So there was this Camel walking down the Street...

No seriously. There was a camel on my street yesterday. I'm trying to read the Sunday papers yesterday afternoon when I keep hearing this drumming coming from the street outside my window. I go down to check it out, and there was a film crew getting shots of a bunch of circus performers marching down my street. I mean, I knew that this country was run like a circus, but this was just re-god damn-diculous.

Outside of that, what's been going on in the week that I took off from posting?

Well I finally was able to see Episode III, about two weeks after the rest of the planet stopped caring about it. Verdict? Inconsistancies with the original trilogy aside, it more than made up for the previous two atrocities. Great flick.

My ongoing search for original Commie propaganda reached its to-date zenith when I found a literal hole in the wall shop that had the largest collection of Communist posters I think I've ever seen in my life. I probably spent about an hour and half going through maybe a third of their collection. It's within easy walking distance of my place too...which could be dangerous for my wallet. The woman who worked there was aboslutely great too, making snarky comments about all the slogans and offering me great discounts (apparently the owner of the place used to produce these posters for a living and charges too much for them as they have sentimental value for her). I'll put up pics of my purchases later.

EU fallout continues as the Dutch did what was predicted and voted down the EU Constitution. When I listen to BBC on the shortwave in the morning, every other freaking story they have is about what's going to happen to the EU. Neeka had a great post linking to an IHT article about the now infamous "Polish Plumber," from the perspective of the Poles. It wasn't even three months ago that I was reading a deluge of commentary pieces about how responsbile the EU was for the wave of democractic movements in the post-Soviet space. The theory was that the prospect of EU membership was what drove all these countries (including Ukraine) to turn towards democracy and to reform their government, military, and economic systems by getting in-line with EU requirements. I now have to seriously ask, what happens now? It's seems obvious to me that further EU expansion is a dead issue. I really have to wonder if Bulgaria and Romania will become members in 2007 as currently scheduled. But what happens to all those in Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia, Croatia, etc...who set their countries down a more democratic path with the promise of future EU as a future reward in return for the initial transistional pain required in moving a country from an undemocratic government and planned economy to market economy and democratic system? Will they still be taken seriously?

How did this post manage to start with camels and end with the EU?

Might as well end this borderline incoherent post with another tangent. Damn, that new White Stripes album is really good.