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What’s goin’ on? What’s goin’ on? Oooh baby what’s goin’ on? Talking about it now, what’s goin’ on. Ok, I don’t really know the lyrics to Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”, also, towards the end there I sort of got the tune for 4 Non-Blondes “What’s Going On” in my head so it sort of turned into a mess in my head. Join me once again as I journey down the road of combating my own ignorance about the world around me where I dare to ask the question: What the fuck, world?

In my own private “WTF” moment, it shocks and concerns me at the number of hits this site has gotten from people who are still searching for “Amber Cole Sextape” 5 of the top 10 search terms that lead to our site in this past month were from people looking for what is most likely the most watched piece of child pornography of all time. Well done humanity, well done.

The “Occupy” movement is in the news again. Not sure why it really ever left the news, I mean, this whole time these people were in their tents, just camping out as it’s gotten colder and colder in plenty of the cities where these protests are occurring. Just last weekend I came up from Square-Victoria metro station and was like “Oh yeah, hey, Occupy Montreal! You guys are still here! Keep up the good work. That V mask on that statue looks sweet.”

Nope, this time the “Occupy Movement” is in the news primarily for being shut down or violently attacked by police forces. Occupy Calgary, Victory and most recently Quebec have all been shut down and dismantled. Elsewhere, people are getting straight up pepper sprayed in the face. The asshole policeman in the photo is actually now a pretty popular meme.

This is all pretty depressing honestly. These protests are being shut down or violently attacked and have basically not put any change whatsoever into motion. Everyone I know is aware of these protests and it’s all over the news. In Canada we’re lead by a crazy right wing nutjob (who at the very least probably understands that pizza is not a vegetable), so we’re sort of expecting our leader to ignore us. But Obama? As far as I know, and I’ve looked, Obama has basically ignored the issue in any official capacity. So while these kids are getting either a) sent packing or b) getting pepper sprayed in the face, the only person they hope is hearing them is ignoring them?

Yeah, Shepard Fairey, you’d better whip up a poster to make sure you don’t lose your street cred. Sweet poster though.

Video game news? Skyrim. Moving right along.

Ok, so something called “The Hunger Games” is really popular right now. Oh, ok, it’s a movie adaptation of a popular novel. There’s a trailer and a teaser. What’s going on in this teaser? There’s a girl, she’s running in the woods, she’s got a bow and arrow, explosions! What the fuck? Ok, I guess I’ll watch the trailer. Alright, there’s a village, there’s a girl, they’re running away, bow and arrow again, concentration camp (?). Ok, crazy lady in makeup talks about the ‘hunger games’, now we’re getting somewhere, little girl gets selected (I’m guessing now that these ‘hunger games’ are a bad thing, maybe like Logan’s Run?), older girl volunteers to go instead, now we got a Sutherland involved! Everyone’s getting dolled up and trained! Ah, a voiceover is explaining what the fuck is going on:

The 12 districts of Panem(?) shall offer up in tribute one young man and women between the ages of 12 and 18 to be trained in the art of survival and to be prepared to fight to the death.

Ok, so this is basically Battle Royale, right? Then there’s a guy with the best facial hair in the world (even if it does look drawn on in magic marker). Spoilers! This guy is probably a bad guy! The kids get sucked up into a tube and then run around in a field.

The series’ author Suzanne Collins says she got the idea for the books like this:

One night, I was lying in bed, and I was channel surfing between reality TV programs and actual war coverage. On one channel, there’s a group of young people competing for I don’t even know; and on the next, there’s a group of young people fighting in an actual war. I was really tired, and the lines between these stories started to blur in a very unsettling way.

Yep, the idea of youth fighting each other has never been done before Miss Collins, oh wait, I already mentioned that this was basically just Battle Royale didn’t I? You know what I think happened? I think Suzanne Collins realized that everyone loved Quidditch in Harry Potter and decided to just make a whole series based on a sporting event that kids played (like Quidditch) and then up the ante by just having the kids kill each other.

People seem pretty jazzed by this series and now that I know about it, so do I. I’m glad that young adults are weaning themselves off romantic vampire stories and taking the next and obvious step towards obsessing over brutal bloodsports.

“Oh hey Candice, if we were in the Hunger Games I would make sure I killed you quick and painlessly, cuz we’re besties!”

Progress!