This edition of PA.APP is all about clearing the decks for the start (for me) of my new year. I've always liked getting things in order, putting them straight & cleaning up any loose ends, but have found this to be an increasingly difficult job with the constant avalanche of information the internet makes available. I'd very much like to change that trend but when you've always loved collecting 'stuff' it's a hard balance to maintain.
It might get random & disconnected, maybe even more so than usual.
<> Thanks for looking in. (PH)
FIRSTLY /// A BIG THANKS to D M Nagu for giving me permission to use his excellent collage art on several of my music projects. This one is the original sleeve image for the recently released NOT NOW EP. (Available HERE)
This is a link that feels pretty special; certainly one that i don't want to lose. Exceptional photographs from an exceptional man. CHECK IT OUT HERE
(NZ's version of ebay)
(more Roger Steffens HERE)
MALARIA were another of those great innovative bands that appeared in the early 80's. I think they supported my old band THE BOX in Brixton. I remember watching them and being impressed by the possibilities that were opening up. There really weren't that many female bands & MALARIA, for me, were kicking against the old guard in a very positive way, just as THE SLITS had before them. This album is definitely worth hearing. | David Lynch, “Billy (and His Friends) Did Find Sally in the Tree” (2019) mixed media painting 66 x 66 inches; 76 13/16 x 76 7/8 x 5 3/4 inches framed |
2/8/20 (draft email to unknown recipient #1)
So here i am, proud like a baby or a dead man, whistling ragged on another morning of grey ambivalence. It’s never the same as it used to be and memory is no longer my friend. I used to believe in deep winter, when the ice rolled down the street like wrecked cars and the key wouldn’t go in the lock until you pissed on it. Now, all there seems to be is a twilight approximation of suspended autumn that worries away at the heels of an arrested spring, just a long, long waiting game. This seasonal uncertainty feels like a parasitical worm burrowing into my flesh, into my body and spirit, strumming at my nerve endings until i fall back into the arms of voluntary self-destruction. Minor maladies cluster together like pack animals and gnaw away on the bones of structure and perseverance, breaking them down to a fine powder that will doubtlessly blow away on the first decent wind. I tune into the forgotten radio waves in search of foreign voices reciting production figures of industrial achievement in some propagandist mantra to implausibility. All i can find is static and silence with the occasional flurry of banal pulsation and formulaic melody. I can’t help but think we have replaced mystery with a million contradictions amongst which no truth can be found. (PH)
THE TREE OF LIFE 2011, directed by Terrence Malick Although The Thin Red Line and The New World both hinted at it, this marked Malick’s full-blown ascendance into affective montage, one based primarily on the aesthetic properties and emotional resonance of each shot, and new heights in his journey to reconcile the smallness of human time with the vastness of geological time. | HOLY MOTORS 2012, directed by Leos Carax The reclusive Carax’s sole film of the decade is certainly a doozy. Denis Levant plays a man who inhabits a series of “roles.” (For a movie? As a service? Who knows!) The dizzying un-narrative takes us from a sound stage to underground Paris to the actor’s own deathbed |
Thomas Moore’s new novel ‘Alone’ in May 2020. I’m supremely confident this one will blow you way.
(Amphetamine Sulphate)
Just how much alcohol have i consumed in my life & am i a better or worse man for it? It was a reward when there was little money in the kitty, when every penny was counted and small children's need came first. A bottle of Stolichnaya was equivalent to gold medal. Cheap wine and cheap lager were the once or maybe twice weekly treat. Later, when there was more financial stability, i got into wine, nothing fancy, just cheap Italian whites. I guess this is the point that i can remember it becoming almost a daily activity, heading out to the local supermarket to grab some bargains shortly before it closed for the night & also copping a special offer wine. Back then Christine was still drinking, not much but it meant the bottle got shared. Then the Scottish years, where wine was augmented with whisky and barely a day would pass without a drink.It wasn't easy to score weed in the Outer Hebrides and alcohol took a firm grip as my drug of choice. Often it was far from wise, as any depressive will attest. The pattern, by then, was firmly established and it wasn't until we high-tailed to Vienna that i finally quit with a bit of encouragement from a new comrade in arms, Rich 'Deafnoise' France, himself a victim of total blackouts at the hands of alcohol. What also helped was the fine selection of Alkhhol Frei beers available. I kept it going, barring a few slips, right up until the critical fracturing that saw my Christine take flight to New Zealand and, shortly after, my return to Sheffield. Back in Sheffield i returned to my old friend marijuana, although i did gradually start reacquainting myself with alcohol without being reliant on it. Almost a year later i bid a final farewell to the old country (England specifically) and threw all i had into settling in New Zealand. That was back at the end of 2013, 7 years ago. Now i'm asking the question, how many days of abstinence have there actually been during those years? It goes in waves, a good day, or series of days, sees me only having 3 or 4 small bottles of cider (beer just doesn't do it for me anymore & wine, although preferred, just disappears with an embarrassing & uncontrollable greed) but every now and then something else gets thrown into the mix, maybe whisky or brandy, and things escalate until i'm left feeling shit and berating myself for my lack of control. And i tell myself it keeps things workable and stops me spinning off into the black void of angst and frustration. Maybe it does. Every now and then i try my best to take a week off, seldom managing it, but at least allowing a slight resetting. I've always exercised and worked hard and had the good fortune of hardly ever getting hungover. I have a strong constitution. However, this does not stop the progress of years, and at 61 my body has taken a few knocks and the undeniable ravages of time are taking their toll. Would it be wise or even doable to quit now? When i've had a few drinks it all stops hurting and i feel younger than my years, more cavalier, more optimistic in this dystopian era that gets harder and harder to feel positive about. I recall the swimming pool at my primary school; 20 yards long, 5 ft. at the deep end, 3 ft. at the shallow end and around 7 yards wide. Have i drunk enough alcohol yet to fill it? | CBD helps fight resistant bacteria Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming, antibiotics have saved millions of lives from fatal infections world-wide. However, with time bacteria have developed mechanisms to escape the effects of antibiotics -- they have become resistant. With fewer antibiotics available to treat resistant bacterial infections, the possibility of entering a pre-antibiotic era is looming ahead. Alternative strategies are being explored and helper compounds are attracting attention. Helper compounds are non-antibiotic compounds with the capability of enhancing the efficacy of antibiotics. How to boost antibiotics One such helper compound has been suspected to be cannabidiol (CBD); a cannabinoid from the cannabis plant. Now a research team from University of Southern Denmark, has published a scientific study proving the effect of CBD. Janne Kudsk Klitgaard is Principal Investigator and corresponding author. First author is PhD student Claes Søndergaard Wassmann. The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. When we combined CBD and antibiotics, we saw a more powerful effect than when treating with antibiotics alone. So, in order to kill a certain number of bacteria, we needed less antibiotics, they say. Bacteria clones spread globally In the study, CBD was used to enhance the effect of the antibiotic bacitracin against Staphylococcus aureus bacteria; a major human pathogen that frequently causes community- and hospital-acquired disease. Multidrug-resistant clones of this pathogen have spread globally. In some countries, treatment of bacterial infections with these resistant bacteria are difficult and the problem is projected to be an ever-larger problem in the future. According to the researchers, the combination of CBD and antibiotics may be a novel treatment of infections with antibiotic resistant bacteria. How do the bacteria die? Three things happened with the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, when the researchers treated them with the combination in their study: The bacteria could no longer divide normally. The expression of certain key genes (cell division and autolysis genes) in the bacteria was lowered. The bacterial membrane became unstable. Anti-resistance must be stopped According to the researchers, overuse of antibiotics is the main cause of antibiotic resistance. If we combine an antibiotic with a helper compound, that enhances the effect of the antibiotic, we need less antibiotic to achieve the same effect. This may contribute to the development of fewer resistant bacteria, says Janne Kudsk Klitgaard. |
The building is located at central Da Nang city. It's near by City Administration center 600m, Han Martket 700m, train station 1000m, bus stop 8 NTMK 300m, to International Airport 2.5km, and many bar, club like New Orient club, sky36 bar just 300m walk. The apartment is on 3rd floor, spacious, arround 50m2, wooden floor and equipped with kitchen, microwaves, Cable TV, airconditioner, hot water. The owner can speak English fluently which help you to explore city at most conveniently.
The space
The location is at main street, central of city. It is very convenient for you to walk to City Administration tower, to Da Nang Museum, Han Bridge, Han market, surrounding many restaurant, coffee shop, spa, massage.
(Lockdown for our son in Vietnam)
From Thich Nhat Hanh's “Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism” : “Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others, but prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth. Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small. Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause division and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.” |
Caught somewhere between pins. Hot sticks spiking upwards between the roots. Everything begins to melt away. It has a calm violence and freezes in mid-air. In the morning i twist upwards over the track, out of the frost and into the fog. Shadows of the days ahead strobe by in the smudged periphery. Lunacy has stopped saying much, maybe there’s something darker going on, a fracturing or a swirling downwards. I’ve stopped looking for every blemish and niggle. I wanted to be able to breathe again. As you get old, being thick skinned is contrary to nature. Easier, then, to shrug it away and not give it relevance.
To other realms; those of sound, vision and unfettered imagination. Everywhere, we’ve made fences and we see fences. Looking into the vast cosmos of restraint and bondage. Who is your mind? Who are you beyond it? The free range market is a runaway success. We can plan for it. We can build a fence around it. When it comes to non-conformity there’s even a lesson to be learned in what colour shirt you choose. Conforming with other non-comformists is a fluffy hypnotism. Let me walk clumsy, let me stagger and trip, falling down in the dirt where i belong. I wonder at how Christian propriety and guilt has vilified both the natural spirit and that of the earth. How can anyone tell if anything’s balanced anymore. We’re not. We’re fixated on outward reaching possibilities; looking the wrong way and missing the show.
Moments of clarity slide over each other like tectonic plates. Next to a stream in a deep gulley i pause to scan the floor for mushrooms. I’m looking psilocybins in a strange world of toxicity and fatal poisons. The dreams aren’t dreams we can share whilst sleeping, we need to stand tall and stake or claim on abnormal behaviour. I wonder if this is the root of boredom. For some of us it’s all just too normal, it offers no hope of spinning out and becoming unrecognisable. Perhaps this is the truth of familiarity breeding contempt. My searching hasn’t got me anywhere yet. There are dried mushroom scattered around the house and fresh dirt on my hands and body, For fleeting moments i catch sight of something beyond rational thought and clutch as many straws as i can grab hold of. What may be easily dismissed as a whim or pointless desire could, in fact, be the very thing most needed, an essential energy that holds the world at bay for a while and allows me to elevate from the drabness or the normal.
IN AND OUT AND IN (for revbjelde) we wear the wreckage like a badge the pin going right through into the skin staring down into the street below from our synthetic cells tainted now, with misadventure and spiralling side effects of this pharmaceutical economy it’s raining again great brown snakes writhing in torrents across the land and carrying the debris of sanity away in anger out of necessity in vain and for all our need to hold and touch and be together for at least one last laugh it feels impossible to stake a claim on anything certain these cold sterile corridors and desperate wards of contradiction i was here before a long, long time ago watching the light dim in the shadows of emotional and intellectual poverty the looping razor wire of our chosen freedom all too fragile and cinched too tight hard to fill the lungs or catch the horizon in time out of breath in the end | A CASE FOR CLIMBING and now i am the pregnant pause hogging limbo in purgatory the message came through today i was being drafted again put back to work committing acts of conservation with fossil fuels and now i am the microscopic eye high profile hypercritical mass i patch up the holes in my story it seems i’m designed like that configuring the art of hanging invisibly above the floor so let’s tick away towards it let’s erase the passing days let’s make a case for climbing to the source of the stream let’s take the money let’s open the empty box |
PA.APP (18)