Sorry, sorry..

I'm failing at blogging right now. I know this...I'll try to rectify this soon, but just no in a good mindframe right now. Apologies!

Belly Laughs #1 - International Comedy Club

When?: Friday 17th July 2009
Where? International Comedy Club
Who?:

Tiffany Stapleton started the night. She was an unknown name to me, so I really had no idea what to expect. Her act was a little bit messy, and not entirely pulled together, but funny nonetheless. Unlike many other female comedians, Stapleton was able to connect with the whole audience (as opposed to only the other females in the room)and her comedy was intelligent and well recieved. I don't know if I'd hurry back to see her headline, but I enjoyed her act.

Dave McSavage was the next act. I've seen him before, so obviously, there was repeated material, but I find the man extremely funny. Yes, he's sarcastic, he's rude, offensive, and comes out with some things that I don't agree with. He's undeniably un-PC, but, in my opinion, there's no room for PC in comedy. His song about 'culchies' getting on the property ladder had me in hysterics, and I wasn't the only one. Despite public opinions on this man, he still got the biggest laughs of the night.

Next up was F.J. Murray. The crowd loved him, but I have to be honest, I didn't find him that funny. His jokes were amusing, but nothing I haven't heard done before. He only did a very short slot, about 10 to 15 minutes, it's possible that he would have appealed to me a bit more had he had time to get further into his act.

The final act was Brendan Riley. This guy has a great energy, he bounced around the stage, and really connected with the audience. As he said himself, we'd paid the money, he'd better make us laugh. And laugh we did. Again, like Tiffany, I wouldn't run out to see him in a headline show, but the rest of the audience seemed to love him.

And of course, I can't post this and not mention the fantastic Dean Scurry. He hosted the gig, and even the jokes of his that I've heard before had me laughing. He has an almost boyish charm, that endears the audience to him immediately. Constantly bouncing around the stage, he is brilliant at getting the crowd going, and getting them ready for the next act. Possibly one of my favourite comedians!

Cos this is THRILLER!!

You so know this was the guy on the right's idea...look at those moves!

A year in the blink of an eye..

I completely missed my blog's 1st birthday...it was back on the 6th of this month..and tomorrow marks one year to the day that I started the job!

Quick review: Burned Alive - Souad

Lent to me by Evil Vampire Penguin, Burned Alive isn't the usual type of book that I read. I wouldn't have picked it up in a bookstore, it wouldn't have jumped out at me. That said, I will read anything, and since Sarah and myself generally like the same things, I gave it a look.

It's not a new book, you may have heard of it, or read it. But for those of you that haven't, Burned Alive tells the true story of a girl, who calls herself Souad. She was able to write it because of repressed memory therapy, and so the story can seem sketchy and vague at times.

Souad, at the age of seventeen, commits the worst crime imaginable to her strict Palestinian family. She falls in love with her neighbour, loses her virginity out of wedlock, and falls pregnant. Betrayed by her beloved, she tries to hide her pregnancy for as long as she can, but, inevitably, she is found out.
With her family deeply shamed, they decide that to get their honour back, Souad must be killed. What follows is absolutely horrific. She is doused in petrol, and set alight.
She is rescued by some women in her community, and left in hospital. She recieves no care from the medical staff, and is treated with scorn and distaste. However, luckily for Souad, an aid worker takes on her case, and, eventually, manages to get Souad and her young baby out of the country, and into a hospital in Switzerland. From there, she begins to get her life back on track.

I'm not going to go into more detail, in case anyone reading this post decides to try the book. I will just say that it ends on a happy note, with Souad getting the better life that so many of the women from The West Bank deserve, but don't recieve.

Sometimes hard to believe, sometimes sad, always shocking, this is a book I'm glad to have read. It has opened my eyes wide to the suffering of women still treated lower than second class citizens.

(No rating for this book, I feel it would be slightly crude to rate a story like this..)

What a load of aul..

*** Warning - contains strong language and badly expressed opinions***

Swearing.

It's not big.
It's not clever.
It's not appropriate.
But we're all guilty of it.

This post is prompted by a group discussion about the 'c' word (I'm aware that some people are sensitive about that particular word, so I won't type it in full...we all know what it is.) It started simply with the question 'Does it offend you'? and the responses were varied and quite interesting. Very few people said that they weren't offended by it, some said that they were, but weren't quite sure why, and the rest insisted that they were indeed offended by it.

Swear words are funny old things though, aren't they? Where did they come from? Like...who thought up the word 'fuck' and decided that it would be an offensive word, a vulgar term that would be used to insult someone? And for all the other swear words that you know, the same applies. Who gave these simple words that power?

Some argue that it's not the words themselves that can be offensive, but the intent. That 'fuck you!' said with malice behind it is far more offensive than the same words said in a jesting, or apathetic way.
Others say that the words themselves are the problem, and are just unncessary, not to be used.
I tend to agree with the former. Swear words, to me, are just like any other. The person saying them is the one who puts the meaning behind them. The words alone are nothing.

One thing noticeable about swearing is that it's a lot less taboo than it once was. In my opinion, anyway. It's frowned upon, certainly, but it is accepted, however uncomfortably, by today's society. It's not shocking to hear someone use 'fuck' or 'shit' or 'bollix' in their everyday conversations. Which, in one way, is a good thing. It lessens the offending power of the words. I do, however, shudder everytime I hear a child of any age telling someone to 'piss off' or 'get the fuck away from me, ye bastard!'. The downsides of a society open to swearing, I suppose..

Before I wrap up this already rambly post, I'd like to go back to the 'c' word. I want to know just why so many people find it offensive. Of those asked, they stated it's because it's a derogatory term for female genitals. Fair enough, this is true.

But...what about words like 'dick(head)', 'prick', 'bollix', 'knob'...all swear words, all insults. All derogatory terms for men's bits. And yet there's nowhere near as much stigma surrounding those words. Should men get all uppity and offended whenever one of those words are used now?

And then, there's arsehole...

(see Lette's Blog for her take on swearing)