i tried to dance Britney Spears, i guess i'm getting on in years

[satyrica]

Things genereally good. Weekend as follows:

Friday

-retrieved riksowden from Victoria whilst cryx cooked pies for all.

-ate pies

-went to Sin City (via The World's End) with cryx, barty and optional extras. Club less full and playing less music I knew than envisaged but had good time anyway (possibly due to abundance of cute long-haired metal boys.)

Saturday

-went to work (hangover/lack of sleep kicked in halfway through shift)

-went on just-because-war-on-Iraq-over-don't-think-we-can't-still-oppose-it march; decided to wait on Piccadilly and watch it go past from beginning to end, then join at the back.

-got bored after an hour and joined anyway; saw several people I knew but didn't hang out with any particular affinity group, had good time anyway (possibly due to abundance of cute long-haired protest boys)

-walked home along South Bank in glorious sunshine

-went out to dinner/reunion in Swiss Cottage with people first worked with when came to London; was reminded how inspirational they had been to me, both in career path and lifestyle choices; had nice time

Sunday

-went to work (last day of Stats Week: much rejoicing)

-had Sunday lunch with cryx at local pub; first time engaged wth local gay community despite living at centre of second gayest square mile in London for two years; place friendly but felt a little out of place (possibly due to absence of cute long-haired gay boys)

-ambled round Elephant & Castle shops (esp. second hand bookstore;) decided living in London great

-hung out with Steve & Ruth when they came to leave car outside flat whilst went to gig

-went to gathering at Roland's new flat in Shepherd's Bush; select gathering but fun; panicked at Maggie that should be making plans for Prague; couldn't think of anything to plan; drank G&Ts as instructed

-fell asleep on bus back, trekked home from Camberwell Green at 1am

Comments

[riksowden.livejournal.com]

And thank you for the local-guidinating :D

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

you're muchly welcome: hope you had a good time at Synth.Cult.!

[riksowden.livejournal.com]

Was deeply funky!

Though i'm less convinced by Sweet Home Alabama being a metal track!

[silver-blue.livejournal.com]

So, skinheads would be your thing, yes?

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

*narrows eyes scowlingly* ;-)

[cryx]

i'm noticing a pattern!

hehehe

Was indeed a fab weekend!

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

well I wouldn't want anyone to think I got involved in the protest movement for the politics . . .

[cryx]

heh heh.

[silver-blue.livejournal.com]

Certainly the vast majority of people on those marches (in my experience) have very little knowledge or understanding of politics! :)

Incidentally, was there a particular focus to the march? I saw it being advertised in a number of posters as a "get the troops out of Iraq" event, was that the case?

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

officially it was a 'bring the troops home/don't even think about invading Iran' march but I think a lot of people were using it to register the fact that their dismay the war happened at all hadn't gone away

[silver-blue.livejournal.com]

Well, I have a lot more sympathy with an expression of dismay than a "bring the troops home" argument. As for invading Iraq, I don't think they even are thinking about it.

Personally I got very disillusioned with the "Stop the War" movement following attending the first big march - not only did the vast majority of the attendees seem to have no real conception other than "ooh, Bush is bad, so this is bad" but it was linked in artificially with the Palestinian issue and the various comments about Bush being the biggest terrorist were both inaccurate and insulting to the intelligence.

Huge issues with the conduct of going to war - cassus belli, undermining of the UN, planning for the aftermath etc. But withdrawing the troops now would cause more trouble than it's worth and ultimately Iraq will be a better place for it having happened, my issues were more about setting precedents in terms of unilateral action, ignoring the international community, and other things that are likely to cause problems and issues in the future.

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

people definitely try to use any large demonstration as fertile recruiting ground for their own agenda (there were some placards I saw saturday managing to turn an opposition to war round into a demand for higher pensions) and there's certainly no shortage of people getting a bit excitable in their demands and claims but I guess I take the view that any movement that wants to exist on any kind of scale has by necessity to be a broad church and am happy to march alongside people who, in the specifics, my views are miles away from, for the sake of more effectively sending the shared primary message

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

am happy to march alongside people who, in the specifics, my views are miles away from

Solidarity (sä-l&-'dar-&-tE), n.: what he just said.

[silver-blue.livejournal.com]

I don't, which is why I don't go on these marches any more. :)

Take the alternative view that it's all too often the extremist message that can be emphasised, and frankly I'd rather not offer the suggestion that I support stupid and ill-informed opinions.

[wychboy.livejournal.com]

well, who can resist those long haired boys. I have lots of trouble.

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's them resisting me that seems to be my trouble ;op

[wychboy.livejournal.com]

well, can't say my sucesses have been very good recently either :P

[reindeerflotila.livejournal.com]

you two clearly failed to learn how to set pit traps and take the Net Use 101 course. I teach for a modest fee.


:P