Raving and Drooling – A lion’s tail

I did a previous article about prayers during natural disasters here, so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much, but the fact that the number one trending hashtag on Twitter is #prayforjapan sorta shits me. It should be #japanearthquake or #tsunami or something in my opinion, but it’s not – it’s more cases of idiots pretending to pray (rather than actually praying) because they think it makes them look sensitive and caring.

Now, I’m not religious, but I respect people who are, and I especially respect them if they want to pray for someone, because even if God doesn’t exist, that act is meditative and helps them focus, and concentrate their positive thoughts. Maybe the world is run by God. Maybe it’s run on good-will. Maybe it’s run by the movement of tectonic plates. Which, is up to you.

But I am absolutely bloody positive, that between 90 and 98% of all these people who say, tweet, or otherwise claim to be praying, are not doing so. Now, in my experience, praying is normally something people do in church, not at home like children are taught to do before going to bed, and it’s not Sunday yet, so I don’t think many have been to church yet. Now, this is just speculation, because I don’t know him personally, but when Barak Obama says “Our prayers are with Japan”, I just have my doubts whether he’s actually stopped and prayed yet.

If I can put my cynical atheist hat on briefly, can I quote these facts for you ?

Length of time you can live without water: About 3 days.
Length of time you can live without water but with prayers: Still about 3 days.

Length of time you can live without food: About 2 weeks.
Length of time you can live without food but with prayers: Still about 2 weeks.

Length of time you can survive with major radiation poisoning: Not long.
Length of time you can survive with major radiation poisoning but with prayers: Still not long. (Folding 1,000 origami cranes like Sadako Sasaki is more likely to work imho)

You know what DOES help people ? Sending money and aid. Just sayin’.

But I don’t know any of that for a fact. If praying helped stop even one extra person dying in the quake, the tsunami, or the imminent nuclear explosion, it’s worth it, so if you are religious, I urge you to do it. But for God’s sake (wait, that doesn’t make sense for me to say that does it ?), don’t just talk about it – do it.

I’m pretty sure that religious people don’t run around saying “Guess what ? I just prayed for Japan !”. If you need to tell people on Twitter or elsewhere that you’re praying – you’re not religious, you’re a fucking douche. Just shut the fuck up and pray already. We don’t need you to tell us.

kthx. go pray nao.

Since a picture is often worth even more than what a thousand of the most emotional words could say, I’m going to steal this one from the BBC, and all I’m going to say is:

:”(

The full BBC gallery can be viewed here.

Ok, these pictures don’t quite capture the level of epicness of this, because I saw the black, billowing smoke from a mile away and wondered what it was from, and before I got close enough to see that it was a car, I just saw very tall flames coming from behind the lane barrier. When I got close enough, I was like “omgz, that is epic” and I almost didn’t get my phone out in time to capture it. Sadly, these photos really don’t show off the 10 foot high flames and billowing smoke as well as they could, but it was epic enough that everyone in the office has come in and asked to see the photos after someone told them how awesome it was. Suffice to say, everyone is using this as an excuse for being late today, lol !

Epic Car Fire

Epic fire is Epic

The following is the contents of an email that I sent to Steve Jobs last night. But he’s on indefinite sick leave, so I really don’t expect a response. Plus, he doesn’t respond to whingers. :”P Anyway, here it is, so that I can my point public.

Dear Steve,

- pawz

Ok, I know I’ve done X-chat scripts for getting your iTunes info here. And I’ve done how to get your remote computer’s iTunes track using Applescript for Linkinus here. So what _haven’t_ I done ? I guess it’s get remote iTunes info using X-chat. Why does this matter ? Well, because I choose to use an aging G4 1.25ghz (with 2gb ram mind you) as my IRC client. It’s a very capable box, and while it can browse the web, I also use another script to open all my URLS on my main desktop box (details about that are here).

Anyway, despite all that, it can’t run Linkinus, because Linkunus requires like a 20,000ghz processor and 18 Gbs of ram, because it’s programmed by fucktards who use a million libraries and interpretation layers or something. I don’t actually know. all I know is that Linkinus is the most bloated piece of shit EVER.. and I mean that includes Windows and Office, and .. I dunno, everything else. So I use X-chat on it. And if you do too, you may want to get your remote computer’s iTunes info and display it in X-chat locally (by god that took a long time to explain, didn’t it ?).

You want two files. The X-chat perl script in /Applications/X-chat/Plugins/itunes.pl (or whatever appeals to you) like this:

IRC::add_command_handler("itunes", "itunes_announce");
sub itunes_announce {
    $output = "is listening to: " . `/usr/local/scripts/itunes.sh`;
    IRC::command($output);
    return 1;
}

And in the file /usr/local/scripts/itunes.sh (Ok this ends in .sh but it’s really an Applescript. Well Applescript is a shell, isn’t it ?) put:

#!/usr/bin/osascript
tell application "iTunes" of machine "eppc://user:password@192.168.0.157"
     return  artist of current track & " - " & name of current track
end tell

Where of course, the IP address is the one of your remote machine, and the username and password are that of the remote user. Note that “Remote Apple Events” must be enabled in the System Preferences.

There you go.. Type /itunes on your X-chat box and it should display the iTunes track info from your remote iTunes machine. It may act weird, it may give an applescript error and it may or may not try and launch iTunes locally (I don’t have it installed on that box anyway), but worry not, it will output sane info to IRC with no errors !

Enjoy. Comments and improvements appreciated ! :”)

Ok, so I did this a few weeks ago, and I heard nothing back, and I wasn’t sure if they’d taken my membership fees, but the package that arrived in the mail today put the question to rest, when Tonez brought in a thick white A4 envelope with “Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance” printed on the corner and said “I think you might be excited about this” as he dropped it on my lap. I was tired and recovering from last night’s Urthboy gig which I hadn’t slept since, but I laughed with surprised pleasure and ripped it open and surveyed the contents.

Apart from, I dunno, two or three or maybe more documents that prominently reminded me of the utmost importance of remaining a fully financial member at all times (gee, this doesn’t feel like a union at all !), there was an extremely dry glossy publication by the MEAA called “Life in the clickstream. The future of Journalism” which was full of horribly boring pie charts and tables that I immediately closed and hid away. There was also a copy of December’s Walkley magazine, which quite does look like it will present interesting reading, and made me feel all sort of elite and cultured just by holding it, but the real prize was a little plastic envelope with …

Journalist, Qld branch baby

… my Journalist’s Union member card, or my *cough* press pass, which I proudly redact and display for you here. What, you think just because I’m a registered journalist, that I’m gonna put my real name on this crazy fucking blog ? Get real :”P If you know who I am, wonderful, but I’m not giving clues to the clueless ok, this shit is pseudo-anonymous at least. I know it takes some of the impact away from me being able to proudly show you my name above the word “Journalist”, but if you know me, I’m sure you’ve probably had the real one thrust in your face by now, probably in the awesome plastic sleeve on the neck strap that has “alliance.org.au” printed all around it. Fuck yeah, you can be sure I’ll be pulling this out from around my neck on the alliance strap and waving it around at some point to get in me down the front at a gig so I can take awesome photos. Now, I just need to obtain a new DSLR to replace my old 5MP dinosaur. And a cool hat. I need a cool hat too, right ?

At short notice the other day, some posters appeared for a gig in the Valley called “Fun Raiser” (yeah, no “d”, just “fun”) hosted by Urthboy at a venue called the Stepp Inn, which, I dunno, if you believe Urthboy, is apparently where hip hop is at, in Brisbane. I’ve never seen Urthboy before, but I really got into his earlier solo stuff, especially Distant Sound of Random Menace (my favourite) and The Signal. The Herd are cool too, but I just dig Urthboy’s laid-back, political flows in his early solo work so I have been keen to see him for years, and since this gig was raising money for flood relief and the only cover charge was a small donation, I was there… mid-week or no.

Unfortunately, the 11pm time-slot on a Thursday night meant I went alone. I had intended to catch some of the earlier acts, but I got distracted and only made it by around 10:30, in time to catch a bit of Vegas Aces, who were neat, and who I’d checked out on iTunes earlier that day, but Dj Katch was spinning the decks as Urthboy came on. I was surprised at first when Katch stayed on to DJ for Urthboy, but he explained later that his DJ had bailed on him and he’d had to ask Katch to fill in for him. I hadn’t heard Katch before either, but he’s definitely cool and he did an awesome job for Urthboy.

When Urthboy came on-stage, well, I didn’t really know what he looked like, but everyone else did of course. I was a little surprised. My first reaction was that he was a sorta short, weedy sorta goofy looking dude. He launched straight into a couple of songs, and it took me a bit to get into things. Everyone else was pissed, while I hadn’t had a drink yet, so I stood still watching and trying to figure this dude out. He didn’t seem to be the politically-minded prose writer I was expecting, and mostly seemed intent on getting the crowd into the cheesy antics of jumping up and down stabbing your fist into the air. Ok, so maybe I just wasn’t into the first couple of tracks he played. But Katch spun up some cool tunes after that and by the third and fourth track (I can’t remember what they were.. The Signal was one of the first I really got into), I was pumping with the crowd, and maybe reluctantly doing a little hand-stabbing in spite of myself.

Ok, I know this photo sucks, but I was there for the tunes, not to lug a camera !

But the real knock-out was Jane Tyrrell, or Tizz as I think he was calling her. She really came across as a smooth vocalist with an amazing range and she really gave the performance an edge, especially during the later tracks. They each played up the crowd a bit, which I dunno, I still feel is cheesy. Making us all scream out “Fuck You” in response to Anna Bligh’s sympathy for us. (It was a slightly more complex point Urthie was making, but I thought it felt a little silly)

He didn’t really do any tracks I really wanted hear (Especially Distant Sound), but Come Around went off totally, and his version of Modern Day Folk was so awesome it had me totally yelling along and really losing myself in the awesome layering of the beats and the melody, and Urthie and Jane’s vocals. They finished about 10 minutes early and said they were going, but of course we were in for two more. I can’t recall what the last two tracks were, but during the second last one, Urthboy jumps down into the crowd and gathers everyone around in a circle to dance together as he rapped. As he does so, this dude who looked a bit like an older Joey Jeremiah out of Degrassi steps up and cuts sick with these wicked moves in front of Urthie and Urthboy goes “fuck man, who knew the dude from chilli peppers could break dance like that”. It was a neat moment, but then I noticed Jane standing beside me continuing to sing and I realised she was quietly moving through the crowd connecting with people while she was singing, which was really cool as well.

Even though it seemed like such a short hour, I was relieved when it was over, coz it was SO DAMN HOT in there and I was just baked to the point I could barely breathe. Urthboy said some cool shit and promised a Herd tour in April and they both signed off and thanked Katch, who was stellar as well I must say, and I will pickup some of his shit later. So, I left being impressed, but not for the reasons I thought. I was hoping to enjoy the insightful melbourne poet side of Urthboy, but instead I left thinking “fuck man, that man knows how to make a crowd PUMP !”

Nice show Urthboy, Jane and Katch, and props to the Stepp Inn for giving so much of the proceeds to the flood appeal. Mad respect for all !

This is an email I originally wrote to my mum, which being a general musing on life in West End, I decided to publish here.

The other night, I was bemoaning the difficulty of obtaining Redgum music after having lost all mine in a hard drive crash a while back. Then it occurred to me that there might be some on eBay. I was shocked to find that not only could you get some, but that you could easily obtain the full back catalogue, including their very first album in new or as-new condition. Only one problem of course – it’s all on vinyl.

So I bought a 45 of Caught in the Act (although I bought if for the B-side – Stewie), and it turned up on Friday, although it sat in the letter box until today when Tonez fished it out with a stick (there’s a nasty wasp family who are squatting in the letter box that noone is willing to evict). I couldn’t play it of course, so I put it aside gently. Then Pat and I went down to do our laundry at the laundromat because his washing machine is broken and keeps tripping the earth leakage detector. After having two different machines eat $8 of our money without working, we found two working machines and walked down to the Rumpus for a drink.

The place was full of weirdos (ok wait, that’s normal actually) pawing through boxes of vinyl. While I was ordering my vodka, ginger beer and lime at the bar, I asked Alec if they did it regularly and he said “Nah man, once every few months at most. The guy’s from Rocking Horse and he tours around various bars on Sundays”. I waited for an opportunity to get in but realised that the only way I was going to get in there was if I elbowed my way in, so I cruised the makeshift aisles looking for a genre to start on. They didn’t have folk or blues, so I figured I wasn’t gonna find any Redgum or ZZTop, which is sorta what I wouldda liked, so I headed for Jazz and selected a couple of interesting looking Jazz and early electronica type 33′s and headed back outside to finish my drink.

After that we went back to the laundry to load our dryers up with coins for the second time, because they had no hot air available we saw a poster on the wall advertising a nearly new washer and dryer for sale together around the corner in Highgate Hill.

“Waddaya reckon pawz ? One each ?”

“Yeah man, I’ll make the call” I said.

I rang some cheery Korean guy called Akira and we went up to his investment house to look at them. They were both pretty good. The washer was only 6 months old, and the dryer was a bit older, but we offered him $300 for both if he could drop them around tomorrow and he agreed as long as we could carry them downstairs, as he had a bad back, so we did so, and we all went away happy.

We went back to the Rumpus and had another drink while I browsed eBay for a turntable to play my new acquisitions on. I found a nice professionally reconditioned USB turntable for $35 and bought it online, before returning to pick up our still completely sodden laundry. Pat had taken his there wet, so we’d paid $28 to leave with wet clothes. Oh well, if we hadn’t gone, we wouldn’t have seen the ad for the whitegoods.

Sorta sounds like an advert for Mastercard:

Secondhand Jazz on vinyl: $22
Reconditioned turntable on eBay: $35
Four drinks: $28
Unfinished, wet laundry: $28
Washer and Dryer: $300
Not having to go the bloody laundromat again: Priceless

A lot of people really helped out during the Brisbane Floods of January 2011. I have amazing photos of residents and the army locking arms and running through the mud to try and push it out of people’s streets, but that’s another story. This story is about the Queensland Police force, or specifically, some assholes in West End.

Cops in West End doing umm.. nothing ?

During the floods, we had chance to encounter the police on a few occasions, and for the most part, they were nice, helpful people. But not all. On the 12th of Jan, we were walking down to my mate’s house, a day before the peak, to check out the state of his car and his dad’s house where it was parked. As we were walking down a street who’s only dry part was narrowing to a meter or two wide, he stopped to tie his shoelaces for a moment. Other cars had been happy to pass around all the locals walking down the only dry part of the street, but the police yelled out “why don’t you try doing that on the side of the road, idiot”. We looked at the side of the road, underwater, and looked back at the cop in disbelief, and then continued on to check on his submerged house.

Not long after, we were down at Ryan Street in West End, about half a block from his house, which was about as close as we could get without owning a canoe (there were several people kayaking down the becalmed street in kayaks with cameras). Nearby, a large number of police arrived. About 6 car’s worth converged on one corner, and they were all out standing around and talking on the street. A rubber police dinghy was nearby on a trailer. I walked up to one cop who wasn’t busy and asked “Do you mind if I ask what’s going on ? There’s several dozen police here. Is there a rescue going on or something ?” He replied “No. We’ve just finished knocking on doors, and we came back here. What we’re doing is none of your business”. We moved along.

We had a working toilet in a street full of volunteers

But then, on the 15th of January, we went back to Ryan St to help the clean-up. It was amazing. Within 30 seconds of stepping out of the car, we’d been offered food by three different people. We explained again and again that we were there to help, as we approached his house. His builder had been staying in the house, and he had a spray-painted sign out front that said “Toilet Workin”. Since most of the work had been done at his house, we went into the next street, which was worse hit, and we helped shovel mud for the next four hours.

Even Pat’s girlfriend Louise, who’d just spent 11 days in hospital after being flown into Australia from Papua New Guinea and had only got out of the hospital 2 days earlier was down at the riverfront shovelling as if it was her own house, when in truth, we had no idea who the people were. The journalist in me urged me to ask the white-haired old lady if she would say a couple of words on camera, but she declined due to the emotional nature of the situation. As we left the suburb, Pat, who had spent the afternoon linked arm-in-arm with the Army forces, bull-rushing the mud out of the street, and was covered head to toe in mud said “Now we can go and feel superior to all those clean people.” At that moment, a highway patrol car drove into the narrow street, crowded with utes loaded with muddy brooms and shovels and barely enough room to travel down.

The Army were an amazing help

“They look pretty clean” I said.

“There’s no looting here. They’re just sightseeing. The lazy pricks”, said Louise.

After the waters receded, much of West End and South Brisbane was still without power, and Ryan and I went walking down Boundary Street to see if there was anywhere open serving food, as all ours had spoiled. I was disappointed that the Indian Kitchen on Vulture wasn’t open, because I thought they were pretty resilient buggers, and I knew that Happy Days on Boundary would be closed, but my mate said “Char Char will be open with Yiros”. Sure enough, when we got close, there were dozens of people crowded around tables at one of the only restaurants open in the area. We ordered, and stepped across the road to The Archive for a beer while it cooked (where Kevin Rudd was drinking a couple of nights earlier, but that’s also another story). After picking it up, we headed back up Boundary Rd towards the corner near my house. As we got close, my friend said “Cops are up ahead”.

I saw an unmarked white police car on the side of the road with its lights on. We saw a large group of uniformed officers on the corner, and as we approached, we saw a highway patrol car parked just around the corner (within 6 foot of the corner, which is illegal, but hey, they’re cops on important business, right ?). As we got up to them, a third car, this time regularly marked arrived, and blasted his sirens for a second as he pulled up on the corner and several more cops jumped out.

Cops charging a poor busker in West End

Ryan said “I wonder what’s up. This looks pretty serious. Could be looters”.

I joked “They’re probably arresting that busker that was on the corner of Vulture St and Boundary Rd earlier”.

As we rounded the corner, what we saw disgusted and amazed me.

They were arresting, or at least, ticketing and harrassing, the busker on the corner of Vulture St and Boundary Rd !!!!!

Now, if you know West End, there is ALWAYS a busker on that corner. It’s just West End. That’s where you busk. That’s busker corner FFS, and just a couple of nights earlier, during the peak of the flood, I’d captured a photo of a busker /asleep/ on that corner at around 2am.

And at least 5 or 6, or I dunno, after more arrived, probably bloody 8 cops were standing around this poor guy, who was just standing there with a guitar and his case on the ground with a few coins in it and a small A4 sign that I didn’t have time to read. They were telling him he wasn’t allowed to be there for whatever reason I can’t imagine. The guy’s girlfriend was screaming “We haven’t had power in four days. We have no fresh food left. All he’s doing is sitting on a public corner playing his guitar and asking for a little compassion from passers by”. The main cop, pictured in the photo on the right hand side had a large ticket book out just before I took the photo, and he handed two coloured tickets to the guy. It wasn’t even enough for these cops to harass this poor guy. They actually had to ticket him as well.

Highway Patrol Car being used for its intended purpose

I looked at Ryan and said “This is unbelievable. I cannot believe 8 cops are charging a busker in the middle of West End, at 10pm, during the middle of a national disaster.”

“Man, camera” he said.

I was deathly afraid to visibly pull out my camera in front of so many cops. I know what Queensland Police are like, and how much they didn’t like being video taped, so I took two quick snaps of them, then two snaps of the closest cars, one of whom’s number plate I would love to enhance, CSI style, (but that shit isn’t real) but I’ve done the best I can, and maybe someone can identify the number, and then I turned away. I looked over my shoulder and saw the cop who had issued the ticket had turned to me and was now standing a couple of feet away watching us. Ryan urged me to hold the phone beside my leg and take some more discreet shots, but sadly they didn’t turn out to be useful (I can’t aim from the hip, sorry !), and after taking about four, the cop looking at us said “Hey”, and at the moment the crosswalk light turned green. I looked at Ryan, and said “Go !”, and we ran across the street as fast as we could without running dangerously. The cop let us go.

Unmarked Cop Car (clearly well utilized)

When I got home, I dragged Pat and Louise out of bed and said “You’ve got to see what we just saw. This is fucking amazing”, and I proceeded to bring the photos up on the 50″ plasma as I told how the story had unfolded.

Pat said “You know why they were harassing them ?”

“Why ?” I asked.

“Because he’s black.”

“Holy shit. I never even looked at the photo because I was telling the story, and when I took it I was so worried about the police that I never noticed what colour he was. He was just the regular busker who’s always there.”

“Why would you notice ? This is West End” he said.

“Fuck the flood photos. I want to sent that to the news. That’s just disgusting.”

“I’d like to try and track him down and ask him what they charged him with” he commented.

“I hope we do both.” I said. “I know it might not get played if I just send it in directly, so I’m going to try and create a new photo montage, and add in the new recovery photos we took today, and then throw in that footage at the end, with a comment comparing the Army’s response with the Police’s.”

“Yeah man. The Army were legends this week. The Police were useless, arrogant cunts as usual”.

Indeed.

I’ve never allowed comments on my blog before, because this site is a personal outlet for me, but at the risk of spam, I’m going to open the comments up on this post. If you have a comment about this post, please add it to the comments section below.

*UPDATE* I created a short video montage of the floods, the recovery, and the Police versus Army response to the crisis. I think you will see from my footage just how much the Army cared, and how little the Police gave two shits about anyone in Brisbane affected by the floods. View it below. (Please choose the highest resolution suitable for your connection and then view it in full-screen)

I know this story has been told around the world and it’s hard to imagine anyone who hasn’t heard it on the news in the last few days, but at the risk of repeating old news, I just have to say something about this amazing boy who gave up his life earlier this week.

Jordan Rice (13), his younger brother Blake (10) and his mother Donna (~46) who lived in Toowoomba, 130km west of Brisbane were out shopping for school uniforms for the two boys. Jordan’s father John (46) had let them go out in mild rain, having no idea that a massive tsunami of water was later to head down the street, enveloping their car and stalling the engine.

Donna, Jordan and Blake climbed on to the roof of their car as the water raged around them. Onlookers stared on helplessly before a brave local Warren McEarlen tied one end of a rope around a nearby pole and the other end around himself and dived into the waters to reach the family. Unfortunately he was swept off his feet, and a giant of a man known only as Chris stepped forward and tied the rope around himself and made another attempt. As he reached out a hand to help Jordan to safety, Jordan, who could not swim and was terrified of water performed an unparalleled act of bravery and yelled “No, take my brother first !”.

Chris dutifully carried 10 year old Blake out of the waters and handed him to Mr McEarlen who carried him to safety as Chris turned back towards the car to attempt to rescue to the remaining brother and mother. Unfortunately, the frayed rope could not take the strain any longer and it snapped before Chris could reach them. At that moment, the water swept Jordan and Donna off the roof and into a nearby tree where they clung briefly before Jordan lost his grip and was swept away into the raging flood waters. Bystands report that his mother released her grip on the tree in order to follow her son. Both were swallowed up by the violent torrent and drowned tragically.

RIP Jordan Rice 1998 - 2011

But their death is not meaningless. News media around the world are hailing the story as a miracle of human courage and a beautiful example of the strong bond between two brothers. Jordan’s face has graced the cover of every major newspaper in the country and right now, he is a household name. As tragic is that day was for the two remaining members of the family, I’m sure that Blake is going to remember his brother’s amazing sacrifice as vividly as the day it happened for the rest of his life. While I couldn’t wish that horror on a 10 year old, he surely now has a reason to be truly proud of his heroic brother.

Jordan Rice, you are truly a hero and our heart goes out to your family.

Many of my readers, both the unwitting masses on IRC and the lost souls who have found their way here through deliberate action might think that Raving and Drooling is the way I probably act when I am ranting passionately about something. You all have no idea that at the other end of this wire, I sit perfectly calm, with a low heart rate, and a glint of humor in my eye. No, to explain the origin of the current incarnation of my inner literary expression, I must steal from the Wikipedia article on the Pink Floyd song “Sheep”, which was in early forms known as “Raving and Drooling”.

Sheep in Animals are not so different from the ones in George Orwell’s 1945 novel Animal Farm. The sheep represent the lowest class of the social system, the proletariat. They are oblivious and exploited, “only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air”. In the first verse they are described to be peacefully grazing – unaware that they are soon to be brought to a slaughterhouse. They are warned of the presence of dogs, the iron-handed guardians of the system. It is also described in the first few lines that the artist had “looked over Jordan and I have seen / Things are not what they seem,” which is a reference to Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and has become an idiom for having an ecstatic vision, especially one involving death, particularly one’s own. In the book of Exodus, the Israelites must cross the river Jordan to get to the “Promised Land” after their escape from Egyptian Slavery.

In the second verse the awful truth suddenly dawns on them and with “terminal shock in (their) eyes” they realize that they are being led into the “valley of steel”, which is a metaphorical phrase, because it also represents the high-rise buildings (hence the steel framework), home of the corporate world as well as the slaughterhouse. The song continues into a mock biblical verse in which the sheep describe their dedicated belief in their master with “great power and great hunger.” But in a humorous turnabout the sheep, “through quiet reflection and great dedication” master the art of karate and rebel against the dogs.

The third verse describes the sheep’s revolt, as “Raving and drooling they fell on his neck with a scream.” They might have had enough but they are still undereducated and uncivilized as they are described as “demented avengers.” The song is completed with a cheerful announcement: “Have you heard the news? / The dogs are dead!” The sheep, because of their strength in numbers, overpower and kill the dogs.

Sheep, Dog or Pig; identifying with any is uncomfortable and compromising, but I do know one thing – I would love to see the sheep set on the dogs… set on them Raving and Drooling.

Ok, through a combination of laziness and a desire to get thoughts up online quickly, and in particular, to be able to do that via multiple submission types; web, application or iPhone, I decided to migrate my primary outlet of expression to a WordPress environment. This will provide me convenience and power, perhaps at the expense of my lovely custom HTML reviews. But I will do my best to bring them across in as much of their original glory as possible. No doubt the daily snapshot I installed will become a horribly bastardised piece of spaghetti code, and who knows, maybe some of it will be useful. We will see how this new environment progresses, and if I do not like it, I will shape it until I do ! Now that I have a threaded comments system, please, comment. Good only, negative commenters and trolls can totally GTFO my site.