In which I manage to squeeze gritty Marxist theorist Raymond Williams and impressively coiffed 80s pop duo Dollar into the same piece.(And before some smartarse pipes up that they'd rather have had a pic of Raymond Williams, it's my gaff, my rules, OK?)
6 comments:
I'd forgotten that love of ranking, as one of your commenters puts it. And I'd completely forgotten about the importance of the charts, but, yes, I too always wanted to know if Althia and Donna were at no. 7 or if there'd been something as exciting as a song going down in the charts one week and then going back up again the week after. The excitement! (Fucking hell. Shouldn't I have been taking drugs instead?)
I have no idea about this new chart, but I still get my ranking kicks from religiously checking the tennis-rankings every Monday morning. By Sunday night I'm usually puking with excitement. I really really must become a drug-addict.
As my major role model Dr Goebbels used to say:"when I hear the word 'culture', I reach for my revolver."
Didn't Raymond Williams end up joining a reformed Bucks Fizz?
"See me in me heels an' ting..."
Ooh, very clever, BiB, what you did there. I loved Althea and Donna.
Lists are definitely a boy thing.
Yes, the list thing is compulsive, Bib, in a Hornbyesque way. But to follow your tennis example, this is a chart that tries to rank Roger Federer against Tottenham Hotspur, Paula Radcliffe and the West Indies. Which is silly, really, isn't it?
You're thinking of Marshall McLuhan, Anthony. Williams was the drummer in Kajagoogoo.
Is there not a female equivalent, Marsha?
I think actually that, although women do list things, they perhaps don't rank them quite as obsessively as men seem to or perhaps it's that they list things which aren't so easily categorised. It's hard to explain exactly without falling back on gender streotypes. I do think grouping things by a perticular characteristic is a more male trait (Tallest buildings, most gold medals in a particular sport, least successful country in Eurovision history, that sort of thing). Or is just the men I know?
I'm so anal, I try to write shopping lists in order, so I don't have to retrace my steps.
Post a Comment