October 30, 2003
I'm
adding a new section in Bloggers Parliament but I'll put
the first post to it here, especially for any new visitors
and potential BP members. And I want to say very sincere
thanks to Josh
Parkinson and Natalie
Davis and Eric
Olsen for their encouraging comments about BP at BlogCritics.
The mocking commentators were helpful too, even if they didn't
intend to be, as they caused me to redefine exactly what
this project is and isn't about. Now, anyone for needles
in haystacks?
October 27, 2003
We
posted Bloggers Parliament details at Open
Source Politics and a few new members have joined us.
And at BlogCritics we're
attracting mockery. I'm all for good satire, the sharp and
perceptive deflating of pretense, pompousness or deceit.
But mockery is usually a knee-jerk reaction to anything which
seems to fit one's preconceptions, without bothering to check
the facts of that which is being mocked. Anyhow, it's perfectly
legitimate not to take Bloggers Parliament seriously at this
stage because it hasn't yet proved to be anything but an
idea. And some who have joined haven't yet started putting
up solutions. So it's too early to say if this enterprise
is going to be the sound of one hand clapping or of the whole
auditorium cheering.
Kind of blue day today so below is a picture of both of us, for
a change.
October 23, 2003
October
21 was Sacha's 108th birthday, or would have been if he was
still around.
Sacha left for an alternative universe on October 30th, 1996,
aged 101. I want to devote this space to him today, the least
I can do to commemorate and celebrate the extraordinary individual
I am privileged to have had as my father - our father. Below
is one of the obituaries published in the London press which
gives a general summary of his un-classifiable life (sorry about
the faint text. Trying to keep download time as short as possible).
Here
he is as a young Russian exile, newly arrived in Paris. He
would never see his homeland again and that sadness, coupled
with the natural melancholy of his Russian soul, never quite
left him. But he was not one to dwell on the past - he alway
said: "The past doesn't exist" and for him, this
was true. He hardly ever spoke of his childhood and adolescence.
There was always some mystery no one was allowed to penetrate.
Even now, all of usin the family wonder and speculate about
what might or might not have been his early history. Whatever
it was, it formed a man of many contradictions - childlike
naivety allied to intellectual astuteness. Cold detachment
along with intense emotional attachment. Deep, almost ascetic
spirituality along with attraction to sensuality and the
challenge of action. Astounding intuitive vision together
with an inability to see practicalities. Above all he was
a loner, never at ease in society though he could talk anyone's
ears off. At the core of his adult life was a love-story:
the long-lasting relationship with Blanche, our mother. But
that's another story.
This
is somewhere in the Paraguayan jungle on one of the exploratory
trips Sacha made when planning the road to Brazil.
He's on the right, not looking too happy about the improvised bridge. His brother Vladimir, who accompanied him on this occasion, is in the middle.
I don't know who the elegant third person is. And who was taking the photo? I like their hats.
Much
later, Sacha and Blanche, newly naturalized American
citizens in less adventurous surroundings.
And here he is, in New York in the mid-1950's. Talk about charisma!
Finally,
in wintry London. Age has caught up with him but it's not
winning. He's still calling the shots and still asking the
question:
"Who do you think you are? "
Sachinka, rest in peace, all questions answered.
October 22. 2003 1:01 AM
Does
everyone have this dilemma? Do you feel divided between a
public and a private self ? Or is it just our paranopia ?
No, that's not a typo: paranopia is a form of myopia where
you imagine that you see two of you. I just made that up
so don't bother looking for it in the dictionary. Not schizophrenia
either.You know the old joke, just because I'm paranoid doesn't
mean they're not after me? Well, if you're paranopic doesn't
mean that there really aren't two of you.
I know there are two of me - or maybe it's two of her? - and
the question is: which one deserves more time and more space?
This is a serious question. If you're a creative artist and also
have a deep and sincere do-gooding side, can you devote yourself
to either one fully? 'Do-Gooder' is usually said mockingly, in
a derogatory way. But there are some individuals who are do-gooders
in very constructive ways and whose entire lives are focused
on, to put it in grandiose terms, 'Saving the World', though
it might only be in a very modest way. So one of me kind of,
sort of, wants to be like those individuals. And the other one
doesn't. The other one wants to tell the world to go away, leave
me alone, let me get on with my self-centered, capitalized 'Creativity'.
Any comments, anyone?
Our Bloggers Parliament we are happy to see, has been mentioned at taliesin's log.
October 18, 2003
N and I were having a little discussion about Bloggers Parliament and such and I was secretly recording it on video. So here it is, un-edited.
October 14, 2003
A HALLOWEEN MESSAGE (in advance)
The non-human section
of the animal kingdom is often so much more interesting than
the mixed up messed up human one. I envy animals' blithe
ignorance of human weirdness. I admit I'm only a simple cartoon
creature but even I can tell what's weird and the cult of
horror is very weird indeed. The worship of horror films,
horror books, horror images, violence merchandise. And the
worship of the creators of the Horror & Violence Industry
- those real vampires who gobble up the dough that consumers
eagerly stuff into their insatiable gullets. For the fix
of adrenalin they get from watching Special Defects: repulsive
studio-excreted aliens and grotesquely made-up actors overpaid
to torture, rape, shoot, decapitate, abuse, disembowel, dismember
and generally do evil as slowly and sadistically (let me
count the ways) as the twisted imaginations of their authors
can conceive.
"Oh
come on!" horror fans will say, "It's
only innocent fun, fake frights. We know
it ain't real." But that's exactly the
point: lured into a painstakingly realistic
yet fake violent horror world, human sensitivity
becomes blunted. The boundaries between what's
real and what's fake become blurred. And
when real horror happens in the real world
- as it does every day - immunity sets in.
Cynicism. 'Cool' irony. Indifference. Bewilderment: "This
can't be real, it's just like a horror movie." A
zombified society, passively allowing itself
to be hypnotised by every cunning conman
with a used monster to sell.
Come on, wake up! Don't censor the purveyors of horror and violence.
That's what they want, it makes them feel like rebels. They're
not rebels, they're just noisy, spoiled, megalomanic brats. Ignore
their tantrums, take away their allowances and above all, stop
worshipping their excrement. Oh allright, their shit. And if
you crave horror, look around at the real world - you're sure
to find some. But it won't be thrilling.
October 11, 2003
I
don't normally write reviews but this is something
I cannot fail to mention. The French film WINGED
MIGRATION is an extraordinary experience.
To call it a mere documentary is misleading because
it has everything: drama, adventure, travel, pathos,
art, romance, comedy, tragedy and ecstatic beauty
that lifts you out
of your seat and into the air to fly alongside these
unbelievable beings we call birds. Who needs science
fiction and digitally created other-worldly creatures
when we have such a species living with us here on
earth and looking down on us from the sky? Directed
by Oscar-nominated Jacques
Perrin, the film took four years to make, using
planes, gliders, helicopters, balloons etc. as well
as land vehicles and ingenious camera technology
to follow the migration of numerous bird species
in seven continents and forty countries from the
Arctic to the Amazon, flying low over the Statue
of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, and getting stuck
in the oil bogs of industrial wastelands. There are
no special effects and no need for any since those
provided by nature are spectacular enough. When the
soundtrack is only birds' cries and other mesmerising
environmental sounds it's wonderful. But the narrator's
heavily French-accented voice is unfortunate, especially
since the information he imparts is minimal, and
the background music to the birds' odyssey is an
equally poor choice. But the quality of the film
overrrides any such minor quibbles. There has never
been another movie which allows you to fly close-up,
beak to beak, with avian angels whose appearance
- whether drop-dead gorgeous, awesome or comical
- no designer could have imagined. Nor are we accustomed
to seeing our world from a bird's-eye view - it's
frightening and breathtakingly stunning. Don't miss
this film even if you have to fly for miles to see
it.
October 7, 2003
You can now read Robin Good's great introduction to Bloggers Parliament and Natalie's answers to his interview questions (I mostly kept in the background. Shy, you know). We are adding another update to our guidelines, which didn't seem to be clear to everyone, and I'm working out a new logo because this eye-thing is a bit rough. But the main thing is, BP is up and running. So come on, all you thinkers and searchers, think Specific Solutions to Specific Problems and join this Parliament. Now!
October 6, 2003
New members added to the Parliament, Robin Good and Josef Hasslberger. This is great. I'm enjoying the surprise of seeing new names appearing out of the blue blue blogosphere. And Robin has sent a list of deep questions for us to answer - an interview he'll put on his very interesting site.
My friends and family
tell me artists ought to keep their views on politics to
themselves and I should stick to being funny or artistic
about other things like, um, well, other things. Since I'm
occasionally willing to look at two sides of an argument,
I reply OK, you're right, I'm going to concentrate on the
really Big Issues - Life, Death...Well, that's about it,
if you want to go for the really big stuff. Everything else
is sub-titles.
So let's take Death first. There's a lot of it about so, as a
thoughtful cartoon, one naturally asks: what's causing it? It's
not something we all want more of, is it? So how come we're dishing
it out right left and centre or else being on the receiving end
of whoever/whatever is dishing it out? Apart from disease, old
age and other natural disasters, the biggest cause of Death on
this planet is:
People killing other people in large
numbers for reasons which are not always very clear and therefore
lumped under the general heading 'Politics'.
Back to square one. I shall return to Death and Life after a good night's sleep.
October 3, 2003
People are slowly
joining Bloggers Parliament and
more have expressed interest. It's taking off, for sure,
and looks like being international. Andrius
Kulikauskas' Minciu Sodas Lab is Lithuania-based, Lucas
Gonzalez's Co-Pensar blog is in the Canaries, Professor
José Luis Orihuela is joining from Spain, Umesh
and Rashmi Rohatgi from India, and Guy (the
rook) Andrew Hall from U.S.A.
Meanwhile,
back at the ranch, our own Tony Bliar got
a seven minute standing ovation at
the Labour Party Conference. Seven minutes.
Standing. Ovation. This is from his own party
members, many of whom are very unhappy indeed
with the PM's policies on nearly everything
from Iraq to health care.
So I started ruminating about The Panache
Effector, if you prefer, The Rabbit
Caught in Headlights Effect. It works like
this: human animals are easily seduced. All that is required
on the part of the seducer or hypnotist is confidence, certainty
and a persuasive voice. The words that the voice is speaking
don't really matter very much. They might even be completely
meaningless, as long as they are delivered with panache,
authority, repetition and certainty . The seducer must be absolutely
certain that he/she is absolutely right. This certainty produces
a kind of blueish Panache Halo which
can extend into very large spaces and is irresistible. Reason
and logic are no defense against it. You can mistrust and detest
the seducer but you're trapped in those headlights and might
find yourself applauding and cheering for seven minutes or longer.
History, as well as everyday life, is replete with examples of
this effect. But what can we do to resist it? Could uncertainty
be the antidote? Could the honest expression of honest doubt
ever be enough to wake up a hypnotized audience, anywhere, anytime?
The above will appear Monday at Open Source Politics where a lot of healthy stirrin' and shakin' of controversial issues is going on and deservedly bringing in truckloads of readers. I will also post it later at BlogCritics which I'm a member of though I'm not a critic of films, books, etc. As a cartoon person I'm more likely to be found slaving over a hot drawing board.
October 1, 2003
Have
added a new page: Augustine & Natalie's
Collection of Solutions where we've started our list.
Thus far we've found three solutions to the Israel/Palestine
problem. Not bad for the first day in session, eh? We are,
at this moment in time, the only Member of Bloggers Parliament.
Yes, that's singular: me and N are as one in this project.
You got a problem with that?