The Three Jars - Being an Anthology

 Just one of twenty-odd familiar nursery rhymes uniquely shredded and illustrated by Douglas McClure. Available on Amazon "The Three Jars - Being an Anthology" by Douglas McClure. Check it out!

Let's get ACTIVE

 

The triode was invented in 1906 by Lee De Forest and by around 1920 was refined enough to be commercially viable for widespread distribution. It was the World's first 'Active Device'. It could amplify and oscillate. It (and its derivatives) made possible all of the technologies of modernity – public address, radio, audio/video recording, television, radar, radio telescopy, electron microscopy, computing, the Internet, artificial intelligence. Without active devices, modernity would vanish in a flash.

Those who really want to turn the clock back need only abandon science, technology and education. Nature will do the rest.

The man that maks the smoke come oot the lum

This song by Harry Gordon is about 100 years old and is in the Scottish music hall tradition. It's short because it was the lead into a stand-up comedy routine in character. The character in this case being a fireman on the footplate of a steam engine.

 

Truth, Language & Reality

 The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth

truth anchors language to reality

I hope I am never required, whether under oath or secular affirmation, to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I would have to refuse, on logical grounds. If 'truth' is to mean anything at all, it can only mean 'that which is', in other words, reality, expressed in language. And there is the first problem. Reality is infinitely more complex and subtle than any human language, which fact in itself makes nonsense of the phrase 'the whole truth'. There are not enough hours in the day to state the whole truth even about something as simple as entering a room. Nope, 'the whole truth' has to go, as a logically unsound concept. That was easy, but what about 'the truth'?

The problem here is human fallibility in both perception and memory. I can say, "She was wearing a purple jumper". But was she? Maybe it was blue. Maybe it was a cardigan. The likelihood of making an untrue statement is high and gets higher with elapsed time and with the complexity of the described event. I can of course say, "I think she was wearing a purple jumper". That is a true statement even if her jumper was scarlet, in fact, even if she wasn't there at all. However, it is only a statement about what I believe, which might be completely false.

It is therefore unreasonable to require someone to swear to tell the truth since no-one is immune from stating accidental falsehoods. It is, however, perfectly in order to require someone to promise not to lie, i.e. to utter no deliberate falsehoods. This is of course the intent behind the third phrase 'nothing but the truth' which is the only justifiable phrase in the oath.

Some may object, saying the most we can ask is for everyone to speak 'their own truth' but that is a very dangerous road to walk. It blurs the necessary distinction between belief and truth. I started this by stating "If 'truth' is to mean anything at all, it can only mean 'that which is', in other words, reality, expressed in language." The minute we allow the concept of 'personal truth' we blow personal accountability out of the water. We can no more own our own truth than we can own our own sun.

In short: Truth anchors language to reality.

A minor victory

I recently uploaded to YouTube my version of Jake Thackray's 'Brother Gorilla' set to the tune of 'The Three Bells'. I was immediately served a copyright infringement order from the copyright owners of the American country song, The Three Bells (Little Jimmy Brown), issued by The Browns in 1959. I pointed out that their song was itself a reworking of 'Les trois cloches' written and composed by Swiss artist Jean Villard Gilles in 1939. Also that mine followed the chord/melody sequence of the original, not the simplified version of Little Jimmy Brown. I said I would not challenge a copyright infringement order from the estate of Jean Villard Gilles, or that of Jake Thackray, but that no such order had yet been issued. The Americans withdrew their claim and retreated, tails between their legs.

The Epiphone Blues Master, restored

This 1992 Epiphone Blues Master was sadly decapitated in an accident a few weeks back, fortunately not irreversibly, at least not to a skilled craftsman. Here's what it sounds like, first day back home.

A friendly note

The Gorilla and the Three Bells

The Gorilla and the Three Bells is a serendipitous fusion of the lyric of Brother Gorilla by Jake Thackray and the original French melody Les Trois Cloches. (Les Trois Cloches is the song that was very loosely translated to become The Three Bells or Little Jimmy Brown). Of course, just because it is possible to fit Jake's lyric to that tune doesn't make it a good idea, but I had to get it out of my system.

Defence intoned

Defence intoned, 'If we convict
this man today, we do a great
disservice to the cause. We play
into the hands of those who race
like lemmings out of season
to self-destruction!' Then, with softer voice,

he said, 'Better that we should voice
distrust of those who would convict
even their mothers in a season
of madness nurtured by the great
and good among the race
of self-styled orchestrators of the play.

'Have you not seen the games they play?
They talk to you with silvery voice
of purity of caste and race-
seductive lies- yet they convict
only themselves. The great
heresy must not live another season.

'Rather, let this be the season
of reconciliation. Play
a nobler part. We can do great
deeds, by speaking with one voice.
And let us not convict
the fellow who has stumbled in the race.

'Imagine you were asked to race
before the tide, the changing season,
manacled like a common convict.
Would you show readiness to play
or would you raise your voice
to rail against the injustice of the great?

'I think we know the answer. Great
performances demand the race
be fairly run. Then lend your voice
to serve the people for a season!
Bring justice into play!
Show courage, jurors all. Do not convict!'

Who would be great before their season
let them but race to join the play.
Give voice to truth. Do not convict!

New Regime

We are the resurrection of the dead
forgotten ways. We cultivate despair
in veiled anathema of womankind.

We are the ancient writings reassessed
by gunlight in the aftermath of war.
Ours is the only truth you need to know.

Ode to Consciousness

There is a meeting place of mind and eyes
where images compete for conscious view
and where perception banishes surprise
at what is beaten down, and what wins through.
With or without our influence or ken
it's here our individual selves begin;
for some are dulled and others walk in sleep
never to wake again,
though quiet voices whisper in the din
of time for laughter and a time to weep.

That part of us that is no rushing thing
awaits our quietness, or our fatigue
if nothing less can calm the eddying
onrush of our futilities. Intrigue,
infatuation, habit and despair
crowd to the fore, impatient - yet it waits
forever and beyond. Is it so weak
that it cannot declare
an interest in our battle with the fates,
or does it hide because we fail to seek?

What flows below the words may yet awake
remembrance of an earlier array
of promises fulfilled. Each new mistake
derails the latent urge, with each new day,
to change before the changeless. We can hear
the choral syntheses of soil and soul
proclaim the unity of earth and mind
in answer to the fear
of gradual dissolution of the whole
of consciousness, as molecules unbind.

The Weft

For less than the price of a pint, and free if you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, The Weft is a selection from my poetry files. For those not familiar with my material, I am a New Formalist, meaning that I use classical verse forms but modern standard English, not 'poetic diction'. This collection contains sonnets, roundels, sestinas, terzanelles, ballades and more, with plenty light verse interspersed with the more serious offerings. Please take a look.

kindle version

paperback version

 

Feet, breet & Matthew Gloag

Paraplexed trundles along happily, netting typically 150 page views per day and making no waves. Except for February 12th when, for no obvious reason we clocked up more than 10,000 views. These were fairly equally distributed over only three posts, one very old one about washing feet in the old Sofitel Club, one about the noise made by track pants worn outside-in (breet-breet) and one about railway platform signage in the (English) West Midlands (This Station is a No Smoking Station). Equally strange was that all 10,000 views were apparently from Israel. I have no idea why they happened. No comments were left. Possibly no human was involved, except indirectly, in programming a robot to behave totally irrationally. One of life's small mysteries, I suppose.

While My Renaissance Lute Gently Weeps

While My Renaissance Lute Gently Weeps. The title is shamelessly stolen from George Harrison and the lyrics are cobbled together by borrowing from no fewer than eight Renaisance songs, by Dowland and his peers. But the melody and lute accompaniment are my own. The lute is an unforgiving beast to play, not least because it keeps trying to escape when you're playing it.

paraplexed.com

It had to be done. For a long time now, the Paranormal Hotel blog (formerly Helga's Chickens) has been renamed to PARAPLEXED while being accessible only as paranormal-hotel.blogspot.com.  But today I have finally treated the blog to its own domain. We are now paraplexed.com (though the blogspot address will continue to work).

All that remains is a sense of purpose. And a feeling '21 is going to be a good year...