The Magic Kingdom – Technical Difficulties in the Land of the Mouse

There are several reasons to go to Walt Disney World.

You go there to experience the fun and joy that is the Magic Kingdom. To spend time in the “happiest place on earth“.

To see the expressions of wonder on the faces of small children as their favorite Disney characters are brought to life and the chance to pose for photographs.

You pay the money to be able to ride on state of the art amusement park rides, to marvel at the animatronics that bring dead presidents and drunken pirates to life and to watch choreographed celebrations of all things Disney.

In the Land of The Mouse, you are not just a customer but a beloved member of the family. Your happiness is their goal, your day should be a never-ending rollercoaster of positive emotions.

That is their plan anyway.

If I can quote  the Scottish poet Robbie Burns “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an‘ men gang aft agley“.

Let me tell you how agley our day at Walt Disney World in Florida went.

Living on Shuffle……..Give Me Back Control!

The experiment has come to an end.*

I have noted its findings and evaluated the results. I calculated the co-efficient variable of songs based upon the relative position of the artist within the confines of the library and the statistical possibility of hearing songs that I want to hear.

In other words, I got bored and wanted to hear the new Slayer LP. A band who had not been deemed worthy by the Ipod elves.

I lived on Ipod Shuffle for 9 days, only listening when I was out of the apartment and it was not easy. Mainly because I heard some material that I was not aware I had, and when I did hear a favorite tune it made me want to listen to some more of that band……difficult to do when you have set yourself a task.

The best research takes a small cross-section of society and analyses the results.

In this case, I ran out of steam around 120 songs.

Exciting New Feature…….I Report, You Decide

A week is a long time in politics but in the blogosphere it seems that a week can feel like an eternity.

Or an hour of watching Glenn Beck.

In the words of the great philosopher, Ferris Bueller: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”.

So what have I missed out on whilst enjoying the company of my parents and doing the whole tourist thing in Boston?

Apart from sleep and the inconvenience of eating out every night?

Not too much it seems.

Thanks to the joys of news summary provided by sites such as The Daily Beast and my luddite dependency on print media, I am actually fairly up to speed on what has being going on in the world since my last blog on 8^th November, 2009.

First up, some great news…….Not.

Glenn Beck has recovered from his hospitalization and was back “refounding America” on TV from last Wednesday (11^th November).

I don’t really want this blog to turn into some kind of anti- Fox News diatribe but this guy is too scary to be ignored. I am all for intelligent debate and differences of political opinion but watching him makes me want to throw cushions at the screen – I don’t want to break my TV, just express my irritation in a non-violent manner.

To put it simply, watching Glenn Beck “perform” makes me feel like my mind has been violated and not in a good way.

The Media we Deserve (Episode 2): the Rise of Citizen Journalism

Having blamed poor, innocent Paris Hilton for the woes of the media world, my focus was brought sharply back by checking my Twitter feed.

I will admit that I have been scornful of the power of Twitter. Until recently I saw it as nothing more than an outlet for vacuous personalities and self-absorbed individuals letting the world know what they had for lunch or which party they were at.

I was wrong. I have seen the light.

Twitter (if used correctly) is a source of material that feeds into our new desire for instant access and gratification. It can be a news portal to information that we were not aware of, provided by a community that seeks to

INFORM, DISCUSS and SHARE

Sometimes this is not a good thing.

I have attached a piece that appeared through Twitter (posted by cophotog – thanks, DB) today following the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas. I thought it was so good, that I decided it needed a permanent place in my own blog.

I wanted to be able to access it whenever I could, it seemed to make some sense of the way that Citizen Journalism seemed to be going. 

It is titled “After Fort Hood, another example of how Citizen Journalists can’t handle the Truth.”

For convenience sake, I have shortened the URL by using my second favorite new (well to me, anyway) internet thingy – www.bit.ly.com

Please take the time to read this, watch the video and click on the link at the end, http://bit.ly/3cPDm6

Enjoy may not be the proper word, but I hope that it will make you think.

While Thinking is not yet illegal, we should make the most of the opportunities to learn more.

FYI : Picture found on google, ironically taken from another wordpress site – Ideological Soup. Ta v much!

The Media we Deserve?

The rumour that Glenn Beck is being considered as a replacement for Oprah sent shivers down my spine.

I struggled to understand how this rabble rousing dealer of mis-information and public fear-mongering could achieve a higher level of public access. I looked for someone to blame.

I blame Paris Hilton.

Human beings are always looking to apportion blame whenever they can. Normally blame is attached to serious situations such as war, politics, famine, disasters etc but blame can also be channelled towards sports, music, film and other leisure activities which we feel add enjoyment to our lives.

It could be that their football team is going through a bad patch, a frequent occurrence for supporters throughout the globe.  Doubled if you have any interest in the national team or even follow more than one sport.

A favourite band is no longer releasing material of quality (Exhibit 1, Metallica, St. Anger), and you are more than happy with the greatest hits instead of new stuff. It could even be that your favourite series of films has been ruined with the introduction of an annoying creature who takes up more screen time than is necessary.

Those to blame must stand up and shoulder responsibility.

So I can safely say that I blame Paris Hilton.

Living On Shuffle – An Update

So the experiment continues and at the time of writing the Ipod elves haven’t really thrown any curveballs at me (for UK readers ; they haven’t displayed any Shane Warne-like spin).

They do seem to like The Doors, Testament, David Bowie and The Hives (3 songs each, and I only have 1 Testament LP).

Genres have been as expected and have included

•  A lot of metal (Avenged Sevenfold, Hallows Eve, Rammstein, Metallica, Machine Head),
• Progressive Metal ( Dream Theater, Queensryche) 
• Music played by earnest young men in skinny jeans, otherwise known as Indie (Airbourne Toxic Event, Blur)
• British reactionary (The Jam, New Model Army)
• Classic Rock ( AC/DC, Black Label Society, Faith No More)
• The Unexpected (Barenaked Ladies, Then Jericho, Rachel Sweet – who I have no idea is!)

Other than that, it has been increasingly difficult to ignore the call of certain bands (Mastodon, The Black Crowes) who appear in my headphones for one song and then vanish………..but I will continue to explore the random elements of the aural soundscape provided by the Ipod.

Next on the screen is Exit Music (For A Film) by ………………Radiodread - dub interpretations of mopey-shoegazing superstars Radiohead.

Tune in later to find out if I stay the course.

Living On Shuffle……..An Ipod Experiment

I have over 8,000 items on my 80 GB Ipod, which equates to 26 days of continuous music.

Should I feel the urge, I could listen to music on a 24 hour basis for just under 4 weeks. I would probably go deaf or insane, but the option is there if I decided to walk this path.

I have purchased through Itunes 1,345 items, just over 4 days worth. I would be lying if I said that I have listened to everything that I have bought,  as I scroll down the list there are vast tracts of empty columns denoting play count etc.

I also have access to ;

•  2 films (Blues Brothers and Big Lebowski),
•  19 music videos (which includes Duran Duran, Nickelback, Gorillaz, Slipknot and Fatboy Slim)
•  11 TV shows – 3 of which are ones that I bought (Dr Who and Top Gear), the others are ones downloaded by my better half when her laptop was up the creek.

In other words, I don’t really have any idea what is on my Ipod anymore. And some of the purchases may have been made under the influence of alcohol.

I am probably not alone.

Toilet Humour

Following the cancellation of the planned run-off election for the Afghan Presidency, this appeared in The Independent newspaper in the UK (and on their website, naturally……..) 

I like this cartoon for several reasons,

• The slang term for a toilet in the UK is “Karzi” so the headline is especially funny
• The loo roll to the left has been cunningly fashioned into ballot papers
• The subtle suggestion to the West in the top right
• Abdullah Abdullah is being flushed away (although he could also look like a ‘floater’)
• The toilet seat (an unflattering image of the democratically elected president) is wearing a hat
• It is just an excellent example of political satire

Of course the withdrawal of President Karzai’s opponent from the planned/forced second round of voting is not good news for the Western Allies who had been waiting to see what a “fair” election would bring to the country.

President Karzai’s only opponent, the wonderfully named Abdullah Abdullah (so uncorrupt they named him twice!) withdrew as he didn’t believe the electoral corruption endemic in the system had been sorted out and made the decision to stand down.

So Karzai wins by default!

Naturally he was devastated that he would not have the chance to prove to the world (and the citizens of Afghanistan, who seem to have been forgotten in this) that he could win fair and square.

“It would have been better for our country, for the democratic process and for us, if our brother Dr Abdullah had participated… and the second round had taken place,” Mr Karzai said as he made his way to his presidential limo ready to whisk him back to the luxury of the presidential palace where he would console himself with a freshly made presidential sandwich (probably).

Even Karzai would have found it difficult  to lose a one horse race.

Michael Jackson Is Dead? Nobody told me……….

 

Ok, I knew he was dead.

I will even admit that the headline is slightly tongue-in-cheek as I have been fully aware of the death of the King of Pop since June 25.

I even know where I was when I heard the news (a pub in Hertford, England) and I know someone who had actually got tickets to one of the shows at the O2 Arena in London.

But this week the public wailing and gnashing of teeth has returned with the release of This Is it – The Movie,  a compilation of clips of rehearsal footage for the 50 date stint at the O2 in front of 800,000 adoring fans (not all at the same time, just do the math) that Jacko was supposed to perform in London before he rather inconveniently died 2 weeks prior to Show 1.

So some bright spark (probably with a degree in marketing)  thoughtfully decided that the best way to honour his memory (and perhaps his commitments) was to show the fans what they might have seen if they had been lucky enough to score a ticket……..thus the synchronized world premiere of the movie this week.

Academy Award winner Elizabeth  Taylor called the movie the  ”single most brilliant piece of film-making I have ever seen“, which coming from someone who played Cleopatra , Helen of Troy and Pearl Slaghoople (The Flintstones), would appear to be a ringing endorsement.

Farewell to Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Shaun of the Dead

Ron Borges – A Final Word

I don’t know whether Borges ever bothers to look at his reader responses but it was gratifying to note that just after I posted my angry comment, someone else felt just as strongly.

In total this piece drew 6 responses but as one of them was about how nice Tom Brady looked in his red shirt at the press conference, it is fair to assume that it didn’t strike the same chord as with the mysterious Shen28 who wrote;

“As a native to Boston who spent six months living the Edgware area of London, I’m appalled by this article. While you may have only been in London for the weekend, the game was only one evening, did you hole up in your hotel room the rest of the time you were there?

This article is exactly what gives Americans a bad name abroad. You clearly didn’t explore the city, because if you had, you’d never have compared London to Baghdad. The number of Middle Eastern people living in London is a testament to the city’s diversity and tolerance. (I reference BostonHodspur here).

 What makes London so wonderful is the sheer amount of cultures contained in a twelve-mile radius. If you wander a ten minute walk from Edgware Road, you’re in one of the most beautiful parks in London. Five minutes more, and you’re in Camden Market. So I’m not sure where Baghdad comes into play here, considering not fifteen minutes away is the home of punk-rock and one of the poshest living areas in the world.

I suggest next time you’re given the opportunity to travel abroad for your work, you take a less narrow-minded agenda with you.”

I don’t know who Shen28 is but I thank you for taking the time to comment on Borges’ myopic article.

And I promise that it is the end of this discussion.

Next up, the Michael Jackson movie – a poignant reminder of the loss of a talented individual or a desperate attempt to cash in by a concert promoter who is slightly out of pocket from Jackson’s inconvenient death.