and what d'ya know?
it's that time of year again.
for a brief moment I was determined to not enjoy it as well, I don't have many things to enjoy what with being old, lonely and bogged down with too much work to do.... Even so, I've not been able to completely shut out what can only be called the "Christmas Cheer" and I have already caught myself on several occasions humming or singing christmas songs (not caroles). I guess I am partly to blame because I have also been hunting around for presents as for some odd reason, I've felt like being more generous than my usual self. Alas, as per tradition, I have only got one present bought and wrapped (that thing for lou doesn't count). Looks like Friday is shopping day then....
Lovely...
Now for some news.
As you might've seen on todays' news reports, there is another risk of hospitals falling foul of yet another strain of virus that could potentially result in many deaths. What's the problem? The hospitals STILL aren't clean enough. More to the point, they're STILL not much different to how they were before/during the MRSA outbreak. Just what does that say about the state of the health service? Granted that i know that we have a relatively good service condindering how much strain it is under but how long is it going to be before it clicks in who-ever's in charge's head that something serious needs to be done? I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees a big problem with how the current government is running things but how long are people going to go on blindly accepting things like this happening? Haven't they spotted the problem yet? Out-sourcing these sorts of operations (hospital cleaning, supported housing, traffic/parking enforcement) which by their nature turns it into something based on profit, in turn leads to a massive drop in the actual quality of service. I am sure that I'm not the only one to see the laxing of the parking meter feeding situation as a good step in the right direction but the problem still stands that the parking attendents are, let's just say, overzealous.
The other day I was browsing in Waterstones and remembering a conversaton I had over dinner about the great man himself, Winston Churchill. Why can't we have a party leader like this anymore? A proper stubborn old man who will blindly ram his way into any situation and gladly await the consequences after it's over. Y'know, someone with balls.
There is always talk of "our Tony" wanting a more American style government but then where's the semi-frequent public addresses? You can find fault with Churchill, mainly because he is/was so clearly a man of a different era but one thing you can't fault is his public address and his skill with the english language. In an era of announcements being carefull drafted and surgically worded to avoid any actual content, it is refeshing to browse through the collection of Chirchill's public speeches and knowing that every word was chosen by him in his office by himself. Yes, in today's world, they might be a bit too personal and too emotive to be politically correct but heck, sometimes you got to say screw you to PC and just tell people how it is because otherwise they just won't understand.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Monday, December 05, 2005
rise of the censors...?
as you might've heard, today, a 21 year old eminem fan has pleaded guilty to the murder of a 26 year old student. First of all, you will have noticed that I included (part) of the newspapers favourite technique of giving the subjects title but please bear with me, I did that for a reason.
The title of this post is about censorship, something that I think deserves more discussion than it is usually given. The first point here is that the victim was a student; someone with masive potential. The second more important point is that in every single report that this article has been addressed, the fact that the guilty party was an eminem fan has been mentioned. In one instance, the fact that Eminem's original intention for the track we all know and love called "Stan" was to be a satirical, at times mocking sneer at "fans" who take things such as music, films, art, poetry (football?) too seriously and do not understand the distinction between those worlds and reality. However, in most other cases, the only fact that mentioned, was the eminem connection.
I guess the real point here is that of the obsessive; more specifically, those who are so obsessed with something that it over-rides all other aspects of their perception of the real world (not a matrix quote).
It is all too easy to blame Eminem for this obsessive fan's actions and that is the big problem. I have a fear that for the next few days, we are going to have countless number of day time television shows discussing this very issue and all too many people failing to see that
i) the real issue here is that the murder was commited by an individual who was naturally aggressive, violent, drinks, takes drugs and with known personality disorder.
ii) censorship will not solve this.
My question is why wasn't someone known to be like that under more supervision (incidentally, I am currently working on a project for a Support House for such individuals so this is a little close to what I am working with). Some of you might know that the bloke that lives across the road from me has a psychological problem that requires medical control. For the most part, he is a very nice bloke who always asks if we need help with our garden. Once in a while though, he forgets to take his medication and he starts to get rowdy. We all know this, espcially his immediate neighbours who all have the number to his carers. Last christmas, about a week before the day, he started to almost camp out in his front yard sitting in a wooden chair like you see them big guys do in the films of the American Suburban Ghetto 'hoods. A few days after this started, his carers were here and we didn't see him until after the new year.
There are always going to be people like this who need a certain level of support/control. Putting a ban on things that might serve as a catalyst for these people's perverted perceptions does nothing. Every time this sort of crime is commited under these sort of circumstances, we often hear the usual: "it's the music's fault", "it's the film's fault" and the usual call for censorship often follows blindly.
Censorhips does nothing because it isn't the thing being censored that isn't fault (lest we forget "helter skelter" and "catcher in the rye"). I think censorship is wrong on all sorts of levels, most important of which is that it assumes that we, the general public are stupid. For the most part, I'd probably agree with this in that the general public, as a mass/group are stupid as the recent (10 years?) of watching footall take over from things such as polictical/social issues as the popular topic of discussions alludes to. However, it is also true that the (average) individual is smarter than he/she has ever been (at least I hope so). We know what is right/wrong. We know what is real/virtual. We know what we should do and what we shouldn't do. We know that films are fantasies and that songs are just words put to music. If we see something in a film, we don't all rush out to imitate it. Granted that to a degree some of us do (.....long black leather jackets anyone...?) but not many of us go the whole hog and stick a big metal spike at the base of our brain-stems. Why? Because we're not stupid.
I also guess that the other point of this is that people seem to be less inclined to actually take responsiblity for things, ergo the earlier point about the care, or lack of, for that individual. Rowdy kids? Must be the films/music. Heaven forbid that it's actually the parents' fault for not teqching their kids some level of respect and control. Several years back, Maryln Manson was blamed for turning middle america into a bunch of satan worshippers. In several interviews, he made the wonderful point that him, being at that time quite prominant in the media for his particular style of music and music videos, he was a natural target. It is always easier to blame someone who is almost not of our reality such as pop-stars, film stars, politicians because they appear to exist on a different world to ours. We can blame them because then it isn't just NOT our fault but it is also something that is way beyond our control. This is where I say bullshit to all that. Take responsibilty for the things that happen around you because everything you do influences and affects the things around you.
On the filp side, this also follows nicely into that thing we touched upon in Gary's blog about hero worship and idolising people falsely. For some reason, the notion of celebrity has gotten out of hand to the point that it is almost creating a new sort of class division. It's no longer about being "P.O.S.H" but about being famous or not.
It also seems to follow nicely into the subject of the mentality of consumerism which was also something that Gary aluded to (very poorly and almost misrepresenting the subject).
Monkey see Monkey do.
(see, i knew it wasn't that much of a tangent.....)
I could go on but I don't want to have pages and pages of me rambling on about these; at least not yet but I'd probably continue this another day.....
The title of this post is about censorship, something that I think deserves more discussion than it is usually given. The first point here is that the victim was a student; someone with masive potential. The second more important point is that in every single report that this article has been addressed, the fact that the guilty party was an eminem fan has been mentioned. In one instance, the fact that Eminem's original intention for the track we all know and love called "Stan" was to be a satirical, at times mocking sneer at "fans" who take things such as music, films, art, poetry (football?) too seriously and do not understand the distinction between those worlds and reality. However, in most other cases, the only fact that mentioned, was the eminem connection.
I guess the real point here is that of the obsessive; more specifically, those who are so obsessed with something that it over-rides all other aspects of their perception of the real world (not a matrix quote).
It is all too easy to blame Eminem for this obsessive fan's actions and that is the big problem. I have a fear that for the next few days, we are going to have countless number of day time television shows discussing this very issue and all too many people failing to see that
i) the real issue here is that the murder was commited by an individual who was naturally aggressive, violent, drinks, takes drugs and with known personality disorder.
ii) censorship will not solve this.
My question is why wasn't someone known to be like that under more supervision (incidentally, I am currently working on a project for a Support House for such individuals so this is a little close to what I am working with). Some of you might know that the bloke that lives across the road from me has a psychological problem that requires medical control. For the most part, he is a very nice bloke who always asks if we need help with our garden. Once in a while though, he forgets to take his medication and he starts to get rowdy. We all know this, espcially his immediate neighbours who all have the number to his carers. Last christmas, about a week before the day, he started to almost camp out in his front yard sitting in a wooden chair like you see them big guys do in the films of the American Suburban Ghetto 'hoods. A few days after this started, his carers were here and we didn't see him until after the new year.
There are always going to be people like this who need a certain level of support/control. Putting a ban on things that might serve as a catalyst for these people's perverted perceptions does nothing. Every time this sort of crime is commited under these sort of circumstances, we often hear the usual: "it's the music's fault", "it's the film's fault" and the usual call for censorship often follows blindly.
Censorhips does nothing because it isn't the thing being censored that isn't fault (lest we forget "helter skelter" and "catcher in the rye"). I think censorship is wrong on all sorts of levels, most important of which is that it assumes that we, the general public are stupid. For the most part, I'd probably agree with this in that the general public, as a mass/group are stupid as the recent (10 years?) of watching footall take over from things such as polictical/social issues as the popular topic of discussions alludes to. However, it is also true that the (average) individual is smarter than he/she has ever been (at least I hope so). We know what is right/wrong. We know what is real/virtual. We know what we should do and what we shouldn't do. We know that films are fantasies and that songs are just words put to music. If we see something in a film, we don't all rush out to imitate it. Granted that to a degree some of us do (.....long black leather jackets anyone...?) but not many of us go the whole hog and stick a big metal spike at the base of our brain-stems. Why? Because we're not stupid.
I also guess that the other point of this is that people seem to be less inclined to actually take responsiblity for things, ergo the earlier point about the care, or lack of, for that individual. Rowdy kids? Must be the films/music. Heaven forbid that it's actually the parents' fault for not teqching their kids some level of respect and control. Several years back, Maryln Manson was blamed for turning middle america into a bunch of satan worshippers. In several interviews, he made the wonderful point that him, being at that time quite prominant in the media for his particular style of music and music videos, he was a natural target. It is always easier to blame someone who is almost not of our reality such as pop-stars, film stars, politicians because they appear to exist on a different world to ours. We can blame them because then it isn't just NOT our fault but it is also something that is way beyond our control. This is where I say bullshit to all that. Take responsibilty for the things that happen around you because everything you do influences and affects the things around you.
On the filp side, this also follows nicely into that thing we touched upon in Gary's blog about hero worship and idolising people falsely. For some reason, the notion of celebrity has gotten out of hand to the point that it is almost creating a new sort of class division. It's no longer about being "P.O.S.H" but about being famous or not.
It also seems to follow nicely into the subject of the mentality of consumerism which was also something that Gary aluded to (very poorly and almost misrepresenting the subject).
Monkey see Monkey do.
(see, i knew it wasn't that much of a tangent.....)
I could go on but I don't want to have pages and pages of me rambling on about these; at least not yet but I'd probably continue this another day.....
Sunday, November 20, 2005
.....food for thought.....
as many of you will undoubtly know, I have a thing for my food.
I enjoy the process of cooking and enjoy eating good food even more so. Most of this is probably down to my experience with all stages of cooking and restaurants and at all levels from the age of 6 to now. Add this to my almost obsessive nature, I have always taken a keen interest in this are as it has always been a part of my (extended) family's lives and livelihood.
Here's where I have to admit that I am a bit a of a food snob.
Now, to clarify, it's not like I only eat the finest things that money can buy; it's more like I appreciate that certain foods do cost more and I appreciate the reasons for this being so.
After all, it doesn't take a genius to figure out or understand why a burger made from a two month aberdeen angus (the black haired type) steak is going to cost more than a McTesticle burger. By the same token, I can understand why a some things like KFC is cheap. If given the choice between spending a little bit more money on dinner, I'd go the expensive route because I know I would enoy it so much more. It also makes the act of eating that little bit more special as I truely believe that eating is one of life's natural pleasures and should be something to be relished.
For this reason, I have no qualms in spending that little bit more for quality produce when I cook. This is where I get into the main crux of what I want to say;
recently, someone posted something about cruelty to animals on a forum that I post on. In particular, they were spamming a post+link to a site (run by PETA) outlining the horrible conditions that chickens (in america) are farmed and slaughtered.
Now any fool with half a brain knows that the food industry in the U.S is a big pile of shit compared to that in the EU but still, it isn't all a bed of roses this side of the proverbial pond either. Fact is, factory chicken is major bad shit. It won't kill you (in the short term) but it isn't as healthy as they'd have you think but hey, we are all aware of this thanks to the many tv shows outlining such things.
What i want to get onto is, is the fact that this arrogant fool decides that(in this case) she is better than us because we meat eaters are supporting the pain and suffering of those poor defenseless animals.
(there was also some metion of women deserving extra respect because they give birth to a baby which is the size of a water melon. I then went on the say that water-melons in my area are at least 12 inches in diameter and is she was to pass one of them through her vagina, I'd stop eating chicken)
What she failed to point out is that these chickens are farmed for this purpose. If it were not for our intervention, they would not be alive in the first place. It's not like we are actively going out hunting wild chickens and depleting natural livestock levels. Ok, granted the conditions aren't exactly good butthen again, that is all they know from day one. It's not comfortable living conditions but then again, they don't live for long, they die relatively quickly and a chicken has no real sense of self so while they know pain, do they know suffering? Anyway, this has veered slightly off course. The point is, I am aware that what I eat is a animal that used to be alive. As a result, I do appreciate the things that I eat and cook. That is why i try to avoid eating high street junk food because that is indirectly supporting their actions (particularly true in the US where McD and KFC control the beef and chicken markets) and where possible, but and eat the best produce because these tend to be better farmed animals.
The thing is, these animals were killed for my and your consumption and in most cases, we know that something died.
Can that be true for vegetarians and vegans?
How many of us think about all of the insects and small animals that killed accidentally or intentionally to clear the fields or during the farming and harvesting process? How many mice, foxes, rabbits, moles, crows, pigeons, sparrows etc. are trapped, shot, poisoned, accidentally run over by a tractor/combine to tend, protect and harvest them non-meat products?
Life is life.
I eat the things that are killed for such purposes.
No one eats the animals that are killed in the process of general non-meat farming.
I enjoy the process of cooking and enjoy eating good food even more so. Most of this is probably down to my experience with all stages of cooking and restaurants and at all levels from the age of 6 to now. Add this to my almost obsessive nature, I have always taken a keen interest in this are as it has always been a part of my (extended) family's lives and livelihood.
Here's where I have to admit that I am a bit a of a food snob.
Now, to clarify, it's not like I only eat the finest things that money can buy; it's more like I appreciate that certain foods do cost more and I appreciate the reasons for this being so.
After all, it doesn't take a genius to figure out or understand why a burger made from a two month aberdeen angus (the black haired type) steak is going to cost more than a McTesticle burger. By the same token, I can understand why a some things like KFC is cheap. If given the choice between spending a little bit more money on dinner, I'd go the expensive route because I know I would enoy it so much more. It also makes the act of eating that little bit more special as I truely believe that eating is one of life's natural pleasures and should be something to be relished.
For this reason, I have no qualms in spending that little bit more for quality produce when I cook. This is where I get into the main crux of what I want to say;
recently, someone posted something about cruelty to animals on a forum that I post on. In particular, they were spamming a post+link to a site (run by PETA) outlining the horrible conditions that chickens (in america) are farmed and slaughtered.
Now any fool with half a brain knows that the food industry in the U.S is a big pile of shit compared to that in the EU but still, it isn't all a bed of roses this side of the proverbial pond either. Fact is, factory chicken is major bad shit. It won't kill you (in the short term) but it isn't as healthy as they'd have you think but hey, we are all aware of this thanks to the many tv shows outlining such things.
What i want to get onto is, is the fact that this arrogant fool decides that(in this case) she is better than us because we meat eaters are supporting the pain and suffering of those poor defenseless animals.
(there was also some metion of women deserving extra respect because they give birth to a baby which is the size of a water melon. I then went on the say that water-melons in my area are at least 12 inches in diameter and is she was to pass one of them through her vagina, I'd stop eating chicken)
What she failed to point out is that these chickens are farmed for this purpose. If it were not for our intervention, they would not be alive in the first place. It's not like we are actively going out hunting wild chickens and depleting natural livestock levels. Ok, granted the conditions aren't exactly good butthen again, that is all they know from day one. It's not comfortable living conditions but then again, they don't live for long, they die relatively quickly and a chicken has no real sense of self so while they know pain, do they know suffering? Anyway, this has veered slightly off course. The point is, I am aware that what I eat is a animal that used to be alive. As a result, I do appreciate the things that I eat and cook. That is why i try to avoid eating high street junk food because that is indirectly supporting their actions (particularly true in the US where McD and KFC control the beef and chicken markets) and where possible, but and eat the best produce because these tend to be better farmed animals.
The thing is, these animals were killed for my and your consumption and in most cases, we know that something died.
Can that be true for vegetarians and vegans?
How many of us think about all of the insects and small animals that killed accidentally or intentionally to clear the fields or during the farming and harvesting process? How many mice, foxes, rabbits, moles, crows, pigeons, sparrows etc. are trapped, shot, poisoned, accidentally run over by a tractor/combine to tend, protect and harvest them non-meat products?
Life is life.
I eat the things that are killed for such purposes.
No one eats the animals that are killed in the process of general non-meat farming.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
.....T minus 36 hours to take off.....
....and all too soon I'm off to another place for a few days.
last month it was Barcelona, then Hong Kong a week afterwards and on Monday morning, I'll be flying off to Porto for five days with my dear Lou.
Unfortunately, as my luck would have it, it looks like it's going to be raining for at least the first three days with all reports getting worse everytime I check them. To begin with, the symbol was the nice big Sun just about hiding behind a light grey cloud with the drizzling rain. Then it turned into the nice big Sun hiding behind the light grey cloud with the heavier rain. Now it's just the cloud with heavy rain.... but this time it's also the ominous dark, no hope of sunshine so we're not going to pretend anymore, shade of grey.
Brilliant.
Sod's Law at it's finest.
Or is it Murphey's?
As luck would have it, I also have to finish another set of drawings before i go which, due to my incredibly lazy self, I don't seem to have left myself enough time for.
Isn't that always the way?
last month it was Barcelona, then Hong Kong a week afterwards and on Monday morning, I'll be flying off to Porto for five days with my dear Lou.
Unfortunately, as my luck would have it, it looks like it's going to be raining for at least the first three days with all reports getting worse everytime I check them. To begin with, the symbol was the nice big Sun just about hiding behind a light grey cloud with the drizzling rain. Then it turned into the nice big Sun hiding behind the light grey cloud with the heavier rain. Now it's just the cloud with heavy rain.... but this time it's also the ominous dark, no hope of sunshine so we're not going to pretend anymore, shade of grey.
Brilliant.
Sod's Law at it's finest.
Or is it Murphey's?
As luck would have it, I also have to finish another set of drawings before i go which, due to my incredibly lazy self, I don't seem to have left myself enough time for.
Isn't that always the way?
Friday, October 14, 2005
.....numero uno.....
.....exactly as it says on the tin.
I've got another blog hidden away somewhere.That one is my semi-personal whinging blog that I don't wish to inflict on people as most of it is the same infantile, self defeating, "woe is me, I am suffering blah blah blah" that comprises 99% of all blogs out there. Except I am not a goth and my posts are not in any way, drivel pretending to be "poetry". Of course that doesn't mean that it isn't just plain and simple drivel.
In my defence though, i never pretended that I wasn't a hopeless romantic who still dreams of
i) the one that got away
ii) the one that rejected me
iii) the one that i never went for
iv) the one which could've been a quick/fun no strings fling
Anyway......I'm going to try my best to keep this Blog as my semi-sensible, world weary watching and commenting one where I pretend that I am an intelligent adult who has important things to say.
or not.
hmm... seem to have also skirted around the point that Gary's blog only lets members post, which is perhaps the real reason for signing up on here.....
I've got another blog hidden away somewhere.That one is my semi-personal whinging blog that I don't wish to inflict on people as most of it is the same infantile, self defeating, "woe is me, I am suffering blah blah blah" that comprises 99% of all blogs out there. Except I am not a goth and my posts are not in any way, drivel pretending to be "poetry". Of course that doesn't mean that it isn't just plain and simple drivel.
In my defence though, i never pretended that I wasn't a hopeless romantic who still dreams of
i) the one that got away
ii) the one that rejected me
iii) the one that i never went for
iv) the one which could've been a quick/fun no strings fling
Anyway......I'm going to try my best to keep this Blog as my semi-sensible, world weary watching and commenting one where I pretend that I am an intelligent adult who has important things to say.
or not.
hmm... seem to have also skirted around the point that Gary's blog only lets members post, which is perhaps the real reason for signing up on here.....
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