It's been a while since my last update, but here's a quick little story that made me chuckle.
Moviemaker James Cameron has re-edited a scene in Titanic showing stars sparkling in the night sky - after a leading astronomer told him the astral alignment was incorrect.
Cameron tells Culture magazine, "Oh, there is one shot that I fixed. It's because Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is one of the US' leading astronomers, sent me quite a snarky email saying that, at that time of year, in that position in the Atlantic in 1912, when Rose is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is not the star field she would have seen, and with my reputation as a perfectionist, I should have known that and I should have put the right star field in.
"So I said, 'All right, you son of a b**ch, send me the right stars for the exact time, 4.20am on April 15, 1912, and I'll put it in the movie.' So that's the one shot that has been changed."
Not a lot of people would probably notice, but it's interesting and amusing all the same.
Phobia: An extreme or irrational fear of, or aversion to something.
Last night, there was a programme on the BBC called The Magicians. During the show, a magician swallowed a maggot and described its journey through his sinuses before making it pop out of his eye, with the camera close up so you see the whole eye plus maggot.
Cool trick aside, I didn't think it at the time. You see, through the whole thing, I was getting more and more disgusted and agitated. When the trick came to its final climax, I screamed and ran into the kitchen in tears. Why the reaction? Since I was a child, I have been terrified of maggots. I remember the trigger; I was eating an outdoor meal with my family when a maggot came out of my food and crawled up my arm. I didn't notice it until I felt it on my skin and when I realised, I freaked. I didn't know what it was at the time - to my child mind, the only thing I associated with wriggling creatures was snakes (we lived in tropical climes). When I screamed that there was a tiny snake on my arm, my mother took it upon herself to poke and tickle me, declaring she saw more on my body.
I haven't been able to stand maggots since. I had learnt about them not long after, but knowing they ate flesh did nothing for my fear. Now I was even more convinced I didn't want them near me, despite reassurances that they were harmless and only ate rotting flesh. That's the funny thing about developing a fear, I suppose. No matter how much you rationalise it, no matter how much you think it's just a silly fear, when you are facing it, all reason flies out of your head.
I guess I'm at a bit of an advantage with my fear. Maggots aren't usually common to see around (here anyway - they were everywhere when I was growing up in Brunei), so sometimes I forget how scared I get around them until I see one. There are times when I can take it better than others. I enjoy crime dramas like CSI, so seeing a decaying body with a swarm of the creatures gets my hackles up, but not much more. The difference with The Magicians I think is the fact it was a live studio audience at the time, combined with the extreme stunt. But it was a stark reminder of how "not okay" I was with them.
In describing this to one of my best friends, she pointed something out to me with some irony. I should be more understanding towards her and her phobia of spiders as a result. It was a slap in the face, I have to admit. I used to tease her about spiders and often cited my sadness and displeasure at her killing them when they were so easy to catch and release outside. Using my own fear as her example, I realised how cruel I had been to her in suggesting she catches them and release them, because I wouldn't be able to do that with a maggot.
It's strange how you get hit with a lesson you didn't realise you needed to learn. I would still encourage her to face her fear, just as I would hope someone would support me if and when I have to see one again. But maybe now I'd be a little more aware when I laugh when she screams at the sight of a house spider. I know I don't appreciate being laughed at for screaming at a maggot.
Comedy is a hard business, I can understand that. After all, it's difficult to cater for a wide audience with different opinions on what's funny. I myself boast a sometimes strange sense of humour (according to people around me, and my bad/odd attempts at jokes). There are times though where jokes are little more than attacks on people and then the lines of humour blur. I refer to the infamous BBC event known as "Sachsgate", where comedians Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand had phoned up Andrew Sachs, an elderly actor and started ragging on him about his grandaughter and making very lewd and crude comments that no grandfather wants to hear. Especially whilst live on radio air time. Now, whilst it may be a "harmless" prank call, it did distress someone who is basically a pensioner in the name of comedy - that leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
However, that leads me onto something else. Reading this article on Yahoo News, I can't help but wonder whether people need to lighten up just a tad. I happen to be a fan of Top Gear; whilst my knowledge of automotives barely goes beyond identifying different models, the humour and stunts in the series makes it for some very entertaining viewing. Whilst watching the series, you also become familiar with the humour the presenters have - brash, laddish, quite often crude but good-natured. I mean, c'mon! Jeremy Clarkson is not exactly known for his tact and finesse with the English language! The editor highlighted a particular piece of dialogue that actually had me in stitches and wish I caught this particular episode.
Hammond: ...Cars reflect national characteristics, don't they, so German cars are very well built and ruthlessly efficient, Italian cars are a bit flamboyant and quick, a Mexican car's just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight... leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus, with a blanket with a hole in the middle as a coat. May: It is interesting, isn't it, because they can't do food, the Mexicans, can they? Because it's all like sick with cheese on it, I mean... Hammond: Refried sick! May: Yeah, refried sick. Hammond: I'm sorry, but just imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican: 'awww, no'. Clarkson: No, it'd be brilliant... because you could just go straight back to sleep again.
Okay, so they went after the stereotype of Mexicans. So what? We're all guilty of using a stereotype to make jokes about particular groups - the English can't cook and are uptight, the French are pompous chickens, the Germans are no-nonsense doms, the Italians are very...metrosexual. And it maybe that they hate Mexican food, and whilst I love the stuff, it can sometimes look less than appetising (presentation is the key - it's so easy to make a nice burrito fall apart into a gloopy, meaty, spicy mess that does sometimes look like it was digested once already). Now, that exchange doesn't strike me as anything spicy or controversial. The only shocking thing on there to me was that most of it was Hammond and not Clarkson! Whilst browsing about the Internet on this, I did come across one youtube video of a Mexican giving his own commentary about the storm in a teacup.
I will conceed on one point he made - yes, the stereotype used was an American born one and you can accuse the Top Gear team in being lazy with their jokes. But really, a stereotype's purpose is supposed to be a quick caricature of a group that everyone can recognise and unfortunately for this guy, this does mean that we Brits are more familiar with the American version. Perhaps he could petition one of the more upper brow comedians to make a higher class of stereotypical joke - Stephen Fry comes to mind but I think he's still trying to dig himself out of his Japan shaped hole.
It seems people just want an excuse to be angry or outraged nowadays for no reason. Okay, so these three boy-men are on the world stage now thanks to Internet TV, but I think they wouldn't do too bad in showcasing British humour. Next to other classic British examples Frankie Boyle or Al Murray, I think these three boys are pretty tame. Let them have their playground humour and let's laugh with them.
