Saturday, February 28, 2009

Belfast bound - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Local Friday lunch at Rugoletta

Vestiges of George Best around Belfast - like on Theo McLaughlin's mantlepiece

Running easily (around the St Pancras cemetery course)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sudden Thoughts

Isn't it wrong that only one company makes Monopoly?

If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?

What happens if you're in a spaceship going at the speed of light and you turn on the headlights?

Could a million Shakespeares write like a monkey?

Jokes wot I like

A sausage walks into a bar and asks the barmaid for a double entendre so she gives him one.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Creative Accounting #31 - The Counterfeiters


Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch = Oskar Schindler (complexity, dark & light) + Col. Nicholson (River Kwai - becomes blinded by the task)

Friday, February 20, 2009

Track of the Day


Cold Water - Lisa Hannigan & Damien Rice

Cold, cold water surrounds me now
And all I've got is your hand

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking the Seven Sisters from Crowlink to Birling Gap with the Enfants Terribles - Crowlink hamlet

Jogging East of Brighton Marina listening to In Our Time on the Consolation of Philosophy

Reading about John Martyn whilst listening to Van in the wee small hours in Mariners Quay

Moving - Friday's Happiness Experiment entry

Offloading piles of paper

A desk with light and a view

Pub meeting in Rosebery Avenue about Secret Millionaire

On the road to Brighton - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Laughing with the Enfants Terribles at Pink Panther 2 (Cineworld Brighton Marina)

Comparing Shakeaway flavours

The late afternoon sunshine over the sea at Brighton - the town covered by a lid of cloud whose edge was in the east towards the marina - the sun spilled golden over that edge and into the sea

The Consolation of Philosophy

Confronted by the absurd meaninglessness of the world, the individual has to impose his own meaning on the world and establish the value of his life through Creativity.

Art (and in particular Music) is a form of Creativity. As is Love.

Philosophy revolves around the relationship between reason and the irrational, head and heart, order and chaos, meaning and meaninglessness.

Consolation is to be found by pulling back from the time-bound process of our lives to a more God-like eternal perspective out of time.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Love is Stronger than Death

[First reading at Bronagh Murphy's funeral]

1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

...

13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.


1 Corinthians 13

[Bronagh Murphy's funeral homily by Fr. Brendan McManus - 4 Feb 2009]

If you have been inspired by Bronagh's life - think about what it was that inspired you and how you could make this part of your own life. They say the best way to remember someone is to make your own a trait that you admired in them. Let’s take a moment to reflect on what that would be and take Bronagh into our hearts forever...

Care (of people) and Compassion.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Bronagh & John Remixed



Way over yonder is a place that I know
Where I can see shelter from hunger and cold
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound

I know when I get there, the first thing I'll see
Is the sun shining golden, shining right down on me
Then trouble's gonna lose me, worry leave me behind
And I'll stand up proudly in a true peace of mind

Nothing compares, nothing compares to you

And if you gave me all the things I'd never ask of you
And if you showed me all the ways you have to cry
And if you laid all night in the rain for me
I couldn't love you more
I just couldn't love you more
Just couldn't love you more

The cracks in the ground grin up at me
Even the creases in my shoes smile up at me
Thought it would end in tragedy
But I'm swimming around in your glory
O baby
O maybe
I'm the lost and found

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

There are times when all the world's asleep,
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am.

Some people are crazy
Some people are just plain good
Some people talk wouldness and couldness
Some people don't do as they should.

But this loving kind of business
Might make your poor heart glad
Yes this loving kind of business
Might be the best thing that you ever had
The best find you ever had.

Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.

I could have been a whistle, could have been a flute
A real live giver, could have been a boot.
I could have been a signpost, could have been a clock
As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock.
I could be even here
I would be, I should be so near
I could have been
One of these things first
I could have been
One of these things first.

Has anyone here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
You know, he freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young.
I just looked around and he was gone.

I am the gas in a womb of light, the evening star,
The ball of sight that leads, that sheds the tears of Christ
Dying and drying as I rise tonight.
Isabella, we are rising.
Isabella, we are rising . . .

As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise

When the day is done
Down to earth then sinks the sun
Along with everything that was lost and won
When the day is done.

{silence}

Way over yonder is a place I have seen
It's a garden of wisdom from some long ago dream

Maybe tomorrow I'll find my way
To the land where the honey runs in rivers each day
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound...

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Ruby

You lay as on a beach

Spindley legs entwined

Nails bloody red



Waxy flesh, draping brittle bones

Like a golden yellow stole



Courtesy, not of a Floridian tan,

But a boulder of cancer

Blocking the duct



Visions of you in your days of yore

A lusty Jewish broad

Vocals etched with

Sediment of Scotch and tobacco



And as you gasped your last

I begged my God to make it fast

Bereft of drugs to ease your pain

I thought of French's sweet refrain



As your daughter wrestled with traffic

On the Finchley Road

I climbed in bed and held you tight



And from crazy Celt to dying Jew

I did the only thing I knew

Sang

"Are you right there, Ruby, are you right?"





by Bronagh Murphy, my late lamented sister-in-law

Monday, February 02, 2009

Wind & Water

"Laughter and tears are meant to turn the wheels of the same machinery of sensibility; one is wind-power, and the other water-power."

Oliver Wendell Holmes - writer & physician (1809-1894)

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Track of the Day


Theme from Schindler's List


At the end of the week of Holocaust memorial (Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated on 27th January 1945)

While reading 'I Am David' to help N with homework

Filled with sadness about Bronagh

Thinking of Bronagh - Way over yonder


Way over yonder is a place that I know
Where I can see shelter from hunger and cold
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound

I know when I get there, the first thing I'll see
Is the sun shining golden, shining right down on me
Then trouble's gonna lose me, worry leave me behind
And I'll stand up proudly in a true peace of mind

Way over yonder is a place I have seen
It's a garden of wisdom from some long ago dream

Maybe tomorrow I'll find my way
To the land where the honey runs in rivers each day
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound...

It was written for Bronagh, every word