18 Jan 2007
Finished both Lisey's Story and Yoshi's Island DS today. Took the day off. Wasn't feeling well, but ended up doing emails for most of the day. The only difference being that I was slouched on my sofa, rather than in my chair at work. But with less distractions.
Before last night I'd had less than 9 hours sleep since Sunday night. Which is nice. Must be the man flu.
Have to say that I was disappointed with the book. Well, at least 555 of the 562 pages in it. I'm sure on some level it's subtle and clever and maybe even got above average reviews somewhere. Perhaps in my late-twenties I've lost all appreciation of decent fiction. Maybe not. Don't get me wrong, Stephen King is still the 'Greatest Living Writer(TM),' but it's like a short story with one end that's been tied to a lampost, and the other to a motorbike, and stretched it. A lot.
When did I turn into such a cynical twat?
Yoshi was fun. Like Super Mario World, but shorter and with dinosaurs and babies in it. Now I'm watching Hollyoaks and no doubt a bit of Bigot Brother later on. Lost Planet is lying on my bedside table. I can hear it now, "Oi you, pull off this cellophane wrapper and let's get started!" but I've got rampant inertia and can't be bothered to move.
Ooh, there's an advert for Rocky Balboa on telly. It's got to be ace. It has to be. I'm ignoring the fact that it could be farcical though. How old must that guy be? Bet Rachael can't wait to see it at the cinema. Twice. She just hasn't mentioned it to me yet.
Big Brother's Little Brother is now on. Big Brother is probably the most topical subject in the country today, bigger than politics and everything. There's a mention of the show on the cover of every national paper today. I hear they're burning effigies in India after Jade, Jo and the other one were less than sociable towards Shilpa. Dermot O' Leary just mentioned that it's been covered in the New York Times. What the f?
The funniest thing is that they seem to have forgotten they're being filmed.
Perhaps these girls are actually culturally ignorant and this is a mistake that they'll suddenly realise and profusely apologise for their behaviour when they leave. Bollocks.
I believe that whether you love the show or hate it, its purpose as a mirror into society has always brought about some interesting results and should be applauded for bringing these issues to the fore. We've had aging sex symbols in the form of Brigette Neilson and Cleo and a homosexual in 'H.' That's just the celebrity show and many more examples will go unmentioned.
The normal show has had Brian, Nadia and the gay, tory, black Derek. It's very deliberately including minorities that have at some point incited hatred from ignorant people. Anyone in their right mind must see that this scenario could not have gone unforeseen by the show's producers.
Planned or not, Big Brother has shined a rather bright spotlight on the ugly subject of racism in our so-called harmonious multicultural society. It's interesting that this victimisation comes seems to come in two forms. The Witch, The Wag and The Songstress are openly racist behind Shilpa's back, however, to her face, it's reduced to just nastyness and bullying, apparently bourne from jealousy. One of these so-called 'celebrities' was made famous by the same show and should know better. One of them was a pop star and no doubt potently aware of the damage that tabloids do. And so soon after Mel Gibson's alledged anti-semitic remarks and the resulting worldwide furore, too.
Unfortunately the show has proved to be a microcosm of a society where a dangerously large amount of people believe its ok to be racist in private. The same people would vehemently deny it if anyone mentioned such a dirty term as racism, and would express mock horror at being found out. Watch them when they leave. Wait for the boos.
The sad fact is that these same people are now even more famous and will still be forgiven over time. Did I mention that Mel Gibson's Apocalypto grossed $49 million at the US box office during six weeks in the charts? Watch this space.
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