Basgallop Blog

When I read a letter from a friend or even but a squib of a social media post, I do so in the authors voice… It conjures a palpable sense of presence… Occasional goosebumps, usually comforting, like I can feel them beside of me
This is normal, we all do it, yeah?
Social media and the voices in our head. Discuss
I really enjoy this sensation, summoning the voice, the soul, of someone I haven’t physically spoken to in years
empathy? Mirror neurons? Mind miracle. ahh the Rainbow in our heads!
Muttered soto voce. Karmic imprint? We and the world are one, of the same stuff, we flow through each other
(To be read in my voice… Or if ya want as a challenge, ha, if your empathy is agile enough… In my voice yodeled through a snorkel)
…….

Postscript:
I have no trousers! I must pick mum up in an hour or so. Eeek.
Up in Surrey, went for a walk in the glorious woods… a nap, in the sunshine, beneath a hazel tree, catkin dangleage, quicksilver. tree of dreams, sacred to mercury
Woke up pondering the above … Meandered day dreamily down the hill… Puddles galore… Got stuck… Heave ho squelch, followed by a comedy flounder. Splosh… Swamp thing, mud befuddled. Drenched… Had to drive home with troosers around my ankles and hop, quick step to the house
Mai Pen Rai
And Happy Paddy’s Day… Not a slither of green blood meself, but kids half so! X

gotta be curious about Petr Kropotkin!? listened to a ‘in our time’ about him last night (link below)… a fascinating character!
reminded me that he had a plaque in kemp town I’d often cycle past (near steves old street?)
the little i knew of him before would have been gleaned from ‘Anarchism for Beginners’ a comic book guide perused back at uni… still somewhere in the loft I should imagine!
a polymath he’d give a lecture on Anarchism one day, the next would be Science and Anthropology, followed by Russian Literature!
his theories on mutual aid did much to counteract the nonsense of social darwinism… or, possibly, the subsequent rancid bile of Ayn Rand
i’d say the main heirs of his thought, and anarchism generally, are the Green Movement… self organising, human sized, land based communities, who cooperate with other communities in a non hierarchical manner… whats not to like!
tho many of the straight edge punks i used to know would claim him as one of theirs, but, ha, they’d dispute most things
the best novel I’ve read trying to imagine an anarchist society, ‘the dispossesed’ by the genius ursula k le guin… written back in the seventies… check it out
would i read a book by kropotkin? not blooming likely… yawn, i’m far too busy pfaffing on social media… tho i think i’ll read conrads ‘secret agent’ again, such a fascinating mileu
i love ‘in our time’, bitesize, 1 hour of 3 academics pondering, guided by melvin, perfect for anyone intellectually omnivorous!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014pfr

iain: Steve mentioned this plaque in a separate conversation a few months back. I did a module in anarchism at uni and Kropotkin was in there of course. When you think about mutual aid it’s so obvious but driven over by the right in zealous need to put the individual at front and centre of all advances. I will take up your book suggestion.

Ooh a whole module on anarchism sounds lush… Sadly as a chemistry student the only interesting lectures I went too were gatecrashing Freud talks in the psychology dept… The lecturer did seem a bit bewildered as to who I was… Crackpot Kropotkin mbe

Just noticed what a wonderfully schlocky cover ‘the dispossessed’ has! You’d be cross (‘the disappointed’) if you were looking for an erotic space romp?!
I read tons of sci fi as a teenager, obvs much of it is dross, but at it’s best, and Ursula k le guin is certainly that, some profoundly different ways of looking at the world x

home. om shanti om. exstasis. ajna daff-ff-odil, ff-ing fff-freezing!
a beautiful morning, the river ouse outside the window perfectly calm… the moment when the flood of fresh water downstream is matched by the incoming tide. pivot
ebb balances flow… cusp. this sense of poise.
there is serenity even during spring, this season of both burgeoning possibility and hectic bustle.
equinox full hurtle, solstice stasis.
our moon blooming towards full
euphoria and stupour… tranquility and transience, all arise from each other, a pendulum swing
the complex interaction of cycles, a force which which conjures the universe, feel it flowing through ourselves
duality… polarity… step back, ‘transcend’… everything must change, is changing. the forever flux
even as i stumble to a puzzled mumble halt, as if doctor who were dabbling and gabbling with ganja, ha
it’s a joy to try to voice the obvious… go on give it a go for yourself!
singing along to krishna das as i type, breath of the heart, baba hanuman, luscious and full. deep resonant earthy tones, matching the hoover wheeze drone of the harmonium…
bagpipes! hoovers! harmoniums! oh the life giving drone of prana
……………..

been back a week or so now, such an amazing adventure! a fortunate fellow.
being back has been kinda fun too. once you endure the bamboozlement and exhaustion of jet lag
family! a few friends… ecstatic dance, singing, moshing down the front at franz ferdinand, kirtan, country strolls, bashing about on the bike, sorting the house, yawning at code, pondering dosh, all da usual xx

i do love a selfie! you may have noticed… crown chakra pineapple… i mean whose ever purchased a pineapple and not tried it on their head? x