blog407

I have recently came to the conclusion, not that it is in anyway revolutionary, that at least in my head that racism does not exist only stupidity.
Yes, I do agree with the fact that people should be entitled to their own opinions, so if they want to be racist they can be,I'm still going to call them stupid,in the same way that I would call someone who wanted to jump of a bridge to make themselves look cool, stupid, no matter how much they thought what they were doing was the right thing to do.
Therefore I have decided to not become offended as I have in the past, by racist comments,however I will question them when I hear them, make my views about them be known and tell whoever I here say them that I think they are stupid, in the same way that I would if I heard someone saying they wanted to jump off a bridge to make themselves look cool.
I'm afraid this post appears to be written in a very childish way but its late and I'm finding it hard to describe my thoughts in any other way.

Recently I acquired tickets to go see one half of 'The Moldy Peaches' otherwise known as Kimya Dawson. Lately her music has been thrust in to the spotlight as it featured heavily in the film 'Juno', an international success. It was this that made me slightly anxious about attending the performance, would it simply be full of 13 year olds who thought she was "just so cute"? or would there be anyone there had appreciated her music for more than half a year?
Well I was happy to find that the crowd consisted mainly of the latter and as a result of this the venue had an enjoyable, chilled out atmosphere in it. It was only a very small venue, although this suited the performance perfectly as it allowed Dawson to interact with the crowd easily, I almost felt like I just happened to be sharing a room with a friend who had brought their guitar along with them to 'give us a few tunes'.
It was a very enjoyable night overall and if you haven't heard of her I would almost certainly recommend you look into her music. She plays an incredibly simple and usually hilarious style of music, which if you enjoy upon your first listen, you will soon grow to love.
Her website is http://www.kimyadawson.com for those of you who are interested =)

I understand that this information may be a couple of years old* but surely things can't have changed that much. According to the research of G Ritzer (an Amercian Sociologist), despite the fact Starbucks prides itself on being a company that promotes and encourages Fair Trade coffee, only approximately 4% of the products it sells are Fair Trade.
This is despite the fact that if you were to visit the Starbucks webpage(http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/press.asp) you would find at least a couple of articles describing how it aids farmers and communities greatly, in third world countries.
So I decided to find out for myself whether or not this could possibly be true. I visited my local Starbucks and found that there was only one Fair Trade product available. Frankly I find this a little disappointing, it wouldn't be so bad if the it different provide leaflets, in each of its shops, with the smiling faces of third world farmers that Starbucks has helped.
Should they be doing more?

*I believe the information was collected around about 2006, I'm not 100% sure of that though

In the past couple of months,I have grown to learn and began to love a band known as Death Cab For Cutie. For those of you who are not familiar with the band, they have just released their sixth album (Narrow Stairs) and tend to play a variety of Indie-Pop and Rock.
The band, in general, are far more popular in the USA than they are here in the UK and to be honest, this contributes largely to my attraction towards them. I have found a band that although are incredibly talented (their success in the USA proves this), they are not the type of band who you would see on every television channel or hear on every radio station in the UK. That is until now...
I have to admit, even though I have only began to really appreciate them in the last 5 months at most, I was positively excited by the upcoming release of Narrow Stairs. This was until I began to see literally hundreds of posters and advertisements in every bus station, subway station and all over the internet. I even came across their picture on the main page of iTunes (which i consider to be an obvious marker of popularity), so it appears their popularity is growing rapidly.
I am of course pleased for the band, as they are coming closer to what I assume is one of every bands dreams,to send some kind of message to the whole world,however I am also just a little disappointed.
I am a huge music lover and part of the reason for this is that i believe that it genuinely can helps to escape from everything and anything because I have a completely unique taste which reminds me that I'm different from everyone else and that I don't necessarily follow the trends. I understand that Death Cab are a band that are in general very successful however, at least in my extended social circle, very little is known about them, so to some extent I have felt recently like I am in on some kind of amazing secret. Although now that feeling has disappeared because they are literally everywhere, the secret is out.
So after much thought I have decided that I am not going to listen to or buy the new album,at least for a couple of months because I believe being constantly surrounded by the music and advertising and having the feeling that I'm just following the crowd would mean that I would become sick of the album very quickly and not really be able to enjoy or appreciate it.
I hope that people understand that I am not simply some kind of 'stuck up wannabe indie-kid who simply refuses to conform' (that oh so well known phrase), because I'm genuinely not (at least I'm fairly sure I'm not), it just seems that there is less of an appeal because they are becoming "cool". I also hope that there are other people who feel like this about certain bands or else maybe authors or directors and that I am not just being incredibly stupid. Someone back me up?