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Behind the Mask

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Friday, 25 Aug 2023, 09:04

It's been a few weeks since I posted anything, but since there isn't anything other than the slow descent into technological and medical enslavement to talk about, there really wasn't much point. But irony of ironies, we now have Sinn Fascism telling us to wear masks.  4 months after '3 weeks to save the NHS' and NOW you need a mask. We've been given 4 weeks to get used to the idea before they make it mandatory, you couldn't make it up!! Well, actually you could because that is exactly what they are doing, and from the party whose military wing spent years running around with masks and guns, terrorising and traumatising an entire community?? Give me strength!!!

But I don't care who says it, I still won't be wearing one, I don't care if it's mandatory, compulsory or whatever, I'm not wearing one because a) they are completely pointless - a virus is so small you need a microscope to see it, it is one 10,000th of a millimetre and can easily pass through paper and cloth  and b) for health reasons - and as the propaganda says - it's not to protect me, it's to protect you -  because if you try and put a mask on me, you will get severely beaten. 

But I don't care anyway as my holidays are coming up soon and i'll be heading to England for a few days, for a nice change of scenery. I have to fly out of Belfast this time to Heathrow as everything going to Gatwick was sold out, making it a bit of a trek to get down to Sussex. But it'll be worth it, I'm sure.

I also started running recently, something I never thought I would do, but it just sort of evolved with being out walking so much, and I thought I would try the couch to 5k. I'm just starting my 3rd week and going pretty well, I managed to run for a steady 10 minutes on Saturday and could have run for longer but didn't want to push my luck. I won't be doing any marathons but I'll be quite happy if I can manage a 5k.

I've also been cutting back on the social media and the telly and been reading more, in between the crocheting, gardening and decorating. I finished Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World and also read Ron Kovic's, Born on the 4th of July. I'm on the last chapter of America:The Farewell Tour by Chris Hedges at the moment. The book is divided into 7 chapters, each dealing with a different aspect of the declining empire. I had to take a 3 week break after reading the chapter on Sadism, it was pretty rough and as Hate was the one straight after, I needed a break before getting into that. I don't agree with all his conclusions, but the final chapter titled 'Freedom' is a real eye opener into the depth of the corruption in the prison system or the industrial prison system. It is the best chapter in the book.  The prison system is the new slavery, there is just no argument on that and the corporations all have their dirty hands in the trough.  Did you know that all the McDonald's uniforms are made in prison by inmates getting paid a dollar an hour, if they are lucky, many aren't even getting a dollar. Think about that the next time you're chowing down on a Big Mac. 

But McDonalds aren't the only ones, all military gear is made by prisoners and here are just some of the other corporations using prison labour to boost their profits, usually done through sub contractors - JC Penney (or Primark to us), AT&T, Bank of America, Walmart ( or Asda), Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Dell, Revlon, Johnson & Johnson, Fruit of the Loom, Quaker Oats and many more. It's a business and a very big business at that, and one I'll come back to but whatever you may think of the Black Lives Matter campaign, there are genuine issues of grievance within the black community to be addressed. However, poor whites are suffering just as much and these are the groups who need to unite to fight the injustice and exploitation. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening any time soon, we're badly in need of a Malcolm X or 2, (the last honest politician) but with everything that is going on at the moment, something has got to give, as we really can't go on like this. It's a question of where and when that first domino falls...lets hope it's soon.



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Weddin

Music

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Friday, 9 Sep 2022, 15:59

If rumours of a possible appearance by Noel Gallagher as a judge on the X Factor are true then all I can say is ‘NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! Please Noel, don’t do it, pulleeeeese!

If this turns out to be true, then it will go down as another black day in the history of human kind, like the day the first McDonalds opened in Moscow or the day Robert Plant accepted a knighthood. It’s a bitter disappointment when your heroes sell out, Plant I could overcome to some degree, at least he was English but Bob Geldof will never be forgiven.  His honorary knighthood, for Live Aid, was just too much. Firstly, because he was Irish but mainly because he came to fame on the punk wave of the late 70’s, this made it doubly unforgiveable. You sold your soul Geldof, but not to rock and roll, shame on you!!!

My first big music hero, like many others, was none other than David Bowie, and recent reports of a comeback were a surprise to me because he’s always been a regular in my music collection so, for me, he has always been there. David Bowie was my first love and I still love him, even more so now because I read recently that he turned down both a CBE and a knighthood. Way to go Bowmeister, I’ll luv ya forever!!!

My favourite Bowie album is Hunky Dory but my favourite song is Drive in Saturday from the Aladdin Sane album, the saxophone on that song raises the hairs on the back of my neck every time I hear it.  Aladdin Sane was my teenage rebellion album, songs like Time, with its sexually provocative lyrics used to drive my mother nuts, her being ultra Catholic, so I used to ramp the volume up whenever it came on.

The TV is so crap these days, I’ve been listening to a lot more music recently, George Harrison has been getting a lot of play round my house and I’m awaiting the arrival of a Sparks CD, Kimono My House, remember them from the 1970’s, I loved the strangeness of the Mael brothers.  I’m going to stick my neck out and predict a renewed interest in them.

By the way, none of these albums belonged to me, they belonged to my older brother who had great taste in music and it was through him that I was first introduced to Bowie. He still has all his albums too, now there’s a collection worth robbing!!  Although, I probably have most of the same albums now, anyway. My brother didn’t allow us to play his records and used to keep them locked up in a case but my sister and I were able to open the lock with a hair clip and played them when he was out, well, what’s the point of having older siblings if you can’t borrow their stuff!

I didn’t have the money to buy LP’s when I was young but I got a job the summer I turned 13 and bought my first Bowie single, Young Americans. I haven’t bought the new CD yet but it’s on my to-buy list. Bowie has so much symbolism for my generation, he was never just a singer, he was an artiste, and he drove the parents crazy! 

That’s one thing I really miss about the changes to how we buy our music, there’s nothing special about downloading a piece of music compared to buying an LP which had its own ritual. Everything was much more expensive back in the day.  You had to save your pocket money if you wanted to buy an LP. Then, when you had the money saved, there was the whole experience of going around your local music shops, and spending a Saturday afternoon just browsing through the records before deciding what to buy. There would be deep discussions between you and your friends before the purchase would be made, as the covers were taken out and examined in detail.  LP covers were like works of art and there were some amazing ones, like Led Zeppelin’s, Physical Graffiti or the futuristic landscapes on the great prog rock band, Yes’s covers. Browsing through the records was probably the teenage equivalent of walking around an art gallery now. Then when you had made your purchase and headed out around town to show it off to your peers. Now, that was a big deal, everyone would ask what you had bought and your coolness lived and died by it, and if your choice was approved you walked tall all day. 

There are many advantages to all our modern technology but it is robbing us of so many great experiences too, and I am grieving the loss of HMV. There are only two shops I love to visit now, HMV was one, the other is any bookshop anywhere, and they’re rapidly disappearing too. If the local bookshop goes, I’ll have no reason to go out again. It seems, the more connections we make online, the less connections we have with real people out in the real world. Sad...

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