Comfortably Numb (1979)- Pink Floyd

Posted on May 20, 2021 by observationblogger — 14 Comments
Pink Floyd 1979

What more can be said about this song? I don’t know how Floyd created a song which projects the listener in a blissful state of numbness. Each time I hear it, I feel a transcendent feeling of warmness and comfort sweep over me. Perhaps because it could be about loneliness and need for meaning. Who knows?..Let’s find out.

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying

It may be interpreted as relating to the effects drugs or psychedelics, but I never related to this song like that even if Floyd wrote it under the influence about being under the influence. What songs aren’t likewise elucidated when they prod the psyche so profoundly?
So what’s the history behind its making.

Comfortably Numb is one of Pink Floyd’s best known songs and was released on the concept album The Wall. To understand the song’s significance we need to look at how it tied-in with The Wall, one of the greatest albums in English rock history. The album is about an embittered and alienated rock star named Pink. In “Comfortably Numb,” Pink is medicated by a doctor so he can perform for a show.
Bassist Roger Waters wrote the lyrics and was inspired by an experience of being injected with tranquillizers for stomach cramps before a 1977 performance in Philadelphia.

As recalled here at Auraclave – ‘On the stage, his hands were numb and his vision blurred, but none of this derailed the crowd, who continued to dance and sing. And it was out of this that one of the main themes of The Wall came about: the disconnect between the public and the band.’

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The Kookaburra Moment Part 1

Posted on May 19, 2021 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

Susan loved eating fresh barbecued fish, but the thought of having bones wedged down my throat meant I couldn’t last the meal. But I delighted in watching Susan munching the tailor flesh like a primeval woman at the mouth of a cave. Any other time she was refined, correct; a marvel at organisation storing money in envelopes marked Fuel, Rent, Telephone, Matt’s fortnightly spending money.

The kids ate packet frozen fish from the microwave. As Johanna my youngest would say, “I don’t like eating fish from the sea”. Sue and I always chuckled when she said that. Ha! Fish from the sea.

Johanna sat in her high chair eating the same crumbed fish as Jessica but waved her plastic fork and giggled at the kookaburra perched on the back porch. Sue was lost in her meal, bent over stripping meat off the fish from the actual sea. I was having my third beer of the night watching my family’s musings in between eating something I can’t recall. The kookaburra persisted and Johanna cackled. “Dadda hahaha,” pointing at it.

I dropped my things.
“Let’s get closer’, I said.
I undid the high chair contraption and grabbed Johanna – her fork still fluttering. She pedalled away and smudged herself against the sliding door. Jessica ran to the freezer and stretched up high latching onto a plastic bag of raw meat.

Sue crouched down and said, “You must be quiet girls or he will fly away. Remember, quiet girls.”

They tiptoed on the verandah towards the kookaburra who I imagined was laughing under his breath, so impervious to the girls approach.

Next week Part 2

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Posted in Reading, Reflections

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing – Elenyi & Sarah Young

Posted on May 15, 2021 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

A Venezuelan Mormon introduced me to the music of Elenyi. I read that Elenyi is a female Pop singing group which just happens to be comprised of three talented teenage sisters (two of whom were born in Chile) – Seli, Desi, and Ari and they happen to be much better looking than you and I. Then it’s said they are Latter Day Saints musicians, which is a Mormon Church.

“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” is a Christian hymn written by the pastor and hymnologist Robert Robinson, who penned the words in the year 1758 at the age of 22. The lyrics, which dwell on the theme of divine grace, are based on 1 Samuel 7:12, in which the prophet Samuel raises a stone as a monument, saying, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” (KJV). The English transliteration of the name Samuel gives to the stone is Ebenezer, meaning Stone of Help. The unusual word Ebenezer commonly appears in hymnal presentations of the lyrics (verse 2).

I like this viewers comment of the video below:

Whoever reading this, God knows what you are facing through, He heard your cry, He is going to deliver you Just trust in him. Amen

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Posted in Music

Chasing Amy (1997) – Kevin Smith (Friday’s Finest)

Posted on May 14, 2021 by observationblogger — 6 Comments

At the time this movie was released I was posted to the biggest shit-hole job one could ever hope for at Canberra’s Defence Department. I wrote a chapter about that experience, but prefer not relay it here because I might have to read it again. Outside work hours I ran amok with my civilian friends as we detoxified from the grunge Alternative-Seattle music scene and begrudgingly succumbed to forging meaningful adulthood existences.

I recall Chasing Amy distinctly from this period. It’s a great time-capsule movie because it depicts that whole post Seattle-grunge scene which my friends and I were part of. Romantic-comedy isn’t my preferred genre by any stretch, but Chasing Amy isn’t your typical romantic comedy. Like, what are the chances? That you meet the girl of your dreams, but she is of the other persuasion? A lesbian.

IMDB Storyline: A pair of comic book authors named Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards, who live in New Jersey, have been best friends for 20 years. They spend their time working in their studio, and in the evenings they are going out. But their friendship is about to be disputed for the first time in their life, when a beautiful young lesbian woman named Alyssa Jones enters their life and Holden falls in love with her. Now Holden has to deal with Banky’s jealousy, and with his new girlfriend’s very rich past.

What do you think are the chances a script / plot like Chasing Amy would receive backing in today’s socio-political climate? Zero. Correct. But it’s a really good movie and I’m glad I have it on DVD before it’s deleted from history. On a budget of $250,000, the film grossed a total of $12,021,272 in theatres and received positive reviews from critics. I couldn’t agree more with Roger Ebert’s take on the film “While the surface of his film sparkles with sharp, ironic dialogue, deeper issues are forming, and Chasing Amy develops into a film of touching insights. Most romantic comedies place phony obstacles in the way of true love, but Smith knows that at some level there’s nothing funny about being in love: It’s a dead serious business, in which your entire being is at risk.’

To be honest, I haven’t seen this movie for such a long time because I watched it ad nauseam in my 20’s. I have such fond memories of it and I look forward to dusting it off again to see if it stands up today.

IMDB Trivia:

*Kevin Smith wrote the script inspired by his experience with then-girlfriend Joey Lauren Adams, who plays Alyssa.

*When Kevin Smith pitched the idea to Miramax, he also said that he had written the parts with his friends Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, and Joey Lauren Adams in mind. Miramax, however, wanted to cast people who already had celebrity status, such as Jon Stewart, David Schwimmer, and Drew Barrymore (these three were actually suggested). The film’s original budget of $3 million depended on Miramax’s support. Ultimately, Smith suggested that he make the movie with his three original actors on his own, and Miramax could buy it for distribution if they liked it. Miramax owners Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein liked this idea, and gave him $250,000 to make the movie (1/24 of the budget of his previous film, Mallrats (1995)

*According to Kevin Smith in 2006, Jason Mewes was high on cocaine when they filmed his sole scene for the movie.

References:
1. Chasing Amy – Wikipedia
2. Chasing Amy 1997-IMDB *

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Posted in Movies and TV

Come Healing (2012) – Leonard Cohen

Posted on May 13, 2021 by observationblogger — 5 Comments
Leonard Cohen 2012

How I have been champing at the bit to write about this spiritual anthem and finally it has arrived in alphabetical cadence. It titled an earlier post ‘Leonard Cohen’s ‘Come Healing’ and 5 other contemporary spiritual masterpieces‘. There are scant singer-songwriters who you could argue get better with age, but Leonard is one of them. Not to mention Bob Dylan who astonishingly nailed a Sinatra cover record, but that’s for another occasion.

There is no better place to start delving into Come Healing than reflecting on these lyrics:

Behold the gates of mercy
In arbitrary space
And none of us deserving
Of cruelty or the grace

And then there is this:

O, troubledness concealing
An undivided love
The heart beneath is teaching
To the broken heart above

To this day, like Dylan’s early lyrical prowess, I am astounded how Cohen wrote those words above. Also I adore the Webb sisters’ harmony in this song. I think in terms of spiritual nourishment, at least for me Cohen has provided something extraordinary here, you could say ‘scriptural’. That is why it heads my spiritual anthem chart. In decades to come, if we last that long as a human species, (and that’s a big ‘if’) this song will be studied in schools and dissected endlessly like Dylan’s Tambourine Man and Blowing in the Wind.
The thing is Dylan wrote those songs in his early 20’s and Cohen in his 70’s with Come Healing and Show Me The Place and Different Sides. That’s a true poet right there.

Come Healing is in Old Ideas – the twelfth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen released in January 2012. According to wikipedia: ‘It is Cohen’s highest-charting release in the United States, reaching number 3. 44 years after the release of his first album. The album topped the charts in 11 countries, including Finland, where Cohen became, at the age of 77, the oldest chart-topper, during the album’s debut week.’

A deep place seems to exist in us all – underneath all the chaos and brokenness of this earthly realm. We need brokenness in order to know wholeness. I spoke about the Stockdale paradox recently which we need to keep reserves of in these precarious times. Come Healing like that paradox is a constant reminder to us of what is meaningful when it all comes down to it.

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‘Life, Bottom Heavy Like a Kangaroo’ – Anthony Burgess

Posted on May 12, 2021 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

This is the third excerpt presented here from Anthony Burgess’ masterpiece Earthly Powers. Octogenarian British writer Kenneth Toomey recalls with spectacular clarity (as he almost always does) his visit to Australia in 1930 or thereabouts. Australia is where I was born and lived 37 years of my life. I was awestruck how Burgess conveyed Toomey’s visit to Australia in such vivid detail. He nailed the strange and unique vibe of the Australian habitat, cultural lexicon and humour in the most remote parts. His interchanges with Australia’s Ted Collins is linguistically playful, funny, and entertaining.

I think what may frustrate readers of this book is that Burgess has such accurate recall and dazzling imagination of the various cultures in which Toomey inhabits that it might alienate people who are not familiar with the exact place. The same could be said with his retelling below of the Australian experience. I imagine many readers who aren’t acquainted with Australia especially its dialect, habitat and geography may not embrace or even understand the Australian experience as it is depicted here.

Earthly Powers is little read today, if it ever was, and serves as no modern model—hardly a negative attribute. Some recent interpretations say it’s too masculine and overbearing where it should be chucked at a wall quite quickly. But, I like his wordsmithery and how its full of contradictions and sometimes both pleasant and bothersome reflecting the nature of humanity to some extent. It’s by no means an easy read and there are parts where I feel too much is going on, but there are also sections stupendously engaging. The Australian experience below is one such example.

It’s a long excerpt, so I suggest if you up for a ripsnorter, go brew yaself a cuppa. If not then be onya bike and tell your story walkin’….

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Posted in Reading, Reflections

Come Around (2003) – David Bridie

Posted on May 11, 2021 by observationblogger — 2 Comments

Come Around is the second song to come from David Bridie’s 2003 album Hotel Radio. What comes to mind when I hear David Bridie and his band My Friend The Chocolate Cake are memories swirling about that iconic neon sign in Melbourne of Audrey the skipping girl (pictured above). Back in 1995 when I was living in Melbourne my Yorkshire lass Louise and I were squeezed together in the back of her cousin’s car. We cuddled up with that overwhelming sense of completeness and passed the famous iconic neon sign of Audrey the skipping girl, and indeed the girl’s magic was at hand. 

This cruelly underrated Australian album Hotel Radio doesn’t even have a wikipage, but there are so many gems on it which will feature here. Come Around is one of them:

Looking for excitement here it’s like waiting for the train,
Longing for the phone to ring, hoping for some rain
But will you come around

Take care in being slow now, gentle in your slide
Pure and simple aching, a little silky glide
But will you come around?

Bridie’s solo compositions are just so atmospheric and Come Around is testament to it. He is a songwriting puritan and doesn’t appease to the masses, thank God.. This song reminds me of how The Go-Betweens sound. I remember hearing Bridie saying how he was heavily influenced by them. Also, Bridie was always incensed about hearing Australian recording artists putting on a false accents to be more commercially accessible and appease overseas audiences.

There’s always someone laughing here
In the middle of the day
They’re all singing and shouting in the front of their house
We get carried away
So will you come around

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3/5 – 9/5/21 incl. The Big Lebowski, Ivermectin & Vaccines

Posted on May 10, 2021 by observationblogger — 3 Comments

news on the march

Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.

Video interview at Today

Last night I received in my video feed the scene from The Big Lebowsky of ‘You’re entering a world of pain‘ when rival bowler Smokey (Jimmie Dale Gilmore) steps over the foul line, Walter (John Goodman) goes nuts. It had me in hysterics. The dog isn’t even a Pomeranian! “I didn’t bring it bowling, I didn’t rent it shoes, I’m not buying it a beer, it’s not gonna take your turn Dude.” This movie which is truly unlike any other is the gift that keeps on giving. A little later after this reunion video popped up and it was a treat to see the actors reminisce their time together playing the most absurd and unlikely trio of misfits. ...…(Watch video)

Edited 3/8/2021 I trusted what was said on the banned episodes of the Darkhorse podcast and even wrote articles about them in support of their arguments (such as the article below).  I continue to be repulsed about the mass censuring by You Tube / Twitter / Facebook about pro-Ivermectin or Anti Vaccine presentations But, based on the recent interview by Rebel Wisdom with Yuri Deigin called Yuri Deigin Responds to Bret Weinstein on Vaccines, Ivermectin & Quillette and the data presented within I will now stop taking Ivermectin and get the Vaccine at the first available opportunity. Thanks Rebel Wisdom for showing both sides. I don’t disrespect those still unwilling to take the vaccine because people should remain free to decide what they chose for their bodies to be administered. But my own mind has been made up after waiting out a little bit of time to see what extra data and information surfaced about the efficacy and safety of the Vaccines. Now I have at least what satisfies me to take the Vaccine plunge. Cheers.

  • Yesterday, I had a lazy Sunday at home watching the PGA golf final day in the afternoon and the baseball Sunday night game. I was delighted to see packed golf galleries and a seemingly near-sold out stadium in baseball enjoying their respective sports and mostly unmasked. I can’t say I’m not a bit envious since we are all still in a lockdown state of mind here in Bogotá. Everyone masked-up and many schools are still closed, sporting events off limits and Prohibition of Alcohol (Dry Law). Therefore I assumed Colombia must be in a much worse predicament than the US in terms of COVID, so I wanted to confirm this. Here, I found this useful Mortality Analyses from the university of St John’s Hospital web site of Deaths per 100,000 severity between 20 of the most affected countries by COVID. As you can see the US is sixth with 177 per 100,000 and Colombia ninth with 151 per 100,000. So why is Bogotá still under such stringent restrictions? Bogotá may well have a mortality rate much higher than the rest of Colombia, but it appears the principle reason is because the ICU’s are reaching their maximum capacity. According to Semana (in April 2021) the Minister of Health announced that Bogotá has just 2,450 ICU beds, yet we have a population of over 8 million people! How could one  not forsee that the ICUs would be under huge strain with that quantity of ICUs serving a population of that magnitude during a Pandemic?

    The video presented today is from one my trusted weekly go to news sources on a wide variety of topics, but most recently COVID and the vaccines. They talked about Ivermectin and the Absolute Vs Relative risk reduction from COVID vaccines. They had mentioned on much earlier occasions the supposed efficacy of Ivermectin in treating COVID and I had read about a research study in Argentina showing remarkable results and a presentation of a doctor in the US pleading with Congress that they review the data on Ivermectin. The original video and subsequent video has been taken down by You tube and the video marked fake on Facebook.

    When the uncle of my children contracted COVID and had serious symptoms I gave her a list of medications including Ivermectin and Vitamin D he should take based on what I had learned. After getting approval from a medical specialist he took them and he rapidly regained his health in a matter of a few days. An alleged doctor in the comments section of this video wrote:

    ‘As a physician, I have treated, or prophylaxed 100 patients with ivermectin. 66/70 have been better in 12-48 hours. Half of these were elderly, multiple co morbid high risk. The other 4 started late in their course but still maintained O2 in the 90s and recovered within 3-5 days. None ever required hospitalization. Treated 2 neighbors in their 60s this week. Better in 18 hours. Of the 30 patients I have prophylaxed, none have acquired Covid.

    Historically it is an anti parasitic, working on a glutamate chloride channel which humans don’t possess. We have studied it against viruses for a decade and have known it has antiviral activity. (Flaviviruses, yellow fever, dengue, Zika, Ebola, coronaviruses).

    Against Covid the mechanisms of action are :
    1. Inhibits spike binding to the ACE2 receptor
    2. Inhibits the alpha/beta importing subunit that the virus uses as a taxi to ride into the cell
    3. Blocks a protease that allows the virus to unfold and fold itself
    4. Inhibits the virus from using the rna dependent rna polymerase Immune system effects and hence efficacy in the early inflammatory, full inflammatory and post inflammatory phases of the disease
    5. Stimulates the nucleus to upregulate nuclear cellular interferon production, which stimulates surrounding cells to do the same. The virus high jacks and decreases interferon early. Ivermectin reverses this viral effect. Increased interferon balances the TH1 /TH2 responses and hence decreases inflammatory cytokines.
    6. Balances extra cellular neutrophilic traps thereby decreasing fibrosis and lung damage. Covid death and damage is primarily from clotting
    7. Ivermectin binds to the platelet, red cell and endothelial CD147 receptor, and thereby acts as an anticoagulant. Sars Cov 2 binds this receptor to cause clotting. Ivermectin reverses that.’
    (Watch full video clip)

news on the march the end

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Posted in Health, Movies and TV, News, Science

Colgando en tus manos (2008) – Carlos Baute

Posted on May 8, 2021 by observationblogger — 6 Comments

When I arrived in Colombia this was the Latina hit on the airwaves and I couldn’t help but like it. The video below is excellent and the song as catchy to the ear as they come. It is produced and performed by Venezuelan pop singer-songwriter Carlos Baute and featuring Spanish singer Marta Sánchez.

This is the signature song of Baute and his most successful not to mention for Marta Sánchez. The song immediately received airplay, mainly in the country of Spain, where it began 2009 at #1 and stayed at the top for a total 29 weeks, setting the record for the most weeks at #1 in Spain. It’s a great song and I included a English version below the original video. They have exceptional chemistry!

Perhaps it was not a coincidence you find me with you

perhaps it was destiny

I want to sleep on your chest

And after wake from your kisses.

At least Baute doesn’t beat around the bush. You must watch the original video below. It’s the bee’s-knees as far as cliche music videos are concerned. According to wikipedia it is ranked as one of the most viewed Spanish-language music videos of all time. I think it might be the most commercially contrived song in my library, but it reminds me of much better times here in Colombia.

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Posted in Music

The Hunt (Jagten 2012)- Thomas Vinterberg (Friday’s Finest)

Posted on May 7, 2021 by observationblogger — 3 Comments

This Danish Drama had a big impact on me when I first saw it. It presents a most compelling moral dilemma and unveils how a small Danish village comes to terms with it. I have been fascinated with Danish culture since one of my best friends in High School was a Danish exchange student called Hans and he would chin wag about the differences between Australian customs and those in Denmark. His hair was so blonde it could be better described as spectrum silver and skin of pinkish hue his nose shone like Rudolf’s. He introduced my friends and I to Pink Floyd music in the most fantastical experiential way, but I’ll leave that night (one of the strangest I’ve had) for when we come ‘Shine on You Crazy Diamond‘ in the Music Library Project. What entails the ‘Music Library Project’?

Now back to the movie:

IMDB: A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son’s custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.

The story is set in a small Danish village around Christmas, and follows a man who becomes the target of mass hysteria after being accused of sexually abusing a child in his kindergarten class. As I was watching this I was imagining my Danish schoolfriend in the same predicament because the protagonist Mads Mikkelsen reminded me a lot of Hans with respect to his emotional maturity, demeanour and look. This scapegoat problem as it is presented in The Hunt in microcosmic form has existed since humans began. ESPN’s 30 for 30 Catching Hell documentary about when Cubs fan Steve Bartman tipped the ball away from Moises Alou is testament to this.

Mikkelsen won the Best Actor Award at Cannes for his role in this. It also won the 2013 Nordic Council Film Prize. The film was selected as the Danish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, making the final nomination. In a way, you could say this film was ahead of it’s time since the Cancel Culture warfare which is going on now seems to be an offshoot of what this film is pre-empting. For this to happen at the village level in one of the most civilized and progressive nations in the world, then what could happen worldwide? Well, we are seeing it in action.

The Hunt puts you in the head of a falsely accused person and to understand the helplessness such a tragedy comes with. How these accusations can never be taken back and will haunt you forever. I could reveal a lot more including spoilers and what-not, but I’d prefer those to just go into it without preconceived ideas. It’s a movie that will remain with you long after you’ve seen it.

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Posted in Movies and TV

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