Monday 29 July 2013

Monday

Working in-house today, early start.

Yesterday, tried to find a couple of films I wanted to watch on line and the Curzon site was down - it ended up being far easier to watch for free on illegal sites than to find somewhere that I could pay for them. Sure that's not how it's supposed to work.

In the late evening, I watched 'Sharknado'. It was so bad, it was fantastic. I loved it.

I'm re-reading Owen Jone's 'Chavs' - bit more critical this time, but still enjoying it - if that's the right word. I think it's missing a lot - he's right - up to a point - about the contrast in press treatment between the child abduction cases of the MacCans and the family of Shannon Mathews - bit misses the backlash against the McC's and the fact that the discovery of Shannon Mathews alive and the vilification of her family because of their guild really changes the whole story. They were both turned on by their own class in the end. These are a lot of things he seems to miss, but it's still an interesting book.

Twitter has been quiet lately so it was time for a 'Twitterstorm' - not one, but TWO!!! The whole 'rape joke' thing has been comic and tragic by turns - with people who really should know better being total jerks for a whole weekend. Warhol was wrong, we will not all be famous for 15 mins - we will be famous and stupid. Twitter, like facebook - is just a platform, it's not a sentient, self aware being - it has no control over it's content - nor should it have, you can't blame the toilet wall because someone scribbles something on it. Twitter isn't racist, or homophobic, it can't threaten to rape you or pull your hair. People do that. You don't have to pay for it, if you don't like it - don't use it. Some of the well paid journalists squealing loudest over the weekend are happy to exploit twitter for their own political causes - but get angry when they read something they don't like, and the more they squeal, the more they encourage some idiot to abuse them further.

In the other instance. Aiden Moffat - one half of the legendary duo Arab Strap, went into his local Waterstones' yesterday (the STRUGGLING retailer), shortly before closing time, and was refused service at the till because they wanted to close up - his remonstration on twitter was met with a barrage of abuse for people accusing him of exploiting minimum wage workers.I just get that one either. The internet is full of people with an axe and nowhere to grind it. This morning, one of the subscribers to the creative professionals group I belong to wrote an angry email to everyone because she didn't like the fundraising circular another professional had circulated - 'I don't want this sort of thing in my inbox' - yeah, right. There are lots of things I don't want in my inbox - I just ignore them - you don't own email, and you don't pay for the service either.

6 storey block of retirement flats on the seafront burnt down yesterday, nobody hurt - huge fire, lots of homeless old people stuck in the nearest church hall.

It's overcast, less warm, quite dense and a bit threatening. I'm going to risk a lightweight jumper.

5 comments:

Steerforth said...

When I first worked at Waterstone's (in the days when it had an apostrophe), the staff considered it a personal failure if they shut the shop any later than ten minutes before the advertised closing time. Customers were plunged into darkness on the top floor and like moths, gradually moved towards the light around the entrance, where they were then dispatched.

Richard de Pesando MA(RCA) said...

dispatched.... with a heavy medical dictionary across the back of the head.... I like it!

R

Nina said...

As a member of staff at that shop, I can inform you that a. He was not refused service b. It's a shopping centre branch, we have to be out of the building by 6 or else the centre gets cross and c. We don't get paid past 6. The money the company got when he bought the books after coming in 3 minutes before closing doesn't go to us. Why should we still be there if we're not getting paid?

Add in the joys of getting public transport back to the city centre, and you can see why we wanted to go home on time, not early, on time.

Richard de Pesando MA(RCA) said...

oops! I nearly missed this - I don't usually check my comments - and considering the pitifully tiny number of people who read this blog (I get many more hits when I just post pictures) - it's astonishing that you made this connection. I have only met ASJM once myself - in Liverpool - at the halfway point of a very poorly attended Arab Strap gig, we were both at the bar and I offered to pay for his drink, he politely refused. Later - on stage, they bemoaned that everyone was deserting them (one of their band had just left to join Mull Historical Society) and it was very close to the end of Arab Strap. very sad - but we had a little bit of a dance at the end.. What you said is really interesting and warrants more than a glib comment by me , so I'll actually think about it properly before I say anything and post something later - but thanks for commenting in a sensible manner - most of the responses to anything I write come via email and are usually along the lines of 'fuck off' and 'I'm going to burn your house down' X

Nina said...

Sadly, when you Google his name, plus the store, plus Twitter, this comes up, which is how I found it. And so will other folk, and it reflects pretty badly on a store run by people who work really hard when things go up online that aren't correct. I genuinely would appreciate it if you could edit your original post to reflect that, because how he posted it, how you posted it, and what actually happened are very different things.
Booksellers are, by and large, sensible people, hence my response. The internet is a strange place, and it's easy to forget that there's someone reading what you put out there. I try to take the approach of "if you wouldn't say it to their face, don't put it online", which our mutual friend seems to have forgotten because his misplaced hyperbole and anger have hurt a lot of people who care very much about what they do.
I look forward to your well-thought out reply, thanks for taking the time to read mine.

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