Stark(ey) raving mad...

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I’ve been watching a lot of David Starkey's documentaries on Tudor history. The man's pompous style of story telling is riveting but in wanting to find out more about this guy, I did what is usual these days...I searched him on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Starkey

The following snippets are taken off his enlightening wiki page...

I particularly like his view on the Queen...

More recently, he (Starkey) received considerable attention when he compared Elizabeth II unfavourably with her predecessors, calling her an uneducated housewife, and comparing her cultural attitude to Joseph Goebbels, by suggesting that she gave him the impression that every time she heard the word culture she wanted to reach for a gun (in fact the line is most commonly attributed to Hermann Göring, but was really written by the lesser known Nazi playwright Hanns Johst).

But as a woman of Filipino descent I find his views on multiculturalism frankly shocking...

Formerly a leftist, Starkey is now known for his right-wing views. For example, he says of multiculturalism: "What's striking about our problem ethnic communities is that they are the ones with the least commitment to self-betterment."

Yes Starkey, of course us ethnic communities 'fresh off the boat' have no commitment at all for self-betterment. We left the shores of our homeland in favor of foreign privileged countries not for self-betterment but for other reasons? But if by 'self-betterment' you mean in a cultural and intellectual sense then in this regards we are on a par with royalty it seems... I suppose it is a well known fact ethnic communities are illiterate and lazy, yes Starkey? ...ridiculous.

Starkey also offended some viewers of BBC One's Question Time in April 2009 when he criticised Scottish, Irish and Welsh nationalism and described these nations as "feeble".

However, others, including some of the studio audience, supported his attacks on politicians. (Small victories Starkey, eh?!)

Damn and I'm in the middle of watching his 4 part documentary on Henry VIII...

X-Bird

I don't eat squirrel!

I've spent a large portion of the day on my arse in front of the computer. I have a headache and my eyes hurt...I could spend the rest of this post bitching and moaning about certain things but I wont. Read the following link and you'll feel better about the world in general.... http://www.britneyspears.com/2009/12/theyearinbs.php

It's comforting to know Britney Spears does not eat squirrel, that her dad is not drugging her AND that she loves Australia.

I was however upset and frankly shocked to find out that the story about her two young boys trashing a hotel room turned out to be false. Or in Brit's words 'BS'. Where's the rock n roll in that?

And finally for the record like Britney I DID NOT set up fake auditions to pick up male models. IT'S ALL LIES.

Over and out.

X-Bird

Death of a queen...

Another cozy night indoors…

I know it's Christmas when I actually enjoy staying indoors more often. My main highlights of the week include me vegging out and watching films and erm...vegging out and watching films. I'm beginning to think I'm turning into a couch potato or maybe I'm more of a couch potato than I’d like to admit!

I spent last night watching the entire series of David Starkey's documentaries on the six wives of Henry VIII. I've always had some fascination with this area of history. I think this primarily stems from childhood memories of visiting places like Hampton Court Palace on school trips (and puking during the coach journey back home much to the horror of the classmate I was sitting next to at the time- my sincere apologies…). The idea of some tyrannical larger than life king killing his wives is compelling stuff for an 8 year old! I understand most of it was sensationalist melodrama befitting for a class of easily distractible 8-year-olds but the grand history behind the Tudor dynasty is utterly fascinating. There's sex, violence, drama, love, death- EVERYTHING.

Last night I also watched a documentary exploring the relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen Of Scots. It was a bit of a Tudor history marathon last night in the X-Bird house!

Executions were commonplace in Tudor England. Henry VIII was obviously infamous for beheading two of his wives but what I found most intriguing was the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. I think my fascination with her demise stems from trying grasp and understand how she endured 24 years of imprisonment before her death warrant was finally signed by Elizabeth I. It was reported that her death warrant was signed with much trepidation. A trepidation, not born out of remorse but from the predicted repercussions of how signing such a warrant could affect the political sphere for England and Elizabeth I at the time. The religious/political climate during the time of Mary Queen of Scots’ execution put Britain in a state of unrest, her death would again be a tactical execution but could also give way to more political uprisings against Elizabeth and spur revenge from Mary’s son who would later be James I and unite Great Britain.

Mary Queen Of Scots was a tragic queen whose royal career was one tragic blunder after another, it was only at the time of her trial and subsequent execution that she seemed to carry the strength and composure of a woman in absolute power.

Mary Queen Of Scots appeared on the scaffold on 8 February 1587 and with the composure and dignity befitting of a queen knelt gracefully by the block awaiting her fate. It took two blows of the axe to severe Mary’s head from her body. The first blow striking the back of her head, at which point she was reported to have cried, 'Sweet Jesus!'. As her head fell away from her body after the second blow a small thread of flesh remained where her head once was. This was later cut away from her body as the executioner used his axe as a saw! Mary Queen of Scots’ head was then held up by her infamous auburn tresses, her lips apparently still moving. It was later reported that her lips moved for 15 minutes in what some regarded as, 'in silent prayer'. As her head was held high to the executioner’s cries of, 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN', Mary’s severed head then fell to the ground. People were shocked to find that the auburn hair that the executioner held on to was in fact a wig. Her auburn hair being a symbol of her infamous beauty had become after 24 years of imprisonment, short, grey and stubbled. At this point cries were then heard coming from underneath Mary's skirts. Under the folds and layers of her clothing Mary’s lap dog was found covered in blood, mourning her master's demise. The dog then later, unable to overcome the death of her master, refused to eat and died soon after...

X-Bird

A few more favourite things....Simon Price

I love year-ends and year-beginnings...it's the only time you really think hard about the past and the future as everything hits the wayside during the year and you rarely have time to stop and take anything in.

Being in this profession, it is not just talent alone that gets you anywhere. We Birds have worked our arses off and continue to do so. We don't rely on nepotism or previous bands we've been in or anything like that to get us off the ground. Therefore we really appreciate it when people help us of their own accord.

One of those such people is Simon Price of The Independent. He's been a great supporter of our band since he saw us play at Durrr back in January 2009. I deeply admire Simon. He is a great writer and they are such a dying breed especially in the music industry. He is also a die-hard music fan. He wrote a great biography on the Manics and seems to possess what few other music journos have these days - genuinity, intelligence and real zest for music. My respect for him increased even more a few days ago when I saw he posted out a rant referencing Rimbaud and Keats and the great masterpieces they wrote aged 25 and in comparison and at the same age, certain young TV/radio personalities are such imbeciles. Hear, hear...my sentiments exactly. The continual moral and physical destruction of the English language is unbearably painful and I am glad a few people out there acknowledge this.

Anyway, here's to Simon Price and I hope he continues to write and support many more bands for many, many more years.

D-Bird

Unearthing little gems

A hobby of mine...





D-Bird

Snow...

Ok I can completely understand that you are now fed up with ALL the twitters, blog posts, facebook updates about the snow. Well I ain't over with it yet...

There's another fresh layer of snow outside and I am considering buying myself a sledge. I'm all cozy and warm indoors, hot mug of tea, fag etc and all seems perfect with the world until my dreams of a sleigh ride are (partly) dashed due to the fact that i can't literally leave my front door without a shovel. But hey, I NEED this much snow for my sledge right?

Aside from doing actual work today (I'm in the middle of editing a new video project and it took me 6 hours to edit 30 seconds the other day...technological nightmare!!!) I am going to make time for building a snowman and possibly an igloo conservatory at the back of my house for my parents. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

In fact I have enough snow here to build a whole village of igloos, i might even build a fancy ice hotel like like the one in Sweden.

I HAVE GRAND PLANS....

X-Bird

DJ of the Year: John Kennedy XFM

Here's a little shout out to our favourite DJ, Mister John Kennedy:



We did a session for his Xposure show back in October and last week we were summoned to XFM Headquarters to play some favourite songs and talk about our new EP.

John has been a staunch supporter of our band since the very beginning. He's an old school genuine alternative music fan and it's great to see such people still around in the industry today. It gives us all hope.

I wrote a post a while back about John Peel and it seems to me that the person picking up the pieces of such a legacy is John Kennedy.

Check out his show, phone in/text in, request songs and bands as your voice is being heard by someone out there and that's a great thing.

D-Bird