Who'd have thunk it? Just when gale-lashed Britannia looked like being the top news story of the week (see the Mother Nature is a Mad Scientist post from a few months back... it's basically that again) along comes Sleb Big Brother to gatecrash the nations' frontpages, and, as it turns out, frontpages the world over. Not all of them tabloids either.
Like I said, who'd have thunk it? Of course, all of this was good news for the show's already fragile ratings, not to mention profits -hammered by the resultant reduction in phone-in eviction opportunities- which plummeted daily after 3 separate contestants went AWOL.

I was personally sorry to see Ken Russell walk out as I thought it might be good to see him win and get back to a position where he could direct another movie. I'm not thinking of Lair of the White Worm here... more The Devils or The Music Lovers. You know, the earlier good ones. But this is crazy talk, he was never going to win, because nobody inside or outside the BB house knew who he was. And he probably would've made White Worm II.
Leo Sayer's 'I'm-mad-therefore-interesting' schtick was just plain embarrassing; he should've gone sooner.
Anyhoo, the remaining players fall into one of two camps: Dull as Dishwater and Profoundly Thick. By this I mean people who are so ignorant that they should be punished, publicly. I won't bother itemising, if you've been watching you'll know who I mean. What followed was/is basically Lord of the Flies.
A textbook case of bullying-by-exclusion with a racist undercurrent, perpetrated by the aforementioned Profoundly Thick People. The kind of oiks you see fighting outside kebab shops at 3.30am and feel glad that you're in a car, driving right past them.

Then Sleb sponsors The Carphone Warehouse pulled out. The show's production team were reduced to issuing warnings to the relevant individuals that their banter may be 'Construed as Racist' by the Outside World. Talk about a cop-out.
It was also pretty obvious that Ringleader of the Tormentors Jade Goody had been well briefed prior to her live interview after the inevitable eviction last night. The public were kept at bay for that one. My guess would be that the vast majority of viewers felt short-changed by these interferences.

All credit to Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood actress victimised on the show. She's faced the ordeal with great dignity and self-control, and will hopefully go on to win.
The most surreal turn of events though, has to be Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, following a visit to India, (where irate crowds of protesters were burning effigies of Channel 4 programme controllers), appearing on TV to urge the viewing public to evict Jade Goody.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer.
You couldn't make it up.

One week into 2007 and I still have that good feeling about things that I had on New Year's Eve. Must try to keep this up, it may become a habit.
Haven't quite gotten round to the customary New Year's detox yet though. Kinda difficult when you still have 27 bottles of Christmas-present wine in the kitchen, all winking at you when meal-times approach or when there's something good on TV.

Plus, in the UK at least, these are the dark months, when fun and frivolity are in short supply, and for many of us some kind of libation seems somehow respectful of the very season itself. Y'know, that's probably one of the basic tenets of Wicca. Or similar.
Mind you, if the Wickerman movie (the 1973 original pop-kids, not seen the 2006 remake yet) is anything to go by, being constantly lashed, singing a lot then doing it on the lawn behind the pub actually brings you closer to God instead of being exiled to the abode of the damned. A pretty good deal all in all.
Anyhoo, as the wind and rain hammer down on the roof of Chez Sonique I ask, who am I to question the wisdom of the Gods?
Cheers m'dears...