And They Lived Happily Ever After
.. and they lived happily ever after - they being the knitter and her own Liesl.
I frogged a scarf I knitted last year but only wore twice and miraculously I got an entire top out of my three re-purposed skeins of Noro Iro. Liesl is a magical pattern, I think.
Right now I'm really using knitting as means of escape from a very, very busy life. I cannot write about the things that are happening as I have vowed to keep certain aspects of my life separate from this blog, but I am currently facing a workload which is causing me to a) freak out slightly, b) stress and worry a lot and c) have brain-freezes. I wish I could pick up a book and escape, but my head is not in that sort of space at the moment.
So I knit. I knit a lot.
Earlier this year I was told to relax by watching trashy TV and reading crap books. I've finally taken those words on board and so I'm watching a lot more TV - whilst knitting, of course - than I usually do. This has lead me to conclude that FlashForward is very bad; that True Blood is very interesting; that Merlin is very silly, has pretty art direction and occasionally sports hidden depths; and that I have very little patience for reality TV (bar BBC's MasterChef which Other Half watches religiously).
In other news, the most despicable "newspaper" in the UK - the Daily Mail which does not deserve a link - has published a poisonous article on the death of boyband singer Stephen Gately of Boyzone (BBC link). I read the homophobic article itself earlier today before the Daily Mail found it necessary to edit it. In the words of the Guardian's Charlie Brooker (and his entire column is magnificent):
The funeral of Stephen Gately has not yet taken place. The man hasn't been buried yet. Nevertheless, Jan Moir of the Daily Mail has already managed to dance on his grave. For money.
It has been 20 minutes since I've read her now-notorious column, and I'm still struggling to absorb the sheer scope of its hateful idiocy. It's like gazing through a horrid little window into an awesome universe of pure blockheaded spite. Spiralling galaxies of ignorance roll majestically against a backdrop of what looks like dark prejudice, dotted hither and thither with winking stars of snide innuendo.
I hope Gately's husband and family sues the hell of Daily Mail. And I hope that other advertisers follow Marks & Spencer's example and withdraw their advertising money from the Mail. It is not the first time the Daily Mail angers me (in fact, you could set your clock by how often I feel personally insulted) but this is truly gobsmacking vicious.
Ah, a blog entry which is all over the place. And all I meant to say was that I really do love my new top and that I'm knitting a lot at the moment. The fact that this turned into a bit of a rant should give you a clue as to how stressed I am.
Pax.
October 16th, 2009 - 21:35
Hi Karie
Thank you for bringing the small piece by Charlie Brooker. A decent person with a good command of his/her language can make a world of difference. It is good to be reminded of that!
Kind regards
Kirsten
October 16th, 2009 - 22:40
(Sidebar: I sooooo don’t get what people see in True Blood. I personally think it is an utter pile of poo. Just goes to show that taste is a strange thing … well, at least mine may be. I feel slightly freaky,since everyone seems to like it a lot. Oh well *shrug*)
October 16th, 2009 - 22:41
Oh … and that Liesl thingy looks great on you!
October 17th, 2009 - 00:50
Liesl looks great. Knitting sounds like a good stress reduction plan.
I tried to like Flash forward. I liked the idea of it but its so badly written that the characters are like cardboard cut outs.
Charlie Booker”s Guardian article is the best thing I’ve read in a while. The Daily mail is a sad and hateful rag.
October 17th, 2009 - 21:23
@Kirsten: Charlie Brooker can be very hit-or-miss, but this article was spot on, I thought.
@DK: Have we ever agreed on anything popculture bar Joss Whedon? Hmmm.. besides I’m only two episodes into True Blood.
@Paula: Poor Jack Davenport. His character reads like “they couldn’t get Hugh Grant, so they got me instead. Sorry”.
October 17th, 2009 - 22:06
@Karie: Heh … that is actually kinda funny. No, I don’t think we really have. Though, I do agree that Flash Forward is bad. Like Paula I like the concept, but GAH … the plotting and characterisation is just beyond awfull
October 17th, 2009 - 23:40
Hmmm .. we used to like being pretentious together, Darthie, but that hardly counts! You did go to see Pulp with me but that was a favour, wasn’t it? And .. remind me if you like His Dark Materials or not? Hey, I have read one China Miéville (UnLunDun) and I only read him on your rec and he wasn’t too shabby. So there! And I sort of forced Crowded House on you!
Re. FlashForward (which i keep calling ‘FastForward’): I got so bored after watching the pilot that I read the wikipedia entry for the book on which it is based. Interesting concept – horrid excecution. It keeps reminding me of Lost & Heroes – but only all the bad bits to those series.
October 18th, 2009 - 09:05
Yeah … Blur was kinda a favour ;) But you have given lots of great music-recs over the years, so yay for that :) And I LOVE His Dark Materials (So it seem on the book- and music-front I think we see quite a lot more closely, so maybe it’s just TV and movies?)
Re. China Mieville, I should recommend his newest “The City and The City” … I loved that one. Maybe because it has so many reflections and echoes of cold-war Berlin, but the writing is not to shabby either. Worth giving a go IMO.
October 18th, 2009 - 09:22
Gosh you look cute! So very lovely. Well done!
I found the whole Moir thing just intolerable.
October 18th, 2009 - 10:11
The communication dynamic surrounding the Moir story is just fascinating. During the week when the Streisand Effect resulted in the humiliation of Ralph Loren and Trafigura – causing both to withdraw highly questionable legal actions – Jan Moir became its third ‘victim’. It astounds me that seemingly inane social networking tools are having such a huge impact on corporations, politics and the press.
The accusations of an agenda and an orchestrated campaign against her were inevitable, and while hive mind mentality was at least in part responsible for helping the story grow, I doubt the controversy would have been so great if there wasn’t some truth behind it. Like you, I read the story before the title was modified and before other newspapers had even noticed the fury, but it was so illogical and fallacious that I don’t understand how anybody can come out the other end without words like ‘homophobic’ and ‘idiot’ springing to mind.
Oh dear, my comment reads more like a blog entry. Adorable woollen top btw. ;)
October 18th, 2009 - 16:41
@Bells: thank you :)
@Fad: It is interesting, absolutely. I enjoy how “public outrage” was suddenly not something Daily Mail had a monopoly on – but was used against them. I think my interest lies within that idea – that “public outrage” of the moral sort is no longer reserved for the right-wing but that liberals can use it as a tool too. The idea of “orchestration” says more about the Mail than anything else.
However, I do wonder if public opinion can now be dictated by Mr Brooker, Stephen Fry and Derren Brown?
Adorable, huh? Yup, my coolness is long gone..