Monthly Archives: February 2008

Facebook Hysteria

Facebook 

Where would be without Facebook? No, really – this is a serious question I’m asking. I’m not referring to you and me, “ordinary” users of the social networking site. I of course refer instead to journalists and bloggers. (Alright, so the last grouping does include me, but whatever.)

What we’d be left with would be masses and masses of blank pages in newspapers, magazines and online. For everyone angle of Facebook and its uses and problems, pros and cons has been covered to death in the past year or so. First there were all the articles about the the rise in popularity of the site, and the amount of working hours lost to it. Then, there was the whole “stalker-type” issue, whereby current or potential employers, partners (who could also be current and potential, I assume), exes and others could all be looking at your profile RIGHT NOW and finding out all sorts of embarrassing details or photos. (Not that you’d be the one looking up exes on Facebook, oh no.)

Thirdly, and onto more serious issues: the data privacy question, and the possibility that sensitive information could be found out about Facebook users by all sorts of undesirables who are no doubt hacking into your bank accounts and draining it RIGHT THIS INSTANT.

And now, finally, the apparent “death” of Facebook, brought on by news that usage of the site is down by 5% between this past December and January. Cue lots more articles detailing why people don’t like it anymore, why they’ve been turned off it, and the bad experiences they’ve had with it.

Facebook isn’t going to die, and it will still get plenty of use. It’s a compact way of keeping in touch and sharing information with friends – whether news, photos, invites or whatever. Social networking websites have sprung up all over the place in the past few years, and there’s something for everyone…well, pretty much. In broad terms, there’s MySpace for the music, Bebo for the kids, LinkedIn for business, to name but a few. It’s just a case that online users will settle down to use that one (or two) that they feel is most appropriate for them.

Two things probably will happen though. Firstly, the days of users logging into Facebook every 15 minutes or so to check the latest from their friends are surely behind us – after all, the initial attraction and excitement over the site has gone. Secondly, all these hysterical articles in the press and online will become less frequent. Well, let’s hope so in any case.

I guess on that note, I should really make this post my first and last on the subject.

The Oscars 2008

So, the Oscars took place last night. Yeah, I know, you’d never have known if I hadn’t have told you, right?! I’m sure you all know the winners (generally, No Country For Old Men), who was there (the expected, and the not-so expected…Miley Cyrus? Is she getting any Oscar anytime soon?), who had a baby bump (everyone) and, most important of all, who wore what. Generally most outfits were good if a little blah. No spectacular failures, but nothing spectacularly good either. Hmmm. Maybe the recent writers’ strike also caused a dress designers’ strike?

Here’s my favourite dress of the event – an usual mermaid-influenced number, as worn by La Vie En Rose‘s Marion Cotillard. And she also won the Best Actress award. Yay for her all round!

Marion Cotillard

And for the all-round package, I think Penelope Cruz looked stunning:

Penelope Cruz

Everyone Needs Knees!

Every so often tabloids, gossip magazines, The Economist (er, no, scratch that last one) go one about how ugly some famous woman’s knees are. They’re knees, for God’s sake! Everyone’s got bony knees! You tell me one person who’s got attractive knees, I’ll give you a pair of kneepads so you can hide your own ugly lumps.

The Daily Mail are at it today, pointing out how gruesome (i.e. not at all) Kate’s knees were on a recent night out.

Kate Moss
A rather ordinary pair of knees

They’re just knees, okay?? Calm down!

Lindsay Recreates Marilyn

Here’s Lindsay Lohan on the cover of the latest New York Magazine, recreating Marilyn Monroe’s famous last photoshoot:

New York Magazine Lindsay Lohan

There’s rather a weird look of desperation in her eyes, like she’s saying: “Please like me! Please say I’m as alluring as Marilyn! I am, aren’t. Yes. Aren’t I??? Please?!!”

Walliams Swims Again

David Walliams, star of Little Britain and other general comedyness, is to swim cold sea waters once again! He’s due to swim the Strait of Gibralter for Sport Relief, the BBC’s sport-based (of course) fundraiser. Walliams will in fact be joining Olympic gold medalist James Cracknell, who is going to cycle, row and swim from the UK to Africa, for part of his journey. BBC News states that

Walliams had been due to be in the US working with his fellow Little Britain partner Matt Lucas but said he became available after the writer’s strike finished last week.

Wha…? Were David Walliams and Matt Lucas due to take over US television as a part of a bid to save audiences over there from sheer boredom, prompting them to…oh, I don’t know…go out and do some exercise or something? Phew, thank goodness the writers’ strike is all but over, in that case.

About his efforts, Walliams rather humourously states

I thought, ‘what could I do?’ And I thought perhaps I could steal some of James Cracknell’s thunder by joining him on the swimming part.

But my goodness! James Cracknell will be rowing the English Channel, cycling down France and Spain and then swimming the Strait of Gibraltar – resting for only 4 hours out of every 24! All I can say is – good luck James!

Brits excitement soars

Brits 2008 

Well sort of.

News is filtering through about all the exciting possibilites for collaborations, performances and appearances at the Brits, held this Wednesday 20th February. Hosted by Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne (interesting choice – hope it works) there’s plenty of rumours flying around about who’s going to turn up, who’ll be on stage and who’ll be there with whom blah blah blah.

The Klaxons are apparently going to be the backing band fo Rihanna as she performs Umbrella (I hope they do a nice Golden Skans/Umbrella remix of “ooooooooh…ELLA”) whilst Amy Winehouse will perform her version of Valerie with Mark Ronson, as well as singing one of her own hits. Sir Paul McCartney will also be honoured with the Outstanding Contribution Award.

But forget all this, clearly the most exciting news is that Cheryl Cole is set to make her “big public comeback” at the Brits! My goodness! What will she wear? Who’ll she be with? Will she be wearing her wedding ring?? What’ll be…zzzz….

Anyways, all the above is irrelevant! All the viewing public want is a fight/water poured above an MP/Jarvis Cocker fake-mooning again! So if Cheryl Cole could get herself involved in something like that, she’d be onto a winner there.

And if you want to take part in all this excitement, you can! That’s right! I’ve giving away exclusive tickets to the event! Err, scratch that, I’m giving away an exclusive link to obtain tickets to the event! Oh, sod it, I’m just giving the Ticketmaster website.

The Spice Girls: bad at planning

Spice Girls 

Yes, we’ve all heard by now, the Spice Girls are not going to do some of the remaining dates on their world tour. And it’s nothing to do with Mel B & Mel C falling out, or Mel C wanting to quit in case it hurt her career, or Posh wanting to quit music entirely and concentrate on fashion…or anything sinister like that. No. It’s because of “family and personal commitments”. Hmmm. If so, why schedule a tour in the first place? In a video they’ve released, Posh states:

We have children, they need to go back to school and we always said our families were our priorities.

If your families are your priorites, don’t put on a tour in the first place! Or have their familes only become so important to them in the month of February?

But yes, do please put your children back in school. Except for the babies. That’d be cruel.

Oh, and above is the hilarious screen-cap from the video that The Sun have chosen to illustrate their article. What’s that alien doing in the back, on the right? And is that a labrador on the left-hand side? It’s got amazingly human-like paws.