Wouldn't it be a great world if hunters, instead of getting boozed up with their posh chums and ripping a fox apart with dogs, went down to Gloucestershire for a bit of Cheese Rolling.
Wouldn't the thrill of hurling themselves down a wet 1:1 slope after a wheel of fermented curd make up for the absence of frightened fox ? Also the sheer joy of using the word "truckle" must be a suitable alternative to smearing blood on your first-born's face and galloping through your neighbour's property.
Just a thought.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Surely Mc JOB was a hip-hop artist
There's an entirely artificial campaign (stirred up by You-Know-Who) to rid the Oxford English dictionary of the word "McJob".
I understand that Merriam-Webster in the US is being similarly pressured and no doubt wherever there is a potential market for pressed cow-pats of nearly-meat in flavour-free buns, there will be McLawyers earning their money.
I wonder if the on-line dictionaries can be bullied. For example, at the moment dictionary.com has the definition :-
They also quote The American Heritage Dictionary definition which goes to the trouble to point out that it's jobs in mass-production industries like McDonalds that are being alluded to. The word isn't getting at McDonalds exclusively, and it doesn't rule out the possibility that there is more to McDonalds than the obesity production line.
If all else fails there are the "open source" sources of information like wikipedia and its little brother wiktionary, which exist in most world languages, and you would hope are safe from Corporate Interference.
Well, let's see ...
While I was checking the French version of wiktionary I noticed their definition of "McJob" was missing.
So I helpfully added a translation of the OED entry.
Let's see how long it takes for a McDonalds stooge to overwrite it.
I understand that Merriam-Webster in the US is being similarly pressured and no doubt wherever there is a potential market for pressed cow-pats of nearly-meat in flavour-free buns, there will be McLawyers earning their money.
I wonder if the on-line dictionaries can be bullied. For example, at the moment dictionary.com has the definition :-
an unstimulating, low-wage job with few benefits, esp. in a service industry.Can they be forced to remove or amend it ?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Origin: 1991, Americanism; coined by Douglas Coupland (b. 1961) in the novel Generation X]
They also quote The American Heritage Dictionary definition which goes to the trouble to point out that it's jobs in mass-production industries like McDonalds that are being alluded to. The word isn't getting at McDonalds exclusively, and it doesn't rule out the possibility that there is more to McDonalds than the obesity production line.
If all else fails there are the "open source" sources of information like wikipedia and its little brother wiktionary, which exist in most world languages, and you would hope are safe from Corporate Interference.
Well, let's see ...
While I was checking the French version of wiktionary I noticed their definition of "McJob" was missing.
So I helpfully added a translation of the OED entry.
Let's see how long it takes for a McDonalds stooge to overwrite it.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Media circus
Following up on mi'learned colleague Stan's point below, I think we should analyze a little further afield here.
I have long since held that particular vertical industries or indeed horizontal industries (for those MBAs out there, A & B profile companies) sit there in a permanent state of navel contemplation, believing it to be in the best interests of the general public. This is clearly not so.
Besides Stan's well made point about media hype, let me point out some other random bits of things that have irked my jockstrap over the last few years:
-- The media fascination with itself is bordering on incestuous. When there are whole sections of newspapers and whole TV shows devoted to analyzing other reporters' coverage of something, you get into a world where the watchers are watching the watchers who are watching them, and three dimensions suddenly becomes twenty. Before you know it, we have disappeared in a spiral "up-your-own" manouvre. It's cliquey and only a minority of people are interested (mostly journos, editors and producers). Sadly I must have to class myself as one the sad few who is interested, just because I'm sure if I had my time again I would have wanted to be in that industry.
-- Closer to home, I have done some time in marketing, both technical and marcomms. As I sit watching the TV in the evening, eating my cheese on biscuits and sipping my brandy and coke, I do what what most marketing people do -- dissect the meanings behind the ads and try to spot the clever bits. Unless it's Mr "Oxyclean" or "DirtBuster" who just shouts at you, generally these adverts are misguided. They are made by marketing agencies who think too deeply about the message they are trying to get across but manage to convince corporate marketeers that their idea is so fiendish that it will work. The reality is that most adverts look like they are marketing to marketeers and no-one else. For example, my old VP of marketing (as much as I liked him) was naive enough to spend $40000 on a brand new Volvo, because he bought into the "Volvo, for life" campaign and he honestly thought he was protecting his kids more by spending an extra $20k. He, out of everyone, should have seen right through the triteness of that. I know it's a tad brash, but if it makes things white, just say it makes things white and have a distinctive brand -- no rocket science there. If it has four wheels and goes like sh*t off a silver shovel, there's your USP. No point dressing up a one line logo to mask the fact that your product is either rubbish, a death-trap or over-hyped. I could go on about this one for hours so I'll leave it alone.
Stan is absolutely spot on. The media dictates the agenda and it shouldn't. When we have so many news sources, you would have thought that they would not be trying to out-do each other on the amount of coverage a particular topic gets but highlighting what they saw fit, not what the rest of the press do. In some ways this is why, while I hate the Independent's sensationalism, I actually hold it quite high esteem. They never follow the crowd. I hate their headlines but whatever...
Probably 1% of you will know this unless you were reading my own blog 18 months ago, but a little girl was murdered about 2 miles away from my house. She wasn't much older than Madaleine. She was conclusively dead, not just missing. There are still flowers placed where she was found to this day. It bought her all of 30 seconds on the local news and a half inch column in the papers. If her parents had been a cardiologist and GP on holiday, maybe she might have made the national obsession. But no, she's Jo Ordinary from 'Oop Norf so she might have her photo shown at the local Bingo Hall.
The disparity is criminal. As much as I want this little girl back safely, we live in a media-fueled back-scratching, circulation battle as to who can out-sycophant their rivals. Markets market to themselves and no-one else, unless there's a bloody great O2 sign behind their PR guru as they sit talking trifles with Natasha Kaplinski (who is increasingly starting to annoy me to death). Or if they can smell a profit on the basis of a public outcry.
Enter stage left: Max Clifford.
Gah. Sickening.
I have long since held that particular vertical industries or indeed horizontal industries (for those MBAs out there, A & B profile companies) sit there in a permanent state of navel contemplation, believing it to be in the best interests of the general public. This is clearly not so.
Besides Stan's well made point about media hype, let me point out some other random bits of things that have irked my jockstrap over the last few years:
-- The media fascination with itself is bordering on incestuous. When there are whole sections of newspapers and whole TV shows devoted to analyzing other reporters' coverage of something, you get into a world where the watchers are watching the watchers who are watching them, and three dimensions suddenly becomes twenty. Before you know it, we have disappeared in a spiral "up-your-own" manouvre. It's cliquey and only a minority of people are interested (mostly journos, editors and producers). Sadly I must have to class myself as one the sad few who is interested, just because I'm sure if I had my time again I would have wanted to be in that industry.
-- Closer to home, I have done some time in marketing, both technical and marcomms. As I sit watching the TV in the evening, eating my cheese on biscuits and sipping my brandy and coke, I do what what most marketing people do -- dissect the meanings behind the ads and try to spot the clever bits. Unless it's Mr "Oxyclean" or "DirtBuster" who just shouts at you, generally these adverts are misguided. They are made by marketing agencies who think too deeply about the message they are trying to get across but manage to convince corporate marketeers that their idea is so fiendish that it will work. The reality is that most adverts look like they are marketing to marketeers and no-one else. For example, my old VP of marketing (as much as I liked him) was naive enough to spend $40000 on a brand new Volvo, because he bought into the "Volvo, for life" campaign and he honestly thought he was protecting his kids more by spending an extra $20k. He, out of everyone, should have seen right through the triteness of that. I know it's a tad brash, but if it makes things white, just say it makes things white and have a distinctive brand -- no rocket science there. If it has four wheels and goes like sh*t off a silver shovel, there's your USP. No point dressing up a one line logo to mask the fact that your product is either rubbish, a death-trap or over-hyped. I could go on about this one for hours so I'll leave it alone.
Stan is absolutely spot on. The media dictates the agenda and it shouldn't. When we have so many news sources, you would have thought that they would not be trying to out-do each other on the amount of coverage a particular topic gets but highlighting what they saw fit, not what the rest of the press do. In some ways this is why, while I hate the Independent's sensationalism, I actually hold it quite high esteem. They never follow the crowd. I hate their headlines but whatever...
Probably 1% of you will know this unless you were reading my own blog 18 months ago, but a little girl was murdered about 2 miles away from my house. She wasn't much older than Madaleine. She was conclusively dead, not just missing. There are still flowers placed where she was found to this day. It bought her all of 30 seconds on the local news and a half inch column in the papers. If her parents had been a cardiologist and GP on holiday, maybe she might have made the national obsession. But no, she's Jo Ordinary from 'Oop Norf so she might have her photo shown at the local Bingo Hall.
The disparity is criminal. As much as I want this little girl back safely, we live in a media-fueled back-scratching, circulation battle as to who can out-sycophant their rivals. Markets market to themselves and no-one else, unless there's a bloody great O2 sign behind their PR guru as they sit talking trifles with Natasha Kaplinski (who is increasingly starting to annoy me to death). Or if they can smell a profit on the basis of a public outcry.
Enter stage left: Max Clifford.
Gah. Sickening.
Out-of-control Saccharine Bandwagon
The Diana Spencer madness in 1997 was not a good time in the mental health of our country. Some people put their lives on hold and some pretty darned good causes were overshadowed for months. For example, Mother Theresa of Calcutta died shortly after and hardly anyone noticed. Don't make me enumerate the ways in which one was more worthy than the other.
Maybe a country needs an emotional crisis every decade or so, because now the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann is becoming just as unhinged.
Don't get me wrong, if Stanetta were missing, I know I'd be trying everything to get her back. But Madeleine McCann is not the only little girl in trouble at the moment. Don't make me mention Darfur again.
She's not the only cause worthy of appeals from David Beckham and Cup-Final videos. And it seems that the attraction of a multi-million pound reward and global media coverage is attracting conmen, publicity-seekers and the mentally impaired. This is not helping the job of the people trying to do their jobs and find her.
You've got to watch Billy Wilder's 1951 film, "Ace in the Hole". A guy is trapped down in a cave and a media circus is created by a needy reporter, resulting in the guy's pain being forgetten and a quite literal circus being created around the cave site complete with ice cream, balloons and amusement park rides. People come from miles away to gawk and experience the carnival atmosphere.
I think we're getting there.
Maybe a country needs an emotional crisis every decade or so, because now the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann is becoming just as unhinged.
Don't get me wrong, if Stanetta were missing, I know I'd be trying everything to get her back. But Madeleine McCann is not the only little girl in trouble at the moment. Don't make me mention Darfur again.
She's not the only cause worthy of appeals from David Beckham and Cup-Final videos. And it seems that the attraction of a multi-million pound reward and global media coverage is attracting conmen, publicity-seekers and the mentally impaired. This is not helping the job of the people trying to do their jobs and find her.
You've got to watch Billy Wilder's 1951 film, "Ace in the Hole". A guy is trapped down in a cave and a media circus is created by a needy reporter, resulting in the guy's pain being forgetten and a quite literal circus being created around the cave site complete with ice cream, balloons and amusement park rides. People come from miles away to gawk and experience the carnival atmosphere.
I think we're getting there.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Furious Angels
"Cause love, like an invisible bullet has shot me down and I'm bleeding - yeah, I'm bleeding. And if you go, furious angels will bring you back to me"After four years I've finally worked out that my car's audio system is set-up in "small tinny transistor radio" mode, and that by pressing a few buttons it can actually make a big fat gorgeous noise.
I'm kicking myself that I've missed out on the full impact of my travelling music, but I'm making up for lost time now. The bass-line to "Cash Machine" by Hard-Fi is wonderful, so wonderful I had to get Mrs Stan to explain why it's so good.
Skunk Anansie also make an amazing sound - I'm gutted that they broke up six years ago, without really making it big. "Everyday Hurts" is as good a piece of rock as I've heard in many years.
My major discovery though (five years late) is Rob Dougan. He wrote a bunch of tracks for The Matrix films, extravagantly scored dance music that is utterly impossible to dance to. OK, maybe if Ecstasy is involved - but otherwise, just sit and listen.
His lyrics are a class above - complex, dark and emotional. Like something one of the Metaphysical poets would write. In fact the phrase "Furious Angels" I love so much is Jean Cocteau's description of WW1 fighter aircraft in his preface to Roland Garros' "Dans Le Ciel De La Patrie" [In The Sky Of The Homeland].
It's a wonderful two word poem - "Furious Angels", sounds even better in French "Les Anges Furieux".
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