Surely We’re All Being Punk’d? The Catholic Church Is A Spoof, Right?

An idiotic outpouring of homophobic bile is always a surefire way of prompting me to write a blog post, so here we are. Today’s post, though perhaps a day late and dollar short, has been instigated by comments made by Cardinal Keith O’Brien in a column he wrote for last Saturday’s Telegraph; that’s the decrepit virgin in charge of the Scottish branch of the Catholic church for those of you who always get your bigots mixed up. The column saw him rallying against the government’s upcoming consultation on whether same-sex marriage should be introduced in England and Wales. If you happen to read it, don’t worry if you start to hear a screechy tuneless pitch; you’ve not suddenly developed an unexpected case of tinnitus, it’s just me playing the world’s tiniest violin in sympathy.

Guys? Can We Try & Cut Back On The Dicksplashery, Please?

Last Friday, the writer and comedian, Emma Kennedy, published a blog post highlighting a spat she’d had with a (now blocked) follower over whether young writers should do work for free, which evolved into a heated exchange via email.

As far as I can see, and as Emma signs off in her blog post, they both acted a little like arseholes during their conversation; interesting that Jon seems unable to admit this though. It’s fascinating to see how the briefest of comments, which is all tweets are, can lead to a place of unwarranted and extreme hostility. As Jon points out, I don’t think the two of them have wildly differing opinions on this matter, it’s more that Emma approaches it from an idealist’s point of view and Jon from that of a pragmatist.

No Way No Gay (Marriage)

So apparently 2012 is still too soon for gay people to be considered equals by everyone. Great stuff.

Just when you think you’re living in a progressive country with an enviable reputation for gay rights and societal acceptance, along comes news stating that members of your currently elected government are about to block legislation to enable you to marry the love of your life. Cheers for that.

My Top 10 Musical Highlights from 2011

As this post’s concept clearly isn’t rocket science I shall jump straight in…

10. StooShe – Fuck Me

New for 2011, StooShe are a London trio who combine hip-hop laced pop with a real sense of fun in their lyrics & delivery. Ordinarily, this type of fun can often equate gimmicky one-hit-wonders, though with their subsequent cover of Ini Kamoze’s Here Comes the Hotstepper and recent single Betty Woz Gone they seem to be building on their momentum, going from strength to strength.

I Kurrently Have A Khronic Passion For K-Pop. Krumbs

Back in August I mentioned my new musical obsession: a brilliant new girl group hailing from South Korea called 4Minute. If you’d told me at the start of the year that the music I’d be listening to the most this year will be in a language I don’t even understand then I would clearly have thought you a fool. Shame on me. *sombre face* My name’s Elliot and I’m a K-Pop addict (Korean Pop for the uninitiated).

4Minute

This obsession is very much focussed around this fantastic 5-piece, 4Minute, whose EP Hit Your Heart has already broken the 1,000 plays by me, mainly thanks to the ridiculously brilliant track “Huh“; they’re also already my fifth most played artist according to my Last FM page. Mind you, I’ve always been a sucker for a girl group.

My Music Collection Could Beat Up Your Music Collection: Snobbery in the Popular Music World

There’s nothing quite like reading an unbearably self-righteous article to provoke me to write a ranty post. Hello! Today’s culprit is this article on the BuzzFeed website listing twelve apparently disappointing facts about pop music; I reckon you can probably see the author’s smugness from space.

As someone who revels in their own high standards (read: outrageous snob), I do find myself in the novel position of criticising someone else for their unnecessary snobbery. The issue here though seems to be born from sour grapes. So what if Ke$ha, the personification of Auto-Tune, has sold more copies of “Tik Tok” than The Beatles did of any of their singles; I’m sure Paul McCartney cries into his diamond encrusted pillow every single night, sporadically blowing his hooter into any spare bank notes he has lying around – the poor love can’t even afford a proper handkerchief! Sod Children In Need, when are we going to have a fundraiser for dear ol’ Macca?

1985: A Vintage Year for Creating Musical Brilliance.

*blows thick layer of dust off blog*

Well I have been totes-majuh-excited.com this week *overdosing on X Factor face* thanks mainly to some superb new music from two up-and-coming artists, both of whom were born in 1985, hence this post’s title.

First up is that Swedish genius that I’ve banged on about before and that I’m going to bang on about again (and undoubtedly many times again in the future), Sophia Somajo, though with an apparent rebranding to “Soso”. I’m not sure how I feel about this.