slow night, even slower day

I was struck with the most awful headache at about five yesterday. Returning home, I did not know what to do with myself. And then the shivers started. Wrapped in my duvet, I was pinned to the sofa and unable to move, and so looked for two options to entertain myself: posting from my Blackberry and finding a film on the 'on demand service'. Both failed me.

Virgin's service proudly boasts to have '500 films at your fingertips', but this is not much help when the majority of the films are shit, and you've seen the only good ones already. So I spent half an hour browsing the options and found nothing, and then a further half an hour watching the Virgin preview channel in the hopes of finding something to watch.

I finally came across the recent, animated Star Wars release and proceeded to watch it. It was ok, but I was damn glad to have not paid to see it at the cinema. Following my time in a galaxy far, far away, I proceeded to bed, where I then burned up with a fever.

So I couldn't go to work today, and I was damn bored. Bored, bored, bored, which explains the title of this post. On the upside, I managed to access my blogging account from the Berry, so am now entertaining myself by boring any readers I might have.

I'll be in better form tomorrow and am very much looking forward to the release of Watchmen, which I shall be seeing in the Imax.

Toodle pip

Sex, sight and sound

Read my recent post on the use of video in online PR and my thoughts about a recent study that suggests musical lyrics are related to teen sexual behaviour by clicking here.

Beats, rhymes and life

A very impromptu Fabric outing on Friday lead me to see the world famous, my favourite, DJ Craze, and he did not disappoint. Always a master of the decks, this guy's showmanship is legendary - not just banging out the dirtiest beats and scratching like the DMC master he is, he flips records, spins around and is basically like a highly skilled cocktail maker, using vinyl instead of mixing jugs.

So wanting to relive the experience, I logged in to my FabricFirst online account to see if the live mix recording had been uploaded. Of course not, but what I did come across was Riz MC. I very, very, vaguely knew this guy at university, and through small worldness, we have current friends in common. Whilst his acting career is currently blazing, I was impressed by his MCing session. His lyrical content had the intelligence you'd expect of an Oxford grad, and I particularly liked his acapella, "Losing my religion to tomorrow's headlines." The spit was all about the misplaced fear in the modern media of Islam, and the failure amongst many leading politicans to realise that much of the frustration amongst this community comes from social deprivation, lack of opportunities and the capitalist system failing. Cilvaringz is another intelligent rapper who discusses similar issues, you can check him out on Wu Tang records. Riz also has a track called, "Radar", which explores ingrained stereotypes and how they create barriers within communities. I look forward to his album dropping and wish him luck.

The weird world that is Swiss Cottage

I went to Swiss Cottage last night for a friend's birthday party and went for a drink in 'The Olde Swiss Cottage'. I knew it was going to be a tad bit weird, but I expected tacky rather than peculiar. And peculiar it was. Blessed be the fact that it is a Sam Smith's pub - £2.14 a pint - nice, but full of strange old drunk men propping up the bar, not so nice.

One of the old geezas had written a poem, which was actually ok - look out for the thorough bred dogs on the wall, but there was a wiff of uninformed racial prejudice to his chat, which was not nice. As we left the place, I noticed a load of 'youth' lurking outside, undoubtedly skinning up. The contrast between the inside and out of this venue was stark - each were equally troublesome. So we left, and returned to the wondrous shire of NW1, and that was that.

Lesson: buildings that look like cute little ginger bread cottages are not always what they appear.

Climate change and the future of journalism - what do they have to do with healthcare PR?

Visit the auroracommsblog to see my recent posts on:

- The future of journalism: An OU presentation
- Unintended consequences: A lecture by Sir David King