satyam shivam sundaram

Resolutions

2010-01-01T21:07:00.003Z

1. hug more people, more often
2. take a country walk once a week
3. play with my daughter more often
4. learn how to sail
5. visit dad once in a while
6. attend a weekly art class
7. form new friendships
8. remain open to potential paid-work possibilities
9. form a positive, loving relationship with a man i respect and admire
10.try to love and forgive everyone including myself

I saw the light

2009-12-29T22:23:00.003Z

and it was brilliant, as lights at the end of long tunnels are wont to be. :-)

i have learned more from people of faith - spiritual people, religious people, christians, muslims, hindus, buddhists, taoists - than i ever learned at school or university.

they were there in the light, coaching me out of the tunnel, guiding my path, and they embraced me and taught me how to love, what compassion was, gave me smiles, laughter, music and dancing. there is a heaven here on earth. god exists. and when i let people of faith into my life, i let god into my life and good things started to happen. no arguments from me! :-) i have no religion and feel i need no religion. why would i need a religion when people and god are with me?

Happy New Year 2010

2009-12-29T21:03:00.004Z

people have asked me what it is that motivates me to shine so bright, to be so positive, to send out love and kindness and compassion. i tell them it's because i can't go back into the darkness. if i shine my light, then others will reflect it back to me and i can bask in their radiance, stay in the light and be a bright shiny mirror for people who need me. it is on the days that i feel the darkness creeping back that i try to be the most positive, sending out as much love and light as possible and feeling so grateful for the love and light i'm given in return.

there are, however, a few people who have seen me in the darkness and who have held my hand until i found the strength to raise myself up from out of the deep dark well of despair. it takes an amazing person to do that, to sit in the darkness with someone, because it's very draining and they give up light for a while in order to do so. this is compassion in its highest degree.

it is thanks to them and to the people who shine their lights of love, laughter and smiles that 2010 will be a light year for me, a year in which my mirror will become so shiny bright, that i will be able to enter the darkness and hold the hands of others when necessary.

Silence

2009-12-24T06:38:00.001Z

Silence, unmoved and rising,

Silence, unmoved and sheltering,

Silence, unmoved and permanent,

Silence, unmoved and brilliant,

Silence, broad and immense like the Ganga,

Silence, unmoved and increasing,

Silence, white and shining like the Moon,

Silence, the Essence of Siva.

- Sivavakkiyar

Sivavakkiyar

2009-12-24T06:34:00.002Z

Sivavakkiyar (sometimes Civavakkiyar) was a great Tamil Poet who lived in the period preceding the 10th Century A.D.

Sivavakkiyar was an early rebel against the Brahmanic order; he was resolutely opposed to the Caste system and was opposed to idol worship and temple ceremonies. His rebellion against any kind of orthodoxy meant his work was left out of the Saiva canonical literature however some of his poetry is well read in Tamil literary compendiums.

The slothful

Sluggards

Say: He is far, far, far

Away!

But the Supreme It

Is spread everywhere
on Earth and in Heavens.

O you poor dumb ones,
running
stunned and suffering
through towns and fields and forests
in Search!

He is right there
within you!

Stand still
and feel Him,
feel!

Shiva

2009-12-24T02:27:00.003Z

On the white summit of eternity
A single Soul of bare infinities,
Guarded he keeps by a fire-screen of peace
His mystic loneliness of nude ecstasy.
But, touched by an immense delight to be,
He looks across unending depths and sees
Musing amid the inconscient silences
The Mighty Mother's dumb felicity.

Half now awake she rises to his glance;
Then, moved to circling by her heart-beats' will,
The rhythmic worlds describe that passion-dance.
Life springs in her and Mind is born; her face
She lifts to Him who is Herself, until
The Spirit leaps into the Spirit's embrace.

- Sri Aurobindo, 1939

Vishnu

2009-12-24T00:53:00.005Z

Brahma the creator
Shiva the destroyer
Vishnu the maintainer...

shanti

2009-12-12T01:58:00.003Z

is about so much more than just inner peace and peace with other people. it is about Acceptance. it is ALL about Acceptance of ALL that IS. i didn't read that anywhere and nobody told me. that's just what i feel.

Tara

2009-12-07T13:22:00.002Z

My amount is little, but my support is sincere.

Tara is a tantric meditation deity to develop inner qualities and understand outer and inner teachings about compassion and emptiness. Green Tara/Khadiravani is usually associated with protection from fear, pride, delusion/ignorance, hatred and anger, jealousy, fanatical views, avarice and miserliness, desire and attachment, and deluded doubts.

The Tara mantras here are immensely beautiful and healing just to listen to.

om tare tutare ture soha

7. Sahasrara

2009-12-07T13:21:00.012Z

Without leaving his house, one can know everything that is necessary.
Without leaving himself one can grasp all wisdom.
- Lao Tzu

The crown chakra is located at the top of the head. It's the place of pure consciousness, sometimes called the void. This can be achieved through regular, deep meditation, where you let go of everything and find that all is peace. When imbalanced, you may experience depression, frustration, indecision and seek to be distant. When overactive it can cause people to become materialistic or act in a spiritually elite way.

om
sahasrara
ogum satyam om (repeated for several minutes)
om
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
om

In gratefulness to the love of all my friends who helped me discover my own path to inner peace, and physical, emotional and spiritual health and growth.

6. Ajna

2009-12-07T13:21:00.009Z

Ajna chakra is also known as the third eye. It's responsible for intuition, insight and clear thinking. A well balanced third eye will allow us to move beyond our immediate desires into the realm of knowledge and wisdom. It can be developed in dreams and through creativity and imagination. Some claim a well developed third eye can help in the visual perception of auras around other people and things and is responsible for precognition. An imbalanced third eye can lead to sleep disorders and headaches. The endocrine glands associated with this chakra are the pituitary and pineal glands. The pineal gland is stimulated by electromagnetic energy and it's thought that the increase in UV rays coming through the depleted ozone layer are beginning to have a profound effect on the raising of human consciousness.

68 seconds of pure thought -

5. Vishuddha

2009-12-07T13:21:00.006Z

The throat chakra, Vishuddha means 'to purify'. It is the bridge between the heart and the two spiritual chakras that sit above it. It's the place from where we can speak or sing our love to people. When we use words of bitterness or hurt they turn the energies of this chakra inwards. Vishuddha is nourished by good words. Energy imbalances in Vishuddha manifest as ear, nose, throat and respiratory problems. A balanced throat chakra results in good communication, fluent thought, independence of emotional action, security of spiritual action and enables us to develop an appreciation of global matters as we are no longer fixated on our group, nationality or birthplace. Imbalance results in building walls, not communicating your needs or boundaries and seeking to keep people at a distance. Spirit voices of the om -

4. Anahata

2009-12-07T12:43:00.004Z

A balanced heart chakra can help the physical heart if we release past traumas and emotional pain and don't try to judge others. It's also concerned with emotional issues of the heart. If we're thwarted in love, we may begin to doubt ourselves and if we don't deal with this will begin to hold in our emotional pain. If there is no input or output of love the ability to love can die. Unconditional love flowing through the heart chakra neutralises all negative energies and emotions. Our heart chakra needs this nourishment if we are to remain physically strong, capable of giving and receiving love and to be able to develop spiritually. Touch is very healing for the heart chakra.

om
anahata
yang (pronounced yung for several minutes)
om
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
om

3. Manipura

2009-12-07T11:52:00.004Z

You cannot know fire from words alone.
Enter the fire if you want to know the truth.
- Rumi, 13th century muslim poet and mystic

The third chakra located at the solar plexus. The three chakras below the heart are concerned with our physical body and the senses; the three above the heart are concerned with the spirit. Digestive problems, diabetes and cancer are associated with Manipura, but above all it's associated with stress because it's located over one of the main regions of the body that reacts to stress. Since I've started finding ways to deal with stress I no longer feel my backache or experience excessive sweating any more.

In Manipura we also experience the emotions of others by becoming a mirror to them. It's vital to keep the mirror bright, as you don't want to act like a sponge for anyone's anger or negativity. Here we also learn to assimilate wisdom in our unconscious mind which enables us to heal our physical body and develop a good relationship with the wider world. It's sometimes called the body-mind connection.

Those with an undeveloped Manipura will dominate with their ego; they will not be happy with their situation in life, will shut down their inner fire and the whole chakra system could be compromised. They will feel extremely edgy and depleted in energy, become depressed, insecure and fearful. When you work on balancing your solar plexus chakra, depression turns into joy, insecurity turns into love and fearfulness turns into confidence.

om
manipura
rang (pronounced rung for several minutes)
om
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
om

2. Svadisthana

2009-12-07T10:22:00.007Z

The second chakra, located on the upper part of the sacrum below the navel. Closely linked to the adrenal glands, this is where stress, anger and fear can gather and eventually cause illness. When this happens, we should take it as a warning to change patterns of behaviour to avoid or deal with stress and fear. I found that a way to transform fear was by sending everyone unconditional love and this is quite common with people who feel threatened. When I did this my lower back pain disappeared. This is also the pleasure chakra that is deeply concerned with our relationship to others and the place of imprinting of feelings experienced in childhood.

Stress to this chakra causes us to put up defences to avoid our true feelings, especially concerning someone of the opposite sex. It may cause promiscuity, seeking satisfaction and a deep longing to unite with the other half of our soul. Alternatively, we may provide a 'phantom lover' for ourselves or for our sexual fantasies.

When the radiance of Svadisthana begins to flow more freely, the ability to feel both pain and pleasure increases - sometimes in bitter-sweet love affairs. This can make it a real test of courage to move beyond our defences, regain our true self and experience loving intimacy. It is necessary to let go of past fears, disillusionments and disappointed romantic expectations - all unneeded energy imprints held in this chakra.

If we are unaware of our sacral chakra energies, we unwittingly fuel feelings of rigid control, overprotectiveness, jealousy, anger and the inability to receive love. Svadisthana is associated with addictions of all kinds, and with a desperate need for approval.

Conversely, when we are fully aware of the positive energies of Svadisthana, we create the right conditions to unite with another person. This can take us into a flowering of the soul on a path of enlightenment. Such a state requires a beautiful, tender type of love that we give and receive unconditionally.

om
svadisthana
vam (pronounced vwam) repeated for several minutes
om
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
om

1. Muladhara

2009-12-06T11:54:00.005Z

muladhara is the first of the seven major chakras. it's situated between the anus and the genitals, faces towards the ground and has the function of 'grounding' or 'rooting' us. if it's balanced, we feel a sympathetic vibration with the earth's electromagnetic frequency. this connection allows us to be at one with the earth, be part of the earth cycle, feel stability and security and get rid of negative emotional energy which is transformed in the earth cycle into positive energy (sometimes described as feelings of power/light/goodness) which we can then take up. if it's not balanced, we feel disconnected, unstable, insecure and these negative emotions remain trapped inside us. another way of balancing muladhara is to go out for a walk and be at one with nature. i think the top of a mountain would be a perfect place to meditate and chant.

om muladhara
lang (repeat for a few minutes)
om
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
om

the 7 chakras

2009-12-06T10:47:00.006Z

four years ago, while studying foundation science, i became intrigued by quantum mechanics and attempted to deepen my knowledge by reading books and articles on the subject for personal pleasure and discovery. the blueprint for reality that quantum mechanics presents has philosophical implications that i took to discussing in a philosophy conference. it became apparent that some of the ideas in quantum mechanics seemed to be expressed in eastern mysticism. these connections were explored by Fritjof Capra in his Tao of Physics. i found the book entertaining but, owing to the sheer breadth of interpretation of eastern mysticism, and the ease with which it's possible to extrapolate myriad possibilities from quantum mechanics, remain to be convinced that quantum mechanics is a scientific explanation of spiritual phenomena in eastern mysticism. but none of that took away the intrigue of eastern mysticism, in particular the practical wisdom of the Vedas and the Tao, which has become the spiritual homeland that i visit in troubled times. and each time i do visit that homeland, my knowledge and experience widens.

up until now, my path has been based on jnana yoga - this is the pursuit of enlightenment via knowledge - and yoga is simply a word for path. i get some benefit from hatha yoga - this is the yoga most widely practised in the west with physical postures and breathing exercises - but if it's done too fast, which it is in most of the classes i've been to, i can actually feel somewhat damaged by it, both physically and mentally! the best part of any yoga class for me has always been the om mantra chanted at the end, which never goes on for as long as i'd like.

it was my neighbour who first brought my attention to the fact that i was chanting a lot recently when he said that he didn't mind what music i played, but did i have to play it over and over again? so i plugged in my headphones. i was going through a lot of stress at the time and began feeling, not so much pain, but emptiness or over-activeness in certain parts of my body, mainly in the solar plexus and gut areas. i don't quite know how i came across the concept of the chakras from there - all i can think is that, in times of trouble, i'm guided back, naturally and unconsciously, towards the Vedas and the Tao. the Tao seems to provide the context for the practical wisdom of the Vedas to flourish. the chakras come from the Upanishads, which are part of the Vedic texts.

in peace and lovingkindness, enjoy. :-)

world opera for world peace

2009-11-25T16:19:00.002Z

Martin Aelred from Edinburgh spreads the love vibration through his operatic voice. He will be performing a Puccini recital set amongst some of the world's finest collection of art at The National Art Gallery, Edinburgh, on Thursday 10th December at 6pm.

heaven is other people

2009-11-24T22:55:00.002Z

people people come right back to me
love me love me show me that you love me
hold me hold me hold me and adore me
i can't live without you people

thanks

2009-11-24T20:20:00.002Z

the global We

2009-11-24T16:47:00.005Z

I am. You are as I am.
WE are ONE on this earth.

WE are smart enough and rich enough
to address all challenges confronting OUR world.

The question is... do WE care enough?

6. Topcat

2009-11-24T14:15:00.006Z

Bobcat is a top cat
and he's really rather fine
he sorts out naughty pixies
so the mail arrives on time

he travels here n travels there
from Bexhill to Glen Coe
in his bmw
dodging fowl and roe

yes Bobcat is a top cat
and he makes time to be mine
takes me out on day trips
wines and dines me often times

i love to see him smiling
so i'm penning him this line
Bobcat you're a top cat
love n kisses, a Scots quine.

5. Disco Dave havin a rave

2009-11-24T14:01:00.006Z

He's a Balloch boy who lives at the cross
a plumber an a drummer an his own boss
on Friday night likes to misbehave
he's disco dave havin a rave
disco dave havin a rave

listens to Peel on an old tape deck
punkrocker for life so what the heck
loves a jam wi Paul and Ivan
and disco dave's a Kennedys fan
disco dave's a Kennedys fan

Rachel screams, da turn it doon
ye huvny a clue boot a decent tune
it's eight o'clock, yer playin Nick Cave!
yeah disco dave is havin a rave
disco dave is havin a rave

mean five drummer in many bands
but the neighbours complained so percussion's banned
they even took the jingles from his tambourine
but disco dave still steals the scene
disco dave still steals the scene

he leaps to the floor with his silent halo
dances like a demon to Ramones and Jello
racks up the sound, gives Rachel a wave
yeah disco dave is havin a rave
disco dave is havin a rave

Sunday mornin and the party's done
but with ravin dave hasn't even begun
Eilidh's here for her daddy's hugs
now dave the rave is feeling love
dave the rave is feeling love

a plumber and a drummer and a loving dad
a dancer in the dark when feeling sad
but the rhythm of his soul stays strong and brave
cos life's a rave for disco dave
yeah disco dave is havin a rave.

4. Love's a fiction

2009-11-24T13:52:00.004Z

Thursday evening
September weekend
Dave and Ivan in the bar
i go outside
for a smoke
and you are there yet so afar

i can see
it's not me you're looking for
but still i hang around the door
even though i know the score

love's a fiction that kills you slowly
leads to sadness and feeling lonely
love's a fiction that kills you slowly

it's been two weeks
you've been so busy
can't switch on your mobile phone
i watch your hands
squeeze the bars
of your bike and i recall

when it was me
you squeezed and gazed into my eyes
and touched me deeper than you knew
but love's a fantasy for fools

love's a fiction that kills you slowly
leads to madness and feeling lonely
love's a fiction that kills you slowly

so i say take care, and we embrace one last time
you say you'll call, but you never did, so why lie
but i'm smiling
keep smiling
though i am crying inside

Monday morning
September weekend
i meet Ivan in the store
i say i'm fine
was out my mind
irrational, but now of course

i can see
it was all down to the e
i hardly know him yeah you know
just need to get out cycling more

love's a fiction that kills you slowly
leads to sadness and feeling lonely
love's a fiction that kills you slowly.

3. If i was a carpenter

2009-11-24T13:42:00.004Z

If i was a carpenter
i'd carve your name in pine
and so you could be with me
i'd place it next to mine

if a painter were my trade
i'd dream of a place
where my brush could take me
so i could see your face

carve my love through winter
paint my love through spring
and if it helped me reach your depths
i'd even try plumbing

if singing was my forte
i'd sing this song out loud
and hope my voice could reach you
carried in a cloud

if i was a songwriter
i'd offer you a line
that didn't make you crash or crave
but high like stars you'd shine

sing my love through summer
write my love through fall
even though another c
is holding you in thrall

carve my love through winter
paint my love through spring
sing and write through sun and rain
and even try plumbing.

2. The electrician song

2009-11-24T13:29:00.004Z

Well i am not a carpenter
and painting's not my trade
and when it comes to plumbing man
i just can't make the grade
my pipes broke in the bender
i soldered them on fire
can't carry baths or boilers yeah
my plumbing skills are dire

but if you want a bright spark
who likes to rock and roll
i'll be your electrician
illuminate your soul
yeah if you want a bright spark
and you'd like to rock n roll
i'll take you all the way to the
magnetic northern pole

so when you're feeling burned out and
your lights are burning low
you've used up all your energy
and feel you're way too slow
the wiring in your junction box
is tangled up in blue
your circuit's tripped, the fuses split
i'll know just what to do

yeah if you want a bright spark
who likes to rock and roll
i'll be your electrician
illuminate your soul
yeah if you want a bright spark
and you'd like to rock and roll
i'll take you all the way to the
magnetic northern pole

1. Copper

2009-11-24T11:49:00.008Z

Dedicated to Gunner Mick Michaels. Happy Christmas, Gunner. x

Make you a copper bathtub
plumb it with copper pipe
fill it with dancing water
and never more you'll gripe

you'll just lay there, dream of sailing
the Asperida, down to Minorca
feel your body swaying
with the waves, just like you oughta

build you a boat with copper
copper, nickel and steel
deck it with teak and plywood
so your dreams can be real

and we'll lay there, and dream of sailing
the Asperida, down to Minorca
feel our bodies swaying
with the waves, just like we oughta

i got some rusty nails
from an old boat that still has charm
they call her the Asperida
but it's your name i scratch in my arm

and i'll lay here, and dream of sailing
the Asperida, down to Minorca
feel our bodies swaying
with the waves, just like we oughta

The Asperida, built in 1967, is the first and oldest copper-nickel boat in existence and remains in fine shape.

happy

2009-11-23T16:43:00.000Z

it is a grave mistake to take oneself too seriously.

Tear down the wall

2009-11-21T22:05:00.001Z

How to save a life

2009-11-21T19:47:00.005Z

There is 1 suicide every 94 minutes in the UK. The highest rates of suicide occur in Scotland - in Shetland, for men; in Glasgow, for women. The high rate in Scotland has been linked to deprivation. More people die through suicide in Scotland than through road traffic accidents.

I contacted the samaritans today. This is kinda what i said -

They are good. Sometimes, things are happening or have happened in our lives and we feel we can't share everything with friends, because we don't want to burden people, or because we don't want to appear unhappy or weak. I found it easier to open up to a non-judgemental stranger who has no connection with my life, by just answering some calm, simple and straightforward questions. I think that everything is going to be ok now. If you are suicidal, distressed or in despair, contact them NOW. Or if you just need someone to talk to or are worried about something, no matter how big or small, or are feeling down, contact them. Just say "help" and they will be there with you for however long it takes. And if you can spare £3 a month to help them to keep providing this vital service, that would be good. I would like, perhaps after the new year when things are better, to be able to pay forward what they're doing for me, and work as a Samaritans volunteer. And thank you to Rob from Canada, the listener who offered a virtual space for me to talk, and who would've stayed up with me all night if necessary, for starting the ball rolling.

http://www.samaritans.org/
08457 909090
jo@samaritans.org

i don't know about you kitties

2009-11-17T20:20:00.001Z

but i feel so much... yummier

7. Plato's symposium

2009-11-10T10:55:00.003Z

6. Cat in the vat

2009-11-10T10:22:00.003Z

before catastro became a computer-program, he was coricocat's husband. their burton-taylor style relationship could be described as who's afraid of vagina wolf meets war of the roses. during one of their frequent misanthropic drinking sessions, catastro and coricocat had argued over whose turn it was to choose the music. during the argument, catastro fell over drunk and his heart was pierced by an upright spike on the fireplace. desperately wanting to save catastro, coricocat tenderly sawed off his head and place it in a fluid-filled vat, connecting his nerve-endings to their super-scientific amstrad computer. this causes catastro to have the illusion that he is still alive and everything is perfectly normal, although all he is really experiencing is the result of electronic impulses travelling from the computer to his nerve endings. catastro's beautiful lover, his mammoth drinking sessions and his alternative european lifestyle are all illusion created by coricocat who feels guilty about the fight.

ten years on, coricocat tires of not being able to enjoy sex with the cat in the vat, so she meets neocat on an online dating site. she chooses neocat because he is the opposite of catastro - neocat believes that he lives in a virtual simulation and that all humans are kept in vats, wired up to a vast supercomputer. but at least she can enjoy sex with neocat. or, at least, she thinks she is...

5. The blogger's dilemma - a lesson for the pixies

2009-11-09T14:03:00.012Z

'That's the deal: own up yourself and testify against your mate - he'll go down for 10 years and you just walk away'. coricocat knew the police could send them down for one year anyway, just for writing the words; but they didn't have enough to pin the libel action on them. the catch was that she also knew they were cutting the same deal with catastro in the next cell - if they both confessed and incriminated each other, they would each get five years. if only she knew what catastro was going to do...

coricocat is no fool, so she carefully weighs up her options. 'suppose catastro keeps quiet; then my best move is to inform on him - he'll get ten years and I'll go free. and suppose he points the finger at me: it's still best to confess, inform against him, and get five years - otherwise, if I keep quiet, it'll be me doing the ten-year stretch. so either way, whatever catastro does, my best move is to confess'. the problem for coricocat is that catastro is no fool either and reaches exactly the same conclusion. so they incriminate each other and both get five years. yet if neither had said anything, they would only have got one year each...

what went wrong? they couldn't collaborate. so the moral of this story is (1) that the pursuit of one's own interest, even if rational, may not lead to the best outcome for oneself or others and collaboration is the best policy; (2) when collaboration is denied, keep your gob shut; (3) the police are pricks.

4. The Masked Woman

2009-11-09T13:14:00.009Z

catastro thinks that coricocat is the greatest fellow contributor on the blog, but he has no view about Angelina Jolie (he doesn't realise that this is in fact coricocat's real name). that means that coricocat has a property that Angelina Jolie lacks - the property of being thought by catastro to be the greatest fellow contributor on the blog - so, according to Leibniz's law, coricocat is not the same person as Angelina Jolie. But she is, so something has gone wrong with the argument. The problem is due to the so-called masked woman fallacy: I don't know who the masked woman is; I know who my sister is; therefore my sister is not the masked woman. The root of the fallacy is that subjective views or beliefs about something are not real properties of that thing: you can know something under different descriptions, just as different people can have different beliefs about the same thing.

the condensed idea - what is it like to be a drunk paranoid-scizophrenic computer-program called catastro thinking about Angelina Jolie dressed up as batwoman?

3. The mind-body problem

2009-11-09T12:54:00.005Z

coricocat has never met catastro. she regards him as mental substance, whose essential nature is thinking. catastro rejects this and says that his essential nature is drinking, rather than thinking. but coricocat has no way of knowing if this is actually true, for she has never seen catastro, never mind seen him drinking. Descartes would say that catastro thus lives in two distinct realms for coricocat - the mental (which she experiences in reading his words) and the material (of which she has no experience). coricocat rejects this. after all, if catastro can write, then he must have hands to type. she decides to interview catastro -

coricocat: who do cops arrest?
catastro: cops arrest the wrong people
coricocat: they arrest the right ones sometimes
catastro: the law should get those scottish crooks
coricocat: are you scottish?
catastro: my background is english, but I was born in scotland
coricocat: do you know any scottish crooks?
catastro: i try to avoid the underworld
coricocat: are you afraid of the underworld?
catastro: the scottish mafia are the worst gangsters
coricocat: are you connected with the mafia?
catastro: they know me
coricocat: how do they know you?
catastro: they spy on me
coricocat: why do they?
catastro: they want to get false evidence to frame me
coricocat: what do they have against you?
catastro: they are out to get me

catastro sounds like a man in trouble but his biggest problem isn't the scottish mafia - it's that he's a computer program created to respond to questions in the manner of a scizophrenic with a paranoid fixation that he is a scottish mafia target. so not all that you think is 'mind' is really mental phenomena as we have traditionally viewed it - and not all 'minds' are attached to one distinct body. in Clark and Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey an intelligent computer named HAL runs the spaceship. but someone must have created the programme. and I suspect that Angelina Jolie may have something to do with the whole thing.

2. The difference principle

2009-11-09T12:22:00.004Z

catastro and coricocat are in one of their frequent misanthropic moods, feel that everything is fucking fukt and decide to set up a blog. they consider how the burdens and benefits of the blog should be distributed to make it just.

should there be a fair distribution of posts written by catastro and coricocat? it would seem that coricocat is doing all the work here while catastro sips his grape juice. is this just? perhaps coricocat has more time to write than catastro and her personality tends to regularity against catastro's spontaneity. they agree that the important thing is equality of opportunity to post.

by the year 2010, coricocat has unwittingly written some spectacularly good posts which a publisher wants to buy and he offers coricocat a large amount of money. should coricocat take the money and give catastro tuppence ha'penny for the two posts he has sent compared to her 202, or should the money be divided equally between them? after all, catastro had every opportunity to post... but given that he was busy doing other things and his personality doesn't tend to regularity... did he really?

John Rawls attempts to sort out this problem with his 'difference principle'. He states that these inequalities between catastro and coricocat are only justified if they result in catastro being better off than he would otherwise have been. Rawls, however, has nothing to say about the relative gains of either, so coricocat offers catastro, not half of the money, but a quarter. J K Galbraith comes in at this point and calls coricocat a horse and catastro a sparrow. Rawls says that this is fine so long as catastro already has more money than coricocat but, if not, an equal distribution is to be preferred.

in sum, inequality (of opportunity) is just only if everyone profits by it; otherwise equality (of outcome) should prevail.

coricocat finds Rawls' position appealing and, finding that catastro doesn't have more than two magic beans to his name, gives catastro half the money...

in his dreams!

7 philosophy ideas you really don't want to know - 1. positive and negative freedom

2009-11-09T09:08:00.012Z

catastro and coricocat are having a pleasant refreshment in a public bar. catastro is an alkie so when offered a drink of wine he's not really free to turn it down. he lacks positive freedom or freedom 'to' (self-control, antonomy, the capacity to act in his own best interests).

coricocat is not an alkie. she has positive freedom, but also negative freedom or freedom 'from' (nothing external interferes with her liberty) so she joins catastro in the wine but then upsets the people at the next table by singing loudly, denying them the freedom to enjoy a quiet evening. the pub landlord, John Stuart Mill, comes over and tells coricocat she'll get barred if she keeps singing. but then coricocat argues with him, telling him that the only reason she's in his pub drinking with a view to getting drunk is because she has fuck all else to do and that she can't help singing when she's drunk, thus questioning the extent to which she really has positive freedom. a barfly called Isaiah Berlin intercedes with a view to sorting out the argument. he tells the landlord that if coricocat is to fully express her positive freedom then her morally rational self must triumph over her baser appetites, for which she needs the landlord's help. the landlord then takes coricocat's glass of wine off her and throws her out the pub. coricocat calls the landlord a fascist, Isaiah orders another bottle of wine for him and catastro, then gets up on the table and shouts:

to manipulate (wo)men to propel them towards goals which you - the public landlord come social reformer - see, but they may not, is to deny their human essence, to treat them as objects without wills of their own, and therefore to degrade them.

and then falls off the table, blind drunk.

while catastro sits quietly enjoying the rest of the wine on his own.

and the moral of this story is, if you have a philosophical view on freedom, you're more likely to enjoy freedom if you keep it to yourself.

lovecat rip

2009-11-07T22:39:00.002Z

it is with sadness that i convey the news that lovecat died peacefully in her sleep of natural causes. her last words were i'm really tired

Everything is ok - Part 2

2009-11-07T12:36:00.004Z

Everything you read in Socialist Worker is 100% true. Please, go back to demonstrating. If you are not demonstrating you are a worthless human being. Demonstrate, demonstrate, demonstrate until we have nothing left to demonstrate about. What you need to do is buy t-shirts of Che Guevara and Karl Marx that you don't need. That's the best way to support socialism. Jokes are bad for socialism. Please do not make jokes. Thinking is bad for socialism. Please move swiftly to your next t-shirt experience. Independent thoughts lead to chaos. Thinking is boring. Thinking is hard work and it's not worth the energy. People are trying to get us to think. Karl Marx has already done all the thinking for us. He is the only philosopher worth paying attention to. Karl Marx spoke of the poverty of philosophy. He is right. Everyone else is wrong. Thinking is a waste of good demonstrating and t-shirt shopping time. People who disagree with us are dangerous and must be silenced. Democracy is bad for socialism...

The Pixies - The End

2009-11-07T11:18:00.006Z

... "This will not do!" thought Queen Mandy, in a very queenlike way. Then, she had a wonderful idea. Ping! "I know... I'll send for the Great Wizard Barber. Everybody likes him. He'll have the pixies back to work in no time!"

So Great Wizard Barber was sent for and briefed privately by Queen Mandy. She told him about how the pixies were not working, but were instead dancing and singing and drinking too much lemonade which was making them belchy and grumpy. And how they'd started to discuss evil things like fair pay and democracy in the workplace.

"Don't worry, great queen," said Wizard Barber. "My middle name is Jim and I Can Fix It!"

So Wizard Barber sent for the Chief pixies and the pixie reps to come to his Castle. He got them to shake hands nicely, both say they were very sorry, and he put on a great banquet of tea and buns. An agreement to go back to work was reached, which Wizard Barber wrote on especially nice parchment paper and nailed to the front door of the Castle:

AGREEMENT BETWEEN CHIEF PIXIES AND PIXIES

The Pixies will go back to work because it is nearly Christmas time and Santa and all the children will cry a lot if Santa doesn't have his little helpers. To help make things nicer there will be -

1. Dress-up Fridays. The Wizard Acas will provide costumes.

2. Pixies to be offered tea and chocolate at the end of a hard day's work, although this will have to be taken in their own time and will not constitute overtime. Also, the cost of the tea and chocolate enjoyed by the pixies will be taken out of their wages.

3. Chief pixies to smile more at the pixies.

4. Queen Mandy to take the pot of gold and give it to her best friends to look after.

So the pixies went back to work and the people of the land cheered and said, "Well done!" And the children were delighted that they would get their Christmas presents from Santa. And everyone lived HAPPILY EVER AFTER...

Special Hallowe'en Communique

2009-11-07T10:27:00.002Z

Black Magic as Revolutionary Action...

PREPARE AN INK OF pure & genuine saffron mixed with rose- water, adding if possible some blood from a black rooster. In a quiet room furnish an altar with a bowl of the ink, a pen with an iron nib, 7 black candles, an incense burner, & some benzoin. The charm may be written on virgin paper or parchment. Draw the diagram at 4 p.m. on a Wednesday, facing North. Copy the 7-headed diagram (see illustration) without lifting the pen from the paper, in one smooth operation, holding your breath & pressing your tongue to the roof of your mouth. This is the Barisan Laksamana, or King of the Djinn. Then draw the Solomon's Seal (a star representing a 5- headed djinn) & other parts of the diagram. Above Solomon's Seal write the name of the individual or institution to be cursed. Now hold the paper in the benzoin fumes, & invoke the white & black djinn within yourself:
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim
as-salaam alikum
O White Djinn, Radiance of Mohammad
king of all spirits within me
O Black Djinn, shadow of myself
AWAY, destroy my enemy
--and if you do not
then be considered a traitor to Allah
--by virtue of the charm
La illaha ill'Allah

Mohammad ar-Rasul Allah

If the curse is to be aimed at an individual oppressor, a wax doll may be prepared & the charm inserted (see illustration).

Seven needles are then driven downward into the top of the head, thru the left & right armpits, left & right hips, & thru the lips or nostrils. Wrap the doll in a white shroud & bury it in the ground where the enemy is sure to walk over it, meanwhile enlisting the aid of local earth spirits:

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim
O Earth Djinn, Dirt-spirit
O Black Djinn living underground
listen, vampire of the soil
I order you to mark & destroy
the body & soul of _____________
Heed my orders
for I am the true & original sorcerer
by virtue of the charm
la illaha ill'Allah

Mohammad ar-Rasul Allah

If however the curse is intended for an institution or company, assemble the following items: a hard-boiled egg, an iron nail, & 3 iron pins (stick nail & needles into egg); dried scorpion, lizard &/or beetles; a small chamois bag containing graveyard dirt, magnetized iron fillings, asafoetida & sulphur, & tied with a red ribbon. Sew the charm into yellow silk & seal it with red wax. Place all these things in a wide-necked bottle, cork it, & seal it with wax.

The bottle may now be carefully packaged & sent by mail to the target institution--for example a Xtian televangelist show, the New York Post, the MUZAK company, a school or college--along with a copy of the following statement (extra copies may be mailed to individual employees, &/or posted surreptitiously around the premises):

Malay Black Djinn Curse

These premises have been cursed by black sorcery. The curse has been activated according to correct rituals. This institution is cursed because it has oppressed the Imagination & defiled the Intellect, degraded the arts toward stupefaction, spiritual slavery, propaganda for State & Capital, puritanical reaction, unjust profits, lies & aesthetic blight. The employees of this institution are now in danger. No ind ividual has been cursed, but the place itself has been infec ted with ill fortune & malignancy. Those who do not wake up & quit, or begin sabotaging the workplace, will gradually fa ll under the effect of this sorcery. Removing or destroying the implement of sorcery will do no good. It has been seen i n this place, & this place is cursed. Reclaim your humanity & revolt in the name of the Imagination-- or else be judged (in the mirror of this charm) an enemy of the human race.

We suggest "taking credit" for this action in the name of some other offensive cultural institution, such as the American Poetry Society or the Women's Anti-Porn Crusade (give full address).

We also suggest, in order to counter-balance the effect on yourself of calling up the personal black djinn, that you send a magical blessing to someone or some group you love &/or admire. Do this anonymously, & make the gift beautiful. No precise ritual need be followed, but the imagery should be allowed to spring from the well of consciousness in an intuitive/spontaneous meditational state. Use sweet incense, red & white candles, hard candy, wine, flowers, etc. If possible include real silver, gold, or jewels in the gift.

This how-to-do-it manual on the Malay Black Djinn Curse has been prepared according to authentic & complete ritual by the Cultural Terrorism Committee of the inner Adept Chamber of the HMOCA ("Third Paradise"). We are Nizari-Ismaili Esotericists; that is, Shiite heretics & fanatics who trace our spiritual line to Hassan-i Sabbah through Aladdin Mohammad III "the Madman," seventh & last Pir of Alamut (& not through the line of the Aga Khans). We espouse radical monism & pure antinomianism, & oppose all forms of law & authority, in the name of Chaos.

At present, for tactical reasons, we do not advocate violence or sorcery against individuals. We call for actions against institutions & ideas--art-sabotage & clandestine propaganda (including ceremonial magic & "tantrik pornography")--and especially against the poisonous media of the Empire of Lies. The Black Djinn Curse represents only a first step in the campaign of Poetic Terrorism which--we trust--will lead to other less subtle forms of insurrection.

The Death of Politics

2009-11-06T13:43:00.012Z

This is not a time of radical, revolutionary politics. Not yet. Unrest, riot, dissent, and chaos notwithstanding, today's politics is reactionary. Both Left and Right are reactionary and authoritarian. That is to say, both are political. They seek only to revise current methods of acquiring and wielding political power. Radical and revolutionary movements seek not to revise but to revoke. The target of revocation should be obvious. The target is politics itself.

Radicals and revolutionaries have had their sights trained on politics for some time. As governments fail around the world, as more millions become aware that government never has and never can humanely and effectively manage men's affairs, government's own inadequacy will emerge, at last, as the basis for a truly radical and revolutionary movement. In the meantime, the radical-revolutionary position is a lonely one. It is feared and hated, by both Right and Left — although both Right and Left must borrow from it to survive. The radical-revolutionary position is libertarianism, and its socioeconomic form is...

That was Karl Hesse writing forty years ago. Not much has changed then eh? He goes on to state that the socioeconomic form should be "laissez-faire capitalism" but every word that he's written up to that point could be read on any libertarian socialist site. Even within the libertarian movement, the political battle between right and left, between capitalism and socialism, continues unabated. They start off on good ground (the target is politics itself) and then get sucked right back into the old authoritarian modus vivendi of justifying political systems that are inherently authoritarian and tend to state-building. Is it just me who sees this as somewhat ironic?

Anti-politics: poetic-terrorism

2009-11-06T12:46:00.005Z

Come to TAZmania...

CHAOS NEVER DIED.

Everything in nature is perfectly real including consciousness, there's absolutely nothing to worry about.

The State schools us all to sink beneath the event-horizon of a tedious "usefulness".

We read under the influence of a cartesian anaesthetic gas.

As soon as you begin to act in harmony with nature the Law garottes and strangles you - so don't play the blessed liberal middleclass martyr - accept the fact that you're a criminal and be prepared to act like one.

Act as if you were already free.

Every man his own vine and figtree.

The only true conflict is that between the authority of the tyrant and the authority of the realized self - all else is illusion, psychological projection, wasted verbiage.

It's no surprise to discover how many anarchists are ex-Catholics, defrocked priests or nuns, former altar boys, lapsed born-again baptists or even ex-Shiite fanatics. Anarchism offers up a black (& red) Mass to de-ritualize all spook-haunted brains - a secular exorcism - but then betrays itself by cobbling together a High Church of its own, all cobwebby with Ethical Humanism, Free Thought, Muscular Atheism, & crude Fundamentalist Cartesian Logic.

If some Javanese sorcerer or Native American shaman possesses some precious fragment I need for my own "medicine pouch," should I sneer & quote Bakunin's line about stringing up priests with bankers' guts? or should I remember that anarchy knows no dogma, that Chaos cannot be mapped - & help myself to anything not nailed down?

The examples of "wolf children" or enfants sauvages suggest that a human infant deprived of human company for too long will never attain conscious humanity - will never acquire language. The Wild Child perhaps provides a poetic metaphor for the Unique-one - and yet simultaneously marks the precise point where Unique & Other must meet, coalesce, unify - or else fail to attain & possess all of which they are capable.

The Other mirrors the Self - the Other is our witness. The Other completes the Self - the Other gives us the key to the perception of oneness-of-being. When we speak of being & consciousness, we point to the Self; when we speak of bliss we implicate the Other.

Existence itself may be considered an abyss possessed of no meaning. I do not read this as a pessimistic statement. If it be true, then I can see in it nothing else but a declaration of autonomy for my imagination & will - & for the most beautiful act they can conceive with which to bestow meaning upon existence.

The TAZ is... a perfect tactic for an era in which the State is omnipresent and all-powerful and yet simultaneously riddled with cracks and vacancies. And because the TAZ is a microcosm of that "anarchist dream" of a free culture, I can think of no better tactic by which to work toward that goal while at the same time experiencing some of its benefits here and now.

Chaos theory predicts that any universal Control-system is impossible.

Come to TAZmania...

"Medal not good enough" says hired killer

2009-11-02T14:07:00.003Z

The latest soldier to win the George Cross has criticised Gordon Brown for betraying the army and reveals he now works in a shit job at a call centre selling insurance.

"My medal says I am a successful hired killer, a man of extraordinary thuggery," says Private Parts. "But now I'm being shafted like everyone else in this country and work in a call centre. My life has gone from shit to extremely shit."

"I was brought up thinking that if I shot and terrorised men, women and children abroad, I would get some kind of special treatment. It seems this government just doesn't care about their hired thugs any more and is quite happy to exploit them the way they do everyone else. It's just not fair."

Ex pixie rep sacks 'nutty' scientist for telling truth about drugs

2009-11-02T09:52:00.004Z

There is no "debate" here - alcohol and tobacco are bad; mushrooms and ecstasy are good. End of fuckin story.

A working class pixie is nothing to be

2009-11-01T10:33:00.015Z

When John Lennon wrote Working Class Hero his point that "a working-class hero is something to be" was lost on some who didn't get the irony. The point he was making is that a working-class hero is nothing to be, because until he challenges the socio-economic stratification that separates us into classes of haves and have-nots, he will always remain at the bottom, powerless, no matter what honours his slave-class bestow upon him.

Royal Mail does need to be modernised - and there is nothing more modern than a co-operative.

There are over 750,000 co-operatives in the world.

They employ over 100 million people, 20% more than multinational enterprises.

They serve over 800 million members.

They range from small-scale to multi-million pound businesses.

Co-operatives can be organised to provide any good or service.

A workers' co-operative is owned and controlled by the employees of the business.

Co-operatives are not about left or right.

Co-operatives abolish class division.

Co-operatives are about applying principles of justice, fairness and democracy for human beings in workplaces.

Existing co-operatives survive and flourish because they provide high quality goods and services enjoyed by consumers at a fair and competitive price.

If we are to stop the decimation of our postal service and its profits going into the hands of a small political elite - if the workers are to enjoy a decent standard of living and consumers a world-class service - Royal Mail needs to become a co-operative.

How to turn Royal Mail into a workers' co-operative -

1. Establish a managerial committee in each mail centre and delivery office to take over the work of managers. Invite existing managers to be part of the committee.

2. Instruct the CWU to co-ordinate the election of a directive committee. If they don't wish to undertake this process, instruct an independent consultancy. Invite applications from everyone in the business, including existing directors.

3. Once the officers of the directive committee have been elected, the business plan should be re-written in order to improve the service. Responsibilities should be assigned to newly elected officers to implement it nationwide.

4. Equal wages to be paid to all grades which will increase the general wage-level.

For more information on co-operatives, check out the International Co-operative Alliance

Vive la co-operative. Vive la collective. Vive la revolucion.

And if you're still not convinced about the meaning of Working Class Hero, listen again - the line "You're still fucking peasants as far as I can see" kinda gives it away...

Everything is ok

2009-10-31T11:58:00.003Z

Everything you read in the mainstream media is 100% true. Please, go back to your jobs. If you have not got a job you are a worthless human being. Consume, consume, consume until we have no planet left to consume. What you need to do is buy things that you don't need. That's the best way to support the economy...

Intolerance

2009-10-28T11:16:00.003Z

Extraordinary and compelling animation by Phil Mulloy.

All New Facebook Application!

2009-10-28T02:11:00.007Z

Too many Facebook friends?

Sick of looking at those ugly faces?

Tired of all those shitty invites and pointless ramblings about what they had for dinner but don't want to deal with the fallout of deleting your boss?

Check out the all new Facebook application...

PEED OFF FILES

That's right. Just load this up and you'll receive photographs of paedophiles that you can post as your profile picture. Guaranteed to outrage your "friends" so much they'll want to fuck off there and then!

To upload this application, all you need to do is submit your own photograph and press 'I Did It'.

W Hunt Apps Inc

GPO Film Unit - Post Office, 1935 and 2009

2009-10-26T14:26:00.000Z

Is a video by Bazarov from the album 'Synthetic Landscapes' (2009). Images are from the GPO Film Unit, London, 1935. Beautiful.

myspace.com/bazarov

GPO Film Unit - Love on the Wing, 1938

2009-10-26T14:22:00.000Z

Although primarily established as a pr exercise, the GPO Film unit was staffed by Marxist idealists interested in the avant-garde and Love on the Wing is a beautiful work of surrealist art that moves from Dali, through Magritte to Klee and of which Terry Gilliam would have been proud.

GPO Film Unit - The Fairy of the Phone, 1936

2009-10-26T13:47:00.001Z

The GPO Film Unit of the 1930s is perhaps best remembered for its production of Night Mail, which borrowed from the aesthetics of Soviet cinema and turned an explanation of the travelling post office into a hymn to collective labour. The Film Unit started as part of the post office's publicity department. The Fairy of the Phone, inspired by a Russian cartoon film, is a hugely entertaining, funny and camp movie offering advice about telephone manners.

Big Chief Pixie's Letter to Pixies

2009-10-25T22:23:00.000Z

Dear Pixies,

I recognise that things have not been going too great lately and I have decided to change our industrial relations strategy in the hope that we can all get along better. I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning. Below is our new strategy, in the form of a poem, which I hope will set the tone for our discussions.

You want to take it slow
and we're losing all control.
We try to make it work
but the service is the worst
and it's crazy.
You're all so fucking lazy.
No but, yeah but, no but.

So just shut up, shut up, shut up.
Just shut up, shut up.
Just shut up, shut up, shut up.
Just shut up, shut up.

Yours sincerely

Big Chief Pixie

on opening the salmon of knowledge

2009-10-24T18:50:00.000+01:00

otters

2009-10-24T14:29:00.000+01:00

A couple of the gods were out walking when Loki saw the otter by the river & killed it & wore it's fur. However, it was not really an otter, but a shape changing deity. What would you expect from Loki ?

The Pixies - Part 3

2009-10-23T13:18:00.000+01:00

CHIEF PIXIE PRESS RELEASE

The Pixies are still not back at work. The details are as follows -

Thu 22 Oct, Pixie Hollow and Fairy Distribution Units - Pixies have disguised themselves as bundles of rags.

Fri 23 Oct, Hereyougo Offices and Thankyouverymuch Units - Pixies are engaged in music and dancing - top secret video leaked below.

We scoured the land high and low for replacement Pixies and found 30,000 in the gaols of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. Unfortunately, Pixie Police are now searching for 15,000 who were last seen heading for Sweden. Ten thousand of the remaining replacement pixies walked out the offices with all our equipment and some of the secretaries and the remaining five thousand are attempting to sort and deliver one another.

As a consequence of this, everything is fukt and we are really sorry.

The Pixies - Part 2

2009-10-21T22:30:00.000+01:00

The Pixies, Part I

2009-10-20T14:41:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time, everyone used to send each other lots of letters and cards. They would write the letters with pens or type them on typewriters. Then they would put the letters in a shiny red pillar box and the Pixies would collect and deliver them.

The Pixies wore smart uniforms and were always clean and tidy and very busy, especially at Christmas time, when they became Santa's little helpers. The Pixies were very happy at their work, whistling and smiling as they went along, and would often enjoy a glass of lemonade with the Chief Pixies at the end of a satisfying day. And everybody loved the Pixies. For they didn't just do a marvellous job with letters for thruppence ha'penny farthing. No. The Pixies were very helpful with other things too. Like picking up shopping and medicine, reading gas meters, fixing small plumbing and electrical problems and they even saved lives. Then, one day, something terrible happened to change all of that.

Far, far away, in an evil empire known as America, a wizard named Tomlinson created a magic spell which meant people could send millions upon billions upon trillions of words, without using paper. But worse was still to come. For in the land of Nokia, the wizard Makonnen invented an even more dangerous spell called Texting. This spell meant that people could send each other postcards, birthday cards and christmas cards with a tiny telephone! As time went on, people started using the spells, and this meant that the Pixies had less and less letters and cards to deliver.

Some of the Pixies were sent home to live out their remaining years drinking too much lemonade which made them belchy and grumpy. The Pixies that remained missed their old friends and, feeling sad, began spending the money that they had kept in a pot of gold for a rainy day. The Chief Pixies were very worried about losing their pot of gold, so they decided to get rid of even more of the Pixies by inventing a machine to do some of their work. This made the Pixies quite angry indeed and they threatened to stop working altogether if the bad machines were not taken away.

The Chiefs told the Pixies to stop being silly and to go back to work. But the Pixies refused, so the Chiefs decided to hire lots of new Pixies to do their jobs. The Pixies were really furious now, but they also felt very helpless, so they asked the good Wizard Acas to speak to the Chiefs on their behalf. The Wizard Acas was only too happy to help, but the Chiefs refused to speak to him unless the Pixies promised to go back to work.

Meanwhile, the people of the land were beginning to lose their affection for the Pixies. Birthday cards were being delivered late. Where once letters would arrive at seven in the morning, now they didn't come until ten or after. Sometimes, people got the wrong letters. The Pixies had so much mail to carry, that they couldn't stop to help anyone out any more, or even smile or wave. And sometimes they were so busy that they didn't even have time to ring doorbells, and just put cards through people's letter-boxes telling them to go and get their own letters. So people stopped inviting the Pixies in for tea and chocolate and stopped giving them gifts at Christmas.

And everyone was very sad, and no one was living happily ever after. And not even the queen of the land, Queen Mandy, could get the Pixies back to work. To be continued...