Wednesday 24 October 2012

Charred past

11 followers at Daytime Office Girl Crisis and only a tiny handful of you even know the history of this unique blog! It was underground for quite a period when I was avoiding places I felt rather uncomfortable at but now it's back out in the open.
If you clever people were wondering what this weeks title is referring to, unless you were on Mars, I'm talking about a major public scandal in the UK (that strange place that gave us English) that centres around the deceased disc jockey and tv presenter Sir Jimmy Saville who worked for a long time at a veritable UK institution, The BBC.
If you'd been in the UK for over 15 years, you'd of know of him presenting such shows as the pop music show Top of the Pops, radio shows like Saville's Time Travels, the Old record club, his past as a club MC in Leeds, Yorkshire and his charitable works and he did raise an awful lot for places like the  spinal injuries unit at Stoke Mandiville.
No one would dispute his achievements as an entertainer, indeed many of us us watched and listened to his shows.
There is no nice way to say this - and I wish I didn't have to - but he had another side a very hidden one from the public and it was he enjoyed having sex relations with children  15 or under something general morality aside, is against the law.
Some of these at least were clearly 'forced', they involved boys as well as girls, either on BBC property or in accommodation provided for his charitable work.
A good number were invited backstage from shows such as Jim'll fix it or Top of the Pops to his dressing room arguable with some knowledge from associates where they were abused; in others they were taken from Hospitals or Corrective Schools. It also has been said he attempted to interfere with some during the filmed dancing at Top of the Pops when he was on the show.
If this wasn't enough earlier this week I read a harrowing account of how even a niece at 13 and 15 of his was molested and abused.  I cried reading it.
I can't presume to speak for everyone that may be reading this blog, but there are a couple of things that come to mind of which the first is I feel a part of my past has been sullen not least for seeing people on a show and then finding out what happened later to them.
The other is why it was he was allowed unaccompanied access to minors to the point even of being given a key to one hospital that he kept with him. Thinking back as a 13 or 14 year old, at the time I'd loved to met my idols and gotten their autograph but you'd of expected someone to be over that person you were seeing not least for their own protection.
It also appears a number of people were aware of his 'interest' in minors but didn't act. Was this because he was viewed as too important to the BBC and various charities to tackle?

Thursday 18 October 2012

Media bais

Hi.
This week's post is a little different than the normal kind of post I make here but then that's not so untypical of me as I can be a bit random.
Anyways, this is the first post going out mainly for two circles at a social networking site one of which kindly offered  to have me, ironic really as I've said a few times the people who wanted me at that site seldom use it and I've ended up having interchanges with people I never encountered before around MLP, anime and what we call loosely gender politics among many things.
Media coverage is something that's always interested me right from high school where because of timetabling I missed taking Media Studies lessons although our Economics lecturer talked a lot about often in the context of social economics and associated poltical activity of the day.
Following on from a  post, I feel there are class based biases around what stories newspapers cover and the angle they portray them in.
For instance one well known UK newspaper  seldom reports events affecting Britain's black community outside of the context of immigration abuse or criminality and had for a period ignored major stories of crime against black people but suddenly shifted a gear in campaigning for justice in the Steven Laurence case.
That was very commendable but the presentation was more one of worthy of support as 'black young man and his family made good' -fellow 'middle class' solid types wronged rather than the injustices of the initial inquiry and how the racial biases of the investigating force hampered the search for justice.Injustice itself should be worth of reporting and campaigning against.
In the ongoing reporting of messing people too it's often the case those seen to be of that that stereotype 'worth solid middle class' who  were wronged often with reference to abilities rather than the many ordinary people, often young people who just seem to vanish and they become the focus of campaigns.
Since 9/11, if you were to read some newspapers the only reference to Muslims is in the context of terror plots or mistreatment of women and minors that sure should be reported and acted upon but ignores the lives of many peaceful followers of that religion and what they contribute to our society.
Do you think our media is biased?

Thursday 11 October 2012

Clutter

Sometimes I think I'm jinxed as it seems I have the return of a rotten cold, an everyday thing although not pleasant for most of you but something once I get on, I never really seem to shake off.
I'm not house moving, but in the last few weeks and probably continue on for a few more weeks, I'm de-cluttering the house and while I'm at it, rearranging things.
I haven't had a bad life even if lots of things didn't quite go to plan, but one common factor with many of them is they left me with heaps of paper files in either wallet document folders or huge lever arch files from many activities and courses I took that took over room after room!
I've finally gotten shut of the 1999 Roxy Music remasters - nasty harsh things -having got  that awfully nice sounding new box set plus a few other don't really need discs plus a massive hardback copy of Websters dictionary that was too heavy for me to turn the pages over.
As well, I'm thinning out a mountain of home made VHS video cassettes going back some twenty-five years that are taking up space and yet I haven't watched in several years so I figure I really do not need them.
Makes you wonder how much stuff we really need in our lives.


Wednesday 3 October 2012

Love Me Do

Well in October 1962 before I was born, a group with a local and German port following issued a bluesy 45 following their first ever UK recording sesson at Abbey Road, London.
Nobody knew if this group would really take of or just remain one of several provincial groups just selling a few copies to fans.
This Group was of course, the Beatles and that single reached number 17 on the UK charts although it was to go top five in the States in 1964 in an era off unprecedented adoration.

Although it's been released several times before being only deleted briefly during the late 60's and very early 70's with a famous 20th anniversary issue in 1982 where it climbed to number 5 in the UK charts that I bought in high school, this week it comes out in a retro label design complete with company inner bag.
I've ordered a copy for my collection as I believe they *may* use the original singles version for this that was switched in early 1963 to the now familiar version featured on the Please Please Me album.

NEWSFLASH:
Somebody goofed big time.
http://wogew.blogspot.ca/2012/10/lov...ry-mix-up.html

Quote:
Word is that EMI have recalled all the stock of the 50th anniversary edition of the Love Me Do 7" vinyl single , because the version on the single is incorrect. Under strict instructions from Apple the stock is to be destroyed.
The single version as you probably know featured Ringo, and the album version featured Andy White with Ringo on the tambourine. The mistake is that they have supposedly put the album version on the new 7 inch.
At the moment EMI have no plans to replace it with the correct version.
This information came from one of the retailers who had already shipped their pre-orders, so there will be a number of lucky owners of this rarity when the post arrives tomorrow....
Coming soon is the much waited for stereo  vinyl issues of September 2009's album remasters. One hopes the three year and two months wait is worth it.