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8 May 2010

British Political analysts struggling with concept of coalition...

There's no cute video for this. Anyway, British political commentators are struggling to explain to the public their own weird historical mutant of election law, where everything is an ad hoc gentleman's agreement. Aside from the fact that the Prime minister has to decide when he calls for an election, there's the case of the hung parliament where the sitting government actually gets to decide who to talk to first. But the Liberal Democrats have decided not to do that, not in the least because they wouldn't have a majority, even with Labour, but they would, with the Conservatives. But then, the conservatives aren't going to offer the Lib Dems Proportional representation, Which is what they need if they're ever going to be a viable contender in the future. Britain has one the most heavily gerrymandered district systems in the world, which is why the Liberal Democrats have 8% of the seats, when they have 23% of the popular vote. If the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government doesn't make it, then there is little to no hope of a majority government, unless there's a truly bizarre rainbow coalition in the works. If there's anything this election's proved, it's that the Liberal Democrats are right, Britain needs a major election reform so it can have the governments it needs, not this shit. And all the ranting and raving about how coalition governments are rife with 'horse trading' are just so much nonsense. Contra-moral sellouts labeled as compromise are the very soul of politics, and whether you dither and argue with coalition partners or extremists and lunatics within your own party is completely irrelevant.

6 May 2010

Mid week video round up



Iyaz, the frontman for my proposed racially diverse boyband, the sugar thugs, gets in to the summer vibe with his new cool island video for a groan worthy pun song. It's got all the hallmarks, except for the 'tropical' lyrics. He might well be from the dominican republic or something like that (no, not going to the wikipedia page.), but some astute record executive should have realised that the video made this a coll island song to warm our hearts, and should have (1) pina colada or fruit reference...



The youtube comments for this are grumpy about this song sounding somewhat like Ace of Base's 'Don't Turn Around' as if Ace of Base is a paragon of originality, no one's commented on ABBA's Fernando, which is name checked. But what I really want to know, what's the video going to be like? Subject matter, etc. seems to point to a bolero jacket made from garbage bags and Gaga in a bloddy bullfighting match. Can't wait!

Porn reaches new heights...



Excellent news for nerds. The porn industry is finally beginning to realise where the money comes from and hopefully, this is the first of many beloved nerd properties to be artfully rendered filth. But seriously, this looks surprisingly good. The costumes are pretty close, the actors not half bad. You'd think the internet would have killed lush, competent productions like these, but apparently people are getting sated with the "point the camera at some naked meth addicts' artistic paradigm that's been an industry standard since '01. Decadently lavish porn parodies may just be the wave of the future now that customers are demanding non-linear value from their smut. In all fairness, there was nowhere to go in the whole extreme category, eventually you end up with snuff, which is just an absurd idea for a business actually trying to make money, the only way is up, storylines, believable acting and production values are the next throatgagging, and the world is once again a better place.

5 May 2010

Every reality show ever...



Well if that doesn't stop you flattering yourself about the idiots you keep watching, I don't know what will. That's the sad tragedy of the ironic viewer, you're really watching it because you like it, even though you won't admit it. I think celebrity news should just be part of the whole main event anyway. Knowing that there's a weird twitter-based argument between two people you haven't thought about since '98 going on at this very moment is usually pretty uplifting, coming after the natural disasters, financial doom, political instability and random acts of senseless violence that make up the bulk of it. It's even a great all-purpose palate cleanser. Try this after a hard day's work and encroaching misery: Type [celebrity name] fight into google to end up somewhere fun. Who knew Nicole Kidman's bodyguard punched some guy?

4 May 2010

Sugar thugs



Or Chris Brown, Sean Kingston, Jay Sean, Jason Derulo or even Lil' Wayne who is getting in on the act. There's a distinct effort to sell old fashioned R 'n B love songs to teenagers with some fresh, poppy production and bright colourful videos. Non-threatening, sensitive leading men are the bread and butter of such an effort, so Brown and currently incarcerated Lil' Wayne are struggling to be believable. There's no reason they can't graduate to lyrics about sex and drugs for a more adult market later. It's really a genius idea, marrying current production techniques and styles more often used for female artists to syrupy sweet content primed for teenage girls and gay men. Next, a racially diverse boyband with easily identifiable stock chararcters on the range between sweet kid and bad boy. It's the wave of the future.