Live the life you love, use a god you trust, and don't take it all too seriously

[alexsarll]

Thought for the day: "Build a man a fire, and he's warm for an evening. Set a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life."

I feel horribly middlebrow reading the most recent Booker winner in public, but I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that Alan Hollinghurst is currently Britain's best writer of 'realistic' fiction. His recreation of the eighties is a little Wonder Years in places, true, but I've even almost forgiven him for beating Susanna Clarke.

This week's winner of the Nadir Of The Internet Award was brought to my attention by nicklocking: http://www.misogyny-central.com/
Not a hoax, not a dream, not an imaginary story. But I wish to high heavens that it were.
edit: innerbrat reckons it's a spoof site run by the NOW, and she's generally pretty good at this stuff. I can't say I quite see the point of that, but there you go.

I've said this before, I know, but once they've finished off the smokers, they are coming for the drinkers.

That issue of the NME was predictably depressing reading. Brandon Flowers explains how much Mormonism means to him, but also that he's hooked on cola. The writer doesn't call him on this. Then an imbecilic Futurehead talks about loving Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince - and then describes the plot of The Sea, The Sea. Except he still manages to get crucial details of the latter plot wrong! This interviewer, too, allows the contradiction to pass unchallenged.
And apparently Bloc Party met at Trash, which says everything one needs to know about them.

I seem to have helped kickstart a new epidemic of 'ask me anything' there. If anyone else has a Doherty-style addiction to the game, mine is still open for business - though so far only p_dan_tic seems to have spotted that it's possible to play more than once. In the meantime: sbp: With a very nice view across Surrey; razorcheekbones: I don't remember either, offhand; the feeling's mutual.

Comments

[gregjames.livejournal.com]

Man, maybe one day they'll discover wars and AIDS have a factor in killing people too & they'll ban them.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Oh no, the neo-Puritan scum are secretly quite fond of AIDS because it puts people off sex.

[gregjames.livejournal.com]

And that misogyny central reminds me of lunch breaks at school and some of the places I've worked in.

[violentbec.livejournal.com]

cannot. type. filled. with. rage.
:(

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

It is a bit, isn't it? Their take on "boys are stupid, throw rocks at them" is particularly choice.

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

Whatever's on that site is so horrible that my work internet won't let me open it....

[violentbec.livejournal.com]

trust me sarah, its best to Walk Away Slowly.
just repeat: most men are not like this; most men are not like this; etc.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The use of Flash is almost as objectionable as the sentiments; hard to know which is the barrier.

[cappuccino-kid.livejournal.com]

I've been kicking myself all week for not singing "except for Bloc Party, they can stay" on Tuesday. Put Enemies posters up in Sister Ray, Rough Trade, etc yetserday. I took the policy of covering up the Trash posters.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Top stuff! Are you coming to SB tonight, and if so, have you flyers?

[cappuccino-kid.livejournal.com]

I'm going to see The Violets & Long Blondes, but I gave Johnny a pile of flyers. I've gone for I Claudius (Agrippinilla seducing Nero) for the March ones, will email later.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Ace!
Incidentally, there's quite an amusing Vichy-hater on Neil's 'blacking up' entry, if you've not seen him.

[cappuccino-kid.livejournal.com]

Wow, I get quite a kicking from a few people there. Do you have to spell everything out for people? Morrissey didn't go grovelling though, and neither shall I.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was pointing it out for your amusement rather than because any reply on your part is merited.
I'm definitely playing 'National Front Disco' on Sunday, btw.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Mormonism misread as Moominism? Check.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Utah would be vastly cooler if it were dominated by Moomins. Though it might become harder to buy laser-sighted Glocks.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Laser-sighted Glocks misread as laser-sighted c0cks? Check.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I can see it's going to be one of those days. Yes, I said DAYS. Not GAYS.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

I'm just hiding my poor excuse for humanity today behind weak punning and/or eyesight. Don't mind me!

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Laser sighted Grokes, on the other hand...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Or laser-sighted grockles!

[icecoldinalex.livejournal.com]

why do i click on web-nadir links? this friday is on a downward mood spiral, i can see...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Because you're a glutton for punishment. Or at least that's what I heard...

[icecoldinalex.livejournal.com]

ah yes, that's it.

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

Hehehehe...'let's double the price of food to tackle obesity'

So what they're saying is that 25% of us drink too much, but only 4% of us die of it. If they increase the prices they will see a 7% reduction in cirrhosis. 7% of 4% isn't an awful lot.

What they really need to do if they're serious about making us immortal is ban any vehicle that moves faster than we walk - they seem to kill an awful lot more people than fags AND booze put together.

They NEED us to die younger, they can't afford us after the age of 65 as it is! What they should really do is reduce the price of alcohol as you get older so that grannies get it for 10p a litre.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Also, the entire population should be forcibly wrapped in hypoallergenic cotton wool, and locked in padded ground-floor rooms, just to be extra-sure.

Where did the campaign against 'rip-off Britain' go? That was one of the few New Labour initiatives of which I liked the sound.

[gregjames.livejournal.com]

Down the toilet after blair was given a few more backhanders I should think.

[oneofthose.livejournal.com]

Do you know, he's allowed to drink cola? When I was bored at Christmas I looked up the Mormon law and it doesn't mention caffeine. It's actually just hot drinks that are to be avoided and later Mormons interpreted this as tea and coffee and assumed this was because of the drug element.
But anyway, are you a fan of the comic graphic novel Scott Pilgrim Volume 1: Scott
Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, written by Bryan Lee O'Malley?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I am not familiar with it, but have heard many good reviews. It's the sort of thing I'd certainly grab if I saw a copy in the library.

That's interesting re: Mormonism - my Dad was in Utah and mentioned that at the company where he was working, they only had Coke in the vending machine as a contractual obligation, and nobody actually drank it. Perhaps they were just fundamentalist Mormons.
Though the thinking behind the hot drinks thing is less intuitively obvious than it would be were it caffeine that's prohibited. What's the reasoning?

[oneofthose.livejournal.com]

This is the site I found at Christmas: http://www.contenderministries.org/mormonism/test.php It seems the only worry was that they might be "injurious".

Re: the graphic novel, Mr Wright has been approached by Universal to direct the movie version and is quite keen. So just wondered if you knew it, liked it, thought that would be a good thing.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose protecting the faithful from scalding is fair enough...

I have heard mutterings to that effect (foolish of me not to recall the connection at once), and the general feeling among those who know the comic was 'Woo! Yay!'

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

When I worked at TGI Fridays I really upset some Mormons (not hard, I know) but I was chatting to them, talking about my Mormon friends back home in Bristol and then I offered them (they had drunk 4 gallons of Pepsi between the six of them) a coffee at the end of the meal. (They'd been drinking caffeine like bitches for the past two hours so I made a dangerous leap of assumption) Daddy Mormon looked like I had suggested that I indulge him in a little after-dinner fell*tio. How was I supposed to know!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Ironically, when you then offered him a little after-dinner fell@tio he was happy to accept.

[rentaghost31.livejournal.com]

i bet his wives weren't too happy at the idea though

[innerbrat]

Dude, it's ironic. Not humour ironic, but political ironic. It's run by N.O.W.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Ooh, is it? I knew it had a link to them (second biggest hate group in the US, and all that) but I assumed that was akin to the Blue Pill thing on David Icke's site.

[innerbrat]

It's on the front page, and is the first thing you see.

There are plenty of anti-women websites out there, but they don't use the word 'misogyny'. This one is designed to incite feminist fury.

[violentbec.livejournal.com]

cor, it blinkin' well worked!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

What, as a 'don't get complacent - the battle is not yet won' type-tactic?

[innerbrat]

*nods* pretty much.

[ex-stephmog743.livejournal.com]

So what would be a highbrow thing to be reading in public?

[publicansdecoy.livejournal.com]

The Da Vinci Code.

-x-

[ex-stephmog743.livejournal.com]

Dude. My notification for this comment spurred Gmail to tell me where I can buy Boy Dolls. Do they know something about you the rest of us don't?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I'm fine reading either Dostoevsky or Justice League in public; it's just the sort of stuff which people who don't read much read that gives me twitches.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

I've not heard any Bloc Party yet but the idea of a second-rate Franz Ferdinand doesn't really appeal.

And they just look...like students.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's the Kaiser Chiefs you're thinking of. The frontman's clearly thinking 'If I dress like Alex Kapranos, I'll be as attractive as he is!'
He is very much mistaken.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

Are the Kaiser Chiefs yet another mutation from the radioactive cultural Chernobyl that is The Libertines, or am I getting totally confused?

Oh, and Marc's Club Tip - Know Your Enemies made it into today's CMU daily email. They removed all the religious metaphors, except for the bit at the end saying "All denominations welcome". Which, at first, made me think it would sound a little odd to those reading, but actually now it makes me laugh...it just sounds even more deliciously sinister!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Hoopla! Hoopla! Yes, I cut the religious stuff for our database too tbh. This reminds me, should pimp to LJ again.