"keepin' it real" gone wrong...

I like Kanye West . I bought his first album , his second album and I even stuck by his latest ventures of relying almost exclusively on that voice synthesiser crap. But music snob I ain't and one of the joys of being a music fan over a certain age is that you can separate the music from the personality. And oh my , what a personality!

Click here to see Kanye making an utter tit of himself on MTV's 2009 VMA's. Oh, and here, and here and .... you get the picture.

For the record, Beyonce's video probably WAS better than Taylor Swift's. So , in fact, was Pink's video ... .funny how they managed to smile and applaud! Beyonce even managed to try to make up for the embarrassment of it all by sharing her moment in the spot light ( God know's she has enough of them ) later on in the show. She called Taylor Swift up on stage , saying how she remembered her first VMA win and how exciting it was, giving Taylor a chance to get a better stab at her thank yous!

I want to send Kanye to the same bootcamp that Serena Williams should do a stint in ! I think he is a cranky blogger trapped in a celebrities body - but when the world is watching , if you dont have anything nice to say - shut it !

Serena Williams

Im not a sports fan in the least , but I do love the drama that can go hand in hand with sports !

Serena Williams managed to let her temper get the better of her and line judge went running to the tournament referee , complete with forlorn looks and pointing ! Williams showing a lack of sportmanship for the second time in this US Open title defence match , made sure that drama ran high after she broke her racket when she lost the first set .

" If I could , I'd take this ball and shove it down your throat !" she bellowed at the line judge in front of a shocked crowd. Nice one Serena , bet you feel a bit stupid today!!

It kind of reminded of the John McEnroe days" You cannot be serious!!"

Sleazy come, Sleazy go

Why the hell am I blogging? I clearly should be writing for the Times - they don't seem to fussy about who they hire !

My LOL moments from this article are numerous !

This is Mr. Liddle's take on an , until recently , unspoken quid pro quo :

" ....You can swan around in your flash cars and hang out at the malls, just as if you were in Maidstone or Cottbus or Pretoria. You can dress like you were at a stag-party pub crawl in Prague, or like an infidel whore on the make , and we'll grit out teeth and smoke our hubba-bubba pipes and look the other way .You can even have that other stuff you seem to like so much, the relentless, enervating fornicating, the stuff Allah really dislikes; we will turn a blind eye to the legion upon legion of addled post-Soviet whores in your horrible Brit-style pubs, nightclubs and wine bars, the cheap babes from the ’stans. Just keep the money pouring in, please: keep building those gargantuan hotels and facilitating those loans for us."

Any relevant point he may have had has been sliced up by his snarky syle . I think I may return to this article at a later date to disect it a little . But for now , fellow Dubai resisdents - do enjoy !!

King of Pop dies

I'm sitting here in disbelief. Michael Jackson has died in Los Angeles aged 50. As the news spread, hundreds of fans gathered outside the hospital where he passed away . The cause of death at present is unknown ,but he was said to have been taken to hospital after falling ill at home , full cardiac arrest.

According to skynews, wikipedia and Google collapsed under the weight of internet enquiries about his death. Jackson was one of the few performers to be truely known world wide. His music spanned generations and the controversies of his life in later years led his music to take a back seat to allegations of child abuse and other scandals in his personal life.

He was an extraordinary person, in every sense of the word. The eccentricities of this man were legendary, and for somebody that was so private , his life had been treated like a circus for many years. As somebody who has performed since he was 6 years old, and therefore has essentially built up a fan base for 44 years, his death is sure to spark a public outcry, debate , or for some, more burning effigies.

Whether he was guilty or not , what was the first thought that popped into your head when his name was mentionned? Personally , I have not been able to hear his music by for many years without remembering those child abuse allegations , or without seeing those crazy images of him dangling babies over balconies. Trial by public opinion is harsh , and we will never know for sure whether he was a misunderstood genius , or a sick paedophile who happened to be in the public limelight.

unbelievable...

It is with great disgust that I have to report the total disregard that my mother ship's government seems to have with its peoples wishes . Ireland is supposedly democratic. Europe does not like that the Irish people have voted " No" to the Lisbon Treaty .

Its my understanding that many other European governments did not even put this Treaty to referendum. I was quite proud to learn that the Irish people would exercise their democratic right to vote on the future of their country , while other nations were not given the choice. Alas , it seems we were dooped!

The Irish public voted " No" to the treaty, and whether we , the government , or the EU parliment like it or not , the people have spoken . End of story , right? Its a democracy , right?

Apparently not ! Our Taoiseach ( prime minister ) , Mr. Cowen , depicted in the graffiti above, has decided to override the democratic wishes of the Irish public, by asking us to vote again. we now have two choices , vote "yes" , or , vote " yes " .

I am thoroughly ashamed of our government. BIFFO , ( Big Ignorant F$&*ker From Offaly) as our taoiseach is affectionately known, has decided to put it to vote again - wonder what kind of scaremongering lies ahead in order to produce the desired vote. Oh , the shame of it !

Sign of things to come?

THAT couple on the beach ....This story perhaps best describes the kind of issues that the UAE has been facing of late. While not all of us choose to relieve ourselves of our sexual frustrations on a beach after a boozy champagne lunch , I think it can be safely said this extreme example of lack of respect for local sensitivities typifies the struggles of a cultural melting pot in a sensitive region.But lets be frank here , if you decided to have a drunken romp on a public beach - ignored a caution from a police officer , then proceeded to hurl abuse and a high heeled shoe at him when he returned to find you have ignored his warning , then no matter what country in the world you are in - you will find yourself with a slap on the wrists. Add now to this the fact that you are in a region of the world where this behaviour is unthinkable .Enough has been said about the Ex-pat Dubai resident and her new husband, but leaving this case aside - can we expect now that the powers that be will finally be forced to employ a stricter set of rules and regulations for its expat residents. The amount of media coverage this case got ( including a wonderful little write up in the uk sun newspaper ) means that this is an issue that is rapidly gaining momentum and bringing with it negative publicity to Dubai as a tourist destination , not to mention highlighting to Emiratis their country has been colonized once more , only this time , they invited it into their society!There is a hedonistic quality to Dubai socializing - one which has been played out privately for many years - and the authorities have been very accommodating to people on the provisions that they discreetly lived their lives. If you want to consume alcohol - go through the correct procedures and consume it in hotels or at home . Be respectful of the culture and its residents and you cant go wrong.However , this event may finally be the straw that breaks the proverbial camels back. Have Western expats finally overstepped the mark in the ultimate insult to a culture - no longer respecting the boundaries imposed by their hosts? What will the fallout of what is becoming worryingly frequent behaviour be ?For years now, I have encountered the “if you don’t like it , leave !” response to my general grumblings about UAE . It’s a line that usually angers me , with its head in the sand attitude, nonchalance, and undying conviction that THIS system is the right way ! I maintain this view with issues concerning competence, organization , traffic…etc etc , but to IF you feel that the decency laws ruling this country will stretch your ability to keep it all in check - then for once, I will preach this right back at you “ if you don’t like it - leave “. Because trust me , its not worth it !With a local population that is feeling the effects of being a minority in their own land , and generations of perpetual immigrants living here but not calling this home - what does the future hold for the UAE? And exactly who will be paying the price for the massive changes occurring here on a weekly basis?