"1001 Nights"

Look at both pictures.

Yeah, I know, people die, people are tortured and it was only a mosque, but this one was special to me.

When I was a kid I got a postcard with it, glittery golden dome under bright blue sky. It was the symbol of the Great Orient - the myth, the legend - from philosophers and mathematicians to sultans, luxuries and mysteries to the Orient Express - this was the symbol of the oriental dream for me. And I dreamt a lot about the wonders of 1001 nights.

Alas no longer. The idiots don't deserve their history or heritage. Bleh. I'm sad.
Someone did it to make a point, to stir unrest, provoke more conflict - depending on a point of view and political/religious leaning this may make sense. To me it makes no sense.

Go kill each other some more, leave history and beauty be, it's not only yours you know, it's ours too...

To take or not to take...

To take or not to take... seems to be the new Shakespearean dilemma for many, but in the Olympic season the sportsmen are obviously in the spotlight. The heroes of our time willing to sacrifice their health, and sometimes the very life, for our family-oriented entertainment. So sweet, aren't they?

So, it was established by some sectors of American society that a middle-aged boob is obscene, but doping of all sorts is apparently OK, as long as it is discreet and kept illegal. We love to be hypocrites and to play saints, don't we? Well, so boobs are banned from American mainstream media (thanks goodness Europe is not so politically correct yet), and this hypocrisy is not going away anytime soon, so why don't we end another cover-up and legalize doping in sports? [And while we are at it, let's legalize marijuana too, after all the 100% legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco are more addictive and health-damaging than the herb.]

Back to sports and other phenomena.

Let's see - women take whatever they can to lose weight and bodybuilders do the same to pump it up, kids are on Ritalin and men on Viagra - why on earth those of whom we demand most physically are to be denied "a little help from my friends"? After all it could be better for everyone and closer to the truth. Someone please convince me that Florance Griffith-Joyner and Carl Lewis were clean while only Ben Johnson run on steroids, Lance Armstrong was powered on 6 Tours de France by radiation residue only... riiight. Pure as yesterday's snow in New York (was that the phrase? or something similar?).

If doping was openly admitted the huge pharmaceutical companies could not only take the lead in research of all sorts of legal enhancing drugs, but, why not, sponsor the events too. Pfizer Cup anyone? The purists could have their own Clean Games once in a blue moon. There would be no point of holding many more clean event equivalents, who'd watch "100% Pure Giro d'Italia" with like 5 participants?

Anyway, sad episodes of police raiding athletes' lodgings
could be avoided, let the heroes eat, sleep, train and inject in peace. After all they embody our dreams of fame and fortune, just like the "American" and other "Idol" hopefuls. We love them, we envy them, we live through their success or fall... OK, that's for another post. Soon.

Mature audience

Today's teengers are not exactly eager to read old Jane Austen's romances, and probably don't care much for movies based on them. At least I did not see any teenagers at the cinema this afternoon, quite the contrary, I saw many people way into retirement age, some accompanied by their children or spouses. Different audience, different maturity, people who chose to go to the movies for old fashioned clean entertainment and, why not, emotions.

Too bad the mature audience was served with "Brokeback Mountain" trailer featuring gay cowboys and the next one with Jennifer Anniston's opening line "wanna fuck in the bathroom?". Too bad the movie staff didn't have sense and sensibility (please note clever use of Austen's romance title showing off how erudite I am) to be there helping the older ones to their seats, not everyone can read small numbers in dim light you know...

Anyway, it was refreshing to see the prejudiced Mr. Darcy and the proud Miss Elizabeth (or is it proud Darcy and prejudiced Elizabeth, or both?) in the countryside, bound by the rules of propriety and their own stubborness. So much tension, and not even one kiss. Not one act of violence and the only nudes were distant ceiling frescoes and ice cold marble sculptures.

The movie has been out for a few weeks already, the theather was almost full on Sunday afternoon, which means that, thankfully, not only explosions and sex sell. Plus your mature audiences usually have some cash to spend, if they like a movie, they may not spend it on stupid merchandise, but they are prospective legal DVD buyers as most of them wouldn't even know how or where from to download pirated movies in the first place.

My life is not a blog.

I know, I know, the title is contrary to what this blog says on top, but my life is my life and it's not to be blogged out for everyone to read and comment, I think I lack this kind of exibitionism.

I'm trying to keep my posts neutrally universal, no real life names or other direct identification because this is the way I want it to be. There are no more than half a dozen people on whole Internet who can identify Karyatis as RL me or link this blog to my two other nicknames/personas.

There is no secret, I have nothing to hide, I just want to enjoy the freedom this place offers. Yes, I want to write about blowjobs, no I don't want people from the office to read what I have to say on the subject. I'm a private person, I don't need publicity, I don't have to inform virtual communities with whom I had dinner and what colour are my eyes (blue :P) , you will never see a picture of me posted here.

That's me, that's how I like it.
What's private stays private.
My blog is my castle.
Yeah.

(At least if I ever write about a hug, steamy windshield, one night of many in the car full of stories nobody will know what the hell I'm talking about...)