But that’s because we know it’s another word for “hubbub”, “commotion”, “to-do”, et cetera. Taken in isolation, what words does it sound like? Think of bwa-ha-ha and mmuuu-ha-ha and similar: always the same gesture of the mouth opening in a moue and spreading like a shock wave from an airburst into a big, wide forest-burning face of laughter, and not laughter of joy but laughter of evil. Sort of like how the devil in a play, uncovering himself for the audience, might voice his anticipated triumph.

Which is, in fact, where we get this word. Brouhaha was, as it happens, a stereotypical laugh of the devil in medieval French religious plays. The sense shifted over the centuries, so that by 1890, when it was borrowed into English, it had the mob rumbling sense.

But where did French get it from? Well, in fact, there’s a minor brouhaha over that question. It has been suggested that it is imitative of Hebrew barukh habba, a phrase meaning “blessed be he who comes” or, more loosely, “welcome”, that would have been heard on some public occasions of Jewish observance. The existence of similar borrowings in other languages certainly makes this plausible (and we already know that Jews were often demonized in medieval and Renaissance times), but it is not a concluded fact; there is no concrete trail, just circumstance and resemblance, and there is also evidence of a French brou root relating to taunting. So, until further detail is unearthed, we are left with a big “maybe” – and, in any case, a usable word that has strayed somewhat from its origins… whatever they may ultimately have been. A bit of linguistic hocus-pocus, as it were (hocus-pocus, for its part, may have come from Latin hoc est corpus – from the Catholic mass).

The University of Dallas is moving into a technological age by adding eBooks to their stock. The site doesn’t provide a list of their eBook titles just yet but if you stop by and ask about them in the bookstore then you might find out which titles are available.

If you can’t purchase the paperback or hardcover for the day then turn to the eBook.

It seems to me as if the things that are being done to Muslims at this moment in history are not in keeping with our country’s founding mandate that religious freedom is a basic human right.

I get email forwards regularly from people I consider to be very intelligent informing me that the Muslims are taking over our country and we must stop them because they are evil terrorists. Cries of “the Muslims are coming! The Muslims are coming!” aren’t just echoing through the series of tubes that is the internet. This is being reported in one sense or another on news networks such as Fox News on a regular basis. The stories are often about the threat that these nefarious people present to us, the real Americans.

In a 24 hour a day televised news world it was inevitable that fact would need to be supplemented by fiction to fill some of the time. But the news networks have been overrun by fiction and the worst part of that is that the people who watch this aptly named ‘infotainment’ no longer realize they aren’t listening to the work of the fourth estate in it’s traditional sense, they are being rattled, roused and entertained by media conglomerates who’ve eschewed their objectivity in order to take a side on the right or the left of the playing field.

And in the middle? There aren’t many people left standing on that lonely turf to moderate those on the fringes.

Some people really believe that all Muslims are terrorists. That just doesn’t make sense. Broad generalizations are always a failure of logic.

How would the Christians of this country be feeling if the sentiment was against them? What if they were all believed to be terrorists because people like Ted Kaczynski was one of them? What if some of us were still holding a grudge about the brutality of the Crusades? Would they like it if it was being done to them? I think they might fight back and defend themselves, and rightfully so.

One of the main hot button issues as we head into this fall’s midterm elections was created virtually out of thin air, residual fear and anger from the 9/11 attacks nine years ago. A married couple of middle eastern origin are at the forefront of a group looking to build a cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero. And on the top two floors of this building they propose to build a Muslim prayer center. And that is why they find themselves at the center of a hotly and sometimes violently debated brouhaha.

My point is, whether you think these people are going to build this center only as a base from which to drop bombs on the still scarred earth of Ground Zero or you think they have good intentions and want to use this country’s first amendment to bring cultural understanding to a country that sorely needs it, you are only having this issue shoved into your face because one side or the other thinks it will get them your vote.

It’s okay to hate the Muslims again because though they haven’t done anything they are not in the majority in this country and their voices are not likely to be loud enough to drown out the call to discrimination against them. So I guess they aren’t really taking over the U.S.A. quite yet or we’d be hearing complaints about the plethora of Christian and Catholic churches in close proximity to Ground Zero from politicians appealing to the Muslim majority.

I’m suggesting we remember one of the things that make this country great: our constitution. And the first amendment in our constitution gives us the right to practice any religion we choose anywhere we choose to practice it.

To discriminate against the cultural center’s building in that location and against the people who practice the Muslim faith makes us guilty of the very crimes we’ve traveled halfway across the world and mortgaged our financial future for many generations to fight in Iraq – religious intolerance. Does that make sense to you?

I think we should give the Muslim-American people the respect and dignity and first amendment rights that most of us take for granted.

And that is what I think about that.

St Nicholas Church, New York

To judge from this post: Ethics Forum: Mosque to Displace Greek Orthodox Church?, someone is planning to take the land that belonged to an Orthodox Church that was destroyed on 11 September 2001, and give it to someone else to build a mosque on. What is not clear is just who that “someone” is, and by what authority they are planning to do this.

Also, what is not clear is whether the land was owned by the church, and is now being expropriated by some authority, and sold to the group that wants to build the mosque, or whether is was just leased by the church, and the authority now wants to lease it to someone else.

Ad Orientem: Why does a new mosque take precedence over an already existing church? speaks only of the mosque taking precetence, rather than displacing the Orthodox Church, implying that it might be being built on a different site, and shows pictures of the church before it was destroyed.

But Clarissa’s Blog: “Ground Zero Mosque”, on the other hand, shows a picture of the site of the proposed mosque, and the existing building looks nothing like a church, and looks far to old and established to have been erected since the church was destroyed.

So who kiddeth whom?

Could it be that the “Ethics Forum” blog is actually spreading disinformation, and trying to create the impression that a mosque is “displacing” a church, when it is in fact being built on another site?

Or, as one Twitterer put it: In fairness, we’ve been building ‘ground zeros’ near Iraqi mosques since March 2003.

Sounds to me like a tempest in a teacup.

Erica – disgusted – closed the door and walked hastily away before her boyfriend could zip up and explain away the sadomasochism taking place on their television screen. She was downstairs when she heard the bedroom door finally open.

“Erica, wait”

She slammed the front door.

She was barely across the soil of her work-in-progress front lawn when a window above her opened and Zachary – still dishevelled – called down to her.

“C’mon baby,” he laughed, “don’t be like that. Come watch with me.”

Her skin crawled at the very thought of witnessing such a lewd act.

“Go to hell, Zach.”

This was certainly the case Thursday night at Broue Pub BrouHaha. Due to the fact that the anniversary of the pub’s opening tends to fall on the Thursday of the Mondial de la Biere, it becomes that evening’s destination for scores of beer nerds and also for those residents of the Rosemont area. The brewer had celebrated by bringing in some of his favorite beers from other brewers around Montreal and also by creating a few of his own for the occasion.

The pub is a split level affair. The bar is in the downstairs section, with an open plan floor and slightly overcrowded seating. It looks as though the album Rain Dogs should be playing over it at all time s, a fact which seems not to have escaped the owners as there’s a velvet painting of Tom Waits in the corner of the room. The upstairs level of the pub can more accurately be described as a Lynchian nightmare. There’s brown tile that looks as though it was rejected by a hospital in the early 1970′s and instead of paint or wallpaper they’ve opted to use floor length black velour drapes all the way around the room. In places where a bank in the ceiling protrudes, the sides of that protrusion are covered in fake cedar shingles. Aside from the candles, the only light in the room is the one shining directly at the pizza oven and the dull thrum of a sodium streetlight which shines through the propped open emergency exit.To suggest that it’s merely ugly would be comparable to calling Clint Howard aggressively handsome; A pointless exercise in disingenuous blather. It’s an impossible assault on the eyes and simply occupying the space tends to make you begin to doubt your own sanity.

I suspect that the reason it continues to exist is the fact that a lot of people are contributing to making it happen. This was their third anniversary an it’s very clear where their priorities lie. I suspect that all profits that have been made thus far have been channeled directly into research for new products and improvements on the brewery. All other thoughts seem to have been ignored totally, and this is the reason that the place works. They have a loyal if eclectic clientele of people who genuinely appreciate what they’re attempting to do. These are people who might even be offended if someone suggested a remodel. The customers are almost exclusively local as evinced by the annoyance of a local softball team that had trouble getting a table (in uniforms elaborate enough to make me suspect they were actually filming a remake of The Warriors.) No one in the bar is over 40. Our waitress wore enough plaid to qualify as a refugee from a Pearl Jam tour.

I sampled a couple of the house beers, and one that was from an off site brewery. The Luxura Double IPA is about 10% alcohol and has a significant amount of hop bitterness with some citrus notes and a nicely balanced malt. The Gaz de Course is about 13% and is in the style of an American Barley Wine. It’s too smooth if anything, which makes it dangerous and has a mellow sweetness instead of the harsh alcohol you might expect. The Vent des Anges was something entirely different, a sour beer at 8.5% the aroma of which, according to my tasting notes, reminded me of a cedar closet from childhood. It’s the kind of beer that dares you to forge an understanding of what the brewer is trying to accomplish.I’m going to call Brettanomyces on that one.

At approximately 10:30 a young man in an Iron Maiden shirt walked over and pulled down the roll-up screen and started a projector. The screen showed videos and still images over the course of the next couple of hours that were excerpted from 1980′s french language action films and various performance art installations. Periodically they would show entire levels of early nintendo shoot-em-ups being navigated perfectly.

Eventually they brought over some complimentary anniversary snacks. A plate of duck legs with a brash Jalapeno BBQ sauce. We were about halfway through them when a video came on the screen of a man in a g-string and cat mask slathering himself in several litres of peanut butter while sitting cross legged in the middle of a tarp. He was surrounded by a group of unmoving senior citizens seated in a semi circle on blue plastic chairs. They betrayed no emotion whatsoever. Nothing creates a shared bond amongst pub-goers like a mutually experienced sense of disgust. It also reinforced in my mind a valuable lesson learned years ago: If what you’re seeing is forcing you to do a double take, it’s probably past your bed time.

What you should know here is that Brouhaha is ugly, but it’s also far from unlovable. The number one priorities seem to be the quality of the beer being brewed and simply having a good time. I can’t say that it’s like this all the time as I’ve only ever been on special occasions, but it’s practically brew pub as performance art. It dares you not to enjoy yourself. I suspect that it would be impossible for it to exist anywhere else, and I know one thing for sure: You can’t do that in Toronto.

First, David Zwirner’s ostensible, if not monetary, first interest is to its artist. And the gallery reps bring up a solid point to the New York Times:

In its legal response, the gallery has called the suit baseless, saying it had never promised choice works or confidentiality after the sale. “By bringing suit,” the gallery’s lawyers argue, “the wealthy Robins has literally made a federal case of not being able to buy what he wants, when he wants.”

Collector and plaintiff Craig Robins. Photo: Cindy Karp for The New York Times.

Legally, it will be difficult to prove that Zwirner ever “promised to help get Mr. Robins off the blacklist and sell him choice paintings from the current show of Ms. Dumas’s work at Zwirner” unless it’s in writing — in which case Zwirner have settled out of court. Additionally:

As for the supposed blacklist, the lawyers added, as if addressing a purely philosophical problem, “If such a list exists, and if Robins is on it, Zwirner did not put him there and cannot take him off.”

Marlene Dumas “Wall Weeping”(2009), part of Against the Wall, courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery.

The existence of such a list, of course, is not outlandish. That an artist would have ego enough to direct where his/her work ends up is not unheard of. And galleries are not immune to such puppeteering.

…with the explosion of the art market over the last several years and a sharp rise in the number of speculative buyers entering the market, those who sell art have become much more wary of collectors’ motives — and that they keep, in addition to secret waiting lists for in-demand artists, another even more secret list of buyers suspected of wanting to flip art for a quick profit.

Some gallerists in turn blame the voracity of collectors like Robins. Jeffrey Deitch — you might recognize the name — adds his two cents:

“They humiliate us by this kind of manipulation,” he said. (He described a collector who bought a work from his gallery after “intimating” that it would be donated to a museum but who then quickly sold it at auction. After Mr. Deitch informed him that he would no longer do business with him, he said, “He was shocked, but he knew what I was talking about.”)

Marlene Dumas “Charity” (2010), part of Against the Wall, courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery.

So where does the onus lie: should gallery sales be regulated, or should collectors who otherwise play the game shut up when things don’t go their way? Or should everyone just have a snack and take a nap?

on stage or at the spa, guaranteed we bring the brouhaha

word

brouhaha [broo-hah-hah, broo-hah-hah, broo-hah-hah] n. 1. excited public interest, discussion, or the like, as the clamor attending some sensational event; hullabaloo: The brouhaha followed disclosures of graft at City Hall 2. an episode involving excitement, confusion, turmoil, etc., esp. a broil over a minor or ridiculous cause: A brouhaha by the baseball players resulted in three black eyes

birthday

Sam Houston (1793), Dr. Seuss (1904), Mel Ott (1909), Desi Arnaz (1917), Mikhail Gorbachev (1931), Tom Wolfe (1931), John Irving (1942), Lou Reed (1942), Rory Gallagher (1948), Gates McFadden (1949), Karen Carpenter (1950), Laraine Newman (1952), Jon Bon Jovi (1962), Daniel Craig (1968), Chris Martin (1977), Ben Roethlisberger (1982), Elizabeth Jagger (1984)

standpoint

So the 2010 Winter Olympics Games in Vancouver are officially over and I can honestly I’m going to kind of miss them. For many reasons, I was much more enthralled this time around.

While the rest of the world searches for the next big thing to fixate on, I’d like to dispense my final salvo on this year’s games. And, yes, I completely understand I’m a day late.

→ I’m genuinely curious to see what new oddity people will discuss now that curling won’t be on television 24 hours a day. Check out this article. Maybe one of these will become the subsequent cult sport.

→ Team USA was, by far, the best in the Men’s Ice Hockey tournament. Hands down. Sure, they walked away with the silver after a hard fought overtime loss to Team Canada, but they played some of the best and biggest hockey ever. Ryan Miller was the tourney’s best netminder but it was the play of guys like Ryan Kesler, Patrick Kane, Zach Parise, Brian Rafalski and Ryan Suter that made it truly special to watch. Hopefully, the NHL and the NHLPA can agree to let its players participate in 2014, when Team USA will be even better and, most likely, the favorite.

→ Sidney Crosby, the captain of Team Canada and one of the most annoying people on the planet, scored the gold medal winning goal to capture the top spot for his country, further proving my belief the shithead obviously signed some kind of a deal with the devil. Crosby wasn’t that effective in the tournament but, as usual, he managed to to grab the limelight and snatch up a prize he didn’t necessarily deserve. It’s such a weak-minded character flaw to dislike the dude so much, but I just can’t help myself. Also, he looks like SNL cast member Andy Samberg, who I like.

→ USA snowboarder Shaun White is one of those annoying athletes who knows he’s good, tells people how good he is and then proceeds to never fall flat out on his face. I’m glad he’s on our side.

→ I’m never going to like Ice Dancing. Never. A sport’s got have some sort of attainable points outside the arbitrary opinions of a bunch of strangers. If that’s not a rule, it should be.

→ Watching the Men’s 50K Mass Start Classic Cross Country Race was maybe the longest couple of hours of my life and even made me entertain the notion of maybe putting on NASCAR. Yeah. It was that exhausting.

Overall, I think everyone got what they wanted out of this year’s games. The American people were able to participate in many discussions and enjoy the fine art that is speculative bullshitting. The USA also received the most medals, which again we like because we don’t need to have the best of everything, just the most of it. And Canada won the most gold medals, including the two for ice hockey, which apparently the country desperately needed. Lastly, I’m pretty sure there were some other nations involved in the whole ordeal but, in all the excitement, I didn’t catch any of their names.

quotation

Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour. ↔ Walt Whitman

tune

After many years, I’m ready to admit that, in my youth, there was a two or three month period when I was a huge fan of 50s rocker Ritchie Valens. It was most likely right around the same time La Bamba came out. I remember finally seeing an actual picture of the 17-year old Chicano rock ‘n’ roll pioneer and feeling conned – he didn’t look anything at all like Lou Diamond Phillips. Anyway. I always liked “Come On Let’s Go.”

gallimaufry

→ As much as I became entranced by Olympic hockey, I’m glad the NHL is back in session. Trade deadline is tomorrow at 3pm EST and there should be some serious moves this year. I’m sure close to nine of you are even remotely interested.

→ Last night, I got into a moderately heated debate on Sarah Palin with my mother, who views the ex-governor from Alaska as some sort of victim. For all of you who share that point of view, I offer this. And, for the record, I mean no disrespect to the woman who birthed me. She’s awesome. It’s healthy for people to disagree.

→ Sheesh. Would everyone please get off the back of American singer Elliott Yamin for tweeting during and after the earthquake in Chile? Apparently, the guy helped ease some people’s fears. However, it’s still fair game to make crazy fun out of him for being on Americal Idol.

‘Dear All,

A presentation competition is going to be organized within our Business Unit. You are supposed to participate in teams with minimum of 2 members and maximum of 4 members. Marks will be given based on the team diversity (different project teams, etc), presentation content and performance during questionnaire session. This is a team building exercise, which focuses to get people in our Business Unit on to a common platform and get their hidden presentation skills out.

Beforehand, we also need to finalize the name of the event, so you all are welcome to suggest an appropriate name for the event. You will be entitled to win prize money if the event is named after your suggestion.

Thanks

XYZ (Organizer)’

‘Ohh…good’, Sam nattered to himself. He got something to think upon for a while other than his boring work. He pushed his chair back and descended to a comfortable position.  ‘What this event should be called? Name should reflect excited public interest attending a sensational event and yes, it should be catchy and vigorous as well’, Sam told to himself. He remembered one of the world’s biggest cultural and social gatherings in UK is named as Brouhaha. He then recalled that there used to be an annual advertisement competition in his institute, which was also named as Brouhaha. Considering it as the best choice, Sam immediately mailed back to the organizer (XYZ) suggesting Brouhaha as the name for the event. By now 15 minutes passed, Sam straightened his body and got up for a tea break.

Next day, post lunch, Sam received a reply to his email by XYZ copied to some biggies also. Mail asked him to explain the rationale behind suggesting the name. ‘Oh, how could I forget to provide a proper reason for suggesting the name? Better late than never. Let me do it now. But why did he copy the email to heads of the unit?’, he murmured. Instantly he drafted an email explaining the basis in the rear of suggesting the title for the event. As soon as he hit the sent button, another email alert knocked. This email was sent by one the biggies to whom the mail was copied by the organizer. It read like:

‘Dear Sam,

I would like to talk to you on this. Please meet me in the evening.

Thanks

ABC’

Now an alarm bell rang into Sam’s mind. ‘Why does he want to talk to me regarding the title I suggested? Did I do something wrong?’ he thought. Then another email alert popped up on his screen. This was in reply to the vindication email sent by Sam.  It read as:

‘Dear Sam,

Brouhaha: noisy and overexcited reaction (as per Oxford dictionary)

Brouhaha: a lot of noise or angry complaining about something (as per Cambridge dictionary)

Thanks

ABC’

‘Ohh.. so this is the matter. They have mistaken it completely. I had suggested the title with some other meaning, but they have taken it negatively.’ Sam thought. Subsequently, ABC called Sam and asked him to meet.

‘Do you think you have some better suggestion for the manner this event should be organized?’, Asked ABC.

‘Sorry, I could not understand’, replied Sam.

‘I mean, you are calling this event a Brouhaha, which means creating unnecessary noise, so we thought you might some better idea’, said ABC.

‘Ohh.. I am sorry ABC, but I never meant that even in my wildest dream. I think you do not know that one of the world’s biggest social and cultural festivals is also called Brouhaha. In addition, there was an annual advertisement competition in my institute, which was also named as Brouhaha. I thought it would be very catchy title, so I suggested it.’, replied Sam.

‘Hmm.. That is okay if you thought so. However, word is very negative. I do not understand what made you to suggest this as a title’, said ABC.

‘I just explained you what made me to suggest this as a title. You could even search over internet about the cultural and social festival Brouhaha that is organised in Liverpool every year. I could have been asked for clarification directly by the organizer as he sits in front of me and knows me very well. Unnecessarily and unfortunately he involved you and other biggies in the issue which was actually never an issue ‘, said Sam.

Sam came back to his desk. He drafted another email in response to the last email he received. It read as:

‘Dear XYZ,

I would like to suggest another name for the event. It is Convergence, which carries following meanings:

Convergence: an act or process of merging (as per Oxford Dictionary)

Convergence: a place where two rivers flow together (as per Cambridge Dictionary)

Convergence: coming together of people of things (as per dictionary.com)

I trust this title explicates the essence of the event and hope this would find a place in the list of probable names for the event.

Thanks

Sam’

Sam feels probably this post would help the senior management to believe that he never intended or attempted to create a brouhaha by suggesting Brouhaha as the title of the event.

Of India, Mr. Singh says, ”It is probably true we are a slow moving elephant but it is equally true that with each step forward we leave behind a deep imprint.” What’s also interesting is how we have always identified with these benign creatures of the jungle. I read on Wikipedia that “Healthy adult elephants have no natural predators, although lions may take calves or weak individuals. They are, however, increasingly threatened by human intrusion and poaching.” Throughout history, we have always lost our best land, our natural resources and our human wealth to poaching.  And yet, elephants are highly intelligent and sensitive, much like our cocktail of strong analytics with everyday sentimentality.  It is a bit painful though to wake up to the fact that in my thrilling, childhood Nostradamus stories, he was probably never refering to this great elephant but to the waking dragon.

It’s the kind of mistake that makes me laugh. Or weep for the future of writing on the Web. Thanks to Yahoo! Shine for the laugh.

Today in housewifeland, I have been sewing and cleaning and polishing and scrubbing and making do and tidying away and folding up and flapping it out to dry. Ah! Such joys. Four months done in married life and only…how much more to go?

A friend commented on my temporal capacity, being newly married an’all, to even consider penning a blog. What with all the pants and sheets to iron and the buttons to reunite with collars that surely need reversing? I merely respond; with ribboned hair and swept hearth, I can be near to perfect and, yes, still find a few still moments (in between potting jam and broiling ham) to pen a few words of encouragement to my sisters.

Another friend commented something wry about being so wise at such a young age. I respond; when is one entitled to hold an opinion of ones own? Late twenties? Early forties? Or when all the old people have died?  Nope. I must confess, I find it hard to keep stumm these days. It must be the iron – steaming my brain cells and setting them alight with fanciful ideas, all of my own, about, well…things, and politics, and stuff and important goings on.

Or not. I feel exhausted with all this opinionated brouhaha.

I need to go and iron my husband’s face.

Carlson, looking for another shot at Posada's nose

Thank you, Jesse Carlson. You’re now officially the man, replacing LeBron James, who previously held the title. Carlson became the first Blue Jay to stand up to the big bad Yankees this season, making a couple stands against Jorge Posada and his oversized nose after Aaron Hill was drilled in the top of the inning in a Jays blowout win at Yankee Stadium. The benches cleared after Carlson threw behind Posada with one out in the eighth, then again and into a free-for-all when Posada brushed Carlson after scoring on a double with two outs. Emotions ran high and Carlson appeared to be wounded, but for the first time in awhile the Jays didn’t look like pussies.

The Jays ended up winning the game 10-4 behind five homers — a pair by Travis Snider and one each by Adam Lind, Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista. Lind’s bomb was his 30th of the season. Roy Halladay was in and out of jams all night, giving up 11 hits but only a pair of second innings runs over six innings. The win ran his record to 15-9.

So, finally a little emotion. Finally a character-building win. The only thing missing is Josh Towers’ reaction to the kerfuffle, though I’m sure that’s to come. For now, the Jays and Yankees prepare for their season series finale, which tips tomorrow night with Brian Tallet and and Little Andrew Pettitte on the hill. Heads up, Jeter and A-Rod.

Can you dig it?

PLAYLIST
Electric Light Orchestra – In the Hall of the Mountain King
Frank Zappa – Goblin Girl
Emir Kusturica & No Smoking Orchestra – Moldavian Song
Goran Bregovic – Na’tan ixara ofkopedo
Ozdemir Erdogan – Uzun Ince Bir Yoldayim
Baghdaddies – Slivovic
Curtis Mayfield – If There’s Hell Below
Booker T & The MG’s – Melting Pot
Sade – Smooth Operator
Average White Band – Stop The Rain
Beastie Boys – Song For The Man
De La Soul – Transmitting Live From Mars
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony – Wind Blow
Dr. Octagon – I’m Destructive
ANAMANAGUCHI!!! – Danger Mountain
Rush – Lakeside Park
Howlin’ Wolf – Rockin’ Daddy
Greg ‘Fingers’ Taylor – Messin’ With The Kid
Jeff Beck – Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Jimi Hendrix – Red House
Joe Cocker – Let’s Go Get Stoned
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – 4 + 20
Ten Years After – I’m Going Home
The Eagles – Those Shoes
AC/DC – TNT
Nilsson – Jump Into The Fire
Cream – Mother’s Lament
Warren Zevon – My Shit’s Fucked Up

Stranger in a Strange Land 2009-08-15: Dirty, Mean, and Mighty Unclean by The Stranger on Mixcloud

~The Stranger
thestranger@earthling.net

*respectively: Moon Patrol, Dr. Mario, Missile Command, Halo, Rock Band, Castlevania and Left 4 Dead…

OzCar

The OzCar biff has been entertaining – someone is due for a royal (or republican) shoeing when the truth does out. Even-money at the moment on Wayne Swann and Malc Turnbull for me – fence sitting lefty that I am. Should be fun and games in the press tomorrow.

Kids Evicted from Playground

Sarah Hanson-Young has been in the news for bringing in her small bay during a Senate debate – well, I think it was the last waffly bits before a vote (or a ‘division’ in the Westminster parlance). Anyhoo – the President of the Senate threw Sarah and child out – well, asked for the little blighter to be removed.

That all caused a bit of a brouhaha – was lucky enough to be in a cab enjoying Talk Back radio with some of Sydney’s finest reconstituted jocks – and the terminally bored phone-inerers. All a bit much to some – I would have thought only conception or delivery of the child in the Senate would have been considered worse.

I don’t think either  Hanson-Young or Bob Brown are requesting that kids be allowed into the Senate full-time; might as give ‘um cigarettes to stunt their emotional and physical development rather than suffocate in the hot air of the Upper House. But a smidge of commonsense would have ended up in no news headlines at all and Australia could have carried on with Masterchef and figuring out why Rove McManus is funny.

Clients and the Interweb

Had an interesting chat with a Client this week. All up for this web thing… but. Apparently – and thinking about it for a little longer, I think this might be the general rule rather than an exception – only two people in this particular organisation can officially discuss, er, stuff. And seeing as both sit on the board, I can safely assume they won’t be wanting to Twitter or run the corporate Facebook page.

I think this poses one of the biggest challenges to corporates today; unwinding ‘push’ structures – blasting out some message or other about how good you are – no questions asked. I don’t think I have seen one company older than 5 years old who have managed to evolve. It’s obviously slightly easier for smaller or younger (usually web-based) companies to do this (although many don’t).

So what do you do? Well – if I had the solution Sir Alan Sugar would be touch-typing this for me while Eva Green butters my toast. But it all comes down to trust, I reckon. And it’s going to have to happen a bit sharpish. Trusting your employees enough for them to be able to reply in the corporate name – without dropping a C-bomb or going loco – so that they can have a conversation with your customers.

There – that wasn’t too painful?

But there’s more – it’s trusting and allowing your customers to tell you what they think – in the public. Most Clients I meet are desperate to “engage” with their customers. Just gagging for “dialogue”. But only if it’s nice… otherwise we don’t want others to see it. And this is the catch-22; why don’t they want others to see it? Cos they might believe it! Even if it’s bollocks… and why, dear Client? Cos they trust Trevor from Tweed Heads – who’s married to his sister – who’s also his mother – more than Corporate Rapacious Associates Pty.

So – suck it up – it’ll make you a better organisation; people will let you know when you’re great. When you’re truly awful and everything in between. Most people in that situation can distill Trevor and his demands for S&M gear in your Supermarket as being wanton drivel. Cos they trust you more. And why? Cos Joe Public sees you doing something about the things you are rubbish at… and you get better.

And lastly… move along – nothing to see

Sadly. What got into The Times this week? I suspect jealousy! Acclaimed blogger, NightJack, was named this week. In The Times. Now, as I see it, it’s a very thin line between a journalist keeping his or her sources protected and a blogger being able to keep his or her anonymity. The really annoying thing is that NightJack wasn’t reveling national secrets or promoting racial or sexual hatred – but sharing the experience of being a copper. The gushing about ‘writer advised on how to evade long arm of the law’ is such a load of poppy-cock I can’t believe they got their knickers in a twist – unless it’s a reaction to ‘Citizen-journalism’ – off our patch, you fuckers, or, er… we might lose our jobs. Oh dear. Patrick Foster – I wouldn’t shed a tear.

Oh – one last piece of crap

<hangs head in shame> What on Earth were they thinking?

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