Album

 “So anyway have you any idea of what to call your new album?”

“Failure is not an option.”

“Right. So any ideas?”

“Failure is not an option!”

“I know yeah, obviously we’ll come up with something. But as of now have you any specific ideas about what to call it?”

“Failure is not an option!”

“Oh right, I think I see what you mean. You mean “Failure is not an Option” is what you want to call the album?”

“Yeah!”

“Right. Yeah yeah, it’s good. ”

Philanthropist

 “Who was Jimmy Savile?”

“He was very famous. He was a paedophile and a philanthropist.”

“There’s some great philanthropists around, isn’t there?”

“There is yeah.”

Take Away

 “Take away the clothes and what have you got?”

“The body.”

“And take away the body and what have you got?”

“No one to ask the question.”

Unanimous

 A United Nations resolution has been seemingly passed unanimously whereby protagonists in all future armed conflicts, including present ones, will have to wear face masks to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. This, stressed a spokesman, should not have a detrimental effect on the arms industry, whose health is of course vital to all of our well-being, economic and otherwise.

Palindrome

“Wouldn’t it be amazing if when you read this it was the same forwards as backwards? A palindrome.”

“It might be mildly interesting I suppose.”

“So are you going to do it?”

“No.”

Intellect

 “What would you define the intellect?”

“Something which puts a roof over our heads.”

In

 Does space exist in silence or silence exist in space?

How to Solve

“How oh master,  are we solve the problems of this earthly realm?”

“Bigger earnings to sports stars. This will balance the scales of karma.”

The Good

If you have nothing good to say don’t say anything at all. Artistically I mean, artistically good. If it’s not good don’t waste our time with it, in the public sphere at least. In the privacy of your own home of course you can do what you want - as long as it stays there. If there’s one thing this world is against, it’s mediocrity. It is a world obsessed with the Ideal, seeking perfection in all the spheres, particularly the artistic. It exalts genius above all else. None may dare come into the public arena unless possessed of it.

Richard

Ridiculous

“There was this planet in outer space, full of life, orbiting this star.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. No one will believe that.”

Hanx

“Why is a mediocrity like Tom Hanks so famous?”

“Because he’s an amazing actor!”

“Oh right. I didn’t realise. And why is he so creepy?”

“What do you mean creepy?! He’s the perfect American.”

“I mean like why on his social media does he take all these photos of single items of lost children’s clothing and make weird cryptic creepy comments about them? Stuff no normal adult would do. What the  hell is that all about?”

“I didn’t know about any of that stuff. But anyway it must be all harmless fun. Cos like I said he’s the perfect American.”

“Yeah, you said that all right.”

Whenever

“It shames me how little I’ve gone down this road. If I had started out much earlier, think how much farther along it I would be by now.”
“Don’t worry about it. Whenever you had started you would always be at the beginning.”

Jeffrey Epstein 60 minutes

I’ve probably generally avoided the news like the plague for a long time but anyway I thought this was a good piece.

M

To add this segment above with attorney Bradley Edwards, representing victims of Epstein, in December 2018 from which the given quote:

The only thing that I can say about President Trump is that he is the only person who, in 2009 when I served a lot of subpoenas on a lot of people, or at least gave notice to some pretty connected people, that I want to talk to them, is the only person who picked up the phone and said, let’s just talk.  I’ll give you as much time as you want.  I’ll tell you what you need to know, and was very helpful, in the information that he gave, and gave no indication whatsoever that he was involved in anything untoward whatsoever, but had good information. That checked out and that helped us and we didn’t have to take a deposition of him in 2009.

Interesting how under Trump it seems the extremely unlikely actuality has arisen that people like the very wealthy and very connected Epstein can actually come to justice? See also for instance the similar NXIVM sex-cult scandal. I doubt such powerful peoples ever felt much real sense of threat before since they and their ilk essentially owned the system. I certainly didn’t have some high notion of Trump before, but as far as I gave it any attention, from very early on the obvious endless media assault on him made me inclined to think much more positively about him given the obviously fraudulent nature of our mass-media taken as a whole, and the very dark nature of the power elites whose interests it represents.

All through my life it has seemed unlikely to the point of virtual impossibility that a very major political figure could not be one of their own so to speak, not be chosen by this very closed and poisonous circle, but very unlikely as it may have seemed, perhaps Trump is the first one genuinely to have slipped through the net in many, many years. And I know he hardly appeared any kind of knight in shining armour! Not that I’m going to get too carried away by all this.

Spot the Creep

Have another look. Can you find him?

Media

“You know the way the Western mass media is a total propaganda machine owned by a tiny few companies and silent interests, and these people are scum of the earth.”
“Of course yeah.”
“And you know how these lowlifes absolutely loved your man Obama and helped foist him on the world as some divine messiah.”
“Yeah, that was one embarrassing charade.”
“And so anyway when manipulative, control-obsessed people are constantly trying to push me in a certain direction, I tend to wonder a little about the nature of that direction.”

Normal

“People keep saying there’s a new Norman. Norman who?”
“Not Norman. Normal.”
“Not Norman Normal? Who the hell is Norman Normal?”
“No! People aren’t saying there’s not a new Norman Normal. They’re saying there’s a new normal.”
“I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.”

Totalitarianism

“What would you think of totalitarianism?”
“I wouldn’t be mad about it to be honest.”
“But what if they were saying there was a good reason for bringing it in.”
“I’d be in favour of it then of course. It would be brilliant.”

Sin And Sinner

Which comes first, the sin or the sinner? Though inseparable, it is truer to say the sin comes first and ”the sinner” is the inevitable echo of the fact at however subtle or obvious a level within the inner field of being.

I Think

“I think, therefore I am.”
“I do not think, therefore I am.”
“How do you make that out?”
“Because I’m there aren’t I in both scenarios, thinking or not thinking, and therefore, in either situation, I am.”
“You might as well say so, “I am, therefore I am.”
“You might.”

Reason and the Miraculous

The very nature of the miraculous is to be beyond the confines of reason - whether you believe in the miraculous or not. And so it makes so sense to dismiss the miraculous as not being reasonable.

The Stolen Child

The Waterboys’ treatment of a poem by WB Yeats.

Nothing More

There is nothing more cuddly than a grumpy German.

Newest

This is my newest post.
But what if it isn’t my newest post? What if when the reader is reading this - cos that’s what readers do, they read things - like I said, what if when the reader is reading this it is no longer my newest post, that there are newer ones?
Ok, I’ll try again.
This is my newest post, but this is only the case if you are reading this now.

Is

Is this a question?

Recycling

Journal your thoughts, someone said, everyday. But what if I don't have any thoughts, and anyway who has thoughts everyday? Well yes, all of us do, endlessly more or less, but those kind of thoughts are hardly worth keeping track of, transcribing. Most of them are only fit for the rubbish heap.
But couldn't they be recycled? Recycled? Why would we want to recycle rubbish? They were bad enough the first time around.

Choice

"If you could be in two places at once and one of them was a shit-hole, what would be the other place you'd pick?"
"What?"
"What would be the other place you'd pick."
"Besides a shit-hole?"
"Yeah."
"Why would I be choosing to be in a shit-hole in the first place?"
"I don't know. That's up to you."

tower

Drop

There was a drop of water and it was very proud of itself, but then came the heat and it evaporated.

Heaven

"Will there be television in heaven?"
"I suppose so. Sure what else would we do all day?"
"How about mobile phones? Will they be there too?"
"There'll be no need. All the information will be instantly hard-wired into our brains."
"That sounds amazing."
"It'll be amazing all right."

Open Up the Gates

Americans

In a rather surprisingly slow to ensue but surely inevitable development and corollary to the use of the term 'African-American', 'white' Americans are henceforth to be known as 'European-Americans', arising ethnically as of course they do from Europe. Besides of course various other denominations, as it were, it is of note to remind the reader that a 'Native American' is henceforth to be described as an 'American-American.'

All very clear and obvious, though much excitement has arisen in the cases of offsprings of mixed ethnicity. How is one to designate someone, to be crude, of a black father and white mother? 'African-American-European-American-American'? Perhaps, and with the order reversed if the father were white and mother black. And this primacy of the masculine element in these matters of verbal delineation is itself also of course a very thorny issue. But allowing those murky gender waters to rest a while, what, to extend things a little, if an American-American were to mate with an African-American-European-American-American? Would the child be an American-American-African-American-European-American-American-American? At that point one might even argue that things are beginning to border on the ridiculous, though until one is sure of oneself and where things stand it might be safer to keep one's silence or at least speak very quietly about such matters.

Free Will

Does man, woman have free will - or to put it another way, is man free?
Only an unfree person would ask the question, so no, the person wondering if he is free is clearly not free.

Should

I should write this down.

Verona

"You know that thing, Two Gentlemen of Verona?'"
"That was written by your man wasn't it?"
"It was yeah."
"He wrote some very good stuff in fairness."
"He did all right. But he wrote some awful rubbish as well."
"He did I suppose."