Wednesday 29 January 2014

Clippety Clop


Neptune's Horse might've come second to Athena's Olive Tree in the race to name Athens but it does represent the Year ahead beginning on Friday 31 Jan. Listen here if you like.

There is much about life that is linked to Destiny. Yet this year – that of The Horse is one of freedom and allows for the most self-determination. Which is not to say one need choose that course. One may simply drift letting the Horse pick your path through bramble, rock or lush green grass, either side of any fence.


It’s a great year to dream, drift or knuckle down to some solid task. It’s a great year in general, so fresh and wild. Its dangers lie in driving you and yours too hard. If you pick a path too difficult you may well founder your mount by being too hasty. And for the want of a horse (and a few other things major and minor) a kingdom was lost. This is a year to strategically reposition yourself for victory in the next. Lead if you like, take your people to places but let them choose what to do once there. Self-determination is for all.

Whether by gallop, canter, trot, walk, plod or plough a fresh and positive life-perspective is available. Connect with the invigorating aspects of the natural world to understand your own strength and the value of community. There are many roads. All of them have delicious views. All of them lead to the Dark Heart of the Woods in which you can know your every dream but where you have to sacrifice one in order to live the rest. This will be the hardest item of the year, what will you relinquish from your stubborn grasp in order that the Trail of your Life leads through the Valley of Delight?

Much love

Doctor Lobster

This year gets a small additional note... last year (The Snake) was about internal growth through external change. This means shedding those things that no longer serve you (internal or external). You have until the Full Moon on 15 Feb to continue this process. By doing so you will relish the ride a lot more.

Apologies if that dead horse scared you... it comes from an art project I did based around the premise that Death might as well shout itself hoarse for all the attention we pay it until its oft untimely arrival... so I do like to think about... in sunshine and gloom. And that makes me love life that much more! 

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Thursday 2 January 2014

Inappropriation



The story normally runs that the products of your childhood decline rather than get better.
Often measured by how closely the product matches the photo on the package. Back in your youth it invariably seemed a better fit. This was never more evident than in the case of the Iced Zoo biscuit whose reality of obscure white sugary animal-blobs on fields of green, pink, orange or (yum) blue never matched the crystal-clear packaging pictures.

Yet something pretty strange yet rewardingly positive appears to have happened. I spent New Years day at a braai (BBQ) at Jem and Megans pad in Fish Hoek Cape Town – of all my friends houses – this is my favourite. A nostalgic purchase of a pack of Iced Zoos (for the children of course) revealed that the animal on the biscuit does in fact resemble the packaging in far more recognizable form than any of us ever recalled! Somebody got a new biscuit factory

Some of my friends felt this removed some of the charm of the iced zoo but I think there is such merit in starting 2014 with something that has in fact got better!!!

Here are some comparisons






Yesterdays beautiful Polar Bear and a Gibbon with a child or a melon compared with some archival footage shot as it happens on super8 – thats how old this material is (ok shot in 2002 but that is over a decade ago! See the stop-frame demonstration on how to eat them here). 

I also sent a pack of these biscuits to Nicey to review on his 'nice cup of tea and a sit-down' site back in 2003 – read it here:

It might also be a decent corroboration of the belief many of my friends (Topangans in particular) have that the world is shifting. The warmongers and con artist politicians have suffered reverses and are in retreat. Yes, they are not routed. Their starvation-economy, fear-driven inability to do-the-right-thing-and-allow-the-world-to-become-a-better-place means theyll cling to power like the devils they are. So long as we fire flowers of light and lovebombs of peace this shift will prevail. The improvement of the Iced Zoos is all the indicator I need

This is the positive message

But wait this is sadly not all The Light that is Monsieur Polo has slipped this mortal coil. His was a super charged and enviable existence. His life-pattern was broad and varied, delighting others and drawing to him numerous equally wonderful folk from so many walks of life. The feeling is that we are robbed of great riches with his early departure. Many will suffer much more than I from having been far closer to him than myself (sweet Livia, my heart aches for you).

Death might as well shout itself hoarse for all the attention we tend to give it until its oft-untimely arrival. His passage reminded me that there are many ways to prepare for death but all of them involve living. Polo Lived Deeply. It was why he was so fun to be around. He inspired me to find ways to live in community but free from the constraints and taboos of society. Polos journey continues somehow, somewhere, free now from Earthly constraint.

Many may criticize my writing of biscuits and a departed friend in the same article but I loved them both and was surprised by both. One thing as inconsequential as anything yet that did, in its moment, delight and the other whose import has yet to be fathomed – if it ever will. And as I also owe God a death, I will also owe you a Life. And in my attempt to part with my socially-imposed self-consciousness I will continue to share slight slices from it. No matter how inappropriately combined. Juxtaposition has its place in reminding us of the importance of life.











How to eat an Iced Zoo biscuit