Twitter!

I now have an unbelievably time absorbing life stealing addiction in this new hyped-up website Twitter... some people get it, some don't but personally I am addicted and it is quite difficult to see why I guess...

For those of you who live under rocks in small sheds across the world, "Twittering" is basically micro-blogging where you write your opinions, moods, activities and whatever else it is you feel like in a sentence under 140 characters and your "followers" can read what you're up to. I personally don't get up to a lot, and so (as you can see in the right hand column) my Tweets are generally pretty dull, possibly partially because instead of going out and living a life which would be worth twittering about I am in fact at home on my computer twittering... it's a vicious circle. What I personally love about it is the way I can follow celebrities, I have a strange love of celebrity culture, but not celebrities sake I love Stephen Fry (@stephenfry), Jimmy Carr (@jimmycarr), Jonathan Ross (@wossy), Phil Jupitus (@JupitusPhilip), Eddie Izzard (@eddieizzard), Dave Gorman (@Dave_Gorman) [To name but a few] all of whom I can follow on Twitter and find out what they are up to! It's amazing I love it.

I can completely understand why some people "Just don't get it" but for me it's charming simplicity is truly wonderful and I have great fun refreshing repeatedly to find out what the people I most admire are up to. Basically it's the acceptable face of stalking....

Give it a try, you might not like it,you might find it "lame" but I strongly recommend at least giving it a go. What have you go to lose?

P.S. I also recommend http://www.valebrity.com/ if you do use it to follow celebrities as it will inform you as to who is real and who is a dirty imposter

Bring back the shock factor

I was watching Jonathan Ross last night like millions of others, not because I wanted to see what happened but because I think I've seen nearly every episode since I was 15 years old. And it was very enjoyable, he dealt with it very well and managed to remain his usual self just a little bit more restrained.

Something I noticed however was how much swearing must have been cut out during the editing stages, the only word I noticed being when Tom Cruise mumbled "shit...shit" to himself when being asked to sing. Now the only reason I noticed this is that I was looking for it however I was thinking... is this a good thing?I have no problems with swearing, to me swearing is only offensive when it is has some sort of malicious intent. The best example I can think of is Eddie Izzard, never have I heard him use it with the intent to shock or offend, it is simply like any other word in his vocabulary. Some comedians however like to use it for shock which is fine, this is adressed in "The Naked Jape" by Jimmy Carr and Lucy Greeves, and it can be effective in comedy.

The more we swear however, the more used to it we become and the less it does shock. We can see this as children, say "poo" to a five year old and they giggle uncontrollably say "cunt" and their head explodes (I assume, I haven't actually spoken to any five year olds recently to try this) whereas anyone who watches a lot of stand up, or any Charlie Brooker, who seems to be a fan of the word, they don't see it as bad as perhaps it once was. This means that by curbing the amount of swearing acceptable we can bring back it's shock factor, leaving it as a tool for future generations of comedian to use and for the current comedians to continue to use it as their safety blanket when stuck on stage. I must admit though, although I do believe this, I am frightened what else these new rulings will bring; comedy is best when performed relaxed if they have to worry about every word they say and every move they make it's going to seriously effect creative freedom and that is terrifying.

J x