3 interesting Sri Lankan geo bloggers

Geo blogging humanises geography. It does by plugging in tools like geo tagged photography, Google Earth or Google Maps with blogging to share personal/human context/meaning of places that are otherwise just impersonal symbols on a map. It adds (hopefully) a human/cultural layer into maps. Something that’s been impossible at a pre internet/social media scale. I’ve been doing something like that in my usual sloppy way as listed on my Google Earth Sri Lanka page which I have neglected to update (I have my unapologetic excuses).

Obviously geo blogging sounds like a fluffy way of justifying wasting time slithering around the web when there’s more important things to do than wasting time on social media. Unguarded geo tagging does have its privacy issues. However I have identified 3 bloggers whose unique approaches to blogging adds value to Sri Lanka’s digitised geography. They of course don’t that they are geo bloggers which is ok.

Janith’s blog

I think he’s Sri Lanka’s ultimate geo blogger though no one including the man himself realises this. He’s already taken maps & info to the ultimate level with his is Colombo Bus Map which began as a blog post has evolved into an online mobile friendly app.  A variation of this is his interesting Google mapped post of what can only be described as personalised walking tours of Colombo. As a

Kirigalpoththa (the unofficial official hiking blog of the Sri Lankanosphere)

Kirigalpoththa is a great resource on hiking in Sri Lanka. He’s got the geo blog thing going with an extensive Picassa web album of hiking location in Sri Lanka. If there is a next step, its to plug the geographic info into his blog posts. But I’d prefer he spends that time hiking or finding the time + money to hike

An image a day blog

Nazreen Sansoni’s an image a day blog takes geo bloging to a more personal level and photo blogging to the next level. Plugging in interesting places such a this abandoned house on the island of Kayts, or a more publicly assessable view from the Galle Fort ramparts adds interesting ground level views invisible on iconified maps. There’s also atmospheric shots like this one which is hard to pin down. Mixed in are a gob of bravely public personal photos which for reasons of privacy only belongs on a private map of the photographer.

Yes they are all subjective, highly personal and most likely unmonetizable. The most interesting manifestations of social media usual tends to be that way.

If you have spotted a blogger that you think qualifies as a geoblogger comment me a link (flickr sites don’t qualify as “blogging”).

Book burning against Galle Literary Festival to have low carbon foot print

Organisers of a book burning protesting the Galle Literary Festival have highlighted environmental credentials to gain demonstration permits. The spokesperson for the book burning denied their environmentalism is a tactic to get media attention. In a media release the organisers said :

“We genuinely care about the ecological impact of free speech, democracy and politics. This protest is will set the standard for non violent low carbon foot print politics in Sri Lanka”. The media release also emphasised that the organisers’ support of RSF’s boycott of the Galle Literary Festival is based on “significantly different ideological reasons”.

As proof of their commitment the organisers claim that they have built a special book burning incinerator with a carbon capture and storage system.

The book burning itself is to take place outside the Moon bastion of the iconic Galle fort at the auspicious time of 4:51pm on Wed the 11th. The public is asked to bring books by authors attending this year’s festival as well as authors who took part in pervious festivals. The organisers’ media release helpfully lists book shops and festival venues where the books can be purchased. For legal reasons, the organisers require that those submitting books for burning to show a receipt proving that they have legitimately acquired the books.

Observers have described the low carbon footprint book burning concept as “unusually innovative”. According to fringe media analyst R.B Pushpakumara,

“There is a tradition of attacking the Galle Literary Festival in the Sri Lankan fridge media. It provides a platform to polish one’s nationalistic/patriotic credentials. Outer fringe media such as blogs bank on this opportunity to attract traffic in the hope of increasing revenue from advertising click through rates. If this book burning actually happens it will hijack all other media reporting of the event.”

The strange mix of environmentalism, book burning and the politics of gaining media attention has shifted the focus away from the organisers of the book burning. They belong to a previously unknown minor political party called the Lanka Totalitarian Freedom Front. They claim to be Sri Lanka’s only “pure” totalitarian political party. Their ultimate aim is the remove ethnic, religious, linguistic identities from Sri Lanka politics.

“Unite the country in a single Esperanto speaking identity totally obedient to the maximum leader’s vision of totalitarian self reliance!” reads the trilingual banner outside the party’s small one room office in outskirts of Galle. It is staffed by a handful of activists dressed in the party uniform of black shirts, white sarongs and white berets. Flanked by portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Kim Il-sung, Norm Chomsky, and Benito Mussolini, “media leader” Anton delivers a long rambling speech to the handful of curious journalists.

It seems unlikely that the party will be get permission to go ahead with its book burning. However the voices in my head think it’s a great little yarn to spin at this time of the year. Thank you for reading this far. Deranged peal of echoing laughter in a deep voice.

2011 in review (automated post)

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog based on its whimy stats.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 47,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 17 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

New realisations from moving old books

Reorganising the living room bookshelf gave me a panoramic wide angle view of my relationship with books and reading. At one level, I regretted my love of books. Alcoholics among you know will know the sensation of hitting rock bottom intimately. It also felt like meeting long lost friends. The pleasant surprises leading newer, better understandings and relationships.

The regret came from dealing with the physicality of books. Some, like the Geoffrey Bawa books have the girth to qualify as murder weapons (if used from a sufficient height). Even the slimmest volumes must be puffed up the stairs to avoid creating back spraining stacks. I used to brutally sell off books to avoid dealing with heaving boxes of books. Yet there was always a body of survivors.

Space they occupied in the overstuffed living room shelf had to found in their new homes. Namely two minimalistic bookcases with limited shelf height configurations and even less space. My collection ranges from generously of proportioned art books, fragile childhood era Tintins, and a spectrum of other books varying wildly around the size of paperbacks. That made organising the books into any sort of order into a headache – specially for a dim wit like Cerno. The only practical solution was to grovel to the new spatial order and put them wherever they fitted.

As a result Cicero’s biography is now sitting next to the Bukowskis. Funny Boy is jammed next to a yellowed Philip K Dick. Cinnamon Gardens was moved to another shelf and amongst Kandyan history due to a few excessive millimetres. At least I almost managed to keep the art books together. Compromises had to be made of course. A lushly photographed work on ancient Sri Lankan rock paintings just happened to be around the same height as a book of banned Robert Mapplethorpes. The book on strange late war German aircraft designs landed next to the Abstract Expressionists because it fitted in perfectly.

Once the sneezing from the dust settled, I thought the whole thing was over. Yet while I was lying on the heat pack reeking Wintogino (moving books and sprains are tragically linked), the realisations crept in. Oddly enough, it started with the Tintins and wondered over to the Asterixs which I had rarely flipped though as an adult. Details glossed over in childhood were deliciously fresh. Made me think how my perceptions of the world had changed.

Bukowski remains an old favourite — specially since Green Tea Diaries has been quiet. I used to prefer the hiku splendour of his later poetry. Now I have come to enjoy the punch of his prose works (eg: Post Office, Factotum) as well as the earlier poems. All because I flipped through those neglected pages between fittings. I thought I got over of my juvenile interest in Nazi WW2 aeronautics but I was wrong. Even if there was anyone interested in the cockpit layout of the BV141, I’m not selling.

Why? Just like the strange affinity I’m starting to notice between Cicero and Bukowski, it’s hard to pin down. Particularly when the whispers of thought have yet coagulate into something specific for words. It will certainly take another post as this one’s rambled on too long (thank you for reading this far btw).

The realisations have an unexpected deliciousness to them. Makes the sweaty brow work of book shuffling worth while. With eBooks this sort of experience will be replaced by algorithm (people who read this also liked…). I have unscientific doubts about the richness of that experience. It makes my interest in other people’s bookshelves feel even stronger. So what sort of journeys has the chaos/order of your bookshelf taken you?

Oh yes, Happy 2012!

* The specific titles of the books mentioned have been blurred for security reasons.

Essential luxuries of blogging – report from the hamster wheel

Writing requires time for a quiet mind. Another essential luxury is the patience to string sentences together into something coherent. Having sentences slithering through the brain is just noise. Editing paragraphs of them in the head while in the shower is a waste of time and water. When you do get the odd moment to sit down and peck the keys its too over whelming. Paralysis in the face of the avalanche of words coming down the slopes of a mental volcanic. Vut tu du kno?

In the background, the voices in the head are cackling from their cushions. They passing the wine around and keep stirring the neural cauldron. The most frightening part of all this is not zoning out at the dinner table. It is the thought of not seeing the truck running the red at an intersection. All because I was endlessly sharpening a metaphor for some silly nonsense while waiting for the green.

There’s no where to run when its in your head. Only a psychiatrist (for a stinging fee) will even consider what its like. Mostly they would say: “you are just bragging about your repressed literary talents”. Shitting blog posts has nothing to do with talent. I just don’t want to keep editing the history of the Bare Handed Wild Boar Hunting Club for the nth time during the commute, in the shower, or when told to “hold”.

Perhaps its time for a decent brandy, a photograph or, more realistically a post like this. All in the mad futile hope for the chattering to stop (I have repeatedly tried and failed at meditation).

Crap I’ve spent too many minutes writing this as I have too many times before. When I should have attended to the todo list. Lobotomy is not an option. But there has to be something else. If you know one tell the comment box. Perhaps 2012 will reveal some answers. Murphy says otherwise.