(No) Logo

I'd rather this man's logo was used instead of the rather less attractive official logo. Sausages will always be in fashion but new-rave will not.

Another Start

Well I haven't written on this for while have I? What to say...

Well I start gainful employment on Monday in London with a company called Hemming and I will be working across a few of their magazines and doing a bit of everything by the sounds of it.

This blog, which was started as part of a course assignment, will remain much the same, but will now be written from the perspective of a full-time Londoner (as if there aren't enough of them) and full-time journalist.

I wonder what will have changed by next September...

Hidden Histories

On ITV last night, at 11pm, was a program entitled: "The War on Democracy"by John Pilger. It was one of the best pieces of television I have seen in a long time.

It dealt with the various regimes the USA has helped install in South America since 1945 and how, by and large, these were undemocratic regimes, which installed puppet dictators, such as General Pinochet, in power at the expense of leaders who had originally been democratically elected - Salvador Allende - by the peoples of the country.

The program also highlighted the USA's support of the failed coup d'etat which took place in Venezuela in 2002, during which Hugo Chavez (interviewed in the documentary) was over-thrown, but then re-instated when the population of Caracas marched on the presidential building and demanded his return. Chavez is a man who, despite unrelenting media criticism (likening him to Hitler on many occasions), has overseen the setting up of a constitution for the first time ever in the country - something which those ordinary civilians interviewed by Pilger made clear was something they held to be highly important for them, and their children, if the future of Venezuela was to be secure.

The coup sought to remove this security and the US government went on record - a clip was shown from the press conference - claiming to be in support of this new government. Presumably because the new government was full of business tycoons who would ensure good business for the USA.

The most shocking part of the entire program was when a former CIA chief Duane Clarridge not only ignored Pilger's hard evidence, that thousands of people had been tortured and executed in Chile after the coup, by many men trained in the USA, but when he then claimed Chile was better off for this in the long run (i.e. Life's Cheap for Oriental / Latin American): Pilger then interviewed a woman who had been kidnapped and tortured, and known pregnant friends to be murdered, a man who was 18 at the time and had been beaten, alongside hundreds of other prisoners of politics at Chile's national stadium, and then a couple living in poverty on the outskirts of Santiago who saw little benefit from the regime of Pinochet.

The whole point of this program was to show that America is no "Champion of Democracy" at all. It is infact a champion of it's own interests. Democracy / Dictatorship - which ever suits the US government best is what will be looked for. So if Cuba turns Communist they launch the Bay of Pigs invasion. If Chile elects a man who doesn't conform to their ideals - who sets about introducing land reforms that could damage US imports, then they remove him, through a puppet, and then either ignore the problem or deny it ever happened - or even worse, claim it was for the best anyway.

I suppose the length of this post underlines how frustrated I felt that this type of history goes so unreported and unknown in the western world. I also felt the documentary should have been shown a lot earlier, with far more advertising, and with the premise of the show stated clearly. If they repeat this show, or release it on DVD, I urge you to see it. If Michael Moore can make documentaries that people rent out, then this is also worth your time.

Good or Bad?

This article here about Facebook and it's creator is very interesting but it is the final quote at the end that really hits you: "Adds co-founder and VP of Engineering Dustin Moskovitz: "I have a note on my account that says Facebook will saturate the world population by 2010. It's not a joke."

Which is amazing as it means one company, almost one person, would in theory be able to contact the vast majority of the entire world. Even the president can't do that at present. But some mid 20s guy from Harvard could potentially write what he wanted on the news feed and we'd all be able to read it - and we probably would.

Of course if it became controlling then people could easily move away and find a new site, but it is an astonishing thought that one website could feasibly contact the entire planet's population - or at least those that have access to a computer and are on Facebook - and with $100 laptops in production and Facebook being a fully open site, that's not as impossible as it sounds.

Better late than never?

So did the Olympic Committee not notice the pollution when they visited some eight years ago? Did they just say someone was having a bonfire? One year before in 2007 and someone asks, "Er, why can't we see the sky?".

Monkey News

I love stories like this - Passenger 'hid monkey under hat' - and mainly I love the captions. You just never know what you are going to have to write next in journalism. It said he came from Lima, Peru so the hat they used to smuggle in Paddington Bear must have been massive.

R.I.P. T.V.

T.V. is dead. Or at least linear T.V. is dead. T.V. that involves sitting down at a set time of an evening and gathering around together. Why bother to be a slave to the clock after work now we have Sky Plus or Virgin OnDemand? Just record it and watch it whenever you want. Watch the most violent film ever at 7am, or Doctor Who at 3am after a night out (bit sad though)...Or even watch it online via Youtube or Google Video - and now the BBC's iPlayer thing they have launched is the latest of these gizmos.

Interestingly my parents believe this is a "bad" thing. I suppose they could be right: the loss of a communal, national, conscious for a truly great T.V. program - Pole to Pole in the early 90s maybe? But the fact remains it will become a rare event. Not that rare, but not common either. The other day I watched all six episodes of The IT Crowd on Google Video over two days because I could. I didn't have to wait six weeks for an entire season. Peep Show series four was on at 9:30pm on a Friday evening. Now I missed most of them because of this as I was out. But by Sunday they were online and I was able to watch them and discuss them on a Monday morning.

Perhaps another reason for this death of linear T.V. is that the companies themselves seem fully of aware of this. Or at least, this must be the reason, surely, for the utter dross that is on every night at the moment? The summer season might not be the best for T.V. but even this year is a new low. Baby Ballroom? Big Brother 8! The BBC is just churning out cookery show after cookery show - although whether or not we should trust the BBC that these people are indeed cooks is another point entirely...

Still though, if T.V. does become a format that becomes random and unscheduled - perhaps all shows just being made "available" at some point during the week - what will this mean? No advertising? Less money? Or more specific shows for more refined audiences? Well, who knows just yet, but like the advent of colour and then extra channels this could be the start of a new, significant chapter, in the history of T.V.

Catch-Up

More than a week since my last entry is a poor effort but in my defence I was in London for a good part of last week - and an interesting time it was too. I've mainly been just freelancing and applying for jobs.

I finished The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins which I really enjoyed but must be honest and say the whole Harry Potter saga held little interest for me: it's meant to be cool to like HP, at any age, but the guy sat next to me on the train who had taken it out of its cover obviously didn't think so.

I saw The Simpsons movie on Sunday and thought it was great. Having been long claiming it's a series that could have been possibly THE greatest TV show ever had it not been for the noticeable and sad decline in quality to a low standard, I thought the movie really alleyed the fears I had it would be the final nail in the coffin. Bart's naked skateboarding scene is hilarious.

I also saw a trailer for the first part of the The Dark Materials trilogy which looked pretty amazing. Hopefully it will do a Lord of the Rings and become a great winter movie trilogy which tells a great story well - and I hope they don't change the content and message for American audiences (those who have read it will know what I mean): Watch Below:

New Technologies Opening Avenues

This idea of having videos submitted to ask questions to candidates in elections is a fascinating idea into the new ways the web can and is affecting the political arena. It's very easy to mock or ignore Dave Cameron's web cast, or even Ann Widdicombe's, but at least they are acknowledging that these forms of communication are out there and are what millions of average people are using - for many reasons - day in, day out.

And surely in the future when my generation, or the generation just above ours, have become the leaders of this country we will want them to be technological savvy? To demonstrate they are intelligent, capable people who grew up understanding and participating in the technological advancements of the 2000s? I know I would much rather a prime minister who knew how to access his email or work a mobile phone in 20 years time than one who didn't.

And does this mean in 20 years time the prime minister will have an ancient Facebook account full of (potential embarrassing) photos and videos? Or will his spin doctor have ensured it was deleted a long time ago? I'd like to think the former...

Public Enemy #1

As a resident of Cornwall - have I mentioned that before? - I am fully aware of the problem of seagulls. This news story - which shows that a seagull has started stealing crisps from a shop in Scotland -seems to suggest those interviewed find the seagull an interesting novelty. Well I think it's just the next stage in seagulls evolution into rabid killers. Daphne Du Maurier, a Cornish gal, probably wrote The Birds as a warning to us.

In St Ives there are warning signs to mind your food as seagulls have been known to swoop down and take it. If they nest in your house you can expect to be bombarded if you walk to close as they think you are after their young - and yet trying to exterminate the pest often results in being reported to the police / animal services by some nosey moron. And while we are at it, let's kill wasps too. They serve no purpose and did we really evolve for 4.6 billion years to the top of the food chain just to let some black and yellow stripy bastard ruin an outdoor pint or picnic?

How unoriginal to call the seagull 'Sam'. Steven would have been better. Steven Seagull, menace to society.

News - it just keeps on coming

Watching the Alistair Campbell Diaries on BBC2 the thing that struck me most (aside from the incessant 'epic' sounding violin music), was just how much goes on in the world. This does sound a tad ridiculous from a journalism student, but when you look again at everything that happens you wonder how the world is still going: Foot and Mouth, the fuel crisis, Ron Davies and a mad moment, The NI peace process, Bill Clinton's affair, Kosovo bombing by NATO, Cherie giving birth to Leo, John Prescott punching a member of the electorate...and this was just in one of three shows covering the Blair tenure.

Apparently John Prescott (or" JP" as Campbell referred to him - which I kept thinking was Jacket Potato...join the dots) - said it was ridiculous he should have to apologise for retaliating after being hit in the face with an egg from one yard. I think he is right. Just because you are a politician doesn't mean you are not a human being - and it doesn't give people the right to attack you, physically, without fear of reprisal.

I am aware of the irony of this given what newspapers inflict upon politicians on a daily (mail) basis. A point nicely illustrated in tonight's show when Campbell highlighted that TB (Tony Blair) went out with a mug in his hand after the birth of Leo, still not understanding just how the media would jump on any little thing he did - and then turn it into a "PR" decision by Campbell.

Queen Rhaps BBC

The BBC looked really f*cking stupid today after having to apologise to the Queen after they portrayed her as having a strop during a photo shoot - which wasn't true. I simply cannot begin to understand how the edit which implied she had stormed out got from the first stage of editing in a cutting room somewhere to being shown to journalists from national newspapers. I mean seriously, did no-one at any point realise what people would think from the video? Heads will roll, heads will roll.

What are they feeding him?

I think they might be giving this dog too much respect - the headline is slightly sensationalist . But then again I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of it.

Black Eyed Pees (too easy really)

I should point out this is an old story I stumbled across. I don't think it's current.

-----

It must have been hard for Fergie's PR people to find a way out of the (rather damp and warm) situation she got herself into, if the news that she wet herself at a gig is true - and the pictures would suggest it is. You can't call it a wardrobe malfunction but a 'body malfunction' maybe? Implies she doesn't have control of her own 'needs' though which could mean they have to put her in some sort of home. Or maybe the backstage toilets were just so revolting she would rather be laughed at world wide? Probably not. As it turns out her PR people have claimed it was just sweat. Ahh, yes. Very unusual place for such a distinct sweat pattern, especially as the rest of her is so, er, not wet. She should have worn black though so people's eyes wouldn't have seen the pee. See what I did there?

------

To make it "news" - wasn't Live Earth a bit rubbish. Musicians shouting about, "making a difference" and "saving the world" is always embarrasing. I thought Kasabian were suprisingly good though.