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The Alternative Feminist/ Robbie Williams and shopping

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Thursday, 1 Sept 2022, 11:55

In society there are guy things, and there are girl/woman things or rather these are supposed to be the girl/woman things like Robbie Williams and shopping.

For the record, I just don’t get the whole Robbie Williams thing, I am a woman, as red-blooded as any other but ROBBIE WILLIAMS??? I mean come on, ROBBIE WILLIAMS??? He has as much sex appeal as a bull terrier, come to think of it he even looks a bit like one and yet the female population seems to go brain dead at the mention of his name and lose all sense of well….anything. 

I mean, as a person, I don’t dislike him, I’ve seen him on chat shows, he seems like a nice enough bloke but that’s about as far as it goes, he’s just a bloke, nothing special.  I mean put him next to Hugh Jackman or Viggo Mortenson, (now we’re talking!) or even Ralph Fiennes (phew!), and well Robbie just doesn’t compare does he?  He just looks like an enthusiastic schoolboy - no big deal. 

And there’s another thing, his music is shit, I mean, ok Angels was alright, I’ll give you that, but seriously, Rock DJ??  Wasn’t that just about the crappiest song you ever wish you had never heard?  It was garbage,

‘I doo wanna rock DJ cos you’re BORING ME TO TEARS!! and  if I have to listen to that song one more time I’m gonna slit my freaking wrists!!!.’

It was just shit!

Anyway, here’s another thing, what is the shopping thing about?  Again, I just don’t get it, trailing around shops looking at stuff, trying stuff on, into another shop, the same thing, the music is too loud, I thought this was a shop not a freaking disco!  Your back starts to hurt, your temples start to throb, you can feel your brain disintegrating, you’re starting to lose the will to live, your life is passing you by, you start to forget that you had a life outside of the shopping centre, the walls are starting to close in, you might never get out of here again, 'Weren’t we in this shop already?'

They’re all starting to look the same, the all have the same stuff,

'Just buy the freaking jeans so’s I can get out of here!!'

…your chest starts to tighten….you can’t breathe….you’re trapped in hell…you thought it was a quick look to see what’s there and it’s turning into an episode of Eerie Indiana….you’re going to be trapped in the shopping centre for the rest of your life and you just have to keep shopping forever and ever!!!!!!  Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!! 

 And then, just when you are on the verge of cracking you spy the book shop, you almost cry with relief, you’ve been saved, just in time!  You walk in and make straight for the classics section, nothing like a few Dickens or Bronte’s to restore your equilibrium. 

You remember, that’s right, I did have a life before this, I read books, yes books...like Great Expectations, Wuthering Heights, you glance around, you’re starting to feel better, your eyes fall on the TV/Film section….and there on the top shelf you see,

The Wonders of the Universe by Professor Brian Cox, ….YES!!!

You have been saved…you feel safe again, your breathing has steadied, you walk over and lift it off the shelf, you stroke it’s cover and console yourself with the thought that yes, there is intelligent life out there and one day in the future PEOPLE WILL THINK AGAIN!!!  And so just to nudge the world in that direction you take as many copies as you can and place them over Robbie Williams autobiography before you leave.

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Weddin

The Alternative Feminist/ Men and football

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Thursday, 1 Sept 2022, 12:38

There are guy things like football and Nick Hornby novels and, you know, all those mass slaughter computer games where it takes three thousand rounds to kill one person. It positively encourages psychotic behaviour in the general population, as if they’re weren’t enough nut jobs running around already, and it seems to me, looking at what passes for men around here, that evolution seems to have stopped, not just stopped, if anything it seems to have gone into reverse and there’s another thing, it’s not just about football with guys is it?   

I mean what is that about, all that anally retentive stuff about who scored, who passed it to them, at what point in the game and from what position, what the weather was like and if the goalie was distracted by that slight touch of diarrhoea his cat had that morning, and what should the left back have ordered in the restaurant last weekend when his mother in law came to stay (steak not prawns, since you ask). You know all that kind of stuff that men seem get off on. Yes, I know women like football too, I do myself, but my interest runs to did they win or lose, it’s that simple. 

‘How did they do today?’ you ask someone.

‘They won two nil’

‘Great’ you think, ‘they won'. Nothing more to know, but no…men are never satisfied with just knowing the score, it’s all in depth analysis of the game, who did what, who didn’t do what, who should have done this, why wasn’t he taken off at half time, that free kick was a joke, that asshole couldn’t score in a whorehouse, that referee’s a prick…you know all that macho stuff. I mean, what are they trying to prove, what does it all mean, I’ll tell you what it means, it means nothing at all, just a load of empty vacuous claptrap that no-one really gives a damn about and, in the great scheme of things, has about as much significance as a pimple on an ant’s ass in sub-Saharan Africa on a wet Wednesday in April!!

           

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Weddin

10

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Thursday, 1 Sept 2022, 12:32

This is another one from the creative writing course. It came from memories of 1980/81 and contains some very personal references along with some of the political events of the time. It was the year I turned 18 and it was a pretty miserable year for me all round.

 10

 10, Maggie’s Den.

Maggie, Maggie, Maggie!

OUT! OUT! OUT!

 

10, happy birthday,

Eighteen now, no child here.

What do we want?

 

10 Men Dead,

Black flags and funerals.

Political Status!

 

10 Gold medals,

Games without false tears.

When do we want it?

 

10 years gone,

Wondering where you are,

Now!

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Weddin

Belief

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Thursday, 1 Sept 2022, 12:36

This is another poem I wrote which I use it to remind myself to challenge my own thinking. I have often found that very few people ever challenge their own thinking and when you question them on it, it often turns out that their beliefs are not their own but what they have been told, or brought up to believe.  I'm often told I think too much but I think we don't really think enough about everything.

Belief

Ask yourself a question;

What do I believe?

Think about it for a while,

Then ask yourself - Why?

Then write it all down.

Turn it into a poem

Or even a play,

Set it to music  

Make it a song and sing it out, 

loud and long.

Then ask yourself another question;

What if it’s all wrong?

Then think about that.

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Aideen Devine, Thursday, 9 Feb 2012, 12:21)
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Weddin

War Horse - A review

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Thursday, 1 Sept 2022, 11:59

I went to see War Horse last week with high expectations of seeing a Spielberg classic and having read several reviews which all gave it high praise. 

Well, what a disappointment!  This film was so bad I wondered if maybe there were two versions of this movie out and I was watching the wrong one. This was overblown, mawkish, sentimental tripe. It was full of sad old stereotypes and clichés, bad dialogue and worse acting. 

After a very boring start, the story was galloped through, giving no time to build up interest in anything that was going on. 

The lead character Albert, while supposedly appearing young and naïve just came across as moronic. Taking nothing away from the horrors of WW1, I actually felt relieved when him and his friend were gassed, hoping it would put an end to the misery but, unfortunately, Albert survived. It got so bad in the trenches that I actually couldn't stop from laughing and half expected Dougal to appear and give us a verse or two from My Lovely Horse.

There are only two characters who come away with any credit from this film and that was the horse and Sherlock himself, Benedict Cumberbatch. 

I think Spielberg has been in Hollywood too long.  This is a film for children only.  Not recommended at all.

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Aideen Devine, Thursday, 9 Feb 2012, 12:07)
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Weddin

A little bit of politics

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Friday, 13 Nov 2015, 13:34

I wrote this poem last year on my creative writing course but it was much shorter and didn't seem finished, so now I have finally finished it, I hope you enjoy it.  Comments are welcome

Austerity

The stated precedent of the Condem Government is:

To implement cuts to pay off the deficit.

When greedy bankers and free market Capitalism

Dramatically failed, they were saved by Socialism

And still they demand no tighter regulation

To control their gambling and reckless speculation

Even when it leads to third-world starvation,

Because profit is their only consideration.

And their biggest worry is double-dip recession,

Which if it lasts longer, will be a depression.

‘There is no alternative’ says Thatcher’s next generation.

‘Someone has to pay for this economic devastation’

As they roll out the old policy of privatization,

(Which also demonstrates their complete lack of imagination),

To sell off to the few, what belongs to the nation

And the cost will be yours and your children’s education.

Along with your health and your old age pension

While blaming the poor for the whole situation

Not to mention that other old chestnut- immigration

Because every government failure needs a scapegoat to aim for

And tomorrow the finger might be pointed at your door.

So, the next time there is a general election

Think carefully before you make your selection

And vote in the best interests of the entire population

Not for Oxbridge boys and their corporate connections

Who deceive us with rhetoric and tabloid machinations

In their lust for power and without any consideration

For the debt, they’ve dumped on future generations.

Because this legacy of poverty has been laid down for posterity

But not for the millionaires who’ve Condemned us to austerity

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