'Family'

So my long lost brother found me on Facebook a couple of days ago, which personally I think is amazing. I had thought I'd never have contact with him. Now he's asked if it's ok to call me 'sis' and I have a 15 day old, incredibly cute, nephew. Wow... seriously, when he asked if it was ok to call me 'sis' I got teary-eyed.

I had originally thought that he probably wouldn't be that interested in me, just in my father, because Sherrie, my long-lost half-sister we found not that long before, isn't really. I figured that they were searching for their parents, not for their father's grown up other kids. Family is a social construct, after all.

However, Sean really is interested in being family... which is great. Beyond great. :D

AFAIK, that is the last of the long-lost relatives. :P However, seeing as we only knew Sherrie existed five years ago (she's 30), I guess there's always a tiny chance for more.

In other news, tattoo done!

M.I.A. "Born Free" - ginger genocide

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

Most people I know seem to find this video either stunning for how graphic it is, or material for jokes. I, however, struggle to watch it a second time. I'm probably being melodramatic, but I find it very disturbing and unpleasant.

The video is 10 minutes of ginger genocide; gingers are rounded up in raids, driven off in a van and then made to run through a minefield. If they won't run, they're shot in the head. Violence like that is not novel or surprising, while the concept of ginger genocide is clearly unrealistic. It makes me wonder if I'm being oversensitive and should, essentially, lighten up. I might be ginger, but it's not like I'm Jewish, after all - what right do I have to get upset over this?

Yet it's not as simple as, I feel, it would be were it blonde people depicted. I'm not just watching lots of people I identify with being slaughtered; I'm watching them being slaughtered for something that I have been targetted for, by schoolkids and adults alike, many times. As much as it is clearly fictional, and I have no problem it being a source for jokes by my friends, e.g. "watch it or I'll go M.I.A. on you", the video itself is...unsettling, and that feeling took a long while to go. Am I wrong, or being silly, in this?


Either way, though, it's an interesting video. It's a shame the gratuitious fat sex scene seems to ruin its focus. I wonder if people think it made its point or whether it was just funny? Responses would be appreciated if people ever read this. :P

And I guess I just have to hope that if it ever did come true, people would have a better hiding place for me than behind the shower curtain. :P

I'm In Paris With You ~ James Fenton

Don't talk to me of love. I've had an earful

And I get tearful when I've downed a drink or two.

I'm one of your talking wounded.

I'm a hostage. I'm maroonded.

But I'm in Paris with you.


Yes I'm angry at the way I've been bamboozled

And resentful at the mess that I've been through.

I admit I'm on the rebound

And I don't care where are we bound.

I'm in Paris with you.


Do you mind if we do not go to the Louvre,

If we say sod off to sodding Notre Dame,

If we skip the Champs Elysees

And remain here in this sleazy

Old hotel room

Doing this and that,

To what and whom

Learning who you are,

Learning what I am.


Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris,

The little bit of Paris in our view.

There's that crack across the ceiling

And the hotel walls are peeling

And I'm in Paris with you.


Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris.

I'm in Paris with the slightest thing you do.

I'm in Paris with your eyes, your mouth,

I'm in Paris with...all points south.

Am I embarrassing you?

I'm in Paris with you.

_________

My friend and I were talking about this poem earlier. It'd be interesting to know, if anyone ever reads this (:P): do people think he's falling for the "you"?

It sounds like a rebound, but then the last stanza starts to cast doubt in our minds. It's interesting.

I have a very romanticised view of Paris. I've never been, though am hoping to go soon...but I think this represents my naively romanticised view of what the negative parts of it are like. A cross between this and 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (which is a fantastic book, btw, as well as a great Disney film). Of course, I'm sure it's actually much different and much nastier, but...that's how I imagine it to be.

Tattoo thoughts.

A tattoo is going to be the next thing I get; I've wanted one since I was 15, and I've wanted this one idea, though the placement kept changing, since I was about 18...I've just been putting it off for various reasons.

So, tomorrow, I'm going to go asking questions about a black and white tattoo of leaves blowing in the wind up the inside of my right forearm. =)