- went to Ikea for bathroom furniture (partly successful)
- had dinner at Amber Restaurant (if you want real Chinese food, don’t go there)
- went to body pump
- joined the gym
- joined the library
- upgraded WordPress
- had Chinese takeaway for dinner
- saw Meet The Spartans (disappointing)
- did the weekly shop at Asda
- had brunch at Frankie & Benny’s (steak and eggs — steak for breakfast?)
- bought three books from beleaguered bookseller The Works
- went to the gym
- made a really decent minestrone soup from fresh ingredients (excepting the tomatoes and beans, which were canned)
- watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
This weekend I…
You just hate me ‘cos I’m black (again)
Estelle attacks ‘blindness to black talent’:
“There is a fashion for YWFs – young white females,” said Paul McKenzie, editor of the urban music magazine Touch. “They are the ones who are given the money and the time, and most importantly, people are patient with them. Duffy, if she hadn’t had this hit, would have been given a second chance, and a third. Estelle wasn’t. The people who hold the purse strings are looking at trends rather than talent. If you’re not a young white female – in other words if you’re black – I can imagine that is incredibly depressing.”
Hmm. I don’t listen to young black men and women (or young white men and women) doing soul and R&B and hip-hop because… I don’t like soul and R&B and hip-hop. They should be thanking their lucky stars I’m not into that kind of music, since I’m such a cheapskate I only buy the S$11.90 Special Singapore Editions once a year anyway!
Besides, if what Paul MacKenzie says is true, it’s not about race, it’s about what makes money (well, knock me over with a feather). Can talented young black women musicians not create a demand for their ‘product’? Are they mad that what is considered ‘black’ music is mainstream enough for white chicks with nice voices to get in on the action? But if soul music had never gone mainstream, the record companies would be accused of being racist, wouldn’t they?
I also have a question. How many successful (commercially or critically) bands / acts that do NOT do soul, R&B, or hip-hop feature a strong black presence? There are loads of people of every colour trying to do R&B (mostly poorly), but when it comes to black people doing rock, pop rock, or indy, I can really only think of Hootie and the Blowfish and the the Dave Matthews Band.
BTW, didn’t Leona Lewis just get her first Billboard no. 1? She’s not a YWF.
Back to the old firebrand
I know I’ve moved further and further to the bedevilled ol’ Right when it comes to certain issues*, but when it comes to politics, I’m as Lefty as a left-handed person who works in a left-handed company**. So I say, boycott the Olympic Games!
It’s fucking wrong that more developed countries are so dependent on cheap labour and the promise of a billion-plus market to sell their goods that they are essentially giving China a free pass to do whatever they want, with a few grudging noises about the niggly little issue known as human rights***. Tut-tutting at Hu Jintao and the Chinese government doesn’t cut the mustard. They’re fucking presiding over a huge country, do you think they would have manoeuvred into that position if they’d been intimidated by a few admonitory words?
We need to hit China where it hurts — don’t show them any face.
I want people, whoever they are and whatever position they’re in, to stand up against institutional cruelty and evil simply because it’s in their own interest to do so (in recognition that people are instinctively selfish, or is that self-preserving). There should be personal consequences for supporting, say, Coca-Cola, Atos Origin, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, Lenovo, Manulife, McDonalds, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung, Visa, Volkswagen, Adidas, Air China, UPS, Haier, Budweiser, Tsingtao, BHP, TechnoGym, Staples, PWC, and Schenker Logistics, among others, so the opportunity cost of using these branded products and services is too high.
If a high-profile Olympic athlete chose to withdraw from the competition, more might follow suit, turning the competition into a complete farce — but I know that’s not going to happen, personal glory and a lifetime of lucrative product spokesperson contracts is too great a temptation to ignore.
So, fired up as I am, I know that governments of supposedly more developed countries will continue to rubber stamp China through this latest psychological milestone of terrible behaviour becoming acceptable, and our pot of water will get just that little warmer after this summer.
* Frankly, I think it’s perfectly in keeping with my believing strongly in anarchism but recognising the practical impossibility of a happy anarchistic society.
** I actually do. Strange statistical anomaly.
*** Real human rights, not complacent litigious people looking to avoid a speeding ticket.
Why should anyone have a big wedding?
Aside from not liking spending a load of money just on one day, I’ve always wondered how people can (relatively) happily throw away huge amounts of money on a wedding: Nearly half of marriages doomed for divorce, study finds.
(It costs approximately 100 GBP to be married at your local council office. That’s more like it!)
Mr. Potatohead has been ruling the memes and I didn’t even know about it
I’ve never been rickrolled. I would certainly be surprised to click on a link about a topic (not Rick Astley) and end up watching him in his, er, heyday, wearing that denim shirt and high-waisted jeans.
We used to call him Mr. Potatohead when his Stock, Aitken and Waterman days were just beginning. We giggled at his inability to dance, his poofy hair, but never at his voice. He has an amazing voice.
Mr. Astley, even though you’ll be touring in an 80s revival (some things should not be revisited), I still think you’re faboo.
Polo Confidence
This is currently my favourite teevee ad:
Absolutely hilarious.
My mum is WAY ahead of her time
Parents told to write bedtime tales. Mum wrote stories for us to read at bedtime (we weren’t so into storytelling as we got older), and although we didn’t keep ‘em (she coulda been JK Rowling before JK Rowling), I remember they were great fun.
This weekend I…
- watched The Friday Night Project
- watched Jonathon Ross
- watched Saturday Kitchen while putting hooks into our new curtains
- had lunch at Ravellos with Stuart
- hung out with my cousin’s family (and was ‘treated’ to half-sung renditions of various songs from High School Musical 2 — oh joy)
- sat and watched Grease (second half) and Grease 2 (hahahahahaha!)
- had a long lunch and chat with Stuart, Derek, and Indira (at Mao)
- did the weekly shop at Tesco (more expensive than Asda)
- played on the laptop while Neil watched Not Another Teen Movie (classy)