Wednesday 23 July 2008

Reality Is What You Make It

Reality Is What You Make It: "sometimes we see only what we are told to see. It is this mechanism that magicians use for their slight of hand tricks. They divert our attention from the important action by focussing our brains on irrelevant details."

Wednesday 16 July 2008

Bear Nation: Looking For Bear in Harghita County, Transylvania - Part 1

Bear Nation: Looking For Bear in Harghita County, Transylvania - Part 1: "It was after this that I first heard a bear speak. It was Lydia. She was walking up and down by the fence making this noise. It is a unique and unmistakable sound, like a plaintive nasal cry, slightly wistful, slightly melancholic. The Latin name for bear is 'Urs' and that is exactly the sound they make. 'Ur?' It's a question. There's a questioning tone to it, like something you might ask of the mountains, of the wind. Something slightly sad. 'Why have you left me, Ur? Where have you gone, Ur? Why do all us creatures have to die?' You can hear the peaks of the mountains in its voice. You can hear the breathing nearness of the wind. You can hear the echoes of the forest. You can hear the lonely miles of travel. You can hear mortality and loss."

Bear Nation: Looking For Bear In Harghita County, Transylvania

Bear Nation: Looking For Bear In Harghita County, Transylvania: "It was Attila who saw them first. He pointed them out to us, these shapes emerging from the trees, muscular and huge with hulking shoulders and craggy heads like great black rocks, with curling tusks and wet noses, snorting and trotting up the hill with a sort of hungry wariness, cautiously looking around them for any possible danger. They were a family group of about ten individuals, snuffling about and rooting in the soil for the corn."

Saturday 5 July 2008

I Don't Write For Money, I Write For Love

I Don't Write For Money, I Write For Love:

"So, you have to ask, what is the difference between a professional writer and an amateur? The difference is that a professional writes for money, of course, and demands a proper rate of pay. This is reasonable enough you might say, and it's certainly true that I could do with being paid for some of the things I write. But the real truth is that most of these professional writers not writing for themselves. They write for an editor who works for a proprietor whose main purpose is to fill his paper with advertising. So in the end, most writers are writing for advertisers."

Tuesday 1 July 2008

Instant Karma's Gonna Get You

Instant Karma's Gonna Get You: "In Hindu philosophical terms karma is a process of blind inevitability, a force of the universe, like gravity. You don‘t get a choice over how gravity works, your only choice is whether to jump off any high buildings, and whether to carry a parachute if you do."

The Economics And Romance of Space Exploration

The Economics And Romance of Space Exploration: "In my imagination there's a part of me out there wandering in the infinite desolation of space with these machines. They are remote control vehicles for the strange miracle we call life from this oasis, the Earth."

Mothers Club In Erdington

Mothers Club In Erdington: "Mothers Club in Erdington, Birmingham, an early psychedelic music venue, opened on the 9th of August 1968 with a performance by Duke Sunny, and closed on the 3rd of January 1971, with a blockbusting three-band show by Quintessence, Stonehouse and Happy. The following is a personal record of that club, and that era."

What To Do at The End Of The World

What To Do at The End Of The World: "Yet another great, thought provoking hub, CJ! Personally, I've decided 'end of the world' only means end of the world AS WE KNOW IT. Planet Earth isn't going to explode, implode, or otherwise disapear, which is the implication in all of the end of the world predictions. Humans may turn it into one huge wasteland, or the North Pole may shift from the Arctic to the equator, but the planet itself will continue to circle the sun for another gazillion years."