Q - WHAT DOES BEING A VEGETARIAN MEAN?
A - The short answer. It means not eating animal flesh. Yes, we still eat dairy products, which isn't exactly something to be proud of, but some including myself believe that every creature should play a role in the global community, and if the animal is treated well then the animal surely couldn't mind giving the human some of its milk and eggs.
Q - WHAT ABOUT PROTEINS AND IRON?
A - Plenty of that in veggies. If not veggies, then tofu and quorn, although some people don't like the taste of quorn (though mostly because it doesn't taste like meat, but that's because it isn't meat, a-ha!).
Q - WHAT ABOUT ANIMALS THAT EAT OTHER ANIMALS?
A - Here's the thing; animals eat other animals only when they have to. They do not have McDonalds', smoked bacon crisps and consumerism. All in all, while most of us eat when we want to, animals only eat when they have to (spoilt dogs and kitties are of course an exception). This means no battery farms and no mass slaughter. Furthermore, they do not have the brain we have to plant and grow veggies that we need to receive the right nutrition.
Q - ARE YOU OPPOSED TO FUR AND LEATHER?
A - Absolutely yes. But it would help if faux leather was made more available. Try finding faux leather shoes...it is close to impossible.
Q - WHAT IF AN ANIMAL WAS TRYING TO KILL YOU? WOULD YOU KILL IT TO PROTECT YOURSELF?
A - If it was the only way to protect myself, I would of course. Vegetarians are not idiots...
Q - BUT BACON TASTES SO GOOD...
A - I'm sure if you put your grandmother in the oven she would taste great too, but is that a good enough reason to put your grandmother in the oven??
Friday 23 November 2012
Thursday 20 September 2012
20/9/2012 - GIDDY LONDON HERE I COME or why my first trip to London is so important
It's 1.15 in the night. The night before the day I leave on a weekend trip to London.
Realistically speaking, a few weeks ago, I would never have thought of going there. Not that the place doesn't fascinate me. As an art fanatic, I have always found London enchanting regardless of the fact that I have never actually been there. I don't think there is any need for me to get into it, the list names of artists that have come out of London or even significantly stepped foot in it is endless and frankly, a little frightening for someone who has spent the last 12 years of his life in a small Irish town like Galway.
But now...well now something has changed. Because if only a few weeks ago I wasn't even considering going there on a weekend trip, I certainly would never have thought of actually moving there. Well, now that is my ambition.
But why? What has happened?
For quite a while, I have been unsatisfied. I have often thought of turning my life around and used to dream of moving away from Galway. But for now, I would have settled for a post-grad in Film Studies at the Huston School of Digital Media here, and then maybe would have moved to Turin.
Of course then, my music. My dream is to play my music all my life. But with my band Lexington 125 defunct, I was starting to lose hope.
Basically, what I am trying to say is that my life, this summer, approximately around June, had come to a depressing standstill. I, a young and ambitious male with a sincere passion for the arts and an urge to unleash my creativity, was quite frankly giving up hope.
London now is where my life is taking me. I have started listening to my needs, spiritually and physically. I have opened up my senses and put on auto pilot. My feelings have taken over, my sensors tingle with the hope of a new life.
But why IS my life taking me to London? Why do I suddenly feel like I am not born yet and all this time have only been waiting? Waiting for London...
Well, it's not about time or place. It is about a new beginning. In film lingo, this would be called the pre-production. More specifically, I am scouting locations. I am scouting London. I want it to get in my veins, I want it to scar me, I want it to tie me up, I want it to engulf and devour me. I need to die before I am born again.
All the while, I am alone but not alone. Not alone. Or...has love really found its way into my life? Love of life?
London, take me/save me, I am (not) yours...
Realistically speaking, a few weeks ago, I would never have thought of going there. Not that the place doesn't fascinate me. As an art fanatic, I have always found London enchanting regardless of the fact that I have never actually been there. I don't think there is any need for me to get into it, the list names of artists that have come out of London or even significantly stepped foot in it is endless and frankly, a little frightening for someone who has spent the last 12 years of his life in a small Irish town like Galway.
But now...well now something has changed. Because if only a few weeks ago I wasn't even considering going there on a weekend trip, I certainly would never have thought of actually moving there. Well, now that is my ambition.
But why? What has happened?
For quite a while, I have been unsatisfied. I have often thought of turning my life around and used to dream of moving away from Galway. But for now, I would have settled for a post-grad in Film Studies at the Huston School of Digital Media here, and then maybe would have moved to Turin.
Of course then, my music. My dream is to play my music all my life. But with my band Lexington 125 defunct, I was starting to lose hope.
Basically, what I am trying to say is that my life, this summer, approximately around June, had come to a depressing standstill. I, a young and ambitious male with a sincere passion for the arts and an urge to unleash my creativity, was quite frankly giving up hope.
London now is where my life is taking me. I have started listening to my needs, spiritually and physically. I have opened up my senses and put on auto pilot. My feelings have taken over, my sensors tingle with the hope of a new life.
But why IS my life taking me to London? Why do I suddenly feel like I am not born yet and all this time have only been waiting? Waiting for London...
Well, it's not about time or place. It is about a new beginning. In film lingo, this would be called the pre-production. More specifically, I am scouting locations. I am scouting London. I want it to get in my veins, I want it to scar me, I want it to tie me up, I want it to engulf and devour me. I need to die before I am born again.
All the while, I am alone but not alone. Not alone. Or...has love really found its way into my life? Love of life?
London, take me/save me, I am (not) yours...
Wednesday 27 June 2012
28/6/2012 - TOO LATE BLUES or what John Cassavetes' film has in common with my band Lexington 125
There are only a handful of things I truly love in life, and most have a lot to do with arts. Music and films have always walked hand in hand in topping my list of preferences, and I guess it's more than love for both - it's a passion, one that slowly corrodes my soul.
While my passion for film got me more in trouble with my parents, who never took my wish to attend film school as a college course seriously and turned against me when I actually did, my passion for music has severely diminished my friendships and will probably inevitably nullify them. Both films and music and my inability to take it as minor forms of entertainment and background objects has made me very miserable, but happy in my misery. I mean it in the best of ways...
But getting to the chase, tonight I watched a film I had never seen before by one of my favorite filmmakers of all time - John Cassavetes. One of the things I like about him is the way in which he likes to deal with arts, whether it's theatre in Opening Night, music in Too Late Blues or his defiance towards the whole damn cinema industry with every film he ever made (not counting his last, which shall remain nameless). Cassavetes to me renewed films and brought American cinema to a whole new exciting level.
In this film he tells the tale of a blues musician who has a band whom he writes the music for. He has strict ideologies about music and refuses to slip comfortably into commercialism. In fact, he and his band would rather play to the birds and trees, frustrated, than sell their souls for a shot at a success they know would make them miserable. They come real close to making it big and getting their studio contract and what happens? Someone snaps, a girl is involved, a fight breaks out in a recording studio and the leader of the band, played by Bobby Darin, clearly tells the band they are nothing - he is the one who writes the music, brought the band together and constantly looked to make the band work.
Bobby, playing a man who calls himself ghost, causes the band to break up in a uber-dramatic way, and turns to the commercial music he never would have wanted to play, predictably making him miserable and empty.
I have been in a band for the last few years and have been very devoted to it. I'm going to be honest here - I am the main guy in the band, I'm the one who puts on a show on stage, I'm the guy who writes the songs, I am the guy who sponsors the band, I am the guy who looks for gigs, I'm the guy who organises band practice etc. etc. Last years we recorded our first proper EP, and what was supposed to shake things up turned into the beginning of the end when our rhythm guitarist decided he had had enough and quit.
No matter - after being the guy who did almost everything in the band, I added another task to my involvement, sacrificing my wish to be a full time frontman for my love of music and picking up the second guitar task. Obviously and unfortunately, a band is not just one guy, so when the bassist announced he didn't want to be in a band anymore when things got a little uncomfortable at a festival gig, the end really showed no sign of an end.
There's more. The lead guitarist became more and more irresponsible, hypocritical and plain lazy. The first few months with the band, his commitment was tops - now he rarely has time for practice. We all have our problems, he's got his, and instead of turning his attention to music, he turns his attention to falling in love for his friends' girls like there was nothing better to do in life. The drummer means well, but he rarely plays his instrument and you can tell...
The situation here is the following. I am 22, and I find myself sitting through my day job routine not waiting for the weekend to play music and practice with my band, but wondering whether I will be able to get the guys together for practice at least once this month. The band is through, it's finished, and I have way too much passion to be wasting my time. I am also getting older and I loathe the idea of wasting the best years of my life in a factory floor...Cassavetes, in his film, essentially points out to the fact that hypocrisy is all around us. The ideological pianist sells out. The girl gets upset when he raises his voice at her and sleeps with a different man on the same night. The people's perception of the musician in the film is that they should just get a job, that they spend their time partying and fucking. These people have never had to carry a 120W amp in the pouring rain after a gig played in front of 8 people in a bar on the outskirts of a town. It's heartbreaking, and if it's heartbreaking, why would I want to put myself through all that?
Perhaps I really do like being miserable, more than I like music itself. Perhaps I live with an undying fear of living in regret - I was blessed with a nice voice, good musical skills, a craving for the stage and I would hate to see it all go to waste, and in a few years' time think of how great I may have had it. But there is one more thing...
Ghost, in the film, by turning his back on his band realises, a year later, he is totally alone. My band mates are really my only friends. The questions are two. Am I not disbanding Lexington 125 because I believe in this band or because deep down I'm really afraid of being alone?
Wednesday 29 February 2012
29/2/2012 - PETA KILLS ANIMALS or Why an Animal Rights Supporter Like Me Still Approves of Them
A lot of people are buying into the 'Peta Kills Animals' campaign. Take a look at this website:
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
Anyone who wouldn't instantly doubt their morality after reading the information in the website would not be very intelligent. Though it may be true that there may be some opposing interest lurking behind yet another anti-Peta campaign, anyone who feels sympathetic towards animals will shudder at the thought.
But then you see how disgusting it is to think Peta another hypocritical worldwide organisation. A friend of mine spends her life volunteering for Peta, and every now and again she tells me that the animals they take in are sadly in bad conditions. Admittedly, Peta likes to use these animals as an example as to why animals cruelty is so wrong, and then ends their agony with euthanasia.
Okay, the way you will look at this matter depends really on whether you are a supporter of euthanasia. Either way, people talk about Peta being hypocritical for 'killing animals'. I on the other hand think it's much more hypocritical for people to condemn Peta's morals involving the killing of thousands of animals in mental and physical agony, while they eat the flesh of an animal who was slaughtered to satisfy human appetite for meat.
Anyways, read this please for more info on the matter. Read this
http://faculty.smu.edu/jkazez/animal%20rights/Response%20to%20PETA%20kills%20animals.htm
This e-mail comes right from Peta and as you can see, they don't deny the figures nor sugar coat the truth. I do like their policy of not being vulgar and starting a tasteless campaign to protect their own interest. That too shows that Peta only looks after the interest of animals, and could not give a fuck about political hidden agendas (while the meat market, animal testing and whatnot have a reason for wanting to see it crumble to the ground).
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
Anyone who wouldn't instantly doubt their morality after reading the information in the website would not be very intelligent. Though it may be true that there may be some opposing interest lurking behind yet another anti-Peta campaign, anyone who feels sympathetic towards animals will shudder at the thought.
But then you see how disgusting it is to think Peta another hypocritical worldwide organisation. A friend of mine spends her life volunteering for Peta, and every now and again she tells me that the animals they take in are sadly in bad conditions. Admittedly, Peta likes to use these animals as an example as to why animals cruelty is so wrong, and then ends their agony with euthanasia.
Okay, the way you will look at this matter depends really on whether you are a supporter of euthanasia. Either way, people talk about Peta being hypocritical for 'killing animals'. I on the other hand think it's much more hypocritical for people to condemn Peta's morals involving the killing of thousands of animals in mental and physical agony, while they eat the flesh of an animal who was slaughtered to satisfy human appetite for meat.
Anyways, read this please for more info on the matter. Read this
http://faculty.smu.edu/jkazez/animal%20rights/Response%20to%20PETA%20kills%20animals.htm
This e-mail comes right from Peta and as you can see, they don't deny the figures nor sugar coat the truth. I do like their policy of not being vulgar and starting a tasteless campaign to protect their own interest. That too shows that Peta only looks after the interest of animals, and could not give a fuck about political hidden agendas (while the meat market, animal testing and whatnot have a reason for wanting to see it crumble to the ground).
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