My Blog

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

(William Ernest Henley)

Look at the difference between what a search for Tiananmen Square protest from Google returns in China (left), and in the UK (right). We can only assume that this is what the ruling Chinese regime means by building an harmonious society.

(Click to zoom)

This might be the most entertaining video I’ve seen online in a long time. Watch the Muppet’s take on Queen’s mega-hit Bohemian Rhapsody. The YouTube link here is available at 1080p resolution, meaning you can playback the video  at true high definition. Just press that HD button and you are on.

The bragging season is now officially open. To those of you in the know, here is a pair of shots of both the cover and interior pages of my first attempt at a book. Called There and Back, it is a selection of reputable poems I published in this blog for a period of  almost four years. Quite a labor of love it has been, and amazingly enjoyable to boot.

In what goes to prove that we are far from immutable, and our tastes change more often and broadly than we like to admit, here is a Iron Maiden song I came to fancy during last week.

Now, with the “2012″ movie in the cinemas with its two hours, multi-million dollar, special effect induced take on world destruction, it is refreshing (in an old school way) to see this silent five minute cartoon from 1928, aimed at detailing the exact same thing.

Koko the Clown and his dog Fitz circumnavigate the globe to find the control center for all the earth. A mischievous Fitz can’t leave well enough alone, even betraying animated “reality” to bring about a Fleischer fuelled cataclysm.

A graphical history of the Coca-Cola bottle. The first two bottles contained Coca-Cola with real cocaine, up to nine milligrams per glass. Cocaine as an ingredient was removed in 1903.

Left to Right: 1899 – 1900 – 1915 – 1916 – 1957 – 1986

A FLEA thus questioned an Ox: “What ails you, that being so huge and strong, you submit to the wrongs you receive from men and slave for them day by day, while I, being so small a creature, mercilessly feed on their flesh and drink their blood without stint?’ The Ox replied: “I do not wish to be ungrateful, for I am loved and well cared for by men, and they often pat my head and shoulders.” “Woe’s me!” said the flea; “this very patting which you like, whenever it happens to me, brings with it my inevitable destruction.”

(Aesop)

“’YOUR eyes that once were never weary of mine
Are bowed in sotrow under pendulous lids,
Because our love is waning.’

And then She:
‘Although our love is waning, let us stand
By the lone border of the lake once more,
Together in that hour of gentleness
When the poor tired child, passion, falls asleep.
How far away the stars seem, and how far
Is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart!’
Pensive they paced along the faded leaves,
While slowly he whose hand held hers replied:
‘Passion has often worn our wandering hearts.’

The woods were round them, and the yellow leaves
Fell like faint meteors in the gloom, and once
A rabbit old and lame limped down the path;
Autumn was over him: and now they stood
On the lone border of the lake once more:
Turning, he saw that she had thrust dead leaves
Gathered in silence, dewy as her eyes,
In bosom and hair.

‘Ah, do not mourn,’ he said,
‘That we are tired, for other loves await us;
Hate on and love through unrepining hours.
Before us lies eternity; our souls
Are love, and a continual farewell.’”

((William Butler Yeats)

A little song for the weekend. While My Heart is Still Beating, from Roxy Music, in a live version at the Bête Noire euro tour 88/89. The sound of uncertain shifting chords and sparse percussion letting Brian Ferry’s voice float as cool as glass.