Posts by Jolisa

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  • Up Front: No Smoke,

    Or it may be that it was made a while ago, and was about old people.

    When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth...? Nah, too simple.

    Here's a suitably urbane artistic rationale for banning onstage smoking in the West End (it's not the smoking, darling; it's how we're smoking). Meanwhile over in America-land, a tiny theatre company is making a federal case out of it.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • Up Front: No Smoke,

    alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature.

    Interesting, in that it suggests Holmes uses cocaine as a downer, rather than an upper.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • Up Front: No Smoke,

    Possibly the definitive philosophical rondelay on the subject: Cigarettes Are Sublime by Richard Klein (also author of the equally subversive and counterintuitive Eat Fat):

    Cigarettes ... are sublime by virtue of their power to propose what Kant would call a "negative pleasure": a darkly beautiful, inevitably painful pleasure that arises from some intimation of eternity; the taste of infinity in a cigarette resides precisely in the "bad" taste the smoker quickly learns to love. Being sublime, cigarettes, in principle, resist all arguments directed against them from the perspective of health and utility. Warning smokers and neophytes of the dangers entices them more powerfully to the edge of the abyss where, like travelers in a Swiss landscape, they can be thrilled by the subtle grandeur of the perspectives on mortality opened by the little terrors in every puff. Cigarettes are bad. That is why they are good -- not good, not beautiful, but sublime.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • Up Front: Eat Up Your Brothelly,

    Oh Jolisa. I would lose gracefully and it wouldn't cost you a cent. :-o

    A very kind offer, but I already have a man wot does :-)

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • Up Front: Eat Up Your Brothelly,

    (If you're less utopian than me, for "joy" read "satisfaction").

    After reading Sofie's comment, I should add "free lunch" into the mix :-) The value of which is not to be underestimated.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • Up Front: Eat Up Your Brothelly,

    Anyhoo, I'm just not comfortable with the notion that buying sex is simply another monetary transaction.

    I don't think you're alone, Martin.

    The same goes for other exchanges of money for personal services, or even for persons, or parts of persons. Adoption, organ donation, child care, nursing care. I paid my midwife but that wasn't simply another monetary transaction. Paying someone to clean one's house, or one's clothes, or even one's person, is another fuzzy zone of taboo and trepidation and intimacy.

    Some people find joy in providing service, and make a living doing so; others find joy in making a living, and do so by providing service. At a guess, our discomfort level rises inversely to the level of joy, for both the servicer and the serviced.

    (If you're less utopian than me, for "joy" read "satisfaction").

    Most service work is done by women, and underpaid accordingly, but there's no reason men can't be good at it as well, although it's presumably less likely they'll be underpaid for it.

    Arguably, of course, you could wonder whether anything is (or should be) regarded as simply another monetary transaction. Everything comes at a price and it's not always the one on the tag.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • Up Front: Eat Up Your Brothelly,

    in Britain, it's simpler: legally, if your sex worker has an accent, they're trafficked

    Damn. That rules out the Ewan McGregor look-and-sound-alike.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • Up Front: Eat Up Your Brothelly,

    And get a bloke in who's really, really, really stunningly good at Scrabble.

    It has just been pointed out to me that what I am really looking for is a bloke who is just slightly less brilliant than me at Scrabble.

    Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and beat somebody.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • Up Front: Eat Up Your Brothelly,

    Syzygy? Sounds more like a magazine for women who get excited when they win at Scrabble.

    I think you'll find that magazine is called Quixotry.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

  • Up Front: Eat Up Your Brothelly,

    Still obsessing on the economics... a quick market-sizing exercise suggests that Pammy's would, ah, saturate its market pretty quickly.

    Unless it deliberately seeks out the tourist dollar. But it's an awfully long way to fly for a bonk, unless you're just coming from Sydney for a naughty weekend (I guess that's what you'd call a flying fuck).

    Thing is, you need a fair few Rotary dinners and Kiwanis breakfasts on weekdays to keep the place open for the big-ticket weddings on the weekend, just to use a service industry analogy I'm familiar with.

    I wonder if they'll offer early bird discounts for students and pensioners. Particularly since this strikes me as the sort of service that when you need it, you probably can't afford it, and when you can afford it, you probably don't need it.

    And/or will they offer gift vouchers? Sweet sixteen! Post-breakup cheer-up pressie! Happy 80th birthday Nana! (Women, after all, Live To Shop and also Treat Themselves to Goodies, so in that regard the enterprise simply cannot fail.)

    I think I'll put my pennies in a jar till they introduce the Two-fer Tuesday. And get a bloke in who's really, really, really stunningly good at Scrabble.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report

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