Violent Femmes: Gone Daddy Gone

I’ve loved this song ever since I first heard it. I love the Gnarls Barkley version and the almost certainly — though undeservedly — less well known Prozac+ one. But for now let’s enjoy the original.

Observation vs reasoning

I visited my local police station this morning to report the theft of a credit card. On the wall behind the officer who took my statement was a handwritten aphorism, which went more or less like this: A lot of reasoning and little observation = mistaken solution. A lot of observation and little reasoning = correct solution. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but later I was thinking about a story I’m revising and what the revision seems to entail is the removal of reasoning in favour of observation. The maxim is similar to, but not the same as, the ‘show, don’t tell’ stricture that teach yourself creative writing material is so keen on. It’s also true, of course, that 98% of crimes remain unsolved, so maybe a little reasoning is in order.http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif

And then tonight I watched, for the first time, Closely Observed Trains. The film itself is a model of close observation, but its structure, and sense, is everything that isn’t seen; everything that becomes available with reasoning. Which would seem to contradict the police officer’s aphorism. The DVD included the original American trailer, which reduced the film to a saucy romp, a sort of 60s-made American Pie set in wartime Czechoslovakia. The trailer had watched the film but seen nothing, or thought that the kind of nothing it had found in the film would make it more palatable to a foreign audience.

In my statement, the police officer gilded the lily (over-larded the pudding?) by adding the phrase “with immense stupor” to the sentence in which I discover my card has been used by someone else. It’s a nice idea, though not even faintly true. But now, of course, it is. It’s in my statement.

My credit card was stolen because I didn’t keep my eyes open.

Beckmann and Goethe

La Casa di Goethe, one of Rome’s most attractive and manageable museums, occupies the apartment in Via del Corso 18 that Goethe is believed to have stayed in during his time in Rome. The museum celebrates its tenth anniversary this year with an exhibition of Max Beckmann’s drawings for Faust. You can get more information about times and dates, as well as a chance to see another one of the series of drawings, by clicking here.

Herman Dune

I’m listening to music today and Popbitch — Thank you, Popbitch — sent me off to this band’s new single , called I wish that I could see you soon. I like the single a lot, but prefer the slightly darker mood of this track, made a few years ago.http://www.youtube.com/v/qQ0EDS0mhkE
There’s more on Herman Dune, assuming you know as little as I did about them until half an hour ago, on their site. You’ll find the new single under media.

Walk the Line

I saw Walk The Line last night and, by coincidence, came across this video on YouTube today. Is this significant? (Well, of course not, but the video’s sweet, the beard it contains is impressive, and I did enjoy the film, so let’s call this an aide-memoire-cum-tribute.)http://www.youtube.com/v/X3EcyS3HozQ

Penis fencing

No, not the kind of fencing used to protect our gardens, though that’s an interesting thought, but the sparring kind. This photograph, which shows two Right Whales engaged in the activity, comes from an exhibition dedicated to homosexuality among animals, organised by the Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo. According to the information on the site:

The exhibit displays a small selection of the more than 1500 species where homosexuality has been observed. This fascinating story of the animals’ secret life is told by means of models, photos, texts and specimens. The visitor will be confronted with all sorts of creatures from tiny insects to enormous sperm whales.

In other words, there’s something for everyone: the idea of models is particularly intriguing. The exhibition, which ends in August, is entitled Against Nature?

The answer, not surprisingly, is no.

Yeltsin’s inheritance

Once more, from today’s Independent:

The state over which Yeltsin presided had installed a democratic political system, albeit one in which powerful sectional interests wielded excessive influence. But, by any economic measure, society as a whole had benefited only marginally, and growing numbers had fallen far below the poverty line. Corruption and criminality were rampant throughout the political and economic structures and deterred the Western bankers who had fed them.

On the other hand, he did appoint Vladimir Putin – “ex-KGB intelligence officer and former deputy to the corrupt former mayor of St Petersburg“ – as his heir. So not entirely bad. After all, it isn’t every country that can boast a leader who’s inspired J.K. Rowling to create one of her least attractive characters: the sly, deceitful, wheedling, essentially sub-human Dobby.

145, and counting…

The cover of today’s Independent. In case you can’t read it, the text says:

This is Kingsman Alan Jones. He was killed, aged 20, in Iraq this week, just one of the 145 British soldiers who have died in this ill-conceived conflict. His death went largely unnoticed in the bloodiest month endured by British soldiers – another grim statistic, another coffin sent home, another grieving family, another young man who died in vain.

Machine translation. Don’t you just love it…

If you’ve nothing better to do and speak the language of another country reasonably well, click on its flag in the my widget panel down there to the right and enjoy what happens to all these posts.

And then wonder what would happen if an official document — a peace treaty, say, a writ — were subjected to the same treatment, and cover your face with horror.

Roy Zimmerman: Defenders of Marriage