Henry Rollins - Civil Liberties Under Attack

God I love Henry Rollins, he's got so much righteous anger. We need people like this in our world.

A couple of rants, comin at ya

Click!

After reading that, all I can think is, what a heartless son of a bitch corporation. I usually detest the human interest articles , but just what happened seemed so terrible. I just hate the idea of them taking the plane ticket money too. Just wow.

I remembered what was the weird thing about traveling. Everyone I met seemed quite intimidated immediately after I told them what I do. Is it really that odd? I had more than a few people just give me this intense stare, and then go talk with someone else. And I didn't even go off on philosophy or oil that much!

So after the strikes here, there is war in the banlieus. For those not in the know, the banlieus are basically the suburbs of Paris. Some of them are rich, but some are definitely very sketchy. Well, just dangerous. So the other night, in front of my friend's house actually, a police car got into an accident with two teenagers on motorbikes. Both of the teenagers died, and the community has gone into an uprising against the police, claiming that it was intentional. So there are crazy amounts of police out there, kids setting fire to cars, and apparently explosions and gunfire. Nutty. I'm glad Paris the city is damn near completely safe from it.

What I've found really weird is that when reading horoscopes (astrological, Chinese calender, etc...) I completely disagree with the nature of it. I mean, after a philosophy of science course, I can't possible see why they would be right, and I see where all the mistakes they make come from. That being said, whenever I read one (I'm a Virgo and a Pig), it is damn near spot on. I was reading one last night and it was damn scary how much it pegged me. It's nowhere near as close as the personality testing I did, but still, for just knowing my birthdate it had a lot of true information.

Ok, something that really pissed me off tonight. I went to do my laundry, and there was a homeless guy in there. Of course, he insisted on speaking to me, I dunno why that always happens. I pulled off the "Mon Francaise n'est pas tres bien" fairly convincingly, but he knew enough English to continue talking. So I meekly ducked out to get my groceries. Anywho, I come back to do the dryer trick, and what do I see? The first thing that catches my eye are the benches out of array, the second thing was the utter stench. Ok, so the dude is trying to sleep in there, I don't really appreciate it, but I guess I can see why. Then what do I see all over the floor? What looks like either piss or beer, with a bunch of cigarette butts as well, which I know weren't there earlier. Not to mention what looks like shit on one of the other benches. Now, I've got a problem.

I mean, I guess this is precisely the reason why I detest so many of the homeless people. They don't seem to respect anyone else, so why the hell should I help them? What also pisses me off is when I get talking with a few of the liberal Frenchies. They will go on and on to me about how we have to support everyone and everyone should be equal (even if we actually aren't, and I've gotten them to admit that). Well you know what? I don't see you volunteering at the homeless shelter. Giving taxes is one thing, but put up or shut up I say.

Not too much else at the moment, but I know I have a few other rants left. I'll let the nicotine depraved rage build up some more, and then take it out on my keyboard.

Hope all is well with everyone!

A Brief Reprieve

Aloha all,

So I've continued my adventures across Europe, and it went pretty well. I have to say that I really like Prague as a city. Immediately when I got there I was overcome by a feeling of familiarity and comfort. The hostel I stayed at, The Clown and Bard, was a very cool place to be. It is most known for it's 32 bed monster room, where all the single travelers congregate. Basically a bunch of young dudes looking to get drunk for cheap in Eastern Europe. And how! I have to say there are two aspects that I really see to traveling; well traveling as a young person and staying in hostels. The first being to see the cities/places, and seeing what the locals are all about. The second is the people that you do meet in the hostels. It's nice to meet all these people in the same situation you are in, and you all randomly meet to go figure out the city.

I noticed immediately the utter age of Prague, it feels (and probably is) the oldest city I've been to; both in history and architecture. The streets are all cobblestone, weird sculptures everywhere, and remnant graffiti from the Soviet Union days everywhere. The Czech people are a pretty cool bunch, they are standoff-ish, but I got chatting with a couple of them and they were very decent. The bars were a great time, the music of Eastern Europe is definitely different than the west. It's a lot more techno; hard beats, strange synths, and fairly fluid. I dig it. The hostel crew and I went to a few interesting places, and I tried my hand at dancing there. That being said, I need some solid funk when I go back to Calgary.

I met a rather interesting British fellow, and we had some good chats. This was his 14th time coming to Prague, he was saying he going to Prague about once every 2 months or so. I guess I can't blame him, it's really addictive. My favourite city is still Paris, so perhaps I'll be doing the same with belle Paris.


So after the messy good times in Prague, I took the train up to Berlin. Something about Europe just screams to me, "Take the train." Even if the bus is cheaper, it's the place where I'll take a train any day of the week. Berlin was...just so German. Walking off the train I saw this:

I don't think the picture really does it justice, but it was this giant sterile place, with level after level of trains everywhere. My hostel was nice enough to give me an email with explicit directions, the main being take the S bahn 7 into Berlin. Guess which trains I could find? S bahn 1-6, and 11-16. Le sigh. Anywho, the hostel there was about the cleanest place I've been. I should have got more pictures of it, because it was crazy how sterile it was. Everything in white in the the room, except the bed frames in brushed aluminum and the floor was wood. In the halls, everything was white, except the doors being in red. I felt like I was in some existential movie, or like the main character in Garden State when he wakes up initially. But it was a weird contrast when walking around in the streets because everything was covered in graffiti, it was crazy. Here's a bathroom at one of the bars I went to, such a strange contrast.

I guess Germany left me feeling a little alone and confused. The people were friendly enough, but I got the sense that I was intruding, people weren't happy to have me there. In Prague, nobody seemed to care, or they were happy to see a traveler spending some money there. In Berlin, it was a feeling that I was being avoided. I dunno, just weird. That being said, a few of the Germans that I did get to chat with were super helpful and really friendly...when they wanted to be. I know there were a couple of girls that a friend and I ended up going to the bar with, and halfway through the night they must have decided they didn't like us. Because it went from friendly conversation and dancing, to them completely ignoring us. I hate to generalize to everyone, but I tried chatting with a few more, and it was a similar (if not quicker) response. Whatever.

This all being said, I'm glad I went and checked it out. As I always say, there's one way to find out. And you're damn right I did.
Here's the holocaust memorial, to get an idea of the German architecture that is abound in the city:
In other news, I recommend picking up a copy of The Economist from November 3rd-9th. It has a really good special report on the impact of religion in the 21st Century here. Hell, in general it's a damn good magazine to read. It's about the most objective reporting that I've found, and that's as much as I can ask for.

I'll write some more when more thoughts bubble to the surface.
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Now playing: Mickey & The Soul Generation - Football

Oh the strikes of France

More railway strikes here, big surprise. This time, however, my boss found me a ride to get to work. Lucky me. It's pretty funny to evaluate everyone's reaction to the strike. All the French people just take it in stride, with minimal bitching; everyone is more just concerned about finding a way around it. Some of the people from other countries at our office just non-stop bitch about it, talking about how much they hate the unions and the railway staff. Me? I just laugh it off and tell myself, "Only in France." Life is too short to get yourself worked up over these things, and it's just one of the tradeoffs of living here.

I continue my reading of "The Omnivore's Dilemma." The author took a trip to a real farm, one which he refers to as zero sum. By zero sum, he means that it requires almost nothing from the outside, it is ecologically sound because it produces everything it needs and if anything gives back to the environment. I love the idea myself, but as the author points out, this type of farming is very labour intensive. Or is it? If an average conventional farmer only has to work 150 days a year now because of advances in technology and lives in poverty, well, isn't that about right? I mean, if I only work 150 days a year, I would live in poverty as well (well maybe not in France, the average work year is 185 days). But if you work every day, you get paid for it. Not just in money, but such farms produce everything they need since all the food they need is covered.

Where am I going with this? Well, the reason that these farms work is that because they are not a monoculture of crops. They produce all types of animals (chickens and eggs, beef, rabbits, turkeys, pigs) but all sorts of crops (corn, various vegetables, etc..). But this is the only way it can work as each element helps each other, and relies on each other. I think it's really interesting that nature leans toward natural complexity. If you look at a given ecological system, there is no direct logical format to it. Everything is in so-called "strange loops" (to use Douglas Hofstader's terminology), where the result of any given action effects other actions and it is almost impossible to trace a single causal event to every result. What does this say? Well, it seems nonsensical to search for simple solutions to nature if it all tends towards complexity. People knock on science for being too complex, and I've heard arguments such as "If I can't understand it, it can't be true." Maybe you can't understand particle physics (I know I can't at the highest level), but that doesn't mean everybody can't. Maybe it's impossible for one person to understand everything in entirety.

What else? I'm loving the boxe francaise. There is something about sparring that I feel is so...pure. I know when I enter the ring with someone, everything else falls away. All my thoughts of the day, all the other people in the room other than the guy (or girl) in front of me, my surroundings completely other than the ropes of the ring. If you lose your concentration for a second, a good opponent will pounce. So it requires utter focus. I think what best captures it is the final boxing scene from Snatch. It captures the feeling, the memories, the sound, it's very well done. The feeling of time slowing as you see the opponent drop his hand and you drop a left hook across their face, knowing exactly what is going to happen (and it does), such a great feeling.

So not too much else new right now. I'll give another update soon, hopefully before my little vacation to Eastern Europe.

You cheeky bastard!

Well, I just got back from a rather nice meal of raw meat. Food is good, this I have truly realized in the past weekend.

Yann and I made a jaunt across the channel to merry ol' England to London. What can I say? Their beer is good, this hypothesis we tested over and over...and over again. The women are...easy, but also incredibly good natured. I have been so used to the Parisian women, who hold their head just high enough so that they never have to look into someone's eyes. It's satisfying just to catch the gaze of a random person and hold it for a little while. A little connection that may be soon forgotten but just captures you for the moment.

So one of our little "art projects" was to go to every statue we saw and take a picture doing the pose of said statue. So this lasted about 15 statues and then we found a bar. From there, the day degraded into a series of bars, with video reviews of each. Let's just say the videos get off track near the end, as I lose track of where the hell we are and Yann loses his English speaking abilities.

The next day was just a day of being utterly and completely useless, followed by a night of hitting up London clubs. Well, not the real "club" clubs, but bars that were open late with a dance floor. And everybody hammered. That's one thing about the English, they get shit faced. No two ways about it, I appreciate that. Another thing is the Brits just love their drugs. I've never been offered so many different choices of drugs just walking down the street. A casual offer of heroin? Jesus. I'm also impressed with my getting into bar abilities, and choosing them. Seriously, I have a talent people. Assuming it's not ultra-high class (trans-cool?), and we aren't looking too scrubby, I can manage to get us in. That being said, it may just be dumb luck and I'm blocking the memories of not getting it. Let me think what I want.

A trip to Camden Town was most entertaining. Despite being unclean from the night before (literally, no shower, just off and running), we sidled our way through what was the closest thing to a Middle Eastern market I've been too. There is absolutely everything there, and a lot of things I didn't expect. Goth stores abound, full of spiky looking objects, vintage clothing, food from everywhere, random crap stores, and a raver-esque store with chicks dancing on pillars in the corners. I love it. I also like having merchants trying to sell you things. It's not like in Thailand where it was a forceful shove, here it was just casual chat and a smile. Then lowering the price repeatedly.

So, what did I really think of England? Nice place to visit, I don't want to live there. The food is utter shit, the prices are insane, and I just didn't feel the vibe. When I came to Paris, I felt like I was at home. The people here have so much style, and in a very different way than Londoners. It felt like the Londoners were wearing the clothes because they had to, it didn't look natural at all. Parisians, it just suits them. I see people and I think, they make those clothes look good. An air of casualness, but it's perfected. I guess it's the difference between fashion and style.

The food. Ugh. We had a chat with Yann's French friend and he brought up a good point. When people just eat shitty food, they forget what real food is and just accept it. But once you've had truly good food, you can't go back to eating shit. I think it's easy for people to forget what is truly important in life, and one of those things is what you have 3 times at day (at least!).

Oh yeah, and the Tube is slow. Real slow. I don't know how it works as a transportation system effectively. Well, I guess it doesn't.

So, in conclusion, I've planned my next trip here. In two weeks I'm heading to Prague and then Berlin, hopefully meeting up with my friends who are backpacking across Europe. Party on people and I'll talk to you all soon.