I need some inconsistency

An amalgamation of content: the aim not to politicise, but exercise. I'll think aloud about politics, technology, current news, as well as being a gay boy and what that really entails.

Friday, April 30, 2004

Out magazine has hot boys

In 'new' underwear. It's really just an excuse to show off the model's bodies. I'm going to need to have one like that within a month and a half - hitting the beaches all down the California coast. My gym will see more use, you'll see, I'll do it with hard slog and gut wrenching effort. If things don't go as planned, there's always that supposedly wonderous fallback - Creatine!
Hot guys

The bin is full of tissues.

Cold:

  • hack

  • cough

  • choke

  • sneeze

  • blow

  • shiver

  • sleep
  • Thursday, April 29, 2004

    I'm so sick

    The back of my throat is tight, my head is blocked up. My feet feel like I'm eighty years old, and even my fingers ache. I've got a temperature and I've been sweating all day. I told my boss there was no way I'd be in tomorrow.. I'll be in bed all day. Phone if you need me.

    Wednesday, April 28, 2004

    I forgot what I was going to say.

    I was going to send a friend of mine a really interesting email today but I can't remember to whom I had wanted to write, or what it was about. Phhoey. Now my head is going to be obsessing about that for a long time. I can just tell. I won't remember it anyway, it'll be something that was interesting at the moment of conception (so to speak) but loses its flavour when mulled over without the enthusiasm of the initial moment.

    Monday, April 26, 2004

    March for Women's Lives

    March for Women's RightsAlaina went to the march in Washington DC. She and a whole load of her family. That's amazing. It's embarrassing that the US is having to go through this, to demonstrate a right to choice.
    Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! has video and background. Stunning work.
    By the way, in the middle of the video (around twenty minutes in) there's a superb interview with Howard Dean, complete with women carrying babies moving around in the background. Unintentionally funny and yet also enlightening too.
    link

    Sunday, April 25, 2004

    Here's my friend John's blog

    Visit it. He's funny. Much more funny than me, and so you should all go and read his blog instead of mine. Much more happens, there being real activity in his world:

    "Anyway, back in the real world, those bastards stole my curtains!!!! Yes, believe it or not a woman just came in and took my curtains. Just as i was about to get dressed. "DOES MY BODY OFFEND YOU?" I had to hide on my bed while getting changed to stop the whole of St.Lawrence court being aware of my body. How annoying. I hope she gives them back soon! I mean, who steals curtains?! I have stolen many things in my life, curtains not being one of these things. Maybe it's a profitable venture? I'll have to look into it."


    fieldcorporalsuzuki

    Not safe around couples?

    On a note related to being a 'party animal' as would have been said ten years ago by some spaced out West Coast USA 'dude', I appear to be a threat to couples. This is rather rubbish for me because it always makes half of at least one couple in any group I go out with rather distant - they're trying to act indifferent and nice but seem to think that I'm a threat to their security. I don't know how this happens, and it makes one rather alienated anyway so it's an unpleasant situation. Perhaps because I'm younger than most of the boys I'm out with, the older guys feel threatened? Whilst out last night there were two guys there and one of them seemed like he was a lot of fun, dancing manically and having a good time. In the meantime, the other side of the couple was clearly having a bad night, being rather grumpy and unapproachable. Aware of this, I deliberately didn't dance with his boyfriend but stayed with the rest of my group, just dancing as a group. It didn't improve. Maybe if I had danced with one of them it would have given the impression that I wasn't a risk to them, but it could have just made one guy feel even more defensive. I wasn't a threat, they're together, I'm not going to try and break that up, I'm not like that.
    I just wish people would stop thinking that I am.

    "Most advertising sucks. You could be the reason"

    http://www.iamjack.com/

    I'm so distraught

    Jemma told me last night that I looked straight. I couldn't believe she'd say that, what a horrible thing to say. The look was supposed to be understated gay - not a complete slut, but still a little revealing. Straight was not the aim. Nasty nasty thing to say. But then again I suppose she probably hasn't seen a straight man for so long she's forgotten how awful they look. Repent for you sins against the gods of fashion oh hetero ones.

    Saturday, April 24, 2004

    Discounted 'cool' brands are fun

    Because when they have sales you can see all the fat people walking around, optimistically believing they'll really look good in the clothes. In fact they'll look rubbish but no-one will tell them because they feel so sorry for them having spent £25 on a t-shirt that looks like its any normal old bag with a cheeky logo sketched on the front. Which it is. Unfit people just don't know what looks bad on them - ie everything. I on the other hand....
    We went to a sale of a 'hip', 'surfer' brand today at a local posh sports training ground. All the middle classe of my area were there looking for summer clothes for half the rip-off price they'd normally pay. I got some stuff I'd looked at on Thursday but had laughed at the price. Now, since it wasn't so funny, I bought it. I know no-one else cares to know that I bought some clothes, but it was fun and, moreover, cheap.
    I use commas a lot.
    I'm actually reading a book to stop me doing that, which is just how concious I am of it. It's not "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" so stop groaning, I wouldn't read that tat.

    The Microsoft Response

    Version 1.0001
    The corporation has posted a response to the European Commission's case investigating Microsoft of monopolisitic accusations by Realnetworks. The reply is as carefully worded as the Commission's finding is said to be by Microsoft, and goes through the legal arguements of the judgement stage by stage. I haven't read the 300 page initial finding because I didn't have all day, but this document is a relatively quick seven page read, so rather interesting still, mainly because it's clearly aimed at the uneducated journalist. Worth a look despite that though.
    Presspass pdf document

    Friday, April 23, 2004

    Plus,

    I only had an hour's sleep last night after talking on the phone for like an hour after having been out until three in the morning. I'm so shattered. Ugly people need beauty sleep and that's me tonight.

    It's all talk of resignation

    My major big-boy boss had his last day of work at the store today. He said goodbye to me in our stockroom and we did all the goodluck rituals that people do. Moments later I turned around, carrying on with my work. Then I realised that was pretty symbolic - everyone is disposable. In your job there's almost always someone around the corner vying for your position. Like in life where someone can drop you at the slightest sign of trouble or challenge, so in work. That was me last night, and that's going to be me in four weeks time.

    Tuesday, April 20, 2004

    who's a farmer boy then?

    Been looking at some of the farms I'd like to go volunteer on this summer in and around Seattle. I think some people are rather optimistic in hoping people will drive for many hours off the beaten track to visit some smacked out old farm. Obviously it'd be really worth it if you were going for months or something, but would be just too much effort for a few weeks. Apathy or what! But looking at some of the descriptions of these farms makes me so long to be there - I can't wait. It could be a complete blast doing some farming stuff, like gardening but harder!
    In a way, about the distance thing, isolated farms have a draw all of their own as well because it makes you feel even more together with the land, rather than a minor subset of urban sprawl that has simply paused along its path or rampant destruction. Some of the ones I'd love to go to are out way beyond the normal ferry routes from Seattle, making them really hard to get to (especially without a car) but at the same time beautiful simply because of their remoteness, fewer cars, more real wilderness, and a sense of being clean. That's what I love about the islands around seattle, they make me feel clean!
    I'm a freak really aren't I - going farming to be clean - what's that about!

    Sunday, April 18, 2004

    Am I like milk?

    Spread too thin, a fat in water? homogenised?
    If you're trying to be someone to everyone then someone will find a way to get into the cracks of your character, of your life or of your mind. If you manage to be one of these people who's able to lock themselves down into a routine then fine, you win because your life is secure. If like me you take risks and attempt to please, you're in for a fall. Enjoy being tripped up by people you don't even know, it's a fun sensation. Like getting your heart broken or ice being poured over you when you're really having a great time. Whenever you're in a rush, busy busy, ready to drop, this is when the errors occur and when you become most vulnerable. You keep on trying to look around with darting eyes, pupils wide, to catch every detail of what's happening around you, but can't take it all in. Your eyes water with the effort of the intensity and the dust in your face is irritating. But there's nothing you can do to stop the impending trouble because you're trying even harder, spreading yourself ever more scarcely and yet managing to be satisfactory to fewer and fewer of the people you touch.

    Road trip

    I had to be up for eight to drive down to Cardiff this morning. Exhausted now, and need sleep but now must deal with family. What a pain life is. Everyone wants a piece of your time, wants to be your first priority, wants you to 'just' even though they're not prepared to return the favour. You love your family, but don't they just get on your nerves? It's the men coming back from war scenario - the rest of the country doesn't understand just what they've been though, not matter how much explanation is given. Whether I tell them I'm about to drop to sleep or whether I just do it, they won't understand how exhausted and emotionally drained I am. I don't think I can really take, all that much more. If there's anyone around who has a spare boot, please, invite yourself into my head and give it a good kicking.

    That's one of the posts that vanishes into the ether

    When you look for me online, don't try and make me into an example, a blogs are meant to be thought dumps for instant rants. That doesn't mean that everything included in them is well thought out or planned. That doesn't mean that everything I write is correct - I am not a newspaper, I have no fact-checker or editor to look through copy. All I can do is write and hope that I'm not feeling down or scared or shaking with guilt at the moment I write. Perhaps things I write don't go down well, that's because I write as a personal exchange. I'll write something and read it a few hours later, reconsider, and then delete the whole thing. If you happen to come along at the 'wrong' moment, you find a horrific and sharp attack, but later on in the day, you would view a homogenised and democratic thought. I'm not perfect, don't shoot me down before I've even begun, life is hard enough without bullets though my wings.

    Saturday, April 17, 2004

    Ikon gallery

    Elizabeth Magill at the Ikon gallery
    "The largest exhibition to date of paintings by London-based Irish artist Elizabeth Magill, it constitutes a comprehensive survey of her work from the past ten years.

    Magill shows remarkable innovation in her use of paint, revelling in a confident and experimental treatment of the picture surface. Often working on the horizontal she pours, bleeds and rubs swathes of colour into the surface of the canvas, a process of discovery until she literally ‘finds’ the latent image. In her recent painting, Land of the Dusky Sow 2003, for instance, a cluster of trees is formed from a purple bruising of paint that dominates the lower part of the painting. Revolving around a collision between abstracted mark-making and figuration, this friction is often compounded by an aggressive and scarred painting surface."


    This is where we went, where the artist seems to specialise in tiny birds flying high above the subjects in the paintings, reminding me of The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams (read about it here). She has some immensely huge works which are impressive in the subtlety of transitions in light as well as the contrasts of colour - showing often black foregrounds of trees and houses, with the lingering light of summer receding in the background.

    Can I ask you a question?

    "What is it that you're looking for in this thing with me. Friendship or more than that? Me X"


    That makes me feel so horrible. I just spent four hours with him having fun, going to an art gallery, and enjoying the day. I don't want him to think that I'm always available, but I do like him. He's a great guy. I don't know why I'm more reading to go further with other people than him, but I am. Perhaps its because I know he's there for me, he likes me, and is not going to desert me for someone else in another city. But that text was painful to receive.

    Photo essay on Slate - reversing vandalism

    link

    As Green Pea was doing...

    1. Find nearest book.
    2. Open said book to page 23.
    3. Find the fifth sentence.
    4. Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.


    My resulting sentence:
    "The ancient Greeks also liked to attribute sexual qualities to numbers, but it was they who first discovered, in the 4th century BC, the primes' true potency as the building blocks for all numbers."

    From The music of the primes: why an unsolved problem in mathematics matters by Marcus du Sautoy. I like to think that's a very intellectual sentence and makes me feel cultured, but it's really just that my younger sister is reading the book, left it by our computer, and then I started to read the beginning. I hadn't even reached that bit. It's good though - would definitely recommend it - so many Mathematics books are dry and lifeless, this is much more like Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh, a good math laced tale...

    Making out

    I've been a bad boy... On thursday night, instead of being good and simply making eyes at the other guys, I made out with them. Unfortunately the two that I did this with are best friends and both want the other to back off. Not a happy little party going on down here. P didn't want to dance, supposedly being in a 'bad mood' all night, so I went with his best friend to the dancefloor - after all, why go to a nightclub and not dance. Unfortunately I wasn't in a position to resist when he was trying to get his tongue down my throat, so I joined in. At least he was good at it. I still don't know where I stand on this, but I do feel like a complete shit for leading P on when I'm not sure what I'm doing. I wasn't deliberately being malicious, but as they had both been plying me with alcohol all night I was less inhibited than I would normally be.
    I'm a big water drinker when I'm going out as I like to be in control, and though I had four bottles that evening, they still must have managed to give me more than I'd have normally drank. The issue is, I have to decide between the steady and wonderful guy who I've been attracted to for months, or the excitable and chirpy guy who is going back to university in a week's time. He and I are more alike though, that's the thing, but P and I have fun...
    I'm about to see one of them in an hour or so it town to talk. Perhaps I'll be able to sort this all out.

    Thursday, April 15, 2004

    And tonight it's out again

    To become more tired and grey looking! Why we all put ourselves through the 'duty' of going out so frequently is beyond me, but we do. We seem to think that if not present, we'll be shunned by friends and forgotten by all. If one doesn't go out for a week, all that happens is people go 'huh - he's no here' for about two seconds, and then move on! I talked to some of the new friends I've made over the last few weeks and they're all going out except for one, and she's staying in to write an essay... fun!
    ciao!

    Wednesday, April 14, 2004

    The flowering spring

    Today has been the most beautiful day of the year so far. It's a stunner - a warm morning, toasty midday with clear skies, and now a nippy and still evening. My sister is home all day at the moment, revising for the dreaded GCSE exams that we have in this country. She's very clever and such but still, the pressure is mounting on her. I think she's getting an idea of what my older sister and I went through to do them. Not that she's cracking or anything, but I think she's now realising that when we were doing nothing, part of it was just a distraction for your mind - getting away from the worry or remembering thousands of facts for at least eleven seperate subjects.
    I've been inside the store all day, working away, serving people who would also almost certainly rather be elsewhere. If you're shopping on the first really stunning day of the year, there's got to be something wrong with you. You come from a natural, airy, bright atmosphere to a airy, bright but artificial atmosphere where all the outdoor delights are merely being recreated!
    Anyway the light today was brilliant, one of those days where the sun refracts all over the place making every nook and cranny look bright and cheerful. You can't help but enjoy it.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Tuesday, April 13, 2004

    On a related note, my friends must thing I'm a porn fiend.

    They keep on sending it to me. I don't think I've ever given them the impression that I want lots of porn sent my way! They still send it though. Of course I haven't told them not to send me anything - mainly because it's odd to even mention.... I hope they send it to lots of people and not just me, otherwise it's a bit of a comment on me which I'm not really liking!
    I'm not a porn fiend!

    It is, officially, my Birthday.

    I am 19.
    I'm not going to get too worked up about it, mainly because I don't really care all that much, and also of course because if you do then it's only annoying if people don't make a fuss. If you don't expect people to make a big thing, then you don't get annoyed if they don't make a big thing. In a way that could be thought of as me saying 'lower your expectations' but it's not meant to be that at all. It's not that I'm afraid that no-one will make a fuss, but that the wrong people will. Also, I don't like to remind people because it makes me feel like I'm fishing. I don't mind other people saying 'oh, it's my birthday next week' or something, even several times. I just don't like doing it myself. Whether that makes me extremely self concious, over protective of myself or just paranoid I don't know. The other thing is that I don't actually like receiving presents or gifts - I much prefer giving them. I like choosing things for other people and then hoping they'll like them. The other plus side of that is that I don't myself have to wear or use them. For example, I know now never to give books unless the person on the receiving end definitely has the time to read something new - I've got a stack of books at least four feet high that need to be read. I love them al, they sound really good, I just don't create time as I should for them. Silly me.

    Sunday, April 11, 2004

    The fight over?

    So when I also had a big fight with one of my friends on Thursday night, as well as not getting into the club, I went home rather pissed. Now it seems the whole issue has blown over and we're going to have 'a talk' as he put it last night. I don't know when the talk will happen - it hasn't so far and it's almost eleven PM. Don't think that means anything though. It appears he is in the apologizing mood, as when he called me at around three thirty this morning, he was gushing with sorrys. I'm not quite sure whether this turnaround is a good thing - he was so immensly vile the other day, that the issue of being 'friends' seems rather akward.
    Anyway, to make up for it, last night I was out on the town (after my ill-advised, formerly agreed to babysitting). Early yesterday afternoon I got a few old shirts I don't use anymore and cut one of them up. Well I really simply reduced the length and the girth of them - there's no point in going to a school uniform night if you really look like you're wearing school uniform. So I made it look sexy, and ripped, then combined it with a hot pink tie.
    It looked ok in the end - who would have though, a revealing yet clingy shirt! Makes you wonder what all those queens who were wearing shit had been thinking. You can't go out just wearing any old shirt - even straight boys know this. Ben Sherman be damned, quirky is the new guidebook.

    Thursday, April 08, 2004

    Arses

    They were ID-ing people today at the clubs. It's not like we live in the states or something! Good God. I don't carry ID, so, there being no chance of me getting in without any, I came home. Pain in the ass that really, especially since I'm of the legal age, but I just don't carry ID. Why - it's just one more the for someone to steal if they want to - and then they have something proving they are in fact, you! Rubbish - that was mightily annoying. So the rest of my friends go into the club and I'm left to get a taxi home.
    They're doing it this week because it's half-term and all the schoolkids are out being gay and are able to come clubbing midweek. The police want to stop this, so annoy me with it instead. Any self-respecting under 18 would have FAKE ID anyway. It's not hard to get - I just don't carry ID!

    Wednesday, April 07, 2004

    Couldn't agree more.


    //well, not funny ha ha, but odd and strangely written.
    But funny all the same:

    Watch for the sidewalk artists with the huge chalked picture of the Mona Lisa at their knees. Notice their studied faces, how they hold the colored chalk just so. With great deliberation, they add a few strokes here, maybe just a touch there. Then they sit back and look at the work with what is clearly an artistic spirit. If any street performers deserve some of your money, surely it these people, the true and pained artists.

    NOT


    Of course this is by far the most common 'scam' that anyone's ever seen - guys lounging around in the sun all day - what a hard life! Poor things, I empathise, especially since the 'art' is normally rather rubbish anyway. They've got a lot of these scams all around Europe, though I've never seen them really in the states or anywhere in England. I've witnessed some of these in numerous cities in Europe - Paris, Madrid, Lyon, Berlin, Florence etc blah blah...
    Street scams in Barcelona

    Tuesday, April 06, 2004

    Just been to see a great political comedy

    play brochure imageWhich isn't a headline you'll read every day. It's called Follow My Leader and is an extended song and dance satire of the Iraq war positions of Bush & Blair. Never holding back, it is at times rude and foul mouthed, yet always quick-witted and sharp. The play is interspersed with supposed scenes from the pentagon, conversations between Bush and Blair, a press briefing by Comical Ali, and visits on Tony Blair by God (with whom Blair also has a 'special relationship'). It's a must see, if only to get the visuals, as it's a triumph of high energy performance with a semi-political message.

    "The two self-appointed heroes of democracy and Christianity congratulate themselves on ridding the world of dictatorship. Meanwhile, their war activates a global clash of cultures waged with words of mass destruction and smoking guns.

    This hilarious, savage and thought-provoking satire follows the development of the so-called war on terror from 9/11 right up to the present day. Along the way, Follow My Leader asks awkward questions about Britain´s role as faithful poodle of the United States. "

    Monday, April 05, 2004

    Loverly photography

    two men hugging I found this site the other day, of a photographer in San Francisco called Patrick Roddie. He takes some amazing photos, often quite straightforward, but all the same clear and with a measured feeling. Just like sign with writing' your kind of place'Your Kind of Place, he themes the photos into time, or subject. This is the kind of photography I would love to emulate.

    "I started shooting when I was twelve years old, first with a box Brownie, then a half-frame Olympus Trip. If you'll excuse the pun, something just "clicked:" I somehow understood light, composition and the "moment" from the start and those early pictures still look pretty good, IMHO. I haven't been able to stop since - I don't have much choice in the matter.

    Training: Entirely self-taught, I've had no formal training in photography, preferring to make my own mistakes, experiment and burn through film. Only when I'm really stuck will I reluctantly open the manual. Don't try this at home."


    Webbery.com

    short stories

    shall we make up rubbish and post it on blogs, or should the content really happen.
    does anyone care?

    Sunday, April 04, 2004

    I don't want a strong dollar!

    I'm looking to change money from sterling to dollars and for my trip to the states this summer. I don't need a strong dollar that leaves me with less cash. NOT good timing!

    "The dollar surged on Friday after March US employment data topped all expectations and signalled that the economy may be on a firmer path to recovery.
    Sterling fell 1.38 per cent against the dollar to $1.8316. The Australian dollar fell 1.25 per cent to US$0.7580. "The concern had been about job creation and this shows that jobs can be created here.

    The nagging question of whether this recovery had legs seems to be getting settled in a way favourable for the dollar," said Steven Englander, chief North American currency strategist at Barclays Capital in New York. However, economists say, the dollar rally might fizzle, at least temporarily. A fall in Treasury bond prices in the wake of the jobs report could prompt investors to sell fixed income assets, possibly triggering dollar sales.

    But this period of dollar weakness is not likely to last long as higher interest rates would tempt investors back into US assets, they said. "We expect the market will buy dollars initially," Englander said."

    The News - International

    First date?

    He asked me out last night. It wasn't that he said "let's go on a date", but he texted me after I'd left the club saying "we should get together some time". I agree - it would make more sense than continually circling each other around the dancefloors of clubs, though we do that very well.
    I love how we'll see each other in the club whilst pretending not to be looking out for one another, smile, and then walk away. We're such idiots, playing a crazy game of who's the most shy. Plus, we'll each have a big group of friends around us, messing around and being stupid, making approaching one another in one sense a million times harder, whilst also a whole lot easier - you're never alone.
    But then, the result of this is that I will have to go one, at some point in the near future, my first date. Huh. I haven't dated. I don't date. Anyway, I think perhaps we should just mooch around at a bar - somewhere where we can hang out rather than do a 'thing' kind of date. I don't want to have a pretentious meal, watch a shitty movie or something like that. I wouldn't do that to relax normally, I'd rather sit down and have a drink. In a way there's more pressure because I have to sustain his interest just by myself rather than by the movie, but it's 'real' rather than being forced. ne?

    Saturday, April 03, 2004

    Tom Daschle speaks out


    link

    "Richard Clarke did something extraordinary when he testified before the 9-11 Commission last week. He didn't try to escape blame, as so many routinely do. Instead, he accepted his share of responsibility and offered his perceptions about what happened in the months and years leading up to September 11.

    We can and should debate the facts and interpretations Clarke has offered. But there can be no doubt that he has risked enormous damage to his reputation and professional future to hold both himself and our government accountable.

    The retaliation from those around the President has been fierce. Mr. Clarke's personal motives have been questioned and his honesty challenged. He has even been accused, right here on the Senate floor, of perjury. Not one shred of proof was given, but that wasn't the point. The point was to have the perjury accusation on television and in the newspapers. The point was to damage Mr. Clarke in any way possible.

    This is wrong–and it's not the first time it's happened."

    EEEEEEEEEEEEEeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

    I kissed a girl on Thursday night. It was all tongues. I'd just bought her a rose from the dodgy flower seller who strolls around the club every week trying to get gullible boys to buy his tacky tat. We were celebrating her birthday which, it turns out was a fabrication of his imagintion. They simply didn't want to wait in the line outside, so phoned up in advance, claiming to be having a party, wanting special treatment. It seems we'd been to the same school for seven years and never come across one another. Funny old world. The kiss wasn't exactly voluntary though - I was under pressure from the boy to kiss her, I suppose under the assumption that we'd move on to one-another after that. I don't think so honey! Next time.
    Anyway, more coercion expected tonight as we'll be seeing each other in one way or another, this evening too. Perhaps I'll take my camera so all the world can have a look at the guy. Oh, and we were all in the line the other day and one of his friends points to another guy behind us in. "He's eighteen you know! Oh my god!" V exclaimed. So I'm kind of like, "ummmmmmm, I'm eighteen too. Only for a few days now, but still, eighteen."
    "oh"
    Ooops. And then he asks me again how old I am, clearly not remembering, and then asks me to estimate his age. I hate this little game because unless you get it in a three year band or exact age, or one year either side, you're going to insult someone. So I'm like, "uh, twenty-three?".
    Too high.
    Twenty.
    He looks dejected for a moment, and then moves on. I hope.
    Fuck the age thing, who cares anyway, some people I know who're almost thirty are far less mature than I am. Age doesn't mean that much any more, upbringing and outlook do. If you have a directly contrasting view of life from someone that's going to place you far more at odds than a few years age difference, I can assure you.

    Friday, April 02, 2004

    Democracy Now!

    Part scathing critique, part call to action, "Independent Media In A Time Of War" is a hard-hitting new documentary by the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center (www.hm.indymedia.org). This film is composed of a speech given by Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! illustrated by clips of mainstream
    media juxtaposed with rare footage from independent reporters in Iraq. The documentary argues that
    dialogue is vital to a healthy democracy. "Independent media has a crucial responsibility to go to where the silence is," says Amy Goodman, "to represent the diverse voices of people engaged in dissent." She makes
    a compelling argument that the commercial news media have failed to represent the "true face of war."


    Running Time: 29:13

    Realplayer Broadband Video

    Speaking of which, Air America Radio is now online.

    Thursday, April 01, 2004

    Are you depressed?

    If you think so, do a really shallow and obvious online test ('I wonder HOW I could commit suicide.' rate this statement...) to find out if you really are! What FUN! Would this seriously be useful if you were perhaps actually depressed. I mena, what kind of answers would you give? Surely when depressed, one isn't self aware enough to be able to evaluate one's own position effectively. I don't know - madness.
    link

    Did I mention that I spent £800 yesterday?

    Almost five hundred of which was my plane ticket to Seattle this summer. Anyone around on the 15th June - I want a bed to sleep in please. Anyone. I'm liking that I've got the plans all settled - ready for big trip. I'm only in the States for about a month and a half at the moment, but I think we'll be in SF for Pride and such, so it should be fun. I'm still considering extending the time to allow more time wwoofing. Suntan.....
    Thanks.

    Orla Guerin criticised by Israel (again!)

    LONDON, April 1 (IslamOnline.net) – Israel launched ready-made accusations of anti-semitism against the BBC for a report on a16 -year-old Palestinian boy who allegedly was to blow himself up at a checkpoint last week.

    Israel's Minister for Diaspora Affairs Natan Sharansky complained that the corporation’s correspondent Orla Guerin had portrayed the army's handling of the detention of Hussam Abdu as “cynical manipulation of a Palestinian youngster for propaganda purposes”.
    link