This item does not contain any dangerous articles prohibited by postal regulationsand all you can do is wonder what would happen if it said the exact opposite.
Author Archive
The Tramp over-centennial
Word 26: Acumen
His father was an intimidating tycoon, still primarily remembered for his legal action against Private Eye, though revered in some City circles as n extraordinary businessman with the flair of a successful gambler and an uncanny acumen that saw him build his empire from one company selling suntan lotion into a global grocery empire.
acumen (n) 1: a tapering point 2: shrewdness shown by keen insight [syn: insightfulness] – source: The Observer Magazine 13/04/03, p. 14–15
Avoiding work
Neither did I before I started fiddling around with toys. Essays aren’t really progressing, either.
Nokia UI quirks
It makes absolutely no sense.
Three dreams
The Swing
My cousin Jussi, some other bloke and me myself were in a swing. It wasn’t an ordinary swing but more like a cross between a ferris wheel and a roller coaster. The thing looked like a giant windmill with three blades at the ends of which were the seats. The difference between this swing (for some reason I kept thinking of it as a swing) and a roller coaster was that the seats were in a fixed position, so the only thing that kept you from falling down was the centrifugal force.
The whole thing was sort of self-propelled so that it had just enough momentum to keep revolving as long as all three seats were taken. Naturally, what happened was that I jumped off which in turn left the swing horribly imbalanced and it just started swinging back and forth but not having enough force to go round. I immediately realized what I had done and before soon both Jussi and the third man just catapulted out of the swing. For some strange reason they did not just fall out when their seat was in its upmost position but rather were thrown out of the swing when the seat reached its rightmost position and started suddenly going backwards.
Both guys landed flat on their stomachs on the green grass. I was really distressed but pretty sure they were okay.
The Oscars
A bunch of people had gathered at a church for some reason when I suddenly realized that the whole thing was in fact the Academy Awards. Something had happened to the presenters or the whole organization because there was nobody to hand out the award for best foreign film. Anyhow people had come to the conclusion that the envelope should just be opened and the name read out but still they kept procrastinating for some reason.
Most of the crowd seemed to consist of my relatives, but Aki Kaurismäki was there too. He started explaining that I should get the award. I felt really undeserving, even though I was indeed a contender for the best foreign film prize as well, so in reply I promptly started to praise his movie.
I can’t remember the outcome, though.
On The Run
Me and some other people were trying to escape from what seemed like a theatre of war. The scenery was actually a mixture of a children’s playground and backyards (this is hard to explain). Anyhow, we did a lot of sneaking and not being seen and all that but then I found myself in a huge auditorium.
Some soft of party meeting was taking place and I had to sit next to a man who talked in an irritating way and hoarded most of the bench. Actually I was one buttock in the air cos the guy was such an inconsiderate prick. He kept asking me who I’d voted for in the election and I muttered something about being abroad which didn’t really seem to satisfy him.
I finally got him to move a bit when I accidentally hit him in the stomach with my elbow.
Word 25: Chiaroscuro
April’s Springsteen colloquium moved me in many ways: the memories the songs have soundtracked, chiaroscuri of place and time, the urges to haul out underplayed or overlooked albums and batter through them all again (Lucky Town in particular, with ”Better Day”), reinvigorated, reminded, receptive again and hopeful.
chiaroscuro (n) : 1 the arrangement of light and dark parts in a work of art, such as a drawing or painting, whether in monochrome or in color 2: the art or practice of so arranging the light and dark parts as to produce a harmonious effect. Cf. clair-obscur – source: Uncut May 2003, p. 7
No really, it does work now
Very Metal!
We called the band Anthrax because it’s fucking brutal disease that kills people and that’s metal-sounding!, sighs [Scott] Ian.[…]
and with such negativity surrounding it, if it had continued we would have not used it anymore, as we don’t want to be associated with something as negative as people dying and terrorism
… duh?
On the spot
It’s more than a decade since Fukuyama proclaimed the end of history, although stuff still appears to be happening.
Touché.