2010 in a pretty pink bow

Multicoloured balls of fire scatter in all directions, wave after wave of incandescent fury dancing across the night sky, exploding and cascading back to earth. Then, with one last whimper, it's over. Darkness and silence return. Fumes from spent firecrackers and rockets hanging in the air as 2010 turns into 2011.

There were a number of ways in which I planned to wrap this final blog in a pretty pink bow. I thought about doing a spoof Matt Cardle Christmas Diary:

Tuesday Dec 21

Busy day today. Start it off by appearing on the "Chris Moyles Breakfast Show". Top bloke. Dead switched on. And totally funny. Good times. Unfortunately, he had to go to an emergency traffic report and cut short the interview just when I started talking about the stuff I plan to do on my second album, which'll be a return to the more personal and introspective stuff I was doing before I won "X-Factor".

Lunchtime finds me doing a signing of my new no.1 single "When We Collide" at the HMV in Bayswater. The place is PACKED. It's like wall to wall p-u-s-s-y. I rock the house with "Tears In The Rain" which I wrote with the band I was in before I went on "X-Factor". The crowd were so into it. Totally silent and open-mouthed. Dead appreciative. It was a shame that during the second verse there was a power failure. Luckily it didn't last too long and my manager decided I should probably do "When..." to give 'em a different vibe instead of starting up "Tears..." again. Fair enough.

Simon Cowell's been brilliant. He's dead genuine and wants me to express myself. I remember him saying: "Matt, I want you to be you. I don't want you to be a "style". So many acts today are merely style and no substance. You're different. You've got genuine soul and that's what I want. I want your soul, Matt," and he was so intense when he said it. It was almost like his eyes sparked red. I've been giving him my soul ever since.

I thought perhaps I could look at the recent OFCOM report into our attitudes to swearing:

Apparently, pre-watershed, most participants found the words ‘cunt’, ‘fuck’, ‘motherfucker’, ‘pussy’, ‘cock’ and ‘twat’ unacceptable and also wanted care to be taken over the use of the words ‘bitch’, ‘bastard’, ‘bugger’, ‘dick’, ‘wanker’, ‘shag’, ‘slag’ and ‘shit’. Post-watershed, ‘cunt’ and ‘motherfucker’ were considered the least acceptable. There were contrasting views on the use of the word ‘fuck’ which was considered more acceptable by some participants (e.g. younger people and male participants) but less acceptable by others (e.g. participants aged 55-75). Respondents also wanted care to be taken over the use of the word ‘pussy’ post-watershed. The other words listed were considered acceptable post-watershed by most participants.

“I hate that word (‘motherfucker’), I hate it, I don’t know why I just hate it.”

Group discussion, male, no children, aged 30-55, ABC1, white and BME,

Birmingham

Many participants weren't familiar with, and didn't know the meaning of the word ‘bloodclaat’. Some assumed that it couldn't be particularly offensive because they hadn't heard the word before. They also didn't think that many people were familiar with it and would therefore be likely to ‘miss it’ if it was used on television.

“Sorry, can someone explain how it’s offensive to me because I actually don’t understand it.”

Group discussion, male, younger children, aged 20-45, C2DE, white and BME, London

‘Bloodclaat’ – “Jamaican/Patois originated, meaning blood cloth and referring to menstruation” (derogatory)

At which juncture I would have advertised my favourite new non-swearing, swear word: 'TWUNT'. A fruity combination of two naughty words to create a moist, glistening new one which means absolutely nothing but is pregnant with intent and is unequivocal in its communication.

I alighted briefly upon the notion of highlighting my favourite Facebook status updates of the past 12 months:

A good meal can be a near-sexual experience - a sumptuous, homemade Thai Green Curry for example. This evening's Bacon, Mushroom and Goat's Cheese filo baskets on a bed of rocket leaves was so good, I dislodged a light fitting.

Basil Creese Jr dreamt about you again last night, my lips still tingling from your perfect kiss as my eyelids flutter open. The scent of rain and the wet pavement seeps through the open hotel window...

As I departed, the villagers bestowed upon me the name "Mutembaiie", meaning 'Fire God'. In return I ask only that they sacrifice their livestock and Chris Fucking Moyles. Seriously, what is he for?

I danced with the idea of looking at this year's Adult Video News nominees for the "Cleverest Porn Movie Title Of The Year". They were as follows:

Barrack's Big Stimulus Package

A Brutha Came in Yo Mutha

It's Okay! She's My Step Daughter

Sexual Blacktivity

War on a Rack

Who's Nailin' Paylin?

Your Mom Tossed My Salad

Some hot wax dripped on the buttocks of the individual who correctly hits me back with the actual winner of this category. Eventually I figured it best to go with a recent observation. The Top 5 rated television programmes of 2010 are;

• The X Factor final - 17.7m
• England vs Germany 2010 World Cup - 17.4m
• EastEnders - 16.4m
• Coronation Street - 14.7m
• England vs Algeria World Cup 2010 - 14.6m

Now these are exceptional numbers, so I checked out some more run of the mill programmes. A repeat of "East Enders" on BBC3 commands an audience of 1.16m. "Neighbours" on Channel 5 1.29m. John Pilger's "The War You Don't See" on ITV1, a condemnation of the UK and US media which is complicit in their respective governments' rapacious war agenda, and emerged in the shadow of the Wikileaks mushroom cloud (during which hubbub, high profile Neo-Con draft dodger - aren't they all? - John Bolton, advocated a "military response" to the cable leaks. I mean, it's hard to tell with those Neo-Cons and their quest for "Full Spectrum Dominance", but was he suggesting they nuke the internet? Yeah... Probably) pulled in a paltry 940,000.

“If the public knew the truth, the war would end tomorrow. But they don't know and they can't know.”

Former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, to Manchester Guardian editor C.P. Scott

Rageh Omaar, Dan Rather and David Rose all told how they spouted, parrot fashion, lies fed to them by a relentless disinformation campaign to justify an illegal war and expressed shame. Testimony from soldiers recounting tales of missions of bloody carnage targeting civilians where they were advised that to rescue injured children was "off mission" brought tears to my eyes. The true revelation of this film is that in the First World War, 10 per cent of casualties were civilians. By the Second World War, it was 50 per cent, rising to 70 per cent in Vietnam. In Iraq, it was 90 per cent.

Grainy camera footage from helicopter gunships unveiling a street strewn with dead innocents is accompanied by a soldier smirking "Oh, yeah. Look at those dead bastards. Nice."

Meanwhile, Andrew Marr was standing outside 10 Downing Street and smugly intoning:

“I don't think anybody after this is going to be able to say of Tony Blair that he’s somebody who is driven by the drift of public opinion, or focus groups, or opinion polls. He took all of those on. He said that they would be able to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in the end the Iraqis would be celebrating. And on both of those points he has been proved conclusively right. And it would be entirely ungracious, even for his critics, not to acknowledge that tonight he stands as a larger man and a stronger prime minister as a result.”

Andrew Marr, BBC 1, News At Ten, April 9, 2003

This is the same man who recently said that those who blog are "socially inadequate, slightly seedy, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting." All of which is certainly true of me, as you well know, but what blogging has revealed to me over the past year is the gaping chasm between the concerns and feelings of us, the 'unpeople', on one side and the politicians and their agents in the media on the other, who claim to represent us.

Marr and his clique aren't journalists, they're stenographers unquestioningly disseminating propaganda which is why you'll never read anything in the mainstream press about the worse-than-Hiroshima nuclear fallout levels in Fallujah or the Israeli government calculating the dietary needs for the population of Gaza ensuring the population is kept alive at a near-starvation level.

The political class despise us (probably with good reason. If you've ever been to a football match and had the twunt behind you spit meat pie all over your back in his haste to yell racist abuse then I'm sure you'll have had doubts about the logic of universal suffrage and the notion of democracy) and that's why they would rather carry out the day-to-day running of our lives in secret whilst we lap eagerly at the slick of excrement seeping from the cathode ray tube. And we're happy to comply, aren't we? Otherwise we'd do something about it.

Mr Marr (his incomparably indolent interview with Tony Blair earlier this year was as close as we'll come to seeing a 'rusty trombone'* executed on UK terrestrial television) has helped me connect with my inner Hulk and for that gift I thank him.

Have a brilliant Christmas and I hope 2011 brings you everything you've ever wished for.

Be easy

b-b-b-Bx

* 'Rusty trombone' - "a euphemism for a sexual act involving a man in a standing position with knees and back slightly bent, with feet at least shoulder width apart in order to expose the anus. The other partner typically is on his or her knees behind the man and performs anilingus while reaching up beneath the testicles or around the body to masturbate the man, mimicking the motions of a trombone player."

Chen Pacino: A Life In Music and Pictures

Chen 'Pacino' Qi Lan (31 October 1956 - 11 November 2010) was an iconic film actor and musician from Hong Kong. Chen is considered the founding father of 'HoKoPop' and managed to combine a hugely successful action film and pop music career. In 2008, Chen was named "South East Asia's Biggest Superstar" by Hong Kong Central Television, and was voted/ranked 1st in the "Favorite Actor in 100 Years of South East Asian Cinema" poll in 2005. Recently, he was voted into 3rd place in QVC's "Top Five Most Iconic Musicians Of All Time" list, placing behind just behind Michael Jackson and The Beatles.

Childhood and education

Chen 'Pacino' Qi Lan was born in Kowloon, Hong Kong. He was the youngest of six children in a middle-class family. Cheung Siu Ha, his father, was a very well-known costume designer, whose work included the original suit for the creature in Ridley Scott's 'Alien'. His parents divorced when he was quite young. Chen attended the famous Rosie Hill Dance School (Meadow Road, Hong Kong) from the age of 6 until he was 12.

At the age of 13, he was sent to England as a boarder at Eccles Abbey School, but was subsequently asked to leave the school due to "unusual and offensive" behaviour with the school Wildebeest. Back in Hong Kong he worked as a waiter at his relatives' restaurant and sang during the weekends. It was around this period that he chose his nickname, 'Pacino'. According to Chen, he chose this name because "I love the film 'Cruising' and I liked Al's performance in it. His name was evocative and inspirational, so I took it."

In several of his interviews, Chen stated that he had had a fairly unhappy childhood. "I had a fairly unhappy childhood. I was brought up by my Uncle Dave who was essentially a transsexual fascist. He would goosestep around the house wearing Vegas Showgirl outfits shouting racial epithets. However, what I would say most affected me as a child was my Uncle Dave's love of cinema. We'd go at least twice a week when I was growing up."

Early career

In 1977, Chen won second prize by singing KISS' 'Love Gun' at the Asian Music Talent Contest held by Rediffusion Television (RTV). He signed a contract with RTV, which subsequently became Asia Television Limited (ATV) and began his career in the entertainment industry. He also signed a music contract with Polydor Records, releasing 'Hot, Sweaty Sex' (1977) and 'H-H-Humpin' Ya' (1979).

The early days of his career were not easy. He was once booed off the stage during a public performance after he sang the wrong words in the second verse of 'H-H-Humpin' Ya', and his first two albums were not welcomed by the public. He left Polydor Records at the end of his contract. Chen's first film, 'Erotic Dreams In The Whore's Boudoir' in 1978 was a soft porn film. Chen later stated that he was unaware of the sexual nature of the film when he signed the contract.

During the 1970s and 1980s, he appeared in a number of TV dramas such as 'The Young And The Listless', 'Super Army Soldiers', 'Out On The Pull', and 'Sailors On Shore Leave'. These TV dramas helped turn him into a household name in South East Asia.

Ascension to fame

In 1982, Chen joined Capital Artists upon the end of his contract with RTV. In 1983, Chen released his first hit song, 'The Wind Blows On'. In 1984, he released his first top ten hit song 'Let's Do It Like Your Mum And Dad', which became the first up tempo song to win the 'RTHK Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award'. 'Let's Do It Like Your Mum And Dad' became representative of a new genre of Hong Kong music in the mid 1980s. Fans began to demand fast and energetic, or 'HoKoPop', songs which would be suitable for both dancing and listening. Other Top Ten Gold Songs released by Chen through Capital Artists included 'Let's Get Arrested' (album, 'I'm All About The Sweat', 1985); 'You And You And You And Me' (album, 'Chen Pacino: Want Some, You Dirty Cow?', 1986) and 'Kinda Legal Love' (theme song for 'Skyscraper Peril', album 'It's Long, It's Thick And It's In You', 1987). 'You And You And You And Me' became the 'Gold of the Gold Songs' (Best Song) of the Year for 1986.

Chen's movie career was a little slower to take off. He appeared in supporting roles in his second and third movies 'Skyscraper Peril' (1987) and 'The Dead Walk The Earth, Kill Everybody And Then The Murderous Cycle Starts All Over Again' (1988). However, his acting talent was soon recognized with his nomination for the Hong Kong Film Awards' Best Supporting Actor for his role in 'The Dead Walk The Earth, Kill Everybody And Then The Murderous Cycle Starts All Over Again '. Subsequent to this nomination, he played the leading role in 'Sexy Time Dreamers' (1989) which is widely considered by film critics as representative of Hong Kong 'New Wave' films. Chen's role as Mifune in 'American Assault On Democracy' won him his first Best Actor nomination of the Hong Kong Film Awards. Later, Chen stated that he considered 'American Assault On Democracy' as his first "real" movie. During this period, Chen continued to act in a number of Television Broadcasts (TVB) dramas, such as 'Once Upon Atrocity' and 'The Arkwright Family'.

Stardom and retirement

In 1990, he joined a revived Polymer Records Hong Kong and released the album 'Lose The Dress, Keep The Heels... And The Handcuffs... And The Ballgag' in 1990. 'Lose The Dress, Keep The Heels... And The Handcuffs... And The Ballgag' became the Best Selling CD of the Year and IFPI Best Selling Album in Hong Kong. The success of 'Lose The Dress, Keep The Heels... And The Handcuffs... And The Ballgag' made him one of the top two 'HoKoPop' idols at the time (the other was Colin Stevens).

From 1991 to 1997, Chen put his music career on hold and acted in a number of movies which are now considered Hong Kong Action classics by film critics and Cheryl Cole. They are, chronologically, as follows;

1991 'The Dead And The Deader'

1992 'Zombie Sluts Go Boom!'

1993 'Cops n' Hookers'

1994 'Murderscape'

1995 'Ein, Zwei, Drei, FEAR!'

1996 'Kung Fu Geishas A Go-Go'

1997 'Spank Master'

1998 'Spank Master II: Harder and Faster'

In 1999, with his popularity beginning to ignite globally (his Letterman appearance that year remains a 'must watch', on YouTube), he attempted to crack Hollywood. The breakthrough, however, was not to be as he was fired after an on set disagreement with Bruce Willis whilst shooting Ridley Scott's 'The Hot Zone', which was subsequently abandoned.

This failure drove Chen into retirement and the millennium saw him retreat from the spotlight completely to open the Tai Mo Shan Owl Sanctuary. Indeed many of his rescued owls were used in the recently released movie 'Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole' for which Chen Pacino received credits as both a 'Creative Consultant' and 'Owl Wrangler'.

He made a brief appearance during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 which saw him receive a rapturous reception. His last work was a collaboration this summer with Peter Andre on a reworking of his 'H-H-Humpin' Ya' hit which has yet to be released.

Chen Pacino is survived by his partner Colin Stevens and 3,000 owls.

In The Spotlight: Cheryl Cole

What motivates you?

Apart from making sure my new album 'Messy Little Raindrops', which came out on Monday, is a massive success? Lol! As a singer-songwriter, dancer, model and TV Personality I just want to be an inspiration. If only one person sees me on 'The X Factor' and puts down 'de' gun or 'de' knife - that's how they say it - Cheryl Cole will have been successful. That's what gets me out of bed in the morning.

What de-motivates you?

Negative people. That sounds harsh and I'm sorry, but I make no apologies for it. There are loads of reasons for not doing something. Look at Nadine. People said: "Are you mental trying to launch a solo career? You haven't got a fraction of the profile of Cheryl Cole," but she's having a go anyway. Good on 'er, I say.

What do you get up to in your spare time?

You mean when I'm not being "The Nation's Sweetheart"? Lol!!! I read lots, y'know the 'Twilight' books, 'Harry Potter'. I've got my nose buried in 'Madame Bovary' at the mo'. I listen to music. It's usually straight up gangsta rap like Black Eyed Peas. I've got so much time for Will. I. Am. He's so generous and kind and talented. Did you see him in that 'Wolverine' film?!? I literally wet my black, silk thong! Pissed right through on to the seat and everything! He's like Pacino. Chen Pacino, who did a lot of Hong Kong action movies in the early 90s. When I'm running or at the Gym, I'll usually listen to Damaged Gods. That Brother B is totally lush and I've heard he's a bit of an oversized freak in the trouser department. Have you got his number? Lol!

What job did you want to do when you were at school?

I had under-age sex and lost my virginity aged 15. I mean, I have no regrets or anything like that because I made my boyfriend wait for three dates before I let him gggrrrriiiinnnddd me from behind. I think it was in double French… Anyway, there was a whole "to-do" and I had to see a counsellor and I thought, "Yeah. I'd like to do that," because that counsellor turned little Cheryl's life around. So, a counsellor or summat like that is what I've wanted to be for the longest time and I get to do that on 'The X Factor'. People think that Cheryl just has to say "Yes," or "No," but sometimes you have to put a question mark on there because, y'know, it's really up to Simon. Or you've got to get emotional just before we go to a break. Cheryl literally changes lives and that's a really heavy load to bear.

Where is your favourite place in the world and why?

Ooooh… That's a tough one! Cheryl Cole is like a global brand. I'm not saying I'm going to join the panel of judges for 'American Idol' or owt like that, but that's the kind of game Cheryl's bringing to the party table. Milan! Paris! New York! Berlin! Droitwich! I'm all over the place these days, especially with 'Messy Little Raindrops' coming out on Monday. Everyone wants a slice of Cheryl! I'd say wherever Cheryl is, is where Cheryl needs to be and that's my favourite place in the world.

Which famous person (living or deceased) would you most like to meet and why?

Richard Dawkins. End of. He's dead clever. I like to accessorise some of my outfits with rosary beads, crucifixes and temporary henna tattoos of our Lord, Jesus Christ. They're obviously 'out'. The Pope's visit didn't go that well and I'd like him to suggest some alternatives.

What makes you laugh out loud?

Britain's "Ethical foreign policy"! Lol! I'm kidding. Seriously, we need to root out evil and punch it in the face repeatedly. I'm going to go with 'The Larry Sanders Show'. No one knows about it in England, because the BBC only ever showed it after midnight, but it's dead brilliant. I made sure I got the boxset in the divorce. Lol! Oh, and Nadine. I haven't seen her or spoken to her in ages, but I see her on television or hear her single and I can't help it. I start laughing! Lol!

Your one piece of advice for future generations:

Don't lose your rag with a toilet attendant! Lol! Only kidding. Sharon Osbourne and I never quite saw eye to eye 'cos I replaced her on 'The X Factor'. But I read an interview she gave to the 'Sunday Star' and she said how beautiful and talented I am and how I have to beat men off with a shitty stick. Which is dead true! Lol! She's a lovely woman, Sharon. And so wise. She's taught Cheryl so much. What was the question again? Oh yeah, be yourself.

Chelsea or Manchester United?

Man U, all day, baby! Lol!!! Nah, Chelsea. I still get on with Ashley. Apart from 'The Larry Sanders' boxset, of course. Lol!

Favourite Film you would recommend:

'Avatar'. Have you seen it? It's literally the best film ever! Oh, my God! I want to live on Pandora. James Cameron is a genius!

The Tao of 'Alien 3'

One cannot underestimate the power of rapport. It makes everything easier. Which is why I like to kick off my award winning workshops with a "getting to know you" exercise. The reason why this is so inadvertently entertaining as an "icebreaker" is that at this stage of proceedings people aren't quite sure where the boundaries of this new peer group are, so they tend to let slip a little more than intended, which is immense fun for all concerned. My top 3 "revealed and then instantly regretted quirky facts" are as follows:

1. "My left boob is bigger than my right."

2. "I have a physical aversion to Baked Beans. I'm not allergic or anything, they just freak me out."

3. "If I could be any animal, Basil, I'd be a tapeworm."

Riiiiight...

I also like to find out what the audience's favourite films are. You can find out a lot about a person from their taste in cinema. I'm a committed, card carrying contrarian and inveterate film snob, so you've probably guessed that I'd never offer 'Pretty Woman', 'Clueless', 'Die Hard' or 'Dirty Dancing' as my submissions for your consideration. Nope. The two I always cite as my faves are 'Ran' - directed by Akira Kurosawa, a retelling of Shakespeare's 'King Lear', which sets the tale in 16th century feudal Japan. And 'Alien 3' - directed by David Fincher - a study in existentialism which is officially the most hated movie in the 'Alien' franchise (even by the director himself "to this day, no one hates it more than me."). Both of which identify me as an insecure, pretentious tosser: a pretty accurate analysis, I'm sure you'll agree.

But I love the tone of 'Alien 3'. It looks beautiful. It sounds incredible (Elliot Goldenthal's atmospheric score melds seamlessly with the audioscape, it's difficult to tell when the score starts and the sound finishes). It's adult. It's provocative. It's arty. It asks you to have empathy for the wretched and the despicable. It poses questions about sacrifice and redemption. It credits you with a brain and allows you to appreciate the long, slow burn to the climax. Even at the time one could tell this was the work of a prodigious talent.

The recent release of Rashomonesque 'The Social Network' once again emphasises the genius of Mr Fincher. Back then, though, he was best known for music videos for Madonna and Aerosmith and sneaker ads for Nike. So, whenever he insisted on his vision in an attempt at something ambitious he was summarily belittled by the studio; “What are you listening to him for, he’s a shoe salesman!” and "Look, you could have somebody piss against the wall for two hours, call it 'Alien 3' and it would still do $30m worth of business."

I love that in a medium where the prime motivator is the selling of popcorn he attempted to create "a beautiful, delicate china cup," in a field full of beer mugs. It's commendable that in the wake of the mindless whizz bang shoot 'em up of James Cameron's 'Aliens' Fincher pulled such a spectacular left turn from the right hand lane in very heavy traffic for his debut.

There are those who label Mr Fincher an obsessive (there's a scene in the "Making Of" documentary available as a "Speshul Feature" in 'Zodiac: Director's Cut' where he makes Jake Gyllenhaal do 38(!) takes of dropping an exercise book on a car passenger seat. Even Stanley Kubrick would be prompted to suggest he's a touch picky), but I dig that he wants things right. In my personal, psychotic quest for perfection I use 'Alien 3' as my talisman. When everyone else is happy to shrug, and then drawl laconically "Yeah... That'll do," I'd rather aim for the exceptional. It means a hell of a lot of pressure and misery, but hey, life is just a series of heartbreaking disappointments with the promise of death, or so my Father said.

So, anyway, I'm a drummer for this band signed to EMI. The lucrative contract negotiations went on for an age, which means we need to get in the studio and get the album recorded pronto. The label choose the producer whose CV includes Diana Ross, Chic and Suede. We go in, record and then hit the road to build "the brand". Of course, playing the songs every night means that I've come up with a different, funkier pattern for the "big third single". During a week of proposed overdubs at George Martin's acclaimed AIR Studios (google it. You'll need incontinence pads. I've just had a look at some fotos of it online and I still can't believe I recorded there), I beg the MD to let me redo my drum parts (ever seen my pout? I call it "Black Magnum" and it's impossible to resist). He's sceptical. The drums are the first thing to be recorded and then every other instrument is layered on top. "It's not worth the risk, we could potentially lose the whole song," he says. "Besides, no one'll notice, Basil. It sounds fine."

But "fine" isn't good enough for me. What's the point of doing anything if you're not trying to blow people's minds? Finally, after much negotiation and the promise of physically impossible sexual favours, the "higher ups" relented.

Now I'm in a sumptuous drum booth in AIR. I'm staring at a poster of scantily clad models for inspiration (and when I say "scantily clad models" I mean "latex lesbian bondage"), and everyone on the other side of the glass is wondering what in the name of Tony Thompson I'm trying to prove. I put my headphones on, twirl my sticks and nod to the producer that I'm ready. "This is the biggest mistake of your life, take one," he announces in a malicious monotone. As the tape rolls and the lush guitar floats seductively into focus I close my eyes and repeat inwardly "Beautiful. Delicate. China. Cup."

I got it in one take. Come on, this is me. You didn't think it'd go any other way, did you? Afterwards, the flabbergasted producer pulled me to one side and said it was an absolute pleasure to watch me drum. "Yeah, I know. But how do I compare to Tony Thompson?"

"Oh, you're better than he is. Nile and Bernard would never let him do what you just did."

"I knew it. I just wanted to hear you say it."

I listen to that track occasionally for inspiration when I've spent a day having to deal with persons whose favourite movie is clearly something directed by James Cameron. Or whilst waiting for a "Thank you" for hosting an awards event (6 weeks and counting...). I've never been a fan of Mr Cameron's films. 'Aliens' was an abomination, a tawdry, brainless action movie for a world populated exclusively by Beavis and Butthead: a very bad joke after Ridley Scott's brilliant thriller. He may as well have had Bruce in a vest or Arnie mangling corny one-liners in a heavy Austrian accent. Dreadful. The filmic equivalent of 'Pride and Prejudice 2: Mr Darcy's Kicking Ass!'

Because Mr Cameron is unable to craft a narrative or develop characters his subsequent movies (apart from 'True Lies' which was so chock-full of negative stereotypes that it made the '50 most racist films of all time' list) are all love letters to technology and special effects. I've nodded off during 'The Abyss', 'Terminator 2', 'Titanic' and 'Avatar'. The last of these is barely a film: it's just a series of setpieces glued together with outrageous CGI. When Michelle Rodriguez slammed her Scorpion Gunship into the side of a mountain I stifled a yawn and then realised I was supposed to care about her character.

What I like about 'Avatar' a lot, though, is its subtext. It's right up there with 'Starship Troopers' in depicting America as a rogue state. Its succinct summarising of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the relentless expansion of America's Empire is a joy:

“This is how it's done. When people are sitting on shit that you want, you make 'em your enemy. Then you're justified in taking it.”

Bearing in mind he made the movie for Fox, the official cheerleader for America's murderous foreign policy, this is simply astonishing. A beautiful, delicate china cup.

Brother B in the Twilight Zone

JERRY: You know, this is like that 'Twilight Zone' where the guy wakes up and he's the same, but everyone else is different!

KRAMER: Which one?

JERRY: They were all like that!

It's the morning after the cuts before and I'm a baffled bystander, or bysitter, as a table full of people discuss the various intrigues of the 'X Factor.' I don't watch it. I have no opinion. Elsewhere in Europe there have been days of action, strikes and demonstrations. Here the front pages are filled with Wayne Rooney's contract negotiations. I awoke on Thursday morning expecting a universal expression of umbrage and ire and was instead presented with 'X Factor' speculation. I'm just waiting patiently to ask:

"So, what do you think of the Spending Review?"

When, eventually, the question is posed (there's loooooaaadsss to talk about with 'X Factor') it is met with a look redolent of Gamu being threatened with deportation. Until I reference the Institute For Fiscal Studies summary that the Spending Review is essentially, and at its very core, regressive - penalising and punishing the poorest. This provokes a vigorous colloquy amongst the assembled parties as they agree fundamentally with this notion and are of the opinion that the scrounging poor should be hit even harder.

3:00am the following morning and I still can't sleep, so I hit youtube, put my head on my unquestionably adequate hotel pillow, close my eyes and listen to Gideon Osbourne's Spending Review speech in the House Of Commons. Later I wondered, on my facebook status, how we let this happen. A friend responded:

Labour did it. Like they buggered up the country in 1978. They can't govern, then its up to the Tories to sort it all out, furthering their unpopularity in the process. Can't we just print more money Mugabe-style?

Genius! Although I don't quite agree.

The ConDem Coalition has successfully created a great myth that this present mess is Labour’s fault. It goes something like this: New Labour ran up huge public debts by wasteful spending on unnecessary public bureaucracies. The task now is to rebalance the economy by shifting resources out of the public sector and into the private.

However, a dispassionate independent observer would see this is as a ridiculous half-truth at best, if not a downright lie. Public spending, as a proportion of national wealth, was not excessive under New Labour. It was running at the forty year average in 2008 as Our Tone and the Capital G stuck religiously to the Tory spending blueprint. Nor was the cumulative debt – at about 40% of GDP – high. Many other "developed" industrial nations countries had far, far higher percentage levels of debt. Indeed, the Tories until recently insisted that they would not shift from the financial path set out by New Labour.

What caused the crisis in Britain to explode so abominably? The answer is the greatly skewed nature of the British economy and its largely amoral, derugulated-by-Thatcher Financial Sector. As the international financial system headed for meltdown, the tsunami of disaster swept through the British economy, leaving the rubble and the stagnant pools we presently survey.

The Coalition further embellish their myth that it’s all New Labour’s fault, by asserting the need to "roll back the public sector," and to make bigger and deeper cuts: the worshipping of The Big Market as we dismantle The Big State. The belief that the Coalition government is merely trying to sort out the country’s public finances has been unmasked for the sham it is. This is 19th century government, wanting a small state with little or no compassion for the ‘deserving poor’ and as little socialised provision as possible. It is setting out to achieve what Margaret Thatcher attempted: reversing much of the great liberal-social democratic reforms of the 20th century. There is no such thing as 'Society', it's every man for himself.

Spending on public services is set to reduce by 25% in real terms by 2014-15. That is the equivalent of around a fifth of all public sector staff or well over a million jobs. But the real impact is not going to be on public jobs, as vital as they are, it's going to be on the services that people get. The poorer you are, the more dependent you are on public services and provision.

I'm guessing you don't do this too often, but if you listened to Radio 4 this week you would have heard a rising chorus from those whose benefits will be cut. For example, the tearful mother of a disabled man who lives in a home rang in. At present he has an adjusted car so that she can drive him about. Under these new measures he will lose this vehicle. The more money you have, the more options you have to provide for yourself if you need to and public services fail to deliver. The effect on many vulnerable people will be devastating. But hey, they deserve it.

Another plank of the New Fiscal Orthodoxy is as follows:

“Public borrowing is only taxation deferred, and it would be irresponsible to accumulate substantial debts that would have to be paid off by subsequent generations in decades to come.”

In 2006 Great Britain finally finished paying off the debts accumulated through ‘Lend-Lease’ that allowed us to buy weapons and armaments from the USA during World War II. Only a buffoon or a cretin would say "I think we should have surrendered to Hitler because we shouldn’t be accumulating substantial debts to pass on to subsequent generations."

An extreme example, but one which works on the mind more forcibly than a precept and merely ponders whether the long-term benefits are worth the long-term borrowing. Our children and grandchildren who have carried on paying off the debt also benefitted from the original spending, unless you would have preferred living under the Third Reich.

This principle can easily be extended to some other obvious areas of public spending – schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and other infrastructure built today might be expected to last for decades and our children and grandchildren will benefit from them, so what’s so bad about asking them to contribute something to the costs of these benefits?

Mrs Thatcher may well be ill and languishing in hospital, but her wickedly divisive world view is in rude health. The current British fiscal problem was created not by profligate spending by the Big State but by an economic crisis caused by the Big Market. The more deleterious effects of this Big Market were then ameliorated by the very State which we're told now needs rolling back.

Do-do-do-do Do-do-do-do

Sorry, that was me singing the 'Twilight Zone' theme to wrap this piece with a pretty pink bow.

7 Days Ago I Was A Rock Star

“Since music is the only language with the contradictory attributes of being at once intelligible and untranslatable, the musical creator is a being comparable to the gods, and music itself the supreme mystery of the science of man.”

Claude Levi-Strauss

7 days ago I was a Rock Star.

I was chilling in a dressing room as my alter ego fearless superhero 'Brozilla' waiting for the call to hit the stage of a packed Oakengates Theatre, Telford; a prestigious venue which, in the coming weeks, will play host to An Evening With Alistair Campbell, Joe Pasquale's Extra Sensory Pasquale and acclaimed Psychic/Medium Joe Power 'The Man Who Sees Dead People'. Illustrious company.

Tonight I'm in the communal lounge area of the North Stafford Hotel writing this in the midst of a distinctly elderly clientele, none of whom appear to have been born after 1937. They eye this interloper suspiciously, stiletto sharp glances jabbed in my direction: a faint whiff of incontinence pads as they whoop with mirth at "You've been framed!" An ocean of fawn cardigans and polyester slacks stretching towards the flock wallpapered horizon.

The online blurb describes the hotel rooms here as possessing "a classic style," which is certainly true in the sense that Fawlty Towers is unquestionably a classic and the decor, fittings and fittings here are resolutely 1970s. My bathroom is essentially a verruca repository and as a result I've taken to showering in my socks. Tonight's sub-par evening meal concluded I sashayed stylishly back to my room. As I passed room 239 I heard a dog howling plaintively. I'm no dog lover. They are pointless, yapping, smelly bastards. And here's a truth for you: if you own a dog, you smell of 'dog' too. We're just too polite to say anything.

Anyway, the sound was so horrifying it literally rooted me to the spot. Sweet Jesus! Was someone actually beating it? Was it dying? Did that yelp just then sound human. I moved tentatively towards the sound, raised a tremulous hand to knock, and then figured 'Nah...' Whatever lay on the other side of the door would be fine without my intervention. And what in the name of Julian Croot was a dog doing in the hotel? I grabbed my Macbook Pro (tm) and came down to the lounge to make use of a wi-fi connection so limited it doesn't even extend to the bedrooms.

7 days ago I was a Rock Star exhorting a smiling crowd to scream "Fuck You, Brother B!" at me.

I don't think I've ever mentioned my band in this blog. I guess I find it hard to talk about. How do you express yourself to other people on the subject of your nose, for instance? It's just a part of you, isn't it? That's what music's like with me. And, erm, all of us, actually.

Every culture on the planet is bathed in music. Both its universality and its antiquity suggest that perhaps it is something our species cannot do without. Did you know that music activates the same parts of the brain and causes the same neurochemical cocktail as other pleasurable activities like eating chocolate or, ahem, orgasms? Music can also be used as an antidepressant - hard to believe if you've heard McFly, but people in Western society use music to regulate their moods, whether it's playing something upbeat in the morning or something soothing at the end of a hard day, or something that will motivate them whilst taking part in vigorous cardiovascular exercise.

Right now, I've got "The Fragile" by Nine Inch Nails on auto repeat so that I can lose myself in its throbbing sensuous melancholy and let my creative subconscious come out to play as I write.

It's interesting to look at music from an evolutionary perspective. Dr Steven Pinker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that music is essentially purposeless - mere ‘auditory cheesecake’ - and that it is piggy backed on the other resources we have to deal with sound to make sense of what we hear and the world around us. Were we to remove music from our culture, he says, everything else would carry on in the same way. Totally unchanged.

Charles Darwin, on the other hand, opined that music was selected by evolution because it signals certain kinds of intellectual, physical and sexual fitness to a potential mate. And recently completed research shows that if women could choose who they'd like to be impregnated by, they'd choose a rock star. There's something about the rock star's genes which signals creativity, flexibility of thinking, flexibility of mind and body, an ability to express and process emotions: whilst musical talent signals sexual potency - Justin Bieber, for example.

Modern neuro science posits that our brains are fundamentally geared to make and appreciate music as it is a gymnasium for the mind. The whole of the brain is engaged and represents a collaboration between the logical side of our cognition (to pick out patterns and make sense of any words) and our emotional processing centres. Music also manages to home in on our motor centres – making us feel an impulse to move. We may hear the same piece of music again and again and it still has the same effect. In fact sometimes our response, whether emotional or physical, can be amplified.

Music is so powerful it's used to rehabilitate stroke victims AND as an instrument of torture. James Hetfield said he felt proud to have the military use Metallica's music. On a visit to Guantánamo Bay Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Couch described his intense dismay when he witnessed a detainee shackled to the floor of a cell with heavy metal music blaring. The detainee was

“rocking back and forth, mumbling as strobe lights flashed.”

Colonel Couch said that

“the treatment resembled the abuse he had been trained to resist if captured; he never expected Americans would be the ones employing it.”

7 days ago I was a Rock Star and I held an auditorium full of people in the palm of my hand.

Good night, North Stafford Hotel lounge! I'd go upstairs and trash my room, but someone beat me to it.

35 years ago.

Oh, the dog? The owners had gone down to dinner and left it on its own in the room. I passed them later on this evening taking it for a walk down the corridor...

Bitter suite

And so "the world's most miserable and unsociable Man" (copyright Basil Creese Sr) undertakes a prolonged period of travel to far-flung corners and strange locales affording him the opportunity for reflection and self-analysis.

Chelmsford:

I complete the bulk of my journey on one of those leaning Virgin Pendolino trains. The word Pendolino is itself derived from two words; Dolino, as in Niña Dolino - a Filipina actress. She was one of the finalists of MTV's VJ Hunt in 2005. And Pen from the Greek number 5 (pente), referring to the number of times, on average, those of a delicate disposition will throw up before the train reaches London. I looked out of the window at one point and where the sky should have been instead were rolling green fields and yet to be slaughtered livestock. Freaky!

The hotel itself was located in a remote service area just off the A12 lending the establishment a distinctly gloomy Gulagian air further reinforced by the presence of a lifesized, inanely grinning Lenny Henry cardboard cutout. The online blurb for this hostelry boasts of "an integrated restaurant serving a mix of traditional and contemporary dishes." 'Dish' would appear to be stretching the point somewhat and their unwritten mission statement appears to be:

"Your standards will be compromised."

The steak I encountered had the consistency and taste of well worn brake pads. My jaw harrumphed a decidedly pissed off "Fuck this..." midway through the mastication of: The. Most. Gristly. Piece of meat ever offered for human consumption and thus I returned to my room to watch the fascinating spectacle of Andrew Marr fellating Tony Blair live on BBC One. I'm speaking figuratively, of course, but the subtext of the interview seemed to be "Please cum on my face, Tony!"

Tony: There can be circumstances in which it is legitimate to intervene even in another country's affairs where the oppression of the people is so cruel and where you can't simply say well, unless our national interest is directly threatened in a very specific way we're not going to have anything to do with it.

Marr (choosing NOT to challenge this vile assertion, but instead agreeing): So you can topple tyrants because they're tyrants, not because they immediately threaten other people. And so to Afghanistan. Another piece of nation-building.

Perpetual war in the hizzouse! The perfect illustration of "us against them" came a few days later when Tony had to abandon his book signing tour having been subjected to far more criticism and invective from the general public than any journalist - who jubilantly cheerled the invasion and equated those who opposed it to Islamofascists, before later deciding it might have been a little bit illegal (David Aaronovitch and Johan Hari take a bow) - could ever muster.

Manchester:

I hosted the Co-operative Bank Customer Service Awards at the Midland Hotel eschewing the Jean Paul Gaultier black leather kilt in favour of a subtle, understated, grey three-piece suit. I sashayed my way to the stage employing Barry White’s “I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Baby” as my theme. It went pretty well (“Before we kick this baby off, can the owner of a white Popemobile…”), although an insecure, needy, extroverted introvert like me could have done with a more public display of gratitude for my services: y’know like a special ‘Basil’ award just for me being so ineffably me.

Leek:

The venue here is a jumbo-sized, labyrinthine Portakabin. Lovely! The taxi driver on the way back to the hotel (which sits near the local Odeon, a Marina and a Retail Park featuring a celebrated footwear store who quite cheekily ask for your postcode prior to purchase. I'm a very private person and so offer SW1A 1AA and smile smugly to myself as the sales assistant punches it sulkily into their database. Google it. See what turns up) provides a running commentary as we weave our way through the streets of Hanley: "That used to be a Garage," "There used to be a school over there," "That's the most popular club in Stoke-On-Trent." He uses my name for the first time as he points out, "Here you go, Basil. This is the red light district."

"I beg your pardon?!?!" I splutter in affronted response, making a mental note of the name of the road for future reference.

My Moat House Hotel room contains 4 beds in total: two twin beds and a set of bunk beds. I spend my week sleeping in a different bed every night, just for the goof, which incidentally seems to be the impulse behind Nick Clegg (whenever I see him with David Cameron I think "There's a conservative, with a little 'c'") stating that the recent budget cuts are “fair.” "This is completely different from the budgets of the past," said Little Nicky after the emergency budget. And he’s right, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says the measures brought in by the new coalition are "generally regressive" – that is, hitting the poor much harder than the rich. If you are in a family with children at the bottom of the ladder then you come out worst in this government's reforms, with your income cut by more than 5%. The poorer you are, the poorer you will be under this new government. Haven’t we been here before?

Indeed the budget was so “fair” that the Fawcett Society has filed papers with the High Court seeking a Judicial Review. Not that you would have heard about this anywhere. No. Everyone was up in arms about the Pope's shoes, that woman putting a cat in a wheelie bin, or Wayne Rooney, or Anne Widdicombe on Strictly, or the ongoing spat between Dannii and Sharon, or Chantelle and Preston. Rather than that or, say, the obscene increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah which now officially exceed those experienced by Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Just read that last sentence back to yourself and weep.

That’ll be the depleted uranium then (see blogs passim).

I sat back in my seat in the Moat House restaurant having demolished 2 Bacon, Mushroom and Goat's Cheese filo baskets on a bed of rocket leaves (not quite as nice as a homemade Thai Green Curry, but still...) and cast my detached gaze about the diners - all texting on iPhones or tapping away on swish laptops and I wondered if anyone had stopped to consider the following, as summarised by Bill Blum:

"... the nation of Iraq, the society of Iraq, has been destroyed,
ruined, a failed state. The Americans, beginning 1991, bombed for 12 years, with one excuse or another; then invaded, then occupied, overthrew the government, killed wantonly, tortured ... the people of that unhappy land have lost everything — their homes, their schools, their electricity, their clean water, their environment, their neighborhoods, their mosques, their archaeology, their jobs, their careers, their professionals, their state-run enterprises, their
physical health, their mental health, their health care, their welfare state, their women's rights, their religious tolerance, their safety, their security, their children, their parents, their past, their present, their future, their lives..."

"More than half the population either dead, wounded, traumatized,
in prison, internally displaced, or in foreign exile ... The air, soil, water, blood and genes drenched with depleted uranium ... the most awful birth defects ... unexploded cluster bombs lie in wait for children to pick them up ... an army of young Islamic men went to Iraq to fight the American invaders; they left the country more militant, hardened by war, to spread across the Middle East,
Europe and Central Asia ... a river of blood runs alongside the Euphrates and Tigris ... through a country that may never be put back together again."

I sighed, trudged up to my room, swung himself onto the top bunk, powered up my MacBook Pro (tm), accessed 'Demand Five' and watched Neighbours.