Is the world crazy or am I?

This week has marked a further sign of how low the tabloid news and glossy magazine industry will sink. I am of course talking about the release of the OK! ‘Jade Goody Tribute edition’, which comes complete with a photo-history of the stupid tart, a massive heading of “in Loving Memory” and Jade’s ‘final’ final interview. I’m almost certain she did her final interview a couple of weeks ago, but then memory seems to be short in the world of the tabloid media. Now some of you may think that an entire tribute dedicated to the dubious character that is Goody is debatable in itself, or that she is an important figure-head for Cancer (All I can say is I think I know what Cancer is thank you very much, don’t bloody patronise me) and should have one, although I’m going to steer well clear of that discussion. The issue was launched on Tuesday and was publicised on the TV and in the press. Naturally a tribute edition, launched when the person being tributed is still alive, albeit only just (alle...

I had the rare honour yesterday of attending a preview screening to an upcoming film, in which the director was also present. The film in question was The Age of Stupid , a docudrama about climate change. The films approach is quite unconventional, as it partly set in the speculative (based on current scientific theory) dystopian future of 2055, where the earth has suffered run away climate change, and partly in the present era. This is all weaved together by Pete Postlethwaite (Brassed Off, Romeo and Juliet, The Usual Suspects) who plays ‘the archivist’, a man who trawls through news, and film footage of the past to try and demonstrate how we knowingly destroyed ourselves and our planet. The present day footage all centres upon current disasters, changes in the planet’s usual patterns and some of the human rights injustices committed in the name of the oil industry. There are six people all interlinked by the archivist, and each tells their own story in different episodic chapters. Fo...

I wish today to talk about an evil. It’s not a conventional evil such as terrorism or paedophilia, or anything else the red top tabloids whip up panic about normally. No in fact it is one man, well whether he can be called a man or not is up for debate. I am of course talking about Ronald “Big Mac” McDonald, the McDonald’s corporation’s symbol of terror and authority. Now while it might be true that he looks innocent enough, after all he is a clown and seems too much of a fool to be any threat, but remember the devil is able to take many forms. Why have rants about Ronald McDonald you may ask? Well I’ve been studying this crafty character for a couple of weeks now, and have managed to build a damning case against him from his portrayals in adverts. First of all he is guilty of stealing children from their homes, and seemingly luring them to his headquarters (McDonalds naturally). What will he do with them when he’s got them there? Well I’m sure it doesn’t take a huge guess as it’s prob...

I don’t know about anyone else but I am sick to death of the Student Union elections. These two dark weeks (which is ironic as they occur at a time of year when the weather is more favourable) are marred by a rag tag collection of fools who hover about Park Place, screeching their cries, and forcing leaflets into your hand. It is a daily chore to pass these loud and annoying creatures, but it is not the end yet, oh no. You normally arrive at a lecture and you find they have followed you in. That’s right, just as you thought you were free (until you pass park place again) they pipe up with their shite slogans and surprise you with their complete lack of political material. I wouldn’t mind these pests so much if they maybe had some compelling or novel policies behind their campaign slogan, but that is often too much to ask. Instead we are fed the idea that we should vote for someone because they are dressed as giant cat (get it, her first name is Cat so she has themed her campa...

I went to the Cardiff Vue the other day to see Notorious. Ok, people could have a pop at me for my choice of film, but I thoroughly enjoyed it so I couldn’t care less what people think. The viewing however was marred by an infestation of chavvy little cock-ends who could not keep their mouths shut. I’d caught a glimpse of these pathetic specimens in the ticket queue, and judging from the content of the film I knew they were going to be in the same movie as me. It was just too obvious considering these little wannabe rappers (just a note that rappers actually have a fairly well defined grasp of language, something which was long abandoned by the chavs in question, who seemed to be trying out a poor Tim Westwood impression at their most coherent) seemed to be trying to live up to a flimsy image of being “gangsta” with their baseball caps, jogging gear (it goes without sayin they look like they’ve been living in those clothes for weeks now, do rappers actually dress like they’re wearing p...

Last Sunday I surprised myself as I found myself sitting down to watch the Devil wears Prada for the first hour of the film. It may come as little surprise to hear that, I wouldn’t normally consider myself a connoisseur of ‘chick flicks’ and I suppose this film slides into that category. However, it’s slightly more accessible to a man, than most chick flicks I have taken the time (approx 4 minutes where masculinity kicks in and I need to down a pint of beer, punch a wall, laugh like an oafish moron at bodily function and even in rare cases talk about football, as it becomes necessary to distance myself as far as possible from the nonsense I am witnessing on screen) to watch. The film actually wasn’t that bad, as I survived an hour before I decided to do something else. The one thing that did strike me was the horrors of working in the fashion industry. I have always despised images of this trade, as it strikes me as a narcissistic, bitter and self serving collective. I realise of cou...

I took a small shopping trip to our local Tesco extra superstore (which is a behemoth of a shop where you can buy almost anything imaginable), a part of my studently routine in which I become acutely aware of how expensive living in your own home actually is. However, that’s beside the point as it was here that I noticed that Tesco’s seemed to have a surprising amount of 2 for 1’s, price-cuts and discount brands, certainly more than usual. This got me wondering, firstly is this case the same with all supermarkets? And Secondly how come they’ve suddenly upped the ante, considering January (the most miserable month of the year for many) is now over. I have a feeling that what with all the bad news in the economy at the moment, the supermarkets are trying to go to any lengths to get the customers into the shops, after all they are still posting healthy profit margins for the most part. The whole trick seems to be, to get the customer to buy more than they planned to. I certainly felt this...

Last year seemed to see an explosion of shows on TV which aped nakedness as a cure for most of life’s insecurities. Of course setting the ball rolling we had the camp crusader Gok Wan, with his self-confidence boosting charade which was How to look good naked, and it looks like a few TV execs had a free night that night as they saw this and immediately started to approve naked themed shows. Naturally all these shows have only shown tasteful nudity (well as tasteful as getting naked on TV can be to be fair), and start bragging about how being naked in public can be a life-changing event. Anyway to cut a long story short, these kinds of shows kept coming as we saw the crusade of tele-journo Dawn Porter, trying to take on the fashion industry and single-handedly save femininity in one fell swoop in Dawn gets naked where funnily enough Dawn actually doesn’t get naked (not in her final crusade anyway). We were also treated Then came the final nail in the coffin for this trend as Trinny and ...

This week saw the historic inauguration (both of them as it happened), of President Obama, which is a step forward perhaps the world has needed. I have to say that I saw Mr Obama’s inauguration on Tuesday, and I was impressed and somewhat relieved by the message which preached, tolerance, responsibility and hope. The feeling is that America is now redeemed somewhat in the eyes of the world now that warmongering joke that was the George W Bush era is consigned to history. There is certainly a lot to be done to fix America’s position in the world and I have no doubts that this week is only the beginning of a long process of change, but it makes you feel good to know that an intelligent and tolerant leader is now at the helm of one of the most powerful countries in the world. This week also saw what I thought was a rather dubious democratic decision. That is the public vote which awarded Ulrika Johnsson the victory of this year’s celebrity big brother. I suppose I didn’t really watch it b...

Yes kids it’s that time again. That is time for you to see just how wrong you were, when you thought your teenage years were crazy and wild. I am of course talking about the über-cool, gratuitously explicit mess that is Skins - well I say über-cool - as the show seems to be self consciously oozing that kind of feel. It deals with issues of teenage life like, alcoholism, sex, death (?), parties, A-Levels, addiction and mental illness. Fair enough, some of these were issues I had to deal with in my teenage years and I’m sure many of you reading have too, but the fact that this is all shoved down your throat by a load of brightly clothed (seriously is that how teenagers dress?) wide-eyed, quirky, nu rave fashion-school/performing arts wannabes makes it a little hard to swallow. The characters in the show are detestable and the one saving grace about this new series is that the original (annoying) cast has all but been traded in for another batch of fresh-faced young pill-poppers. I don’t ...

It truly is January. It feels like life is returning to normality at the moment. The decorations are down, the festivities are over and the grim realities of life once again fade into view. It is also absolutely freezing, and as I look out of my window I see the trees have become a very wintery white. The final nail in the coffin for me is the start of the Reality TV year which ended with ‘Strictly Come X-Factoring’ or something of the like, and has begun again with Celebrity Big Brother. Or Celebrity cash and fame grab as I like to call it. The house contains the usual array of has-beens, who-the-hell-are-they’s, oh-no-not-hims, and Coolio (you know the Rapper…). Now normally this simultaneous celebration and degradation of fame would usually piss me off, and I would argue “why do we dish out the term celebrity to anyone who has been on TV for five minutes,” but that is not what bothers me about the charade. What annoys me more is the over exuberant, screechy, hyping host of the evict...

It’s the most anticipated event this year…. No not the Presidential election or even CERN switching on the Large Hadron collider. I am of course referring to the MASSIVE news that the X-factor winner will be decided tonight. Naturally my previous comments are sarcastic and suggest how people’s news values can be rather, well, misplaced. However, it’s been a revealing year for this year’s Stars in ther…. I mean X-Factor contestants. We’ve seen the whirlwind (and vomit-inducing) teenage romance of Diane Vickers (that’s right my voice doesn’t work tee hee) and grandmother’s favourite Eogogogogogoggooghan (or as I pronounce it: ughgjdnfdsjsnfsjndsf) Quinn. A contract, which could be enforced “anywhere on earth or in the solar system,” was leaked pointing out that the contestants were legally obliged not to be unpleasant to Simon Cowell (something which TV’s Mr Nasty laughed off whilst he phoned his legal hawks to have those responsible annihilated). Finally (and rather irrelevantly) I was ...

I haven’t written a film review for a long time, quite possibly bec ause I haven’t seen that many films of late. However, last week I decided to go and see the dark knight as - let’s be honest - the hype of it was impossible to ignore. #CONTAINS SPOILERS# This film was always going to be big news firstly because of the sudden death of Heath Ledger and secondly that the Batman franchise always carries weight around Hollywood . I must admit I was a little worried that all this hoopla surroundi ng the film would make it over hyped; however having now seen The Dark Knight the hoopla is certainly apt. It takes about 10 minutes before Ledger’s stylish and somewhat hilarious entrance with the line, “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stranger” and from there the audience are in for a real treat; no matter how short this tenure as the joker is. Ledger’s joker is nothing short of genius both as a character and as a person as there is a certain invincibility and m...