Wednesday, September 3
My Dog = Cute, Little Kids = Not; Charlton Heston = Poor Loser;
I've been stuck at home all day, not doing very much except a few more cleaning jobs. Man, my life sucks right now. Today was the turn of the toilets to feel the wrath of Rob. And I mean with a brush and Toilet Duck, not in any other sense.
Anyway, I've been playing with my dog for most of the day, mainly because he's been really annoying in constantly wanting attention. This is probably because I didn't take him out for a walk yesterday, so he was bored. I like messing around with my dog (unbiblical sense), he's good fun to play with. He's got this bedraggled squeeky monkey toy that he loves to bits, so I was chucking that around the living room for a while with him.
I managed to find time to take him out for a walk, but, as with all of this week, I forgot to take my CD player with me. Usually, I like to have tunes on, so I can just switch off the world around me, except when crossing the road. This past fortnight, I keep forgetting it, so my mind is always buzzing with random thoughts when I'm out with him. Today, a bunch of little kids made me think of the subject of paedophiles.
There's been a whole bunch of hysteria about paedophiles in the past few years here in the UK, especially when connected with the spawn of satan that is the internet. Don't ever, ever go to a chatroom kids! They're stock full of old men, wanting to meet up with you. Hell, even the government is bringing in a new law which makes "grooming" a serious offence. The problem here is that the definition giving to "grooming" (the practise of preparing a child to meet / have intercourse with an older man) in the proposed legislation is very, very wide, whereas the punishment for it is very hefty, without much room for manoeuvre (I hate spelling that word).
But that's not what I was thinking about. I was actually contemplating how a grown man could actually find young kids attractive. Let's look at the options:
a) a post-pubescent woman, with sexy curves and a knowledge of how to look attractive, coupled with no stigma from the rest of society for finding her attractive
or
b) a pre-pubescent, featureless young kid. oh, and a hell of a lot of criticism / abuse from society for finding them attractive.
I fall into the majority who choose option a, thank god. I really just don't understand how these people can have a mindset that finds young kids attractive. Meh, one of those things.
On a different tack now, I watched Bowling For Columbine, the Michael Moore documentary, today. It was very good, although I do feel that it was a little simplistic in its message and investigation of the main aspects. Yes, Moore wanted to make the point that guns are a big problem in the US, but I get the impression that the parts of interviews he used were only the ones which supported his view. Of course, this is what any journalist who is trying to make a point will do, but it seems a little overdone here. Also, a good journalist shouldn't ask leading questions, or at least a good journalist should not make his leading questions glaringly obvious. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Moore fails on both counts. The documentary is still worth watching, and Charlton Heston comes out of it with no credit whatsoever. Again, a personal opinion. I did like the statistics shown, although as any fule know, statistics are only used when they support the statement...
One final point, the MTV Video Music Awards have been all over MTV UK this weekend and into the midweek. I must admit to having watched them, as I did last year, the year before that, and probably a few more years-worth too. They are a great show, and very funny, but I would request that next year MTV nominates those videos that are actually good videos, rather than those which were most popular on TRL or whatever. Take, for instance, the video In Da Club by 50 Cent. A great song (off a great album), but the video wasn't worthy of being nominated, let alone picking up 3 awards. It had a half-decent start to it, with Eminem and Dr Dre training / building 50 Cent, but the other 3/4 were terrible. it was just like any other rap video: the rapper in a club with some bitches, and various camera angles all over the place. Not a great video.
The music video is truly an art form nowadays, just like the short film, the feature-length film, and even music itself. Eminem's Lose Yourself picked up an award too. For what? It's just footage from 8 Mile, interspliced with Eminem rapping to the camera, and a little bit of him on stage. That's not a good video, that's not even an original video! Good videos should be original, they should say something, and they should compliment the song. They should also be artistic.
My favourite music videos (hunt for them on Kazaa, unless you're in the CIA or RIAA. Your employers probably wouldn't appreciate their bandwith being munched for something they are trying to eradicate) include:
- Radiohead - Street Spirit (Beautiful video to accompany a beautiful song)
- Radiohead - No Surprises (A genius concept, just Thom Yorke singing underwater, then the water being drained from his helmet, and then refilling)
- Aphex Twin - Windowlicker (Everybody loves this video, and it is a great mini-film)
- Korn - Freak On A Leash (Originality is everything, along with great cinematography)
- Dirty Vegas - Days Go By (Admittedly, I love this song, but the video is also brilliant)
- D-12 - Fight Music (This one makes a disguised dig at the divides in American society. Great execution of the idea)
- Engima - Gravity Of Love (Moody scenes, and the most arty of all music videos that I have seen. Fantastic stuff)
- Add N To X - Plug Me In (Come on, it's two mostly derobed ladies on a bed, all over each other and messing around with various "items." THAT is a good music video)
