Scott Pixello's Blog, page 5

Good Luck

I'm not superstitious. At all. Just because I can't explain something at a given moment, I don't think ascribing its cause to some bit of cultural voodoo is particularly rational.
Take walking under ladders- it will bring you bad luck. I do not walk under ladders. Why? Because it may fall on me.
A black cat crossing your path may bring bad luck. Well, if you're driving & have to brake suddenly, then someone may rear-end your car.
It seems to me that people are confusing superstition with basic Health & Safety advice.

Being Happy

Pharell Williams‘ song ‘Happy‘ is among the 2014 Oscar nominations for Best Song. It’s an upbeat, cheerful little ditty about, guess what, being happy. ‘Cos I’m happy’ sings Mr W ‘like a room without a roof’. Well, Mr Williams, yes, I can see your simile does convey a sense of longed-for freedom and a lack of restrictions. However, ‘to have a roof over one’s head’ is also an expression of desired shelter. Try offering a homeless person ‘a room without a roof’ and see if their faces lights up. I think not.

Gossip + Pavlov

The local radio I have to endure on the way to work has a stock of about four records, one of which is ‘Heavy Cross‘ by Gossip (you know, the Beth Ditto combo). Anyway, searching for a better station I end up listening to this song several times a week. I have nothing against Gossip but in the background of this song is a distant wailing siren and for some reason it gets me every time. I’m programmed to check all my mirrors, think about pulling over- generally it’s like an April Fool played on me over & over & I jump every time. Then again, it’s got a trumpeting elephant on there too (which really is weird- but in a good way) & I don’t start looking for that. I think I must have been one of Pavlov’s dogs in a former life.

Happy New Year

BBC World Wews was displaying a two-line subtitle in some parts of the world yesterday:

The second line read: 'People of the world celebrate.'
The first line read (something like): 'Yesterday marked the beginning of the Year of the Whores.'
Not a great year to be born in, I would suggest.

Philip Seymour Hoffman

A serious post for a change. When the hoopla over the Stupid-bowl has died down, this weekend will be remembered as the time we lost Philip Seymour Hoffman. Much will be written about him but I think it's worth remembering two things.
Firstly, he was not a movie star like Tom Cruise or George Clooney. He was not classically handsome and died young but not in the same way as James Dean or Heath Ledger. Hoffman had both potential and substance. What he was was a truly great actor, one of the finest of his generation, alongside the likes of Sean Penn & Daniel-Day-Lewis (whose talents are also not always recognised). The fact that you have to think a little to remember his movies doesn't make his work any less brilliant- the opposite is true. He became his roles; he didn't 'play' them.
Secondly, the tributes that have come flooding in are often from people he worked with (in the theatre too where he was equally stunning and not a movie star with something to prove). In an age of celebrity, he shunned this aspect of the business, operating without an entourage, impressing all those who met him with his quiet dignity.
'A sad loss' is the standard media cliche but in acting and personal terms, we have lost one of the greats here.

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Think bubbles

As America goes Superbowl crazy this weekend, it's worth thinking that even in a supremely-interconnected world, what cultural bubbles still exist.
Take sport. Yesterday, the Five Nations rugby tournament kicked off with huge matches between England and France and Wales and Italy. Here in Germany...nothing. Tumble weed. Same for the recent Ashes series in cricket.
Last week the European Handball champs came to a climax- a huge deal across Continental Europe, Scandanavia and several other areas. In Britain...not a blip on the radar.
It just made me think that although the Net has brought us all a lot closer, we still very much live in certain cultural bubbles. As long as Americans use the term 'World Series' for a game hardly played outside America or there exists a cricket and rugby 'World Cup' with similar narrow levels of participation, maybe we'll stay that way.
Perhaps THE World Cup this summer will bring us all a bit closer, even if Americans insist on calling it 'saaaakuur' and even if this new-found sense of global camaraderie is based on common hatred of the Pitbull/Lopez theme song.

Keith Ramsbottom- sequel

Now that you can see the cover of my current release (due to the help of a friendly Goodreads librarian), my thoughts are turning to its sequel due out in about a month. If you use Roman numerals, some people get confused, like those who thought they'd missed the first two parts of The Madness of King George III. That really happened.
So, it will have a subtitle, which I'm not going to divulge just yet but you will start to see a pattern emerging. Oh yes, as Ade Edmonson (as Baron von Richthoven) once said in Blackadder, 'Evil plans don't just make themselves, you know.' Bwa-ha-ha-ha.

Facebook III

So after a whole week of being properly active on Facebook, what have I learned? Well, for a group who supposedly like to write, a lot of people spend a lot of time posting and liking bumper-sticker wisdom. Now, I'm not completely immune to the charm or the use of some of this but there is a supreme irony here. Rather than passing around other people's words (especially in the fairly obvious hope they'll go viral) why not actually write/create some of your own? Valuing wisdom and being inspired is all very well but it makes you wonder how great writers of the past could possibly have functioned without an inspirational maxim to stop them feeling a little bit unloved. It's a weird 'prompt culture' that we seem to have evolved- people tell us what to eat, how to exercise, what to believe & we lap it up. Didn't we used to think for ourselves?

America's Most Unwanted

Al Capone...Baby Faced Nelson...Justin Bieber. America has a long history of battles against major crime bosses but the recent outbreak of serious felonies breaks new ground. Assaulting a taxi driver,illegal drag racing, egging a neighbour's house: such is the growing charge sheet of Mr B. There's even a growing online petition to have him deported. Although to be fair, that did start a few years back.
In my opinion, they ought to just charge him with crimes against music & throw away the key.
A bigger problem with the deportation idea is which country would agree to take him? Would Canada be that foolish? Maybe we should try Iran?

Rubbish names

So, soon British troops will leave Afghanistan, including the officer training facility near Kabul. It's nickname? 'Sandhurst in the Sand' This has to be the most embarrassing, pathetic name since 'HMS Ocean' was suggested for a battleship or someone came up with 'The Great Sandy Desert' (look it up- it's real).
I think, politics & military position aside, this is the real reason for the withdrawal from Afghanistan- sheer embarrassment at rubbish names.