Facebook, the new-age helpline

Have you noticed (I'm sure you have) that it's not only possible but encouraged to comment on and approve of people's status updates on Facebook? This even applies to your own updates: I saw an update from one of my friends complaining that another friend liked her own update; there is nothing wrong with that, for status updates are our new self-therapy, aren't they? Facebook has become the new-age self-help portal that everyone was secretly longing for. On the one hand they give us all a chance to claim our own 'seventeen minutes of fame'; on the other hand they offer us the opportunity to feel that we are genuinely useful. We side with a hurting friend: 'Hey girl, don't give up. He's just a stupid guy who doesn't recognise your worth.' And we offer nuggets of enlightened living: 'This is a day for all of us to shine.'

Sure, there are still some people who update their latest whinges and binges but these are getting to be the minority and the least popular. It's easy to see why: our bookshops are stacked with 'inspirational' titles and our fave websites are those offering brighter futures, so community and self-help have become a new way of life. Social networking sites hook into deep and real human needs; Facebook has become theever-changing, always accessible new-age helpline.

1st black Miss England

Rachel Christie, the first black Miss England (2009)

The poems I Like

The Poems I like

The kinds of poems I like

are slim and shapely,

with beautiful smiles

and warm hearts; they

look good in a pair of skinny jeans,

saunter across crowded streets,

loiter with intent

in cafes and churches,

parks and bars,

and cruise in summer

in low-neck cars.

They are never luxury items

but necessary and vital

with no stray words

or punctuation

out of place; happy

and carefree, they

kiss you on the face.

Those are the kinds of poems I like.

KenR, 26-07-09

Playlist/Readlist

Here's my current (July 2009) playlist/readlist, the music n books that are getting my attention right now:

Music

Kings of Leon: Because of the times/ Only by the night; David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust/ Heroes; Gounod: Petite Symphonie for 9 wind instruments/ Mozart wind serenades K375 & 388.

Books

Michael Beckwith: Spiritual Liberation; Paul Reps: Zen Flesh, Zen Bones; Paul: Letter to the Phillippians; Pico Iyer: The Lady and the Monk.

Do it again

Do it again

To be alive
is to feel joy
pain
sun
rain
to get up every morning
and do it again
simply because it's there;
to love the breeze
in your hair
the soft crunch of chocolate
on your lips
the gentle swagger of motion
as you roll your hips
the love
of being in love
and being alive
again
and again
and again.

Let's do it again
let's do it again
let's do it again
let's do it again
let's do it again
let's do it again
let's do it again



KenR, July 2009

Love in Berlin, 1977

Berlin 1977

We've got nothing to lose and nothing to gain/ we can be lovers and kiss in the rain/ we can be lovers just for one day/ we can be heroes; what do you say?

Recently I've been listening again to David Bowie's "Heroes" album and it's taken me back... Bowie recorded it in West Berlin when he was living near the wall with Iggy. During 1976-8 I was in and out of West Berlin because I had a berliner girlfriend who lived there, at Neu Spandau, out by the edge of the city. I also knew a few pretty women who stayed at Wedding and a guy whose father was a lawyer and I spent time with my friends and caroused and danced and talked and made love and walked the city and enjoyed its odd decadence and lasting vibrancy. "Heroes" came out at that time, and I bought the German version, 'Helden', for my girlfriend and played it repeatedly late one night while the rain poured heavily outside her flat. It was a good time, a time of another world, of a world long passed but not gone. This week I've been surprising myself with whispered glimpses of that silent age.