Benjamin Comics

Benjamin Comics

Benjamin Comics

Walters walks in

See, Walters just walked in. When Walters walks in you know its time to leave; guy exudes negativity like Clinton exudes charm. I seen him work a room before, destroy them one by one, going around the room shaking hands, sucking the life out of them, leaving them startled, listless, trying to shake him off, get their mojo's back on track.
OK love, i'll take over the script from here, yeah, had to be the saddest man in the world i bet, when you find out all the details and you realise what a fool you been made of, didnt you suspect a damn thing? Wasnt their a doubt in your mind?
'A' had been his first real encounter with real beauty. "So thats what beauty is." Like that childhood adolescent encounter with beauty and desire for the first time. Its not even real desire all that, its more metaphysical and etherial at that age and at that stage; otherworldly.

Cartoon Abstract of Gershom's memoir of Walter

Interesting Film about Benjaminia

http://www.vimeo.com/17166870

Ruinations - June

5 i:-

1/ Every time the sickness comes I feel like a little bit of my brain dies. It’s around the time I go blind and lose proper awareness of my body.

2/ When I first graduated I worked looking after mentally handicapped until there was a scandal when one of the other workers got two of the clients to kiss each other. They filmed us all secretly and caught her at it, caused me to panic about just what I might have been up to.

3/ In Venice late one evening I wandered the Giardini weaving in and out of the various abandoned pavilions. There was no one else around, and I could pretty much let myself in at my leisure. These huge building, empty and decrepit were somehow terrifying.

4/ I had to find myself a blindwriter, not simply a translator, but an interpreter; an interpreter of meaning. Best place to hide one of these would be in a person you’ve never even noticed, so that’s where I needed to look.

5/ When I was younger I used to be able to make people I met feel special, you know, that whole Clinton thing: ‘made me feel like the most important person in the room’. Learnt it from CW I did. Recently I’ve noticed myself projecting differently; makin everyone I meet feel a little the worse, makin them aware of something about their situation which, well, is regrettable.

The Manchester Arcades Projects

they do not sleep

I read about those idiots in the city in the south, the ones that do not sleep. There is a breakdown of statistics about the city, such as 95% of them go to University, but the literacy rate is only 65%. Initially this seems incompatible to be. Many of them visit here, more all the time. In fact, its becoming an increasing problem. Today I visited the Memory Hall, normally a serene, thoughtful experience, but since tourism has increased it is now awash with them, shouting, pushing, recording every damn little thing.
Back in the dream I am ready to give up. I can feel my body giving up. No longer have the energy. Ive been trying so hard to get us through the process, and ive just reached the stage where I cant go on any more with them all sniping and jostling. I ask the lab guys to put me back in The Raft, I just need to rest now. I give up. I need to rest for a while.
They do, I get back into the container, where I haven’t been for about 15 years. Strange. It feels comfortable, and I really do relax.
We visit the city in the East, where their MRT is different from our own. Their announcement system keeps you constantly updated on which viruses have been detected in the air supply. Today, its not too bad, but there's still very few people using the trains. Of course, everyone is wearing their masks, and we are given standard ones as we board.

they do not sleep

As we left for the East a number of storylines were coming to a head: The Addingham Arsonist struck again and there were rumors of a note suggesting that this wouldn’t be the last we were hearing from him; They were marching against the Mosque which was being built next to the Army base; Snipers from Minaret’s. And the trial of Colin Wang’s killers was taking place, with all the details finally coming to light. His sister, Sally had been stabbed and tied, whilst her brother lay nearby slowly dying of multiple stab wounds. As the night dragged on, the killers discussed how they’d come to this point and one bent down, kissed Sally on the lips and told her he loved her and not to worry. Then he smashed a vodka bottle over her head. In the East I manage to buy a newspaper from England, it is already yesterdays by the time I get it; New research shows that when David Cameron’s face is superimposed on a naked man’s body (they used the same body with many different faces) and shown to housewives for a sustained period, those housewives reported a 20% increase in sex with their husbands. Boy George had the second highest rating, with more likely candidates like Sean Bean and Daniel Craig coming substantially lower in the ratings.

The obsession with simulation here reaches new heights all the time. At a wedding there are 7 photographers on the stage with the priest and couple. They point their cameras in the faces of the groom, and trip over each other trying to capture the bride making some tiny move. Their attempts to coordinate and communicate mean that they are more distracting than anything the priest is doing.
The custom of building a model flat out of wood, by the side of the road, where an actual tower block will one day be. Prospective buyers can look round the wooden building to see how their tower block flat will one day be. Once the customer ‘buys’ the simulation, work on the original can start, and the wooden model be destroyed.

I had met Colin Wang’s parents when they first came for the opening of the investigation, and in the course of trying to befriend them asked them all about themselves. They were prison wardens in the high security prison on the island in Hong Kong bay; The Raft. For years the most dangerous prisoners in the East had been locked up there in what was a pretty grim and strict regime. They had become incredibly cautious about what they gave away about their own lives, and I think they thought Colin’s death was in some way connected to their work. I think I enquired too much about life on The Raft because I saw them less and less over time, till eventually I lost touch entirely. Of course, it turned out that what led two African immigrants living in Birmingham to be in that house that night was an even more unlikely turn of events.