Putting the boot in

I've been thinking about the laddie who was stabbed to death up the road in Granton yesterday. Has the UK sunk to an almighty new low now; the rules of the street have been thrown out the window? These dudes stabbing each other like kids popping balloons is nothing new. But to stab the guy to death in front of his chick and two little kids (one in a pushchair) makes me sick to the stomach.

I also cannot be arsed listening any longer to these numbskulls in parliament who haven't exchanged level-par words with a "normal" everyday citizen of the country in years. By that I mean a conversation between 2 adults where neither takes the high ground and neither speaks condescendingly to, or patronises, the other. He listens. He doesn't pontificate.

I watched Andrew Neil's "This Week" TV programme last week. He had Goldie on the show. Before he interviewed him they showed a brief film, narrated by Goldie, of "underclass" folks trying to get their shit together and attempting to communicate to the yoof of their 'hood. Goldie's main point in the film was that more-localised-than-local-council people should be given some sorta shared autonomy with these same councils to operate in the estates and bring about changes in the quickly-forming ghettos of the UK. An attempt to bridge the understanding gap between the young and the not-so-young. An inclusive society experiment, if you will.

So cut back to the studio and the chuckling little troll addresses Goldie. What does he do? Starts asking him race-related questions from the offset! Did he not just watch the film?! Telling him how 50 years ago, him asking a man of his complexion questions, in a studio shared with a black female MP (Diane Abbott), would have been unheard of. He then just cuts off Goldie completely and starts questioning Abbott and Portillo. He only turns back to ask Goldie his opinion of the New Yorker's Obama front page. WTF has that got to do with his point?

What is the fuckin point in that show in 2008? Nae bloody wonder there's a gap to be bridged. Ever-fuckin-widening too.

I didn't agree with all that Goldie said coz he reckoned the Obama front cover WAS a disgrace. I think he was maybe less informed on the New Yorker's attitude and the fact that their cover was in fact satirising the very (stupid) media that were outraged by it (they had to be of course - it was aimed directly at them).
It didn't help that Thatcher thatch-heid started dissing their circulation figures.
In his 80s golden years at the Times, I wonder if the little gobshite ever listened to Billy Bragg's "It Says Here". Way before its time? (Lyrics here)

Neil then starts laughing and joking with his chums over a skit about different politicians as though they are some kinda celebrities. This programme promotes them as such. Goldie didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Neil was like a news-cretin from V from Vendetta with Partridge and Brent discomfort-inducing tendencies. I was hiding behind the couch cringing in fear by the end of it.

Voting in this democratic country seems to be about selecting the lesser of 2 evils. Same as America. Really sad. I've said it before, but politics is bunk and fucked beyond repair.
As is most TV for that matter (this Sunday sees the start of "Kerry Katona: The After-Birth" - make yer own minds up about how that reads).


AND............


What about this file-sharing deal by the music industry and the ISPs? Again, brought to us as a joint venture between THE MAN and ...eh...THE MAN.
Fuck THE MAN. Who is some piece-of-shit music industry insider to decide on whether or not me and some fella in a 2-bedroomed condo in Miami wanna share our music collection with one another. Making absolutely no cash from it. I'LL decide if I want him to have a copy of my music collection.
I suppose Encylopedia Britannica door-to-door sellers want me to refrain from using wikipedia too.

Calling people who pay a monthly bill to an ISP... "pirates"... is a disgrace!
In this case THE MAN is up shit creek and he knows it.
A revolution has happened.
They've had it good for the best part of a century and now it's over.
What constitutes "illegal" file-sharing anyway?
The internet has taken some things underground for the better.
THE MAN ain't getting as big a cut.
Big artists are touring more than ever and charging big sums to get in.
They know it's over.
Hell, youtube is just the world's biggest jukebox anyway.
Saves you using up yer own disk space.

Mr. Cerf, Mr. Kahn, Mr. Berners Lee, Mr. Gore and Mr. Gates - I salute you all. The collective new MAN. The guerrilla MAN.


And on that subject....

Fresh tune and nicely designed video number 1 (watch how they walk off at the end - very 50s)

and

Fresh tune and nicely designed video number 2 (Converse All-Star promo)


Gerritrightupya