The Crazy is Catching

The queen is not dead, long life the queen

From today’s IrishTimes.com comes the story that the BBC have helpfully clarified that the queen is not, in fact, dead despite one of their DJs announcing so this afternoon.

Is it so wrong that this are the news stories that make my day?

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.

ah, there it is:

The point at which I lost ALL faith in humanity.

Grace and Love and the good things

The Sartorialist wrote this lovely post a few days ago; I found it really inspiring. (Inspiration from the most unlikely of places: 30 Rock!) He writes about how the small things a man or a woman does for their partner are what count, and what is noticed, more than the bigger, grander gestures in life. Though not in a relationship I have worried, and will continue to worry, about how I am percieved by the other person. It eats away at you and in the end you forget to notice and appreciate the small things that keep a relationship alive and well and full of love. Quite what are the big things I can’t define but the smaller things are simple and full of grace and ever so easy to do.

I know I won’t be able to stop myself posting more about St Valentine’s Day (or the movie of the same name which looks just like He’s Just Not That Into You, doesn’t it? What’s with Hollywood these days? Do they think we don’t NOTICE these things? Jamie Foxx, you disappoint me.) as it approaches as I’m am the corniest creature going and though I do detest the day, I appreciate the sentiment.

If you’re a competitive sort as well as a romantic you might want to head to Dundrum this weekend and check out the Body Shop’s photo booth, all in aid of celebrating their new fragrance ‘Love etc’ . By having your photo taken for that special someone (or something, people do love plants) you can win dinner in Roly’s, free Body Shop products and special discounts. The photos will be posted to the Body Shop’s Facebook and Flickr on the day. So if you’re in the area do go and if you win some delicious smelling products remember who sent you…..

Inspiration!

In keeping with my new outlook for this year I was really inspired by Conan O’Brien’s farewell speech (just caught it on CNBC Europe…a few days late of course).

“All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particular of young people that watch. Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quality. It doesn’t lead anywhere.”

“Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get but if you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.”

Monday’s musical landscaping

Yesterday was a delightful day in the musical sense. My morning started with Autumn Owls. I listened to everything on their MySpace page as I cleaned the kitchen. It’s that type of music – not to discredit the band because I really like them – the kind I can put on and forget I’m doing something as mundane as cleaning: it lifts you. You can hear them at their MySpace here. They’re heading to SXSW – jealous! – soon, more on that festival of sorts later. Then I walked into town and all wrapped up in my fur collar listened to Simon and Garfunkel. I feel like I glide when I’m listening to them, a cocoon forms around me into which nothing bad can pass.

This song in particular struck a cord, probably because I’m reading – slowly – The Executioner’s Song (see sidebar)

snow is falling, all around me

Watching the RTÉ Six One news last night I could but laugh. A wee bit of snow (ok, a lot and low temperatures and not enough salt or grit) and the show’s opener is the weather. “We” are in a crisis, apparently. “We” being Dublin and the east coast. There was no crisis when the midlands were a death trap over Christmas, when even if there was salt ‘n’ grit nobody was bothering to do something with it. When Mayo was under a blanket of ice and snow, when people weren’t able to move from their homes was there a crisis? I don’t think so. In fact large tracts of this isle are fine, Cork seems to have disappeared from the public consciousness as it has no major weather-related problems to report. Shouldn’t RTÉ be a little more aware of their status as a “national” broadcaster?

I know, I know. More than a quarter (third?) of the country’s population live in Dublin or thereabouts. When things go bad there they’re bad for everyone. But COME ON people, a national crisis? ‘National’ being the word I have most issue with. Then there’s the people calling for the government to take some kind of action, to do something before we’re all found frozen in our tracks, woolly mammoths ambling on by. What about some community spirit? If the path outside your shop is an ice rink why not get out there with salt and anything else you can find and see to it YOURSELF that nobody dies on your watch.

Yes, the government have been slow to act. The councils have been even slower. Westmeath County Council have been turning our water off for over a week now at night, funnily enough we coped. This is a freak weather incident, nothing forward planning could have foreseen. It’s annoying, it’s upsetting, it’s downright dangerous but it’s the way it is. No committee formed by John Gormley tonight will help the situation today.

Then there’s the schools. Last night’s report visited a school that opened despite the snow on the ground. The parents were DELIGHTED to get rid of their children, the children happy to return. Another school visited by RTÉ  was missing four teachers, two of whom were “stranded in foreign airports”. You have to laugh. Those poor, badly paid, teachers who can only take holidays days after Christmas when the rest of us are weeping into our credit card statements. MY HEART BLEEDS. In Mullingar one of the only schools in the town (my own alma mater) that decided to remain closed is situated in the centre of the town. Not down a boreen or on a secondary road in the middle of nowhere but right smack bang in the town’s centre with a demographic of pupils from the town itself. Mullingar is cold alright but the danger of driving here passed before the last snowfall. The two “country schools” I’m aware of opened their doors yesterday as planned. Despite being isolated the principals visited the schools each day over the holidays to keep the heat on and the damage by the weather to a minimum. There’s that old initiative-taking community spirit I’ve mentioned before, at work.

And then there’s the beauty. My phone is not co-operating with my attempt to post the photos I took this morning as I walked/slid home. The canal nearby is a white road of solid ice, the trees are coated in a film of ice reaching into a crystal blue sky and the hedgerows are cracking as the sun defrosts the ice. It’s terrible weather to work in, terrific weather with which to live.

FUNNY: The Irish Times’ top 5 most-read articles today are all about the weather. The current conditions are referred to on their homepage as 1) “the Arctic conditions”, 2)”adverse weather”, 3) “cold snap”, 4)”worsening weather and 5) “freezing weather”. ARCTIC CONDITIONS?!! Perspective, ANYONE?

Nick Cave is always right: people, they ain’t NO GOOD.

I once sent out an email to a few hundred people. The list included politicians, TV personalities, people in the media, friends and everyone else I could think of. I was inviting these people to the launch of a magazine my class and I were publishing. I was younger then, and somewhat stupid. In my haste to get this email out I neglected to blind copy everyone’s email address. This meant that each person I emailed had a ready made list of contacts they could view use.

I didn’t notice my mistake until I received a VERY irate email from a recipient. They resented me sending their very private email address to everyone on the list, thereby enabling anyone with the gumption to do so to email them on a professional or personal basis. The person in question lightly threatened me as I was, in his geographically-challenged eyes, breaking UK privacy law. As we were in Dublin at the time I took the legal threat lightly but the mistake haunts me to this day. It was amateur of me at best, not respecting that the people I was emailing deserved their privacy.

The big deal? The reason I’m relaying this thrilling tale of email address legalese?

I joined a mailing list a few years ago in order to be in touch with a college publication I was writing for. When I graduated and moved on to another college I cancelled my subscription to the paper. I wasn’t there to attend meetings nor could I get involved. Simple. This year I started recieving emails from the new staff of this paper. The emails are not being sent from the official subscription list (a list you can easily unsubscribe from as it is done through the college’s societies page), rather they are being sent directly from the editor’s email address.

The editor does not know how to blind copy, it seems. Each email, again containing information that is no longer of use to me, arrives displaying my email address along with dozens of others. I recognise some names on the list and thanks to the work of the editor I now have their emails, forever in my possession. I’ve sent four emails back politely asking to be removed. A short reply came after my third saying my bidding would be done.

Another email arrived today. The same list, the same people, the same message I don’t want to get. I sent another email, less polite this time. No reply, as of yet.

You might laugh, or stamp ‘urgent’ on my application to the nearby psychiatric hospital and you could be right. Today Westmeath County Council turned my town’s water supply off without a warning. I’ve already nearly killed myself walking to the shop for a gallon of water and that’s almost gone. I like the cold, admire the snow, but this is ridiculous. I’m tetchy and angry at the council and the idiots in my town who’ve been leaving their taps running to prevent freezing thus lowering water pressure for us all, this email was my own personal camel-back-breaking straw.

I’m tempted to go to this person’s office, in NUI Galway, and deliver a long overdue class in email etiquette. That or contact that lovely fellow from my own FIRST AND ONLY mistake and have him teach her what’s what.

That is all. Normal, more sane, service might resume when water returns.

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.

dudes, girls, Taylor Swift, those Grammys and hating on bitches

Lots of links in this post, I think you should click on all of them.

Taylor Swift has been nominated for LOADS of Grammys, as has Beyoncé. I’m a fan of both, I enjoy dancing to Beyoncé when I hope nobody is watching and this rendition of ‘Halo’ makes me cry, despite the cheese factor being at an ALL-TIME high. Swift makes me want to be fifteen again. In my younger years I was lacking in contemporary female pop stars with attitude and something to say, not that I noticed. My generation was awarded boy bands as their contribution modern culture, thank you Louis Walsh.

So it’s nice, ain’t it, to see two ladeez on top of their respective games doing so well for themselves? I’m about to touch on why it might not be SO great but from a business point of view they’re both more in-control of their destinies than female pop stars gone before them. Mariah had to deal with Tommy, Whitney with Bobby. Beyonce might desire a ring on it but she was successful before and since Jay and little of her image has changed. One can’t help but wonder if Britney had been afforded, or deserving of, the production independence Swift has enjoyed would she have turned into the hot mess she became.

The not-so-nice part of these two females making pop a woman’s game is the message their music is wont to send out to the susceptible 15 year olds of this world. Beyonce is hardly a novel topic asking, as she has, of the men to tie us down for heaven’s sake and PUT A RING ON IT. It’s Swift who has set the blogosphere alight as analysis of her butter-would-have-a-problem-melting-in-them lyrics abates.

Taylor’s ‘You Belong With Me’ is a case in point. ( sample lyrics: “she wears short skirts/I wear t-shirts/ she’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers”) It’s, though veiled in cutesy teenage angst, the classic woman-hater song. Swift yearns for the dude who’s going out with a cheerleader while nerdy ol’  Swifty hangs around her house, wearing her glasses, pining for for him. (Video) Why can’t Taylor yearn for him without hating on the girl he chose? Why must the object of her affection escape with nothing but desire while his innocent first choice comes in for all kinds of abuse.

After reading more about this here, here, here and here I almost miss the simple days of Boyzone and Take That. Erm, not. Like some of the bloggers I linked to I sort of love Taylor Swift, my years on this earth have helped me seperate a catchy tune from a life lesson. What might be worrying, if you decide to not credit our teenagers with brains, is that you need life’s lessons to see past the lyrical brainwashing.