I have a soft spot for Gordon Ramsay. I am aware that he curses like a sailor and generally tries to bully anyone less-successful than himself (which basically amounts to everyone in his life). What I like most about Ramsay is that it's always chef's and cook's that don't care sufficiently that gets his ire up. I honestly wish that Ramsay could trail around me in my life and yell at everyone who doesn't care, who doesn't try, who doesn't pull their weight. Whenever I tell someone off I feel like I have a little bit of Ramsay (by way of my feisty mum) in me.
I digress. Ramsay's cooking competition on TV, called 'Hell's Kitchen', is very entertaining but it also features the cheftestants kicking their feet up in their living quarters as they light up copious numbers of cigarettes. Ramsay has argued that this is even worse than fictional shows (like 'Mad Men') because it is reality. Ramsay has reason to be irked by his chefs habits as smoking dulls the taste buds.
I would argue however, that HK's depiction of smoking is exactly the type of coverage we should all want. The reason is that shows like 'Mad Men' make smoking glamorous and sexy. Ramsay's chefs, on the other hand, show smoking for what it is: something that fat, unattractive, poorly educated, resource-less, stupid people do. I can't imagine anyone watching HK would see the contestants and think 'I want to be like them'. It might even be a good deterrent to current smokers to quit so they aren't affiliating themselves with the likes of the show's losers. Call me crazy but I think anti-smoking campaigners should thank Ramsay for displaying the truth about smoking: unless your European, it's a vulgar habit.
Boisterous Bono
Jonathon Ross is interviewing Bono, from U2, and he asks the Irish singer why it is that he gets so much flak and criticism. Bono's response is that it is for two reasons: one, he can actually be legitimately annoying and second, his music tends to be joyous which isn't as easy as being negative and seems to irritate people. I agree with two of Bono's points: one, that it is harder to be uplifting than demoralizing and that any attempt to express that uplifted quality can often be met by criticsm and derision. As to his third point, that he is irritating, I will offer no comment as I have never met the man and have never found myself especially irritated by the few U2 songs (OK, I admit there are more than just a few!) that live in my I-pod.
You and your co-worker sit awkwardly next to each other in complete silence, someone has to say something. But what? You've already commented on the weather, the only other thing you can think to say is to joke about how many grammatical errors there were in an email that got sent out this morning. Immediately the awkwardness is broken and you and your colleague talk happily for a few minutes about how the person who sent the email is an idiot. Negativity, in the form of gossip in this instance, is surprisingly easy, much easier than sharing with your co-worker how excited you are that you got assigned a new project by your boss or that you've met someone new and you think this might work out. The difference between the positive and the negative is that to say something positive, you really have to put a piece of yourself out there and give the person you're speaking to some personal information whether it is a fact from your life or your feelings and opinions. To critique something, on the other hand, you really don't have to put yourself out there, instead you are throwing something or someone else out there to be judged.
During the time that I lived in England, someone asked how I was and I responded with my usual 'Good' which to me meant normal. The person who asked me gave me a inquisitive look and then asked if I had noticed that in England, when asked how they are doing, people predominantly respond with 'Not Bad'. She found it interesting that English people's 'normal' involved nothing actually being wrong wheras I was expressing that my 'normal' involved everything being hunky-dory. It was the typical glass half empty or half full paradigm. After this conversation, I noticed that whenever someone asked me how I was doing and I responded with 'Good', they would look a tiny bit surprised and would ask why life was so good, as if they were expecting me to explain that I had just won a nice chunk of change in the lottery.
I don't think that British culture is innately depressed (i.e. glass half full) but their culture is very critical. From the school yard to the Houses of Parliament, from the newspapers to the late-night television, it is a very critical society. I think that tendency to be negative has made them insecure in the sense that there is a reticence to put anything out there, even if it just that you are feeling happy for no reason at all. Even something as small as that could be picked on. Whether it is a construct of fame or just his personality, Bono has thrown caution to the wind and created music that expresses the joy that he feels. Well done man, if only more people would give up the lure of office gossip and run around singing songs of happiness!
Posted at 02:32 PM in Cultural Commentary, Music, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)