Winter Solstice Name Day 25

Photograph of Stilgherrian, taken March 1981 “Oh, no mate, I wasn’t Stilgherrian until after that was taken. For my student card, so that’d be… March, maybe February. Stilgherrian wasn’t until Winter Solstice…”

25 years ago today!

Daggy photo, eh? Am I scared or was I trying for cool and moody, somehow? Scared, I reckon. I was too nerdy to even know how to look moody, let alone actually achieve a significant level of floppy-haired angst. Now Stephen… now he pulls that off so well. But then he lives in Melbourne, it’s “of the place”.

Sydney doesn’t have the sandstone Victorian for a fully grey, Londonesque, Londonangstridden pout, 30% eye shadow and 70% the precisely-edited slow-motion curl of a designer black trench coat. Not with any genuine sense of ennui, anyway.

Continue reading “Winter Solstice Name Day 25”

Great Techno, and Check My Patch

Deepchild The Solstice begins with a chance pleasure. Extraordinarily fine community broadcaster FBi has just put online the audio and video of “Blackness of the Sea”, a cruisey tune from Deepchild who, as they accurately put it, is “one of Australia’s most respected producers of leftfield dance music”.

Download. Listen. Enjoy. You’ll also see my local patch, because the video was shot in Newtown in Sydney, same postcode as me here in Enmore. I can spot about 50% of the locations so far.

Two Favourite Satires

OK, it’s been ages since I posted something, so to remind everyone that I still exist, here’s two of my current favourite satires.

Panexa: Wonder Drug

Thanks to New Scientist magazine for news of this “important new wonder-drug”:

PANEXA is a prescription drug that should only be taken by patients experiencing one of the following disorders: metabolism, binocular vision, digestion (solid and liquid), circulation, menstruation, cognition, osculation, extremes of emotion.

Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO)

The Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division (DMRD) of Newark, Delaware warns us of “the controversy surrounding this dangerous chemical”.

DHMO is a constituent of many known toxic substances, diseases and disease-causing agents, environmental hazards and can even be lethal to humans in quantities as small as a thimbleful…

Despite the known dangers of DHMO, it continues to be used daily by industry, government, and even in private homes across the U.S. and worldwide.

Fly-Yourself Airlines

No wonder this budget airline is so cheap — it looks like you have to fly it yourself. But hey, it looks like it could be fun…

This poor choice of editorial photography was brought to you by “Cochin”:http://www.cochin.com/ today. Those wacky Indians.

Watch It Shred!

Thirty-seven points for marketing genius to SSI Shredding Systems Inc. Forget features and benefits” [yawns] — all you need to know is that they make machines which can turn three dishwashers into ragged shards in ten seconds.

Marketing Lessons:

  • Before you can talk to someone, you have to attract their attention.
  • To attract attention, trigger an emotional response first. They’ll remember you that way. They’ll come back for the facts when they become relevant because they remembered you.
  • If people think “Wow! Come and look at this!” they’ll tell others.
  • Do it quick! A typical website visitor only looks at one page of your website — two if you’re lucky.

If you’re in Wilsonville, Oregon, please buy these guys a beer.