Political, social, scientific and literary commentary from Dr. Raywat Deonandan: scientist, author, rogue and knave.
Friday, September 29, 2006
A Shimmy In Trini
Damn! This is my second attempt at this post. The previous version was deleted when the power went out. Trust me, it was much better written ;-)
About 2 hours ago, I was unceremoniously thrown from my chair in my hotel room, as an earthquake registering 6 on the Richter scale struck Trinidad. Items fell from my shelves, and power and phone lines went down, as the world shook for 15-20 seconds. I quickly gathered my phone, wallet, water and a bag of bananas and began the hour long hike into downtown Port of Spain. I neglected to bring my passport, though, which might be buried under the rubble of the hotel by now!
As I left, I noticed that the hotel was indeed still intact, but all the staff were huddled outside pointing to stress areas on the building and shouting unintelligibly. Thanks for checking on your guests, fellas.
Despite the earthquake, Trinidad has been great. Sadly, I've not had time to call all the people I'd intended to. A full schedule and a nasty head cold will do that to you.
Last night I met a cab driver who, I swear, was my age. Seems he's actually SIXTY years old! Either he is remarkably well preserved, or I am ageing much faster than I intended. No comment on which option is the more likely.
Also, this week I met up with my old friend, dramatist extraordinaire Paloma Mohamed (pictured here). I first met Paloma 6 years ago when we were both winners of the Guyana Prize, along with David Dabydeen. Today, a collage of photos of "famous" Guyanese artists hangs in the showroom below me, remarkably featuring the images of, among many others, Paloma, myself and the great Eddy Grant. (They are missing Shakira Caine and Dave Baksh, of course.)
When I tapped Paloma on the shoulder, she spun around and exclaimed, "Ray?! Oh my God, we've both put on weight!"
At least Paloma has an excuse: she just had a baby. What's my excuse?
Funny thing about Trinidad. The insignia of the police force is the Star of David! Here's why.
Today we took a break from the official events and drove north to the stunning cliff-rimmed beaches of Maracas Bay. Of course, no sooner did we get there that a torrential downpour began, lasting hours. During a window of dryness, we managed to poke our toes into the Caribbean, then back into the car, for a hair-raising drive back to town, along winding hill roads during flash floods. Once again, Andrew's impeccable driving was an inspiration.
The boy has already left for the airport as I write this, leaving me to spread out and enjoy the fullness of our hotel room for my remaining two days. Of course, these days will likely be spent in bed, drugged to my eyeballs, as I attempt to recover from this nasty, unshakable cold.
One nice part about being stuck in bed is that I get to watch continuous BBC World News. Today I caught something called HARDTalk and was mildly horrified as a bombastic know-little journalist accosted and belittled world leaders and Nobel laureates. It seems FOX-style American news TV has migrated to the BBC. Very sad.
My second full day in Trinidad saw me give an unrehearsed reading and talk --for 90 minutes!-- to a full house at the Carnegie library in San Fernando. I'd been told that the audience would be school kids, so had some education oriented comments in my head. But none of the kids showed up, so I had to hustle for new content. I'd also been lead to believe that there would be a panel of authors present. Instead, I was the sole attraction!
But it was all good. Trinidad always brings out engaged and polite audiences. Not unexpectedly, many of the questions were of a political nature, and I found myself once again dancing about some thorny issues.
The down side to all of this is that I am horribly ill. I now have a cold on top of a cold and the only thing I can think about is sleep, despite being surrounded by tropical perfection.
Thanks for the well wishes, everyone, and greetings from sunny Trinidad & Tobago. Andrew and I arrived Sunday night and the boy impressed me by driving our rental car all the way to our hotel in St James, in a foreign country and on the wrong side of the road! Of course we had help, as a representative of Carifesta, Debbie G, led us all the way.
But later on that night, we went looking for food, unaware that this place seems to shut down at 10pm. So in the wee hours, we found ourselves driving about the deserted streets of Port of Spain, looking for anything open. We ended up at the centre of activity --KFC-- after driving everywhere, including into the bus depot.
Today was a little more organized, given that it was a national holiday. Debbie and her sister gave us a lovely tour of the bits of the locale that I missed on my last trip, and then we were off to the main reason for my presence here: a reading at the National Library.
It turns out the evening was largely a Canadian affair, featuring myself, Ita Sadhu and the great Austin Clarke. It was a highlight of my writing career, appearing on the same bill as Austin, whom I've met before, back when he was the founding godfather of Pagitica magazine. Photos are forthcoming, courtesy of Herr Currie.
The sucky part is that I'm barely functioning due to a nasty head cold. Yuck. Tomorrow morning we're to San Fernando to present to some school kids. Stay tuned!
The new plan is a career in independent research/epidemiology/stats consulting and international programme evaluation. So if any of you have any business to throw me, do so! Stay tuned for a new website, etc.
It's all rather scary, but exciting. Something you have to try once in your life. I'm going to give it a few months to work before crawling back to the traditional work world again. So if you see me begging for change on the street, be generous! Perhaps I should make up a sign:
To celebrate my new freedom, I'm off to Trinidad first thing in the morning, to participate in the Caribbean arts and culture festival called Carifesta. Due to my suddenly renewed status of singledom, I will be accompanied by my good buddy Andrew.
(And before any of you thieving types gets any criminal ideas, my apartment is always occupied by relatives, guests, ex-girlfriends and drooling rottweilers.)
Stay tuned to this space for live blogging updates from Trinidad!
Today we wish a happy birthday to Adam Xavier Wong, munchkin spawn of Podium co-founder Master Wong. Here we see AXW examining Herr Wat's molars.
We return to our shotgun approach of random news here on Deonandia. Let's begin with this interesting bit, which chillingly compares modern US torture techniques with those of the Soviets during the "evil empire" era.
Like me, have you been watching Racist Survivor? I love that reality crap! Courtesy of Shaila M. comes this wonderful analysis of the "most controversial reality TV show ever."
Now some more serious stuff. Has the USA been engaging in collective punishment in Iraq? If so, that's a war crime, people. Meanwhile, incidents of anti-Muslim violence are up dramatically on US soil. Remind me: who's attacking whom again?
I will leave you with one of the finest web-only cartoon broadcasts out there. Yes, people, it's the pilot episode of Li'l Bush:
The picture to the left is not what it appears to be. Alas, it is not photographic evidence of an exciting new trend in audience servicing. Rather, it's a model falling off the catwalk. But a fellow can fantasize, no?
You and I may not share the impression that the git knows what he's talking about, but you have to agree that this is a great video. It's cobbled together from footage of George W. Bush and gives the impression that he's singing U2's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday".
Today's serious bit of news is this bit out of the UK about a woman imprisoned for 2 months for making a false accusation of rape.
Rape is a serious business. Its perpetrators deserve to be locked up for a long time, and its victims (regardless of gender) deserve all of society's support and assistance. But there does seem to be an increase in news reports of seemingly false allegations of rape. (Whether this increase is real or artefactual is another matter, as is whether the allegations were truly false or merely retracted as a result of emotional turmoil.) But I will say this: While being the victim of a sexual assault is a seriously unpleasant ordeal, so is being falsely and successfully accused of perpetrating one, I would imagine. Thus, might I suggest that the punishment for a confirmed false allegation would be comparable to the punishment for the crime that is alleged?
"I'm interested in man's march into the unknown put to vomit in space is not my idea of a good time. Neither is a fiery crash with the vomit hovering over me." -William Shatner (courtesy of Master Wong).
From Andoo comes a link to the Indian version of The Simpsons.
From Brother Hrab comes this unsurprising NY Times article confirming what most thinking people have known for some time: that factions of the US military are rallying points for white supremacist groups. According to the article, there is a conscious movement of violent white supremacists into infantry units bound for Iraq and Afghanistan. Yeah, these are the people the Americans need to help promote the image of "we're here to help". Yeah.
But on the flip side, at least there are people like Elizabeth Stinson who actively resist the military's attempts to hoodwink young people into signing up. Let me be clear: I think the military is an excellent career option for a lot of people. I thought of joining myself many times when I was younger. But join for the right reasons and without any misconceptions about the nature of the work you'll be expected to do. But with their current recruitment targets falling short, and perpectual war a seeming reality, the US military is getting desperate to fill more uniforms. That's why Stinson's work is critical to provide a check against the more disingenous and creepy recruitment practices.
Deonandia reader Farah has asked me to publicize an upcoming concert by virtuoso qawwali singer, Shahid Ali Khan in Toronto next month. Khan performed an incredible charity gig to raise money for our tsunami relief efforts a year ago. I highly recommend the show for anyone interested in this music. The show is at 7pm, Oct 19, at the Lula Lounge in Toronto (1585 Dundas St W). Tickets are only $10 and you can get them by contacting Farah.
I want to end today with a very interesting story out of India. It seems the Indians are sending the world's first all-women policing force to Liberia. The rationale is a good one: "Female peacekeepers are seen as bringing a different style to international policing by appearing less threatening and more approachable for women and children." The world will watch their performance quite closely, I think, as a possible response to those endless armchair philosophers who declare, without evidence one way or another, how better/different the world would be if it were policed by women.
So I was on a plane some time ago, a flight from Ottawa to Toronto. In typical dweebish fashion, I had my headphones on and was tip-tapping away on my PDA. I paused and considered myself. "What a doofus I must look like," I said to myself. "A silly brown dude with headphones and a PDA. Gakkkk." Then I looked to my left, and there was another silly brown dude with headphones and a PDA. Yes, this is his picture. Seems we're taking over the world. Or at least Air Canada.
Congratulations to an old friend in DC, Ms. Dawn Logan, for her recent marriage. Further congratulations to resident Deonandia villain Darth Vadum, for his impending 40th birthday tomorrow night in DC. Sorry I can't be there to have a cigar with you, bud.
Sad news from Montreal yesterday as yet another gunman shot and killed innocent student types. As this CBC photo shows, the bugger was a brown dude. And a Goth. As I wrote in this article about the Columbine shootings, there is a tendency for society to marginalise the wrong group in the aftermath of such tragedies. I expect the regular vocal set to be criticising Goth culture again, without basis. After all, Goths are just a bunch of fashion-challenged kids doing what all kids do: act weird and depressed and selfish. Nothing abnormal or dangerous about them.
What's truly weird about this story, though, is that the dude was a brown Goth! Come on! Brown dudes don't get pale enough!
Of course, speaking of targetting the wrong marginalised groups, I'm just counting the seconds until some wingnut blames this event on "Islamofascist" terrorism.
Courtesy of SM (apt initials), and in lieu of the Daily Perv Link, I give you The Sinulator.
Lookit what I found on the grocery shelf last week: "cock-flavoured noodles."
A.G. from B.C. sends us this hilarious clip from The Daily Show. It's a debate between the Stevens; to be resolved: which religion is better, Islam and Christianity?
Brother Hrab sends us this report of the rise of potentially untreatable TB in Africa. I will have more to say about this in the future. But until then, I share with you (via Peter L.) this list of Time Magazine's top stars of International Health.
Until then, I leave you with the following, which is perhaps the greatest opening to any TV show in the history of broadcast television:
The Toronto Sun is an intolerable rag. But it has exactly three saving graces: (1) it's small, so can be easily read on public transportation; (2) it features the writing of Eric Margolis; and (3) the Sunshine Girl. Sunday's Sunshine Girl was none other than my sister-in-law Christine, pictured on the left. And to think, I knew her when she was a snotty-nosed 10 year old...
Well, as the neocons/neoliberals/wingnuts edge "us" closer to ill-informed military action against Iran, it is refreshing to see a voice of true bravery erupt from Israel. Courtesy of Brother Hrab, here's an article by Haaretz writer Reuven Pedatzur arguing, quite rightly, that "allowing" Iran to have nuclear weapons is less costly and more preferable and any pre-emptive military action. Here's the money quote:
"Iranians, in spite of being Muslims, are not fundamentally different from other people in the world."
Speaking of Iran, remember my post about Sun writer Michael Coren arguing openly for an unprovoked nuclear strike against Iran? Here's the best response I've seen yet, from this site:
"Iran can not be allowed to continue minding its own buisiness and not doing anything to anyone."
Have you heard about or seen this nutty special on ABC called, The Path to 9/11? It supposedly tries to blame the terror attacks on the Clinton Administration because, in the necon view, everything from smallpox to Original Sin was Clinton's fault. Max Blumenthal breaks it down for us and explains the political background of the enterprise. In short, it's the child of uber-wingnut David Horowitz. 'Nuff said.
I leave you with this. It's news that the Canadian military has now made "fighting terror" a focus of its recruitment campaign. I really don't know what to say about this.
Yes, the Daily Perv Link (TM) is no more. But the world just won't stop its nastiness. So what's a concerned blogger to do, except keep on sharing?
Okay, here's an interesting story out of the UK. Seems a known sex offender has been arrested and charged after altering pornographic photos of adult women to make them look like children. Yes, the man is sick. Yes, he deserves to be punished for his previous crimes. And yes, authorities should continue to monitor him. But really, when did it become a crime to alter photos, if you have no intention of distributing them? Is it, then, also a crime to draw a naughty picture on the back of your napkin? This, to me, has firmly entered the realm of "thought crime" and is thus completely unacceptable in the realm of law.
As "theallseeingear" in the Rotten.com forums put it: "This man made adults look like children? Good for him! There's far too many children looking like adults these days!"
So on Conan O'Brien last week, the segment titled, "Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage" focused on the recent cancellation of one my favourite TV shows, Stargate SG-1. After Pierre waxed poetically/moronically about how the removal of SG-1 throws a wrench into his "Friday night fantasy threesome", Conan quipped, "I'm sure there are one or two other people in the world who know exactly what you're talking about. " Sadly, I am one of those people. Here's the clip:
Wanna hear something scary, but not too surprising? Apparently, back in the 1960s, top US military leaders put together a plan called "Operation Northwoods", which would see the US military committing terrorist acts against US citizens on American soil, then blaming them on Castro's Cuba, in an attempt to foment a war between the two countries.
This, of course, would not have been the first time a justification for war had been manufactured. The Gulf of Tonkin incident of 1964 was the supposed rationale for American involvement in Vietnam, though history questions its authenticity. And back in 1898, the sinking of the USS Maine was used as the justification for the Spanish-American War (also involving Cuba), though the sinking was likely an accident having nothing to do with the Spanish.
As this article, which offers a good summary of Operation Northwoods, quotes:
"The whole point of a democracy is to have leaders responding to the public will, and here this is the complete reverse, the military trying to trick the American people into a war that they want but that nobody else wants." -James Bamford
Kinda makes them 9/11 conspiracy theorists just a tad less nutty sounding, no?
Speaking of 9/11, today is of course its 5 year anniversary. Eric Margolis has a nice summary of the state of the world in that event's wake. But back in Jan 12, 2002, I quoted another writer, who said: "On Sep 11 the world changed... except for Asia, Africa and large parts of Europe." My point? The degree to which the "world has changed" has very little to do with "the world" and everything to do with the overreaction of the West.
"Afghanistan: An anti-al-Qaida operation has turned into a classic 19th-century colonial war against unruly Pashtun tribesmen, costing $2 billion monthly. Washington failed to impose a viable regime. Afghanistan is producing 80% of the world's heroin. Taliban and its nationalist allies are resurgent. Americans and Canadians are not being told the truth about the growing mess there. Sending troops to Afghanistan, and cheering the destruction of Lebanon, seriously endangered Canada's national security, though it may help lumber exports."
Here's a bad-ass pic of Deonandia reader "S". who's presently on the front lines in Afghanistan. I've attempted to conceal her identity a bit 'cause I'm sure she doesn't need her compatriots knowing she reads a blog written by an anti-war doofus like myself.
Despite our official position against Canadian involvement in this skirmish, we (the royal "we") continue to hope for safety and comfort for S., her friends, and indeed for everyone in that country.
Apropos of nothing, Deonandiabrings you --for one time only-- the return of the Daily Perv Link. Click at your own peril.
Speaking of things pervy, from Oklahoma comes this story about a police chief having his job threatened because his 43 year old wife runs a perfectly legal erotic website. Do I really need to spell it out? If her actions are legal, what's the big deal? And even if her actions weren't legal, what do they have to do with the police chief and his suitability for the job, unless he, too, was involved in the enterprise? I'm getting really sick of people trying to use the law to enforce their own personal morality; the two do not necessarily overlap, nor should they.
(If you'd like to see a photo of the, um, little lady, click here. The lengths I go for you people.)
Blogging continues to evolve. Apparently an ongoing weirdness on MySpace.com turns out to be a subtle promo for an upcoming horror movie!
This week's focus on 80s pop icon Adam Ant wraps up today on Deonandia. I will leave you with a good image to hold of Adam's later years. In 1997, he was invited onstage to perform with up-and-coming punk ensemble "Dweeb", who had covered the Ants' classic "Beat My Guest." Luckily, there's a bootleg video of the performance and you can watch it here (requires RealMedia). Adam appears to have given up his legendary "goody two shoes" lifestyle and is sporting both a beer belly and a cigarette, but is still the consummate showman; and it's nice to see him return, ever so briefly, to his punk roots. Look for the bit where he removes his hat to show his near baldness; it's quite a sad shock.
And to cleanse your pallet of that image of the older, broken Herr Ant, take a gander at this RealMedia clip. It shows Adam and the Ants, back in their prime, on a Japanese TV show, being presented with a fish. Seriously, a fish. The Ants look so confused (and huge compared to their Japanese hosts) that I was afraid they were going to start hitting people. But of course, that would have smudged their make-up, so it wasn't going to happen.
Lastly, today marks yet another wedding day for yet another ex-girlfriend of mine. I've been through enough of these ordeals to know how to deal; in fact, I should teach a course on it. So while I wish the happy couple nothing but joy and providence, I will celebrate with a very stiff drink, fatty foods and some naughty videos.
Courtesy of Cousin Ajay, check out this. You'll need sound. Oh yes you will.
And, courtesy of regular Deonandia visitor M., comes this blog from Beirut. This continues to be Adam Ant week here on Deonandia. In honour of Herr Ant, I give you this satirical short film about the Antz shopping in a grocery store, called "Ant Muzak". Apparently the lead, actor Nick Moran, looks so much like Adam Ant that Adam's mother thought it was actually her son, somehow grown 20 years younger.
If you're as curious as I am about Mr Ant's rise and fall, I think you'll enjoy this excerpt from his upcoming autobiography. He's actually a pretty good writer. And if that did the job for you, you might also enjoy this anecdote about how Adam gave Michael Jackson fashion advice.
Thus ends my brief voyage into the biography of Squire Adam Ant.... or does it?
One thing that Youtube doesn't have (yet) is a version of a weirdly exciting video by Les Rhythmes Digitales (aka Stuart Price) called, "Hey You." When I first saw it, I was confused by the modern sound combined with the retro 80s look. My poor monkey brain couldn't decide if this was intentional kitch, if it was a genuine attempt to be cool, or if it was just French. Luckily for you, this site has the video in several sizes of stream.
Apropos of nothing, I always find it strangely exciting when something I do on a whim ends up becoming part of a serious scholarly work. It's happened a number of times over the years. Yes, my droogies, Deonandan.com has been cited in someone's thesis.
Today's serious topic is a small news bit: Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has refused a passport to Abdurahman Khadr for reasons of "national security". Khadr, you may recall, was held by the Americans in Guantanamo Bay, then released without being charged. His family has oft expressed its support for Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. A federal judge has already ruled that the government cannot deny him a passport, but the wording of the judgment might be weasely enough that MacKay can get away with these shenanigans.
Here's the thing: if Khadr has violated a law, then arrest him. If he has not, then stop treating him like a criminal. He has not been arrested, nor has he been convicted of a crime --and you know that the feds have investigated him up the wazoo-- so a civil society must conclude that he is not a criminal. Other countries are free to deny him an entry visa if they do not wish to grant him entry, so MacKay's argument that he is protecting other countries is hogwash.
You know that MacKay is on unstable ground when Canada's uberhawks are against him. Even Peter Worthington is arguing for Khadr to be given a travel document, though his argument differs from mine considerably.
Speaking of uberhawks, dig this statement from Michael Coren: "We have to drop a nuclear bomb on Iran."
Yes, you read that right. We are now at a point in history where a nationally syndicated mainstream writer can advocate for the nuking of a foreign country that has issued us no threats and that has historically not issued us any threats. When and how did it become acceptable to bandy about talk of nuking this or that country? How did we get here? Are we so far, now, from casually introducing battlefield nukes for any given skirmish? The scene is being set for a dazzling misuse of nuclear weaponry, likely in the Middle East, probably in my lifetime, and very likely perpetrated by the so-called "good guys".
"When the Toronto Sun published a lunatics column by that title ['We Should Nuke Iran'] the other day, the right-wing corporate media stepped into a hideous new ground, perhaps testing the waters, tilting our collective experience of reality towards that most inconceivable insanity."
"The whole point of not wanting someone like Iran or North Korea getting the bomb, is they 'might' use it against someone or give it to terrorists who 'might' use it against someone. So, isn't it funny that the only country threatening to use their nukes is us, the good old USA."
(And yes, I'm aware that the offending writer and the paper are both Canadian, not American. I wonder if Michael Coren and the Sun also realize that?)
My current Youtube addiction has allowed me to explore more fully the image-shapers of my youth, now preserved on blurry bits of semi-legally uploaded video. Among them, of course, is the quixotic Adam Ant, featured in my previous post. Born Stuart Leslie Goddard, "Adam" will be 52 this Fall, but to his fans will remain a hyper-energetic, weirdly talented and astoundingly handsome 20-something, unexplainably bedecked in a mish-mash of Plains Indian and early 19th century pirating garb.
But Adam is given space in this blog because of his curious story. Despite being an icon of weird 80s Brit-pop, Adam Ant was nonetheless central in the late 70s hardcore punk scene, along with Siouxie Sioux and the Sex Pistols. In fact, he can be seen in Pistols concert footage of that era, though probably not an "official" member of the Bromley Contingent. The tragicomic thing about Adam, though, is that he was given everything sought by mortal men --honourable money, properly earned fame, unique talent, preternatural looks and a niche in musical history-- yet, like so many with such gifts, could not easily find happiness. Adam, you see, is mentally ill and suffers from bipolar syndrome.
The consequences of his illness are brought to the fore in his last (and likely final) hit, "Wonderful", seen in the strangely moving video below. Seems it's about his mental health in the wake of his break-up with actress Heather Graham:
The life of Adam Ant is a cautionary tale for us to never envy those we perceive to "have it all." Things ain't always as rosy as they may seem. Time has not been kind to Herr Ant, as the photos in this story attest, as will this spread.
Enough of Ant news. Rondi has struck me with something called a "tag", which means I have to answer a series of questions in my blog. Luckily, these questions pertain to books. So here goes:
A book that changed my life: Not to be overly dramatic, but pretty much every book changes your life to some degree, if you've paid attention in any small way to what you've been reading. Okay, I will go with The Illuminatus! Trilogy 'cause it introduced me to 60s-style (though it was written in the 80s) drug-driven paranoid proto-fiction. The book came at a good time for my depressive teenaged self, who, like all good adolescents, needed something otherworldly to convince himself that the universe was worth living in.
A book I've read more than once: As a rule, I don't like to read books twice. In one short lifetime, I will only get to read a finite number of books, so why double dip? But I've made an exception twice: Isaac Asimov's Pebble In The Sky and Niven and Pournelle's The Gripping Hand. The first was because I was a little surprised to see the book being included in Asimov's grand Foundation universe, and had to go back and make sure I hadn't read incorrectly. The second was because the first time I'd read this sequel to the sci-fi classic, The Mote In God's Eye, I was like a virgin faced with his first sexual experience: so excited and eager that it was over before I'd realized what I'd done; so, years later, I enjoyed a longer and languished re-read.
A book I would take with me if I were stuck on a desert island:The SAS Survival Handbook. Nuh. (Unless there's a book out there that is either inflatable into a raft or is edible.)
A book that made me laugh: You know, I can't recall being made to laugh out loud by a book. But let's go with Jerry Seinfeld's Sein Langauge just because I can't think of anything else.
A book that made me cry: God, I'm such a sissy. Too many to mention. I'll give you two examples: Clarke and Lee's Rama Revealed, 'cause the ending was quite touching. And Pullman's The Amber Spyglass, 'cause, once again, the ending was just downright unfair.
A book I wish had been written: Um, How Raywat Deonandan Became The First Man on Mars and Returned A Perfectly Adjusted and Content Billionaire.
A book I wish had never been written:The Da Vinci Code. I like that people are excited by a book. But why couldn't have been a better written book? I wanted to like it, I really did! But I couldn't get past the first chapter: it's that badly written. I actually felt myself getting dumber the more of it I read.
Yes, like so many other bloggers, I find myself addicted to Youtube. These days, despite my recent declaration that I'm largely immune to nostalgia, I find myself a little obsessed with musical performances from my youth. Today I give you two links from two princes of UK pop aesthetics, Adam Ant and David Bowie. The first link is a performance of "Dog Eat Dog" by Adam and the Ants from some time in the 80s; the second is David Bowie doing "Heroes" from 1977 on the Marc Bolan Show. (Look for the end where Bolan falls off of the stage!)
In other fluff news, my favouritest TV show, stargate SG-1, has been cancelled. It's the longest running science-fiction TV show in North American history, having beat out The X-Files for that honour a couple of weeks ago. Why is this newsworthy? Because the show's owner, MGM, has vowed that the franchise will live on in some capacity; rumour has it that this new life will come in the form of the mainstream world's first strictly online TVshow. Let me tell you, if this is true, I applaud the move. I would happily do away with my TV and watch this show on my computer. Heck, I already download it!
Damn! This is my second attempt at this post. The previous version was deleted when the power went out. Trust me, it was much better written ;-)
