How Jay Smooth Solved My Bloggers Block (and other political matters)

I've been getting a lot done recently, but I've had trouble with my blogging.

If I were a guy, this would be me over the past couple of weeks, as I deal with a certain amount of Blogger's Block.

Toon1 by Almagill

Downloaded from Flickr under Collective Commons License

The point is that I have been enraged, ENRAGED, in recent days.  Almost everything in the news has been enough to send a girl totally frothing mad.  This has caused me problems on the writing front.

So I've been spending a bit of time (a bit too much time actually) with Mr. John Randolph, or Jay Smooth, founder of WBAI's great hip hop show Underground Railroad.  Get the podcasts (when you're done reading this post).  You probably know him pretty well already.

If you don't - make up for lost time.  He's lovely!

Man, he's got it down, my whole blogging/writing/political situation right there.

First of all there is that little Inner Hater to deal with

But its more than just self-criticism, although goodness knows, I have enough of that. 

The outrages in the news have been on my mind, so that's what I want to write about, naturally.

But being so angry,  can I write about it without going way over the top, or being just totaly naive?

Right or wrong, that is what has blocked me up.

Take Tony Blair for example.  Every time that smirking bastard gets into the media is a further insult to democracy and the rule of law.  Not only has he never been called to judgement for his crime(s?) he has been richly rewarded for it or them.

I mean, really, how sick is this culture? 

Then there are the cuts, another round of thievery by that band of tax exiles, press barons and prefects ruling UK right now, on behalf of their school friends and brothers-in-law in the financial sector.  Who created the problem in the first place, and now want us to pay for it. Us?  Pay for their  corruption? Robbing us coming and going:  heads they win, tails we lose. It's the usual story of course, but more blatant than usual, and this time has got me totally climbing the wall.

However, I'm hoping that the sad death of Jimmy Reid will provide inspiration for many widely-supported sit-ins and work-ins this coming winter.  The dignity of Jimmy Reid's funeral, with reminders of the importance of his political and intellectual achievements, provided a moment of regeneration during the week.

On top of that, the gross accusations against the heroic Julian Assange, using the oldest trick in the book, practically sent me into orbit.  Which leads me to my favourite tweet of the week: "So that's how they are planning to take him down.  How retro!" 

(Gareth Allen @TCInterval,  The Confidence Interval)

Fourthly there have been crocodile tears spilled over the truly dreadful situation of Afghani women, fuelled by cynical CIA spin doctors (revealed by Wikileaks), and articles from the lackey press, e.g. Time Magazine, and these too have had me fuming.

Laurie Penny showed, in a well-researched New Statesman piece called The West must Not Use Women's Rights to Justify War, that any "support" of NATO governments for women's rights is entirely contingent on how far doing so will advance their own goals: even when women are really suffering, neither these governments nor their armies lift a finger unless it suits them.  

Honestly, are we really expected to believe that war is a feminist enterprise, or that armies have feminist goals?

Marwan Bishawa of Al Jazeera is also very clear: if invading armies benefitted women, he writes, the women of the middle east and central Asia would be among the most liberated in the world.  He quotes Martin Van Creveld, the Israeli war historian, who believes that men go to war to escape their wives and families in search of ecstacy.  This is a striking thought, but hardly fertile ground for feminism, even if only half-true.

And we can't relax, even in the metropoles. Cath Eliot commented sharply and correctly on continuing lenience to rapists, which shows how the state will still ignore women's rights if it can get away with it, regardless of what the law says.   I mean, really, after all our struggles, they still have impunity).

And finally, there are the astonishing, I mean astonishing fulminations over an islamic community centre in Lower Manhattan.  Timothy McVeigh and his cronies (remember them?) were militant christian terrorists and white supremacists who bombed 168 people, including 19 pre-school kids, but I never heard anyone call for an end to church-building in Oklahoma City, or denial of license to the Y.  No-one tried to punish and humiliate their co-religionists.

Astonishing that such medieval bigotry has gained so much traction in a modern society: including, we now hear, book-burning (Some red-neck fanatic Reverend is planning to burn the Koran on September 11! Astonishing!)

It may be astonishing, but its also terrifying: this is not just hysteria (although that's part of it), it's the outcome of a systematic effort to eliminate Islam from the US and Europe, a rabid but coordinated movement that started in Denmark and UK after that whole Mohammed Cartoon thing, and increasingly espouses violence.  It includes such elements as the English Defense League and Stop Islamisation of Europe/UK.  Salon.Com had a pretty good timeline on how it was whipped up initially, including information on the horrific Pam Geller. Even a couple of  quick Wikipedia searches will give you loads of info on these dangerous bozos.

So, as you can see, my rage is pretty understandable.

But can I write about all this shit, in the way that I really feel, without going way over the top or just sounding like a total dumbass maniac ... ?

Jay Smooth has the answer, at least part of it.

I really like that whole clenched fist thing going on here, signifying our shared essential humanity!

And I pretty much agree with what he's saying, with one small proviso:

Are all different views of equal value? Views I can respect, but what about those with different interests?  Such as ConDems, bankers, imperialist spin doctors and right-wing fanatics?  Those who are trying to screw us?  I don't think so.  I draw the line there.

But, all in all, Jay Smooth, bless him, seems to have sorted out my blogging block.  

My Garden is Extremely Green (Literally)

I am a vagabond at present, part of the hidden homeless, kind of. So far this year I have had four separate homes: in sequence, of course.  

Fortunately, these places have had beautiful gardens, of various styles, which has been a comfort........

My current garden is a bit run-down, shabby even, but is very green and peaceful, and in its way, also beautiful.

Completely walled, it is (sadly) innocent of cats, but correspondingly full of birds and birdsong, including, especially delightful, a tame robin.

And for one so small, it has a vista.

And an embowered compost box

Sporting today a single spray of white flowers, the only one in the entire garden.

It has several interesting nooks and crannies

Sadly there is no veggie patch, and no tomatoes, but there are some peaches ripening by the kitchen window, which add a very subtle touch of colour.

All in all, I really am very lucky to be here.  

Other gardens I have known this year

A Garden: the best damn reading spot in the world.

Tea in the Garden

Jim Jarmusch: Nothing is Original. Steal from Anywhere

The quotation below "speaks directly to my soul", and so I stole it, as suggested, from Not Just the Minutiae.

It is a remark by the wonderful, totally original and dramatically silver-haired film-maker, Jim Jarmusch

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. 

Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to”.” 

I hope you like it as much as I do.

And this related video is really very nice too.  

• Video Interview: Jim Jarmusch (gointothestory.com)

Image via Wikipedia

P.S.  

Way back in October I discovered the possibility for my interaction with the internets (I KNOW, but better late than never), and I naively wrote this little number - How Pumped Am I about 2.0!  

It was exactly the potential for all this thievery that I was excited about, but did not yet have the words to describe *smiles fondly at such childishness (not yet fully outgrown)*.


If you like this post, you may also like another little piece of theft:  The Gift

Tony Judt, Tony Benn, the RSA and Google

Here are a few things that have affected me this week, some deeply.

One sad, two good and one very, very bad.

Tony Judt died.

What a wonderful guy.  I can't do justice to him here, others have done that with so much grace, but I love that he was an intellectual with real commitment to action, with tremendous sustained intellectual rigour, which he also demanded of others.  He believed, as I do, but articulated in an evolving way through a long career, that the social-democratic achievements of the 20th century, which are about to crumble away, are worth fighting for if we can, flawed and incomplete as they are.

To me he was the model of the committed and engaged intellectual advancing the struggle through a sharing of his principled analysis.

He was also a magnificent and principled anti-zionist, despite all the difficulties that that involved, including and especially through his advocacy of a one-state solution.

His relative Saul Goldberg wrote a moving personal obituary in the Guardian/Observer, which I noted in particular among many others (see list at the end)

Here are two videos: Interview on Zionism and Short Film on his experience of Lou Gehrigs Disease.  And here is the audio of the Remarque Lecture given at NYU by Tony Judt in October 2009, and a link to its published version in the NY Review of Books, later released as Ill Fares the Land (2010). (the last with thanks again to @their_vodka

I have also enjoyed, I have to say, the interview by Anderson Cooper of Christopher Hitchens, another British, (formerly) leftist intellectual living in the US, and battling terminal illness.  I have disagreed with Hitchens on many things, especially his support for the Iraq war and extraordinary progress into the arms of the neo-cons in the US, but this was an interesting and moving discussion.

Fight the Cuts

Tony Benn headed up a long list of activists to publicise the growing campaign to fight the cuts in UK, which I am definitely joining.  Coalition of Resistance website is here.  I watched the great video of Caroline Lucas' talk on the cuts at an earlier meeting of the campaign.  

 RSA published a new video

A video by the very brilliant Dan Pink illustrates that the massive bonuses given to bankers have unlikely made them more productive, and are therefore a waste of money.  In fact, it says, big bonuses on Wall Street are killing America

What we all need more than money (once we have enough) is a sense of purpose, challenge and that we are contributing something valuable.  We only need enough money that it is "off the table" as a problem. Nothing new, and still a bit of a pipe-dream perhaps, because the reality for most of us, including of course me, remains bonded and commodified relationships, but still...  I have tried to resist alienation, and the dream is worth fighting for too.

The video is very engaging, and it gives us some tools for the argument.

Lots of other great videos at the RSA site, btw.

Google ......

In direct contradiction of the spirit of all of the above, Google announced its planned unholy, unethical and totally disgusting possible deal with Verizon.  I am consumed with revulsion for them and the betrayal of their slogan "Don't do Evil".  My eye!

At the same time I am filled with renewed love and admiration for Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the internet, who gave it away for free, and lived to tell the tale.  Still going strong.

My favourite tweet of the week? "Et tu, Google?" from  (via The Independent)

Related articles 

• In Memoriam: Tony Judt 1948-2010 (Australians for Palestine)

• Tony Judt: the captivating wit and intellect of my friend and teacher (guardian.co.uk)

• Tony Judt, Chronicler of History, is Dead at 62 (Obituary, nyt.com)

• Tony Judt, Author and Intellectual, is Dead (nyt.com)

• Intellectual Tony Judt dies after long Illness (social-europe.eu)

• Tony Judt, 1948-2010 (newstatesman.com)

• R.I.P. Tony Judt (jeffsharlet.blogspot.com)

• Tony Benn calls for revolt against coalition budget cuts (guardian.co.uk)

• The time to organise resistance is now | Tony Benn and 73 others (guardian.co.uk)

Image via Wikipedia

The King Stay the King, but the Queen Got all the Moves

I had forgotten about this, from The Wire, but I really like it, with thanks to @their_vodka and her very excellent and interesting blog:  Not Just the Minutiae

And I like this too.

All Chess Players Are Artists  by KristinaVF

Downloaded from Flickr under Creative Commons License

Zubin Mehta and Placido Domingo: lessons in leadership and life

Below is a video of Zubin Mehta conducting Placido Domingo at the first Three Tenors concert in Rome on the eve of the 1990 World Cup. The music is No Puede Ser (It Cannot Be), by the Spanish composer Sorozobal.

Interestingly Domingo was also at the final of the World Cup in South Africa this year, and naturally joined the celebrations for the Spanish victory, Spain being his home country. I wonder if he sang "it cannot be" on that occasion.  Probably not.

I love this particular video: not only because of the exquisite singing, the emotion and the magnificent setting, but also because it clearly shows great artists co-creating a transcendent moment, so we can do the same in our own lesser worlds.

Take a look.

Even though the singing is totally wonderful, and the triumph at the end is a collective one, for me the moment is mainly down to the energy, the empathy, the openness and the trust, in fact the inspired leadership, of the conductor.

After all the hard work of rehearsal, leadership at this level really is about paying attention, letting go, trusting and waiting.

Mehta had the task of bringing together the energy of two orchestra's who had never played together until that evening, a hugely talented star, and the audience waiting to be thrilled.  He lead through listening.

I love how Zubin Mehta throws his arms wide at a certain point, opening himself up entirely to whatever is coming, and then waits, even dropping his arms completely, surrendering to the emerging energy, until  Placido Domingo approaches the heights, and the conductor brings the orchestra to a towering conclusion in support of the star.

The trick is to allow it to happen, to provide a still centre that is at the same time outside the centre, holding the space, and strong enough to protect the magic that is approaching.

Watch it again, and you'll see what I mean.

I am very grateful to the always interesting Otto Scharmer for sharing this insight at a leadership workshop.  He uses the term  "presencing", which has the meaning both of bringing something important into the present, and also of "pre-sensing" that it is about to emerge, and allowing it to do so.

And I am thinking that the point illuminates so much about every aspect of life.

Although I have to say that on the political side of things, I am getting a bit tired of waiting for any kind of collective anger or militancy to emerge about what's about to happen to our welfare state, but perhaps here too the moment has not yet arrived ........

For me personally it is a lesson in that form of leadership we call parenting - the absolute importance of standing back, but holding the space.  But for you the lesson may be entirely different ....

And I totally, totally love, just LOVE, the exhultation and triumph in Mehta's face at the end.

Image via Wikipedia

A conductor's score and batons.

Fear of Falling, or is that Leading?

I am at the UniCredit Bank Group's Leadership Learning Centre in Turin.  I'm helping to facilitate a leadership programme here.

It's a fabulous programme, although its not actually run by UniCredit itself: we're just lucky enough to be using the place.

And what a place it is!

All baroque revival on the outside, and super modern learning technology on the inside.  Certainly one of the best and most interesting learning environments I have ever worked in.

Scuola Unimanagement Torino 200

Downloaded from Flickr under Creative Commons License

And the learning is embodied in the building itself.

For example, three floors up, its all glass underfoot.

You can't look down when you get out of the lift.  Absolutely not.  You just look straight ahead, and keep walking.  It's OK if you don't look down.

Its all the risk and terror of leading in these uncertain times every time you go for a coffee.

Astonishing, really. For a moment you feel right on the edge. Which is great for a leadership programme, because the edge is exactly where a leader should be.

In fact, I would argue, its where we all should be.

And as for the staircase, also made of solid glass: even more challenging.  

Its fine going up, but down?  No way.  

But perhaps if my coffee depended on it, I would do the stairs too, terrified or not.

Oh I get it!  Embodied learning. 

About leadership, in this case.  Learning to tolerate the fear of flying

And you know, it really works. Wonderful really.

Me, I Would Far Rather Live in a More Equal Society

Regular visitors to these musings will know that I care about the greatest well-being for the greatest number.  In other words, I would rather live in a more equal society.

I know perfectly well that the United States of America is not only the richest, it is the most unequal society in the West, as can be seen in the attractively coloured graphic below (and more clearly by clicking the Wikipedia link).  Even central Asia, south Asia and parts of Africa are less unequal that the US.

Nevertheless, when I saw one of the most egregious manifestations of this shameful datum in LA recently, even I was shocked.  I wrote about my observations in The Social Ecology of Bunker Hill. And UK is sadly not far behind - it is the third most unequal society in this group of wealthy western countries.

Image via Wikipedia

Derived from CIA Data.

To help me understand what is going on regarding inequality in the US (and elsewhere) I have since read The Spirit Level: why equality is better for everyone, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.  Better late than never you might say.

However, yesterday I also had the pleasure of meeting Professor Pickett, who made an excellent presentation at a meeting that I am co-facilitating, and as the authors are also rebutting their detractors this very week, this post seems not untimely.

The Spirit Level is the clearest exposition I have yet read that reducing the poverty gap in the world's richest countries would improve life not only for the poor, but for society as a whole.

Its a really interesting read, and you can also check out the whole argument and the impressive evidence that the authors have amassed on the website of the  Equality Trust.

The arguments have of course been challenged by various exclusionary elements.  These have been summarised in a recent Guardian editorial, from which they may also be accessed: The Spirit Level: Spooking the Right.  The authors have responded to these attacks here

Wilkinson and Pickett show that in the richer group of countries, and also, interestingly, within the US, inequality is correlated directly, often very closely, with higher levels of mental illness and drug use, of obesity, of teenage parenthood, of violence and imprisonment.  Conversely inequality is negatively correlated with trust in society (a sense of community), with children's educational achievement and with social mobility (although data on social mobility is not available for the various states within the US).

In other words, countries that have more income equality have less mental illnes, drug use, obesity, teenage motherhood, violence and imprisonment, and more trust, educational achievement among children and social mobility.

What's not to like?  Sounds like a pretty darn good bargain to me.

There are two ways, according to Wilkinson and Pickett, through which we might achieve greater income equality:

• Less income gap in the first place (as in Japan), or
• Redistribution through taxes and benefits (as in Sweden)

I think the second would be easier for us (although not easy), so we should go for it.  

Really, this is a total no-brainer.  The disadvantaged would be better off, and I (and everyone else) would have greater well-being.  More equal societies work better for everyone.  As I say, what's not to like?

And of course we'd get a whole lot of other things I'd like as well, such as less Murdoch, less carbon emissions, less consumerism and more ecological conservation and public spiritedness.  So I'm definitely in.

Maybe the struggle for all this would throw up better, more informed and genuinely engaged leadership too.  Could hardly be worse than what we've got at the moment.

So I am very clear in my own mind:  the first thing I'm going to do between my travels is fight the cuts in UK, and also work for more discussion, and through that greater understanding and acceptance, of the Spirit Level theory.

Some of my posts on aspects of inequality

• What can we do about Berlusconi-think? 
• Bringing Berlusconi Low. 
• Alexander McQueen: Why I'll Miss Him 
• John Lennon: its Christmas, and what have you done? 
• History of the World in 100 Objects 
• Five things I like about Newport Beach (but three things not so much) 
• Happiness: The "cruise" part of financial cruise control 

And here Kate Pickett summarises the argument.

Orpheus: the Mythical. A Musical by Richard Stilgoe and the Orpheus Centre

I have never been to a musical by a mixed group of performers with and without disabilities, but I did last night: it was magic, and I'm totally bowled over.

Now, recently I have been engaging in some pathetic self-promotion lightly amusing self-deprecation by dropping a few celeb names here and there. In "It's True! I met Rihanna ..."  I said that my life-time total  number of brushes with celebrity is three.

Well, its actually four.

And this time I'm being serious.

I missed Richard Stilgoe from my list.  He wrote the lyrics of Starlight Express, and chunks of Phantom of the Opera, and has done lots of other stuff on stage and radio.  A very witty, very funny guy indeed, and totally brilliant musically.  I do know him a bit, socially.  I don't want to presume too much, but I do know him just a bit.  I can add him to my list.

He's also the father of the brilliant jazz musician, the super-cool Joe Stilgoe.  So I suppose in fact I have actually had five brushes with celebrity.

But enough of that.  What I want to say is not about me, and it's actually important.

In the overall scale of things, the Orpheus Centre is the kind of thing that really matters.

Richard founded The Orpheus Centre, in his former family home in Godstone, Surrey, and he spends a great deal of time with the people who live and work there.  It seems that its a really great place.

Named after Orpheus (the famous Greek musician), the Centre provides residential and domiciliary services and a fantastic learning programme for young adults with a range of disabilities.

It works with them to achieve personal progress through the performing arts.  It supports them to gain confidence and self esteem and learn essential skills that will help the transition into fully independent living.

The Company performs all over the place (including last year at the Royal Opera House), and with other outfits like the Graeae Theatre Company and StopGAP Dance Company, also fabulous.

And they have put together this really wonderful, hilarious and uplifting show, on the theme of Orpheus' and Euridice's adventures in Hades.

Richard wrote the words and the music, and Joe helped with the musical arrangement.  The Director is the very lovely spiky-haired Syd Ralph, and she's done an absolutely fabulous job.  Its a really well-paced show. Also involved are some young actors from the Guildford School of Acting, who were brilliant, and looked as if they were having a total ball, which I learned afterwards that they were.

Seeing as its about the Argonauts, and Orpheus travelled with Jason, Hercules and Theseus, etc. etc. and Apollo, Caliope, Persephone, Mercury and all that crowd could always be put in there in the background, wreaking their havoc, Richard was able to cram almost every known myth into the story.  There were lovely sheep, the three headed dog Cerberus, and a terrific dragon.  There was humour, pathos, and really good dancing and singing, including really lovely wheelchair choreography.

I loved the testosterone-engulfed argonaut sailors, pretty thick the lot of them but filling the theatre with energy, and also the Sirens, softly singing "danger! danger! danger!" while dancing with the greatest possible allure.

It was also crammed with lovely Stilgoe-esque puns: e.g. the Argos being built with parts bought from a huge catalogue, and steered by some-one beating a tom-tom.

(For the non-Brits among you, "Argos" is the name of a chain of stores in UK where nothing is on display: you order from an immense catalogue, and our main GPS navigation system is called "Tom-Tom").

And the Golden Fleece was a traffic warden's yellow fleece jacket, of course.

Not to mention, obviously, the title of the thing.

Matt Lucas introduced it, and did a lovely job.  He told us about his all-time worst heckle, and got the audience to do it en masse, to purge him of the horror, which was a lot of fun.  Others during the week will be Michael Aspel, Penelope Keith, Tim Pigott-Smith and Jane Asher.  And no less that HRH Prince Edward will be there for a Royal Gala one night.

The only, only (tiny) shortcoming is that there was no encore - we had one thumping good tune to end on, but we needed another one even more so to send us off like jet-fueled rockets into the warm summer evening:  I think they just didn't expect to hear the audience in very demanding mood at the end, and so we were frustrated, and left a little more quietly than we might have done, which was a pity.

Never mind.  I still loved it.

So if you are anywhere near Guildford this week, hie ye over to the Yvonne Arnaud theatre.  You won't be sorry you did.

Members of the Orpheus Centre

Performing at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House

London 2009

By Jack Stilgoe Jackstil.  Downloaded from Flickr under creative commons license

Image via Wikipedia

Richard Stilgo

And here's a great picture of the whole troupe at Buck House a little while ago.

It's true! I met Rihanna ....

My lifetime celebrity count so far is George Harrison (almost), Adam Faith and now ..... Rihana! And the laugh's on me.

On Wednesday we learned that a Beatles fan, Sue Baker of Reading, was able to meet the Fab Four quite easily in the early days, by simply going to their houses and knocking on their doors.  Check it out.  She met them all that way, and they would invite her in and stuff.  That's just how it was in those days.

The same thing happened to me, pretty much.  Twice in fact.  Not so much with George, but certainly with Adam.

I went to school in Esher, outside London, and we heard that George Harrison had bought a house there, just down the road, so, without missing a beat, Sue and Heather and I went down to meet him. 

I think we went two or three Saturdays is a row and rang the bell beside the huge closed gate of his house.  We got no response at all, then one weekend a voice came out of the grill in the gate-post:  "Go AWAY, little girls" the voice said, in firm, sonorous, disembodied tones. 

So we retreated, in some disarray, feeling that our privacy had been breached in some way (before the days of CCTV don't forget).  Such is the hubris of youth.

We never went back.  We noted that the voice definitely did not have a Liverpool accent.  He’s probably on a world tour or something we said.  

 George Harrison. (1943-2001)  from M Devreux' Flickr Photostream

Adam Faith also lived in Esher, in a mock-Tudor house built on a hillside somewhere, I don’t remember where.  So we went to see him as well, now being quite experienced at this kind of thing.

There was no gate this time, so we walked up the drive, past the rhododendrons and laurels, and knocked on the door.  And, after a short pause, blow me down if the door didn’t open and we were invited in, just like that.  First time lucky.

There was Adam Faith, right there, not much taller than us, all lovely and blond and square-jawed, with two minders. He looked really shy and we thought he was soooooo sweet.

We went downstairs to a sort of billiard room, and the three of us sat on a sofa on one side of the room, and the three of them sat on chairs at the other side.  They were very nice to us and we just chatted about this and that, relaxed as can be. We asked him what it was like to be famous.  It's great he said, I get to meet lots of nice girls like you. One of the minders asked us how old we were. Fifteen we said, we are all fifteen.

After about 20 minutes one of the minders said well thanks very much it was nice to meet you, and we went upstairs and back down the drive, pleased as punch.  He had hugged us goodbye! We didn't say omygod because that was then, but that's how we felt.  We could hardly wait to tell our story to the others.  Such is the innocence of youth.

Adam Faith (1940-2003) downloaded from the Flickr photostream of Truus, Bob and Jan
Hard to believe that cardigan was EVER cool.

And only the other day I had another brush with celebrity, bringing my life-time total to three.

It was 7^th June this year, on a flight from London to LA, and it was Rihanna -  omygod, omygod, omygod.

Now I totally know who Rihanna is, and the whole Chris Brown domestic abuse thing and stuff,  and how well she handled it, and I totally love her for that, but I don't follow her really, really closely, and I have to say I didn’t recognize her, especially with her new red do. 

There was quite a stir in the cabin when she came in with a friend and some guy who was carrying their bags, but I just thought that here was one helluva foxy lady, which she definitely is, and foxy ladies always cause a stir.

She came on board just at the very last minute, in a bit of a fluster, and her seat was right beside mine.  I kid you not.  OMG, OMG. OMG. And she was really, really nice and friendly with her lovely smile and she didn’t want to make a fuss or anything. 

However, I was just a tiny, tiny bit annoyed because there were plenty of other spare seats in the cabin, and I like to have an empty one beside me if possible, for my books and stuff.  I feel quite militant about that when the plane has space. And if the truth be told, I didn't think I could deal with all that foxyness right beside me all the way to LA. 

So I quickly decided to move to an empty row, and just in case she thought I was being rude, I explained why: so that we could all have more space, and she and her friend would also be able to have the empty seat between them, which makes such a difference, doesn’t it?  And just in case she thought it was the foxyness (as if!), I told her I totally loved her hair.  Fantastic I told her and it really suits you.  Oh thank you so much she said.

So I moved forward a few rows, and the next thing I knew they had upgraded to first class, and one of the flight attendants was showing me her photo in Metro.  Oh, I said, that's who it was.  Well, well.

Should have known that a really foxy lady like that wouldn't need  any help from moi if she needed a bit more space on the way home.

Oh well!

 Rihanna July 2010 by Platinumphoenix

Downloaded from Flickr under Creative Commons License