Secret Songs of Silence

pic puzzles

Two recently seen pictures raised questions for me.

First:

(pic via guycandi)

Apart from the fact that the guy in this photo is hot, I was struck by the deep, deep, cleft beteen his right and left abs.  I can't recall seeing another quite so pronounced.  Is this common?

Second:

This tat is very adeptly positioned to draw attention to Mr. Cruises left nipple.  Is the tat real, though?  Or is it a temporary "paint job" for his new movie?

rowing boats

(This post inspired by Nicky)

I wonder if this guy is a rower?

(pic via Daan's Zephyr-Files Tumblr)

solidarité en rouge

Third level students in Québec have been on strike for 100 days in protest over proposals to raise tuition fees.  Critics characterize the strike as "the unrealistic whining of an entitled student minority used to getting everything for free". On the other side, it is viewed as a reaction against corruption, and the rich getting richer on the backs of poor students.  A Québec version of Occupy, if you will.

The provincial government has royally fcuked up handling the situation.  Their most recent effort involved draconian legislation that is unquestionably unconstitutional in many parts and that has only served to make matters worse.  Now the marches are larger than ever, and casserole symphonies are a nightly event.  It's a mess.

I have somewhat mixed feelings, it must be said.  Canada's provincial governments impose tuition freezes as a sop to help re-election prospects.  That's all well and good but they don't then give the universities enough dollars to compensate for their increasing costs.  On the other hand, I'm happy that there is some push back against our inceasingly fascist state.

Check out this Maclean's article and this Agonist post.

* * *

The symbol of the Québec student protest is a square red patch.  Here then, somewhat in a spirit of solidarity:

(pic via David Dust)

 

return of the black ram

Conrad Black's return to Canada a couple of weeks ago exploded most unexpectedly onto our news pages when the Leader of the Opposition referred to him as a "British criminal" in our House of Commons in the context of a question wondering whether he would be permitted to return to Canada upon his release.  Canada does not - as a rule, though there have been exceptions - admit convicted people to the country.

Now, while the description was rather unexpected and controversial, it was not wholly without reason.  Black was forced to renounce his Canadian citizenship in order to assume a peerage in the House of Lords in the UK, and he was convicted in a US court.  However, renunciation or not, Black is Canadian born and will forever be identified as Canadian in most minds.  His wife lives here.  He has property here.  Its hard to deny that his home is here.  As for his conviction, while he believes that he was wrongfully convicted, to his credit he has served his time.  And, even more to his credit, he is forthright in denouncing the US justice system and in denouncing the use of imprisonment for non-violent crimes.  He is openly critical of our current government for their misguided "justice" policies and legislation.  From an interview with the CBC's  Peter Mansbridge on Monday:

The idea of prison for non-violent people is nonsense.  Its done because its always been done, but it is nonsense, it is not the way to treat people. It’s horribly expensive.  It’s tokenistic, fetishistic, and a matrix for the magnification of abuse and the exacerbation of sociopathic problems.  It is an absolutely catastrophic misjudgment in how to deal with non-violent crime.  I’m not talking about people who are a physical menace to society, that’s a different matter.

It is easy to have mixed feelings about the man.  But no one can deny that he is a gifted writer and  intellectual.  I bought and read his biography of Roosevelt - in paperback, naturally, for I saw no need to contribute unnecessarily to his wealth.  I will not buy his biography of Nixon, though; that's asking too much of my leftish sympathies.  His erudition was on display in another part of his interview with Peter Mansbridge, one that left Mansbridge looking rather ill educated:

[Mansbridge]  You’ll be signing up to twitter soon…
...

[Mansbridge] I thought you’d be against twitter because there’s no way Conrad Black could say what he wanted to say in 140 characters
 
[Black]  No, I can manage that, and I think they’ve done a good job in destabilizing totalitarian despotic regimes but just the idea of twitter bugs me
 
[Mansbridge]  Some of the words you use are more than 140 characters let alone the sentences
 
[Black]  That was a brobdinagian insult!
 
[Mansbridge] Really. I’ll look  that up.

Black then sotto voce suggested to Mansbridge that this was from Swift.

I wasn't convinced watching him that Mansbridge knew that Black was referring to Gulliver's Travels.

The interview clip is here.  Whatever you think of the man or his opinions, I think it is a joy to listen to him. 

 

let's celebrate

It's a holiday monday in Canada.

The May 24 weekend.  Or, Queen Victoria's Birthday if you prefer.  Or Victoria Day.  National Patriot's Day in Quebec.

And - for once - it's warm and there's no risk of snow.

I know I have pics of a hot guy...

(via undiefangallery)

...or two

(via David Dust)

to help celebrate!

 

sunday with terry

In this hilarious clip, the inimitable Terry Vision interviews Iceland's Jonsí and Greta Salome:

 

They're great sports, participating in all the fun and double entendres, and as Terry says at the start, they'll never forget that interview!

 

of queens and kings

A remark in the story that struck me in particular was this one:

"Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands threw out her arms before greeting her fellow sovereign"

The story was about yesterday's lunch hosted by the Queen for fellow Monarchs in honour of her Diamond Jubilee.  The Queen is always formal in public and yet these little cracks in that armour appear and are reported.  The closest I could find picture-wise was the following:

I think that's a lovely picture though Beatrix has quite a firm grip on Elizabeth, doesn't she?  It really does convey a sense of joy and close friendship. 

Here's the full ceremonial picture of all the monarchs:

Too bad that a representative of Spain was missing.  Apparently King Carlos broke his hip recently and Queen Sofia was banned from attending because of a new tiff over Gibraltar.

It's also fun to watch the video below in which the Queen greets some of her guests.  You can see degrees of friendship and familiarity.  It's also fun at the start to note how Harald V of Norway talks about driving himself to the Palace.

 

 

2ji

I've been following the Eurovision Song Contest build up through various RSS feeds.  This past week has been all about rehearsals for the two semi-finals next week.   Its fun to see the sometimes wildly disparate opinions on what's good and what's not.  Among the favourites for some are Russia's Grannies - yes, really! - and Norway's hoodie-wearing Tooji.

Tooji has something of the modern metrosexual about him.  He was spotted "sporting a pair of tight pink shorts" at the Euroclub party.  And, he is just delightful in this interview with "Terry Vision", a rascally puppet (modeled surely on Terry Wogan) who delivers a wicked joke (o:50 mark) in this charming clip that leaves Tooji speechless for a second:

 

 

 

brilliant!

and you have to love that electrified version of the Eurovision theme.

* * *

Here's Tooji singing his Eurovision song as performed at the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix which selected their entrant:

 

 

 

I like his hip action, too.

* * *

 

He is rather nice to look at, isn't he?   :-)

hoodie trio

see how cute and hawt a guy in a hoodie can be:

(via David Dust)

(also via David Dust)

but wouldn't he look so much hotter if he just smiled!  :-)

and this last guy reminds me that monks could well be considered as the original hoodies:

(via Daan's tumblr)

costume

I want/need one of these:

(Pic via Daan's tumblr)