[mayhem in iceland] more than the sum of its parts

Primal instincts with the daughters of Snorri

We all like a good disaster happening to someone else to reinforce our own comfort zone:

A geyser cut through the asphalt of a parking lot in central Reykjavík yesterday, while a tree sprouted straight through a Skoda.

Apparently, that is the path of destruction a French giant has left behind. His daughter, a giant mechanical marionette, will stroll through the streets of Reykjavík tomorrow to calm her father down.

“The artworks do more than brighten up the everyday life. They create a real quality of life, increase understanding and humanity, said Thórunn Sigurdardóttir, the artistic director of Reykjavík Arts Festival, which ends May 26.

Click here to watch a video of the geyser and the Skoda.

And here I was thinking that it was finally beginning - the dreaded hand of the Nordic revenge.

[tony blair] should we believe the polls

The mayhem this man and his croneys have wrought on the country, the way they've sold it down the drain to the EU and then this:

Although Labour was savaged in council elections last week — and Mr Brown nears power with Labour's hold on his home of Scotland lost for the first time in 50 years — Mr Blair retains surprising levels of support among Labour voters and voters in general, according to a Socialist Daily* [Guardian] poll published yesterday.

It showed that 80 per cent of Labour voters and 44 per cent of all voters — a much higher figure than Labour's standing in polls — thought he had been good for Britain.

In which way good for Britain, I wonder? And if he was so good, why the universal clamour to remove him, on both sides of the political fence?

Please! If my tone seems churlish and my manner unforgiving, it is only because of the victims of the Blairocaust we remember today.

* I plead guilty.

[blogfocus thursday] easy-bloggers' evening

Simone says: "If you want to see my best friend, you have to come to her site. She's N1 below."

This evening we're giving the political issues a rest and looking at another type of blogger I simply adore - who blogs about life's minutiae and gives us a glimpse into another world.

Kicking off is Welshcakes Limoncello.

1 Welshcakes was out for her morning constitutional when this happened:

Simi and I were on our first walk of the day yesterday morning, I noticed that there were about four pieces of fallen masonry on the ground beneath the posters. By the time we came back, this had prompted the arrival of two fire engines and their crews, police, an ununiformed gentleman who seemed to be organising everything and, of course, the usual crowd of onlookers shouting advice, exclaiming and chatting to each other.

I confess, reader, that I joined the group of spectators for there is nothing like a good, clamorous Italian commotion to kick-start the day.

2 You want the good oil on films - Reel Fanatic is the man to see:

Even with Ron Howard attached to direct, "Frost/Nixon" is another upcoming movie that I'm jazzed about, and the news about it just keeps getting better.

The pedigree for this one is certainly solid. The stage play and movie script, based on the series of Richard Nixon interviews conducted by Brit David Frost, were written by Peter Morgan, who was rightly nominated for an Oscar for his whipsmart script for "The Queen."

3 La Femme Contraire has come to a realization:

There is a thing I feel the need to share for the benefit of one of my readers (he'll know who he is). I can now look back at the behaviour of my hosts on that awful trip I had to New Zealand, and, well, just laugh at it. I drew the conclusion a little while ago that the attitudes and behaviour of some people just is not worth getting angry or upset about.

All it does is empower them anyway. If people's behaviour is either very strange or very unpleasant in your view the best remedy can be to make light of it. Political Umpire told me that such a day would come and I did not believe it at the time.

4 Max speaks best with his sketches and watercolours, when he's not using mere words:

5 Bonnie Wren is unique. Here she tackles the Hillcrest Robber:

HILLCREST – Police are looking for a man dressed as a woman – French manicured nails and a pink bra – who held up a bank yesterday.

How did witnesses know this guy wore a pink bra? Did they see a pink strap peeking out from the neck of his shirt?

Maybe the robber’s shirt was one of those thin polyester tees and people could see right through to his bra — I hate it when this happens to me. It’s hard enough to color coordinate my clothes without worrying about color coordinating my underwear, too.

6 Dave Hill puts Chaka Khan to good use in the gym:

I was in gym the other day feeling very tired indeed when Chaka Khan came on the in-house sound system. It was her hit "I Feel For You", a cover of the Prince song, and not my favourite of her recordings. Wasn't one of her favourites either, as it happens (that rapper, the production...) but it still put a little zip into my rowing machine regime. And may I say that I've always liked Chaka Khan - ever since "Tell Me Something Good" came sweltering out of my bedside tranny when I was a secret soul-freak teen.

7 Tea and Margaritas has gone pillow shopping and you can see photos of the results at her site:

They have cut back largely on salting the roads. Now his van needs tending to and he has to find some time to repair it, so my Mum took me over to Lens Mill Warehouse to the their other little building and I got more pillows!

We dug and we dug and I stood on a wire shopping basket upside down (the basket, not me) and dug some more to the bottom of the three huge boxes. They aren`t feather like I thought, but feel and lay like feather and for $2.50 a pop, who could resist?

8 Clive Davis, the man who hugely popularized blogging so long ago, has a brand new blog at the Spectator, well worth a look. check out his old blog too:

A worm's eye-view... I took this shot by accident while I was out on a walk.

Eight already and we haven't even started covering the Easy-bloggers. Have to continue this next Thursday.

There'll be a different kind of Focus on Saturday - not too different though. Actually, not that different at all really.

[working day] two halves of my job

Some of you were curious just exactly who I work with half the time and when one of the girls came up to me today with this photo, [that's Diana far right], it was a good chance to show you. Of course, usually they wear clothes.

When I explained that I have a certain number of Brit and American blogfriends who'd like to see this particular photo, she said: "OK." But be warned - it works both ways - she wants to see your comments as well.

By the way, all of the above ladies are going in for a beauty contest at 20:00 on May 17th, at the Hermitage, if you'd like to get along there. That's what this shot was about.

Unfortunately I have a prior engagement with you all that evening.

Now, for those curious about who I work with the other half of the time - here's the Ministry party below [the interesting part]. Hawk-eyed readers will have spotted that the lady on the right is the same as in this post.

It's a tough job but someone has to do it.

[welshcakes limoncello] open letter to my friend

Simi - the other half of the Sicily Scene blog

This is a post I promised Welshcakes Limoncello, at Sicily Scene. Most of you know her wonderful slices of life over that way and she's an original Blogpowerer.

So when she wrote this on my May 8th/9th post …

I have been concerned, lately, about some of the blogpowerers' comments and the language [I don't mean the f word!] … used in them re socialists. [I]am more socialist than anything, [b]ut I hope you all know me well enough now to realise that I have an open mind.

But lately I have to read that I am a piece of dirt or the equivalent - this from people that I would never have thought capable of saying it. [O]nce you assert that a group with one belief are "vermin" you are getting pretty Hitleresque, I should think … I am not screeching against free speech here but I am saying that I am concerned and feel uncomfortable.

… I obviously needed to reply in a spirit of conciliation and explanation, rather than defence and justification and I'll attempt to do that now.

There are many misunderstandings here and I can speak only for myself and not any others who have done similarly.

1] The "vermin" reference was not to the socialists but to the cabals and the logic was this: My father died of hepatitis and emphysema, both of which were sheeted home to WW2 and thus he had a disability pension and his life was greatly foreshortened.

Not only that but he couldn't give us the quality of life he'd have liked to either. [That part was neither here nor there to me.]

He went to war because his "country called", i.e. the government. They declared war because Hitler invaded Poland. The only reason Hitler invaded Poland was because he had the Bruderheist money to do it. The cabals were not only financing him but the other side as well, through war loans.

Therefore these cabals I call "vermin", without a shadow of an apology.

2] This has absolutely nothing to do with Welshcakes [it might just as well be Jeffrey Archer] except that the language was intemperate and unpleasant to have to read. My blog is not noted for this type of thing and thus it was unexpected.

For this I apologize but not to Merkel's warmongering overtures to the EU and they are warmongering - I only printed a portion of them. I do not wish for this woman to create a situation where more fathers have the life mine did.

Yes, I have strong feelings about these people.

3] Now to the socialists. There are those who are Brit-socialists - not really political but Labour inclined and liking programmes of social welfare and a "caring state". I imagine that this is where Welshcakes sits.

I can't speak about other bloggers but I'm referring to the socialist mindset and system in its extreme form.

There's no ad hominem here whatsoever. Look at my blogroll and see Mars Hill, for example or some of the new entries. I'm actively trying to attract left leaning people to balance the Blogpower blogroll.

I'm also looking for Americans, Scots, Australians and so on.

I think those who know me would be shocked to hear I'd been calling someone "dirt", for the simple reason I didn't.

But socialism itself - that's an entirely different matter and I'm scathing about it. In my eyes it's a false doctrine and we can argue about this till the cows come home.

4] Another reason many people are a bit hot under the collar just now is that it's the season for elections and war remembrances and that often brings out the passion. This time period will pass.

5] So, to Welshcakes, if you felt that that's what I was saying to you, I apologize unreservedly and am mortified that you thought this. Only the other day I wrote that you and Ellee were exactly the types of ladies I have my eye on.

Nothing has altered that opinion.

[blogrolls] how should we tackle them

I want to visit everyone on my rolls. I want to dwell in there some time, have a good look around, explore their sidebars and then comment on their posts.

The sheer numbers in the combined rolls make it so difficult to do this. What to do? Arrange them according to frequency, popularity, what?

Think there may be a solution and that is to go in this order:

1] First hit all the MyBlogLogs I see in the left sidebar;

2] Next, go to Sitemeter and click on Referrals, page five, then click on visitors back to page one, number one;

3] Get a coffee;

4] Return later and start working down the blogrolls one roll at a time, from Blogpower to Pending.

I can't see any other way to do it. That way, constant visitors get hit a few times, which seems right and yet everyone gets hit in the end.

How do you do it? Now for another matter:

I truly can't see the point of "comments off". What - are we just meant to come in, drink in that blogger's words of wisdom and then depart, enlightened?

I don't for one second, despite my manner, think I hold a mortgage on wisdom, at least not enough to turn comments off and still hope people will visit.

Perhaps I've misunderstood the idea of "comments off".

Next, the word verification. It's a pain, truly, especially when one is surfing over a hundred sites in a relatively short space of time. And Typepad's WV is so cold and unfriendly, to say nothing of not visible.

It's no pleasure at all going to Typepad bloggers.

I don't use verification and I get a little spam, not much. The new google blogger is quite good, coupled with my own system on the computer. I just delete the spam comment straight away.

Of course, everyone to his or her own on this matter.