I've spent some time today responding to two blogs by Toby Young in the Telegraph. One he wrote as a criticism of the idea that Lee McQueen could be thought of as a genius and the other whining that a lot of people didn't like his blog and showed that by flaming him on Twitter.
It really is arrogance of the highest order to sit in judgement on something he clearly has no understanding of, then to whine like a bitch because people show their displeasure.
There are probably many reasons that you might have been problems with Lee's work; fur, constricted women, disgusting displays of wealth and status etc.. I think sometimes he was indulgent and indulged and sometimes he rested on his laurels.
However, Young chose to attempt a criticism of his "genius" when he's clearly not qualified to appraise his work. How can you criticise something when you have no real understanding of what went into the making of it. Anyone who understands pattern cutting would stand in awe at how his pieces were constructed. I have looked at pictures of his work until my head hurts trying to figure out just where that seam disappears to!
Anyone has a right to criticise anyone and anything and long may that continue, but it displays a lack of humility to be so outspoken about something you know so little about.

The monster sings....

I was thinking on the bus today. Now that the dust has settled on the fuss surrounding that strange woman Susan Boyle, it's time to stand back and just look at what happened.
Although I didn't see it on the television I have obviously seen the endless footage that followed. A woman enters a talent competition, she's far from being a beauty. There is general tittering and snide comments about her and then she sings. It's a voice that is (being generous) slightly above average in competence but not really anything you might expect to have caused the ensuing fuss.
The response of the panel of (ha ha) experts, ranges from slack jawed reverie to tears issuing from botoxed eye slits. Contrition follows, how could we experts have missed this seraphic creature? This monster scraped it's hooves, knuckles dragging and appeared before us and from it's gaping maw came not the scream of a thousand madmen but the voice of a child angel.
This in itself is clearly not important, a bit of staged flummery for the masses. But it does raise issues about how our society thinks; that you wouldn't expect to find talent in someone who isn't beautiful and young and that when anything above average comes from someone who is old and considered unattractive it's like a miracle.
Just think John Merrick could have cleaned up on Dancing On Ice.

The Illiberal Left

I wrote this last year at the height of keffiyah wearing and banner waving, but feel it's something that still has relevance.

I’m worried about what’s happening to the supposed liberal left in this country particularly the dangerously misguided (and often barely concealed anti-semitic) supporters of Hamas. It's been a slow but steady -I hesitate to say progress- toward supposed liberal people going on marches that tacitly support the subjugation of women and killing of gay men. They are also denying support to the liberals who live in Palestine by having anything to do with a march that includes heavy hitting supporters of Hamas.
I would mention at this point that the Israeli government were working closely with Fatah in an attempt to find common ground before Hamas pulled strings to win the election.
There is a facile and frankly adolescent support for the (perceived) “good guy” i.e. the one with fewer weapons and a blanket and illiberal hatred of the “bad guy” the one who has the ear of Washington and is capable of wiping Palestine off the map should they wish to do so (but have not).
I resent the idea that because I don’t follow the fashionable opinion I somehow don’t care for human life. I watch the pictures on the news with tears in my eyes and feel frustrated and angry. Henry Kissinger once said, of the Iran Iraq conflict “it’s a pity they can’t both lose” and that’s how I feel at times, both countries frustrate me.
However, one is a democracy that encourages free thought and is in many ways superior to our own in rights for women and gay people the other is run by a quasi-theocracy who’s avowed intention is to kill every Jewish person on the planet and then start with the rest of us…unless we choose to convert to Islam.
I refuse to add the apparently obligatory caveat about how not all Muslims are like this etc etc if it’s not clear from what I’ve said above that I’m a liberal and do not judge people in groups as all being the same, then so be it.

We have moved from political debate being how we decide what we think to silence because of a fear of offence. Nobody must be offended, even if what they believe is offensive and, yes I’m going to say it…wrong.
If you dissent from the current beliefs and challenge radical Islam you are Islamophobic and fingers are pointed like the witch denouncers in The Crucible.

So we have the bewildering spectacle of supposed liberals on marches under other people’s banners that suggest “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”. When did that become acceptable to people who believe themselves to be supporters of liberal values? That would be a march, I could in all conscience, not be on.

Further reading; I suggest you read Nick Cohen’s books “What’s Left” and “Waiting For The Etonians” both of which give some much needed counter arguments to the prevailing “wisdom”.
Also, the brilliant “The Islamist” by Ed Husain”, an incredible account of how he became enchanted with radical Islam and why he became disenchanted by it.

You can find the Hamas charter below, essential reading if you want to understand where they are coming from.

http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm

Jan Bondeson, The London Monster: A Sanguinary Tale

Last year I read a book by Jan Bondeson called “The London Monster; A Sanguinary Tale” about a series of attacks on women in London between 1788 and 1790.

“The London Monster” (there were probably more than one) first appeared in 1788. Victims reported being harassed and followed by a man calling out obscenities to them. He would then cut them, usually in the buttocks or hips with a long blade. Some claim he had blades attached to his knees and came up behind them and plunged the blades into their buttocks. There were even times when women would be asked to smell a nosegay then a blade (hidden inside) was used to cut the face.
The assailant would escape before help arrived (there was only a small official police presence in London at the time) but not before leering at the women, seemingly in no hurry to leave.
In two years the number of reported victims amounted to more than 50.
Women attempted to protect their bottoms with metal pans secreted below their dresses over their buttocks and there was a brisk trade in copper petticoats.

Eventually Rhenwick Williams was arrested and imprisoned for 6 years after a laughable court case where his 7 alibi witnesses were discredited and ignored by the judge.

Recommended…if for no other reason, it puts the hoodie and happy slapping panic into some kind of perspective.

Slap up!

See that picture of me in make up at the top of the page? it got me thinking. I used to wear make-up from my mid teens and only really stopped a few years ago. For me, it was never about looking like a "pretty lady"...it was, to all intents and purposes war paint. I did think the made up human face was beautiful, but it never even occurred to me it might be a way for me to attract people. I just loved the almost alchemical way it could change you. Not just physically, but from within, giving you reserves of bravery and sheer bloody cheek that ordinarily you wouldn't have. I used to go out during the day in full (some might say foolish) painted face. I knew there would be trouble, and as much as i feared it i craved it too. In fact, most people only shouted from a distance, I wasn't the first to realise that it actually acted as armour and some people feared you even as they derided you. In fact, i was beaten up only three times in my youth and each time i was out without make-up. I really pity men sometimes, there are such fantastic opportunities for self expression and self discovery that come with playing with your image and most men will never have an inkling of it.

I’ve noticed something…when I go on Youtube or in certain chat rooms, there is a high volume of people being absolutely vile about certain women, calling them amongst many other things “bitches”, “whores”, “stupid cunts”.. and far from being taken to task there seems to be an overriding approval for these attitudes.
The “justification” ? The women being talked about are Jade Goody and Katie Price.
Now, both of these women annoy/ed the hell out of me, but the amount of time spent reviling them online is amazing.

It got me thinking; why do so many people have such a negative reaction to two women who made so much out of so little, eventually making a lot of money from very humble backgrounds? Could it be the age old British disease class snobbery?

If you ask people why they hate them so much, the answer is usually that they’ve become celebrities for doing very little. In which case they ought to have hated Diana Princess of Wales, who did bugger all for the first ten years, Tara Palmer Tompkinson, Peaches Geldof, and the many sons and daughters of a multitude of tv “personalities”, journalists, actors, authors…(one of these days I’m compiling a list of these. Seriously, if you recognise a young person’s surname they’ve probably got a parent in the same industry).

What many of these people have in common is that, generally, they have nepotism to thank for their success. Well I hate nepotism way more than I hate a girl with very little in the way of education who managed/manages to create wealth for themselves with little more than a good P.R. agent, savvy and nouse.

Of course, the thing that gives all of these bigots away is the liberal use of the word “chav” which is nothing more than a synonym for “working class”.

Oddly, many of the people who present these attitudes seem to love the endless stream of effluvia issuing from the televisual fundament of X Factor(y) et al..
There seems to be a collective deafness to the very limited talents of the winners and a wilful blindness to the massive machine that got these halfwits “to the top” in the first place !

I mean what has happened to the world when a woman who was in a personality contest, didn’t know if East Anglia was “foreign” or not, was wrongly pilloried for a “racist” outburst that she was probably the least offensive player in and eventually dies in the blinding glare of the media (which she very wisely made pay for the privilege) has become a hate figure somewhere up there with Hitler…I think Myra Hindley gets better press.

The Long Walk Home

I went to the Damien Hirst at the White cube recently..really worth a look if you like a laugh. They really were pitiful daubs from a self obsessed artist that clearly feels he needs to prove he can paint…which he can’t.
Apart from the shameless copies of Bacon and Auerbach (no doubt ironic or homage) the worst of his crimes is the ham-fisted handling of paint. Disgusting, over-blown, self publicising philistinism.I think he might actually HATE art.
On the way back from that festival of giggles I went past the vandalism that is the demolition of the Atlantic bar and grill (part of the Regent Palace Hotel) a listed building that the Crown estates applied for permission to demolish and which has it seems now been granted. It’s just a hole in the ground, all the art deco splendour ground into dust. I then walked past the now closed New Piccadilly, which was an intact 50’s coffee bar. I believe run continually by the same family, which now stands empty and will no doubt remain so until it becomes so cheap to buy or rent the land that some shark raises it to the ground for yet another, mall, car park or office block.
Apparently they’re doing something similar to the Café Royal, where Oscar Wilde started his quarrel with the Marquis of Queensberry that was his ultimate undoing.
This is why I want to move out of London, we don’t seem to value the important stuff anymore.