Lamp Postmodernism

[Obscure stickers appear on Edinburgh lamp posts]

Stay vigilant citizens. 

Modern Art

And indeed there were not ....

The above instillation may well have constituted the only light relief (literally a relief made of lights) that the Emperor experienced in a recent and lengthy day-trip to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

"Not a big fan of modern art?", I hear the gallery whisper ... "Eh ... Nope" whips back my urbanely sophisticated response. 

See: http://www.nationalgalleries.org/visit/introduction-118

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"Do you call the man leisured who arranges with anxious precision his Corinthian bronzes, the cost of which is inflated by the mania of a few collectors, and spends most of the day on rusty bits of metal?"

Seneca, Dialogues, On the Shortness of Life, 12

For those About to Merchandise ... We Salute You!

This Summer the Emperor was fortunate to attend the great and ancient Olympic games hosted by the city of Londinium ....

 

 

A seat close to the mighty Olympic flame was an added enjoyment. A great time was had by the imperial court, although the Emperor could not fail to note a distinct lack of bloodshed. Still, "When in London ..." as they saying goes. 

 

 

 

 





Getting Ready for Scottish Independence ....

When Men Become Swine

[Strange Children on the Streets of Edinburgh - St Mary's Street, Feb 2012]

Then Polites the dearest and most trusted of my friends, a man of initiative, spoke:

“Friends, a woman, a goddess perhaps, is singing sweetly within, walking to and fro in front of a great tapestry, and the whole place echoes. Let’s call out to her, now.”

          At that, they shouted, and called to her, and Circe came to open the shining doors, and invite them to enter: and so they innocently followed her inside. Eurylochus alone, suspecting it was a trap, stayed behind. She ushered the rest in, and seated them on stools and chairs, and mixed them a brew of yellow honey and Pramnian wine, with cheese and barley meal. But she mixed in wicked drugs, as well, so they might wholly forget their native land. When they had drunk the brew she gave them, she touched them with her wand, and herded them into the pigsties. Now they had the shape and bristly hide, the features and voice of pigs, but their minds were unaltered from before. There they wept in their pens, and Circe gave them acorns, beech mast, and cornel fruit to eat, such as pigs feed on as they churn the mud.

[Homer, The Odyssey, X]

One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing

A small but significant drama was played out this last week, outside of the emperor's local supermarket.

[Dinosaur on the loose!]

You'd be unlikely to hear about this on the news. No doubt the authorities don't want you to know about it ....

However, I do hope that no one was hurt and that the lost dinosaur was returned safely to its handler - who I am sure would have been distraut by its loss.

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See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075016/

A Strange Walk in the Field

Sometime an Emperor just wants to walk in the field ....

I must stop day dreaming ...

Wall Art: Leith, Edinburgh

[I think they are moving house ... doing a flit in the Scottish tongue]

Only in Scotland

[St Andrews, Scotland.]

House Prices Crash in Edinburgh

The Exuberance of Imperial Youth

The Emperor's younger brother recently went for a constitutional walk on the Lomond hills.

Something in the air encouraged the young prince into a state of reckless abandon.

Its no way to run an empire ..... let me tell you.

Luckily my own subjects can count on a higher degree of imperial dignity and gravitas. :-)

[Just for the record: I had nothing to do with this picture, it was taken by my brother's consort!]

There May be Trouble Ahead ...

I thought it was said that 'talk was cheap' ... , if not even free?

We should perhaps not take anything for granted as recession in Britain intensifies.

[A social observation; Edinburgh, South Bridge]

The Big Shoe

My Granny Campbell used to say that big feet were to be celebrated as they "... gave you a good firm grip of Scotland!"

But I was recently amazed to see this massive boot at a shoe shop in the centre of Melbourne!

In light of this, it is not so hard to see why the Ausies have such a strong physical reputation in sport. Perhaps Ausies really are an immense race of physical super-men and women.

Or perhaps it is exactly this kind of miss-interpretation that explains how ancient writers developed such fantastical ethnographic observations of extremely distant and untraveled lands:

23 "Megasthenes records that on Mount Nulus [India] there are men with their feet reversed and with eight toes on each foot. On many mountains there are men with dogs' heads who are covered in wild beast's skins; they bark instead of speaking and live by hunting and fowling, for which they use their nails. Ctesias writes ... of a tribe of men called the Monocoli who have only one leg and hop with amazing speed. These people are also called the umbrella footed, because when the weather is hot they lie on their backs stretched out on the ground and protect themselves by the shade of their feet. The Monocoli are not far from the cave dwellers, and further to the east of these are some people without necks and with eyes in their shoulders.

[Pliny The Elder, Natural History, Book XXIII]

In light of this, the big shoe might not be so weird after all.

Further Tales from the Park

Sometimes, it really is the random minutia of everyday life that can arouse great interest.

I saw this surprising and hopeful note in the park this week and was thoroughly intrigued by it.

Beyond the immediate questions that come to mind, I think its the fact that strangers in the modern age are having such interactions - via notes on trees - that is so fascinating.

Tales from the Park

I saw this very sad poster in the park the other day.

 

I really hope George turns up. Its pretty cold out there and he looks like a nice wee fellow! Obviously much loved.