Charlie Brooker: The Misanthrope's Misanthrope.
This piece was spiked by the Grauniad, too depressing. Can't imagine why.
"Okay. I live in London, a city where it's hard not to look around and think, "Christ, so it's come to this" on a daily basis. Cities are one of human civilisation's most significant creations, and London is supposed to be one of the finest cities in the world. But it's horrible. It's cold, cramped, and ringing with sirens. Visually, it's an unending collage of immense grey boxes squatting beneath immense grey clouds, surrounded by thick grey-tasting air. Your best chance of seeing a splash of colour in London is to stare at a billboard or spew on the pavement. Coincidentally, those two activities also represent the finest entertainment the city has to offer.
But it's not just London that's awful. You are too. And by 'you', I mean 'us'. Humankind. After all, we clearly peaked about 40 years ago, and it's been downhill ever since. For all this talk of the dazzling modern age, the two biggest advances of the past decade are Wi-Fi and Nando's. That's the best we can do. Meanwhile the environment's crashing, fundamentalists and morons are at each other's throats, God's so disappointed he's wished himself out of existence, and the rest of us are merely pottering around, distracting ourselves by fiddling with our iPod settings."
τLabels: misanthropy
:: | 2:58 pm |Save This Page | |
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:: Thursday, September 13, 2007 ::
Ray a Drop of Golden Sun
:: | 11:33 am |
:: Monday, September 10, 2007 ::
Buffalo Tom live in London 11th July 2007
From a few weeks ago. Buffalo Tom in London.
τLabels: gigs
:: | 9:41 am |
Wendy in the House
Wendy Alexander is getting ready for her coronation as Scottish Labour leader with a little tour of the country. In other words she is addressing closed meetings of the Labour councillors and their families who make up the activist base of the party these days. At one of those in Edinburgh she predicted a 2010 referendum on independence according to a report in yesterday's Sunday Herald which does not appear to be online.
This implies Labour backing a referendum, which they think the SNP would lose. Interesting times and I bet Alex Salmond has a wry smile on his face.
τLabels: independence, labour, politics, snp
:: | 9:28 am |
:: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 ::
Dinosaur Jr
Dinosaur Jr. live at Edinburgh Liquid Rooms 28th August 2007.
Never got round to blogging this. I ran from the William Gibson talk at the book festival (no pics, I got grabbed by a steward when I snapped Denise Mina et al) to the gig. Gibson was interesting, zeitgeisty and every sentence a soundbite, whether his book is any good I don't know.
Dinosaur Jr were loud. Incredibly loud. Far too loud. I was deaf for two days and felt a little sick when the guitars fed back. I was also too hungover and tired from over-indulging at the Sounds to appreciate it.
A bit too much guitar-wank from J. Mascis too.
On another day I would have really enjoyed this gig.
:: | 12:00 pm |
