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INDIGO
What do you love? indigo@palatinate.org.uk
Friday 13 February 2009 palatinate.org.uk
PICK AND MIX Palatinate loves...
Selected quotes Francesca Teoh presents snippets from the public sphere
M&S Chocolate & Toffee biscuits These delectable treats have kept us sustained through many a late night.
Dry wit those anTo tolerate mates. use noying ho
“How I would grade my knowledge at 40: B+ in literature and attendant arts, B+ in history and biography, B- in philosophy, C in psychiatry, D+ in military tactics and strategy, D in architecture, D in art and D in Marxian economics. “Everything else way below educated average including all science, natural history, music, politics, business, handicrafts, etc., etc. - save for some specialist sport knowledge boxing, football, women...” F. Scott Fitzgerald The self-deprecating master of American prose on his gross inadequacies.
Taylor Swift This 19-year-old American singer-songwriter is the next big thing.
Palatinate hates...
Deadlines en’t Because there ar the in s ur ho gh ou en day.
“It’s really scary about the economy right now, so the way I’m playing my part in helping is doing a lot of shopping where ever I go. I think a way for people to get by in this economy and still be fashionable, is to go to Topshop - because they have really cute clothes at great prices.” Paris Hilton The perenially savvy trust-fund baby on the state of the world. “I find the whole idea of being ‘sexy’ embarrassing and confusing, I’d never go out in a miniskirt. What’s sexy about saying: ‘I’m here with my boobs out and a short skirt - have a look at everything I’ve got.’” Emma Watson The twenty-first century voice of moral conscience, the young Hermione Grainger on desirability.
Not replying to emails Because we need an answer, godammit!
Graduate pros pects We didn’t toil away only to get a M cJob!
“I’m going to get into so much trouble after this. I want a disclaimer first of all, that I’m going to say this person, if they weren’t married... so I’m going to say Cheryl Cole. Who wouldn’t? This is pretend, right?” Simon Cowell The music svengali on which female celebrity he would most like to kiss. “It’s such a relief to let myself by ugly.” Greta Scacchi The actress complains that it’s a hard life being beautiful.
Twitter, Twitter Emily Purser explains how to Twitter your life away
W
hen Jonathon Ross bounded back onto our screens three weeks ago, tail between his legs after his threemonth suspension following Sachsgate, most viewers tuned in to hear what the BBC’s lovechild had to say by way of an apology. Unlike Russell Brand, Ross’ coconspirator of the infamous Radio 2 stunt, Ross has not upped sticks and skipped off to LA to escape the hype - so he was left to weather the press storm alone, which, much like the snow, is only just subsiding. Ross rewarded us with a suitably awkward apology at the beginning of his show, saying, “Seriously, I would like to apologise. We have got a great responsibility, what we do is a privilege and I will be more aware in future.” But Ross’ attempt at humility was not what stood out from the show; his verging on obscene flattery of Tom Cruise was not even the highlight (though, admittedly, Cruise deserved the compliments: next to Ross, he looked like he had fallen from heaven). No, the most memorable part of the show (with the swoons of the house band, Four Poofs and a Piano, as Cruise entered coming in a close second) was Stephen Fry’s discussion about the social networking site Twitter. Fry revealed himself as a big Twitter fan, and the fallout over the past couple of weeks has been astonishing. For those not in the know, Twitter is what the guys and gals in ITS would call a ‘micro-blogging’ website, where account holders post a summary of what they are doing or feeling in a maximum of 140 characters. It’s a little bit like Facebook statuses, only much less annoying and self-congratulatory. Instead of thrilling the world with the state of your hangover, and how you are “neeeever drinking again ;) !!!”, twitterers (yes, there’s a host of Twit vocab) write much more frequently about where they are going, things they have heard etc, so one’s profile acts as a kind of diary. Each person ‘follows’ others, so that their statuses appear on your page and you keep up-to-date with what they are doing. Now, this may all sound very mundane, and, frankly, who wants to know I had Special K for breakfast, but there is something incredibly enticing and entertaining in the simplicity of the site, which is reflected in its skyrocketing numbers. When Fry went on Jonathan Ross a few weeks ago, he had in the region of 50,000 followers i.e. his updates were being read by 50,000 odd people around the world. At the time of writing, he has 147,696. Quite impressive, no? Fry is just one of several celebrities wising up to this medium as a way to converse - in both directions - with their fans, and retain interest in their personal brand. In this age of celebrity, it stands to reason that we, the Average Joe, are interested in knowing the ins and outs of the rich and fabulous’ lives. Hell, if we’ll spend a couple of quid on a magazine filled with Britney’s nipples and Cheryl’s hair extensions, we’ll log on to find out which country the god that is Stephen Fry is filming in. But unlike Heat and the ilk, Twitter does not have that creepy voyeuristic edge, because it’s often tongue-in-cheek, honest and - most importantly - the information is offered by the person in question. I started tweeting a week or so before Fry gave Twitter more publicity than it could ever afford. Having read the numbers were spiking astronomically in the new year, I duly logged on to find out
what all the fuss was about. Now, I am a nosy little so-and-so, but even if I weren’t, I venture that I’d still have become addicted to this website, if only for the diversionary service it provides in the library. As a Jon Snow addict, I love to read the tweets coming out of the Channel 4 newsroom, from the updates that are sent by text from the morning meeting, to the feedback it solicits on various stories. Another reason Twitter seems to have taken off so suddenly is the discovery that it can act as an instantaneous news medium for user-generated content. The first picture of the United Airways plane that landed on the Hudson was posted on TwitPic, the image host for Twitter, meaning that hundreds of people knew about the incident before any of the newsrooms.
“I have a few random people following me... I can’t understand why someone who doesn’t know me wants to know what I’m doing” Many of the Radio 1 DJs tweet already, and seem to have spent the week talking about it; they are joined by Barack Obama, John Cleese and Alan Carr, to name but a few. All of them, when questioned, are keen to point out that Twitter is not just an exercise in self-promotion, and in fact the vast majority of tweeting is between normal folk, who are communicating across offices, cities, or even libraries, like us. I have a few random people following me, which perplexes me a little, as I can’t understand why someone who doesn’t know me wants to know what I’m doing. Following your friends’ tweets I understand, following Stephen Fry’s tweets I more than understand - but a totally random person? That’s where I draw the line. For the time being, at least, I love hearing about Fry getting stuck in lifts, or Fearne Cotton interviewing bands, or Greg James’ damp in his flat, and even Schofe’s incessant rambling about his snowmen. In time, I hope, my friends will have a little tweet, at which point my own musings will be seen by more than just an ex-pat living in Singapore who doesn’t know me at all. However, given that my diary is filled with trips to just one horrid concrete building, rather than LA and New York, perhaps I should stop stalking Stephen Fry, give up on this tweeting lark and just stick to Facebook. But I hazard a guess that in a few months, I might be the only one who is.
C M Y K