HOLIDAY!

OK. No blogs for a while boys and girls! NO NET! :(

Back in a few weeks!

xx

You Guys Will Probably Hate me After This.

But I have to say something. About Jade Goody. I didn't want to go into it, because we see it in the papers EVERYDAY. But there's something about the way this girl is doing things that is so tacky.

She has cancer and got it real bad at a hell of a young age. I 100% sympathise with that. She's leaving behind 2 VERY young children who are not going to have their mother with them. I have nothing but sympathy for the situation.

As anyone else would be, she has decided she wants to make the best future for her children and continue working. Since appearing on Big Brother in 2002, she has been known as a British Celebrity (yes she might be a Z- lister, but a celebrity all the same). So being on TV I guess is the only way she knows how to make money. She has decided to document her illness on TV.

However, do not push your illness in the face of so many other cancer sufferers, who have not got the ability, contacts or money to hire Max Clifford (who evidently I cannot stand) and invite press to come visit them in hospital, and then sell your story to the highest bidder. Yes I salute her for continuing to work as many other cancer sufferers wouldn't work, but I just feel it is ever so tacky and offensive to those of us who just have to live with what we have.

The celebrity culture is exploited so much, that it gets to the point, where people seem to become completely irrational. This stunt being one of them.

I was watching Richard and Judy today (ssshh, they're good!!!) and Max Clifford was being interviewed on there, and I could seriously tell, that what he was saying was all completely scripted and was another PR campaign for him. It drove me insane!.

Many people have said things against Jade's actions, however they are being slated all over the place for having their views, which brings me onto my next point.

Before Jade Goody was known as the celebrity as cancer, she was known as Jade Goody the racist girl with the unsuccessful business and a kebab. It's funny how the moment someone becomes ill, the sun shines out of their a**. People should not have to change their opinion about someone, because they are ill. People used to call ehr a media whore. Is this not a prime example of it? You may think I'm cold hearted and have no feelings whatsoever, but believe me I do. Like I said, I have every bit of sympathy for her and her family, but what I do not appreciate is exploitation of media and celebrity culture, to persuade the way in which we feel.

She says she is doing this also to raise awareness of cervical cancer. Great idea! 20% more women have gone to hospitals for screening since Jade went public. If it's for awareness, do you really need to sell EVERY story to the highest bidder everytime. Yes make money for your kids and family. But do not take the piss.

I have had people in my family die of cancer. My grandmother has suffered from it for the past 28 years. And hell it's hard to watch people go through the problems and side effects they have to go through, so I feel for the family and everyone I really do.

But Jade, live the final months of your life with dignity and enjoy what you have with your children and soon to be husband. Reflect on the good times you have had together. Embrace every moment you have with your kids. Don't a) tire yourself out from all the work you are doing, b) miss out on quality time with the children and c) exploit the media and society the way you are. Thank you for raising awareness of cervical cancer, I'm sure you've saved many lives. But I'm sure you've also made a damn lot of money. Enough is enough, don't you think?.

It's things like the video below, that really does need to be dealt with on a personal basis. There's enough "normal mortals out there dealing with the same situation without it being pushed straight back into our faces again.

WARNING: This video, is actually quite emotional. Even brought a tear to my eye.

And the Winners Are....

Here are the winners for this year's Brit Awards, held at London's Earls Court on 18 February. (Winners in bold)

Best British male
Ian Brown
James Morrison
The Streets
Paul Weller
Will Young

Best British female
Adele
Beth Rowley
Duffy
Estelle
MIA

Best British group
Coldplay
Elbow
Girls Aloud
Radiohead
Take That

Best British live act
Coldplay
Elbow
Iron Maiden
Scouting For Girls
The Verve

Best British single
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Duffy - Mercy
Girls Aloud - The Promise
Leona Lewis - Better in Time
Scouting for Girls - Heartbeat

Best British Album
Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends
Duffy - Rockferry
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Radiohead - In Rainbows
The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing

Best British breakthrough act
Adele
Duffy
Last Shadow Puppets
Scouting For Girls
The Ting Tings

Best international album
AC/DC - Black Ice
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Killers - Day & Age
Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Best international male
Beck
Neil Diamond
Jay-Z
Kanye West
Seasick Steve

Best international female
Beyonce
Gabriella Cilmi
Katy Perry
Pink
Santogold

Best international group
AC/DC
Fleet Foxes
Killers
Kings of Leon
MGMT

Critics' Choice: Florence and the Machine

Outstanding Contribution To Music: Pet Shop Boys.

Duffy Duffy Duffy. I really don't like your songs. Seriously. And I honestly think that you winning 3 awards is going to drive Estelle and Adele up the wall! You caused enough arguments last time you won something. Just stop singing so damn much! You actually sound like a 5 year old child when you sing and it's quite scary. Saying this, no one can complain for her winning what she has won. These awards are apparently voted for by the general public, which would therefore mean that the big bosses at the Brits have NOTHING to do with the final result..YA THINK????!!! .

Below, is a video of the most fantastic PSB (Pet Shop Boys that is!). They performed a medley of some rather fantastic tunes and were joined by the upcoming sensation the is Lady Gaga and by the kind of good looking Brandon Flower (what a surname!). Saying this, I have no idea why there were there! They sang the same 4 words, 3 times and that was it :-/. But anyway an outstanding performance from PSB (who incidentally, have had 39 top 30 singles, 22 top ten hits in the UK, oh and4 number ones) and a well deserved award.

And The Nominees For The Brits 2009 are...

Best British male
Ian Brown
James Morrison
The Streets
Paul Weller
Will Young

Best British female
Adele
Beth Rowley
Duffy
Estelle
MIA

Best British group
Coldplay
Elbow
Girls Aloud
Radiohead
Take That

Best British live act
Coldplay
Elbow
Iron Maiden
Scouting For Girls
The Verve

Best British single
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Duffy - Mercy
Girls Aloud - The Promise
Leona Lewis - Better in Time
Scouting for Girls - Heartbeat

Best British Album
Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends
Duffy - Rockferry
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Radiohead - In Rainbows
The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing

Best British breakthrough act
Adele
Duffy
Last Shadow Puppets
Scouting For Girls
The Ting Tings

Best international album
AC/DC - Black Ice
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Killers - Day & Age
Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Best international male
Beck
Neil Diamond
Jay-Z
Kanye West
Seasick Steve

Best international female
Beyonce
Gabriella Cilmi
Katy Perry
Pink
Santogold

Best international group
AC/DC
Fleet Foxes
Killers
Kin
MGMT

Critics' Choice: Florence and the Machine

Outstanding Contribution To Music: Pet Shop Boys

The RETURN of the Routemaster!!!

I was reading my best friend's blog Make A Bus earlier, and he mentioned that the Routemaster, one thing that represented London so well, is to make a return by 2011. And so it should I say! I refer you back to an old blog of mine, about my nightmare on the BENDY BUS, or as Ka-os calls it, the free bus.

As convenient as these buses were for the wheelchair users,as well as mothers with space ships for pushchairs, oh and how can we forget the fair jumping scum of society, it was actually the most annoying bus for the majority of the public - NON BUS USERS INCLUDED! You can't cross the road because the bus decides to rest it's 18 meter long self across the pedestrian crossing. It causes one hell of a traffic jam, because it crosses a whole damn junction Not only is this bus a nuisance, it is also one dangerous vehicle, let me tell you.

According to a report by TfL to the London Assembly, bendy buses cause 5.6 pedestrian injuries per million miles operated (and lets face it, a bus probably operates a damn load of miles), compared with just 2.6 for all other buses. They're involved in more "collisions" with cyclists than other buses and have more accidents generally than bigger buses.

This bendy bus is probably one thing making the least amount of revenue for the city, due to it's inconvenience and danger to London.

So moan over about the bendy bus and HOORAY for the Routemaster and well done Boris (although we all know you're trying to steal some political points here). The routemaster is so good in many ways. It takes up less damn space for one! And it also gives me a laugh when the stupid school kids think they look uber cool (I love the word uber right now!) jumping off the bus before it hits the bus stop, and they end up falling on their face.

Now who's the idiot you mongrel - go home and do whatever it is you kids do these days!.

It's harsh, I know, but something has to keep my day going!

ADAM KHADAROO

OK so, I was on MSN talking away to whoever i feel like talking to and ignoring others, when I got a message from someone that I spoke to only once and very briefly a long time ago. We got talking and started talking about our work, from which I found out he is a photographer. I asked to see some of his work, and what I saw, was something that was so refreshing to the eyes, and such a work of art - and from someone who has only been professional for 2 months! Please show some admiration, to Adam Khadaroo. Please do click here to view the pictures in their true glory

She's so Controversial! But I Love it!

This song got on my bloody nerves when it first came out. Seriously. It was on the radio virtually every two minutes or on MTV, TMF, E4 and all those other music thingys.

But a friend of mine told me to listen to the words and I'd love it, and low and behold, I do.

Little Lily (I had to type her name 5 times before I spelt it correctly by the way) was born to be controversial. She literally doesn't give a s***. It's great!

Ladies, gents, and others, I give you The Fear

Apparently I'm Racist

Ok. So I was talking to a friend of mine today (well for most of the day) about life etc etc. And we came to the subject of sexual relations. Oh by the way, he's white and incase you didn't know (or you're colour blind) I'm black. I asked him if he's ever slept with a black man. He said yes, he's slept with many cultures before. Good on him! He then proceeded to ask me if I've slept with white guys. I said yes. In fact, I say I've only ever slept with white guys.

Bare with me on this one. My friend then asked me why, and the honest straight forward answer, is because I don't find many black men attractive. I just haven't got a physical preference to all black men. Someway, somehow, my friend decided that I was racist.

I laughed at the comment and carried on chatting, but it has kind of disturbed me a bit and got me a little angry. It's not the first time I've heard someone say it to me either. In fact some people have said to me that I'm not racist, I'm hypocritical and not proud of my heritage.

Now, I am very proud of my heritage, but sleeping or going out with someone of my colour, does not define me as a person. I do not need to sleep with someone of my colour to prove that pride or to prove myself to anyone.

I guess I'm just writing this to get my anger out and to say how much it annoyed me once I had realised what he had said.

So, do my thoughts make me a racist? A hypocrite? A bounty? Am I not proud of my heritage and culture? Is it not just down to personal preference and personal observations?? And is the fact that I find the look of black skin against white skin oh so sexy a bad thing??!!!!

Who would've known!

I spoke to a friend today who mentioned something to me that is quite sensitive to most of the world: The Swastika. Yes that would be the symbol used by the Nazis during WW2.

Apparently one of his friends had it tattooed on his arm last week, and now my friend is reluctant to stay friendly with him. It spurred me on to do some research on what exactly the Swastika is meant to represent, and to be honest it came up with some rather interesting facts about the symbol.

We all know that the Swastika is a VERY powerful symbol. Used by the Nazis to murder millions of people and to promote their beliefs. However for centuries before this, it was a positive symbol. So what is this history of the Swastika? And what does it represent today to people? Good or evil??..

Used for over 3,000 years (dating even before the Egyption Ankh), the Swastika was used by ancient cultures in China, Japan, India and Southern Europe. It was a symbol of peace.

(Left) Swastika, representing a symbol of peace.


In the 1800s, countries around Germany were getting bigger and becoming empires, yet Germany was not unified until 1871. To counter the stigma of youth, nationalists in Germany used the Swastika, as it had India/Aryan origins, to represent Germanic/Aryan history.

Then Hitler came along. And in wanting to keep a Germanic/Aryan history and race, he used the Swastika as a symbol to represent his beliefs and to represent "Germany's struggle". This in turn has caused the symbol to have negative effects on the world.


(Left, the Swastika as used by Hitler and his Nazi regime)
Now some people have said to me that as the symbol was originally used for peace and used by many Buddhists, Buddhists, should the symbol as their own and attempt to repatriate it to its original meaning -for example, gay people use the rainbow flag or the pink triangle.

Now I have to disagree with this argument. Whatever it's history, it is remembered by the generation of today and yesteryear as "Nazi", "Holocaust" and many other negative terms.
The fact that the Nazis had such a big impact on the world, as far as I'm concerned means they have redefined the symbol. You can't reclaim the symbol of the whole regime - what would it be signifying? The pink triangle you can (although I'm not really very keen on it), because it's a symbol of the oppressed, not the oppressor. (For those of you who don't know, the pink triangle was used in Nazi camps to identify homosexuals)


The pink triangle, used in concentration camps to identify homosexuals.


Lets use an AWFUL AWFUL analogy here: A black man may call himself or his black friends nigger, but he is not going to walk around wearing KKK emblems is he??

There'll no doubt be a difference based on where you are in the world too. If it's a Buddhist symbol then it'll be seen differently in a part of the world with a Buddhist tradition. Europe isn't one of them, hardly anyone had seen it before Germany started to use it, so that's what it means here.Even if it was another symbol, I'd be a bit suspicious of a religious symbol being used (I'm guessing) outside the religion. In which case you could justify it by saying it just looked nice, but I'm also guessing the religious stuff will be used to justify a swastika. People's reactions to "oh, I just like it" about a swastika would be interesting though, don't you think???

A Media Rant!

OK So I used towork in media (even though i hate the industry!) and i’m looking at the beeb (that’s the BBC for those of you who don’t know) and I find out that they’re focusing on freedom of speech to celebrate 75 years of BBC World Service (what a celebration that will be!!)

I It got me thinking…We all know that newspapers love to sensationalise and sometimes mislead their consumers…how do they get away with it??? Is this the unfortunate cost of press freedom?? What are the arguments FOR press freedom?? In terms of arguments for, a lot of media savvy’s (snotty b*****ds i like to call them) think that press freedom equates to the right of self expression…great!! fantastic!! If we never had that right, I would not be able to air my views like I am now. However…as far as I’m concerned, you cannot apply this theory to that of powerful insitutions like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (sorry Rupert, I know you own this site, but you know I’m right ). If you’re going to apply something like that to insitutions, then consider this…as individuals, we are powerless and we can do harm if we are careless about our accuracy.
We don’t allow major companies like Sainsbury’s or British Airways to be inaccurate about their products.

However there are even laws for us against slander, inciting hatred and libel. Now if insitutions like the media were casual about accuracy, it can cause a great load of damage to the reputation of individuals and to that of large insitutions and communities. If the powerful conglomerates of the media today had unconditional freedom of speech, they would easily be able to be inaccuracies, causing great damage to others and therefore undermining democracy…so all that rubbish about press freedom being like freedom of speech is frankly UNREAL…i don’t care how fashionable it is!

Speaking of democracy..again the media savvy’s think that press freedom appeals to the needs of democracy…again…and to be honest ..think about it…democracy would needs a press that can inform it’s citizens ACCURTAELY! And of course if requirements for accuracy were too tightly drawn then frankly think the press would be intimidated. And no one can be sure of getting everything correct even with the zealous “Fact-checking”… Frankly I think that the whole press freedom thing is unjustified! The government have a HUGE influence over the media (which i hope we all know)…and personally, I think that the press is there, to help the government influence the way in which society develops…as the views and morals of the government and the press changes so will the minds of some individuals (i.e those who rely on nothing but the press for their facts!).

However, I would like to think that society is developed enough to be able to have their own views, opinions and morals in life! Why should we have to live life the way society expects us to!?! We are afterall INDIVIDUALS!! Slightly of track there, but hey..I’M RANDOM!! :D