This week has been a tad quite in the world of fame, but I have been watching a lot of trailers for highly anticipated films coming up in the next few years. Quite fittingly, the three below mirror my life quite nicely – Men in Black was a childhood favourite, American Pie was influential to my generation during my teenage years, and Despicable Me has become a recent favourite among my friends and I, oft quoted and giggled at. Needless to say I’m quite excited about my future cinema prospects.
Today, I am one of the almost 10 million people who have watched the Kony2012 video (see below), in which an American based organisation detail their attempts to halt the atrocities committed in Uganda by Joseph Kony and his army, the LRA. It has been widely documented, but not reported by Western media, that they have abducted, raped, murdered or enslaved thousands of people, particularly children, and the Kony2012 people want it to stop. Which is perfectly understandable, the unimaginable horrors committed by Kony and his gang have scarred a generation of Ugandans but received little media attention. I freely admit that until today I had never heard of him or the LRA, and that is my fault for not educating myself better about the world today.
After watching the video, like many others I immediately went to the Kony2012 website and registered my support, then I had a quick look at their merchandise shop – designed to help spread the word through posters, t-shirts and bracelets, among other things – and on an impulse I bought a snazzy looking shirt and one of their bracelets. Don’t ask me why, I plead brainwashing. I don’t generally think of myself as easily led or gullible (but then, no gullible person does), but 5 minutes after hitting the ‘Pay’ button, I was shocked by how quickly I had just spent money, based on a 30 minute video. So I did a little more research on the TRI people (who are behind the movement) and was surprised at how easily I found articles talking about the questionable nature of the organisation, who seem to have created a movement through snappy video editing and an adorable 5 year old who doesn’t understand that there are bad people outside of Star Wars.
Some articles that I found interesting can be found here (there are plenty more to be found via Google):
I want to make it clear that I support the efforts of governments and international organisations who are trying to capture Kony and bring him to justice. But I am wary of a campaign that is light on information and heavy on emotion, I got so caught up in it all that I actually gave them money, and that scares me.
Something else that I find worrying is that, 10 minutes after I placed my order I tried to cancel it by clicking on the links provided on the store website. Every single one led to an error page. Luckily I was able to find a relevant email on another of their websites, and hopefully I will get a refund for my stupidity soon, but I am becoming less and less supportive of a movement whose only goal seems to be to create a world of hipster clones with a cause about which they know very little. I’m glad that I came to my senses, I don’t know why my cynicism alarm didn’t trip sooner. We live and learn.
That’s not to say that I’ll never do anything for charity again, it’s just that I am going to be a little bit more careful in the future and use one of the websites below to verify where my cash ends up.
I’ve had a bit of break this last week, a combination of job interviews and family visits scuppered my blogging plans, but now I’m back with a vengeance.
This week, a lot of people seem to be going crazy over a series of text messages that have come to alight, much to the embarrassment of the batshit crazy lady who sent them I’m sure. As re-enacted on NZ radio’s Fletch & Vaughan show, a girl in the USA went into stalker overdrive following a one night stand with a luckless victim, she proceeded to bombard him with endless messages for a few days, until she realised the insanity of her actions and wisely backed off. Definitely a lesson to all womankind.
Today I’ve been going crazy for Rosi Golan’s music. Ever since the Israeli-American songbird’s single “Can’t Go Back”appeared on Perez Hilton’s website (my longtime homepage), admittedly only a matter of hours ago, I have downloaded both of her albums and listened to them on repeat. In the porcess I’ve also discovered a Family Records (www.thefamilyrecords.com), an artist managed company which helps musicians to “cultivate fruitful careers with artistic freedom and longevity”. Yes, it does sound a little airy-fairy, but they sent me a free mixtape along with my purchase of Golan’s album ‘Lead Balloon’, so I’m all for it.
To prove that I’m not developing some sort of ear infection, listen to this and see if you agree with me, that Rosi Golan is destined for great things.
In looking for a new installment of my current YouTube obsession, My Drunk Kitchen, I stumbled upon a crossover episode in which Hannah (the best wisecracking drunk cook ever) impersonates another familiar face from the vlogging world, Jenna Marbles. Donning a platinum wig and Jenna’s signature tone of voice, Hannah is hilarious and surprisingly spot on in her good natured mockery. She also mentioned that her motivation to make the video was the parody of MDK recently made by Jenna, which was equally hilarious, leading to a Freaky Friday like swapover of genius. Jenna attempts to make cheesecake, and unlike MDK’s numerous interesting attempts, the actual cooking goes pretty well. So this week there are TWO brilliant videos that have me hooked, enjoy!
Since I started this blog, I’ve been trying to find a way to write about all the things that interest me while keeping the entire thing a coherent series. Well, I’ve finally come up with something: I have 7 kinds of mind, one for each day. So every week I will log about something different every day, keeping with a theme.
So this is going to be my new format:
Sundays are for a cook off, whether it’s a new recipe I’ve discovered or my own personal little experiment, it’ll be on here.
Mondays are when you need a pick me up, I’ll post whatever has been amusing me to help get you through your case of the Mondays.
Tuesdays are when I get to escape on a travelling adventure, whether I’ve actually moved from my computer screen or not.
Wednesdays are when it gets serious, I’ll write about that week’s big issue/story in the news. If I’m honest, it’ll probably be a rant of some sort.
Thursdays are all about me, a little update of what’s been going on in my highly exciting life that week. It’ll be gripping I’m sure.
Fridays are for the best celebrity gossip or media news that I can find. From a review of the latest Sherlock (just how exactly did he survive?!) or the most titillating story of the pitfalls of fame.
Saturdays are potluck. Whatever I’ve wanted to write about that doesn’t fit into one of the above categories, it could be anything. How exciting!
So hopefully I’ll be able to stick to the new format, and I look forward to flexing my typing muscles as I try to keep up with the pace of blogging every day. Enjoy!
7 Kinds of Mind 