Sex and the City 2

I can't have been the only one a little perturbed by the absolute mauling that the new Sex and the City film has come in for. It seems everywhere you turn people are cackling about how terrible it is.

From the posters that have been photoshopped into oblivion, to the plot that seems to be so threadbare as to not actually exist, via an accusation that even the clothes are a bit rubbish, no one has a good word to say about this film.

Fans of the original series feel betrayed that the films could have taken everything they liked about its TV incarnation and made it into an empty-headed, vacuous mess. This seems fair enough.

Fans of misogyny are braying at the tops of their lungs about the whole shebang being an empty-headed, vacuous mess all along. This seems a bit off.

I've never watched any of it properly, the TV series or the films. What's troubling is that I suspect many of the people currently slagging it off haven't watched it properly either, they've just spotted an easy target and kicked it while it's down. Unbridled nastiness, that's what it is, and it's pretty unpleasant.

Here's Tanya Gold slagging it off in the Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/7746119/Sorry-sisters-but-I-hate-Sex-and-the-City.html

Here's a review that says it's "blatantly anti-Muslim"

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/sex-and-the-city-2-film-review-1004093261.story

TV series fan Hadley Freeman had a go at in the Daily Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1281157/Sex-And-The-City-2-How-Carrie--Co-man-obsessed-morons.html

And it got a kicking in the Evening Standard too

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/film/review-23839220-sex-and-the-city-2-is-ugly-on-the-inside.do

All a bit depressing, no? I'm not saying the film's any good, I've not seen it, and it does look dreadful. I'm just saying leave it alone, move on, forget about it.

It's just a bad film. There's a lot of them about. No need to be so nasty.

Culture Vultures

Like some other people, Plague Doctors enjoy popular culture in all its forms. Here are some bits of culture we have been imbibing over the last few months

Robin Hood
Apparently, Robin Hood didn't wear green and live in a wood and rob the rich to give to the poor. He wore brown and saved England from the French and was deeply politically conscious. Drab and baffling.

LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
Too concerned with being cool, not concerned enough with being good. Like some hipster mash-up of The Knife, Hot Chip and The Fall. But not as good as any of them. It'll probably sound amazing live though.

Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
Lots of people have reservations about Gorillaz, but Albarn haters be damned – this is great. Just a really fun album, probably a bit long, but if you can't find something to like here you're in danger of not actually liking music.

Crowded House – Manchester Apollo – Wed May 26
John and I went for an evening of singalong fun with the world's most singalong band. It was already amazing, but then Johnny Marr turned up in the encore and did a couple of Smiths songs and it became super amazing.

Mark Knopfler – MEN Arena – Tue May 25
I saw Nigel Havers looking harrassed in the foyer beforehand. This was as exciting as the evening got. A deeply dull few hours with a man who doesn't appear to care anymore. Still, Romeo and Juliet was quite good.

Jenny Holzer – The Baltic – Gateshead
I'd not really heard of her before I went, but this was incredible. She does these flashing LED sign installations that are just absolutely amazing. Utterly inspirational and mesmerising.

Hot Chip – One Life Stand
The first track sounds like The Knife (note to self: get wider frame of reference) and they end up sounding like The Beautiful South halfway through, but it's all good. The title track is particularly excellent.

STOP CAMERON

David Cameron must be stopped.

Obviously, you can stop him by not voting Tory. That's easy.

However, some people might still want to vote Tory. We need to stop these people from voting. Is this electoral fraud? Probably. I'd have thought being a smug lying twat was electoral fraud, but apparently not.

THE PLAN

If you see any Tories going out to cast their vote, stop them.

Here's a few methods you might like to try:

- Tell them Margaret Thatcher just died and we're having a national month of mourning instead of an election.

- Tell them you've got a load of poor people in your house they can point and laugh at. Bundle them into your cellar. Repeat until cellar is full.

- Tell them that the Big Society will also include people who aren't middle class and white. (It won't.)

- Tell them not to vote Tory because you just can't cope with the idea of that vile posh idiot running the country and none of his policies make any sense and you want to punch him in the head even though you've never punched anyone in your life and they'll set the country back thirty years because while Tories aren't all scare-mongering Daily Mail reading bigots quite a lot of them are actually and it frightens the bejesus out of you and OH GOD I CAN'T BEAR HIS FUCKING FACE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH

Actually that's unhelpful and unfriendly, all that swearing and violence. It's all a bit Danny Dyer.

My view is this: I hate Tories. Not the people who vote for them. But the people they vote for.

I didn't write that myself though, it's the intro to a piece on the Guardian website by Gary Younge. You might want to read the rest of his article, because it's really good and says everything I want to say about Tories and more.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/04/why-i-hate-tories-david-cameron

DON'T VOTE TORY

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Cheers,

The Plague Doctors