While reading this article in the Guardian, I was struck by the truth of Monbiot's words about a lack of leadership in our politics, worldwide. We need our own JFK, a person to lead us in a vision for a new world, a new way of doing things, someone to say 'we choose to go to the moon' but with regards to climate change, which is ultimately about the survival of our species. New ideas are sorely needed, more money for research (bear in mind that of the G7 countries the UK invests the least in R&D of any stripe, and that President-elect Trump is talking about slashing funding to NASA), but more than anything we need a vision and someone to articulate it. We need someone to choose to go to the moon...
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Hello! Just a quick note that Weird Ales volume 2 is now available via Amazon. I don't have a story in this volume... but I did edit it. (Blows own trumpet). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Ales-2-Another-Round/dp/1540303403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UT F8&qid=1479824607&sr=8-1&keywords=weird+ales It's full of dark tales, all of which are pub related and all of which are good reads. I won't promise that your hair will stand on end (as I have a feeling that pub prices will do that soon enough).
So, what I intended to blog about today was social media, but the Trump victory sort of sidelined me. What I wanted to talk about is why I've taken a break from social media, apart from this blog, and why I'm thinking about keeping that way. And here we are, a week later... (yes I'm that efficient, lol). To begin with, a small confession, when I do use Facebook, I find that I use it all the time and its hard to keep away from the site. I'm one of those users who keeps checking their feed, posts loads of stuff and often use it as a sort of 'dump my emotions' when I'm feeling low. I also use it as a lab, to discuss issues that are bugging me, whether that's something to do with the real world or just a writing problem. I find it hard to detach from the site, in a way that I don't with Twitter or Google Plus (though I do sort of prefer G+ because it's much more laid back). Perhaps it's because of this that I also find it stressful, Fa...
I found this online and thought it underlined the political situation quite well. Have a read and tell me what you think. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/14/neoliberalsim-donald-trump-george-monbiot
Recently the Guardian launched a subscription model for its website. At the same time, the Independent has ceased to print copies, and the Times is apparently on the skids owing to lack of sales. The Telegraph seems to be transforming itself into a bizarre tabloid, Private Eye famously talks about the paper's obsession with 'fruity girls' and notes how it's transformed into a mouthpiece for its owners' views on all matters from the bizarre to the sublime. At the same time the tabloid press in the UK seems to be going through a boom period, as the Guardian asks readers for support, the Daily Mail struts in its influence, confident of sales and advertising revenue. One imagines that even the recently announcement by Lego 's recent announcement that they would not continue advertising with them, is scarcely going to raise a panic at the Mail's offices. Similarly the Sun and Express are still riding high in circulation, as the broadsheet newspapers appear to b...
Earlier this year I said that my worse case scenario was the UK leaving the EU and Trump winning the Presidency... Apparently, the universe took that as 'cosmic ordering', which I didn't intend at all. Hyperbolic egotistical silliness aside, it does feel as if this year has been a landslide into terrifying territory on both sides of the Atlantic. We're seeing the rise of the political Right, a shift away from Globalisation and the reassertion of the idea of national identity - despite or because of the growth of monocultural ideals that's been directed through more diversity, the growth of international capitalism and technology. Perhaps the trend towards this has been going on for a while, gathering pace under the radar until finally, it has burst out into the open. The Credit Crunch in 2008 and economic policies from the last sixteen years have hollowed out both the UK and the USA - though arguably on this side of the puddle it's a legacy that goes back to, ...
Okay, in addition to reading Injection, Eve and I went to see the new Marvel Studios film, Dr. Strange. While Captain America: Civil War, is meant to have been the start of Phase Three, this feels like it's actually the real start of it, introducing new characters and ideas to the MCU. It's interesting that Stephen Strange is pretty much the closest character we've seen to Tony Stark since the Iron Man films began, he's an egomaniac, who's fiendishly clever but lacking in humility; although that pretty much describes all Marvel's big hitters apart from Captain America. There's more than an element Sherlock Holmes to the way he was presented, with his character being defined by knowledge and intelligence, what he lacks is faith and a spiritual side. He was well realised, and the call out to the events of Civil War was fun, even if it was just before the car crash that kick-started his heroic journey (oops spoilers, I guess). The other characters were well r...
Injection is an Image title, written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Declan Shalvey - who did Marvel's Moon Knight (which I haven't read, so I'm coming to their partnership cold). Set in a modern Britain, the comic follows five people, who seem to be modern analogues for certain fictional and mythological figures - there's a guy who's pretty much Sherlock Holmes, one who seems to be James Bond, and the third man (who spends a lot of time explaining the difference between a wizard and a cunning man) seems to be Merlin, albeit a Merlin who denies that he is that. There are also two women, one who in Ellis' usual style is hard as nails, if damaged and who is an executioner of sorts, while the other is an inventor and maker who's claim to fame is creating an AI that wasn't based on human intelligence, even though it passed the Turing Test. The quintet is the focus of the story because they did something, creating the 'Injection' - which has ma...