Movember

In case you haven't heard, or seen, movember the month "formally known as November" is taking the world by storm!Or is it? In this edition I will review the merits of movember as well as the weaknesses.
I heard of movember last year when Andy Goode and a few other Leicester Tigers rugby players were sporting mo's ( which in case you are unaware are styled moustaches). In this instance I think the money raised was going to the Matt Hamill foundation instead of prostate cancer which is the direct charity of movember. I have 3 questions?

Does Movember raise awareness or is it just a stylish/hip thing to do?
What, if any, is the use of 'mo sistas'?
finally,
Just november?

Upon visiting the website it is clear to me that this charity is all about being upbeat and trendy, aimed at 'mo bros' who wanna raise awareness!!!Firstly, for this campaign to have any effect surely the advertising should span a greater age group than arguably 18 to 33? I say arguably because it really depends when a person is capable of growing facial hair and I say 33 because after that you just look ridiculous ( although this is the aim). Do men over 35 not get prostate cancer? I thought that was approaching the risk category but why would we want them to know!!! Its great to see the youth of today taking such an interest in the problems of tomorrow!! i mean realistically who in the aforementioned age target pop is really concerned about developing prostate cancer? Fair enough if it runs in the family but thats not a high percentage. People aren'y even setting up mortgages at this age never mind worrying about a disease that they probably won't get! This generation is worried about women, drink, nights out, college and work. This target age group feels like its invincible;

"that'll never happen to me" syndrome.

Which leads me to ask the motive behind participating in Movember. The main reason, in my opinion, being that it is one extra thing to talk about, something to draw attention to yourself. It is proposed that mo bro's are a 'a walking billboard' for prostate cancer.?When I see somebody in the street with a moustache I don't immediately think about prostate cancer and the detrimental effects that may be 20 years around the corner!!I think, this guy looks like an idiot!Most the time you never even know that they are involved in Movember because the 'mo' just looks like a moustache. In conclusion to my first question, Movember appears, to me, to be just another way to stand out in a society that gradually sucks you into conformity as you age.

My second question...mo sista's. This is a piece from the website www.movember.com ( I hope to raise awareness for prostate cancer as we speak)

Calling all Mo Sistas...

As you've probably noticed(Not really) Movember isn't just for the lads. Mo Sistas can get involved in Movember in numerous ways by:

• [ Registering ] as a team captain or part of a team, recruiting Mo Bros and raising some money
• Once registered enter the Mo Sista Competition - Pose with Mo's. All we need you to do is [ submit a photo ] of you and your Mo to be in the running to win an awesome Mo Sista pack! It's that easy!
• Organising events like [ Mo Town ] or [ Mo Office] parties
• Attending the highly anticipated [ Gala Partés ] and voting for your Man of Movember
• Making a [ donation ] to a Mo Bro
• Generally showing love for the Mo!(great, when do I start!)
  

Basically because girls cant grow mo's (well....most) they can head up a team and do all the work while the mo bro reaps the rewards and poses for photos with random ladies who just are falling over themselves because they've never seen such a burly mo bro in their life. Or they can just make a donation. Which would you choose? Head up an operation for a useless bunch of lads who finally have an excuse in work not to shave or make a donation? They should really branch out and make mo momas, who can cook an array of food for the highly anticipated gala event or just get there picture taken with a mo bro who is tucking into some of their hand made cakes!! In short I dislike this mo sista rubbish. Its a disease that doesn't effect them in the slightest, you don't see men heading up teams of 'cervical cancer queens'!

I realise that I have been highly cynical here and I am aware that any donations are better than none but I just have an issue with the way movember presents itself. Why is there only one month for this cancer promo?What happens the other 11 months when prostate cancer isn't on the map? Surely this has to be seen as a flaw! What happens to these mo bro's and sista's, do they just hibernate and forget about their good cause?The build up to november must be agonising! There is surely a better method for raising year round awareness of prostate cancer.

In closing I would like to say that I blogged this not because I am jealous of those who can gro mo's but because movember appears to be a trendy style option for the month of november as opposed to a charity for prostate cancer. The movember creator needs to think of a way to branch out to the population that this actually concerns and is a real concern of. The website needs to be populated with prostate cancer material and not just a fun place to put mini mo's on a picture of your face ( whose face fits they're mo's I would like to know?). There is one page about prostate cancer and a referral link to a proper website.??strange that the creators couldn't take the time to relay the facts on their website.

Blog over

(I had no real drive to write the GAA conspiracy yet, nothing sparked the fire but soon my friends)

Dublin Feudal System

I was out last night and the discussion arose between myself and Lorcan over the system of recognition that occurs on Dublin nights out. Rio's was the cited example. Lorcan's point is that everybody knows everyone in some way essentially and as a result most of the night is spent talking to acquaintances. Having grown up in dublin and gone to a rugby playing school, this inevitably happens to me on a night out in dublin.I can see Lorcan's point completely that going out in Dublin can be shit because of the need to smooze around with everyone, thus how we are perceived on a night out is very important. Who saw what?Who was there?I didnt get to talk to such and such!

In dublin their is a hierachial system which divides itself into many levels. There are the rugby playing schools and then there are the top rugby playing schools players (leinster schools) who are at the top of the totem to whom everybody wants to be associated with. Then on the other side there is the top girls who are inevitably the prettiest and going out with the top guys. Everything else that occurs on a night out is centred around this fulcrum. This is the social comparison scale of how do you know such and such and this treacles down to the people on the bottom who know nobody and don't care about it. Even know in college this system is intact. What school was he/ she in? How would I know you? It is this system which dictates nights out such as rio's or dtwo and it is why the best nights out are always in places like coppers or flannerys to name a few. It is because the people that populate these places no nothing about the system in place in Dublin because they aren't from Dublin and frankly, like Lorcan, couldn't give too shits about it. Everybody who goes to coppers and is from Dublin loves it because they don't have to attend to the insecurities of who is looking at them or who they should be talking to. They can just exist amongst the people they went with and "let the hair down".

I'm not saying that these aquantainces should be ignored or pretend they don't exist, and in no way do I believe that the system will ever be broken because of the sanctuary that is schools rugby but I just think that the focus should change from hanging out in the right crowds or chatting to the right people to going out with your friends and just enjoying yourself, no matter what school you were in.

Everybody who exists in this system knows about it and deals with it on most nights out and mornings after so it is not a major secret. I'm just sick of going out in Dublin because its the same thing every week. I'm lucky in the sense that in DCU the system is much less existent then in Trinity or UCD. Although the fuckin Gaelic Conspiracy is ridiculous and I may address that in the next post. "The system is sick and we are the cure"

Bad Day in Blackrock, byKevin Power is a good read on this very topic if your interested.

Start Beginning

My sudden inspiration to blog is from a certain William "The Heffer" Heffernan who has a very "informative" blog/ranting page at this address http://willheffernan.blogspot.com/. I feel that I would make a good blogger because my musings are expansive and mostly ridiculous, so much so that certain people (Lorcan Kavanagh and Paul O'Conor) are sick of listening to me.

The title for this first blog came from a song that I'm currently listening to-Nizlopi. This middle english folk band will be the subject matter for my first blog. Yes, yes I know the first thing that pops into your head when you think of Nizlopi...."that stupid JCB song". First thing to understand is I'm not really that big a fan of this song either so don't judge me yet. The first time I saw Nizlopi was at a Damien Dempsey in Vicar Street last December, I think. The thing that jumped right off the stage was the energy and pure enjoyment with which they played their music!!! Now if you've ever been at a Damo concert you'll know that it can be a tough and demanding crowd, which is why it was more astonishing that Luke ( the lead singer) got the crowd going brilliantly with a hook from one of their many unheard of songs. By the time the JCB song was played, the crowd were having a ball! One song jumped out at me and so after the gig I went to by their album and standing at the table was Luke so I had a chat with him and he signed my album. He's a really stand up guy, which is evident from the music he writes.

Anyway, to the point. If your willing to give Nizlopi a chance the rewards are tenfold. There music is uplifting and refreshingly different. With the current standard of music being produced in this century, " the McDonalds Music", there is little room for true artistry in an industry driven solely by money and not quality. Turning on the radio these days is like switching on a stream of processed rubbish with a handful of good songs mixed in. I'm not saying that I don't like some of the popular music out there, but its hard to fish out the good from the sea of crap! Its is solely because of the industry that brilliant bands like Nizlopi don't "make it" and the problem with this is that people are missing out not just the industry!

With John on the double bass and Luke on the guitar, it is honestly an inspiring experience to watch these two perform if you like music at all! The content of their songs is vast and is basically just a catalogue of Nizlopi's musings and experience's from there life. I will recommend 3 songs and if you give them a listen and are still not interested in more then Nizlopi is truly not for you! Luke's voice is really brilliant as well, with a great range and variation on some syllables. There style is very hard to explain so I will let there music do the talking.

1)Extraordinary
2)Drop Your Guard
3)I'm Alive Again

I have already converted two of my Friends towards the light and hope more will follow. Give them a listen and I promise you won't regret,just follow the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUms3ScecTM

Muse Over