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What I Have Learned About Southampton and The Sea
I was very excited to go to Southampton, the furthest south I have ever been in England, and wanted to go down to the seaside. I peered out over the docks at the water and was happy. I then went into the Maritime Museum to look at its Titanic exhibition, where I noticed on the last exhibit that it said that Southampton is on the River Test. ( Read more... ) -
A Hymn I Like
My soul is sad, my heart is breaking tonight ( Read more... ) -
Poetry Night
If I had a machete,
I would, like all my family, plant us a garden.
If I had a gun,
I would shoot locks off treasures, open vaults.
If I had a bomb,
I would defuse it, neutralise the very thought.
If I had power,
I'd rule it, free the passage from the start.
But if I had you,
I would be overwhelmed.
[Love Song, Jean Binta Breeze]
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So Bad It's Still Not Very Good
I just watched The Princess Bride, a film from some time some time ago (Wikipedia tells me 1987). purplesparkler and Paul were insistent that I watch it, Paul even getting quite upset at my reluctance, so being the amiable chap I am I agreed to watch it. It was not the film I worried it would be from their descriptions (another Red Sonja clone). Yet in some ways ( Read more... ) -
RIP Michael Jackson
The King is dead.
It feels odd to be affected by a popstar's death, but Michael Jackson is - was - no ordinary popstar. A fractured, vulnerable genius. An enormous talent that perhaps even so was never fully realised. Cause for sombre reflection. One can only hope that he's resting now in the peace that he never seemed to find in life. -
Fun Brainteaser
Titus Oates, an "English conspirator".
Frida Kahlo, a bisexual Mexican painter.
What links those two people?
Prizes for the first person to work it out! -
On Old Friends and Matching
Here's to us; one more toast and then we'll pay the bill
Deep inside, both of us can feel the autumn chill
Birds of passage, you and me
We fly instinctively
When the summer's over and the dark clouds hide the sun
Neither you nor I'm to blame, when all is said and done
[ABBA]
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Those of ( Read more... ) -
No More Samurai Any More
The BFI has a series called "Passport to Cinema" in which they show classic films that you'd be hard-pressed to find showing elsewhere. I've had a wonderful time with these recently, watching the emotionally harrowing La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc and Fellini's 8½. Tonight I saw Akira Kurosawa's epic (as my numb bum by the end of its three and a ( Read more... ) -
Isolation
I don't expect you to understand,
After you've caused so much pain,
But then again you're not to blame,
You're just a human, a victim of the insane.
[John Lennon]
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I get down after parties. I feel a sense of emptiness, as if the darkness both without and within had only been staved ( Read more... ) -
Masquerading as a Man of the Cloth
And so to Andrew and Edward's Masquerade Ball. We arrived in time, albeit an hour later than we planned due to the moral necessity of Paul needing to "show that inefficient bastard that that was no way to win Scepter von Zavandor".* Everyone had made an effort with their masks (except Johannes, and no, being 8 and a half months old is not an excuse ( Read more... )