I’m Currently listening too … (3)

Death Cab for Cutie – Sound of Settling
Rasputina – Antique High Heel Red Doll Shoes
The Chalets – Feel the Machine
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – Gold Lion
Hole – Violet
Jah Wobble – Visions Of You
David Bowie – China Girl
Marilyn Manson – Great Big White World
Ladytron – Ladybird
Kraftwerk – Numbers

Banned

I don’t read the newspapers much. Mainly because I don’t subscribe to their political leanings and the other crap they often spout, however that said they do have news in them, some items more relevant than others but you can guarantee theres always a story to delight or anger.

This recent headline really hacked me off;

Nightclub ban for blind girl

The story is basically about a blind 27 year old actress from Leeds who was banned from a nightclub for having a white stick. Bouncers asked her to hand the stick over as it was an ‘alleged’ health hazard and when she refused she was told ‘sorry you can’t come in’. She’s now suing ‘Space’ nightclub in Leeds under discrimination laws, rightly so too – I hope she bankrupts them.

Babe of the Week No.1

Is it me or is Emmerdale farm the best soap on tv at the moment?

Great actors, witty and emotional storylines and all in a lovely English setting, much more easier on the eye than London’s east end.

Did I mention the babes too? Oh year there’s plenty of them

So this brings me to my babe of the week, oh how chauvinistic, Em’s will scowl at me and female friends will no doubt comment, hopefully I can rely on the blokes for constructive comments!

So, my babe of the week is Emmerdale’s Hayley Tammadon who plays Delilah Dingle (drool drool drool)

Ace is back and he told you so!

It’s been a great week, not because anything of great significance or magnitude has happened but because of the little things, it’s made me realise, it’s the little things that sometimes amount to more. the little things that count.

Firstly my Xbox 360 has been running fine, the back story to this is worthy of a blog of its own but hey, everyone isn’t a geek and wouldn’t be interested, geekette’s out there feel free to ask though!

(amazing, I spelt Xbox with a small x and guess what? the spell checker highlighted it in red until I changed it to a big X, how much are Microsoft actually watching us!?)

I decided to spring clean after the bank holiday hangover and dad even gave me some of his posh furniture, so my flat feels like new, at least it does till I make it a mess again.

My long running battle with the local council has concluded and it turns out they actually owe me money. Hurray for the little guys and boo to bureaucracy!

I downloaded some great tunes I’ve been after and everywhere I’ve walked with my mp3 player I’ve been almost skipping and smiling.

My eye has been feeling better and has a lovely blue tint to it now, it’s made me feel better in myself and the pain was worth it, so to patronise you all, no pain, no new eye…… erm I mean gain!

My off licence has yet again new owners, a foxy Indian woman spoke the most posh English and even sounded fab in her own tongue, plus she sold me two bottles of Pinot Grigio wine for £5

I’ve missed all the rain showers when out and about!

Today when I decided I wanted red or purple highlights in my hair I called at a salon that’s well known and the convo went like this;

‘I want red or purple highlights… but not the cheesy 80’s style ones, the patchy quilt type, sorta random, do you get me?’

‘Yeah sure but red would suit you better’

‘Well red highlights spell danger!’ (do you get the song and the joke?)

‘Hmmm your hair needs to be longer, maybe by a couple of weeks’

‘A couple of weeks will make a difference?!!’ (Its longer that it has been in a while)

‘Yes, come back then’

So I left, feeling hard done by, the candy ass male hair dresser obviously could not be arsed to do my hair on a Friday afternoon, so I walked around town and fumed. Then I realised there’s other hair dressing salons, hey this is the free west and consumers have choice! So I got myself a salon full of babes that pampered me and did my hair and guess what, if looks fab. I walked through town and heads turned!

Tonight I watched ‘Have I got news for you’ and ‘My name is Earl’ and realised comedy hasn’t gone altogether, I didn’t stop laughing.

And guess what folks? It’s been along while and despite not being the most perfect week I’ve strode through it with a swagger.

Ace is back and he told you so!

(erm they called me ace at school, as in Jay, jase, jase the Ace, its also an Ace Frehley catchphrase from the band Kiss)

I'm currently listening to ... (2)

Within Temptation – Wish you were here
Monsters Are Waiting – Monsters
Switchblade Symphony – Lucky Star
Android Lust - Stained
Stabbing Westward – Save Yourself
Babylon A.D. – The Kid Goes Wild
London After Midnight – The Bondage Song
PJ Harvey – C’mon Billy
Garbage – Cherry Lips
Adam Ant- Desperate But Not Serious

Black Outlook

I recently read this report on the NTL website, news section, entitled;

Goths' black outlook on life

The number of attempted suicides and incidents of self-harm is higher among young Goths, according to a study. Goths - youngsters known for their love of black clothes, make-up and gloomy music - often cultivate a reputation of morbidity but the report says it may be more than an act. Researchers at the University of Glasgow surveyed 1,258 young people during their final year of primary school (aged 11) and again at ages 13, 15, and 19. They were asked about self harm and how they identified with 15 types of youth subculture, including being a Goth. They found that those who identified themselves as being a Goth had a far higher lifetime prevalence of self harm and attempted suicide, reported the British Medical Journal.

Even after taking into consideration social class, parental separation, smoking, alcohol use, or previous depression, being a Goth remained the "single strongest predictor" of whether a child would either self harm or try to commit suicide.

Hhmmm so they only studied 1,258 kids, hardly a cross section of the British populace is it? Of all the Goths I know, all are happy and jovial, it’s ironic that image is associated with self harming and leanings to more macabre pursuits. Of course Goths do self harm, I’m not disputing that but so can anyone self harm, there are some elements of the Goth culture that try things like blood letting, skin carving or their own crude tattoo’s – it’s a facet of the culture. As the report goes on to say ‘The study found youngsters tended to report being a self-harmer before they became a Goth slightly more than the other way’ which sort of backs my statement of the small element that do dabble with the above, probably to fit in with the dynamics of a group they may belong to, not because it’s a pre-requisite or mandatory. Most kids try smoking at some stage but this doesn’t mean they are going on to become full time smokers, it means they are trying to fit in with a crowd in order to gain status. Then it goes on to contradict itself by saying that mental health problems are on the increase in young people and the Goth subculture may be attractive to them.

Dr Michael van Beinum, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and advisor to the study, said: "Mental health problems are common in young people and there is evidence that they are on the increase. For some young people with mental health problems, a Goth subculture may be attractive, as it may allow them to find a community within which it may be easier for their distress to be understood".

Basically, I love my psychology etc but stuff like this is well… bollocks isn’t it? Stuff like that report make me want to slash my wrists.......... shit, I'm a self harmer too !!!

So true

I don't need Wikipedia to tell me that my home town is indeed a grim place but the following excerpt from it's entry about it made be giggle, probably because it's so true.

With some prescience, the great eighteenth century writer Daniel Defoe passed through Mansfield in 1725, noting only that:

"...I came to Mansfield, a market town but without remarkables." (A Tour Through The Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724 - 1726)

Yep, he's right, there's nothing remarkable about it at all

and it also goes on to say,

Mansfield, which D.H. Lawrence described as "that once romantic now utterley disheartening colliery town" in Lady Chatterley's Lover until recently did not, apart from a small section in W H Smith, have a bookshop.

and the best till last....

In Nottinghamshire, Mansfield is regarded with some disdain, being as it is a working class town with little in the way of culture or scenery. The town's bus station is often cited by locals as one of the very worst places in England to spend time waiting for transport. The town, like many others, continues to suffer from glaring problems with drugs, alcoholism and antisocial behaviour, possibly a legacy of its close links to the now almost defunct coal mining industry.

Odious Odeon

It comes as no surprise to me really that more and more people are viewing pirate dvd’s or downloading films over the internet – a trip to the cinema is becoming increasingly expensive and terrible value for money. Take my experience on Sunday night for example, I went to watch V for Vendetta at my local Odeon cinema with my old workmate that does the Tree of woe blog.

We headed to KFC first to grab some fast food and were passed at the doorway by some vociferous chav’s shouting expletives at each other. I noticed their table had a bargain bucket and it’s left over food contents strewn all over it and ironically the litter bin was a mere arm’s reach away – ah the youth of today.

Anyway, after some fast food we headed to the cinema and browsed the refreshment area, the prices are just extortionate yet they know people will of course pay. As I’d booked over the net we collected our tickets from the automatic dispensing machine and headed to our screen, only the luxury seats are no longer luxury anymore – they are pseudo luxury ones. That’s right, odious Odeon have taken the real comfy ones out and replaced them with lack lustre replicas and now charge even more! The seats even had pieces of paper on them telling you that they were in fact luxury ones so you didn't get mixed up with the normal ones!

The movie was excellent albeit uncomfortable on the crappy new chairs that really stretch the meaning of the word ‘luxury’. There’s nothing like seeing a film on the big screen but is strikes me that less people visit the cinema nowadays, probably because its easy to get copies or download but also because the whole experience is more expensive and less enjoyable than it once was.