WARNING: Proceed no further if easily offended

On this page I have some fun revealing more of myself. If you don't like what you find here please just go away!  PS: I rarely answer critical emails.

mark owen's own page . .	I have always used my real name on the Net. I have no reason to hide my identity.  True, I have some odd interests* and some 'different' ideas on many topics but I make no apology for these. And I assure you, I always think carefully before I write or say anything . . . (* VERY odd, some will say after reading this!)	Melbourne days When I was a very young man I spent an all too short but happy time working at Melbourne radio station 3UZ. No, I didn't get the sack, although the station had a 'hire and fire' reputation. In those days I was foolishly besotted with religion and one fateful day I 'received the call' - abandoning the best job I ever had then or later to join a 'faith' mission in my home-town Sydney. At 3UZ I worked as a techie right next door to THE studio - the one where the young Graham Kennedy got his first big break, working with legendary broadcaster, Clifford Nicholls Whitta ('Nicky' as we all knew him). My previous boss was the one who told me about 3UZ's 'hire and fire' atmosphere. How wrong he was!  Working at 3UZ in those days was a riot. No more decent workplace could one find.
My Vietnamese neighbours Vinh and An - my Vietnamese-Australian neighbours. Their parents had a shop next to mine in Newtown (Sydney). They are standing in front of my bookshop window (taken in 1988).	WARNING: Reading this page may give you apoplexy or incite you to kick your cat (and I wouldn't like you to do that - see my comments in the next column on the subject of CATS.........	Music My musical tastes - about 5 percent what might broadly be called pop music, 95 percent classical. All-time favourite composer Beethoven, closely followed by Sibelius and Elgar. Not far behind: Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky (in his better moments), De Falla, Schumann, Brahms.  And who can ignore Carl Orff's Carmina Burana?
My early life  . . . At Manly (by the sea) I grew up in Manly, the suburb on the north side of Sydney's beautiful harbour.  Mostly I lived near the harbour but my mother was often dissatisfied with the various rented flats that we called home and we moved a number of times. For a short period when I was aged about 6 we rented a house (rather than a flat) in Epping on the north side of Sydney. It was while at school there that I was introduced to the 'delights' (but no delight then) of bondage. Curiously, although I spent a lot of my childhood on Manly's beaches I was scared of deep water and didn't learn to swim until I was aged 17. I was living near the harbour when the sirens warned of the Japanese subs entering the waterway. I remember everyone in our block of flats going into a shelter that had been built but they had trouble persuading me to get out of my cosy bed! When I was a 6th class pupil at Manly I was keen on chemistry and made my own fireworks. My indulgent mother (father was away at the war) allowed me to travel on the ferries into Sydney City to buy chemicals. Mostly I worked safely but once I nearly damaged my eyes when something went off prematurely. Making fireworks was fun and I later introduced my children to the delights of producing them.	Some of my views in a nutshell  . . . POLITICIANS.  Can't do without them but sure would like to!  Especially when they lie so often to the electorate and waste so much public money in wholly unnecessary ways like sending troops to Iraq. DEATH.  The natural end of life. I have no fear of death nor expect to enter into some other realm when I die. My body shall return to the earth from whence we all came. Finis! SPORT. I loathe all sport. I was forced to play sport at school and hated it. I have no interest in watching any sports, including the Olympics, with one possible exception - barefoot girls doing gymnastics! (see further LOWER LEFT). MONEY. I've been poor most of my life. Perhaps the reason is that I've lacked a hunger for money that so many people seem to have. WOMEN. I am separated from my wife but we remain friendly. When we broke up my children opted to remain with me (with my wife's agreement). But all that is water under the bridge now as my children are now middle-aged. And my wife and I still get on - but at a distance. NUDITY. I find it hard to understand why nude humans upset so many people. Beats me! In my view the only reason not to go nude in public is a matter of aesthetics, not morality. Some folk (including me) look horrid nude. WEATHER. When I was young I enjoyed the cold. Now I don't; must be my ageing bones. I have definitely decided I like summer better than winter. Best of all is autumn. A recent move to Queensland has cheered me up mightily. >>>See More of my photos	CATS - indispensible! Aka - moggies, pussies, parasites, companions, hangers-on, loafers, slobs . . .   I've always had them around since childhood. Without wishing to cast aspersions in the direction of my current companion, Giles by name (sometimes known within in the family as Lord Geyles) who happens to be sleeping on a chair beside me as I write, I have to say my favourite was old Flotsam, long since passed from this life. Beloved Flotsam, our shop cat when we had our bookstore in Newtown (Sydney). We found him as a stray in bushland near Botany Bay. Flotsam loved being in the shop.  He would often sit on the counter and woe betide any dog who dared put his nose in the door. One of our regulars had a dog. He would bring him in so we could enjoy Flotsam and the dog yelling at each other (they never engaged in a physical fight - just let fly with heated 'verbal' exchanges). Our customers loved Flotsam and many came to farewell him (more than came to farewell us, I suspect!) when we closed the store. Something to brighten up the page. I thought the dragon boat rowers looked particularly cute with their eye masks. Taken on Newcastle Harbour in January 1994.

My Pilgrimage from Faith to Unbelief

AS A CHILD I grew up in a home which was typical of so many - vaguely acknowledging 'God', paying lip-service to Christian faith and sending the children to Sunday school - well, on and off. It did not seem to matter much which church, provided it was 'Protestant'. The family described itself as 'Church of England' but I went to both Methodist and Presbyterian Sunday schools at various times. Nothing much happened until I was aged 15 and had joined the workforce. Yes, I left school early. I loathed school, especially participation in sport, which was compulsory, not to mention the horrors of PT. (I later furthered my education through night studies.) I soon came into contact with a keen Christian group and, to cut a long story short, like so many teenagers, was 'converted to Christ.' I linked up with an evangelical Anglican (Episcopalian) church. Yes, there are some such, especially in Sydney Diocese, which is notorious in the eyes of other Anglicans for its fundamentalism. Thereafter I was heavily engaged in youth groups, lay preaching, camp work, Bible study groups and the whole paraphernalia of Christian activity. I eventually became a member of the Sydney Anglican Synod and did some limited studies at the theological college. But before this I had joined a fundamentalist missionary group, Gospel Recordings Inc (with origins in the USA), a so-called 'faith mission.' This latter term meant that you lived on what down-to-earth Aussies refer to as 'the smell of an oily rag' - unless, that is, you happen to be connected to a keen local church that sends you support funds. We were not! Our church, which was fundamentalist, was not really tuned onto the faith mission idea. The minister, after all, got his regular stipend and lived well (he later became a bishop) and most of the church's elders were successful businessmen. I met and married my future wife through the mission and we had our first child, a son, while we were working there. But after five years of struggle we left - and were somewhat roundly condemned by its zealous founder for doing so. We were still, however, engaged in Christian work. I became editor of an evangelical newspaper and correspondent for another paper published interstate, as well as doing editorial work for the Christian Television Association and publishing a Christian youth magazine. About twelve months later the chief source of my bread-and-butter, the newspaper, decided it could not longer support a full-time editor and, to cut a long story short, after some years back in regular employment, I moved out of the city area with my family (we now had a second child, my beloved daughter) and started a holiday farm for children with a rented property in a delightful location overlooking the Hawkesbury River west of Sydney. By now, with the pressure of business and family commitments, we no longer attended church services at all. Again, to skip through the years, we eventually closed the holiday farm, chiefly because it was not financially viable, and we went into retailing, later wholesaling. My business activities in those days were a strange mixture of success and failure. I had plenty of good ideas and, helped by my teenage children, we were in some ways quite brilliant at what we did - but - like so many small business-people, I did not know how to manage finances or really run the businesses properly. We went from success to disaster to success to disaster in a roller-coaster ride that will, I am sure, be familiar to many other folk. Indeed, even today I see people on that same roller-coaster, hanging on for dear life and not knowing quite how to really make it. Anyway, at the age of 44 I found myself with my daughter living in a cheap house in the country, trying to survive. My wife had fled (we are still friends and she was, fortunately, well provided for through an inheritance that came along at the right time) and my son had by then found himself a steady job (sensible lad). He is now happily married. Being something of a computer whiz he helps his dad with technical advice on occasions. It was then that I realized I had drifted a long way from my Christian faith and decided I had to come to grips with the situation. Either Jesus Christ was the Son of God, in which case I had to draw near to Him again, or he was not, in which case it did not matter that I had drifted away. So I began reading the familiar texts of the Scriptures again. Then - the thought struck me: the central fact, if there is one, revolves around the Resurrection. 'If Christ be not raised from the dead,' as St Paul (reputedly) said, then Christian faith is vain. I decided to study the Resurrection story closely. I emphasize that I had no books, nor read anything else at that time, only the Bible. I set to work to write up in parallel the accounts of the Resurrection in the Gospels. It was not long before I realized that this - as I then thought - impregnable rock of certainty was by no means so certain. Far from it. It was shot through with glaring inconsistencies and errors. From then on it was all downhill (as Christians would say). I read much of the Bible at this time, both Old Testament and New, and realized that I had been conned. This mouldy book was revealed to be a farrago of myths and legends, mixed in with a little (very little, as I was to discover) real history. The whole is a lie perpetrated by man upon himself. After this I began reading books I had never read before. I read Darwin (the great revelator) and books on anthropology and paleontology and ancient history and very soon abandoned not only my Christian faith but all faith. I became an atheist, without a shadow of doubt. I am not an agnostic. I do not believe one word of religious faith. I consider all religion to be superstition, pure and simple. Completely unproven. And, while I allow that people should be free to pursue their religious faith as they think best I believe by the same token the rest of us should be free to order our lives as we see fit. Thus, Christian morality, such as it is (and it is often of a low order) should not be forced upon the rest of us. It flows from all of this that I believe consenting adults should be free to pursue their pleasures, particularly sexual pleasures, as they see fit, provided only that they do not hurt others in doing so. Religion generally casts a pall of gloom and doom upon human life. It takes the real joy out of living, laying a guilt trip upon people for imagined 'sins' - in other words, transgressions against invented ills. In its place it supplies a substitute joy, a false joy, buoyed up by the mutual back-slapping, praises and hallelujahs of the congregation, in the vain hope of a future life in the never-never land of an invisible and unprovable paradise. So be it, if people are happy in such a fantasy-world, recharging their security blankets each Sunday, I have no quarrel with them, but again I say, leave the rest of us alone. Do not attempt to foist your anti-human morality upon the rest of us. - Mark Owen

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My love of women's feet I am a foot fetishist, an aspect of my personality that goes back to very early years, probably starting when I was only about 6 or 7. (I can recollect an experience that triggered this deviation. And I have no interest in losing it!) I join some distinguished company - the great writers Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Balzac, and several others, along with various historic personages, and in recent times the movie director Quentin Tarantino. My preference is for female feet, as is that of Mr Tarantino. Most of his movies serve as evidence. Remember that scene in Kill Bill Volume 1 where The Bride (Uma Thurman) tries to get her toes working again?  What a great feet scene that is! A nice pair of female feet Appropriate here to express my view of . . .   HIGH-HEEL SHOES. I suspect these are the invention of the Devil, maybe in fact the Abomination of Desolations foretold in the Bible. They are clearly designed to degrade women - elongating their beautiful legs into distorting ugliness, crippling them in the process, and making many rich - the shoe manufacturers, the repairers of flooring, and the podiatrists. I loathe them!

Meet Lord Geyles Meet GILES (aka Lord Geyles) my current moggie companion. One of the most troublesome I've ever had! I rescued him from a cage at the RSPCA where he was on death row with just 1 day's life left. I couldn't resist his plaintive cry and his golden eyes. And you know the old saying: 'No good deed goes unpunished!' He's a trial but I still love him heaps. Even when he tries to stop me watching Fox News. My views are generally liberal but I still enjoy Fox News. They have some great shows. including The O'Reilly Factor.  I disagree with Bill a lot but I still enjoy his show, along with Geraldo and Greta. My cat, Lord Geyles aka Giles, named after the librarian in the TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) More craziness! Visit the new feature on by Felicity Books site -

My views on morality People sometimes seem to think atheists and agnostics cannot be very moral persons. I suppose it depends on what is meant by 'moral'. Morality is obviously a relative term. It is chiefly religious people who assert morality has some fixed eternal value. Probably the so-called Golden Rule at least supplied one standard by which we judge actions to be moral or immoral.  PS: Don't tell the Christians but the Golden Rule wasn't invented by Jesus. Note: 'Do to another what you would have him do to you, and do not do to another what you would not have him do to you.  Thou needest this law alone.  It is the foundation of all the rest.'  The words of Jesus, in yet another translation?  No, the words of Confucius, recorded around BCE 500.  Probably even Confucius himself derived the basic thought from still earlier wise sayings. At the heart of morality surely lies this: simply being decent towards other human beings. It is not being decent when you abuse children, belt wives, kill innocent people, lie and cheat. Check this out: MORE BELIEVERS IN JAILS THAN ATHEISTS AND AGNOSTICS

My View On: Prayers in Parliament. When are Australia's politicians going to abandon the quaint custom of saying prayers at the start of the sessions? As a citizen I find it terribly embarrassing seeing the nation's leaders performing this silly ceremony. All meaningless, too! I might mention in passing that the so-called Lord's Prayer is not a genuine utterance of Jesus of Nazareth, that pretender to deity, but was purloined by the early Christians from still earlier Jewish sources. This can be easily verified by those who seek the REAL truth as to the origins of religion.

My View On: Ceremonial Occasions. All ceremonies commemorating the dead are a waste of time. Funerals, memorial services, observing 2 minutes' silence, what do they achieve? The persons who are the subjects of such actions, i.e. those who have died, are no longer here to appreciate our memorials. They are bones rotting in the ground, or do their remembrancers think they are there somewhere, looking down on them? That is pure superstition! My family have strict instructions (and they agree) not to have any such nonsense when I shuffle off this mortal coil. And my end approaches ever closer.

My View On: The Book of Psalms. I've just been perusing a beautifully produced book devoted to the Psalms of David, a part of the Bible especially beloved of Christians. The lilting words . . . the Lord delivering from all fears . . . the heavens declaring the glory of God . . . the shepherd making the believer lie down in green pastures . . . many times they are read, heard, preached upon. But - do you believers also know the words of Psalm 137: 8,9: 'O daughter of Babylon . . . happy shall be he, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones Against the rock' or Psalm 144: 1: 'Blessed be the Lord my rock, Which teacheth my hands to war, And my fingers to fight' or Psalm 149: 2-7: 'Let Israel rejoice . . . Let the high praises of Yahweh be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the nations, And punishments upon the peoples'?

Some of my favourite movies . . . Sorry to disappoint, you won't find CITIZEN KANE (1941) here. I've nothing against Mr Welles but I've made several attempts to view this 'must-see' movie and always failed dismally to make it to the end. I have no criticism to make; I just can't seem to connect with this movie. I should include some of Alfred Hitchcock's great work in this list but there are so many and he is so brilliant that I need to give further thought to them before doing so. Here is a preliminary list in chronological order . . . METROPOLIS (1927). Undoubtedly my all-time favourite, top of the heap. The version backed by Giorgio Moroder's music is my first choice. His music in my view best serves to catch the mood of this great piece of cinematic art. Who cannot watch METROPOLIS but once and not have at least some of its images forever burnt into one's memory? It is a staggering achievement for its time - and beyond. 42ND STREET (1933). An oldie but still wonderful, compelling viewing with curiously dark undertones. I'm not normally keen on tap dancing but Ruby Keeler wins me over and what can one say of Busby Berkeley's choreography? The man was a genius! What a pity he worked at a time when the heavy hand of the censor was forever trying to suppress expressions of the sensual but even so Mr Berkeley still managed to excite us and amaze us. ELMER GANTRY (1960). One of the few male actors I like is Burt Lancaster, who plays the preaching man in this excursion into the world of high-pressure religion. I guess the movie resonates especially with me. When I first saw it I was at a crossroads. I had been deeply involved in evangelical religion (although not quite of the high-pressure kind pictured in the movie) but by now, in midlife, my faith was starting to crumble. It has since evaporated completely. IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963). One of the best film comedies of all time in my view. It deals beautifully with a favourite theme of mine - human cupidity. And what an array of star players! I have watched this rather lengthy movie at least 6 or 7 times and never tire of it. As with the endless repeats of Hogan's Heroes one is able to recite the words of the players before they even enunciate them. THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE (1976). Jodie Foster at her brilliant best and another theme that pleases me - nonconformity. I'm never been a team player nor a joiner but, like Rynn, a loner. And a personal bonus - she's mostly barefoot. I've been a massive fan of Jodie's since first seeing that movie. WITCHES OF EASTWICK, The (1987). What a fun romp, a movie that made me love Jack Nicholson (and I don't like many male stars). And the three wonderful women - Michelle Pfeiffer, Cher and Susan Sarandon, perfect companions (?!) to Daryl. Barefoot as well, at least some of the time. HEATHERS (1989). My introduction to Winona Ryder, who has ever since been right on top of my list of favourite actors. The movie is not perfect but is streets ahead of so many American high school movies and the antics therein. And male lead Christian Slater is terrific.

TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN (1990). My first introduction to the movies of the brilliant, quirky Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. And it has great personal appeal, with terrific rope bondage and the beautiful bare feet of one of Almodovar's favourite actors, Victoria Abril, on display. Victoria is the long-suffering abducted heroine who is snatched away by the then not so famous Antonio Banderas. And after all the naughtiness the movie has a happy ending. A voyeur's delight! LIFE LESS ORDINARY, A (1997). Cameron Diaz is absolutely fantastic in this movie playing the kidnapped Celine variously bound, gagged and blindfolded but all the while cheerily coping with her bumbling kidnapper. And a memorable scene - when she and the male lead sing and dance to Somewhere Beyond the Sea. Surely another great movie scene. Worth buying the DVD just for that scene! JOAN OF ARC (1999). In my view the then very young Leelee Sobieski is the best screen Joan of all. To me she captures in her person both the commanding strength of the leader of armies and the doubt and insecurity of a young peasant girl. Like Jodie and Winona, Leelee is also one of my favourite actors. GIRL, INTERRUPTED (1999). Two great actors - Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder - make this a winning movie. Surely one of the memorable scenes in movie history comes near the end when Winona sings Downtown. Magical, but, alas, seems to be missing from some versions. SECRETARY (2002). What perfect casting for their roles - Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader. Maggie is now among my faves as is James Spader and there are few male actors I like at all (although who could not like Johnny Depp?). What a perfectly kinky movie with so much to delight the connoisseur of the bizarre - bondage, submission, domination, nudity, bare feet, the lot. And yet, thoughtful and purposeful. KILL BILL Volumes 1 & 2 (2003-2004). I don't normally enjoy fight scenes in movies whether with sword or other implement but I love these two movies. Revenge is a theme that always appeals mightily to me (so very unchristian!). I think maybe this goes back to childhood when as a skinny, unathletic boy, I was targeted for abuse by other boys - more verbal than physical, but abuse nevertheless.  The Popeye cartoons had great appeal to me in those days. And Uma Thurman is just one terrific avenger. The scene where she confronts O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) in the garden is another magical movie moment. And, of course, Uma is barefoot a lot. DOGVILLE (2003). A refreshing breeze through movieland! A movie that is utterly different and makes for compelling viewing. With another favourite of mine - Nicole Kidman who is barefoot for half the movie, too, which I always find pleasing. A exceedingly clever movie. V FOR VENDETTA (2005). A recent addition to my list. I have already watched the two hours of this movie eight times and would happily watch it again. I've been a fan of Natalie Portman since I first saw her as the little girl in The PROFESSIONAL (1994), and Hugo Weaving is terrific, even behind his mask. Again, a movie that has elements of great personal appeal - revenge, and freedom from tyranny, especially thought control (which is what Christians, Islamics and their ilk want to impose on all of us).

 

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