NEWS
DELUXE – the ignore my rant man
And this is what FIRST introduced me to work of Johnny Deluxe
A rather pithy and pointed piquant pulchritude of passion poignancy and persuasive poetry
Great poem … great voice … love it!!
And a huge thanx to Meester Mainey, Kilmarnock’s finest, for the introduction
The Big Electron – Kahl & Stu
Many years ago, some 10-15 … I’m not at all sure … my son Kahl wrote and produced a lovely wee bit of squelchy synth dance … I then added piano and guitar noises and now, many years on, I’ve added some spoken word and some collage images to create this wee vid
Hope you like it
THE 12 COMMANDMENTS
Mall Teaser
Sculptor, Tony Morrow, famous for his Loby Dosser & El Fideldo statue in Woodlands Rd, used to live near me, in Kildrum, here in Cumbernauld. At that time, he was a fireman, hadn’t yet been to art-school, and was a mate of mine .. with a great sense of humour. The first time I ever visited his flat, I sat down on the couch, as he went to put the kettle on, and I started to skin-up, a wee number on his large coffee table
Situated at the opposite end of the table was a box of Maltesers … but a box which was maybe four or five times bigger than even the biggest, family size, Malteser box
.
“That’s some fukkin size of a box of Maltesers, Tony!” I shouted through to Tony in the kitchen
“I love Maltesers. Have one” he shouted back
I lifted the partially opened flap top of the box.
.
‘
Inside was one HUGE brown, chocolate Malteser, the size of a volleyball.
“But don’t eat the last one” Tony shouted ….
“Leave the last one fur me”
I doubled up, pissing myself laughing
“That is fukkin genius … You should do stuff like that professionally” I told him … constantly for the next few years, … and eventually, he did
Over the years, I saw dozens of people fall for his little trick … he’d made the box and Maltesers, perfect to scale, and it was typical of the daft visual gags he eventually did in his sculptural work
Night of Memories by Kevin Miller
Brian Miller was a friend, artist, writer, designer and director who lived and worked in the town of Cumbernauld for nearly 50 years.
Sadly he passed away last August, but in his honour the Cumbernauld Theatre presented an evening of his work on January 28 2012.
This is a wee film tribute, beautifull put together by his son, Kevin
MEW SICK
MRI MEW SICK
In hospital today, for an MRI scan, which involves lying prone for a half-hour or so inside that large, donut-shaped apparatus, which is highly reminiscent of a cheap, sci-fi, time-portal.
You are advised that you can bring your own CD of music to play, through their headphones and, on my first visit, I’d taken a chill-out, Café Del Mar compilation, but found out it was totally drowned out by the noisy scan equipment … so, this time I’d taken along some throbbing dance tunes, courtesy of “Meccano Mind” by Syntax, which raised a few eyebrows from the nurse, and a huge smile from the radiographer. I don’t think that 62 year-olds are meant to like bangin’ choons.
The radiographer was very friendly, and he enquired as to what the album I’d brought was, saying that the previous patient, an elderly lady, has just inflicted upon him with over an hour of “The Best Of Jim Reeves” … which should at best be ten minutes long, and two tracks at most, in my opinion.
I’d noticed that on the hospital’s own play list of albums available, there was a compilation of military marches played by The Royal Dragoon Guards Band, and I wondered if it was ever requested … “Constantly!” he replied “So many elderly guys ask for it … and it’s rather bizarre watching them lie there, their toes twitching away in military drill”
The fact that you’re supposed to lie there, motionless, made this seem rather silly, and I remarked that I’d heard a story, on a previous visit, of an elderly lady who’d come along with a CD that her son had bought her especially for her MRI session. She was duly fitted with headphones and left in the MRI suite for her scan.
Within some minutes, they realised that she was twitching and flailing her arms about, and also raising her legs … this concerned them, as people with pacemakers, metal pins in their joints, etc, can be adversely affected by the electro-magnetic field of the scanner … so they stopped the scan and rushed in to see if she was ok.
When questioned about her movements, she said that she was just doing what they told her to do on the headphones … It transpires that her son had given her a relaxation CD, which featured dreamy, chill-out music, and then a soft mellifluous voice, saying “Lift your left leg … raise your arm in the air slowly, etc”
”I was on duty that day … I saw that” said the radiographer … “We thought she was having a fit!”
Fantastic … it must have been a sight to behold … so beware folks, pick that music carefully.
BEAT YOURSELF UP – SAVE THE POLICE TIME
Beat Yourself Up – Save The Police Time
For most of my adult life, maybe the past 45 years or more, I’ve been hearing the same phrases repeated endlessly
Things have never been as bad as they are now
Things are getting worse … there’s no hope for the future
This is the worst government we’ve ever had to deal with
The last government created the problems
The next government will solve the problems
We’re heading for economic collapse
We’re heading for a nuclear war
The apocalypse is predicted to be imminent
The majority of people in this country are selfish, greedy, and stupid.
The majority of people in other countries are selfish, greedy, and stupid.
The majority of people in the World we live in are selfish, greedy, and stupid.
YOU have never met and have no real knowledge of the majority of people in this country.
YOU have never met and have no real knowledge of the entire population of seven billion people who comprise the Earth’s population, so you must be basing this negative deduction on your knowledge of yourself, and on your knowledge of your immediate friends and associates … therefore, YOU and everyone you know must be selfish, greedy, and stupid.
Right?
Wrong.
Armageddon, in one form or another, has been predicted, on a yearly basis, for almost every single one of the sixty-two years of my life.
Like the boy who cried wolf, or the chicken who predicted that the sky was falling, eventually anyone with sense eventually stops listening to such fear-ridden blather. I stopped worrying that the sky was falling many years back, and have noticed that the downfall of civilisation, the rise of fascism, the erosion of all our civil liberties, the creation of new concentration-camps, the round-up of liberals hasn’t happened as expected and foretold … and the runaway train that is civilisation hasn’t crashed yet either.
On the other hand, over the past 40 years I’ve witnessed an astonishing change in the levels of social responsibility and political awareness around me, the rise of a highly effective and powerful environmental movement, the liberation of women both in politics and everyday life, the decriminalisation of homosexuality and a level of social acceptance of gay lifestyle that I never expected to see in my lifetime, the denunciation of everyday racism, sexism and homophobia in the media, in government, the workplace, and on the street, a level of social interaction and communication on a global level that wasn’t predicted in even the most prescient of science fiction, and a potential for positive change within the Global Village that I never even dreamed possible when I went on my first ever street-demos back in the 60’s & 70’s.
In many ways, as far as I can see, things have never been better, as the potential for change has never more eminently possible, and the tools of change ie. Mass communication, and education as a product thereof, have never been more readily available and accessible.
So stop succumbing to the fear, the hype, the bullshit, the propaganda, the fairy-tales and horror stories designed to make you fear the worst, expect the worst, and give up trying because there ain’t no point … because resistance is futile.
In my early days as a political activist, our mass communications were limited to Roneo and Xerox leaflets, screen-printed posters, underground magazines and newspapers, and cheaply produced button badges … simple, but effective forms of spreading our doctrines, and a far-cry from the easy access of emails, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter.
One very popular button badge wryly proclaimed the slogan:
BEAT YOURSELF UP – SAVE THE POLICE TIME
That, my friends, is what you and your negativity are doing. You’re doing The Power’s job for them. That is the tactic that seems to be working highly successfully at present with the wave of rampant negativity I see on so many articles, and blogs, and vids and Facebook postings: …..
“The Future is Hopeless”
No, my friends … Your attitude is what is Hopeless … The Future is just fine.
Fight The Power … Free The Future
Thanx to my Facebook buddy Brian Spencer for the motivation to write this … one of the many Good Americans I know
Douglas Adams: Parrots, The Universe and Everything
Blind river dolphins, reclusive lemurs, a parrot as fearless as it is lovelorn … Douglas Adams’ close encounters with these rare and unusual animals reveal that evolution, ever ingenious, can be fickle too — in a University of California talk that sparkles with his trademark satiric wit.
Absolutely brilliant talk by a very witty, and sensible man … hilarious!!
STUPIDITY
This documentary about stupidity tells us the history of the word “moron”, the difference between stupid, moron, smart, intelligent, genius and questions the regular practice of classifying peoples intelligence through standardized IQ tests. Of course also Mr. Bush is examined in this report. A well educated guy who, nevertheless, acts in a completely dumb way — or at least wants us to believe so.
Albert Einstein said:
“Only two things are infinite the universe and stupidity … and I am not sure about the former.”
STU WHO? 