[The title needs to be shouted in an Ian Paisley type voice.]
Have a look at these:
From my humble point of view it seems that we are outraged often these days. The media jump on the OUTRAGE bandwagon pretty quickly. The media believe they represent our views, what the population think. But they don’t, they just tell us what to think. The media is controlled by few, very rich people who want to keep us supressed and the politicians jumping from one thing to the next. The politicians have to be seen to be doing something. Using “outrage” allows the media to claim “public opinion” but I doubt they’ve really surveyed this. It’s what the string pullers want, not what the public want.
I’m not happy with the definitions given by the Cambridge Dictionary. Outrage to me is more than anger. It’s almost violent. Nothing seems to make me this angry. Perhaps I am too old and have an aire of cynicism about me now, although I feel I’ve been like this all my life.
I would like the media to gain a sense of proportion [and for Christmas I want a unicorn]. Let’s use “outrage” when it means something like Blair taking us into an illegal way. Let’s use outrage when it’s something really worth fighting for. Let’s keep the public informed and tackle the politicians when they aren’t fighting for social justice and freedom for all.
As I ‘ve mentioned before in this forum I do feel lucky to live here. My normal running route now takes in part of the North Downs Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This is a photo I took from the top of Blue Bell Hill overlooking the valley of the Medway.
Kentish View
I think the real view is much prettier, this doesn’t really capture it!
I’m fed up with people, mostly MPs apologising for their dim-witted ill-informed opinions/behaviour. I taken some clips from the BBC website. Here they are:
So, these people feel that they did wrong and believe that apologising means it’s all ok. I think the recent spate of politicians apologising just shows how bad our representatives are [I’ve no evidence that apologies are becoming more frequent, just I am noticing it more]. If you do something wrong while in the position of public office, then fuck off and resign. Grow some balls. Become a better person.
If someone says something that they later regret [because it affects their position of power] then we should embrace what they say and use it to inform debate and discussion. I want sincere apologies and education. I want reformed behaviour. How do you show you are truly sorry? You reform.
An MP plays Candy Crush during a meeting. Why? What is wrong with his job/meeting/attention span? After our representatives are caught out they should use this as an opportunity to explain themselves, not run and hide behind an apology. The media should use this as a chance to inform and educate.
Tory Peer says the poor can’t cook. She apologises because that’s easier and quickly forgotten rather than explaining her comments and having an informed debate about why she said that. Is there a reason she believes this? Perhaps we should educate her and the rest of society. This gaff should have been used as a tool for informing people what is really going on in society and facing up to our collective responsibilities. Informed, evidence based discussion is how we change people’s minds. Apologising is the easy way out.
This tweet caused no end of trouble for the MP. I don’t understand why. She tweeted a picture of a house from Rochester. It looked pretty standard to me. She apologised. That was easy. What we didn’t have was a debate, an informed discussion about what that picture meant. We didn’t use this tweet as a opportunity to educate and inform people. The mass media used “outrage” to force an apology rather than look into the deeper social issues. We shouldn’t pretend that houses like this don’t exist, we should work at getting everyone involved in our society.
My message here is that I want people to stop apologising for things they say or do. It’s easy to apologise. It’s easy to stand up and say sorry. What is harder is admitting you have biased or poor views of the reality and then trying to change future behaviour and inform and educate people.
“I deeply regret posting that naked picture of my cock on twitter and apologise for any offence caused” – a poor apology.
“I wish to inform you that I am a bigoted old man who lusts after young women. I thought that posting a picture of my cock would encourage women to want me back. I realise that I am the product of a mostly misogynistic world where women are treated like property and I will now work tirelessly to educate people and to improve the balance of the sexes within our patriarchal inherently sexist society. I have joined the following organisations and will form a political committee with powers to adjust laws and highlight the injustices we have in our society.” – this man would get my vote.
I’m not sure where I’m going with this. I’m annoyed by people apologising and thinking it’s all forgotten. I want apologies and then a CHANGE in behaviour. I want reformation. I want education of the issues. I don’t want these issues just dismissed with a simple apology.
I think this communication, as rambling as it is, goes with another to come. It will be titled OUTRAGE.
Lisa was a friend of mine. We spent about six years going to air cadets together. And then, when I was at university she died.
Eventually I hope that some of the communications in this site are about people who influenced me. People I am proud to have known. People I remember.
Lisa and I lived in the same village. I think she was a year older than me. We didn’t socialise in the village. We met when we ended up at the same air cadet squadron. In those days the Sqn put on a minibus to collect kids from the “villages” so we could get to parade nights. Eventually, once we were older, we ended up giving each other lifts into town so we could attend cadets. We would chat a lot and discuss the latest episode of “Happy Days”. Lisa was also a campanologist. I have no idea if she was religious or not, but on Sunday’s that was her thing. Once for my birthday she bought me “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols” on tape. Quality.
One day when I was at university I met my dad for lunch and he told me that Lisa had died. She was playing football and collapsed. They didn’t find out what happened. I was slightly shocked at first but I accepted it. I was sad. Of course I was. The pain I felt was at the thought of losing the person I had spent quite a bit of time with. But I knew it would get better.
Lisa’s funeral was in the village. There was quite a large contingent from cadets there and the church was packed. People were sitting in the aisles. After the service her coffin was lowered into the ground outside the church. I didn’t go and look. For some reason I had a “Home And Away” quote in my head: remember them as they were, not as they are. I have no idea where it really came from but I did watch Aussie soaps at that time. That evening our group went out in Sawbridgeworth and celebrated the life of Lisa in the traditional fashion.
I have occasionally been to speak to Lisa. Once I went after the tenth anniversary meal of the cadet squadron. Rich and I left our dates at my parents house and ran down to the graveyard to speak to Lisa. I was quite drunk. I haven’t been to the grave for a long time. Life has been busy and got in the way really. I intend to visit over the Xmas period while I’m in the village. Hence this the other day:
Just had an incredible urge to go and talk to Lisa. Let her know everything that has happened since I last spoke to her.
I can’t encapsulate years of friendship in this communication. But I can at least write a little. I still think of her. All of my readers needn’t worry. I don’t go to speak to her or her “soul”. Once you are dead, that’s it. The end. Nothing more. It’s a nice idea that we live on but one that reduces our real life to a time of fear. Embrace life and accept the truth. I go to speak to Lisa (I do very little actual speaking), to remember and keep her alive in my heart.
Lisa sent me the coolest Christmas card I ever got. She used to work in the printers workshop in the village. On the front was a snowman I think with a red scarf. Inside the card read:
Wishing you a piss poor Christmas and a fucking horrible new year.
It was ok. In all honesty I got bored pretty much from the beginning. I haven’t read the books and am quite unlikely to. There seems to be a lot of quite successful YAL out there. It doesn’t need my help. Anyway, dystopian futures were done better in the old days. Logan’s Run anyone?
The film livened up towards the end and actually almost became exciting at one point. This series of films have really left me cold.
Yesterday I travelled into town to see Combichrst at Koko in Camden. I took my niece and, of course, I met Andy there. We had a lovely low key dinner at Prezzo in Kings Cross station and then some cake from Patisserie Valerie. As much as dinner at a railway station sounds dull it was in the new-ish atrium and very pleasant. We walked to Camden and had a quick drink in the Lyttelton Arms before heading in to Koko. This pub and venue is just outside Mornington Crescent tube station. I suggest you look up the game “Mornington Crescent“.
First band on were DKAG. I didn’t watch them. I could hear them. They sounded quite upbeat and ok.
Second band on the bill were Naked Lunch. I wasn’t that keen. They all looked old, which in itself isn’t a bad thing, but they weren’t interesting. The music was ok but the “show” was terrible.
Naked Lunch
William Control took to the stage as the third band and were very good. The songs were well crafted with some good chorus lyrics that William got everyone to join in. They were a good support band. William’s thing seemed to be twirling the microphone around like a cheerleading baton which was quite interesting to watch. After the gig, my niece spotted William at the stage door and she went over to shake his hand and inform him that she really enjoyed his set.
William ControlWilliam Control
Now we come to the best bit.
Combichrist
Overall, Combichrist were stunning. I love their music. I Loved them live. There isn’t a great deal else to say other than: It was just awesome.
Combichrist
This band started with “We Were Made To Love You”. Played lots of other stuff.
Combichrist
Then they played more stuff including “Blut Royale”, “This Is My Rifle”, “Body Beat” and “Never Surrender”.
More songs I remember [added as and when]:
Denial
Shut Up And Swallow
Trail Of Blood (possibly)
Electrohead
Combichrist
At the end of the evening I was tired. I had danced and jumped and spent all my time in the pit. My niece had managed to grab a Combichrist drum stick and was the happiest girl alive. I settled for having an ace time at a gig that is officially rated as outstanding.
Some other things have come back to me whilst I was driving in to work. My niece lost a shoe at some point. Apparently a strap broke. She did find the shoe again and so this was a non point. We all chatted at some point to a girl who was at Download two years ago but was high on MDMA and cocaine at the time.
Koko itself is a very good venue. It looks great, has a balcony bar outside and two balconies inside for excellent viewing opportunities. I was very impressed with the sound quality, more than I was at Briton two weeks ago.
I should also mention that I saw Combichrist at Elektrowerkz a year ago and they were stunning then too. The previous gig a gave them a score of 9.9 < r < 10. I said at the time that I wasn’t sure why. I can now confirm that I was slightly too drunk at that gig. This time though I was just right. It scores a 10.
More post editing! I have found a website with the set list from a slightly previous gig.
So, I went to see this film at the IMAX cinema at Bluewater last night. I have written about the previous filmsPart 1 and Part 2 if you click on the links. So, it would turn out that I haven’t written about the first film. That means I have no idea when or where I saw that film. Maybe (seeing it was released at the end of 2012) I didn’t get to see it at the cinema as that was a disaster year for me. I may have seen it at the cinema but not written about it in this particular forum. I just don’t know. I can recall listening to podcasts talk about High Frame Rate from the distant past. Sorry, let’s move on.
I just rated The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies 6/10 on IMDB http://t.co/V7J76Rvnhk
This, latest and last, part of the film series was OK. I think my rating of OK just reflects the fact that over the last 15 years we have seen plenty of orc armies fighting the elves and hobbits helping out. The Lord of the Rings films had the element of awesomeness as that sort of thing just hadn’t been seen on the big screen before. For this film to be brilliant I needed to see something new. Overall, this film ended the series perfectly well.
There was quite a bit of wistful staring straight into the camera. The film could have been a lot shorter without all that stuff.
As a hint to the peoples of Middle Earth, if you think you’ve killed a big monster, cut the head off or stab the thing through the heart again. It makes simple battle sense.
Spot the difference between these two pictures [the lights being on is not the one I’m after]. The top picture indicates a very bad way to leave the car.
The following picture shows the correct way to leave a car. There is NEVER any excuse for leaving the wipers in any position other than STOP.
I’m not happy with the definitions given by the Cambridge Dictionary. Outrage to me is more than anger. It’s almost violent. Nothing seems to make me this angry. Perhaps I am too old and have an aire of cynicism about me now, although I feel I’ve been like this all my life.
