Borat PR Stunt?
November 12th, 2006 at 18:17

After seeing Borat last week, I was confused as to which of the “non-scripted” bits were actually scripted. I think the confusion may extend to the marketing of the film too.

Since seeing the film, I’ve spotted stories all over the media about the people that Borat ‘exploited’ during the film, and how awful it is. For example, this is written by one of the feminists who appear in the film, and this Daily Mail article talks about the people from the village that was supposed to be Borat’s hometown. (It was actually filmed in Romania).

Both articles are kicking up a fuss about being exploited, and claiming they didn’t know that Borat was taking the piss out of them, and so on. “Oh no!”, you’d think, “this is awful!”. However- I reckon this could just be some excellent marketing on the part of 20th Century Fox.

The latest TV adverts for Borat show clips of audience reaction to the film: nightvision sequences of people laughing. Borat is clearly a ’slow burning’ film publicity-wise, as it only had a limited release in America, yet has done spectacularly well because of word of mouth and people talking about it. If people keep talking about it – and not just people news and blogs too, then more people will go and see it to see what all of the fuss is about.

What I’m trying to say is that I wouldn’t be surprised if all of these stories were planted, and designed to be something nice and relatively throwaway that the sensationalist media can pick up on and cause a fuss about.

Don’t be surprised if the man from the Rodeo turns up in the news talking about how he was duped and exploited anytime soon.

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Official James O’Malley Competition
November 10th, 2006 at 02:39

Roll up, roll up, whatever that means. I’m holding a bit of a competition. By which I mean, I’m trying to dig myself out of a financial and social black-hole.

I have a bit of a dialemma- I’ve got two tickets to go and see Less Than Jake, and Dropkick Murphys supported by another fairly big band who’s name I can’t recall, at Nottingham Arena on Wednesday. That’s the 15th November.

Unfortunately, JD was rather put-off by the whole (hed)p.e “experience”, and all of my ‘punk’ friends are away at university, so I’m looking for someone to be the second ticket. I need someone to go to the gig with, as I don’t want to go on my own (if I’m gunned down on the rough streets of Nottingham they’ll be no other witnesses), so why don’t you come with me?

If you live nearby (as in, Leicestershire), I’ll even drive you there! The best bit is that you’ll get an evening with James O’Malley!

I will let you have the ticket for: free. You can give me some money if you want, though.

Anyone want to come? Post a comment below or MSN me (james@jamesomalley.co.uk).

If hell freezes over and more than one of you want to come, I’ll choose who wins through a secret system of individual merits, geographic proximity and if I think you’re a nutter or not.

I have a similar ticketing dialemme with regard to the greatest band in the world, Propagandhi, in December, so contact me if you’d like to go and see them too.

Edit: Problem solved! A person has been found!

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Legalise Slavery
November 5th, 2006 at 22:42

With the focus of the world’s attention on the Middle East at the moment, the media seem to have forgotten something: Africa is shitted-up big time. (That’s a technical politics term you learn at degree level).

Like many before me, from the woman who cuts my hair (“nuke ‘em all”) to Bob Geldof (“give them your fucking money”), I too have been wondering how to solve this problem. And I think I’ve come up with an obvious, yet brilliant solution: Legalise Slavery. Again.

I mean, you only have to look at the statistics*. In Ghana, the unemployment rate is 20%, with 37% living below the poverty line (its like the equator but with less food and wealth). In Liberia its even worse: 85% unemployment, and 80% living in poverty. Two hundred years ago these places were major trade centres exporting goods to the Americas.

Legalising slavery would mean that the people in these countries would be guarenteed a job, home and food- as it’d all be provided by their slave masters…. for free! Sounds good to me!

And think of the outside investment that’ll come flooding back into west Africa… even the people who don’t become slaves will be better off because of it, as local warlords will be rounding up people to become slaves.

Bigger ships exist these days, so the slave ships wouldn’t have as poor conditions as the old ones… and at the end of the journey, the slaves will be in AMERICA, land of opportunities- which is much wealthier than Africa! Sugar production will be on the increase again meaning cheaper sugar for everyone. And the shackles and torture equipment industry will enter a new golden age!
And this will decrease the population of Africa! Leaving more food and resources for everyone left behind!

So yeah, lets legalise slavery! Who’s with me? Oh.
* (source: CIA World Factbook)

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Saddam to die
November 5th, 2006 at 16:35

So, Saddam’s been sentenced to death. Way to go, non-barbaric post-Saddam Iraqi society!

I mean, if I was in charge of Iraq and wanted to take the moral highground over Saddam, I’d definately do exactly the same thing that Saddam used to do. State-sponsored murder is exactly the way to gain credibility as a friendly progressive state.

In fact, when I hear good news, the first thing I do is wildly fire small arms into the air. That’s definately not going to end in more problems.

It’s funny that on the news the pro-Saddam crowds protesting are unarmed and the anti-Saddam ones celebrating are waving pistols about and firing AK47s into the air with gay abandon.

Its interesting that whilst Ireland and Spain have said “Boooo, death penalty” in response, Britain’s Margaret Beckett has made a statement that an arms dealer would be proud of…

“Appalling crimes were committed by Saddam Hussein’s regime. It is right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice.”

Is it right that when those accused of such crimes against Tony Martin should face Tony Martin justice?

I don’t know why I expected the international community to have any integrity when the verdict was read out- its not like they’ve got a history of it.

Gaaaaah.

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Borat
November 5th, 2006 at 02:26

Like every other young person this weekend, I went to see the new Borat film, with JD and Gina. I mean, I went with JD and Gina, I doubt every other young person did too.

Excellently, Gina has just had some major surgery which meant that she has to wear a sort of exo-skeleton. So I did the appropiate thing and made jokes at her expense all evening. “Do you walk sideways like a crab because of your exoskeleton?”, and so on. As JD and Gina will confirm, I was on the A-material all evening- and it has given me new faith in my ability to take the piss out of people recovering from traumatic operations.

The film was good though- although I dare say not as excellent as the critics/students would make out. It didn’t really know what it wanted to be. The scripted bits were funny in places, and during the so-called “non-scripted” bits where Borat meets real life Americans, rather than laughing at the absurdity, I found myself constantly thinking “this must be scripted”.

I think the give-away was the fact that during the “crazy” events that happend in the real world, a camera was following Borat around… destroying any illusion that the people wouldn’t know what was going on. There’s one seen where Borat and his producer run naked through a hotel into a conference full of business people… the fact that cameras are following them around spoils the illusion that the general public don’t know what’s going on… it’d be blindingly obvious that a film or TV series is being made.

I think the best bits were during the rodeo segment. Borat talks to a rodeo manager, who goes on to make massively racist and homophobic remarks… entirely seriously. Borat then goes and speaks to the audience, getting the Americans to cheer when he says that he believes in “America’s War of Terror”.

There were other bits that were clearly not-scripted which were good too. He tries to buy a gun and asks the clerk behind the counter what he’d need to kill a jew, and the clerk proceeds to actually recommend some weapons.

I was surprised that there actually was a general narrative running throughout the film- but I won’t spoil this.

Overall, it was good. There’s plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, so it’s probably worth going to see.

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InActivism
November 3rd, 2006 at 15:22

I’d imagine if you read this blog extensively, you’ll get the impression that I’m a left-leaning studenty type who feels passionately about a number of issues. You’d only be half right.

The trouble is, that for all of the talking and complaining I do about certain issues, I don’t think I have many strong opinions… and I’m supposed to be a politics student. I mean, yeah, I think Tony Blair has blood on his hands, and I think nuclear weapons are a bad idea- and I really dislike conservative politics and religion (as you might have guessed), but I don’t really feel strongly enough about any issues to go on a protest or cause a fuss about them. Essentially I’m a terrible activist.

I was trying to write about the proposal to ban flag burning earlier this week- I’m really opposed to this idea. If I were a good political activist, I’d talk about freedom of expression, and the right to protest against the state, but in reality, most of my opposition to this proposal is because I think flag burning looks really cool, and I’ve love to go on a protest and burn a flag.

I guess part of the problem is despite being a political junkie, I don’t have any well defined political opinions. I’m pretty damn liberal on the social scale of things, I believe in equal rights for women, gays blacks and poor people, but being male, heterosexual, white, and somewhat middle-class, I don’t ever feel compelled to really fight for change, as society is already in my favour. Economically I daresay I probably lean to the left a bit, but I can sympathise with the view that the free market can be alright for say, telecommunications (but not in schools or hospitals, please). I’m not a member of any political party (anymore), so I can’t campaign for anyone, and I am knowledgeable enough to know that for every good thing a politician does, they no doubt do a million bad things, so I can’t sincerely encourage people to vote for someone.

I think I define a lot of my opinions by what I don’t like. I don’t like the Conservative party- but I don’t like the Labour Party that much either. I mean, as much as I hate commoditising air and selling it in cans (as the Tories might do), I dislike the fact that Blair has taken Britain into an illegal war. There’s no such thing as an “anti-Conservative Party” club, unless I want to join the “I heart the Labour Party” club. So I can’t be a proper political activist because it would involve supporting things I don’t support.

I can’t even bring myself to feel too strongly about any individual issues. Yeah, I know that global warming is bad, and I know that people are starving in Africa, but what else can I do aside from donate some money to comic relief and switch on an air-conditioner and point it at the polar ice caps?

I know there’s a genocide occuring in Sudan, I know there’s a brutal military regime in Burma, I know that civil liberties are being curbed worldwide under the guise of fighting an imaginary terrorist villain, but I’ll still get more worked up about ITV dumbing down again, or the frontpage of the Daily Express. I guess this makes me the perfect proletarian that the governments and corporations of the world have wrapped up in a consumer society hooked on self-interest and personal greed to disguise a world system built on the exploitation and subdigation of others and keeping the masses surpressed and maintaining the status-quo, whilst keeping me happy enough to not complain about the illusion of democracy that keeps debate firmly lodged in the centre and restricts any outside ideas thus provoking apathy amongst the vast majority of the population. The only time I’ll be sticking it to the man is when I complain that the DVD I just bought has a small scratch on it.

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