Why you should steal Chris Anderson’s $26.99 book Free: The Future of a Radical Price. And what do Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, Chris Anderson, and Mark Cuban have in common? They all have opinions.
Buy Chris Anderson’s
FREE BOOK On Amazon
For Only $26.99!
As I type this, I’m listening to the free audio book version (285MB, .zip format) of Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Ironically, that second link is to the only text version you can actually own, which costs over $16.00. Sure, he’s made the book available for free on Scribd, but if you’ve ever used Scribd, you know that very few people would read a 288 page book sitting at a computer. My first thought on the book’s online release date was “Hmmm. I wonder how long before a torrent will be available?” To amuse myself, I timed myself as I did a few screen grabs of the book and OCR’d them, and determined it would take me about 70 minutes to have the entire book in a simple text file, which could then be ported to virtually any format. I also figured I could use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to convert the audio book to which I’m listening right now. But you know what? I’ll neither read the whole book, nor buy it. To add additional irony to Anderson’s not-free free book, the rather simple principle of the book is so thoroughly explained by both its critics and supporters – partly because he plagiarized entire passages from Wikipedia (there is indeed free lunch, if you do enough cutting and pasting) – that there’s really nothing left to read. And adding yet one more layer of irony is the fact that Malcolm Gladwell, king of expanding 10-page ideas into 8-chapter books, is one of the harshest critics, suggesting the book is a story woven around an anecdote presenting itself as a fact. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that how Gladwell earns a living? What all the hoopla surrounding this book has highlighted for me is the fact that I should go ahead and pursue my plans to become a media guru. If guys like Chris Anderson, Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, and Mark Cuban are all experts, and none of them agree on a simple marketing concept, then clearly they’re all doing nothing but offering opinion. And that’s something I’m pretty sure I can do.
When cute goes creepy: Why do advertisers insist on using creepy images of babies moving like adults?
It’s probably a good idea to keep them caged
There are more things wrong with the video at left than I could possibly list, but I never let that stop me. First of all, it’s an ad for a product, and I’m displaying it for free. Secondly, it’s an ad for a really stupid product, bottled water. But what really riles up my sense of wrong has more to do with a general sense of creepiness. Ever since the original dancing baby of 1996 , we’ve found ourselves occasionally assaulted by the uncanny valley effect that’s induced by making a baby do things babies don’t actually do. Whether it’s an ad for Evian (as in the clip at left) or a Lebanese diaper ad, the image of a baby moving like an adult arouses a mild cognitive dissonance that either makes one laugh or cringe, depending on one’s personal psychological make-up. Somehow it’s less disturbing when a baby thinks like an adult, as in the 1989 film Look Who’s Talking, but I imagine that’s because we anthropomorphise babies much like pets, so oddly even talking horses seem to be acceptable. For more creepy babies, check out the vintage Baby Laughs Alot doll, or these motion-sensitive babies in a toy store. And be glad there are only 27 seconds of this zombie baby from hell. It probably ate the camera person at the end of the clip. And frankly, even a real baby can be a little creepy now and then. Especially when it’s having a Kung Fu standoff with a prairie dog.
The surreal and clever 60′s movie The President’s Analyst eerily predicted AT&T’s creepy potential for control over our lives
Much in the same way that you could mistake the brilliantly offbeat and overlooked sixties film The President’s Analyst for a film that’s about being hunted by the FBI and the CIA, you could easily mistake what you’re reading at the moment for some kind of obtuse film review. I hadn’t thought of “The President’s Analyst” for quite some time, until I recently had an almost epic series of problems with The Phone Company (why kid ourselves, there’s only one, when you get down to the basic plumbing). My recent problems all involved a ridiculous series of lapses of communication which at one point inspired one of their own technicians to share the witticism: “Remember, we’re a telephone company, not a communications company“. With my problem still unresolved after literally hours on – how ironic – the telephone, I began to feel a little paranoid and persecuted. As maybe I should. In the hilarious, surreal, and quintessentially sixties film that stars James Coburn in a very In Like Flint role, it ultimately is revealed that “The Phone Company” is more powerful and secretive than all the world’s intelligence agencies combined. Which is disturbingly prescient, given the recent history of AT&T’s relationship with the NSA and their creepy and insidious FISA amnesty lobbying. Which, since I’m publicly bellyaching, all makes me wonder if I will finally get my DSL service activated on Tuesday as promised, after three weeks of waiting. I mean, Adam Savage of Mythbusters has gone public with his AT&T frustrations, but he has millions of followers on Twitter to back him up. Dissociated Press only has about 8,000 readers, and only about 5 of them comment with regularity. Now’s your chance. Had any problems with AT&T yourself? Feel free to vent in the comments.
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 21, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Just when you thought you’d hear it all, some Cambodian Pop comes along. Yes. I said Cambodian Pop. Eat your heart out, MIA, this is actual music.
View the Trailer for Sleepwalking
Through The Mekong
Just when I’m pretty sure I’ve exhausted the more interesting and obscure pop music fusions from around the world, someone has to come along and show me otherwise. The other day a photographer friend of mine mentioned the film Sleepwalking Through the Mekong. If you haven’t seen it, you’re in for a unique treat. Shot in a casual documentary style, the film follows the LA band Dengue Fever on a tour through Cambodia, explaining how five American musicians hooked up with a Cambodian singer in LA to form a band to play 60′s Cambodian Pop. And before you laugh at the idea of Cambodian pop, give the stuff a listen; it jumps on the wave of 60′s surfer psychedelia and takes it to the tropics with a sort of plaintive island sound that’s probably unlike anything you’ve heard before. The film also explores a painful aspect of Khmer music and Cambodian pop; since many of the original stars of the genre (Sinn Sisamouth, Pan Ron , Ros Sereysothea) were were creating their music in the years just prior to the Pol Pot massacres, they all are presumed to have been killed in the mass slaughter of Cambodia’s legendary Killing Fields. I frankly cried during a profoundly bittersweet moment in the film in which a music teacher who was alive – but of course unable to sing Khmer pop music during the Khmer Rouge regime – was able to see her young students gleefullly performing the happy pop songs she was denied. And ironically, with a group of Americans who have a genuine passion for Khmer culture rather than a passion for carpet bombing their country and looking away as a demented leader slaughters nearly a third of their population. By the way, Dengue Fever not only serves up some heartfelt and authentic pop, they’re apparently commited to assisting the wildlife of Cambodia.
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 12, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Friday, June 12th, 2009
The French performance troupe Royal de Luxe is at it again, this time with a three-story tall deep sea diver in the town of Nantes
This clip gives a sense of the incredible
scale of a Royal de Luxe performance
I often think that I might have been much happier if I had run away to be a carny when I was sixteen, which I very nearly did. My fear of rejection at that age prevented this; I had far too many teeth and didn’t smell funny. But seriously, I’ve had a love of theater, puppets, the circus, the carnival, and the macabre from as early as I can remember. Which is why I instantly fell in love with Royal de Luxe the first time I encountered them in 2006, when I saw this magical clip of a giant puppet girl (I honestly almost weep every time I watch that) from their production The Sultan’s Elephant, set to the song “Décollage” from Balayeurs Du Désert’s Jules Verne Impact. The troupe is still at it, with a new production The Giant Diver (Le scaphandrier géant), which is being presented in their hometown of Nantes at Estuaire 2009 (both of those sites are in French). The picture below is from this nicely assembled overview of the story of the giant diver and his niece. There are many more fantastic photos here on Flickr. Apparently, even when Royal de Luxe does smaller works they’re big; although their show La Révolte des Mannequins had no giants in the cast, it was presented in several cities, in 13 shopfronts, and over 10 days. I can’t say enough about my admiration for these artists, just ponder the scale, impact, and magic of what they’re doing. I hope someday they tour the states; so far they’ve only toured parts of Europe, Chile, and Australia.
