1035 - Back In Your Own Backyard



Yesterday morning I have protested inwardly against Ove’s verdict that the summer is waning. I’m afraid he’s right. We had rain in the afternoon and evening, and it has cooled down substantially.

The first image was taken in the afternoon, during one short spell of sunshine, while I was on my way to the passport office. I need a new one and now I get one of these biometrically secured passports with encoded fingerprints. Oh well.

The other image is from the morning.

I may be known for my fascination with bicycles, but I certainly have a fascination with doors and doorways as well. I like these half-covered views into semi-private spaces. It is not voyeurism, have a look at it, there is nothing to see here, but it is the idea that these places, strange to me, have complete familiarity to some other people. It’s not my home, but it’s a home to someone. Sure, this is only assigned meaning, but isn’t all meaning only assigned?

The Song of the Day is “Back In Your Own Backyard” by Billie Holiday. I have it in one of those 10 CD boxes that I recently got for 10€ each. I have looked, the most affordable variant on Amazon is another 10 CD box for $60, but at least you get a 100 pages booklet, and $6 for a CD is still a nice price. Hear the Song on YouTube.


There are 3 comments

redskiesatnight   (2009-08-14)

Given your penchant for (rightly) complaining about government control of our lives, I'm surprised you shrugged off this biometric passport with an "Oh, well". I guess I would have expected a complete blog post about it ☹️

To me this is one of the more subtle but very powerful form of monitoring and control. I don't like what it portends for the future.

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Ted   (2009-08-17)

I particularly like the way the grafitti slashes across the elegant intentions of the designers of this place. As you know, romanticizing of graffiti perturbs me... But here to create grit and cultural authenticity... IT ROCKS!!!

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Andreas   (2009-08-18)

Thanks. As to the passports, well, of course you're right. It IS a problem. All those electronic gadgets are. There is no guarantee that they don't fail at any moment. My banking cards seem to fail once a year, without me doing anything but carrying them around and using them every few days.

The problem is, that a failing card could as well just give faulty information, and people tend to believe what computers say, sometimes against all evidence. Now, when the only evidence is a card that says you are Osama Bin Laden, they will probably shoot you first and then check if you really are who the card says you are. Pretty easy to make a Buttle a Tuttle.

Of course the matter is only complicated by an industry that wants to sell those things and short-sighted politicians who want to believe that those gadgets save the world and their re-election.

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