December 6, 2009
Just watched the Prime Time report Death in Santa Cruz about Michael Dwyer the Irishman shot dead in April in Boliva. Obviously the report is inconclusive, raising questions mainly, both about his activities and the manner in which he was killed. It enlightens slightly on the political situation in Bolivia about which I knew precious nothing.
What seemed significant was where it all began: The Corrib Gas pipeline site in Mayo, where he was working as a security guard.
December 4, 2009
In an attempt to gain some enlightenment on the (Murphy) Catholic church knowingly allowing pedophile priests to continue to abuse children report, watched a documentary on clerical abuse. Even more perplexed. Suffice to say I consider my time as a Catholic amounts to some kind of removal from the planet by aliens and wouldn’t mind a return on the hours I sat in the bench.
The monarchy, which is what the church amounts to, continue to lie with impunity. To deflect. To throw language around as a softening device. And amid this equivocation what of the lives, the many, many lives in ribbons?
One thing that continues to strike me, and more so after said doc, is the way the church (for priests are the representatives of the church, you would not be letting them into your home if they were simply freelance priests) moved in specifically on women (mothers). Swooping in on them.
December 4, 2009
Neck protests somewhat at the re-emergence of relearning the steps (lean, fall, push, stretch …) to back handspring.
Front handspring remastered (needs work, but landed much to my surprise) at my second training session.
The front somersault however I am not compatible with. Nor the backward roll. My brain likes tumbling very much. And you cannot tumble without the mighty linking moves. Surrounded by people throwing straight backs, multiple backflips, so plenty to tumble toward.
The intellect curiously interferes and can stall the move. There are seconds before you throw it, where you brain tries to rationalize what you are about to do and the entire sequence can be destroyed.
A figure skater was standing watching through the door, considering joining, come in I told him. A curious cross pollination between sports. It will be interesting to watch how the one informs the other.
December 1, 2009
A bewk has come into my temporary possession by the generous lend of a friend called Undercover Surrealism published by the Hayward Gallery promises to expand on Bataille’s Documents.
Also it came accompanied by The Church A Demon Lover A Sartrean Analysis of an Institution by Roberta Imboden. (Univ of Calgary Press) Am trying and flailing to consider the staggering (can there be any more stagger left in staggering) Murphy commission report. Will post a collection of links if I ever sit upright again. Depravity that, listening to the discussion of whether such and such bishop should resign, continues to know no bounds, nor comprehends the scale and extensive reach of its damage. Damage that has taken lives of those we may never even know about. The diluted apologies from the church that increasingly sound like the same dead note, the donging of a clock to merely fill the silence and mark the passing of time at a press conference or during a news interview.
Question not being asked, or perhaps being discussed quietly out of the public domain is what is at the root of this sexual abuse, the appetite for it, why was it so prevalent even beyond the church, in swimming etc. Where does this come from? If it was only Catholicism then other Catholic countries would be besieged with these horrors. There was a piece I must dig out in the Irish Times talking about the culture of secrecy and saying nothing. But in reading it, it’s not entirely accurate. Perhaps it was once. Power, fear, control, domination yes but there’s something further to it.
What is healthy is the uproar. People are furious. Collectively furious and collectively ashamed. Furious enough that real change may result. There’s a clarity to the fury that needs now to push for further excavation of where this all comes from. Sometimes the terms in which it’s discussed are distancing and it merely pushes it further away as something incomprehensible, but in order to ensure it doesn’t continue in any diluted form, we must attempt to comprehend it.
November 30, 2009
Saturday night in the world, in winter
is an astonishing piece by DM Fraser. The finest piece I’ve read thus far about this city. Not a street name in sight. Yet all the discombobulation inside and outside the window and that walks along with you somedays. And weather, excellent meditation on winter and momentary surrender.
Snow being something you look out at here, in my experience, tho’ now we are beginning to dress for it.
Mr Fraser foxtrotted me away from Bataille. Lovely to be stunned on a Sunday night foray to the stacks. It’s a story I’d like to learn by heart and call up when crossing at the traffic lights.
November 25, 2009
poolish
Hello Kitty flip flops belonging to seventy year old feet.
Stomach scar on pale flesh that was too low to be open heart surgery.
Two female in their late seventies high five each other on recognition in the shower.
Aquafit, an undefeatable nation that once bounced in the shallow end, has morphed to rule the entire pool.
Aquafit: Resting place for house music rejected by aerobics.
No lifejacket if you are more than 90 pounds.
Industrial noise protection ear plugs worn to keep water out of ears while swimming.
What is the definition of swim continuously?
What if you cannot swim continuously?
Are you swimming intermittently?
Can continuous swimming be policed or is it based on an honour breathing system?
November 25, 2009
The strange thing about flooding is the never ending feeling it will always be back. It may receed, but somehow there’s the promise of return. A reminder of something. I’m here.
I was playing with this image in a futuristic story that I wrote earlier this year called Four Upping. That water would, will continue to rise.
Must get back to it. Stories tend to receed similiarly after flooding the brain or getting beaten back. Yet they tend to call again at odd moments.
This is a story I would like to create on the new Bookriff software.
November 25, 2009
Astonishing flood footage from Cork, Clare, Galway. Incl. paintings being lifted from gallery @ UCC in frantic bid to save them. Note the attempt to open the main road but basically trying to drown the farmers houses near by. Jesus. Automobiles over folk.
http://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/
November 25, 2009
wind
Wind rural. I have Wind urban but it’s currently missing in bluster and will join its windy sister forthwith
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVFU-rbu328&hl=en_GB&fs=1&]