Writer's Block

It's like a disease that shuts down all systems.

Ahh. How I dread you so, Writer's Block.

Sitting at the computer, keyboard within reach, I stare blankly at the illuminated screen, clueless.

My brain is buzzing with the awkward reverberating silence that accompanies desolated vicinities.

Nothing. Just a vast expanse of deserted land with tufts of grass and a rusty swing set whose rickety swing looms eerily to and fro, creaking in the breeze.

No imagination. No words. Nothing.

Samurai Peas: Still Kicking Arses!

After a month of being held hostage by my teacher, the Samurai Peas have finally been freed!
Hallelujah!
Finally, I can blissfully continue to draw their crude sketches during my free periods for the amusement of everyone, myself included.
With much luck and time, I hope to post them up here!
Cyber Samurai Peas! Going techno-savvy! I like it!
For now, pencil and paper should suffice. And very soon, my Samurai Peas will unsheathe their swords and dominate the World! Muhahaha!

Foogling(?): The Palate's Pleasure

Foogling.
Yes. You read right.
I made up the word if that's what you're wondering.
It's an explosive product of bombarding food and google. Ta-Da! Foogle.
Basically, it's a whimsical, rather amusing hobby of mine.
Google, the powerful storehouse of the never-ending archives of information lists billions of entries within mere seconds when you type in F.O.O.D.

To yield better results of course you must jab in more specific names like 'Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich' or 'Double Ripple German Chocolate Fudge Cake'.
But we don't want it's history just now, do we?

With a rumbling stomach and a fluorescent computer/cell phone screen to keep us company we want images. Glorious, mouth-watering, tantalising pictures that lure your tongue and tingle your taste buds, and enchant your odour sensors even without casting out a wafting, teasing aroma.

I believe the term 'Gastroporn' is used these days to refer to this scrutinizing photography of food.
So I bring the little pointing finger to the morbid blue of the Images link and eagerly, click hard with my mouse.
'Ice Cream Cake'- my fingers dash across the keyboard.
Hundreds of photographs gush in and fill the screen; taken either by professional photographers or amateurs that have finally found the right side up of their cameras.
My tongue lolls out, absent-minded.
'Choco-Oat Cookies', 'Trifle', 'Marble Slab Creamery', 'Honey Dew Smoothie', 'Ice Cream Sandwiches'- Goodies too good to pass up.

With the economic downturn, the one way to turn that frown upside down is taking to comfort food like most non-anorexic people do.

But sometimes the luxuries have to be turned down a notch.
However, sometimes you find when you're drooling over the computer screen at those magnificent, gorgeous treats, you find that your eyes drink in the pleasure, your appetite is slowly curbed and you beam happily, smacking your lips at the succulent taste you imagine sliding down your throat.

Tip for New Fooglers: Keep your drool off the screen and don't fog it up! Happy Foogling!

Bon appetit!

Michael Jackson: The Warped Journey of a Pop Legend

The Man Behind the White Mask and the White Sequined Glove


The world is still staggering in shock with the news of the death of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, the star of Motown.
His name has made it into tabloids, magazines, newspapers and numerous headlines over the past 50 years, both for his amazing talent and skill as well as for his atrocious abuse.
Now, as of June 25 2009 his whirlwind fifty years have come to an end and we must bid him a fitting farewell.
He will forever be immortalised in the pages of music history as the unrivalled King of Pop, the man who brought freedom to 'Black' musicians, the genius behind the moonwalk, the little singer who could and the sensational performer that he proved himself to be.

It was on August 29 1958 that this prodigy was born and at the age of five, he made it to the big stage. He sang with his brothers in 'The Jackson Five' but his outstanding flair for music was never hidden among them.



As he took to the solo act, he revelled in the spotlight he was destined for and soon couldn't stray from the public eye and the media.
His albums topped charts and became instant best-sellers, selling out at a mind-boggling rate. He still holds the record for the highest sale of CDs.
He brought business to the 'music video' industry and sizzled in the freshest of dance moves and highest of fashion.
He brought the world together to raise their voices in unison to a rousing chorus of 'Heal the World' and helped South Africa with the awareness it had stirred and the charities that had benefited.
The best was yet to come. 'Thriller' flew off shelves as soon as they hit them. The dance video was a pop representation of the 80s. Everyone everywhere listened to his music and immediately got hooked to the addictive beats and the funky dancing. His classic video still continues to be held high in the dance community and has even inspired Filipino inmates to dance it out in their own music video( An instant YouTube hit).



But the rock star life is not always as easy as it sounds. The stakes were high, the anticipation overwhelming and the media was acrid and biting.
His albums were sensational but nothing could live up to the phenomenon of 'Thriller'.
Jackson's life started to spiral downhill from this moment. His bizarre fascination to change his appearance and his rather curious rejection of adulthood lured in the starved media. They latched on and his career exploded.
His plastic surgery, his child molestation accusations, his financial meltdown and extensive loans were publicly blown up by the press vultures.
He grew mentally secluded at first, retreating to his haven he called 'Neverland' and lived the life of a boy who never grew up, a realistic Peter Pan, surrounding himself with children, toys, amusement parks, zoos and theatres. His virtual fantasy soon lashed threw his piggy bank and his coins fell out to pay bills, court bails and loans.
He then turned to Bahrain, the place I blog from, where he lived for a couple of years incognito, occasionally making his way into the newspapers, photographed wearing traditional Bahraini women's attire.

And then soon, he was forgotten. His name was like a forgotten saga of a bygone pop age. His star glittered on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Yet it was the only thing that sparkled in Michael Jackson's blackened life.
Then, in an attempt to make a comeback of a lifetime and pump back the glitz into his dying once famous name, he launched concerts across the UK and the USA.



He was working vigorously, perfecting his dance moves and vocals for those elaborate sizzling concerts when the unforeseen happened.
The comeback never did come and he never made it back.
He was found dead in his rented apartment. Cardiac Arrest. It all came to a grinding stop. The end of an era.
Jackson's death more than saddening, is startling. He always seemed to be there. That household name he created seems immaterial now. He's gone. It seems impossible, unreal. He was a part and parcel of our lives; his videos on MTV, his songs on the radio, his face plastering the front page in all its cosmetic surgical glory.
An autopsy is underway as forensics question what had happened, how the Jackson Empire came crumbling to ruins just yesterday.
The news may shock us or cause grief. It may give us greater conviction when we stand at candle light vigils, listening to his epic music.
It shows us that there was something genuinely real beneath the artificial exterior.
Whatever it does, it surely will write the closing chapter in Jackson's memorable life.The book is finished, the contents are done, the pages have been immortalised with the legacy of the King of Pop and now it lies there for the world to read the tale of a boy who lit up the stage and every one's lives by the magic of music and dance. And his story will be told for years to come, unforgotten by the music world, the fans and our hearts.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson
1958-2009

Stonehenge Dance!

The 21st Day of June.

The longest day of the year.

Coincidentally, it is also the day la fête de la musique is celebrated in France, especially Paris, la capitale de l'Art.

Yet the celebration of the Summer Solstice is a universal phenomenon of joy and cheer as people rejoice nature's official marker of the beginning of summer.

The history of the commemoration of the Summer Solstice dates back to over 5,000 years ago when "people placed huge stones in a circle on a broad plain in what’s now England and aligned them with the June solstice sunrise".

The Stonehenge now a magnificent tourist attraction hewn in stone is a living memoir of such festivities.



"We may never comprehend the full significance of Stonehenge. But we do know that knowledge of this sort wasn’t isolated to just one part of the world. Around the same time Stonehenge was being constructed in England, two great pyramids and then the Sphinx were built on Egyptian sands. If you stood at the Sphinx on June 21 and gazed toward the two pyramids, you’d see the sun set exactly between them."

The Summer Solstice is supposed to be the longest and hottest day of the year.

"This solstice takes place on Sunday, June 21, 2009 at 5:46 Universal Time."

"The earliest humans knew that the sun’s path across the sky, the length of daylight, and the location of the sunrise and sunset all shifted in a regular way throughout the year.
They built monuments, such as Stonehenge, to follow the sun’s yearly progress.
Today, we know that the solstice is an astronomical event, caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis, and its motion in orbit around the sun.
Because Earth doesn’t orbit upright, but is instead tilted on its axis by 23-and-a-half degrees, Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres trade places in receiving the sun’s light and warmth most directly.
At the June solstice, Earth is positioned in its orbit so that the North Pole is leaning 23-and-a-half degrees toward the sun. As seen from Earth, the sun is directly overhead at noon 23-and-a-half degrees north of the equator, at an imaginary line encircling the globe known as the Tropic of Cancer. This is as far north as the sun ever gets.
All locations north of the equator have day lengths greater than 12 hours at the June solstice. Meanwhile, all locations south of the equator have day lengths less than 12 hours."


Parts of this post have been taken from http://www.earthsky.org/article/49667/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-solstice-on-june-21

Hope you enjoy your longest day out!

Pack the sunscreen, get out the shades and head on out to the Stonehenge and party the day away while it lasts!




Blog Bubble: The sunrise and sunset of the Summer Solstice are one of the most beautiful spectacles that nature conjures every year. You don't won't to miss it! So set your sundials!