It's raining.
It's raining here, at least. And it's been raining all day. I got up and was faced with a wet grey blanket outside the window. I went downstairs - the same. At lunchtime the puddles still exploded quietly with circles. And right now there's a patter on the window which sadly isn't that of snow. It's still raining. So I've been distracting myself with online stuff for a while. The fruits of my wandering:
Orchestras, throw away your paper. Digital scores are better than paper ones. Hmm. I'm not sure I agree - a score is like a book, and books are always more satisfying if they're paper. There's a war on in Sudan, but not over which book is everyone's favourite there: Three Men in a Boat. There was a rather interesting article in the New York Times about different Jesus films which have emerged from Hollywood - in advance of Mel Gibson's February offering - but I won't link to it because the NYT will take it offline soon and you'll have to pay to read it all. As usual.
Decontrol, a wonderful online art gallery, found, along with much else in this posting, via MemePool's 'Art' category.
There's one artist whose work everyone likes - some a bit, most quite a lot, and a few who border on idolatry - Andy Goldsworthy. Whether he's plastering wet stones with petals and leaves, weaving feathers / making natural paintings on a meniscus / curling ice around a treetrunk / building wavy walls / stone arches with no mortar / stone eggs - again, sans concretion / pulling a filigree twig curtain across an empty space or leaving large snowballs in London during summer, his simple and beautiful work, both as a thing-in-itself and a way of relating to nature, is similar in its impact to some of Michael Longley's poetry.
Saturday, January 31, 2004
Friday, January 30, 2004
Disturbing Search Requests
No, I'm not talking about the brilliant site of that name, but about two search referrals to this site within the last day. Some people search for the weirdest things: "pictures of nubile young women with disgusting older men" and "flayed human face pic medical". Ugh. Ugh. - Oh yeah, and "Maggie Gyllenhaal slap".
No, I'm not talking about the brilliant site of that name, but about two search referrals to this site within the last day. Some people search for the weirdest things: "pictures of nubile young women with disgusting older men" and "flayed human face pic medical". Ugh. Ugh. - Oh yeah, and "Maggie Gyllenhaal slap".
Thursday, January 29, 2004
Long-dead gay people
Sounds positively sickening, doesn't it. But a new book, Strangers: Homosexual love in the 19th Century, written by Graham Robb of Oxford Uni, runs the gamut of social, medical, and legal responses to homosexuality before turning to the ways gay people lived and wrote themselves into society. There's apparently one very interesting part which deals with whether Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were gay, which I've linked to a lengthy NYT treatment thereof. Just in case it expires, here are a few snippets from the article copyright Laura Miller:
...there is something decidedly unconventional about the sexuality of Holmes and several other popular fictional detectives... Holmes was partly based on Edgar Allan Poe's Auguste Dupin, hero of the first detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"... The brilliant amateur sleuth, a man of aristocratic family, lives in reduced circumstances as a result of ''untoward events.'' He is ''enamored of the night'' and frequents the dicier parts of town. The unnamed (but more solvent) narrator immediately perceives that ''seeking in Paris the objects I then sought . . . the society of such a man would be to me a treasure beyond price.'' They set up housekeeping together. By day, they remain indoors with curtains drawn, burning candles and incense -- exactly the sort of behavior that, Robb notes, scandalized a London courtroom when Wilde admitted to it decades later. ...Great critics have struggled to define the eccentric charm of Doyle's tales. It has so little to do with adult sexuality because it has so little to do with adulthood. The Holmes stories take place in an idyll of perpetual boyhood, at the stage Freudians call ''latent,'' when love scenes are something to retch at and the ambivalence of grown-up life is held at bay. For all its solemnity, ''The Lord of the Rings'' partakes of the same dream. That's why sex is of small consequence in either work and the word ''adventure'' is essential to both.
Sounds positively sickening, doesn't it. But a new book, Strangers: Homosexual love in the 19th Century, written by Graham Robb of Oxford Uni, runs the gamut of social, medical, and legal responses to homosexuality before turning to the ways gay people lived and wrote themselves into society. There's apparently one very interesting part which deals with whether Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were gay, which I've linked to a lengthy NYT treatment thereof. Just in case it expires, here are a few snippets from the article copyright Laura Miller:
...there is something decidedly unconventional about the sexuality of Holmes and several other popular fictional detectives... Holmes was partly based on Edgar Allan Poe's Auguste Dupin, hero of the first detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"... The brilliant amateur sleuth, a man of aristocratic family, lives in reduced circumstances as a result of ''untoward events.'' He is ''enamored of the night'' and frequents the dicier parts of town. The unnamed (but more solvent) narrator immediately perceives that ''seeking in Paris the objects I then sought . . . the society of such a man would be to me a treasure beyond price.'' They set up housekeeping together. By day, they remain indoors with curtains drawn, burning candles and incense -- exactly the sort of behavior that, Robb notes, scandalized a London courtroom when Wilde admitted to it decades later. ...Great critics have struggled to define the eccentric charm of Doyle's tales. It has so little to do with adult sexuality because it has so little to do with adulthood. The Holmes stories take place in an idyll of perpetual boyhood, at the stage Freudians call ''latent,'' when love scenes are something to retch at and the ambivalence of grown-up life is held at bay. For all its solemnity, ''The Lord of the Rings'' partakes of the same dream. That's why sex is of small consequence in either work and the word ''adventure'' is essential to both.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
So...
...there's this quietly passionate blog I've been following for a while, and what's the first ever thing I link to in its pages? This: Short of breath? Just stretch your sphincter. *sigh*
...there's this quietly passionate blog I've been following for a while, and what's the first ever thing I link to in its pages? This: Short of breath? Just stretch your sphincter. *sigh*
Hollywood and Art
My friend Giles's comment on Russian Ark (see yesterday's posts) was illuminating not because he thought it was a crap film, but because it wasn't a crap film in itself, but had been judged to be, all the same.
I'll try to keep this brief.
Cinemas around the world are permanently flooded with what I'll call Hollywood Product. The result of an entertainment-based studio system which exists to make money by trying to fuse producers', actors' and directors' powerhouse careers with art, Hollywood Product is the perfect partner for popcorn.
Similarities between popcorn and Hollywood Product: it is right in front of you, attractively packaged, you can eat it without having to think about the taste because the taste is always the same with each bite. It is a simple thing-in-itself, and you can't get anything out of it other than what it offers as a thing-in-itself in the first place. -- What? You're thinking I'm unfair? Think again. I'm talking about art. Name 10 Hollywood Products you'd put in your top ten list, and I guarantee that, aside from occasional plot twists (which are only formula), you could appreciate the entire 'message', the entire 'sense', of every single film by watching it - with attention - only once.
And that's what we're fed. Film after film after film, Hollywood Product is a one-bite wonder. Required intellectual participation: around 0-1%. If you thought over and over and over again about what is actually contained in Gladiator or LA Confidential or The Insider or Minority Report, you'd be none the wiser. Because there's no more wisdom to get after the first screening. We go back and see Hollywood Product a second time not to understand it better, but to be entertained.
With easy entertainment taking up around 90-100% of our local cinemas, Hollywood Product has us over a barrel. We're meant to get used to it to a massive extent - and we do. I can think of no other so-called artform which has become the locus of such a worldwide dearth of truly artistic endeavour. It's so pervasive that we've stopped being critical about film in the same way we are about music.
Giles loves Tori Amos and hates Europoppy, dancey stuff. Europop: directly comparable to the one-bite Hollywood Product. Tori Amos: repeated listenings, attention to the lyrics - and some additional research - are essential to get the 'central message' contained within each song. And, after you've done that 'legwork', there is a second step. Your additional emotional/artistic engagement will also be repaid by the song, because the content is just impressionistic enough to allow you to form a relationship between it and your own feelings and experiences. Ergo, there's art. I've picked Tori, but there are many others.
We are critical of crap shallow music, and we praise artistic effort in music. Giles does, for example. Let's call Giles Everyman for a moment. Everyman, like all of us, including myself, praises some artistically crap and shallow films. Everyman, however, duped by the pervasiveness of Hollywood Product in film, has actually been manipulateed by it as far as to say that one particular art film is the worst he's seen in his life. Everyman doesn't just say "There wasn't much action, no plot, I didn't like the lack of music I'm used to hearing or understanding". If anyone, not just Everyman, said that, they'd actually be engaging with why they felt alienated - and therefore providing themselves with a first step towards understanding.
Let me repeat that: after seeing Hollywood Product all his life, Everyman says that Russian Ark (but we could pretty much choose any art film here) is the worst film he's ever seen.
Effort and music? Acceptable and enjoyable. Effort and film? Unacceptable, apparently, and unenjoyable. But that's wrong, and inconsistent with how we all approach music and reading. Hollywood Product has spread a dearth of film art and a deification of film apathy into the minds of millions of people worldwide. What a dud we're being sold. How easily we swallow it. And how effortlessly it deadens our ability to think. And to enjoy what we could enjoy if we thought.
It's almost terrifying.
- - - - - -
Addition: The above post contains all of this. Nothing is changed. But I'll repeat myself in a different way here, since this post in its original form caused some argument in the comments list. READ THE POST CAREFULLY. Do not imply that I think what I do *not* state in the first place.
I am not saying that Giles or anyone else who doesn't like art film is unintelligent. Nor did I even suggest this. Like I say, read the post.
The reason I rail against the spread of Hollywood film in this post is that people are intelligent, and that if nobody ever used that intelligence to further their own experience, they'd only end up liking one band, or one book, or one film, for the rest of their life. There would be no adaption to new experience. There would be no inner growth. Nothing would change.
Hollywood film is so 'everywhere' that all other types of film are marginalised, so people like Giles et al don't get the opportunity to see them. Therefore, when they do for the first time, they're predictably confused or bored because Hollywood's aforementioned influence unjustly makes art film completely alien to them. However, in choosing not to apply their undoubted intelligence to it, they are doing themselves out of a heck of a lot of potential enjoyment.
That frustrates me on their behalf. And it also pisses me off - I've always been willing, for example, to listen to other types of music in an unjudgmental way. And even when I haven't liked it personally, I haven't generalised.
My friend Giles's comment on Russian Ark (see yesterday's posts) was illuminating not because he thought it was a crap film, but because it wasn't a crap film in itself, but had been judged to be, all the same.I'll try to keep this brief.
Cinemas around the world are permanently flooded with what I'll call Hollywood Product. The result of an entertainment-based studio system which exists to make money by trying to fuse producers', actors' and directors' powerhouse careers with art, Hollywood Product is the perfect partner for popcorn.
Similarities between popcorn and Hollywood Product: it is right in front of you, attractively packaged, you can eat it without having to think about the taste because the taste is always the same with each bite. It is a simple thing-in-itself, and you can't get anything out of it other than what it offers as a thing-in-itself in the first place. -- What? You're thinking I'm unfair? Think again. I'm talking about art. Name 10 Hollywood Products you'd put in your top ten list, and I guarantee that, aside from occasional plot twists (which are only formula), you could appreciate the entire 'message', the entire 'sense', of every single film by watching it - with attention - only once.
And that's what we're fed. Film after film after film, Hollywood Product is a one-bite wonder. Required intellectual participation: around 0-1%. If you thought over and over and over again about what is actually contained in Gladiator or LA Confidential or The Insider or Minority Report, you'd be none the wiser. Because there's no more wisdom to get after the first screening. We go back and see Hollywood Product a second time not to understand it better, but to be entertained. With easy entertainment taking up around 90-100% of our local cinemas, Hollywood Product has us over a barrel. We're meant to get used to it to a massive extent - and we do. I can think of no other so-called artform which has become the locus of such a worldwide dearth of truly artistic endeavour. It's so pervasive that we've stopped being critical about film in the same way we are about music.
Giles loves Tori Amos and hates Europoppy, dancey stuff. Europop: directly comparable to the one-bite Hollywood Product. Tori Amos: repeated listenings, attention to the lyrics - and some additional research - are essential to get the 'central message' contained within each song. And, after you've done that 'legwork', there is a second step. Your additional emotional/artistic engagement will also be repaid by the song, because the content is just impressionistic enough to allow you to form a relationship between it and your own feelings and experiences. Ergo, there's art. I've picked Tori, but there are many others.
We are critical of crap shallow music, and we praise artistic effort in music. Giles does, for example. Let's call Giles Everyman for a moment. Everyman, like all of us, including myself, praises some artistically crap and shallow films. Everyman, however, duped by the pervasiveness of Hollywood Product in film, has actually been manipulateed by it as far as to say that one particular art film is the worst he's seen in his life. Everyman doesn't just say "There wasn't much action, no plot, I didn't like the lack of music I'm used to hearing or understanding". If anyone, not just Everyman, said that, they'd actually be engaging with why they felt alienated - and therefore providing themselves with a first step towards understanding.
Let me repeat that: after seeing Hollywood Product all his life, Everyman says that Russian Ark (but we could pretty much choose any art film here) is the worst film he's ever seen.
Effort and music? Acceptable and enjoyable. Effort and film? Unacceptable, apparently, and unenjoyable. But that's wrong, and inconsistent with how we all approach music and reading. Hollywood Product has spread a dearth of film art and a deification of film apathy into the minds of millions of people worldwide. What a dud we're being sold. How easily we swallow it. And how effortlessly it deadens our ability to think. And to enjoy what we could enjoy if we thought.
It's almost terrifying.
- - - - - -
Addition: The above post contains all of this. Nothing is changed. But I'll repeat myself in a different way here, since this post in its original form caused some argument in the comments list. READ THE POST CAREFULLY. Do not imply that I think what I do *not* state in the first place.
I am not saying that Giles or anyone else who doesn't like art film is unintelligent. Nor did I even suggest this. Like I say, read the post.
The reason I rail against the spread of Hollywood film in this post is that people are intelligent, and that if nobody ever used that intelligence to further their own experience, they'd only end up liking one band, or one book, or one film, for the rest of their life. There would be no adaption to new experience. There would be no inner growth. Nothing would change.
Hollywood film is so 'everywhere' that all other types of film are marginalised, so people like Giles et al don't get the opportunity to see them. Therefore, when they do for the first time, they're predictably confused or bored because Hollywood's aforementioned influence unjustly makes art film completely alien to them. However, in choosing not to apply their undoubted intelligence to it, they are doing themselves out of a heck of a lot of potential enjoyment.
That frustrates me on their behalf. And it also pisses me off - I've always been willing, for example, to listen to other types of music in an unjudgmental way. And even when I haven't liked it personally, I haven't generalised.
It's not like me...
...to not have an opinion on the Oscar nominees. Because I've usually seen at least some of the movies in question before the list is released. But here goes anyway. The Triplets of Belleville is up for Best Animated Feature. If it doesn't win it'll be no surprise, but a predictable injustice. One of the Best Picture nominations is The Return of the King. That movie is also nominated for Best Art Direction, Best Director, Musical Score, and Adapted Screenplay. Oh how they all loved it. Now, I liked it very much, too. But the books are nearly always better than the films, particularly in this case, and I really don't think that the screenplay for RotK could stand up against City of God, also a screenplay nomination.
But that's what's weird about the Oscars, every year. The categories are precisely defined. Surely Best Art Direction should mean something intellectually meaty and deep? Noooo. Truth News says "The Oscars are voted on by the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And who is in the Academy? Well might you ask. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is made up of Hollywood actors, directors, and screenwriters. Thus, the Oscars are essentially awards given by Hollywood insiders to themselves, based on whatever goofy logic they might collectively apply to the task."
The Rules usually state that, for the Art Direction award, "Recognition in the form of the Academy Statuette shall be given for the set decoration of the production receiving an award...". Oh right. So it's set decoration. Not art, then.
...to not have an opinion on the Oscar nominees. Because I've usually seen at least some of the movies in question before the list is released. But here goes anyway. The Triplets of Belleville is up for Best Animated Feature. If it doesn't win it'll be no surprise, but a predictable injustice. One of the Best Picture nominations is The Return of the King. That movie is also nominated for Best Art Direction, Best Director, Musical Score, and Adapted Screenplay. Oh how they all loved it. Now, I liked it very much, too. But the books are nearly always better than the films, particularly in this case, and I really don't think that the screenplay for RotK could stand up against City of God, also a screenplay nomination.
But that's what's weird about the Oscars, every year. The categories are precisely defined. Surely Best Art Direction should mean something intellectually meaty and deep? Noooo. Truth News says "The Oscars are voted on by the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And who is in the Academy? Well might you ask. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is made up of Hollywood actors, directors, and screenwriters. Thus, the Oscars are essentially awards given by Hollywood insiders to themselves, based on whatever goofy logic they might collectively apply to the task."
The Rules usually state that, for the Art Direction award, "Recognition in the form of the Academy Statuette shall be given for the set decoration of the production receiving an award...". Oh right. So it's set decoration. Not art, then.
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Voynich Manuscript Decoded
Imagine a handwritten book, hundreds of years old. It looks to have been written in English. You look more closely, and you find that the letters are unreadable.
So, you call on your librarian, academic, typo and art history friends, and they say "Aha, that's the Voynich Manuscript. Nobody's been able to decode that yet. Completely uncrackable code. Haha, what."
If you want more on the manuscript, try here and here. There's a mailing list (which should turn pretty interesting right now!) here.
However, the Voynich Manuscript has now been translated. (It's wonderfully typical of the Guardian arts people to include a story like this.) And the result?
Deliberate nonsense, intended to fool the world. A code which was unbreakable precisely because it wasn't a code at all.
But hang on. If it wasn't a code at all, how were they able to.... I mean....? *sigh*
Imagine a handwritten book, hundreds of years old. It looks to have been written in English. You look more closely, and you find that the letters are unreadable.
So, you call on your librarian, academic, typo and art history friends, and they say "Aha, that's the Voynich Manuscript. Nobody's been able to decode that yet. Completely uncrackable code. Haha, what."
If you want more on the manuscript, try here and here. There's a mailing list (which should turn pretty interesting right now!) here.
However, the Voynich Manuscript has now been translated. (It's wonderfully typical of the Guardian arts people to include a story like this.) And the result?
Deliberate nonsense, intended to fool the world. A code which was unbreakable precisely because it wasn't a code at all.
But hang on. If it wasn't a code at all, how were they able to.... I mean....? *sigh*
New addition
ελευθερια - blog of a guy called Constantino who studies at a previously-kind-of-linked-to cool place - added to the blogroll. I really like the design. God, I'm nearly creaming myself over Movable Type again. (Stop it, Pete, *stop* it.)
ελευθερια - blog of a guy called Constantino who studies at a previously-kind-of-linked-to cool place - added to the blogroll. I really like the design. God, I'm nearly creaming myself over Movable Type again. (Stop it, Pete, *stop* it.)
Lots and lots
of stuff to show you. First, Mary Cheney is a lesbian, and for various reasons Michelangelo Signorile is very very riled about that. Gail Armstrong writes, as wonderfully as ever, but this tme about the perils of randy dogs.
The New York Times Book Review controversy is blogged by The Elegant Variation, with interesting questions: weak novels, or heinous control of book reviewers?
You might have heard that Microsoft was all set to sue the backside off Mike Rowe about his website MikeRoweSoft. His defiance attracted huge publicity and a loyal following of supporters. He's now settled out of court for some Microsoft Certification training and an XBox. I make no comment.
Finally, if you're interested just how deep money can go, check out The Buying of the President 2004 to see who's bankrolling whose campaign. It's an interesting resource on the candidates, too.
of stuff to show you. First, Mary Cheney is a lesbian, and for various reasons Michelangelo Signorile is very very riled about that. Gail Armstrong writes, as wonderfully as ever, but this tme about the perils of randy dogs.
The New York Times Book Review controversy is blogged by The Elegant Variation, with interesting questions: weak novels, or heinous control of book reviewers?
You might have heard that Microsoft was all set to sue the backside off Mike Rowe about his website MikeRoweSoft. His defiance attracted huge publicity and a loyal following of supporters. He's now settled out of court for some Microsoft Certification training and an XBox. I make no comment.
Finally, if you're interested just how deep money can go, check out The Buying of the President 2004 to see who's bankrolling whose campaign. It's an interesting resource on the candidates, too.
Gooood morning campers
We'll start with the sex and move on from there, OK? Right. Sex is good and you ought to have as much of it as you can as soon as possible. - Ooops, seems I said the wrong thing, because the bible tells us to run away from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Oh well.
There's got to be something interesting to do... ah yes. If you like pretty designs, go read this review of a retrospective of graphic designer Chip Kidd's work. Then buy the book. My friend Jonny bought it for me for Christmas and it's brilliant. His designs for Donna Tartt are refined and unsettling all at once. Continuing on the design front for a moment, consider the torn-up beauty of this abandoned French papermill.
My friend Giles and I saw Russian Ark last year and while he said "That's the fucking worst fucking film I've ever seen in my fucking life," I was held captive by its homage to creativity and beauty - and all things Imperial Russia. So if you reckon that having a look at colour photos from the Tsar's court photographer might be fun - go look.
Any more than that, and I can't help you right now. I've got a pot of coffee to get through. Move along, please...
We'll start with the sex and move on from there, OK? Right. Sex is good and you ought to have as much of it as you can as soon as possible. - Ooops, seems I said the wrong thing, because the bible tells us to run away from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Oh well.
There's got to be something interesting to do... ah yes. If you like pretty designs, go read this review of a retrospective of graphic designer Chip Kidd's work. Then buy the book. My friend Jonny bought it for me for Christmas and it's brilliant. His designs for Donna Tartt are refined and unsettling all at once. Continuing on the design front for a moment, consider the torn-up beauty of this abandoned French papermill.
My friend Giles and I saw Russian Ark last year and while he said "That's the fucking worst fucking film I've ever seen in my fucking life," I was held captive by its homage to creativity and beauty - and all things Imperial Russia. So if you reckon that having a look at colour photos from the Tsar's court photographer might be fun - go look.
Any more than that, and I can't help you right now. I've got a pot of coffee to get through. Move along, please...
Monday, January 26, 2004
Movable Type: good. Tripod: bad.
No, I haven't migrated to Movable Type yet. Yet. But when, yesterday and earlier today, Tripod had an atrociously long and undocumented FTP outage, I thought of moving to a different host. And on my trawl around the web looking for one, I found a site which provides free blog hosting and installation of Movable Type!
You have to join a queue, satisfy their criteria, and I think you also have to submit your blog or blog idea at around 0600 GMT to catch the opportunity, but my god, it'd be worth it. I'm tempted. So if this blog moves before the end of this year, you'll know why...
No, I haven't migrated to Movable Type yet. Yet. But when, yesterday and earlier today, Tripod had an atrociously long and undocumented FTP outage, I thought of moving to a different host. And on my trawl around the web looking for one, I found a site which provides free blog hosting and installation of Movable Type!
You have to join a queue, satisfy their criteria, and I think you also have to submit your blog or blog idea at around 0600 GMT to catch the opportunity, but my god, it'd be worth it. I'm tempted. So if this blog moves before the end of this year, you'll know why...
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Hanged
This, brought to me by Anita in Scotland, is very interesting but highly disturbing. Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England. The names used for gay people in those days look funny to modern eyes - there are words like "he-strumpets" and "bumography" - but the majority of these people who were tried for sodomy were hanged. Think about that. These people were killed by the state for consensual sex. Wasn't that truly terrible?
Isn't it terrible that it still happens today...?
This, brought to me by Anita in Scotland, is very interesting but highly disturbing. Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England. The names used for gay people in those days look funny to modern eyes - there are words like "he-strumpets" and "bumography" - but the majority of these people who were tried for sodomy were hanged. Think about that. These people were killed by the state for consensual sex. Wasn't that truly terrible?
Isn't it terrible that it still happens today...?
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Homosexual homophobes
"As the two homosexual homophobes drifted into post-orgasmic slumber, they inhabited a dream world where all things were possible...". Trucker Fags in Denial. Not suitable for work, and you can only read the comic in reverse order. I would describe it but I don't want to spoil the surprise...
"As the two homosexual homophobes drifted into post-orgasmic slumber, they inhabited a dream world where all things were possible...". Trucker Fags in Denial. Not suitable for work, and you can only read the comic in reverse order. I would describe it but I don't want to spoil the surprise...
Thursday, January 22, 2004
"Don't make jokes," Student Warns
From the UK newspaper Independent:
A British student apologised yesterday for joking that she was taking three bombs on board a flight in the United States.
Speaking after she was released on bail from a Miami jail, Samantha Marson, 21, said she "wasn't thinking" when she made the comments.
Police said she told a member of the airport security staff during a baggage check: "Hey be careful, I have three bombs in here." Asked to repeat herself, she allegedly made the same statement two more times.
Ms Marson, who was arrested before boarding a London-bound British Airways flight at Miami airport on Saturday, said the claims were a "mistake" and warned other people not to make jokes.
I thought for a moment that I was reading The Onion. You can just see the treatment they'd give it: Students and other young people are to be warned against irony before boarding domestic or international flights, after lighthearted comments were heard. The departures hall was cleared as police carried out a search. A student later apologised. Cassie Gibbon, 23, said: "I was asked if my baggage could have been tampered with, and told them that it certainly could have been, at any time. I'm sorry it was so lame." A security official commented that "Air travel is a serious business. I'm serious".
From the UK newspaper Independent:
A British student apologised yesterday for joking that she was taking three bombs on board a flight in the United States.
Speaking after she was released on bail from a Miami jail, Samantha Marson, 21, said she "wasn't thinking" when she made the comments.
Police said she told a member of the airport security staff during a baggage check: "Hey be careful, I have three bombs in here." Asked to repeat herself, she allegedly made the same statement two more times.
Ms Marson, who was arrested before boarding a London-bound British Airways flight at Miami airport on Saturday, said the claims were a "mistake" and warned other people not to make jokes.
I thought for a moment that I was reading The Onion. You can just see the treatment they'd give it: Students and other young people are to be warned against irony before boarding domestic or international flights, after lighthearted comments were heard. The departures hall was cleared as police carried out a search. A student later apologised. Cassie Gibbon, 23, said: "I was asked if my baggage could have been tampered with, and told them that it certainly could have been, at any time. I'm sorry it was so lame." A security official commented that "Air travel is a serious business. I'm serious".
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Ephemera... or not?
Whatever you judge it to be, I just put this list of stuff about me on another page, so if you want, feel free.
Whatever you judge it to be, I just put this list of stuff about me on another page, so if you want, feel free.
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Weird and wonderful
Tiny American liberal arts colleges. Say what you like about Europe; it has nothing like these.
Tiny American liberal arts colleges. Say what you like about Europe; it has nothing like these.
Sunday, January 18, 2004
Letters, and what they make
Tanka and Mondo - more Tanka - Haiku - The Narrow Road to the Deep North (marvellous) - outlines of letters - Lettrisme - Concrete and Visual poetry - one of my favourite books reviewed - the man who wrote it - in the 18th century, money and words went together - Poetry Dead? Not a chance! - Dear G.W. Bush, your poetry's not poetry - TrueFire - Sylvia Plath written into life - Old head-in-the-oven in her own words - and again, she shines - Sylvia's voice.
Tanka and Mondo - more Tanka - Haiku - The Narrow Road to the Deep North (marvellous) - outlines of letters - Lettrisme - Concrete and Visual poetry - one of my favourite books reviewed - the man who wrote it - in the 18th century, money and words went together - Poetry Dead? Not a chance! - Dear G.W. Bush, your poetry's not poetry - TrueFire - Sylvia Plath written into life - Old head-in-the-oven in her own words - and again, she shines - Sylvia's voice.
Ang Lee and Annie Proulx...
...helped by a couple of hot young men, are going to help to slap a taboo out of Hollywood! Brokeback Mountain, a relatively little-known novella by Proulx, is being brought to the screen by Lee (and just for that reason, I can't wait to see it). But the catch for Hollywood is that it's about 2 cowboys who do the usual working-cowboy thing together, meet girlfriends, marry, bring up kids - yadda yadda.
And they fuck. Together.
Aside from the fact that this is the first time that Hollywood has even come close to accepting a portrayal as no-shit as this, what has really got me hot for this movie is that Jake Gyllenhaal (yay!!!) and Heath Ledger (who?) are in talks about playing the 2 lead roles. Neither of them are gay, of course, and aside from Jake's beauty, this is why it's such exciting news. I knew Jake was a no-bullshit actor and all. But this just *underlines* how no-bullshit he is.
...helped by a couple of hot young men, are going to help to slap a taboo out of Hollywood! Brokeback Mountain, a relatively little-known novella by Proulx, is being brought to the screen by Lee (and just for that reason, I can't wait to see it). But the catch for Hollywood is that it's about 2 cowboys who do the usual working-cowboy thing together, meet girlfriends, marry, bring up kids - yadda yadda.
And they fuck. Together.
Aside from the fact that this is the first time that Hollywood has even come close to accepting a portrayal as no-shit as this, what has really got me hot for this movie is that Jake Gyllenhaal (yay!!!) and Heath Ledger (who?) are in talks about playing the 2 lead roles. Neither of them are gay, of course, and aside from Jake's beauty, this is why it's such exciting news. I knew Jake was a no-bullshit actor and all. But this just *underlines* how no-bullshit he is.
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