Saturday 4 July 2009

1251 Big Brother, Angelina Jolie, Sword of Xanten

Today, Thursday, January 3rd 2008, I have the blues. There is no justification for the feeling when consideration of the plight of others, but I cannot deny what I am feeling, only work out how to move forward into a different state. One reason for my mood is that I am going down with a cold, which is not a problem, but a cold usually turn into nasty chest coughs which can take weeks to clear up. My approach is neat whisky for the throat and medication from the supermarket to ensure the disability from the cold is limited.

Part of the day was devoted to hunt the card box which contained birthday Christmas and occasion cards acquired in advance to avoid last minute rushes. The box was used over two weeks before Christmas and I remember that I took it upstairs when I thought the need had ended and I remember where it was located and then I had to use it again so where is it now? After not one, or two, but three full searches of my home I had this nasty thought that I may have thrown it away when I took a couple of cardboard boxes and some household waste to the Council's prize winning new and underused multifunction waste centre. However my recollection is that the occasion I did this before a weekend mini trip nine days before Christmas as I was away for the Monday collection but home for the next on Christmas Eve as usual, and I had used the box to send out some last minute cards on return. I found the surplus Christmas wrapping paper. Did I make a subsequent trip? It is not the monetary value of the contents which can be replaced but two decades ago I had the annual card printed and personalised and there were some remaining single souvenir copies also in the box.

The financial loss was more than compensated by one of offers of week at one of the smaller supermarkets in the town. A4 size 240 gram glossy photo card 50 sheet which can costs £15 for a major brand and around £8 for specialist brands. In a sale from one my suppliers early last year. I thought the special price was going to be £3.99 however they were marked at only £1.99 which as confirmed at the checkout I acquired 20 packs and will go back tomorrow to see if any are left. For once it was too good and true.

The failure to find the card box meant that I had to go out in the sleet This morning there were traces of snow on a few roof tops but it was mainly sleet. There are blizzards further north and with freezing temperatures making road travel hazardous. I made the mistake of putting different trousers over the tracksuit bottoms and left my money notes behind, Fortunately I had ten pence more coin that the two cards cost. I had brought my address book and discovered that I lacked the post code for one address and therefore returned home, for the pocket edition which I thought only included telephone numbers and birthdays. I was correct in this. Before Christmas I had remembered that I had tracked don the post code and added to the main address book. It was a puzzle until I remembered that I had included this address twice and bingo, Off to the post box and back to the warm.
There has been one good programme on TV and one cringe making this evening. The cringing first. Cringe was a favourite word of the twins in the Big Brother House which I believed had ended as a series for a whole year. However this series is called Big Brother celebrity hijack in which celebrities will act as Big Brother. However the real twist is that the 12 participants are all successful achievers between the ages of 18-21 with the a 21 year old Jade pageant and beauty Queen having obtained a raft of scholastic examination successes, a scholarship for gifted children and subsequently music theatre training with an emphasise on dance. Jeremy comes for a wealthy and supportive family for the expensive recreational activity of go karting at eight years to being heralded as the rising star and best young driver with ambitions of following in the footsteps of Lewis Hamilton, He is only 19 and has been to a public school. Anthony on the other hand is a 19 year old international boxer who has captained the Great Britain Team and has a good chance of a 2012 Olympic Gold but socially is at the other end of the scale in terms of language. Nathan 21 is a successful singer song writer with award nominations. Liam at 19 is Managing Director of his own company hosting 2 million websites and a staff of £12 with a turnover over £200000. John is a 20 year old for Scotland who chairs the Scottish Youth Parliament which has been developed into an effective youth forum pressure group with constituencies and elected members. Jay is a fashion designer with shows and sales outlet also 19 Latoya also 19 us a successful dancer being used for videos and concerts and voted a best female dancer 2007. Carlista at 19 years is a classically trained musician who se interest is musicals and song writing and is still in training but with success. Emilia 21 and her brother Victor are both members of the new House They are international circus speciality act performers, contortionist, dancer present with a high speed act using roller skates and finally there is Any who is using the Big Brother House experience as a Turner Prize Entry She is studying at Oxford at Ruskin, not my Ruskin but the Art School. Last year I suggested in a Blog also to the programme and the Turner Prize that the programme should be considered a contemporary art installation meriting consideration for the prize. It is thrilling that someone 50 years younger should have the same idea but take it further as Performance Art within the installation. Now I shall have to devote time which is unplanned but it almost made my day.

And the cringing? The celebrity Big Brother is described as a hilarious comedian Matt Lucas, who I do not know. The plot for the opening 90 minutes was for him to dictate to the chairman of the Scottish Youth Parliament, the first person into the House, everything that he said and did in greeting contestants. The victim was bribed with the opportunity to progress immediately to the final without having to face an ejection vote, and super Chinese buffet meal with alcohol party if he passed the task, or face eviction every week regardless of what the other participants wished. The stakes were therefore high and the lad, who came across as a thinking and caring man was required to pretend to be a musician as the next person in, a dancer, including dancing on his own, and a racing driver. He had to feign a cramp and request a leg massage, massage the back of another, tell one his hair was lop sided, ask if a beard was real and say cake into people's ears. He also had to advise one male that a female had kissed him and used her tongue. He did these requests with decreasing enthusiasm aware that first impression counted and that he was likely to be considered the odd one as everyone else was being normal because they did not need to impress each other or the public. Having careers and being successful meant that winning the programme or attracting viewer attention was not the be and end all of their lives and in some instances could have counter productive consequences. The final request defeated him which was to first try and persuade and then order everyone to sit in a circle and become silent. His failure resulted in being asked to crawl to the Diary room and then wait outside while everyone else was ordered to sit down and then the truth was revealed and the victim told he had been successful. However I did not think the approach was funny, nor did the victim or the other participants which confirms my immediate reaction that this is not going to go the way the programmers planner predicted. Much will depend on how many creatives in the psychological sense have been included.

Such individuals do not usually follow the rules and as the categorization is intended to indicate they are creative and come up with original approaches. The one aspect where they be expected to fail is in undertaking the practical aspects of life, the cooking, washing, cleaning etc although the installation artist Amy is a cleaning and keeping in order obsessive. This was later borne out when a trio tried to use the electronic cooker.

The other programme, experienced before Big Brother, with Angelina Jolie's (Voight) interview at the Actors Studio. A creative with self destructive tendencies she has triumphed to become a recognised fine actor, also one of the highest paid, having also adopted three children with one biological daughter, and undertaken accomplished work for the United Nation's Refugee organisation. Although the daughter of John Voight she had little contact with her father after her parents separated when she was less than a year old and her desire to act was more from her mother, who like daughter was method trained and Angelina tells of being constantly asked as child about her feelings and being allowed to express herself and act out in whatever way she fancied. thus confirming my belief that the freedom for children to this degree is not desirable unless as a method to counter a highly repressed child showing significant problems.

The freedom to upbringing led to a precocious sexuality throughout her childhood so that as a fourteen year old of she was living with a boyfriend at the home of her mother and was in therapy while at school. She was destined for Hollywood being the God daughter of Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell, but she might not have survived had her need for self abuse become controlled. She would cut herself as a response to finding that sexual communication did nor provide the emotional and spiritual intimacy she hungered for. She also took to wearing black and once seriously thought of being a funeral director and despite being described as one of the most beautiful and sexy women in the world she prefers to see herself as a punk kid with tattoos, When she married Johnny Lee Miller in 1996 she had his name on her white shirt written in her own blood. The marriage was short lived as it was to Billy Bob Thornton and this lasted another three years. In the programme she readily admitted she needed all the excitement and emotions of experiencing every moment so one can only speculate about how her mothering will work out over time. More recently she has had a relationship with Brad Pitt bearing her biological child in May 2006 at the age of 30. Hopefully she will have to reach my age to sort everything out about the process of being successful, in the public life and achieving a continuing feeling of success at being a parent and a partner.

Feeling grotty this afternoon and not in he mood to recommence work of any kind I watched the Sword of Xanten based on the German epic poem the Nibelungenlied which is also the basis for Wagner's the Ring Operas. This is the story of human being who do not listen to the truth or warnings based on he knowledge and experience of others, of the way money can corrupt the most honourable of individuals and to be aware that those who are sometimes the closest to you will resort to subterfuge to protect and further their interests, or just because they like to get their own way. Not having understood the story until first seeing the film within the last couple of years I had tended to be weary of the operas, associated, as they were with Hitler, and his view of life. Now I am surprised because the story in the film should have led him and those who supported his views, life that they were destined to fail and to prematurely perish if they attempt to go against the wisdom of the Gods and the history of human kind until then. The problem as demonstrated in the film is while individuals will stand out and accomplish much many ordinary folk perish before they get their come uppance. This was also true in Die Hard II in which Bruce Willis, and black friend brought into help, saved the gold reserves of the Federal Bank, many lives in potential underground bomb tragedy, and a school of young children. However a lot of ordinary security guards and other officials got shot up as did a minor army of trained soldier fortune hunters who were all also Germanic. Now of course the baddie has become the Muslim with attitude, controlled by major game players who are as wealthy, powerful, unscrupulous and ruthless as they have been throughout history.

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