Thankyou and Goodnight

And so the end is near.... lectures over and Essays complete, it only remains for me to hand them in tomorow and kiss goodbye to my first year at University. This year has been enjoyable, infuriating, bizarre and above all different. As a mature student it's been a real eye opener. I've met some great people; both lecturers and students, been dismayed by others and most importantly found some new friends who have made a huge impression on me, i'd like to think they are relationships that will last for many years to come. Goodbye to being bad, it's been.... emotional.


p.s - Those of you who couldn't shut up in lectures - You need to learn some respect for your fellow students and lecturers.

In response to Briony's post on Prostitution

Briony's post

I think you are right about prostitution requiring a large amount of confidence. I have no problem with the act of exchanging money for sex between two consenting adults. Unfortunately, in reality, the issue is rarely that simple. Many prostitutes are under the control of pimps and perform their task under threat of violence. Often, they are addicted to drugs and see no way out the life that they have. Is it confidence or destroyed self-esteem that causes these women to sell themselves? Would legalisation be an option? maybe. It would certainly help to take out the parasitic 'middle-men' and might make things safer for all concerned.

Spam, spam, spam, spam

If you were to look at my spam inbox, you may be forgiven for thinking that i was a bald, fat, midget who snores and has erectile disfunction. Fortunately only one (maybe two) of the above is true, some of the others i have yet to look forward to. On the positive side, i've had a bit of luck. A nice man called Victor is sending me a large amount of money from Nigeria. All i have to do is send him a small amount of money. Apparently it's all down to a administrative loop-hole. Lucky Me.

Personally speaking, spam doesn't bother me. In fact i find it quite amusing. Perhaps anyone who falls for this kind of stuff deserves everything they get, a kind of e-natural selection, if you will. I do feel slightly sorry for some of the older generation who may not be so au fait with the intricaces of spamming and scamming.

If you want a good laugh, here's a link to the infamous 419 eater site, who specialise in scamming the scammers. Take the time to look through it , you won't be disappointed.

http://www.419eater.com/index.php

Snooker Revelations

This morning's revelations about John Higgins have rocked the world of snooker, Higgins is world number one, reigning world champion and is respected as one of the ambassadors of the game. He is alleged to have agreed to accept a bribe to throw frames or matches in return for £250,000. If found guilty he will undoubtedly be banned from the sport he loves for what would effectively be life. It comes as a shock when we find out a sport is corrupt. As viewers we have to trust that the theatre of sport is real, without that trust we can invest none of our emotion and the sport becomes worthless. It strikes me that life is no different, when the trust is gone from a relationship, be it a love affair or friendship, it becomes worthless. Once you have shown yourself to be a liar to someone you love they can no longer invest in you, or certainly not until that trust is restored. They may still be in love with the person they once perceived you as but that person is lost. Trust is important and John Higgins is learning that lesson today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8656905.stm

http://humanresources.about.com/od/workrelationships/a/trust_rules.htm

Don't venture into the CCZ

If you are unfortunate enough to live, or find yourself out for a drink in the fine Black Country town of Walsall, you will be familiar with the CCZ, or to give it its full title the 'Chav Containment Zone'. Between the top of Bridge Street and the Bottom of Ablewell Street there are two barriers which can be pulled across the road in an effort to keep in the evening revellers and protect the 'normal' people. This zone contains the 3 cultural landmarks of Walsall; The sports bar, Revolution and the fabled WS1. The latter is a 'nightclub' where you will find a wide spectrum of characters, ranging from the proto-futuristic mutant race of the Jeremy Kylealypse to the erm....the other people who go in there. The CCZ can be a scary place, sometimes i have to walk through it to get to to the Wharf Bar or The Hang Up. It can be a vision of Sodom and Gomorrah; the pavements are covered in sick, there are women barely wearing clothes sprawled on the floor, fights break out constantly and there are some serious crimes against fashion committed. The problem is that whilst Walsall has a large number of bars (though not as many as a few years ago) that is all it has. There is no cinema, no theatre and no decent restaurants (balti and curry houses excepted obviously) so unless you wanna get shit faced, there's nothing to do. And believe me the people of Walsall like to get shit faced.

http://www.thesite.org/drinkanddrugs/drinking/responsibledrinking/the24hourdrinkinglaws

http://www.ws1nightclub.co.uk/

Controversial Jokes

I believe there are 3 factors to consider when deciding if a joke is 'acceptable' or not. The first is the person who's telling it or the motive behind telling it. eg. As Stuart Lee points out in the clip i posted in 'stand up comedy again' many of Jimmy Carr's gags would fit quite nicely into a Jim Davidson set, if we accept that Jimmy Carr is not a racist or sexist (which Davidson admits to being) then is it ok to laugh? The second consideration is who is laughing at the joke. As i mentioned in the lecture, Richard Herring who wrote the sitcom 'Time Gentlemen Please' became uncomfortable with the audience the show attracted. He felt they were laughing 'with' the pub landlord and not 'at' him. The 3rd is a more controversial opinion, that is, a joke is just a construct that either works or doesn't. My friends and i will often repeat controversial jokes we have heard because we find their mechanics hilarious. We aren't racist or sexist but take delight in the freedom and sheer 'wrongness' of some gags. Is this hypocrisy? i'm really not sure. Being a white male can be tricky sometimes, we are never in a minority and so don't truly know how humour affects the oppressed. Any opinions would be welcomed. (keep it clean).

I assume many of you will remember the 'Kramer' incident? This is when Stand up comedy goes very, very wrong. Michael Richards was forced to make a televised apology after this moment of madness.

Warning: contains very strong racial language, don't watch if you are likely to be offended

Is Gordon a moron?

So, Gordon made a boo-boo. After speaking with an elderly lady who criticised, amongst other things, his policies on immigration, he returned the Brown-mobile. Unfortunately, he forgot that he was still wearing a Sky News radio mic and proceeded to generally moan about the encounter and called her a 'bigoted woman'. Gordon's only mistake here is that if he believed she was bigoted, he should have said that to her. By apologising for the incident he has only served to weaken his position in the election campaign. Is this another incident which proves telling the truth is not always the right thing to do? If he believed her to be bigoted, would it have done him any favours to tell her so? I can't believe politicians allow themselves to be manipulated in this way (the wearing of radio mics) by News International. I mean, it's not like they have a history of bias and underhand dealings is it?

In response to 'When she's good...' post on abortion

Sam's post on abortion

I agree that 6 months is too late for an abortion, which is born out (excuse MY pun) by your startling image. I don't have a moral objection to abortion. I believe the choice is solely the individual's (which should hopefully be informed by the father) although i realise this is not always possible. I have been in the unfortunate and agonising position myself and had to help make a decision. The problem is there is no easy way out for anyone with a conscience, either way it will be a decision which stays with you forever. As i say, i fully respect the woman's right to decide and believe that ultimately it is only her who can make the decision. It does however, sometimes slightly concern me that men are forgotten in this complex and emotive issue.

Stand up Comedy again.

For purely self indulgent purposes i thought i would post another couple of stand up clips. The first is of Bill Hicks giving his thoughts on the way pop music has become homogenised and career driven. You've got to admire any comedian who can stand on stage and scare people into submission.

The second is one of the best stand ups working in Britain today; Stuart Lee. He shares Bill Hicks' love of controversial material but takes his comedy to the next level by deconstructing the mechanics of stand up. Here he is with his routine about Joe Pasquale.

Stand up Comedy.

I have a love/hate affair with stand up comedy. When it's done well it can be the most incisive, subversive and hilarious medium. Ideas and opinions expressed by the all licensed fools of the stage can inform, shock or be the catalyst for us to fundamentally change our opinions. Unfortunately, it rarely is.
For every Stewart Lee, Daniel Kitson, Johnny Vegas, Richard Pryor or Bill Hicks there are a thousand Michael Macintyres, a multitude of Patrick Kieltys and a plethora of Shappi Khorsandis (the thought of the latter has made me feel nauseus). I object to these people. The fact they are popular is one of the many reasons i have little faith in the Great British public.
I used to go to a lot of comedy gigs but the ordeal of sitting through a shit support slot has almost completely put me off. If i hear another routine about how different men are to women, or another 'have you ever noticed that Americans are stupid' rant i may relent to my desire to run on stage and strangle the offender. Better i stay at home and watch a Dylan Moran DVD.

For anyone who is still confused, this is good stand up:


and this isn't:


I'm glad that's all sorted.

I'm a swearer, deal with it.

I'm swearing, I'm swearing a lot. I have just spent an hour turning my house upside down in search of a jacket that I bought a couple of weeks ago. I have never worn it, and it's not here. Whilst emptying a cupboard I called a box that fell on my head an effing 'c' and proceeded to stamp on it in a fawltyesque fashion. Enough of that, that way madness lies.
Swearing is an art form. Sure, Many people drop profanities into their everyday speech as replacements for their lack of vocabulary but I'm not talking about that. I am talking about the wonderful, joyous use of profanities in in/appropriate circumstances. I love being extremely rude. There is nothing more satisfying than creating a new euphemism and I love to hear them from others.
Roger's profanisaurus is a fantastic source. If you've never read it, it's a dictionary compiled by the learned lexicographers from Viz magazine. Euphemisms may not accurately describe the entries in this volume, as some conjure up more horrific images than merely describing the original act or thing. If you aren't easily offended click on the link below and then on 'more gutter filth' for some random definitions.
http://viz.co.uk/profanisaurus.php

Response to Briony's BBB 'kids'

Kids


The most disturbing thing about kids for me was the total nihilism of the final scene. The only male character with any redeemable features turns out to be a rapist. That's dark. The film did, however, remind me a lot of the group i used to knock around with when i was 16, obviously my group wasn't as extreme but it certainly displayed similar 'pack' behaviour. Whether Kids is a useful educational tool for parents i'm not so sure. I think the switched on ones know that this stuff exists already and the ones who have lived more sheltered lives probably wouldn't believe it.

Mephedrone

So, predictably the government have decided to ban mephedrone 'within weeks' after a string of negative tabloid stories. The drug has gained notoriety and popularity in equal measure among social drug users over the last couple of years, mainly due to disillusionment with the increasingly poor content of Coke and Es. The drug seemed to offer users a similar high at a knock down price (despite prices rocketing in the last few months). Eric Carlin: a government drug advisor, resigned shortly after Alan Johnson's announcement, claiming there had been no meaningful consultation on the effects of mephedrone. It seems that the government think England's gutter press have a better grasp on the effects of the drug than the very organisation they employ to advise them. This is the institution that reports mephedrone as 'plant food' when in fact, 'plant food' is merely a front to sell the drug legitimately. I have no idea if mephadrone can cause serious health problems and neither do the gutter press. The one organisation which should have, seems to have been wholly disregarded by a government eager to pander to its antagonists in the lead up to a general election.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8608183.stm

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/tags.php?tag=mephedrone

Pointless and arguably humorous reply to Mark Jones' - Drugs

Yes, it's certainly reminiscent of 'clarkey cat' or 'Joss Ackland's spunky backpack'. Lou Reed seems to be a wholly inappropriate slang word for weed but a little more fitting for speed. It's hard to associate the velvets with anything other than the brown stuff though. Other possible/actual celebrity/drug names:

Ali McGraw/Zsa Zsa Gabor - Draw
Gary Ablet - Ecstacy Tablet
Burt Bacharach - Crack
Joan Jet - Ket
Kurt Cobain - Cocaine
Anne Frank - Tranq/Skank
Roy Hudd - Bud
Torville & Dean - Green
Gyles Brandreth - Crystal Meth
Queen Latifah - Reefer
Burt Kwok - Rock
Lorraine Chase - Base

I find the Easter holidays can often leave you with too much time on your hands. Still, I could have done something pointless.

Ecoutez l'histoire de....

Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot perform 'Bonnie and Clyde', based on the poem by Bonnie Parker.
As was discussed in the lecture, it seems many, if not all of the characters who eventually end up as folk heroes transform from murderous self-serving criminals into popular peoples' champions. This seems to stem from the social conditions which prevail at the time. In Bonnie and Clyde's case, they happened to rob banks at a time of great economic hardship. If you add to that the romanticism of their relationship, you have the ingredients of what makes a legend.
The Krays are an interesting example, whilst they were obviously phsycotic murderers, their reputation of 'only killing their own' and being nice to their mom lingers. Perhaps they were seen as harking back to the tradition of honour amongst thieves, in a world that was changing faster than many of that generation would have liked. Before the end of the 60s there would be the public outrage at the 'Moors murders', which I imagine would have increased the rose tinted view of the east-end pair.
Stuart Lee observes a similar phenomenon in his thoughts on the IRA vs the 9/11 and 7/11 bombers:

In response to Al McCallum's Bad Cinema and Worse Excuses

Bad Cinema and Worse Excuses

Yes Al, the thing that really annoys me is those who get offended on other people's behalf. See last years Brand and Ross affair, where the amount of people who complained hugely outweighed the listener ship of the original radio show. I'm not saying it's only the job of the oppressed to defend themselves, for example, a white person can be equally offended by racism as anyone else. The problem lies with those who impose their dubious 'moral standards' on others. It shows a huge lack of respect for the viewers or listeners to make their own mind up about what is acceptable and in what context.

Woe is me...

Drinking can be great fun but the next day very rarely is. A hangover is the inevitable low to the previous night's high, it's a time when the literal and metaphorical debt is called in from the spending spree, the time when one is forced to stare the results of ones actions square in the face. I can handle the sickness, the throbbing head and the tiredness, what I can't deal with is the unbearable feeling of melancholy, the feeling that you have done something unspeakably wrong which can't be pinned down. Keats told us to seize the melancholy and use it as inspiration for creativity. There can be no highs without lows is his argument (a little reductionist I know, fellow English students). Instead of writing a masterpiece of romantic poetry, I have completed a half-arsed blog entry and written a couple of paragraphs of an essay that's due next week. I do it not because I'm inspired by a terrible sadness but because it takes my mind off thinking about the night before.

How to cure a hangover from The Times online:
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/diet_and_fitness/article6966261.ece

and just in case you haven't read 'ode on melancholy' here it is in full:
http://www.online-literature.com/keats/478/

They tried to make me go to rehab.....

So, Mark Owen* has followed Tiger Woods in becoming the latest in a long line of celebrities to enter rehab. After a string of affairs and a bit too much of grandpa's old cough medicine, the Frodo Baggins of key-change driven up-tempo fiasco has decided he's got a problem. And we all know what any self respecting celebrity must do after being a bit of a t**t; stick a label on the condition and work it out with a group of other self-serving egomaniacs.
I have no inside knowledge of this story, but I would be willing to bet this little holiday in a home for the bewildered coincides in some way with one of our esteemed tabloids running a story on one or more of his affairs.
I suppose this relates to something else that I've been thinking about lately (and discussing with another student who works in a school) concerning naughty children. When I was at school there were very few kids with 'syndromes', just a handful who had a genuine problem with dyslexia and a hardcore of naughty little sods who were mostly kept away from the other kids 'cos they were disruptive and unruly.
Why do we feel the need to absolve ourselves from responsibility both as individuals and parents? Putting a tag on someone who behaves in a manner unacceptable to others is both unhelpful and counter productive. Instead of discipline and a happy home life for kids we pump them full of mood changing drugs. Rather than telling an overpaid pop star to keep it in his trousers and stop sniffing his ill gotten fortune away (i'm not suggesting Mark Owen is on drugs, just speaking generally), we elevate them to 'victim' status and give them a spread in 'Hello magazine'.
Here's Chris Rock on crazy kids (contains very strong language and may offend):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF4YQZIsRrM
and also an old article which makes some good points:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/132774/is_rehab_the_new_black.html?cat=2


* I have met Mark Owen on a T.V shoot, (I was in one of the other bands on the show) and he seemed a thoroughly decent chap. I'm not singling him out as any worse or better than any other celebrity rehabbers.

Hands off my intellectual property

The government have reiterated their intention to impose more punitive measures for 'persistent downloaders' of copyrighted material. The new initiative would introduce a 3 strikes system: the first would be a warning from their ISP, the second a suspension and the 3rd a ban. Opposers of the scheme say it is unworkable due to the amount of 'piggybacking' that occurs when users don't secure their connection. As a result they claim innocent people could lose their connection by no fault of their own. The government also plans to crack down on sites which offer copyrighted material for viewing. What do we think about Illegal downloading? is it an inevitability in a world where internet regulation seems impossible? Should our moral compass come before getting a free album or film? I can't help thinking its prevalence would not be as great if the multi-nationals who own large amounts of intellectual property had responded sooner to a changing market. They certainly don't help their cause by regurgitating the same figures which translate the amount of illegal downloads directly into lost sales. It simply doesn't add up. For an impassioned defence of the morality of downloading or just for a very entertaining 20 mins listen to Stephen Fry's podcast/lecture on the subject here: http://www.stephenfry.com/2009/07/27/series-2-episode-4-itunes-live-festival/

to read The Times' latest article on the subject:
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3353387.ece

Bad Cinema

'Speed is like a dozen transatlantic flights without ever
getting off the plane. Time change. You lose, you gain. Makes no
difference so long as you keep taking the pills. But sooner or
later you've got to get out because it's crashing, and then all at
once the frozen hours melt out through the nervous system and seep
out the pores.'

Potentially the greatest British film ever made? Could be. If you
haven't seen Withnail & I, it's a study in paranoia, depression and
desperation. It's the story of two out of work actors wallowing in
drug and alcohol fuelled apathy as their 'careers' fall apart before
their eyes.  As light relief the two choose to bother Withnail's
uncle Monty into allowing them to use his country cottage for the
weekend.
The film deals with drug use in a highly comical but equally profound
manner.  The protagonist's above quote describes beautifully the
highs and lows and eventual plateau of heavy amphetamine use and
Withnail's demand for 'More Booze' has to be one of the most quotable
moments in film.
Don't look for too much of a plot in the film, you won't find it.
Withnail & I is more of a character study than a story. For a comedy,
it has a very downbeat ending, semi-tragic in fact. I won't give
too much away. If you want to see a film which encapsulates the
essence of 'being bad' or just watch a riotously funny comedy,
see Withnail & I.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094336/

http://www.withnail-links.com

A Disclaimer

I have been many things in my short life (though i never played Hamlet), i may have even wronged a few people along the way. I take full responsibility for the 'shite-alight' that i left on a neighbour's doorstep. I am not proud of the time that i sent a text message from my friend's phone to his boss declaring his 'man love'. I have; however, never to my knowledge introduced a punitive parking regime in a large Australian city.* I would like to think there is still time (and there is still Lear.)

*This is not an entirely surreal blog post, you may gain a better understanding by reading the comments section on my post entitled 'Look into the eyes'

In response to PH1000 ... is being blogged - Week 12

In response to PH1000 ... is being blogged - Week 12

I'm in agreement with Pornography being a huge and mostly overlooked issue. The sheer amount of free and to a lesser extent paid porn sites on the net and their content does require scrutiny. To my mind adults should be able to look at whatever they like as long as it doesn't break any other existing laws of consent. The fact that it is so openly available to children is a different matter. With our desensitised attitude to porn it's easy to forget how distressing and confusing some of the content available could be to minors. The policing of the internet is a non-starter so the responsibility falls on parents to try and shield their kids from inappropriate material. Maybe we should be looking more at the insatiable desire of the public to watch pornography, is it merely a case of human curiosity and libido? or is it symptomatic of a moral sickness in society?

He's behind you....

So there I was, ready to write a rebuttal to the tirade of anti-masturbatory propaganda on-line. Armed with a list of mythbusting facts, a healthy disdain for religious dogma and a copy of razzle (ask your dads kids), I set about finding the worst examples of bigotry available, shouldn't be too hard, I thought. But you know what? the silence was deafening.
Aside from a few fruit loop neo-conservative types I found hardly anything. It seems even the traditional leaders of the moral crusade against onanism; The Catholic church, are now split on the subject. A modern view in the church says if it stops adultery, then it is permissible. Pfft.. things just ain't what they used to be. You knew where you stood when taking matters into your own hands was punishable by 3 hail marys.* Perhaps masturbation is not the big moral issue that it once was.
Most google search results for masturbation are linked to how to do it properly or to comedy/satirical sites, such as the 'officious George Bush site' or the mildly amusing 'onanabics' home page. This would indicate it is more of an embarrassing taboo rather than a huge moral dilemma for the general public. I have to admit I was rather shocked by the content of the Wiki page on masturbation. I've seen less graphic images on Pornhub.

*i did find one person who had been told by his priest at confession to think of Jesus while he masturbated, which somewhat restored my faith in the institution

All lies are not equal.

The truth, as the light, makes blind. Albert Camus

The ethical questions posed by the act of lying are complicated to say the least. I think most of us would say that all lies are not equal, yet many are quick to condemn lying as one of the worst characteristics a person can possess. Do you expect therefore to be told the truth ALL the time? I put it to you that 'you can't handle the truth!'
'Hey, Hello, How are you?' you are asked on meeting a friend 'fine, thanks.' You have probably just committed your first lie within 5 seconds of meeting. This kind of lying is a necessity, it greases the cogs of society. You could of course have said 'actually, in some aspects of my life I'm ecstatic, in others deeply miserable and the rest; somewhere between the two. Let me tell you about a specific problem I'm having with a fungal infection...' I assure you it doesn't go down well.
How about a friend who has a secret that they perceive as embarrassing? they may be concerned that if they tell you about it, you'll like them less. How do we gauge the validity of that secret? it may be they murdered someone in cold blood, it may be they were abused as a child. In between is a spectrum of morality. Is omission of information a lie in itself?
The above clip from 'Annie Hall' illustrates what can happen if we blurt out our innermost feelings.
'

Look into the eyes.....

'The secret of success is sincerity, fake that and you've got it made'


You've heard from Kant and Heidegger but i go one better and give you a Bob Monkhouse quote. It's a joke but like most good ones, there is truth within.
Most people who succeed in life have had to 'learn' sincerity, as our body language very often betrays our true feelings while communicating verbally. We can't be in a good mood all the time, we often feel tired, have a hangover or simply don't like the person we are talking to very much but need to be nice to them for professional or social reasons. This is where we need to 'lie'. Those who we perceive on television or in business as nice people, are very often highly skilled and trained in the dark arts of body language and speech.
One such art is NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). It started in the '70s as a form of psychoanalysis for barmy Americans but has subsequently become the tool of choice for middle-management twats and over-sexed predatory males. My mate swears by it (I don't like him any less; well, maybe a bit), mainly for the pursuit of 'chatting up' the opposite sex. It involves a network of learnt body language, suggestive comments and embedded subliminal messages. His favourite is something about a 'new direction'/'nude erection'. You get the idea. Voltaire once said 'give me five minutes to talk away my face and I'll bed the Queen of France' he may have been an NLP disciple.
Is it 'faked sincerity'? i don't know. To my mind, it's at best a little dishonest and at worst a little weird and creepy. That said, i suppose it is designed to portray ones real intentions and it certainly does that. The deception still impacts on its recipient though, who is usually unaware it's being used. It would be interesting to know if anyone here has been aware of it being used on them. I once met a guy who was trying to sell something to the company i used to work for, who i'm sure tried to use it on me. I just thought he was a nob.
for more info on body language and NLP (it's not a cult, honest guvnor) click here:
http://www.nlpinfo.com/
http://www.bodylanguageexpert.co.uk/

In response to 'Responses' on 'meanderings of an undiagnosed schizophrenic'

Interesting comments about the prescribed morality of society making us miserable. Nietzsche describes morality as 'the herd instinct in the individual.' Whilst we are all individual, there is something inside us that makes us 'tow the line' so to speak. Whether this behaviour is innate or learnt is a different matter. Are we merely covering our animal instincts with the thin veneer of learnt morality or are we basically herd animals who must fight to become individuals?
If 'God is dead' as Nietzsche proclaimed, then there is no true right and wrong, only the boundaries we impose on ourselves. Sartre called it 'existentialism'. He says 'Everything is permissible if God does not exist, and as a result man is forlorn, because neither within him or without him does he find anything to cling to.'
Society was much simpler when we wallowed in ignorance and were told what to think and how to act by the church. Now, in this post-modern wasteland of morality, we are all alone. Exciting and a little scary, huh?

For more info on Nietzsche and Sartre click on the respective links below:
http://nietzsche.com/
http://www.sartre.org/

Chris Morris - Four Lions

The revered satirist and much lauded comedy genius, Chris Morris, is back with his big screen directorial début 'Four Lions'. Having already tackled many of the themes discussed in 'Being Bad' in the highly controversial 'Brass Eye', he is now ready to take on the next taboo; Islamic terrorism.
Four Lions follows a group of Jihadi Muslims intent on perpetrating a terrorist act. Set between England and Pakistan, the protagonists bungle their way through a series of tragicomic set pieces on their road to martyrdom. In a recent interview Morris said he wished to explore 'The Dad's Army' side of terrorism.
He is venturing into the unknown with this new work. To my knowledge, no one has ever portrayed a group so reviled by society as real characters before. Sure, we've all seen documentaries and read press articles on the subject, but all that we see are faceless monsters who are intent on the destruction of western society.
Morris' usual tactic is to expose hypocrisy where it exists and to lampoon the spoon fed views held by much of middle England by using deliberately provocative imagery and language. If you're not familiar with his work, firstly, why not? and secondly, you can watch clips from 'Brass Eye' here and 'The Day Today' here.
Are there some subjects which should not be the subject of comedy? Will Morris' inimitable style change with this new work? Will he limit the ferocity of his attack because of the delicate and controversial subject matter? All shall be revealed in May. If you don't choose to go and see it, you will certainly be reading about it in the Daily Mail.

Shoplifting and the redistribution of wealth

The Reverend Tim Jones is an Anglican priest in a small village in York. In the weeks leading up to Christmas he explained to his parishioners that shoplifting was permissible in the eyes of God, and received much (mostly negative) press attention for his somewhat unorthodox views. His comments were largely misinterpreted by the national press and portrayed as a lowering of standards in the church and in contradiction of the commandment 'Thou shalt not steal'.
Personally, i thought it was refreshing to hear the voice of compassion in the festive period. You see, what Rev Jones was advocating was not the mass pilfering of DVDs by kleptomaniac middle-class housewives but the redistribution of wealth from those that can afford it to those who can't. He argues that for people who cannot afford to eat, shoplifting from a supermarket is the least morally reprehensible way to obtain food, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. Instead of the crime being perpetrated against an individual, the cost of the stolen goods is passed on directly to the shop's legitimate customers, thus creating a kind of charitable donation to the poor from us all. From a Christian perspective; apparently, it's not even against the word of the 'good book' as the 8th commandment doesn't apply to those who don't have money to buy food. Everybody's happy!

In response to Al McCallum's Aaand... Week 2 (Smoking)

Yeah, a desire to rebel against all kinds of authority would probably be the reason I started too. There is; however, one aspect of the 'desire' to smoke on which we haven't really touched. Unfortunately, it's not a very palatable one either. Could the act of smoking be a subconscious desire to be closer to death? Depression and mental illness seem to have a link with nicotine dependency. A line from The Smiths' song 'What She Said' has always stuck in my mind because of its bleak ferocity; 'What she said: "I smoke because i'm hoping for an early death and I need to cling to something."' The depression/smoking question; however, seems to be a chicken and egg one.
From another angle, a brush with death can certainly provoke profound emotions. People often seem to say they have found a new lease of life after a near-death experience and fans of extreme sports regularly chase this feeling by putting themselves in peril. There is a quote which goes something like (help me out people) "It's when we are closest to death we feel most alive." I definitely think there is something in that.

Anyone got a light?

Despite the deliberate sabotage of thursday's lecture (I did it for the extra fag break), some interesting issues were discussed on the subject of smoking. Allow me to nail my colours to the mast from the off. I am a smoker. I've had the filthy habit for longer than I care to remember. I also understand that smoking is very bad for ones health, aside from the obvious risk of contracting serious illness, it takes longer to recover from coughs and colds, it can make you wheezy, I'm told it stinks and it makes you age prematurely (I am in fact 19).
Smoking is an unwise thing to do. So too, however, is binge drinking, mountain climbing and reading 'take a break' magazine. You may argue that these activities do not have an impact on other people's health, you would be wrong. Ever been 'offered out' by a moron for' looking at his pint' or worse still punched like our esteemed module leader? Ever heard of a rescue attempt going wrong for a bunch of mountain climbers who shouldn't have been up there in the first place? and as far as reading female pornography like the aforementioned publication, If that's not bad for your soul, then I don't know what is.
Pictured above is possibly the coolest man ever to walk the planet, Serge Gainsbourg, He chain smoked from the age of 13, had a heart attack at 45 and reconvened his habit when he was discharged from hospital. He eventually died at 62. As Denis Leary says in his show 'No cure for Cancer', 'Smoking takes ten years off your life. Well it's the ten worst years, isn't it folks? It's the ones at the end! It's the wheelchair kidney dialysis fucking years. You can have those years!'

Gainsbourg was a risk taker, an innovator and a free spirit. He walked the line. Smokers very often take a sideways glance at life, they seize the day. They have to, they may not be here very long.

Here is a list of famous smokers:

George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, Jean-Paul Sartre, J.R.R. Tolkien, Albert Camus, Bertold Brecht, Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, James Joyce, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Miller, Vincent Van Gogh, Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso, Leonardo DaVinci, Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Brel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Luciano Pavarotti, Keith Richards, John Lennon, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Frank Zappa, George Gershwin, Winston Churchill, Fidel Castro.

Here is a list of famous non smokers:
Anne Widdecombe, James Blunt, Ant and Dec.

Conclusive, I think you will agree?

Pop Terrorism

Passing Stones - **** Me Up - watch more funny videos

I first stumbled across Santeri Ojala's unique brand of pop terrorism last year from a link on the brilliant Peter Serafinowicz's home page. His Youtube clips of Iconic guitar players soloing, overdubbed with his own ludicrous Les Dawsonesque twiddling have become legendary. They have been viewed by millions of unsuspecting browsers looking for clips of their favourite players, and many more who already get the joke. This new video of The Rolling Stones' 'Start Me Up', however, takes the mockery and comedy to a new level. Ojala's soundtrack, sounding something like Klaus Nomi singing surreal and mildly obscene lyrics with a hybrid band consisting of Focus and Can members, is set to the classic video. Subtitles and a disparaging audience laughter track are added to heighten the mirth, and a mini-masterpiece is made.
Is it morally reprehensible to take an artist's original work and modify it in this fashion? after all many of Ojala's videos don't only parody the artist but, i assume, break copyright or intellectual property laws by changing the original version. Many of his videos are tagged as the original clip. Are there other examples out there where this form of 'terrorism' has occurred? Right or wrong, this is one funny video.

Being Bad

A somewhat crowded 1st lecture provided much entertainment and one particularly worrying confession. Brotherly love never sounded so wrong. Regarding the trip in week 12, perhaps we should arrange an evening where we fulfil a check list of all the reprehensible behaviour mentioned in the lecture, or alternatively something a little more depraved such as a night out in Wolverhampton. As for the module, I'm looking forward to reading your blogs this semester and pretending that I enjoyed the experience when I see you in person.