Shit that happened in the year

Well I had a shot at writing a short story earlier, but it was absolute drivel. Later tonight I may stick one of my old ones up here.

So, for now, I decided to write about my experiences this year, seeing as the new year is almost upon us. And I threw in a few major (and I mean major as in, ‘I can distinctly remember this happening because it was weird/wonderful’; not: ‘this news shook the world’) news stories. Please bear in mind that I’m not the most up-to-date person when it comes to current events. To be honest a lot of the news is very samey, in my eyes anyway.

January: After I told all my friends I was leaving to move to Turkey, and they had thrown me a ‘bon voyage’ party (and made a rather spectacular Beatles cake) I announced that I had changed my mind and decided to stay in sunny old England. I had planned to finish my study  in Istanbul, but after it took them ages to get back to me about accommodation, and a rather spectacular freak out on my account, I pulled out (snigger).  Luckily they (my friends) didn’t seem to mind, unlike my university, who gave me a ticking off for wasting their time, blah blah. Ah well, I’m sure they got over it. Mind you, there was a rumour going round that the international department was on the cusp of being closed down. Two totally unrelated events I’m sure.

Meanwhile, in Haiti, a devastating earthquake occurs. And celebrities decide the situation needs a special song to raise funds.

February: Big news event? Shrove Tuesday. The nation goes mad for pancakes. Except me, as I exhausted the idea of pancakes in my first year of uni, alongside my housemates. Our addiction grew so bad that we would go door to door begging for flour and eggs. Not much of note going on in my personal life, spent most of our time in Blue Rooms of Bath or at university struggling to come up with a dissertation topic. Meanwhile I found this clip of the Northern Ballet Theatre students flipping pancakes. Splendid. In all honesty their combined dance and pancake flipping skills left much to be desired. http://northernballet.com/index.php?q=node/795

March: And so winter rolled into spring as it inevitably does, and it was time to crack out the factor 50, (hey I’m fair skinned!) And that’s all I can remember about March. Was Easter in March or April this year? 

April: Dissertation panic sets in. After avoiding my history teacher for 3 months it was time to bite the bullet and get help. I bravely announced my topic was punk music. A horrified silence ensued, followed by a, ‘So what’s that got to do with history?’ My amazing reply? ‘Err it happened in the past therefore its history!’

20 minutes later, made up of arguing and tears (hers, after I jabbed her in the eye for giving me back chat) it was agreed my dissertation would be on feminism and punk. Except I have very few feminist beliefs. Men usually are better than us. I mean us women, we’re good, but men tend to do things better. Lol, I’m such a subservient whore. But that’s another kettle of sperm herring. But in punk music, women did okay I guess (which was the general conclusion of my dissertation) Here is an excerpt of my dissertation (for legal copyright reasons some of this ((probably all of it though,))is stolen from the web)

‘‘Punk was central to an understanding of the resurgence of youth politics in Britain during its years. Though it did not banish the unpopularity of left wing politics it instead proved to be a mobilising and energising force, which has helped to consolidate developments such as Rock against racism. In the late 1970’s Rock against racism was set up when various artists such as Eric Clapton and David Bowie made inflammatory racist gestures and comments.                                        

There were also overlaps between the degree of punk style and feminist style which are more than just coincidental. Although the stiletto heels, miniskirts and suspenders, were, despite their exposed connotations, still unpalatable to many feminists, both punk girls and feminists wanted to overturn the accepted ideas about what constitutes femininity, and often used similar stylish devices to upset notions of ‘public propriety.’[1]’’

GOOD EH??!!

---

[1] A.McRobbie, feminism and Youth Culture, (Mac Press 1995) p.41