Inspirational verse: some favourite song lines

"I see a magazine designed for the successful woman
And look for one for the unsuccessful man"

Graham Parker, 'Big man on paper'


"I hate myself for loving you
But I'll soon get over that"

Bob Dylan, 'Dirge'


'The way you stared so aimlessly into space
Don't you know I felt like saying
Put your contact lens back in'

Nils Lofgren, 'I'll cry tomorrow'


'I'm stark naked but I don't care
I'm going to the woods- I'm hunting bear'

Bob Dylan, 'Honest with you'


'You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception'

Leonard Cohen, 'Chelsea Hotel #2'


'I'm losing ground, I don't know what I'm doing
My software's not compatible with you'

Neil Young, 'Without rings'

Two Classical poems

The Aeneid

Aeneas turned to face the shore,
Strode to the waiting ship,
his love for Dido forgotten-
Her second album really wasn't very good


A pomegranate seed

Persephone,

going underground,

crossed the chill fields

crusted with snow

to be swallowed

by the

cave

Notes

Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of the fields, was dragged off to the underworld Hades to be his wife. Zeus forced Hades to allow her to return to the world, on condition that Persephone had not eaten any of the food of the Underworld. Although she had fasted since her abduction, she had eaten seven pomegranate seeds. It was therefore agreed that she would spend 9 months on earth and 3 months in the underworld.

Monster Sarcasm Rally

Strange stories from Toronto with a refreshing take on office life: http://monstersarcasmrally.blogspot.com/

and a very funny story about Jimmy Dean sausage adverts

Hairstyles and attitudes

Are they connected?
How well do we use the freedom to choose the illusion we create?

Scientists say your hair never lies
There's been lots of research - it may be just hype,
But the latest results cause me to tremble;
Classify us into three basic types
By which of the Three Stooges we most closely resemble.

(Timbuk 3, 'Hairstyles and attitudes')

which is, in itself, enough to show that Timbuk 3 deserved to be more than a one-hit wonder (to get the full effect you have to know what the Three Stooges looked like: http://www.threestooges.com/

I'm an outside observer on the vast range of porducts and devices that these days offer to change any type of hair into another. You could see this proliferation as sad, implying that nobody wants to look like they do, but conversely it is liberating: there isn't, despite everything, a single perfect look to which all aspire; people want to play with changing their look without going to the mad extremes of surgery.

My choices are more limited, and have been for as long as I can remember. Even the arrival of grey hair was a side issue: rather than getting hung up on hwether this makes you look old, or mature, or distinguished, I don't care what colour it is as long as it's there. I have become used to observing the gradual retreat of my hairline and the corresponding expansion of my forehead; fortunately, it's a slow process, so only the forlorn single survivals showing where it used to be bring home the reality.

But the lonely and unwinnable battle with hair loss is one thing - even more annoying is the simultaneous explosion of hair everywhere else: chest, back, legs, nose, ears. Perhaps in time I will go for an Elton John transplant by using a skin graft from one of the luxuriantly foliated areas where I don't want them. Or not. I suppose I can still choose my image (from a choice of two).