The Youth Defence this week carried out a deplorable act by parking a protest billboard outside a Rape Crisis Centre on Lesson Street. There is a time and place for debate on abortion and regardless of your views on the topic it can be agreed on all sides that this was a hateful act by the organisation. In response, I wrote them a letter on their Facebook in a vain attempt to call for the voice of reason. No response from them and it was hidden from their wall.
Here is a link and below are screen shots in case the letter gets permanently deleted:
Kanye West is a man of many words and thankfully they have been committed to print by the very man who spoke them. This philosophical journey is not only a trip into the mind of the artist of our generation but also explores what it is to be human.
Reviews:
"[It's] like a child discovering Legos"
"This guy's ego is so big it has all but destroyed anything else in that fat head of his. Half the book is either empty or has one-liners filling a page; things like "Life is 5% what happens and 95% how you react!" or "I hate the word hate.""
"Kanye shows serious signs of mental deficiency."
"this book clarifies exactly the reasoning of why Kanye operates the way he does"
"I did not have to pay for my copy as it was given out at a kanye concert maybe that is why i do not feel cheated."
Phantom and myself don't see eye to eye on certain music, in particular Bon Jovi, but today I think we made some new ground in what we both wish for each other - and it's all good will as well.
The digital era has brought a plethora of quality television series to our screens. In this chaotic market it is inevitable that some shows will not get the audience it rightly deserves. Here is a run down of the top 6 shows that I felt were worthy of sitting with the well established shows but for one reason or another never quite made it.
6. Teachers (Channel 4)
Have you ever wondered what happens in the staff room at break time or what teachers get up to on a night out? Well wonder no more. This somewhat short lived comedy from Channel 4 slowly went downhill after the main character Simon left the programme but was jam packed with laughs. Imagine the Inbetweener kids all grown up and working in a school and this is not far off from what Teachers had to offer.
5. How Not to Live Your Life.
This is possibly one of my favourite comedies of all time. The show created the terms 'bum rubbish', 'sexy intercourse', 'samuelbuca' and calling Jon Bon Jovi by his correct title Jonathan Bon Jovi. Following the character Don a thirty-something who has just inherited his grandmother's house, the show is bizarre and brilliant.
4. Grosse Pointe
Created by Darren Star, the 'brains' behind Sex and the City, comes this hilarious show that takes a look at the behind the scenes of an American daytime soap opera. Fictional in every sense of the word, the show points out the insipidness of soap operas and that's where the comedy lies in. The show only lasted for one season but was well written and was a far cry from Star's other show. The one about a single woman who over analysed everything in her life that it got to the point that her narcissism and self-absorption on how everything affected her personally, made her blind to the fact that this state of mind was unhealthy way to be if seeking to be in a relationship which is ironic because she was a relationship columnist for a newspaper.
3. The Guardian
Before he became a mentalist Simon Baker was high-end coke snorting lawyer who got sentenced to 1500 hours of community service in exchange for not going to prison for 5 years. The community service took the form of working in a children's legal service, a long way from the corporate law that Baker's character was used to. The show looks a little dated at times looking over at it now but the strong screen writing still holds up. Episode 5 from the first season has one of Aaron Paul's (Jesse from Breaking Bad) first on screen appearance, he played a gay teenager who after being kicked out of his conservative parents house turns to prostitution in order to make a living. Many other actors also appear as special guests throughout the three seasons of the show.
2. Friday Night Lights
What made this show stand out from any other television show is that optimism was always the underlying theme throughout its five seasons. The pilot episode might be one of the best pilot's ever created for television. Peter Berg's career as a director has taken a significant nose dive since filming the pilot but he can always be proud what he created here. The show's greatest strength lies in the character of Coach Eric Taylor. One of the strongest characters ever written on television and film. It is no surprise that in the last season, the actor Kyle Chandler, won the Emmy for best lead actor in a drama. Beating out the competition, who if you are betting person would have put your money on any of the other actors to win due to lack of attention the show undeservingly received. The other actors in his category consisted of Jon Hamm, Steve Buscemi, Michael C. Hall, Hugh Laurie and Timothy Olyphant. The fact that Chandler won seems a fitting way to end the show as Friday Night Lights always championed the underdog over everything else.
1. Hero to Zero
Speaking of underdogs, Michael Owen's show Hero to Zero obviously has to come in at number one. A show where Michael Owen emerged from a young boy's
poster at night time to give him advice on life. It was a short lived show,
only lasting 6 episodes but it has a strong following. Sadly no episodes can be
found online, only a short intro is up on Youtube.
A Facebook page has attempted to revive the show but as of yet to little avail:
Very few things on the internet has me in tears with laughter (David Thorne's emails are among these few things) but this recording (Circa 1860) has always cracked me up. It has been doing the rounds on the inter-web for about 5 years or so, after it became popular due to a news reporters inability to finish her report without laughing once the clip was played. After nearly half a decade I have returned to the clip. I'm glad the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in life have not dulled my senses to realise that this is a deceptively brilliant comedic masterpiece (listen to it on repeat about 3 or 4 times and you will start to smile/laugh).
The comedy of the clip has now been amplified by the comments from Youtube users. Every now and then the masses throw out words on the interconnected web that makes you feel glad to be part of the global community. Here are a selection of comments that made my late night insomnia tolerable:
- "Thumbs up if your still listening to this in 2013!" - "autotuned obviously" - "I'm only 12...all my friends like Justin Bieber but this is real music" - "I never knew dubstep was this old." - "He should get a better mic." - "suprised nobody has sampled it ....yet." - "#1 hit single of 1860 - Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville - My creepy sound recording" - "i thought it would be a fart." - "The ghost on this recording will come for you tonight while you sleep" - "it may need a little auto tuning." - "where's the drop" - "My asshole brother repeatedly played this in my closet in my room at 3am. I'm still scared."
