"The small, ordinary freedoms of life are priceless." PJ O'Rourke
Liz, thanks for the link, it reminds me of the series of photographs taken after the Battle of Gettysburg in early July 1863.
One particularly photogenic corpse was used in a handful of locations. Twentieth century archivists noticed and documented that fact despite not having time stamps which make detective work just that little bit easier these days.
Since Friday I have been in tourist mode. Westminster Abbey, Horse Guards Parade and Green Park, late night at the V&A, Tower of London, the Globe and millennium Bridge, Blackfriars pub, moonbat mayhem on Whitehall, much more tediously in Trafalgar Square, Chinatown and the National Portrait Gallery, finishing up at Foyles on the South Bank, bliss.
I photographed a few windows at the Tower, intrigued by the idea that the various prisoners would have looked out of that very aperture and wished they were free, safe, happy.
The day has started with a bang. Directed to gross photographs of real children crying in stylised photographs, the descriptions of the so called artist's working practices has made my blood boil. When little tiny children cry, it's natural to try to comfort them, or distract them with silly games and humour. It's unnatural bordering on abusive to wind them up in order to document the expressions that ensue.
This gal is hired by advertising agencies to take photographs for press ads.
The brands she's worked on include Phillip Morris, Proctor and Gamble (say it isn't so!), Kraft Foods, Target, Microsoft, RCA, Compaq, Polaroid, Dow Jones, Dreamworks, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, MGM, HBO (argghhh), Disney (no, no!), Fox, USA Networks, the Sci-fi Channel, Mistic Beverages, Miller Beer, Anheuser Busch, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Frito Lay, Allied Domecq/Beefeater, Smirnoff, Seagrams, MTV, TV Guide, Rolling Stone, Wired, Spin, Time, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, Maxim, Stuff, Teen People, Seventeen, Vanity Fair, Paper Magazine, Movieline, V2 Records, Astralwerks, Sony Music, La Face, Warner Bros, Elektra, Atlantic and Polygram.
If it's natural to want to protect children, it's also natural to want to stop those who would do them harm. I think taking a photograph of an upset and crying teeny child is grotesque - they're not actors! The soul of that shooter is likely to colour any other photographic endeavour.
So if you know a creative director who ISN'T boring, perhaps you'd like to ask him what he/she thinks of photographers like Jill Greenberg.
Note: No art directors were named in the writing of this post.
Russell Davies put up a blog post asking this very question.
"I'm sitting in the conference, a bunch of creative directors making the same speeches that creative directors have made since the dawn of time. Make it simpler. Help us sell the work. Tell me about the audience. And they all claim to be anti-process, but it's very clear that there are deeply rigid processes embedded in their status assumptions. Creatives are in charge. Planners aren't supposed to have ideas, just create space to have ideas. Clients are supposed to pay for it."
I love the fact that he's brave enough to say something like this. He's not a mean guy so it was probably more rhetorical musings than outright criticism. There are certainly a lot of comments and he refers to it ruefully at his Miami coffee meeting.
Talks at conferences usually cover the same old things.
The really fun speeches are when someone tells a story, with villains and good guys and timing pressures and failures dotted along the path to enlightenment. That's why it's always fun to hear stories about ethnography. I've got a few myself. Did I tell you about the time I took people on day trips to France? Or the interesting way some girls eat confectionery in the home? How about filming on the backs beside Kings? Another day perhaps.
Ever since Peter York's iconic "Sloane Rangers", there has been a competition to find the best new way of describing a target market group. I've come up with a few myself, "Juddering Judy" and "Debbie Detail" for a pitch way back when springs to mind.
Yesterday I presented some activists, museli mums and so on. It's fun.
Here's an article in Ad Age about psychographic groups that Cadillac is going to target, based on "startling research".
"...extensive consumer research earlier this year revealed some startling findings: Many younger consumers knew Cadillac's Escalade sport utility, but were unfamiliar with other models. Many didn't see the brand as having a vehicle for them."
"Ms. Vanzura said the new push aims to boost consideration of the Cadillac brand among three main targets younger than its current owners. She calls them alphas, hot moms and move-ups. "Our mission is to reignite people's love affair with Cadillac," she said."
I've "worked on cars" since starting in this business and worked on Cadillac a few years ago. Older people and people who are not very financially astute buy new cars. Young people account for less than 5% of new car sales. This has been true for a zillion years and no amount of advertising seems to shift this terribly significantly.
However, if there's one brand that could change all that, it is Cadillac, which had a bit of a nouveaux image when I was growing up in Detroit. Thing is, I wonder how connected to "fly over country" Modernista of Boston is, as that's the part of America that will be most likely to consider "buying American". Just saying!
Note: 1948 Rear engine Tucker Torpedo from the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan.
From Cilla, a link to an article in Auto Trader, I mean the Guardian, on a survey:
"Pollsters interviewed more than 2,000 graduates aged from 21 to 45, and found half said they "often feel bored at work". But there were big differences in the answers from different professions."
Least bored were teachers - 28% found work boring
Health care workers - 40%
Hospitality and travel - 40%
Accountancy - 45%
Engineering - 49%
Media - 50%
IT - 53%
Marketing and advertising - 54%
Sales - 56%
Commissioned by "the Training and Development Agency for Schools (formerly the Teacher Training Agency) to encourage disaffected graduates to turn to teaching for a happier life."
The research was supposed to find out what it found out.
So no need to shoot the messenger this time.
I've been reading tons of blog posts from the conference and thought I'd round them up and supply the links. Here goes. If I've missed any, please email and I'll update.
The main conference page is here. All the speakers and the titles of their talks are listed here. Here's the official list of conference highlights and here's a list of the "2006 AAAA Jay Chiat Planning Awards Winners".
Steve Kulp, writing on Gareth Kay's blog Brand New covered a relatively uneventful Spark Day One, the good and the bad about Day two, a report on Andrew Deitchman of Mother New York's talk on a client that may or may not be fictional - Dogmatic and a plug for the Spark Webcasts of the main stage presentations with a recommendation to watch the crowd's favourite first.
Dave (or tedboy) at Heresy (or is it QuestiontheDogma?) has a post relating to the conference talk about not using the word "consumer" anymore and one about speakers going over their allotted time.
JCarlton at Plannerliness has a couple of posts from the conference. One with rather arty photos making Miami look quiet and attractive and one long interesting post that has short reviews of eight papers and lots of linkey goodness such as this one to Piers Fawkes of psfk's presentation, which links to this one which is a video used to illustrate Piers's talk at the conference, also links to Johanna, and a relevant link to Richard H at Adliterate's 'Advice to young planners' - including his admonishment to 'read really weird shit'.
Johanna at Tokyohanna admits her vacation includes the conference and covers the talk on China in depth. She's got a great long post on what inspired her including an apparent lack of media/planning "blending", changing the lexicon, great job titles (cognitive anthropologist!), the role of fear (try writing a blog, gut wrenching) and "memorable quotes".
Russell Davies of oia, loved by one and all, covers the conference in his distinctive way. He too took photos of Miami, making it look empty and Santa Monica-ey. He checked out the tv channels, a hilarious way to assess American culture, bravely swam in the sea avoiding re-enactments of Miami Vice scenarios, organised a coffee morning at 'Jerry's Famous Deli' (Beverly Hills, Studio City and Miami? amazing) and wrote it up with great photos.
Coffee morning attendees with blogs included Jennifer of BrainsOnFire, who has her own list of memorable quotes, Johanna of Tokyohanna and Josh of Plannerliness.
He writes up his session, the first for OIA, with photos of people attempting to build towers with kindergarten style materials.
That's it for now!
Update:
Russell posted about creative directors and I've got a separate bit on his reactions here.
Years ago I read 'Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui' by Karen Kingston, all about the transformative effects of clearing out all the piled up stuff in the home.
I gave more than a thousand books to my local charity shop including over 20 boxes of books stored in a facility in Acton. It took days to carry them all along. The managers got quite fed up. Boxes were shoved everywhere in the little shop, under the rails of dresses, behind the counter, shoulder height in the back room.
Then I took most of my framed photos and pictures, wrapped them in brown paper, wrote a label and shoved them in an attic in South London (thanks Cilla!).
Today I look around me and the clutter is out of control. Piles of magazines, files that won't fit in the filing cabinet, trailing wires from black and gray boxes. It's annoying. It must be stopped.
That plus washing windows clears my head like an Irish sea breeze in winter.
From the Sunday Times:
Another Irish production, although not government funded, is Allegiance — Winston Churchill and Michael Collins, a play by Mary Kenny about an evening the British and Irish leaders spent together in 1921. Mel Smith, who stars as the prime minister, says he has threatened to smoke on stage, in defiance of a Scottish ban.
Edited highlights of an amazing article in the Sunday Times:
Dozens of people, including several executives who regularly visit Pakistan, are flying from Manchester and Heathrow airports instead (of Glasgow airport) after being stopped, searched and interrogated by “heavy-handed” anti-terrorist officers every time they travel.
Doesn't this tidbit intrigue?
...says a female officer rifled through his luggage in front of other passengers and quizzed him on why he had items of women’s clothing in his suitcase. The clothing belonged to his wife.
And the naivety of these complaints?
Others have complained that police officers refused to repack their luggage after emptying the contents.
Note: I have been flying internationally since I was sixteen and have had my suitcases searched tons of times. No one has yet repacked for me. Wish I'd realised this was a cause for complaint.
Strathclyde police has agreed to give officers posted at Glasgow and Prestwick airports further training to raise awareness of .......sensitivities.
Note to sensitive souls: going through customs can be tricky. I have experienced quite embarrassing searches myself. In the old days I think the problem was smuggling presents. Nowadays the problems are different.
The David Letterman show holds a fond place in my heart.
When my dad died, I remember sitting in the family room at the fag end of the evening with masses of family members, all watching the show and laughing uproariously. Then September 11 happened and I was living in London, tuning in to the one day old show for the top ten lists - which got better and better.
For instance, Rudy Guiliani coming on to do the top ten things he'd miss about being mayor, like never getting towed.
Or:
11/27/01 Top Ten Ways Osama Bin Laden Can Improve His Image
11/23/01 Top Ten Ways To Get Osama Out Of His Cave
11/08/01 Top Ten Suggestions The Public Made To Fight Terrorism
11/07/01 Top Ten Things That Will Get You Thrown Out Of The Taliban
Early in 2002 there were a number of top ten lists on reasons to be in various branches of the US military, filmed on location with one young guy ad libbing "free socks". Ok, sometimes humour is in the timing.
I bumped into this at Instapundit and it doesn't need the voice over to make it delightful:
The Late Show with David Letterman's Top Ten Signs There's Trouble at the New York Times:
"Number Ten" - Extensive coverage of recent fighting between the Israelis and the lesbians
"Number Nine" - Pages 2 through 20 are corrections of previous edition
"Number Eight" - Every sentence begins "So, like"
"Number Seven" - TV listings only for Zorro
"Number Six" - Weather forecast reads "Look outside dumbass"
"Number Five" - Multiple references to "President Gore"
"Number Four" - Obituary includes list of people they wish were dead
"Number Three" - Headlines fold over to create surprise mad magazine-type hidden message
"Number Two" - Restaurant critic recently gave International House of Pancakes four stars
"And the Number One sign there's trouble at the New York Times:
Reporting that Oprah isn't gay, but Letterman is.
Hot town, summer in the city...and so to dinner with a British friend just back from the States.
He's full of a story about a guy in Florida who raped a nine year old girl then buried her alive with her little stuffed dolphin.
The role played by the media is just another example of why we should all turn off the tv news.
Jury selection has been hampered because no jury member can be found who doesn't know about the details of the case. For some odd reason the public's right to know includes being able to listen to his taped confession, played and re-played on all the tv news stations in the US for the last year.
I knew nothing about this case until my friend mentioned it. A google search throws up a zillion links to CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and so on. Yeah, all the usual suspects.
This guy's life and actions pollute the airwaves and no one objects? Well, I object.
Turn off the tv when the news comes on. If those advertisers want to reach you, make them find another way.
This resolution was passed in September 2004. How to remember the number? Queen Elizabeth the First became queen in November 1558, so just add one to that.
I once interviewed rush hour train travellers in the South East in order to find out what they thought of the service they were getting. One lady said "sardines have more room" and that's become a bit of a saying round here now.
So this caught my eye:
"Bulwark’s captain Clive Johnstone said that there were beds onboard for 1,000 people. If the number rises to 5,000, the conditions will be "rudimentary", he said."
"Capt Johnstone said: "It will be pretty cramped. We have graded it into three classes - steerage, if there are 2,000 people, sardine, if there are 3,000 people, and anchovy class, if we get 5,000."
Iowahawk is consistently funny and spot on. I've clicked through a zillion times now, wishing and waiting and hoping to read his take on "Yo Blair".
He's printed this touching story about a plumber being sexually harrassed:
"After such speeches, a young plumber will come up to me—in Bayside, in South Jamaica, in Flushing—in tears: A client harassed me, he’ll say. I tried to tell the union grievance board, but they told me it is my word against hers, and that I should get shirts with longer tails. I won’t get another job if I do anything about it. My 3 o'clock service call wouldn't signed the check until I show her my beer gut. I can’t sleep, I can't bowl. What should I do?"
He's got the details of some crazy fridge magnet competition here.
He found a rough draft of a letter by Juan Cole in a dumpster:
"The reason for Hitchens' theft and publication of my private IM chat is that I object to the characterization of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as having "threatened to wipe Israel off the map." I object to this translation of what he said on two grounds. First, it gives the impression that he wants to play Hitler to Israel's Poland, mobilizing an armored corps to move in and kill people. Second, even if it were true, Hitchens acts like that’s bad or something."
No public figure is safe. I can't wait.
Jane Espenson is blogging these days and she's full of great advice on writing.
Here is a list of the Buffy episodes she wrote that I loved. I've included a little taste of her wonderful dialogue.
Band Candy (3.6)
Cordelia: Oh, God. Are we killing something again?
Buffy: Only my carefree spirit.
Earshot (3.18)
Buffy: ...My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it's not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own.
Pangs (4.8)
Spike : I just can't take all this mamby-pamby boo-hooing about the bloody indians.
Buffy : Uh, the preferred term--
Spike : You won. All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do. It's what caesar did, and he's not going around saying, "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it." The history of the world isn't people making friends. You had better weapons, and you massacred them. End of story.
Superstar (4.17)
Buffy: "But someone could wish the whole world to be different right? That's possible?"
Anya: "Sure, alternate realities. You could uh, could have like a world without shrimp. Or with, you know, nothing but shrimp.
Storyteller (7.16)
Andrew: Oh! Hello there, gentle viewers.
He closes the book on his lap.
Andrew: You caught me catching up on an old favorite. It’s wonderful to get lost in a story, isn’t it? The adventure and heroics and discovery… don’t they just take you away?Hmm.
In a momentary reverie, he tries puffing on his pipe, but chokes on the smoke and sets it down.
Andrew: Come with me now, if you will, gentle viewers. Join me on a new voyage of the mind, a little tale I like to call Buffy, A Slayer of the Vampires.
Ah, the good old days, when Buffy was on...
Internet advertising in the States increased 46.4% (in value) in the first quarter of 2006, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, via cynopsis.com.
Every week I receive an email newsletter with "this week's most happening business ideas", trawled from around the world. This week everything looked good:
1. Life story caching: online services for capturing personal histories.
2. Subscribing to organic produce: global initiatives that deliver weekly boxes of organic fruits and vegetables.
3. Playing for water: a clever combination of a playground toy and water pump, used to bring clean water to rural Africa.
4. Ranking Ranqueen: an update on the Japanese retailer that sells everything according to sales ranking (top 5 green tea drinks, top 10 flip-flops, etc).
5. Banking on women: first Austrian bank for women, plus an investment bank for women in Bahrain.
6. Yearbooks for Class of 2007: online yearbooks in the United States.
7. Branded insperiences: in the United Kingdom, Bacardi Bespoke brings branded barsto private parties.
8. Quick delivery e-commerce is back: the appeal of almost-instant delivery.
9. Happy healthy meals: boxed lunches for school children.
Hot summer sun in the early morning. Helicopters throbbing above the tree tops. Fresh water and security and peace - that's my lot. Why am I so lucky?
Michael Yon has written a great article about "the hands stoking the fire underneath."
He quotes Ahmed Rashid. Here's what the "the new" Islamic fundamentalists ARE NOT interested in:
- transforming a corrupt society - not interested
- providing jobs - not interested
- providing education - not interested
- providing social benefits - not interested
- creating harmony between ethnic groups - not interested
- economics - not interested
- better governance - not interested
- building political institutions - not interested
- democratic participation - not interested
- democratically organised political parties - not interested
- having a leader with political abilities - not interested
- having an educated leader - not interested
What this guy hasn't listed is -- a woman's right to be treated humanely. Nevermind. I happen to know they're not interested.
Why are so many Islamic women such hypocrites? I saw two different teeny tiny girls in full black burkas on Kensington High Street on Saturday. They both walked really close to older women, full black scarves over the face in the 90 degree heat. It's child abuse happening right under my nose and I get nauseous and angry that my adopted country allows female child abuse to be paraded on the high street.
It's not about tolerance, it's about lack of imagination. What kind of life is in store for those little baby girls? At least they can't be shagged by Al-Zaqawi, another reason to be glad he's dead.
As I was reminded last week, it's all about emotion.
My dad was always pointing out people who "don't let the facts get in the way of a good story".
I read something last week, was it PJ O'Rourke? Everyone has the right to their opinion but they don't have the right to annoy us with it.
Edited highlights from Michael Yon:
"Although Israel is the center of world attention today, she is only one of many targets for militant Islam."
"...This week about 200 killed and 700 wounded in Mumbai, India...one thing is certain: Jews in Israel are not to blame for the murderous rage of militant Muslims in India."
"...terrorists invaded a school in Beslan...more than 350 were dead and more than 700 wounded; most of the victims were children...the Jews in Israel had no connection (to Beslan)"
"The Jews in Israel cannot be blamed for the bombing in Bali..."
In peaceful Holland, a Dutch filmmaker....only bad math would attribute US foreign policy toward Israel into Van Gogh's murder."
"At the current rate, this (Iran) is scheduled to be the first national-suicide attack, where an entire nation straps a nuclear weapon(s) onto its body and then slam into Israel. If this day comes to pass, countries like Syria and Iran will suddenly cease to exist."
"...if people stop shooting at the Israelis, they will stop shooting back....these recent attacks and kidnappings were unprovoked. By Israel, that is."
Then he quotes Dr. Sultan who is a genius despite having lived in Los Angeles all these years.
Read the whole thing.
Everyone in the UK is taxed to pay for the BBC. There is no sliding scale so if you're rich you pay £200 say, and a poor, unemployed, frightened mother on a council estate you pay a fiver.
Nope. Every household with a tv pays £131.50 per year.
A few years ago I used to go to West London Magistrates Court to watch all the "criminals" get done for not having a tv licence. They were all sad, poor, scared, and angry. I wrote it up for a political group I belonged to, called something like "Ban the BBC licence". It was all extremely depressing.
There's nothing to watch on BBC channels these days that's any good, unless it's a joint effort with HBO. (This is my blog and that's my opinion.) Certainly not the news. I watched BBC1 for five minutes on September 11th and that was my lot! Haven't tuned in from then to now. I don't miss it a bit either, the internet is great for news.
So those clever bods at the BBC have booked a boring but attractive Muslin guy to front a series on whether Jesus's miracles were miracles or not. Yawn. How hard is it to guess what his answer will be? After all, he was picked for a reason and he will tow the party line.
"...Rageh Omaar, the former Iraq war correspondent who wrote a book on his experiences as a British Muslim, will conduct a three-part examination of Jesus’s miracles."
"...The BBC said that the series was not designed to provoke a Christian backlash. Adam Kemp, the BBC’s head of religious commissioning, said: “It is Rageh’s journey to find out what the miracles reveal about Jesus and who people at the time believed Jesus really was. There are beautiful reconstructions of the miracles.” "
"Reconstructions" = cgi and that can get expensive. That will be three billion pounds and some change please.
How do I know he's boring? He recently published a memoir that got amazing reviews and I don't mean that positively.
"Never have books explaining Islam been more needed. And you might have expected much from a Somali-born, Oxford-educated Muslim and leading BBC journalist, especially when his book is the second in a two-book deal for which Penguin paid around £600,000.
Unfortunately, Rageh Omaar’s book on growing up a Muslim in Britain, interspersed with asides about his homeland, the Iraq war and the general Wickedness of the West, is a crushing disappointment: bland, platitudinous, muddled, lazy, factually unreliable and morally reprehensible."
The give-away for me is "platitudinous". If he has anything to do with writing the script for the series - you have been warned.
In the States, there are two stupendous changes taking place in advertising.
1. Measurement of commercial watching to take the place of program ratings.
From Ad Age:
"This year's $9.05 billion upfront may well be the last negotiated on the basis of program ratings as the TV-ad business embarks on one of the most radical shifts in its 65 year history."
"Broadcasters are preparing to junk the age-old metric of charging on the basis of who watches the programs and begin charging advertisers based on who watches the commercials."
2. Measurement of engagement with commercials.
From Ad Age:
"...Nielsen Media Research announced it would begin measuring engagement, polling former panel members about their recall, awareness and attitudes toward brands and products advertised on TV."
"...the Advertising Research Foundation will meet in an attempt to create a clearer definition of exactly what engagement means and lay the framework for studies that will help advertisers understand how viewers interact with certain kinds of advertising."
According to Robert Heath, launching his new research method last Wednesday at an Account Planning Group meeting, it's all about emotions.
Some quotes from his talk:
"How people chose brands? People don't know they're doing it. Gut feeling, intuition, plays a role in decision-making."
"Emotion drives decision-making when time is constrained."
"It is emotions that forge relationships."
"Brand relationships are driven not by the rational message but by the emotional content in advertising."
"We've always known this."
Here's where he got interesting:
"Emotional communication is more effective when less attention is paid. Emotion is communicated better at low attention. It is good if they don't pay that much attention."
"Advertising - literal vs. visceral."
"A director's shot is worth two hundred lines in a brief."
"It's much better to try and trigger emotions."
"People don't want to engage with advertising."
"The new measuring and maximising 'engagement' will potentially destroy advertising."
"TV watching is low attention. This doesn't affect emotional metacommunication at all."
"Emotion is automatic."
"Evidence is that emotion drives brand relationships."
"Emotive Power" TM
"Cognitive Power" TM
"It's very hard to tell what people really think of an ad. Emotion puts brand values into brands."
"The Sony Bravia ad is not trying to engage you."
Note: that's true. I don't like the fake cgi balls, I don't like the setting, I don't like the idea of the mess that shoot would have made - if the balls had been real. I can't sing along to the music. I'm sure it works for some but I bought the tv recommended by the owner of my local electronics shop. I wanted something that would be compatible with all the bloody boxes on the floor and he came round at least four times to install and fix. He chose my tv brand.
"There's a difference in how people react to advertising in America and the UK. Americans are simplistic."
A British girl raised her hand and said "I don't think simplistic is a good way to describe Americans."
Robert: "I'm not denigrating them. I'm saying they operate on a non cynical paradigm."
Note: so that's ok then.
Interesting article in the Times today about the psychological impact of watching film footage of disasters.
"Joan Anzia, a professor of psychiatry, told the annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists that footage such as from the attacks of September 11, 2001, played into the hands of terrorists by increasing stress impact on the brain."
“TV companies that screen disaster footage to boost ratings should examine their consciences, as they are causing harm to their audiences,” Professor Anzia said."
Kind of a "well duh" moment for you I'm sure.
It's worse for kids:
"Children especially those under thirteen, are highly vulnerable members of our society...they lack the intellectual and emotional capacity to process fear in the way that adults can.
"...we must screen how much information they receive...don't let young children watch TV news. Television news is, to say the least, not kid-friendly." Paul Mones quoted in 'Fear Less' by Gavin de Becker.
"My disdain is for the choices made by people who produce the TV news. Every word you hear spoken is another choice, every image, every color - all choices. Combine the words,the graphics, the logos, the music, the urgency, and what you end up with is information hidden behind sensation - and the sensation is fear."
p150 'Fear Less' by Gavin de Becker. He recommends:
1. Turn off the sensational, uninspirational, uneducational, privacy-meddling, death-peddling, celebrity-snooping, helicopter-swooping, flesh-eating, rumor-repeating, minicam-toting, fear-promoting TV news.
2. Keep the TV news off at least long enough to see - as you will - that you're not missing anything.
3. Get your information in print. Read.
4. Get information-don't let information get you. (Note: blogs are a BRILLIANT source of information these days.)
5. Talk to people in your life about world and local events.
"Terrorists seek publicity, the media see stories, and the rest of us seek shelter from uncertainty. We know that for each unlikely risk we react to, we take on another risk: the risk of being governed by fear."
"News stands for - Nothing Educational Worth Seeing"
Interesting article about the decreasing audiences for US TV news. You don't say! And here's me thinking Americans are stupid, well, it is a a bit of a mantra here in London. Just last Wednesday an intelligent author said to a packed room full of advertising planners "Americans are Simple."
All you simple Americans reading this, the world is onto you.
I have to be careful.
When driving I like to sing along to what's playing on the radio or what I've chosen to compile. Over the years I've made cds for various vacations. All the power ballads that have been in the charts in the last year, heck in the last 40 years, they all get a look in.
"cooler than the red dress"
"I'm not a perfect person"
"it's set way back in the middle of a field"
"if you don't have the answer just walk away"
"do you believe in love at first sight"
"lift up the receiver I'll make you a believer"
"breathe into me and make me real"
"you're in my mind all of the time"
"but its made in a Hollywood basement"
"drink bacardi like it's your birthday"
My indulgence is Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams:
"I walk a lonely road on the boulevard of broken dreams"
Thing is, my teenaged nephew won't have them - on the stereo, in the car, nada, verboten.
He has an excellent bullshit meter.
I found this at It Comes in Pints?
One blogger, typing away, answering 50 questions we've all heard a zillion times.
I'd grade it A- His tone of voice and knowledge of the subjects raised are excellent. I just wish he'd been a little less honest about his sexuality.
I've got tons and tons of tips on blogging for you today - from Pajamas Media, Sister Toldjah, (can't get La Shawn Barber's to link), and Simon World.
When I started, I was lucky to find a cool and patient freelance computer guy who came to my flat every Tuesday evening for a number of weeks. We learned to blog together. I showed him Michael Yon's old blog and he clicked on "I power blogger" - that's how we chose the blogging software.
We looked things up in "Publishing a Blog with Blogger" by Elizabeth Castro and I still refer to it when there are things I don't understand.
He would "type code" and push the keyboard towards me, "now you do it". I'm not quite as fearful of techie stuff now.
I have so many plans for the future:
- sticking to one theme - account planning - always meant to do this but the 7/7 bombs went off right when I started and I got a bit (ahem) sidetracked
- figuring out pings and trackbacks and comments
- moving to movable press or typepad, or some other "cool" blogger software
- figuring out how to add other digital stuff like podcasts and my own original film footage
- getting a really cool main page design
- applying everything interesting outlined in "Don't Make Me Think!", 2nd edition, by Steve Krug.
I'm working my way through "An Army of Davids" by Glenn Reynolds this week.
A few edited highlights:
"bloggers have accomplished a lot in independent journalism: bringing down Trent Lott and Dan Rather (and executive editor for news, Albert Scardino at the Guardian last July after 'Sassygate'); reporting on events in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Ukraine that Big Media have ignored; and even playing a major role in defeating ratification of the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands."
This was published early in 2006 so there's more to add to the list, like the fact that Bush is responsible for kidnapping that Israeli soldier - so total war can be waged throughout the Middle East, keep up would you!
Tons of bloggers are reporting on the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon. The 'Guns of July' indeed.
Update:
From Normblog:
"Girls out of school
"In the first three years there were a lot of girl students - everyone wanted to send their daughters to school. For example, in Argandob district [a conservative area], girls were ready; women teachers were ready. But when two or three schools were burned, then nobody wanted to send their girls to school after that."- Female representative on Kandahar's provincial council, December 11, 2005.
"The Taliban 'went to each class, took out their long knives... locked the children in two rooms, [where they] were severely beaten with sticks and asked, 'will you come to school now?'' The teachers said that they were taken out of school. The Taliban asked them individually, 'Why are you working for Bush and Karzai?'
They said, 'We are educating our children with books - we know nothing about Bush or Karzai, we are just educating our children.' After that, they were cruelly beaten and let go."- Education official from Maruf district, Kandahar province, describing how the Taliban shut down his school in June 2004, speaking to Human Rights Watch on December 9, 2005.
All schools in the district closed down that year.These are two testimonies from 'Lessons in Terror', a Human Rights Watch Report on the assault on education in Afghanistan.
Escalating attacks by the Taliban and other armed groups on teachers, students and schools in Afghanistan are shutting down schools and depriving another generation of an education, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
Schools for girls have been hit particularly hard, threatening to undo advances in education since the Taliban's ouster in 2001.
In the 142-page report, "Lessons in Terror: Attacks on Education in Afghanistan," Human Rights Watch documented 204 incidents of attacks on teachers, students and schools since January 2005.
See, in the same connection, this from David Aaronovitch:
Who are we, after all, to try to force upon a reluctant culture our own superficial norms, such as the right to an education if you are born female.
Oh yes, and you might bear it in mind, also, when you next hear about grievances rooted in oppressions for which the 'the west' is responsible."
I came out of Temple tube station the other day and was handed this bottle of water.
This is written on the back of the label:
"Metronet is investing more than £3 million each day to renew two-thirds of London's tube.
New Trains, new track, state-of-the-art signalling, smarter stations and better infrastructure. It's a massive task, and most of this work can only be done when the Tube is not running.
Some 3,000 people are working every night on the world's largest metro regeneration, to allow London Underground to carry 3 million customers around London every day, including you.
www.metronetrail.com"
I read every word on the label. They should make more of this, including the £3 million pounds being spent every day and 3,000 people working every evening.
Whole thing's a great idea.
Do you ever go to 'www.theonion.com'?
Great "headlines", well-written "articles", refreshing non-news in a world filled with mainstream media heartbreakers.
Market Research news from Onion:
Teen Sex Linked To Drugs And Alcohol, Reports Center For Figuring Out Really Obvious Things
BOSTON—A definitive causal relationship exists between drug and alcohol use and teen sex, the Center For Figuring Out Really Obvious Things reported Monday.
The four-year, $3.5 million study, which examined the substance-abuse and sexual habits of more than 2,500 American teens, is regarded as one of the most "no-duh"-inducing in the center's history.
"Our exhaustive research clearly confirms that U.S. youths between the ages of 13 and 18 who drink and/or use drugs are more likely to be sexually active," said Dr. Gerald Eckersley, director of the Boston-based organization. "This may be our most significant finding since the landmark 1978 study that found a link between habitual chocolate consumption and weight gain."
More Onion News:
Recently Unearthed E-Mail Reveals What Life Was Like In 1995
KNOXVILLE, TN—A 1995 e-mail extracted from the hard drive of a recently unearthed Compaq desktop PC offers a tantalizing glimpse into the day-to-day life of a primitive Internet society, said the archaeologists responsible for its discovery.
From 'Mind Wide Open' by Steven Johnson:
Our brains don't just underline positive and negative memories. We are also wired to remember novelty, to remember events that somehow deviate from our expectations.
...all those comments trapped in my long-term memory had one thing in common: they had surprised me in some fashion.
...narrative systems - movies, novels, fairy tales - exploit this drive for novelty: we like twists in our stories because our brains have a biologically grounded interest in surprise.
p.150-152.
No I don't understand what it all MEANS, but it sure is interesting.
From the bhf:
"The European Commission has developed 42 graphic images/ warnings for countries in the European Union to use on tobacco packs.
Of these images 14 will be chosen for use in the UK.
They are currently conducting a web survey where you can vote for the images you think will be most effective.
It doesn't matter if you area smoker, ex smoker or have never touched a cigarette in your life, the survey is open to all and it only takes a few minutes."
Go here to vote. Please vote before 24th August.
When I smoked, my favourite pack warning was "Smoking Kills" in big black letters. That seemed so aggressive and sexy, as well as ludicrous.
My suggestion for a pack warning? "It smells disgusting and so do you."
The last cigarette I ever smoked was on September 13th 2001.
The tv was on for the France/Italy game last night. I looked up from the computer at the very moment that French guy Zidane headbutted the Italian player in the centre of his chest. It was the strangest sporting move I've ever seen. I'm really new to watching football and find the players' inability to act sportsmanlike really hard to understand. Why can't they control themselves with zillions of cameras trained on them? Why can't they control themselves period? France so deserved to lose after that. Odd game all round.
I've had a very enjoyable time reading the entries at Tim Worstall's Britblog round up.
Here's a touching memoir of 7/7 from an emergency services guy.
This one, by a thoughtful guy named Adil, is about walking through London and coming upon a recognised location from the 7/7 bombs last year. He's also got a good post on LibraryThing, software that catalogues the books you own and he's got a link to an interesting guy, Martin Kramer, who is an expert on the middle east and clear about Juan Cole's failings and why Yale of all places won't be hiring him. Too bad, I liked the idea of Cole leaving U of Michigan.
There's an opening at U of Arizona now that Deb (did she jump or was she pushed) Frisch has left the building because of her threatening and sexually inappropriate remarks about the TWO YEAR OLD child of a blogger she didn't like. Is it really possible that Arizona's gain is Oregon's loss? Hmmm.
This one on mental illness is interesting and funny.
And so to work. Happy Birthday Cilla.
There's a new Superman movie coming out. The longstanding, memorable Superman tag line has been changed, from "Truth, Justice and the American way" to, ah, something else. (Didn't Masterfoods change it's name back to Mars this week?)
I believe concern about this is misplaced.
As far as I understand it, there is an immigration problem. Too many people from other countries have the mad idea that they will find a better life in the States.
The new Superman movie is a message movie! You don't want to move to the States at all! Try Afghanistan, especially if you like camping. This is not the droid you're looking for.
I was reading an article on this very subject this morning:
"We were always hesitant to include the term 'American way' because the meaning of that today is somewhat uncertain," said co-writer Michael Dougherty. "I think when people say 'American way,' they're actually talking about what the 'American way' meant back in the '40s and '50s, which was something more noble and idealistic."
Here's the part that got me laughing:
"But the inconstant left doesn't believe any of this is permissible in the service of a noble goat."
Natalie, it's your fault I've got goats on the brain.
And many thanks Liz.
Last year I posted two entries on the day Tanweird and his merry band of bone fragmenters blew their body parts into the soft flesh of hundreds of London commuters.
I wrote this at lunchtime, this later in the afternoon.
Then I went to the pub.
Where did I read that one of the London fragmenters had "been buried" in Pakistan. Not much of him will have made the journey, the rest of his skeleton will have been extracted during surgeries in the following weeks.
Happy Anniversary!
A whole year with no successful tube bombings, somebody's doing something right.
The bad guys are all out there, just waiting to blow us up and they haven't succeeded, I'd call that a victory.
So it's Victoria station next is it? I wouldn't want to have similar looks to Tanwierd and his merry bunch of suicide bombers and be walking through Victoria station with a rucksack today. Or any other day really.
From The Times:
"On the film an unidentified person is seen holding a map of the capital and drawing a circle around Victoria station, which was not a target in the attacks."
I should imagine Victoria Station is the safest place in the world today, if you're a short blonde girl like me!
Details here.
Some edited highlights:
"In 2002, Yale turned down an opportunity to admit a group of academically qualified Afghan women, but a couple of years later they admit their oppressor. There’s something culturally wrong with a place that tolerates that sort cognitive dissonance and I hope they try to fix it."
"Everyone hates the woman-beating, finger-chopping, head-hacking, gay-smashing, terrorist-abetting Taliban, right?"
Forgot the "football stadium executin' " but still makes clear they are a jolly lot.
Update: I got an email from Gary Kent saying I'd attributed quotes to him incorrectly. When I find out the name of the guy who said them, I'll retype and republish immediately.
Last night I queued up to be "hand searched" before attending a meeting on the Labour movement in Iraq at the House of Commons. You read that right. I arrived late so didn't take part, merely took a few scrappy notes.
The Thames shimmered gold and silver outside the windows of the meeting room.
The meeting was chaired by Gary Kent, Director, LRIQ. Three Iraqi trade unionists were there, one Brit and two Iraqis. One Iraqi guy spoke English - Abdullah Muhsin. The other Iraqi had a gentle older woman translating for him. His name was Sardar M Muhammed, the General Secretary, Kurdistan Workers Syndicate, Sulymania. Her name I didn't catch, but one man paid tribute to her father, murdered by terrorists in Iraq and honoured by a park dedicated to him and 78? other murdered "democrats".
Some quotes from the Iraqi guys:
"Trade unions are the cornerstone of democracy, of a progressive society."
"The oil industry was run down by Sodhim"
"There are so many forces working against us"
"Iraqi workers are being assassinated, 2000 (?) assassinated so far, they want to kill us, we shall not give in until we build a democratic society"
"Trade union leaders are being targeted, it's a systematic campaign of assassination, the genocide of working people." (Nope, nothing in the Times this morning)
Some young boy asked a couple of questions....including something along the lines of 'getting the troops out of your country'...
My note: Everyone is being very civilised, acting like that's a perfectly reasonable thing for a weedy teenaged British college boy, surrounded by the best security money can buy, to ask of an older man who f****ing lives in a war zone. Whatever.
The gentle lady translated for the older man and spoke very softly:
Various comments - "there are many acts of terror"..."Saddamists are significant...acts of terror"
Gary Kent - no, from the Chair of Labour Students.
"The Left doesn't understand why the call for the withdrawal of British troops would be a disaster."
"Stances on the war are irrelevant"
"We can move on but we haven't moved on, the debate remains stagnant."
"We need to expose political opportunism"
"Whenever we utter positive words about Iraq we're accused of being Tony Blair supporters."
"The presence of troops is vital to maintaining stability."
"13 or 14 regions out of 19 (in Iraq) are stable.
"....but so called academics...." I was laughing so hard I didn't get the exact words of this.
The Iraqi guy who spoke good, slightly broken English then said:
"We are workers. We are Iraqis. We are citizens. 95% of income comes from oil. ...encourage foreign investment. "
"We have an accountable government."
Spoken more loudly, vehemently: "Twelve and a half million Iraqis were brave enough to vote!"
"This should end the debate about whether the war should have happened." (ah, wish again my friend)
"There will be a concilliation (sp?) conference in August, let's see what happens."
British military guy: "I was there in 1991, would look on my map but so many villages were destroyed."
(An electronic bell started ringing)
Dave Anderson, a British Labour MP interrupted as he had to speak then go vote.
"It doesn't matter if you are for or against the war"
"People were buried alive. They didn't even put a bullet through their head."
He leaves and the other military guy, Tom? continues:
"The thing that shocked me, I hadn't the slightest clue of the silent murder and mayhem that had been going on for 30 years."
"It's wrong to be silent."
"It's wrong to be selectively silent for political reason." (This guy is way too old to be so naive)
"The labour movement can mobilise people not to accept silence especially if it's for political expediency."
"My view is we should have finished the job the first time."
"Trade unions can break the silence."
"There's a high price to pay for silence."
Gary Kent - no, from the Chair of Labour Students: "...The Red House, sounds innocuous but 5,000 people were tortured there."
"We ought to be listening to Iraqis"
"Iraqis are saying we didn't ask for you (army troops) to come in but we'd like to have a say in when you go." (All these naive grown ups are very endearing)
"Support trade unions."
"There's only one thing worse than being exploited by a large multi national..." (That got a great big laugh, how wonderful to channel Oscar Wilde in this location.)
"We want to work with university students like you (there were at least ten very young boys sitting around the room) ....practical acts of solidarity."
http://www.labourfriendsofiraq.org.uk/
They conduct these tests with college kids. I did them when I was at university. I hope these days they're not as obvious and mindless as when I was doing them.
Also, ahem, if you're testing reactions to alcohol how do you know the person taking the test isn't a little spacey from partying the night before?
The instruction is to count the ball passes, not to note other actions in the room. So a gorilla strolls over in the middle of the film. So what? Crazy things happen all the time at sports events, on city streets, EVEN in civilised restaurants.
"Overall, one third of the study participants didn't notice the gorilla. Among those who were sober, 46 percent spotted the gorilla, compared to 18 percent of the intoxicated group."
"Thus, alcohol appears to be adding an additional layer of blindness," Clifasefi and her team conclude in a report published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology."
Last night I saw the tv ad of the German girl streaking at a football game. Powerful stuff. A good reminder that propaganda is all around. What happens in dark tunnels and byways? That's what we need to find out.
Found the link at Dr. Sanity, from The Belmont Club:
"Terrorism is extortion in the service of politics.
Attacks on civilian targets are whole-page advertisements taken out to flog these wares on a reluctant public.
The military power of terrorists is negligable.
Despite the fantasies of those who imagine Iraq to be Vietnam, with divisions of NVA sending tanks down the road to Saigon; with legions of laborers dragging artillery pieces across the mountains to pound surrounded French garrisons into submission -- it is not that.
Rather, it is a development of the techniques pioneered in the Algerian conflict against the French.
It is the political and media power of terror which is important, not their military strength.
And in a takeoff from Omar's riff on Maliki's email anecdote, I would venture to say that terror would have won against the US and the West already despite the vast power of America were it not for the Internet, which has ironically made it possible for neutralize the propaganda power of terror.
The Internet makes it possible to show terror up for the murder that it is.
To strip it of supposed justification.
To remind people of what is never mentioned in the papers: that Osama like all men goes and takes a shit.
Made it possible to answer back.
In a way, the Internet and the blogosphere is the sole remaining voice the victims; whether of terror or counter-terror.
That fact doesn't mean that Maliki will succeed.
But it gives him a chance; a chance he would not have had in the golden 60s everyone hankers after.
If the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has demonstrated anything, it is the power of terror to thwart peace for decades.
Everything that terror has learned in Gaza and the West Bank will be thrown at the new Iraqi government.
And half the battlefield is right here, on your screen."
Every sentence of that was worth savouring, don't you think?
Update:
Al-Zaqawi's mom is blogging!
Dear American readers, don't worry about reports like this:
"YouGov elicited the views of 1,962 adults across Great Britain online between June 26 and 28. The data have been weighted to conform to the demographic profile of British adults as a whole. YouGov abides by the rules of the British Polling Council."
The questions were poorly written. There is no benchmark for comparison. And don't get me started on trusting "on-line" respondents' identities.
However, if you have heard any of the negative results of this crazy poll, I'll let you in on a little secret. Good qua
