De-blog

A recent re-run of CSI New York , where Danny Messer (rough and ready Italian New Yorker / science geek) and Sheldon Hawkes (African-American child prodigy medical examiner) are engaged in a deep and well-scripted dialogue about the current investigation, when Danny's 'cell phone' rings. The ring tone is Coldplay song, 'Talk', with the next 5-10 seconds of action plummeting into blatant, full-frontal product placement. After the show the ring tone was offered to viewers (in the USA) as a download. What's wrong with this scene? For many viewers, perhaps not a lot; fans of Coldplay, for example, will have no doubt been delighted. The legislators who outlawed subliminal messaging would also be satisfied that absolutely nothing about this type of product placement can be construed as an attempt at unconscious and unethical influence. The producers get paid, providing vital, extra revenue to secure the employment of stars and staff alike, and the CSI junkies are sa...

Eddie running through Burscough for Comic Relief [View Photos] I had the privilege of shaking hands with the awesome Eddie Izzard today - a truly humbling experience, considering that not only is this one of the funniest comedians in the world, but also, more importantly, she was about 22 miles into her fifteenth marathon for Comic Relief / Sport Relief. Because it's important, the link for donating is here: Comic Relief You can also follow her amazing and crazy antics on Twitter . And so, on to the other reasons to love (and support) Eddie Izzard. It's fairly safe to assume everyone knows Eddie has always been 'gender non-conforming'. She wears fantastic make-up; some of her outfits are beyond stunning and one can only marvel at the fact that she doesn't fall over herself, charging about the stage in three-plus-inch high heels. She simultaneously manages to shove her gender queerness in your face and just 'be it'. Whilst others in the limelight wo...

Two weeks of summer holidays, many hours of website building, a few less planning for September and another day of too much caffeine. The urge to write swelled as a scream of frustration in my throat, causing me to quit all running applications and come here. These words are an author's asylum, at the break of the tide that refuses to turn and let me write, godamnit. It's this thing I have, somewhere between Obsessive Compulsive and Autistic Spectrum Disorder, that keeps me from leisure, ergo from writing, because that is what I perceive my engagement in writing to be, a belief essentially sustained by the responses of those around me. There is always so much more to be done that I can attain and to misappropriate tasks to others for the pursuance of artistic endeavour is just plain absurd. It is this thing that I have. Thus, in order to engage in recreation of any sort, it is first necessary to clear the decks of all clutter, however laborious or arduous that might be. I'...

It's a terrible thing to get spammed by people who are actually in your address book, worse still when it looks a lot like they didn't read what they forwarded on beforehand, or at least didn't consider the content and whether it had any credibility. I like to think that this is because they know I, on their behalf, will cast a critical eye and comment on the matters at hand. I'm going to anyway. So, you know the drill... these lil arrows >> indicate that the text is the forwarded message, commentary in italics. >> > This is a true story This is a RED FLAG everyone! Any body of narrative that starts with the words 'This is a true story' generally is about as far from the truth as unicorns sitting in wait on crocks of gold at the end of the rainbow, waiting for unsuspecting leprechauns to meander their way. Anyway, on we go into the abyss of fantasy. > > > > > > > > Last month I attended my annual training session that's...

I've just been reading David Dean Bottrell's blog Parts and Labor , as well as watching his short film Available Men . Now here is a very talented writer, who presents some bizarre observations of life in L.A. - nothing out of the ordinary and yet extraordinary at the same time. It's all in the way it's written of course. So, it got me motivated to write something too, not really knowing what I would write about. That's the difficulty with being a teacher - so many absurdly funny things happen in the course of a day in a high school, yet to write about them without crossing the boundaries of professionalism is a virtually impossible task. Students remember teachers. They are usually one of our top five when asked to identify people who were most influential in our lives, not always for the right reasons. Nonetheless teachers have a remarkable impact on students. Conversely some students do not leave a lasting impression on teachers and for the most part when they do...