Pages

Wednesday 18 October 2017

The Dolls In The Window

A world behind glass that music can't penetrate
Selling the dream of happiness
The price
Become plastic
Like the dolls in the window.

Mannequins are not there for people
To imagine themselves in their place
They are what we must become.

Unmoving, unfeeling, perfectly static
Still in time
Sculptures for the world to observe
Breathing photographs.

Until breathing can end too.

If only those mannequins could dance
If they heard the music and swayed
They won't
We never gave them the option.

Alive, uncontrollable, unpredictable
Words which are not good for business
Emotions are only good if they mean cash.

But music is freedom and freedom is life
If we never stop to listen
We will never be free
Never see we've become
Like the dolls in the window.


I wrote this poem last week when I was out for a walk in Oxford Street late at night. The shops were closed, the streets were almost empty and a man was playing wonderful music on his keyboard in front of John Lewis. Nobody stopped to listen, people walked past without even turning his way.

Why do we not hear the music?

Thursday 7 September 2017

THE MIST: The 2017 TV Series VS The 2008 Movie & The 1980 Book

*Spoilers Ahead*

Not entirely true to the original Stephen King 1980 book plot or the 2007 film, the new 2017 tv show The Mist offers a new take on the story, with new storylines and sub plots, while keeping some of the original elements of the previous versions of the story.

The Mist Book

The Common Premise

The story is set in a small American town, Bridgeville, Maine (originally Bridgton, Maine), which is suddenly covered in a strange mist. If you've read a few Stephen King stories, nothing good ever happens in Maine! In the book and film versions, the mist appears after a strange thunderstorm, during which the power is lost, so most residents go to pick up supplies from town in the morning. In the tv show, we see the mist approaching the town slowly over a period of a day or so, during which everyone in town goes about their lives as usual and the electricity is actually only lost a couple of days after the mist arrives.

The Mist film

In all cases, the residents of the town find themselves in various locations, essentially trapped inside stores, with strange monsters roaming free outside and no way to communicate with their loved ones or call for help. Issues like limited supplies, ongoing rivalries and religious interpretations of what the mist is all about arise and our characters are called to find effective solutions. Of course, there's also a lot of panic and monsters and a lot of people die in the process, because it is of course a horror story.

The Protagonist And His Family

In the book and film the main protagonist is David with his little son Billy, who get trapped in the local supermarket. David's wife is left home at the start of the events and is killed off by monsters. While her death is uncertain in the book, it is confirmed in the movie.

For the tv show, a new protagonist has been created, Kevin Copeland. He finds himself at the police station when the mist arrives, then moves to the church and eventually heads towards the mall, in order to find and rescue his wife Eve and teenage daughter Alex, who get trapped at the mall from the beginning. Kevin seems strong and determined, the classic movie protagonist who somehow despite being an ordinary guy manages to fight monsters and other people and still survive.

the mist protagonists


A new sub plot about Alex getting raped the night before the mist has been written into the tv show and becomes a big plot device as the series goes on, with some characters blaming the rapist for the mist and the rest blaming Alex herself for allegedly lying about it altogether. While at the beginning we believe the rapist is Jay, the chief's son whom she likes, we soon find out the real rapist is her best friend Adrian, who is actually mentally ill and eventually kills his father and tries to kill Kevin too.

Towards the end Jay actually sacrifices his life to save Alex, after her family is thrown out of the mall to die, allowing them to escape to the car. Kevin reverses the car towards the mall's glass door, shattering it and thus letting the mist kill everyone inside.

the mist Jonah Mia

Mia & Bryan/Jonah

Two new characters are created for the tv show to act as supporting characters to Kevin and help him in his attempt to get back to his family. Mia, a drug addict who kills a man at the beginning of the show and is put in prison for trespassing on her mother's old house and Bryan, a soldier with memory loss, who is the first person to see the mist at the start of the show and runs into town to warn everyone. Of course the police chief doesn't believe his story and puts him inside a cell next to Mia. When the mist arrives Kevin frees both of them so they can help him find his family and slowly a romance develops between Mia and Bryan.

While Mia's story is all about feeling guilty about her mother and eventually overcoming it and wanting a better life for herself in the future, the moment she begins to be hopeful and trust Bryan (who by that point has found out his real name is Jonah), he abandons her, in order to find out who he really is and why his memories are gone. His backstory is never really explained and is left for the next season.

The Mist Tv Show

The Crazy Religious Lady

In all versions of the story, the main antagonist is an old lady, who starts from the sidelines and slowly takes control and gathers followers around her. In the original plot, Mrs Carmody is with the group in the supermarket and tries to convince everyone that the mist will go away if they offer a human sacrifice. When she tries to have the protagonist's son killed she gets shot in the abdomen and dies.

The tv show introduces a different crazy old lady, Nathalie Raven. She is the protagonists' neighbour and is shown to be in tune with nature. As soon as the mist arrives, her husband is shot in the head in front of her and she seeks refuge in the church, where she claims to communicate with insects and slowly turns the congregation to her side, leading up to a test of faith between her and the priest, with them going outside and the priest being dragged away by the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

The Mist Tv Show

After gaining full control of the situation, she convinces everyone that the mist is here as a punishment for Alex's rape and that the only solution is to offer the rapist to the mist. While everybody agrees, all but the police chief and a couple refuse to follow her to the mall, so she locks them inside the church and sets it on fire before she leaves. Shortly after the couple is also left to be eaten alive by rats on the way to the mall. Inside the mall, she convinces the chief to let his son out in the mist, as they both believe him to be the rapist and wait for the mist to go away. At the end of the series, Mrs Raven dies with the rest of the people inside the mall, when the mist is let in.

Where Did The Mist Come From?

During the events of the story we find out about the mysterious Arrowhead Project, developed in the nearby military base. The book leaves a lot of the information about it up for speculation, the film explains it as an experiment to look into other dimensions and in the tv show it is not explained at all. However, Bryan/Jonah starts to have flashbacks about his time with the project and it is implied he played an important role in whatever experiments were taking place at the base. At the end of the first season, Johan and the last surviving soldier are on their way towards the base, hinting that the Arrowhead Project will finally be explained in season 2.

The Mist Tv Show


While in the book and film the mist seems to already contain certain monsters like giant insects and pterodactyl like animals, in the tv show the nature of the mist is not as fixed. While insects like moths and spiders do feature heavily, the mist appears to adapt to each person's fears and character and create a nightmare designed especially for them. Kevin sees and fights other versions of himself in the mist, while Mia confronts her dead mother and Nathalie sees her husband and a particularly creepy baby who eventually kills her. My personal favourite was the priest's death, by the four horsemen, reflecting exactly what he believed would happen in the apocalypse. While the question of faith is raised within the series, it appears that there is no real answer and each person gets what they believe in.

The Ending

So far the ending has been different in all versions of the story. Originally, some of the surviving characters drive away into the mist. It is never explained whether the mist would end, if it has covered the entire world nor do we ever find out what the Arrowhead Project was all about. This type of open ending is characteristic of Stephen King stories, where you usually don't know if the events of the story you're reading are in fact how the world ends. This is usually achieved through power failures and loss of any phone networks. Other common themes are people being trapped in a specific location, cut off from the rest of the world so that the reader never finds out what is happening outside that location.

the mist finale

The movie version of the story changed the ending into a more sinister version. In the last few minutes of the film, the main characters who have managed to escape to the car eventually run out of gas, without knowing whether the mist will ever go away. In order to avoid being killed by the monsters, they agree that David will shoot them so they can die quickly. As soon as he has killed all of them and is now waiting for some monster to come for him, the mist subsides, the army arrives victorious and the whole incident seems to be over, leaving him devastated at the realisation that if he had waited a few more minutes the others would still be alive.

The tv show of course is far from over, but so far most groups of survivors that we have seen are dead. The church group was burnt alive, the rest were killed by the mist monsters in the mall. Two working cars, one heading to Arrowhead and the other driving as far away as possible hold the remaining survivors, while the potential of more people hiding in their houses waiting to be introduced in season 2 still remains. At this point however, we are more or less at the point where the original storyline ends, leaving season 2 free to explore any different directions the creators want and allowing the tv show to stand on its own, without any ties to the original story.

the mist train scene

As a teaser of a larger conspiracy and what is to come in the next season, in the last moments of the series, Kevin and his family reach the train station, where a train is approaching. Despite originally regarding it as their salvation, when the train stops they see the windows are all covered and when the doors open convicts with orange jumpsuits are pushed out by soldiers, leading them to believe that they are trying to feed the mist and opening up the potential that the mist was hardly an accident at all.

Where Does The Mist Fit Into Current Tv Programming?

The Mist is best described as if Stranger Things and American Horror Story had a baby, but the baby did not inherit any of its parents' talent. There has been a lot of criticism about the violence, gore and graphic deaths in The Mist. While it is not uncommon for people to die in a horror show, be it on film or tv, the way you handle deaths can play a big role in how they are received.

The Mist Tv Show

A classic slasher movie will have a handful of characters that you expect to see die in horrible ways and it is in a way part of the fun. They are there to die and maybe one of the original group might survive in the end. Within the space of a two hour movie, most filmmakers only have time for the main events of the plot and not too much backstory and character development. Tv shows on the other hand are traditionally much better in developing their characters, giving everyone a backstory and helping the audience connect with them. When those characters die, the audience cares about it and is emotionally affected.

American Horror Story has managed to do this in every season perfectly. While we know that most of the characters will die and die horribly too, by that time we have already connected with them. They have a full personality, a story. In The Mist, the characters who die are not important. They are simply there to be killed in various ways and the audience doesn't actually care. From the church group, the only characters that matter are Nathalie and the chief. None of the others are given much backstory and are only there as plot devices to show that Nathalie is crazy. In the mall we only focus on Eve and Alex and their interactions with the rest. We never see what the other people are doing so when they all die we don't actually care.

The Mist Tv Show

Knowing that the main idea of the plot has been done successfully within two hours in the past, the lack of character development for the rest of the new characters feels like a big waste. Most of the extra time has been given to develop Kevin and his family, who all things considered are still not particularly interesting. In fact, the characters who get the best character arks are Mia and Adrian, who to put it very simply go from being bad to good and vice versa respectively.

The Mist Tv Show


Regarding the similarities with Stranger Things, the Mist is trying to create the whole monster government conspiracy plotline, inserting the character of Bryan/Jonah, who was the one who was experimented on and has escaped just like Eleven, the whole experiment leading to monsters being unleashed into the peaceful town and the ending implying that everything was planned in advance. However, Stranger Things gained a lot more points for the impressive child actors, the 80s nostalgia and the general atmosphere of the show, something The Mist lacks both in terms of the acting and any unique atmosphere.

The Verdict

As a Stephen King fan I did actually enjoy The Mist. Is it the best series ever? Not by far. But it is enjoyable nonetheless as a decent scary tv show with monsters. I can of course not deny that the series has its faults, particularly the fact that while a lot of the ideas are there, The Mist lacks its own unique style that would make it stand out the way Stranger Things or American Horror Story do. However, now that the show is done with the original storyline and all the undeveloped characters have been killed off, the remaining few characters are finally a good number of people to focus on in the next season so as to be able to pay sufficient attention to each one and also advance the story further.

The Mist Tv Show

I firmly believe that this series has the potential to become great in the following season (or seasons) and I hope the creators will take a lot of the feedback into account and push the boundaries beyond just being a standard American slasher in tv form. All this series needs is to find its own voice and it could really be great.

Score: 7/10


Monday 5 September 2016

Don't Call Your Pets Ugly; MedicAnimal's Problematic Ad Campaign

For the past few months there has been an ad campaign on the tube advertising MedicAnimal, an online marketplace for premium pet food and health products. The website's mission is to sell food that will ensure pets stay healthy and thus live longer, something that I definitely admire and agree with.

What I am finding increasingly problematic though is this advertising campaign, that never fails to annoy me every time I see it. At first look, the campaign seems to emphasise that you should love your lets no matter what, and give them the best quality products so that they live long healthy lives. That's great. 

But then why do you have to call them FUGLY?


Fugly, a word that in popular culture is created by combining the words 'fucking ugly' is definitely not a term you would normally use to describe someone in a favourable manner. MedicAnimal's advertising explains that their 'FUGLY' is actually created by combining the words 'fabulously ugly' which somehow is supposed to make us think that it is ok.

Consider the same advertising campaign applied to people: 'If you buy this healthy meal for your fabulously ugly friend you show them you love them despite how they look'. You know how many anti body shaming campaigns this would spark? Hundreds! The fact that this advert refers to pets does not excuse its inherently problematic thought process.

You are ugly but I love you anyway. = Your appearance is a valid reason for me not to love you.

In a society where people judge each other based on looks on an everyday basis, we have managed to make some pretty good steps towards stopping body shaming and holding ad campaigns that use it to sell products accountable. Yet, somehow doing the same things for pets passes under the radar. Probably because pets can not read.


Cats and dogs do not all look the same, the same way people look different. However, after decades of inbreeding in order to create different breeds, society seems to think that it is expected for dogs and cats to have a certain desirable appearance and look uniform across their breed. We even have dog shows and prizes awarded to the pets that look exactly like humans want them to look.

Sure, breeding may seem normal to us when it comes to pets, but again if you were to talk about humans in their place, you would be supporting eugenics. And if you tried to tell a group of what you think are beautiful people to only breed with their siblings to create babies that look exactly like them they would certainly lock you up. Yet, despite the obvious genetic side effects, this is normal for your pets. This has led to entire breeds having respiratory problems, cancers and other mutations that cause them to be in pain and die prematurely. But it is ok if they look good, right? You can always buy a new dog after the last one dies.

I hope the two paragraphs above have at least managed to make you uncomfortable. This may not be something that we openly discuss, but, especially when things cross a certain line, it is important to address the elephant in the room; and not because we want to call it ugly.


Your pets need love and care and yes, sure they deserve the best products you can get for them. But that is because they are living creatures, animals that you have taken in your care and have chosen to love and protect. Your pets will give you unconditional love and greet you with excitement when you get home without expecting anything in return.

Taking into account the fact that dozens of pets end up abandoned in the streets when they get too big for the house or grow old, it is important to teach people that pets are not just for christmas (as cliched as it may sound) and that pets need love no matter what they look like. Loving your ugly pet is not an achievement, it is a given if you want to be a good pet owner.

That is why ad campaigns like this are problematic, as they appear to normalise negative behaviours, in order to make the target audience buy their product and feel better about themselves for something that should be taken as a given. 

What they expect their customer to think is this:
- Not loving an ugly pet is normal
- My pet is ugly but I still love it
which results in
I deserve a pat on the back because I'm awesome and better than other people
and then turns into
This ad made me feel good about myself. I'm happy so I'll buy something for my pet.

You have a pet. It deserves the best you can give it without any need for further justification. Buy the best food for it.

And just because I believe in positive change, I look forward to the day we look at an animal and the concept of it being ugly does not even exist. It is a pet. It should be loved and hugged and taken care of. No buts, no prerequisites, nothing.

Till then, spread the love!

Monday 24 August 2015

Why London Is Obsessed With Childhood



Nostalgia has become very popular in recent years and that is a strange statement in itself to start with. I was always led to believe that nostalgia leaned towards the negative side of the emotional scope, however popular culture trends have proven me wrong. As it turns out, nostalgia is not only a desirable feeling but also a marketable product that in the right hands can turn great profits.
In terms of product sales, lead retailer Urban Outfitters have proven the model by bringing back Polaroid cameras, type writers and record players, thus turning vinyl sales from a niche market for serious collectors to a revitalised industry that attracts teenagers and millennials in general.


While the general public initially viewed this as things to sell to hipsters to make them feel special, it seems that these items from the past are here to stay, and the recent fashion trends are also confirming that a return to the late half of the past century is definitely a thing. So why is this happening?

People have always had a tendency to look back in time and romanticize earlier eras as a much simpler time when things were better. Renaissance artists looked to ancient Greek and Roman times, romantics looked back to the middle ages and an ideal pastoral past. This is best shown in Woody Allen’s film Midnight in Paris.


However I am not entirely convinced that this tendency towards nostalgia is so much an ideological move than a reaction towards the increasingly busier lifestyles Londoners are leading. While these pastel polaroids are a cute novelty to receive as a gift, ultimately we would all much rather take photos with a professional digital camera and are absolutely fascinated by the latest innovations in technology, such as flying drone cameras that follow you and capture moments from angles which previously impossible without a crane or a helicopter crew.

There is an increasing tendency for people to switch from items to experiences both as presents for friends and for themselves. Hundreds of people prefer to save up to travel the world instead of buying expensive material possessions, couples ask for their guests to put money towards their honeymoon instead of receiving 20 blenders [it is not confirmed that people still buy blenders as wedding gifts].


At the same time hundreds of new popups in London are now becoming much more than a new secret bar that just offers some fancy cocktails. Instead you have the immersive experience of Star Wars Secret Cinema andAlice in Wonderland, the Breaking Bad inspired ABQ van where you can cook your own cocktails and more importantly a long list of childhood themed events.

While you may argue that diving into a ball pit and jumping on a bouncy castle is fun I still have my doubts. I am being very honest when I say that I found those two incredibly annoying when I was a child, I could never really balance on the castle, I kept falling down and it was always a pain trying to figure out what exactly I was supposed to do inside the ball pit other than avoid stepping on another kid who though it would be funny to disappear under all the balls for a prank. ‘Sorry, I stepped on you kid. Well, not really. You shouldn’t have hidden there in the first place’. Saying that, I would much rather be at the swings or the slides or go jump in a pool, you know, with actual water instead of plastic balls. Call me crazy.

My point is that I sincerely want to challenge the concept of finding these activities fun because they are such in their nature, and before you say anything please think of eight bankers in their suits jumping inside a large bouncy castle, and would like to propose that the fun comes from doing something childlike in nature regardless of the specific activity.

Maybe the Frozen song Let it go became such a big hit and topped the charts, exactly because people wish they were able to let go for a bit too. Think of our daily London lives, the time consuming commute in the tube, the long hours most professionals work for and the stress all those things create. Then you have to pay your rent and bills while saving to get on the property ladder.


It’s not realistic at all that you can buy you dream house at the start, but a tiny flat will do, and about 40 years later, after having bought and sold several flats and houses you may end up with a decent sized family house somewhere in zone 7, just in time for when the kids leave for university and you are left alone walking around the empty rooms and asking yourself whether it was all worth it and whether you should downsize to a smaller house now as it is just the two of you again.

If you did not feel at least slightly anxious simply reading the above paragraph, I will have whatever you are having because it is clearly working. It is natural after all these daily issues that are constantly turning in our minds to want a break. Remember when all we had to do is ask our parents for new shoes or a new phone or an expensive toy? Ask and you shall receive. Maybe not right away, but for Christmas or for your birthday. No was not an acceptable answer and budget a completely foreign word.



This is what childhood was really about. The carefree mentality when all we had to do was play, have fun and just be kids. When someone else put food on the table and we would sing hakuna matata because we literally had nothing to worry about. So how do we try to reclaim some of that mentality and happiness?

Buying things we used back then is one way. It is not the polaroid camera in itself. It is the memories of us in that school trip back in year 6 when we took those funny photos with our best friends that we have not spoken to since college and are probably now married or something. It is the birthday party where all your classmates came and you had a massive bouncy castle that everyone wanted to go on and you played all evening and got to eat lots of cake and sleep late, even if it did make your stomach hurt.


Going to themed nights is another option, and it’s getting increasingly popular, as in these special events we can act like kids again, play around and have fun without thinking of the day job. It is exactly that state of carefree happiness that we are so desperately trying to get back and why we are so willing to spend our money to forget we are no longer children, even for a night. Childhood has become the new popular drug for London and we do not seem to get enough of it.

Themed nights, immersive experiences and drinking events in playgrounds are all about going back in time. Not in the time travelling sense where you experience a different era, but back to your own past. They are all about not being an adult for a few hours and letting out your inner child. If you are anything like me, that inner child could not wait to grow up. To be independent, have takeout for dinner, spend time with friends and sleep past their bedtime.


Now we are adults, all those things are easily attainable, but this freedom has come with the realisation that we should probably eat healthy, home cooked food is actually much better and if we don’t sleep enough going to work the next day without looking like zombies will be a challenge. So we are going back to the swings and slides, to a time when life was much simpler. Not life in general as an idea, but our own very tangible past.

While I should probably close with the moral of this article I have decided not to. Instead I will leave you to reflect for a couple of minutes. Think about your dreams, think about the last time you smiled sincerely or felt sincerely content with your life. Did we all just lose something growing up, and we are so desperate now to get it back or is it still up to us to be the adults we thought we would become?

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Modern Communication

I want to talk to you
tell you all the things I feel
but can't express.
But how can a ':' become poetry?
Closing a ')' opens up countless possibilities.
And if I put a '3' after a '<' my heart will be yours.

Thinking about you puts a smile on my face.
And I want to say so much more
than a  can express.
But an image is 1000 words and love
can write entire books - libraries even.
Can you read them in my emoji?

So I type and delete again
hopelessly trying to write a symphony
with the beeping of my keyboard.
Maybe then you can understand
just how being around you makes me feel.
Let's try again. :)  <3  :*

That seems about right. Right?


Saturday 20 September 2014

A Very Timely Transcript

Once upon a time there was, well, time. You see, time is a very complicated thing, kind of like humans, and, just like them it wants to exist. This, of course, is very irritating, especially when you are a time traveler.

The main principles of time travel, as outlined by hundreds of guidebook writers and science fiction authors are that you must not interfere. You can not change the course of history, you know killing Hitler and the likes, and you definitely can not go back and meet yourself. You don't want to end up being your own grandfather, or something equally weird. That is the popular story anyway.

What these textbooks fail to mention is, as you would expect, the truth. Time doesn't like changes because he is stubborn. And when he has spent what is, in very plain terms, Eternity, planning out how everything should work out, you can't just go ahead and mess things up. He will be mad. More than that. He'll be furious! And then, terrible things will happen. To you. Time will eventually get you. He'll have his revenge.

That's what time travel writers don't say. If they did, they wouldn't sell any books. I presume I will face the consequences for writing this too. Truth is never easy, but someone has to do it. Even if I'm erased from history, I hope this text will remain.

Sincerely,

-----

The writing at this point becomes unintelligible, ladies and gentlemen. We believe the author was erased from history, just as he feared. However, the discovery of this text has been fuelling our research in Time Travel for the past fifty years and it is our great pleasure to finally announce we've made a breakthrough. Time is no longer a straight line.

In exactly 5 minutes we will press this button and transport this room and everyone in it fifty years in the future. As our ancestors said centuries ago, one small step for a man one giant leap for humanity. It's time to make history!

------

End of transcript. We may never find out what the people in that room did and where, or better yet, when they found themselves after pressing that button. We recovered this recording from an obsolete archive at the far corner of the universe as part of our Institute's archaeology program. Said planet has been long forgotten and abandoned, the inhabitants either migrated to different solar systems or dies out when the natural resources were finally consumed.

Time travel seems to have fascinated our species since the beginning of time. The science, the possibilities, the power. It can corrupt people. Numb their senses. Of course we all know that time travel has been banned for thousands of years and all reality alteration experiments take place in alternative universes, where we have managed to suppress any attempts of technological advancement. While many believe this is immoral and we shouldn't feel ourselves as superior to our other versions, it is our mutual agreement that this is all for the greater good.

Now, if you go through these doors, refreshments will be served in the next room and we can continue with a short Q&A session in the second half of our conference.

Thursday 12 December 2013

Sheldon Square Statues

My friend,
always standing there
in front of me
looking
no- staring
or maybe begging.

The little path
unites us
unites us?
divides us?
measures how far we are
from each other.
I will come to you.

......

My friend,
you are coming to me
always coming
never moving
always trying.
Why?

I see the path
in front of you
your path
your goal.
I wish I could move too.
I wish
we could
finally
meet in the middle.

But I am born to wait.
Born?
Wait!
I was never born.
Neither were you.
We were made
you to move and me to wait.

So we do this
and nothing but this
forever
and ever
ever
never
to meet
never
to speak
never
to touch.

If only you could move
My waiting would have meaning.


..........................

This poem was inspired by the two statues facing each other next to Sheldon Square in Paddington, London. A tiny plaque next to one of them reads 'Standing Man', Sean Henry, 2003.