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I have refrained from blogging about this for the past few weeks. Partly because I had a lot to do at M&G Online before I left and partly because there is still a lot that I had to find out about Zoopy.
I managed to get much done with M&G and have the utmost confidence that they are on a path to absolutely fantastic things under new leadership. A new GM has taken on Matt’s role, Jason Norwood-Young has taken on Vince’s role and I can almost certainly say that M&G is heading down one helluva great path and we are all in for some interesting times.
Moving on to Zoopy.
I have taken up the position of Gauteng GM for Zoopy. The decision to move to Zoopy was a tough one because it meant that I was leaving a company and brand like Mail & Guardian Online. But Zoopy presented me with some very enticing ideas, goals and movements for the next 12 months or so. The plans are innovative, interesting and like nothing being done in the online market in SA at this point in time. I couldn’t say no to a chance like this.
Basically I am going to be setting up Zoopy in JHB for now. That means staff, offices, equipment and most importantly relationships with anyone who thinks they can offer something of value to our vision.
That’s all I’m going to say for now as it has been a long day and I have yet to step in to my first meeting here in Cape Town. Bring them on.
For those of you attending the 27 Dinner in CT this week, I’ll see you there and look forward to meeting many of you for the first time in real life, really!
Satan has been in the news a fair amount over the past few days.
Krugersdorp - A schoolboy who stabbed a fellow pupil to death with a sword in Krugersdorp on Monday morning was apparently high on drugs, saying Satan had told him to kill the children…
Krugersdorp councillor Alex Raubenheimer said school children on the scene told him the boy was high on drugs and was dressed like Joey Jordison, a drummer of the band Slipknot.
I’m not sure if you’ve seen the movie “Primal Fear“? If you haven’t, you should. Ed Norton and Richard Gere are fantastic.
The basic premise of the movie is that an alter boy kills some people and uses his innocent, god-fearing “nature” to defend himself. This coupled with his apparent schizophrenia gets him off. He walks free.
This isn’t the same thing as stating that “the devil made me do it” ofcourse, but the premise is the same. It’s the same as saying I am incapable of making decisions on my own so I blame the devil. The devil is intangible and doesn’t exist therefore I need to make the concept real so I tell you that heavy metal is the devil’s music. I can therefore blame the heavy metal for my actions and by association, blame the devil.
{The way I see it (and I think this might ruffle some feathers) is that the devil does not exist. So in theory this is where my article should end, but for the sake of debate, let me continue.}
Is this some sort of twisted philosophical logic that I just don’t grasp? Why don’t we blame the parents, the school system, the child, the child’s friends and their influence on the child’s life and actions? Why do we have to make it about themusic and single the music out as violent, aggressive and possible of warping a perception so much so that the child becomes warped in action?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that an under-age child should be listening to music or watching films that promote violence, sexual promiscuity or any other illegal or dangerous action. But that is for the parents to regulate, you can’t tell the music to stop playing itself if it thinks the child is under-age. That’s just ridiculous.
Furthermore, music can be intense, aggressive, cutting edge, loud, banging and harsh but that doesn’t mean the lyrical content reflects that. I am deep in to rock music, old, new, heavy, soft, refined and raw. I love it all. But it doesn’t all dramatically influence my action, choices, decisions and life. It provides me with insight in to what other people perceive the world to be.
Let’s step back 50 years or 40 years or 30, 20, 10 years in our history. Think back to The Beatles, The Stones, Queen (is the name a reference to homosexuality possibly?) and heaven forbid Elvis the once banned rocker and now the king of rock ‘n roll forever. These bands all faced adversity in their time. Why? Because parents, teachers, headmasters, religious pundits and many other groups couldn’t take responsibility for their actions, their children or their children’s actions. Basically, blame the music for the uncontrollable and rebellious nature of our children.
I thought we were meant to learn from the mistakes of our past? Are we not just repeating the actions of the ignorant and blind from the past by condemning the music and inadvertently pushing our children towards the messages that we are trying to protect them from?
When I was about 11 I got in to Skunk Anansie heavily. I loved them. The lead singer was a bald black woman by the name of Skin. Skin. Do you honestly think that my Greek Orthodox (then) father was going to tolerate it? Not a chance. The first song on the album featured the lyric “Yes it’s fucking political”. Ha! I didn’t stand a chance. Or did I? I made sure that the first thing I did when my father stepped out of the house was play that song. I credit that song alone for my political interest and for my degree in politics from Rhodes University. That Damned music, it ruined my life.
Here’s a Skunk Anansie cutaway:
No wonder I’m so messed up. This is what I was listening to at 11/12 years old and I haven’t killed, maimed, harmed anyone….yet…dum dum dum dum
All that my father’s harsh actions, forced law and pushy intention did was make me crave the message, the content and the music more. Get real, kids are smarter than we give them credit for. Nothing you do is going to make them stop listening to that music.
I’m not sure if you’ve looked around lately, picked your head up out of your bible, book, “reality” or life and noticed how liberal the world has become. Take your blinkers off. They are playing “the devil’s music” in clubs nowadays, they are playing that rock-metal-death-rap-craziness on the radio. The world has moved on. So why don’t you?
One murder happens involving teenagers and it immediately becomes anti-religious (as if the only thing that can save our children is god/religion) and name and blame towards the musicians. I listen to Slipknot, I have 16 year old female cousins who listen to them too, they aren’t suicidal, on a murderous rampage or intent on harming others. In spite of their personal lives they are actually very well balanced cousins who make me proud. The music they listen to gives them perspective on the world not insight in to the devil’s mind. This was one incident that occurred amongst a sea of socially uncomfortable youths who do not choose to murder. Let’s look at the one case, not clump the entire youth of SA and their music habits as satanistic.
I am not saying the research doesn’t oppose my argument, it might, I don’t know. But to be honest I am more than satisfied with blaming myself for my actions, my societal influences, my friends, parents or experiences but not the devil and his (her) music.
Last point, if you want violence, turn on Carte Blanche on a Sunday at 7pm, turn on SABC 1, 2, 3 and e-tv news at 7am or 7pm every day, listen to the radio broadcasts about war, dishonesty, crime, violence at home and abroad, cheating politicians world wide and more. Music, let me tell you, is a fraction of our problem today.
Yes, it’s true. Well, it must be true because people have been receiving this message from “Facebook Founder: Mark Zuckerber” - isn’t there a “g” on the end of his name?
Anyways, here’s the message that’s been floating around and around. I haven’t personally received it but a friend sent it to me in an email after contacting me on Facebook in a frantic spin talking about the internet running out of space.
Attention all Facebook members.
Facebook is recently becoming very overpopulated,
There have been many members complaining that Facebook
is becoming very slow.Record shows that the reason is
that there are too many non-active Facebook members
And on the other side too many new Facebook members.
We will be sending this messages around to see if the
Members are active or not,If you’re active please send
to 15 other users using Copy+Paste to show that you are active
Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks,
The user will be deleted without hesitation to create more space,
If Facebook is still overpopulated we kindly ask for donations but until then send this message to all your friends and make sure you send
this message to show me that your active and not deleted.
Founder of Facebook
Mark Zuckerber
Well, I am trying to be as “inactive as possible” so that I can test this little theory and maybe be saved from Facebook. Please Mr Zuckerber, delete me.
Lately my chat client has become somewhat of a business, social, friend, acquaintance network.
I’ve been contacted by friends, business associates, potential colleagues, colleagues, family, bloggers, writers, journalists and marketing people via my Instant Message.
This is made all the simpler when I’m using my Macbook Pro as I use Adium which pulls in most of my IM accounts in to one simple to use application.
I am not stating that Facebook is dead, MySpace is a goner or that Blueworld is history. What I am stating is that I am in control of my IM and I like it.
I like that I am not obligated to talk to people, and there are a lot of people, on my IM client. I can set my status to “Buggeroffleavemealoneorillthrowsomethingatyou” and people laugh. I also love the integration between my twitter client, Twhirl and my IM client.
What integration? None technologically. But person to person IM and twitter work fantastically together. I post something on twitter, vague, true, false, rumour or opinion and within minutes I have 5 people on instant message asking me about it. I then choose whether or not to engage, how long the conversations last and that’s that.
I know that traditional social networks allow for this scope of choice; whether one is available or not. But for some reason it just seems different when it’s more personal, more instant and over messaging only.
I don’t want to see how many friends this person has, how many pictures they’ve been tagged in what zombie ate them or what groups they have joined. I want to know they are either available, away or unavailable. Select the person to talk to, discuss, get in and get out.
IM allows me to do this on my terms and think I like that.
Bored. That is what us bloggers must be. Why? Because we seem to be so preoccupied recently (a phenomenon that has coincided with some interesting arrivals of late) with who is who and doing what and how often in our wondrously massive local blogging community.
Those who are mentioned “seem to not care” but care enough to blog about themselves being blogged about. I have been mentioned a fair amount and I am now partaking in my own condemnation (oh the irony). I am blogging about blogs by bloggers on blogging and bloggers and who’s the bestest of the best and whose daddy is bigger than whose mommy and who has the nicest fanciest shmanciest housiest home or rather, blog, and who is more influential than who and how often they influence those that influence others.
Can I just chime in here and say that I actually think it’s a load of rubbish. In spite of my participation in Mandy’s “Top Ten bloggers” post over at MoneyWeb I honestly think it’s irrelevant. Mandy asked on twitter yesterday: “Who has more influece?” and listed three bloggers for others to compare. Link. Bait. It’s link baiting. Not journalism. It’s irrelevant in my opinion (and only in my opinion). What does matter is that its time we refocus our energy on relevant content for the every day reader. Not the bloggers who blog about blogging.
Has content become so drab and non existent that we have turned to each other, looked one another in the blog and decided that we are the only content relevant enough to blog about? Are you kidding me?
I reiterate that I grasp the fact that I am doing the same thing right now that I am condemning, do not point it out in the comments, I get it, I know that I am doing it but occasionally it is unavoidable.
What I am getting at is that people like to stir the pot, we like to back rub, we like to have our backs rubbed, we all do and we all know it, we just can’t help ourselves. It’s the old adage that people like to see themselves on TV, look at America’s Funniest Home Videos. That show has never gone away and it’s because there are regular people focusing on people like themselves. That doesn’t make it good content though. It just makes it long-lasting.
Maybe it’s time I shift my focus to writing for readers, not bloggers. Writing for people and writing about things that people like to read. In my opinion readers don’t like to read about bloggers blogging about blogs and other bloggers egos and ranks and pages and pageranks and technorati and lists and links… see I’m bored already.
