Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Blog Break

Due to a lack of Internet access the blog will have to take a break. Hopefully it will return in a couple of months, but I wouldn't hold out much hope.

Thursday, 21 May 2009

Lord of the Toon - Newcastle fans resort to the last hope

Newcastle fans are fearing the worse come Sunday when they could be relegated from the Premiership for the first time in 16 years. After loosing to Fulham on Saturday the future is bleak for the Tyneside club, but luckily they've got the worlds biggest fan on their side, yes G.O.D. Who else?
Here is Rev. Glyn Evans of St.Andrews Church in Newcastle talking about his secret plan to help Newcastle survive relegation. Thanks to the Chronicle for this wonderful video.

Good Lord I can't believe we've have sunk so far! They are now asking for a holy intervention from the almighty as only a fictional God can save Newcastle football club now. As a fellow Newcastle supporter I openly encourage any tactics to try and keep Newcastle up for another year, but this is too far. Not only does God not exist, even if he did why would he listen to a priest who's changed the words of hymns about Jesus into Shearer, surely that's blasphemy. He also looks like a fool with his black and white robe, surely that's breaking some kind of archaic religious rule.

If their previous track record is anything to go by Newcastle will be relegated. This is because they sent tributes to Bobby Robson when he was manager 7 years ago, since then he was sacked, then suffered various different type of cancer. Certainly being a Newcastle fan is very similar to being religious, in the sense that you are continually given lots of false hope.
This plan is never going to work, especially as God is currently engaged re-reading the Harry Porter series. Yes that is what God is doing, I would know, as he told me last night. Well Jesus lovers, God works in mysterious ways, lets hoping keeping Newcastle up is of those ways. We can but only pray!

Monday, 18 May 2009

Pars'R'Us: Don't watch the hype

Last week saw the release of the long awatied video of Tempa T's Next Hype, one of the grimiest songs of 2008/9.
Tempa T or Tempz to those you are unfamiliar with his work, is an artist who's lyrics basically consist of physically harming people in various different ways, robbing people and destroying things. Not very much socio-political commentary or satirising of recent events or intelligent word-play here.
The video starts off with Tempz working at Pars'R'Us and being called into his bosses office, who happens to be Tim 'bloody' Westwood. Too good to be true. Westwood then procedures to try and act and persistantly looks at his script. The scene then ends up in Westwood firing Tempa which ensues chaos with Tempz running amok. Watch the brilliance!

My favorite scene was when he was chasing a man with a kite. Its a shame there was a wealth of testosterone-endused scenes of Tempa T either working out or just oiled up, which frankly was unnecessary for the video. There was no need for that in my opinion. Conversly it makes up with the appearance of Westwood who only dropped some acting bombs rather than the fictional music-based bombs he drops in his weekly show.

However good this video was, I think that Tim & Barry who made it were inspired by the follwoing video as looks awfully similar Tonx Tantrum's Just Me. which is awfully similar to Tempa T.

Note the strong homoerotic overtones, the car jacking scene, the similar style of the video and the unnecessary flexing of muscles. I think a potential lawsuit is on the cards.

Sunday, 17 May 2009

House of Common Criminals: Expenses! Expenses! Everywhere!

There are few words to describe the chaos that has ensued this past week over MP's expenses. When I started writing this blog on Tuesday there were a handful of claims, but now there are far too much to mention in one blog post, so I've tried to condense it into a managble rambling.
I knew it was a turning point in modern UK politics when I witnessed the lynch-mob style heckling of MP's on Question Time on Thursday, the like of which I have never seen before. here is a clip of some of the madness -


Over the past few months this has been coming with a freedom of information request going through the courts eariler in the year. But suddenly this week it has blown up, like a big balloon of RED paint in Parliament; Leaving MP's with RED faces and RED palms (as they have been caught RED-handed)

Resign! Resign! Resign!
The 8 days of revelations from the Telegraph has left MP's confidence utterly shattered after having their Westminster bubble burst. Since then it has descended from initial embarrassment, into fraud allegations, eventually manifesting itself into the crowd baying for the blood of the political posse.

Westminster was buzzing with MP's running around like head-less chickens clutching cheques, apologising unreservedly, calling press-conferences, backing-down and just simply hiding from the press mob.

My favorite moment of the week goes to Hazel Blears, the communities secretary and semi-professional squirrel impersonator. She was one of the first to public humiliate herself when she was caught not paying capital gains tax on her second house after selling it for a £45,000 profit (naughty squirrel). This promted her to call an emergency press conference, where she brandished her cheque to the Inland revenue paying back the £13,000 she owed.

There are a mountain of embarrassing claims, which is increasing day-by-day, so I have highlighted some of the most interesting to condense. We'll start with the Conservative MP's; New Torries, same rich bastards. Here are some of the Torriers more extravagant claims:

Oliver Letwin - claimed £2,000 to replace a leaking pipe under his tennis court!

Douglas Hogg- claimed expenses for cleaning his moat. A moat! A moat! Yes you've read correctly a bloody moat! What next for Hogg; some chain-mail, a squire. Good lord! It's not the 14th century is it? I urge the general public to lay siege to Hogg's castle and demand the money back! Bring your pillaging bags and rape sticks

David Willets - claimed £115 for replacing light bulbs. Sorry, Sorry Pardon, What? £115 for lightbulbs. I might get into the selling and fitting of lightbulbs with that kind of profit margin.

These revelations has promoted Conservative leader David 'Davey' Cameron to publish all their accounts and can be found here.

The Lib Dems were a different story, and haven't come out so bad, as their claims are more innocuous. My favorite claim came from the Lib Dems with Chris Huhne claiming for a trouser-press (£119) and Hobnobs (79p), very Alan Partridge.

The most trivial claim also came from the Lib Dems with an MP claiming 69p for paper napkins.

So far the whole debacle has fully died down yet, but so far here are the major political casualties:


Andrew MacKay
= Davey C's political aid has been chucked out of the party after he claimed 2nd home allowances on both of his and his wife's (another MP) home totaling around £250k over 7 years. (tut, tut)



Elliot Morely
- has been suspended from the Labour Party, after he claimed £16,000 for a mortgage that did not exsist! How foolish of you!




Shahid Malik- Resigned after Gordon Brown ordered him to step down after allegations he broke the ministerial code, after claims he had received preferable rate and not declaring it, giving him a financial benefit (naughty). He has now given in to public pressure by giving money back and give money to charity.


There is more to come with the Telegraph going through 2 million of stolen PDF files with the juicy MP expenses on so look out for more hysteria. For this debacle I believe thaty the public is partially to blame, as they wouldn't accept MP's raising their own wage to a decent level, which forced MP's to use a cowardly method of extracting more money through the expenses system.

The public are now demanding a general election to sweep away the filth out of Westminster. The main three political parties are now fearing reprisals for their foolish actions with a mass exodus at the next election. So the likelihood of a snap general election on the back of these claims is highly unlikely. Why would the government call a general election with an all time low of confidence in the system and with Labour currently polling around 22%, which is the lowest they've ever been. The Local and E.U elections are only around the corner on May 4th, and it will be very interesting to see the outcomes of that.

Here is a remix of the infamous video of Gordon Brown trying to sort out expenses before it all blew up.
See, they've made him look like he's dancing, instead of giving a boring speech.

Here is also a picture of Hazel Blears pretending she's going to ride a motorcycle.

Thursday, 14 May 2009

Smoking Ban? Smoking Bang! Bang!

This is an intriguing video from UK hip-hop legend Skinnyman, who produced one of the greatest UK hip-hop albums: Council Estate of Mind back in 2004.
However this song is called smoking ban and is accompanied by one of my favorite music videos ever. The song was initally made a few months after the UK smoking ban was introduced.

I enjoy the imagery and play on the word bang, which happens a lot. I think he looks dashing in his shiny pink suit and shiny green cowboy hat. You must realise even thought the video and song doesn't show it, he's an incredibly talented artist, even if he does look like a young version of Tim Westwood. (Who is also an easy target for unknowledgable people to mock)
I love both Skinnyman and Westwood in thier own way there are like father and son. Both brilliant and both misunderstood.

I still can't believe this video hasn't exploded and become a youtube sensation, but hey-ho, let's go.

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

The Apprentice: Espisode 8 - Cool Margate

The Apprentice, ah the apprentice. Its currently going through a mid-season slump with mediocre episodes by its high standards, but is still highly enjoyable.

First of a nice early start of 5.10 am. Who is in the office at 5.10am? That's ludicrous, Alan has lost it, and has clearly over-stepped the line and abused his powers. I think sleep deprivation is torture tactic, which was employed by U.S security forces under G.W. Bush. I feel sorry for Alan's secretary who has got to wake up, get into the office and phone them up at 5.10am.

The Task was about Margate, in East Kent, and based around rebranding the town.
One team targeted the family market, the other the gay market.

Mona language watch: "Is there a big population of the gay or lesbian?",
Mona to the transsexual: "Are you a man or a woman, I wouldn't know"
and "You're a boy, but you're going to be a girl?"
She does speak 6 languages so she can be let off.

Lorraine Intuition watch: It springed up a few times this episode. She still talks about her vision, intuition and thinks she's right all the time. I wish she would shut up. She's going to be even worse next week.

Boardroom Dramas: Didn't really happen this week, a damp squib. Not much back-stabbing or angry words just a bit of discussion. Sir Alan's puns fell short this time, something about Punch and Judy and Pier's didn't really come off with any kind of conviction. Then came out the mandatory finger and catch-phrase....
.
.
And Mona was fired (here's the video)



I don't have any sympathy for Mona as her misguided narrow-minded religious views put her at a disadvantage. However I don't think she should have been fired for this task, even if she was a relatively weak candidate. Stone-faced Deborah should have gone in my humble opinion.

Tuesday, 12 May 2009

An update on the update

Thanks to the kind person at Oban Multilingual, I have been informed that more Micheal Owen acting videos are on the way, which is great news. I would like to thank The First Group for this pleasure. I will post them when they arrive.

The First Group/Oban Multilingual and David White partnership is now working brilliantly. Im now hoping that my busienss-to-business marketing knowledge can secure me exclusivity to the up-and-coming videos.

Little Update:

Ive received an email from Oban Multilingual who are search engine speacilist or translors or something, im not quite sure, acting on behalf of the Dubai-based property orgnastion: The First Group, to refrence their video for copyright reasons. Yes the Micheal Owen fliers a fake helicopeter over Dubai video.

So I have comlpied to your request, so I hope First Group and your partners are happy. I have refrenced the video to give you some more exposure. Im sure my 5 or 6 readers are sure to follow the link and instantly buy some overpriced property from your buisness.

I hope my compliance in this issue helps cement the First Group-David White partnership. Hopefully if they read this they can offer me a job after I graduate in the summer. I fully understand the right to protect their intellectual property even if the video is an embrassment.

Also check out the first episode of the Flight of The Conchords on BBC 4 at 22.05 tonight, it should be alot. To wet your whistle a behind the scenes look at the serires will be on at 22.30!!

Sunday, 10 May 2009

Look around you, look around you, just look around you!

Have you worked out what we are looking for?
Correct, the answer is the clever comedy series of Look Around you, originally broadcast on BBC2 a few years ago, which went relatively unnoticed.

Here are two of my favourite modules from the first series:
Iron:

"Did you know that man has been using Iron since the Stone age!"
"We are working with the compound ACDC, as its a heavy metal!"


And the Brain:

Thursday, 7 May 2009

The Apprentice: Espisode 7


Another good episode of the Apprentice, not brilliant, not a classic, but good.

The Apprentice is still going strong with another 8 million viewers on Wednesday despite the Champions League semi-final.

This week the task was selling-based, selecting products and then selling them on. Alan Sugar's obsession with selling is ridiculous. I'm not sure if he has realised but only a small percentage of Business-to-business or even Business-to-consumer marketing is actually personal selling, but he still loves it, and is £900m richer than me.

Also has anyone noticed that Mona speaks incorrectly or at least in a unorthodox manner. She seems to select random business terminology in places where it is doesn't need to be.

Lorraine played on the intuition and instinct thing and kept saying "I've got a feeling", well I have a feeling that you're not a very good team leader and just because you've had an ego boost doesn't make you Rupert bloody Murdoch you annoying woman.

There was some good pre-rehearsed puns coming out of the teams today,
With Philip talking about Lorraine: "Mystic Meg's going to be going back inside the crystal ball" with Lorraine coming back with: "Philip, he supposed to be some dynamic door-to-door salesman, he didn't show any of that dynamite yesterday, unless I put a bomb under his bottom I don't know what would have moved him"

Boardroom Drama: Alan was enraged when some candidates came back with no sales, he was furious when they didn't arrange meetings. He was so angry it was like one of the candidates had defecated on his stupidly large car. The Lorraine-Phillip argument raged on, with Philip landing a sharp and well-placed blow to Lorraine. Phil's frustration and immaturity shone through and quickly lost the respect of Sugar.

You're Fired: After toying with the candidates it was clear that Kate was never going to go with a straight toss-up between Lorraine and Phillip. Then the finger and the catchphrase came out which was aimed at Phillip, the big-talking Geordie. (he wasn't very happy at all, muttering under his breath "joke" Here it is


Lorraine is getting very annoying and if she keeps saying don't underestimate me etc people are going to loose patience

I want James to win as he's like a big kid

Tuesday, 5 May 2009

Ladies and Gentleman please fasten your seatbelts we are about to takeoff; Michael Owen finds new career as an actor



Anyone who's watched Newcastle United since January knows that Michael Owen is not as good as he used to be at his main job of football. So instead of focusing and concentrating on his playing career Michael Owen has embarked on a radical change of vocation and is now planning to become an actor.

Well what is his first job? In order to answer this question we must look at Dubai..... With a global recession and plummeting property prices countries which are heavily reliant on property have seen a disastrous slump in new investment, promoting serious economic fallout. The Dubai property investment group: The First Group decided that the only way to counteract these macro-economic trends was to have launch a new investment video with the aim of attracting big-money investment.

So who would head this video I hear you ask? Surely an established actor, perhaps; George Clooney, Bruce Willis, Russel Crowe, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Caine..... NO! Michael Owen will head the new investment video. They say drastic times call for drastic measures.

"Are you buckled up and ready?" Here is the video, all 9mins and 57seconds
of it.


Michael Owen Flies a Helicopter over Dubai
Video courtesy of The First Group Dubai Estate Agents
Michael's delivery and acting skills make this video very watchable and even exhilarating at points. Every word he speaks you hang-on and his use of adjectives is inspired. Micheal tells the potential investors that the helicopter that he is "piloting" has special powers. What? Special powers? Are you mad, nuts, crackers, crazy or bonkers? Why did he say that? What prompted The First Group to put that in the script, or was it improvised by this acting genius?

I'm not sure how Michael makes somewhere as amazing as such as Dubai so immensely boring but he does, that's how good he is. Michael makes several jokes, which drastically fail in every aspect. Michael Owen is a awful guide and I would be appalled if I paid $3m for an apartment and he was my next door neighbour giving me a tour of the building.

Also If you understand Russian, Owen's First Group teammate and another acting Goliath in Andriy Shecvchenko gives an equally thrilling tour, tailored for the Russian Oligarchs. Here is the link

Overall I don't believe that Owen has the capabilities to be an actor, and he was massively misguided in his judgment.

"I hope you enjoyed the flight"

Summarising thought: The First Group should have used a cardboard cutout of a horse to present this video, it would have been much more entertaining.

Thursday, 30 April 2009

A collection of suit-wearing delusional ego-maniacs : The Apprenctice



In this post I will be analysing the buisness-based 'reality' show, that is the Apprentice.

First and foremost I bloody love The Apprentice and find it very entertaining and this will become more evident as my words continue.

I think that there are several key elements which make the Apprentice a success, which are:
  1. Sir Alan Sugar
  2. The candidates and their over-inflated opinions of themselvs
  3. The clear format
  4. The tasks
  5. The TV-created extra pressure
  6. The theme tune (Flight of the Knights)
  7. Nick and Margret
  8. Brilliant editing and producing

The main star of the Apprentice is Sir Alan Sugar, the founder of Amstrad who now runs a £750m business empire. He is the programmes central focus for obvious reasons.
The Apprentice helps to serve Sugar's enlarged ego even further, by having 15 people all clambering to be his apprentice and giving him the respect he think he deserves. I always enjoy Sir Alan's "improvised" put-downs and clever puns, which he beams about like someone was gently ticking his testicles. Let's not overstate Sugar's buisness acumen as Sir Alan built his empire by focusing on costs and undercutting the comepittion and being a bit lucky with the exapnsion of the perosnal computer market in the mid-to-late 80's. So he's no Warren Buffet, so don't be fooled.

The candidates are generally a collection of suit-wearing delusional ego-maniacs, each with their own personalised mission statement rambling on about their goals and drive to the point where you want to punch them in the head. Some candidates you'll dislike others, you'll just hate with a deep bitterness. Former candidates such as Saiid, Katie Hopkins and Ruth Badger are expert examples of the screening process being designed to filter through the largest ego's and the most unpleasant personal traits. This year we've had Phil: the Geordie who's arrogance is only inferior to Sir Alan's, Ben a jumped up stock broker who constantly talks about how he is going to destroy people in the boardroom like some testosterone enduced mentalist, Kate; the business hottie who is my tip to win and Noorul the most delusional man to ever appear on the Apprentice, who has completely lost touch with reality.

To quote the lovely Nooral, who said "I have always been ambitious and driven and I've got the capabilities to deliver. I am not all talk... I can manage a team of people, total strangers even, because I am feisty and have attitude." To anyone who's actually watched the show, in "reality" Noorul is rubbish and failed to show any managerial skills, couldn't negotiate and was completely incompetent at all of the tasks. I personally think I am much more adept at business than him, and have more analytical, sales, marketing and managerial skills capabilities than he can ever hope to.

The Format: Get into teams, decide on a leader, do the task, then which ever team loses the leader has to bring back two members in to the boardroom for some boardroom drama (consisting of bitching, shouting and Sir Alan looking dismayed by all the arguing), then Sir Alan decides on which person to fire, and outcomes the catchphrase and the finger.
Tasks consist of the teams going around London and the surrounding areas doing an array of tasks such as; selling, arranging meetings, designing products, arguing with each other, cleaning, market research, presenting etc. These tasks help structure the show and are purposely designed to create a bit of drama and holes for candidates to fall into.

As The Apprentice is a TV show, for every member of the public you see and for every shop they enter they have to get their permission, which is time consuming and adds to the extra pressure on the teams. Also they have cameramen and sound technicians following theie every move, again creating pressure, which is why you see people panicking, making appalling decisions and crumbling under pressure.

Nick and Margret are the right and left-hand assistants of Sir Alan are are added bonus of the show. With Nick, a sharp-faced gentleman who seems to be conituisly galring at the canidates like he's plotting new and elaborate ways to torture them. And Marget the WI member who's shocked by anything that's mildly offensive such as partial nudity or abrupt language. Here is a video of some of their highlights from the fourth series;


The editing and producing of the show is a master stoke. It helps create and sustain personalities while providing some insight into the business world and providing the viewer with stacks of entertainment value. it does this by showing prolonged focus on people's reactions, compiling clips that show the mistakes that the candidates make, forging tension in the boardroom and by highlighting personal traits with relevant film.

In the fifth series The Apprentice still remains a TV giant, and is well-deserving of 7.5 million viewers. It is half way through the current series at the 6th episode and so far has thrown up some Apprentice classics, with more on the way.

Here is a clip of the hopeless Nooral getting fired.

I am thinking about applying to be on The Apprentice the 6th series, as Im better than Nooral

Monday, 27 April 2009

"You look nothing like my dad"

As its a rainy Monday I thought I would post a few videos currently distracting me from my marketing report. These three are from the grime scene.

The first 1:45 of this is brilliant. Big Narstie's Star Wars bars are genuinely brilliant. Then Tim Westwood tries to make fat jokes for the next 8 minutes.

"Star Wars: The New Hope, Im fresh like a new coat"

This glorious offering is from Tim & Barry TV displaying Tempa T, the angriest grime MC on the grime circuit spitting bars in front of the Parthenon in Athens while tourists walk by intrigued by his presence. The content of the video is quite ironic as the PARthenon is a world cultural hertiage site and a fomrer place of worship, which completly conflicts with the imagery of Tempz's lyrics, which talks about about him smashing HDTV's and dragging people from their cars. This is why it is genius.

Its a par, its a par!

The third video is from Newham Generals promoting a track from their new album Generally Speaking (which is pretty bloody good) called Bell Dem Slags

The video is not as expertly produced as Head Get Mangled, but it certainly conveys the message of the track exceptionally

Sunday, 26 April 2009

My take on the week

This week as been one of mainly worrying developments. These are a few stories that have taken my attention this week.

Hitler's paintings were put on auction on Thursday and sold for a combined £95k. Its fair to say that Hitler was not a very good artist and why the art school he applied for knocked him back. However, this does not justify his behaviour afterwards, which was to all parties a bit bad. Here is one of his works which I think looks is ok, but I'm no art critic.










The revelation that a former Bolivian football team doctor gave Viagra to the team, as they play at a high altitude and the Viagra helps get oxygen to the blood. I couldn't be bothered with an erection/football pun.

Football: Another higlight of my week was the stunning 4-4 game between Liverpool and Arsenal was a joy to behold, and the pormotion of Wimbledon AFC to the conference was good for football.

Swine Flu- Bloody Mexicans- This is a worrying development with over 100 deaths confirmed so far. It could see a world-wide pandemic or it could be just another media-induced panic, resulting in a non-event. Currently it certainly looks worse than the avian flu a few years back.

Tamil Tigers: The worrying developments in Sri-Lanka have taken a turn for the worse. It reminds me a bit of the recent Israel invasion of Palestine where there is a propaganda war going on while innocent people were dying. With conflicting reports from both sides making unsubstantiated claims of war crimes. Lets hope it ends soon and that a ceasefire/surrender is reached.

The Boring Budget cast a cloud of gloom over the country on Wednesday. This has promoted Eaton-educated posh-boy Cameron to promise an age of 'thrift' under the Torries. Cameron proposes to get rid of government waste such as the expensive I.D cards proposal. Im a bit sceptical about this as I'm not sure about the validility of David Cameron's thrift credentials. Has he ever eaten 8p Noodles or refrained from heating his house in winter to save money? I doubt it I think that every government and shadow minister should have to live in a student house where toilet paper is a rare commodity for a week to get some perceptive.

Future predictions: someone will buy the right to Susan Boyle the movie with her impending appointment to be the new ITV chief executive

Friday, 24 April 2009

Susan Boyle should be the new ITV chief executive!

Yer, yer I said it, so what!

Susan Boyle + ITV = Success

I think Youtube sensation Susan Boyle should be the new executive chairman of ITV.

Susan Boyle was 'unearthed' by the wonderful Britain's got talent (a programme which incidentally makes my blood 'Boyle'). BGT is a typical crowd-pleasing entertainment show with no value other than to appease the brain-dead masses with predictable rubbish and is the type of programming ITV has become synonymous for in the past decade, contributing to its downfall.

ITV is currently in the brown-stuff with losses of £2.7 billion in its last financial year and with tough market conditions and advertising revenues dropping faster than Britney Spear's underwear its a bleak outlook for the broadcaster. Michael Grade the previous chairman was pushed aside and forced to resign earlier this week so a 'fresh face' could takeover and revitalise the organisation.
So what better face than Susan Boyle's to take over the reigns.
With ITV shares tumbling for years, Susan could be the thing to buck the trend. Her eccentric behaviour, lovable charm and appeal to the masses who created her can re-invigorate an ailing organisation. She can realign ITV's strategy to meet the new media needs of the 21st century and her links to the common man will aid her in the battle for ITV's survival by providing a platform of popular support. Other applicants for the job such as Sir Crispin Davies, Rupert Howell and Mark Byford to me just don't have the 'X-Factor' needed. There broadcasting experience and knowledge is pointless in comparison to SB's overall offerings to ITV.

I personally dislike ITV (as you may have gathered) because it has moved away from its core values of producing quality television and continues to churn out lacklustre, boring, unimaginative programming e.g.Dancing on Ice, the X-Factor , Im a celebrity GMOH, Ant & Dec's takeaway, Jeremy Kyle, This Morning, Bingo Night Live and Beat the star.
If you think any of the previous programmes represent good quality broadcasting then you are a moron, and have no conception of good television and are appeased by predictability, and blinded by dirty entertainment techniques that ITV have been employing. The only thing good about ITV's recent programing are Coronation Street and the Champions league coverage. The F1 coverage was also good but it has now gone to the BBC which is doing a better broadcasting job.

If you're thinking about putting a bet on Boyle to become chief executive of ITV the odds are around 5000/1 from Ladbrokes.

So ITV, stop procrastinating and appoint Susan Boyle immediately, as its the only sensible option left. Drastic times cause for drastic measures!

Summarising thought: ITV's is rubbish and Amanda Holden strikes a remarkable resemblance to a blow-up doll

Thursday, 23 April 2009

Clear the runway: The Flight of the Conchords are back on British screens

Good news to fans of the Flight of the Conchords, as they are returning to BBC4 in the coming weeks. This is just one of the growing lineup of excellent programing now on bbc4, joining Charlie Brooker's Newswipe and MadMen.
The announcement was made all the way back in February but I only realised now after seeing a trailer.
The second series aired in the U.S back in January consists of 10 episodes and should contain the same cast as season 1.The second season will inevitably be weaker than the first but hopefully still highly enjoyable.

For people who do not know what the Conchords are about; Its based on two New Zealand muscians trying to make it big in New York. They are a bit like the Mighty Boosh in the sense they combine comedy with music, but they use more improvisation and have a more awkward style of comedy. I would advice people to watch the first series even just for Rhys Darby's fantastic performance as Murray.

Here are two trailers for the new series from HBO:


Wednesday, 22 April 2009

Budget Blunder


Today, the budget 2009 report was announced in Parliament by Alistar "the eyebrows" Darling.
Basically to sum-up the budget; the UK is in the shit and the way the government is going to solve the issue of the world recession is to borrow a unprecedented amount of money and plough it into the UK economy through public spending and fiscal stimulus packages.

First off it should be said that Alistar Darling has a stupidly hard job to do, as does any Chancellor of any major European country and he should be commended for not breaking down and crying whilst delivering the worst budget a chancellor has had to deliver in a long time.

After the obligatory rise in cigarettes, alcohol and fuel, Darling said the economy had shrunk by 3.5% well over government estimations and that in order to continue the record levels of public spending, public borrowing will rise to £175 billion, which is the highest in the UK's history.

After Darlings boring speech had to come to a conclusion it was time for David "Chameleon" Cameron to say a few things. Cameron's speech was an offensive speech attacking the government, he rebuffed Darling by claiming that the government had made an "utter mess" of the economy. Cameron then continued with the dressing down of Brown and Darling with some probing comments attacking labour on policies and the state of the economy.

This pleased me as I enjoy a bit of PMQ style political banter and I personally think Cameron is incredibly good as an opposition leader. Many people don't like Cameron and it is understandable why, as to quote Stewart Lee who calls him a David "the weathercock" Cameron, as his political persuasions change with the prevailing wind of public opinion and Stewart Lee still wonders whether he's got a cock or not?

That being said his ability to pick holes in government policy and attack experienced politicians and dismiss labour MP's heckling is remarkable. The highlight of the speech was when Cameron referred to a labour MP's comments comparing going to the IMF to going to a spa, leaving the government red-faced. Here is a clip of Cameron going at the government.



Summarising comment: When Gordon Brown smiles he looks a bit like a paedophile.

Monday, 20 April 2009

Armando = Genius


After rewatching the innovative sartical comedy of the Armando Iannucci shows I thought I would share this little gem of a clip.

Ahmadinejad Update: Ahmadinejad didn't dissapoint



As expected he sparked contraversy with an attack on Isreal, branding it a racist country with diplomats walking out left, right and centre. I think someone for a pro-isreal group threw an apple at him, I hope this was the case as the apple is universally regarded as the "most racist fruit" in a recent poll.

There is a good article by Paul Reynolds on the matter, see
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8007673.stm

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a holocaust denier, and is attending a U.N anti-racism conference


Mahniyd Ahmadinejad the Iranian president (see left)is going to attend and speak at the U.N anti-racism conference in Geneva later today. To me this is quite funny and a disaster waiting to happen as he has previously decribed the Holocaust as a myth and wants to destory Isreal. I am looking forward to seeing Ban Ki-Moon's little face as Ahmadinejad rants about Zionist conspiracy theires plaguing the world.

This has promted me to think about the subject of Holocuast denial, as to me it is perplexing how someone can ignnore moutains of evidence and millions of people's perosnal accounts and claim its a conspiracy.
So what are the main arguments holocast deniers speak from their mouths?

1) Its a Jewish conspiracy theory, to try and advnace the intrests and plight of the Jewish people, an to establish and justify a Jewish homeland In Palestine.
2) Its an conspiracy theory developed from the Allies who want to make the Germans look like bastard to justify WWII
3) It was done to demonise the Nazis and to ensure they never had mainstream creditability in the future.

There are many hisotrians who have published books debating the number of deaths and the possiblility of a conspiracy. Most of their work has been discriedited, but they are still many people who beleive in the conspiracry. So here is a small list of holocaust deniers:

  • Hamaas
  • The Saudi Ariabian Governement
  • Francois Duprat
  • Ottto Ersnst Remer, and
  • Rousas John Rushdoony

Holocause denital is illegal in 13 counties; including Austia, Germany, France, Isreal and Switzerland (where the conference is being held)

As a visitor to Auschitz-Birkenaue myself, I still find it confusing how people can fully deny the holocaust. It also makes me ponder that a lot of the claims made are for propaganda purposes e.g by Hamas, and some are to cause contraversy and sell books.

My concluding thought is that: Ahmadinejad loves it, and loves to cause conrtraversy

First Blog Post

Hello, hi and welcome to my first venture in to the blogosphere.

The objective of this blog to air my opinions on random matters on varying importance. I will hopefully higlight many things that catch my attention. I aim to do a weekly commentry on the events of the previous week, but due to human nature this blog will invetably end up dying.

Have fun and enjoy!!