Statue of Jazz found on Mars

Someone once said "Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people" and it seems to me to be fairly accurate even if the latter part of it is a well defined description of me on a Saturday night. I think that if people listened to themselves more often then they would talk less and if cats could talk then they probably wouldn't! It's really good to talk but what are you going to talk about? Does anyone sit down with a nice cup of tea and read a good newspaper or magazine? We can get a lot of ideas from the things we read...
... And thanks for reading me!

Responsible journalism is supposed to be the reporting of facts and the presentation of unbiased opinion to promote reasoned discussion of public affairs. Tabloids in most countries avoid this and produce a regular flow of scandals, secrets, outrages, conflicts, splits, arguments, sex and TV-gossip. The masses love it and the paper/magazine sales go up. As a joke you could call it yellow journalism! (Laughs)

The Asahi Geino comes to mind as a particular example of the 'mush for the masses' kind of tabloid magazine, not to be confused with the Asahi Shimbun, which is a damn good newspaper and one that I regularly read. The Genio is a typical example of a magazine that is full of fiction and hypocrisy such as denouncing sex education in schools and campaigns to keep our young innocent and unfortunately ignorant and we all know what happens next. Turn the page over and you have 'sexy schoolgirl of the week' naked! These and other 'true weeklies' usually have fictional stories full of what the older males like and look for when buying a magazine.

Think of politics and imagine in the council rooms where all great debates are held and ideas are discussed and different points of views are explored. The tabloids report this as splits amongst the house as if debating was somehow a weakness and they should already know all the answers to all future policy. This kind of reporting undermines the though about the social questions that the public need to know and have access to accurate and reliable information. I can imagine that such discussions on prostitution, sex education, pornography, obscenity, drug laws, religious involvement to name but a few, would have some politicians close-lipped for fear of the war waged upon them for the mob tabloid mentality. The resulting inability to have sensible public debates on such things is the main reason we suffer from their effects.
This tabloid mentality is not concerned with your interest in local and national matters. It's only concerned with what they 'think' will interest the public. Even the truth can be twisted in order to increase profits. Conflict and scandal increase sales and so if there isn't any happening in real life then make it up! People should debate the presented opinions. Debates for those who produce and those who digest these tabloids don't care about who is right and what is right. They only care that they can get others to agree with them. The true debater shares the concerns of other true debaters and simply wants to arrive at the truth with sound judgements to allow all to arrive at a better understanding. We should criticize and disagree against the presented ideas and not presenter and if you find a strong argument different from your own initial thoughts then be glad. Don't feel that you have lost face or lost ground, debate is not a battle in such a way! Be glad that you have gained an insight and an alternate point of view which can only increase your own understanding.

I picked up a couple of books for light reading /research /more mush for the masses and I'm not sure that I learned anything but I was mildly amused. I liked the cover of 'Lesbian hair' and it made me think of someone in particular. Both books promised laughs and I was quite disappointed and feel led astray by the cheap cover illustrations. The funny moments were too far apart and the underlying feeling throughout both books was a feeling of revenge against an uncaring world that treats them bad. You hate me so I hate you!

Where are all the decent lesbian erotica stories that come with insight into their own personal lives and come without political diatribes?

...In response to J from California who asks rather bluntly which of us takes the 'male role?'

The answer is neither of us. Trying to put it as simply as I can, I would have to say that I'm a girl who likes the usual girl things but I am attracted to other girls and not real 'he-men' such as yourself. If you need labels and identifying tags to help you understand then think of it as 'femme on femme.'

I saw this on yahoo news:
People use music as a "badge" to tell people about their personality and values

Dr Jason Rentfrow, of Cambridge University, said musical preferences and lists of favourite bands on profiles on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace were "clear public statements of who we are and how we should be perceived, whether we are conscious of that or not".

Sample groups of subjects regularly made the same assumptions about people's personalities, values, social class and even their ethnicity, based on their musical preferences, he said.

Jazz fans were viewed as friendly, emotionally stable people with a limited sense of responsibility, while rap fans were viewed as more hostile, but energetic and athletic, the research found.

Classical music was linked to white, upper-class people and rap to black or mixed-race people from lower class backgrounds. Dr Rentfrow, of the university's department of social and developmental psychology, said: "Humans, as social beings, develop techniques that help them to predict what another person is going to be like from the moment they first meet. "Because we can't carry out a full psychological assessment on the spot, we ask them questions which help us to build up a picture of their personality. "This research suggests that, even though our assumptions may not be accurate, we get a very strong impression about someone when we ask them what music they like."

I'm glad all you Jazz fans out there are friendly people!
I like mainstream popular, light rock, indie, R&B, electronica, retro and soulful ballads and you all know what kind of girl I am - you know me through my writings!
So what kind of music do you like? Who wants to tell me a few bands or artistes or styles that they like? What do you think your music tastes will say about you?
(I try to offer you a way of interactivity!)
I also like this one. You can tell from the embedded English translation lyrics that some of the lines are really terrible but one or two really speak to me and I can identify with them. Armed with the reputation and history of this group and the few lines that sing in my ear, it's enough to have this song in my mind quite often!