MESSENGER

It's not often I can sit through a 160 minutes of unvarnished Hollywood with a poorly rated 10 year old movie but I just did. It's called The Postman and I can't remember who suggested I should watch it but I think it's closely linked to the John Titor story I've been intrigued by recently. The post apocalyptic details are uncannily similar.

The hook that was most interesting in this otherwise pedestrian movie was the idea that it wasn't what was said or done that motivated disparate groups to rise up against the Barbarian impersonating Bethlehem character, but rather mishap, serendipity, legend and myth coalescing around a couple of peaceful ideals. By the time Costner slips on postal uniform and a tells a few fibs to cadge a free meal, he had worked his way into a dispirited people's conciousness and the idea of a great hero reuniting the former United States grows to become an epic story. This galavanised people into writing letters to long lost connections in a post-electric-grid world. One threatened by marauding armies extracting taxes and punishment.

I admit I also watched it as a sort of compromise movie as I felt my girlfriend would enjoy the ease of comprehension and the romantic scenes which Costner delivers on with admirable fortitude. I could barely stifle a giggle from the idea of a pseudo postman getting laid in city to city from women yearning for pregnancy from post-nuclear sterile husbands. Hot bath and free meals too. What's not to like about that?

But the odd synchronicities encouraged me to sit through the movie because it occurred to me that I'm also reading Bukowski's Post Office, and then there's the success of the first satellite called MESSENGER to orbit Mercury only days ago and for some reason I feel that Mercury is the definitive under rated planet to be given sufficient analysis compared to the two that NASA is obsessed by. Mars (God of War) and Saturn from the Greek Chronus which means time and who was also the father of Zeus.

Mercury is of course the obvious choice if one wanted to play the Vatican and assign a patron saint to advertising. The messenger. Hermes. Closest planet to the Sun. You heard it here first.

Does Advertising Numb Basic Human Compassion?

China's capital has banned outdoor advertising that promotes hedonistic or high-end lifestyles as the government seeks to ease public concerns about the country's widening wealth gap. This seems quite timely on the heels of my, is advertising immoral or unethical post. How long can pimping luxury products blatantly in the face of people who cannot afford them but create the wealth that purchases them continue? Something is shifting in the world with respect to conspicuous consumption. Full story over here and hat tip to David for finding the story.

Supply On Demand?

The Wizard Of Oz

The whole story is a satire of the corruption in the businesses and corporations of America in the late 1800's. The Scarecrow represents the western farmers with no brains, the tin man represents the eastern industrial workers who worked in the factories with no heart, and the lions represent the congressmen with no courage to stand up against the corporations. The yellow brick road represents the gold standard, and the munchkins are the average citizen.

They used to let this scene be embedded but now no longer which is interesting as I have a hunch that a great unveiling is imminent. I cut and paste the above comment as it's better than anything I could have written.

Don't Give Up On The Humans

If it wasn't for Doug Rushkoff I wouldn't have heard a podcast where Terrence McKenna talked about Marshall McCluhan. That odyssey hasn't abated since. I think he's one of the most important thinkers alive and here he articulates once again the case for the importance of emancipating people by harnessing their ability to create tools instead of just use tools. In other words program or be programmed. Here he is at Google with another important talk. It's about choice and alternatives. About unleashing potential.

You May Need To Sit Down

So It Wasn't A Balloon?

Osho - Emotions Blind Us

Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?

Update: Marina Abramovic has inspired Lady Gaga to explore performance art.

Advice

We've seen how morally bankrupt the British political system is on all sides. Blair sells the Libyans arms that are then used against their own people and then later Cameron bombs them from the air to keep a tight reign on the oil so you can nip down to the corner shop and pick up your newspaper which you can read while checking to see what channel the war is on.

It's highly unlikely I will die in the UK so this isn't about my well being. It is about advice to my British friends. Tariq Ali is the nearest thing the Brits have to a natural born leader with the wisdom and track record to do the right thing. 

Should the diaphanous mirage of left and right politics evaporate to reveal a singular entity pulling both left and right levers I put it to you my British friends that you have no better  strategy than to ally yourself closely with the repressed peoples of Pakistan. Should that ever make sense there could be no better guide than Tariq Ali who I suspect can navigate the delicate and precarious framework of doing the right thing without antagonising India. Both countries immigrants are crucial to keeping the the United Kingdom out of war. 

Though of course you might want to watch Tariq's latest talk in Australia and draw your own conclusion.

279 Shopping Days To Christmas

Earlier for the second or third time I tried to explain over the phone why the distinctive leitmotifs of time are changing. Why the linear model is increasingly looking like a fractally recursive and more chronologically compressed model of time than the one that existed say 30 years ago. Three people have just written what I've attempted to say in the last couple of hours and appeared in my feed almost sequentially so it seems right to share them right here and right now:

1. We Must Know
2. Neil Perkin
3. John Smallman

If you're feeling time starved and looking for inspiration then those three posts are a good start. Remember. You can't save time. Only spend it.

Is Advertising Immoral or Unethical?

The short answer you know anyway but that wont change anything. A blog post is unlikely to prompt a vendor of materialism into questioning their value set.

Let me start with an apology. At one point a couple of years ago I was flying between Shanghai and Hong Kong as the Global Account Planning Director on a piece of Coca-cola business. I was in the air so much that one week I ate more airline food than terrestrial meals. The hard work paid off. The creative was all over the show at the first meeting, and as everyone else was too busy I managed to rewire the creative script/animation and of course presented with unusual pride and conviction and sold the ad to the client. She's now head of Coca Cola marketing and is Rob's client. Lucky for him she's no-nonsense solid Gold and a bit of thinker too. We both held similar radical Maoist ideas that I don't hold today but was shocked to hear my client echo. 

I did not come up with the idea. I only rewired it to make sense. That ad went on to increase the RTD beverage sales of that drink 73% year on year. No small volume in the fastest growing and largest market in the world. That's a fuck load of sugared water. That's a lot of apologies to Chinese kids.

Was I responsible for that? I doubt it. The idea was cute, my timing was great, resources were thin and I had total licence to make it how I thought it should be made. It was Chinese New Year (but then it was Year on Year sales) and things came together.

But I can't claim to be innocent in the entire enterprise. If I'm honest with myself it was my presentation skills that nailed a quick sign off. The lovely account manager who handed me the reigns was actually cute enough to say I was "fantastic" when we presented. I wasn't, but then it would look OKish from someone who had a ton more experience around the world at a global level, and so I was happy to do it. She was happy not to get bogged down in endless back and forth which is a serious problem with Asian clients and junior Asian account handlers. She also tipped me off that my mediocre Japanese boss was losing face around me and that I wasn't to trust him. That advice alone put 10 000 bucks in my pocket when he eventually fired me. I spent it on a watch that was subsequently stolen in that taxi back in Hong Kong. So that's Karma for you. Easy come easy go.

So I'm just as guilty as you but I have given great consideration to how brands can be part of our future. 

The answer to whether it's immoral or unethical? 

Mostly immoral and largely unethical always (as with anything) contextual. Generally speaking for a planet that is groaning at the seams ecologically it's no different than selling arms to Libya before bombing them.

It's not like I'm suggesting I'm any better than you. I'm not. But I don't mind talking about it. So how exactly do you feel?

LSD

The Channel you forgot about?

Supermoon

How Alien Are We?

How Alien are we?

Nibiru, Planet X, Hercolobus & The Heliosphere

I've been tracking the heliosphere and saw this as soon as it came out, but didn't think it would be helpful posting a silent video of a super massive body approaching the Sun. Now that this gentleman has added a voiceover (and some tasteful chillout tech), it's worth putting up here. Much of NASA and all of mainstream media are unwilling to engage in questions about this information, as keeping you in the dark is what pays their bills. I hope it's not removed from Youtube as that often happens with passionate amateurs who spot cosmic anomalies and post them on Youtube.

Do your own homework, but in case you're curious I'm relaxed about this as I've been hanging out with some extraordinary peeps on the on the internet. Have a nice weekend.

Rise Of China

Martin Jacques the prominent (former) Marxist intellectual of the UK did a talk about China at TED. I like Martin Jacques so perhaps I'm splitting hairs over his mispronunciation of LENOVO in the talk but there is one point he makes about ignorance which is worth the the full 25 minutes. 

If you're reading this from the West and are more engaged with the goggle box for sports and know more about team members sex lives than any facts you care to choose about China then you may well be in for a surprise when the winds of cultural change unravel and blossom as quickly as they can.

Arbeit Macht Frei

Religions don't' spiritualise

Schools don't educate

Health is a business

Business is unhealthy

Politics enslaves

Mass media manipulates

Food is poison

Freedom is loathed

Individuality is scorned

Markets are rigged

Governments are not your friend

Choose wisely

Mercury Rising

Full playlist.

Detroit Grand Pubahs: Autotragik