And then there were 4 (The Voice)

And here we are the final 4. For the last few months we have been leading up to this point on The Voice and to be honest I am sad to see it coming to an end. I am not surprised by who was chosen by the coaches because nearly 6 weeks ago I made the call and said Rachael, Sarah, Darren & Karise would be the last ones standing and I was proven right. But what disappoints me is with the decision less than 2hrs old the hate has already begun.
Each one of the four finalists deserves to be there on their own merit. I knew the moment Karise opened her mouth at that blind audition that she would be hard to stop and her performance of Hallelujah tonight once again showed how remarkable she is. Sarah has a voice that could stop anyone in their tracks and has been one of the strongest performers from day 1. Darren has a smile and a love and joy for singing that warms the hearts of everyone who listens to him. And of course Rachael the girl who stunned all four coaches when they heard the emotion and power in her voice back at the blind auditions. The sad thing is each one of these four remarkable people is already getting some form of hate, more so than others. Rachael in particular has copped the brunt of this hate and I think this is more to do with her coach than her. To say Rachael only made the grand final out of sympathy is an absolute joke does that mean Glenn deserved it instead? I know full well that if Delta had chosen Glenn over Rachael the same people would have been shouting it was favouritism and so no-one would have been happy.
This show though has taught me something, there is no point in being depressed about seeing your favourite leave. After seeing one of my main favourites Danni leave the previous week it just made me want to support her even more. And that goes for all of the contestants. So I say there is no point hating the contestants or the coach, if you don’t like their music simply respect the fact that others do and leave it at that. We all came into this with our favourites and we leave with those same favourites and in my case a few extras. Depressed fans who are worried their favourite shall drop off the face of the planet shouldn’t worry either; most of these contestants won’t leave the public eye for too long after what they have gained from this show.  So in my opinion no-one has lost, in fact Australia has won, it shone a bright light onto some of the best talent in this country and gave them the shot they all deserved, and we should all be thankful for it.  So don’t hate the contestants, respect peoples choices and let us enjoy what we have..... some incredible musicians.

Fandom Wars are Pointless

Sometimes you overhear the most random things when you are travelling on public transport. Two high school girls, no more than 16 got on the bus and sat in front of me. I wasn’t intending to listen but their conversation; well actually they were having a debate. But the fact was it was so loud I couldn’t help myself. Their debate was and probably is one of the biggest problems for anyone who loves their TV and that is fandom wars.
For anyone who doesn’t frequent the internet a great deal or simply avoids social media, a fandom war is where people on two sides fight for the TV show/book/movie etc, they love. In some cases it’s simply to prove their show is better than another or in another case where one group of people will be little another because they believe the rival show is a copy. Sadly for people like myself when you love more than one show it can be hard to take one side or another.  So instead you stand on the sidelines watching as friends become enemies and internet and social media forums destroy each other. Both these girls though were making valid points, one could see a value in debating differences and similarities in shows while the other could not see a point at all, and I tend to agree. Too many times over the last 5 years have I seen a show fans attack another when they see one minor plot similarity and claim it as their own. Too many times have I lost friends when they try to drag me onto one side of the fight or another and too many times have I just sat back and shook my head simply asking why?
What I have noticed is that the attacks have become a lot more personal in recent times, and no clearer example of this is during the Bones vs. Castle fandom war.
Now before I go any further I am not saying all Bones fans are bad, far from it. But there is a small minority who are giving the rest a bad name. This war has bothered me from the start, I’ve always liked Bones, I used to religiously follow the show for 5yrs until the show fell off the wagon a bit with the infamous dream sequence sex scene (could have been earlier but my memory is hazy). I still watch the occasional ep now & I still love many of the cast members but the show is not the same for me. So by default I have found myself on the Castle side of this war and have copped a lot of flak from people because of it.  But this is my thoughts on it, I cannot see how these two shows are similar, even my mother who watches both shows can’t see the similarity. The only thing that is similar is the chemistry between the two leads, nothing more. My mother last night gave me a different view point, she said Castle was more similar to The Mentalist and I can see that more than Bones.
The bus debate ended when one of the girls got frustrated & ended up getting off at her stop clearly disappointed that the other girl had not relented in her opinion at all. And that’s the thing about these wars, they frustrate, they annoy and in the end will make it impossible for people to remain friends. But like anything they are a by-product of the internet & TV and probably will never stop but sadly increase.  

Online Friends are just as "Real" as any friends

It’s funny, you have these random conversations online and the old topic comes up again, how can people you meet online be considered real friends? The amount of times I have been asked that by people I knew at University is incredible; I even copped a fair bit saying I had no social life when in fact I consider it the opposite. I will admit when I first went to University back in 2007 I didn’t go much online or frequent social media, I did sign up for Facebook but didn’t use it much.
It wasn’t until early 2010 when I was having problems in my real life that I started to frequent the social media space more often, I joined Twitter and in a very short space of time found people who wanted to get to know me. And that’s when fandom came along, when people started learning I was a fan of the TV show Castle and that I was big into sci-fi shows such as Stargate I started to find somewhere I could belong.
These shows caused a chain reaction of sorts because through one person I met another & another and another. I have now spoken to so many people from the four corners of the globe and we are all connected by our love of similar things. And as time has gone on some of these people I now consider more important to me than anyone I have ever met in real life because they genuinely care.  You’re probably sitting there reading this thinking I am completely mad, that these friends I am so willing to defend are probably nothing more than creepy middle age men in some random country. And of course there are plenty of those freaks out there who are willing to woo children to an early grave but not always. At last count I had about 730 people following me on Twitter and from those 730 I have met a good 20 of them, ok that isn’t much but it’s enough of an indication that there are real genuine people out there, it just happens to be they live too far for you to see them all the time.
Take my friend Tasha as an example, I started speaking to her online mid 2010 but it wasn’t until early 2011 that I finally got to meet her. It happened to be that Adelaide was holding a convention and she was able to fly over. It’s been over a year since I have seen her in person but thanks to sites like Twitter, Facebook etc I speak to her nearly every day. But that memory of saying goodbye to her at the airport really sticks out in my mind, even now.
And that’s the other thing I am thankful for, going to conventions started thanks to speaking to people online. I went to my first convention in late 2010, and I have gone to another 4 since then & another is in the works for next month. I now have friends who I consider part of a giant extended family all because it started online. People outside of the social media space don’t understand the fuss; even after you explain all the good points to them it doesn’t seem to change their mind. Even people now give me an odd look when I say I met my best friend online, even though it’s true. I met my best friend Michelle online through our mutual love for the TV show Sanctuary & our respect for actress Amanda Tapping. After we met in person in January 2011 we have virtually been inseparable ever since. The highlight was when we both got to speak to Amanda together thanking her for what she inevitably did.
 I don’t bother explaining myself anymore when the question gets posed to me about online friends being not real. I just simply say “They are” and move onto another topic because they never will understand because this isn’t their world.

Stop Hating on Delta!

Ever since The Voice Australia started & Delta Goodrem returned to our screams as a coach I have slowly watched as the steady stream of haters has increased. To this point I have held my tongue hoping against hope that once the show had hit the live rounds that there would be more focus on the contestants rather than Delta herself. But alas I was wrong and instead the hating has got to the point where I can’t take it anymore. I am not ashamed to say that I have been a fan of Delta’s ever since I heard “I Don’t Care” by accident in a music store back in the early 2000’s at the time I thought she was a breath of fresh air that the Australian music scene was in desperate need of.
From that point on her music has gotten me through a lot of personal turmoil and even now listening to her music puts a smile on my face when I badly need it after a long day. At the time of her own personal hell this country proudly embraced her and gave Delta all the love and support she needed to fight through her darkest hour. Yet where has all that love gone now? Sadly the other night I was stupid enough to troll through some of the hash tags on Twitter and what I found appalled me. Delta being called all the stupid and horrible names under the sun, yet she has done nothing to deserve any of them.
One of the things that has always annoyed me about Australia is our love of tall poppy syndrome, cutting someone when they are down and once they are down stamping them into the ground until there is no way they can come back. Sadly I am seeing people right across the social media space sharpening their knives trying to cut Delta down at any opportunity. Some claim she can’t sing, well if you don’t like her music simply don’t listen. Some comment on her choice of clothes, so she isn’t allowed to be an individual now? Others say she is full of herself, Have you even met her? Actually sat down at had a conversation with her? For god sake. The last one particularly irks me because to judge someone on what they see on TV is ridiculous. I may have never met Delta myself but I know plenty of people who have and what they all say is the same thing. Never has anyone been more willing to give their time & appreciate you coming to see them than Delta. After all how many musicians with her star power would stay signing autographs & chatting to people long after the shops had shut their doors? None that come to my mind. The woman has a bigger heart than many celebs I have ever seen and has changed so many lives, including mine that I think she deserves a little more respect than she has received.
The point of this post is simple; bullying a celeb on any of the forms of social media is pointless and stupid. How would you feel if someone you loved and admired was attacked and then stopped answering tweets or closed their account altogether? You wouldn’t like it. And I certainly as hell can’t stand the bullshit that Delta has been copping. If you don’t have anything good to say keep it to yourself and don’t ruin it for those people who consider themselves fans, because none of us can take it anymore.