nice quote

clay shirky
guardian
to day
"The final thing I'd say about optimism is this. If we took the loopiest, most moonbeam-addled Californian utopian internet bullshit, and held it up against the most cynical, realpolitik-inflected scepticism, the Californian bullshit would still be a better predictor of the future. Which is to say that, if in 1994 you'd wanted to understand what our lives would be like right now, you'd still be better off reading a single copy of Wired magazine published in that year than all of the sceptical literature published ever since."
...
...

what if death is revelation…?

...

...

what if death is revelation…?

...

this cannot be a new idea but… what if

after death

we finally get to see how everything is

all mysteries are solved and

all questions are answered and we finally

get to look into everyone’s head and heart to

see how they thought

how they were

who was true

who lied

who loved you

who silently betrayed you

who silently felt betrayed by you

to finally understand how everything was and

what kind of person you were

…

So that those who are departed have already looked into your

Head and heart

To understand how you were

Your goodness

Badness

Indifference

Stupidity

Weakness

Intelligence

Love

Compassion

…

So that in the end

What you accomplished becomes

Ever more diminished

And your intent becomes

everything

And also, all mysteries become solved

JFK

Marie Celeste

Everything

…

And heaven or hell are the

eternity of having to

Understand yourself for what you were

…

Tricky thought eh?

How would we all fare under such scrutiny?

Such self-knowledge?

…

What if death is revelation?

The potential of omniscience?

...

What if?

prairie dog

this is only on the website
but as its the only reviewer anyone is going to get
and its the best review anyone's got so far
it might well matter
and for a city's freebie
its a remarkably good paper
one of the best
and there's a few good ones across the country

SHOW: ONE MAN RIOT
VENUE: ST. MARY’S ANGLICAN CHURCH
SCHEDULE: JULY 3 at 3 p.m.; JULY 4 at 4:30 p.m.; JULY 5 at 7:30 p.m. and JULY 5 at 9:15 p.m.
RATING: 4.5/5

History comes alive in this compelling one-man performance by British poet Jem Rolls.

If you’re over 40, and have generally made an effort to remain informed about news and politics in the world throughout your adult life, you’ll likely recall the key event that Rolls’ narrative hinges on. In 1990, in the waning days of her third term as British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher a.k.a. the Iron Lady attempted to implement a poll tax. Part of the Conservative Party platform since the mid-1970s, it revamped the way municipal government was funded, replacing the equivalent of our property tax (which varies according to the value of the property held by a ratepayer) with a per capita flat tax.

Municipal governments in Britain, at the time, were dominated Labour Party supporters. Within the Conservative Party, the poll tax was seen as a way of reining in local government spending. If even the poorest of its citizens were subjected to taxation, the thinking went, municipalities would have no choice but to cut government programs and services to the bone to avoid impoverishing them.

Because of its regressive nature, the poll tax was heavily criticized by social moderates in Britain. Now at this point, you’re probably thinking, who in their right mind would want to go see a play about taxes? Especially since here in Regina we’ve just weathered two major tax hits with the April 30 deadline for filing our federal/provincial income taxes, and the June 30 deadline for paying municipal property taxes.

Well, in his performance, Rolls doesn’t delve too deeply into the nuances of the poll tax. Instead, he recounts a massive demonstration that was held in London on March 30, 1990 to protest the tax. If you’re tempted to dismiss the title of his performance as artistic hyperbole, don’t. Without actually swinging a billy club, or throwing a brick, or mounting a police charge on horseback, or looting a store, Rolls does an amazing job of recreating the riot that occurred that day as tens of thousands of people crossed the River Thames at Westminster Bridge and converged on the British House of Parliament.

Having participated in several previous demonstrations — most notably, a 1987 march against apartheid — that also deteriorated into violence, Rolls evinces a keen understanding of the dynamics of mass protest and the sometimes brutal tactics that police, aided and abetted by corporate media, use to restore/impose order.

With the recent clashes between police and protestors at the G8/20 summit in Toronto still fresh in the news, the performance takes on even greater resonance for audiences here in Canada.

Highly recommended.

blimey what an essay eh?
but not bad at all

grasping for words

first show regina
nice
very very hot
audience of 20

which at many fringes would be small enough to get me to burst into tears
is not bad here

am liking this town
the main drag is pretty ugly
but the streets of houses and trees are nice
and there's a very friendly air to it all
...

the canadians, as i've said many times
are in the main a deeply
warm-hearted bunch which,
coming from a
hard comprehensive
and a snobbily uncaring
conservative town
and a savaged minded and somewhat
negative
youth-culture
and a cynical adult
urbanity
and a hard tense
hackney/ islington
is mighty striking
...
and leaves me perpetually
grasping for words

...same old me

soupcons of self-doubt and
slasher-flicks of self-savagery
...
steady glee and
rising tides of anticipation
...

getting to know the wildlife

or the wildlife are getting to know me
...

and i would seem very tasty
haven't been so bitten since Goa

...

so its a sudden reintroduction
on Canada Day
to that most canadian of fauna
not the beaver the moose the bear the elk
but the

mosquito

...
hi
...
ahh yes, the lake
i mentioned above
...

rehearsal sized lake

...
nice lake just down the road
45 minutes around
perfect for a man with an
hour show
...