From The Morgue

My map of Europe – the one where I colour in countries that I’ve visited – has a big white uncoloured gap in it. I’m about to fill that in. Rock.
I fly into Berlin on July 13, and fly back from, er, somewhere else, on July 24. I will be bouncing around with Maesi and Craig, who you’ll remember from tales of Switzerland. And it’s going to be brilliant.
Yay!

Sometimes I think that Fametracker and its cousin site Television Without Pity are part of the problem with Western culture, not part of the solution.
Seriously, I think about that sort of thing. I sadden me sometimes.
In any case, they deliver the funny in reliable doses, and this fame audit of William Shatner is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while. It works better when you’ve read other fame audits, so you can reall get the enormity of their ‘Deserved Approximate Level Of Fame’ recommendation. Enjoy.

Conpulsion is done and dusted for another year, and it was good, and I am rather tired on account of the relatively little sleep (although more than some!) and the rather odd custom here of working on Easter Monday.
But it was good. And Doctor Who debuted to spectacularly good ratings and some mild acclaim which encourages me that ratings will remain good, if not great. And I just watched the final episode of season two of Carnivale (OMG!!). And reading WFRP 2nd Ed, which I bought a prerelease copy of. And stuff.
Tonight I ate quorn in a curry-sort-of-flavoured stir fry. With spelt pasta. And lots of greeny vegetables. And two mini naan breads. Yum. Plus leftovers for tomorrow.
And and and. I shouldn’t really be posting as I have no coherent thinking ability right now. Oh well. Gonna press the button anyway.

The Guardian today ran a short profile on Rabbi Arik Ascherman, a profoundly Zionist man who has worked tirelessly for justice for Palestinians. He sees his role as helping to rescue Zionism’s soul.
Cal and I met him when we were in Palestine. He’s mentioned briefly in the emails we sent here. He was a fascinating and inspirational figure. I urge you to check out the article – if nothing else, you’ll get an angle on the situation in Palestine and Israel that is normally hidden in the Zionism vs. Arabs oversimplications. Truly, the situation there is more complicated than anyone could guess.

As a churchgoing Catholic young man, I always liked Easter. The sacrifice of Jesus, the meaning of that sacrifice, and the transformation that resulted, all carried great personal importance for me. I liked that it had both sombre and celebratory aspects; I liked that it was the most resonantly mythic aspect of Christianity; I liked the way it led me to reflect upon my own life.
Above all, I loved the Easter story for the humility at its core. This came back to me when I wandered Europe a few years back, seeing museums full of statues of the gods unseated by Christianity – all of them exalted figures, perfect, mighty, combative, awesome. And the image placed at the centre of Christianity is a man reduced to as little as a man can be; frail, wracked, and dying in agony. It is true that the tale of being hung on a tree, passing into death and then returning is a recurring motif in the history of human myth – but until Christianity, the suffering was not the focus. The resurgence into power was the focus. This is a pretty profound change.
(Okay, there are probably examples I’ve missed but what the heck, I’ll make the claim anyway. More informed people can prove me wrong.)
The humility of it, the connection between the divine and the human through the medium of suffering – this is hugely significant and even now I wonder at it. It always seemed important to me that the Jesus who died on the cross was not the Jesus who came forth from the tomb. He was the same man, but utterly transformed. And the focus of Christianity, rightfully, is on the man before that transformation, when he was most fully human.
I am no longer a Christian in any meaningful sense of the word, but I will always strive to interact with the world with Christlike love. I am indivisible from the Christian faith that shaped me. And I like it that way.
Have a good Easter, everyone.

This evening, in order to prepare myself for a scene in Ron due to be written tomorrow, I started a thread on RPGnet’s Tangency forum, entitled “Ladies of Tang: Describe How Your Breasts Hurt”.
There are, as of right now, twenty or so posts in which women describe their hormonal breastly achings in all the shudder-inducing detail anyone could want.
It is all glamour, this writing jag.
—
Basically all I have done this week except for work is write. It is good to feel productive.

So, according to moral guidance column in The Times, fair trade for coffee is roughly equivalent to a soccer club sending flowers to its players’ wives.
Um.
I don’t really have anything to say to that.
(I’d link to the article but it’ll be removed from view in a week and I can’t figure out a direct link anyway, so the full text is behind the cut.)

Continue reading “Modern Morals” per The Times

Last night I went to see Row E perform at the Queens Hall with Alice and Siobhan. We’d scored fantastic seats quite by accident – right in Row F, in fact! This meant we were up close and personal while Row E put on a real show, with lots of whispers, laughter, getting up and leaving and then coming back, leaning forward to dominate the view, and generally giving us our money’s worth.
Sadly, they tailed off about midway through. Luckily there was this whole other gig going on at the front of the auditorium, Ani DiFranco was her name. She was pretty good, actually, so it wasn’t a complete washout in the end.
Nice one, Row E. A night to remember.

Billy mentioned in the comments below a recent essay by columnist Michael Ventura. I want to draw more attention to it.
I know how it is on weblogs – on the web as a whole, actually – you see someone saying “check this out, it’s great!” and you might check it out but you probably won’t. I usually don’t.
Make an exception this time. It’s worth reading. Short, too, so don’t worry your eyes will fall out.
Read it here.

From daily commuter freebie Metro, Weds March 16 2005:
“The 25-year old London based Canadian investmaent banker was dumped just before New Year’s Day last year and discovered within a couple of weeks that his ex had a new beau. However, instead of moping around resigned to his fate, David offered 1500 pounds to anyone who was willing to seduce his competitor and show his ex what an unfaithful toerag she’d left him for.”

There’s a photo of the guy. He’s grinning at the camera.

This is what a lifetime of Hollywood romantic comedies will do to you. Remember, folks: in a movie, it’s cute. In the real world, it’s creepy.