Cocoa, Rococo, and Rococo Cocoa

Well, it seems that a lot has happened in the last seven days or so... a massacre in Norway, the death of Amy Winehouse, and Morrisey saying some unwise things... again... now, I'm not going to agree with Morrisey's take on the Norway happenings, that worse things happen in slaughter houses every day, mainly because this reasoning is true only if you believe that all life is sacred and that all life is equally important... if you do, and of course the Beard respects your opinion as he respects all such things, then the slaughter of cattle is exactly the same as the slaughter of people.. but the beard believes quite happily, and with no diminishment of his character, that some lives are in fact far more important than others... for an example, I really don't care much about the life of a potato; only so much as to want it to continue until it's big enough to cook and eat... and the life of a chicken to me is less important than my own... sorry guys, but at least I'm honest...

Strangely, its been found that if a person's behaviour can be proved to conflict with that person's own self imposed moral code, then that person is actually more likely to change their moral code rather than their behaviour... which comes as no surprise to this hirsute blogger at all... which is possibly a good explanation, but fro what I'm not too sure...

Which sort of brings me to Amy Winehouse... now, it must be sad for her family to lose her, and I mean no disrespect to them, but we see her yet again the sad modern disease of people mourning her who really shouldn't be... after all, we didn't know her... all we ever saw was what the papers showed us... personally, I didn't think she was that great... I can listen to Back to Black, but nothing else she did stirred or moved me... in the Beard's eyes, a female pop artist needs to be either very talented, or rather good looking... and to me, Winehouse was neither... sorry guys...

But the Beard's main problem with Winehouse was this (and he admits that this was not altogether her fault...); that she was held up as some sort of role model... it was almost at times that young girls were being actively encouraged to be like her... just as the equally untalented Lily Allen was held up to us.. in the case of Amy, the message given out was this... get drugged up, behave badly, run yourself into the ground, and everybody will love you.. you'll get a recording contract, loads of money, and you will be a success... but she wasn't was she?? Unless success to you means being a drug addled loser with lots of money who dies at 27.... the Beard hopes truthfully that she'll be a better role model in death than she was in her short life....

Now, as I say, the Beard holds others than Amy responsible for this... ultimately, of course, she could have just said no... ultimately the responsibility was hers... but after a while, the drugs start to take over, and it becomes harder and harder to make that choice for the good... and the people who were in a position to help refused to... lets be honest here.. sending a star to rehab is just good publicity.... and it's very easy to solve anything with hindsight... but someone could quite easily have pulled the plug, withheld payment from her music, frozen her accounts, and told her "we won't give you any moey, airplay or anything but proper help until you get sorted..." They could have sent her back to her parents who could have then kept her from some of the bad influences that were affecting her, and they almost certainly would have helped her... instead she just got pushed down the same old line because it sold newspapers and records.... as I say, I was not a fan, but Amy could still be working now, singing for those who did enjoy listening, if it wasn't for greed and this awful awful respect we have for personal choice... and then to cap it all, as happened with Michael Jackson and Princess Diana, her mourning was hijacked by strangers... it must have been an awful time for those who actually did love her ( by which I don't mean the fans... you actually just found the music activated the pleasure centres i your brain, which is a different sort of thing...)

An awful time had by the people of Norway too... but the thing that truck the beard about the whole thing is the way that the blame was apportioned.. the earliest reports definitely claimed that this was an act of Islamist terrorism... despite no evidence of such a thing... and when it became clear that it was actually the work of a deranged Nazi, then it all became the fault of Islam for encouraging terrorists and immigrants for coming to live there.... because as we all know, if it weren't for that, this man wouldn't have felt that he needed to blow up and shoot people... well, get with th e programme, as our American brethren say.... that's the same argument that says it was the battered wife's fault for not boiling the eggs properly, or the woman's fault for wearing a short skirt... this man would have found someone else to blame, and would still have killed.... he may just have found different targets.... but personally I doubt it... but it all came down to freedom of personal choice yet again... whatever his beliefs and motives, he chose to do it, just as Amy Winehouse chose to take drugs... and choice is where evil lies... choosing to do harm rather than good is what evil is.. it's not down to devils or gods, it's down to us... to quote from Granny weatherwax... "There's only one sin, and that's thinking of people as things...." An associate tries to tell the witch that there are plenty of worse things, to which Granny replies, "Yes... but they all starts as thinking of people as things...." Which I think says it all... or maybe not... but whatever, a lot of it also starts with thinking that some lives are more important than others, and that some ideas are ore important than other lives... mainly when the person doing the thinking believes that none of the said lives are as important as that of the thinker him or her self....

Now, those of you who know the Beard will know of his love for open spaces, and yesterday saw him and Mrs Beard driving through the lovely Gloucestershire countryside to the amazing Painswick Rococo gardens... now, I'm sure that Paul Hervey-Brooks, the bod in charge ish won't mind me saying that the gardens are a fantastic mix of colour and dubious taste... set up many years ago by what passed then as new money, the gardens are full of strange little nooks and crannies, pools, enclosures, a maze and all sorts of malarkey... its the sort of place that the Beckhams of the 18th century would have set up just so that their old money neighbours could marvel at the expense and bad taste.... but taste is a strange thing, as tuna proves, and the Rococo gardens are that thing that, in a Beard's opinion, gardens should be... fun.... and they're getting better and better every year.... last year the Beard was privileged to watch a bunch of artists setting up their sculptures in the grounds, and this year was even more privileged to be invited to the preview evening of the sculpture season... even more sculptures than last time, varying from rusty metal birds, to giant dandelion parachutes and enormous conkers hanging from the trees... also a parade of possibly comforting, possibly disturbing designs lining the beech walk... now, the hirsute typer of this esteemed blog is a great fan of sculpture and art in locations like this... it makes the whole thing more accessible, which is, in my mind, a good thing... whether the viewer likes it or not, at least they have the opportunity to like it or not like it... too often art, like classical music, is seen as elitist... yet art is all around us... from the photo of the twins on the beach, to the grafitti on the railway arches,...not enough people go to gardens, and not enough see art... which is a shame... so, next time you're tempted to take a trip to some adrenalin soaked overpriced fun fair full of queues and idiots, don't.. just for a change, go and visit a park, or some gardens... there are plenty around... Painswick is a good place to start... and see if the kids enjoy it... if you approach it correctly, they almost certainly will... and you don't have to be a rabid horticulturalist... the Beard doesn't know the names of most of the things they grow nowadays, but anyone can decide whether a flower is pretty or not... give it a try...

But on that note the Beard notices that it has grown early yet again, and work and Scout camp beckon tomorrow... so it remains to be said, make your choices wisely, and regardless of your own importance, remember that others are just as important as you... so until all our cocoa becomes Rococo, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!