// Musings
How I Learned to Hate Rock and Roll
Someone states the obvious.
Someone sneers at all you love.
Someone preaches ugly manners, excluding some (including me).
This is how I learned to hate Rock and Roll.
(Tennant/Lowe)
I was happily partaking of an internet forum the other day (one of a couple I frequent in fact) when a thread was started about a particular pop star – a vaguely diminutive Australian one actually – where a free and frank exchange of views about her last album was held.
But it was all pretty civil because at heart all those discussing it are basically fans.
Until of course the thread suddenly started to fill with killjoys. Now, I’m all for differences of opinion, but I do often wonder what it is that causes a person to join a thread where people are essentially espousing their love for something and feel the urge to just sneer and throw around insults.
Somehow seeing people enjoying themselves does seem to bring out the worst in people doesn’t it?
My favourite comment, by someone in defence of their general tone, was that “it’s the duty of rock to bite the arse of pop” which basically had me gaping in disbelief.
I couldn’t help but feel a little glad that my musical preferences are pop not rock if that’s how you define it. The minute words like “duty” start being bandied around about any form of art I tend to find myself thinking it rather a shame that, once again, people can only see a value in something if it isn’t just intended to entertain.
I am increasingly of the opinion that the creation of enjoyment in others is probably the greatest pinnacle of human achievement.
Posted on September 2, 2009 | Filed Under Musings, Pop Music | 0 Comments
Extreme Weather Conditions?
Well, the tube’s gone into meltdown, the internet is entirely filled with people giving you minute by minute updates on the situation, and hundreds of thousands of people have finally been given the excuse they need to stay in bed of a Monday morning.
Ladies and gentlemen: we have had some snow.
It’s the thing I find most bizarre about the British psyche. For all our obsession with the weather, when it actually happens we seem to get taken completely by surprise.
It’s suddenly raining a lot? Gridlock occurs on the roads and incidents of eye injury through stupidly big golf-umbrellas increase. The sun’s been out for more than three days? Everyone suffers from collective heatstroke. It’s a bit icy? Drivers suddenly crawl to a halt and start doing stupid manoeuvres.
And as for snow… well. Here we are. Bugger Gaza and Davos, this is where it’s at!
Really, in the grand scheme of things, there ain’t that much. I’ve been to Berlin and Pottsdam in January and had to contend with more snow than this, Boston and Mississauga too. They routinely put up with snow which is deeper and more persistent than this and yet somehow their infrastructures and their psyches keep going on as normal.
For us though, the minute it’s not just a bit grey and mizzley then complete shutdown occurs. Especially if anything happens outside 9-5 on the normal working day.
So far, two of us have made it into the office. I had to walk from Streatham to Brixton to do it (luckily I had access to what were at the time the only working tubes) and I sure as hell won’t be doing that again, but it’s staggering considering that the roads are largely passable that even buses have given up!
Posted on February 2, 2009 | Filed Under Musings, The World we Live In | 1 Comment
TV Licencing
Now, I know I have in the past whinged about the ineptitude of the TV licensing authority, but I do strongly support the fee in principle.
Recently, Noel Edmonds announced that he hasn’t paid for his TV licence in a while (a statement which may actually not be true).
Personally I think such actions are the actions of an utter cock (because as far as I’m concerned he is) but I’m all for him doing so as long as legislation is enacted that means that people who don’t pay their licence are not allowed to appear in any broadcast media in the country. It’s a win-win situation that way.
The trouble is, though, that the news has suddenly opened up a debate about licensing again and it’s all so tedious. There’s a lot of crap about, I know. But as far as I’m concerned the following are worth ?Ǭ£140 of anyone’s money so I’m happy to pay:
- QI. It’s the best programme ever. End of story.
- Doctor Who. It’s the second best, and it keeps a number of acquaintances and an ex employed.
- The Sarah Jane Adventures. Because children need good shows too.
- The BBC News. Not perfect, but still a damn sight better than 90% of its rivals. (I mean… have you seen how shit Sky News is?)
Plus… if there’s one compelling argument in favour of the BBC being publicly funded it’s this: ITV. And, more to the point, a quick comparison of Miss Marple and Marple really does make it crystal clear.
We need this tax, people. It may be an evil, possibly – aren’t all taxes? – but it is a necessary one since it keeps one organisation in a position to save the souls of millions of TV viewers who don’t even know they need saving.
God bless you BBC.
Posted on September 21, 2008 | Filed Under Film, TV, Theatre, Musings | 2 Comments
Anyone for Paris?
I’m thinking of maybe booking out a hotel in Paris for three weeks in August.
Maybe in about four years’ time.
Who fancies it?
Russell Howard
Oh I so would.
Welcome to 2008…
Well, how was your new year?
I spent mine at home, on my own, sober, watching crap telly and only pausing at the stroke of midnight to raise a (slightly larger than I’d intended) glass of Amaretto to the new year.
Frankly it was bliss.
Over the last few years I’ve come to regard New Year’s Eve parties as a bit of a nonsense really. I somehow either find myself trapped in a houseful of almost complete strangers whose attractiveness causes my normally low self-image to crash still further; or else crammed into a bar – where the DJs are trying to be cool – whilst being jostled left, right and center while it slowly dawns on me how awful the journey home is going to be.
I have enjoyed precisely two NYE events since moving to London. One was a private bash at the Griffin last year where it was just about the right number of people and they were mainly people I knew. The other was an OUTintheUK event where Other Rob and I did DJ duties over the actual moment. (Boney M doing “Auld Lang Syne”. Who’d have thought?)
But there we are. Nothing much seems different. I look back at 2007 and think it was okay, really. Aside from the buildup to the collapse I suffered in April it’s been not too bad. Following said collapse I changed jobs (hello comfort zone – nice to be back), and moved to a bigger, more transport-friendly location. I even had a boyfriend for a few months too, which was a novelty – although obviously this now precludes the possibility of me having another until about 2011). And the Quiz is – whilst utterly exhausting to keep going – well received and went out with a bang for the last one of the year. And I got 25,000 words into my novel which is officially more than I’ve written in six years so I’m quite pleased.
Okay, 2007 slightly fell apart at the end with a death in the family and the associated running around and so on as detailed previously, but on the whole it was good.
So what for 2008? Well, drinking less is on the agenda. Friday aside (where Daniel and Orlando came over for a very pleasant evening) I’ve been laying off the sauce mainly over the last week or so and feeling quite proud of that too. The health and monetary benefits of this are something I hope to be reaping over the coming months as long as something awful doesn’t happen. And I finally will be rid of the tummy, I’ve decided. The gym-going starts in earnest on Monday and I WILL NOT FALTER!
I have trips to see Girls Aloud (amazingly good tickets) and Kylie (rather less so) over the coming months – did the Spice Girls on Wednesday by the way which was fun – and a trip to Gran Canaria coming up in February so there’s some other events to look forward too.
And in between all that hopefully I’ll get the novel doubled in size on the way, and a new Vitriol and Old Lace website should be live by the end of the month (trust me – it’s gorgeous) so Daniel and I can start pushing that again too.
I’m feeling quite positive about 2008 really. Hope it all goes well for you too!
Posted on January 6, 2008 | Filed Under Musings, My So-Called Life | 0 Comments
Noisome Deodourants
Gentle reader, pray tell me why so many men’s antiperspirants/deodorants are so utterly disgusting.
I mean… you do your duty to your fellow man by giving yourself a liberal blast of a morning or prior to going out and so on, only to spend the next five minutes gagging in an acrid cloud of spray that clings to your throat and nostrils, apparently burning its way through any membrane it clings to.
I’ve tried dozens of the buggers now and they all have that basic problem. Admittedly they settle down after a few minutes and become vaguely bearable (with the obvious exception of the entire Lynx range which is a form of chemical terrorism I can’t condone) but the application is an almost unbearable form of self-torture.
I’ve had to switch to a lady-spray instead.
Posted on October 27, 2007 | Filed Under Musings, My So-Called Life | 3 Comments
Sugar-Dodging and the Potato-Swerve
What with the new job, I have taken to popping into WHSmith of a morning to stock up on Pepsi (Max, that is, not the full fat) and a couple of bottles of Lucozade Hydro-Active which, I must confess, I have rather taken to.
And every morning I suffer the onslaught of offers you can get from around the till-point. At the moment I am declining, on a daily basis, the offer of a pack of Haribo at half price. This is not, you understand, because I don’t like Haribo, but simply because at the moment I am trying to eschew sweets and anything too dangerously calorific.
Today, however, there was an additional trap. Having picked up a copy of some random periodical I also got an offer of a tube of Pringles too – again one which I politely declined for the sake of my somewhat amorphous waistline.
It does occur, however, that WHSMith’s current desperate touting of sweet and potato-based temptations is maybe not entirely in line with the current Government panic about obesity and making sure you get your five a day and so on.
Surely they should be pushing apples and bananas instead? Or just not be so heavy handed with the promotions?
Posted on September 3, 2007 | Filed Under Health and Fitness, Musings | 1 Comment
Charity Ends at Home
In the wake of the new television was the question of what to do with the old one. It is, after all, in perfect working order – it’s just surplus to requirements. So Chris decided to give it to a charity shop for them to do what they will with it. It should, we considered, raise a few quid for someone.
Turns out however, that none of them (or at least any within easy staggering distance) will take it. Electrical goods have become a no-no it seems since they require a certificate of electrical somethingorother to be sold again so it’s just easier for them not to bother.
Same was true when our old furniture got taken away from the old flat. We had to make sure they all had fire-retardancy labels or they wouldn’t be taken – and of course that huge tag is usually one of the first things to have its string cut.
So, despite our best intentions it looks like the TV is just going to have to go outside the block with a “it works” label on it in order to get nicked, rather than raising money for a good cause.
It’s getting so you can’t even try to do your bit for charity these days.
Unless you’re being chugged on the street, of course.
Posted on August 26, 2007 | Filed Under Musings, My So-Called Life | 3 Comments
Snogging Quicksilver
My iGoogle home page served up my daily star sign today as usual (well, I usually find them diverting in a “yeah, right” sort of way) but the opening line this morning was particularly unusual I thought:
“Your key planet Venus receives a thoughtful kiss from intelligent Mercury”
I’ve got to say, a full-on tongue-lock with intelligent Mercury sounds like a scene worthy of Doctor Who in my opinion.
It’s probably being RTD’d even as I type…
Posted on August 17, 2007 | Filed Under Film, TV, Theatre, Musings | 0 Comments