Yes and No

The most important words in any language are the short ones.

Yes. Love. God.

They are all easy to say and fill up the empty spaces of our universe.

One small word people have difficulty in saying but that has even greater significance is "No".

When we say "Yes" we think we're being generous, understanding and polite.

"No" has a reputation for being mean, selfish and unspiritual.

Threat Response

The best response to terror is righteous anger, confidence in ultimate justice, and a refusal to be intimidated.

Lady GaGa

Lady GaGa's 4th video is out "Love Game".

Starts with the great line "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick".
No prizes for guessing what that's referring to.

She does her usual neo-techno garb and dancing, but she looks a lot like Aguilera in this vid for some reason. She also does the rolling around naked, a la Britney in Womaniser and Toxic (though not nearly enough of it).

And the lesbian kissing seems to be a staple of GG vids now.

More lezzing, more nudity. Keep up the good work, Ga Ga.

Focus

Sometimes you can listen so hard for the faintest of sounds that you don't even hear the louder ones.

Theater

The theater is deception. No actor plays himself.

In every role, an actor wears a false identity.

Bar room talk

The best, the really intense bar-room talk used to be about Big Foot, flying saucers, Atlantis, what happened to the dinosaurs, what's on the dark side of the Moon, the Loch Ness monster, the Shroud of Turin, ghosts, the Bermuda Triangle, that sort of thing.

Now people talk about scientists who say they're going to use cloning and stem cells and genetic engineering to create a superior race.

Inn

There is good wine poured in the inn at the end of the world.

Suspicion

A self-inflicted wound is a ploy that murderers sometimes use to cast themselves as victims and thereby to deflect suspicion.

Magic

Every great magic trick consists of three acts.

The First Act is called The Pledge.
The Magician shows you something ordinary. But of course, it probably isn't.

The Second Act is called The Turn.
The Magician makes this ordinary object do something extraordinary.
Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it.

The Third Act is called The Prestige.
This is the part with the twists and the turns. Where lives hang in the balance.
And you see something shocking that you've never seen before.

Don't envy me...

Like everyone else in this imperfect world I have a heavy heart, and a mind troubled by grief, by loss, by longing.

The Undertaker says...

Death is not about the disposal of the client.

What do the Dead care what happens to them? They're dead.

All the trappings of Death are for the living. It is the final reconciliation. The last farewell.

God

If you find a watch in the desert you don't assume that it was spontaneously created.

You figure that somebody made it. That there is a watchmaker.

Tiger

In the White House there is a tiger skin rug.

The tiger was shot and killed many years ago by Teddy Roosevelt. The feet of the great walk over the tiger skin every day. It listens to policies being formed and secrets being spoken.

Do you think that the tiger would rather be dead in the seat of power, or alive, and walking the jungle of India, sniffing the wind for the scent of game?

Names

Names have power.

Names do not define us, but they influence us for good or ill, help shape and form us.

Riddle

What creature walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs in the afternoon, and 3 legs in the evening?

A Man.

He crawls in his infancy, walks upright in his prime, and has to use a cane in his dotage.

Murder

The true commandment is "Thou shalt not murder".

It doesn't say "kill" in the original language.

Killing is a whole different thing from murder.

Moses didn't provide different catagories for murder, some worse than others.

Self defence isn't a transgression.
Defence of the innocent is required. They give medals for defence of the innocent.

Serial killers

Three murders with certain characteristics would normally indicate a serial killer.
Such murders are usually confined to one geographical area.

Mass murderers are terrorists.
Either that or immature adolescents who go to school and shoot everyone in sight, who are then either shot dead by the police or commit suicide.
They have a preference for guns and bombs that will cause the maximum amount of damage in a short space of time.
MMs don't care about the consequences of their actions because they know how it will end.

The concept of the MM is easier to grasp because he's "mentally unbalanced" and therefore easily distinguished from the rest of "us".

The serial killer, on the other hand, touches on something far more sensitive and complicated. The destructive instinct we all carry within us.

A serial killer doesn't just threaten our physical safety. He threatens our sanity. Because, whether we admit it or not, we all carry around in us a great destructive power. And have all, at some time, wondered what it would be like to give free rein to that desire to take someone else's life.

There are many reasons for this.
To put the world to rights.
To get revenge for something that happened in your childhood.
To vent your hatred of society.

SKs are neither perverted or sadistic. They are terrifyingly normal.
This normality is more terrifying than all their atrocities put together.

Some SKs have human motives.

Some are trying to put society to rights. Which is why they kill prostitutes.

SKs don't benefit financially or sexually from their crimes. They don't rape the victims or take their money.

Jack The Ripper and The Zodiac Killer were people trying to restore moral order and decency in their areas. They were never caught or ever identified.

SKs are usually only active for a sort period of time and then disappear completely, having left their mark on history.

SKs are hard to track because of the lack of motive.

Some leave a signature.
Some choose a type of victim - homosexual, prostitute, beggar.

Some are "asymmetrical killers" - they kill because they can't control the impulse to kill. When they reach a point where the urge is satisfied they stop killing. They start again when the impulse becomes unbearable.

Manson was trying to cleanse the world.
Ridgeway was trying to purify his home town.
Dahmer was trying to satisfy the appetite of the gods.

Most criminals don't want to be caught.
But they do want to be identified.

Some want to hit the headlines and gain fame and glory, like Jack The Ripper or Zodiac.

Others keep a diary so their grandchildren will be proud of them when they find it hidden in the attic years later.

Other have a message to deliver. Drive prostitutes away by making them afraid to walk the streets. When these SKs stop their murders it's because they believe their message has been received.

Films

Most film scripts can be summed up very briefly.

Man loves woman.
Man gets woman very briefly.
Man loses woman.
Man gets woman back.

90% of films are variations on that theme.

Champagne

Asti Spumante is what the Italians call what used to be called "Champagne".

The use of the word "Champagne" was banned under the Protected Designation of Origin.

Champagne simply means a white wine msde using a particular bacteria which, when controlled, begins to generate gases inside the bottle as the wine ages over a period of at least 15 months.

The name Champagne refers to the region where it's produced, nothing more.

Spumante is exactly the same thing, but European law doesn't allow it to be known by the French name, since the vineyard are in Italy, not in the Champagne region of France.

Too much fussing over it.

Names

John The Baptist:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other would still smell as sweet."

God:
"It's just a name. Don't fuss over it."

Slartibartfast:
"I told you it wasn't important".

Names

Names are important.

Every word is a name.

Every word names an object, an action, a quality, a quantity, a condition.

Nothing could be more important.

Nothing is if it isn't named.

Names

Shakespeare said:
A rose by any other would still smell as sweet.

Bruce Lee said:
It's just a name, don't fuss over it.

Names

Someone's spirit has no name.

It is pure truth and inhabits a particular body for a period of time, and will, one day, leave it.

God won't bother asking "What's your name?" when the soul arrives for judgement.

God will only ask: "Did you love while you were alive?"

That is the essence of life. The ablity to love. Not the name we carry around on our passport or drivers licence or business card.

The great mystics changed their names or abandoned them altogether.

When John The Baptist was asked who he was he said:
"I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness."

When Jesus found the man on whom He would build His church, he ignored the fact that the man had spent his entire life answering to the name of Simon and called him Peter.

When Moses asked God for His name, God answered:
"I Am Who I Am."

Names

People are their names. They are proud of them. They repeat them thousands of times in their lifetime and identify with them. It's the first word you learn after "Mummy" and "Daddy".

Monsters?

Rousseau. Shelly. Marx. Freud. Nietzsche. Tolstoy. Russell. Sartre.

They were all monsters to the people in their personal lives.
But that's not important when you consider the contribution they made to the world.

Monster

A monster lies in wait in me,
A stew of wounds and misery.
But fiercer still,
In life and limb,
The Me
That lies in wait in him.

Monsters

The history of literature and film is full of colourful monsters that come from netherworlds and other worlds and laboratories.

Vampires, werewolves, zombies, extraterrestrials, poltergeists, abominations of nature, hideous creatures created by experiments gone wrong.

None are real.

All are projections, metaphors, an externalization of what lies within us.

The only monsters in this world are those who pass for human, who cast shadows and are reflected in mirrors, who smile and speak of compassion and shed convincing tears.

God

God has a sense of humour. And because the world is woundrous, He expects us to find reasons to smile even on the darkest days.

The symptoms of fear

The symptoms of fear have always been the same.

They were the same when men had to face wild beasts and they are the same today.

Blood drains away from the face and epidermis, to avoid blood loss. It's why people turn pale.

The intestines relax and release everything, so there will be no toxic matter left to contaminate the organism. It's why people "shit themselves".

The body initially refuses to move, so as not to provoke the predator by any sudden movement. It's why people freeze up.

Tears in the rain

God made the world in 6 days.

But what is the world?

It's what we see.

Whenever someone dies, a part of the universe dies too. Everything a person felt, experienced and saw dies with them. Like tears in the rain.

Monogamy

Paternity tests given to birds, monkeys and foxes reveal that just because those species had developed a social relationship similar to marriage does not mean that they had been faithful to each other.

In 70% of cases, offspring turned out to have been fathered by males other than their partners.

The only species that does not commit adultery and which there is 100% monogamy is the flatworm, where the male and female meet as adolescents and their bodies fuse together.

The Best Medicine

When you laugh at yourself you gain perspective.

Then you realise that the mistakes you made, as long as they didn't hurt anyone but yourself, you can forgive yourself for.

When you Cross Over you will understand the many ways you were a fool in this world.

Everyone over there understands everyone over here better than we understand ourselves - and they forgive us our foolishness.

Lumin de lumine

Light From Light.

Waste and Void, waste and void. Darkness on the face of the deep.

Then God commanded Light.

The Light of the world descends from the Everlasting Light that is God.

Supernatural

The Supernatural is fundamentally organic in character.

This should be no surprise when you consider that spirits once lived as flesh.

Heaven or Hell?

The Fire can be consuming or purifying.

It all depends on your point of view.

Inferno

In Dantes's Inferno, in the ice and snowy mist of the frozen lowest circle of Hell, the imprisoned Satan appears to the poet out of the winds made by his three sets of great leathery wings.

The Fallen Angel, once beautiful but now hideous, reeks of despair and misery and evil.

6th Gate of Dreaming

In an experiment with a human observer, subatomic particles behave differently from the way they behave when the experiment is unobserved while in progress and the results are examined only after the fact.

This would indicate that, at least on a subatomic level, human will can shape reality.

Quantum Theory tells us that every point in the universe is connected to every other point, regardless of apparent distance.

Hell

With so many new cells and lightless pits required, Hell must be going through a construction boom these days.

Weather

Weather isn't mean.
Weather is glorious.

The world is beautiful and glorious.

Humanity can be mean, and turn away from what's good.
But weather is a gift.

Blizzards dress the land in clean habit.
Lightning and thunder make a music of celebration.
Wind blows away all that's stale.
Even floods raise up everything green.

For cold there's hot.
For wet there's dry.
For wind there's calm.
For night there's day,
Which might not seem like Weather, but it is.

Embrace the Weather and you'll understand the balance of the World.

Law

These days Law thinks it's about nothing but laws.

Law doesn't remember that it was once handed down from somewhere, that it once meant not just "No", but was a way to live and a reason to live that way.

Law now thinks nobody but politicians made it or can remake it.

It's no surprise then that some people don't care anymore about law, and even some lawmen don't understand the reason for law.

The difference between Life and Death

Life you can evade. Death you cannot.

Science starts in The Church

The Church invented the concept of the University and established the first one in the 12th Century.

Roger Bacon was a Franciscan monk and possibly the greatest mathematician of the 13th century.

Bishop Robert Grossetest was the first man to write down the necessary steps for performing a scientific experiment.

The Jesuits built the first telescopes, microscopes and barometers. They were also the first to calculate the constant of gravity, measure the height of the mountains on the moon, develop an accurate method of calculating a planet's orbit, and the first to devise and publish a coherent description of atomic theory.

Reflection

What do you look at while you're making up your mind?

Ours is not a reflective culture. We do not raise our eyes up to the hills.

Most of the time we decide the critical things while looking at the linoleum floor of an institutional corridor, or whispering hurriedly in a waiting room with a television blatting nonsense.

St. Ignatius Loyola

Teach us...
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to hed the wounds;
To toil and not to seek for rest...

Sugababes

Not withstanding what we wrote recently about new girl bands such as The Saturdays and Girls Can't Catch, the Sugbabes aren't out to pasture yet.

They have released a new track "Get Sexy" - and they do, in probably their sexiest vid yet.

Heidi looks as good as she has ever done. She peaked on the second verse of the Red Dress vid, yet she hasn't started going downhill yet.

Amelle, fresh from a bit of solo work in a contribution with Tinchy Stryder has short hair, a la Frankie Saturday, and is in her best shape ever. She has really hit her stride now.

Keisha. Well, she still tries too hard. The founder member will always be stuck with the tag "not as sexy as the other two", and that's up against Heidi, Amelle, Mutya and Siobhan.

The last chorus has their sexiest dancing ever, a level of raunchiness never touched by Girls Aloud, Atomic Kitten, Spice Girls or the Saturdays (yet, but we live in hope).

Don't write The Babes off just yet!

Vanilla Sky

As we mentioned before, Vanilla Sky is on of the great films on the theme of living inside a computer generated dream world.

It has a soundtrack that captures the movie excellently:


"Everything In Its Right Place"
(2000)
by Thom Yorke (as Thomas Yorke), Ed O'Brien (as Edward O'Brien), Colin Greenwood,
Jonny Greenwood (as Jonathan Greenwood) and Phil Selway (as Philip Selway)
Performed by Radiohead
Courtesy of Capitol Records
under license from EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets



"From Rusholme with Love"
(1999)
by Neil Claxton, Chris Baker and John Mayer
Performed by Mint Royale
Courtesy of MCA Records / Faith and Hope Records
under license from Universal Music Enterprises
Contains excerpts from "Acka Raga" by John Mayer



"Vanilla Sky"
(2001)
Written and Performed by Paul McCartney
Produced by Paul McCartney and David Kahne
Paul McCartney performs courtesy of Capitol Records



"Have You Forgotten"
(1996)
by Mark Kozelek
Performed by Red House Painters
Courtesy of Sub Pop Records



"All the Right Friends"
(1987)
by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe
Performed by R.E.M.
Produced by Pat McCarthy
R.E.M. performs courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.



"My Robot"
(2000)
by Stuart David, Scott Twynholm, Ronnie Black and Karn David
Performed by Looper
Courtesy of Sub Pop Records and Jeepster Recordings Ltd.



"My Favorite Things"
(1959)
by Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics) and Richard Rodgers (music)
Performed by John Coltrane



"Keep On Pushing"
(1964)
by Curtis Mayfield
Performed by The Impressions
Courtesy of MCA Records
under license from Universal Music Enterprises



"Mondo '77"
(2000)
by Stuart David, Scott Twynholm, Ronnie Black and Karn David
Performed by Looper (featuring Francis Macdonald)
Courtesy of Sub Pop Records and Jeepster Recordings Ltd.
Francis Macdonald performs courtesy of Shoeshine Records



"Directions"
(2000)
Written and Performed by Josh Rouse
Courtesy of Slow River Records, a Rykodisc Label



"Solsbury Hill"
(1983)
Written and Performed by Peter Gabriel
Courtesy of Real World Records Ltd. and Virgin Records Ltd.



"Wrecking Ball"
(2001)
by Ian Sefchick and Sharky Laguana
Performed by Creeper Lagoon
Courtesy of DreamWorks Records
under license from Universal Music Enterprises



"I Fall Apart"
(2001)
by Nancy Wilson and Cameron Crowe
Performed by Cameron Diaz
Produced by Nancy Wilson



"Last Goodbye"
(1994)
Written and Performed by Jeff Buckley
Courtesy of Columbia Records
by arrangement with Sony Music Licensing



"Svefn-g-englar"
(1999)
by Orri P. Dyrason, Kjartan Sveinsson, Jon Thor Birgisson, Georg Holm and Agust Aevar Gunnarsson
Performed by Sigur Rós
Courtesy of Fat Cat / PIAS Recordings



"Earth Time Tapestry"
(1999)
Written and Performed by Spacecraft
Courtesy of Lektronic Soundscapes



"Indra"
(2000)
by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton
Performed by Thievery Corporation
Courtesy of ESL Music and 4AD



"Agaetis Byrjun"
(1999)
by Orri P. Dyrason, Kjartan Sveinsson, Jon Thor Birgisson, Georg Holm and Agust Aevar Gunnarsson
Performed by Sigur Rós
Courtesy of Fat Cat / PIAS Recordings



"Afrika Shox"
(1999)
by Neil Barnes, Paul Daley, Nicholas Rapoccioli and Afrika Bambaataa
Performed by Leftfield / Afrika Bambaataa
Courtesy of Hard Hands / Columbia Records
by arrangement with Sony Music Licensing
Afrika Bambaataa performs courtesy of KLB / Wheels of Steel Records and Planet Rock Music



"Loops of Fury"
(1996)
by Tom Rowlands (as Thomas Rowlands) and Ed Simons (as Edmund Simons)
Performed by The Chemical Brothers
Courtesy of Astralwerks Records / Virgin Records Limited



"Rez"
(1993)
by Rick Smith, Karl Hyde and Darren Emerson
Performed by Underworld
Courtesy of TVT Records



"Too Good To Be Strange"
(1995)
by Andrea Parker and David Morley
Performed by Andrea Parker / Two Sandwiches Short of a Lunchbox
Courtesy of Strictly Confidential / R & S Records



"Sweetness Follows"
(1992)
by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe
Performed by R.E.M.
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
by arrangement with Warner Special Products



"One of Us"
(1995)
Written by Eric Bazilian
Performed by Joan Osborne
Courtesy of Blue Gorilla Records / The Island Def Jam Music Group
under license from Universal Music Enterprises



"Fourth Time Around"
(1966)
Written and Performed by Bob Dylan
Courtesy of Columbia Records
by arrangement with Sony Music Licensing



"I Might Be Wrong"
(2001)
by Thom Yorke (as Thomas Yorke), Ed O'Brien (as Edward O'Brien), Colin Greenwood,
Jonny Greenwood (as Jonathan Greenwood) and Phil Selway (as Philip Selway)
Performed by Radiohead
Courtesy of Capitol Records
under license from EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets



"Wild Honey"
(2000)
Music by U2 / Lyrics by Bono
Performed by U2
Courtesy of Universal-Island Records Ltd.
under license from Universal Music Enterprises



"Porpoise Song (Theme from "
Head")" (1968)
by Gerry Goffin and Carole King
Performed by The Monkees
Courtesy of Rhino Entertainment Company / Warner Music International
by arrangement with Warner Special Products



"Jingle Bell Rock"
(1957)
by Joseph Beal and James Boothe
Performed by Bobby Helms
Courtesy of MCA Records
under license from Universal Music Enterprises



"It's Slinky"
by Homer Fraperman and Charles Wragley
Courtesy of James Industries, Inc.



"Western Union"
(1967)
by John Durrill, Norman Ezell and Mike Rabon
Performed by The Five Americans
Courtesy of Sundaard Music, Inc.



"Heaven"
(1981)
by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
Performed by The Rolling Stones
Courtesy of Promotour B.V. / Virgin Records



"Can We Still Be Friends"
(1976)
Written and Performed by Todd Rundgren
Courtesy of Sanctuary Records Group and Courtesy of Rhino Entertainment Company / Bearsville Records
by arrangement with Warner Special Products



"Good Vibrations"
(1967)
by Brian Wilson and Mike Love
Performed by The Beach Boys
Courtesy of Capitol Records
under license from EMI-Capitol Special Markets



"Summer's End"
(1962)
by Elmer Bernstein
Courtesy of Universal Pictures, a Division of Universal City Sutdios, Inc.



"The Healing Room"
(2000)
Written and Performed by Sinéad O'Connor
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
by arrangement with Warner Special Products



"The Nothing Song (Njosnavelin)"
(2001)
by Orri P. Dyrason, Kjartan Sveinsson, Jon Thor Birgisson and Georg Holm
Performed by Sigur Rós
Courtesy of MCA Records
under exclusive license from PIAS
under license from Universal Music Enterprises



"Doot Doot"
(1983)
by Rick Smith (as R. Smith), Alfred John Thomas (as A. Thomas) and Karl Hyde (as K. Hyde)
Performed by Freur
Courtesy of Columbia Records
by arrangement with Sony Music Licensing



"Where Do I Begin"
(1997)
by Tom Rowlands (as Thomas Rowlands) and Ed Simons (as Edmund Simons)
Performed by The Chemical Brothers
Vocals by Beth Orton
Courtesy of Astralwerks Records / Virgin Records Limited



"Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space"
(1997)
by Jason Pierce
Performed by Spiritualized
Courtesy of BMG Entertainment International U.K. and Ireland / Arista Records, Inc.