The BBC remains the last bastion of non commercial media (notwithstanding the constant stream of adverts for its increasingly CDE programming). But the Schadenfreudic euphoria of the latest self immolation leaves you with the same kind of sinking melancholy, as when a parent totally embarrasses you in front of your nearest and dearest (aka dad dancing guy).

Anachronistic Mechanics

The BBC despite its anachronistic TV license financing , Old (public) school infrastructure ( cf. the hideously White Management) and a surfeit of low rent programming ( albeit mainly confined to daytime TV) still

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The vernacular term for the Summer in media is the Silly Season, but our dreich Summer has yielded an unprecedented bloom of hard news stories, none more so than the John Terry soap opera.

Teenage kicks

The kick it out campaign has been derailed, as at last a few black footballers have stood up to be counted ( by not wearing a t-shirt?). The Ferdinand brothers & Jason Roberts have eventually put their wealthy necks above the parapet and questioned the cosy comfort blanket of improvement that Professional Football (FA) all too conveniently covers itself in when confronted

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As Jamaica celebrates its 50th year of independence from Britain today, and we are inundated with the wall to wall jingoistic olympic propaganda, it’s worth reflecting on what independence has meant for the West Indies, and it’s populations. Britain in the face of the breakup of the Commonwealth eventually opted for the European Union as it faced up to the fact that it was too economically small to independently sustain an industrial based future. The wisdom of that move remains an open question, as the British have struggled to define a clear role, other than the rather jeremiah like johnny come

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Victorian Values

The latest debacle in the banking crisis was given an appropriately surreal backdrop during the Victoria (I ain’t really that tabloid niggah ) Derbyshire phone in , when a caller had the chumpatz to question her bona fides as a phone in host, by asking a schoolboy finance question ; Did she understand what promissory note meant? You could feel the Derbyshire on air fluster, as she struggled to come to terms with even the framework of the question ( a sure fire squeaky bum alarum) Notwithstanding the definition (cf. The history

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Along with Che Guevara, Bob Marley is perhaps the most identifiable icon of the Twentieth Century. All the more ironic in that iconography runs counter to fundamental Christianity (and Islam), yet was the scriptural base of Marley's canon ; Kevin Mcdonald's film has enough ironies to appease the most ardent infidel.

Forum of Solitude

The Forum’s showing of Kevin Mcdonald’s Marley afforded welcome shelter from the coldest weekend of the summer (not to mention the predictable damp squib of the Diamond Jubilee).

Talking Heads

Mcdonald being an apparent substitute for Scorcese, my expectations were somewhat muted ; however my prejudices were

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The Leveson enquiry has caught the headlines again this week as the Iago of of Fleet St. held court for two days. You could smell the fear (and by inference loathing) in the sychophantic questioning of Leveson’s QC’s as they fumbled to confront the evil genius that could make or break their career with one email. The exchanges were as stilted and conceited as any B-movie Hollywood screen writer could conjure, as the (Oxbridge?) QCs gently interviewed Murdoch the street fighter, over his career history of Machiavellian interventions. The questions or more precisely suggestions were consummately handled by

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Well it’s my sixth week in Brazil & I haven’t been robbed … yet, if you exclude the guy who tried to charge me R$3 for a post card (£1 – a card costs about 30p). I’m on the beach in Salvador, the Black capital of Brazil. Most of the slaves landed here and as you know, Brazil was the last major country to make slavery illegal (1850). Traditionally then the city has a strong African heritage, though the fact Bob Marley ( a Jamaican) is their icon, illustrates the failure of black Brazil to sit at the table

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