[misty rain] gleaming swish of asphalt

It's 19:22 on a Saturday evening and the light is slowly fading.

The air is full of misty rain which has covered the dereks, the three new buildings at various stages of construction and the concrete fence surrounding the vast earth-dug site.

The sound of the swish of tyres on asphalt through the open balcony door is all the sound there is, except for the idiot drilling in the wall in the flat above. I'll go up shortly to terminate him.

The ecologically sound lamp in the living room gives a sulphur yellow glow to an already golden parquet floor and I sit adjacent, typing this to you.

At least I was.

Actually, I've just skipped onto the balcony and the scene below is pure cityscape and yet I recall it twelve years ago here - the edge of geography, the new housing area with the road petering out into a sand dune which ran down to the river.

Now they call it the Riviera and it features casino, Imax theatre, skating rink and a foreshore of Miami type housing. I prefer it the way it was.

Do you hunger for rain as I do? All my bitter-sweet moments were in such rain - I don't know, it stirs something inside and helps one forget.

I wish there were a pub somewhere within walking distance.

[marshall tucker band] laid back music

The Marshall Tucker Band were from the early 70s and played a flute, fiddle and piano dominated, very laid back and some said, quite loose and rambling music. Closest bands and singers of a similar ilk were Allman Brothers, Elvin Bishop and maybe the Eagles to an extent.

For a Britisher who didn't exactly grow up with American country music, I still liked their harmonies and there was one song which stood out for me: "In my own Way" which was quite relevant to a certain wife of mine:

I know sometimes you think I don't love you ... but I can't act like we just met all the time

And I can say without a doubt you're the only love I'd ever find

There's a special place in my heart that’s occupied by you;

There ain't no one on God's earth gonna take your place

And I can say without a doubt you're the only love I'd ever find

And in my own way I love you

And in my own way I need you

And in my own way I've got you

... and your love.

The lyrics were one thing but the totally unhurried nature of the song and the almost conscious way they dropped into minutes long instrumental phases twice, as if they were gathering their thoughts for the next verse, was quite appealing.

Sadly, I can't access this song on the web but I have found one of their other numbers in emasculated, awful midi form. I'm using Midi Shrine to give readers 48 hour access to "Heard it in a Lovesong", which was their only commercial success.

This can be accessed by clicking here.

I'm gonna be leavin’ at the break of dawn.

Wish you could come but I don't need no woman tagging along.

So I'll sneak out that door couldn't stand to see you cry.

I'd stay another year if I saw a tear drop in your eye.

Heard it in a love song [chorus repeated].

The Marshall Tucker Band.

[saturday quiz] opening lines of novels

Half a mark for the book, half for the author:

1 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,....

2 It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him. Yossarian was in the hospital with a pain in his liver that fell just short of being jaundice.

3 At the beginning of July, during a spell of exceptionally hot weather, towards evening, a certain young man came down on to the street from the little room he rented from some tenants in S--- Lane and slowly, almost hesitantly, set off towards K---n Bridge.

4 Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

5 It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

6 It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

7 Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery.

8 Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

9 Mr. Sniggs, the Junior Dean, and Mr. Postlethwaite, the Domestic Bursar, sat alone in Mr. Snigg's room, overlooking the garden quad at Scone College.

10 It ws one of the mixed blocks, over on Central Avenue, one of those blocks that are not yet all negro. I had just come out of a three-chair barber shop where an agency thought a relief barber named Dimitrios Aleidis might be working. It was a small matter. His wife said she was willing to spend a little money to have him come home.

Answers here.

[blogfocus saturday] here's to your good health

1 Tom Paine minces no words when he is annoyed about something and this is no exception:

The prigs at Alcohol Concern believe (like so many other Statist swine) that they know better than us how to bring up our children. Both my daughters were introduced gradually to alcohol from a young age in the French manner, with a view to their learning to appreciate quality wine in joyful moderation. Understandably, Alcohol Concern's demand to criminalise such an approach, has brought Devil's Kitchen into full, fine, fulminating, foul-mouthed form.

2 Spicy Cauldron also has something to say on the Alcohol Concern matter:

Introducing alcohol from an early age, educating children as to its proportionate usage and enjoyment, is a far more effective barrier to drink problems developing in later life than banning alcohol outright until a child is no longer a child at all, but an ill-informed adult with an awareness that the taboo can then be indulged in with gay abandon and little in the way of social controls, next to no risk of a prison sentence for anti-social and extremely violent behaviour.

Alcohol Concern, please take note: a call for greater education would have been warmly received as sensible and considered. Prohibition and criminalisation never work, and it is only right that you receive flak for suggesting these as appropriate courses of action for government to take.

3 Russell Roberts, at Café Hayek,gets sooty on coal:

I love it when the bootlegger and the Baptist are the same guy. The WSJ ($) reports:

The founder of a group that ran a series of newspaper ads attacking the coal industry for selling a product that they called "filthy" says the campaign is ending.

The effort, promoted as pro-environment, was sponsored by a rival energy company, a natural-gas-production company, and sparked a round of protests from members of Congress and trade associations.

4 The only problem with what is otherwise, here, an excellent blog is Tony Emmerson's refusal to take comments. Still, the post is good, for all that:

For years my dear Grandfather kept a daily record of his barometer readings. I remember as a child seeing the book in which he noted and plotted the twitch of a needle. The world was a small place then. All the boffins doing their sophisticated works at the Met Office (apart from that hot weather girl who was the sister of somebody famous) could tell me nothing more important than the contents of that slim and faded volume. There was something profound laid in those years of carefully drawn lines of different coloured inks, even if they told a story that everyone around me already knew: Buxton has crappy weather.

5 Dr Crippen cannot be accused of succinct posts. They cover every current news item, ramification and every twist of every NHS issue. You want NHS? Go to The Crip:

Bloody, whinging, whining junior doctors. It is all your fault. Add you onto the lazy GPs, the fat-cat, swan-eating, port-swilling, golf-playing consultants and those useless nurses, and you can see why the NHS has failed.

It must be true. My Lord Warner says so.

Lord Warner, has launched an extra-ordinary attack on all those who work in the NHS. He cites "productivity" issues and resistance to change within the NHS as the major causes for the failure of Labour's investment programme and programme of reform.

6 Electrolicious is an electrically delicious journo-poet and she's focussed on Gen X and Y just now, the DNA of future society as we know it:

As part of my new job, I've been reading a lot about the work-styles of Gen Y (aka the Millennials). Although my birth-year (1975) technically puts me into Gen X territory, after reading various articles discussing how Gen Y is hyper communicative and assertive but also plagued by narcissism and an obsessive need for connectivity, I would like to proclaim that I identify more with Gen Y. Then I wonder if perhaps this is because I spent so much time at raves in my early 20s — raves where most everyone was 5 years younger than me. Is Gen Y contagious?

7 On the grounds that we should reperesent all point of view in the Blogfocii, may I present the Urban Commando, Will, in all his red star glory. The Young Ones would be proud:

The majority (yes - that's right - you heard me correctly) of the left (or what passes itself off for that distinguished tradition) has thoroughly botched its job on this most crucial of matters. This manifest truth is apparent if one examines the 'anti-war movement' in this country and most others - it is the enemy of the World's working class, the enemy of the Jews, the enemy of the Afghan people, the enemy of Palestinians, the enemy of Iraqis, the enemy of the Kurdish people and the enemy of everything I've ever f---ing well fought for or cared about. Capitalism is truly puking up undigested barbarism these days (truefact).

8 Let's finish up, this evening, with one of our own - Calum Carr - and his take on the Scottish issue:

Nothing new about this. Not even newsworthy. He spoke therefore he lied: that’s the Blair we all know.

In today’s Times (26 April 2007, sorry no link) he accused Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP and likely to lead the largest party after next week’s election, as follows:

“When Alex Salmond gets up in the morning what is on his mind is fighting England.”

Fighting: this from Mr Military man. “Who’s up for a fight?” “We are”, says Tony. “Well, not me, of course, but “my” troops are up for it”. He has no shame!

“Fighting England”, he says. What absolute rubbish! I have seen or heard nothing to suggest there is any truth in this.

I have seen reports that the SNP will try to manufacture issues on which they can claim that the Westminster government is not acting in the interests of Scotland.

Dem's fighting words and more of these on Tuesday evening, the national day over here. So crank up those old gramophones and dust off your copy of The Internationale. Go out to the garage and find 1] a hammer and 2] a sickle.

Bye for now.

[kryptonite] curse of lex luthor

Love those tights.

You'd expect that with my mindset I'd take the Superman Curse onboard and you'd be right. I do indeed think there is something in it but not as much as Wiki has tried to ascribe to it.

Now a new warning has been backed by science:

Warning to Superman: Stay clear of Ottawa. With the help of our very own National Research Council, scientists have identified a mineral with virtually the same composition as kryptonite, the space rock that makes the Man of Steel more like a man of straw.

It all started in Serbia, where geologists working with mining giant Rio Tinto unearthed a drill core of a rock they couldn't match to any known mineral. So they contacted Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum.

But when Dr. Stanley typed the composition of the new mineral -- sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide -- into Google, he was astonished to find that it matched up with kryptonite. "He said, 'I nearly fell off my chair,' " says Dr. LePage. "And we had a good laugh."

The rock will be named jadarite, after Jadar, the place in Serbia where it was discovered, Dr. Stanley said.

I think this stinks. It should be called Kryptonite or White Kryptonite and tried on Arnie. If found relatively harmless, it should next be tried on the black-faced Lizard Queen to discover if she bears any resemblance to humankind.

Or not.

[betty boo] you can dance to this music

In the late 80s and early 90s, the rap phenomenon was well under way with such luminaries as MC Hammer et al and the Brits looked likely to be bi-passed in this new era.

The 60s swing which had given place to 70s complex sounds and the alternative punk distortion itself gave way to early 80s ska and a host of British bands - Madness, Bad Manners, the Beat, the Specials, Selecter and the classic Splodginessabounds spring to mind.

Yet the American incursion was strong. Into this came the 1990 album Boomania, generally regarded now as a masterpiece of the genre, by Kensington girl Alison Moira Clarkson.

Those who remember the microphone malfunction in Melbourne which ended her career or the interviewer who came to her house asking her: "So what do you do?" and her classic, shocked reply: "I'm a singer" - all of that aside, not enough people give Boo her rightful place in the history of popular music.

She stood out in a sea of rap as:

1 British;

2 White [sort of - she was a Malaysian Scot];

3 Possessed of a damned good album, musically speaking.

I don't know if it was her or whether it was her writers or producer or whoever - whatever, the thing gelled and I, for one, now miss her rhythm, if not her caustic, egotistical lyrics. She was also easy on the eyes but I wouldn't want you to think that influenced my thinking. Oh no.

You remember her?

[By the way, compare Boo's photo to that of the Minnesota phenomenon Ruthie Z. If her photo is not currently in MyBlogLog, wait some and it will hopefully reappear.]

[men & women] it takes hard work

Match.com ran an article a long time ago, well before my blogging days, rating the following as the things which a girl most wants from you:

# Listen

# Support

# Admire

# Pay attention

# Learn

# Grow

Finally, try to be the kind of person she would want to be with. Staying in shape, engaging her on emotional and intellectual levels and helping out are all tangible ways to let her know that she matters to you.

I would add these:

# being clean

# having a sense of purpose

Girls might add:

# no really bad habits, e.g. drugs

# confidence

Adele Horin, in the SMH, August 14 2002 said:

# Happy couples around the world were the ones who tended to put their relationship first. They had a strong sense of being a couple, while retaining their own identity. They looked after each other.

# Each partner compromised and adapted to please the other and was prepared to give more than they received. They were the president of each other's fan club.

# These marriages took effort and ongoing maintenance, but the couples did not regard it as a hard slog. Rather, they brought an attitude of goodwill to the compromises required.

# How couples handled inevitable conflicts was also crucial. Criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling spelt death for a marriage. Humour could defuse conflict and salve wounded egos.

# Couples married for 40 and 50 years worried that young people did not have the commitment needed to carry them through the hard times.

The themes which keep coming through, as far as I can see are working hard to keep the thing going,wanting to keep the thing going and perhaps the hardest - being reasonable to the other.

[islam] fine in a muslim world

I live and work in a Muslim republic, within part of the government and surrounded by Muslims. This republic has always been Muslim, the way of life and the architecture is largely Muslim and there's absolutely nothing to be said about that.

I'd marry a Muslim girl tomorrow.

Our government here sees Britain as a Christian country, regrettably maybe but there it is. This doesn't prevent great warmth on both sides when we visited Britain earlier in the week and that's one reason "trade" is such a positive field of international activity - it is all-accepting and diplomatic and the only criterion is mutual benefit.

Tim Worstall detests the DTI and they seem to be having their problems just now but internationally, the DTIs of the world go a long way towards smoothing out differences and preventing conflict. I've observed this happening at close quarters. They really can slant the strategy to the best advantage of business, locally.

That's why I believe the government should be run by business or people who understand business and not by Imams or Archbishops. And that's why there is, in my view, dismay in Turkey and delight in France at this moment.

Two aspects in a middle-east online article illustrate this:

In Turkey, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, 56, a pious religious conservative, has been nominated for the presidency of Turkey by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). He seems certain to be confirmed in the post by a parliamentary vote on Friday. This has alarmed liberal Turks who fear that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s legacy of secularism will be eroded.

In a warning against radical Islamism, Turkey’s outgoing President, Ahmet Necdet Sezer -- himself a stalwart secularist -- went so far as to declare that Turkey’s secular system was facing its gravest threat since the founding of the Republic in 1923.

It would be an unmitigated disaster in Turkey. So much work has gone into the secularization and a rejection by the EU could well drive it into the arms of the jihadis. That's why, though I think Sarko is infinitely preferable to Segie, it would not be so good for Turkey.

The article continues:

In France, presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy makes no secret of his distaste for militant Islam -- and perhaps, if the truth be told, for Arabs and Muslims in general -- especially in the form of alienated youths of North African origin in the rundown suburbs of Paris and other French cities.

He is viscerally opposed to the entry of Turkey - a country 99 per cent Muslim - into the European Union. He is the only French presidential candidate to make his position on this issue absolutely clear. If he is elected President, Turkey’s accession negotiations with the European Commission in Brussels are likely to face serious obstruction from Paris.

Not wanting to seem softer on crime than her rival, Ségolène has suggested that youthful troublemakers should be sent to military boot camps. But, this apart, she projects a gentler, more caring image than Sarkozy.

And this is why Segolene would be a disaster for France. She is playng catch-up-policy the whole way, her party machine is a mess and her platform keeps changing according to the prevailing political wind. And yet, in Turkish terms, she would be preferable.

Sarko is remembered for this sort of thing as well:

More controversially, however, he praised the Algerian army for cancelling the second round of general elections in 1992, thus preventing an almost certain victory by an Islamist party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). "Algeri was very brave to interrupt the democratic process," Sarkozy said. "If the army had not acted, one could have had a Taliban regime in Algeria."

He failed to mention that the army coup triggered a 10-year civil war in the 1990s in which well over 100,000 people died -- and of which this month’s suicide bombing was worrying evidence that the struggle is not yet over.

And this article "failed to mention" that it was precisely the FIS which triggered the atrocities in Algeria. What middle-east online is saying is that because the French prevented the FIS coming to power, that the FIS revenge massacres were the fault of the French. Not even I would accuse the French of that.

This article gives a different take:

Western pressure led to elections in 1991. The Islamists were leading and would've won. But the generals decided to cancel the elections. That's when it turned into all-out war between the Islamists and the Army.

The biggest Islamic guerrilla force was the AIS, connected to the FIS, the Islamic party that would've won the elections. But AIS looked like squeamish moderates compared to the GIA, another Islamic militia that does its killing south of Algiers.

So, in a nutshell, Sarko is better than Segie for France. If Sarko gets in, this will impact on Turkey, which needs the EU membership to both stay secular and to act as a possible bridge between the western and eastern worlds. A little like Egypt once did.

[sea of troubles] change the lifeview

Leaving aside the metaphysics and theology and concentrating instead on people, as in human beings and all their joy and pain, the issue of suicide is sad because there IS an answer and many people have seen it work many times.

A doctor doesn't treat symptoms - he treats root causes and that's the only way to go. The drugs and the electro are cosmetic fixes. A huge amount of the trouble is when we put ourselves at the centre of ourselves and our needs above all.

This is the sun and the stars revolving around the earth. Even a rationalist will say that's a rubbish model.

This manifests itself in an obstinate drive to solve all problems ourselves and we can't because we simply don't have all the equipment [unless you're a superman - I'm not].

You know the rest - despair, drinking, bleak music and so on. Absence of hope is what it comes down to and according to Dante, there's one particular entity who has this even written over his gateway.

Medically, there are people predisposed to despair and suicide. I may be one of these. Plus there is life experience to take into account. But even medical science knows of many "miracle" cures, so many that perhaps it should start to take the phenomenon seriously.

The human physionomy and brain can do remarkable things if it's operating in the right way. This is all JC was saying in pushing the faith, hope and charity thing so hard. It stands to reason. Faith, hope and charity regulate the brain and allow little time for despondency.

Putting family, friends and unfortunates first is a first step and no one is saying that's the preserve of the Christian alone. That would be idiocy to suggest that. It's just a first step to a sense of self-worth.

It doesn't change the curmudgeonliness, the cutting tongue [or keyboard] or life's day to day issues. It just makes it so much easier to cope if one is outward, rather than inward looking.

And this is not my character. I'm a selfish mother, with a caustic tongue. Any niceness you see in me was put there.

Which brings us to the next thing. There are no free lunches.

If you want comfort in your troubles, you have to pay for it. Standard business principle. The 3rd person in the Trinity is the good oil - it works in the same way those without a Ferrari can't appreciate true speed and safety until they've driven one.

But there's a price. You have to believe it can work first. It's the Peter walking on water principle. Believe, you walk on water, you soar to the clouds. Lose faith and you sink. Who cares whether it was allegorical or if it happened?

In my situation, I would say all my troubles came from stubbornly insisting on my own way. On the occasions I throw up the hands and say: "OK, OK, what do you want me to do then?", immediately things fall in line.

Things start to gel instead of jarr.

In a nutshell, we're going to come a cropper if we let this manic drive for self-aggrandisement consume us [even if we insist it's for the good of our family]. Doors close here and there, opportunities present themselves less and less and so on.

Go the other way though and it's simply good business practice.

That's all I wanted to say.

[suicide] to be or not to be

14 year old Mike Altman wrote this for M.A.S.H.:

The game of life is hard to play; I'm gonna lose it anyway;

The losing card I'll someday lay, so this is all I have to say:

That suicide is painless; it brings on many changes and I can take or leave it if I please.

… and Joy Division:

So this is permanence, love's shattered pride.

What once was innocence, turned on its side.

A cloud hangs over me, marks every move,

Deep in the memory, of what once was love.

Oh how I realised how I wanted time,

Put into perspective, tried so hard to find,

Just for one moment, thought I'd found my way.

Destiny unfolded, I watched it slip away.

In his second year of university, an old school friend, Rhys, who'd introduced me to Rugby Union at school, was sharing a bedsit with his best friend and one day he came home, left a note for is friend Will, then blew his brains out.

The note said how sorry he was for having caused so much trouble. What trouble? There'd never been any trouble.

Because of the fear and shame it generates, suicide is scary and difficult to talk about, even for health professionals, and usually it is reported in code: "there were no suspicious circumstances". Suicide is a major public health problem, accounting for 2101 deaths in Australia during 2005. There are 40 deaths a week and rates for young males are particularly high. Suicide is on a par with the road toll as a preventable cause of premature death. We are struggling to make a real impact.

Some suggest that the internet is leading to more suicides and you can see why in the case of some of those sites, the fora, the late nights and the seeming obsession [I'm in here now, for example].

On the other hand, there are suggestions that the net can, in fact, help decrease the number if it acts as a helpline. An example of such a site is http://www.reachout.com.au and the advantage is that the helpline is just a click away for a young internetter.

Mary Quant said, in the Observer, in 1996:

Being young is greatly overestimated . . . any failure seems so total. Later on you realize you can have another go.

Many won't make it that far.

And what of yours truly? Many times it's crossed my mind but four things stop it.

1 It's self-indulgent and concerned with one's introspective ego, a failing of the young but also prevalent amongst the not so young of a certain mental set. A passage by Agatha Christie said it, for me:

You take your life today and perhaps in five, six, seven years hence, someone else will go to death of disaster simply for the lack of your presence in a given spot or place.

You say your life is your own.

But can you dare to ignore the chance that we are taking part in some gigantic drama under the orders of a Divine producer? Your cue may not come till the end of the play - a mere walking on part - but upon it may hang the issues of the play.

2 Douglas Adams' "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" is close to the Australian Aborigines' idea of the same kind - that the earth and the sky feel every nuance, every scream of terror and every murder, even self-murder.

3 The technicality that if one is Christian, then suicide is a backsliding against the 3rd person, a statement, in fact, that the 3rd person can't help you and therefore a one way ticket to the infernal regions.

4 I always want to know what's happening tomorrow.

Taken together, this is a nicety which keeps me alive. What keeps you alive?