Gemma Mccluskie

(Update 10th March 2012: Yesterday the Met Police confirmed everyone's worst fears. If you or anyone you know has any information about Gemma's Mccluskie's final hours please contact the incident room on 020 8345 3985 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.)

By now most of us have read about the shocking news of Gemma Mccluskie's disappearance. No one I know has even begun to process any of  the news. The Mccluskies are like family to locals here in Bethnal Green. It shows the level of decorum that indigenous E2-ers possess in that no one boasted or even mentioned Gemma's very impressive stint on television to me. I only found out about it when she was first reported missing. Gemma is considered just a local and beloved gal here; good as gold as they say. Tony is a close friend to many of us as well. I cannot conceive of Tony being behind this and I pray with all my might it is not so. I think of those who have been universally damned in the court of public opinion before any facts were known only to later be fully exonerated despite facing a fully ruined life even in innocence.

Music seem to be the only way to express what is happening right now.  

The words to the songs below do not refer to anyone specific but to whomever has taken Gemma's life and the after effects it has now left on the East End. My own sibling was violently murdered and I know that you never recover or "get closure" despite time passing and thus some distance easing things. Right now what has happened is inexplicable and all I can do is pray for the best possible resolution.


"My Brother Esau"
Words by John Perry Barlow; music by Bob Weir
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission

My brother Esau killed a hunter
Back in 1969
And before the killing was done,
His inheritance was mine.
But his birthright was a wand to wave
Before a weary band.
Esau gave me sleeplessness
And a piece of moral land.

My father favored Esau,
Who was eager to obey
All the bloody wild commandments
The Old Man shot his way.
But all this favour ended
When my brother failed at war.
He staggered home
And found me in the door.

[Chorus:]
Esau skates on mirrors anymore...
He meets his pale reflection at the door.
Yet sometimes at night I dream
He's still that hairy man,
Shadowboxing the Apocalypse
And wandering the land.
Shadowboxing the Apocalypse
And wandering the land.

Esau holds a blessing;
Brother Esau bears a curse.
I would say that the blame is mine
But I suspect it's something worse.
The more my brother looks like me,
The less I understand
The silent war that bloodied both our hands.
Sometimes at night, I think I understand.

It's brother to brother and it's man to man
And it's face to face and it's hand to hand...
We shadowdance the silent war within.
The shadowdance, it never ends...
Never ends, never ends.
Shadowboxing the Apocalypse, yet again...
Yet again.
Shadowboxing the Apocalypse,
And wandering the land.

Dangerous 
Words and Music by John Entwistle
Can you feel it? watching you in the darkness
Touching you like a sickness
Fear is taking control,
The beach head is the street.
In the gutter lies defeat.
Fear is the key to your soul
That makes you dangerous
So dangerous to yourself

Can you feel it in the shadows?
Watching you, touching you,
Can you feel it in the shadows?
Watching you, touching you
Changing you into a mad dog.
Howling at the moon.
And you're so far out of tune
Better learn how to sing.
Fences, we put up our defences.
Then we come to our senses.
It may keep them out
But it keeps us in
And that makes us dangerous
We're all dangerous to ourselves

This is a jungle, not illusion,
Jungle city, in confusion,
We are the next step in evolution,
The new stone age, revolution.
Back to the stone age, constitution
No solution

Can you feel it in the shadows?
Watching you, touching you,
Can you feel it in the shadows?
Follow you, swallow you.
Can you feel it?
Fear is the key.
Can you feel it?
Fear is the key.
Can you feel it? Can you feel it?
Fear is the key to your soul.