oy vey naoozubillah.

On Saturday night, we kept low for flying F#@%$.

The poster on the theatre door explicit- “This play contains strong profanity and is likely to offend”, and we held on to our tickets with childlike glee.

I was with a mixed group of semite “cousins”, we were the children of Abraham coming together for a laugh.

And the bashing in Romance, was certainly equal-opportunity, both Jews and Muslims getting it real good (and the homos too).

Written by Pulitzer-Prize winner, David Mamet, this satire, according to the programme, “lampoons the American judicial system, pokes fun at and exposes the hypocrisy surrounding personal prejudices and political correctness”. But that’s the soaped down take.

Profane it was, offensive certainly, but funny? Hell yeah.

It’s on at the Theatre on the Square in Sandton, if you like to take your culture with a bit of crushed glass.

-- Aftertaste:
Hot chocolate avec chilli at Leonida’s – for some bloody good Belgian.

I lit this candle a little late...

Thank you Nas, for helping us remember.


www.worldchechnyaday.org

think I may have a little problem...

Can't stop playing Escape The Room games...must stop clicking...index finger tingling...numb...but there's another key under the pillow...click...must ignore carpal tunnel symptoms...click...must escape room...what do I do with the screwdriver under the bookcase...click...click...ooh weird writing on the paper by the window...stuck...google for cheats...ooh a walk-through...thank you geek forum...click...click...click...click...click...click...click...click
...click...click ...click...click... click...click...click...click...click...click...
hehehehehe...escaped the room...ooh there's a viridian room...and a grey room...and a white chamber...must escape all rooms...all rooms...must escape...............

We've got a breather on line 2

Yes people, I have arrived.
Nothing say's 'you've made it' quite like the acquisition of your very own stalker.

My only gripe is that I wish mine was a little more original and exciting in his m.o.
But no, I get stuck with the heavy breather. How lame is that? No bloody sheep hearts in the postbox, no gifts of fresh kills tied up with organza ribbon outside my bedroom window, no eerie photographs of me in mundane domesticity, no decoupage poems made up entirely of headlines from The Daily Sun, not even a creepy but heartfelt "I love you to violent death" email from a spammer address.
All I get is some asthmatic dweeb exhaling into the mouthpiece of his mobile.
Sucks hey?

But I've always wondered what it's like to be a Heavy Breather? Are they born that way; growing up and questioning, knowing that they were somehow different? Or is it society that shapes their proclivities; the influence of a distant father, an overbearing mother, or a more-favoured sibling?

And what about their actual antics? Surely, it's no easy task to find some suitable secluded spot in which to submit to what could be an inherent nature. What if someone stumbled upon their Breathing, what would they say? How would they judge? Would they even understand?
It's obviously not something they're able to share with friends, one can imagine the labelling, the ostracization, the eventual donning of the pariah mantle.

Poor, tragic, troubled.

Have you hugged a Heavy Breather today?

On VD and other things

-- I've never been given good stuff on Valentine's Day. In fact, I've never been given much of anything for this "immoral commercial event spawned from the dark recesses of the capitalistic monster" (verbatim from one of the few text messages I was sent this morning).
What I do remember receiving, however, has invariably been red, fluffy and useless. "Dip-chirr" to transliterate from the guji vernacular, disposable symbolics.

Now, though I may be in need of a hug, I'm not going to play at the bitter, acerbic single who uses a blog as a platform to get all anti-Valentine on your ass. I don't really care much about one little day out of a whole lot of other sometimes bigger days.

-- http://www.lonelyfinger.com/
I've always had a softspot for Marvin-from-THGTTG types, so even though I knew that I'd been suckered by a really sharp marketing strategy, I signed up to receive Lonely's weekly thought anyway.

Dear Friend

Apparently cupid has an arrow for everyone.
But I think he hit my valentine in the head because I still haven't even received so much as a phone call.
In fact, not even those people that make you SMS "POEM" and your initials to a number have replied to me.

Valentine's day is just another excuse for everyone to ignore me.

-- Maybe our Minister Pandor could take a leaf out of his book.

-- The soundtrack to today's scene, Damien Rice's O.

I'm taking your advice dammit!

The voices in my head have started to shout obscenity at me. Worse still, is that they've somehow disembodied and now issue forth in the altos, sopranos and baritones of my friends. It's difficult to dumb those voices when they belong to their own minds.

I hate it when people are right about being right, especially when I should know better. I hate it when I know they're right about being right. And I hate that despite the rightness that's spewing out all around me, I still choose to blow myself a bubble and live in it.

saturday night at the pool club

a little lithium for the mania

"Goodness and evil cannot be equal.Repel (evil) with something that is better. Then you will see that he with whom you had enmity will become your close friend. And no one will be granted such goodness except those who exercise patience and self restraint.' (The Quran 41:34-35)"

clutch controlled

and now there's one more female driver tearing up the tar.

WWPMD?

In another rare occurrence of ctrl-c/ctrl-v, I made off with this from The Black Iris . Humeid's take on the Danish Cartoon fracas is decidedly refreshing in the current climate.

How the Prophet Might Have Responded to the Cartoons..

By way of http://www.360east.com/?p=304

In the Islam religion class in school I, as all children in Muslim world, have learned about the life of Prophet Mohammad. I would like to briefly recount three of the ones I remember:

1. His story with the Jewish neighbor who used to throw garbage at his doorsteps:

The Prophet had this Jewish neighbor. Everyday the neighbor would throw his garbage at the Prophet’s door! Then, one day, the garbage stopped appearing. The Prophet wondered why and asked people about what had happened to his neighbor. He was told that the neighbor was sick, in bed. So, the Prophet went and visited his Jewish neighbor to make sure he’s ok and to wish him well. So touched was the Jewish neighbor that he later converted to Islam.

2. His story with the people of Ta’if who’s children stoned him:

One day the Prophet visited the village of Ta’if near Mecca. He was hoping to find support amongst the people of that area after he was shunned by many of his own tribe in Mecca. Instead of support, he was faced by a mob of children, sent by their parents to throw stones at him. He was hit by the hail of stones. He was bleeding, and was barely able to escape into an orchard. He could have asked for God’s wrath to be brought down upon the village, but instead he prayed that one day these people will see the light.

3. His story with his tribe after he conquered Mecca:

When the Prophet’s army finally conquered his hometown Mecca, many of the leaders of his tribe were filled with fear. They feared the conquerer’s retribution. Most of them never believed in him. They tortured and killed many of his followers and conspired to kill him in the early days of his prophethood. What did the Prophet do? He told them: “Go. You are free!”

* * * In the spirit of the life of the Prophet, here are 5 ways how the Muslim world could have responded the the Danish cartoons:

1. Apply to the Ministry of Culture in Denmark to organize a big exhibition about the Life of Prophet Mohammad and Islamic History. The Saudi and other Arab governments would finance this event and promote it in a big way in the Danish media.

2. Invite 100 Danish children to come and live with Arab and Muslim families to learn about life in today’s Arab and Muslim world.

3. Invite the editors of the Danish newspaper to a well publicized cultural debate in Doha, Qatar or Copenhagen.

4. The embassies of Arab and Muslim nations could commission a website in Danish about Islam, contemporary muslim thinkers and life in today’s Islamic world. A dedicated staff would respond to incoming questions and request for information.

5. Subtitle the movie ‘The Message’ in Danish and try to get many movie theaters and cultural centers in Denmark to show it.

rush hour

the world comes together at twilight;
day seaming shut, sun bleeding into a pool at the edges, and the gentle assertiveness of the stars.
but the traffic makes us forget.
overcome by lightshows from the other amnesiacs, the mind spills over with the detritus of the day and the recurring comfort of Home.

Red robot, our evening star.
brake light, clutch, brake, stop, de-gear.

and for a moment, look out the window and the soul breathes.

and coughs.
your spirit-kin gripping dirty cardboard, calling out for God to bless you.
your wet-soap eyes slip through, you can't afford the awkward connection, and your pupils find a point just beyond the lazy bum who cracks your heart a little before you steel it once again.
and there, is the little girl.
with the whole wide world speeding around her, their minds spilling over with the detritus of the day and the recurring comfort of Home.
And she looks to the moon, her cardboard held high, a waving fan, brushing against the stars she is, jumping up, flapping wings, chasing at the fireflies above.
something almost pulls, come out and play.
almost.

Green robot.
clutch, accelerator.
Go.

open to the floor...(1)

The brief: Define Piety.


The Google

Definitions of Pious/Piety on the Web:

devout: devoutly religious; "a god-fearing and law-abiding people" H.L.Mencken wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Marked by or showing reverence and devotion www.pcpa.org/studyvocabulary.html

righteousness by virtue of being pious wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Piety is a desire and willingness to perform religious duties. It is a
traditional virtue because religion is the only known way to win the favor or
forgiveness of deities, that is, to "propitiate" them. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piety

Reverence toward God or the gods; religious devoutness www.innvista.com/culture/religion/diction.htm

I'm in the mood for a side order of theological exposition. Serve it up readers. How does one revere God. Define Piety.