99 Things To Watch On Youtube

One of the issues with Youtube is the infinite amount of videos present on the site, it's impossible to have seen even a slight majority of them. Additionally, the majority of videos featured on Youtube aren't actually that good, so most of it would have to be filtered out (not taking into account the "dark" side of Youtube that I looked at in a previous post).

Luckily, one man has come up with such a list to help you travel the far depths of Youtube or in other words, to quench your boredom. The list is called GREG RUTTER'S DEFINITIVE LIST OF THE 99 THINGS YOU SHOULD HAVE ALREADY EXPERIENCED ON THE INTERNET UNLESS YOU'RE A LOSER OR OLD OR SOMETHING. A fairly long title, it's the ultimate list of all the best videos Youtube has to offer.

From the infamous "Charlie Bit Me" to the much parodied "Grape Stomp", this list contains everything you have to see on Youtube.

However, you must cautious as after the list finishes, there are four links in smaller font that will lead to, let's say, unpleasant sites that will probably scar for the rest of your life (trust me I've seen three of them).

This is a fairly short entry but just felt like writing a concise eulogy of another of the internets wonders that ironically, I criticized a few posts ago.

Mercury Prize 2012

The Mercury Prize is coming up Friday and I'm quite excited. Compared to the annual Brit Awards, the Mercury Prize is a truly legitimate award ceremony which actually celebrates artists for their musical ability and excellence.

The Brit Awards however, are just a mockery of music celebrations where it's in fact not music which is glorified but instead, the commercial success of the so called 'acts' that are nominated (One Direction are just an example).

This year's awards look quite interesting, out of the 12 acts on display, I can honestly vouch for most of the acts nominated. There's two especially I would like to win: Alt-J (∆) and Django Django whose indistinguishable and innovative sounds are some of the best things to come out of this country this year. Then there's other bands who I would't mind winning such as The Maccabees, Ben Howard or Michael Kiwanuka. Then there's those who no one have heard of and will most likely be one of the favourites (Sam Lee, Roller Trio).

In a Guardian article, the reporter commented on the fact that this year's nominations seems slightly weak, where there is a certain lack of diversity and an over-emphasis on melodious and soft singer-songwriters (Ben Howard). I say I wouldn't mind voting for the latter yet only out of last choice. Essentially most of it's decent music but not great. Then again, my favourite is never voted for, in the last ten years, only three acts that I've supported actually won the prize (Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys and Klaxons).

Hopefully, this year my favourite will win but due to my cynical nature, I very much doubt this becoming a reality. Let's just hope next year's awards will have a more eclectic selection of nominees however I can't complain too much compared to the ever so wise Brit Awards.

In any case, let's just hope that Plan B isn't even considered winning it.

No Vampire Weekend, I Do Give a F*** about an Oxford Comma

Grammar is truly under appreciated. I can't really complain though, I've not really fond of it and know very little of the technical terms names. And I study English Literature.

However, I've come across a grammatical term that I'd not heard of until a few years ago, being made famous by American band Vampire Weekend.

I am speaking of course of the infamous Oxford comma. A very subtle device that most people are oblivious of yet plays a vital role in many sentences, especially when including lists.

Officially, an Oxford comma is used before a coordinating conjunction (and, or) preceding the final item in a list of three or more items.
However, I believe this cartoon expresses everything said before, but in a humorous fashion.

Without the use of the Oxford comma, a reader
would assume that the strippers were in fact JFK and Stalin however this is not the case. With the use of an Oxford comma, we get the correct meaning out of the sentence. The individual has invited JFK, Stalin and the strippers.

So don't listen to Vampire Weekend because they are ignoring a very important grammatical rule that shouldn't be neglected. We should blame this band for spreading poor grammar in youngsters who without the help of much rap/hip-hop wouldn't have a leg to stand on in the grammatical world.
So let's thank artists such as Timbaland for his ever so educational songs such as "The Way I Are" which a re really helping kids with their grammar lessons.

But do listen to Vampire Weekend because they are a good band, and Oxford Comma is a good song.

The Dark Side of Youtube

Youtube has become one of those sites that this generation cannot seem to dissociate itself from. In a sense, Youtube is the video equivalent of Facebook (another of this era's dependencies). You can post things, comment upon them and impersonally 'like' it. As simple and straightforward it seems, there's always some fairly strange activities that always go on.

It's also home to much banter and pointless, idiotic arguments. People seem to believe that it's a perfect podium for their opinions. There's nothing wrong with posting your opinions yet there's always a point where it needs to stop.

However, this isn't a rant against vapid Youtube users (there's time for that in another post) but more of a commentary on some of the strange occurrences on Youtube. I'm talking of course of the dark side of Youtube.

It's something that no person wishes to unearth yet it always seems inevitable. One moment you're peacefully watching a video a bear waving to some people or contemplating the idiocies of the people on Epic fail and then it happens. Out of nowhere you've found either watching some disturbing psychedelic cartoons from the 70s or watching a Japanese Ronald McDonald tripping out to some intense dance music. Even though I've posted links to these videos, I wouldn't recommend watching them, especially if you're minutes away from your LSD trip.

How it happens? I have no idea. The links between what you set out to watch and what you end 'discovering' are a mystery but there's always a few bridges between them. It's always videos entitled "Disney's most racists moments" that entice your curiosity, from there onwards it's an inevitable downfall into madness. What's worrying though is whether people watch these videos because they've somehow ended up there or actually get some kind of twisted pleasure out of them. Worst though is the people who actually load them. 

However, from what the internet tells me it usually people like this fine young gentleman here who are usually the culprits.

Peace, bad name, good band.

Every few years or so, music publications and critics discover a new artist to revamp the apparent never ending demise of Indie music and begin a new sonic wave that influences a whole new generation. Some have been successful such as Arctic Monkeys rise in 2006 yet some bands such as The Drums haven't really lived up to the hype, despite much acclaim for the first single "I Wanna Go Surfing".

As most of these predictions have been hit and miss over the last few years, I feel I'm entitled to make my own one. The band I'm routing for these days are called Peace.

Ok, before I make an over-elaborate and zealous speech, I'll say this first. Yes, I know the name is awful, if there's anything I can find wrong with them is their atrocious name. I feel that they're either trying to reinvigorate a 60's philosophy (but in rather superficial fashion) or they're materializing a typical Hipster trait of irony. In any case it's not great but moving on.

The first song I heard by this band is off their debut EP: EP Delicious, called 'Bloodshake' a colourful, afro-pop number that screams lead single. It's bouncy, catchy, mellifluous with lush production that ends on a mini epic build up. The song grabs my attention and I was thus curious to hear more. What I find however, was something I truly could not of predicted. 

They've got a song called '1998' a cover of Trance song, that's right Trance, which is in my opinion the best song I've heard all year. It's starts fairly slowly and quietly and slightly disorganised yet leads into one of the most powerful build-ups of all time. The result? A finely crafted song that lasts over 10 minutes with so many distinguishable parts that never leads towards boredom or repetition (even the second buildup is essentially the same yet the subtle inclusion of synths give it that extra momentous touch). It's ethereal, human and fundamentally epic (in the truest form of the word).

I would write more but I feel this tangent might go on for too long if I do so I'll leave as it is for the moment. So yeah, Peace in my opinion will be the next leading bands who hopefully will live up to the hype that they've been given (well what I believe). 

Therefore everyone should listen to Peace.

Tarantino and the N word

On Christmas Day, Quentin Tarantino will release his new film Django Unchained in cinemas and to be honest, I cannot wait. Since Inglorious Basterds in 2009, fans all over the world have been waiting impatiently for his next release (especially myself) and from what I can tell from the trailers, it looks epic. In typical Tarantino style, the films takes a a twisted look on the slave trade in America and it's centred around his favourite theme, revenge. It looks bloody, it looks contentious yet as always it always contains that dark humour that has made Tarantino such a unique filmmaker.

However, this blog post is an extended eulogy of Tarantino (even though I would gladly do that) but more about a specific feature in his work. One of his most controversial techniques is the dialogue he uses but especially a heavy use of the N word which is often seen in a derogative manner (Pulp Fiction and the character Jules is a prime example). With choosing a topic about slave trade, it seems inevitable that this word will be applied throughout the film. Yet he's received some criticism over this, especially amongst the black community who feel it is inappropriate for a white man to use terms so candidly.

A famous example of this is director Spike Lee who said "I'm not against the word... and I use it, but Quentin is infatuated with the word. What does he want? To be made an honorary black man?". It is understandable that it to criticise a white man using such a word yet this whole situation needs to be put into context. 

What's great about Tarantino's dialogue is that it is truly realistic to whatever situation he is depicting. A minority of black people still use this word today (listen to most rap music and you will see a pattern). He is being true to life with his depiction yet I can understand the objections as this is a term that is still highly offensive and sensitive. 

So I think it's inevitable that someone is going to bring up the debate again over this issue yet hopefully people will realise that Tarantino is not meaning to offend but be realistic and more importantly, entertain. And to anyone who calls him a racist, is truly ignorant.

Here's a link to the trailer of his new film Django Unchained.

Hey, check out what I stumbled upon

Since 2001, procrastination levels have peaked at record highs since the creation and development of Stumbleupon (Note: I have no real facts, it's more of an analysis of one person, myself).
It's a simple but brilliant idea that allows you to reach the broadest horizons of information on the internet while simultaneously finding pages entitled "100 amazing facts you never knew".

Stumbleupon is essentially a search engine yet unlike Bing or Google, it's completely personalised. That is, once you create an account with them, you select topics that are personal tastes and interests, when this is completed, Stumbleupon will randomly search anything to do with these personal interests.
It's so effectively simple that it is genius.

For example, if you like "photography", "arts", "music" and "news", you just select all of these interests out of the numerous boxes you can choose from, save it and it will henceforth recognise this. All you have to afterwards is go on your account and click the big "stumble upon" button and you're off into the wonderful world that is the internet.

It's something that I highly recommend using either out of boredom or just to add to your insatiable quest for general knowledge. When writing these blog posts, have of them have resulted from something that I've discovered on Stumbleupon. If you've ever found one of my blog posts even slightly interesting, it's thanks to Stumbleupon.

However, one piece of warning, it can get highly addictive so if you find yourself reading about Mongolian Priests at 4 am don't blame me.

Self Help Me

In recent years, our society has been littered by a number of vacuous "cultural phenomenons" from the 'vampires' of the Twilight Book Series, to Bieber Fever. These are not only an insult to term culture yet are also proof of the idiocy that seems to reign in modern times. I am talking about self-help books.

It all started over 80 years ago with the first published self-help book How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, which now has a cult-like status in the genre. To me, they are pointless, ineffective and delusional. One of my main issues with it is just reading the title 'self-help' itself suggests there is something wrong with me but fortunately the author has found the cure.
There's a difference between advice and this. Advice is free first of all. The intentions of these books are to help people, whatever it is they are trying to specifically achieve. You would therefore assume this was a form of altruism yet the author not giving this out for free, there's always a monetary transaction involved.

I find them fairly delusional as well, especially when it comes to the readership. Someone will read one of these books and tell themselves they are improving and becoming a better person but are they? I think it's down to a subconscious level, where they think their life is getting better because they've ignorantly convinced themselves they are, therefore not actually.

Another issue I have with these is that there's a major flaw just in the title. The 'self' hints at the individual and more precisely the inner life. How can these books personalise it for every single individual. One approach to life may be effective for one person yet it does not assure that it will work for someone else. Additionally, sometimes you can't figure your own problems and reading some impersonal and superfluous book about dealing with these problems is not a sure way of helping.

So if you're looking for that promotion and can't figure out how to do it, my advice would be to get very drunk, drunk call your boss and have an emotional breakdown on to phone to them. If that doesn't work, well you're hopeless then.

A good article to read about this can be found here on The Independent.

Ride The Psychedelic Wave

It's strange that it's taken the world between 40 to 50 years for there to be a generally good revival of 60's psychedelia. I know that the nineties had such bands as Happy Mondays, Primal Scream and Ocean Colour Scene who were all trying to reinstate psychedelic back onto the scene and as much as these bands did manage a lot and have a cult like status now, I feel as though their influence has been fairly limited.

The 21st century however has been more prolific and efficient in reviving the genre. Look at artists such as Tame Impala, Devendra Banhart or MGMT. They are in statuses where they have garnered enough of a following to truly influence the current music scene and what will follow it. These artists are all able to not only incorporate the psychedelic sound but also take it further.

Tame Impala's Kevin Parker not only sounds like John Lennon stuck in a jar of reverb but his synth sounding guitars and production techniques are a sonic revolution. Devendra Banhart sounds like a funnier version of Donovan, whose lyrics often intertwine humour with surrealism, especially when he speaks of sexy looking pigs ("Little Yellow Spider").

However, even though these bands are very innovative, musically wise there are those who've creating a separate strain of psychedelia where even though implanting in the past, it sounds like it's from the future. Bands such as Animal Collective, Yeasayer or The Horrors epitomise this movement.

Their sounds are so different and strange yet so welcoming to the listener at the same time. Much of it is synth/sampler based yet they all retain original band formats (guitar/bass/drums). It's music that's trying to escape from reality yet while retaining it's own humanity. Take the lyrics of "My Girls" by Animal Collective: "There isn't much there if I'd need
A solid soul and the blood I bleedWith a little girl and by my spouseI only want a proper house".
All these bands are worth checking but they do take a few listeners in order to be fully appreciable. I'm leaving a list of links that will direct towards a number of bands I've mentioned in this post:-Tame Impala - Elephant-Animal Collective-My Girls-Devendra Banhart - Little Yellow Spider

The Apocalypse Will Be Televised

Derren Brown has a new show entitled Apocalypse, where he takes one unsuspecting victim and convinces him that it is the end of the world.
Like the scripts for 28 Days Later or The Walking Dead, the "protagonist" is to awaken in an abandoned hospital and venture into his new post-apocalyptic world. Unbeknownst to him, it's entirely fictional and completely monitored by a group of psychologists and doctors.
Brown, controversial as ever, has indicated that the purpose of this show is to make this individual truly appreciate his life and loved ones. It's an extraordinary idea that will probably be fairly divisive yet will most likely be one of the events of the year.

What's great about the concept is that it's one massive life lesson. Not only is it teaching you to appreciate your life but also reinstating basic survival skills. Like any zombie film, only those with the best will to live generally survive, and of course, a lot of luck. It's interesting because it poses a number of questions over basic survival and the will to live.
If survivalism is based on natural instincts, those with the greatest will to live are surely more likely to survive.

So what fair's better?
It's essentially a battle between the philosophy of "survival of the fittest" therefore those who are physically stronger against those with greater will to survive, hence someone with greater mental strength. This show will most likely continue the everlasting debate of human nature but will also be highly entertaining.
Additionally, if the apocalypse is nearing, you might actually get some useful tips.

Worst Title Ever!

Is it me, or are TV/film producers become lazier and lazier when coming up with new titles for their productions. Throughout the years, there's always been the occasional title which just screams creativity and originality. If only.
Some of the killer ones in my eyes have to be such classics as A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell which sounds like a somewhat twisted pornographic and animalistic film. Some however sounds too hilarious too even be true: Santa Clause conquers the Martians or Attack of the Killer Tomatoes or I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle.

Yet I feel they can be pardoned just for the simple hilarity of the concept, let alone the movie title. Additionally, I'm half tempted to actually watch these films just to be able to witness what would happen if Father Christmas took over Mars or people started to be attacked by tomatoes would actually consist of.

TV is no exception to this problem yet I've noticed that this year, it's no so much about bad titles, it's more that they are so idiotically simplistic than even a 5 year old would fair better. The sheer lamentable nature of these titles aren't even funny, thus doing everything possible to not make want to watch them. Take the show Guys with Kids, what is that? The concept sounds awful first of all but it does nothing to entice me into the show. I already know exactly what the show is going to be about without even bothering to watch it. One reviewer has actually suggested the title Motherfuckers instead, derogative it may be yet it's statement of truth and actually grabs your attention.
Like many of my posts, I've realized there's a pattern developing about my anger towards humanity's lack of direction and creativity and I'm ironically repeating my actions and should probably refrain from such posts in future. But then again, I believe in hypocrisy,

Tokophobia

While researching material for my Creative Writing course, I stumbled upon a condition called Tokophobia which is in essence, the fear of pregnancy/childbirth.
It is a serious condition that has only really been "discovered" since 2000. Many women suffer this psychological disorder which has affected a number of relationships throughout the world.

It comes in two extremities:
Primary Tokophobia is deep-seated fear of childbirth probably passed on from someone at an early age.
Secondary Tokophobia can be due to a traumatic childbirth or a sufferer of postpartum depression.

To further this, here's a few anonymous quotes from people who suffer from this:

"The truth is that the very thought of having something almost alien-like growing inside me is disgusting."

or

"It's much more than an anxiety - I am actually physically repulsed by pregnancy and childbirth."

However, even though this is a growing problem in women, it is also apparent in men yet, with different results. As earlier mentioned, I was researching and pondered whether it affected men as well and it does. Even though I found a few credible examples there was one guy who was too good to be true. The source of his condition was because he believed he had watched The Nanny too much and had since developed an almost irrational fear because of it.
Using his logic, it's like saying a man had watched the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Junior where he becomes pregnant and had thus concluded that something similar was to be happen to him (consequently though, I'm talking about this for my course).
The lengths people take to convey their idiocy to the world really does flabbergast me at times.

Will Sir Jimmy fix'it this time?

In recent weeks, the scandal involving Sir Jimmy Saville has risen to such extents that even Prime Minister David Cameron has asked the BBC begin an investigation over the alleged acts.
Like any affair involving a Catholic priest, it only takes one victim to come forward to commence waves of accusations.

The odds do seem against the deceased TV presenter where in recent weeks, there have been over 340 accounts of sexual abuse yet only 40 are being closely looked at by the police.

The man was riddled throughout his life with these accusations and once claimed he was "feared in every girl's school in the country"which in hindsight, does sound fairly suspicious.
I'll admit it's not good to judge people by appearance alone but seriously? He's probably one of the most stereotypical, caricature-esque looking pedophiles out there.
However, I'm not saying this defines him as a pedophile, he just merely conveys the stereotypical image of one.

One thing that I find truly disconcerting about this whole affair is the media's approach in handling the situation, take The Sun for example. They have began a campaign wishing to strip him from his knighthood. If all accusations are founded then fair enough, yet what is frustrating is the fact that The Sun are lionising him as a pedophile before any actual inquiry.

If it has been proven then he deserves to be known as a pedophile yet before an objective and un-biased inquiry is made, such claims are left to the ignorant and uneducated.

Reality TV Gone Too Far?

In 1971, psychology professor Philip Zimbardo began an experiment where he replicated a mock prison, filled it with volunteer guards and prisoners and study the effects of becoming either a prisoner or guard and understand their conflicting relationships.
However, after only 6 days the operation was shut down due to the violent and extreme actions the guards were taking.

Perceived as a failure and hugely criticised due to the resulting psychological trauma of its participants, Zimbardo did prove however that when given a position of power, many will enjoy it and most likely abuse the power they have been given.

As shocking and disturbing as this story is, compared to most of reality TV, it doesn't like an idea that TV executives would find too immoderate.

Take shows such as I'm a celebrity, or Big Brother, they are two shows which play on the psychosis of its participants either having to eat kangaroo testicles or being trapped in a confined area for weeks on end, not to mention in the company of complete idiots.
I would not be surprised that if Channel 4 or ITV's ratings start dropping, they'll consider the most extreme form of television. Watching a show that imitates this experiment would be barbaric and disgusting, but you would probably watch it out of curiosity.

I know that these comparisons are far-fetched yet the way TV is going and our insatiable quest to watch people suffer (X Factor), I don't think it's too long before something like this does happen.

The Cult of Frape

In the last few years, the world of Facebook has been consumed by the concept of fraping someone. A frape is a modern day kenning, combining the terms Facebook and rape together resulting in "Raping someones Facebook profile when they leave it logged in" according to Urban dictionary. 

It is essentially an attempt to publicly humiliate a friend over the internet by posting embarrassing but usually fictitious remarks about that individual. Common subjects include sexuality (e.g. fetishes), changing profile pictures or sending obscure messages to their friends. 
It's quite a peculiar development in social relations where fraping has become part of our culture in a sense. In this culture of "Banter" that we live in, humiliating someone has become the new form of communication and to an extent, a sign of appreciation towards the person you frape (unless you're doing it to actually insult them).
With the influence that Facebook has over people, it's inevitable that anything associated with it will also have an effect on people.

Mosts frapes go unnoticed where they are usually repeating typical formats yet there are also a fair few epic frapes which usually grabbed the attention of most of the internet community. They are well thought out, meticulous, and extremely creative. Yet some people refuse to accept being fraped.

From an external perspective, it is quite a strange concept, being wirelessly "raped" doesn't sound that pleasant and of course without knowing the context of it, it is understandable to know approve of it.
Yet it is purely done for entertainment,  and if there is any maliciousness behind it then fair enough to disapprove of it and subsequently delete it. If not, there is nothing to complain about.

To conclude if I could give any advice about frapes, just like Nardwaur the Human Serviette, the more surreal it is, the better. 

Electro Monkeys

Everyone has heard of the Infinite Monkey Complex, where when given a typewriter, a monkey will almost surely after a certain amount of time, write a given text (for example the work of William Shakespeare).
However, this is purely a mathematical theory where the "monkey" is a metaphor for an abstract device and the "almost surely" represents the laws of probability.


Nonetheless, this idea has been portrayed in much popular culture from The Simpsons, to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and so on. Because drama has decreased in popularity in the last 50 years, recent researchers decided to put idea into practice yet with a modern twist:


In a recent project entitled Monkeys + Synthesizers, a variety of monkeys are presented synthesisers and allowed to "experiment" as much as they like.

Monkeying around.

The results are interesting, at first most of what they play sound like the 20th century minimalist compositions of such artists as Steve Reich, LaMonte Younge or Phillip Glass: Erratic, conceptual, droning and fairly dissonant.
Yet with some clever editing, the creators sample the music from each monkey and to be honest, it sounds better than the majority of Top 40 artists compositions. It says a lot that an animal who is less developed than us can create better music even without understanding the actual concept of music itself.
Maybe monkeys are the future of music.

Dreams are Epic

While researching a topic to discuss for today's blog post, I stumbled upon an interesting article about dreams entitled 15 Interesting Facts About Dreams. After reading it, I decided that this would be an interesting topic to discuss. 

There was a collage of information such as not everybody dreams in colour or that blind people in fact dream but what most grabbed my attention was the fact that you forget 90% of what you dream.

Within the first 5 minutes of waking up, your conscious mind can only remember that remaining 10% and if you've just had an epic dream and tell someone about it, no matter how much you convince yourself, you're missing a huge majority of what happened. 

I find this really interesting because it poses a number of questions over the subconscious activity that goes on in our brains. It shows how little we know about ourselves, that so much information is hidden from us by ourselves and that we truly have a very limited control over our conscious actions.

The beauty of dreams is that they are this gateway into our subconscious but personally, I never have straight-forward dreams and often have to answer countless riddles in order to decipher a meaning out of them. However, once you take enough time to try and understand them, it can be quite therapeutic as this article also mentions, the most common emotions are anxiety and fear. 

http://www.boredpanda.com/15-interesting-facts-about-dreams-dreaming/

Because so much escapes our conscious mind, are we really that self-aware? and can we truly give ourselves an identity if we know so little about ourselves? I would recommend taking a gander at Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, personally I've never finished it but it's a great read and reveals much about the mind that you probably weren't aware of. 

Punk'd:Baghdad Style

Most people have probably heard of the American TV series "Punk'd", a hidden camera-practical joke reality television series originally started by comedian/actor Ashton Kutcher.
The title takes its name from the pranks that the presenter and participants would perform on guests/celebrities. Being "punk'd" is therefore being the victim of these pranks.
The show has had it's share of controversy, where the victims are not always so pleased with being publicly humiliated. However, the show has never gone too far and the show aims to be solely humorous.

With the show's popularity, numerous international versions have been created as consequence including Norway, Canada, Japan and Iraq. Like any other international version, they all take the same format as the original version yet Iraq's take on it has a slight twist.
In the last ten years, Iraq has been one of the most volatile areas in the world, becoming a war-torn country that it still feeling the effects of post-war. It had also been victim of a number of terrorist attacks, especially bomb/suicide attacks.
It would be fitting then, for the Iraqi version to plant fake bombs in the cars of celebrities and then pass it off as a joke.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO6kzR_GNa8

The victims of the american version have enothing to complain about after seeing this: Victims get accused of being terrorist, told they will be shot and often begin to faint, plead or cry. The show has been hugely criticized in Iraq for joking about a subject that is still sensitive.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129726901

Like all "edgy" material, there is always a certain amount of time before it is possible to joke about controversial events where the question of "too soon?" can be asked. If you consider Frankie Boyle to be controversial, compared to the makers of this show, his humour would be family friendly.

The future of interviewing?

Whether watching interviews of your favourite bands on youtube or just simply reading about it, you begin to notice certain patterns in these conversations.

Questions such as 'How did you guys meet?' or 'Who are your biggest influences?' are prevalent throughout these interviews, fair enough it's important to establish the background of the people in question yet for the interviewee, it can become dull and annoying.

Another common feature is the obsequious nature of many of the interviewers, and commonly either not truly liking the person's music or not really knowing anything about it. 

Essentially, I feel interviews are lacking spontaneity and originality. 

This is where this man comes in to the picture. His name is Nardwuar the Human Serviette, believe or not, a Canadian celebrity interviewer known for his eccentric approach and his esoteric appearance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGGFEjp2ZrU

He has interviewed everyone from Snoop Dogg, Alice Cooper, Nirvana and even James Brown. His method is fairly surreal, often surprising guests with in-depth knowledge of them, and posing bizarre questions, much to the bemusement of many of his interviewees. However, his methods are fairly divisive and he has sometimes been the subject of verbal and physical abuse. 

Whether you like him or not, his interviews are never boring and you get much more information out of the guests then you would expect. Much like the Gonzo Journalism of Hunter S.Thompson, it may seem strange and ineffective in its contemporary yet will hopefully will endorsed, maybe emulated in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FvIsf57U7c

YOLO?

Every year, the internet community is blessed by new, refreshing acronyms that become widespread in our gradually more facile conversations. This year's one is YOLO.

YOLO, a term coined by the american rapper Drake, stands for You Only Live Once, a fairly obvious statement telling people to live their lives by the fullest as our time on this planet is short. It's a fair enough argument, people should do as much as they can before their inevitable death but the superficiality surrounding this 'movement' is jarring.

First of all, it's a very simplistic philosophy:Most people at an early age can figure out that it's good to try new things and be adventurous and is something usually endorsed by their parents. If people need to be told by social networkings sites such as facebook or twitter how to live their lives, their is truly something innately wrong with them.

Second of all, it's lead to such idiotic consequences from people who are taken the whole concept too far. Hearing about someone getting drunk and then regretting it the day after when nursing their hangovers only to exclaim YOLO is just vacuous. If that is someones personal understanding of YOLO, they lead very sad lives and have obviously not fully understood the actual concept.

And finally, most people are probably not aware of this but the phrase "Carpe diem" meaning 'seize the day' represents exactly what YOLO is trying to achieve, and it's been around since the ancient Greeks.

If people wish to live such Epicurean lives then so be it, but as the ever so wise Jack Black remarked "YOLO is Carpe Diem for stupid people", yes, yes it is.

Anti-Logic is Fun

Logic or common sense, is an inherent feature within man where we are able to assess validity in statements and be able to perform actions in the most effective means possible.

Anti-logic is therefore the opposite of this, commonly known as what is illogical. Yet what is illogical is only defined as something that is not logical. 

It is also given fairly negative connotations and when someone is being illogical is it either frowned upon or disregarded. 

I, however, am a great supporter of anti-logic, believing that is should be as highly-regarded as logic, maybe more.

Logic is essentially boring, finding new and random ways of performing actions are always entertaining, albeit more time consuming. Arguments also become more entertaining, especially when the person you are arguing with becomes progressively angrier and infuriated. Lack of common sense should be celebrated, the surreal is a fantastic world which should be exploited more often. The things you're imagination can come up with will surprise your friends and even yourself at times.

I am only saying this because I do lack much common sense and should not really be applied, if that is a sign of idiocy then I shall accept part of this as true. Plus if this article seems illogical, then I've done exactly what I've set out to do.