Saturday, February 27, 2010

I'm having a day in Brussels tomorrow, which is about the most 21st century thing I've probably said. It is a much smaller world than it used to be.

The reason I am going is to watch a lucha libre show. Mexican lucha libre is the most unique of all the forms of professional wrestling. It transcends Mexican culture in a way that other forms do not. It's also a lot more performance, rather than accurately imitating a sporting contest. Both explain why this show is actually part of a month long Mexican culture week in Brussels in a theatre - the Cirque Royal - and other shows have been organised in venues, like the Lourve last year, where wrestling fans are not necessarily the target audience.

The card is stacked, with el Hijo del Santo, Negro Navarro, Solar I and Cassandro all performing. The middle two are thirty year veterans, maestros, still amazing to watch (actually, they have improved with age), and I figure it may be my only opportunity to see them live. Cassandro is a guy I come to know recently and is an incredible performer, but one who has rarely appeared on video. And Santo is the most famous luchadore alive today, a guy who embodies everything great about lucha both as an in-ring performer and as a part of the mythology that make it such a transcendent artform.

Exhausting a day as it may be to travel to Belgium and back in less than 18 hours, I am massively excited.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Economics is a science of relatively simple calculations, behind which we find truth. For example, sixty is larger than twenty.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

I'm a big fan of the context paragraphs that news reports tag at the bottom, as they are usually the most pedestrian of journalism. From today's Daily Mail:

"There are more than 1.1billion Roman Catholics in the world, with more than 4million of them living in Britain.

Because of its huge global influence, the religion's practices and traditions are known and respected throughout the world."

Oh, that Catholicism.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

One of the reasons I will probably be a lefty until I die is this: when left-wing think tank produce lunatic ideas, they are generally framed in terms of 'quality of life' and other such terms of making the world a more lovely place; when right-wing think tanks produce lunatic ideas, they are generally about making more people more miserable.

Monday, February 15, 2010

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8515592.stm

This is not going to be a long or nuanced post. Some things are just absolute truths:

There are no circumstances in which a rape victim should take responsibility for the attack.