Every generation in Britain produces something truly classic in the realms of music, film and television. Except, it seems, my generation. I was born in 1980, so I’d class myself as Generation X; I believe that the creative peak of myself and my peers should be the mid-to-late 1990s to the mid-to-late 2000s.
So. Let’s take a look at our achievements!
British films produced in the last 15 years which are timeless classics: Um…. Well, Hugh Grant played a lot of floppy-haired posh guys…. And… Um…. Yeah….
Come to think of it… We’ve not actually made anything decent that wasn’t a bond movie, and Generation X can hardly lay claim to the creative credit for that. Where’s Get Carter? Zulu? The Italian Job? Bugsy Malone? A Bridge Too Far? The Great Escape? It seems that we can’t make decent films anymore. I should clarify: Sliding Doors, Four Weddings and A Funeral, Bridget Jones’ Diary and all other such “Brit Rom Coms” are NOT good films, they are the testicle sucking rectal warts of the film world. If you think that they ARE good, then you are wrong. There is not debate here.
British music produced in the last fifteen years which is timeless and classic: Errrrrrr…. Jees, that’s a tough one… Except it’s not, really. We don’t make good music anymore, not since Indy died. Oasis were and are mediocre at best (it’s a measure of just how poor British music has become that they receive such plaudits), The Streets are utterly talentless dog-wank (“Shakespeare for the new generation” my fucking arse!) and should actually die, the ENDLESS stream of saccharin plastic wannabe r-n-b churned out by the likes of Simon Cowell actually makes me want to cry… and that’s about it. I suppose there was Joss Stone, but she did one respectable album, went to the States and become shit… Robbie Williams likewise. Blur and Gorillaz? Well, okay, both very good, but hardly timeless classics. We’re nil for two so far.
Television produced by Brit Gen X which is timeless and classic: I can name two. Just two shows. “This Life” and “The League of Gentlemen”. And I bet hardly anybody else has even heard of “This Life”. Conversely, we’ve had almost a decade of Big-Horrible-Freakshow-Brother, so much home-makeover porn that it beggars belief, ten thousand “celebrity” chefs (Ainsley Harriot: Die. Just fucking die) and a million zero-budget quiz shows. And soaps. Endless, interminable hours of misery pumped out of our screens along with a LOT of American shite and a LITTLE bit of American genius. Then there’s Ricky FUCKING Gervaise, who (let’s be honest) also needs to fuck off and die. “The Office” was okay, but would have been FAR better without him. So, since “This Life” and “The League of Gentlemen” are so horribly outnumbered, I’m calling this nil for three.
Britain’s Generation X (me included): You are a talentless non-creative bunch of washouts! DO BETTER!
Jesus Hillary! Will you go away already?
May 8, 2008
I make no secret of the fact that I’ve never been a massive fan of Hillary Clinton. I’m not an American, but if I was I’d be a Democrat, and I do like Bill Clinton as a person. I also think that his presidency did a massive amount of good in the US versus the Republican administrations either side of him. He seems like a genuinely warm and intelligent person. I say all of this because I don’t want to be accused of being a neo-con having a rant when I say:
Hillary Clinton IS The Terminator. With less natural charm and warmth.
She comes across as very insincere and try-hard anyway in the way that she speaks; you just get the impression that she’s desperate to make her mark in history as the first female President of the United States, regardless of what it costs, what she has to do to achieve it, the damage she’s doing to the Democratic party or whether she’s actually the best person for the job. She just doesn’t seem to care at all; it’s all about getting that nomination, and to hell with the consequences – inconvenient little things like her dirty-tricks and slander campaign against Barrack Obama alienating all of his supporters to the extent that, if she does get the Democratic nomination, a majority of his supporters are likely to boycott the polls and hand victory to John McCain anyway.
This whole lack of integrity annoys the hell out of me; we’ve had 8 years of George W Bush stealing votes to gain power and the massive fallout which that created – now, it seems, Reverend Mother Hillary and her Death Commando Cult of Blind Faith are determined to do the same thing:
“Count Florida!” They say – Sorry guys, but there are rules, and Florida broke them.
“Count Michigan!” They say – Hold on, Obama didn’t even run in Michigan because he knew it wouldn’t be counted! If he had run, on current form he might well have won it and have already secured the nomination.
What annoys me the most about Hillary is, paradoxically, what would the situation be if the roles were reversed between Clinton and Obama?
Obama has so much integrity that you just know he’d bow out gracefully for the good of the party – and if he didn’t, Hillary is such a harridan that you just know she’d be screeching for his blood.
Hillary, get a grip. Time to take a Valium, calm the hell down and do what’s right for the US – and that does NOT include continuing your ridiculous campaign.
PS - To those of you who think that, as a Brit, this is none of my business: You underestimate the impact which your Presidential election has on the 52nd state (the 51st state being Israel, of course).
This post contains adult language throughout.
July 21, 2006
<rant>
I’m going to expand upon my post below with a diatribe about George Bush, Republicans, and rich, stupid, white, Christian Americans. If you don’t like it, or if you think you’re likely to take offence at such a diatribe, then a) go away, and b) don’t bother leaving a comment.
The “intellectual elite” you rabidly rant about is ME, and that means that I’m better than you, smarter than you, and will destroy your stupid Nazi ass in an argument.
Anyway. For many years, America’s government has pretty much owned the media, to the point where, for many outsiders like myself who have sattelite TV, watching American news programmes on CNN, Fox News and the like, has become very similar to watching Nazi propoganda from WW2. By the way, slight diversion here: America you did not win WW2, Russia did, check your history reading.
But I digress. For many years, the American right-wing media has sought to demonize African-American (in Britain we still say “black”, but then in Britain, it really doesn’t matter what colour you are) population, turning them into a source of fear and mistrust for the rest of American society.
Now American media/business/government (if you still think that those things are distinct from one another, LEAVE you fucking moron, they’re not) are trying to do something similar on a Global scale: Make the community scared of the man with the different skin colour/religion. This time he’s Muslim, and he’s an Arab. Nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that America owes a hell of a lot of money to Arab states which it would like a decent excuse not to pay back, or the fact that most Arab states have a goodly supply of oil with which America can keep polluting our planet and killing us for profit…
This time, however, something has gone wrong for America, and it is this: the rest of the world has not been force-fed your bovine, Nazi media for generations. We are NOT afraid of Muslims, in fact we don’t have anything against them at all. There’s a few who will insist on violence, but hey, there’s members of every religion who do that. Except Buddhism, they just get really good at fighting, then don’t fight.
</rant>
