Bleeding hearts; sutures or sticky plaster?

When a girl gets her heart broken, she gets a circle of friends, a tub of Häagen-Dazs and a box of Kleenex. When a boy gets his heart broken, he gets a fifth of scotch, an impatient bartender and a splitting headache the next day to go with the heartache.

Go figure.

Audiophile: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cheated Hearts
Off my shelf: mulling over it
Midday Matinee: The Departed (2006)
Starring: Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg
Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Dust devils

Went rally-chasing over the weekend.
Had lots of fun.
Got really dusty.
Took some great photos.
Here they are.

The end.

Too close to the sun

I think I flunked a job interview today. I walked in there cocky and half-cocked at the same time. I swear i have the mind of a contortionist it’s a shame only my body lets me down. Anyway, I was dressed up to the nines, looking spiffy in a sharp suit and a bold tie. I had my technical presenation down so cold you could see my breath when I presented it. The penny dropped when I met my interviwer. He was slouchy and overweight and he kept looking for his non-existent chin with the tip of his pen. Something about that just put me off. I tried making small talk about motorsport and the rally I was at over the weekend but drew a blank.

By now I was really off-balance and then came the revenge of the nerd. He asked me where I’d want to be in  years nad I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the thought of a deserted beach with a scotch in one hand and Hemingway in the other would be my ideal choice. So I hemmed and hawed instead. He went for my jugular like a daylight Dracula.

As I left, I mentally drop-kicked myself for being so unprepared and deluding myself into thinking I could wing it. Turns out I’ll have to learn to fly first.

Audiophile: PJ Harvey – Down by the water
Off my shelf: Batman; The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller, Lynn Varley
Midday Matinee: Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai)  (1954)
Starring: Toshiro Mifune
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

I’ll have my Kate……….and Edith too.

I have always been fascinated by the seven deadly sins. Somebody must’ve thought long and hard about those; I mean, there’s one relevant to every little indiscretion and major cock-up imaginable. The things are like a straitjacket, you cannot get away from them.

Lust is my favourite in the traditional sense, one does have a whale of a time racking up a rap sheet on this sin but I suppose lust as a sin transcends desire of the flesh. The Aston Martin DB9, an Omega wristwatch, Kahlua, deep fried prawns, the Macbook pro and lots of other things could get you in trouble just as quick.  Lust is the DNA for all sin.

Greed on the other hand, is the most complex of the deadly sins. I suppose it is pardonable to lust after beautiful things. The creators of them would be very upset if we didn’t. If a man doesn’t get whiplash from turning to stare at a gorgeous woman then he should probably be  struck by lightning. Painters should burn their masterpieces, photographers smash your cameras, Steve Jobs takes a vacation and Celine Dion would quit singing (hmm…that might actually be not so bad). Greed is lust on steroids. Wanting more than one needs is where the line gets razor-thin. In a black & white world knowing one’s wants from one’s needs opens a technicolour world of grey. The debate on individual appetites alone is interminable and the one on separating needs from wants is as diverse as there are people in this world.

I suppose then that the quest for the perfect partner would fall rather neatly into the debate. Is finding your soul mate a want or  a need? My soul mate has to be many things. If I got started on a list here, greed alone would make it very long for I’d want her to be good at everything but we know that’s not possible. So, how about spreading the composite of a soul mate among several different candidates? Brainy-girl and Booty-girl won’t have to come in the same package. Someone else can cook and another do the laundry. There can be the girl with whom one goes to museums with and another for picnics, another who’s a great listener and  one more whose yummy voice you could listen to all day (maybe). One  whose problems you’ll always want to solve and one to whom you’ll run to when in deep shit.

Herein lies the rub; What’s sauce for the Goose…… ahem excuse me, Gander in this case, is certainly sauce for the Goose. I suppose a lady’s list on the qualities of Mr. Right would have as many items as the number on her bra size and I couldn’t possibly blame her; men need a lot of work before they are even palatable let alone gourmet fare. Trouble is, I don’t think I could handle the competition. Ideally I’d want to be the  ‘O’ guy when she goes, “Oh God!” but what if I turn out to be  a ‘men-are-pigs-I-need-to-knee-one-in-the-balls’ guy for most women? Perhaps only the spectre of assault charges is all that’s restraining them at the moment. Life would indeed be nasty, brutish and short.

Decisions, decisions.

Audiophile: The Who – Baba O’Riley
Off my shelf: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls – Futaro Yamada
Midday Matinee: Cicade de Deus (City of God)  (2002)
Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Phellipe Hargensen
Directed by: Fernando Mierelles, Katia Lund