9/11 attack scenarios! Who could make this shit up...?

What if people started shouting “shoot Trump” in the middle of 5th Avenue?. Is that …? legally he is not yet President. What if one lone person started shouting that? Could that not be argued to be satirical response? People in NY shout in the streets on per second basis. If such were ever singled out, that be be legally defined as harrassment and impingement if not blatant denial of the 1st Amendment. You will find out what the law is like once you are sworn into office Mr. Trump. And, perhaps, you will be amazed at its efficacy. The allegations of those women against him (that I hope for their sake are true…God will not help you if they aren’t) will definitely impeach him.

-->

Having said that, Kirby Dick came a ‘cropper’ last year with his doc The Hunting Ground about sexual abuse in colleges. The girls who started their campaign are unbelievably naively brave and tenacious to get their cause all the way to the White House in Washington. Unfortunately for respected director Kirby Dick, the trial of his ‘lead subjects’  had just got underway before the Sundance Fest 2015 premiere. And the director’s use of so-called facts was fairly embarrassing in an otherwise urgent and powerful doc. Therein lies the problem for colleges taking action that when a case goes to trial facts are necessary. And the galling problem for the campaign recognizing college rape is that the facts, if there, are quashed and massaged or dragooned into a grey realm. Harvard Law School quite justifiably issued a press release. The campaign for justice by Andrea Pino and Annie Clark…thankfully thunders on!

Not a world particularly I want to live in anymore….I’d rather drown with the mermaid (s) and die happy…

BTW- must be fun for the kids going to Radio City Music Hall being confronted by heavily armed police bearing machine guns. True! Not that I distrust the officers or their judgement with those weapons (at least in New York City). (I wish I could say the same for London). Examine the 'nitty gritty' facts and you'll understand why I again raise this issue.

What are the police outside Radio City Music Hall going to do, though, in the event... that? It is nigh impossible on the ground to get a clear-shot in those crowded streets. But 'Collatoral Damage' has always been one of America's biggest bad-boy movie stars.

And Lou Lumenick of the NY Post called for banning Gone with the Wind last year. Perhaps looking down upon your own doorstep this year, sir?

Ask Yourself Why?

Nocturnal Animals (I thought long and hard before placing this here. (Saw the movie Friday night in NYC). You are very brave Mr. Tom Ford. I did not enjoy sitting through your movie at all. Yet totally applaud you thrice for creating it. There is nothing surreal in that film. Tomorrow is another day...

Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016)-Canadian

Ballad of the Absent Mare

Françoise Gilot: The Greek Horse (1969)-Lithograph
Reference: Stone Echoes catalogue raisonné (p. 63, plate 29)

Printed at Mourlot Graphics, Ltd., New York Edition: 100 (Also 2 Trial Proofs, 3 Printers proofs and 10 Artists proofs.)

Any dream will do.....!!!!!

Once Upon a Time..!!!

AGONY !!

I've been wanting to say how brave is/was actor/director/humanist Mark Rylance in criticising British arts companies be in theater, art, whatever for accepting BP sponsorship. Well there/here we go. 'Cause I am very too 'pissed off'. As well, if there some! I heard Rylance in an interviewing saying that British and American arts organisations were different. Well: in a way yes, but in a bigger way NO!

Deepwater Horizon was the worst-ever US oil spill in history. BP bears 67% of the blame; Swiss-based drilling rig owner Transocean Ltd takes 30%; and Houston-based cement contractor HalliburtonEnergy Service takes 3%.

In his 153-page ruling, Judge Barbier said BP made “profit-driven decisions” during the drilling of the well that led to the deadly blowout.

Peter Berg's film of the disaster (of the same name) is very brave- I imagine many people's lives are/were made that little/greatly more difficult nigh impossible if they didn't/don't 'toe the corporate line'. The film is also rather ummm factual without being creatively factual. I finally caught up with it. Ain't I just now a nightmare for PR's. We can't control him! (As if you ever did- and Brit PR' great and small were 95% on the whole very accommodating to freedom of speech. America: it's still terrified:((

A lecture in film theory: the viewer should utterly believe in the facts even if they ain't quite true. (YAWN- Picasso's lie about art making us realising a truth.) -Who could yawn at Picasso? !- No: I am not re-fashioning myself as the next Jerry Saltz- (well only maybe  to get a click from him;)
Factual accuracy is I always believe critical. Berg's film, I believe gave us that. But he didn't quite make us BELIEVE in the accuracy. Is that fair?

Americans want to know the truth but not quite really. If they knew that then America would not be the Great Great country it most clearly is.....(not sure how many Pinter dots""""""""")

When is the US election?? Any Brit know. They/we/you are still so so consumed with Brexit!

The 'aliens' LOVE the American election. It's like 'Trick n' Treat for 'them'. They are all doing 'Rocky Horror' Trump hair singa-longs far far away. (You don't know how Vidal Sassoon that is for them..!) Don't ever knock a good head. shot.

Planet Earth has became for them, like: well- I would like to say Twilight Zone (but in Peter Berg fairness..) more X-Files. Berg wins that one;) They don't care they know it will eventually get hit by an asteroid and then all their memorabilia will be Bonhams-esque sky high in 'air credits'. Not dis-similar to earthlings who befriend Elon Musk...;) There is no escape earthlings. You are doomed!!!!! Who said that! Little voice rises again. That Dalek is a real baberooty magnet (alien slang..)

BUY the LuvresLondon Alien Slang book. (The Latin-esque title so Bo-Ho-Slo Alien).
It's all in the mind so if you buy it you still can't read it here. Perfect intellectual tree/forest conundrum.

[I was going to add something about what is the difference between serial killers/otherwise and corporate killers. Isn't the pre-meditation the same? J
ust for different results. But that would ruin the sales of my alien slang book. See: creatures are not that much different anywhere since the Big Bang.

Anyways.... 




part of your world !!!!


anyone on earth remember that: ERIN BROKOVICH girl- the squid just couldn't take her anymore...! Know what I mean? (Film ref joke...:) ahh, come on it's easy as forgetting birthdays, guaranteed...
Guess: your prize: a week on an oil rig (sponsored by Musketeers Moleum. Elon Musk sued for title in 2075- (senile mffer but didn't win...ha ha :)

The prize guarantees to be as energy efficient and as environmentally sound as ummm SIGOURNEY OIL INC (she became like Jane Fonda -bless her- married an oil tycoon in 2025 as America umm, became challenging..)

As far as I know: hairstyles were still in!

Thereby hangs a tail....

BIG question of the night, is, having set all that up: don't we need a closing number? !

It's not sink or swim, and I could just as easily leave it in your mind. But then if I did that you would have nothing to fight against...

let me tink...

ahhh: I just had millions of alien 'feedfors': who thought that 'aliens; could be savoir faire nah savvy with the Broadway musical. Bowie (well he made it West End) like he would not have had sold out houses for Baal in the flesh...even way back when...was really up there) oops...divulging Price Water-Anderson-Alien House Coopers) here...no John Waters? (ahhh but you see ...ummm...that's complicated because 'they' have issues with that..) the aliens that is.

tink...(my est wine is running out) ..cloudy night they couldn't transcend...

it is maybe one of the bizarrely most successful musicals of all time. about a guy who had his life and career unjustly ruined who returns and: not seeks revenge but inevitably can't help. And a child: who believes. A child who may, beaten down, what terrors may come. No more wine: the more you know the less you know....


But he, with help, believes. 


....yeah but then there's the beans and the giant and the........................
 : SHUT UP !!!!!!!!!!!!!! who asked your opinion anyway. Screw democracy! ........!!!!   with all dewey respects Mr. Giant/ess....

..until..

[P.S. It gives me no pleasure in being right that Trump won the US election. But it it gives me great great pleasure that the liberal oligarchy were so wrong and obstinate! The so-called Liberals want 'Democracy'. But the democracy they want is only the sound of their own voice. I am not saying the sound of that voice isn't the one to be heard. But: if your voice can't be heard over the other in a democracy....then maybe you should try harder and another 'ism (btw- history is nit a kind friend iin that regard...needs I remind you).

I know how you feel. I've worked decades for almost nothing. With the most famous, brilliant, most talented people in the world. I come to America and 'they' do not care. If so, rather grudgingly! The only thing almost everyone wants is the/your money. And the more of it, and then they take a little if not all more from you. So be brave or: I am seriously thinking of the OR OR OR! As a final FU: the other 50% of America just didn't want to know/hear why the other 50% voted for Trump. In total fairness, I have to say: good for him. (It's kinda weird and drole that I wrote a drunken interesting post that I never published where I wrote that 'I should have been a contestant on his 'Apprentice' show and I might have learnt something. There was a LOT more in it than that....)

and I worry about Trump and the Muslims. And I beg you Donald Trump not to screw that up. America really isn't a comic book super hero. It ain't the wizened 'Wizard of Oz' most certainly.

Yet there is/will never be a quick fix solution to the Fundamentalist Islam problem. America should have thought about that long long ago before it funded the Taliban and thought it knew what it was doing over there but never ever really quite so. It's an argument the loser can't win. If you say that Trump's just a scapegoat/idiot: then what you are saying is that democracy is a total fool. And if you then journey down that road then woe betide you.. My only advice Mr President elect is 1. Give me a job:)! Because I will try to help you and be fair to those who hate you. 2. Don't ever destroy what Obama has achieved. Because THAT is history. It ain't Roosevelt. ...maybe it could have been more. It most certainly could have been a lot LOT less! [Forgive my whatever typo sins I never intended to write something over these day (and I fear my Samsung device is a Soviet spy:))) ...I am in an oilwell trying to woo the bitch of a mermaid from hell. Was it all worth it??!! I feel like Peter Stormare in a movie. Who Shot the Mermaid??? (btw-Peter doesn't do 'B' movies unless they are directed by ME!;) She deserved everything she got!!!! :)

The following is an 'in joke' for the Colbert Late Show grupees;) What if Sasha suddenly butts in to Malia's dinner questions and asks : HOW could it be that my Dad....

Inferno (1901 oil on canvas 100 x 70 cm)

one of the most extraordinary paintings I have ever seen. Painted by a playwright (famous depending on...) August Strindberg. He was never acknowledged for being a great painter, nor indeed, a great (dare one say) one of the greatest photographers. But he got his dream on stage (not wanted he ...but we all have ego...). It is part of the Safra bank's (interesting story...) collection being auctioned at Christie's NY. Would someone love enough to buy that for me. 

Us. ? 

It is Munch with all the terrible beauty but not angst! 

...until...

the magic show...

yet another boring day, an excursion to a museum…;)

Two of Britain’s top museum directors resigned this week and today: the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate. In America the Great even Hannibal dances a Ländler when the Brits get a show in New York. Andrew knows very very little about the fall out of Brexit. What I did know was that an exit would be total chaos, resentment and anger at those who embraced a bigger world. Those who would be totally shunned and totally un-acknowledged for their tireless efforts at holictity. I know. I know. Gravy trains blah di blah di blah. But would the gravy breed any more protein in the long term without unification? Chancellor Helmut Kohl promised more than the moon upon German re-unification. He lied. He knew. He knew that an East German economy 25 years at least out of sync would be a problem. But nobody would have wanted to hear that? Nobody would drink to THAT. So he lied. Or rather, perhaps, he dreamed.

Most working men and woman don’t have the luxury of dreaming. Many of my dreams are nightmares. I don’t imagine many others share a difference. The trouble are and always will be with dreams is that those with a will to power and manipulation will usurp utilitarian dreams.

Museums are not filled with monsters nor monstrosities. That, maybe oftentimes, is the realm of a waxwork museum. Museums are filled with the everyday of our human life. Sometimes the everyday wondrous. Sometimes: the everyday magic.

Lion Tamer

Being Alive....

wouldn't you think my collections complete....

Andrew listening to the 2016 Proms- a cold tent in ....???? (He's looking 'happy' - trust me!)

The BBC Proms were upon us. 1st Night: The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo. Sol Gabetta played Elgar's Cello Concerto as if a Japanese garden! Exquisite lines. Sad dark shallow pools...

Listening to the Haitink Proms Mahler 3rd: Andrew's looking sad...ummmm....well...sad/happy the yin/yang dingiddy/dong ting....somewhere in the Catskills me thinks....

Roger Norrington's there somewhere: alive today thanks to an NYC doctor. So there's swings and roundabouts!

When yous figure it all out let me know!....GADZOOKS! It's a cat thing. Or maybe raccoon...there is something every night trying to steal my toes!  Listen up!  Not that I ever wish to promote misanthropic elf-induldulgent films about writers or, or , or indeed CATS! Who -the latter- have but no choice to love and sleep and love and eat and sleep and ...sleep and eat alone with their memories.......

Funny story about Betty Buckley and her Cats debut: she was struggling to find the CAT in her. And then she walked out into the streets of New York. A homeless woman. There was Grizabella; in all her gorgeous dignity. Sounds all like a cliche. As with every single cliche, though, there is the resilience of truth.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. 

Maybe: they are finally singing to me...

Amy Winehouse

Is this a twee bit weirdly morbid posting a tribute/obit to Amy Winehouse 5 years on? Well what the heck. Ms Winehouse did something very silly ending in her death- probably totally unpremeditated (she was to be attending one of her best friends wedding the following day).

Always the support has been there for Amy when all around there seemed to be a sea of ridicule when she happened to ‘fell’. I’ve had some very interesting conversations in NY-totally happenstance- about the Oscar winning documentary. What I would agree upon is that it would have been so much greater if interviews were attainable with both police and paparazzi. As with life, there are many reprehensible individuals but there are also humans just doing their job (with a conscience), moreover a tiny few doing their job trying to change things with far more than just a conscience: people who cared about Amy as a human being.

I often wondered (and indeed Amy seemed healthier and somewhat happier in the United States) whether if she’d moved (or at least spent more of her life in America) whether she’d have lived longer. Lived happier. Even had a baby Winehouse;) ! Even another musical incarnation! America’s weird irony is that it can indeed be soul destroying; equally if not more so, be soul giving if you are that talented.

This song link may seem sentimental tosh to some (and is indeed often ‘trotted out’ by award show orchestras when they don’t know what else to play;). But it is a beautiful poignant song sung here by the great Tony Bennett-a wondrous gentleman talent- who loved Amy’s contribution to the world of music far beyond death.

………..

I could’ve bought a Steinway grand and a recording studio. Nothing wrong with that. Would that have made me any more creative? Not, I think. Riffing here: I totally admire Marvin Hamlisch but the guy who wrote Kiss Today Goodbye (A Chorus Line) in C major is the same guy who wrote The Way We Were in A major. A lot of great songs have been written in C major. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star You’d think C maj had run out of possibilities. Well, maybe. But put some great lyrics with that key and you’d never really know the difference. Funny story: Burt Bacharach had French composer Darius Milhaud as a teacher. Milhaud told him: Never be ashamed of something that's melodic, one could whistle. The great great Adagio of Mahler’s 9th Symphony is in D major. Of course he totally screws with the tonality but you can do so too in C major. Of course, Herr Mahler screwed with everything. That’s why we still adore him.

Weird shit: you start out by writing about Amy Winehouse and Tony Bennett and and and one one way ends up in interstellar Mahlerian travel! Holy sweet smellin’ mackerel!  Or is that/this just an ‘Andrew’ thing. I don’t flatter myself that much…

My out of tune Young Chang piano (totally my fault neglected it for 3 winters and summers- minus 10 degrees to 96 degrees)- just goes to show how resilient and good a piano it is;) !!

Abbado (Mahler)

Andrew......

no comparison Nintendoed....:

July 14 2016- Nice, France

Charles Aznavour chante What Makes a Man

Antidote for Night

There’s the moon, in the high window, her wall-eye
glancing off me, and a few bobbing stars,
every tawdry shining thing

I’ve identified Venus more times
than I can count as an agent for insomnia,
a broad sail that catches the wind and slides away.

Not even halfway through the hours,
his fitful sleep, wheeze of a saber saw,
waves receding on a rocky shore,

breath whip-snaking down a chute, until his body
forgets—how still, how close the kingdom,
one stalled-gulp away,

and I jostle his dying shoulder—he recoils, yes,
rebels, back now, mouth full of silver,
What? he moans to darkness, what?

(Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi) (1207-1273)

Love: The Joy That Wounds: The Love Poems of Rumi

I won't iron his shirts...nor...no...tomorrow,,,....

Prime Minister David Cameron is no more. (Well he is ever more because he will be sitting there in the Houses of Parliament) watching you! He knows more than most of you will ever know. So: if that is not worth knowing…

Britain could have done a lot LOT worse than Cameron. Come on! Did Labour do any better? Did Cameron do any worse? I’m on an island here posting from America the Great (that really has ever less protein than the Brits: hello Independence Day….:)) So what the ‘fff’ do I know!

Prime Minister David Cameron was a decent fellow. He may, indeed, not be your fellow or indeed mine. But: living in NYC I find it hard to find ‘fellows’ anywhere unless they want money, promotement, shoulder rubbing for free….

There’ no free ‘back rub’ nowadays/anymore for free!

There was a Brit phrase ‘common decency’! I wrote/quoted/reported David’s ‘pitch’ to the Conservative Party way back when: not that I was…anything…! Or anything. But impressed! Such an uninterrupted 45min speech (no notes all from memory) demanded attention. To be a world leader one needs foremost to command! You could be the greatest Maynard Keynes 100times over but without the leader ‘bling’! !!!  And of course ‘bling’ means nothing everywhere. Alas, always, somewhere. A little sparkle often can go a very long way. Excess can be blinding: akin the frog in boiling water not knowing it should escape.

The United Kingdom grows in the stature of one’s mind in absence. In a sense it is total ‘bs’!  What has that ‘union’ ever done for Scotland, Ireland, Wales….

And yet: when you live in America you realize the world is not that much different. Let alone the U.K. None of us agree with the ‘puppetry’. But do we want another Mussolini? !!! Clearly not. He was democratically elected! Yet! You want democracy…? !

50% (Ballroom)
Jimmy's Hall (Ken Loach)

You and I......

ME. YOU. I. THEY. US. THEM. THE...
You know what is ffffffrustating interesting about America is how unnnnfnn-interested they are in the recent Brexit vote. Americans still think of Europe as somewhat of a Louis XVI Disney movie. No offence. I/we love Louis and Dizy!

It took Andrew almost 3 fff years to get his UK citizenship. No queue jumping. All legit. By that time he was totally beleaguered and couldn't apply for any jobs in Europe. Full circle. Now. I don't know what else to say about all that. Funny/horrid/despicable. Life. That perhaps the same would/world now.

When I wrote for The European in the ‘90’s I received nil expenses: slept on floors, trains. ..Rarely, very rarely slept on or against any humans ! They trusted me and one hopes the trust was reciprocated.

Crossed the Berlin Wall to watch Die Volksbühne perform Bulgakov‘s The Master and Margarita (and gave my friends tickets to a so-called sold out Communist house. Favors must be…I …should have just given the tickets to the desperate East German thesps who begged me for a ticket. Fool me…

Where is all this going? Well, we all (well maybe not quite…) want to be part of THAT world. Is it now a bigger world? Did/does/ doesn’t now make a bigger world for the U.K..? Like the United Nations. The European Union is a fantastic idea that came to fruition. But did it ever offer, in reality, that much to anyone. Significantly. Especially the U.K. ? Occasionally. The facts speak for themselves. I ain't sittin' on a fence here. I totally applaud Cameron's bravely in screwing his colours to a sticking place...Yet: was the idea – as great as it is/was greater than the sum of its parts?

Prime Minister David Cameron was very brave to leave a/that decision to democracy. VERY! Wasn’t it a famous Brit PM who spoke a great spake re: democrats….! Democracy..the worse of....
President Obama almost got not elected! Perhaps that will be true for…..

Feel sad that with all the technology possible in one human hand the world has not yet got bigger but significantly decreased in stature! All the great photographs that could be but yet never are. Walter Benjamin. Umberto Eco. Please don't rise from heaven or the grave to be both disappointed and conformed in your brave distopia...

time has told me...

Judging from the ecstatic reviews/commentary on Olivia Chaney‘s website I am way way behind in discovering this folk singer/songwriter/Purcell/Nick Drake lover’s talents. But as she admits/opines about her career, she wasn’t ever exactly ‘zeitgeist’. She performs at the London Festival of Baroque Music on Sunday.

Architect Zaha Hadid is dead

I just read that Zaha is no more. Well: she will ever be more because that was who she was/is. Enough was never a word attached to her work ethic. I often joked (well it was no joke) that I would love a Zaha bungalow at the bottom of my garden. A little out of my price range, alas. As should be any great talent who has fought so hard and become a name on the world stage of their craft. Sorry to 'float' a conspiracy theory but she did die of a 'normal' heart attack in Miami didn't she? I can well imagine that for some many people a long long respite in the netherworld would make them....
sorry for that- but you know why I wrote it. (Anyone ever seen The Parallax View- great movie [and of course a total work of fiction,,,,,////,,,,,,,/,,......)......./.....)

I used to be an architecture 'cat' roaming the 'buzz' of the Architectural Association in London. I know the 90s buzz became a bit of a 'purr' in the new millennium but Zaha Hadid's ghost forever roamed the windmills and corridors of those students' minds. And will mine as well...

لتكن القوة معك 

we are talking architecture NSA- not something any of you know anything about. (Well- one or 2 of you know structural engineering- but you pale into insignificance compared to Zaha's intel...) - well she's gone now. Good night and good luck. 

Both Sides Now (originally was linking to Shadows and Light but there's something quite 'personal' about the former song that is probably somehow in a very unusual way more apt for Dame Zaha Hadid).

Zaha Hadid. The Peak Project, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China, Exterior perspective.1991. Medium: Synthetic polymer on paper mounted on canvas (©2016 Zaha Hadid) 

Maggie's Centre Fife

Un chant: Brussels March 22, 2016

Bruxelles -JacquesBrel

this was written in one uncorrected 'blogging' sitting.so there may be minor changes to come..

Please stop this senseless killing. Fundamentalists: I know the West is full of hypocrisy,. But it is more so full of beautiful things. As is the Islamic State. The West has forever and a day waged religious wars. To no effect and to what cost? And the Muslims may say so why should we stop? But so many of your brethren totally abhor what you do. What you stand for. Many don’t believe in ‘Western greed’ any more than you do. Many, though, have a far better life in the ‘West’. You can’t blame them for wanting that. And that for their children and spouses.

The ‘West’ has an absolutely appalling history of colonialism. But were the Islamic states in reality that much different? Hasn’t almost every nation had ‘hegemony’ as intrinsic to its agenda? The Swiss being the exception. Except, arguably, they piggybacked an agenda (highly distasteful to them=Nazi anti-Semitism) and made their country’s fortune on the unclaimed Jewish wealth in their bank accounts). That is true btw and the Swiss had to pay out eventually. But it was tiny compared to the compound interest amassed.

I believe Prime Minister Tony Blair (hindsight is a great thing PM: Genghis Khan felt he made mistakes too-methinks a C20 dinner with Genghis might be more.... ) and President Bush made one of the biggest mistakes in C20th history by their actions after the 9/11 attacks.  And I would ask Muslim fundamentalists to think again about their actions when the innocent die for no reason. You may argue that Americans didn’t care about Muslim interests back then. And you may well be right. It took the body bags of innocent American sons and daughters on their parents’ doorsteps (figuratively) for American families finally to start asking: what war are we fighting? And the painful truth is: New Yorkers would care 'less' about dead Belgiums than they would about dead New Yorkers. Now I've said it! If that had been NY today things would have been very different. But why so? Isn't that the terrible arrogance of human existence?!

The IRA fought for a just cause against the British but was that cause also negatively self-perpetuating? Could one ever condone the slaughter of innocent civilians? I would argue no, but others (Gerry Adams) may cogently argue the opposite.

The NSA (National Security Agency) believes (or cogently argues its continued government funding) that they can defeat Fundamentalism by ‘controlling all the communications’ of our planet whilst riding roughshod over democratic Constitutional rights. Donald Trump may indeed cogently argue the same. And occasionally they may prevent some catastrophe. But: as the IRA famously said (they did) after the Margaret Thatcher 1984 Brighton bombing : Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once – you will have to be lucky always.

The NSA are fighting a no-win battle against rogue humans. (I'm not sorry if that offends you. It is a statement of fact. Not support for terrorism.) So oftentimes you will win Fundamentalist Muslims. But WHAT are you winning? WHAT? Ask yourselves that? More dead people? People who could so easily be your neighbor, your son, daughter, spouse, fruit vender, tourist agent? WHAT? And what are YOU winning NSA? 

You may not like me invoking the Pope of all people. He cited Thomas Merton on his visit to America. The Pope championed a man who retreated from those Western values that you so abhor. As many do. And I would argue you could practice your own religion much as Merton did. If you feel an outsider then one is not alone in this world. The world celebrates, for the most part, conformity. And yet being different makes most of the money. Go figure. Humans are really screwy! Animals seem so much more switched on. Except those (or is just the squirrels gravitating to me) that think sofa fiber is food. Maybe they are smart in some way and I am the stupid one. Maybe a Ramadan squirrel (who's a little...). 

President Obama is a good man. He wants change. He wants to help Muslims. But you tie his hands when you keep killing.  Some say his current visit to Cuba is just all hand shaking and flag waving. But oh my g! Did he have the balls to do it. He’s got balls but he is, alas, only human.  And he only has so much time left in office. So you may say, so why should we bother? Why hope for anything then? Because clearly Fundamentalists do hope for something. But shouldn’t it be something great within yourself/ oneselves?  

FUCK the world. You answer to yourself. Look at the shit Galileo had to deal with!  (too many great words to quote...) (apologies for my merde francaise…) So what possible excuse could you have to destroy it? If it is anger then I totally hear you. Totally. But where has the world ever got by destroying things? Nowhere. And the great thing about being human is that we get somewhere. We make things. Some of them may be crap. A lot may not be quite perfect. But it is possible to travel to a new plateau. And even if we just look out of the window: surely there is something worth contemplating rather than destroying. Surely! 

[A documentary image from last year still haunts me. It is a cat limping delinquent in the demolished streets of Homs. Burnt to the skin, almost legless, crying in pain to the camera. You think to yourself: it is just a cat. It is just...
and then there are no more words.]

Dans le Port d Amsterdam