apolitical, page-8

"Dame Edna Everage — 'Never be afraid to laugh at yourself. After all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.'". ...... The great Aussie humour of our mythology, the self-effacing laughter that makes a great comedian because it exemplifies what we wish we could have. ahhahaaahha Barry, for all his foolery, has great wisdom.... I loved his character 'Les Patterson' best of all for the pearls and insights.

I recall watching Humphries and Gordon Chater in the Mavis Bramston show back in the 60s.... even as young men their characterisations were very telling and insightful.

I too haven't read nearly enough in my life.... too much reading for enjoyment rather than studiousness. My love for insights into personality started with Humphries and moved through Shakespeare, Dickens and DH Lawrence to Louis de Berniere and Emile Zola and so many others as well as psychology.... yet as Terry Jones said in his portrayal of the restaurant cleaner in Monty Pythons' Meaning of Life, I found that with all the reading and study of people, I still find myself mystified and confused about many people.

I truly don't mean to big note my learning though --- I talk and write like I know what I'm talking about but truly remain in ignorance of so very much. Yet I heartily agree with you that "if you know the great philosophers, artists, musicians you carry them with you and you are never lonely. " and always have some means of understanding something of the incomprehensible conduct of the self and sometimes even others.

I too got into the Encyclopaedia in the developmental years of 'juvenile industriousness' when the solipsist narcissism of infancy has passed. I read mostly on the human body and biology rather than the internal combustion engine. The pity is all my mates were fixing cars with their older brothers and fathers.

Van Gogh has been among my fave artists too and I read of him initially as a study of bipolar in psychology, so I looked around at other geniuses and found many more had similar traits. Now my step-son has a diagnosis of bipolar, considers himself a genius but is really quite thick as the proverbial contents in the neck of a bottle. I also worked in mental health for quite a few years and found that those with bipolar who thought they were geniuses were smilier to my stepson while those who thought they were stupid and desperately trying to work out their weird thoughts were geniuses. Now what sort of a mystery is that??? This particular bizarre twist in psychopathology has had me stumped for decades.

AAaahhh but music and songs.... Lightnin' Hopkins reminds me so much of Muddy Waters and BB King. Some say that these two giants of blues learned their style listening to Hopkins and Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac fame learned by copying Hopkins over and over when he was a teen.


If by chance you don't know this one, I hope you enjoy it as much as i.... its my all time fave blues. As a fan of blues though, I imagine you would be very familiar with Greenie. You've heard his latter year recordings of Robert Johnson's songs? Love in Vain? Awesome.