Banshee - Season 2

For those of you who haven’t caught the Cinemax TV show Banshee yet, you should.

I discovered Banshee last year when a couple of episodes had already aired and after watching one episode I was hooked and had to catch up with the episodes I had missed.

An action packed, sex romping, bullet flying array of twists and backstory that never fail to excite is how I would describe Banshee. Cinemax really have got a good one here. The executive producer of the show is Alan Ball, famed for writing American Beauty and HBO series True Blood, the reason I mention this is that there is one major similarity between True Blood and Banshee. Those of you familiar with True Blood will know the character Lafayette played by Nelsan Ellis, a sassy black man who is androgynous as well as being out and proud, for me he was the best thing about True Blood, his laugh out loud one-liners gave an element of comedy which the show needed. In Banshee there is a very similar character played by Hoon Lee named Job (pronounced Jobe). Job is a transvestite computer hacker who is handy with a gun and can kick ass whenever needed, he also as Lafayette has some cracking lines that have me in stitches. I love both these characters and find it hard to pick a favorite as they are so similar but in completely different worlds. It’s also worth noting that these LGBT characters are both ethnic minorities adding a double hit for liberal TV.

I have just finished season 2 of Banshee, which held up well against the first, nothing worse than a good first season followed by a shit sophomore season after a year of waiting. Banshee came back and had me addicted from the start. More violence, sex and story that make it a TV show that is very easy to binge on. The show also adds additional new characters that look as if they are going to have a bigger role in season 3.

Banshee also deals with many issues a favorite of mine of which is the coming of age aspect of people in the Amish community and the rebellion that sometimes occurs. Issues of Native Americans are also shown in the series notable the hierarchy of the tribes and their chiefs. There is also the subject of people from different backgrounds and beliefs integrate in the melting pot that is the United States of America and the possible repercussions of this happening.

I easily think that Banshee is on-par with shows like Breaking Bad, The Wire, True Blood, Game of Thrones etc… but I don’t think Banshee will have the following of these shows, but I cannot figure out why. It is as well written as these shows, it has an incredible cast, it’s beautifully shot and is edited in a unique and very clean, crisp way.

At the moment Banshee is my personal favorite TV series on right now and I urge anyone who hasn’t seen it yet to begin watching it.

Revolution & a bit of Music

I always like the word Revolution. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention and my ears prick up with the intent to be inspired. I also like protest and it always makes me hum “power to the people”. Yet modern revolution seems to be in vain, long gone are the days of the civil rights sit-ins and the gay pride marches both of which got results. I can’t help but wonder why? Modern protests aren’t really doing anything different so why is there no change? I think a recap of worldwide protests is in order, along with the music that helped inspire them. After all every great movement had an accompanied soundtrack.

The 1960’s were all about peace, free love, anti-war and expanding your mind. Fueled by the music of two of the most inspirational music artists ever to live, Bob Dylan and The Beatles. Bob Dylan especially did a lot for the civil rights movement in America very often playing these pro civil rights gigs which being a very popular white act at the time brought white media and focus to the movement this along with many sit-ins, protests, demonstrations and courage from beautiful beings such as Rosa Parks who inspired the 1955 bus boycott made The Civil Rights acts of 1964 & 1968 happen, outlawing discrimination of people based on color or creed and allowing people from all walks of life to have equal opportunities (except the gays we’ll have to wait another 20 years and then some for that to get moving but we’ll get to that). All cogs in the civil rights machine, all of which had an equally important job to do.

Then on to the 70’s, which did not disappoint in the U.K. with the punk movement inspired by The Sex Pistols, The Clash and in America The Ramones and New York Dolls. Although I think that U.K. punk was more punk than American, America sort of glammed it up a bit and wasn’t as anti-establishment as its English counterpart. This was music that inspired a generation of people to say; “Fuck you government!” which can’t be a bad thing can it? And this all from a corporately put together band like The Sex Pistols that were seen as a money making band rather than a revolutionary.

To the 80’s and to the ultra camp, cross-dressing, make up wearing revolution that was all in the name of gay. Boy George with his long dreadlocked hair and colorful make up made the world sit up and take note. Gay was the thing to be in the 80’s music scene as well as Boy George’s Culture Club there was; Frankie Goes to Hollywood the leather wearing, moustache having gays who were very much the stereotype for gay men, David Bowie’s androgyny (even though he’s only half gay), Bronski Beat and their lead singer with the very high voice who if you were hearing it on the radio for the first time would swear it was a woman singing, as well as acts like Erasure and not forgetting the closeted George Michael from Wham! And Freddie Mercury of Queen. I believe that if aids hadn’t turned up to ruin the party that this would have lead to the legalization of gay marriage. Its almost as thought aids turned up on purpose to stop the gay revolution in its tracks, as though someone didn’t want this to happen and wanted to stamp it out. Best I don’t say anything more about this or men in black coats may appear at my door to take me away where I’d disappear off the face of the earth, kind of like that scene in V for Vendetta when Stephen Fry gets kidnapped by the mental right wing party in power.

The 80’s also saw the Brixton riots where people pissed off by the recession decided to protest, which with the arrival of the police turned ugly (as it always does) and there was “Panic on the streets of London”. This seems rather similar to the 2010 riots although the recession was an after thought in that instance but we’ll get to that.

1989 also saw student-lead protesting in China’s Tiananmen Square where they dealt with things calmly and rationally by running people over with tanks in a massacre that lead to 241–2,600 deaths and is still being covered up to this day (if you didn’t get that from the ambiguous numbers of the death toll).

The 90’s were interesting in America with cops kicking the shit out of Rodney King being seen by millions worldwide as though it was the first ever viral video. This lead to riots in L.A. mainly by African-Americans, who were outraged that the “protect and serve” police of the LAPD would brutally beat a man due to the color of his skin. N.W.A’s “Fuck tha police” was never more poignant and these events would inspire Body Count and their song Cop Killer. Yet these riots were somewhat futile as although they drew focus to the events not much has changed as still to this day cops worldwide get away with murder (sometimes literally).

In 1999 anti-globalization activists protested at the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Seattle, Washington causign the conference to end early by taking direct action. Infact there’s was even a film about this made called Battle in Seattle, which I have been meaning to watch but have never got around to. On the music side of things we had Rage Against the Machine one of the most pollitically charged bands ever with songs like Take the power back and Sleep now in the fire.

In the 2000’s everything changed when in 2001 we all had a common enemy in the form of Al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization that attacked the twin towers on September 11^th. What an odd thing to bring everyone in the western world together until the war on terror took hold and the people protest both George Bush and Tony Blair for taking us to war with Afghanistan then Iraq. No more blood for oil was the chant on many American’s lips along with “Fuck Bush!” which I still am not sure as to whether this was a tongue in cheek pun or just a coincidental bit of innuendo. Bush would not be president for much longer as America seemed finally ready to have a black president and one with and Islamic middle name at that. Tony Blair stepped down as prime minister in England and let Gordon Brown a Scottish man who nobody voted for run the country for a bit, unsuccessfully but still he had a go before the next election when the British people in what can only be described as an act of naïve nostalgia decided to bring the 80’s back to Britain with a capitalist, right wing government who would run things into the ground even more. I’m getting ahead of myself a bit there so lets move swiftly on to the ten’s, the ten-ies, the worst decade we’ve had for giving an abbreviated shorthand nickname.

The 2010’s opened with The Arab Spring in 2010 a political movement that soared throughout the eastern hemisphere. The Arab Spring started as the people were pissed at their own governments. These protests were a triumph of the modern day revolution and by December 2013, rulers had been forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt (twice),Libya, and Yemen as well as civil uprisings erupting in Bahrain and Syria; major protests had broken out in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Sudan; and minor protests had occurred in Mauritania, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Western Sahara, and the Palestinian territories.

A year later in the west we had the Occupy movement which started as OWS (occupy wall street) in September 2011 but then spread through America and even the U.K. Very little was reported about why this movement started the media instead focused on the fact that there were people camping out on wall street. This was an anti-capitalist movement that used the term “we are the 99%” which referred to most of America’s wealth being held by 1% of the population. Unfortunately unlike the Arab Spring governments didn’t seem to take any notice of this movement, which is still going on as we speak. I find it odd that such a leftwing anti-capitalist movement such as these seems to have had no effect especially not here in the U.K. where things seem to be getting more and more radical rightwing due to immigration and failed attempts at benefit reform. To be honest I think it’s amazing that there was a movement at all due to awful musicians that stand for nothing but still some good ones such as Tom Morello from RATM inspired and joined the fight. Hell the next generation are fucked based on what they listen to Justin Bieber and One Direction, wouldn’t surprise if this shit was made with the intension of dumbing down a generation, making them melancholy and boring. I think we may have just hit something their folks, this shit music is a government funded fight back to insure a generation of stand for nothing brain-deads.

The reason I felt the need to right about any of this if I’m honest is due to the anti-austerity protests here in the U.K. on the 21^st of June, which was in fact just last week. These protests took place in London where tens of thousands of people marched along with Russell Brand to show their anger at the austerity measures introduced by the government. 50,000 people were there none of which were the British media, who at the time were busy reporting Kate Middleton’s son walking at Wimbledon. That right there is real news folks some rich baby walking, good job BBC, ITV etc… you really know how to keep people informed about the real things that matter.

As much as I like Bob Dylan and everything he stood for I do not believe that “the times are a changing” at least not any time soon.

Tattoos: a tale of discrimination and narrow minds

Tattooing and tattoos themselves have been around thousands of years. Which makes it all the more strange that people still have such a hard time excepting them. I myself have a growing collection of tattoos, which are mainly on my arms but I would not rule out having tattoos anywhere on my body. The problem with this is the perception of tattooed people by none tattooed people.

Here in England tattoos are legal, yet taboo and frowned upon by many even with them becoming more and more popular. For instance I know of nightclubs that will not let people in with tattoos showing (well not men anyway, I’ve seen them let women in with tattoos on show). I’d think that this was classed as discrimination, which by definition is acting upon a prejudice, having preconceived ideas of people due to the way they look. This is not on in my book, I know loads of heavily tattooed people who are decent human beings, along with some who are not but the same can be said about people who have no tattoos at all. Personally I don’t believe that a persons tattoos should stop them getting into places unless their tattoos are offensive (e.g. racist). This reminds me of a story from a couple of years ago where Joel Madden from the band Good Charlotte was supposed to take a British Airways flight from London to Lisbon and was told he couldn’t board the plane until he covered his tattoos. This cements the backwards-thinking British mentality, we’re one of the oldest countries yet we seem to be stuck in our ways instead of moving with the times.

I also think that it is pathetic that in this day and age tattoos could stop you getting a job. As though the ink in your skin makes you less able to do the job. I don’t know what its like in other countries but I for one don’t believe that places like America for instance are so backwards thinking on this subject.

I personally cant work out why what other people do with their bodies is an issue for anyone else, as I don’t give a fuck what anyone does with any aspect of their life as long as it doesn’t effect me, and tattoos don’t effect anybody but the person they are on. People may say that they shouldn’t have to look at other people’s “ugly tattoos” well I think these people should grow the fuck up, as I for one would much rather look at someone’s “ugly tattoos” than have to spend a minute in the company of people with horrible personalities, who think that they are the center of the universe and that everyone’s opinions and way of life should align with their own, and these pig-fuckers hide in plain sight with no visual warning. I always say that tattoos are only a big deal to people who don’t have them, people who have them realize how unimportant they are, they are merely pictures and words on skin nothing more and they change nothing about the person who is sporting them.

Art is not a crime, nor should it be. Yet to some narrow-minded people in this country wearing your art makes you a criminal. This 1930’s mentality is spread throughout all areas in England from; tattoos, drugs, religion, politics etc… and is keeping us in the dark ages. We wonder why this country is as messed up as it is when the majority of the last 3 generations of people all share the same views and opinions as the generation that came before them. This country seems to take 2 steps forward and 3 steps back, and I fear that this is not going to change anytime soon.

Perspective

I am 22 years old and last year I had a sort of reality check when some I knew died. They were the same age as me and without going into too much detail they died suddenly. Now we were not close in fact we hadn’t spoke in years, but it was a shock and made me think nonetheless. All the clichés of wasted life and much too young uncontrollably filled my thoughts. It was almost like a moment of clarity for me, if I felt indestructible before I now felt fragile. This person died in an accident which may make you think that from now on I’d be more cautious with a sense of “if it could happen to them then it could happen to me” but I didn’t feel like that, I felt that I needed to do more with my life as it could be over at any moment. This is probably the kind of thing I’d hear some else say and call bullshit, but its true. This whole thing had a touch of chaos-theory about it, something that should have been rather insignificant to my life ended up making me contemplate the way I live and even more the way I think.

It’s an odd one really as I often think how much this may of impacted me if this person and I had of stayed in touch and been friends. Who knows how crazy this would have made me then, I’d probably have become a vegan or a Buddhist and spent my days doing yoga and drinking kale smoothies. Instead I have a try everything sort of attitude, I want to try everything and do anything that pops into my head. I think this probably has something to do with my newest desire to want a motorcycle after all “it’s the things that you don’t do that you regret”. Errr that cliché left a horrible taste in my mouth, I’ll have to remember not to do that again. In fact looking back this whole thing is full of clichés, oh well it cannot be helped lets move on.

To be perfectly honest I’ve always had a sense of do what you want/do what makes you happy. I’ve certainly never done anything I haven’t liked/wanted to for long. But this event certainly backed that up for me. I believe that if you live like this you will be happy and get to where you want to go in life. aut viam inveniam aut faciam.

Trash Daytime TV

I am currently between courses and between jobs. So when I’m not reading I tend to pick up on the bag of dog shit that is daytime TV. There’s one show in particular that is utter trash, without naming it directly, it’s the one with the silver fox and all the reality show rejects reading out the most mental of people’s tweets about the show. To think that there are people who sit there watching this shit and then want to join in by tweeting bullshit about it makes me realize that this generation is full blow fucked!

Anyway the last couple of times I’ve been unlucky enough to turn my TV on to this tripe, I’ve seen stories about a 30-year-old guy who has multiple girlfriends and in a massive twist to the story it turns out they are all 60+ women, some as old as 90. Sick fuck they branded him a “cougar chaser” which I suppose is less offensive as “pervert”. This guy was like the opposite of a pedophile, and I couldn’t help but sit there and wonder why the granny snatcher was the way he was and what he gets out of it? You know apart from all the hard candies and the fact that they’ve probably got a free bus pass so it doesn’t cost them anything to meet you. Thinking about it I think they were all American so I have no idea as to whether they would have free bus passes, but I’m guessing the hard candies things still the same.

Just when you think they’d sunk as low as low can be with trash TV. This morning I caught the end of what appeared to be a woman who collects these creepy dolls with china faces and that… wait for the major plot twist again… they all have the spirits of dead people living in them. I don’t know what to say apart from maybe this woman should be sectioned? I mean I guess she’s not harming anyone except the viewers many of whom probably felt dumber having watched this shit, which I know I certainly did.

Other stories I have caught in the past have been; a couple who think they’re vampires and drink human blood, “mmmm hepatitis” and a couple that drank their own piss, “mmmm asparagus”. How do ‘stories’ like these get put on TV? I mean can you imagine being the guy who choses what gets put on the show? “Now there’s a guy who eats food by shoving it up his ass or a woman who thinks her Labrador is the reincarnated spirit of Anne Frank, it’s a tough one but lets go with Anne Frank the Labrador”.

This show is so infuriatingly awful that I find myself having to watch it from time to time just to see what crazy ass holes they’ve rounded up. This said I do feel dumber every time I watch it and thus feel obligated to read a few chapters of a book directly after as a sort of mental redemption in the hope that there is no lasting damage, in fact I prescribe that for every ten minutes of this shit you watch, you read a chapter of a book, preferably something factual that is challenging and that you will learn something from and expand your mind.