*This post is dedicated to my friend Olly who is the biggest Karl Pilkington fan that I know.
Karl Pilkington is a critical thinker.
Karl Loves To Think Outside The Box…
Part of Karl’s mass appeal is that he stays true to himself. Despite his massive success, Karl seems to still be authentic. He is always honest, curious, humble and so funny. He is best known as comedian Ricky Gervais’ friend and colleague on their very successful podcasts The Ricky Gervais Show. He was the star of an idiot abroad and even wrote a diary about his adventures. His latest creative endeavour is the moaning of life.
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In this short video clip Karl deconstructs happiness in relation to physical beauty/fitness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnoIj624Wf8
Happiness | The Moaning of Life | Karl Pilkington
For the moaning of life, he meets a man who has had 120 procedures and approximately $150,000 worth of plastic surgeries. Karl posed without his shirt next to the man who’s had all the plastic surgeries. The interviewer says to Karl, “I am quite impressed with that you don’t care. You are happy to stand there posing with your top off. And let’s face it, you haven’t the best body known to man.”
I love Karl’s humble yet refreshing attitude in response to the interviewer. He replies that his body is “not a bad one…it works. But I understand that any women watching this wouldn’t go…oh, look at him. But that’s the reality isn’t it? That’s what most people look like.” Why is Karl’s physique so unattractive or unacceptable?? I don’t think it is by any means. It’s a manner of perception and what we are being sold {in an ideological sense i.e. perfection}. Most people prefer fantasy and illusion instead of truth. Karl Pilkington is the ultimate realist and he employs his critical thinking skills to deconstruct the situation.
Karl inquisitively asks, “So I don’t know what’s happened where they think that’s normal on the left.” Adverting has sent people on a relentless quest for perfection, beauty/sex appeal and youth. Men are now being attacked with similar psychological warfare that women are attacked with {albeit to a much lesser degree}. Even children are being groomed as consumers.
We are reduced to our exterior appearances- not even amounting to the sum of our parts. In the mainstream media, what we look like has solely defined who we are. Our rich inner life, emotions, intellect, spirituality have been erased from the discourse and divorced from our identities. I wonder what consequences this emotional and spiritual disconnection will bring. We cannot allow society, marketing/advertising to dictate to us who we are. Your self identity needs to be your own creation because only you know who you are inside.
The ridiculous new plastic surgery that Karl mentions is testicle ironing. What has happened to people that they need to invent these new procedures? Are they really that bored or obsessed with unattainable perfection? Why don’t people focus on true problems in humanity: poverty; hunger; war; abuse to children, animals, women, the environment; human trafficking; genital mutilation; acid attacks; rapes; racism, sexism, discrimination of all types; social inequality, etc? I always wonder what great things people could accomplish in their personal lives {and humanity as a whole} if we wouldn’t be seduced by this culture of narcissism and distraction.
Will people wake up to their own power in order to enact change in their lives and in the context of the world? Will most remain asleep? Time will tell but hopefully more will realize this matrix is a prison {if we chose to stay enslaved in it}. It is time to wake up and realize that emancipation from society’s brainwashing is in our hands. We hold the key. This quest for perfection, endless youth and eternal beauty is a social construction and an illusion.
No one will argue against self-care as caring about one’s health and appearance is quite healthy. The danger lies in caring too much because it can distract you from more important things in life that are more deserving of your time, energy and attention. Focusing obsessively on such trivial and vain things such as perfection seems like such a waste of energy, time, money and human potential but that’s just my opinion. As Karl says, “don’t worry about it.”
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Do you agree or disagree with Karl Pilkington?
Why or why not?
{I hope to feature more moaning of life clips and Karl Pilkington in the near future}.
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Please enjoy Clutching at Straws by Andrea Parker {from her Kiss My Arp cd}….
{I was lucky enough to see her in person when she opened up for Radiohead. It was divine and I loved her music}.
I copied this from her biography page…
“”Known as no1darker – Parker has always been uncompromising, passionate about the music and loaded with don’t–give-a-shit resolve. She has a love of art, arps, photography, architecture, graffiti, 808, concrete, glaciers, adidas, Bass, rust and all things white. She is incredibly hard to pigeon hole : one minute she will be in the studio making dark, menacing, haunting music- going from Booty shakin’ beats to string drenched ballads. The next she’ll be climbing mountains and reaching new summits; from Kilimanjaro in Africa to the avenue of the volcanoes in Ecuador. She has worked for many charity’s, including Crisis, the NSPCC, Get kids going and many more, she even dressed up as Pudsey Bear for Children in Need!! An old school analogue girl at heart, she still remains a die hard B Girl and is defiantly a freaky B*tch! One things for sure: She’d give the men in white coats a run for their money if they even dared think about taking her away…”
-Time Out magazine
“Beats so phat, so dope and so dark, there ain’t a NYC MC alive (cept maybe Rakim) that could handle them”
-New York Times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40JbtBCjz1U&feature=share
“Knowing our self
Who we think that we are
Constantly changing
Constantly changing
So near and so far
Knowing ourself
Who we think that we are
Constantly changing
Constantly changing
So near and so far
Who we think that we are
Who we think that we are
Who we think that we are.”
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For more information…
Karl Pilkington…http://www.karlpilkington.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1797453/
The Moaning of Life…http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3277670/
Andrea Parker…http://www.andreaparker.co.uk/
http://www.andreaparker.co.uk/about-andrea
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Peace & Namaste…
Reflection for today…Potential -Doris Lessing
26 Mar“Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so.”
— Doris Lessing
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Society is not a level playing field.
Equal opportunities are mostly urban legends.
Spoken word poets and hip hop artists often speak about social inequalities and injustice through social commentary.
Some hip hop artists educate, enlighten/uplift consciousness and inspire.
Stic Man & M-1 are Dead Prez: My favourite hip hop artists/activists/revolutionaries
Tupac Shakur was a brilliant poet/artist/activist/revolutionary
This poetic narrative storytelling made me fall in love with hip hop because it gave a voice to the voiceless.
It was the poetry of the streets.
Many will not like the social commentary.
It is so incisive and critical but it has to be because the living conditions are full of suffering and injustice.
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It should be noted that conscious hip hop and punk music have many parallels.
They both fight against the status quo.
They both subvert the dominant paradigm.
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Black ice is such a gifted poet and spoken word artist.
He shoots from the hip and his poems go straight to your heart and mind.
In his poem Imagine, he meditates on social inequality and how different life would be if equal opportunities actually existed.
He proposes to “put love where the hate is.”
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Please enjoy his poem Imagine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kVT89O6cLo
“What happens in neighbourhoods where the self-esteem has been overshadowed by the decay and the children no longer play the way they used to?
Where young boys choose to follow figures that had no father figures…
Whatever happened to that we shall overcome shit?…
Photo Courtesy of: http://www.neh.gov/files/divisions/preservation/images/we_shall_overcome_full_page.jpg
Cold winters are sheltered by crack houses instead of recreational centers that they claim to not have the paper to keep open for operation…
What’s a young boy to do when he doesn’t want to do wrong but there’s a lock on the right door?
When he has the heart of a soldier, the aggression of a prizefighter but no one’s taught him what to fight for…
Young Tupac was one of many boys without fathers {as Black Ice says}.
However, the absence of his father was eclipsed by his mother’s fierce love.
Afeni {a former Black Panther} passed on infinite wisdom to her son so it isn’t true that “no one taught him what to fight for.”
“My mother taught me three things: respect, knowledge, search for knowledge.
It’s an eternal journey.” -Tupac.
I included this caption of Tupac because he had “the heart of a soldier and aggression of a prize fighter”- not to mention the mind of a revolutionary leader..
In the end, Tupac defined manhood for himself and became quite the revolutionary man.
I would have loved to see Tupac become a father…
See, most of our families are fatherless and quite poor so we miss out on meals as well as kisses and hugs.
Photo Courtesy of: http://zunlee.com/
You’ve got the audacity to cut the funding for the facilities that keep us off the streets then ask us why we sell drugs.
Imagine if we put down our dices and guns, picked up our daughters and sons and put a little love right there where the hate is…
Photo Courtesy of: http://zunlee.com/images/sized/assets/blog/DSC_9675-Color_720_1080_c1.jpg
Imagine if these little inner-city kids had the same type of schools that these rich kids have way out there in the sticks…”
–Black Ice
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Imagine we lived in a world where there was no suffering, injustice/oppression, “third world” class distinction or any class distinction whatsoever.
This is the world that I want to live in…
Art by BANKSY
Peace & Namaste.
{More posts about poverty/social inequality/injustice, sociology, spoken word poetry, Tupac, Dead Prez, Black Ice and hip hop coming up in the future…}
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For more information…
Dorris Lessing…http://www.dorislessing.org/
Black Ice…https://twitter.com/BLACKICETHEPOET
Tupac…http://www.2pac.com/
The Tupac Shakur foundation…http://www.tasf.org/
Dead Prez…http://deadprezblog.wordpress.com/blog/
“Tupac’s Legend
Tupac Amaru Shakur was an inspiration to millions.
While 2Pac was most famous for his rap career, he was also a gifted actor, poet and thoughtful while outspoken advocate for the poor and the overlooked in America. During his life, he produced an immense amount of artistic work, which included studio albums, major Hollywood feature films, and published works. He was most prolific in the music industry, selling over 75 million albums. 2Pac’s unapologetic lyrics were relevant, important, and reflective of the hard lives led by many. His music earned attention and respect through a poetic style that embraced street vocabulary while being innovative. Today, 2Pac is still considered by many to be one of the biggest influences on modern hip-hop.
2Pac’s career has earned him six Grammy nominations and three MTV Video Music Award nominations. In 1997, Shakur was honored by the American Music Awards as the Favorite Hip Hop Artist.
Born on June 16 1971 in New York City, Shakur’s parents were both members of the Black Panther Party whose militant style and provocative ideologies for civil rights would come to influence 2Pac’s music. At an early age, Tuapc’s love for performance and the arts began to show, as he began acting at age 13 and later enrolled in the Baltimore School of the Arts before dropping out at 17. Shakur broke into the music business with rap group Digital Underground as a back-up dancer and roadie. Eventually Shakur released his first solo album in ’91, 2pacalypse Now. 2Pac’s music career began to grow as his second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z included two top 20 pop chart tracks: I Get Around and Keep Ya Head Up.
Shakur’s legal battles began after he established his rap career. In the early nineties Shakur faced a wrongful death suit which settled out of court, accusations of assaulting police officers where charges were ultimately dropped, and even an incident where Shakur sustained five gunshot wounds from shooter Dexter Isaac. In 1995 2Pac was sentenced one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years in prison for sexual abuse. However, not even prison could slow the success of Shakur’s career.
While incarcerated 2Pac’s latest album at the time, Me Against the World, was number one in the pop charts and would later go double platinum. Shakur became the first artist to reach number one in the pop charts while serving a prison sentence. Making the most of his time in jail, 2Pac became a passionate reader. Among his favorites were the works of Niccolò Machiavelli, an Italian Renaissance writer whose works were in part the foundation for western political science. Shakur’s appreciation of his work inspired the nickname: Makaveli.
After serving only eight months of his sentence, 2Pac was out on parole thanks to a 1.4 million dollar bond paid by Suge Knight, CEO of Death Row Records. Now signed with Death Row Records, Shakur went on to create All Eyez on Me, which featured hits How Do You Want It and California Love.
2Pac’s life was cut short in September of 1996 when Shakur became the victim of a drive-by shooting while his car waited on a red light. While Shakur survived the surgery that followed he was pronounced dead almost a week after the attack.
Even today, 2Pac’s influence is wide-spread. From the Library of Congress where his song Dear Mama was added in 2010 to the National Registry, to artists like 11 time Grammy winner Eminem who in an interview with MTV said:
“He made you feel like you knew him. I think that , honestly, Tupac was the greatest songwriter that ever lived. He made it seem so easy. The emotion was there, and feeling, and everything he was trying to describe. You saw a picture that he was trying to paint.”
2Pac leaves a legacy of honesty and passion in his songs. Respected by many, 2Pac has become an inspiration for artists and a standard in rap music.”
-Copied & Pasted from: http://www.2pac.com/legend/
The Tupac Shakur Foundation
“MISSION
Our mission is to provide training and support for students who aspire to enhance their creative talents. Each and every child desires freedom to creatively express themselves. We provide an environment that encourages freedom of expression, serves as a resource for families, and empowers via education.
ABOUT
The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation (TASF) is home to the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts, just outside of Atlanta in Stone Mountain, Georgia. TASF was founded in 1997 originally as the Shakur Family Foundation by Afeni Shakur, mother of multi-talented Tupac Amaru Shakur. Since its inception TASF has offered performing arts camps, essay competitions, youth book clubs, visual arts workshops, community development projects, and scholarships to students pursuing undergraduate degrees.
On June 11, 2005 the TASF opened the Center! The Center is dedicated to providing youth and the community with educational programs in the arts. It is a fact that early arts education improves school grades, as well as offers invaluable life lessons while building self-esteem and confidence. For nearly 15 years, the Foundation’s programs have served youth of all social and economic backgrounds, giving countless young people the courage to get off the streets and learn vital skills that have the potential to positively impact their communities. The Center is open to the public and hosts several noteworthy events throughout the year.
MORE ABOUT TUPAC
Tupac Amaru Shakur dealt with great obstacles such as homelessness, hunger, and pain, amongst other situations during his youth. Performing arts provided the hope that would seed the expression that would one day influence generations worldwide.
Tupac accomplished a lot before his murder at the age of 25. At an early age, he wrote and organized family productions, casting himself as the lead and his older cousins in supporting roles. Tupac formally trained at the 127th Street Ensemble and Baltimore School for the Arts. At the age of twelve, he experienced his first formal stage role as the character “Travis” in the stage play ‘Raisin In the Sun’ at the prestigious Apollo Theatre in Harlem.
Tupac was eventually cast in several feature films and recorded several chart topping albums. In fact, he released the first ever double hip-hop CD. Today, years after his physical departure, he is the second highest selling Hip-Hop artist of all time. His gift- his words and creative talent- continues to inspire others around the world!“
-Copied & Pasted from: http://www.tasf.org/the-foundation/about-tasf/
Tupac Sends You Peace…
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