I stole this from stark raving black's blog.
I started using Firefox a couple of years ago, partly because it was safer than Explorer but mainly because it was quicker, then Mozilla developed it further and added stuff that slowed it down, which was a pain but if you have broadband there is a way of making it quicker again. By doing the following I was able to speed up the page downloads by about 25%.
Here's what you do.
* Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Type “network.http” in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them):
* Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
* Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
* Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to a number like 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once.
* Also, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0″. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.
If you still have dial up though, leave it as it is. I probably should have said that Firefox is by default optimised for dialup connections, at the beginning. Whoops!
Sunday, 3 June 2007
Friday, 1 June 2007
My Apologies
After getting my internet connection up and running after a 2 week absence I had planned on catching up on blogs and responding to comments but it's 10 pm, the sun is still shining, its a lovely night so I've decided to go for a walk instead feel free to think up a comment that I might have typed had I been here to do so. Thanks.
Rent Free Living - Update
The advert on Gumtree went something like this 'Rent Free Flat / For 12 hours work a week.' I say something like this because I can't remember it exactly, it seems so long ago now, but that was about the gist of it. So anyway I sent off an email to the advert poster thinking that the opportunity was long gone seeing as the advert had already been up for 2 days, but nothing ventured nothing gained. Surprisingly I was informed that it was still available, being a somewhat cynical person though I started to wonder what was wrong with the flat, or indeed the work. At this stage I was thinking that the flat was an apartment building, probably rundown hence why it was available for free and that the advertiser had unreasonable expectations of what was achievable in 12 hours but still I was trying to look on the bright side and think about its location. Perthshire was after all an area that I liked to go for drives, walks, cycle rides, climbing etc whenever I could find the time off work and have in the past contemplated living there if only I could afford to move to an area where no-one knows my name and business reputation. With this in mind the thought of my own place rent free in an area that I liked to spend time in sounded appealing, even if the apartment itself was suspect or the work demanding I was looking at it as an opportunity to test if I enjoyed living in the area as much as I thought I would and if I did I could always look to move somewhere else, that is if I got the flat/job that is.
So emails went back and forth between me and the landlady with her trying to learn more about me and me trying to learn more about the flat and what the work entailed. Finally after a number of emails we sussed each other enough for me to get an invite to have a look at the flat for myself, this was when I found out that the apartment wasn't quite as far north as I had first believed, it was in fact only 27 miles away which was all the better for me for getting to work in the morning. So excitedly I jumped into the van and followed the instructions of how to get there. 40 minutes later I found myself driving in a parkland on a single track road with ancient trees (I mean literally ancient - these trees were/are hundreds of years old, unusual in Scotland in that most trees of this age sadly did not escape the sacrifice of culling for the First World War effort) convinced that I had taken a wrong turning because there couldn't possibly be an apartment at the end of this road, not when all I could see ahead of me was the spring sunshine and ewes giving birth to new lambs under the shade of the trees. I was sure that I was driving up to a farm and was looking for a way that I could turn the van but seeing that there wasn't any way of doing that I drove on for about half a mile when I came across some black iron gates and beyond that an Adam style mansion. The Adam's were a Scottish family dynasty of architects who designed homes for only the wealthiest of Scots a couple of centuries past, so when I saw this building I knew I was in the wrong place but I needed new directions so I rang the door bell more in hope than expectation that the owners might be able to send me off to the right place, imagine my surprise when I found out that this was already there. I think I managed to hold back the blasphemy that was on the tip of my tongue but I'm not exactly sure. Although I think I must of done seeing as they seemed to like what they saw and I have been living there coming up for two weeks now. Not quite in the main house itself but the 'flat' down stairs. Flat? You have to be kidding me! This isn't what I would describe as an apartment, its far too grand. In my book you do not get 'flats' attached to the ground floor of country houses. But then I'm not rich, so who am I to argue.
I wake up every morning still amazed that I am living here for free, especially when I consider that there is a second apartment on the ground floor that is rented out for no less than £350 a week at its cheapest in November and £690 a week in the summer. Granted my 'flat' hasn't been kitted out to the same standard but I can live with that. My only concern is that I might not be here for long, the house is getting sold in 3 months but the landlady seems to think that the new owners might stick to the same arrangement due to the size of the grounds and the upkeep required to maintain them. I'm not so convinced. I'm not that lucky. I'm still not quite sure how I managed to find myself in this position in the first place. I'm just going to enjoy what little time I have here and laugh at the thought of the family that just moved in next door for the week and just paid £500 for the privilege. It's just a shame that the owners are moving away because my new landlady is an incredibly nice person. For someone so rich she isn't the least bit snobbish at all which is not what I expected. And I was only living here 2 days, trying to look keen and eager to show my appreciation for living here by working my 12 hours without being asked when she came over to thank me and said that I didn't need to rush as some weeks there would be 12 hours work a week and others only 2. Of course there is no way I would only work 2 hours a week I feel guilty enough as it is, I feel like I'm robbing her blind but it was a nice gesture anyway.
I took pictures of the house and the grounds to share with you what a lucky bugger I am but I can't seem to find my usb or firewire cables to get the images off the camera but luckily part of of the House is rented out to tourists so I was able to find an image online.
The four windows on the left of the steps on the ground floor is my 'flat'. Now you know why I almost swore when I saw it.
So emails went back and forth between me and the landlady with her trying to learn more about me and me trying to learn more about the flat and what the work entailed. Finally after a number of emails we sussed each other enough for me to get an invite to have a look at the flat for myself, this was when I found out that the apartment wasn't quite as far north as I had first believed, it was in fact only 27 miles away which was all the better for me for getting to work in the morning. So excitedly I jumped into the van and followed the instructions of how to get there. 40 minutes later I found myself driving in a parkland on a single track road with ancient trees (I mean literally ancient - these trees were/are hundreds of years old, unusual in Scotland in that most trees of this age sadly did not escape the sacrifice of culling for the First World War effort) convinced that I had taken a wrong turning because there couldn't possibly be an apartment at the end of this road, not when all I could see ahead of me was the spring sunshine and ewes giving birth to new lambs under the shade of the trees. I was sure that I was driving up to a farm and was looking for a way that I could turn the van but seeing that there wasn't any way of doing that I drove on for about half a mile when I came across some black iron gates and beyond that an Adam style mansion. The Adam's were a Scottish family dynasty of architects who designed homes for only the wealthiest of Scots a couple of centuries past, so when I saw this building I knew I was in the wrong place but I needed new directions so I rang the door bell more in hope than expectation that the owners might be able to send me off to the right place, imagine my surprise when I found out that this was already there. I think I managed to hold back the blasphemy that was on the tip of my tongue but I'm not exactly sure. Although I think I must of done seeing as they seemed to like what they saw and I have been living there coming up for two weeks now. Not quite in the main house itself but the 'flat' down stairs. Flat? You have to be kidding me! This isn't what I would describe as an apartment, its far too grand. In my book you do not get 'flats' attached to the ground floor of country houses. But then I'm not rich, so who am I to argue.
I wake up every morning still amazed that I am living here for free, especially when I consider that there is a second apartment on the ground floor that is rented out for no less than £350 a week at its cheapest in November and £690 a week in the summer. Granted my 'flat' hasn't been kitted out to the same standard but I can live with that. My only concern is that I might not be here for long, the house is getting sold in 3 months but the landlady seems to think that the new owners might stick to the same arrangement due to the size of the grounds and the upkeep required to maintain them. I'm not so convinced. I'm not that lucky. I'm still not quite sure how I managed to find myself in this position in the first place. I'm just going to enjoy what little time I have here and laugh at the thought of the family that just moved in next door for the week and just paid £500 for the privilege. It's just a shame that the owners are moving away because my new landlady is an incredibly nice person. For someone so rich she isn't the least bit snobbish at all which is not what I expected. And I was only living here 2 days, trying to look keen and eager to show my appreciation for living here by working my 12 hours without being asked when she came over to thank me and said that I didn't need to rush as some weeks there would be 12 hours work a week and others only 2. Of course there is no way I would only work 2 hours a week I feel guilty enough as it is, I feel like I'm robbing her blind but it was a nice gesture anyway.
I took pictures of the house and the grounds to share with you what a lucky bugger I am but I can't seem to find my usb or firewire cables to get the images off the camera but luckily part of of the House is rented out to tourists so I was able to find an image online.
The four windows on the left of the steps on the ground floor is my 'flat'. Now you know why I almost swore when I saw it.
Monday, 14 May 2007
Could this post be any more random?
You are going to have to excuse the nonsensical rubbish that you are about to read. Despite the fact that I am a pretty appalling writer at the best of times I’ve decided to outdo myself this time by choosing to write this post whilst listening (and unfortunately singing) to Senegalese music. The music itself is good, at least in my opinion (hence the singing) unfortunately I don’t really know what the words are so I’m just making sounds that are somewhat similar which is probably driving my neighbours crazy but its about time seeing as he’s been doing something similar to me with his dartboard night after night underneath my room - thud, thud, thud….thud, thud thud…. Between those darts and the tomcat that doesn’t get any sex and has to tell the world every night, for hours on end, its probably just as well I don’t live in America otherwise I might have been tempted to use my right to carry arms in a negative manner, instead all I have is my Senegalese music to fall back on.
Anyway the blogging moment, that wasn’t it.
Today, for once in my life, I was feeling flush and decided rather than make my lunch at home or order a take away from the Italian café in town I would instead drive a mile out of town and order food from The Stables. The Stables is a bar/restaurant type place situated on its own along the canal, and is surrounded by countryside. There are restaurants galore in each of the surrounding towns and villages but since this isn’t in town it has for all intensive purposes a monopoly of customers. Cyclists and walkers use it when they are going along the canal, and drivers stop there when they are going into or leaving the town. I used to come here often but I haven’t been since it had a change of management and an upgrade last year.
When I entered the premises the restaurant was heaving with customers and I almost walked straight back out, thinking so much to that idea but then I looked in the bar and noticed there was some space in there, and for some reason its cheaper to eat in the bar. Turned out to be lucky day after all.
Of course there was a catch. There always is. To get to the food, I had to get past the barman who takes your orders. This a man more Bond villain than bon vivant. To walk into that bar is to laugh in the face of fear. The barman welcomed me with all the warmth of a Transylvanian butler in a B-movie. He drops menus on my table with a sneer. He repeatedly ignores my attempts to order. As he walks past, the guy sitting in the table next to me whispers that barman picked up his tattoos in a Russian prison. I think he’s having me on, but I can’t be sure. From that point on, we both called the barman “Igor”, funny enough this didn’t improve the service any.
It’s possible, of course, that this man is in the wrong job by accident, and were the restaurant owner to read this post “Igor” would be fired. I’m not convinced. I think Igor is all part of the plan.
Why would a restaurant deliberately sabotage the dining experience? A restaurant with a good reputation and a brilliant chef acquires some degree of power to name its prices. With that power comes the temptation to try to separate out customers and charge a high price to the expense-account lobbyists and a cheaper price to me and my friends who only come by when we can afford to. A nice idea, but trying to charge different prices for the same product is not easy. Something must be done to keep the lobbyists in the full-priced restaurant, and that something is Igor.
Anyway the food was great, I’d go back again but I might wait until I discover the shift pattern of Igor.
It will mean a little more traveling to work in the morning but I think I can manage that, seeing as most people do that every day I was just lucky that I could practically fall out of bed in the morning and be at work. The apartment itself isn’t totally free, I do have to do 12 hours work a week for it, but the number of hours I work already I won’t really notice that. Sometimes the world is beautiful. Shut up - let me enjoy the moment.
Tuesday, 8 May 2007
Not Sure Why I Did It But I Entered My First Photography Competition....
A couple of months ago I came across a photography club that has monthly competitions and I basically just started off looking out of sheer unadulterated nosiness but for some reason when this months theme was to be 'Urban' I found myself thinking 'I can do that!' Of course after I submitted my image I started immediately having doubts about my sanity, I felt for sure that the other photographers were going to pick it apart with faults in technique and execution etc, etc.
However I've been pleasantly surprised so far in that I've only had positive comments I even had one person say "I like this shot a lot, you have captured an urban scene so well, the colouring good,a clear sharp picture that should without doubt be the outright winner of this months comp." After I recovered and was able to take the glekit look off my face and stop saying things like 'Huh, what, are you sure you are talking about my picture???" I then had a look at the pictures of my fellow competitors which up until then I didn't really want to do because I didn't want to compare my picture with theirs. Having done that I realised that he probably said that to everyone, because there was no way that my image was the best but for a brief moment I had hope, which was nice. Strangely though I didn't enter to win, I was quite happy not being the worst photographer out there and thankfully although I'm not the most talented I don't seem to be the worst either.
Where I did let myself down was the title, this is a part the other photographers seem to take very seriously. I originally wanted to name my image 'Take a seat, people!' but I changed it at the last minute because I wasn't sure if the title had to have the word 'urban' in it. Which of course it didn't. Bummer!
Anyway I think I might try again next month. The Theme for the month is 'Cool'
I was originally going to enter this picture with the title 'Cool! Ducks! Dad!'
But I decided against doing so because I didn't think the boy was young enough or the image close enough. Besides I noticed one of the other photographers has a very photogenic daughter of about 7 years of age, the kind of beautiful little girl that makes you think that being a parent must be great when you get them past the crying, shitting and teething stage'. I don't even like other peoples kids, normally I can take so much and then I want them to take them back but this little girl has these sweet innocent facial expressions so with no kids of my own I decided I can't compete with that and decided to take another direction.
So this is the image I've decided on (I think, it might well change again), I did consider cool summers day as the title but it seems a bit naff so I need a new title - and that's where you come in.
However I've been pleasantly surprised so far in that I've only had positive comments I even had one person say "I like this shot a lot, you have captured an urban scene so well, the colouring good,a clear sharp picture that should without doubt be the outright winner of this months comp." After I recovered and was able to take the glekit look off my face and stop saying things like 'Huh, what, are you sure you are talking about my picture???" I then had a look at the pictures of my fellow competitors which up until then I didn't really want to do because I didn't want to compare my picture with theirs. Having done that I realised that he probably said that to everyone, because there was no way that my image was the best but for a brief moment I had hope, which was nice. Strangely though I didn't enter to win, I was quite happy not being the worst photographer out there and thankfully although I'm not the most talented I don't seem to be the worst either.
Where I did let myself down was the title, this is a part the other photographers seem to take very seriously. I originally wanted to name my image 'Take a seat, people!' but I changed it at the last minute because I wasn't sure if the title had to have the word 'urban' in it. Which of course it didn't. Bummer!
Anyway I think I might try again next month. The Theme for the month is 'Cool'
I was originally going to enter this picture with the title 'Cool! Ducks! Dad!'
But I decided against doing so because I didn't think the boy was young enough or the image close enough. Besides I noticed one of the other photographers has a very photogenic daughter of about 7 years of age, the kind of beautiful little girl that makes you think that being a parent must be great when you get them past the crying, shitting and teething stage'. I don't even like other peoples kids, normally I can take so much and then I want them to take them back but this little girl has these sweet innocent facial expressions so with no kids of my own I decided I can't compete with that and decided to take another direction.
So this is the image I've decided on (I think, it might well change again), I did consider cool summers day as the title but it seems a bit naff so I need a new title - and that's where you come in.
Thursday, 3 May 2007
Celebrity Role Models
It goes to show the lack of ambitious policies in British politics when a couple of weeks ago on the run up to today’s elections one of the leading politicians of the country found the time to announce that ‘Britain has fallen out of love with celebrity’. At the time I think he was trying to suggest that the British people were more concerned about serious issues than trivia but personally I would have taken him more seriously if he had given me reason to believe that his political party was different from any other political party out there. I don’t want politicians talking about celebrity. I wanted a reason to vote. I wanted to see some new ideas for a better Scotland or new improved future for Britain but more about that in another post.
For now lets just take the statement and analyse it for a second, personally I think it’s a lot of nonsense, it was said by someone who never understood the British obsession with celebrity. Personally I’ve never understood why people are interested in celebrity either but I do know this, its anything but dead. If it was dead we wouldn’t have Big Brother and people wanting to go on Big Brother with the sole purpose of becoming famous. It won’t be allowed to die either, too many newspapers and magazines make money from it for it be allowed to die.
If it was dead, people wouldn’t be buying clothes from the Kate Moss range, or perfumes by Sarah Jessica Parker.
As much as the media loves celebrity it loves to hate it too. Early on in the supermodel career of Kate Moss the media were quick to blame her for the eating disorders of young girls. Yes she was thin but she was naturally thin, she wasn’t one of these people who had to worry about her weight going up and down. She was of the lucky ones. She was also blessed with great bone structure that looked good on camera so she got modelling contracts from designers that liked her look. She didn't deserve to be the target. It wasn’t her fault that she was thin and deemed too thin by the media, if there was a question to be asked it should have been aimed at the designers who decided to use her at the time and not some other with a model with a more naturally achievable figure for the general population. But the media are fickle they go after the easy target, and likewise when the witch hunt is over they soon forget, at least until the next witch hunt.
When she was able to carry on working with dignity whilst journalists were throwing mud in her direction and none of it was dirtying her image those same people went looking for another easier target. However they were never going to stay away for long. Whilst she was able to walk down a catwalk looking good in fabulously expensive clothes she was also human. And being human she was capable of mistakes and the pen merchants were biding their time when she would make a mistake.
Her human failing was she had a tendency to like the bad boys of rock. And so she fell for one such boy that had the bad habit of taking drugs and eventually she was allegedly caught taking drugs herself. Before she could deny it or say she made a mistake her reputation was in tatters and those companies who had been willing to show her support were shamed into dropping her from their campaigns.
As good looking and rich Kate Moss is, I’m glad it's her and not me. I don’t know if I’d want to live in a world where I wasn’t allowed to make mistakes. It can’t be an easy world to live in.
Although it saying that it doesn’t seem to have done her any harm, she has managed to turn her career around again, not only did she shrug off the drug story but she got her contracts back again and added a new string to her bow, now she is designing clothes for a high street name.
As much as I sympathise with her and celebrities like her when they have to deal with the downsides of fame I can’t help question why she should get to design clothes just because has been walking down a catwalk for 10 or more years when there are young talented designers just coming out of art school desperate for a chance to show off their skills, and unable to get that opportunity because she has just taken that chance away from them. Nor can I understand why Sarah Jessica Parker, an actress, is putting her name to a perfume, maybe she has a great nose for a good smell. But I can’t help thinking she might be better at acting and letting someone who equally has a good nose, and can’t act, make and sell perfumes.
Maybe Kate Moss is a naturally gifted designer and didn't need to go to art school to learn but I suspect her contract for designing clothes had less to do with her design skills and more to do with role model credentials. And because she is role model someone with genuine talent is going to miss out on a job that could have been very rewarding.
And then there is the other side of the coin of celebrity culture in Britain's new star racing driver Lewis Hamilton. Lewis is a young and talented driver proven by the fact that in Adelaide for the first grand prix of the new Formula I season, and the first grand prix in which he had ever driven, he got a podium finish, and then he finished in the top three again for the second race, and again in his third.
It takes a Formula 1 fan like me to fully appreciate how unusual it is for a driver to do this on his first three drives. Even a non-car-nut will appreciate that it can't be easy, because all those other drivers want it too, and they can all drive. There were other British drivers who finished further down the field who had been at it for years and had never done what young Lewis managed to do. Two of them had won FI races but they hadn't reached the podium on their first time out. In fact no British driver, until Hamilton came along that is, in the history of Formula 1 had managed to do what he did.
Jenson Button, who for the last seven years had been the next English hope had won only one grand prix so far, could console himself with the knowledge that some very good drivers go their whole career and never win anything, but there he was down there in Adelaide getting nowhere in his eco-friendly Honda that apparently offsets its carbon emissions by going slowly. And then there’s David Coulthard, Scotland’s current hope for a Formula 1 world champion, he has won thirteen races in his time, he used to drive for the team that Lewis now represents. Now though he drives a car further down the field, one that seems to have developed a passive-aggressive personality.
A nice man in real life, David Coulthard will live to laugh at his bad car days, but at the moment he probably doesn't find anything very amusing about the spectacle of yet another young Briton taking his turn as Britain's boy wonder. He knows all about the pressure that comes with being British and talented at what you do. And he probably feels for the latest talent because not only is he young and talented and British, this boy wonder automatically gets more press than any previous British boy wonder of whatever height, class and degree of good looks, because this boy wonder is black.
Luckily, for the other drivers and for everybody else in the formula one world, skin-colour won't enter into it. Race has got nothing to do with racing. For a long while there wasn't a single black contender to help prove this to be so, but finally there is one, and he seems to have all the other qualities too: qualities which drivers as gifted as he is usually develop later, or never. Naturally wise, considerate and modest, he's graceful, he’s ambitious, he believes in his own abilities without the arrogance that some his older peers have.
But there lies a problem, he’s storing up troubles for himself. He just wants to be a racing driver the best racing driver he can be and presumably wants to be world champion, but just by being a talented driver and a talented black driver at that he has been thrust into the world of celebrity. He will get tv coverage and magazine coverage, some of which will be because he can drive but some of it will inevitably turn to him being a role model. Some members of the press won’t be able to resist turning him into a representative. He hasn’t asked to be one, all he wants to do is drive but it will be his destiny nonetheless. It’s his destiny because he’s British and Britain lacks true genuine winners in sport. It’s his destiny because there aren’t many black sports car drivers around. For the crime of being able to drive a car round a circuit very fast, he will be a role model, for the young, for Brits and for blacks.
It’s a heavy price to pay for being good at something. He’s 22 years old, found out by chance that he is good at one thing and now he his going to be one of the superhumans, one of the few that aren’t allowed to make a mistake. So far he hasn’t made one. He’s done all that has been asked of him but because of that there will be somebody there waiting to kick him down again. That one time when he shows a little bit of arrogance when he believes in himself and his own talent and forgets to show humility we will hear all about it. And it will be one those same people who are writing pieces just now about how great he is, that will do the kicking. So Lewis has not only got to be the perfect driver but he has to be the perfect character to, otherwise if he lacks humility, or experiments with drugs at a party like many of his age will do, or if he swears at a photographer when his privacy is being invaded we will hear all about it from someone sitting at a computer who has the same human traits as he has but we will never hear about those because they aren’t famous like Lewis. Those who are quick to judge who we should idolise or not, as the case may be, seem to forget that we are all just human and all need the chance to make a life for ourselves.
For now lets just take the statement and analyse it for a second, personally I think it’s a lot of nonsense, it was said by someone who never understood the British obsession with celebrity. Personally I’ve never understood why people are interested in celebrity either but I do know this, its anything but dead. If it was dead we wouldn’t have Big Brother and people wanting to go on Big Brother with the sole purpose of becoming famous. It won’t be allowed to die either, too many newspapers and magazines make money from it for it be allowed to die.
If it was dead, people wouldn’t be buying clothes from the Kate Moss range, or perfumes by Sarah Jessica Parker.
As much as the media loves celebrity it loves to hate it too. Early on in the supermodel career of Kate Moss the media were quick to blame her for the eating disorders of young girls. Yes she was thin but she was naturally thin, she wasn’t one of these people who had to worry about her weight going up and down. She was of the lucky ones. She was also blessed with great bone structure that looked good on camera so she got modelling contracts from designers that liked her look. She didn't deserve to be the target. It wasn’t her fault that she was thin and deemed too thin by the media, if there was a question to be asked it should have been aimed at the designers who decided to use her at the time and not some other with a model with a more naturally achievable figure for the general population. But the media are fickle they go after the easy target, and likewise when the witch hunt is over they soon forget, at least until the next witch hunt.
When she was able to carry on working with dignity whilst journalists were throwing mud in her direction and none of it was dirtying her image those same people went looking for another easier target. However they were never going to stay away for long. Whilst she was able to walk down a catwalk looking good in fabulously expensive clothes she was also human. And being human she was capable of mistakes and the pen merchants were biding their time when she would make a mistake.
Her human failing was she had a tendency to like the bad boys of rock. And so she fell for one such boy that had the bad habit of taking drugs and eventually she was allegedly caught taking drugs herself. Before she could deny it or say she made a mistake her reputation was in tatters and those companies who had been willing to show her support were shamed into dropping her from their campaigns.
As good looking and rich Kate Moss is, I’m glad it's her and not me. I don’t know if I’d want to live in a world where I wasn’t allowed to make mistakes. It can’t be an easy world to live in.
Although it saying that it doesn’t seem to have done her any harm, she has managed to turn her career around again, not only did she shrug off the drug story but she got her contracts back again and added a new string to her bow, now she is designing clothes for a high street name.
As much as I sympathise with her and celebrities like her when they have to deal with the downsides of fame I can’t help question why she should get to design clothes just because has been walking down a catwalk for 10 or more years when there are young talented designers just coming out of art school desperate for a chance to show off their skills, and unable to get that opportunity because she has just taken that chance away from them. Nor can I understand why Sarah Jessica Parker, an actress, is putting her name to a perfume, maybe she has a great nose for a good smell. But I can’t help thinking she might be better at acting and letting someone who equally has a good nose, and can’t act, make and sell perfumes.
Maybe Kate Moss is a naturally gifted designer and didn't need to go to art school to learn but I suspect her contract for designing clothes had less to do with her design skills and more to do with role model credentials. And because she is role model someone with genuine talent is going to miss out on a job that could have been very rewarding.
And then there is the other side of the coin of celebrity culture in Britain's new star racing driver Lewis Hamilton. Lewis is a young and talented driver proven by the fact that in Adelaide for the first grand prix of the new Formula I season, and the first grand prix in which he had ever driven, he got a podium finish, and then he finished in the top three again for the second race, and again in his third.
It takes a Formula 1 fan like me to fully appreciate how unusual it is for a driver to do this on his first three drives. Even a non-car-nut will appreciate that it can't be easy, because all those other drivers want it too, and they can all drive. There were other British drivers who finished further down the field who had been at it for years and had never done what young Lewis managed to do. Two of them had won FI races but they hadn't reached the podium on their first time out. In fact no British driver, until Hamilton came along that is, in the history of Formula 1 had managed to do what he did.
Jenson Button, who for the last seven years had been the next English hope had won only one grand prix so far, could console himself with the knowledge that some very good drivers go their whole career and never win anything, but there he was down there in Adelaide getting nowhere in his eco-friendly Honda that apparently offsets its carbon emissions by going slowly. And then there’s David Coulthard, Scotland’s current hope for a Formula 1 world champion, he has won thirteen races in his time, he used to drive for the team that Lewis now represents. Now though he drives a car further down the field, one that seems to have developed a passive-aggressive personality.
A nice man in real life, David Coulthard will live to laugh at his bad car days, but at the moment he probably doesn't find anything very amusing about the spectacle of yet another young Briton taking his turn as Britain's boy wonder. He knows all about the pressure that comes with being British and talented at what you do. And he probably feels for the latest talent because not only is he young and talented and British, this boy wonder automatically gets more press than any previous British boy wonder of whatever height, class and degree of good looks, because this boy wonder is black.
Luckily, for the other drivers and for everybody else in the formula one world, skin-colour won't enter into it. Race has got nothing to do with racing. For a long while there wasn't a single black contender to help prove this to be so, but finally there is one, and he seems to have all the other qualities too: qualities which drivers as gifted as he is usually develop later, or never. Naturally wise, considerate and modest, he's graceful, he’s ambitious, he believes in his own abilities without the arrogance that some his older peers have.
But there lies a problem, he’s storing up troubles for himself. He just wants to be a racing driver the best racing driver he can be and presumably wants to be world champion, but just by being a talented driver and a talented black driver at that he has been thrust into the world of celebrity. He will get tv coverage and magazine coverage, some of which will be because he can drive but some of it will inevitably turn to him being a role model. Some members of the press won’t be able to resist turning him into a representative. He hasn’t asked to be one, all he wants to do is drive but it will be his destiny nonetheless. It’s his destiny because he’s British and Britain lacks true genuine winners in sport. It’s his destiny because there aren’t many black sports car drivers around. For the crime of being able to drive a car round a circuit very fast, he will be a role model, for the young, for Brits and for blacks.
It’s a heavy price to pay for being good at something. He’s 22 years old, found out by chance that he is good at one thing and now he his going to be one of the superhumans, one of the few that aren’t allowed to make a mistake. So far he hasn’t made one. He’s done all that has been asked of him but because of that there will be somebody there waiting to kick him down again. That one time when he shows a little bit of arrogance when he believes in himself and his own talent and forgets to show humility we will hear all about it. And it will be one those same people who are writing pieces just now about how great he is, that will do the kicking. So Lewis has not only got to be the perfect driver but he has to be the perfect character to, otherwise if he lacks humility, or experiments with drugs at a party like many of his age will do, or if he swears at a photographer when his privacy is being invaded we will hear all about it from someone sitting at a computer who has the same human traits as he has but we will never hear about those because they aren’t famous like Lewis. Those who are quick to judge who we should idolise or not, as the case may be, seem to forget that we are all just human and all need the chance to make a life for ourselves.
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