Children rioting in the streets of our cities, stealing and destroying under the false pretense of social injustice. If the looters bullshit were to be believed it would surely mark the first time anarchists paused in the middle of their revolution to steal flat screen plasma televisions and sneakers.
People sat in front of their televisions at home got to watch, over and over and over again, incredibly sad and infuriating video footage of a group of people pretending to help an injured boy up off the ground before robbing him and leaving him confused and scared. We saw images of a woman having to jump for her life from the second story of a burning building. Incredibly enlightening footage of a Sky News reporter asking a boy in a balaclava why he and his friends were taking part in these riots. The boy responding with "It's fun,innit? We get drunk and do what we want."
On a slightly less important but no less distressing note, the illustrious music publication NME had a photo of British band the Horrors on it's cover along with the highly contentious statement that they were, apparently, Britain's best band. Is it a coincidence this particular issue of the magazine coincided with these terrible riots? I don't know. XL Recordings weren't one of the independent record labels affected by the terrible fire at the Sony distribution center in Enfield, so probably not.
Incidently here's a link to a list of all the independent record labels badly affected by the burning down of the Sony Distribution in Enfield Monday night. Go out and buy some music from any of these labels and help support a vital industry, and good record labels now seriously under threat.
I watched a news update the other night that discussed the courts in London and how they were staying open all night to process all those charged with crimes perpetrated during the riots. They displayed photos of individual looters caught on CCTV camera's. One of the people charged with stealing was a male teaching assistant at an elementary school. The man even had his photo on the schools website homepage where he was listed as a mentor for the children. I tell you, you can't write this stuff.
I have to say though, by this point I was exhausted with the rolling news stories, emphasising what a terrible society we have nurtured, and at the mention of the courts being open all night all I could think of was the television show Night Court and how much I loved it. A perfect example of a great American situational comedy. I've never seen it available on DVD, and I'm not sure if anybody is even familiar with it here in the UK. But all I could think of was how great it would be to watch it all over again. John Larroquette was my favourite character on the show. Dan Fielding. A legend amongst smarmy, hilarious, over confident, asshole television characters.
I tend to return to situational television comedy when I'm feeling fed up or particularly stressed. I find reassurance in fun, well constructed, cleverly written television shows. It's a hard art to perfect, and once in awhile you stumble on a show that makes it look effortless. I got a bit obsessed a few months ago with re-runs of Martin. I discovered the whole series on YouTube and had forgotten how great it was. Martin Lawrence was an inspired comedic actor back then. And I've been obsessed with The IT Crowd recently.
For some reason it went entirely unknown inside my brain mind that the Graham Linehan who wrote The IT Crowd was the very same Graham Linehan who co-wrote Father Ted. I was a little ashamed of myself when I made that, what in hindsight was painfully obvious, realization. I was obsessed with Father Ted when it first aired in Canada. It is one of the great television shows of our time. I kept watching episodes of The IT Crowd and seven or eight times an episode I'd think jesus this is well written. It's so subtle and smart and well constructed yet so simply funny. So funny it almost seems obvious. I get jealous watching it. I wish I could write something that well.
Then the other day I was in the middle of telling my wife all of this, about how great the IT Crowd was and she went yeah, it's the same guy who wrote Father Ted. I looked at her dumbly. Inside my head I was viciously kicking my brain. I went on the computer and googled Graham Linehan and discovered he also co-wrote series one of Black Books, another of my favourite TV shows. My respect for Graham Linehan kept growing. Father Ted, The IT Crowd, Black Books.
Oh and I also just put together a compilation of music songs, a playlist if you will. I've attached it below. I have to send out my apologies to Mr Linehan for stealing the idea directly from his delightful blog. It's such a simple way of posting a music compilation, and I'm such a hopeless pathetic idiot when it comes to that kind of stuff. You know, stuff involving thinking.
You should check out Graham Linehan's blog. It's very clever and funny. Not like the one your currently reading.
So yeah, here's some music...I've cleverly titled the list: "Thematically inconsistent, maybe." (Obviously, any time anybody ever openly refers to something they just did as clever, it almost always isn't.) Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment