Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Bono Makes me Cringe
I was reading an article in the Guardian about how ridiculous Bono's glasses look. I think Bono not only wears ridiculous glasses but a target of ridicule. He is a rich, well fed pop star who has decided to appoint (and anoint) himself as Ambassador to the World's starving.
Yet, there was a remarkable programme on BBC 4 tonight - Cooking in the Danger Zone by Stefan Gates. Mr Gates who is a chef gave a sympathetic and moving account of how impoverished people survive (or not survive) in Uganda. Many are dependent on World Food aid. Mr Gates described how embarrassed they felt at offering him World Food. While filming the organisation decided to make cutbacks on the aid sent to them - he interviewed a man about the impact that this would have on the people - the response had a strong element of trepidation. This programme certainly brought home the point to me. There was none of the glitz, glamour and hype ("I'm not talking to you as pop star") of Bono. This man has free feeds with bigshot politicians!.
Bono makes me cringe - check this out:
Yet, there was a remarkable programme on BBC 4 tonight - Cooking in the Danger Zone by Stefan Gates. Mr Gates who is a chef gave a sympathetic and moving account of how impoverished people survive (or not survive) in Uganda. Many are dependent on World Food aid. Mr Gates described how embarrassed they felt at offering him World Food. While filming the organisation decided to make cutbacks on the aid sent to them - he interviewed a man about the impact that this would have on the people - the response had a strong element of trepidation. This programme certainly brought home the point to me. There was none of the glitz, glamour and hype ("I'm not talking to you as pop star") of Bono. This man has free feeds with bigshot politicians!.
Bono makes me cringe - check this out:
Labels: africa, Bono, health, starving, Television
Shilpa Shetty
Gosh, so much energy has gone into the hype around Shilpa Shetty that another couple of humans could be landed on the moon again. Her name drums around my head like one of those terrible records. This is all because of a programme that I avoid watching. Those nerks at Big Brother know what they are doing by mixing someone who demands to be treated like royalty with three fishwives. They knew that they would be slagging off the royal presence at some stage, they knew that they would come out with some racism at some point or another and they knew that it would generate world-wide publicity.
Shilpa Shetty won the Big Brother thingy because she was the victim of some unkind remarks made about her. Here are some film clips of Shilpa Shetty; I think you will agree that this lady stars in some really crappy films, check out the music, it's real shiiiiiit!.
I apologise for the saturation coverage, but this is the shape of things to come
Oh well, I hope that the name will disappear into Celebrity Oblivion so I have to put up with the earworm that is her name going through my head.
Shilpa Shetty won the Big Brother thingy because she was the victim of some unkind remarks made about her. Here are some film clips of Shilpa Shetty; I think you will agree that this lady stars in some really crappy films, check out the music, it's real shiiiiiit!.
I apologise for the saturation coverage, but this is the shape of things to come
Oh well, I hope that the name will disappear into Celebrity Oblivion so I have to put up with the earworm that is her name going through my head.
Labels: Television
Legislation exempts MP's from Information Law
What with Number doling out free feeds to celebrities and huge expense bills submitted by MP's, there had to be a line drawn somewhere. MP's have voted themselves to be exempt from this horrible piece of intrusive legislation.
The Bill weasled its way through Parliament, not by New Labour, but a private member's motion by Tory mp, David Maclean, who explained that he had made the motion to protect the confidentiality of constituents' mail. He said that he had weasled the motion because "I am showing some of the younger hands how you can get a bill through parliament after long experience as a whip in both getting and blocking bills through parliament." Can these guys be trusted.
The Bill weasled its way through Parliament, not by New Labour, but a private member's motion by Tory mp, David Maclean, who explained that he had made the motion to protect the confidentiality of constituents' mail. He said that he had weasled the motion because "I am showing some of the younger hands how you can get a bill through parliament after long experience as a whip in both getting and blocking bills through parliament." Can these guys be trusted.
Labels: politics
Bussing It
With all the hooha about carbon emissions I have decided to use the car for essential things like going to the laundry. I have charged up my Oyster card with a weekly bus pass - don't put money on your Oyster card, TFL eats it up with every journey you make (i have lost £3 - £4 in a single bus journey.
Travelling by bus brings you a mixture of experiences. These are just a few of them
Parents barging their way through with baby buggies the size of a hospital trolley on crowded buses - it's a real hazardous business if you are standing in the path of one these things. Parent has the get out the fucking way attitude.
Then you have the snotty teenager who decides plays his / her music on public address - the music, if you can call it that, comes out tinny sounding like a panicking bluebottle stuck between the window and curtain.
The territorial imperitave - this is when a bod occupies the two seats. He or she does this by sitting on the outside. You have to be explicit in demanding the other seat. Sometimes I don't bother because there are people on whom I really do not want to use my assertiveness skills.
Then you have the health bod insists on riding the bus in very cold weather with the windows open. There was this woman with this quite horrendous dyed red hair style, heavily gelled so that it stuck up at a diagonal at both sides. I did not want to suggest that she closes her window, I think that I would have been conveyed to another in ambulance! This young man, however, braved the fierce hairstyle and asked her to close the window. She grudgingly did this. Why the fuck do these people insist that they ride with the windows open in extremely cold weather.
Top deck - don't go there, especially if there are school kids occupying that deck.
Travelling by bus brings you a mixture of experiences. These are just a few of them
Parents barging their way through with baby buggies the size of a hospital trolley on crowded buses - it's a real hazardous business if you are standing in the path of one these things. Parent has the get out the fucking way attitude.
Then you have the snotty teenager who decides plays his / her music on public address - the music, if you can call it that, comes out tinny sounding like a panicking bluebottle stuck between the window and curtain.
The territorial imperitave - this is when a bod occupies the two seats. He or she does this by sitting on the outside. You have to be explicit in demanding the other seat. Sometimes I don't bother because there are people on whom I really do not want to use my assertiveness skills.
Then you have the health bod insists on riding the bus in very cold weather with the windows open. There was this woman with this quite horrendous dyed red hair style, heavily gelled so that it stuck up at a diagonal at both sides. I did not want to suggest that she closes her window, I think that I would have been conveyed to another in ambulance! This young man, however, braved the fierce hairstyle and asked her to close the window. She grudgingly did this. Why the fuck do these people insist that they ride with the windows open in extremely cold weather.
Top deck - don't go there, especially if there are school kids occupying that deck.
Labels: Travel
Friday, January 19, 2007
Ad Reservations on the Train
I think I may have recorded that there was this idiot who had managed to occupy all six seats in a railway carriage by spreading out articles of his person on the seats that should have been available to passengers who boarded the train. Not only this but the bugger regaled us with an operatic performance on his mobile phone.
Saw two similar things happen again today. There was a middle-aged guy who managed to occupy the five available seats; he did this by seating himself on the outside seat and then placing a different shopping bag on each of the seats. The shopping bags looked like bagged rubbish. What a cunt!
Then I boarded another train and some twelve year old woman boarded the train with an overnight bag. She parked the bag on the window seated and seated herself on the outside seat. She sat there texting some shit on the mobile and had this expression that her shit did not stink!
What the fuck is happening is this country? Have we become so selfish that we treat seats on trains as temporary development.
Saw two similar things happen again today. There was a middle-aged guy who managed to occupy the five available seats; he did this by seating himself on the outside seat and then placing a different shopping bag on each of the seats. The shopping bags looked like bagged rubbish. What a cunt!
Then I boarded another train and some twelve year old woman boarded the train with an overnight bag. She parked the bag on the window seated and seated herself on the outside seat. She sat there texting some shit on the mobile and had this expression that her shit did not stink!
What the fuck is happening is this country? Have we become so selfish that we treat seats on trains as temporary development.
Labels: Manners
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Blair on Trial - More 4
When Robert Lyndsey played Citizen Smith, a passionate but poorly politically aware revolutionary, he played it with a certain panache that could make you warm to his character. The script with which he had to work was run of the mill sitcom with some quite clever jokes, but he was able to inject with verve and humour.
I was thus looking forward to Blair on Trial; what we got was a performance that me feeling no empathy for the character whom he was playing. Lyndsey's Blair struck me as an empty and vacuuous man whose raison d'etre depending on the big names that were near to his sphere. There was nothing there. Empty. Lyndsey made his character despairing and anxious. A yesterday man whose cover was blown in the fact that he lived in yesterday anyway. It was a skilled performance in that Lyndsey managed to empty the Blair character of any substance. In addition to this but more significantly, this Blair not only lacked any political awareness but any political passion that comes with it.
I was expecting a great deal more, but the stark reality is that not too expect too much from Blair other than celebrity, trashiness and crap. This drama brought these points home to me.
I was thus looking forward to Blair on Trial; what we got was a performance that me feeling no empathy for the character whom he was playing. Lyndsey's Blair struck me as an empty and vacuuous man whose raison d'etre depending on the big names that were near to his sphere. There was nothing there. Empty. Lyndsey made his character despairing and anxious. A yesterday man whose cover was blown in the fact that he lived in yesterday anyway. It was a skilled performance in that Lyndsey managed to empty the Blair character of any substance. In addition to this but more significantly, this Blair not only lacked any political awareness but any political passion that comes with it.
I was expecting a great deal more, but the stark reality is that not too expect too much from Blair other than celebrity, trashiness and crap. This drama brought these points home to me.
Labels: Television
Galliard Homes, Back on Air
I always listen to LBC; I put up with an awful lot in terms of their ads. I tolerated the DFS sofa ads over Christmas with its jollity Christmas music. If anything, this ad made me want to buy one of their offending articles and burn the fucking thing in the high street declaring that DFS get on my nerves.
With DFS stopping its saturation campaign, Galliard are now back on air - not so much appealing to the Protestant Work Ethic but the Heathen Greed Creed. You know the sort - spend only a measly couple hundred grand and you will get gezillions in the next three hours!!!. When Galliard comes on, I check out the content to come (usually Nick Ferrari's spate of silliness in the mornings) and switch channels to Radio 3 , ah civilisation!
Learned by midday, that this Oasis of civilisation may well be under threat. Patricia Hewitt has agreed the licence fee with conditions that will trash the entire corporation. This would mean that our listening to Radio 3 will be blitzed by the likes of Galliard Homes and DFS
With DFS stopping its saturation campaign, Galliard are now back on air - not so much appealing to the Protestant Work Ethic but the Heathen Greed Creed. You know the sort - spend only a measly couple hundred grand and you will get gezillions in the next three hours!!!. When Galliard comes on, I check out the content to come (usually Nick Ferrari's spate of silliness in the mornings) and switch channels to Radio 3 , ah civilisation!
Learned by midday, that this Oasis of civilisation may well be under threat. Patricia Hewitt has agreed the licence fee with conditions that will trash the entire corporation. This would mean that our listening to Radio 3 will be blitzed by the likes of Galliard Homes and DFS
Labels: Radio
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Greedy Property Developers on the Rampage
Yes, these buggers are flattening the ancient city of Isfahan to put up luxury apartments. Not even the Islamic Republic of Iran can stop these buggers. Old beautiful buildings making way for modern monstrosities. It seems that the local authority is skint and is flogging the property developers licences to build.
Labels: Property Developers
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Fitted Kitchens
Time was you could buy fitted kitchens with simple designs - Bavarian Black Forest, Norwegian Fjord, Danish Pastry House etc. All of these would fit in your existing kitchen space. Now the buggers are flogging these kitchens that are restaurant size. Mega sized ovens and fridges which could easily feed a hundred diners rather than a family of 2.4 sprogs. One has to knock a good part of the house down and lose a half of the garden to install one of these monstrosities. It's complete crap, who the fuck gets taken in by this shit ought to have their head tested. All you need to feed a family of four is a small cooker, a fridge and a well-stocked larder. Some people are so incredibly thick.
Labels: Lifestyle
Supermarkets
I have moved into a new place - it's free of Albanians. Sadly, there is no Tesco nor Asda nearby. I have to make do with Somerfield and Sainsbury's. The former charges Waitrose prices for Lidl quality products. Sainsbury's is a dead loss if you want some adventure in your food and wine - they have the "Taste the Difference" range and I remember some commentator on the radio saying that this particular range should be renamed as "Taste the Food" when tasted in comparison with other Sainsbury's product.
I went there tonight only to be regaled over the Tannoy by announcements of "Fantastic Foods" at "Amazing Prices!" in aisles 2 and 3. I ventured down there. The prices were amazing but judging by the sell-by dates the food was about to go off. The amazing Seafood Medley reduced from £3.99 to 99p looked amazing in the sense that it looked like one of those alien dishes that one would find in a science fiction movie.
Gosh, I was really spoiled by Asda and Tesco. I better had boogie on down to these places in the car.
I went there tonight only to be regaled over the Tannoy by announcements of "Fantastic Foods" at "Amazing Prices!" in aisles 2 and 3. I ventured down there. The prices were amazing but judging by the sell-by dates the food was about to go off. The amazing Seafood Medley reduced from £3.99 to 99p looked amazing in the sense that it looked like one of those alien dishes that one would find in a science fiction movie.
Gosh, I was really spoiled by Asda and Tesco. I better had boogie on down to these places in the car.
Labels: Lifestyle
Lifestyle Cak on the Telly
Time was Channel 4 was a really good tv channel - it brought us foreign language films, the comic strip, arts programmes etc. Now its raison d'etre is to bring us an avalanche of daily trash.
I was feeling bored today, so flicked on the tv, watched this cak about a couple buying a house in Florida. The houses they viewed were as big as palaces with these gizmos and those gizmos. Most of these places had interiors like up-market health centres. One house had a garden the size of two football pitches.
The couple were the sort of people who choose to appear on such crappy programmes - extremely shallow and no doubt extremely tedious company, nothing much to talk about with them but buying houses and playing golf.
What made me laugh was that the woman complained that a bedroom the size of my flat was too small! Well, has she not heard of homelessness and that a large cardbox can be the lap of luxury to some. Anyway, the couple procrastinated and the house they wanted was snapped up overnight.
Then televisual fayre did not get any better. There was a reality show about home entertaining - throwing dinner parties. It was complete bollocks. The background music was a mixture of plinky sounds intersperesed with a Brandenburg concerto. Yep, they are dumbing down Bach. The show was completely pointless, ponsey and pretentious. Who the fuck watches this kind of shit? Is it people with a large takeaway pizza and a six pack of Stella? I think so.
I then watched "Deal or No Deal" with Noel Edmonds - gosh, Noel is so oily that I was even taken by him. Yes, he does trashy television, but he does it with a panache that does not rankle. What makes it worse is that the bugger is so skilled at avoiding going down 'trash can alley'. He has many years of experience at trashy television and Noel knows how to keep the audience on line. Yep, I was drawn into this; it was compelling. Boredom has a lot to answer for and I admit personal responsibility. Good entertaining stuff. All I can say is well done.
Switched channels to ITv 4 - 633 Squadron was on - I really love this film. Not least the aircraft - the Mosquito Bomber, what a sexy little plane this turned out to be. The fastest bomber of its time, I believe it could go at 400 mph. What makes even more extraordinary is that was made of wood.
I was feeling bored today, so flicked on the tv, watched this cak about a couple buying a house in Florida. The houses they viewed were as big as palaces with these gizmos and those gizmos. Most of these places had interiors like up-market health centres. One house had a garden the size of two football pitches.
The couple were the sort of people who choose to appear on such crappy programmes - extremely shallow and no doubt extremely tedious company, nothing much to talk about with them but buying houses and playing golf.
What made me laugh was that the woman complained that a bedroom the size of my flat was too small! Well, has she not heard of homelessness and that a large cardbox can be the lap of luxury to some. Anyway, the couple procrastinated and the house they wanted was snapped up overnight.
Then televisual fayre did not get any better. There was a reality show about home entertaining - throwing dinner parties. It was complete bollocks. The background music was a mixture of plinky sounds intersperesed with a Brandenburg concerto. Yep, they are dumbing down Bach. The show was completely pointless, ponsey and pretentious. Who the fuck watches this kind of shit? Is it people with a large takeaway pizza and a six pack of Stella? I think so.
I then watched "Deal or No Deal" with Noel Edmonds - gosh, Noel is so oily that I was even taken by him. Yes, he does trashy television, but he does it with a panache that does not rankle. What makes it worse is that the bugger is so skilled at avoiding going down 'trash can alley'. He has many years of experience at trashy television and Noel knows how to keep the audience on line. Yep, I was drawn into this; it was compelling. Boredom has a lot to answer for and I admit personal responsibility. Good entertaining stuff. All I can say is well done.
Switched channels to ITv 4 - 633 Squadron was on - I really love this film. Not least the aircraft - the Mosquito Bomber, what a sexy little plane this turned out to be. The fastest bomber of its time, I believe it could go at 400 mph. What makes even more extraordinary is that was made of wood.
Labels: Lifestyle
New Labour and Education
I have noted that a New Labour mp has withdrawn her son, Cosmo, from one of those new fangled Blairite 'Academies'. She said that she was concerned about the standard of education that her son was getting at said 'Academy'. From my knowledge of these establishments, they are merely shopping malls with classrooms - everything sponsored, everything brought to you by...
Other Academies seem only to serve the function of day prisons housing extremely unruly youths who would be otherwise on the streets terrorising the neighbourhood.
They are not schools, they are commercial ventures designed to make the owners money not turn out young people with a decent education. Any business treats profit as the priority.
Now, what is this woman calling a member of her progeny "Cosmo". Does she not realise that she is killing this young person's chance of forming normal relationships with his peers. The name smacks of nerdiness with a hint of weasle thrown in.
Other Academies seem only to serve the function of day prisons housing extremely unruly youths who would be otherwise on the streets terrorising the neighbourhood.
They are not schools, they are commercial ventures designed to make the owners money not turn out young people with a decent education. Any business treats profit as the priority.
Now, what is this woman calling a member of her progeny "Cosmo". Does she not realise that she is killing this young person's chance of forming normal relationships with his peers. The name smacks of nerdiness with a hint of weasle thrown in.
Labels: politics
