A Conspiracy Theory

Normally I don’t put much credence into conspiracy theories, but I’ve just read that there is not enough money available in Obama’s budget for 2011 for a return to the moon for NASA and mankind. Or at least American mankind.

Now this really got me wondering. Hell, it was done over forty years ago. Not so difficult and surely easy to do again. Just like re-inventing the transistor radio or teflon fry pans. The two tangible results of putting Neil and Buzz on the moon. Or, is it that it is not so easy to repeat?

We have all heard the 2001, Hollywood and Arthur C. Clarke conspiracies about the moon landing haven’t we? So, just imagine for a split second that Neil and Buzz only landed on a Hollywood set. And now, forty years later we are waiting for the sequel. You know, like Rocky II, III, IV and V. Apollo 11, the sequel!

Well, I get this strange feeling in my bones. It would cost peanuts to put a couple of dudes back on the moon, if, and I repeat if, it was actually done in 1969. Surely this is logical? I mean, how many technological miracles of 1969 can’t be repeated now by a 15 year old in a high school science class?

I don’t want to be seen as a spoilsport or a purveyor of conspiracy theories, but hell, this one has a strange odour about it. C’mon! Putting man back on the moon should be as easy and as cheap as re-mixing a Jimi Hendrix 16 track recording of The Wind Cries Mary!

I smell something nasty in the woodshed here.

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A Silly Idea

I was toying with a silly idea a few weeks ago, and started clacking away on my keyboard. At first I thought it might be a fun 500 word blog, or a start on a little essay to store away and forget.

However, for some silly reason, I looked at it, read it, and then decided to re-write it in the third person. Don’t even bother to ask why I did that. I do silly things like that very often. I even fell over a silly name to give my character. So after -re-writhing it, I started to add, play and develop more very silly ideas.

Now, some weeks later it has developed into a work in progress novel. No planning. No carefully crafted synopsis. No research. Nothing. Just vomiting words out through my fingers and seeing where it takes me. At a couple of junctures, I have had to stop and think. What the hell happens now? But after a beer or dinner or a good night’s sleep, something pops into my head, and away I go again.

I have no idea where this story is going to take me. At the stage I am at, I don’t even know if I am ten percent or eighty percent through the story. As for an ending? Well, that is still a mystery. I have no idea whatsoever of how it will end.

Should it happen that I do find an ending, it may well eventuate into a new novel. I’ll keep you posted.

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Worth More Dead

Even though we live in an age of perpetual change, re-adjustment, advancement and technological wonders, one thing stays wonderfully fixed, stable and set in concrete.

And that is that any artistic endeavour is only fully rewarded and recognised when the creator is fully dead and buried. There has even been a phrase coined to describe this. It’s called a ‘Roy Orbison Career Move’. Why? Because poor old Roy, was good. In fact I think he had the most wonderful voice. However the world really only caught on and started spending money on his recordings after he died.

He joined a long list of artists who earned more money in the year after they died than during their whole career. Elvis achieved this feat in only a few months! I recently witnessed the Michael Jackson marketing department move into full swing a few seconds after the poor darling dropped dead.

What about painters. I’m sure Vincent Van Gogh would never have dreamed of the money one of his paintings is worth today. Picasso gave away many of his works that are now priceless. Andy Warhol had a small cult following. Until he up and expired.

Hemingway has probably sold more books in the last decade than he saw sold in his lifetime. Or is he now one of those lucky authors whose copyright has expired and now has his volumes available for free on the internet in a e-book format?

So if you seek fame or fortune, or both. The best thing you can do obviously, is drop dead! You won’t know anything about it, but your offspring and marketers will be very happy with your passing.

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The Other Half

As I decided to introduce you to AB ‘Banjo’ Patterson a couple of days ago, I thought it only right to balance this with a poem from Henry Lawson. The other great Australian poet. For me I cannot separate one from the other. It is not possible to read Patterson without reading Lawson. They balanced each other. Between them they captured a time and a spirit, and preserved it forever for future generations.

THE THINGS WE DARE NOT TELL
Henry Lawson
 
The fields are fair in autumn yet, and the sun's still shining there,
But we bow our heads and we brood and fret, because of the masks we wear;
Or we nod and smile the social while, and we say we're doing well,
But we break our hearts, oh, we break our hearts! for the things we must not tell.

There's the old love wronged ere the new was won, there's the light of long ago;
There's the cruel lie that we suffer for, and the public must not know.
So we go through life with a ghastly mask, and we're doing fairly well,
While they break our hearts, oh, they kill our hearts! do the things we must not tell.

We see but pride in a selfish breast, while a heart is breaking there;
Oh, the world would be such a kindly world if all men's hearts lay bare!
We live and share the living lie, we are doing very well,
While they eat our hearts as the years go by, do the things we dare not tell.

We bow us down to a dusty shrine, or a temple in the East,
Or we stand and drink to the world-old creed, with the coffins at the feast;
We fight it down, and we live it down, or we bear it bravely well,
But the best men die of a broken heart for the things they cannot tell.

Original text: Henry Lawson, When I was King and Other Verses (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1906): 56-57. x.908/578 British Library

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Young and Old

I was wondering today why it is that some old people look young, and some young people have a knack for looking old. Then again, why is it that some people have eyes that always seem to be smiling, while others betray their smile with their eyes?

Pretty simple thought processes going on in my head today. How we make instant judgements about the people we see and meet.

Whenever I get the opportunity, I just love to observe people. Not ogling or anything perverse (although some may think so), just quantitive observation and mild conclusion. Shopping areas are my favourite places, because people are so lost in their own concentration, they hardly ever notice me giving them the once over.

I have found that cafés are not so good, as people tend to be doing what I’m doing, so we get of a lot of embarrassing eye contact as we try and quantitively observe and mild conclude each other.

Anyway, my point is that when people are relaxed and do not feel they are being observed, they act very naturally and do not have their social guard switched on. You can really see how this works if you notice two people meeting each other by chance in the street. Their bodies snap to attention, faces take on a whole new personality and you can almost see the computation taking place as they try to remember each others name. This is usually accompanied by a lot of false smiling as well.

My favourite people to observe are in fact old people. Well, old in the sense of older than me, so that pretty well narrows it down to very old people. My fascination is with their eyes. How some seem to have a permanent happiness implanted in their eyes, even if their mouths and wrinkles point south. You can also sense a brightness or openness in their thinking from their eyes.

Then there are the young. Eyes that can betray their youth and beautiful skin. Eyes that are bored, unhappy, tired and unsmiling even though their mouths point north with a false smile.

I wonder what I look like?

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Self-Publishers Unite? (Revisited)

My recent blog post about book reviews for self-published works attracted a lot of comments, emails and tweets. I was certainly surprised by the level of interest. After reading all the comments, I believe the general consensus was that so long as a review was written independently, there is genuine interest in self publishing authors helping one another.

To my mind, the most important reviews for authors who self publish and have their books available online are short reviews posted to the book’s store site. For example 150 words on Amazon. They are also very useful to use on the author’s website or blog. Although a 1000 word review is fabulous, it is not a practicality if reciprocation is used.

Another concern for authors is the cost of delivering copies of their books for review. On top of the cost, postage is very expensive. Normally way more than the value of the book.

After considering different alternatives, I have an idea that may interest fellow authors. An authors cooperative in a sense. Perhaps a blog or standalone website where authors can connect and reciprocate reviews. But not of hard copies. Of protected pdf files of their work. Of course this would work on a trust basis.

For example, if I sent a copy of my work to three people for review, I would review their three works in return. End result, I have three reviews posted to my Amazon page, and I post my three reviews in return.

Any interest?

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