I've been absent from Uni a few days due to feeling quite a lot under the weather. Part illness, part run down, part just feeling a little down-hearted. This morning I found myself browsing the Internet looking for some good things to watch to occupy myself between work and general rest...
The weird thing with the internet is that it's like a chain reaction. You search for something of interest, find something in some way related to that something of interest and thus a chain reaction begins until you force yourself to break it. This is the case with me anyway.
I started off looking on YouTube at some musicals. A random and camp thing I know, but what can cheer the soul more than a musical number with a bit of dancing and general OTT-ness which musicals so greatly perfect?
After a while I had watched songs from many films which fall under the 'musical' genre. I then moved on to stage musicals (mainly Avenue Q and Billy Elliot). While watching the Avenue Q ditty about racism (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbQiSVeQwVQ&feature=related) cleverly titled 'Everyone's a little bit racist', I suddenly remembered a documentary I saw on Channel 4 a while back about the BNP. This was of course triggered by the word 'racist'... see the chain reaction there?
I found the documentary I was looking for, cleverly titled 'Young, Nazi and Proud', which you can, if you so wish, view here http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7842826632184074561#. I find it really interesting, it's certainly worth a watch.
I then went on to watch a documentary on the BBC iPlayer about the transition from board games to computer games. There is no link as such from the last doc to this one, apart from the fact I then felt I wanted to watch some docs and so hunted on the BBC for some. The doc dragged a bit and I turned it off after around 20 Min's and went onto 4OD instead, where I found two pretty decent documentaries about family.
The first was the cleverly titled '8 boys and wanting a girl' which was pretty much what was said on the tin. It followed a few families and parents who had only had boys and who were desperate for a girl. It showed some of the things they do to try and get a girl, from herbal supplements to modern scientific techniques, but most of all it really showed a desperation in some people for an ideology that they have dreamed of for so long. It was quite heart-breaking in places, emotional. I cried.
Before I go any further, let me explain that I cry at everything. I would probably cry if Tigger got lost in the woods, y'know?
Anyway... One family out of the three that were followed ended up with a girl. One of them got pregnant again with boy number 5, and the other ended up not pregnant at all.
The last one I watched was called 'Wild Things' which was about a group of 1970's idealistic adults who all chose to raise their children in a collective environment, without any set parents or even a set name. These children were born in a household where they would have a number of parents, brothers and sisters and family, who were not exactly related. The documentary caught up with them to see if this ideology had stuck and carried on.
It became clear many just went on to lead normal lives, but none resented the upbringing they had. I found it really interesting because I have at times wondered what it would be like, and personally I imagine it to be a pretty amazing environment I would maybe, one day, like to test and see if it works with me. Although hard to explain, I feel cohabitation and a collective environment would possibly be quite an amazing experience, and one which I could easily imagine myself to be a part of...
But anyway. It was interesting.
Other than that I watched an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba and looked at some cover versions of Joni Mitchell songs on YouTube, one of my favourites of which is this one by Diana Krall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGrsc5FeQDs. I also did the usual checking of Facebook, answering emails, looking at Twitter, general browsing and then topping it all off with this blog to tell you exactly what I did in a long and boring fashion for no reason other than wanting to share my days worth of internet adventure with you.
I expect nobody has read this, or that if someone did they got past the first paragraph or first few sentences then gave up... but either way, it's been an interesting day and I will now go and watch a documentary called 'Ashes to Diamonds' which explores what people do with their loved ones after they die. I imagine it will simply be an emotional doc which focuses on people not wanting to part with someone who means a lot to them and the amazing and wacky ways that people will attempt to overcome this, probably ending on the ashes of the dead being turned into a diamond ring as the title suggests.
I shall enjoy it.
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Hey! (It's Annie.) I pretty much always read your blog :P I just usually talk about it on twitter. But I watched the 'Wild Child' doc the other week (it'll be there on my profile, if you can be bothered to scroll through), and I so thought the same thing! I think I could totally live like that. So long as there was no weird sex cult kind of thing going on, like in some other communes. Bit too weird. But what I perceive to be the comfort/safety of this kind of communal living would, I reckon, be kind of a nice way to live. :)
ReplyDeleteWe could totally start our own commune. :P
I read it all the way through. XD Interesting study of linkage.
ReplyDeleteAnnie... I agree! The way of living shown in that program is one which I feel could be quite an adventure. Although I'm a little unsure about children not having a set parent/parents, I do feel being raised in a community like theirs could be beneficial in some way, though the people who were raised in that program didn't seem to appreciate it all that much maybe, but still look fondly on it.
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting.
And thank you Shiloh :) I very much appreciate your support! Linkage indeed.