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Reach for the Scars.

22:47 / 14.11.08

Whatever you're calling the link

I never overly warmed to Celeb Big Brother and seldomly watch when its on. I also remember being generally pretty ambivalent to the race-row-shocker. People with unexamined, xenophobic, bigoted views! O rly?

I also realise that Jo following her brief splutter of notoriety was less likely to get any awards for humanitarianism and I understand she was pretty dislikable. Although tbh I'm not sure of what part she actually played in it all.

I do, however, remember reportages of a suicide attempt following her release from the Big Brother compound which may indicate some remorse at the situation or, perhaps, just at the repercussions of the situation. And the subsequent attack does renew ungrudging sympathy for her.
Villification at the hands of the mass media and by in large the nation for any Big Brother contestant normally sparks a bit of sadness in me, though, and I always imagine the vast majority of them living very sorry lives in the immediate aftermath.

O'Meara will probably always be celebrity fodder to be puked up, consumed and shit out again ad inifinitum ad nauseum until she shuffles off the radar of even z-list fame.

How Nasty is the Big Brother Mechanism? How morally suspect has the reality tv industry become? Or am I being a mite alarmist?

00:31 / 15.11.08

Is glassed a verb there?
I think I'm glad that I have no real idea what you're talking about, other than something television-related. My brain is polluted enough already with that.

06:47 / 15.11.08

Glassed is definitely a verb on Barbelith.

I thought I had heard of that band name once before, and yes. It´s the same band where one member plays a part on Primeval. She should have joined that dinosaur show instead of living in a container.

And is Big Brother still a big deal in the UK? The first season was huge here, the 2nd season was talked about, after that there were only articles once or twice a year about how desperate many of the contestants were. Wanting some fame in life so bad that they willingly offered themselves to public humiliation. But since almost no one is watching anymore, it´s not that public. Now people prefer to laugh about those Song Contest people and their overblown egos.

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:24 / 15.11.08

To glass means to strike with a glass, usually a beer glass, usually in the face and traditionally with enough forc that the beer glass shatters.

From the Oxford Dictionary of Leave It Darren He's Not Worth It.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:32 / 15.11.08

Shit, is that really not a verb outside the UK?

No wonder everyone else looks at us funny.

12:07 / 15.11.08

Stoat, that's not why we look at you funny.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

12:25 / 15.11.08

*raises glass*

ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME FUNNY???

(I must admit, I do have a very well-toned funny).

trouble at bill

13:18 / 15.11.08

Glassing is an absolutely horrible thing to do or have to do or even to have to think about doing. However, at the risk of pedantry, I think that the woman in question was bottled.

13:20 / 15.11.08

Yep, I think so too. 'Glassing' is more smash then gouge, right?

trouble at bill

13:26 / 15.11.08

Hmm, I'd imagine there is a certain gouge element to the proceedings, but I'm no expert.

Also, on the wider subject, someone allegedly mocked on the US X Factor has driven to one of the judges houses and taken her own life. Link here. This actually might turn into a Head Shop thread y'know, it's a serious enough topic.

16:56 / 15.11.08

I think that the woman in question was bottled.
I guess in a country with so few firearms, you've got to verb-ize some other forms of assault. How quaint. "I carafed his ass!" "Don't make me snifter you!"
But really, thinking of it, I seem to see that in movies from there more often.

23:51 / 15.11.08

I think there's been numerous reported suicide atempts following reality tv show appearances and probably many unreported hours in therapy.

08:43 / 16.11.08

To glass means to strike with a glass, usually a beer glass, usually in the face and traditionally with enough forc that the beer glass shatters.

While I'm not doubting that this is definitely glassing I was always under the impression that the glasser smashes the glass (or bottle) first, creating a impromptu weapon with which to strike the glassee.

ONLY NICE THINGS

13:08 / 16.11.08

I think it's dealer's choice. A glass you can smash against someone's face, although it takes a lot of force. A bottle you would probably have to break beforehand, but I think that that would make the action more of a stabbing. What happened in Bradford was definitely a bottling, though.

trouble at bill

13:27 / 17.11.08

although it takes a lot of force

You mean, you imagine it would take a lot of force? Tell me that line is but intelligent speculation and nothing more sinister!

13:36 / 17.11.08

Glassing: Is that the method used to get a Glasgow Smile?

I used to have recurring nightmares of having glass in my mouth, trying to spit it out carefully and not swallow, and no matter how much I spit, I couldn't get it all out.

Brrrr.

Funny: "Reality TV" was supposed to be about ordinary people in almost ordinary situations. Isn't "Celebrity Reality" TV a bit of an oxymoron? Wasn't the purpose to get away from celebs? Were they so jealous and attention starved that they had to muscle in? Now granted, "Celebs" becomes a very, very loose definition when used to describe the star-power calibre of those "celebs" who take part in these shows, but still: They had their 15 minutes. Let someone else take a turn so I can ignore them, too.

trouble at bill

13:54 / 17.11.08

Is that the method used to get a Glasgow Smile?

Hmm, I thought that, as it has been described to me, supposedly involved slitting the cheeks to the ear or slitting the corners of the mouth then somehow causing the victim to scream and ripping the wounds further open.

Oh dear, this is one of the liveliest threads we've had in ages and we're talking about assorted laceration strategies. What does this say about us?!

trouble at bill

15:30 / 17.11.08

in an attempt to be less gory and more on the topic,

I think there's been numerous reported suicide atempts following reality tv show appearances and probably many unreported hours in therapy.

yep, there must have and there are survivor's groups too. There's so much could be said about the Big Brother thing but the only 10 cents I have now is that generally the trouble is that so many people see the tv as a medium of truth and simply do not realise how easy it is to put a phenomenally biased, if not practically false, image of them across with some quick editing, never mind tricking them by asking leading questions and so on.

I only know one person who's been on a 'reality' tv makeover show but he was very unhappy with what they portrayed him as. I've been in a 'documentary' and the experience of seeing how much important stuff ended up 'on the cutting room floor' (easily 95% of what actually happened and what was said) and what rubbish they chose to include was very instructive. Anyone seriously wanting to work with the media needs to have two things, i. earned trust in the journalists' integrity and ii. some proper training, before even thinking about going in front of the cameras. If not they're a lamb to the slaughter.

07:37 / 18.11.08

I seem to recall there's a high incidence of self-inflicted injury for people who break bottles/glasses for use in "bar-room negotiations" without considering that said implements aren't designed to explode into a handy combat mode and end up with a handfull of blood and glass.

Well, it makes me chuckle anyway.

trouble at bill

12:48 / 18.11.08

It would add a certain cartoon-like quality to the proceedings, I imagine! It's almost the sort of inept criminal mishap that Guy Ritchie might feature in one of his alarmingly humourous gangster flicks...

trouble at bill

09:23 / 19.11.08

I guess in a country with so few firearms, you've got to verb-ize some other forms of assault. How quaint. "I carafed his ass!" "Don't make me snifter you!"

At a well-known London venue the other night someone actually champaigne-fluted someone else - so nasty and yet so classy.