Noise and progress

Of course there is nothing in particular that I want to say. The tractors are out "tidying" up the hedgerows - but then I ranted about that last year.

98% of people believe in progress, the rest of us think it is just noise; and loud noise at that.


Blues is not noise, nor progress. It is sublime ...

Oh! If only I were more zen like ...

Money, money, monet, in a rich man's world

No, this isn't a Monet it is a reflection of the Loire. If it were a Monet I wouldn't be spending my time blathering on and drooling into my keyboard. I haven't written for a while for I have been contmplating my navel in the search for lost petroleum resources. They aren't really lost at all and we are all being stung by an economic system that relies on phantom crisis to provoke misery in the masses and to guild the fat butts of the few.

In France, which brings us back to Monet, things are not a lot different. Here the State adds to the misery by persecuting the masses whenever the coffers are a trifle low. If you are going to get fined here the chances are increased tenfold during a recession. Oh, sorry, it is not a recession it is just the evil manpulation of the markets by the spawn of Satan.


That should cheer you up. Besides, nobody believes in God, or Satan anymore. Oddly enough they still believe in capitalist economics. A science so abstract as to make the virgin birth seem plausible. There are no global shortages accept that of comon sense. The same common sense that tells me that Sarkozy is bringing back platforms, Obama is not black and McCain is a chip.


This brief post should confirm your suspicions that this blog is dull, I am a dullard and what goes around comes around. My horoscope for tomorrow states that I am to have some prophetic dreams, so this may be the last dull yet rational drivel for a long while...

Back to front and back to work ...

Meanwhile, back in the backwaters of Le Puy City. Spring is sort of on its way. Today is cold, yesterday was hot. This should be summer given the lack of rain but who is complaining?

Sunsetting beneath a stormy sky lends beauty and contrast to an end of winter scene, but do we ever look behind the scene. Images are flat two dimensional objects limited in space, and for that matter time. We supply the context and the window dressing. This should apply to anything whether it is a photo, a news item or merely an itch.

At last and forty years on the BBC has broadcast the My Lai tapes. It has taken forty years for us all collectively to stop and turn around, to look behind us not at another version of reality, but at the light that creates the shadows.

So, next time you care to glance at an image take a moment to ask what is behind it. I did ...


Back in the garden and the daffs are out, the birds are getting up early and the sap is rising. Just time to go for a walk in the heights ...

Between a rock and a wet place ...

The rock :


The wet place :

As tropical storms Fame and Gula fade out to the south one has time to reflect...

Upon what I have no idea whatsoever.

The beach is back.

...

The click of death

Of course, this could refer to all those marvelous little creatures that are slowly devouring my house along with the luminescent fungi that has spawned its spores in the woodwork ever since that meteorite from RN-573 took the chimney off the bathroom and landed in the parsnip patch.

The parsnips have been particularly good this year; if a little florescent.

No, the click of death was my laptop hard drive. It just went like deathwatch beetles do and then stopped - without mating.

All is lost.

Ever since Apple paired up with intel thing have gone from bad to worse. Now, they have just gone. Of course I back-up. Regularly, yes, but not regularly enough.

Hence no photos.

... but wait. The beginning is nigh.

click click clickity click....

Christmas with the Black Virgin... and other tales

The Black Virgin of Le Puy en Velay is famous. There are many such Black Virgins throughout this part of the world and beyond. The one of Le Puy is famous partly because it no longer exists. She was destroyed sometime during the revolution during the great age of reason. We no longer live in an age of reason. It is the festive season and, no, this is not solely a Christian festival; it was abducted by an alien and patriarchal political class who have hung on to power for two millenia too long...

Blah blah! If the news, and by that I mean the BBC, is anything to go by this is certainly a very catholic Christmas this year. Tony Blair has come out of the closet and  Ms Widdicombe has tried to put him back in. The Pope has decided that conflicts are a bad, mad thing, which is great coming from the institution that is probably responsible for more conflicts and mortal torment than even Bin Laden and G.W. All this is the same old spiritual dog food but there is some thing in the air which seems to have been rather over-looked this year...

The Pope gave his address in front of the traditional scene of the nativity. Traditional? Well, apparently this year the scene was not a stable in Bethlehem but a room in Joseph's house. Why? Because the catholic church wants to demonstrate that, "Christ was born everywhere, not just in Bethlehem". Link

Forgive me; but isn't this going against the main tennets of faith? Next year it'll be by cesearain section in a BUPA maternity clinic. The year after Christ will have been borne on a meteorite that burnt up in the atmosphere and little spores of Jesus rained down throughout the land - Ah! so that is what the shepherds saw. Christ was born everywhere!!! Jesus! It must have been one hell of a night and something out of Being John Malkovitch. Christ was born everywhere - that means a lot of virgins ruined. 

The Pope goes on to denounce terrorism (whose?) and conflict that victimises women and children. That is really the rubber johnny of all hypocrisy... Which brings me back to the Black Virgin of Le Puy. Not very communicative, so went for a walk ...

Still, this being the season of good will it is time to open a decent Bourgogne, warm up the mincey meaties and think benevolent thoughts - Merry Christmas.