"That's going in my Facebook favourite quotations." - Nous

   Quotes a brilliant, small snippets of wisdom from an absolute flood of shit that usually comes from your friends, family and idols. My Facebook's favourite quotations section is fairly big and even then I still forget to publish half of the brilliance I come across. I thought I'd take the time to share few with you and explain their relevence to me.

   Dracz (on Phatbeats.com DnB Radio) - "We got HP21 bubblin' right now!"

Me - "I wouldn't say HP21's bubblin' mate, mum's watching Eastenders and I'm having a beer."

Dracz - "Yeah, you're probably right bruv."

   Although it might not fit in with your perceptions of me, I like drum and bass, particularly jungle. I don't know much about it but I listen all the same and Dracz' show on Phatbeats is a good way to get into it. Me and wor Tom often sit and listen to it on Friday nights when we should, by rites, be out on the lash, but sending ridiculous shout outs in to get a man we know to say things like "Cruising with R-Bizzler, he's all out of Rizla." is just too good an opportunity to pass up.

   This favourite quotation is fairly self explanatory from hence forth then but it tickles me whenever I look at it.

Papa Smurf

"You've always got to think that in the cold harsh light of a Magistrates' Court at ten o'clock on a Monday morning, can you really justify your actions to a panel of three elderly, middle-class white men? If the answer's no; don't do it." - My dad

   The life advice quote is always good, a few have come from my dad and this is one of the better ones. He's right too, in truth this quote sums up the complete ludicrousness of the British legal system and yet, at the same time, makes me laugh. I think that's the secret to a good quote, set out almost like a good joke and yet always either poignant, useful or simply a reminder of a brilliant time or place.

Pussy magnet

"My bed is a fucking fort Richard!" - Ed

   I've spent so much time in Ed's house this quote doesn't really do it justice, nor do the mere two on there from wor Dave do our hours of philosophy, football and bird banter any. This one encapsulates one of my proudest moments, when given an hour alone in a friends room with two cans of Monster, a jar of old foreign currency, a pile of cardboard boxes and some Blu-tack I whole-heartedly recommend you turn his bed into a castle and make a sword and a crown to attack him with when he tries to invade upon returning and he wont see the coins on the ceiling for at least an hour.

"Integrity is what black eyes were invented for." - Johnny 'Itch' Fox

   The King Blues' lead singer also does poetry and this line from Five Bottles of Shampoo about respecting women means something to me. It's something I fully support, if you believe in something you should always be willing to take a beating for it and I do enjoy a scrap. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of black eyes, torn shirts or grazed legs.

"Some people say football is a matter of life and death and I'm disappointed with that attitude, it's much, much more important than that." Bill Shankley

   Football means as lot to me, arguably my passion for Newcastle United is a religious one and I will eventually get round to blogging on that. The last time I cried was nearly two years ago, in St James' Park. Sir Bobby Robson had not long passed away and I sat amongst the sea of shirts, scarves, flags and footballs on the Sir John Hall lower tier and looked across the bright green pitch, panned up and right to the top of the Milburn Stand and then out up to the brilliant cloudless blue sky on a stunningly bright day. As I dropped my head to my hands I caught sight of a Sunderland shirt a few rows in front of me next to a Newcastle shirt, both with similar messages of mourning for the gentleman of football and I was overwhelmed with the utter international admiration for Sir Bobby and wept, I'm not afraid or embarrassed to admit it.

   I looked up and a man of forty or so looked at me, his face red and his eyes raw, his son holding his hand, looking at his dad confused as to why he'd been crying and we laughed at each other, simply laughed. That young lad probably wont forget that day and neither will I.

"If you are trembling with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine." Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

   Che's words beautifully sum up everything about my philosophy. Injustice is something I despise more than anything else, the intolerance of people and the mistreatment upon that impulse being the intolerance in question. It is these things which hold the human race back from stepping forward into revolution. On a more human level, Che was a fairly well-off young guy with a doctor's qualification who went off on a motorcycle with a friend and then wanted to change the world, along with Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Antonio Gramsci and various others, their only aim was to change the world and their only fear was being ignored. Rebels. To the end.

"Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it." - Karl Marx

   I hope this has given you some inspiration, that's what quotes are best for.

-Nous

Nuff cheese.

   If you're not familiar with Cbeebies' racial stereotype creole Rastamouse, this blog looks to service such lack of knowledge. I was recently pointed in the direction of Rastamouse by fellow fan Kiah and have made the following observations on the show aimed at three to five year-old children and available on iPlayer here.

   The series of ten minute stop-motion animations is set in Grovetown, Mouseland and its worth pointing out now that all the characters are personified mice voiced by, among others, Reggie Yates, Radio1 DJ and star of whatever that thing on a Saturday morning was that threw the horrific Fearne Cotton into our lives. The main character Rastamouse is the frontman and guitarist of the Easy Crew, a reggae band who have a direct radio link with President Wensley Dale (see what they did there?) for the purposes of crime-solving, but not prevention.

Easy Crew at Nuff Sound Records.

   Most crimes in the city seem to revolve around the theft of goods and the impact of this upon the children at one orphanage run by what can only be described as the greasiest, dodgiest looking mouse this side of Tower Hamlets, Harlem or the heartier side of Kingston is the basis of the story. Apparently President Dale's dictatorship didn't go down well with the city's polis who now refuse to solve crime without large payments in cheese, which the president doesn't have because it keeps getting nicked. Grovetown's security is therefore instead left to a reggae band on roller blades, though Rastamouse has a skateboard, because he's the flyest of motherfuckers about.

Bagga T, Mouseland's leading hip hop act, dj, drug dealer and
owner of the most crime-ridden orphanage in the world.

   Bagga's employment policy is just as questionable, the chef was convicted of the theft of food way back when and was given the job on the word of all people, President Dale. The President himself wears a military uniform and awards prizes unduly to his family members. His nephew, a convicted thief, is at one point awarded a trophy for art work, much in the same was Rupert Murdoch's son is head of New International for Europe or Kim Jong Un is an army general.

Colonel Dale pleads to a group of musicians on children's modes of transport
to help find missing cheese.

   Beyond the political corruption, child abuse and lawlessness of Mouseland though, there are some good messages. The theme tune proclaims that Rastamouse and co. are "always there to make a bad thing good" and to be honest, they usually are. Most criminals seem resentful and any negative situation is eventually turned around by Easy Crew, even if Rastamouse does most of the work. 

   The haplessness of President Dale and most other members of the society however, overshadows the whole show and you can't help but think that Rastamouse feels they're all beneath him, single-handedly solving most crimes in the city when the witnesses come out with such beauties as "No clues 'ere Rastamouse... But da window was open and it shouldn't 'ave been" and keeping together a band whose drummer is a serial eater and the bassist a whining whore "Wha'cha a'lways tinkin' 'bout cha stomach bwooy?" I don't particularly blame him for making a pretty penny from the broken system.

   In conclusion, Rastamouse may appear to be an entertaining ethnic quota-filling children's television show but on closer inspection it tells the tale of political corruption, high rates of criminal activity and the story of one mouse holding together a whole system.

   Irie man,

-Nous.

Under Byker Bridge, there lives a dirty woman... Filthy in fact, atrociously so.

   I'm sat in Maccy Dee's in Byker, in the East End of Newcastle, contrary to popular belief, Byker does actually exist and is not a parallel universe for Ant, Dec and that bloke who went on to work on Doctor Who as the token Geordie to attend a youth club.

   I've an hour to kill at time of blogging before a meeting which I probably shouldn't go into too much detail about but I thought I'd take advantage of capitalism's free WiFi to give everybody a quick update on what's occurring. 

   Egypt anyone? I've seen a few people complain online about how they feel ignorant to the who thing, which is fair enough, as Charlie Brooker mentioned earlier on the Tunisian situation "I don't know what to think, these Arabs are angry but where is my flag being burned?". Usually we only see folks in the Middle East shouting about beheading members of the press or, more recently, stoning women over adultory but this time, they aren't angry at the west. Well, not first and foremost anyway.

   The Egyptian people have had the same president for thirty years. Mubarak is/was held up by the US and their allies over issues like Israel and oil, in short, and in recent weeks, with the help of Tunisian action, the Egyptian working class have announced they ain't having it no more which is canny. The army have also announced their reluctance to shoot their own people which is always a nice thing - Churchill had "Our Boys" fire at Welsh miners way back when.

The only fairly related photo I could find, the conversation
may or may not have been revolutionary.

   The danger with the Egyptian situation is that as a reaction to American foreign policy, any new government may look to Iran for a model on which to base themselves. When American foreign policy was anti-communist, communism spread like wild fire, now that the US is firmly anti-Islamic or anti-Arab the best place to turn may well appear to be into a Mosque and non-secularism is never progressive. Many are claiming that this is not an Islamic revolution, and they're there so who am I to say?

   I've been taking far too many photos, you can see them on my Tumblr page, I'm planning to blog on why Lomography is fucking awesome, I'll get round to it.

   Anyway, that's about all I've actually got time for, just a few words of warning, when you mention online that you're in Byker and somebody posts you a link for the Byker Grove title sequence, make sure you have the volume down, the locals don't take to kindly to it.

   Oh, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Emily for this paragraph, she asked me to mention her but not to mention her getting stuck in a children's play area on the phone to me, but I don't do requests.

-Nous.