Well, since it’s not from Nigeria, and it IS my surname, it’s got to be real, right?
Astonomers Explain Dance
July 26, 2010 — Stephen BrooksI have linked to the “Where the Hell is Matt?” dancing videos before, but I was delighted to see one of them featured on one of my favourite sites, APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day).
This is their comment:
Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth
Credit: Matt Harding & Melissa NixonExplanation: What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend political boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, started dancing, and filmed the result. The video is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious — few people are able to watch the above video without smiling.
I dare you to test that last sentence.
Beck Covers INXS
May 26, 2010 — Stephen BrooksI don’t usually (ever, come to think of it) post music videos. However, I came across this cover of Never Tear us Apart from the INXS album Kick, which was my favourite record of the late ’80s. Cranquez-vous los speakeros and enjoy this.
I don’t know any of these artists, but I love the singer. Of course I’ve heard of Beck, but lately I don’t get to listen to much new music that isn’t manufactured in the factory where Disney clones their teenage TV star/singer/dancer/movie heart throb automatons (I have a 9-year old daughter).
My favourite bit is the violin taking the place of the sax riff at the start of the bridge.
Apparently this group is in the process redoing all of the album – more at http://www.beck.com/. A quote from that site that explains the whole project and removes the question that I had about why her lyrical slip at the beginning of “we all have wings,” was allowed to stay.
Record Club No. 4 is here…! Joining in this time we had three of my favorite bands— Liars, Annie Clark and Daniel Hart from St. Vincent, Sergio Dias from the legendary Brazilian band Os Mutantes, as well as RC veteran Brian Lebarton, just back from the Charlotte Gainsbourg tour. The record covered this time was 1987 blockbuster ‘Kick’ by INXS. It was recorded in a little over 12 hours on March 3rd, 2010. It was an intense, hilarious, daunting and completely fun undertaking. Thanks to everybody for being there and putting so much into it. Many classic moments, inspired performances and occasional anarchy. We’ll post the songs consecutively in the album’s original sequence. First one up is “Guns In The Sky.” [Bolding is mine.]
[Update] Sorry – I just can’t get enough of this. Watch from around the 2:00 mark as she finishes the second chorus and her voice echoes out. Then the scene changes to her viewed from her left, with the other vocalist in the background. As the violin player hits his “power chord,” the guy rips off his shirt and the girl makes an expression like, “MAN! THAT IS GOOD!“
A Rose by any other name…
April 28, 2010 — Stephen BrooksAs faithful readers will know, I am currently not working (at least for anyone that is paying me). One route I am considering is starting my own marketing consultancy firm. This hypothetical business will need a name. I look to my friend Clayton, who does photography. He frequently shoots live perfomances, and came up with the very clever name show stoppers.
I have considered arrogant things like Marketing for Geniuses. Of course, copyright infringement precludes me using this particular image, but you get the idea. Still in the arrogant vein, Watershed Marketing, Marketing Mastermind, Advanced Marketing Consultants, ZOMGMarketing, Elite Marketing, L33tMarketing and others drift though my head.
More mainstream ideas run the gamut: Brooks Marketing, Marketing by Brooks, Brooks on Marketing, Business by Brooks, Brooks Marketing Consultants, Brooks Marketing Wisdom, etc.
Then there’s the more cutesy strain like Pied Piper Marketing, Magnetic Marketing, or Entice Marketing (some of you will get a chuckle from that).
Any votes? Or even better, any superior ideas? I need to file for my HST number this week, so time is of the essence. Hey! Marketing Essence!
Thanks in advance to my friends and colleagues.
P.S. I’m still cool with the idea of a “real” job too, so don’t stop spreading the word…
Let Lose The Hounds
April 19, 2010 — Stephen BrooksWho is it that types the crawlers at MSNBC?
Main Entry: 2loose
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): loosed; loos·ing
Date: 13th century
transitive verb 1 a : to let loose : release b : to free from restraint
2 : to make loose : untie <loose a knot>
3 : to cast loose : detach
4 : to let fly : discharge
Where did they loose the $200M? Cause if it’s just flying around somewhere, I’d like to pick some up!
Rugby Funnies
January 10, 2010 — Stephen BrooksI was doing the crossword this morning, and one of the clues referenced rugby. I used to play a lot of rugby, in the position of hooker (snicker now). Anyway it made me think of a funny thing that happened one game.
The way to get the ball back in bounds when it goes out of bounds (or “into touch” in rugby parlance) during play, is called a “line-out.” It works by a number of players on each team lining up in parallel lines perpendicular to the side-line (“touch line”), about a metre apart from each other. The players are generally members of the scrum (as opposed to “backs,” who are too namby-pamby for such physicality). Then the team that DIDN’T put the ball into touch, must throw the ball between the two lines, and the players all try and jump up and get it. Think of it as an organized basketball throw-in. Educational photo attached:
Out of this photo is the person who actually threw in the ball. That role is usually performed by the hooker. One basic strategy is to tell the members of your team which one you will be throwing it to. Kind of like in American football, where the quarterback says in the huddle which receiver he will try and throw to. The trouble is, if I (the thrower-in) just yell out, “It’s coming to you, Andrew!” then the player of the opposing team standing next to Andrew will have an equal knowledge that it’s coming his way. (Did I mention that rugby laws, yes “laws,” say that the ball MUST be thrown straight down the middle – equidistant between both lines?)
S0, all teams have some secret code that allows the hooker to tell his line which member it is going to. One team I was on had the following code: if I yelled out a city in Canada, it was going to our number 2 jumper; if the city was in USA, it was going to number 4, and if it was in the UK, it was going to number 6. So just before throwing the ball in, I would yell some nonsense like FIFTEEN! BLUE! ALBUQUERQUE! PENELOPE! A-67! In this case, the number 4 jumper would know it was coming to him, and all the other stuff would prevent the other team from figuring out our system.
This worked well for a while, until the following scenario occurred. We were all lined up and I yelled KEYHOLE! FORTY-EIGHT! GLASGOW! NINETEEN! GREEN! Then, a split second later, just as was about to throw the ball, one of my team members yelled back, “WHERE THE F**K IS GLASGOW?”
Anyway, I thought it was funny.
Invitations to Google Wave
December 4, 2009 — Stephen Brooks
If you know what Google Wave is, and you want to be invited to join in the beta, I have 8 invitations I can give to anyone who wants them. Just leave a comment and your email address (it helps if you have a gmail account.)
If you don’t know what Google Wave is, there is a fairly brief and informative description here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDu2A3WzQpo. If you want the whole Google Developer Conference introduction to Wave, that’s here, but it’s 80 minutes long.
What I Did on my Summer Vacation
September 8, 2009 — Stephen BrooksBack in July, I attended the 25th reunion for the class of ’84 at UNB. Part of the allure was that is was also a get together for many of the cast and crew of the ’81, ’82, ’83, ’84, and ’85 Red ‘n’ Black Revues. We all had a tonne of fun, including re-enacting perhaps the biggest and best production number that UNB’s annual variety show has ever seen: the Time Warp/Sweet Transvestite numbers from Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I have woefully few pix from the event, but my pal Eric Langshur has posted a good mix here. That’s me sporting the skull cap in the role of Riff-Raff. Unfortunately, the skull cap looks more like a condom.
My Gleaner Response
July 31, 2009 — Stephen BrooksI am on the “E-panel” of the Fredericton Daily Gleaner, which means I am periodically asked to contribute my opinion about what kind of issues the editorial staff there should pursue. Here is their latest request:
The Daily Gleaner wants to know what you think are the most important ongoing story topics. Is it improving the quality of education for our children? More accessible health care? Contributing to a cleaner, greener environment? Reductions in property crime?
Here is my reply:
I am firmly of the opinion that the number one, and perhaps the only significant, issue facing society is education. Not just “quality” of education, but re-thinking the entire process. Our existing school paradigm is designed to systematically pound the individuality and creativity out of our children over the course of 12 years. If we remove the constraints, they will solve health, ecology, crime, war, economy, etc. all by themselves.
The very smart people who have made strides in science, sociology, art, diplomacy, etc. have all done so by BREAKING the mold, not working within it. Our existing school model was born during the industrial revolution when what the “machine” needed was a whole crop of identical drones who knew basic math, communications, history, science, etc, so they could become effective cogs in the production complex. That was fine for its time, but that time is over.
Students are already trying to break themselves out of the status quo using Web 2.0 and other social media. But they keep getting dragged back in – you must get good marks so you can get a University degree so you can make good money and afford to send your kids to good schools so they can get good marks so they can get a University degree, and so on. Bullshit.
An extremely courageous parent can change things for their children by home-schooling, but that is still considered “weird.” For ALL children and parents to embrace a new form of education, it has to be publicly sanctioned and publicly funded and become the new normal. For the version of this argument from a smarter man than me, watch this:
Waiting in Traffic
June 24, 2009 — Stephen Brooks
This happens to me almost every time I leave Newark at around the end of the business day, so I presume it happens the majority of the time, at least at that hour. And of course, all of them have to leave their engines running, so they can inch forward when required. I have no idea how much fuel an A340 or 777 uses while “idling” but I presume those big, honkin’ Pratt & Whitneys consume more that your average Prius.
It seems to me that arranging things so that 80 planes aren’t all trying to leave on the same runway at the same time wouldn’t be that difficult. Perhaps I should call Al Gore.
BTW, when I image-googled “planes waiting in line” this was the best shot I could get. They’re mostly 727s, so this shot is probably from c. 1980, but it IS Newark — you can tell from the 5 smokestacks in the background.
