Slap happy

 Seems to me, that Will Smith probably needs to go into rehab or therapy big-time. 

When I first saw a clip of him slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, my immediate reaction was (sorry) somewhat amused, and thinking, "Well, Chris did have it coming a bit." And I know that's wrong: violence is never acceptable, and the joke Chris had made about Jada's hair, while in poor taste, didn't magically make it alright to hit him. Hitting people is bad, mm'kay.

But then I saw the longer clip, including the swearing from his seat afterwards - his face was just so stony and angry - it made it more real than the clip of the slap itself. You could only see Chris's face and he was trying to be professional as Will approached, and the strike itself looked rather theatrical, like that Batman slapping Robin meme. You can't see Will's face for that part, but when he sits back down and is yelling at Chris - well, he's that scary, enraged bloke down the pub who needs the bouncers to come for him. 

And then there was the weepy, bizarre speech when receiving his Oscar...

Pretty strange that he wasn't asked to leave and the ceremony went on regardless. Surely the organisers must have a protocol for this sort of thing? If they don't, they need one. He should have been asked to leave and someone else accept the award on his behalf. 

Some people are conspiracy theorists and saying it was all staged, which I guess would explain why they did fuck all about it but cut the mics, but I don't understand what Smith or Rock would gain from any of this. If the Oscar organisers wanted to spice up the ceremony for ratings, I don't understand why Smith & Rock would buy into it. What was supposedly in it for them? It wasn't a good look for either. Why would Smith want that to be the big story of the awards, when he knew he was pretty much bound to win his first Oscar? It makes no sense. 

I've read quite a bit about this today, and saw that Smith has written previously about feeling powerless as a child while his mother was beaten, and I feel sorry for him, and sorry that maybe he saw hitting Rock as a way of "showing up" to protect his wife? But if he's had therapy for that trauma, he needs a whole lot more. 

Finished (26/03/22):    The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi

Death on Daytime

 I've just been watching Death on Daytime, the documentary about The Jeremy Kyle Show, which is pretty damning about the programme and the tv production team culture behind it. 

If you ever saw any of it, you know that Kyle often went after his guests incredibly aggressively and humiliatingly. It was glaringly obvious, both at the time and in retrospect, that a lot of those people appearing were not equipped to deal with any of it. I think that's inarguable. 

In the breaks, 'though, Channel 4 was advertising Married at First Sight Australia, and that feels hypocritical. 

The Jeremy Kyle Show was certainly a less glamorous form of human-bear-baiting, but MAFS is exploitative too. Differences - "class" of people (mostly wannabe actors/models and influencers etc), more scripted - but still, I've watched some of it, and it feels very uncomfortable. The documentary argued Kyle's show deliberately chose an unpopular underclass to exhibit for pillory. And I'm wondering if the wannabes also "deserve" it in a similar way, to people's minds? Sure, it's polished and sanitised, staged in luxurious settings, but it still can be people screaming in each other's faces while so-called experts look on and apparently do very little.

MAFS is far from alone, these sort of  reality tv shows have proliferated and are popular, but they're very problematic. Having the adverts for it right in the middle of a show about someone killing himself after appearing on exploiTV, just makes me boggle. 

Stuff

 It's been a bad week for a few people in my life - bereavements and family illness and such. Not sure what to say about it. 

I had plans for what to do today, but it's very windy. Which seems a bit wussy, but I mean, properly windy! Inconveniently, excessively, bitingly windy, all while the sun shines to beckon you out.

Oh that reminds me, there's an Aesop's Fable about the wind and the sun in competition to take a man's coat off, isn't there? The wind tries to pull it away from him and eventually is forced to give up, whereupon the sun shines down on him until he takes it off by choice. Apparently it's about the value of persuasion and gentleness rather than force. 

But I'm not sure that works really - the sun's strength IS its heat. Just because it doesn't have the ability to pull the guy's coat away from him kinetically doesn't mean it isn't using its strength - it's beaming down on him so strongly he starts to sweat. 

Ha, nice try. Aesop.

Finished: The Facts of Life & Death - Belinda Bauer 

Loss

 Ex has lost one of his parents over the weekend, so that's sad. (Shower of shit is still funny, but a bit poignant too.) 

The parent-child bond between them may have had its problems, but In-Law was a decent person to me and did their best to accept their awkward daughter-in-law into the family. To be fair, we didn't see a lot of each other as we lived in different countries, so it was easy to have cordial relations! But I cannot fault ex's family throughout, for how they have been to me. 

I guess I'll need to sort out getting the kids to the funeral. I'm not sure what the etiquette is about ex-DILs - I'm sure the family would be welcoming, but it's not really about me, is it? It's about ex having things straightforward at a difficult time. 

It has sparked memories and I do wonder, sometimes, why ex didn't just let me go? There were times in our relationship that I was ready to give up and he persuaded or begged me to stay. Yet he must have known that he didn't want the same things I did, and that we didn't work, and what our relationship had to offer was never enough for him, or never felt like it. 

I just don't get it.

Looking at his life now, he's got the kind of lifestyle he wanted and it looks like it's all worked out for the best for him, for both of us. I don't understand why he held on and made such a fuss about us splitting up. He could have had all that years ago if he'd stopped trying to convince me to stay with him. We could have both been happier sooner. 

Shower of shite

 Today was quite amusing. I asked the ex, who was here to pick up T for the weekend, to help me move the guinea pig house from the back garden to the front garden, which he kindly agreed to do.

It's one like the above, with a fixed run attached. So it's a bit awkward to move around, and pretty wide.

We quickly discovered that it was too wide to go up the path easily, and we ended up having to go high to go over the fence posts. Ex had a brainwave and went under the hutch, thinking he could support it from below. What he didn't realise, and I didn't remember, was that the floor of the hutch isn't fixed, so it went up as he pushed up - and a shower of guinea pig poop rained down, all over him!

I laughed.

He's not so bad really. He took it really well, and we continued shifting it into the front garden after a struggle over the hedge, as the entrance was too tight for it.

Oh dear, I laughed. 

They do say no good deed goes unpunished, but you don't expect it to be quite so literal. 

NB. For the keen guinea pig herders out there, fear not, that's not all the run mine have. I took off a side and extend their grazing with a wire enclosure. They have plenty of room to popcorn and chomp.

Finished: Darkside - Belinda Bauer

Beta block

 Ha, I feel slightly hurt and miffed that I was asked by my newly writing acquaintance to be a beta reader for their book, but they evidently forgot or decided against me. They are now talking online about their excitement/anxiety about having given the book to their beta readers. 

Now, truthfully, I was dubious about agreeing to read it, as it's quite a big commitment not just to read it, but presumably within a timeframe, and try to have useful feedback about it too. When they asked, I was pretty bland in my response as I wasn't confident I would manage it, and I didn't follow up on it. 

So it's a relief and I didn't really want to do it anyway. I sort of liked the idea of doing it, but I was conscious that I'd probably find it stressful and might have ended up letting them down. 

Doesn't stop it smarting a bit tho! 

Feelings are weird. 

The 'Vid

 So, Covid sucks big ones. 

I had all my jabs, but I wasn't feeling too great last weekend and took a test: positive. 

I have been so ill with it the last few days, it's been dreadful. If that's "mild disease" then pfft. It was like the most horrible flu, it was a real struggle. 

I feel like I'm out the other side now, thankfully.