'THE THREAT OF SURVEILLANCE COINCIDES WITH THE OPPORTUNITY OF SELF-BRANDING'

That's the nightmare of the web.

This is an amazing article about the celebrity mind-trap, how social media turns you into an observed person etc

http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/hi-haters/

Some random segments:

"Every time you tag anything or respond to anything or link to anything, you’re informing on your friends.”

"Britney Spears' meltdown somehow dignifies our relative obscurity. Unlike Britney, of course, we don’t need constant attention; we don’t depend on the media to reflect back to us the meaning of what we do. With our concern for her mental health as an alibi, we can enjoy the spectacle of her losing her mind from too much social recognition — recognition being in somewhat short supply for the rest of us."

"The ideological enthusiasm for “participation” disguises the emptying out of privacy, and the inescapable scrutiny and social documentation ushers in “self-surveillance” — a grimmer way of describing online self-fashioning or identity construction."

2nd blog today. Here's a link to the whole Alan Partridge Christmas Special, for anyone who wants to keep the Christmas spirit going and enjoy some quality cheesy 1995 British humour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA3uHlxqIJ8

The problem with becoming mature is that you grow more inclined to think about what does or doesn't seem to work, and less able to envision what is still possible.

A second movie-related post for today.

This promised to be the most awesome forum thread ever. People on the forum of 'I am Jesus' consipiracy nut David Icke discussing uber-warped films Eraserhead and Naked Lunch. Eraserhead is cinematic perfection, to me, and far less complicated than some people leapt to assume.

However they failed to be as amusingly faux-deep as I hoped:
http://forum.davidicke.com/showthread.php?s=322f9fa987c48cd130a05be6ba5d22fd&t=54561

Nevertheless I recommend anyone go on that forum if they want to see every kind of woo woo mad bunkum wrapped-up into one convenient dry-heave-inducing package: http://forum.davidicke.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12

Even the forum section headers include: magic healing, ufos, humans being 'space invaders', reality being a dream, airfcraft spreading 'chemtrails', major world events being fake, ascention, Mayan calendar, ghosts, brainwashing etc etc.

It's amazing how the human mind has evolved. We're programmed to see patterns in everything. In nature it's better for our survival to think there's a lion hiding in the grasses and be wrong 95% of the time, than to not make the connection the other 5% of the time ... even if it means you spend a lot of time imagining threats that aren't really there. And humans still do it now. There are dozens of ways that it's been simply demonstrated. But seriously, mankind is out of the tundra now and has something called EVIDENCE and processes like INVESTIGATION and EXPERIMENTATION. So ... enough of the woo woo please!

I've just been enjoying listening to Mark Kermode taking the piss out of Guy Ritchie's explanation of the character Jake Green in his movie Revolver:

"The color green is the central column of the spectrum and the name Jake has all sorts of numerical values."

It's a bit naff starting my SG blogging this way - impersonally. But here's a link to a gorgeous animation over the top of Charles Bukowski reading his poem The Genius Of The Crowd. I've copied the full poem below it.

It says a lot about the social world being red in tooth and claw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13nZ9blr4Z0


The Genius Of The Crowd

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock

their finest art

Hi everyone. I'm here now, so put away the Twister mat and get out the malt whiskey.