Nick's Blog
Your Blog For Ten
23/2/2009 @ 22:04
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You may have become aware of Gail Trimble, the University Challenge wunderkind, of late. She's pretty good at the game and has taken it by storm. Intelligent, well read, quick to answer the questions and with that gosh jolly hockey sticks huzzah huzzay attitude.
...She's also incredibly like Wifey! I have a few photos of Wifey when she was at university and she's a dead ringer for Gail. Not only that, Wifey's got that quick to answer razor sharp intellect and almost perfect recall on a variety of subjects. So, by extention, I find Gail Trimble a bit...on....the....hot....side. Not that I'm having fantasies or anything! That would be like fantasising about a Ferrari Testarossa when I already have one.
But it has led me to be particularly contemptuous of those bloggers who are slagging off Gail online. Like most bloggers of this variety, they hide behind the safety of internet anonymity and names such as SPUNKYBOI_50. I'm convinced that the British have cashed in their stiff upper lip, fair play and cool heads in a crisis demeanour for a shouty, flapping, poncey, moronic equivalent.
Intelligence should be applauded. So should being very good...if not the best...at something. Ah, but we need modesty as well from our competitors. It's not enough to win, you have to win with a "golly, didn't expect that to happen" shyness. That's what probably what Chris Hoy did to win over the British public...a bit of "gee shucks".
But Gail Trimble is a throwback to another era in another way; she looks like she's stepped out of a 1970s British film set in Edwardian times. There's a hint of the glasses wearing, perfectly straight brown hair look that populated many a period drama or Hammer Horror film. I imagine she'd be quite happy being in The Railway Children or Tom's Midnight Garden rather than T4 Sunday. Britain exchanged that look for blonde and brassy and pissed around the same time we no longer wanted to be stoic and resilient.
I read the Daily Mail online blog about Gail Trimble (purely as research, mind) and it was telling that next to the article about her success on University Challenge, there was another about Jade Goody. And Jade's photo was looking down at Gail Trimble's. Here were two girls, roughly the same age but diametrically opposed to each other, at least in the media's eyes. Was Jade looking on sympathetically on Gail, as if to say "yep, they're a fickle lot...one day they hate you and the next they love you, get used to it" or was it underlining that Jade's got our sympathy at the moment; the underdog, the one who's had it all and now having it all snatched away by illness?
And then I realised that there is one traditional value that Britain hasn't lost: We like a gallant loser more than we like a confident winner. The Sun tried to be smart and set 5 pop questions for Gail to answer and she didn't get one right. So what? What is the Sun trying to prove? That being a winner means nothing if you can't name a Duffy song?
So I salute the naked show of intelligence. I applaud the display of arcane and obtuse knowledge. Smart is the new dumb!
My Blog's Got No Nose
16/2/2009 @ 14:38
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Have you ever had a joke or witticism get out of hand? Yesterday I posted a harmless little status update on Facebook that said "I will flick a rubber band at someone on the hour, every hour until my demands are met" and you would not believe the hassle I've received.
"Ha, unless you can fire them across the Atlantic, I'll be fine" said someone from Canada. Look...I didn't say I'd flick them at YOU, I just said I'd flick one at someone.
"Oooh I'm scared" said someone from America who was being sarcastic. I tell you, Missy, you will get scared if it happened to you at random, with a really tight and elastic band fired from maximum stretch.
"What are your demands?" Oh, I don't know, freedom for Cuba. "Don't you think that's a matter for the Cuban people to decide?" No I don't...look, I'm flicking rubber bands at people, how serious do you think I'm taking this?
"I hope you're issuing people with protective goggles...health and safety you know!" What the? How is flicking a rubber band as a threat and deterrant going to work if people are protected? Whatever to good, clean, old fashioned danger?
"I don't think this is reasonable behaviour for a man in your position and age" The position I'm in is holding a rubber band at full strength and aimed at your crotch.
I now believe that we have nothing to fear but losing our senses of humour. That and the 4" long rubber band I've got stretched out to almost 2 feet and aimed right at your forehead.
100 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers
09/2/2009 @ 12:46
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Recently I've been trying to promote Rhubba via a number of internet magazines, websites and entertainment journals and I've been finding it a hard old slog.
Doing the research is tricky enough...more like time consuming...but I'm the kind of person who gets downhearted by the lack of response and in this excercise the silence from the other end has been deafening.
I've contacted about 8 different companies so far and heard back from one of them. And it's a telling point that the one who responded positively was an American entertainment website.
I don't know if it's a national gene or that some Americans are enthused by President Obama's "yes we can" motto but within a few hours of me contacting this American company, I'd heard back from them. Not only that, every question I asked of them got a prompt reply. There are some logistical barriers such as legal contracts to be negotiated but at every stage the response has been "we'll waive that bit of the rules, just show us your work" and nothing but encouraging.
The British experience has, by contrast, been empty and frustrating. Rejection letters I can handle...a complete lack of a reply is more irritating. Just how difficult is it to dash off a "we received your email and will reply in due course" or "Sorry, but we can't deal with your enquiry"? I just wrote those two lines in under 30 seconds.
When I was growing up the phrase "yes we can" didn't seem out of place. True, it was more of "yes we can but it'll take some time" but even a naive campaign as "we're backing Britain" could still be spoken out loud without fear of ridicule or reprisal. Now, it's more like "yes we can? You have to be joking mate!" I feel like Britain has become a nation of feet draggers, of people not having to do a thing if they don't want to or, more likely, can't be asked to. This is larger than my being peeved at a lack of response to some correspondence...this is something I see all around.
I don't like to jump on the anti-American bandwagon because they are do-ers and not moaners. We may snigger at them for their naievety, or their piousness, or their disdain for international travel and aversion to books but they get things done while we scoff and sneer from the sidelines. When it comes to turning words into actions, we come a poor second.
It was a "yes we can" philosophy that got them to the Moon. "Yes we can" helped end the Cold War. And "Yes We Can" put an optimistic black man in the White House...he might not be everything that he's cracked up to be but at least he was bold enough to say those words. What British politician can be so bold as to declare "yes we can" without fear and without the sneers of the media and rivals? And what opposition politician would be bold enough to echo that sentiment?
I realise I've veered from a simple complaint about letter response to geo-politics but to bring everything back to the original point; it is an American company, not a British one, that has responded to my call. And instead of pushing me away, they're saying "don't worry about you not being an American film-maker, let's talk, let's deal".
God bless 'em.
Let it blog, let it blog, let it blog
02/2/2009 @ 17:33
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Due to an extreme weather event, there will be no blog today.
8 inches of snow have been reported in the South East of England and many trains, buses and this blog have been affected.
For more information, check out the National Blog Helpline about other blogs which have been affected by the snow and other extreme weather events.
Once again, apologies for the cancellation of today's blog.
