Holiday in the Sun

Time for a well-deserved break, which I will spend with my nearest and dearest on Rarotonga (Cook Islands), paradise in the South Pacific. Wish you could all join us - err, maybe not.
Back next month.

Troy, but not as we knew it

"You had no consideration for my pure reverence of your thighs, ungrateful after all our frequent kisses".

Achilles to Patroclus's corpse (in "Myrmidones" by Aeschylus).
It could have been Brad Pitt's role of his life!
Some real Trojan War stuff, plus putting some good old Greek loving into war.

Dub Asylum

DUB ASYLUM: She Dubs Me... 12" vinyl remix EP
EP release exhibition/party -Tuesday May 25th at Rakinos cafe, 1st floor, 35 High St, Auckland, from 6pm. Free!
Art by Daniel Tippett, DLT, with DJs Dub Asylum, Rob Warner, Big Matt.

Dub Asylum are pleased as punch to announce the release of their brand new remix ep, featuring some of the hottest DJ's/producers from Aotearoa - Timmy Schumacher vs Substax, Rob Warner and Josh Webb, The Audioslut, and Matt Scott at Woodcut Productions.

The EP launch will be celebrated with a very special event: Peter has hooked up with leading NZ graffiti artists Daniel Tippett and DLT, and they will be getting a bunch of the record covers, laying them down in a grid pattern, then doing a big graffiti art mural over them, so each individual cover is a limited edition artwork.

There will be a one-night-only art exhibition at Rakinos on Tuesday May 25, displaying the finished covers (for sale on the night), after which they will be split up and sold. About 50-60 covers will be painted by Daniel and DLT, the rest will have an art stencil design on them, so every copy of the EP is an original work of art. There will also be DJs on the night, including Dub Asylum.

EP track listing:
1. Scratch N Sniff - Soka So Good remix by Timmy Schumacher vs Substax (feat Sandy Mill – vocals)
2. You're So Sensible - The Audioslut remix (feat Willa O’Neill – vocals)
3. What the Funk - Rob Warner and Josh Webb remix (feat Sandy Mill – vocals)
4. What the Funk - Remix by Matt Scott at Woodcut Productions (feat Sandy Mill – vocals)

Cocteau

The massive restrospective exhibition on Jean Cocteau is on show in Canada now. I visited it at the Centre Pompidou in Paris last year, and it sure was one of the highlights of my holiday in Europa.
A review of the Canadian version of the exhibition is here.
Extremely recommended if you are interested in 20th Century cultural history.

The Experiment

Watched the German film The Experiment last night on Rialto Channel. The tale is a muddled psychological set up but the issues it looks at are interesting, what with all the prisoner abuse holding a lot of attention lately. How man turns beastly to man as soon as you grant him an inch of power over his victim was very interesting, especially the power games and humiliation meted out. Those British army piss scenes - real or not - were inspired by a movie like this. There was a curious absence of sexual abuse, apart from calling each other weichei (soft-boiled egg, or sissy). The main difference of course was the absence of women in the prison guard group, which some social theorists think would be mitigating male behaviour. Not that this was the case at Abu Ghraib, but then after her TV interview I have difficulty in classing Lynddee England as a member of womankind.

The Passion of Nicholas Berg

Televising the execution of an innocent. Since the American love affair with the death penalty shows no sign of abating - even the execution of innocent people - think what a TV programmer's dream a televised execution would be. The marketing opportunities! The ad breaks between each attempt to throw the switch on sparky or the next vial of poison being injected! The Passion of the Christ box office would be broken! Why only let the Arab web media have all the fun, when there are death rows of inmates ready for the ultimate in reality TV.

Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys

"The result of 'self-abuse' is always — mind you, always — that the boy after a time becomes weak and nervous and shy, he gets headaches and probably palpitation of the heart, and if he still carries it on too far he very often goes out of his mind and becomes an idiot."

The wise words from Lord Baden-Powell, and a funny review by Christopher Hitchens. How long before an updated version for our contemporary empire builders worried about the manhood of their stock? (And how come female trailer trash is teaching self-abuse these days?)

Interior decorating

Finally decided on a new skin for the blog. Looks kinda 60s Sci-Fi (Raumschiff Orion rather than Star Trek) but I've always wanted to take Captain Scarlett for a tropical tryst on Tracey Island. (I know, I know, different puppet series)

Sanity is still around

Read their editorial. Good to see not all brains have been blasted away by the war.

The mess in Mesopotamia

So now we know why Lynddee England made those Iraqi prisoners wank in front of her: May has been declared National Masturbation Month. And as a patriotic American she only wanted to transplant those good old family values from the States to Iraq by teaching them some self-abuse. One can but wonder who taught her these things back at her trailer park home.

Draw a line on paper instead of the sand

Political cartooning that makes a point and makes you laugh isn't particularly easy to find. But Steve Bell of The Guardian is an exception. His cartoons make you just want to wash your hands if you ever had the misfortune to shake hands with politicians. (I had to, one time, with John Banks, Mayor of Auckland, I still have bad dreams)
Here's a particularly good one, if you remember Mrs Thatcher as PM (as opposed to icon for the Cold War outcome).
And here's one that got the Duchess of Dupont all upset.

Just when you thought Bardot was an also-ran popband

Aged sex kitten is at it again. Brigitte Bardot appeared in a Paris court on racial hatred incitement charges. She obviously doesn't like les beurs boys. I think she should stick to saving baby seals. And please, lay off the peroxide, girl, it's gone through your skull. (Thanks to Peter for the tip)

Sanity is still around

An intelligent interview with Bernard Lewis on the Middle East from a political/historical perspective. Actually reads much better than most hysterical blogs/comments around. Recommended.

Boys and their toys

Seems like the US Marines are not the only ones interested in hazing fun and games. The Brits - inventors of gay S&M sex and a compulsory public school curriculum item, alongside rugby (paraphrased from Julian Clary) - are at it too.
Now army brass is saying the "uniforms" and the soldiers' "gear" look suspicious, and the pix may not have originated from Iraq.
Knowing some of the antics the Brit gayboyz get up to in the more adventurous London sex clubs, it's entirely feasible they are fun party pix. If the Iraqi prisoner is indeed genuine, I apologise now. Hazing and watersports should only be played by consenting adults.

Terzain aporia

Sent in a late entry to the Russell Brown Terzain Aporia Prose-Poetry Parody "competition":

Looking at the blurred simulated sex pix of the Iraqi prisoners,
The Marines seemed inspired by GWB’s frathouse antics,
Only without the coke.

If the Marines ever need any inspiration, go to Frat Hazing Central. Site of the month!

European Union growing

I've been humming the "Ode to Joy" all day long.
Since it is May Day too today, and you have to work (presuming you got a job), here is another tune to celebrate your day with.
Getting them both to harmonise will be the major challenge for the European Union!