I am the grit in the gears, the missing bolt, I am the poker of sticks into spokes. I like to know how things work, but sometimes when I take them apart and rebuild them, I have a few pieces left over. I am a man, so I tend to leave reading the instructions until after it goes wrong. And like all men I have a comprehensive mental map of the world and never need to ask directions. I never get lost, only sometimes I'm late, or end up in the wrong place entirely. It's what we do.
Tuesday, 30 January 2007
Sunday, 28 January 2007
Saturday, 27 January 2007
Dave Lindholm:- Pieni Ja Hento Ote
From 1982 album, Äino.
My translation would not be very good, but just listen and enjoy.
Dave Lindholm - Pieni ja hento ote
language finnish
text+music Ralf Lindholm
Pidin siitä mistä kerroit, ihmisestä joka halusi muistoksi talon
Pidän siitä miten kerrot asioita tunteita
Pidän siitä mitä teet, teet sen kauniisti ja hyvin
Sinä yllätät kaikki paitsi ne jotka tietää
refrain:
Pieni ja hento ote ihmisestä kiinni
Aivan sama tunne kuin koskettava tuuli
Pieni ja hento ote - siinä kaikki
Olemisen riemu ei ravistele olkapäitä
Runoilijan kehto ei ole ruusuista tehty koskaan
Hiljaisuuden huntu ei milloinkaan petä kuulijaa
Mikä nämä yhdistää? Rakkaus suureen elämään
refrain
Turhanpäiväinen älykkyys syö ihmistä rotan lailla
Miten kaikki voi olla valmista kun ei ole edes tehty mitään?
Miten niin jalat maassa? Oletko nähnyt kenenkään kävelevän ilmassa?
Pidän sinusta siinä kaikki. Pitääkö se todistaa tuhansilla sanoilla?
refrain
Valoa ja pimeää, ei siin ole mitään luonnotonta
Kummassakin laulussa hyvä tunne kasvaa ja kasvaa
En pidä siitä että siirtyminen vaatii mahtavia tekoja
Sateen jälkeen hiekkatiellä kauneus hehkuu ja kumartaa syvään
refrain Small and gentle touch
I like what you said, about a man who wanted a house as a souvenir.
I like the way you tel of matters of emotion.
I like what you do, you do it beautifully and well.
You amaze everyone, except those who know.
Tiny, gentle, touch holding mankind,
Feels just like the wind's caress.
A small and gentle touch - that's all.
The joy of existence doesn't shrug shoulders.
The poet's cradle is never made of roses.
The veil of silence never betrays the listener.
What joins these? Love of life.
Superfluos intelligence eats at man like a rat.
How can all be ready when nothing has been made?
How come down-to-earth? Have you seen someone walking in the air?
I like you, that's all. Does it need to be proved in thousands of words?
Light and dark, it's nothing unnatural.
In both songs the good feeling rises and rises.
I don't like that changes ask for mighty acts.
After rain on a dirt-road beauty glows and takes a bow.
The Bear is Back
This Site Does NOT Condone Violence Against Gnomes
Despite provocative behavior by some Gnomes, led no doubt by Bjorn Tealeavery, in response to an earlier post, I must say this site does not and will not support violence against gnomes.To do so would be to descend to their level.
So I deplore the perpetrators of the Gnomesville Massacre, against the Gnome populace near Dardanup, Western Australia, which lists Gnomesville as one of its no-doubt many cultural attractions.
I quote "The population of Gnomesville has grown from a handful of statues placed covertly in the forest a few years ago, making it a popular stop off for tour buses visiting nearby vineyards.
It's being called the "Gnomesville Massacre" and emergency workers in Western Australia are offering a reward for the capture of vandals who smashed their way through a local tourist attraction.
An unknown number of attackers lopped off the heads or smashed several dozen of the pot-bellied statues this week at Gnomesville, a collection of more than a 1,000 colorful characters deep in a forest south of Perth.
"We are incensed by the damage done to the gnomes and willing to pay a reward to catch the culprits," State Emergency Service Volunteer Association President Phillip Petersen told Reuters.
Six orange-colored gnomes depicting emergency workers were among those destroyed, Petersen said, adding the reward was A$500 ($390) Remember, readers, most gnomes are moderate, and are no threat to humans. And over the millennia they have successfully kept their dissident hotheads under control.
Stay away from Gnomesville, don't travel in the region at night, keep your doors locked. Report any suspicious activity to the police. If you know who might have done this, call the police."
Friday, 26 January 2007
Amelia, by Joni Mitchell, For RedDirtGirl.



Amelia, The Amelia in the song, is Amelia Earhart, pioneering aviatrix. She was the first woman to fly the atlantic, more importantly, she was , after Charles Lindbergh, the second person to fly solo across the atlantic. She was attempting to be first to fly around the world, when she disappeared near Howland Island in the Pacific, 1937.
I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens it was the strings of my guitar
Amelia it was just a false alarm
The drone of flying engines
Is a song so wild and blue
It scrambles time and seasons if it gets thru to you
Then your life becomes a travelogue
Of picture post card charms
Amelia it was just a false alarm
People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
Oh, Amelia it was just a false alarm
I wish that he was here tonight
It's so hard to obey
His sad request of me to kindly stay away
So this is how I hide the hurt
As the road leads cursed and charmed
I tell Amelia it was just a false alarm
A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm
Maybe I've never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude
And looking down on everything I crashed into his arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm
I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust
I dreamed of 747s
Over geometric farms
Dreams Amelia - dreams and false alarms
Sunday, 21 January 2007
Those Subliminal Gnomes


at Ragwater, Bitters and Blue Ruin
Go over there, she's got some interesting stuff, and she made me laugh too.
- Gnomery:
- mist1 said...
-
The curio shop with subversive gnomes? That's so funny to me. Those gnomes have always scared me. It's like they know something that I don't. And now I know...they do.
- 20 January 2007 16:51
- soubriquet said...
-
Those submersible Gnomes worry us all. Under cover of their garden rockery activities, Soubriquet Investigations has unearthed a plot so spine chilling... Under one suburban rockery, Soubriquet, using his patent 'shrinkometer' obtained access to a tiny intercontinental ballistic missile launch site. In the silos were little 'minute-man 3' missiles fuelled and ready, in the control room, one gnome, pistol outstretched, confronts another, "sir! Turn your key, sir, we have a launch order!" The other gnome, frantic, shouts "It's a drill, it's got to be a drill, oh my god, they'll call stand down, they must!" Sure enough, the tannoy bleats "All Gnome stations, all gnome stations, launch order is rescinded, return to defcon 3"
They stand down, mopping sweaty brows. They notice me, I smile politely- I'm from headquarters, just observing the drill.....
I make a steady retreat for the door, then leg it to the exit, a concealed tunnel behind the hydrangeas. Outside, gnomes are pushing wheelbarrows, fishing, as suburban gnomes do. The duplicitous beasts.