The Far Queue The Far Queue Warning - May Contain Subliminal Messages Articles
Let x = x
2007-05-22 09:15:00 Holy Tech - Alex Ostroy (Wired)...and crawling on the planet's face;some insects called the human race- Rocky Horror Picture ShowNostalgia equates to the past being merely the present with the immediate experience of the self extracted.Analogue nostalgists often lament the loss of all the little bits between zero and one but, like it or not, this is a digital world.Digital even out beyond the realms of calculating screens and cursor flashing colossus; beyond keyboard Rosetta stone and windows hieroglyphic; beyond the microscopic switching processor where ones and zeros jostle for position to present your every whim in LCD splendour.Digital even out beyond the harmonics emitted from strings of violins or the sine wave serenade from the back of the throat; every utterance and visual input converted to chopped off bits - translating a curve to a step.Even here in this little box reserved for placing your digital X next to the name of the candidate of your choice; even here you?re eith...
View From The Treetops (16 May 2007)
2007-05-16 09:15:00 For the Girls..."Yes Mabel, pole dancing, it's sooo empowering"In a world that is not safe for us, why would you dress your child to look like a sex object? Why would you dress yourself to look like a porn star? In a world where violence against women is rampant, why would you wear a t-shirt that says ?Discipline Me.?Paula Rothenberg asks whether feminism has been defeated by the system. The full article, Snatched from the Jaws of Victory; Feminism then and Now appears on ZNet.------------------------------------ -------------For the Boys...The woman most desperately in need of liberation is the 'woman' every man has locked up in the dungeons of his psyche. That is the basic act of oppression that still waits to be undone, though the undoing might well produce the most cataclysmic reinterpretation of the sexual roles and of 'sexual normalcy' in all human history.~RoszakSince sex is also a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero plays with weapons, which are his ersatz penis:... More About: View , Tree , May 2007
Bring Me the Head of Philip K. Dick
2007-05-10 09:15:00 Get Out of My Mind!Bring me the head of Phil ip K. Dick I?ve had enough of this reality shtickOpen it wide with paranoid meat cleaverAnd set the bugs free from the surveillance receiverLet them run wild over bodies and bureaucracyLet them reveal the truth about modern democracy- a ubiquitous lie that we all must endurewhile our freedom?s worth less than combustible manurewhich is mined with expendable and low cost man-hoursfrom the sallow earth mother by the corrupt superpowersNo spandex or lurex here, no patriotic power factorNo spider-sense tingle in the nuclear reactorNor justice league guided by the ethos of purityOr daredevil flights at the walls of absurdityJust pinstripe and braces and receding hairlineExpanding bank balance and waste-filled waistlineGreed and control and the amassing of wealthWhile we fret and bemoan our declining mental healthdisorders created to market the readymade cureby science and religion we are marched to the doorto face the abyss we were led to ignore... More About: Head , Hili
The Fall
2007-05-04 09:15:00 Yves Klein - Leap into the VoidWords that fly from the lip of pedestal creating; today announcing with pride, with amazing revolutionary prejudice: ?I am?And in the dust-settled tomorrow the pendulum swings back malevolent; rotten tomatoes and piss-filled bottles flung at random at the pedestal established; to deny any statement of place or tradition.There are scars that remain (as they must) in the forming of the adult who lurches along time?s erratic arrow; hypothalamic posters hung in the bedroom walls of heart memory, there to be picked over by the ghosts of teenage longing and the guilt of lost lust living.But time is less an arrow than a piano dropped down a pit of finite (but unfathomable) depth.All we have is the fall ? the freedom; the free fall with music playing to echo in the shaft, perhaps to leave a few paint scars on the walls as we descend; a token of our passing; before the jangle of the chaos chord and broken key teeth and the mind?s release into subatomic peace. More About: Fall
Pinups #3
2007-04-30 09:15:00 I am the spring, the holy ground,the endless seed of mystery,the thorn, the veil, the face of grace,the brazen image, the thief of sleep,the ambassador of dreams, the prince of peace.I am the sword, the wound, the stain.Scorned transfigured child of Cain. More About: Pinup
A Televisual Feast
2007-04-23 09:15:00 "Anyone fancy a spot of quail hunting?"With a heart full of headless horsemen and a head full of hateHe heads down the corridor to where the victims awaitTrained as they are in columns of four and rows of eightTheir heads full of hollow and meaningless debateYou are what you eat what the system dictatesCybernetic sons and daughters of the United StatesHe ratchets dumdum revenge cinematic reloadThere?s no turning back from this far down the roadThe coin?s flipped at random; the fat cop?s approachingM16 in hand the future?s encroachingBlood-stained newsprint graphic detailed inhumanityWeeping for cameras in televisual profanityCall me callous call me cold I don?t buy your realityWhen the tears that you cry don?t see the brutalityInflicted in the name of Halliburton and ColtAnd casting blame on the victims of your callous assaultFor the dead that you mourn in numbers so smallShot with the same guns that caused buildings to fallGuns that spill blood in the name of democracyCold dead han... More About: Tele , Levi , Feast , Levis
The Laws of Gun
2007-04-17 09:15:00 Guns on Campus, Virginia Tech USA April 2007(photo stolen from The New York Times)Gun Rule #1. Never point your weapon at someone unless you?re fully prepared to shoot them.Gun Rule #2. Keep your guns out of the reach of your children. They will destroy the world with your lost and stolen weapons.Gun Rule #3. Carrying a weapon increases both your chances of becoming a murderer and the likelihood of killing yourself by accident. Always assume the weapon is loaded.Gun Rule #4. Count your bullets ? an empty gun makes a mediocre weapon.Gun Rule #5: Always keep out of reach of your quarry; to be shot with your own gun is a humiliation, even in death.Gun Rule #6. A firearm should not be used in anger; while ultimately convincing, you cannot retract your argument at a later date.Gun Rule Addendum: It is impossible to confine guns to any laws or rules; there is always another bullet in the chamber; another finger on the trigger; another victim to fall; another chance to add your tragedy to ... More About: Laws , The Law
It's a Virus!
2007-04-15 09:15:00 I'm not normally one to take much notice, much less to take part in the viral inanities known as tagging.This one, however appeals to my vanity.Gregrandgar, over at It Must Be The Vapours has tagged me with much praise so this virus I will spread.My five Thinking Blogger Awards go to...Red Dirt Poetry: gutsy poetry, true confessions and fantasy shoes for those who like a bit of grit in their soup.Between the Hammer and the Anvil: consistently erudite bullshit encasing hard-edged satire from the Caledonian FlyingRodent.Posthuman Blues: Science Fiction author Mac Tonnies' erratic attic of off-the-wall stuff from all over.Kerblog: Hyper-cubist musing from Lebanese artist Mazen Kerbaj.Garp Spam Logic: Burroughsian cutup prose by the enigmatic NBARROWS; words that make you go ([{!}])The rules are as follows:It comes with the following rules:1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the e... More About: Virus
Night Sweats
2007-04-11 09:15:00 From wild visions of corn that stem from between amber eyes, to the demons born between alabaster thighsBetween the moments of high insight and sublime elevation, to the cold wind that blows to your final destinationFrom up here on double helix drive, programmed for headlong rush, feet firmly planted on the winding tarmac that calls you onwardOnward head-rush hell-bent and forever wide-eyed with hope and amazementThis gargoyle doesn?t judge you for your cold calculation; doesn?t deny you that clinical masturbationDoesn?t cut you or curse you; doesn?t hammer your downtrodden shoeNor does he worship your footsteps; your Achilles heel; your tendency to steel your heart against the soft invasion of trust; your kiss that tastes like rustHeartbeat double bass with entrails strung; thoughts on bone keys tinkle symbolic cymbal obsessive rocking, between the dark of morning and the light-fingered dusk; a kleptomaniac pendulum for a clock of organic design; hung with brass screws and rivets o... More About: Night
Kurt Vonnegut 1922 - 2007
2007-04-11 09:14:00 "I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the centre."Kurt Vonnegut
Smoke & Mirrors
2007-04-06 10:15:00 Iskandor watched from the window, alcohol buzzing pleasantly in is gut, as the long black car pulled up at the kerb to expel a drunken woman in purple coat and red stilettos.The driver rushed round in chauffer cap to steady the elbow of his charge while from the opposite door a balding man in black suit emerged as if the world were watching him.Iskandor grinned to himself as he reflected on the concept of affluence and it’s equation to power; his grin encompassing the palette that learns to distinguish the subtleties that lurk in a glass of wine and the reality that wine itself is nothing more than sour grapes.And what, he thought, gives permission for those ridiculous poses that go hand-in-hand with wine-elitism and the appreciation of the finer things in life; like the opera and the ballet; to look down upon those who do not, and perhaps prefer not to, find pleasure in these (like the emperor’s new clothes) intangible things.For though he could analyse the ideas of intellectua... More About: Smoke , Mirror , Mirrors
Paint it Black
2007-03-30 10:15:00 Hieronymus Bosch told them all to fuck offWhen they came for his paint and pencilsThey cut off his benefits and lower appendagesAnd completed his work with stencilsRené Magritte painted the soles of his feetWith green apples and broken glassThe teacher chastised him, belittled and baptised himAnd sent him to the bottom of the classWith bit to the quick fingernail and brickAll of the young men living in fearGuernica depicting the a hostile take-overPicasso don’t live in this three-dimensional sphereEarly demise for the rolled back eyesTo a crematorium corporate ashes to ashesAfrica and Voltaire and the highlights in your hairSalvador Dali chastised with thirty eye-lashesI don’t mean to suggest that the weave of your vestCan be calculated in DNA strandsOr calculated formulae when put to the testCan define the course of your handsBut rather to say that your preconceived waysYour rules and your regulationsMean less than your laser gun star wars death raysAnd meaningless investigati... More About: Pain , Black , Paint It Black , Paint , Lack
View From the Treetops (24 March '07)
2007-03-24 09:15:00 Red Dirt Unearthed The Mad Poet by Michael WhelanShoe freak; fellow poet (and self-confessed blog thief) Red Dirt Girl has posted this enlightening advice entitled Thirty-two Statements About Writing Poetry by Marvin BellStatements 8, 10 & 19 are my favourites.While I'm on the subject of poetry, please visit The Dread Letter Office where I have collected all the poems from The Far Queue - alphabetically and in one handy parchment bundle.---------------------------------- ---------------Hate The RichOver at Counterpunch, another Red Dirt girl, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, urges us to Hate the Rich !Oh, alright then...---------------------------------- ---------------Red Right HandBlackwater first caught the light when four of it's 'contractors' were killed and dragged through the streets of Falluja; an event that sparked the most atrocious act of military revenge in recent history.Jeremy Scahill reveals the dirty rise of Blackwater over on gnn.------------------------------------- --------... More About: Tops , View , March , Tree , Marc
The Bottom Line
2007-03-20 09:15:00 On the wolf-scratched doorDreamscaped tooth and clawCryptic messages left to frightenBelt loops forced by lies to tightenedFollow your misleader precipice boundShout out loud without making a soundBlind faith and patriotic duty are servedWar is hell, heaven is bent unreservedBodies in the river; there’s new blood on the sunNations twisted tortured by the laws of gunDon’t give up; grit your teeth; take the pain“Suck it up fatty” the television-age refrainFrom your personal trainer to your sergeant majorWhile you’re pissing blood and eating dangerThe prize a hero’s welcome for stitched up lipsThe prose posthumous medals and cooking tipsWhile from ghetto sucked the hoodwinked legionsSpit high velocity rounds into desert regionsIn poverty born and to bloodlust convertedby moneymen gross, corrupt and pervertedAnd kicking against the pricks as they poseTo tax your intelligence; your withering roseYour vision; your hearing; your beauty skin-deepYour smile and your breath; your ... More About: Line , Bottom
The Future (From Morning's Perspective)
2007-03-14 09:15:00 As the blade of morning comes around for yet another sliceAnd the crescent moon puts yesterday considerately on iceYou smile into the biting edge of the sliver between the glassTo be studied at a later date when all of this has passedAnd lick the lips of sweet tomorrows lined up on your bookshelfAnd wonder if they’ll paint you crazy for talking to yourselfBut here in history’s heavy haze where winter beats retreatYou find yourself another mile to wander down the streetTo open eyes in wonder yet at all that is revealedWhen broken ice and shattered peace brings harvest to the fieldAnd picking at the scars that heal upon your heaving breastYou thank your heart for saving yet this dusty Rorschach test More About: Future , The Future , Morning , Perspective
Hello London (Jet-lagged & Jangled)
2007-03-07 09:15:00 Tears held back bitter in the back of my throat.The surface of the bay dimpled like orange peel in the morning landingA red-haired oriental man scooping eggs and bacon at Auckland airport.The old lady on the plane asks my life story; she: frail alone but with steely resolve, totally in control of her solitary journey. The movies on the back of the seat in front distract me from the wrench and serve to allay the panic that wells in my chest.At Kuala Lampur I am surrounded by retired English couples returning from tours of the far east; I have never felt so alone.Hurry the future; I need us all to be together soon.London 2am: I am a man struck by lightning; I need to relearn my body’s position in this B&B bed; if you don’t write it down it goes out of your head.Jet-lagged and jangled; dreams of lost powers of speech and jaw wired to the light and the BBC news 24 for company.All the characters in my dreamscape with my face identical and in trench coats of brown remembrance, line up... More About: Ondo , Hell , Hello , Angle
Goodbye New Zealand
2007-02-28 20:15:00 Here’s to clean green New Zeal and Here’s to Watkins Dow and agent orange ddt and possum killing as a sportHere’s to your cultureIf it were not for Maori culture you’d have no culture at allHere’s to race and gender equalityThe chicks and the bloody asians applaud your progressive outlookHere’s to your infrastructureOne train set doesn’t count as a transport serviceHere’s to your cardboard housesHere’s to your weatherOn the odd occasion when it isn’t raining the hole in the ozone ensures that you can’t go out during daylightHere’s to national prideAll black; black fern; tall black; black cocks!Homo erotic meathead heroesHere’s to your society of simple farming folkA nation of landlords exploiting the poorHere’s to kiwi ingenuityTweaking and reinventing the wheel; badlyHere’s to customer servicePay through your nose no questions asked it’s not my faultHere’s to the environmentCut down those trees chainsaw the futureHere’s to bureaucracyPay through th... More About: Land , Good , Goodbye
Give Me Steel, Give Me Steel
2007-02-24 20:15:00 New Zealand's obsessive owners of classic American cars, collectively known as Americarna, descended on New Plymouth for 24 hours of revving, laying rubber on tarmac, excessive waving of the star-spangled-banner, and general showing offI'm no petrol-head or nostalgist, but these cars are works of grand design. GrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrA Clockwork Orange?This way......and that way......to Saratoga......de Ville......and Dodge.Cameraman and crew caught on chromeAll photographs © The under-ego of Pisces Iscariot 2007 More About: Give , Steel
Through a Glass Half Full
2007-02-19 20:15:00 There you go again…Wading in against the throng of somnambulant crowdshand-painting silver linings on photocopied cloudstongue tip protruding like you’re thinking aloudunmindful of the clues that escape from your notebookswept away screaming from the mind’s barbed fishing-hookand dumped in the corner far from your optimist outlookDoodling in that notebook; telephone crooked shoulder to earListening unhearing to your mother advise cajole and careerPencil tip scratching out a chiaroscuro floral tearYou lick your lips to whistle an uplifting tunePerhaps taking your medicine a little too soonAnd find yourself breathing dust from the melancholy moonDues to be paid in pounds of flesh freshPenitent skin to be flayed with wire meshHomage to be made to the oracle of silenceFees to be gathered to provide for the licenceFranchise me; feed me; fill me with fearTake me to the forum where the experts leerThrough trick hoops aflame and beds a-nailSmeared in amber grease and essence of snailB... More About: Glass , Full , Half
The Past that Suits You Best
2007-02-15 20:15:00 The hours are a wind that blows through the heart’s antechamberKnocking at the vaults where the past is locked awayBlisters and scars bolts of powder burns and bruises blueTime allows access with shiny plastic security card swipedTo the halls of slipped tongues and thought meanderAllowing the inmates to take over the instituteof suppressed memory and buried hurtAllowing entrance to those lost continents sunk belowAnd in negligence wrapped no bows or boasNo carefully captioned recordsNo witty titled mementoesThose lost world thirdsWith cracked ceramic coatsTo ward off the winter chill of rememberingAnd in cold mud to go diggingWith shovel sharp and aged with rust’s rumoursRaise the dead who will not rotBut prefer to fester in the mind’s cold arenaTwisted and torn and of nostalgia bornThey rise as yet undeadClinging synaptic motes of dustPerhaps hoping for a future in which to flourishOr a past rewritten… More About: Hat , Best , Past , Suits , That
Pinups #2
2007-02-11 20:15:00 “If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.”Frank Zappa 1940 - 1993"You've got to be digging it while it's happening 'cause it just might be a one shot deal." More About: Pinup
Alchemy Lesson No.9: Soul Mining
2007-02-06 20:15:00 The works of last night’s dreams…Gazing at the future through trick lenses that distort headlines and astrological predictionsthrough the past’s hard lessonshistorians employed by the winning sidelittle voices nag and loud voices condescend to know where you hangwhat makes your world turnBirds argue incessant in dew laden treeswaking the dead day with cursing nests feathered.The clouds of morning…Schizophrenic bed-wetters hiss the tarmac on automatic transmissionraising the relative silence and diving down into the distant city humThe clouds of morning’s passing…Fresh coffee excretes itself through sacrificial orifice into glass jar bubblingThe clouds of morning’s passing whims…The sunrise second hand descends the optimistic side of each minute only to climb inevitably the sheer face of pessimism’s thirty lashesThe clouds of morning’s passing whims heat the afternoon…Post-midday crises in cliffhanging suspensewaiting for the clock click chopThe clouds of mornin... More About: Mining , Soul , Mini , Alchemy , Less
Android Warehouse
2007-02-02 20:15:00 At the edge of the wharf you look down into mercury imaginingReflections of yourself filtered through deep soul miningIn a sea if wet dreaming and cold calculationyour mouth an open book of moral indignationhitting the ground again, your face to cushion the blowlearning to fly is not all about what you’ve got to showthrough righteous indignation and spirit wrenchesto the whistleblowers waiting on green park bencheson the wings of covert foreign black-op adventurespast cowering men in blood filled trenchesthrough clouds of paranoia and lead weight self-doubtthrough mazes and trick doors clearly marked ‘way out’you follow the hand that seeks to distract the eyetrying to see but hoping-against-hope never to spythe secret that lurks up those volumous sleeveslike the creatures that rustle under dry autumn leaveslike the eyes of the speaker in spotlight glarelike the secrets revealed in politician starelike the lies that you wish your mother never toldand the pieces of heart that yo... More About: House , War , Ware , Ouse , Warehouse
Reality is Black and White
2007-01-31 20:15:00 It is generally not a good idea to see things in black and white. It makes for over-simplification and polarisation – a metaphor for religious politics and population control – you’re either wrong or right; good or bad.Paris 2054 Renaissance is a starkly black and white movie.The script is pretty ropey and the plot is wafer thin.I love it.Director Christian Volckman has employed motion capture technology to give the characters realistic movement, meticulously hand drawn in high contrast black and white with filmed backgrounds of Paris graphically enhanced to portray a future city.Renaissance ends up as a kind of techno cyberpunk film noir; a moving work of art; an animated sci-fi adult comic book consisting of a gazillion highly detailed frames, each embellished to a level of beauty befitting the French auteur.At times I found myself so enthralled as to be watching without bothering to keep up with the plot (a conspiracy around scientific discovery of the recipe for immortalit... More About: Reality , White , Black , Real , Black and White
The Cat That Got The Cream
2007-01-27 20:15:00 Day and Night ~ MC EscherShe looks in his eyes and he cannot look away.Brown and green she seeks to find where his head is held; where his heart resides wrapped and rolled by the years of exposure to the elements of social discourse and forked tongue negotiating.He looks in her eyes and he does not want to look away, since she holds him in the calm that she does not feel; the calm that allows his fears to be shared; the calm that comes in trust; held in trust for the future’s narrow path.And all a-jangle in the chaos of now and the dizzy head rush of tomorrow’s hoping, they fall again; each into the other’s arms so that there is no place to determine who is holding who up; who leads and who follows – a unity of opposing numbers – the square root of two.And when he calls her name in the cold light of the day’s labyrinth; calls his anger; calls his fear; his disillusionment – she takes his tears on the webs of her lashes; on the lips to kiss away the morning; to warm the... More About: Cat , Hat , That , Cream
View From The Treetops (23 Jan '07)
2007-01-22 20:15:00 Howzit My ChinaBlood Diamond is not a Wilbur Smith adventure; not an Out of Africa story of colonial safari romance; nor is it a shallow attempt at charitable credibility as seen in the pathetically woeful The Constant Gardener ( perhaps better known as The Constipated Gardener).Blood Diamond deals with the issues square on, does it’s best not to patronise, and although the ending is a rather idealistic romantisicm, it pulls no punches when laying the blame for Africa’s woes at the feet of those who in their greed for her natural resources have been raping and plundering for centuries.First off, as an English speaking white South African, I’d like to say that Leonardo Di Caprio’s portrayal of an English speaking white South African is impeccable.Until Blood Diamond I have not seen anyone do more that a passable celluloid impression of the master race.Di Caprio hangs just the right combination of arrogance and macho bluster on the character of Danny Archer (pronounced correct... More About: Tops , View , Tree
Celestial Routine
2007-01-19 20:15:00 It hangs in the sky, its tail blazing in static silenceHere in still lifeThere in vacuum roarHere a spot of light in the sunset sky with a dusty fan upward splayedThere a colossal furnace where the gods go their swords to forgeAnd there a big fish in an pond of infinite dimension, a passing fad for superstition loadstone portent the second coming on primetime newsUnder the dome we stare for moments transfixed; streetlights glare to obscure; trying to be impressed by the mental translation in scale and awe; then turning to the sound of televisual hands boney beckoning; return to what is real; to ennui’s immediate requirements.The mind reluctant to contemplate movement of cosmic insignificance.Inspired by the sighting of Comet 2006 P1 (McNaught) in the SW evening sky.Comet McNaught as seen from Hokio Beach, Levin, New Zealand. Jan 17 2007. Photographer Trevor Heath.
Pinups #1
2007-01-15 20:15:00 If you look over there babeYou know you might findSomethin' over thereGonna blow your mindKeep On - Shawn Phillips (1970) More About: Pinup
Etching On Glass
2007-01-11 20:15:00 "For now we shall see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood."I Cor. xiii, 12-13Here where I wash your feet in pearls of gothic visionHere between X-ray cataract and surgical incisionHere where black curtains occlude all the lightHere where you’re ready to put up a fightHere where your sickness comes home to healHere where the voices whisper but never revealHere where rusted-hinge doors refuse to closeHere where it’s never a crime to opposeHere where spiders claim their right to spinHere in the shambolic mess that we’re inHere in the cold light filtered through bones and entrailsHere where illusionists blow holes in your sailsHere at the centre of the new idealthe cutting edge, the scalpel’s cold steelHere where the embalmers massacre clocksthe body pale marble in the wooden boxdrained of blood, hope and needand failing yet to concedeHere amongst taffeta and raw silk skeinHere wher... More About: Glass , Etch
View From The Treetops (9 Jan '07)
More articles from this author:2007-01-08 20:15:00 Apocalypto LiesChristian Fundamentalist/Right Wing Propagandist?Saddam Hussein stunt double?Gibson brought Apocalypto to life on the propaganda front of a spiritual war, a deadly serious culture war between those who would protect and defend the Earth’s ability to live and those on the Christian Right who want to “bring on” Armageddon.Over at The Fourth World Juan Santos questions Mel Gibson's agenda.---------------------------------- --------------------Why did Ethiopia invade Somalia?All you need is love (his name lives on)While DAVID WHITEHOUSE at Socialist Worker reports on why Ethiopia went to war against its similarly poverty-stricken neighbour - and why the U.S. government supported it.-------------------------------------- ----------------South America: Toward an Alternative FutureAnd at ZNet Noam Chomsky contemplates South American unification.----------------------------- -------------------------The Mars Volta - Televators...someday his chalk outline will circle this ... More About: Tops , View , Tree 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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