They tried to make me go to rehab...

I said "no, no. no"

So no prizes for guessing what this blog post is about.

When the news broke that Amy Winehouse had died, my first thought was that I wasn't surprised.  And therein lies the tragedy of it all - to not be surprised that a 27 year old has died is a dreadful thing.  And it was a tragedy, for all the comments of "well she was offered the help and wouldn't take it" or "she was just a junkie, it was all self-inflicted" it cannot be denied that for anyone to lose their life at 27 years of age is a tragedy.  And for such a person - young, beautiful and undoubtedly talented, the tragedy is heightened.  It isn't ironic that she sang about it!

And before the reasons for her death have even come out there are the assumptions....drink and drugs, drink and drugs...it's an overdose etc etc etc.  Making the assumption from the well-documented problems of Amy's turbulent life.

I find myself wanting to shout addiction IS an illness.  It really isn't as easy as "oh right, let's just stop then" - it is a complex and heartbreaking condition that can reduce a fully functioning human being to a shell.  

But, Any Winehouse isn't the only person having gone through addiction.  Countless people lose their lives every day through conditions related to alcohol or drug abuse.  Perhaps if anything positive is going to come out of the death of such a talented person as Amy Winehouse it can be to raise awareness, to highlight the plight of thousands of young people who are in the same positions.  To maybe highlight to younger people that getting involved in drugs isn't cool and it is a life-changing thing.

So tonight as the world of music is still coming to terms with the loss of another artist desperately young, a family is trying to work out just how there is a huge hole in their lives there are people finding the best way to make a quick joke, the best way to get something really funny going viral on twitter.

But it isn't funny.  And the best thing we could get going viral on twitter right now would be directions to sites where people suffering from addiciton can help.  So, in the interests of getting something positive out of a senseless waste: -

Alcoholics Anonymous

Drug Addicts Anonymous

Monday's SPR

That's Small and Pointless Rant, the first of which can be found and read here

Actually today's SPR should be directed at me for my sheer lack of blogging recently.  But it's not.  Today's SPR is directed at Jeremy Clarkson.

Jeremy Clarkson.  Where to begin? A man who seems to have far to inflated a sense of his own self-worth and comedy value.  Let's face it Top Gear was mildly amusing circa 2005.  It's now samey and jaded and really not very funny at all.

So when Jeremy Clarkson says "I'd rather quit Top Gear than follow the BBC up North" I can't have been the only person giving a silent cheer.

Just FYI Jeremy when you're talking about your reluctance to relocate "it would be too disruptive to my family" and "it's not the right time for me to make such a move" are fine, perfectly reasonable and inoffensive reasons as to why you don't want to move.

Suggesting Salford is "a small suburb with little to offer beyond Starbucks and a canal with ducks on it" and to label London "the nation's Oxbridge, full of the nation's brightest and sharpest brains" isn't a great way to go about doing anything other than really pissing a lot of people off much less stating "if we ran the show from Salford, we'd be employing people from Salford, People who were born there and thought “Yes, I like this. I see no reason to go anywhere else”.

‘And in the world of television that could be a genuine handicap. Every year we’d end up making a Christmas special from the Dog and Duck or the nearest Arndale Centre.'

Well Jeremy, how awful.  Imagine, can there be anything worse?!  Believe it or not Jeremy, there are people in the North who are bright and have sharp brains and would be an asset to your show and may actually bring something new and exciting rather than the tired old formula you live by!

 

And my final point, where does Jeremy Clarkson come from - clearly he must be from that bastion of all that is good and right in England....pardon? He isn't? Oh....he's from Doncaster......right......