Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Friday, April 28, 2006

Attack of the Birthday Weekend™

Posted by Mickey Z on 04/28 at 05:38 AM

my 25th birthday (4 years ago) was about the best i ever had. that was because someone did the nicest thing anyone ever did for me…

i have been an orwell nut since i was very young. i read 1984 when i was 11 and my schoolteacher and my dad said i wouldn’t understand it and that i shouldn’t read it. i was really upset and started crying, i read it and wrote a book review and angrily thumped it down on both their desks at variosu points in the day. i obviously couldn’t have understood it all at that age but i must have understood enough because i got an apology out of both of them(i wish to f#ck i still had a copy of it).

anyway, long story short, thats where my interest in all the progressive stuff started from, and the orwell fixation had stayed with me.

for my 25th, as a surprise, the girl i was seeign at the time booked for a week the house that orwell wrote 1984 in. it is on the isle of jura which is a long way from anywhere. 3 and a half hours on the bus from glasgow, then a 2 hour ferry, then another 15 minute ferry.

the island itself is huge. 27 miles long and 10 miles wide and holds a grand population of 150 people. it used to have 5000 but in the late 19thC
all the people moved off the islands to the cities. there are literally ghost viallges.

also, when orwell said he wanted to get away from it all to write that book he wasn’t f*cking kidding. the house is six miles after the ROAD finishes.

anyway, it is a stunnign place and i recommend you go. you can get it for about 800 dollars for a week. one thing though, orwell would be turning in his grave ecause most of the peopkle who use it now are aristocrats going to shoot deer (the islanders aren’t like that on the whole).

finally, i made a new film, here is the link for download . this one comes with an advisory..

http://tinyurl.com/kzlwn

Posted by michael on from exile 04/28 at 06:32 AM

I’d forget about my birthday each year (happily so) if people didn’t always remind me.

It’s my wife’s birthday today. It’s also our 1st anniversary. I figured that would mean I save on gifts, but she insists it doesn’t work that way. Oh well.

We’ll be out of town for a while, so I’ll wish our host a happy birthday now. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MICKEY Z.!

Posted by Jeremy on from Taiwan 04/28 at 10:15 AM

Happy birthday, Mick, if I don’t happen to stop by on the 30th. I am sure I will though…

I never do much for my birthdays, but very much like the whole birthday-weekend idea.

How right on is this as an overall picture of what our government is all about (democrat and republican)?:

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Speaker_caught_ditching_hydrogen_for_SUV_0428.html

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 04/28 at 10:48 AM

Excellent article here:

http://www.counterpunch.com/werther04282006.html

One quote from it ties in well with your LeMay quote from yesterday, Mick:

“Let me make clear that while this law is first applied against German aggressors, the law, if it is to serve a useful purpose, must condemn aggression by any other nations, including those which sit here now in judgment. We are able to do away with domestic tyranny and violence and aggression by those in power against the rights of their own people only when we make all men answerable to the law.”

chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg tribunal, Justice Robert Jackson

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 04/28 at 11:31 AM

Those guys at Runnymede really started something, didn’t they. May I rant at the sky a moment? “When will we have rulers under the law!” (its good to get it out of your system)

Started reading Guns Germs & Steel yesterday, it got me speculating idly about the political consciousness of ancient people...no way we could ever know, but it struck me that the notion of ye olde folke as passive serfs and king-worshippers fits the smug notion of progress a little too nicely. Doesn’t mean it isn’t true, its just the absence of evidence invites scepticism.

I love other peoples birthdays, the whole gift-giving and excuse for partying. I’m with Jeremy though, I’d forget mine if Uncle Joe would shut up about it (just trying to bait him, he’ll vanish and never reappear otherwise.)

Posted by Mew on from 10 miles south of Joe 04/28 at 12:20 PM

Just a thought, the Futurama clip I posted last night bothers me terribly, just too close to the New Orleans’ bone; “and the quality people left(...) the rest chose to stay”...

Posted by Mew on from 10 miles south of Joe 04/28 at 12:25 PM

JOS...here’s another Jackson quote. Judgement at Nuremberg is my favorite movie. It is amazing to see so much of history being repeated. When will this war’s trials begin?

“Our position is that whatever grievances a nation may have, however objectionable it finds the status quo, aggressive warfare is an illegal means for settling those grievances or for altering those conditions.”

Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, the American prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, in his opening statement to the tribunal

Posted by RMJ on from 04/28 at 01:03 PM

off topic…

I have cookies set on my blog that tell me how people find it...one question I have been seeing a lot of lately is as follows:

why does iraq hate the us?

Could be one of the most ridiculous question I have ever heard. Of course, that is what my blog is all about so they found the right place.

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 04/28 at 01:07 PM

Excellent quote, RMJ…

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 04/28 at 01:08 PM

RMJ, here’s something interesting for those of us with spiritual tendencies...if Jesus did exist...couldn’t have looked like this?:

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 04/28 at 01:25 PM

What an odd morph from birthdays to politics. I’m baffled at the connection. Anyway, birthdays. I celebrated by 50th with a champagne birthday party. Lovely time. Lovely drink. I’m still waiting to get over the hill to find depression, as I was told would occur on my 30th birthday. I remember staying up all night waiting for it.

Posted by James Secor on from China 04/28 at 02:28 PM

Well, have a happy 46th birthday on Sunday, Mickey - and keep us posted on what is happening around the date!

My 55th birthday in March went quietly - we did not do anything exciting during the day (the 8th actually) but did go out to our favourite Thai restaurant in neighbouring Hepburn Springs where the food was excellent as always. Does that sound boring?

And hi to Michael, Jeremy, JOS,Mew, Rosemarie and James Secor (in China!) from a quite wet and cool (63 F) Daylesford. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 04/28 at 03:51 PM

Hello Expendables. Thanks for all the kind wishes...plus the links and images. That’s some story, Michael...and Helga: You were born on International Women’s Day. Bravo.

Happy anniversary, Jeremy and happy b’day to your wife.

Hello JOS, Mew, and RMJ.

James S.: Lots of odd justapositions here. It’s part of our charm.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/28 at 07:11 PM