Category: Stuff

I can’t tweet without you: How twitter feeds our inner longing for friendship

CreativeTools.se - Twitter bird standing on branch - Close-up by Creative Tools, on FlickrI think I’ve started to feel what it’s like to get old. Strange ‘#’ symbols started to flash up on the TV screen a few months back. Some odd new lottery I wondered? Oblivious to the newest and most important media advancement in the last decade, my friends laughed at my ignorance. Graciously educating me in twitter-speak, they taught me what ‘followers’, @ symbols, retweets and trends were. Since 1988 when an 8-bit Commodore 64 arrived in Christmas gift wrap, I have prided myself in being up to date with tech-culture. It seemed much easier when Mario was a child.

Although I am now twitter fluent, and a regular user, try as I may, I don’t get very excited about it. Like Facebook, it feels a chore – akin to laborious Christmas-card-writing – a necessity to stay digitally ‘connected’. Surely I am in the minority: of twitter’s 140 million (and growing) users, most surely use social media for the joy of it – delighting in sharing life’s experiences day, night and through those crafty under-the-table tweets. Read more

Why popular culture is obsessed with Zombies

Oh God the Aftermath EXPLORED!Flesh-eating marauding monsters – frightening? You betcha. Like many of us, I love a good scare every so often and Halloween is a great time to do it. In terms of nightmarish thoughts, there’s little to top a zombie apocalypse. The prospect of being chased by a half-decomposed Granny truly scares me.

They say adrenaline-stimulating shocks quench our pent-up neolithic instincts. Unlike vampires, demons and ghouls, zombies have found phenomenal appeal in recent years. I expect that this year zombie costumes will be more popular than ever. Moreover, other bump-in-the-night-nasties are literally being devoured by the zombie theme. Entertainment is awash: when I last checked, there were 1,400 zombie games in Apple’s iTunes Store (My personal favourite is the bizarrely named ‘Plants vs. Zombies’. There are hundreds of zombie books (I tried counting and gave up) and about 500 movies.

Vampires have been trendy amongst the teens – thanks to the Twilight saga and the adolescent-teenboy-pinup, Buffy. They have probably had their day. I’m convinced the Z-uprising will to outlive other horror fiction and prove to be far more than a passing fad. Yes, the lumbering undead are here to stay. Why? Because like all classic fantasy, they can speak into our world today. Good zombie stories are not only about cheap thrills but can resonate with popular culture on many levels: our fears, our politics and our world views. And no, their significance has nothing to do with the thought of shooting a granny in the head. Read more

Bemused by The Great British Bake Off

Cup of Cake at Cupcake Cafe
The Great British Bake Off: A talent show for wannabe bakers
I couldn’t help but laugh.

“James’ choux pastry isn’t rising – it’s a real disaster” the commentator said in tones as if poor James’ house had just fallen down. I peered over my wife’s shoulder to see the unfolding catastrophe: anxious looking cooks whisked, poured and prayed (whilst gazing into ovens). An elderly woman wandered around critiquing contestants’ crème patisseries. “Who’s she?” I asked. “She… is the world expert in cooking.” Oh, yes – I should have recognised her. “What about the guy with the beard?” She was less certain this time, “I think he’s got something to do with baking.” I did however recognise the third presenter, British comedienne Sue Perkins. She clearly didn’t know much about cakes (apart from how to eat them). Even without her bouncy persona, this bizarre talent show was comical and somewhat ridiculous – everyday people in a sweaty angst for the sake of a chiffon cake.

Reality TV has invaded mainstream culture. How did this cheap daytime creation become such a phenomenon for TV viewers everywhere? Let’s discover the magic recipe for this newest middle-class guilty pleasure. Cue the tense music… will the cupcakes rise in time..? Read more

Why I hope this is the last Paralympics

053Blink and you just might miss it. If you don’t live in the UK, that is. Last night, 80,000 people watched the Paralympic opening ceremony – a slightly more modest, but nonetheless equally poignant affair than its bigger brother. As the kids return to school and the Olympic feel-good fades, it offers a last-hurrah for an enthralling and passion-filled spectacle. Celebrating ability and achievement in the face of physical, mental and psychological ‘disability’, I will savour watching it. At the same time though, I hope I don’t have to watch it ever again. Read more

The challenge to live a ‘no impact’ life

no-impact-manOf all the consumables I couldn’t live without, it wouldn’t be the internet. Neither would it be chocolate, ice cream or shampoo. I think I could cope without electricity just fine (I learnt how to make camp fires as a child). No, the one thing that would really chafe me (quite literally) would be not having toilet paper.

I’m not usually one for watching documentaries, but last night my wife and I forewent our trashy film fascination to watch the 2010 documentary ‘No Impact Man’. It follows a year in the life of New York writer Colin Beaven and his family’s attempt to live a year with no-net impact on the environment. No plastic, no elevators, no public transport, no electricity and only locally-sourced food. And no toilet paper.

For an upper-middle class family who think nothing of spending $1,000 on a handbag, their painful transition certainly makes for compelling viewing. Were they bonkers? Quite possibly. The US tabloid media certainly thought so, and were lambasted as self-promoting weirdoes. Their motives appeared genuine, and after watching their efforts it is difficult to not be challenged; which is perhaps why their experiment attracted so much antagonism. No Westerner likes to think that they are living a lifestyle that sucks the planet dry. No one likes to admit they’re wrong. No one likes to give anything up.

Few of us are going to cast everything modern aside and wash our laundry with borax and bicarbonate of soda. But if there was one thing – even a small thing – that we could change to make a measurable difference to the environment, what would it be? The answer to that question might surprise you. Read more

The real legacy of the Olympics: uncomfortable truths.

Olympic StadiumAbout 15 years ago, I visited the Montreal Olympic Village. A captivating and beautiful city, the Olympic Village was a complete contrast. Tired-looking vacant stadia and vast, mostly unused concrete behemoths populated by a few shuffling tourists. I found it a depressing place and the slowly flaking paint symbolised a squandered enterprise. Costing Canada $1bn, the 1976 Montreal Olympics were the greatest financial disaster in the history of the Olympic games.

UK residents will be well-versed with Prime Minister David Cameron’s rhetoric: London 2012 will leave a ‘lasting legacy’ for the UK and London. It will regenerate to a deprived London district; increase tourism, improve infrastructure and give a much-needed economic boost. These are compelling and believable justifications for spending £9bn ($14bn) from the public purse. However, claims of a major economic boost have already shown themselves to be exaggerated: increased sales and footfall in Stratford have so far been cancelled out by losses in the West End.

My heart says that London 2012 is a good thing for the UK. Yet I can’t help feeling we have been misled by the politicians’ claims that it will make a better Britain. There is ample evidence to investigate claims about tourism, economics and even the ‘feelgood’ factor. David Cameron, like practically every country leader before him, has chosen political points over a sincere explanation of the evidence. Let’s find out what the legacy of London 2012 will most likely look like… Read more