tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16578195324187544902024-02-20T01:27:12.052-08:00Unravelled TravelsCaptain of the Rant's witterings on his rambles.Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-37815986048365108962013-06-11T21:06:00.001-07:002013-06-11T21:06:53.520-07:00The Southern Continent - Part 1<span style="font-size: small;">Christ, Australia is <i>big</i>. It's the sixth largest country in the world, nearly the size of Europe and has about half the population of the UK in it. That might be because there's this whole massive bit in the middle in which pretty much nothing can live.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">This blog took a bit of a rest when I landed in Sydney just over a year ago. Whilst on my previously detailed adventures with Mr. Furious throughout South East Asia, there were many adventures, much madness and, therefore, many updates. Since arriving in Australia, there's been a fair share of adventure and wonderful times, but in between those adventures there's been way more time to lounge around and indulge in my natural laziness. Another excuse for not updating this blog is that it was all a bit moment to moment in Australia, constantly extending my stay, before I bit the bullet and decided to stay for a second year. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">There's been a fair bit of hitching. Australia's expanse is perfect for hitchhiking. Wherever you're dropped off on the highway, you're pretty much guaranteed to be in some kind of glorious expanse. Much more pleasant than hitchhiking in, say, the UK, where the nicest view you'll have is a massive pile of concrete. Anyway. For hitchers I do recommend hitching in Oz, as Australians are generally very generous and welcoming to strangers and travellers. This can be lovely ("Help yourself to food, I always pack lunch for two in case I pick up a hitcher") or unnerving ("You should've had me pick you up ten minutes up the road, then you could've had a hit of my meth"). As always with hitching, you meet a ludicrous range of people, and Australia certainly has its fair share of strange folk from isolated areas. One particularly memorable experience is a guy in Tasmania telling me about his girlfriend and his family. He was 21 and his girlfriend was 16 ("I won't go any lower - I'm very careful about that"), and also shared with me the delightful story of the last time he saw his estranged brother. Him and his Mum came in to the front room to find his brother having sex with the family dog. The brother yelped, stood up, and (understandably) legged it. His neighbours at his place reported later they heard loads of crashing around, screaming, then him getting in the car and driving off. No one's seen him in four years. Insane.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">I've been indulging in a bit of spoken word here and there, having performed in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, in the desert north of Roxby Downs and Byron Bay. The performance poetry community here is pretty tight, but growing, and there's plenty of amazing talent on offer. Fortunately, no one really had a monopoly on screaming obscenities at audiences yet, so I've happily filled that role. The gigs have uniformally been extremely well run with a dedicated spoken word audience. Performers and promoters in different cities have very tight connections despite the huge distances, and the whole thing seem to function rather well as a community of artists, a lot of whom are doing some really interesting stuff. I was very proud to run Australia's first Anti-Slam with my friend Tim (aka Stackhat - irritatingly good performer, writer and musician) in March this year. We ran it as a benefit for Sydney anarchist spaces Dust Monster and Black Rose and it went down a storm. We raised a fair bit of money for both spaces, got extremely drunk and I got to yell at some hipsters. A fine evening all round.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">To make ends meet this year I've mainly been helping out with some after school projects as a casual assistant, and on weekends busking with huge bubbles, which has been awesome. Everyone loves the wholesome joy of a massive bubble. And kids go ape shit for them. Honestly, I've never seen anything like it. When there's loads of them, screaming for bubbles, running around in a kind of chaotic ecstacy, I feel like Simon in <i>Lord of the Flies</i> before he gets beaten to death by a hysterical, tribe of mini-psychos. But, despite the ever present danger of being murdered by children, I brave it, and it usually ends up being a jolly good time had by all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Presently I'm staying in the Blue Mountains, and in forty minutes I've got to catch a train back to Sydney and stay there for a bit. Free Hari Krishna food, cheap coffee and warm weather await. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">I promise you grubby lot I will update this blog more often.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-89974520328214859792012-05-20T20:50:00.001-07:002012-05-23T01:51:02.765-07:00Malaysia Part 2 - withdrawal, gainful employment and Oz-boundAfter a few more days swanning about Magick River and its cool gorgeousnessnessness, it's time to head back to Batuarang to help out at Reboot The Roots. Unfortunately, things are winding down a bit there for a while, so I concentrate on going through alcohol withdrawal.<br />
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Staying in a building who's purpose is to help ex-heroin addicts, drinking is obviously not encouraged. It's not especially encouraged in Malaysia full stop, being a Muslim country and everything. So, running low on funds and it being a hassle to get booze, I just stop drinking. Since I was about 18, like a lot of people, I've probably consumed far, far, far more alcohol than any medical advice deems healthy. And over the past two months, Mr. Furious and myself went a bit overboard, deeming sitting anywhere for any length of time deserving a tasty, crisp, cold beer-shaped beverage. I would not describe myself as an alcoholic, and wouldn't even say I had a drink problem necessarily, but in a few years it might well develop into one. </div>
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So for the first time I can remember, my body enters the world of withdrawal. Without a drowse-inducing drink, my body and brain are suddenly flooded with energy, and doesn't know what the hell to do with it. Staying up until 4 or 5am every morning on Facebook, attempting to write poetry and chainsmoking is the way I deal with it (because three cigarettes an hour is <i>definitely </i>healthier than a couple of beers). It's a strange sensation, made stranger by the fact that I didn't particularly crave alcohol, which is a blessing. However, the sleepness nights are getting aggravating, but Soon, who facilitates Reboot The Roots, having been through similar situations himself, is great to discuss these feelings with. I'm in the weird position of being both a volunteer and a resident going through withdrawal. I chat to Mr. Furious online, and he says that six months ago, he was doing exactly the same thing, in the same chair, at the same computer. Great, booze-addled minds think alike.</div>
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I need some work (well, I need money... them's different things), and Soon helpfully hooks me up with PODs Backpacker Hostel in KL. It's a quiet, calm place - exactly what I need. I get to stay there for free, as well as have all the peanut butter sandwiches I can cram into my mouth. I'm put on a lot of nightshifts, spending my nights in darkness with the hum of the computer screen, or being paid to curl up on a beanbag and sleep. My bosses are cool, understanding, lovely people, as are my co-workers. It's the perfect environment to collect my thoughts. I don't go out much, popping out now and then for some amazingly cheap and perfect cooked curry, before scurrying back. It's a good three weeks.</div>
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Before I left for South East Asia, my Dad called me, generously offering me a flight to Australia from where I happen to be in Asia. My old punk buddies Jay and Anj live in Sydney, as does my ex-squatmate Taz and his girlfriend Kael. All brilliant, lovely people and great friends. I decide to take my Dad up on the offer. This is too good an opportunity to miss. </div>
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And so, restless to continue my adventure, I bid goodbye to the much-needed quiet of Malaysia, and board my flight to Sydney... </div>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-37997025575131605572012-05-08T01:28:00.000-07:002012-05-20T20:22:19.381-07:00Malaysia Part 1 - Kuala Lumpur, Batuarang, Magick River and some sad goodbyes<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is mine and Mr. Furious' last big hurrah as crusty duo Pidge and The Wizard: a gruelling thirty-six hour trip to the village of Batuarang, Malaysia. Mr. Furious has a plane to catch from Kuala Lumpur in a few days, and, having spent the last four years working and living in and out of Malaysia, has a few goodbye hugs to hand out before he leaves for Londontown.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The train ride to southern Thailand is brutal. We're crammed into third class, stacked human Jenga peices - if anyone moves, then the whole carriage threatens to fall apart. Passengers sit on hard chairs, the floor or by the side doors, smoking out into the speeding night. A brief reprieve is found in the restaurant carriage. We drink until it closes, and stagger back to the claustrophobic reality of the train carriage. Settling into discomfort, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I find it impossible to concentrate. Music and books offer no consolation. M</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">y mind ebbs and flows, waves of boredom morph into stress, anger and sadness... there's a few moments blissed out contentment, before slipping back into boredom to kick off the mundane cycle once more. Shards of sleep become indistinguishable from shards of wakefulness. Is this what it feels like to go insane? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After thirteen hours of this, we hit a town in southern Thailand and book a bus to Kuala Lumpur. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The bus is a palace in comparison. The seats have cushioning on them and everything. We arrive in KL late. Mr. Furious, on home turf, is more confident now - he knows the routine here. I, on the other hand, am a crumpled mess of a man. Nausea is gurgling in the depths of my stomach from from excessive travelling, tiredness and bad food. My energy is spent on babbled half-sentences, drinking coffee and sitting. Mr. Furious organises us a ride to Batuarang, where the charity he helped set up (Reboot The Roots - check them out <a href="http://www.reboottheroots.org.uk/" target="_blank">here</a>) is based. Augustine and Hazar, two giving gentlemen, pick us up and we begin the final half hour stretch. Half way there, the stomach grumblings surge towards my throat. I pathetically beg Augustine to pull over. I fall out of the minivan, sway toward the roadside and assume the classic vomiting position: bent over, hands on thighs, breathing heavily. There's a moment's silent tension... then my stomach and brain explode out of my mouth in a geyser of vomit, my body rejecting all the stress, all the intoxicants, all the hitchhiking, all the nightmarish joy of the last two months. Wiping the chunks of vegetable fried rice from my mouth, I climb back into the van full of cheer. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I haven't thrown up like that since I was a child. Awesome.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The bizarre euphoria after an hour's puking", as Chris Morris once put it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> The chaps in the van are polite in their acceptance of my ill-timed bodily functions. Thanks guys.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We pull up to Reboot The Roots HQ, where I babble thanks to Hazar and Augustine, murmur hellos to resident workers Soon and Myriam, before stumbling into bed for a hard-earned, dreamless sleep.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wake fully rested. Soon, Myriam and Mr. Furious have been up for ages. Apparently there was an attempt to rescue me from my temporary coma, but it was in vain. It's soon evident that my stomach hasn't stopped rebelling against the sudden calm just yet, as my arse explodes several times in the toilet (my introductions to Malaysians really need work). Soon gives me some Chinese herbal remedies and some classic, liver-destroying Western remedies. In tandem, they work wonders. This is the first of many acts of kindness from Soon, a guy whose patience and diligence in working with reformed addicts using radical forum theatre is simply awe-inspiring.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now to Magick River so Mr. Furious can spend his last few days in Malaysia with his "Malaysian Dad" Antares - the shaman who runs the informal community guesthouse, who I've heard much about and am interested in meeting. Mr. Furious says his final goodbyes to Soon and Batuarang. I know Reboot The Roots is very, very close to his heart, and his hard work has been a real driving force. Even from my outsider perspective, it's a brief but sad moment.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We take a train to Kuala Kubu Baru, and Antares and his wife are waiting at the station, delivering us to Magick River.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Magick River is invigorating, peaceful and the perfect way to trickle away our last few days together. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For five days, we live simply and quietly. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We swim in the namesake's river, basking in the sun. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We hang out with Antares - a unique, witty and consistently interesting man. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We live simply and quietly in the Bamboo Palace. Our friends Laura from Bangkok and Caroline from Pai comes down. Its all being rounded off with novel-shaped clarity.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As inevitable as the dawn, the one and only Mr. Furious must depart for The Big Smoke, returning to see his Mum, and then our squatting family in London.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Laura's leaving with him for India via KL. I haven't gone into much detail about all the amazing individuals we've met, mainly because it'd take bloody ages. But Laura has been</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> vital chemical to ignite our adventure, a bottomless well of infectious energy. She will be missed greatly.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We all hug what will never be enough time.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> To share this mind-bending beauty with Mr. Furious has been an utter privilege. He's got the impassioned eloquence, the magical spontaneity and manic flashes behind his eyes to make it not merely a trip, not merely a journey, but a real</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>adventure</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the warm early sun, I'm shamefully eluded for words. Tears block my throat. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Thank you."</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"No, mate, thank <i>you</i>."</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And that's it. Hugs reluctantly part, and Mr. Furious and Laura disappear into the distance. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Crusty Tour has ended, and I'm solo here on in.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> It was... </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">... what?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Great? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Awesome? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brilliant? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nah.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was everything.</span>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-30174423085521338822012-04-23T13:21:00.002-07:002012-04-23T13:23:11.921-07:00The Overstay, Bangkok (reprise)<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: left;">
When you go to Bangkok for relaxation, you know you're in trouble.</div>
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Previously, I've been damning of Thailand's infamous capital. Damning of its hellish smog, its nerve-shredding crowds. It constantly has one hand fingering your wallet and the other fingering your genitals. But after Laos taking open season on our sanity, we need some snuggly, crusty familiarity. And so we head straight for our hostel/safehouse of choice: The Overstay.</div>
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You can find The Overstay in Pinkau, a safe distance from the garish backpacker prison of Kho San Road (which <i>does</i> has its plus points, but like fuck am I staying there). As far as I'm aware, there is nothing for the average backpacker experience around here, and therefore very few English speakers. As such, The Overstay - for those who don't do their research - attracts mainly because of its cheapness. Therefore, it is the recipient of mixed reviews. The negative ones are, I think, mainly from individuals who have been lured by the low price, and repelled by its apparently ramshackle nature. If you crave designed, formulaic comfort, I'd recommend you snuffle for your truffles elsewhere. On the other hand, if you seek a challenge, something beyond the passive consumer culture so many hostels enforce, The Overstay may be for you.<br />
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As we stagger like thrashed chimps into the bar area, we
are immediately heartened by the dimly lit, familiar faces supping from cans of beer and the thick layer of cigarette smoke hanging
from the ceiling. We meet people from our previous misadventures, as well as wonderful new folk. We crack open beverages and raise a toast to our repair. If <i>Cheers</i> was set in a squat, and was run and frequented by crusties, drunks, travellers, anarchists, and clean cut English language teachers, it would be like this.<br />
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The Overstay has no agenda in the regular sense of the word. It is a place for creative freedom, and it encourages you meld into its environment. It is, sometimes literally, what you make of it. Sasha - excellent photographer, handsome barman and all round fine gentlemen - wanted to put on an exhibition of his work on the first floor (that's first floor in the weird British sense of floor numbering. Second floor to everyone else). Mr. Furious, myself and a gaggle of other diligent delinquents set about helping him. The squat skills come in handy here. With a tight deadline of two days and hammers, nails, fabric, paint, wood and combined imaginations at our disposal, we do this not for money, not for glory, but simply because these things <i>matter</i>. The exhibition is a success, and I'm proud to know and work with such passionate people.<br />
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We also chip in to help set up an S&M-themed party, complete with whips, candles and a St. Andrew's cross. The whole night vibrates as boundaries were pushed and new worlds discovered. There is a huge emphasis in S&M on mutual respect, playfulness and creativity - and these are exactly the qualities The Overstay requires of you. The party marches relentlessly into the morning, battering the dawn down with a fun-filled fist. <br />
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It is a place where you can get involved as little or as much you like, but regardless, you should be prepared to let things flow naturally. Chilled evenings can erupt into near-raves. You may find yourself suddenly running the bar. The variety of people The Overstay attracts is astounding. You will have lengthy conversations with the outcast, the wonderful, the sexy, the hilarious, the vibrant, the lonely, the unnamed. Having lost so much personal control in Laos, I realise the significance of places like this. For people whose grip has slipped, a space like this is a haven.<br />
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Mr. Furious and I stay there for nearly two weeks before we realise, in the fashion of the hostel's namesake, that we shall be overstaying very soon. It is with humming brains and heavy hearts we bid goodbye to an unshakeable experience. I don't want to start mentioning names as I fear forgetting someone, but
there are individuals I meet at The Overstay who, if we don't remain in
touch, will certainly remain very beautiful memories.<br />
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If or when the world comes crumbling around our ankles, we'll need to honestly connect with each other. But why wait around for Armageddon when prepping for it is so much fun?<br />
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To find out more about The Overstay, go to <a href="http://www.theoverstay.com/" target="_blank">http://www.theoverstay.com/</a>.</div>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-22337065782372959472012-04-13T22:56:00.016-07:002012-04-18T04:14:30.770-07:00Punks vs. Laos - Part 4: Apocalypse Laos<span style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;">We hitch out of the strange Red Light Village early. Thumbs, rides, endless road. Repeating our mantra: <span style="font-style: italic;">Pakse Pakse Pakse</span> until it's somehow less a place and more word to pin our hopeless aspiration to.<br /><br />It's a tough day hitching, and we arrive in another village late, not quite sure how far we are from anywhere. We half-heartedly try finding a guesthouse, give up, buy beer, then decide to sleep under a bridge. We step off the road, and ease ourselves downhill through dust, dark trees and shrubbery.<br /><br />We come out by the river, the concrete bridge sheltering us. It feels weirdly cosy as we sit there, drinking, crusty trolls to the bittersweet end. Barely any traffic overhead, no one around, just the river gently rolling in front of us. We piss, crack open bottles and settle down for the night. </span></span><span style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;">This is peaceful. Or, at least, what I would define as peaceful at this point. I'm shattered, and pull out my sleeping bag to get some rest.<br /><br />I wake five hours later to Mr. Furious' urgent whisperings: "Pidge... Pidge! We've gotta go man..."<br /><br />My head slowly clears from the beer and restless sleep, and I open my eyes. The light is slowly breaking through the clouds. The remnants of a fire Mr. Furious made smoulder away. In the blue dawn, I see a fisherwoman downriver preparing her net to cast. In the foreground, a couple of feet away, two dogs are padding around us. They look like they haven't had breakfast.<br /><br />I decide to move onMr. Furious' suggestion. We grab our bags, find a bit of breakfast and start hitching. After a few minutes a car pulls up. A stocky man in a shirt and jeans gets out, his eyes hidden by dark glasses, his arms folded, hands tucked under armpits. He is stern, but polite.<br /><br />"Where are you going"<br /><br />"Pakse."<br /><br />"Did you stay here last night?"<br /><br />"Yeah, under the bridge," I laugh slightly.<br /><br />"Do you live round here?" asks Mr. Furious.<br /><br />"Yes, I'm in charge of the local police district."<br /><br />Brilliant. "Okay..."<br /></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />Suddenly remembering that sleeping rough is illegal in Laos, Mr. Furious backtracks for us and fudges the facts a little. The policeman either doesn't understand or doesn't care. Either's good for us.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;">"Can I see your passports please?"<br /><br />"May we ask why?"</span></span><br /><span style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />He mumbles vaguely about needing to the details of know whoever's passing through. This is basically police code for: "do what I say, or I'll make your life really unpleasant". But he seems nice enough, and doesn't strike me as the sort who'll carry out a truncheon beating for a mid-morning snack.<br /><br />We hand over our passports. The policeman says he's going to photocopy them. A local guy informs him that there is no photocopier nearby. Mr Furious, with a tone dripping in patronising sarcasm, asks:</span></span><br /><span style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />"Would you like us to write the details down for you?"<br /><br />The policeman thinks this is a fabulous idea, and takes us to a cafe, where he generously buys us brutally strong Laos coffee and doughnuts. It's a comforting thought that police internationally subsist entirely on caffeine and pasty goods.<br /><br />Bellies full and hopped up on the coffee, we hitch a ride with a very pleasant French family, who have a very expensive and very comfortable car. It's so expensive and comfortable, that Mr. Furious - overwhelmed by the sudden injection of luxury in his life - falls into a coma. I'm close, but wake myself by chatting with their daughter about music. At one point, we turn off our trusty road 13. I ask if this is the right way. The dad assures me that the road continues through the town. So I don't wake Mr. Furious and I continue recommending music.<br /><br />They drop us off in a town called Savaannakhet, which is close to the Thai border and...<br /><br />(What begins now is our Revelations, our Endtimes. All the serpent horses and sky fires and raining sulphur and all the other weird shit in the Bible are going to piss on the dying embers of our bonfire.)<br /><br />... the dad was wrong. We're about 15k off track. Not that much, but evening is gathering and we don't really feel like sleeping under bridges tonight. Grumpily tramping around the town, Mr. Furious silently blames me for the balls up. He's understandably fucked off, and I am too. We're not even supposed to be in this place.<br /><br />We find a cheap guesthouse.</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><span style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;">We book a double room to save cash. Mr. Furious and I don't care about sharing a bed, having been sharing tight spaces for a long time. Please email your obvious jokes to the usual address: fuckoff@witlesstwat.co.uk. Thanks.<br /></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;">We step outside for some fresh air and pondering. Sitting at a table is a middle-aged Canadian man. He's shirtless and red with sunburn. In front of him is a half empty bottle of whiskey and a half full bottle of coke. He's half cut, chainsmoking cheap cigarettes. His voice is in constant danger of exploding into a hacking cough. He tell us his name is Ferren, and with hearty cheer invites us to drink with him. It would be rude to say no.<br /><br />Ferren's a gregarious chap, and freely volunteers his recent history: He's skint. He's dealing with a broken relationship from Thailand. He's come to Laos because he's "looking for love!" He's staying at the hostel and doesn't seem to have a clue what he's going to do. He's lonely, and so tries to convince any Westerner who strays into his line of vision to stay at the hostel by shouting at them. To be fair, he shouts quite nice things, but I think it's the shouting bit that moves people on. He says the staff have asked him to leave, but he just keeps chucking them more money. I think they've given up trying.<br /><br />And so Ferren spends his days and evenings waiting, drinking and smoking. I feel for the guy. If I were in his position, I'd spend my days with Laos whiskey and cigarettes too.<br /><br />The three of us go to a couple of bars. I can feel my eyes closing on their own accord, and so decide leave early for bed. I pass out immediately.<br /><br />Hours later, my brain wakes up but my eyes refuse to open. I'm loving being curled up on a crisp, clean double bed. I'm truly snug for what seems like the first time in aeons. Lovely, lovely, lovely bed. As my brain comes into focus, I realise that Mr. Furious isn't there. The man sleeps like he's dead. He'd still be asleep if he came back last night.<br /><br />Alerted, but not yet worried, I wander outside into the harsh midday sun. He could've got wrecked and be sleeping it off elsewhere. He could've got wrecked and still be up somewhere in Savaannakhet. He could've got wrecked and got with a girl... there's any number of reasons for him not to be here at this very moment. I sit outside, read, listen to music.<br /><br />I wait for a couple of hours. Still no Mr. Furious. Taking on the persona of an actor auditioning for an ITV detective series, I head to the last bar we were at together. I ask a waiter if he remembers us, if anything happened last night... nothing happened, the barman says. At closing, they left.<br /><br />I return to the hostel and bump into Ferren. As he cracks open the whiskey and coke and gets me a glass, he tells me they came back. Then Mr. Furious insisted on going "for a walk". Ferren stayed up for him a couple of hours, then went to bed. He has no idea what's happened to him. I silently curse Mr. Furious' somewhat spontaneous nature whilst under the influence. The darker it gets, the more I drink, the more the the concern gnaws at me. I decide that tomorrow morning is a code red situation. At the moment, it's code kinda greenish-amber. I sit and drink with Ferren, who performs an incredible double role of comforting companion ("oh man, I sure hope he's okay") and a stoker of worries ("he might be dead"). But Ferren proves to be a total rock over this time. Without him, I would lose my mind. I am grateful beyond words.</span></span><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-style: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;">I decide on two missions: 1) check hospital and if Mr. Furious isn't lying there alive/dead/dying, then 2) check at the police station. Given the reputation of Laos' finest, this is something I really want to avoid if I can.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;">A Laotian guy is rushed past me on a stretcher, blood pouring profusely from his face.</span></span><span style="font-style: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;"> This does little to calm me down, but the lady who deals with me speaks great English and is very sympathetic. No English people have been admitted to the hospital in ages. This is a relief, as it means Mr. Furious (probably) hasn't joined the great squat in the sky just yet. Mission 2 it is then. I ask the lady how to get to the police station, and she calls over a <span style="font-style: italic;">tuk tuk</span> driver. My mind is on other matters, so I comply, and pay an extortionate for a three minute journey. At this moment in time, though, I'm grateful for anything anyone does that's even remotely civil.<br /><br />I enter the police station courtyard - a huge open space surrounded by high, plain white walls. Ten policemen are playing volleyball. One of them, looking vaguely annoyed that he might have to forgo his game of volleyball and do some police work, approaches me. I inform him of the situation. He takes me over to another police officer, who makes a couple of calls and sends a couple of texts (presumably "lol english twat" or something similar). They both seem mildly bothered I've come at all. After a few moments, the second cop looks up from his phone.<br /><br />"Can you come back on Monday?" he asks blankly.<br /><br />What? <span style="font-style: italic;">What</span>? I'm not ordering a fucking DVD here...<br /><br />"On Monday? What'd you mean...?"<br /><br />"That's when my boss comes in."<br /><br />Jesus Christ.<br /><br />"And you can't do anything?"<br /><br />"No."<br /><br />They're emphatic in their decision. Frustrated and confused, I leave and return to to the warmth of Ferren and even warmer whiskey. As the sky darkens and the worry foments, one of the hostel staff tells me there's another hospital, and, in my tipsiness, I go there. I-Pod in, I begin the hour long walk. There's lots of twists and turns through provincial Savaanakhet streets. The Night Dogs begin to come out, snapping at my heels, their eyes glinting in the streetlights. Fortunately, along the way, I meet many friendly people who seem quite up for giving me directions. A group of guys even offer me to sit down and drink with them, but I politely decline. Booze has got in the way of enough, and I'm on a mission here.<br /><br />I pass a two women and a guy sitting outside a shop. I ask them if this is the way to the hospital.<br /><br />"Yes," says one of the women. "Five minutes that way." She points down the road. I thank her, and she casually adds: "It's an eye hospital."<br /><br />"What?"<br /><br />"The eye hospital."<br /><br />For <span style="font-style: italic;">fuck's sake</span>. I've been walking for over an hour, and unless Mr. Furious has spent two nights getting his fucking glasses fixed, I don't think he's going to be there. Still, I've come all this way, I'm desperate, and the guy is offering me a lift on his bike. I take him up on it. We pull up. It's shut. The guy bangs on doors and windows. Nothing. For some very sweet reason, he apologises, and gives me a ride back to the shop. Annoyed but endlessly grateful to him and his friends, I begin the long walk back.<br /><br />More aimless drinking, more thinking, accompanied by restless sleep.<br /><br />Day two. I wake with a new resolve. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family:verdana;">My worries have been taken over by a zealous need to make sure my friend is okay. </span></span><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family: verdana; ">The plan: photocopy Mr. Furious' passport, and take the copies to the hospital and the police station. Coming from a middle class background, I am conditioned to believe that excessive administration is the solution to any problem.<br /><br />I get the photocopies, and decide to stop off at the hostel to drop off some money I got out...<br /><br />... and Mr. Furious is standing there, handcuffed, surrounded by six policemen. Ferren is talking to them. Mr. Furious is making it clear that this is <span style="font-style: italic; ">not</span> the friend he was looking for. All I can manage is:<br /><br />"What the hell happened?"<br /><br />One of the policemen tries to explain. I can't concentrate. I hear something about drinking and a boat. I turn to Mr. Furious.<br /><br />He states, simply: "I tried to take a canoe over to Thailand whilst drunk".<br /><br />I can only respond by standing with my mouth hanging open. Uploading all this new information is scrambles my brain. One of Mr. Furious' new chums in blue writes down a number and tells me to call it. They takes Mr. Furious' passport and drive off, leaving me with Ferren and some amused/bemused hostel staff.<br /><br />Ferren pours the drinks and I sit down. He kindly lets me use his phone. I ring. The police say Mr. Furious will be back in an hour. I wait an hour and twenty, then call again. The police say Mr. Furious will be back in thirty minutes. I wait forty, then call again. The police say Mr. Furious will be there in fifteen minutes. I wait twenty, and a car pulls up. Mr. Furious steps out, thankfully with no handcuffs. We're advised that Mr. Furious needs to be back at 9am tomorrow to pick up his passport.<br /><br />"Make sure your friend doesn't drink too much," one says to me before driving off.<br /><br />We immediately start drinking too much. It turns out that he was waiting for the police boss to come back on Monday too.<br /><br />The next morning, we go to the police station I had originally visited. Turns out the holding cells are on the other side of town. (Thanks for all the information boys, and your volleyball skills are ace.) The police do some brief admin, and then casually inform us that if Mr. Furious <span>had</span> succeeded in his pirating, and got to Thai shoes, then Thai immigration would've shot him. Lovely stuff. He gets away with a light ticking off.<br /><br />We're done with Laos. Or rather, Laos is done with us. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 100%; ">The concrete and dust have been warning us for days: Satan as nipple tweaking Jean, under bridge sleeping, hungry stray dogs, coffee-buying policeman, the wrong turnings, the arrest, the worry, the tiredness... </span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 100%; "><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 100%; ">Every time we thought we could tame the place, it slipped away, and became a wild land once more. It truly is a land for the intense and the insane, and a</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 100%; ">we and respect is due to anywhere that pushes your boundaries.</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family: verdana; "><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family: verdana; ">Enough twaddle. It's done.<br /><br />That day, we gather our bags, pay up, and get the first available bus back to Bangkok, back to The Overstay, where open arms await us both.</span></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family: verdana; "><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family: verdana; ">--------------------------------------</span></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span style="font-family: verdana; "><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span><i><div>Apocalypse Laos - Mr. Furious Edition</div><div><br /></div><div>Pidge's retelling of my Laotian misadventure is succinct, but I feel I must pass comment myself. The evening of our arrival in Savannaket - a vertiable My Lai of a holiday destination - I had indeed snoozed in the Frenchmobile and failed to keep tabs on illustrious road 13, but I felt I had concealed my simmering rage competently and doused the fires in enough booze, downers and fags to keep things civil.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, such a diet of substances does do tremendous amounts to inflame my wanderlust, and after Pidge pootled off to bed, I decided on a whim to rage out into Savannaket in search of adventure.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I'm off exploring!" I merrily waved to the gravelly-voiced whiskeyblimp Ferren as I rocked into the darkness, little knowing it would be two days before I would return.</div><div><br /></div><div>Immediately I was lost. I did however have a bottle of BeerLao with me so I was not concerned. i could hear bass thudding from somewhere, and followed my ears down to the banks of the Mekong. The sound of a discoteque wafted across from the opposite side - whereas Savannaket was deathly quiet.</div><div><br /></div><div>With a notion that piracy is something akin to scrumping, I untied a lovely two metre wooden canoe from the shore and set off on my merry journey to Thailand, punting across with a bit of wood I had salvaged. However, it soon became apparent that the Mekong is much wider than at first may appear on a dark moonlit night, and, pretty knackered, I parked the canoe midstream and sat singing jaunty sea tunes, chugging BeerLao under the moon and stars.</div><div><br /></div><div>After a time, I decided to sack Thailand off and return to Laos. Unfortunately, the canoe became wedged on a sandbank, and my improvised oar had floated away, so i crashed out of the boat and waded ashore. </div><div><br /></div><div>My camo trousers were soaked to the midthigh, so in a fit of fashionista fury I tore them off, leaving me in a rather fetching camo miniskirt.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was dressed such that a man on a motorbike pulled up, and very politely asked me to go with him. Being no fool, I requested to see his ID, which duly revealed him to be a Laos policeman.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, still bemused, I jumped on the bike and off we went to a police station, where I was cheerily processed by some equally bemused Laos police, before being cuffed and lead through a series of walls and doors to my new home.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I'm sure you're like me, and after an evening of whiskey and diazepam fuelled piratic adventuring, are pretty likely to find the prospect of bedding down in a large single room with forty Laos prisoners as appealing as a week caravanning in Totnes.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was greeted by a Laotian who introduced himself as Bob, and he kicked some floorsnoozers aside to make space for me.</div><div><br /></div><div>I awoke, many hours later, and the place was largely deserted. It was a large room, with raised platform around the periphery, and a single shared toilet and bathroom.</div><div><br /></div><div>I padded around in my miniskirt and vest top, rather concerned about becoming the prison slopbucket.</div><div><br /></div><div>Luckily, Bob was an absolute legend, giving me food and cigarettes and explaining that because of my piratic nature, i had been adopted by one of the inhosue gangs, who would make sure i didn't get in any shit. I was allowed to sit in certain places, eat at certain times, and sleep in certain areas. i shouldn't sit on the floor with the 'monkeys', or talk to the meth heads who were withdrawing under the platform, and only sit with certain people.</div><div><br /></div><div>I smiled and clowned my way through this particularly awkward phase of the holiday. I think having extensive tattooing on my chest and shoulder helped a great deal. Or perhaps the story of what I had tried to do was simply so perplexing to them that they thoguht best to play it safe.</div><div><br /></div><div>I had no way of contacting Pidge. I didn't even know the name of my hotel.</div><div><br /></div><div>Apparently, the boss man had come to see me that morning and I had been so sleepy that I had waved him off, and now I must wait until Monday to see him. Would Pidge stay in town, would he be able to track me down?</div><div><br /></div><div>Eventually, after an afternoon's sojourn in the yard, watching people weave fishing nets and ask questions about my tattoos, the officers came and took me to interview, where I gave them the truth about my boat 'borrowing'. The best question they asked was 'how many kilometres have you been down river?' to which I answered 'About 0.1 or 100 metres.' They seemed to like this.</div><div><br /></div><div>All in all, the police and the prisoners were welcoming and hospitable, even offering to lend me money to buy things in the jail. I declined, preferring to mooch off the kindness of strangers. Luckily, I had left my passport in the hotel, so to ascertain my identity, they offered to drive me to get it. I couldn;t remember the name, but gave the location as 'by the river, next to a hotel and across from a kareoke bar'. For anyone who has never been to Asia, this describes pretty much the entirety of the continent.</div><div><br /></div><div>They then offer to drive me around until we find it, to which I most convincingly agree that I definitely can. What else could I say? "No, I'll just wait till Monday. Saturday night is games night in my cell."</div><div><br /></div><div>So off we go for our Saturday drive, and indeed we do find it. After some initial confusion, the hotel staff go to get not Pidge, but Ferren, who greets me with the enthusiasm of any heartbroken alcoholic on a breakfast of gutrot whiskey when encountering a friend they thought was dead. He is not the man I wish to see, and there is some moments before a letetr Pidge has left me is discovered on the counter, and some minutes more before he returns to discover little old me, back from my travels.</div><div><br /></div><div>The rest of the trip he has covered pretty well, except for the moment of my return to the cells, and my eventual release, when I received a heartfelt and warm cheer and much handshaking from my cell mates. Dear Bob who looked after me had been in there six months, and my heart goes out out to him and all his brothers in chains. All prisoners are indeed political.</div><div><br /></div><div>Indeed we did flee Laos which much relief after my release, and i must apologise to dear Pidge for causing him such stress. But after all, if you're gonna travel with a salty dog, to better be ready to shed some bitter tears ...</div><div><br /></div><div>Mr Furious</div></i></span></span></div>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-41007466399396267762012-04-06T09:51:00.008-07:002012-04-13T22:55:23.263-07:00Punks vs. Laos - Part 3: The Early Signs of Endgame...<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;">We hitch to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. We get there late, find a guesthouse and take a wander for no real reason. We hear music coming from a bar and enter. The place is definitely not for folk like us. It's clean, for a start. And the people working there wear shirts. <span style="font-style: italic;">Shirts</span>, for Christ's sake. Patrons are sitting at huge long tables, dining and drinking quite heavily. And there's a band onstage, who, as far as I can gather, are a kind of rock n' roll variety act, complete poodle-haired guitarist and transgender costume changes. A couple drunk of guys go up and put notes in the lead singer's pants. It's all a little odd. We order an extortionately priced beer each, get confused by The Wealthy Laos Experience and leave for some much needed sleep.<br /><br />We wake and begin hitching again, blindly stumbling through this country that neither of us really have a clue about. We're heading for Pakse, probably because we half-heard it was nice. But, secretly, I think it's because we desperately need to feel like we're not adrift. Trusty road 13 - the road we've been following throughout most of Laos - has become the foundation to build a narrative around, and Pakse has become the final chapter, the <span style="font-style: italic;">denouement</span> to our epic traveling adventure. Everyone needs stories, even if they're being improvised in the fog of intoxicant abuse.<br /><br />What follows is familiar, different only because of the tiredness and heat really getting to us now. Mr. Furious has to lie in the shade to gather himself, and I'm not far off the same. Fortunately, a truck pulls up, kicking off our ride to somewhere or other. It's on road 13, and heading toward Pakse, we know that much. Everything else is a mystery written in dust on a slip road.<br /><br />It's here things start to noticeably crumble.<br /><br />We hitch a ride with two lorry drivers- one deep into his forties, the other a fresh-faced early thirties. We go through the usual rigmarole: them asking for money, us saying we don't have any, and both parties trying to explain themselves without sharing a language. The guys eventually agree to let us in for nothing, and we squeeze into the front.<br /><br />After an hour or two, the truck stops in a village. The older guy gets out, and goes to a house across the street, and is greeted by another man on the driveway. They head inside. We wait for a while, unable to ask the younger guy what's going on.<br /><br />And we wait. And wait.<br /><br />We see the older guy come out the house, go to a shop, buy two beers, and disappear back in again. We get out of the lorry and wait.<br /><br />And wait.<br /><br />The younger guy gets out of the lorry, and disappears into the house. Throughout all this, there has been no attempt to explain to us what is going on. Mr. Furious and I wait around for a little longer, attempt to find a suitable place to urinate, and then decide to not bother with these guys anymore. Frustrated, we grab our bags, slam the lorry door shut and march down the road.<br /><br />It takes ten minutes for another ride to come along. A sleek, clean, black car, steadily purring wealth through the dust and dried grass. The window silently drops. The driver - suit, slick back hair, sunglasses - turns to us. Familiar language block. We point frantically, gesticulating wildly. (Our miming abilities are beyond compare. A future in silent film awaits us both.) The front door opens, and we get in. Furious in the back, me in the front.<br /><br />We introduce ourselves. His name, we think he says, is Jean (the french pronunciation). He puts his foot on the accelerator, and it takes around ten seconds to realise that he's drunk. Really drunk. A couple of weeks previously in Laos, we got a ride with a soldier who was ridiculously hammered and a bit mad. It turns out Jean beats this guy for drunk insanity hands down. Furious informs me later that he could see the reflection of Jean's eyes in his sunglasses. "They were all over the place".<br /><br />After some attempt at conversation, we reach the conclusion that, even if he spoke English, he would still be an incoherent babbling wreck. He drives erratically. </span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;">He spends too long not looking at the road.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;"> He gets <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> close behind motorcyclists before sharply turning to avoid them. Although I can't drive, I have had the privelidge of witnessing people drive before, and it wasn't like this.<br /><br />Jean </span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;">grabs my arm, slightly <span style="font-style: italic;">too</span> roughly in that 'jovial' way drunk people do. I'm beginning to have flashbacks to our Thai driver who was also a bit liberal with what we used to rest his hand on, and the thought makes me shrink away against the passenger door. Just to make everything a little more mental, he reaches into his glovebox and brings out a medium sized pink paper bag. He presses it against my nose. It smells like potpour</span><span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;" >ri. He then throws it on my lap<span style="font-style: italic;">.</span> Being a polite potential murder victim, I hand him back the bag, smiling and saying thank but no thanks. He cackles in that way that only the truly mad can muster and, quick as a predator acting on the barest instincts, he reaches over and tweaks my nipple. He then lets rip another cackle. Yes, you read that correctly. He. Tweaked. My. Nipple. And it didn't seem sexually motivated, which just made it even weirder.<br /><br />Mr. Furious doesn't notice this. I'm on the frontline with this lunatic. A car has never felt smaller.<br /><br />Jean taps me on the shoulder. Reluctantly, I face him. With a thin, jabbering smile he makes his hand into a two-fingered gun shape. He leans his arm right across me, and points it out of the window. He then pretends to shoot things out of the window, making a little <span style="font-style: italic;">pow</span> noise with each fictional bullet. He cackles that cackle which will reverberate in my nightmares for decades to come, and puts his hand on the steering wheel to hastily avoid slaughtering another motorcyclist.<br /><br />At this point, I break.<br /><br />"Can you stop now? Here is fine..."<br /><br />He seems to ignore us. Both of us are getting a bit more urgent.<br /><br />"Jean, this is fine, thank -"<br /><br />He abruptly brakes. Somehow, he understood! Furious is immediately out with the bags. I go to open the front door. It doesn't open. My hand wrenches at the handle a couple more times. Locked. My brain races -<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">ohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuck he's going to kidnap me and strap me to this seat and make me smell his weird stuff in the bag and give me endless amounts of meth and tweak my nipples until one of us dies<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;">- and Jean presses a button and I almost fall out of the car, slamming the door behind me. We stand and stare at Jean. As a parting gift, he makes his finger gun once more, and, taking aim, shoots me first, then Mr Furious - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;" >pow pow. </span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;">He don't react. We just stare, gormless and dumbfounded. He cackles and speeds off down the road, disappearing into the stretch of concrete and dirt.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;" > I'd like to point out that all this happens in ten minutes. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;" >Ten minutes of chaos wrapped up in a tiny, scorching metal box, racing through a wasteland. Was that Hell? Did we just meet Lucifer himself?<br /><br />Furious turns to me: "Did he tweak your nipple?"<br /><br />Yes. Satan's incarnate tweaked my nipple. How many people can say that?<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;" >We half-joke of Jean coming back and gunning us both like the salty, dusty dogs we are. Thankfully, he doesn't. Although if he did, it would've made a great story. We hitch a ride into the next village, which seems to be a rural red light district. We find a guesthouse, and the guy who owns it generously offers to take us up the road to a bar which he drops his son off at his evening classes. This level of domesticity is very, very welcome.<br /><br />We find a bar. Tinny karaoke irritating our ears, we sit, our brains vainly attempting to rearrange the last few hours. We get drunk. Two sex workers come and join us, chatting to us, drinking some of our beer and refilling our glasses/coercing us to buy more beer. This all annoys me slightly, as I just want to be left alone. The woman attempting to talk to me realises she's on to a lost cause, and is handed a wireless mic and starts singing in Laos. I think at this point I'm losing my mind, since when she hands me the mic I get up and begin to shout my poem The War On Romance over the music. This seems like the best course of action right now. The mic is wrestled from me after about four lines. A few minutes later, she decides to entrust me with the mic once more. Foolish! I do the same thing again, probably out of some base instinct to try and have control over <span style="font-style: italic;">one</span> aspect of my life today. Again, the mic is deftly taken from me. At this point, I suggest we leave, and, wisely, we do.<br /><br />As we stagger out, we bump into the older guy from the lorry earlier that day. One hand around a pretty young woman, another round a beer, he smiles a drunken, half-remembering smile at us. We half-smile back, and get the hell out of there.<br /><br />There's been enough reality today, so we head back to the guesthouse to see if our dreams can offer anything better.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></span></span>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-14800507875394533632012-03-26T07:12:00.011-07:002012-05-08T02:08:24.390-07:00Punks vs. Laos - Part 2: From Boredom to Insanity<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 100%;">We stand outside the bus station in Oudonxai, repeating the now familiar and surprisingly tiring action of standing with a thumb out. The scribbled directions are turning into sweaty dust in my pocket. The heat's throbbing silent, burning dubstep waves into our skin. We constantly swig at water bottles. We're tired, grumpy and dusty. Both of us are probably restraining ourselves from kicking the other one in the face.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 100%;">Hitchhiking has many great elements to it, but, above all, it's one of the most intensive patience tests you can ever experience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 100%;">Fortunately, we reach Luang Prabang within the day. It's a very pretty (bland word, but the only word for it), nice (ditto) city. And, unfortunately, there's <span style="font-style: italic;">tuk tuk</span> drivers. You'd think, escaping Thailand, that they wouldn't be around. But no, there they are, being annoying, getting in your face, jabbering incoherently in order to baffle money out of you, offering everything from rides to opium.<br /><br />We get to a hostel called SpicyLaos and hung out with some pretty awesome people there. There was a chap from Arkansaw called Jeremy, who let me rip loads of music off him. A pleasure to have The Boss back in my ears. He also downloaded <span style="font-style: italic;">The Inbetweeners </span>movie, which was comforting, predictable and incredibly funny. I still think the series is probably the most authoritative observation on suburban British teenagers. Pretty much everything you see there is <span style="font-style: italic;">exactly</span> how they are. And, if you've never been a teenage boy brought up in suburbia, it's scarier than you could possibly imagine.<br /><br />After our slightly mental journeying, it was good to stay put somewhere for a few days... although it is a bit of a mission finding things to do in Luang Prabang. There's a couple of decent bars filled with irritatingly perfect looking people and rubbish music. A plus side is the great night market where I bought some beautiful hand-stitched juggling balls and honed my haggling skills. My Mum would love the place.<br /><br />Speaking of juggling, Mr. Furious, myself and a couple of other folk from the hostel went to a bar to see a circus trio, who were shamblingly fun. They had clearly completely blagged the gig on the hoof, and were basically rehearsing onstage. This all added to their charm though. What was particularly odd was the way the bar area occasionally blasted out bits of music at random. Whether they were either hinting at them to get off stage, or quite clearly telling them to fuck off, I couldn't quite gather. But, like with most things on this trip, I just accepted it as another level of weirdness being shoved into my brain.<br /><br />Also, I'm reliably informed I talked in my sleep in the dormitory. Anyone who's shared space with me will attest to my nonsensical nocturnal ramblings, but this one apparently went overboard. The girl sleeping in the bed nearby mine said:<br /><br />"It was like you were at a football match, shouting 'GO GO GO!'"<br /><br />So yeah, turns out I don't even shut up in my sleep. There is no escape.<br /><br />And that was pretty much it from Luang Prabang. Revved up to go again, Mr. Furious and I head south to Vang Vieng: the trouncing, booze-and-drugs-powered juggernaut of Laos partying. We waited for ten minutes, and a guy parks up in his pick up. He is heading to Vang Vieng. He says he will do it for 10 000 all in. We break the unspoken hitchhiker code, agree and jump in the back. Still, we get to Vang Vieng by late afternoon, and have the smug pleasure of overtaking a couple of tourist buses. Sorry guys but, honestly - pull your thumbs out and start hitching.<br /><br />I believe I've covered my views on Vang Vieng in a short story I wrote a couple of weeks ago, which you can find <a href="http://captainoftherant.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-short-story-party-at-ground-zero.html">here</a>. However, it's worth going into a bit more detail. After a now-regulation meal and beer to celebrate not being killed and left to rot on a South East Asian rural roadside, we find another SpicyLaos guesthouse, drop our stuff, and go marching off into the unknown. And when I say "the unknown", what I really mean is "in search of various intoxicants".<br /><br />Stumbling through the dark, going off road, we hear the familiar party rumble - the thundering, distant, deep bass that cuts through the pitch black. The primal calling to wreckheads world over. We come to a river which is blocking our path to the beats. And instead of trying to find a bridge, we wade through the dark water, scrambling up the muddy bank to the other side, fully formed songs forming in the darkness as we get closer and closer.<br /><br />We stagger into the glitz of Smile Bar, with its raging campires and dizzying lights. We head straight for the bar, flip the menu over, and there are the previously mentioned/consumed "happyshakes" of Kho Phang Yan. A decision is made with a single look to each other and a grin. We order two, and delve into our minds for six hours. It is, frankly, fucking fantastic. We dance like chimps, babble mindless crap at people, avoid the irritatingly beautiful people playing beer pong and posing about like twats and, through doing so, meet some people who're on the level, which seems to work out just fine. After quite a while of all this, we stagger off to bed.<br /><br />During the day in Vang Vieng, there is little to do apart from go tubing. I didn't bother, partly out of being contrary for the sake of it, and partly because it sounded fucking nightmarish. Basically, you go down the river in a little rubber ring thing, and stop at various bars. At these various bars, you get hammered. And that's it. There seems to be a strange delusion which grips some folk abroad, which is when there's plenty of cheap alcohol available, somehow the individual's alcohol tolerance rises. I'll let you into a secret: it doesn't. Unsurprisingly, Vang Vieng is host to many accidents and some deaths every year, and not just of dignity.<br /><br />What amazes me most about this get-fucked-as-much-as-possible culture is that the individuals within it are frequently surprised when you don't want to join in. One guy comes up to me whilst I was lying in a hammock. He's a touch worse for wear at 6pm.<br /><br />"What'd you do all day?" he asked.<br /><br />"Err... well, I'm currently reading and lying in a hammock and enjoying the sun."<br /><br />"You just seem to get hammered at night and do nothing during the day."<br /><br />"Okay, I'm fine with that."<br /><br />The implied question lurking beneath "what'd you do all day?" is "why aren't you getting drunk?" By all means, drink as much as you like, but why criticise me for <span style="font-style: italic;">not </span>drinking? I felt kinda bad for him, as he was clearly bemused by how anyone could be enjoying themselves just hanging out on their own.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 100%;">I found this psychology quite endemic in Vang Vieng, and as such Mr. Furious and I made it our mission to scurry off in search of small bands of really cool people have fun <span style="font-style: italic;">our</span> way. Which, to be fair, seemed fairly similar to the way everyone was having fun, but with added scummy crustiness, swearing, over-expenditure, less posing and more chimping around.</span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 100%;"><br />Vang Vieng has the potential to suck you in and refuse to let you go. We stayed there five days and considered it too too long. We meet a girl who'd been there two weeks, drinking every day. She looks dazed, like she couldn't possiblyenvision a world outside of the Vang Vieng bubble. The environment of irresponsibility seems to not stop at the abuse of the individual's liver, but extends to treating other people like toys in a game. We hear about one guy who slept with a girl in our hostel, and told her that he could only have sex with the same girl three times, because it was an agreement he had with his friends (I use the term 'friends' very loosely here), otherwise he would have to down a pint of piss or something equally twattish. She didn't really take him seriously, and when it turned out he <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> serious, she was very hurt.<br /><br />It's this kind of heartlessness that an inherently heartless environment will engender, and that's kind of sad.<br /><br />That said, Vang Vieng at least has the gumption to wear its heart on its sleeve. It is what it is. Unlike Pai, with all its sinister hidden codes and hierarchies, Vang Vieng is as loud and as crass as a pair of massive brass balls banging against a pair of equally massive brass tits. Which is kind of fun to experience for a day or two, but after a while, it becomes a repetitive blur of lights and superficial noise, and we realise that there just isn't any <span style="font-style: italic;">substance</span> to the place. Nothing to sink your teeth into, nothing to properly engage you.<br /><br />Rinsed of all other possibilities, Mr. Furious and I get ready to hit the hell out of the road for Laos' capital, Vientiane...</span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></div>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-51711527039330045002012-03-24T06:55:00.013-07:002012-04-13T22:48:38.367-07:00Punks vs. Laos - Part 1: Mountains and Night Dogs<div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span>So Laos is the reason why the updates have been so, so very slow until recently. A big hand to Mr. Furious for not just being there and making it more interesting, but also bothering to remember it all in order so I don't write it as a jumbled, impressionist mess.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><span>Everyone told us that Laos is "a really chilled place" many, many times. Now, Mr. Furious and I have many qualities, but being chilled is not among them. For a fascinating </span><span>variety reasons (not worth explaining now), we are quite unchilled people. This unchilledness projected on to the landscape of Laos makes it as chilled as the aftermath of punching a rhino's balls in.</span></span></div><span style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><div><span><br /></span></div>And so we arrive in Huay Xai, the Laos border town, and we get bored almost immediately. No offence to the place, but hitchhiking through Thailand to arrive somewhere really quiet was a bit of a comedown... so, after a look at a map, some scribbled road numbers and destinations, we do the sensible thing and start hitchhiking again.</span><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span>We head north east to Luang Namtha, taking one truck ride nearly all the way there. We bravely begin walking the 5km walk to the town, but we end up hailing a lift to take us the rest of the way. </span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span>It's late and the town is dead. We meander around for a while trying to look for a place to sleep. I don't know if you're aware, but provincial/rural South East Asia after dark tends to be where all the Night Dogs come out and begin acting rather aggressively. These Night Dogs generally look a little bit wild and haggard, and like they're going to chew your face off at any give moment. A bit like George Bush in his drinking days. Thankfully, most of them are all bark and no face chewing, and certainly wouldn't be capable of launching illegal wars.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span>We happen up on a guesthouse. After a brief discussion, we decide to bed down in the porch. This is all fine and dandy until the lady on the nightshift comes out, and then we kinda feel obliged to pay for a room. Ah well.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><span>The next morning, we agree that the journeying is way more fun seems way more fun than any destination, so we continue hitching. We get to ride</span><span> in the back of pick ups and taken through the mountains. This, beyond every other view I've seen so far in South East Asia is easily the gobsmacking and breathtaking. It's cocking </span><i>panoramic</i><span> - craggy mountains rocketing out of dense jungle, cramming into the horizon. Frequently, we just sit in silence, occasionally muttering something along the lines of "... fucking hell". We are officially awe-inspired, our eyes melding into the scenery.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span>To add to the excitement, frequently the mountain roads have no barriers and are also occasionally blocked by massive boulders. Oh, and there's the small matter of cars coming the other way too.* I have no idea how the drivers don't just suddenly snap and scream:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span>"FUCK FUCK FUCK, WHAT AM I DOING? I'M DRIVING ROUND A FUCKING MOUNTAIN! IMGONNADIEIMGONNADIEIMGONNADIE..."</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span>But, to their credit, they don't. And nor do we. Whilst slowly burning in the sun, Mr. Furious and I have some nice chats about anarchism, ideas of community and the individual, our old squat... just generally sifting through the politics in our brains. All in all, jolly good, enlightening stuff.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span>So, after a hard day's hitching, we arrive in Oudomxai. We try to hitch for a bit longer from near the bus station, but it gets dark, and, not being hot girls, we don't get picked up (oh, how I longed for my Chang Khong molester and his gentle, pissed, masculine touch). We're tired, but our adrenaline is pumped, and we don't want to sleep just yet. We go and eat and bimble around, before happening up on a tiny bar. There's a load of articulated lorries outside, with the truckers drinking there. Being adventurous, curious and wanting a drink, we go and join them. All the truckers are <i>really</i> drunk, but incredibly friendly and inviting. We chat in broken English, try and fail to learn what "cheers" is in Laos, and, when they leave, refuse any of our money to pay for the bill. They then proceed, whilst hammered, to get in their lorries to drive home.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span><span>Watching five huge vehicles </span>on a road barely wide enough for one of them, simultaneously attempting to execute three point turns was a truly beautiful and terrifying sight. No fatalities either.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span>We wander back to the bus station, and bed down on some chairs. I wake after about an hour to find Mr. Furious gone. This concerns me slightly, but I don't do much about it, being a terrible friend and everything. It turns out he's helping some of the dudes also sleeping at the bus station build a fire to keep warm, so I chip in, and wander off to get some wood. Unfortunately, every bit of wood I try to pick up seems to be protected by the aforementioned dreaded Night Dogs, so I've got three options:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span>1) Pick up the wood and pray the Night Dogs do nothing</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span>2) Pick up the wood, and, if the Night Dog tries to chew my face off, beat it to death with said wood</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span>or</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span>3) Don't pick up the wood</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span>I choose the third option, put some other stuff on the fire, go to sleep, and then we wake up early, get some cheap noodle hobo broth in us, and get our hitch on to Luang Prabang...</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span>To be continued...</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; "><span>*This reminded me of when me and some friends were being driven through the mountains of Botswana in 2003. I peered over the edge of the road to look down to the valley floor. There was a wrecked up lorry, slowly rusting in the dust. This scared me. But I wisely chose not to share this memory with Mr. Furious until we were done with the mountain bit.</span></div>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-91052308019186347512012-03-19T07:55:00.009-07:002012-03-25T06:21:25.850-07:00A completely self-imposed race against time...<span style="font-size:100%;">Pai was bit of a critical moment for me in realising that, from Bangkok onwards, we've been shoved from box to box. From cab, to tuk tuk, to minivan, to guesthouse, to bar, to club... all claustrophobic four walls, barely any open space... designed not to challenge but to comfort.<br /><br />And so, being men of extremes, Mr. Furious and myself decided to hitchhike to Laos.<br /><br />Oh yeah, I also only had two days left on my visa, which meant getting over half of Thailand to border town Chang Khong by that night. In a country neither of us had hitchiked in before. Yes, it was a dramatic race against time. Like '24' if it mainly consisted of two increasingly desperate-looking punks standing on dusty roadsides with their thumbs out.<br /><br />Hitching is surprisingly easy in Thailand. Some people wanted money for the rides, but when we said we couldn't afford public transport most of those who stopped took pity on us. And it definitely broke us out of the claustrophobic box of the tourist trail, opening our eyes to a damned beautiful country and some extremely nice people.<br /><br />There is a slightly unnerving ride with one guy. He stops, and I jump in front, and Mr. Furious in the back. The driver is slightly, how should I put this... over-friendly, what with his drunken (yes, drunken - drink driving seems something of a sport in South East Asia) strokes of my leg. He speaks okay English, and suggests that we go to his place and stay "for free". His manner suggests that he had a very liberal interpretation of the word "free". I turn to Mr. Furious - who is happily ignorant of the whole situation - and say: "I don't think this ride is going to be free". He doesn't have a clue what I mean, seeing as he can't see the occasional light petting. Mind you, I'm pretty sure he would encouraged me to take one for the team in order to get a free ride anyway.<br /><br />The driver is clearly a nice guy - he isn't really </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;">that </span><span style="font-size:100%;">creepy (the whole picking-up-younger- men-on-roadsides-and-trying-to-bang-them-whilst-drink-driving-thing notwithstanding), and dropped us off where we needed to be dropped off. I am, however, a little shaken by the experience. If that had happened in a club, I obviously could've just gone "sorry man, not interested" and wandered off. But being in the car, with someone else in control, not able to get out... that is genuinely a bit frightening. I don't think the driver quite realised how intimidating a situation like that is to a girl like me.<br /><br />Anyway, after that, some kindly gent drops us off outside a police station. Now, given my very brief history with Thai police and their reputation of being pretty corrupt, this doesn't exactly make me feel safe. However, it seems that the cops out in sticks are a bit nicer than Bangkok's finest, and help us flag down a ride with their torches. This does take some time though, and I'm amazed at the number of people who simply ignore cops trying to flag them down. And fair play to them for wanting to avoid getting involved with Thai police. I wouldn't if I had the choice. After an hour or so, a car stops, with a lovely English-speaking couple who had a lovely car which smelt lovely and had lovely seats. And then two men - who, at the best of times, probably don't wash their clothes enough - clamber in and ruin the atmosphere. Still, they are very tolerant of us, and drop us off in Chang Khong.<br /><br />And so, eight rides and around nine hours later, we've made it. Boom! We then meander around trying to find a hostel, and wander into one owned by a guy called Danny. We ask him if he knows anywhere cheap to stay. The exchange goes something like this:<br /><br />Me: Do you have anywhere cheap to stay?<br /><br />Danny: How low can you go?<br /><br />Mr. Furious: Free?<br /><br />Pause.<br /><br />Danny: If you buy food and a few drinks here, you can sleep in the massage palour next door.<br /><br />Us: Yes, that sounds great, thank you.<br /><br />"If you beg for free shit, sometimes you get it" - The Bible, Chapter 674<br /><br />And so we do as he says. We watch an amazingly terrible horror movie dubbed in Thai, drink, eat, barble nonsense at each other, before being shown to the massage palour.<br /><br />Now, given that it's a Thai massage palour, and it's free, I presume there are be some kind of strings attached... so we wander in with some trepidation and find...<br /><br />... two made up beds.<br /><br />Win!<br /><br />So we snuggle down for a decent night's rest in the most comfortable beds we've had so far. Danny, if you're reading this: You're our hero, and thank you.<br /><br />So we wake up, buy breakfast, give our heartfelt thanks to Danny, and go to the border. We pay 40 baht to cross the Mekong River into Huay Xai, Laos by boat (when, later, we see people crossing it on foot - and that's the kind of petty revenge Thailand takes on you when it senses you've got something for free), pay $35 to be let into the country, bimble around the border town for a bit, get bored, and decide to continue our hitchike into Laos, with little to cling on to other than second-hand advice about the country and our own ever-decreasing grip on reality.<br /><br />And that, my friends, is how you get to Laos, UK-crusty style.</span>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-87831157021062761362012-03-19T07:48:00.010-07:002012-04-08T03:33:27.119-07:00New short story: Party at Ground Zero<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif][if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> 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style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Vang Vieng, Laos, 2012</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The open air bar bangs out a discordant mash of popular songs that meld with the humidity. Snoop and Dr. Dre are shoved uncomfortably next to Rage Against The Machine, who, in a lurching seugeway, suddenly turns aimlessly generic dubstep and drum n’ bass… bundled together into a compilation CD aimed at the mythical average party goer. The DJ seems less concerned with playing good dancing music, and more with soundtracking a cultural apocalypse.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This particular cultural apocalypse is alight with gaudy neon and dazzling superficiality. Faces melt from beer bottles to kissing lips, to campfire fire trance like a montage of a trailer for an advert. Bundles of meaningless banknotes are bundled into invisible hands, passed from tourist to bar to police for protection. This is a carefully designed experience, where fun comes from the top down and any notion of grassroots has been dug up and left on the compost heap. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s a whirl of booze and hormones, of blonde girls and ripped guys grinding in a hammered MTV parody. This is UK high street drinking with added mushrooms and opium on the bar menu to lend an aura of decadence. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>To be fair, though, the drugs <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">are</i> pretty fucking good.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I sit with my friend Mr. Furious, greedily sipping whiskey and coke through straws like the needy, infantile, irresponsible goons Vang Vieng needs us to be, debating what drugs to take, where the next free drink is coming from, lip-synching to whatever the hell is being thrown at us by the DJ.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This is pretty much business as usual in Vang Vieng.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Then, through the clouds of cigarette smoke, dust, polished skin and unattainable dreams, she appears. It’s 9pm, and she’s seriously drunk. It’s the kind of unpredictable drunk where elation and depression are in constant battle with each other, and a thread hangs between tottering calm and spitting rage.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She stands and sits repeatedly, swaying like a rag doll in a gale. Her carefully applied make up has been swept up in a torrent of sweat and tears. She lifts up her dress and displays the crudely drawn spurting cock on her back to all who will look. This could be funny, except it’s all acted out with such lingering, trashed security. Like I said, she’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">seriously</i> drunk. It’s difficult to not feel deeply uncomfortable. Mr. Furious and I can only avoid her glazed eyes, ashamed on her behalf, lost at what to do.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She attempts to talk to us, but her chat is a gabba set on loop, a mash up of repeated slices of anecdotes and cut ups of opinions and accusations. She tries to explain, reason or justify her arrival to us, at this bar, alone, and drunk. But, because of the latter, it comes out as a hopeless ramble.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Suddenly, she clings on to a piece of driftwood from our conversation. I’ve no idea what it is – a word, a phrase, we’ll never know – but it triggers something inside her, and her first words of clarity are as direct as they are saddening.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“No woman has any self-respect.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Silence. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Mr. Furious and I almost hit the deck at the sudden bluntness of her words. She nods to herself as if her point is finally made, and drifts back into incoherence. Again, we can only sit, helplessly at a loss.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">No woman has any self-respect.</i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The six words reverberate in my brain for hours, days, weeks after, and make my heart shudder whenever I repeat them to myself.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I witness this annihilation of self-respect too often back home. A majority of the populace have been convinced that the only way to handle life is by debasing themselves because, after all, as British people, we come from a social structure that tells you daily:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">BE GRATEFUL THAT YOU LIVE UNDER A DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.</b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>… while at the same time attempting to force complete obedience through a labyrinth of complex institutions and archaic traditions. Growing up in the UK, we’re told that obedience is the key to climbing the mythical ladder of life. We’re told to “play the game”. And obedience doesn’t work if the individual is allowed self-defined notions of self-respect, because any self-respecting individual will tell anyone who orders them around to go fuck themselves.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And we come back to those five words – No Woman Has Self-Respect, and have flashes of her past, present and future.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I see the teachers training her through detentions and suspensions. I can see the politicians on television, all smiles and shark teeth, telling her everything will be just fine if she buckles down. I see newspapers scaring her into work to let someone else profit from her anxiety. I see bosses, red-faced, barking orders at her. I see boyfriends convincing her to have sex when she really doesn’t want to, a subtle threat of violence snaking through his words. I see advert up on advert holding up a postcard to a life that’s as alluring as it is illusory. All these conspire to do one thing – to convince this woman that she isn’t special. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But she is special. And I hope one day someone shows her that she is in charge and doesn’t have to take all this shit. I don’t want her to fall into the spiral of Vang Vieng, into the abyss that deceives people into settling for nothing, into the whirlpool that drains all natural energy and creativity…</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I want to tell her all of this, but instead I look away. As I try to figure out what kind of a hellish world could make someone utter those six words, I immediately begin to drink away the memories.</span></p>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-15526865254814501372012-03-12T21:28:00.005-07:002012-03-25T06:23:16.915-07:00Pai (pronounced 'pi', in case you were wondering...)As you will see from the blog entries that will be forthcoming over the next few weeks, you will realise how utterly justified I am in not keeping this blog up to date. It has been a completely, ravishingly insane month, so I'm going to spirit you back to early February, as Mr. Furious and myself depart from Chiang Mai and head to our main destination: the traveller hippy town of Pai, "hidden" among the mountains of North East Thailand (ie. feels like it's hidden, but it's possibly the worst kept secret since Barack Obama pretended he wasn't from a reptilian bloodline).<br /><br />Pai is very beautiful. The minibus crawls up five hours worth of gorgeous, mountainous views to get there. Mr Furious and I get in pretty late, eat, find a hut by a river to stay in, and mooch about waiting for the lovely people we met in Chiang Mai to bump into us, or for us to bump into them. As we discover, Pai has a very Smalltown mentality, and you bump into the same people a lot. You do not have to arrange to meet up whatsoever. It's a bit like a town where 90% of the population don't work (a bit like most smalltowns at the moment that are being throttled by David Cameron and his band of merry money-loving demons, but with loads of happy, stoned hippies instead of justifiably angry drunks). We meet up with a friend of Mr. Furious', Caroline, who happily shows us around, introduces us to people, and is generally extremely lovely. She even takes us up to her friend's house out of town, where they live on a mountains, to watch the sunset. (We go on motorbikes, and Furious still doesn't quite trust me until the end of the week to get on it again without the danger of destroying us both.) It's all geniunely a bit breathtaking. After that, I scamper about with a toddler who tries to steal my juggling balls, and we end up playing for two hours, much to the amusement of all the proper grown ups there. Furioso gets up at an open mic with an improv band and becomes a local celebrity for rocking the crowd, and we also gatecrash a singer/songwriter open mic with anarcho-rambles and shouts. We go down pretty well. I did War on Romance and, a little later, the pre-sliced veg poem, but Furious really had the balls of the night, forcing a whole crowd of extremely privelidged people to shout: "Realise you're not alone no more, say it loud and proud, no but BUT THE CLASS WAR!" I honestly hope they all went home thinking about the problems of consumer culture convincing you you're too busy to slice vegetables, and pitting themselves against riot police in the battle for anarchy.<br /><br />Personally, I think we were quite a welcome break from all the Cat Stevens covers.<br /><br /><br /><br />This is a place with a weirdly hypnotic, dreamlike atmosphere. The same faces float around in the same venues, the same venues have the same singer songwriters doing the same covers. 'Hotel California' merges into 'We Jammin' merges into enjoyably comfortable song after enjoyably comfortable song. There are two types of music available in Pai: acoustic singer/songwriter, and reggae. Our first night was misleading when we saw an amazingly energetic Thai ska band. Pai is not about expending energy. Pai is designed (and it does feel designed, no mistake about that) not for new experiences, but for leisure. Pure, uninterrupted, floating leisure. It was very telling that, during the great ska band, only a few people danced while a lot of annoyingly cool and beautiful people posed around a bit and took photos of themselves, clearly unable to live their lives without some kind of barrier provided by mediating technology. Just as the thirst to save an experience in digital images avoids the challenge of actually experiencing something, a leisurely lifestyle builds a foamy barricade against stress, pain, upset... in short, all the things that make us fully-rounded human beings.<br /><br />But, as we all should know but frequently don't act on, leisure comes with its own set of problems. If unhappiness is repressed by forced jollility, it can rise up in strange, twisted ways. Furious witnesses an aggressively drunk argument between a couple, which verges on violence. We see teenage prostitutes - <span style="font-style:italic;">very</span> young teenage prostitutes - in a rock bar, with men that define words like 'sleaze' dribbling and leching around them. A friend of ours is hit on in an incredibly crass way ("I'll be the best fuck you'll ever have"), and the next day when we bump into this individual, he seems completely shameless. This is because he feels that, in a place like Pai, where indulgence of relaxation is the endgame, he has an entitlement to attempt to exploit acquaintances he's built up over a period of time. (He may've just been a bit of a nob whilst drunk, but it was his response to his behaviour that disturbed me more than the behaviour itself.) There are subtle hints of a Pai social elite, a feeling of key 'organisers' of apparently casual, informal social events. There's a witchcraft/pagan-themed cafe which sends my brain spinning into <span style="font-style: italic;">Rosemary's Baby</span> territory. In case you haven't noticed, the hippy perfection of Pai makes me a bit paranoid. As Antares at Magick River, Malaysia said last night: "Pai seems like the people have fallen out of a novel". He captured it perfectly. But when the artifice of the novel is transposed into reality, weird things begin to happen.<br /><br />So, feeling trapped in the town, we move to Tacompai - a farm 5km up the road. This is an awesome place with great people, campfires, making mud bricks... I got to stay in a treehouse for a week, with a great view of the rice fields and forests for miles. Showering then sitting on my balcony naked whilst drying, undisturbed, listening to music, was pure bliss. The physical work on the farm was something I needed, even just collecting the firewood, as I was feeling a bit lazy and complacent after the seemingly endless touring coffee shops and bars. Getting out of the town also eased my neuroses (see above), and I learnt how to flip omelettes properly without totally fucking it up. If you go to Pai, I can't recommend staying in Tacompai enough.<br /><br />There was also the saviour of Blah Blah Bar, which deserves a special mention. It's a tiny punk bar run by a lovely couple, and they take song requests on YouTube scrawled on scap paper, which is obviously a terrible mistake when worse-for-wear punks rock up, since we filled the request paper with Dead Kennedys, NOFX and Flogging Molly songs. Still we danced too much for a tiny pub, sung too loud for a small group of people and generally had a roaring time. Felt good to be listening to punk rock again - I-Pod isolation isn't enough, and you need other people around you, shouting along, to feel punk's gorgeous dirt on your hands.<br /><br />And so, after nearly two weeks, we haul anchor once more, saying goodbye to our dedicated crew and begin the hitchike to Laos...<br /><br />Thanks for the good times Pai, but being with you was a bit like pretending to be emotionally intimate with a drunken one night stand. As I get a bit older, the need to create gets stronger and stronger. The skills laid down by DIY cultures don't just apply to the physical or even artistic spheres, they also apply to finding, to quote one of my own poems, "space between the gaps" in any given environment where you can challenge and be challenged.<br /><br />And that, Pai, does not include The fucking Eagles.Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-47429057699526016332012-02-05T03:20:00.001-08:002012-03-25T06:24:01.044-07:00Project: Escape Bangkok, Chiang Mai, boxing, blowjobs...And so we leave Bangkok, ears ringing and blood pumping from the madness. I have decided, like so many people, that I don't like the place very much. I thought London would have prepared me for such deranged, spazzy rhythms of life... but London is nothing but a cat's piss hole in the snow to the City of Every Vice Imaginable.<br /><br />So, we leave for Chiang Mai, a quieter city a 12 hour bus ride away. I love riding the buses in Bangkok - they play films with literally no adherence to anyone who might not want to watch a film with excessive cocaine use ('Blow') or gratuitous violence, such as in 'Blitz'. This is a confused film which seems to think that torture or extortion committed by a policeman is just wicked and fine, but if it's committed by someone who doesn't have Johnny Law on their side... well, it's evil, obviously. Worth watching for Paddy Considine looking bemused as to why he's in such rubbish.<br /><br />So we arrive in Chiang Mai, where we're given free coffee at a hostel, attempt and fail to hook up with a couchsurfer, and come back to the hostel with our tails between our legs. Furious and myself spend the day in the park, yogaing, eating, and then we meet some delightful people. We wander round some temples, they're pretty awesomely beautiful, and it's genuinely heartwarming to see people worship something that seems a little more life-affirming and worthwhile than a God. Note: must research more about Buddhism, seems interesting. Anyone who can recommend me anything, email me at captainoftherant@hotmail.co.uk.<br /><br />Of course, Chiang Mai was relaxing, apart from the Muai Thai boxing, which was insane. There were eight bouts, and pretty much every was covered - men, teenagers, women, and at one point a dwarf running around hitting two blind-folded boxers for our entertainment. We were served beer by extremely flirtatious lady-boys, and generally had a really good time. The boxing ring was in the middle of tons of bars, prostitutes, and generally displayed the seedier side of Thailand... not the dark side, exactly, but definitely seedy. And I'm fine with seedy.<br /><br />Oh yes, and in Chiang Mai Furiouso and myself were invited to pay for blowjobs in contrasting ways. Here they are:<br /><br />1) On the way to Chiang Mai, a very aggressive lady screams across the road at us. "OI!" She's got a voice like a Thai lady doing an impression of a racist Millwall fan. When we turn to face her, she makes no bones about making an extremely fast, violent rhythm with her fist towards her mouth. We have little idea of how to respond. I mean, even if I did want to pay for a blowjob, would I want one that terrifying? It looked like she'd take the skin off and gnaw it to a bloody stump.<br /><br />2) A much lovelier way was with the aforementioned lady boy at the lady boy bar who was serving us at the boxing match. I went into the bar, and asked where the toilet was. She told me, and then (I swear) said: "If you would like a blowjob, just let me know", and she didn't seem at all bothered when I said smiled politely and said no.<br /><br />After two lovely days in Chiang Mai, we take the five hour bus ride to Pai, which really is worth another blogpost on it's own, so I'll stop here for now.<br /><br />I hear it's freezing in the UK. Sucks.<br /><br />Over n out.<br /><br />Cap'nCaptain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-45644454486385978822012-01-27T00:27:00.001-08:002012-03-25T06:24:54.122-07:00Kho Phangan, jungles, buses, Bangkok...And so Furious George and myself arrived at the beautiful island of Kho Phangan to chill out after the Bangkok madness. It doesn't matter if you do nothing in Bangkok, the relentless psychopathy of the city will charge towards you like a drunk rhino with a disorganised infrastructure.<br /><br />There's beaches. There's sea. There's a beach bar. The sun shines and the water is warm. We lie in hammocks and drink beer. Basically, it's a bit like being in a film, albeit a slightly boring one for anyone watching.<br /><br />And so, to get some excitement back in our lives before leisure morphs into complacency, we hire motorbikes to go around the town. We're in the north of the island, which is quiet but far away from a lot of the partying action that goes on in the south. I'm on the motorbike for roughly ten minutes before we fall off, me cutting my elbows and shins up, Mr. Furious escaping with a grazed knee.<br /><br />Unsurprisingly, my companion then insisted on driving us everywhere because, and I think I'm quoting this verbatim, "you'll fucking kill us". At least a nice old Thai man gave me something for my cuts. Bless him. He clearly sees cocky, moronic, no mark twats like me crash mopeds that ten year-olds can ride all the time.<br /><br />On our motorbike travels, someone tells us of a Jungle Experience Party. I like experiences and parties, and I've never been to a jungle before, so going sounds like a good idea. So, a couple of days later, armed with little or no expectation, we get a taxi into the jungle.<br /><br />And it's bonkers.<br /><br />Thumping trance, fire juggling, beautiful dancing people, "happyshakes" (not a sex thing)... the whole night passes in a blur of illegal-in-the-UK Red Bull, intense dancing and yoga (the latter I was doing when my brain actually felt like it was going to fall apart into the darkness of the jungle and chewed up by the jungle sex elves). I don't really wanna bang on about it, as relaying having an awesome time partying isn't that entertaining for the reader, and it would also just come off as a predictable traveller on Kho Phangan partying story, so I won't pretend it's anything special in the big scheme of things. It was pretty fucking awesome though.<br /><br />Anyways, after much sleeping and recovery on the beach, we head back to Bangkok on the bus. It takes ages and ages, but we get back to The Overstay, our home away from home. Everything's quiet. The owner is asleep on the sofa.<br /><br />My companion and I sit down to rest, since it's 5am and all.<br /><br />Then fifteen Thai guys burst in, glasses raised, cheering and shouting. I'm bolted out of my lethargy. The owner leaps out of his sleep, immediately sticks on some reggae, begins pouring drinks, and encouraging Furious and myself to indulge in some MCing over some reggae beats. We oblige.<br /><br />Welcome back to Bangkok, infuriating, inconvenient and awe-inspiring in equal measure.<br /><br />Today is our last day in Bangkok (probably... we say this every day). Last night, both myself and Furious performed at a poetry night (which took us two fucking hours to get to). Excellent fun, and a couple of people had some extremely interesting stories/poems over a slide show of illustrations. Live narrated graphic novel is one of the future expansions of spoken word. It can be so engaging and wonderful, adding real texture to the words you're hearing. Some genuinely inventive stuff and a really attentive audience. That said, I'll always have a special place in my heart for screaming at people who are completely ignoring me. One of our company, Dan, got irate with the "liberals" in the audience and shouted at them: "Let's burn down the nearest 7/11". It was a fair effort to turn a relaxed crowd into a rowdy, viscous mob, and you can't have a go at the man for trying.<br /><br />Personally, I think an ex-pat riot against their own exoticism would've been awesome, a bit like Millennium People.<br /><br />And yes, I will be referencing Ballard in each blog I do.<br /><br />I think that's all from me for now.<br /><br />Over and out.<br /><br />Cap'nCaptain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-797148791264532542012-01-20T01:04:00.002-08:002012-03-25T06:26:04.329-07:00Flights, scrapes, drinking, and so on....So this is my first blog from South East Asia, which is where I'll be for the next eight or so months. I landed in smoggy, mental Bangkok on early am, January 12th, cabbed it to the Overstay, which is a hostel in Pinklau. Pinklau is a teeny bit out of the way of the traveller action, or whathaveyou, but the hostel was great. Basically, a bit like the squats I've been living for the past year or so, everyone chipping in, really friendly etc.<br /><br />On the day I landed I had a gig that night, so I hung out for a bit, napped, then scampered across Bangkok. I decided, in all my misguided arrogance, that walking to the station would be a great idea. It wasn't. It was insane. The walk was ninety minutes, and I don't know if you know Bangkok, but everything in it seems unplanned, ridiculously fast and smoggy. Its like a city tripping over its own feet, so finding stuff as an ignorant, foolish cretin like myself is next to impossible. Still, eventually got to the gig, which was at a hotel (two hours late), managed to squeeze one poem out of my brain, talked to some lovely people and then went back to the hostel.<br /><br />It's taken me a little while to get into full on backpacker mode. Not being the best with big crowds (at least in a sociable sense. I'm fine shouting and screaming pre-planned rants at them), I was standing on the side, being a bit quiet, with nothing of any interest whatsoever popping into my head. Fortunately, at The Overstay there were a few people who cajoled me out of my weird neuroses and made me drink alcohol and be sociable, which turned out to be jolly good fun. The last night I was there had an awesome reggae jam session, and a did a poem or two, plus a Ruby Kid (Dan, if it helps, I totally forgot the words so I don't think you can sue for breaching copyright or anything), which was really good fun.<br /><br />Oh yeah, and I was stopped and searched by Thai police in Bangkok. A bit intimidating given all the horror stories of corruption and so forth. They found a leaf in my bag, and the one of the policemen (he looked about ten) showed it to his old, grizzled companion as if to say: YES. WE'VE CRACKED HIM. HE'S DEFINITELY GOT DRUGS AND NOW WE CAN EXTORT MONEY FROM HIM.<br /><br />Sadly, it was only a leaf. Leaves aren't illegal in Thailand, and I'm not fully sure that having a leaf on you is illegal anywhere. Maybe in Canada its illegal to damage a maple leaf? Do let me know about any leaf-related laws.<br /><br />The night before old squatmate, friend, fellow poet and now travelling companion met me in Bangkok, and now we've travelled down to Kho Phang Yang, which is home of the dangerous-sounding full moon parties... we've not arrived in time for those, which is probably a blessing, as we'd obviously just get stupidly, hopelessly, pathetically hammered and probably drown ourselves or something equally horrible. Its all relaxed at the moment though, but, as we all know from our Lord of the Flies and J G Ballard, from paradise is born eating and fucking each other in a state of collective psychopathy induced by a tyranny of leisure.<br /><br />And, God knows, when you get bored, don't you just feel like eating and fucking the nearest person?<br /><br />Anyway, in a teeny rush, got torces to buy, dinner to eat, I-pods to charge, Thai people to gesticulate wildly at and motorbikes to ride.<br /><br />Over and out.<br /><br />Cap'nCaptain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-48330955785915697182011-09-03T08:04:00.000-07:002011-09-03T08:07:17.655-07:00Captain of the Rant's Basement Sedition trailer!<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MDE2qn5nOg8?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MDE2qn5nOg8?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-51482597976312935032011-05-09T09:29:00.003-07:002012-04-16T17:17:20.335-07:00Workers of the World... Fragment...<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">The harsh alarm beep</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">destroys dreams,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">we force eyes open</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">splitting crust at the seams.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Rusty, we stand – shaken, brave,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">weak, scared,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">our subconscious scratching at the stitches </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">so carefully woven</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">over a thousand past lifetimes.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">We bury pull sickie reflexes</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and sprint headlong into</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">the ubiquitous every day raid,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">where time thieves grab</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">every second they can.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Where we scurry escape to </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">the solace of toilet cubicles</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">to lay cables </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">that electrify fantasies of</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">wielding cricket bats</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">contacting brutal with windows,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">computer screens</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and co-worker's faces,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and sparing, saving the angel colleague</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">we pierced so many</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">silent fluttering glances with</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and driving off into our </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">gloriously unknowable futures,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">like a Bruce Springsteen song</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">animated with</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">pulsing flesh and dignity.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">But the flush destroys these meanderings,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and heads hung low in dread</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">we step into the bullet-riddled warzone</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">grumbling in marooned harmony:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;font-size:100%;" >“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I'm only working here</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">because I need the fucking money”</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Let's close our eyes.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">We're fifteen.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Precocious sponges absorbing</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">all immediacy,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">our backbones priming</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">for invisible horizons,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">sizing up our forthcoming days</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">forcing the future to adapt to our prophecies.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">But somewhere in the shifting sands</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">our spines dissolved,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">our central security systems collapsed</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and the tentacles took over,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">camouflaged by aspirational posterlife dreams,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">bringing bacon back,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">smart/cas dress codes,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">20% staff discounts</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and pat mottos such as: </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;font-size:100%;" >“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">well, I don't take my work home with me” .</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">The tentacles reached into our craniums</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and began to suck out extraneous hopes,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">dulling our irises with subjugation</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">until nothing but repressed sweaty tears</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and a fear of rent arrears remained.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Let's open our eyes.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">We're in, as Wayne Campbell would say, 'the now'.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">We pointlessly flush the toilet,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and lurch back to the shop floor</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">like zombies on death row.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Our area manager</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">(a grotesquely fat, burnt marshmallow</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">of a man named Ivor Pie)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">caresses and tickles the oily, purple tentacles </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and hisses sweet nothings</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">into the air-holes.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">The tentacles grin, hardening and pulsating,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and suck fierce at our brains in gratitude.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Ivor rubs a greasy, gleeful hand</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">over his folded and refolded stomach</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and shoots us eyes full of silent weapons.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">We robotically take off our T-shirts</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and bend over, </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">allowing Ivor to snort a huge road</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">of three parts baking soda</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">one part Peruvian cocaine </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">off our blistered, breaking backs.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">The powder fireworks Ivor's temper,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and he ferociously kicks us into a pile of blank anonymous products.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;font-size:100%;" >“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">CLEAN THAT UP YOU WORKSHY CUNT!”</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">he screams.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;font-size:100%;" >“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">AND IF I HEAR OF </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ANY</span></span></i></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> COMPLAINING OF 'ABUSE OF STAFF'</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">YOU'LL FEEL MY FUCKSTICK INFUSED WRATH!</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">FUCK THE LOT OF YOU, I'M OFF TO GREGGS”</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Ivor makes his wobby exit.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">We stand, shaken, brave</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">weak, scared </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and face the coagulating, whinging hoards of public,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">who moan about antiquated midcore pornography</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and demand refunds on lottery tickets</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">because they didn't win.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">The whinges fuse with the dull pounding</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">in the back of our brains</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">which punch out</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">a shriek of useless marooned harmony:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;font-size:100%;" >“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I'm only working here</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">because I need the fucking money”.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Ivor Pie now reeks of pastry</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and the death of souls</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">as he disappears amongst</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">the Friday night faceless cock rummaging</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">masses who infest this dingy hovel.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">All the men become a creepy, bulging mass</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">of silent leering and crass cheering</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">as our tits and arse dance</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">dispassionately on the stage,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">ageless stiletto gyrations on automatic</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">stiffening twitching pricks.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Banknotes float on the smoke</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">of rusted power-driven lust</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and become fuse perfectly with our G-strings.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">The music (some shitty house number)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">numbs almost all other sound</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">to us: the dancers of the neon skin rhythms.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Sometimes we enjoy our job,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">sometimes we don't,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and it's unfortunate that Stan,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">an estate agent from Hackney,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">head thick with cheap champagne</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and three parts baking soda,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">makes a grope for us</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">at a moment when, it must be said,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">we're not enjoying our job.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">As we feels his rankling fingers grasp our ankles</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">we turn and fix him.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">He freeze frames under our glare,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">his face everything we fear and hate:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">another cunt filled with venal venom</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and a twisted sense of entitlement</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">too much money</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and too little respect</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">pumping through his veins.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Every rubbed raw memory</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">rushes up inside us</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">like we've just double dropped</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and our senses pop, </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">exploding,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">splitting, </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">ripping into raging, burning fragments</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and everything blanks</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and suddenly we're rebel Atlas' </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">kicking away foundations of heaven and Earth</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and letting them crumble into space</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and our full forced arm shoots out</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and drives a stilhetto heels</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">deep into his eyeball,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">harder and thirstier with every shove,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">muscle gives way to more muscle</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">as his addled brain is punctured</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and Stan's soundtrack</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">to the final shutdown</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">is our gored screaming</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">reverberating in marooned harmony:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;font-size:100%;" >“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I'm only working here</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">because I need the fucking money”.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">It's why we're drinking away sores</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and rioting in hammered high street small scale wars,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">all for the elemental relief of the beer, the sweat</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and sticky floor,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">soaking our psychosis,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">then wringing it dry</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">to destroy </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;font-size:100%;" >– <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">just for a moment - </span></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">the flickers of the tie noose</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and gallows suit...</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">The harsh alarm beep</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">destroys our dreams,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">we force our eyes open</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">splitting crust at the seams.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Rusty we stand – shaken, brave,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">weak, scared,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">stagger down to</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">the jam-packed underground</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">which swells with sweaty, rage-prickled skin</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and bulges with comedown weekend sins.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">We're a thousand Orpheuses </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">hopelessly marching into the underworld</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">to reclaim damned damsels.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">We hold up candles,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">we squint eyes,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">but find no psychopomps,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">just the diminuendo throb</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">of our former consciousness</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">as we catch flickering</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">scrunched up faces against plastic windows</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">rattle past, and darkly vanish.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">We're banished to drag out battle-worn shields</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">to block out the pulsing pain that reels behind</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and belies blank, bloodshot, coffee-slapped eyes.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Eyes that, occasionally,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">glance up to try and find a sky</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">and silently scream</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">in marooned harmony:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;font-size:100%;" >“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I'm only working here</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:100%;">because I need the fucking money”.</span></p>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-88423738318770575012011-03-01T14:39:00.001-08:002011-03-01T14:39:36.427-08:00<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Okay, I'd like to make a bit of a public apology.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Last night, I performed at Word of Mouth at Norwich Arts Centre, supporting the excellent Pete the Temp with the nicely surreal John Simpson Wedge and the gently confident compere Dan Gregory. I think everyone had a grand old time, and Amy ran a fantastic gig all round. Lovely stuff!</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">As I mentioned during my performance, it was slightly odd for me as I hadn't been back in Norwich for a few years, not since July 2004. And it was fantastic to be welcomed by one of my best friends, Jon, who I met at my first year of uni and we've remained close ever since.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Problems arose, however, at the open mic after the NAC gig. By that time I had had a few drinks, and was with Jon in the pub with a couple of his friends. We were drinking and chatting during the performances at the open mic, and I had put my name down for it. I decided to do one of the poems I had already performed (which, due to the alcohol, was a weaker performance and I shouldn't have done it), and three haikus I just like messing around with.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Again, due to the booze, I was in my own world, and talking to an old friend who I hadn't seen in months. I was then jolted out of my revelry by one of the poets onstage saying “Captain Fuckface – shut up”. In my haze I was a little annoyed, but didn't say anything and carried on chatting, left the pub, ate a veggie burger and chips and crashed out.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I woke up this morning on Jon's sofa with that uneasy combination of hangover and anxiousness as my brain was deciding whether or not I had fucked up. I don't drink that much that often and am well aware that the total gobshite in me can emerge while my inebriated brain goes “Yeah! Go on Paul! You're being a charmer!”, and while everyone is in fact staring at me like I'm throttling a kitten.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I texted Amy saying thanks for the gig. Having as yet received no reply, my presumption was that I'd fucked up. This blog (http://carminamasoliver.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/carmina-of-the-rant/) written by Carmina Masoliver, who attended both the NAC gig and the open mic, confirmed it.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Carmina says some very kind words about my performance which is always lovely to hear, but extremely gracious under the circumstances. Those circumstances being that she is understandably disappointed in me that I talked throughout the open mic session. She writes:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">“<i>...the main thing for me was that Captain of the Rant and his friends ruined it for me. A guy I know from UEA’s CWS ranted about the Captain himself, calling him ‘Captain of the Fuckface’ or something… anyway, I was glad, he deserved it and I’d hoped he felt bad, but him and his mates kept on chatting. As I was impressed with his act both times I’d seen him, I was disappointed in him and I was just gutted to be honest, absolutely gutted... It’s just rude to talk over spoken word, open mic or not...”</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I can only presume that others feel the same, and this makes me feel genuinely terrible. I hate seeing unprofessional attitudes in anyone, regardless of their perceived 'level' in their field. And to become that, even just for one time, makes me very angry with myself. A lot of acts attended the NAC gig, and listened attentively and gave a great response. I did not return that respect and can only apologise. A mixture of booze-driven ignorance, having an excessively loud voice and the excitement of seeing an old friend are literally my only defences, which basically equal to saying I have no defence. The poet who called me “Captain Fuckface” did exactly the right thing and, as Carmina writes, I did deserve it, and I deserve Carmina's criticisms too. </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">A lot of my poetry is about respect, about brushing away socially-enforced rules and respecting people as equals. I failed to live up to the ideas I talk about constantly in my spoken word, so I've not only disappointed other artists I should have been more respectful toward, I've also disappointed myself and have fallen well below my own aims as an artist.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I can fully understand Carmina's presumptions that because I perform a lot that I find it a chore and other acts are a bus man's holiday. I assure you, this is not the case. I have nothing but love for the spoken word scene and I deeply regret I did not show it fully that night.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">So, to summarise: I am deeply sorry if I aggravated, annoyed or disappointed anyone. I'm sorry that my behaviour at the open mic prevented the audience and performers being able to enjoy the night fully. And I'm sorry for not showing due respect to all performers.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I can assure you that anyone who knows me professionally will attest that I am <i>not</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> usually drunken, boorish and obnoxious throughout gigs or in any other aspect of my professional (or social) life. This was an unfortunate, rare incident and will not be repeated.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I've learned a valuable lesson tonight, and think it's amazing that there is such a solid spoken word scene that will openly criticise artists and allow them to build on their mistakes. I think it's great that other artists have the medium, inclination and strength of character to call other artists out when their blatantly being twats. </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I'm humbled.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Thanks.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Captain </span></p>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-36406462451864803082011-02-01T13:59:00.002-08:002012-04-09T08:29:08.878-07:00Poem: Hollow Hymns<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">This is our final destination:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">No Man's Land terminal,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">terminating at the end of the lane Cain paved.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">An airport slowly murdering us with boredom</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">with nothing but dim, echoed muzak</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and our haggard, </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">baggy-eyed reflection in shop windows for company.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">This is where we roam: </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">for anything to hunt and gather</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">on the barren litter-beaten streets,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">for any semblance of what came before</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">we were choked by our own futures.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Futures bought and sold</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">without our permission.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">And no, we don't have the time</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">because it's all run out.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">This place was skinned</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">leaving nothing but smooth bone.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">No tombstones to gather moss.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">No 'We wuz ere' scrawled hopelessly on the wall.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Just gaudy, bright, buy-one-get-one-free signposts</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">directing the way to the rest of our lives.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">A psychogeographer's nightmare:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">nothing to feel out,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">no energies to imbibe,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">no tide of memories,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">nothing blooms,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">nothing dies,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and everything's too fucking clean</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">to glean any feeling.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Bloodless brains switch off their beams</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">because there's nothing to search for anymore,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">no flecks of meta-historical compost</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">to breathe thick into your lungs,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">just glimpsed postcards funnelled through</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">a sheeny amnesiac vacuum.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">This place is a scattered, billion piece jigsaw</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and occasionally there's a little reflection of</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">joy or remorse</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">but these never last long,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">feeling them most</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">in the brief warm haze of shower masturbation</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and when the fuzzy shudder gives in</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">with a self loathing edge</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">the blank tanoy intones in our heads:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><i>Thankyou, please come again</i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">as we step out into the smokey cold.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">We're all stillborn tabla rasas,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">meandering identikit pubs where</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">hermaphroditic bar staff</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">robotically offer the mantra:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Foster's, Kronenberg or Stella?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">The jukeboxes only play songs</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">that're part of the furniture.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Foster's, Kronenberg or Stella?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">And the only furniture there is</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">part of the wallpaper.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Foster's, Kronenberg or Stella?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">And the wallpaper is peeled and cracked.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">I peel back and hand over another fiver,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">drinking only to lose</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">all the reasons why I'm drinking</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">with half-remembered friends</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and half-forgotten fucks.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">By chucking out time</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">we either end up in fights,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">pointlessly thudding knuckles on chipped teeth,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">or stagger into alleyways with strings of vomit</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">hanging out of our burning mouths</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">or drive home,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">blearily watching the endless cinema road,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">the repetitive, dimly illuminated black and white strobe</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">praying for a crash through the screen.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Unfortunately, we all arrive home safely,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">drunken, undamaged, undead.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">And then we don't even sleep -</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">our heads just go black,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and it's only in the black</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">where swirling shadow eyes </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">of Londoninium overspillers</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">with bomb blasts and a collective funerals</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">still ringing in their ears</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">mingle with tattered punks</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and shards of basement gigs</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and familiar faces</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and just when these dreams</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">begin to gestate and co-ordinate</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">they're crushed by the </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">waking the cutting pains</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">of underhydration.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">On star starven nights</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">(lit only by floating orbish streetlights</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and soundtracked solely by distant glass tinkling)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">I climb through a broken window</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">of my old school,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and wander across old horizons.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Blurs on neverending energy legs</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">shoot past me,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">distant lost virginities glimmer.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Sober scuffles like flickering 8mm film</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">are screened on the edges of recollection.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Everything looks so fragile,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">like an empty spider's web,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and I tread - a delicate tyrant -</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">scared that if I breathe too hard</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">everything I control will decay into </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">floating, windtaken ashes.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">But there's no control here,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">just the illusion of choice,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and slowly the crumpling begins,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and ashes fill my eyes and throat.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Helpless, I leave,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">heading to what I think is still home,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">or at least shelter.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">I look for a way out of this town,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">but the train and bus timetables have become</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">faded cryptic essays,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">The orbital noose tightens</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and I stand at the border of everything,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">screaming hysterics at electric fences.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">This place is a never exploding bomb threat,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">a burnt out church</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">with scorched parchment floating in the breeze.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">I strain for hollow hymns</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">but hear nothing,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">nothing except</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">the slick automatic sliding doors click</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">and the ghosts whimpering</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;">as they barely hang on by their fingertips.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:verdana;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-56934317758911376582011-01-14T08:58:00.000-08:002011-01-17T08:44:21.497-08:00Clips of Extreme Strangers: #1 THE MARINE<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There's ruckus below. From the top deck, I hear blurred rumblings. A drunk man downstairs: American (I think), pleading faintly with the blankly authoritative, none-shall-pass tones of the driver. Usually, these altercations revolve around the bus driver battling with aggressive, alcohol-imbibed circle talk. But the antagonist here sounds meek, unable to muster an attack on the bus driver's clipped bluntness.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">- </span></i></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Not today mate, fuck off.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This brute</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> finality is followed by a grumbled apology, the doors hissing shut, and the drunk man's words muting against the scratched, protective plastic of the window. </span></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I peer outside. In the artificial white light of the bus stop, the drunk man slumps on the bright red seat, deflated, hopelessly waiting. He slides out of view and mind as the bus shudders and shifts away towards increasingly unfamiliar streets. I space out, mind blanking until I'm on the well-worn ground of punk gigs, booze and failed attempts at acquiring drugs.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A few hours later, half cut, ears ringing, I wait for the night bus at New Cross, straining my hopefully at each one that approaches, and then lighting another cigarette with inevitable disappointment.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">- Excuse me, sir?</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A polite, deferential, slurred American accent prickles my neck. I turn. Seeing him up close for the first time: his skin so battle cracked that it's impossible pin an age to him. Despite his drunkenness, he isn't tottering or swaying – his composure is perfect. His dull, colourless eyes look straight into mine with broken confidence. His voice sounds like a staring abyss.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">- Can you spare me a pound to get a beer?</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">- No mate, sorry.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">He breaks eye contact for a moment as if to walk off or cry, then makes another attempt at connection.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">- I'm a marine.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">- Okay.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Silence hangs between us. He breaks it with a soft, definite, direct statement.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">- I want to die.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The four words are so bluntly immediate I barely have time to register them. The stumbled, awkward question leaves my mouth before my brain can stop it.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">- Why?</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">- Because I've killed too many men.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">For a moment, I want to help him. For his disarming honesty. For his genuine wish to end his life. For all the cold pain that lies beyond his bones. I simply can't begin to comprehend the horrors he has bore witness to. The moment passes, and I fall back on a catch-all phrase, as useless and redundant as it is tactless.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">- I'm sorry.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">With a single resigned nod, he turns and drifts away, his future weighed down by unnumbered dead men. His hunched silhouette merges slowly with the night until there's nothing left.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">My bus arrives and I go straight to the top deck. I peer out at nothing as the bus shudders and shifts away, returning me to a bright, comfortable, careless world where the dead don't exist and ghosts can only be found in stories.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><br /></p>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-12711370617206939302010-12-14T03:16:00.000-08:002010-12-14T03:22:08.918-08:00Jody McIntyre Interview, and my subsequent complaint...<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Watch this interview with cerebal palsy sufferer Jody McIntyre. And then you can get angry and complain too.</span></span> <span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >You can make your complaint here: <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/">https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/</a></span><br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tXNJ3MZ-AUo?fs=1&hl=en_GB"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tXNJ3MZ-AUo?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span><dl style="font-family: verdana;" id="confirm-details"><dt><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></dt><dd><span style="font-size:85%;">Dear Sir/Madam<br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;">I would like to register a complaint regarding Jody McIntyre interview presented by Ben Brown. Jody is the cerebral palsy sufferer who was pulled from his wheelchair by police at the student protests. Ben Brown seems to have no interest in listening to Jody McIntyre's opinion. He interrogates Jody about not making a complaint, even after he has given his sensible reasons.<br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;">Ben Brown also, ludicrously, attempts to interrogate Jody for "rolling towards the police". Jody refutes the idea, pointing out that he could not even be physically capable of this. Brown then changes tact completely, not even registering Jody's answer, and moves on to say The Observer described him as a "cyber-radical" who wants to "build a revolutionairy movement". The implication is that, if Jody had admitted to these, then the police would be justified in their actions of pulling a man with cerebral palsy from his wheelchair. And even though Jody asks how he could possibly be a threat to any policy officer, Ben Brown completely ignores him. ]</span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;">I put it to you that this interview had nothing to do with establishing a meaningful dialogue between the mainstream media and protesters, and everything to do with goading a disabled person who has been through a traumatic experience by interrogating him with pointless questions.<br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;">In this sense, the questioning by Ben Brown resembled the police tactics that Jody describes to eloquently - if you goad someone enough, they'll crack and become irrational, meaning that the police/media can be justified using outrageous claims to smear the protesters. Fortunately for the protesters, Jody was courageous and articulate, and did not succumb to Ben Brown's bizarre, irrelevant and accusatory questioning.<br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;">The BBC, in this case and throughout the entirity of the coverage, completely failed to provide "an impartial coverage of events". Jody - and all the protesters who have been victims of violence by the police who have received politically dubious coverage - deserve a full and frank apology.<br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></dd><dd><span style="font-size:85%;">Yours sincerely Paul Case</span></dd></dl>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-7194315552702082182010-12-10T03:24:00.001-08:002012-04-09T08:29:36.091-07:00Poem: The Police & I<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Mum always told me:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Police are there to be trusted”.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Their boots on the beat</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">around provincial high streets</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">all sparkling brass that would never rust</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and every bust they made</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">was a must and utterly correct.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">So whenever I forgot my watch</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I wouldn't hesitate to ask them the time.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Wouldn't think twice about stepping out of line,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">wouldn't even so much as dodge a train,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">take the wrong change in a club</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">or fill up my pint glass with a can in the toilets of a pub.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">And yet I'd still get </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">a reddening, itching, burning guilt</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">every time a police car seeped past</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">but I figured unarticulated fear </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">equals respect</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and respect is due to those who protect.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">A few years later,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">hanging in one of my friend's bedrooms</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">killer punk tunes rebounded</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">with the sound of the speakers screamed:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">All coppers are bastards!”</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">through stolen cigarette clouds,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">fitting perfectly with my out of tune fury.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Fast forward.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Armed with only a degree</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and confused ideas</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I wander the streets</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">while others march for things</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I'm still chewing things over.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">It all seems so abstract - </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">this protesting against war in far off lands.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Intimidatingly confident</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">hands balled up into tight collective fists.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I'm drip fed edited images</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">of clashes with police</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">their faces strained with mysterious </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">rage and fear and pride.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I feel the tingle of skin memory</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">wrap around all the punk gigs:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">so much sweat and so much bruising.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">So much singing and so much boozing.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">There was so much unity and collective purpose</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">that my heart untightened</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and for a few hours I became a little bit less frightened</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">as I shouted along to someone else shouting:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">All coppers are bastards”.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">But this is still all second hand,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">hand-me-down anger...</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Cut to:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Electrician Jean Charles De Menezes</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">is shot seven times in the back of the head</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">by the police at Stockwell tube station.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">The poet Angry Sam takes a lift</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">from the words of Linton Kwesi Johnson</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">at the time:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <pre style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">First they said he was running</span></i></span></span><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><i>Then they said he was not</i></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><i>First they said he had a backpack</i></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><i>Then they said he did not</i></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><i>They said he was a drug addict</i></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><i>Although he never was</i></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><i>And then they said someone went for a piss at the wrong time</i></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><i>And now nobody talks about that time anymore.”</i></span></pre><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Cut to:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">All my grins and tears</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">of the past four years</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">are bound up in Londontown.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">And the G20 are here.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">They're not in Ottowa.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">They're not in Beijing.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">They're </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">here</span></span></i></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and sometimes I might fuss about the buses</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">or the soul draining towers</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">but I burningly know this is mine,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">this is </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">our</span></span></i></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">s,</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and I'll be damned if the powers</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">are going to warp our future</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">within our sight</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">without us putting up a fight.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">The city centre is tense,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">stretched, fragile and read to break </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and I break into a run</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I feel the twinge of a stitch</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I frantically text my friends</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">but they're kettled</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">behind a faceless wall of helmets and shields.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I glimpse the people flickering and flitting behind it,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">lost, angry and panicked,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and I can smell the piss and the sweat.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Eventually, my friends turn up.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">They lift up trouser legs</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and show me truncheoned bruises.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">They display them with a weird kind of pride</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and I stare with a weird kind of jealousy.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">This is made real by red dents on the shins</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and I can see now, for the first time,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">what we're voting in:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">something swollen and bruised</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">on something of natural use.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I flick through digital snapshots </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">that'll document this forever, </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">tethering it to our histories:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Frozen faces caught mid-shout.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Bandanas covering faces.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Smashed glass tinkled on the road.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Traffic lights that've ceased their civilian use</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and become lookout posts.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Treasured moments of pure visceral emotion.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Blank eyes police security camera.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I look up from the camera</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and I realise</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">we're in the middle</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">of one of the world's most important cities</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">being squatted.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Hippies rolling joints from split open fags,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">soundsystems got on the blag pump out</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">earth shatteringly heavy dub.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">The streets vibrate with joy and feet and bass.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">We crack open cans,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">feeling like nothing can touch us,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">feeling like we're grinning,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">feeling like we're winning</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">a game we don't know yet the rules of.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Then a long shadow of riot cops slowly line up</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">even though there's no riot </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and we try to tie it</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">to logic but can't</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and so bond hopelessly, </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">despairingly as the shadow creeps closer.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I get home late, </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">drained, </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">my head spinning</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and find out later that someone died.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">A newspaper vendor named Ian Tomlinson.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">His final moments immortalised</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">in a looped, shaky video of a policeman</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">smacking him in the back of the legs</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">causing his last tumble.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">They terminated one life short</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">but it could've been any of us.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Real lives are at risk here.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">However, some faith still remained,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">still retained by my concrete conditioning,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">still occasionally reminiscing</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">on childhood ideologies</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">now slowly hazing away.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Fade out.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Fade up.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Wandering with a semi-stagger </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">back from the pub with a friend</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">we take a short cut through a council estate.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Through the dim orange orbish streetlights</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">cut blue lights and hear shouts</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">bounce off the dark edged walls around us.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">We turn a corner and see the source:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">two police vans</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and ten white police shoving</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">around few black guys.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Faces to the wall,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">the twist of wrists,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and the click of cuffs</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and dull slams are coming from</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">inside one of the vans.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Now I don't want to judge why they were there:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">could've been drugs, guns...</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">maybe just bored uniforms looking for kicks</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">but the force they were using -</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">sticks waving, chests puffed out,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">challenging all on-comers -</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">was out of line.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">We stand on the fringe and cringe,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">feel the sudden violence singe our skin</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and I get flashes of the movie </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Do The Right Thing</span></span></i></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">We ask what's up,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and immediately we have a plainclothes officer </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">screaming in our faces:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">BACK OFF! BACK OFF! BACK OFF!”</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I ask him to calm down and explain</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">but we get nothing but the same refrain.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Just aggression and orders.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">No rationale.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I look down, slightly scared,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">then glance across and to say something to my friend</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">but she's not there.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">She's not there</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">because another officer</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">(who has at least a foot and half on her)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">has shoved her down some steps</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Scared, meekly, soundlessly protesting</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I help her up.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">We move back, still watching.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">The violence continues in a flurrying strobe</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">of black and white and blue.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">My friend edges a touch closer.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I'm about to join her...</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and then I remember the hash I've got in my pocket.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I'm about to say “shall we go?”</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">when a bearlike policeman storms up to me,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">grabs me by the scruff of the neck,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">marches me round a corner,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">spins me round,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and shouts in my face:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What part of fuck off don't you understand?”</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and then threatens me with arrest.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I try to mutter some calming words</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">but realise that he probably isn't in the mood</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">for an anger management session.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">A policewoman comes into view</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">frogmarching my friend next to me.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">We leave,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">the rage steaming our faces,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">the rants choking our throats.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">And it was that evening</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">my faith in them finally died</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">because I realised </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">for every one of em that smiles</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and gives you the time</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">in another situation will be on a different side,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">baton raised</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and prejudice burning their face.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">For all they claim to be serve the public</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">it's nothing but a cheap trick</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and when it comes down to it</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">they don't pay much attention to laws they impose.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">If I thought, wrongly, someone was a terrorist</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and gave chase</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and emptied my chamber into their face</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I'd be a murderer.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">If I smashed someone in the legs</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and they cracked their skull on the pavement</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and if that meant they died</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I'd be done for manslaughter.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">For Jean Charles De Menesez, no police officer was found guilty.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">For Ian Tomlinson, no police officer was found guilty.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">And for my lack of faith in them?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">They're all guilty.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Because if I were in a job</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">where my colleagues were found innocent of killing</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">due to their blood over-thrilling</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I'd walk the whole world with a shameful stalk</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">making sure I couldn't be complicit</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">in any of their talk.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">But police don't often do that.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">They look after their own</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">in a taped-off zone.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">And if you haven't had trouble with them yet:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">your time is on loan.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">And police can help with a lot of stuff</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">but when you get to the crunch</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and something's a threat to their boss</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">(the State)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">you know which side they're on.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">I've seen them prioritise government windows over people.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">And yes, of course they're people too</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">with families, husbands, wives and friends.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Police are not exempt from society,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">but it's not about good cops v bad cops.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Uniforms, weapons</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and the right to use violence following orders</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">make anyone lose their humanity.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">But we have the chance to keep ours</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and feel empowered.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Individually we may cower</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">but collectively we can face them</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">with eyes of raw steel</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and righteousness</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and we can battle back.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Learn from my personal history</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and the history of the people</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">stretching back a millenia</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and with the past as a foundation</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">we can stand and we can fight.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">Then ring your Mum,</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">explain why you did it</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;">and make her proud.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> </p>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-51095136307711744192010-11-19T08:10:00.000-08:002010-11-19T08:11:01.303-08:00Poem: Don't Go Outside<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">DON'T GO OUTSIDE</span></span></p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Because there's kids</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">all scissorheads, blade-eyes,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">machete hoods</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and skin impervious to your reasonable begging</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">as they wave the pre-cutting knife </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">in a goodbye to your drained face.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">They're behind every corner,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">in every shop,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">unstamped shouting on every high street.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">And there's concrete abode blocks</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">hammering your daymares</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and roughly fucking your nightmares...</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">They fester there:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">squmbed, illiterate,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">brains pinching violent,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">they'll leave you hangtwitching down as a </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">blood-faced alarm.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Wake up!</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">They've got no topdown,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">felt no crush we've mustered,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">brains rusted away to the core of primeval war.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">DON'T GO OUTSIDE</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Because metalled eyes</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">are tracking your every atom's shake,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">controlled by the tentacles</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">of the bored and the sleepless.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">A ceaseless, unforgiving, frigid gaze.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">A coldly objective narrative</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">that squeezes everything you dream</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">into a storyline where nothing ever happens.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">You're their target practice, </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">because a CCTV camera that fires bullets</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">is better known as a sniper rifle.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">DON'T GO OUTSIDE</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The every day bill boards,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">advertising with big-titted, six-packed retinas</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">that laser into your very soul.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">knowing all your fears and insecurities</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">so you drop to your knees</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and pray</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">to touch self-appointed gods</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and every time you stare into the mirror</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">you look at the fatness, </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the thin-ness,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the pus globe spots,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the yellow tinged teeth,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the crooked nose,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the ugly, sexless future</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and you fantasise about smash-fist-bloody</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and wiping the tears away with the broken glass.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">DON'T GO OUTSIDE</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">because there's black Jewish jihadist terrorists</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">crawling towards your lawn</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">with broken fingers</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and a battered, jealous homeland</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">here to steal</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">everything you've worked for,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">everything you love.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">They'll pull their plug,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">drain your taxes</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">then stick that plug in your daughter</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and she'll fucking love it.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">DON'T GO OUTSIDE</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Because in the faceless warehouse in the ashen field</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">where all your secrets and dreams are kept from you</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the hard skinned finger tips</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">are flicking through your file as we speak,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">brushing off the dust,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">a grin leering over your mug shot,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">pawing at the photo of you leaving your house,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">coldly debating the tests they've run on you</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">when those pale guys came over and</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">did something with your water supply</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">while you pick at the mysterious sores</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and wonder where they came from.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">DON'T GO OUTSIDE</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">No, not even for a little bit.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">There's something muttering just outside the door.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The psychodisco lights are swirling and blinding.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The police stop you in the street,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">search you all over,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">legal rough brown fisting and</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">hand you a receipt and all it says is</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">'DON'T GO OUTSIDE'</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">written in your own handwriting.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Take the advice.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The contamination's fucking rife,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">burning everything in its path:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the firestorm of everything that isn't you.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Protect yourself!</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Red cross signing the plague</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">replaced by crosshairs.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">One pull and you're quarantined forever.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Keep the lights on.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Tuck yourself in.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and sleep tight.</span></span></p>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-24202613342280886162010-10-28T03:36:00.001-07:002010-10-28T03:38:39.865-07:00My Anti-Slam Entry: Meaty Encounter<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For those who don't know, the anti-slam is the opposite of a normal poetry slam. In the latter, the best poet wins. But the anti-slam, in a stroke of genius, awards the prizes to the weakest, shittest, most awkward, horrific poetry that night... it was so so much fun.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Anyway, this was my entry - it got booed off after 90 seconds because the audience couldn't handle the sheer eroticism of my language. So, here it is, unedited, uncensored and bursting with raw, primal sexual energy:</span></span><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I first saw her over the meat counter of Morrison's.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Our eyes met.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">She was working there, working hard</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">sweat dripping from her brow</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">as she handed the long, hot meat products</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">to customers.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">She called out my ticket number:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">69!” </span></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Her voice was so hot.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The kind of hot that could melt polar ice caps</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and drown all kinds of indigenous populations</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">living under sea level.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Yeah, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that</span></span></i></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> hot.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">In my shopping basket, I had my hands on two melons</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I won't say what they looked like, </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">as the erotic tension is best left up to suggestion.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">She picked up a sausage that was on special offer.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and arched her gorgeous eyebrow.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Big isn't it?” she said with hushed suggestivenessnessness.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Yes,” I replied. “Like my cock”.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">My moustache bristled with excitement,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and so did hers.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The sexual energy built and built and built,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">as if Bob The Builder was put in charge</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">of building a brothel that was meant</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">to house only well fit prostitutes.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">And, suddenly, she leapt over the counter</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">like a horny, big breasted frog,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and we kissed so hard it almost made me</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">swallow my bubble gum.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">She pulled down my shellsuit bottoms,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">got on her flamingo-like knees</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and proceeded to suck on my semi-on</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">which grew into a three-quarters-on,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">shrunk to a two-thirds on,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and gradually stabalised at a seven-eighths on.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I pulled my fleshy love dong</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">from between her beautiful yellowing teeth</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and began pulling down her knickers from under her Morrison's uniform.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Her vagina,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">which looked almost exactly like the mouth of </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">a grinning toothless monkey,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">was splayed in front of me</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and l began to lap away</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">like a horse, like an ox,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">like a jihadist terrorist getting it on with the first</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">of his 72 virgins while Allah films it.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I could tell by her moaning</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">that she was going to fake an orgasm pretty soon</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">so I stopped my jaw-aching oral technique</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and slid my Dr. Nobble into her fleshy swamp.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I flipped her over and began rooting her from behind.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">She was screaming bloody murder:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That feels slightly above average!” she wailed, excitedly.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I rooted, and rooted, and rooted,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and after three and half minutes</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">of ecstacy I withdrew, came,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and gave a salty blast of manfat on to her uniform.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">We lay back, panting, she turned towards me,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and gave me the best sexual compliment I've ever received.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That was alright” she said.</span></span></span></span></span></p>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-22546457787320728092010-10-20T08:15:00.000-07:002010-10-20T08:18:38.600-07:00Excerpt from new short story: The Battle of Kingsland Road<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">THE BATTLE OF KINGSLAND ROAD</span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">by Captain of the Rant<br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Excerpt from the pamphlet </span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-size:85%;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Retrospective Study of The Battle of Kingsland Road</span></span></i></span></span><span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, p. 7, author unknown</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Just over a mile of traffic choked concrete vein runs through Hackney, connecting two beating hearts of mutual disdain. Let us start at the north tip of this vein. Stoke Newington.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">They swooped into the area slowly over the years, migrating east for a new life from Islington. Attracted by the RealGrittyUrbanLondon and an itch to free themselves from the ties and prejudices of the middle class. The teachers, the doctors, the businessmen, the mentors, the independent artists, the freelance journalists. The self-propped and the academic. The clean spines of Chomsky, Vidal and Sinclair snugged on antiquely bookcases. Red wine and spliff wind downs, cocaine smeared mirror nights.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Gleaming white paninis – smoothly bragging organic – began to nestle awkwardly against the artificial Americanisms of the Dixy Chickens', with their steaming brightness and their cheaply, deeply fried poultry. </span></span></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The pubs upped price, the up-funk leak from their speakers building walls, shadowing the estates that briefly peered in from the edges. Tattered homeless punks (heads leaning in doorways, arms clenched around knees, half-smoked cigarettes balanced confidently on beer cans) were likewise acknowledged in theory, but not in practice. </span></span></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There was suprisingly little tension between the new arrivals and the concrete shouts, just a slowly dimming fade until only the well trained and newly bright remained.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">You turn to face south. In the distance, The City's grey haze looms, the relic Gherkin centrepeice illuminating the impenetrable Gucci banknote blur at its feet. You walk towards it (but never to it, remember), down Stoke Newington Road to arrive at the border of Dalston Junction. Here, transparently high rised flats preside over Dalston's sprinkled, cramped trendy bars and Turkish coffee houses...</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Let us walk just under the mile south to the next border. Shoreditch.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Formerly a crumpled slum, much like Stoke Newington: hollowed warehouses piled high (sweatshop workers and squatters crammed in), whispered danger zones, blank blowjobs in alleyways, market traders. This RealGrittyUrbanLondon enticed the film makers, the T-shirt designers, the drum n' bass producers who rapidly filled every space with exhibitions, arts studios, mangled electrics. Tossed wraps, with tiny shards of MDMA clinging, swept with the breeze. Prominent local markets were celebrated, then silenced into history dust. </span></span></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A scene soon gestated. Skilled in absorbing rhetoric punchiness and regurgitating gaudy clenches of style. The fetishisation of the nothing. Polar opposite to Stoke Newington's pseudo-intellectual liberal-left, it fashioned empty anti-capitalism and emptier offence. Extravaganting loudness pioneered.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Between these borders, The No Man's Land of The Battle. Kingsland Road. Afro-Carribean hairdressers, bargain clothes shops, underground Nigerian restaurants... </span></span></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> <span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">For the new arrivals on either side of The Battle, it represented empty space to be coloured in. Primed to stamp their own locality brand, they began to charge. Things were going to change. One way or the other.</span></span></span></span></span></p>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657819532418754490.post-72772468047628274282010-10-13T03:58:00.002-07:002012-04-16T17:18:25.219-07:00Poem: The Great Tradition<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">On 12/10/2010 I was asked to play MC Angel's excellent night Lyrically Challenged at Passing Clouds (second Tuesday of every month, don't miss out). Every month there is a new lyrical challenge, and the two main featured artists have to write a poem or a song about a topic. Angel picked the topic of 'human's relationships with animals'. Being a twat, I went on an ill advised poetic rant about animals. And here it is:</span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">THE GREAT TRADITION</span><br /></div><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Saturday night:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Drunk, staggering from the pub</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">strangled bumbled conversations</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">are nearly overpowered by belly rumbles.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Entranced like sailors to rocks by sirens</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">we make our way to the blinding, spilt light</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and the twisting steam of the kebab shop.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The sweaty meat is spun, sliced,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">bunched in pitta, wet salad and fists</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and greedily shoved down.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Sunday morning:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Waking up hungover...</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the remains of kebab grease </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">still smeared on our chins</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">we tuck into a full English:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">sausage, bacon, black pudding</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">half-drowned in bloody oil.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Late Sunday afternoon:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mum carves roast lamb in dripping,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">dishes up pigs in blankets of more pigs,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">potatoes oven cooked in goose fat,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">half-drowned in beef gravy.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Great, stout, hearty traditional British food.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Traditional.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">By traditional, what we really mean is:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">an accepted form of behaviour</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">so ingrained in society, culture</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and near-mythological belief</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">that we don't actually have to think</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">for a fucking minute about the impact </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">or the ethical implications of what we're doing.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Tradition is a detachment,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">catching our reason in cement</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">leading to confused, hypocritical views.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Such as:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">we love and care for dogs and cats</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">but eating them is out of the question.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Yet at the same time we take kids</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">around family farms, cooing at loveable pigs</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and lowing cows</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">that we're quite happy to chow down.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Appropriating different values to different species</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">defined entirely by the grind of human lives.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">That is anthropocentrism.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">And this is speciesism:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the prejudice against those of a different species</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">ceasing in the belief that they</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">feel pain, comfort or happiness</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">on their own terms.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Listen and learn:</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">there is a small step from treating</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">other animals like this</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">to assigning different emotional, psychological</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and physical attributes</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">to peoples from different nations and cultures.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">It is the same thought process</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">that allows white supremacists to refer afro-carribeans as “monkeys”.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The same thought process that </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">allowed the Japanese military in the early twentiest century</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">to refer the Chinese as “logs” and cut them down accordingly.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The same thought process</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">that allowed guards in Guantanamo Bay to piss on, beat</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and electrocute anyone who looked vaugely Middle Eastern.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The same thought process that</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">allowed the Holocaust,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the Rwandan genocide</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">and all the other millions, billions</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">of corpses piled up in the dark cranial recesses</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">of those who oppressed and killed others</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">on the basis of the colour of their skin</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">or where they're from.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Our treatment of fellow bipedal primates</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">in the Hominidae family</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="LEFT"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(aka, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">homo sapiens</span></span></i></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> or humans)</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">is connected by</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">self-repression and self-denial </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">to the killing of other animals,</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">whether it be for profit or sport.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">This is no guilt trip.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">All I'm asking you to do is</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">examine your ethical codes and priorities.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Have you chosen them?</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Or are they part of an unconscious ritual</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">which is simply accepted and never questioned?</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Your choices are your own.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"> <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Just make sure they're yours.</span></span></p>Captain of the Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17405724567278481974noreply@blogger.com0