Dark Side of the Moon

I had one of the best weekends I've had for ages. Nothing too specific as I'm philosophically happy with much of  life at the moment, but it just seemed that everything was in harmony. I did a lot of jobs that I'd put off for far too long, got rid of more stuff that I don't need, met some terrific people who are comfortable talking about the kind of things I find interesting without choking over the pasta and chardonnay, and I even got some exercise in and watched a couple of great movies.

But the real leap I've been waiting close to 40 years for. I've been looking at the moon all my life and have always felt there is something provocative yet also uber tranquil about it. There was always a sort of mild taunt in its presence which I couldn't articulate. Well, while I may not have secured the answer to the question I realised this weekend that there is a question I must know the answer to. 

That might not seem all that exciting but knowing there is a question is significant progress and so I've added a Lunar Widget to the blog to celebrate the event on the right of this post. With elegant symmetry of timing, a comprehensive post has also been written in the last few hours that covers most of the questions that helped me get to mine.  Don't read it if keeping an open mind is too disruptive and paradigm challenges are too upsetting. 

There are questions raised that I've spent many more hours than most and which I can't secure a conclusion on. Then there's my question to answer now which will probably take another 40 years if the past is any indicator of the future.

By chance while studying solar system moons I learned that Iapetus is uncannily like George Lucas' death star. Which chimes oddly with my synchronicity post from way back.

And If You Tolerate This. Then Your Children Will Be Next

So young, so articulate. So unscripted. Millennial copywriting?


Via Tim

Jaeger - London Fashion Week

Jaeger's colours and proportional straight line cuts at London Fashion week are working for me. I've always enjoyed the quality of this business but this latest show is most elegant. almost worth reconsidering the value of cold weather.

John Carpenter's 'They Live' & Banksy

I'm watching the Banksy documentary which is well worth downloading from www.nikflix.com (somebody should buy that domain). I'm struck how politically it closely ties in with the movie 'They Live'. It's practically a palimpsest.

Update: ODD has produced an excellent analysis of They Live.

The Disney scene in the Banksy movie is extraordinary. It morphs from family fun to plain clothes Guantanamo Mickey Mouse security on Robocop pathology. To quote The Beatles I was playing earlier, "It wont be long, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah".

It's a very provocative and entertaining movie and possibly the most self referential piece of art I've come across for some time. Part postmodern, part self fulfilling prophecy. Watch it if you can. Maybe I should come back to the John Carpenter movie They Live some time because of Freeman's slick sick synchronicity spiel on it. Mind blowing stuff.

With Thanksy to Banksy

As Above So Below

Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project's "Trinity" test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan's nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea's two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).

Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing"the fear and folly of nuclear weapons." It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming.

Go Google

Love the way mainstream media in the US portrays democracy in Egypt as a bad thing. Bad bad Google. God bless America and its dream.

American Hero

I guess by now it's evident that I no longer view the United States as a leader power. It's not about the raw power. No country has invested more money in aggression and future aggressiveness than the United States. I think that will be born out in the future when the full extent of how much militarization of space is under way. 

On the Chinese dime. 

It's the loss of moral leadership that is most visible outside of the media cocoon that many US communities live within. However that's not to say I'm not a great admirer of the citizens who turn away from the malignancy of the system and in that respect Michael Reynolds the architect who creates sustainable living in New Mexico is exactly the kind of American I admire hugely for that big bold vision thing that trickles down into the lives of people and changes them for the better. This is both a great story and an informative pointer about why bureaucracy is first and foremost self preserving. Lots of good construction ideas in this. Free thinking, and rule breaking creativity. Not the prettiest of constructions but very much in harmony with the environment and the people who come together to build them.