Celebrity Arrogance

Over the weekend I have thinking about how arrogant some so called celebreties are. One always a misplaced level of self-confidence from the telentles little oiks that appear on those ridiculous 'famous for five minutes' type TV shows and other associated 'reality' crap. But they can be dismissed as simple oxygen wasters, and thus happily ignored. I mean who would care if Gareth Gates or Jade Goody or any of the other inconsequential half wits died tomorrow. Not that I wish them any ill will; its just that who cares?

My concern comes far more from the arrogance exhibited by celebreties who DO have a discernible talent. My assumption had always been that they might be a little big-headed but that they had something to be big-headed about. Think David Beckham or Paul McCartney. Not everyone's cup of tea perhaps but not without some talent and you could forgive a slightly inflated ego. But this week I was shocked to discover the sheer arrogance of two very different 'entertainers'; one an egomaniac footballer, the other an up-his-own-arse wobbleboard player. I refer of course to William Gallas and Rolf Harris; the dream team in only our worst ever nightmares (or in Rolf's case the dreamtime team).

Firstly Gallas; he appears to have set his heart on completely derailing any opportunitiy for his club, Arsenal, acheiving anything this season by attempting to undermine the younger players in the squad, regularly citing 'lack of fight' in matches and 'lack of respect' for senior players. He has also written that the French international squad failed at Euro 2008 due to a lack of respect for senior players. He sees himself as an important senior player. He needs to examine himself. He is a decent centre half or full back, and is good enough to play premier league football, but he is not a great star. In terms of French defenders he will never ever compare favourably with, for example, Marcel Desailly or Lillian Thuram. He is not an all time great, yet his ego is the size of a small country.

Then there's Rolf. What he is is a a personable entertainer and TV presenter who is art school trained, with a passable talent in mimicing different styles of painting. What he thinks he is is an artist and a songwriter, with opinions that people will be interested in. Oh Rolf, how wrong can one man be. You are a lightweight, frothy TV personna. Nothing more, nothing less. Being a youth swimming chanmpion, going on stage with three legs, singing songs about kangaroos and boy soldiers and painting a soulless portrait of Brenda does not make you a star. Yet you really think that what you do is important. And what do you mean when you say you don't understand the words of 'Blowin in the Wind'? What is there to understand?

The shame of both these individuals is that they do have talent, a lot of talent. Yet they seem to feel thay have so much more than they really have and that what they do is significant and important. For goodness sake; once we think that TV entertainers and footballers are important (as opposed to TV entertainment and football which are important) we have plost the plot. they are simply the hired hands, and all are dispensible, and thus their over-inflated egos are seriously foolish.

Monday again already

Firstly, many apologies for not writing anything for a few days; I have been ridiculously busy. We had to get a questionnaire agreed and 2000 copies printed within a very short timespan (due in part to the client taking ages to agree the script). This meant a working weekend last weekend and a a busy week to follow. A busy week made more stressful by the fact that City Link lost our questionnaires and then took them to the wrong part of the country. They were supposed to go to Dover and eneded up in Manchester. Still, it eventually got sorted and I am sure everything will be fine. It did mean that I was pretty knackered by the weekend and am only just getting back to normal now.

It was a sad weekend. As well as York City's customary defeat, the Arsenal suffered a shock defeat to Aston Villa, and, to add insult to injury, West London Russian Blood Money, and the Trafford Red B******s managed to scrape lucky wins. It all seems very unfair. For example, referees should be firmer with Cristiano Ronaldo and send him off every time he plays for being an obnoxious object with an offensive face, whilst on the West London front, one hopes that Frank Lumpolard can be given some help to improve his face that he may be enabled to smile, and possibly even learn to speak a language that at least approximates to English. Perhaps I am being unfair, the Premiership was never about 'the beautiful game' but always about lining the pockets of football mercenaries, but one can always hope that the Wenger way will prevail over hackeyed outdated attributes like 'workrate', 'aggression' and 'no-nonsense defending'; and, where there is life there is hope.

But I digress. I have a couple of significant events before Christmas; I am going to a Leonard Cohen concert in Manchester on November 30th, and it is Catherine's birthday on December 1st. Then the countdown to Christmas can really begin. I always look forward to Christmas with almost childish enthusiasm and almost always end up at least slightly disappointed. It is always a family time and I have never not had my family around me at Christmas; that is not a disappointment. But it always seems to come and go before I realise; that is the disappointment. Anyway here's hoping, and here's hoping that this week at work will be a little less hectic than last week.

Living with War

I don't know if any of you saw the Documentary on the CSNY Living With War Today Tour in 2006 on BBC4 last night. It was exceptionally uplifting. At a time when the common denominator amongst popular musicians of all genres is to be quiescent and compliant, it is left to an effete Mancunian, an obssesive from Winnipeg, and two old-style American hippies with an average age of 63, to remind America that it can have a conscience and that to be a left-leaning pacifist is neither criminal nor unpatriotic. Neil Young has kept the associated website up to date and it really is well worth a visit http://www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/index.html with the sound turned on. 'Let's impeach the president' plays in the background and there are loads of interesting articles and downloads.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young won't change the world (and never intended to), but, even at their advancing age, they still retain the ability to promote the alternative point of view. God bless 'em