I have just been informed of the following films of The Cock in rehearsal. I believe they were shot on the 10th of this month. The sound recording is not of high quality, so I don’t know how they will sound to someone who wasn’t at the gig, but I can’t help feeling the same excitement, as I watch them, as I felt at the gig. They also give some idea of how the live versions of Missing and There'll Always Be A Place For You In My Heart differ from the recorded versions. And I very much like what Pete is wearing in these numbers. I think they are worth a peek:
There'll Always Be A Place For You In My Heart
I have started yet another new job, so I might not be around much for a while.
Hello M. Eyes still not too good. But http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050113/325/fa7in.html">this</a> caught my attention today.
Hello Dr. Prime. Thanks. I’m actually wracked with nerves at the moment about my new job. Also, my eyes are playing up again, so I don’t want to look at the screen for too long. I hope you have a good time wherever it is you’re going. Talk to you later.
Hello Q. (hello Em – if you’re peeking over my keyboard),
Well, yes, I was only thinking of the “Ali.G” character. If there is still ‘life’ in his other characters then I guess he ought to let them live a bit longer. … but I still have to finish packing (early start tomorrow), so forgive me if I ‘run’ now – Keep well and dont be over-nervous. Best wishes,
L-
It is MY heart that is breaking, for it is I that shall bear the grief of seperation from my two most cherished readers and friends! Of course I know you won’t be dead, but I shall miss both your posts, and your comments in my own journal. Will I even want to continue blogging without the promise of your sparkling and artful responses? I cannot fathom which will be worse: substitutions from the Sea of Stupidity, or day after day, seeing “0 Comments”. How will I bear losing both of you?
And Q, you poor darling, I’m worried about your eyes!
I’ve never watched the Ali G. show, but I ‘ve heard of it. I think the thing at the rodeo is pretty funny, because it uses people’s own ignorance and reactionary impulses against them. I wasn’t there of course, but I have family from Virginia, and can only imagine that they were only too happy to let someone get ahold of a microphone as long as that person was going to say uplifitng stuff in support of the war. And then once they realized he was making fun of them, calling George Bush and his administration monsters (and in effect, all supporters thereof) people were willing to prove just how brutishly and mindlessly they are capable of behaving in defense of their President’s reputation. But, of course, we’re talking about an Administration that has wiped its ass with the Geneva Convention and legalized torture. So, how can anyone be surprised by the Virginians?
Thank you M. But I’m not going that far, unless I have some terrible accident in the meantime. No, I’m just having to do a great deal of preparation for this very scary job.
I’m worried about my eyes, too. But in this computer age you get no concessions for having sensitive eyes. I hate the lighting in most people’s houses, too. It gives me a headache. Poor eyesight is a much overlooked disability.
Dear Q., Excellent news about your new job – I am glad for you.
I hope you return to your journal a.s.a.p., but am reminded of some of the things Emily said in her “EINSTEIN” journal, when she commented upon “Schrödinger’s Cat”.
You’ll have to go back and see the correct context, but broadly speaking she was commenting – or reporting on someone else’s’ ‘lamentation’ – the seeming fact that when one is absent from a virtual ‘community’, or one ‘drops out’ (blipped out’ was the term she used), for a while – then one takes on the same ‘status’ as the Cat.
I think what she was saying – and I paraphrase it simplistically – was that in ‘virtual’ communities (such as Opera and the like) one may get into the way of thinking that one has a constancy of friends, that one is ‘well known’, that one exists in the minds of others. When one stops ‘taking part’ in the community one becomes ‘non-existent’ as far as all the virtual friends’ in that community are concerned
If one may stops blogging, for a while then one is ‘deceased’ or ‘non-existent’, to those to whom one has become known in the ‘virtual reality’ context.
I am leaving for Southern Europe in 3 or 4 days and I will be back in UK middle of February. I will not have online facilities where I am staying and will have to use a local internet-cafe, in order to transact personal business, etc., including writing journals, reviewing others; &c. But I will not be keeping “Schrödinger’s Cat” company, providing I maintain my journals of course.
Looking foward to reading more of your journals when you are able to post them. Good luck in that new job.
~~lokutus
Q, – Nerves are ok. It is better to know you have some expectation of something, or someone, than to be ‘indifferent’ in one’s emotions, or to lack an outward sign of how you feel. That old phrase ‘to keep a stiff upper lip’ is so often an indicator that one’s normal, natural feeling is being unnaturally suppressed. It may be Ok for the likes of Ronald Coleman, John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Sean Connery and other celluloid ‘heroes’ but at least two out of these four are dysfunctional characters in other ways (past tense applies to the two I am thinking of).
No, my dear Q., for you there must be signs of positive emotion – more akin with Noel Coward (one of my favourite artistes). Be nervous, but know why you are nervous and be strong within yourself. I have touched on this before, in other discussions with you. Meantime I will be in Madrid, and when I get the oportunity to go online I will look out for any sign that you have avoided the “Cat”, by responding to any of your postings (and when you hear from me you too will know that I still exist outside Schrödinger’s box).
~~lokutus
Hello Q, The problem with Ali G., as I see it, is that he is caught in his own ‘loop’. When he first started out here (in the UK) I was quite taken with his artful impersonation of a ‘real’ stereo-type ‘DJ-cum-Presenter-Cum-Talkshow Host’, craftily luring celebs into his interview, as he (and we) ‘sent them up’ outrageously whilst they appparently fell for it. But, I submit, we Brits, who may have laughed uproariously at his ‘capers’ on UK tv, were only treated to what he (Cohen) thought he could get away with and indeed what the broadcasters themselves allowed.
Had he said publicly, in the UK, the same things he is reported to have said (link site refers)in the USA I have a feeling he would have been in as much trouble or greater trouble because of UK laws. If he does not say the same things here (in the UK), does this imply he is insincere or just playing safe? He may not be competing with Michael Moore -apropos ‘political satire’- but I know who I’d buy tickets to see. Mr Cohen’s ‘time’ is passing (past?) because that ‘comedic’ character, “Ali G.” can go no further. Even a ‘spoof’ has its’ “sell by date”. I think he may have reached his. Please don’t get the impression that I ‘moralise’ over “Ali G”, But if the humour is beyond ‘subtle’ -and at the same time absolutely no one realises it is intended to be a ‘parody’ any way- then it’s intended ‘satire’ is lost on all but the most perceptive observer (or even the Great British Public, where he is better known). Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps Mr Cohen is simply trying to follow in the footsteps of ‘Shock-jocks’?
The only person “Ali G” failed to ‘catch out’ or get the better of is Tony Benn. But then Tony has a penetrating, sharp witted, shrewd mind and saw right through “Ali G” it seemed (I watched that particular show).
lokutus~~
Dear Emily,
I will do my best to keep in regular contact, but should I be ‘absent’ for a day or so be certain I will return and make my contribution. If you would see an artistic, caring and compassionate, intelligent person, whose intellect touches others, who has the ability to stir minds and thoughts with her postings, then look into your mirror. As I have implied on other occasions, you are delightful – and I value your ‘virtual’ friendship. The following little verse is writ ‘specially for you, my friend:
________________________________________________
I will not be gone
But in an internet room
Where, at the touch of key,
I zoom through pixels,
Enabling me to see
My favourite correspondent’s journal,
A kernel of wisdom for me to hold in my mind,
Delighting in what she writes, and what I find.
_______________________________________________
Peace,
lokutus~~
Hello M and L.
I think you (Dr. prime) have a point about Mr. Cohen being on a loop, at least in theory. It does feel like time he did something different. Having said that, I fully expected to find the last series rather tired because of that, but the truth is I found there was usually at least one completely hilarious or jaw-dropping moment in each show. I think the Ali G character is pretty much ready for the bin by now, but the other two characters are still interesting.
I would be interested to know exactly what the Virginia crowd thought they were reacting to. Presumably they understood that it was some kind of satire? The description of the reaction sounds, well, fairly extreme.
Of course, as satire the words themselves were not subtle, but I think he’s great at setting up situations. The other episode he got into trouble for, with the “Throw the Jews Down the Well” song, is a good example. I saw that one. He was in some country music club and introduced himself as Borat, Kazakhstan’s numer one TV presenter, and said he had written a country and western song just for them. The opening lines were something like, “In my country there’s a problem/ And that problem is the transport.” And people were a bit bemused and thought it was just some quaint foreigner from some backward country singing an unintentially funny but likeable sort of song. And they clapped along and so on. And then he went into the second verse, “In my country there’s a problem/ And that problem is the Jew.” And went on the the chorus about throwing the Jews down the well. It honestly was jaw-dropping, I-can’t-believe-he-just-did-that material. And the reactions of the crowd were classic. Some, you could see, were looking around saying, “He can’t sing that.” And others were really getting into it, as if they’d been waiting for someone to sing that. It was total madness.
I suppose he got into trouble for anti-Semitism, but I think the satire is fairly clear, besides which, I’m sure he must be Jewish himself with a name like Cohen.
That’s what I am, simply spoiled, by your kindness, by all the really lovely, generous, unwarranted things you say about me, lokutus, you sweet-talker, you! (As though my head weren’t big enough!)
I’m glad to know that neither one of you will be spending too much time with the cat. I hope you have a really interesting trip, L and that you see and learn something new and cool. And Q, I know you are going to be wonderful at your new job. You’re brilliant. But this business with your eyes really does concern me. Have you tried getting one of those screens to put over your monitor? Maybe if you took to wearing dark glasses all the time, or only when you were writing. It would be a weird “writerly” quirk. Artists can get away with much more than regular people – they’d think it was ammusing and charming. But I’m not trying to make a joke of it- I really am worried for you!
Peace,
M
I’m so frustrated. I’ve still been using the internet despite the pain in my eyes. No one calls me. What else can I do? I feel like David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth when the scientists are examining his eyes:
Ironically I think I’ve just spent an hour trying to find the image I wanted on the f**king internet, and I stil couldn’t locate it.
So, what do people think of the Cock films? I particularly liked Enculez-Moi.