I was talking to a colleague yesterday about the Wossy/Wussy furore currently besieging the BBC. He called it a "storm in a teacup." I agreed, and today saw this Peter Tatchell article on the Guardian Unlimited website today which pretty much sums up the whole ridiculous situation.
Friday 31 October 2008
Thursday 30 October 2008
Westfield opens, thelondonpaper comes along for the ride
I'm going to go all Private Eye for a minute, but with good reason.
Despite widespread condemnation from locals, Westfield, London's largest ever shopping centre opened today to crowds of thousands of eager shoppers. Mayor Boris Johnson cut the read tape at 10.30am and the shopathon commenced, leaving Bushites (Shepherds Bush locals, not supporters of the American president) looking on with concern at the future of the area.
thelondonpaper has been at the forefront of reporting progress of the centre and, it appears with good reason. Articles such as 'The ultimate shopping experience at Westfield' seemed a little biased. A couple of vox-pop-based articles early this week hinted at balance, although it seemed a bit forced and now all is revealed why.
Todays front page reads something more like a Westfield press release. The Australian retail groups logo is splashed across it with 'OPEN TODAY!' underneath. Hmmm....Skip to the back page and guess what you have...yep, a full page Westfield London ad.
Now, I'm not naive enough to think editors and publishers aren't involved in this kind of cash-for-promotion, and as a News International paper this kind of contention is even more common-place, but it does seem a bit rich that a paper that has the balls to claim it is The London Paper should at least aim to highlight both sides of the argument, particularly the Londoner's side.
Despite widespread condemnation from locals, Westfield, London's largest ever shopping centre opened today to crowds of thousands of eager shoppers. Mayor Boris Johnson cut the read tape at 10.30am and the shopathon commenced, leaving Bushites (Shepherds Bush locals, not supporters of the American president) looking on with concern at the future of the area.
thelondonpaper has been at the forefront of reporting progress of the centre and, it appears with good reason. Articles such as 'The ultimate shopping experience at Westfield' seemed a little biased. A couple of vox-pop-based articles early this week hinted at balance, although it seemed a bit forced and now all is revealed why.
Todays front page reads something more like a Westfield press release. The Australian retail groups logo is splashed across it with 'OPEN TODAY!' underneath. Hmmm....Skip to the back page and guess what you have...yep, a full page Westfield London ad.
Now, I'm not naive enough to think editors and publishers aren't involved in this kind of cash-for-promotion, and as a News International paper this kind of contention is even more common-place, but it does seem a bit rich that a paper that has the balls to claim it is The London Paper should at least aim to highlight both sides of the argument, particularly the Londoner's side.
Wednesday 29 October 2008
Summer at the MCC
A conversation in a subbing class today got me thinking about my time working at Lords over summer today.
The conversation in question revolved around the deliberate use of the word 'coloured' to described a black guy in the Wisden Cricketer Magazine which was spotted by one of my eagle-eyed colleagues. I haven't got the mag to hand so I can't quote it verbatim but essentially the writer was clearly under the impression that 'coloured' is still in use. What's worse is he was trying to be understanding.
Anyways, the talk of that stuck-in-the-dying-days-of-the-empire attitude got me thinking about when I was working in the famous Long Room Bar at Lords between June and September, where every day I could eavesdrop of conversations which I have a feeling in any other situation could make things a little uncomfortable.
I'm not going to go in to it to far but let’s just say whilst I was there I was told "a disgrace who must have been found hanging around outside St Johns Wood tube station", and often had to ask few old plodders not to use the N-bomb, to scoffs of liberal-hating derision.
That's not to say they were all awful - far from it. Loads of them were absolutely lovely and would often stop for a chat about an obscure cricketer or England's latest failure. However, as the only permanent male on a team of about seven girls, I was rarely got cash reward to my services unless I pulled the sob story about being paid £5.95 an hour by the management (true statistic).
To continue this mini-expose, and in the interests of fairness, I can reveal the England squad were a great bunch of people...mostly. Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Monty and most of the rest were charming, and it turns out the seemingly hot-headed Jimmy Anderson is one of the shyest people I've ever met. However, it is also true that senior members of that team (revealing no names) could not have treated the MCC staff with more contempt if they'd just been on an See You Next Time day course.
I could go on, and I probably will, bit by bit, but in true MCC Member style I'll leave you this with an anecdote: On 5 May 2008, the day after Boris Johnson unseated Ken Livingstone to become Mayor of London I was doing a day-shift which would end up as about a 15-hour slog-a-thon. At 11am every day the bar would start serving alcohol and normally you'd have a few early-birds grabbing a quick ale but no real drinking would take place until at least lunch. However, being a pretty conservative sort of place, the Long Room was pretty much dripping in aging, white-haired excitement at the mayoral result.
The conversation in question revolved around the deliberate use of the word 'coloured' to described a black guy in the Wisden Cricketer Magazine which was spotted by one of my eagle-eyed colleagues. I haven't got the mag to hand so I can't quote it verbatim but essentially the writer was clearly under the impression that 'coloured' is still in use. What's worse is he was trying to be understanding.
Anyways, the talk of that stuck-in-the-dying-days-of-the-empire attitude got me thinking about when I was working in the famous Long Room Bar at Lords between June and September, where every day I could eavesdrop of conversations which I have a feeling in any other situation could make things a little uncomfortable.
I'm not going to go in to it to far but let’s just say whilst I was there I was told "a disgrace who must have been found hanging around outside St Johns Wood tube station", and often had to ask few old plodders not to use the N-bomb, to scoffs of liberal-hating derision.
That's not to say they were all awful - far from it. Loads of them were absolutely lovely and would often stop for a chat about an obscure cricketer or England's latest failure. However, as the only permanent male on a team of about seven girls, I was rarely got cash reward to my services unless I pulled the sob story about being paid £5.95 an hour by the management (true statistic).
To continue this mini-expose, and in the interests of fairness, I can reveal the England squad were a great bunch of people...mostly. Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Monty and most of the rest were charming, and it turns out the seemingly hot-headed Jimmy Anderson is one of the shyest people I've ever met. However, it is also true that senior members of that team (revealing no names) could not have treated the MCC staff with more contempt if they'd just been on an See You Next Time day course.
I could go on, and I probably will, bit by bit, but in true MCC Member style I'll leave you this with an anecdote: On 5 May 2008, the day after Boris Johnson unseated Ken Livingstone to become Mayor of London I was doing a day-shift which would end up as about a 15-hour slog-a-thon. At 11am every day the bar would start serving alcohol and normally you'd have a few early-birds grabbing a quick ale but no real drinking would take place until at least lunch. However, being a pretty conservative sort of place, the Long Room was pretty much dripping in aging, white-haired excitement at the mayoral result.
Mike, a member who called himself "an entrepreneur from the Wirral" and had been working on Johnson's campaign, had brought all of his friends to celebrate. To cut a lot of drinking and belly-laughing short, the end of the game (I think it was a Middlesex County game) came and this group hadn't watched a second of it. As the players walked back through the Long Room, Mike and his friends went mad and started jumping around in a weird collective heap singing "Ho Ho Ho, here comes Bo-Jo! Out with Ken! Bo-Jo! Bo-Jo Bo-Jo!" over and over. As they fell over and one began vomiting I've never felt so weirdly out of place.
Apparently all you need to turn the MCC in to a Wetherspoons Friday night is conservative election win. If Cameron wins next year’s election, the Long Room had better stock up on WKD.
Apparently all you need to turn the MCC in to a Wetherspoons Friday night is conservative election win. If Cameron wins next year’s election, the Long Room had better stock up on WKD.
Sunday 26 October 2008
Food tastes better when it's free
It's been said many times and yet it's still true.
Biggup the o2 Arena crew for one of my cheapest nights out ever. £4 to travel from Westbourne Park to North Greenwich, see Dr John and eat a Brazilian buffet. Food truly does taste better when your pocket doesn't take the brunt.
Dr John was most definitely worth the money. Only mo'fo I've ever seen who can pull off a bright pink blazer and still look cool.
Biggup the o2 Arena crew for one of my cheapest nights out ever. £4 to travel from Westbourne Park to North Greenwich, see Dr John and eat a Brazilian buffet. Food truly does taste better when your pocket doesn't take the brunt.
Dr John was most definitely worth the money. Only mo'fo I've ever seen who can pull off a bright pink blazer and still look cool.
Tuesday 14 October 2008
Everyone's a commentator, no-one's got a brain
Interactivity is, all in all, one of best things to come from the internet. The Q&A format net journalism and blogging now partakes in is a great idea. Everybody wants a say, especially if the guy on the net is talking crazy and you want to let him know - he'll get his...Now we can, straight to the heart of the matter, to the author!
Unfortunately, this is the idea and not the reality. Giving voice to voiceless is going badly wrong, post by post. "R U f*@King CRAZY? I HaTe hR" states one moron. "naw idiot thats not tru u bitch" comes the reply. Sound like a YouTube argument over Avril Lavigne? Most likely it’s your local online newspaper forum.
The idea of an intelligent space for debate is disappearing. The space for idiocy is quickly overtaking it like a stolen Mondeo driven by Camden's finest young drunkards - shaky and illiterate but fast as hell. To put it another way, Rupert Murdoch called this comment space "the final stage of democracy." If that's true, let's storm No. 10, send Gordon Brown to exile in Scotland and create a dictatorship.
A friend of mine has come up with a novel solution.
a) Log on to any space with the comment feature.
b) Identify what I will call the "stupid space".
c) Inflame the situation with an absolutely ridiculous loaded statement and watch the fireworks fly. "BASTARD"; "evil doer, jesus will kill youuuu"; "Screw you, man!"
d) Check back in once every few days and keep fanning the flames with more and more outlandish statements.
e) You can adapt this in to a game and keep a tally of how many days it takes the illiterati to realise they're being had. First to be caught loses and is forced to read comment pages for a week.
Let's all get stupid together.
Unfortunately, this is the idea and not the reality. Giving voice to voiceless is going badly wrong, post by post. "R U f*@King CRAZY? I HaTe hR" states one moron. "naw idiot thats not tru u bitch" comes the reply. Sound like a YouTube argument over Avril Lavigne? Most likely it’s your local online newspaper forum.
The idea of an intelligent space for debate is disappearing. The space for idiocy is quickly overtaking it like a stolen Mondeo driven by Camden's finest young drunkards - shaky and illiterate but fast as hell. To put it another way, Rupert Murdoch called this comment space "the final stage of democracy." If that's true, let's storm No. 10, send Gordon Brown to exile in Scotland and create a dictatorship.
A friend of mine has come up with a novel solution.
a) Log on to any space with the comment feature.
b) Identify what I will call the "stupid space".
c) Inflame the situation with an absolutely ridiculous loaded statement and watch the fireworks fly. "BASTARD"; "evil doer, jesus will kill youuuu"; "Screw you, man!"
d) Check back in once every few days and keep fanning the flames with more and more outlandish statements.
e) You can adapt this in to a game and keep a tally of how many days it takes the illiterati to realise they're being had. First to be caught loses and is forced to read comment pages for a week.
Let's all get stupid together.
Mighty Boosh may sue Sugar Puffs over stolen crimp ad
Archived from Monday, 14 April 2008
According to Gordon Smart at The Sun, Honey Monster Foods and advertising company Bray Leino find themselves in a sticky situation after being accused of ripping off the 'crimping' rap style seen in the Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt-written BBC comedy The Mighty Boosh.
Fans of the show - myself included - immediately noted the similarities and soon a friend of the Boosh team who had seen the ad informed Fielding and Barratt soon after.
Smart says the Boosh boys are preparing a legal team who will seek to have the ad pulled from air whilst Honey Monster Foods and Bray Leino (named after a horse who looks like US TV presenter Jay Leno...hmmm) have refused to comment.
Check out the ad here and compare it with the Boosh's crimp. Looks like Sugar Puffs have more than a bit of a problem here. And the moral is, children, if you wish to associate your boring breakfast product with an irreverent Pythonesque comedy make sure you ask their permission. Or, even better, pay them to appear: "Hi, I'm Noel Fielding. Sugar Puffs are part of a healthy and nutritious diet. Ignore the name and sugar content and your children's teeth will be stronger after eating! Let's crimp!"
UPDATE: The Mighty Boosh stageshow now includes a piece where the Honey Monster is decapitated by Boosh lead antagonist Tony Harrison, who then assaults the head shouting: "Take it! Take it like you take other people's ideas, you plagaristic c*nt!"
According to Gordon Smart at The Sun, Honey Monster Foods and advertising company Bray Leino find themselves in a sticky situation after being accused of ripping off the 'crimping' rap style seen in the Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt-written BBC comedy The Mighty Boosh.
Fans of the show - myself included - immediately noted the similarities and soon a friend of the Boosh team who had seen the ad informed Fielding and Barratt soon after.
Smart says the Boosh boys are preparing a legal team who will seek to have the ad pulled from air whilst Honey Monster Foods and Bray Leino (named after a horse who looks like US TV presenter Jay Leno...hmmm) have refused to comment.
Check out the ad here and compare it with the Boosh's crimp. Looks like Sugar Puffs have more than a bit of a problem here. And the moral is, children, if you wish to associate your boring breakfast product with an irreverent Pythonesque comedy make sure you ask their permission. Or, even better, pay them to appear: "Hi, I'm Noel Fielding. Sugar Puffs are part of a healthy and nutritious diet. Ignore the name and sugar content and your children's teeth will be stronger after eating! Let's crimp!"
UPDATE: The Mighty Boosh stageshow now includes a piece where the Honey Monster is decapitated by Boosh lead antagonist Tony Harrison, who then assaults the head shouting: "Take it! Take it like you take other people's ideas, you plagaristic c*nt!"
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