Back To Brit-Bashing

21 06 2008

It’s been quite a while since Britney Spears last made an appearance on Textual Relations and this simply won’t do. Such a long period without Mr President ripping shreds out of the posterchild for why pop music has been rubbish for the past twenty years is quite simply a travesty. So today he looks to address this with a little indulgence in his favourite pastime; Brit-bashing.

Mother Of The Decade Ms Spears has revealed that she believes she won’t live beyond the magical 27. Of course this is also the age that legends such as Hendrix, Morrison and Cobain died. This is really no shock, given Britney’s descent into madness over recent years, but should she be mentioned in the same breath as those legends?

Mr President is quite the admirer of Ian Halperin, whose book “Who Killed Kurt Cobain?” is a fascinating read. The idea that Cobain might’ve been murdered has long been ridiculed as a mere conspiracy theory but Halperin and Wallace put forward startling evidence suggesting it might be true. However this latest project is beneath him.

Everyone here at Textual Relations HQ hopes Britney dies on her 28th birthday, just to spite her and deny her entry to the 27 club. In fact, while he’s killing people off, Mr President would quite like to get his hands on whoever wrote that article and seems to think it’s ironic that Halperin also wrote a book about Cobain, who died at 27. In what way is that ironic, rather than coincidental? When will people learn the difference?!

Blood is beginning to pour out of Mr President’s ears so he’s going to depart now.





My Loneliness Is Killing Me

10 02 2008

The BlogNinjas are getting into the Valentine’s Day spirit with another orgy of Mystery Topic Challenge goodness. You don’t have to be a Blog Ninja to take part but if you want the “special loving” click here. If you’d like to participate in Mystery Topic Challenge #7, head on over to the MTC Blog.

This week’s topic, as chosen by the co-winners of the last challenge, Killer and Biologisvensk (I voted for Bio, although Killer’s entry would have been my second choice), is:

You awaken to find yourself stranded on a deserted island with nothing but a pocket knife, a bottle of Jack Daniels, and Britney Spears. How did you get there, and what do you do now?

That devious reference to the toxic Miss Spears, who regular readers will have already have seen my scorn for, almost repulsed me enough for me to pull out of the challenge, but you know me, I was born to make you happy. Call me crazy but I’m a slave for you.

What neither Biologisvensk or Killer know is that I was actually in the exact situation described. It took years of excruciating therapy to stop the night terrors but my loneliness ain’t killing me no more, I’m stronger. Although reading the topic initially brought the full horror of what happened flooding back, I now feel like I can tell the tale, but bear with me if I need a moment or two to compose myself as I go along.

I remember it like it was only yesterday. Having had a particularly stressful year, I decided I could do worse than take a nice relaxing cruise to unwind. The smell of the salt air coupled with the warm glow of the sunshine might be just the ticket.

Unfortunately the trip was a bit of a bust. Not only was the entertainment terrible (they’d booked Britney Spears, who had decided to turn to the cruise scene after her failed pop career) but it turned out it was actually a gay cruise. Not that there was anything wrong with that, it’s just that the ship was full of boys. The only girl on board was a teenage daughter one of the guys had brought along, not a girl, not yet a woman.

Everywhere I’d go the music was always cheesy pop but, as you all know, I love rock n roll. So it was me against the music for the entire trip. Each megamix was annoying me and my only wish was to have some good old fashioned rock music. Still, at least I could relax to my cabin, it was a shame there were no women (apart from Miss Spears but the last thing this trip needed was an STI) but there was still the touch my hand.

Oops, I did it again. You probably didn’t want to hear about my self-loving habits. Still, this is my blog, so it’s my prerogative. Don’t go anywhere though, the story’s not over, I’ve just begun. So there I was, on board a gay cruise, surrounded by lousy music. At the time I probably thought I was in hell. Little did I know how chaotic things would get.

Thankfully the ship was owned by Bill Gates and was playing host to a collection of some of the world’s finest art, including the Mona Lisa. The astronomical value of the items kept in the art gallery necessitated that those particular cabins be as indestructible as a nuclear bunker. Of course Just like Microsoft Windows, the ship crashed, the rocks causing the fuel tanks to explode, but being in the art gallery I survived the inferno.

As the ship sank the fire went out. Of course not a drop entered the gallery and it wasn’t until I tried to open the door to leave that a torrent of water smacked into my face. Using every ounce of my rippling physique I swam against it and managed to get off the ship and out into the ocean. Seeing a few ominous-looking dorsal fins around I decided to just start swimming and hope to hit some land. Had to do somethin’.

Wading ashore onto a beautiful island I looked around for any other survivors, although I wasn’t really anticipating any. I was lucky to have made it. After spending a whole day looking and finding nothing I came back to where I’d washed up and decided to make a camp. As I sat there on the sand, the sun setting, I heard a sound behind me and turned around. It sounded like the jowls of some huge animal eating something.

She was sat in a bush, clutching something close to her chest, like a child hugging their teddy. Upon closer inspection I could see it was a bucket of KFC she must have grabbed as the ship went down. In an attempt to break the ice I knelt down and reached out towards the bucket. Her response was to bite at my hand, trying to take a piece of me.

Outrageous. Here I was, fortunate enough to have survived the ship crashing, the ensuing fire, drowning and even the sharks, only to be stranded on a dessert island with this overprotected pop princess. Sometimes I wonder whether that was God’s idea of a sick joke. Worse yet, here I was with the world’s biggest slut, who used to be smoking hot, nursing a broken heart after my girlfriend ran off with her gynecologist.

From the bottom of my broken heart I had to reach out to this girl. If we were getting off we might as well work together, no matter how unpalatable that idea was. So I asked her how she had survived the crash. She shrugged. Don’t let me be the last to know, I plead with her, but nothing. It was a stupid question, really. That girl was like a cockroach, she’d survive a nuclear holocaust, thanks to her skanky aura.

Making my way back to the beach my foot banged into something. When I looked down I spotted a bottle of good old Jack. It must have washed ashore from the ship. Opening it I had a quick swig and was reunited with an old friend. Britney, no doubt lured by the smell of alcohol, came out from her hiding place and offered me some chicken, gesturing at my bottle as if to suggest an exchange. Everytime I’d give her a drop she’d say “Baby one more time”. I pointed at the bucket and said “Gimme more”.

We sat by the fire and ate and drank and silence. She then tried cuddling up to me. To those of you thinking “And then we kiss” what do you take me for? So long as I had my right hand that bitch was getting nowhere near my tackle. Someday you might understand what it was like. The hours became days, the days became weeks.

It was hell. The lack of food on the island seemed like a blessing, at least I might die of starvation and be rid of her incessant attempts to get me to sleep with her. I contemplated cannibalism but did I dare take a risk eating that meat? Who knew what diseases she might be riddled with. Still, I’d be rid of her, I thought, as I patted my trusty pocket knife. She was driving me crazy. And not in the good way.

Starvation began to take hold, and with it I began to get desperate. No, not that, you sicko! I crept by her sleeping body (stop it!) and stabbed it repeatedly. Dragging the blood soaked carcass to the side of the water I threw it in. As the body washed out the sharks began circling. A few minutes later a few dead sharks washed ashore.

Her poisonous flesh must have proven too much for them. I carved up the sharks and roasted them over an open fire. Looking back it was probably the most delicious meal I’ve ever had. As I settled down after my first decent meal in weeks I heard a helicopter overhead. Apparently Mr Gates’ insurers wanted to recover the lost artwork. Luckily the crew spotted my fire. A short while later I was in a hospital bed on an IV drip to replace lost nutrients. Obviously I didn’t mention the shark meat or how I came to acquire it.

Britney was presumed lost at sea and I said nothing to contradict that. I still have nightmares in which a zombie Britney appears, KFC bucket in hand, and attempts to hump me to death. Thousands of pounds worth of therapy later and I’m barely managing to hold it together. Everytime I hear a Britney song I’m reminded of it.

Still, I comfort myself with the knowledge that the world is a better place now because of my act of selflessness. I survived and Britney didn’t. Would you have it any other way?





Bite Sized News 2 : The sequel.

5 02 2008

Back in December I experimented with a bite-sized approach to news stories, inspired in large part by Andy at Political Friends. I could have interpreted the lack of comments as disinterest in the idea but clearly that could never be the case. This God amongst Bloggers has the Midas touch when it comes to content. No, clearly you were so in awe of the concept you couldn’t comment.

So it’s back, and where better to start than the news that after Jerome Kerviel’s now legendary antics, the Royal Bank of Scotland could now be facing a £12.5 billion gap in its finances. After the Northern Rock there was outrage by many people at how this could be allowed to happen but perhaps people should take a long hard look at themselves. Firstly, why do we labour under the misapprehension that money in the bank is safe? Have we forgotten that they lend our money, and thus we’re actually putting our money at risk? If you want a safe place to put money, buy gold.

Not only have we forgotten that the reason we put our money in banks is to earn a return on it (and people are constantly looking for higher rates of interest without considering the fact that in order to offer them, banks have to take greater risks with our money) but we’re quick to blame the greed of the banks here and not our own. Why is it that credit card debt is at all-time highs? Why are people taking out mortgages they can’t realistically afford? The buy-to-let craze created another get-rich-quick mentality, like tech stocks did in the 90s, and people jumped on the bandwagon with no research.

Am I the only one who’s getting sick and tired of hearing about Britney Spears? I’m particularly annoyed by the idea that her parents are taking such concern over her now, and yet clearly didn’t when she was growing up. Parents are more than happy to thrust their children into the celebrity limelight in order to make money and then blame other people for the consequences. For me the Spears scenario just highlights the problem of the cult of celebrity that’s infecting our society, where these people are idolised.

Speaking of celebrities in trouble it really is quite good to see Amy Winehouse taking care of her demons the right way. Regular readers will know that I’m not Amy’s biggest fan but nonetheless it is good to see someone who has so far been making excuses for her problems and covering them up, finally face up to them. Apparently she’s looking really healthy these days and despite my reservations over her talent I really do hope she can turn her life around. She’s taking responsibility for herself which is laudable.

Continuing our entertainment theme, why does Hollywood insist on making so many sequels? Not that I disliked the original, I had hoped that Night At The Museum 2 might have been one of those times when a sequel is mentioned but never actually made. Unfortunately not. Not only that but why is it nobody can ever come up with a creative title for a sequel? Although very much tongue-in-cheek that article did put forward the very feasible title of “Another Night At The Museum”. Are we worried that people (well, Americans, if we’re honest) are too stupid to figure out it’s a sequel?





Celebrity Fads

29 10 2007

There was a time when celebrities made sex tapes to either boost a flagging career or create one out of nothing (Paris Hilton being the greatest example of that…and I use “greatest” in the loosest possible sense…much like her then). In case you’re interested the guy who made that particular tape is now marrying the original sex tape star Pamela Anderson. Kim Kardashian was still a nobody after her first sex tape so now she has a second. Britney Spears, never slow to take up any opportunity to decimate her public image in the name of fame, allegedly has one too. Eva Longoria doesn’t but it was hilarious to watch people believe it. We wish, eh?

Next came the phase where celebrities instead chose to simply fall off the rails in as catastrophic way as possible in order to reignite their fame. Obviously the most prominent of these would have to be Lindsay Lohan, although Britney Spears was quick to jump onto this bandwagon too. It’s almost as if she decided anything Lindsay could do she could better. Or worse. Maybe Britney’s actions just seem worse because she’s a mother and Lindsay isn’t? Maybe we really need Lindsay to become pregnant to compare? No, that really wouldn’t be good.Even Paris got in on the act and for it Sarah Silverman rightly ripped her a new one. Well, after all the action her old one got…

The new-and-improved way to cling onto your fifteen minutes long after they’re over seems to be the infamous “upskirt” pictures. Once again you can’t keep Britney out of this one either. After popping out two kids it’s not particularly a pleasant sight either. I had, until recently, thought that that may be the scariest incident of this phenomenon I’d ever be unfortunate enough to witness. I was wrong. Britney was at least hot once, even if she is now beginning to devolve back into the trailer park trash from whence she came. However Kelly Osbourne is just hideous. At least Fish had the decency not to post the pictures this time. What we’re all crying out for is Eva Longoria to do one…