Drama Sells!

"How did we become like this?"

"What?"

"Well... more like Fascist state of Italy during WWII than a free egalitarian democratic country of swaggies, larakins freedom lovers and lovable misfits like we want everyone to think we are."

"Oh... That! It's all about Marketing!"

"What?"

"Well it goes something like this. People make money by selling stuff. All electronic media sources such as TV, Radio and even the Internet are able to operate without charge to the end user because they provide advertizing space for people who want to sell stuff to the listeners, watchers, browsers, 'The Audience' right?" 

"Yeh right...."

"Well in order to secure lucrative advertizing they have to attract an audience."

"OK...?"

"Human nature, is kind of predictable! We are drawn to controversy... Drama. The marketing guys have us all figured out. You could try to get on the Telly and talk about love and peace but people get bored with it. It doesn't sell. 
Drama sells... Drama is not confined to those convoluted programs labelled as 'Drama'. Drama is all the stuff that happens in peoples lives that the media make a living by telling us all about.
However we are at a new phase in media/news/current affairs, they 'produce' drama. And they refine the art of Drama until you get what we have now. Radio and Television programs full of manufactured 'conflict' because conflict is the essence of drama and drama sell; so conflict is a marketable commodity. People will listen to some over opinionated bastard spewing hate on the radio. Feeding ignorant fear, justifying resentment and preparing the audience to condone retaliation against perceived enemies. The best part about this style of media is that those who don't like them listen too, feeding fuel to the outrage! What happens then is the worst of all! The half baked issues concocted and manufactured for the purpose of creating drama for the sole initial and primary purpose of making lots of money for celebrity presenter and shareholders then become matters of 'public debate' and are considered the issues of significance to 'The Public'. The citizenry has been duped! Informed discussion and decision making highjacked and the pillars of our democracy exchanged for the facade of the set of a cheep TV fiction.
Everybody's listening, everybody's watching and most of us are buying it!

The more conflict produced the higher the drama content, the more listeners the greater sales value and on it goes. 

This is not The Media providing information to the citizens of an informed democracy! This is a Marketing machine producing anxiety, fear and paranoia.... Drama. Inventing enemies, manipulating the perceptions of it's loyal trembling Consumer Audience. (A Consumer Audience Minion Army)"

"Oh.... And that's why we don't watch television anymore?"

"Exactly!"

"Oh, yeh... Right"

 
It just rained on my yard for the first time in months... The rain on the earth smells just like Bali! It's beautiful.

Cyclone clean-up day

(Bike in a Bin!)

As a compulsive scrounger and long time fan of The Wombles, I must say.... I love Cyclone Clean-up Day! (Actually I haven't seen an episode of The Wombles since I was a kid but I took the show very seriously!)

Here in Darwin we are threatened, at particular times of the year, with the possibility of being struck by cyclones. It is very unlikely that we will be hit directly but if anyone has heard of Cyclone Tracy then you will know that they are not to be messed with!

Due to the possibility of extreme high velocity wind weather events we are expected to keep our yards free of debris. In order to enable us to do so the City Council does a free hard rubbish clean up in each suburb during the month of September. That's NOW!

All around the streets people have left great piles of unwanted material goods on their nature strip for the council trucks to come and take away! Of course much of these things have potential to be restored, fixed, mended or simply re-used. It is considered a great bonanza for those who are keen scroungers or gleaners. A Womble would think this were paradise if he or she were to stumble into Darwin this week. Masses of unused stuff gets a second chance at being put to a useful purpose. It could be considered the recycling event of the year... But I doubt the powers that be would see it that way. For the practical of hand with a creative mind the opportunity to explore and play are limitless. I am always amazed by the number of bicycles that appear at this time of year. If ever you are looking for some useful bike parts now is the time to go shopping around!

This weekend, since the trucks had already been around our area I decided to drop by the Tip Shop to see if they'd collected anything I could use... Unfortunately they didn't. The reason being, not that everything had been taken by scroungers... but because the guy who collects the good stuff wasn't working on the weekend! So it appears that most of the useful things that are collected end up in landfill simply because the dude is on his day off! What sort of recycling program is this city running?!


(Recycled Art)

On my way to work this morning a discarded cardboard sign caught my eye, it said 'Ask about finance options'. I thought it would be fun to display the sign somewhere and then wait for people to ask... My answer would be to "take all their jewels and give them to the poor!" (I was in a funky mood this morning!)
Then I came across yet another dumped bike by the side of the road... Actually it was in one of Trev's piles. I hooked the bike up to my Xtracycle and stuck the sign on it. I thought it was funny for a number of reasons... Kind of a capitalist irony... You know... To suggest that someone may need to seek a loan in order to purchase the crappy old bike with flat tires that I was towing around! (Well I had a chuckle about it anyway!) Then I came across a feather duster on my way to work. I passed it and kept riding but the darn thing kept calling me back so I had to turn the whole rig around and go back for it. I shoved it straight up the rear of the seat wit the very clear thought...
"Ok you look at this old bike and think it's worthless but actually it is made of precious resources. One day you(we) might have to pay more than you(we) can afford for such an item! That's when "Karma is gonna get You (Us)" Like The 'Cock of the wall' who turns out to be nothing but a feather duster it's gonna hit you(us) square and hard where the sun don't shine!

I continued on my way to work... grinning like an idiot!!! (I don't know why... I don't want that to be the way! But it felt good expressing it like that... maybe I should learn to play the guitar?)

Peace!

Was my life influenced much by TV?

As I loose all contact with the world of TV my mind becomes a bit clearer and I have started to reflect more on some of the major influences that formed whoever it is that I am now.

At the moment I'm recalling TV programs that I watched and some of the culprits or conspirators of my formation! Who were the male role models that TV produced for me in the 70s and 80s?

Yes Sesame Street was always on in our house and, due to having younger brother and sisters, I watched it for at least 13 years! Gordon (Human actor), Ernie and Bert (Muppets) and Oscar the Grouch (Muppet) each had their influences on me.

Dr WHO has always been a roll model which might explain my occasional shifts in personality however one character that I think had a profound affect on the way I think was Catweazle! The 11th Century Wizard who accidentally traveled through time to the 1970s. Not that I am particularly interested in Wizardry, well actually I doubt I've ever really even thought about it, however something in me has always identified with Catweazle's bafflement and bemusement at the world he found himself plonked into! He was rather mad but his confusion and befuddlement were, I believe, reasonable reactions to the the contradictions he found in the 20th Century Western lifestyle.
The program focused on the relationship between the eccentric Wizard from the Middle Ages and a young boy caught in the confusing years of early adolescence. A perfect match for mentor and apprentice.

He called electricity 'elec-trickery' and the telephone is a 'telling bone' he carried a frog around in his pocket for council and he was not easily convinced that the modern world had much to offer him. Sometimes he was a grouch but he was also nice character! Do the kids have characters like that anymore? What kind of characters are our kids following, modeling and in turn becoming? Does TV provide them with reasonable role models? Are they being trained into some kind of "Bootielicious" "Bad Ass" mass of consumer marketing fodder?
Should I be worried?
Hey we don't even watch the TV any more what am I worried about. Let's just celebrate the world of Catweazle!

CRUDE - the incredible journey of oil

On Thursday Night we watched the ABC documentary 'CRUDE'. It was a fantastic look at the carbon cycle, oil and how we use it. There were some very moving interviews with men who recall the beginning of the age of oil and various other experts who provided pretty convincing evidence to support the concepts of Peak Oil and Global Warming.

What I gathered from the film.

The experts all agree that we are facing the decline of oil. Although their speculations varied about the actual time, date or year when we would or have reached 'Peak', the consensus was that the time is pretty much now! The warning was pretty clear that alternatives need to be found and more importantly adopted if civilization is to continue in any semblance of what we now take for granted.

The program gave a great explanation of how oil was/is created. It was fascinating and mostly news to me. The carbon cycle has huge implications for all life on earth and the documentary showed how imbalance can disrupt so many other systems on Earth.

There seems to be two major areas where our use of oil will impact on our future. One is economically (supply will not continue to meet demand) and the other is environmentally (Global Warming resulting from the release of CO2 into the atmosphere). The world as we know it is fueled by oil and world economies are so totally dependent on oil that the impacts of rising oil prices will be catastrophic unless we can drastically restructure our transport and energy sources. However the cumulative effects of Global Warming may overtake any presumed impact caused by reduced access to the oil itself.

Anyway I'm posting this to remind you all that if you missed it the whole documentary is available as an ABC Video On Demand (VOD). HERE.

Peak Oil?

Tonight at 8:30 pm across Australia the ABC will broadcast a much anticipated documentary called 'Crude'. A documentary about Oil, the liquid fuel and primary building block that underpins many of our modern conveniences. It is a non renewable resource that we are almost totally dependent on yet we burn so much of it with apparent disregard for the consequences.

"Crude takes a step back from the day to day news to illuminate the Earth's extraordinary carbon cycle and the role of oil in our impending climate crisis." (ABC TV blurb)

Peak oil

My Boss recently directed me to the ABC's Video On Demand (VOD) webpage where they make available some of the programs that have been shown on ABC TV in the past. It's fantastic and offers very good streaming video of some great documentaries. Personally I'll be looking for something a bit less serious! I hope they have kept episodes of the Chaser or Raw Comedy!

A while ago, well maybe several months ago The ABC aired a mini documentary on their 4 Corners program related to the theory and expected consequences of 'Peak Oil'. If you're not familiar with this term it basically means the turning point in availability of oil where demand begins to surpass supply. As oil is a finite resource there must be a time when it's availability will no longer be assured. So this documentary is available on the ABC VOD site and is well worth watching. Please click this link >Peak Oil?<>

Raw Comedy

Last night (after and exhausting day of homework, commuting about 50km, doing three days worth of dishes and entertaining a 3 year old) I took an interrupted 1 hour reprieve. What's on the box tonight! I'm gonna crash. So I lay down switched on the tube and there was actually something cool on! (I'd missed the doco about Spartacus!)

It was 'Raw Comedy' at 9:25pm on the ABC.
Excellent stuff! It was a live recording of a comedy venue in Melbourne and the gags were coming thick and fast! What a way to end the night! Thank goodness for ABC TV!
Comedians are brave! No doubt about it... The tallent last night had us chuckling and cheering! No small feat considdering the moodiness that proceeded it.
I reckon the grumpy librarian/mother should have won a prize though.. The general standard of the comedians was excelent. There was even an entry from the NT, can't remember her name though. :(

Here are the competition results:

Winner
Jonathan Schuster (VIC)
Runner Up:
Aamer Ramaan (VIC)
Raw Recruit Prize for the best first-time Raw entrant:
Jack Druce (NSW)


Aamer, made more of a political statement than really great comedy but he hit the nail on the head so well when he commented on Anglo Australian racism that he just had to get something! I'd love to get a transcript of the show so I can quote the guy!
The question goes through my head every time I see the TV news, commercial network current affairs programs or read our blessed NT news.
Not his exact words but he said something along the lines of:
'Why is it that all I see are white people complaining about everyone else in this country?' Thank GOD! Someone has bravely ridiculed the Anglo centric bullshit we are fed daily! He made some other extremely confronting observations about the Anglo Ausie way of life that are so vulgar and hypocritical that many people would have been stunned to hear them and shamed into squeezing out a self conscious chuckle if only to appear un-offended!
Good on you Aamer, I think you'd make a better diplomat than a terrorist!