I'm working on an update right now. It's been a lot harder to do them lately, and I think that's my own fault. I'm trying to cut down on both my rather excessive self-medication through caffeine, drugs, and alcohol, and trying to get more sleep as well. I think I need to get back on a regular exercise program, I really haven't felt as good as I know I can since my trainer moved.
Anyway, two photos here. On the left is some of the most intense self-scarification (I assume that's what I'm looking at, although it could also be extreme stretch-marks) that's been submitted. On the right is an image that I rejected because I didn't believe that it wasn't stolen (looks to me like German-style SM)… But it's pretty over-the-top in it's torture-level.
Note-to-self: In the “I told you so” category, take Sephira's advice next time you feel like using a DIY solution on broken bones. It really sucks sometimes!
There are a lot of tears in the BME movie. It's an emotionally heavy film, to say nothing of the many moments that would enduce tears for purely physical reasons even in the absence of emotion. This frame capture is one of my favorites from the movie.
Since I'm guessing the average reader doesn't know the backstory, I'm going to very quickly fill it in. My apologies to those who are bored by it.
Spain has a region (sort of like Canada has Quebec) where the people are culturally unique from the rest of Europe, and speak a different language. This region wants to be its own country, hence Basque Separatism. These separatist groups have at times, including recently, launched terrorist attacks of various sizes against Spain. Probably in part due to those sympathies, Spain agreed to become involved in America's war on terror and got involved in the Iraq War.
Additionally, Spain agreed to become involved in what appears to be a UK/US backed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea, a West African nation just south of Cameroon that the Spanish ruled until quite recently. Equatorial Guinea is a mineral-rich nation with good deposits of oil, and it has been led by questionable democracy since its independence was declared. Recently a coup, similar to the one in Haiti, was nearly staged. Rebel groups were going to seize the President and take him to exile in Spain, with funding said to be coming from the US and UK war chests.
Then, a few days later, massive explosions rocked Madrid, killing about 200 people and injuring well over a thousand more, in one of the most brutal attacks on Western civilians since WWII. Initially all fingers in Spain pointed at the separtists, but outside the country people pointed at Spain's actions in Africa and the Middle East as the trigger. However, what makes this event especially important though is that it happened right before a federal election (thanks to Bear for the tip; check his page for his comments).
With al Qaeda taking credit for the attacks, and the election clearly handing power away from the pro-American pro-war centrist and to the leftist party promising to pull Spain from the war, al Qaeda has gone a long way to have proved something very terrifying: Terrorist attacks work, and they are dollar-for-dollar the most effective way of instituting political change in a democracy.
I've posted about a thousand new images to BME. Just a teaser really — the rest will go up on Tuesday, and for tomorrow there will be an amazing column by Jim Ward about the history of Doug Malloy. Enjoy this update, and expect more shortly…
I also wanted to share with you an excerpt from a letter from the BME movie's one-man shooting team over in Thailand (and more places too), an old friend and old teacher, Jon Cobb.
The Thai have superior kindness, beauty and patience despite abhorrent poverty. I saw a woman with her arms amputated above the elbow that had the bone still extending several inches beyond the muscles, badly grown over with keloided flesh, rocking for change. You don't get it, the arms looked like running, dripping, melting wax.
I didn't have change, couldn't search my bags in the crowd without getting pickpocketed (late in the night markets, not wise alone) but I leaned in, greeted her as a Thai (“sawasdee ka”, like swastika) and she lit up like God had been inside her testing me right then and there. Amazing people.
Sadly, I saw a blind deformed boy of maybe ten being led around on a chain by a blind man playing a monkey organ (like the street people with a trained monkey used to do). The boy was walking on his heels, arms grotesquely postured like I can't describe, and the calliope sounds of the organ were making the spectacle of poverty and handicap horrific and colorful in the extreme. I'll never forget that.
I would move here if I could though, I'll explain the wonders when there's more time. The food is the best.
Off to Mynmar right now, if the Buddhists don't take extreme offense to the Jaina crosses on my feet I will have a superior time. They take Buddhism extremely seriously, any hint of disrespect is serious. You cannot even take a representation out of the country at any price now…
Love to all,
Jon
The photo below (of the Mekong River) was taken by Ferg of course (check out his page for more from his travels)… I realize it's not quite the same place, but I hope it illustrates at least a little of the magic.
So it looks like they're finally going to announce what we've known at least since Babylonian and Sumerian times — that there's still another planet in our solar system. The proper name (if it's the planet we think it is) in my opinion is Marduk or Nibiru, but I guess we're going with Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea.
For those of you who know much about the history of the beings that live on this planet (“Sedna”, not Earth), you will definitely appreciate the naming being a sea goddess.
