Sometimes, I Just Don't Get People

Earlier today Josh left one of the study rooms at school by (according to all sources) jumping on a table and heading, as the crow flies, straight out of the room. Now I wasn't there so all I have is information gathered afterwards but apparently the issue he had taken was with Megan "existing" (that was his one word answer when I asked him what she was doing wrong)
Now I know this is probably a lot like the Joan Rivers thing the other day, I'd be much less concerned if it was other people involved, but nevertheless, what sort of a problem is existing? Everyone does it, literally everyone, so that is no reason to rage at any one person. Thinking about it, a disproportionate amount of the people I know have a talent for inexplicable rage, this one though is noteworthy for the sheer sustained passion of it all. Generally episodes like these (be they mine, Josh's, Jonny's or someone else's) are either a massive sudden outburst over one specific (generally minor) offence, or a sort of simmering anger (normally explainable, sometimes not)
However it was demonstrated on the bus (in a rather entertaining manner) that this was something spectacularly different. I'll spare you the details but every time I removed my headphones (they were in to prevent me arguing, I'm hardly the perfect audience for an anti-Megan rant) I was greeted by some more (in some cases rather creative) abusive ranting, even a random thing like a child outside the bus or being in Seaton would somehow swing back to the same angry point. I was actually quite impressed, I don't think I could keep being that angry for more than a few minutes. Yet the only reasoning I could get for it was that Megan exists, just like I do and Josh does and everyone you've ever met does. I don't know what the real reason for Josh's anger was (we all know it wasn't "existing") but I hope Megan continues to do it, just for the entertainment it provides.
To justify writing this (I really just wanted to share a story of crazy anger) I'm going to try and crowbar a point on the end here. It's perfectly ok to hate someone, even to the point of table vaulting to get away from them. Just try to have a reason for it, you can't hate everyone, so target your anger at things that shouldn't be accepted, not just existing.

Brilliance and Beauty

I'd told myself for a long time that I wasn't going to write this post, but after the blasphemy that was this Monday's tutor it was essentially inevitable. The fact that Megan is currently tapping away at her keyboard for the exact same reason I am was just the trigger that set me off. You know exactly how I feel about Helena Bonham Carter so now you just have to sit back and I will explain why this is and, more importantly, why you should feel that way too. I've known who Helena is for as long as I can remember and been in love with her since the Order of the Phoenix came out in 2007, incidentally one of the worst Potter films but the one that introduced two of the best characters in cinema, Bellatrix (obviously) and Luna. Anyway, we're not here to talk magic, but rather about this magical woman. (see what I did there? Good wasn't it? Oh fine we can just move on)

My first point is so blindingly obvious it even goes in the title, she is bloody beautiful isn't she? I realised in chemistry the other day that if you doubled my age I'd still be a decade younger than she is, but at 46 she is still one of the most attractive people on this planet. Certainly when you only look at people over 40 there isn't really anyone to contest my point. What makes Helena so brilliant is that she's unique, a bloody rare quality when so many celebrities seem to be pure carbon copies of one another, I know there are other celebrities that stand out from the crowd but no one does it quite so well as the "corset queen" (a title I'll get to later). Take awards ceremonies as a nice easy example, as soon as I say that you can get a pretty clear idea in your head of what an average actress would be wearing. Fancy but fairly simple dress, certainly shoes that match at least but not Helena.  You might argue that it's a desperate bid for attention like the sort of thing lady gaga would do, but I don't think so because she always looks almost uncomfortable when photographed in public, like she'd rather be avoiding the attention and that's why she isn't dressed up in the same way as everyone else. In photo-shoots and when acting she always seems far more relaxed than she ever seems as herself, so I don't think she dresses like that to try and stand out, I think she dresses like that because she is truly unique and lets be honest with ourselves here: normal is boring, unique is sexy. Right I think 282 words just about covers beauty enough to get by, if I don't stop now I might go on forever. So lets get on to why she's so much more than a pretty face.
Part of the blasphemy I mentioned at the start of this post is essentially "Helena Bonham Carter plays one role through all her films" now I agree the two examples, Lovett and Thenardier, have quite a bit in common but take more than 15 seconds to think about it and you'll see how ridiculous a statement that is. In fact I don't even need words to deal with it, just a picture of a few of the roles she's played will do, you don't even need to recognise them all, just see that they're clearly quite different. There's a possibly imaginary psychopath, between the queen mother and a chimp. The same role? Far from it.

Roles like Mrs Lovett may be what people expect from Helena now but they are a far cry from what made her famous and gave her the nickname I mentioned earlier. Roles like Olivia and Ophelia in adaptations of Shakespeare, as well as things like Elizabeth in Frankenstein (none of which feature above) are all the sort of "Prim Edwardian" style characters that previously defined her. She said she wanted to shock people and if you'd watched her carer from the start (obviously I didn't, I was -10 when she started making films) I think you'd have experienced a fair deal of shock over the course of it. Unfortunately I don't think there are many roles left that will give her the chance to shock people any more, she's covered such a ridiculously wide range that nothing would be a surprise in the future. Of course she could always act badly, that would be pretty shocking to me at least. I've seen 15 films which have a credit for Helena Bonham Carter, all of them were good. I know that only covers 1/5 of the films she's in but I can't think of anyone else who's so consistently good across so many genres and roles. 
A range that greatly exceeds that of Tim Burton, who is a brilliant director don't get me wrong, but there are people who insist that Helena is famous because of Tim. There is no other way of putting it, that's just pain bullshit. Helena and Tim met in 2001 while filming Planet of the Apes. By this point Helena ha appeared in 41 films across 18 years. Working with Tim has been a significant part of her recent career, but even since 2011 she's been in Harry Potter, Great Expectations and Les Miserables, none of which involved Tim Burton, all of which were very successful and the two I've seen were both brilliant. So Helena Bonham Carter is definitely not Tim Burton's "wife and actress". She isn't even his wife, they're an odd pair like that, but like I said, odd trumps normal any day.
Ok it's coming up to 11 o'clock so I'll leave this here for now. Let me know if I've missed anything, or if you disagree with anything I've said let me know. I'll leave you with one (more if I ever work out the way to make photos behave on blogger) of my all time favourite photos of Helena, aren't I good to you?

Power to the Papal

Today it was announced that we will see something at the end of the month that hasn't happened since 1945; the worlds most powerful Nazi is giving up his power. I'm taking of course about Joseph Ratzinger, pope since 2005, who is the first pope to step down from the post since 1415 (you'd think he could hold on for 2 more years for neatness sake) blaming old age and ill health (the ill health is probably punishment from god for being at the head of the worlds largest paedophile facilitating organisation.) Of course at this point you'll be thinking "So an old man is retiring, what's your point Marshall?" It is this: is there any point in replacing Ratzinger?
I'm not saying we get rid of religion, we should do of course but I know that some people are just incapable of growing up enough to stop believing in fairy tales. Organised religion on the other hand, a religion that has it's own UN recognised state, that's something else entirely. I fail to see any need for the pope, or frankly the church. If you want to blame your problems on the will of your imaginary friend then go ahead, but do you really need an international ring of tax avoiders, paedophiles, homophobes and racists to tell you how to be a good person? It's time we do away with the church and live good lives because it's right, not because we are compelled to under threat of eternal damnation.
In fact lets go further than that. Let's take this resignation as a sign from the pope's boss. Just like the resignation of 1415, this is the herald of a new age in human society. A time when we can tear down the ancient institutions that take so much from the people and give nothing real back to us. Religion, monarchy, bigotry, these are things that hold society back from development. The world is changing faster now than it has for centuries, now is the perfect time to prune away the old useless branches at the top of the tree. No one is truly free until we live in a land where all people answer in equal measure to the government and that government answers in turn to its people. Yet as it is there is so much power invested in mystical beings and arbitrary powers with no accountability.
If we want to move on we need to trim the fat, prune away the wasteful medieval structures of society and replace them with justifiable, fair, democratic practices. If someone wants to be head of state they should require the will of the people to take that post, no one should be born into power. If organised religion must continue, treat it and tax it like any other organisation and never hold the will of the church above the law. These are fair requests for a fair society, a true republic free from state religion.
This is not an issue anyone should remain silent on, we all have a voice to demand liberty from those who govern us, to declare our freedom from those who would tie our hands and silence our words. Your country belongs to its people, not their government, never believe otherwise. Demand democracy, demand liberty, demand the freedom that is your right as a human.