It's A Wonderful Life

I thought I would write a review of Christmas. Normally this would be the perfect opportunity to reaffirm my place as the favourite Son of Satan, but I have decided to buck the trend of this blog and give you a few reasons to be hopeful this year. There were no three ghosts for me, but I realised that Scrooge was actually a good man. I had my apparitions in three other ways and here they are...


Spend Spend Spend
Buying Christmas presents is a typically indecisive and frustrating chore. How do I decide which shitty gift pack out of Boots would suit a particularly difficult grandparent? This year I have adapted the 'that'll do' method. It's quite simple. Basically you just look at something, say 'that'll do', and put it in the basket. It could be anything as long as 'that'll do'. My grandmother loved the Black and Decker handy-screw. Quick and efficient and you can afford to leave buying gifts until the last minute as it can all be done in half a day.

The Machine Rages On
The arch capitalist Simon Cowell's pop machine has had a proverbial spanner thrown in the works. Rage Against The Machine are Christmas number one over the pretty Joe something. The effect may be temporary but taken as it is, a fluttering comment rubbishing the charts, it shows that we are not merely a nation of consuming zombies (ironic by the methods by which it was achieved - so we're still suckers).
I fear that Simon Cowell actually believes that he is good for music. Untrue. Being good for music does not mean standing by with a cheque book ready to back the latest soulless puppet singing an existing sure fire ballad, but being good for music means nurturing talent and giving it time to mature. Like a good cheese it will be more expensive. There is a difference between venture capitalism and nurturing talent and making cheese, although realism states that the three must meet somewhere. Simon Cowell does not meet even near the middle. He uses people to sing other peoples songs to be good for his bank balance and in a way that represents the maximum return on investment. This is fine but I feel it unfair to claim otherwise. Rage on!

Che Who?
I'm not sure why but there was a Che Guevara documentary presented by Nick Hancock on TV on Christmas morning. The place of this program on the schedule, when I was expecting a tirade of stale Christmas themed programs was a surprise as was the host whom I hadn't associated with The Revolution. Now I know a little more about the man famed for his t-shirt enterprise - but not enough to wear said t-shirt. This Christmas twist keeps the Red Flag flying inappropriately at the heart of the capitalist wet dream of Christmas. I might have smiled.

These are my reasons why Christmas 2009 was not so bad.