Everywhere, books

She calls it juicing the fruit, says everyone should do it.
"But it's risky, isn't it?" I asked.
"Nothing's risky. Or everything is."
"Banned in the book of Deuteronomy."
"Probably."
"Certainly."
"Not in private."
"Here isn't private."
We were in the back of a bookshop: dusty dust-covers, sagging shelves, second-hand books about second-hand love or forbidden triangles. Everywhere, books; everywhere, shelves screening us from the door where the old man was drowsy in the afternoon heat. Apart from us and the old man the shop was empty.
"Do you know that poem by Cavafy?" she asked, "in the shop?"
"I know it," I said.
"And the one in the taverna?"
"A divine July was blazing."
"Yes," she said. "Yes."
"Public places."
"Private passions."
Cavafy, yes. The old man of Alexandria, the great poet of desire, the desire of minds mastered by the heat of the day and the heat of the flesh.
"I wonder if there's any Cavafy here?" I said.
"Don't change the subject," she said.
We weren't in the shop for more than forty minutes. At some point it began raining: fat, moist summer drops spattering the shop's windows and disturbing the dust of the quiet street outside.
When we left I asked the bookseller if he had anything by Cavafy. Either he didn't understand or else he misunderstood. If we wanted coffee, we could get it further down the road, he said.

16th February

Outside, a grass-cutting-machine drones like a giant bee and a lonely far-off bird sings; just next door, a child cries, a mother shouts, and a phone rings; on the page before me Carrol's Walrus and the Carpenter still speak of cabbages and kings; but I, skittish, cannot concentrate on any of these things, because I am thinking of you and wishing you were here.

Brown

She was a brown girl, dressed in brown; her friend was dressed in pink. I wasn't planning on staying, but she forced me to rethink: it wasn't the ambience and it wasn't the place--I've always been a victim for a pretty face.

Touch

Touch

"You're dangerously pretty," I said. "Dangerous to all, even yourself. But especially to me." That she was pretty was easy to see but the danger that lurked behind her eyes was dimmed, even in sunlight. It isn't right, I thought, that beauty should present such a risk.

"But you're here," she said. "You needn't have stayed."

"You wanted me to," I replied. It was true; it was in her eyes.

We left the bar; went to the car. Then I drove a way, but not too far.

"I hear you're famous," she said. "You're dangerous too. And you like pretty women."

"What man doesn't?" I said. "It's the way we're made."

The shadows were crawling across the park. They were mostly long and thin, like stretched fingers without knuckles and without nails. Already they had reached the perimeter wall and the more-than-two-years-old graffiti that was scrawled there, acclaim for a once-popular political leader who was now discredited. 'Viva X!' it proclaimed. That was all.

In the car, we sat side-by-side, silently, almost as if we were afraid to breathe. Perhaps we were. We were both waiting for something to happen, waiting for life to intervene.

"Touch me and I'll scream," she said. "Don't touch me and I'll die."

What else could I do? I took a deep breath. And. Touched. Her.

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Distressing Indeed!

Just found this quote: "What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult." [Sigmund Freud] 'Nuff said!

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Kaena avatar

Oh, and the CGI of Avatar reminds me of Kaena. I suppose everything builds on what has gone before. Anyway, despite its borrnwings~ a bit of zen here, a splat of green movement there~ Avatar is big enough and complex enough to entertain n ponder on for many viewings.

Emerald avatar

The more I watch Avatar, the more I think of John Boorman's 'Emerald Forest'. Is that because of the ecological theme, the tribal theme, the Corporate Greed theme or because the central character falls in love with a girl and her exotic culture? Or all of these together? I haven't figured that one out yet.

Browser Wars (new edition) Opera alpha

The Browser Wars continue with Opera's "pre-alpha" release 10.5. Basically this a techie/geek release--not for real everyday use, not even really for testing--just to show off some new stuff; but it's FAST! Faster even than Google's Chrome. Because it's an unfinished release, pix are not fully rendered, but there's a gr8 r-click tool that enables you to open any open page in another browser of your choice [I've been wanting this feature to reappear since I first used it with Cyberdog back in 1986 or so]. If you're up for some fun, try it out. Available now (as they say) from Opera's site.

Janee Bennett

The New Beyonce?

Janee Bennett is a singer-cum-model-latest-image-on-the-scene from Manchester, UK. recently she's been getting some airplay and praise-song reviews in the urban/dance press. You can see what she looks like :-) but can she sing and dance? Yeah, she can sing but it's still a young voice to my ears, particularly since her music is grime. Can she be the new Beyonce? Can she sing RnB? Who cares? We've still got the old one! If she can grow into the new Janee that will probably do for the rest of us.

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Exciting test match!

Well, I knew cricket could be exciting--even test matches--but I never realised a drawn test match could be exciting 8-] SA and England draw in Cape Town... and it was right down to the last ball! Good sport!

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