North of the Stupid Line

What the hell is happening to the world? We had Christmas decorations, people have put their Christmas trees up already, at the end of October, beginning of November. I have one question for them all:

WHY?!

To be honest – and I don’t care if you think I’m Scrooge – I think Christmas is over-rated. Everyone spends more than they can afford to buy hundreds of presents every year, and what for? Because Jesus was born on Christmas Day? Can someone please explain to me how Jesus being born on Christmas Day (as a matter of fact, I seem to remember he was born in January or something) equates to spending as much as we do on presents every year? Ok, Jesus was presented with frankincense, myrrh and gold, but that was only three presents!

What it is, is commercialism. All the manufacturers and retailers see Christmas as one huge money-spinning exercise, and they’ve exploited all the kids who want Christmas presents via TV ads etc., who in turn nag their parents, and for a bit of peace, the parents buy the presents for the kids.

It’s a vicious cycle. It causes more problems than it’s worth, and I think Christmas Day when families sit down to open presents, it all ends in an anti-climax: “oh, no more presents?”. Then settle down to a normal routine until the next year.

Rachel and I have had debates on how much we’re going to spend on our kids for Christmas. Rachel thinks the kids should get everything they want, I reckon make them choose what they want the most, and that’s it. There’s always birthdays and the next Christmas. The problem is that kids are so fickle, they get bored with things after a while, regardless of how much it costs.

Sigh, it makes me wanna scream!

I’ve just been watching Musicality on Channel 4, and I feel so uplifted and happy!

What is it about musicals that make people feel this way? Musicals, as we all know, were very popular up to the 1950s and 1960s, but then the movie distributors like MGM and Paramount stopped making them. Only recently, they’ve started to make a come back, but only in small numbers.

First of all, what is a musical? Dictionary.com describes a musical as a A play or movie that contains musical numbers. Compared to a play or a drama, a musical basically entails of the same thing, with the exception that the characters suddenly burst into song and dance in the middle of acting out a performance! It’s fabulous. I think we all feel like singing and dancing at certain moments in our lives e.g. when something goes our way, or we get a good result, we feel like singing “We are the champions, we are the champions, we are the champions, of the … wooooorllld!” and perhaps dancing a little jig and making groovy moves (like Andy, my CA!) or perhaps just looking into the sky dreamily and happily.

I remember when I was a young boy, I was obsessed with The Sound of Music, even though it wasn’t subtitled. I used to watch the film over and over again (without subtitles), and when I finally got to watch it WITH subtitles, all the songs still seemed so familiar. I was also obsessed with Grease and Grease 2, and I must be the only person in the world who prefers the songs in Grease 2 to the original ones in Grease! I will be the first person to admit that the acting and plot in Grease 2 is a bit, erm, diabolical, but the songs are great e.g. “Score Tonight” and “The Hands of Time”.

For some reason, I have this inbuilt desire to be a singer and dancer on the stage. Quite a strange thing for a Deafie to want, but it’s true. Sometimes when I’m alone in bed at night in the dark, I start singing (silently, some of you will be pleased to know) to myself and acting out the part!! Argh! The truth is out! The secrets of Rob Wilks when he’s alone in bed!!! Oops!

Anyway, what you guys think? Do you all harbour the same love for musicals as I do? Why do we love musicals generally?

A play or movie that contains musical numbers.

Rachel starts a Level 1 BSL Course with Deafworks in a few weeks, and today she made me take her to Old Street on the 43 bus so that she can see for herself where she needs to go, as I won’t be able to take her.

This got me thinking – why do some people take to London Transport like water, and some people need to be taught? I certainly don’t remember anyone ever having to teach me how to get around London on public transport. I remember when I moved to London in June 2003, I was far more reliant on the Tube to get around, and was more than willing to change as necessary.

Now, I find I prefer the bus so much more; you get to see so much more of London (one of my favourite routes is the 43 bus between Monument and London Bridge because you get to go over London Bridge itself and see the Tower Bridge on your right. Given that I’m a historian, this is rather understandable.

People like Rachel though, they just find themselves so intimidated by the whole London Transport network. Nothing could be easier in my opinion. The Tube is really easy to work out; and you can work out how to get to places via bus even without having to check the Transport for London’s Journey Planner just by looking at the front of buses or on bus stands. I think people just need to take the plunge and be let loose!

Rachel and I watched a very nice film last night called Spirited Away. This is the Amazon.co.uk review:

What can I say about this film? Rachel and I are big fans of animations like all the Disney Classics and Pixar productions, so Spirited Away was quite a big departure from this genre of films. It was beautifully made – very scene was full of detail and flowed beautifully. You honestly cared for the characters in it. What it boiled down to was a love story between two young children, Chihiro and Haku who came from different worlds and were joined in the evil world of Yubaba, the nasty sorceress who runs a bathhouse and turns anyone who doesn’t work for her into pigs. Chihiro, the heroine of the story, comes along and turns the whole bathhouse upside down by her simple love and trust for the vulnerable (the most endearing being the sootballs) and by the lengths she’ll go to save Haku.

Disney films in comparison seem rather fake and commercial, more showy. Spirited Away is animation at its best, and I would recommend it to any fans of the animation genre, just to give them a whole new perspective on animation.

Its been a busy week for me, work-wise. I’m not complaining, but sometimes it’s nice to just chill out of an evening. I was on the go Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night, and didn’t actually sit down and chill until Monday night.

On Monday I attended the YSG Pro Bono Awards at the Law Society and witnessed my matey Clare Norriss win not one but two awards! You can read more about it here.

On Wednesday I gave a talk at Clifford Chance’s Canary Wharf offices for the Solicitors Pro Bono Group LawWorks Clinics on how to advise deaf clients. It was the first time I did the talk in BSL, and I have to say I think my talk was a bit more SSE than BSL.

Thinking back, I seem to remember the reaction of the audience members (mainly consisting of trainee solicitors – bastards) when I said “I’m now going to do the rest of this talk in BSL”. Some of them were like “huh?”. I thought I’d better reassure them, “don’t worry, I have my interpreter here with me today so she will do a voiceover. You will be able to understand what I’m signing.” Quite amusing. What surprised me most was the lack of reaction. At the end, no one wanted to ask any questions. There was no applause. This was a stark contrast to the previous talk I did, where we finished to rapturous applause and quite a few questions.

Thursday – collapsed.