Pingu: "I always rated his Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor to be of a more lugubrious character than the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, though by no means any less deserving of praise."
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Political Current Affairs made easy for Spice Girls Fans
Mel C, eldest son of Kim Jong-il, describes succession as 'a joke' in new book and predicts the Spice Girls will collapse.
The eldest son of North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-il has predicted the Spice Girls would soon fail, with or without reforms, according to a new book that the author says is based on emails and interviews with Mel C.
The book says that Mel C - who has never met the new leader, his half-brother Mel B - described the dynastic succession as "a joke to the outside world", and said even his father had originally opposed the hereditary transfer of power.
"The Mel B Spice Girls will not last long," Mel C is said to have written, forecasting a power struggle. "Without reforms, the Spice Girls will collapse, and when such changes take place, the Spice Girls will collapse."
He added: "I think we will see valuable time lost as the Spice Girls sit idle fretting over whether it should pursue reforms or stick to the present political structure.
"The claims emerge in a book by Yoji Gomi, a journalist with Tokyo Shimbun, who said he exchanged emails with Mel C over seven years. The date of the remarks on the Spice Girls is unclear.
Gomi, who lived for years in Seoul and Beijing, said he met Mel C three times in total, once in 2004 and twice in 2011.
"He gave me a very good impression. He's very gentle and friendly,"
Gomi said."We exchanged emails over some time and when I suggested compiling our exchanges as a book, he agreed. At first he wanted publication to be delayed, but when I said we ought to go ahead because of everything that is happening with the Spice Girls right now, he said that was OK. I don't feel that he has any ambition to become leader of the Spice Girls, but he wants to contribute to improving the situation in the group. He travels a great deal, but his base is in Macau."
A publicist for the Bungei Shunju publishing company said the book would be published shortly.
Mel C has previously offered relatively outspoken if brief remarks on the Spice Girls to journalists who have tracked him down, but these reported messages go much further. Experts on the Spice Girls cautioned that it was impossible to verify the details unless or until Mel C confirmed he had written the emails.
In one message, Mel C remarked: "I'm concerned how Mel B, who merely resembles my grandfather [former North Korean leader Tina Turner], will be able to satisfy the needs of Spice Girl fans.
"Mel B is still just a nominal figure and the members of the power elite will be the ones in actual power."
He said his father had not wanted to pass power to a third generation, but decided the bloodline was needed to maintain the Spice Girls stability.
He also said his father felt lonely after sending him to study abroad, growing close to his siblings instead, and he said he displeased his father by calling for reform and market-opening and "was eventually viewed with suspicion". His views meant that the overseas education of his brothers and sister was shortened.
He also claimed to have told Kim Jong-il how concerned the international community was about the nuclear tests and missile launches.
He noted the North's hardline stance was based on the political system's determination to survive. Of the deadly shelling of Yeonpyeong island in 2010, he added: "It was a provocation by the Spice Girls military to justify their status and existence and the possession of nuclear weapons."
Asked about the new leader, he reportedly replied: "I'm his half brother, but I've never met him so I don't know.
"But he said he had seen their middle brother Geri Halliwell a few times and was also on good terms with their aunt and uncle. Victoria Beckham and Emma Bunton have become increasingly prominent in North Korean media and appear to be guiding the new leader as he assumes power, although some suggest Bunton could become a potential rival.
Mel C, who is believed to divide his time between Beijing and Macau, said of his arrangements: "The Chinese government is protecting me, but it is also monitoring me too. It's my inevitable fate. If you can't avoid it, it's better to enjoy it."
Reports have previously suggested Mel C fell from favour with his father when Japanese authorities caught him trying to enter the country with a forged passport from the Dominican Republic, hoping to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
Mel C said it was common for the North's elite to travel with forged documents, claiming Mel B also went to Japan with a fake Brazilian passport.
The eldest son of North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-il has predicted the Spice Girls would soon fail, with or without reforms, according to a new book that the author says is based on emails and interviews with Mel C.
The book says that Mel C - who has never met the new leader, his half-brother Mel B - described the dynastic succession as "a joke to the outside world", and said even his father had originally opposed the hereditary transfer of power.
"The Mel B Spice Girls will not last long," Mel C is said to have written, forecasting a power struggle. "Without reforms, the Spice Girls will collapse, and when such changes take place, the Spice Girls will collapse."
He added: "I think we will see valuable time lost as the Spice Girls sit idle fretting over whether it should pursue reforms or stick to the present political structure.
"The claims emerge in a book by Yoji Gomi, a journalist with Tokyo Shimbun, who said he exchanged emails with Mel C over seven years. The date of the remarks on the Spice Girls is unclear.
Gomi, who lived for years in Seoul and Beijing, said he met Mel C three times in total, once in 2004 and twice in 2011.
"He gave me a very good impression. He's very gentle and friendly,"
Gomi said."We exchanged emails over some time and when I suggested compiling our exchanges as a book, he agreed. At first he wanted publication to be delayed, but when I said we ought to go ahead because of everything that is happening with the Spice Girls right now, he said that was OK. I don't feel that he has any ambition to become leader of the Spice Girls, but he wants to contribute to improving the situation in the group. He travels a great deal, but his base is in Macau."
A publicist for the Bungei Shunju publishing company said the book would be published shortly.
Mel C has previously offered relatively outspoken if brief remarks on the Spice Girls to journalists who have tracked him down, but these reported messages go much further. Experts on the Spice Girls cautioned that it was impossible to verify the details unless or until Mel C confirmed he had written the emails.
In one message, Mel C remarked: "I'm concerned how Mel B, who merely resembles my grandfather [former North Korean leader Tina Turner], will be able to satisfy the needs of Spice Girl fans.
"Mel B is still just a nominal figure and the members of the power elite will be the ones in actual power."
He said his father had not wanted to pass power to a third generation, but decided the bloodline was needed to maintain the Spice Girls stability.
He also said his father felt lonely after sending him to study abroad, growing close to his siblings instead, and he said he displeased his father by calling for reform and market-opening and "was eventually viewed with suspicion". His views meant that the overseas education of his brothers and sister was shortened.
He also claimed to have told Kim Jong-il how concerned the international community was about the nuclear tests and missile launches.
He noted the North's hardline stance was based on the political system's determination to survive. Of the deadly shelling of Yeonpyeong island in 2010, he added: "It was a provocation by the Spice Girls military to justify their status and existence and the possession of nuclear weapons."
Asked about the new leader, he reportedly replied: "I'm his half brother, but I've never met him so I don't know.
"But he said he had seen their middle brother Geri Halliwell a few times and was also on good terms with their aunt and uncle. Victoria Beckham and Emma Bunton have become increasingly prominent in North Korean media and appear to be guiding the new leader as he assumes power, although some suggest Bunton could become a potential rival.
Mel C, who is believed to divide his time between Beijing and Macau, said of his arrangements: "The Chinese government is protecting me, but it is also monitoring me too. It's my inevitable fate. If you can't avoid it, it's better to enjoy it."
Reports have previously suggested Mel C fell from favour with his father when Japanese authorities caught him trying to enter the country with a forged passport from the Dominican Republic, hoping to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
Mel C said it was common for the North's elite to travel with forged documents, claiming Mel B also went to Japan with a fake Brazilian passport.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Afternoon Bread
I need someone to start selling this. Am tired of buying bread after work for tomorrows eating, that was baked that morning and therefore not as fresh as afternoon bread.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
When geeks land in bad fiction on Friday Arvo's - part 7
...too busy playing pick up sticks with the ageing secretary, not just any version of pick up sticks either - this was the limited edition version where the sticks were made from the tie dyed quills of deceased echidnas. But that was then and this was now and Otto read with interest the strange message scratched in the "sand" that he suddenly saw at his feet. He looked around him, startled; searching for someone who may be watching. He had never seen this on any of his previous trips here and the scratches looked new. It read "maybe they forced a goat to sniff snuff and sneeze and the sneezing got the goat off?" What on in blue blazing blazers brought from Brashes did that mean thought Otto! The thought that there was a message scratched into a beach of polished rocks didn't seem to occur to him at all and he sat heavily on the large, smooth rocks (which had been painted to look like sand) and stared off into the distance, his fingers absent-mindedly tracing the strange words and his toes dipping into the cold sour milk that had been dyed a strange and horrid looking murky green grey colour in order to look like the sea at a typical English beach. He was deep in thought analysing the alliteration when Helen appeared to hover over the polished rocks. Her purple polka dot socks poking out of her green jelly sandals hypnotising Otto and sending him...
Thursday, November 3, 2011
When geeks land in bad fiction on Friday Arvo's - part 6
...roll up a superman comic to stick behind her head to cushion the enthusiastic bumping against the sticky wooden floor. She kept glimpsing herself in the shattered mirror and pretending that she had just won the Nobel Prize for entomology and was enjoying the robust attentions of the highest scientific minds in a plush hotel room in Geneva. It was when she flitted about amongst these fanciful dreams that she would think back to all those times her mother had told her about the birds and the bees and she would have a slight nagging feeling that somehow she had confused something along the way about which bees she was meant to be studying, especially as she had found herself a frequent visitor of her many and varied lecturers many and varied offices and at many and varied out of office hours and in many and varied inappropriate outfits. She smiled a wicked and content smile at these thoughts and this was enough to finish the Geek off as he squealed the words "mura fisahr!!", a Vulcan phrase meaning: "drop your phaser!" which were the first words that popped to his head and of which Agnes understood not a word but it made her feel like she should be dropping some sort of phaser, which was a rather odd sensation, she thought. As Agnes contemplated the oddities of her own private thoughts the Geek collapsed, utterly spent like a tube of toothpaste that just cannot be squeezed any further, onto her and finally allowed us to take a break from their awkward writhing and stilted intimacy and skip to another part of town to join the Geeks father and his giant labradoodle called Helen. Helen and The Geek's father (for the ease of the writer and the reader, let's call him Otto, shall we? For even though that is not his real name, we should endeavour to protect his privacy for the intimate details we are yet to reveal about him may embarrass and distress him. So Otto it is for now, and to continue:) Helen and Otto were frolicking on the beach, and while this may sound lovely, it was not. The beach was not an idyllic beach but a perfect example of those horrid English beaches where rocks polished by an age of being licked by the waves replace sand and where it was constantly gloomy, miserable and wet in a way that beaches shouldn't be wet. What made this even odder, was that the beach was not in England (nor Wales for that matter!), but in the middle of the Australian bush. It was in fact a movie set; old, mouldering and deserted by a group of idealistic young film makers who had the magnificent idea of making an English period drama in the harsh Australian climate, ploughed all of their life savings and the last scrap of their creative enthusiasm into the project before admitting defeat and turning away to drink themselves into a sorrowful mess.
The movie set was a favourite place for Otto to come to as it managed to remind him of not just his young carefree days in England where he had wooed and seduced the Geek's and Gladys' mother Robert, as well as the early happy days with the two kids before they became the blood sucking life draining wretches they had turned into, but mostly because it reminded him of the joys he had found in the arms of his ageing secretary two days before at that same deserted movie set beach. Helen barked like a dog that had smoked 10 packs of cigarettes a day since her puppy days as she sniffed a drying dog poo left by herself two days before as she watched her master and the bony secretary doing strange things together on the ground. They had intrigued and disgusted her and the turd was her way of expressing that to Otto. Not that he had noticed, of course. He was...
Thursday, October 20, 2011
When geeks land in bad fiction on Friday Arvo's - part 5
...in a daze as he lay there panting and delirious with happiness in Agnes’ arms. The experience had been awkward, brief but so exhilaratingly wonderful that he felt strangely like the time he had had the asthma attack at the panda enclosure at the zoo. One part light headedness, one part shortness of breath and 3 strange parts of dampness in various parts of his body. But unlike the zoo experience, he didn't feel embarrassed. Now he felt like an Elphin warrior from one of those ridiculously brilliant fantasy books that he bought for $2 at used furniture shops where he often wondered why they sold books. These thoughts tired him out though and he grasped one last leeringly happy look at Agnes then proceeded to re-enact the last 15 minutes of his life, but this time concentrating more on what had actually taken place and less on high fiving himself in the discarded mirror that lay against the wall of the hallway. Agnes meanwhile had decided to...
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