The Crazy is Catching

The day the music keeled over and shot itself in the foot

In work I am the press release queen. Or, rather, they all come through me and I deem them worthy to pass into a higher realm. It’s more than fair to say I, therefore, get to read a lot of junk. I also get the rage, for reasons better explained here. Then one pops into my inbox that cheers me right up. Those ones are the ones I’ve been sending to my personal email of late with “write about this on your blog you lazy so-and-so” written all over it.

To whit I bring you the saddest, most amazing, criminally wrong item of news via press release I have recieved of late:

X Factor sensations JEDWARD have been confirmed to star in “Cinderella” at The Olympia Theatre, Dublin from the 22nd December 2010 – 9th January 2011. They will be playing Cinderella’s Godbrothers and will be joining Linda Martin for the “must see” panto this Christmas. Tickets go on sale on next Tuesday, 6th April 2010 from Ticketmaster and usual outlets Nationwide.

My favourite part? The way must-see is in inverted commas, like they’re not really quite sure if the panto is a must-see or if anything, ever, could be a must-see production.  But Jedward, oh JEDWARD. How the mighty have so very easily, and with lots of forward planning, fallen. This has to be the first time a panto has been advertised so early. Granted, there is snow on the ground and I’m feeling festive but selling panto tickets in April? Really?

I can see them now, the “godbrothers” (!) prancing about the stage, one looking nervously to the other for direction. It could be a beautiful disaster, truth be told. But there’s more. So much more.

Their celebrity fans include, Peaches Geldof; Robbie Williams; DJ Calvin Harris; and Westlife to name but a few.

Originally signed to Sony Music, they were dropped; only to be signed by Universal Music the very next day! What can only be described as “The Jedward phenomenon” has gotten everyone talking and World Domination seems very likely for the singing duo from Dublin!

Well if Peaches Geldof, that bastion of all that is tasteful, fun and amusing in this world, is a fan then sign me up for a whole row! Also, where or what is World Domination? I’ve heard of world domination but that concept seems so very far removed from anything JEDWARD have planned. (I enjoy the caps, I really do) And who, in their rightest of minds, celebrates label swapping like it’s something to be proud of?

You might think that my throwing of very obvious stones at this house made entirely of sugar glass is too easy and too predictable and you would be right. There is not a stone cast at Jedward that is not already soiled with the greasy palm sweat of another hack but, by God, it’s fun! More fun that any poor tyke exposed to Linda Martin and the forever capitally-locked John and Edward will ever have.

as depressing as dancing to ’single ladies’ this Sunday

George Lee quits Fine Gael and will “probably” return to RTÉ where he will thrive, prosper and more than likely ruin any up and comer’s chances of actually getting somewhere and achieving anything in the retirement village they call Montrose. BAH.

Speak freely

There’s a storm a-brewing on one of my favourite fashion blogs: What I Wore. The blog’s latest post by its author Jessica Schroeder is a “Code of Comments” for readers. Jessica asks that those who comment:

1. Keep comments positive! If you wouldn’t have worn it the way I did, that’s fine! But I’m not looking for pointers! Everyone has a unique sense of style and I like mine just the way it is!

2. No back and forth. Short hair! long hair! Sexier! Sweeter! Bolder! Badder! Uht uhh. Drop it.

3. Weight is not up for debate. Mine, yours or that girl over there.

4. If you have personal issues, please e-mail me instead of airing your complaints to the world.

While I have no problem with points three and four – the blogosphere’s undying love for the weight debate BORES me –  I have a big issue with number one, number two just plain confuses me. I understand why Jessica feels the need to clarify that by posting daily pictures of herself she is not asking for your advice. Fact is, she’s worn the clothes out and about, felt good about wearing them and is not hovering over her keyboard before venturing out in public worrying if ciaraelle (my comment name) thinks she should begin looking for a higher denier tight or a cuter belt. But what exactly does she want then?

She wants those who comment to keep their opinions “positive” and leave their negative comments, or advice that could be construed as negative, out of it. Which is a nice idea, if this were not one of the most-read fashion blogs in the world equipped with a comment facility and the blogger herself did not ask for feedback on a regular basis. Further to her request Jessica asks that those with comments not made of sugar and spice and all things nice EMAIL her privately with their feedback. Now I don’t know about you and how you spend your online time but I am not about to email a blogger to tell her how much I love her shoes but have reservations about her headband for no reason other than to preserve a positive air in the comments. Explaining point one Jessica writes that there is a difference between “feedback and being critical” (her italics). There isn’t. There is positive feedback and there is negative feedback. Negative feedback by its very nature is criticism.

If Jessica does not enjoy people criticising her – I can see how being constantly assessed by strangers could become a tiresome business – then perhaps she should close her comments section entirely. Jane from Sea of Shoes got rid of hers recently with this to say:

Comments aren’t necessary. The only reason I started this blog was to share my passion for clothing, and I’d like to keep doing that for a very long time..and I can do it just fine without any comments…maybe I’ll turn them on later, maybe not. It makes no difference to me.

The ability to comment on a blog is not something I look for; I rarely comment and when I do it is only when moved strongly by an opinion expressed, in both a positive and negative fashion. The fact is that people out there are mean and spiteful. They hide behind the anonymity the Internet offers and write hurtful, spiteful things. There remains, however,  a difference between calling someone “a pretentious bitch” and offering your opinion on how someone wore plaid. Therein lies my difficulty with Jessica’s request. As a professional blogger she must attune herself to how the Internet runs and regulates itself. People will be mean but mostly they will adore her as I once did. If she can’t take the mean she should be willing to forsake the nice. Creating a fake environment where negativity is kept under wraps in the inbox while positivity flourishes in the open is a historical no-no, akin in a much smaller way, to abolishing freedom of speech. To paraphrase Martin Amis, it is utopian of Jessica to publish her code, which is to say that reality cannot be expected to support it.

There is no right to comment enshrined in the blogosphere, but when the facility to comment does exist there is a right to have your voice heard and your comment displayed. I can’t say I’ll be the daily visitor I once was to What I Wore. Knowing a code exists to regulate people’s opinions has left a sour taste in my mouth, along with being told by an admirer of Jessica’s to “Get a Life” after commenting on the post. If nothing else I hope that Jessica reads the comments left by the many who disagree with her and rather than dismissing them as more unwanted negativity she will learn something about the nature of people who feel their right to reply restrained by an unnecessary code.

The Proust Questionnaire

Via Rosemary, who got it via Ripped Knees who was inspired by Capture the Castle these are my answers to Proust’s questionnaire. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, folks.

Your most marked characteristic? My height? It helps in the supermarket.

The quality you most like in a man? The ability to make me smile. Like, eyes-crinkled-up kind of good smile.

The quality you most like in a woman? The same.

What do you value most in your friends? Their always-ready-to-listen ears, unfailing loyalty also helps.

What is your principle defect? Laziness, giving up at the first hurdle….

What is your favourite occupation? Reading, eating, writing, sleeping.

What is your dream of happiness? Personal contentment, professional success, a bright future with James Franco.

What to your mind would be the greatest misfortune? Losing someone close to me. The loss of any one of my senses, particularly taste.

What would you like to be? In charge.

In what country would you like to live? All of them. I’m more concerned with cities than countries. I want to return to Rome and grow my own in Portland, Oregon.

What is your favourite colour? Red and black, but not together.

What is your favourite flower? Yellow roses

What is your favourite bird? Robin, the seasonal favourite.

Who are your favourite writers? eee gad, too many. Chuck Palahniuk, Norman Mailer,  Annie Proulx, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Baldwin, Bret Easton Ellis, some of Kerouac despite his personal failings…..

Who are your favourite poets? Walt Whitman, Bob Dylan, WH Auden

Who is your favourite hero of fiction? Batman.

Who are your favourite heroines of fiction? Zelda Fitzgerald, in all of her guises and craziness.

Who are your favourite composers? Can I go with musicians here as my knowledge of composers doth not exist? Er, Dylan again? It all ends up back at his doorstep.

Who are your favourite painters? Caravaggio, Jackson Pollock

Who are your heroes in real life? My parents, Batman, Debbie Harry

Who are your favourite heroines of history? Rosa Parks, can I say Hillary Clinton?, Countess Markievicz

What are your favourite names? I don’t have any.

What is it you most dislike? Overdone steak, earnest singer-songwriters, bad weather, warm beer.

What historical figures do you most despise? I don’t despise any historical figures, I resent that they existed and what those around them allowed them to do.

What event in military history do you most admire? The fall of the Berlin Wall

What reform do you most admire? In Ireland I admired the success of the Yes side in the divorce referendum, one small step and all that jazz. Democracy, wow!

What natural gift would you most like to possess? Thankfully I could do most things if I tried hard enough, but some of Sabrina the Teenage Witch’s powers would make everyday life easier.

How would you like to die? I prefer not to answer that.

What is your present state of mind? Anxious and irritable.

To what faults do you feel most indulgent? Laziness. Straight up.

What is your motto? Dance, dance, dance.

Dear Marina Hyde,

You’re sort of great, aren’t you?

Seriously, Lost in Showbiz warns you not to underestimate Jordan’s ability to rise to the top in whatever ecosystem she finds herself forced to survive. Helmand’s terrain may appear hostile, but it won’t even be a week before she has deposed three local warlords, amalgamated their territories, and come election day is photographed sarcastically showing a purple-crystal-encrusted index finger to the authorities, while wearing a thong-revealing micro-burka and slogan T–shirt reading “the Price of democracy”.

Love,

Ciara

Happenings

A few things this week. 

Cinema: Went to see The Class. It was an incredibly interesting film. It may sound aged of me to say this but the difference between how teachers and pupils interact now, in comparison with how they interacted when I was in secondary school is huge. And that’s in less than a decade. In one sense it increased my sympathies – previously  almost non-existant – towards teachers in today’s classes. As a film it was stylishly filmed with very strong acting from amateur cast members. Go see. 

Music: Frightened Rabbit in the Academy2. Which is downstairs in the Academy and, as such, suffers from a few sound problems – not very evident on Wednesday night – and an inability to see the performers if you’re less than 6′ and not in the front row. But the music stopped all of that bothering me, they were amazing. I don’t know if it’s because I’m attached to their music more than other bands – the gritty realism makes me happy when Death Cab become too poetic for me to take – or the fact that they seemed happier than I could ever imagine someone who wrote the songs they sang being. I thought, yes, detractor, this is for you, that it was a really special gig. Sometimes you don’t have to have experienced a situation to identify with an emotion. Sometimes the music is that emotion and in listening to that music you almost become that emotion. Art’s like that. Music is like that. You get to feel things second hand, often in more powerful and potent form than if you were there yourself. I call it escapism, you can call it art. And those lyrics…

Theatre/Circus-ry: Cirque du Soleil: Quidam at the o2. Trés good. See previous post. 

Other jazz: Always the nominee, never the victor at this years Smedia awards. But congratulations to those who won. Kind of. I’m slightly bitter and twisted on this one and have few plans to get over it anytime soon. 

Music of the week (surprise, surprise)

Frightened Rabbit, ‘The Twist’

and ‘Old, Old Fashioned’

Hillary is number one

at long last.

Y’see, and followers of my previous blog will know this, I sorta love Hillary Clinton. So I was, in my own nerd way, incredibly happy to see that she – or rather a story about her – topped guardian.co.uk’s  most clicked stories of 2008. And, not to gloat or owt, Obama’s victory was only 7! Mwah ha ha ha!

I know the reasons why the Obama victory was 7 and the breaking news about Clinton was 1..I just choose to ignore it.

Most listened to track of the day: Jape, ‘Strike Me Down’  (Friendly Fires Remix)

Superhero of the Day: HELLBOY! (just watched II, wow. )

it's nice to know

that amid all of the pious ‘oh woe is the new year for it holds all kinds of ill winds and recessions and let’s all scrunch our foreheads in earnest good tidings of great joy’ writing going on at the moment someone has their head screwed on.

Step forward Charlie Brooker.