livingbrands

The beauty of talent

A bit late to the party, but Clive James has added another dimension to debate on the Susan Boyle phenomenon. If you are one of the 3 people in the world who missed her performance, you can view it here (tho embedding on all clips has been disabled on Youtube).

His argument is that our interest in people like Susan is less to do with talent - as he says, there will be many, maybe even more talented singers hidden away in the choruses of operas and musicals, who will never get a sniff of fame (and as some comments add, in am-dram groups up and down the country as well) - and more to do with looks.

We live in a culture that expects (because that's what we've been fed by the media) talent, even average talent, to be attractive (something we apply to all works of life, not just singing). If a beautiful women had got to the stage and sung, we wouldn't have batted an eyelid. Because that's what we expect beautiful people to do and/or what we expect talented people to look like.

With Susan (and Paul Potts before her) looks said we were in for some car crash TV (as is the case with 90% of the acts on Britain's Got Talent), an instinctive expectation that was confounded by her voice.

And the interest this generated lies in its culturally conditioned incongruity - come see the ugly lady sing. Which even if we are rooting for her is a bit of a sad reflection on us. Because BGT is only a few steps up from the old freak shows after all.

It's also ironic, as she will undoubtedly become a star, whilst many better but not exceptional professional singers will continue to slave away in poverty - if only they had been less attractive they could have gone on BGT as well!

We all do it...most of the time, but what a better place the world would be if we could see past the superficial to the person within, and value them for who they are…talented or otherwise.

10 things we didn't know before the 16th week of 2009

1. Five trees make an orchard.
2. Matthew Parris once ran the London Marathon in 2hrs 32m, the fastest by an MP.
3. Paper can be made from wombat excrement.
4. Robin Hood had no Maid Marian in the early days.
5. British consumption of poultry increased 25-fold between 1950 and 2000.
6. Video Killed the Radio Star was inspired by a JG Ballard short story.
7. Wine varies in taste from day to day.
8. French women are the lightest in the EU. British women are the heaviest.
9. The Sun is dimmest it has been for a century.
10. There's a swear word in The Beatles' Hey Jude.

(Borrowed from the BBC)

Everything's iconic nowdays

In 1988 the New York Times used the word iconic 11 times. In 98, it appeared 141 times. And by 08, usage had exploded to 442. That's a 40 fold increase in 20 years (in a publication that probably thinks more carefully than many about the words it uses).

So does this mean we live in the age of icons, where anything and everything has the potential to be iconic?

Or, much as with 'cool' and 'authentic', is it just that lazy, indiscriminate overuse has neutered 'iconic', removing its titular status? Because when everything is 'iconic' can anything be truly iconic? Which is the case put forward by a recent article in More Intelligent Life.

But if you are still hankering after a bit of true iconic status, they also suggest 4 (overlapping) 'rules' you might want to bear in mind...

1. The truly iconic affects us whether we like it are not, unlocking instinctive memories, emotions and beliefs
2. The image of the truly iconic is more important than, even transcending, the actual reality of its subject
3. The truly iconic subject should be understandable via visual shorthand.
4. The truly iconic is immediately recognisable,the visual equivalent of an unmistakable catchphrase

A bit of an iconic progression by way of example, from Che to Wayne, via Jesus, with a little help from Warhol (referentially) and Dali along the way...

 

 

 

 

The gun markets of Pakistan

Must watch from Vice TV on the reality of guns in the Pakistani/Afghan border. Compelling for its 'light' tone and non judgmental point of view (talk about challenging expectations vs the news we usually get!). Right or wrong, good or bad, this is people doing what they've done for centuries...

(thanks to Mike)

10 things we didn't know before the 15th week of 2009

1. Squatters take over islands, as well as homes.
2. White wine has more calories than red wine.
3. Some ants reproduce without sex.
4. About 15% of the world's wine bottles have screw caps.
5. If you list your religion as Jedi on the census, the Office of National Statistics will class this as atheist.
6. Pandas prefer artificial sweetener to sugar.
7. Pigs are the fourth most intelligent animals.
8. Being sorry originally meant to be distressed and sad.
9. About one in 30 people suffers from agoraphobia. 
10. A thrown shoe is considered an insult in India, as well as the Middle East, where George Bush famously dodged a lobbed loafer.

 (Borrowed from the BBC)

Dizzee does the Ting Tings

Mr Rascal offers up his take of That's Not My Name on Jo Whiley's Live Lounge. As pointed out to me by Josh (which is a worrying shift in the music balance of power within the Howard household). But good rapper tho he may be, he can NOT sing…

Vote Now! Vote Jon!

I have ascended to the pinnacle of blogdom, and been nominated for Neil's Think Tank post of the month (thanks Graeme).

Now one of the main lessons of modern politics is that it's as much about getting your vote out as it is about policies (assuming you don't have the persuasive powers of the secret police to fall back on).

So vote for me and I will end world poverty*

(*this is an 'election' and I am therefore under no obligation to honour claims I might make in trying to bribe, con, coerce or otherwise hoodwink people into voting for me)

Facts and figures

Some handy soundbites from Contagious 18...

• 126m: number of vids viewed on Hulu in Dec 2008 (Nielsen)
• 114.5m: estimated number of on-line content creators (writing blogs, posting vids etc.) by 2013 (eMarketer)
• 31: median age of a Twitterer (Pew Internet & American Life Project)
• 48%: percentage of Americans spending more than an hour a day online (Gallup)
• 16%: proportion of agency pitches remunerated in Brazil (AIS/GC Consultants)
• 23,000%: increase in DVD sales for Monty Python after creators posted content for free on Youtube (Amazon)
• 1bn: online population...vs. global population of 6.7bn (comScore)
• 55%: share of US mothers aged 45+ playingvideo games in the last month (Razorfish/MomCafe)
• 5%: proportion of users using a free app they've downloaded to the iPhone on any given day after one month (Pinch Media)
• 64%: percentage of users lost between the first and second episodes of an online series (TubeMogul)
• 3bn: minutes spent on Facebook every day (Facebook)
• 6.3m: number of items shipped worldwide by Amazon on 15th Dec 2008, it's busiest day ever (Amazon)
• 15%: proportion of major global corporations monitoring on-line word of mouth (CMO Council)
• 100%: growth in China's on-line retail market in 2008 (iResearch)
• 70%: how much advertisers are planning to cut their budgets by in 2009 (WPI)
• 34.2%: increase in mobile-content spend in 2009 (Veronis Suhler Stevenson)
• $200bn: worth of global smartphone market by 2012 (Gartner)

10 things we didn't know before the 14th week of 2009

1. Breaking wind is a bookable offence in football.
2. Black soldiers fighting for the Free French Forces were removed from the unit which led the liberation of Paris to ensure a "whites only" victory.
3. Many of the mosques in Islam's holiest city, Mecca, point the wrong way.
4. Britain pays an annual sum to Ireland to cover healthcare costs of Irish workers who have returned home.
5. Jellied hoof meat from horses is a delicacy in Siberia.
6. Potholes are aggravated by cold weather.
7. Car ownership in India is about nine per thousand people.
8. Mexico City was once a floating city.
9. Six percent of England's streets are littered with rubber bands.
10. More than 97% of all e-mail traffic is spam.

 (Borrowed from the BBC)

Talking with tough audiences

Steve Lacey is a qualitative researcher specialising in working class, youth and 'hard to reach audiences...including prisoners, alcoholics, benefit fraudsters, domestic abusers, anorexic models, drug dealers, heroin addicts, teenage parents, sexually abused children, sex workers, the transgendered and more! (i.e. he is very much out there at the sharp end).

Though I've not yet worked with him personally, Steve is a really interesting guy to meet and chat with.

And he now has his own blog where he explores some of his key findings. For instance, the most recent post looks at the rise of prostitute use amongst young working class men, suggesting the following combination of causes...

• Increase in cocaine and booze
• Lad's holidays
• Perceived 'cleaner' prostitutes
• ...who are easily available
• Casual racism
• Availability/acceptance of porn

It's all stuff those of us in our comfy, middle class environments would not normally come across...and so well worth a read.