Author: basgallop

‘i was late, it was raining, it’s hard to huddle on your own’
solstice dawn, nadir of the year, ebb, this the dwindling of the light, darkness encroaches. blessings to y’all
ha, of course i have tweaked both the dinge and pathos levels, all is performance, masters of artifice
yet as it’s the season of holly and homily:
time to hunker down and gnaw on bone (quorn burgers!), ponder long on both personal and collective futures, it is late, but mbe not as late as we think?
most of the fears that we find in the darkness, but not all, are things that we have flung there, far from us and our circle of light
allow, be comfortable with these the dark familiars, it may well not be alright, but ‘it is’
midst the sullenness, possibly, easier to feel the seed of light?
….
anyway it was proper windy up on the cliff, watery kersplosh wave chaos beyond the harbour walls, picture, ‘whaling vessel beleaguered by storm, heads for safety of harbour’ doesn’t really demonstrate, dang
christmas soon! glug whisky, dance to neil diamond, that sorta stuff x

an interesting kabbala type short talk i was listening to t’other day:

Dave: Love this post mate – wishing you an excellent Christmas, catch you next year!

cheers fella, keep meaning to write to ya, in appreciation of sys etc, but like everyone underwhelmed by my energy levels… festive blessing to you and fam xx

Wendy: Love your turn of phrase mister x

Thanks! and i, in turn, adore your writing m’dear
it’s fun to acknowledge, then try and speak something about say the solstice, all the obvious themes and structures in place, truth is through feeling into nuance
like you, this year, i felt it important not to immediately gulp at the longed for light, but rather be comfortable and nestle, here, with the darkness and exhaustion
your words usually have a calmness, an almost serene flow to them

wheras, ha, mine often are a bulging, confused, exuberant gallumph! I want to be beautiful and funny at exactly the same time
which is quite a reach, so usually i topple over midst a tyrannical polyphony of glottal stops (see!)
anyway wishing festive greetings to you and yours, hope to see ya soon! xx

Wendy: Ah thanks for your words about my words I love your natural exuberance that comes through in your writing, an electric staccato that has a gorgeous poetic flourish to it. It’s all you and I love that truthful expression 

We meet in lyrical x

Wendy: Always

Nicki: Wow what an amasing description of christmas .. thankyou ..x

it is good isn’t it, like his voice too… lovely to see ya at the devi bhavar, pop over whenever ya fancy for some proper winter loitering xx

Days of straw spun into gold…
Golden Rose of the Soul, Rose Gold of the Heart
Strong gossamer spider skein of which we weave our lives..’Joining hearts and hand and ancestral twine, ancestral twine’
the joy of connection, the simple, oft whispered, much muttered mantra: ‘do wonderful things with beautiful people’
through nature, through the land, songs and hugs, here, this is the space in which we meet each other
the cusp of sunset, where land is earth is sky
leave room for all that which arises in our hearts. Boddhicitta
Soul the flow of energy that sinks from heart to earth? whilst Spirit flies upwards from heart to sky?
summon the subtle energies of this land, the earthen Red which oozes up, the babble, sparkle white tumbling from above, to mingle, here, within us
Rose Gold of the Heart

hiatus, woke this morning, far too early, with a fire of absurd words in my head, thrill to the grandiloquence!… tho impossible to take it too seriously
but of course, daughter carted to gatwick, all my family (except me!) are away in the States, Rome, France, Ireland… i am left sole guardian of this realm of toil and Rain
then the quagmire of Saturday around Sainsburys… sitting here picking me nose, thinking of the beautiful and the unsuitable… thankfully nobody reads far on here… and i ain’t going out in this sogginess… blunder on!
and the same pics again. ha

back to the honey tongued, guile gilded gabble… ooh great! want to type galvanised, just because it makes me ponder electroplating and frankenstein frogs shocked into life
thinking now of the Mahamuni Buddha in far Mandalay
of approaching it on knees proffering a slither of gold leaf, place it like a postage stamp on the centuries old, gold swollen belly of the statue
sticky! tacky to the touch, warm, moist gold, truly the sweat of the sun
these the days of the old emperor, stern, stale, serious, his toad weight squats down upon the earth
but also – seldom glimpsed, somewhere beneath, ever flowing, enraptured beauty, the subtle grace of the world dancer
‘She’s as sweet as Tupelo Honey’, mutable, molten
Golden Rose of the Soul, Rose Gold of the Heart

marooned midst the grey gloom,
world daunted, suffused with darkness
like an old oil painting, colours smudged sullen by centuries of candle soot
hair plastered down from the rain, a submariner light, lost languid neath an ocean of olive oil
ah the blessing of not having to go out again, just code, cook grub for daughter and sing along to ballards on a playlist
of course, often on days like these, our sorrows gather close, but, with thanks, not right now, not for me
rather a spreading of soft radiance
traipsing back from lidl, crossing the bridge, the swash and swaddle of traffic in the rain
stop, face turned up, look to the sea, look to the sky, tender exultance
words, enchanting, surface from singing in circle at the last festival, with sofia and close, tight huddled with friends,
‘bury me deep in love, bury me deep in love, take me in, under your wing, bury me deep in love’

chimpanzees… watched that dynasties, david attenborough headed doc last night… it’s bollocks. literally, and not in a good way
appreciate i sound like ‘disgusted of tonbridge wells’ but seriously a waste of licence fee payers money
it’s one where a film crew follow a gaggle of chimpanzees for a year and offer up beautiful, intimate and profound footage of our closest relative…
so far all so good, but what lazy and reductive story telling!
it focuses solely on the grapples and struggles to be alpha male, absurd, whats that test whereby female characters aren’t represented in films?
here we have at least 4 named male chimps, and the only time female chimps are noted its because they’re fertile… gobsmacking
yes of course it’s a fascinating story, and should be a strong strand in the film, but seriously, the only one?
wheres all the mucking about fun, the kindness and tenderness? the humour? i have no issue with anthromorphosising their behaviour, but for a slither of dna they are us
I don’t think for a second that Chimpanzees are soft, fluffy and cuddly creatures, clearly they are powerfully fratricidal and, yes, often engaged in a tussle for dominance
but after filming them for a year… that is all you want to say? some tawdry Machiavellian game of thrones tale?
as with all these things, tells us more about ourselves than these beautiful profoundly complex creatures
patriarchy? gawd i dislike that word and find it mildly offensive (it’s root is from the word for father), but yeah seems a pretty accurate representation of how this was offered
…and merely to note and hopefully stop any needless gender finger pointing, because these things are usually more intricate than we acknowledge, both the authors: the director and the chimp expert were women
I would suggest that when two chimps are grooming each other, lets face it there’s not much else for them to do than chuck rotten fruit at intrusive camera crews
that rather than giving it a dismissive voice over ‘here they are cementing an alliance’, yes that might be the case, but also, as they’ve known each other since they were born
and share a long, interwoven and colourful history… it might just be possible… that they like each other?

rant over! enjoyed pontificating! apologies if anything in my postulation lacked nimbleness… i’m just a lummox like you

Comments:

The Bechdel test (BEK-dəl) is a measure of the representation of women in fiction. It asks whether a work features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. The requirement that the two women must be named is sometimes added.

Sarah: That’s interesting…and a good point…I admit I did enjoy the programme….but actually now I’ve read your review, totally see what you’re saying, and it’s true!..rather pissed off that I didn’t view it more critically!…classic evening coma letting TV wash over me….but that’s the trouble…that’s how many would have watched it, and then the ideas shown seep in, and then before you know it, you believe it’s accurate.

RB: thanks, i actually enjoyed it too, and in fairness the main character was clearly a compelling individual
think we’re all a bit weary of the ‘great man’ view of history, empathetically easily accessible, a la greek tragedy, just foolish to pretend that that is all
just stating the blooming obvious, i know, but every story we tell about ourselves or the world, is a choice and excluding many of the other equally viable stories that could be heard
not saying we should necessarily be telling those stories… do what feels truest… but at least acknowledge that all is not as rigid and monolithic as we might pretend… a plea for plurality!
oops feel like i’m on some Radio 4 panel, ha, have a lush day xx

Gabrielle: Did you see last night’s episode on the painted dogs? All about the ladies last night… 

RB: ha! no, i’m perpetually about a month behind anything on the box, i’m a living in da past xx

Hannah: Watch the next episodes which follow Matricachs, rather than Patriarchs – Lions and Painted Wolves – and the penguins which is a more equal struggle for survival/dominance for both male and female. I understand what you’re saying, but for me, in the Chimp world anyway, the males are in charge – like it or not! Unless I’ve missed something… which is a possibility 

RB:

ooh i did see the penguin one out of order with my daughter, beautifully filmed but so dauntingly desperately cold!
colder than pedaling along seaford promenade in a january gale… i had to put the heating on afterwards
hmm take your point, i haven’t seen the others, possibly my umbrage is more to do with that chimps are so so close to us, feel like i’ve worked in offices with some?
and as a fellow primate our subtle and profound experience of this beautiful world surely isn’t only about dominance… but should include nurture and humour… and tiddlywinks, but what do i know xx

RB: mostly bored and do so enjoy the occasional rant… being old school faux anarchist, part of the fun is having a bash at establishment figures
and the cult of st attenborough is mighty powerful indeed,
obviously an, in truth, benign nature doc isn’t the culprit… almost all the creatures are gone… it’s just us, historically the arrival of man is swiftly followed by the extinction of all mega fauna
goodness whats with me sermonising today! hug right back at ya! xx

Sarah: yeah…I seriously do not want to return to this world as a penguin!… Looks a very daunting…and cold existence!

RB: too right! i’d get cold feet about that, reckon i’d be a hummingbird, or a swallow, or a dodo even x

Laura: Love your poetic ramblings Richard! Very agrreable and enjoyable to read