The Calm Before

These days clever phrases are usually repetitions of earlier inventions from authors whose names and works are lost in the mists of time past. I shall not attribute this one I am about to throw here to the person and place from whence I read it most recently, as I am quite sure I've come across it before somewhere else still...

“The weight of luxury thrills and oppresses with such charm... I felt it tempt, and enflame guilt never before with such grace.”

Of course there is too too much use of the word 'luxury' today. Singapore seems to have an obsession with the word and all the marketeers focussing on anything China are head over heels in love with the word.

Actually the world is on the edge of a complete collapse and a kind of a nervous breakdown. I don't personally go along with all this complaining about the 'elite' or the 'top 1 per cent' controlling everything and some secret cabal running ordinary people's lives. You will presently see that I am quite right. The internet, if it has done anything at all, has certainly given the lie to how smart the fellows 'at the top' are: it is difficult to imagine whether a violent physical act could have done more real damage than the very recent 'simple' webcam recording of ol' Judge William Adams! Maybe there was some thicket of crooks trying to run everything to help themselves to the gravy.

Some kid out of Queensland Australia pushing $540 million through his poker gambling website demonstrates that the early movers are killing a lot of fish – before the big sharks come in.

Speaking of which I have recently been toying with the idea of pinching that kid's market. Anyone interested to get involved should pop an email to me or post a comment here. Seems to me that apart from the strong possibility of a spot of money laundering going on with the kid for some Russian mob interests, he was none too bright with his organisation. I mean, I'll give him a lot of credit for being one of the first to exploit things, but, he was otherwise no genius. It's clearly not illegal for Americans to play online poker; it is illegal for people to steal their money and defraud the revenue services though. Moreover, there is an issue to do with presenting a fair operation to the actual players and not to manipulate things through computer programs – which goes on a lot I fear.

Ah dear, the pressure of extreme knowledge and superb luxury.

You won't find this anywhere else on the net just of the minute: I had a nice little conversation a couple of days ago with the photographic director of a truly excellent 2004 (originally) internal video presentation of the Armani Prive Perfume series – David Bilowus. He worked with producer and artistic director Gilles Scalabre, and Eric Genilier to make this outstanding production. You can still see it on Youtube under 'Armani Prive Perfume 2004 Video Presentation.' He was kind enough to let me know that the music behind the film clip was the theme music to “The Quiet American” by Craig Armstrong and Matt Dunkley. There are a lot of people wishing to know all over the web what the music was. So, there it is for yer. As I said before, these guys know luxury.

Ciao ciao,

Calvin J. Bear