Sunday, March 29, 2009

Why I hate the papers

If there's anything that demonstrates pure misogyny in the tabloids, it is the coverage of the acquittal of Peter Bacon compared to that of the conviction of multiple rapist Kirk Reid.

Guess which one made the front page of at least two shit papers (Daily Fail & Daily Suppress)?

Over seventy rape & sexual assault victims and a successful conviction are not apparently nearly as interesting or newsworthy as one man being acquitted of date rape. At least we know who to value in society.

There are not enough expletives in the world.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Thinks of Lynx

It's a curious thing, those Lynx adverts. Which are ludicrously sexist (but it's 'all in good fun', so hur-hur-hur). The one with the stick-thin women who lose their outer garments when looked at by weedy bloke makes me feel a bit ill. Not helped by his posing pouch towards the end. Urgh.

It struck me that probably a large portion of Lynx products would actually be bought by women as stocking-filler type gifts. I also imagine that the greater proportion of day-to-day shopping would be bought by women, so deodorants and smellies for husbands and teenage sons probably are bought with the weekly or monthly shop. Are the Lynx ad people unaware of this, or are many women just numbed by the continuous deluge of sexism in the media?

Hair dyes for men are marketed differently to women's as well, although presumably the exact same products. One of the the ads has two daughters telling their dad it's time he got dating and new hair colour will get him a woman. The ones marketed to women tend to be all about not showing your age and looking young/healthy. The fruit for picking, I guess, as opposed to the picker.

Sigh.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Monday, March 23, 2009

Smothers fray

Mother's Day is a bit shit, if you ask me.

I liked the cards my children made me and the flowers they picked. The chocolates were nice. My children, they are sunshine and fairylights and laughter...

The slightly singed croissants for breakfast were a bit of a disappointment, but well, the cook was only 39. He's usually an excellent cook but seems to have a blindspot when it comes to croissants.

Our unexpected financial crisis pretty much sucked, as did finding my gran and her bathroom in a, er, fragrant state.

It took her an hour to realise who I was, however, which sucked more.

I won't go on any further to catalogue anything else that bummed me out and fucked me off yesterday, as it'll make me weep self-indulgently again.

The best part of the day was Supernatural and retiring to bed again.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Share your views...

Go fill in a quick survey about attitudes to violence against women. That's right, jump to it*!


*Or just do the clicky-clicky with the mouse - possibly, very possibly more effective.

Monday, March 09, 2009

This will change your life


This leaflet amused me with its hyperbolic claims. When I first saw it, I presumed Jehovah's Witnesses or some such had been round. But no, on proper reading, I found that it was part of a recruitment drive for a local choral group.

Join a choir, it'll change your life!

I've heard such claims relating to religions and fad-diets before, but never a singing group. Choirs are obviously cultier* than I realised.


* This word employed since it works in Lexulous, haha.

Monday, March 02, 2009

What's yours is mine and what's mine is me own

Numbers is a series I usually quite like, although its premise gets stretched beyond breaking point at times and it's formulaic, etc etc. I like formulaic sometimes, quite often even... However, the most recent episode I saw really pissed me off.

The FBI are trying to track a killer who is trying to win an internet computer game, by popping off his real-life opponents.

Charlie is told by his girlfriend that she also plays the game with a group of online friends, and this is where the programme got my goat: his attitude is mind-boggling, really. It's not that he's afraid for her, initially: it's that he gets jealous and acts weird because he didn't know that she played the game or about the online group, and he's hurt that she didn't invite him to play along as well.

Like you become someone's partner and you are instantly informed about their every movement and every hobby, and if you're not and not immediately included, there's something wrong. His little genius friend (who was in Ally McBeal and whose name escapes me), is no better, suggesting almost at once that maybe she has an online thing going with one of her gamer-friends.

How about smacking him upside the head and demanding why he thinks he owns her entire life and must know every trivial detail instead, the controlling nosy nob-end?

Then of course, he forbids the FBI to involve her any further in the catching of the murderer, as though he has the right to make those decisions for her, plot twists follow, she disobeys and gets involved and ends up a damsel in distress. It all ends grandly while she boohooes on his shoulder.

Bleeeeurgh.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Album meme

Taken from Badger on Fire, a meme...

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5. Random Wikipedia articles for the track listing.

Thus:

I give you, Slap & Tickle with their debut album "Well as the Earth".

Album tracks:

1. Trax
2. Count Camillo Marcolini
3. Jon Bridgman
4. Kouyara
5. Alfred Lyttleton
6. Appeal group
7. Katakado Dam
8. Settling accounts: drive to the East
9. Nieprzesnia
10. Haarlem Stadion
11. Methodrone
12. Jinx

Rapid ageing

I couldn't help overhearing a lengthy conversation the other day. No, really, I couldn't - it was being held very loudly all over the library as I searched for books. Without stoppering up my ears, I couldn't miss it. A man was bemoaning the situation with care of his wife and Social Services, and the librarian was consoling and giving what seemed to me, some sound advice. He wasn't really there for answers, though, you could tell he was just letting off steam.

Eventually she asked whether he could help in the care of his wife: "No, no, I'm sixty-three, seventy... eighty."

I never heard anyone age so fast!