Nearly finished the appendices of "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" and if anything they are madder than the main part of the book itself. Conspiracies and mysticism fantasy with maybe the odd sprinkling of truth with recognisable names and images. I has been a wild and wacky ride and hopefully this will be the last time I mention it, but probably won't be because of the links and influences it has over so much music and writing that are in my admittedly large and eclectic sphere of stuff that attracts my attention.
I'm not sure what will be next and have a number of disparate tomes lined up including Richard Dawkins, Matt Haig and Brian Eno but they are just three of many, I could easily go for something else and at some point want to reread "Imajica"and "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" or even "Bored of the Rings" although like Spike Milligan's "Puckoon" that starts out brilliantly funny but does eventually fizzle out
So after that brief literary interlude I'll leave you on this Saturday morning with the vaguely literary connection of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" which recalls Lewis Carroll through a drug fuelled tango time haze.
Reading is good for you. It can educate you, inform you and take you places that don't exist, except in the imagination. I love Bill Hicks response when he is asked:
"What are you reading for?"
And then accused of being "one of them readers". You can hear his response here if you don't already know it. During my life I have often been denigrated for reading, having books (or the wrong sort), or not following religiously TV like X-Factor, BGT , Soaps and the like. Even today people still regard readers as something to be avoided.
I can't say I am a fast reader, and sometimes I don't finish books such PJ O'Rourke's "Don't Vote, IT Only Encourages The Bastards. PJ O'Rourke is very right wing, very intelligent, and eloquent talker , a great comedian , but like say Richard Dawkins he can get evangelical about certain views and the becomes a huge turn off for me. The book starts off well , again opposite to my views but well argued, presented and funny and readable. But , in my opinion, it descended into an anti Democratic government / Obama rant about the fact that he shouldn't be taxed or kept in line by government rules so it was donated to the Westgate Ark Charity Shop.
Next in line was Pete Townshend's "Who I Am" , a 500 page autobiography, by one of my favourite artists. All my life I've thought about Jim Marshall of Marshall Amplification fame as an American, and the fact unearthed from this book is that Jim Marshall is actually English. Now this is a very small insignificant fact, but if I didn't read I would probably never have known that, but now I do.
I try to encourage reading in others, my daughters are avid readers, and for the past four years I have given away books for World Book Night, but I am still aware of people who are actively opposed to books.
When I started Primary School, I was able to read, that was my mum who taught me to read, and my girls could read when they started school but some teachers actually berated us for having taught them to read.
Reading should be a pleasure and should be natural and everybody should do do it and encourage others to do to it, but I know for some people reading is getting their daily fix from their Red Tops (I don't want to even mention their name)
But anyway, I think you should pick up a book and , broaden your mind. I've included Mac Barnett's TED talk which is a great reason for reading.
And as this has been inspired by Pete Townshend, I've included this acoustic performance of "So Sad About Us" with Paul Weller , a good version of a wonderful song.
Was worried to see today that Mitt Romney was seeing no reason why the 350,000 Christian Churches in the USA could not be mobilised to bet the black man out of the the Whitehouse and put the rich white man back in the driving seat. Some details here .
The thing about this is that Christianity is getting hijacked for private gain , to make the rich richer and anyone else an ignorant slave underclass .
Let's assume that God exists , and the Bible is reasonably believable. Now the Jesuits were the first people to point out to me that Jesus was not a long haired white man , but middle eastern and at least very sun tanned. Also he taught love for your fellow man and to help people who were worse off than you .
There's a lot of good moral lessons in The Bible that hold true whatever your religion or non religion. I bet Richard Dawkins find big chunks of it that contains common sense.
People like Romney , just like the Taliban with the Koran cherry pick bits to suit their purposes , and amazingly people then believe it's true when they sauy "The Bible says ...." , whether it's stone a woman to death or nuke Iran.
One of Romney's kids says he want to punch Obama . Well Obama is black and has a name that sounds like Osama Bin Laden. Remeber just after the twin towers attack George made sure the Bin Laden family were flown out of the USA before the FBI could question them.
Romney doesnt believe that the rich should be taxed. Quotes like "The problem with $40 million dollars is that it becomes $20 million after tax" are not funny , when a lot of the American underclas have the problem that "$400 after tax and living expenses becomes - $200 ".
I have no problem with economies being run efficiently but the benefits should be for all , not just a select few.
Another this that reading Randy Pausch has sparkedoff in my memory is The Creationist Roadshow that I saw on BBC3 in the first week in October, the Conspiracy Road Trip hosted by Andrew Maxwell. You may be able to catch it here.
Creatists general see obnoxious idiots who are so blinkered in their outlook it defies belief. The believe the world is six thousand years old based on adding up the asges of everyone named in the Bible . Excuse me . The Argos catalogue would be a good start for most people .
As soon as someone shoots a hole in their logic (Carbon dating , Evolution etc) , they say "it's a test from God" . It the program the most obnoxious Creationist maintained that the Grand Canyon was caused by Noah's Flood. When the non Creationist (but Gof Fearingly religious) scientist pointed out that flood water moved in straight lines while the Grand Canyon contained Horse Shoe Curves it was dismissed as a test from God.
All Maxwell's scientists were religious believers in God . Science and Religion is not mutually exclusive. However the Creationists said the arguments werent fair because there were no Creationist Scientists (isnt that Oxymoron?).
I was brought up and educated by Jesuit Priests who believed in science and reasoned arguments. When questioned about how God created The Earth in seven days they countered with "How Llong is a day?" On Pluto it's about 300 of our years (that is a very rough guess cos I'm too lazy to look it up). Basically saying the Bible was a guide and an analogy NOT to be taken literally.
I think part of the Creationist Agenda is to create an idiot underclass to swell the Republican vote for dagerous idiots like Mitt Romney.
I am in a bit of a bad temper because I have a sore shoulder , but there is no excuse for Creationist stupidity. How can you follow something so blindly and expect others to support you?
Bill Hicks on Them Thar Creatists:
This is likely to be a rambling incoherent post , mainly because it's one of those things where a seemingly singular event cant then set off so many other things. Someone mentions one thing and then that sets off another . I don't know if I'm going to finish and then think "I forgot tto include such and such" , but we shall see how this goes....
I suppose it starts with the purchase of of a couple of seemingly slim James Thurber volumes that , while they were quite enjoyable to read , I was still only on page 50 of the first volume . About a month ago, for my 55th birthday, my very good Australian friend Carol sent me a copy of Randy Pausch's book "The Last Lecture" , based on his final lecture . Randy Pausch was a young man (mid 40's) who had been hit with a virulent Pancreatic Cancer. A horrible situation for a man with a wife and young family who he would never see grow up. One of my heroes , the comedian Bill Hicks , was taken from us in the same way. In 1986 I got hit with ITP which meant that may bllod wasnt clotting resulting in heavy internal bleeding. At the time I was scared that I' wouldn't see my daughters (3 and 5 at the time) grow up , 3 years earlier my eldest daughter had been on the terminal ward (briefly) at The Children's Hospital at Pendleton Manchester - needless to see we're both here and doing well.
Anyway back to Randy Pausch . He was the inventor of ALICE a software development environment that enables people to easily learn programming . I've never seen it but my friend Carol uses it in her class on a daily basis. He knew his time was limited so he created and filmed his last last lecture and created the book with I got through in two days after giving up on James Thurber . In it he set down thoughts , aspiriations , regrets and advice in a remarkably easy read . He does come up with some expanded bullet points on how to live life with vaguely remind me of Sun Tzu's surprisingly readable and concise "The Art Of War" . Any I recommend you get a copy of the book and check out The Last Lecture website here. The lecture is youtubed below:
Randy Pausch is and example of Richard Dawkins' idea of immortality . Pausch is still with us in so many forms and will be while humankind exists in it's current forms. Dawkins is our premier voice of reason against the right wing Christian idiocy that is Creationsism though I do feel he gets a little evangelical at times about the non existence of (G)od .
One ogf the other things I wanted to put in this is that whenever any dies or is close to it I feel I must appear incredibly callous and cold hearted because usually it doesn't really sadden me at all , and this is the reason:
As a kid I had bad dreams, I'd be in a field crying my eyes out because my dad was dead . I don't know how it happened but would wake up in tears and my dad was always there , working in the yard or wherever . He is still with us at 798 going strong , driving his Mercedes with his Post Office Post Box maintenance contract. Anyway soon after that my uncle Trevor took an assisted passage to Australia , the other side of the world . Letters came and once a year we had a short , very expensive (£10 a minute I think) phone call , I realised I wouldn't see him again . I knew he was there , but I just had no real contact . And that is what I feel happens when someone dies , we lose contact .. for now. If evolution has taught us anything it's that we grow and save the best bits and I think our "being" continues elsewhere. Aad that's why I seem so callous in the face of death.
This is a bit like opne of those Billy Connolly stories that wanders all over the place except I'm not reallly sure where I started and where I'm coming back to.
We live in wondrous times and if people concetrated more on the good , the world would be a much better place . If you have a problem fix it or deal with it , there is usually help around. Anyway maybe I've gone on about this a bit too long but c'est la vie
