Month: August 2003
alfred jarry: absinthe, bicycles and merdre
Jarry's influence has been considerable. While he himself owes much to Rabelais, movements such as Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism, Expressionism Cubism, Theatre of the Absurd - all owe debts to his works. Read on: alfred jarry: absinthe, bicycles and merdre
Mirror, Mirror… Muppa!
Blather.net made it into today's Irish Mirror, thanks to our 'Bertie and Ernie... Muppa!' Get yourself a Muppa! T-Shirt We're almost embarrassed. The Mirror describes the t-shirt as 'controversial'. We would have said satirical?, if a little lazy. We also, apparently mention on the wireless, by an RTE gentleman with the improbable name of 'Ryan Tubridy'. Read the Daily Mirror article
Charlie McCreevy, Globalisation and the Rise of the Machines
What do McCreevy, Arnie and a load of robots have in common? Arnold Schwarzenegger, fresh from machine-gunning his way across the worlds’ cinema screens, wants to be governor of California. Charlie McCreevy is the Irish Minister for Finance. The Matrix is a great movie with a dodgy sequel. What do they all have in common? The answer: globalisation. But what is it? Exactly what is it that we are all talking about? Exactly what is it that we are all protesting about? Is it about economics? Is it about cultural hegemony? Is this about arms and warfare? Or very simply, is it all about the oil? Now then, now then, rattle, rattle, jewellery, jewellery, my marbles have you seen them? The truth of the matter is that defining precisely what Globalisation is, is almost as difficult as trying to define what the so-called anti-globalisation movement wants. And I’m not getting...
July 23rd Declared ‘Robert Anton Wilson Day’
Regular readers of Blather will know that we're not given to sycophantic behaviour. We are, however, inclined towards enthuastic proselytizing about the people and things that we care about. And we care about Robert Anton Wilson. I can't even really remember how I came across his work - sometime in the mid nineties I came across his work, probably through constant references and mentions... and then getting my hands on The Illuminatus trilogy, a mad sprawling fantasy/conspiracy epic. I loved the book... but it was when I started reading Wilson's books of philosophy and psychology that I was really affected. Those who espouse Wilson's work tend to refer to how he initiated some kind of 'brain change'. This isn't some cult-like brainwashing... it's more like brainwashing yourself, or providing a path towards having fun with your own head. Robert Anton Wilson's website Maybe Logic official website Robert Anton Wilson Day...
Saints and Shinners
In a new series exploring the sexual peccadilloes of Irish political parties, we replicate the US model involving crack teams of interns, rigorously trained to penetrate the highest echelons of government. This is not mere titillation. Through Miss Kinky’s expert manipulations , we hope to gain fresh insight into the cultural preferences of our honourable elected representatives, and into the most intimate workings of the party machinery behind them. It was decided to initiate the project with Sinn Féin since, flush from their success in last year’s general erection, their representatives proved to be eager, dynamic and gifted with a ‘hands on’ approach to community interaction. Next in the series we look at Fianna Fáil, fisting and felching – don’t miss it! All experimentation was carried out by fully consenting adults, none of whom are married or members of a religious order. See No Evil, Speak no Evil Partial sensory...
Loyalty Cards, Big Brother and the Scared New World
Just what is the price of consumer loyalty... Loyalty cards, a subject in which I am intensely interested, has been popping up quite a few times in the last few weeks. Specifically, I am interested in the introduction of tracking devices in supermarkets, customer profiling and loyalty schemes. I became intrigued by this subject some months ago, when I was given a guided tour around a supermarket by a Category Manager from a large British company who specialised in the manufacture of toiletries. During our tour I asked him many questions about how supermarkets figure out what their customers want. He was more than forthcoming in spilling the beans. What started out for me as a fool’s errand, became a learning experience that left me reeling. In days gone buy, such customer related data was simply gathered by observing stock levels, basic market research and planning your store according to...