a unique perspective on this crazy world

keeping up with the consumer…

September 9, 2012

This week I was walking through the flagship Sears store on Robson street and it was kind of depressing.  I had noticed a while ago the “going out of business” signs.  I thought it was just that location but I gather Sears is in trouble.

It does seem to have lost its way.  I guess it’s likely run by a bunch of old, white guys… let me check… no pics on the investors web page – but those names are not ethnic!  And nary a girl name among them.  So I bet they didn’t see H&M and Zara coming to eat their lunch… and they didn’t realize maybe they should take a page out of Target’s book and learn how to be a bit cooler…

My current shoe collection would suggest otherwise but almost my entire childhood wardrobe came from Sears – unless my mom sewed it herself.  The kids nowadays have no idea how much the world has changed in their favour.  And it has benefited a lot of people.

It is really cheap to be a fashionista in the 21st century.  And that is a wonderful thing.  I look back at pictures of me from the 70s and I just cringe.  But I didn’t know any better 🙂  There was no MTV, let alone fashion bloggers and websites posting photos of the latest designer collections a few hours after they hit the runway.

We may not have achieved as much political democracy as we might have hoped for but we have democratized fashion in a way that can only be a force for good for the human race.

Sure, fashion is silly.  And one shouldn’t get too caught up in it.  But fashion is also political.  Just ask a woman wearing a burqa in 40 degree Celsius heat.

Fashion is especially political for women.  And the politics take many forms.  My first job was on Bay Street (the Canadian equivalent of Wall Street).  It was a big deal.  I came from a small town on the Canadian prairie and Toronto was the big smoke.  And Bay Street.  It was the culmination of so many of the things my dad had taught me.

Including how to be a rebel 😉  Only recently I would go to clients and see the exposed thongs of the young female staff members (really a don’t, ladies! 🙂  But back in the 80s there were very few women in business and the tiny minority had decided that dressing like the boys would be the key to their ascent up the ladder.  The more conservative the profession, the tougher the rules.

At least we didn’t have to worry our costume would obscure our peripheral vision but it was pretty strict.  Only dull colours, no pants, hosiery non-optional, sensible pumps preferred and – the worst part – a floppy bow scarf thing around your neck in place of a necktie.

In those days in my private time I dressed like a pseudo-punk so, needless to say, the dress code (and many companies had written ones back then) made me crazy.  So I wore pants.  I was the only woman who did.  What was most amusing was that when I pointed that out to male colleagues they were surprised.  Only the women cared – and noticed.  I think the guys just looked at your ass – and if it was good, what you covered it with didn’t matter very much…  I also wore boy’s neckties in place of the cursed floppy bow… if we were supposed to dress  like boys, why not do it right?  I think it was sexier.  I got a lot of compliments from guys on my ties 🙂  And – a harbinger of my future identity – I wore shoes as funky as I thought I could get away with.

And – in my first performance review – the female partner I reported to (who dressed like a butch lesbian) called me out on my dress.  She told me I dressed “too mod”.  I think I wasn’t too cheeky but unfortunately she gave me a story for life… “too mod”… what is “too mod”???  I’m still not really sure.  I think she was just saying I had a personality and the style sense to express it.  And the firm did not approve. 

I always cheer a little when I see some cool shoes poking out under a burqua 😉  Maybe if Sears had some cross-dressers on its board, its business would be better.  Fashion may be frivolous but it has also always been political.  It has been a reflection of the times, of the social mores and of the religious state of all the nations that comprise the world.

And the world is changing, people.  It’s not all good.  It never is.  But there is definitely some good things happening out there.  And fashion is a mirror to what’s going on.  So what’s it telling us…

Fashion is being produced where the labour rates are lowest.  Bad for developed countries but great for developing ones.  It’s forcing people to acquire actual skills the marketplace wants in order to get a paycheque.  It’s supplying paycheques to lots of people (especially women) in lots of countries where that was not a possibility even twenty years ago.

It’s made clothes cheap.  So everyone can express themselves.  And look good.  And acquire the self-esteem that comes from that.

It’s opened up new markets and made it not such a big deal to have an Asian or African model sell clothes to white people.  And – more importantly – to be a mirror for their own people so that they can visualize themselves in the clothes.

I feel some nostalgia walking through the now almost empty Sears store.  It used to be the flagship Eatons store before they also forgot about the consumer.  I bought almost everything at that Eatons store.  And it was one of my first audits so I counted inventory there so many times I could direct people to departments better than almost any of the staff members 🙂

When I was a child my dad was always buying properties and we would be going through old abandoned houses cleaning up.  One of my strongest memories was the old catalogues from Eatons and Sears.  That was how people bought things on the Canadian prairie back in the early days of the twentieth century.

That’s the thing with consumers.  They always think they are moving forward and what they are doing has never been done before.  But the internet is the new Sears catalogue.  Nowadays people all over the world buy things in the same way a 20th century farmer without access to a shopping mall would.  Sears coulda been Amazon… if only they hadn’t been asleep at the wheel…

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more jobs… fewer snakes…

September 8, 2012

I was too sleepy to write this post last night while I was watching Jon Stewart skewer politicians but this was one of his memorable quotes.

If the context seems a little hard to grasp, well, that is part of the message.  The reference was to the vague quality of the Republican candidates plans for the economy and the future of the country.

The statement above refers to Mitt Romney’s plea for more jobs.  Since he hasn’t the supplied the details as to how he plans to get those jobs, Jon quipped that the Republican platform reads like a letter to Santa Claus.  Most people would also ask Santa for fewer snakes…

While making fun of Republicans is a form of sport for Jon (like shooting guns at moving targets is for Republican NRA members), the digs at Mitt’s lack of details on how to create those jobs was juxtaposed with a Bill Clinton talkin’ about arithmetic.

Nothing warms my heart more than a man who says “do the math.”   I think that’s why I am always falling for brainiac engineers 🙂

I realize most people hate math.  I love math.  But I also love logic.  And facts.  And apparently I like Bill Clinton a lot more than I realized 🙂

I was working every minute or living overseas when Clinton was President so I really didn’t know enough about what he was doing to have an opinion.  But his moral compass seemed a bit questionable and I had just assumed he was swarmy and unimpressive.

But I gotta say I was impressed!  Bill’s charm is totally lost on me.  He’s the dude I would leave sitting at the bar after I had excused myself to the bathroom and then snuck out when he wasn’t looking…  But he is smart!  And one of the best politicians in modern history.

Bill actually talked facts!  He quoted numbers.  He made the Republicans look like ill-informed jerks.  And I am pretty neutral.  I don’t get to vote for the President.  And I think the United States of America would be a far better country if they knew how to count in Florida and Gore had put  Bush into the place in history he really deserved.

Being part of the nerdy minority who thinks intelligence, honour and compassion are the critical elements to a civilization and the tenets to which every citizen should strive, it is painful to watch the Fox News clips on The Daily Show.  I really should have brought that up with Rupert when we were in the same elevator… but he hadn’t created that atrocity yet…

What is more sexy than a smart guy with a big vocabulary – who actually knows how to use those words properly in a sentence? 😉  God bless Jon Stewart.  He gives me faith that there is still intelligent life in the USA.  I fall in love with him a little more all the time.  Don’t tell his wife 😉  But watch him!  Shockingly, you will actually learn stuff.  And he will make it fun.  That’s why he has all those Emmys 🙂

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life philosophy, shining examples, social commentary

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when in doubt, play YMCA ;)

September 3, 2012

You may be hoping I have given up this silly venture to put my thoughts into cyberspace but, sadly for you, I keep having thoughts 🙂  My work life has just gone into overdrive so finding the time to commit them to bytes is in short supply.  The thoughts have been serious lately so I decided we would go more whimsical with a post that has been in my head for a while now.

My mom’s 70th birthday is now in the recent past.  As mentioned earlier, I am obsessed with music so spent many hours creating a soundtrack of my life for my recent milestone birthday.  During the process I told her I would do the same for her 70th.

A totally different soundtrack focused on the only period of her life when she was really into music, her teen years.  It’s the norm for most people.  People like me who can even impress a 20 year old with a new band recommendation s/he hasn’t heard of are the outliers.  But since music is one of my passions I can customize a soundtrack for almost anyone.  So to the 50’s and jive we went…

Contrary to my own musical taste, I even let her have Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson.  To her credit, also the Everly Brothers.  Neither of my parents was really into music so, when I was a child, my parents owned four albums – The Everly Brothers, Pat Boone, The Mills Brothers and Bing Crosby singing Christmas carols.  I know all the words to Mele Kalikimaka – Bing Crosby’s ode to a Hawaiian Christmas – look it up on the internet 😉

Luckily my maternal grandmother had a much broader range of musical interests – and even owned an electric organ!  So I got to hear a few other artists in my youth.  In general, though, my musical education didn’t begin until I hit university and the big city.

It is really thanks to Mike that I know how to design a soundtrack.  He showed me what the good stuff sounded like, added the colour of the stories of the performers and turned me on to lyrics and musical inspiration.

He was also the dude who refused to dance to WHAM – at the height of their glory.

Both viewpoints taught me a lot.  Mostly he taught me how to appreciate music, especially musical skills and genuine originality.  But his snobbery also taught me that it’s OK to get down with the masses sometimes.  And a crowd-pleasing soundtrack will likely include a few things that might make you cringe a little 😉

I always try to err on the side of the popular but not cringe inducing… how YMCA made it onto my mom’s birthday soundtrack.  It’s a song that will get people on the dance floor… and it even transcends nations as I discovered when the Egyptian guys knew the moves far better than me!

And my mom’s birthday helped introduce yet another generation to this “get the party started” classic…

I just assumed I would get a couple of people on the dance floor – if they weren’t already there 🙂  And a couple of adults would know at least some of the moves.  But it ended up being a big hit.  The ladies were almost as good as the Egyptian guys.  If I could have time-travelled and put them all together, it would have been outstanding.

But my mom’s birthday offered its own special entertainment courtesy of Kylie.

My mother’s birthday bash offered all sorts of entertainment, including a few live acts.  I was busy trying to take a few photos so she would have some mementos.  Someone pointed out to me what was happening on the dance floor since I had my camera focused on the stage.  There were two under 10s at the party.  Normally one would have expected them to be bored out of their mind.  But they both proved to be fascinating kids and they managed to sort of bond during the party and provide a complete floorshow in tandem with the musicians on stage.

Unfortunately Isaac had to go home but Kylie was able to stay.  And she LOVED YMCA!  So we had to play it at least three times while the older ladies taught her the moves.  So the torch has been passed to a new generation 😉

It was a fun night but what most resonated with me was the power of music.  To promote social interaction.  To inspire social change.  And to just help us celebrate being human – and define our own identity.  I may be tone deaf but I still love music and think it is one of those few human endeavors that is so often a medium for good.  You might wanna think about that, Republicans.  Ted Nugent?  Seriously???

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artsy stuff, life philosophy

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money makes the world go round

August 30, 2012

Money gets a really bad rap.  The root of all evil?  I thought that was overly religious Republicans… or the crazy Muslims who thinks Jihad is a good idea.  There is no shortage of crazy, evil ideas – and people with access to guns or explosives – in the 21st century.  So money – be it in the form of cold, hard paper currency or even colder and harder gold – seems benign by comparison.

And money has done at least as much good for the world as modern medicine or the enlightenment.  So says Niall Ferguson in “The Ascent of Money”.  Nothing makes my heart beat faster than a smart guy who combines great articulation with a reverence for facts.  Both sadly too easily fluffed over in the 21st century where anything over 200 characters is deemed too hard.  What happened to the idea that we have BIG brains, not small ones?

And those who exercise their brains in the same way Olympic athletes with great abs do will appreciate that money is not inherently evil.  It really is the stuff that makes the world go round and is a greater force for potential good than almost anything else.

But it is also the currency of the Antichrist… so you gotta think about how you are accumulating and spending those dollars, whatever their format.

I am a big proponent of the concept of money as a force for good.  And even more important than money is markets.  And jobs.  But none of them exist without money.

Money.  Risk.  Markets.  They drive our daily life.  But most people yawn when they hear any of those words.  People in the developed world yawn.  But people in the developing  world may not be able to articulate the words, especially in English, but they have a much more personal feeling about what they mean.

One of the travel experiences I know I will never forget happened last year in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.  It is one of the most spectacular geological formations on earth and chock-a-block with the closest thing to tame wild animals.  You still shouldn’t pet the lions – but the animals will mostly not run away.

Just being there would have been enough but since I was travelling alone I had spent the previous evening having dinner with our ranger Alex so we were chatting when we stopped for lunch amid all the other tourist vehicles.  He had been reconnecting with friends and it was a familiar scene in an unusual setting.  Because we had become more friends than ranger/tourist by that point, he introduced me to his friends and noted how happy everyone was and how fun it was to catch up… because they had jobs.

There has been lots of talk about unemployment in the developed world over the past few years – and I have been there so I know how it feels.  But unemployment when you have been born into the privileged part of the world and unemployment when you have been born into a part of the world where having a good job is like winning the lottery are totally different things.

When I was in Tanzania, I travelled with &Beyond and I would encourage everyone to do a trip with them.  I have never encountered an organization that gave capitalism such a great name.  They make a profit.  They are well organized.  Their employees love them.  They give back to the community via a foundation that does everything right.

http://www.andbeyond.com/

Money is not evil.  Only people are.  So use your money to make the world a better place.  Think when you spend.  Help to create markets that make the world a better place.  Read Niall’s book.  He is a fantastic writer.  The book is subtitled “A Financial History of the World.” 

A bit ambitious?  Without question.  The message that I took away was how important finance has been to human development.  Just ask a gorilla to break a twenty dollar bill 🙂   But what I think we all need to embrace is how we as individuals can create jobs, markets and world prosperity every time we leave the house – or go on-line to buy something.

Money can make the world a better place.  Finance matters.  Money can be evil.  Money can buy guns, slaves and votes.  But money can be used for microfinance loans, for medicine and for education.  In the developed world we are all rich people by world standards – what kind of rich person do you want to be?  Let your spending reflect your conscience.

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my dark days with Ayn Rand ;)

I am working my ass off right now.  Ayn Rand would be proud 🙂   And, yes Republicans, I built it!  Really truly.  Not the infrastructure, including the highly subsidized education that got me here, you morons, but I am FAR more impressive than Mitt or Paul… of course that great education I got was mostly courtesy of the phenomenal world changing conception invented by the Scots I believe of making free public education available to the masses.

And the scrappy side of my family who taught me to question everything.  I should be in bed but Jon Stewart is at the Republican convention and he has rarely been more brilliant.  My brain is on fire from watching television.  Who would have thunk it?

How I am back thinking about Ayn Rand.  It’s been decades…  I am not sure if you know about Ayn Rand.  She was a crazy Russian novelist who had been through the Russian Revolution as part of the displaced bourgeois.  Seems fair she ended up an atheist elitist who hated government.

I have always been a voracious reader, one of those strange people who stressed out at a young age when they realized they would NOT be able to read ALL the books in the library!  So instead I had to try and figure out what I should be reading.  I asked my twelfth grade English teacher for a list of books to read.  And she was the one who told me to read Ayn Rand.

Being young, impressionable and fairly conservative, Objectivism initially seemed attractive.  And I was fairly bright and inordinately ambitious.  Which is how I built it.  A successful consulting practice soon to go into its tenth year.  It’s all me.  No daddy money.  No mentors.  Not even a country club membership.

But I wasn’t always so smart.  I remember meeting some cute guy on a beach in Bermuda and he said some stuff and I knew he was quoting Ayn Rand and it was a bonding moment.

Thank god I got over it.  I am not proud of my Ayn Rand days.  Unlike the Republican caucus.  I am really grateful to my father.  He always talked very conservative and I know I leaned that way because I idolized him and thought he was very worldly and smart.  But, because I thought that, when he started questioning my right wing ideas, I really took notice.

And moved toward the center.  My mom and I were just talking about what a Canadian patriot he was.  And the more I watch American politics, the more proud – and relieved – I am of being Canadian.  We do need to pay attention though.  We hear their rhetoric too often and it’s easy to be seduced.

Like people are seduced by Ayn Rand.  Personally I think “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged” are good reads.  Especially when you are young and impressionable.  But, thanks to my dad, even when I read them the first time, the critical reader in me was always in debate with the author.

Sure, it’s good to promote ambition instead of laziness.  Government can get out of control and is not inherently good.  But neither are rich people.  OMG, I am just learning why Stewart and Colbert have been talking about Ayn Rand so much and bringing up my fond memories of using “Atlas Shrugged” as a pretense to make out on a beach in Bermuda.

Paul Ryan’s views are far more scary!  And obviously he IS an idiot.  I thought his economic policies made it obvious already – but apparently he didn’t realize Ayn Rand was an atheist.  Seriously, dude?  He makes his staff read the novels anyway… some kind of sneaky Republican diluted, confused, pretending to be intellectual message… read this – but only take note of part of the message… sounds pretty Republican to me 🙂

Remember – government builds infrastructure.  Education is good.  A great education that actually teaches you to think rationally is even better.  So you can tell Ayn Rand to go to hell – altruism is good, you bitch.  Selfishness and unregulated capitalism are what’s gonna take us down.  And she is dead, having been born in likely the greatest capitalist economic sweet spot in the history of mankind, so why would she care…

Colbert is just interviewing an Ayn Rand expert.  Gotta love these boys.  Some of the stuff Ayn Rand said wasn’t bullshit.  Self reliance is good.  Mixing religion and politics is bad.  Apparently just before she died she denounced Reagan for bringing religion into politics.  So she would slug Paul Ryan.  And Mitt Romney?  She must be rolling in her grave!  That’s what you get for promoting crap values and trying to bring the world down, lady.  But thanks for the make out session on the beach in Bermuda – it was cinematic 😉

And Republicans…  Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert – and all their viewers – love you.  Keep talking crap!  As Jon so brilliantly showcased tonight, you dudes sound like Charlie Sheen.  SERIOUSLY???  I know The Expendables 2 will likely play better in foreign markets and exporting your “culture” seems to be on track, but people, you are electing the most powerful man in the world.  He should be someone the rest of the world is in awe of, not a gift to smart comedians.  If only Jon Stewart would run for President…

But first you would have to build the infrastructure to educate enough people to actually understand what he says… it’s brilliant…

http://www.thecomedynetwork.ca/Shows/TheDailyShow

Everyone with a brain should watch tonight’s episode.  It will make you feel better about the world, if only fleetingly 😉

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shaping a generation

August 26, 2012

I can remember watching the moon landing as a little kid – on colour TV because my father was always extravagant about appliances.  We were the first in the neighborhood to have one.  It did make the whole adventure even more surreal.  At that age, you have only just stopped believing the moon is made of green cheese so it was almost like a fairy story.

And at the time it seemed like a fairytale to everyone.  It’s hard to believe in the days this message I am typing will be broadcast to the entire world in a matter of minutes all via the magic wizards of the internet.  In my mom’s generation, talking about putting a man on the moon sounded like crazy talk.

My mom is only a generation younger than Neil Armstrong.  I heard he died last night and he had always seemed an impressive kind of guy so I read an article about him this morning.  And was not disappointed.

In one of the world’s greatest ironic moments, the box to click on his story was sitting right next to a box about Snooki.  She had a baby apparently.  WHY does anyone care?

It got me thinking about generations.  It’s a subject that interests me a lot.  It all began when I read a magazine article a couple of decades ago that talked about the impact the generation you are born into has on your life.  I am often lumped in with the “Baby Boomers” statistically.  I think they were the first to ever get a “generation title”.

So the sociology of the Baby Boomers always seems a little suspect to me.  I would say a generation is about a decade.  Maybe you don’t cut it off precisely at ten years but, give or take a few years, that is a period of time in which the members will have the same types of life experiences and a shared identity.  Yet somehow Baby Boomers  run from those born in 1946 to those born in 1964.  Eighteen years!  So the earliest baby boomers can be PARENTS of the same generation?  That just doesn’t make sense, people!

I think it means those are the post-war years in the United States where there were a lot of babies born compared to the years before.  It points out a lot of interesting facts about generations and the people who define them.  I lived in Europe for a few years and my biggest shock was going to some of the places devastated by two world wars and seeing photos of the rubble that had been in the place I was standing in 1945.  Most parts of the world were too busy re-building or too poor to be too focused on birthing a bunch of children  spoiled enough to take some of the worst traits of the second generation of wealth and apply them to an entire country.

To be born in the 1940s or early 1950s in North America.  It was as though almost everyone was a second generation Rockefeller.  The ground had been laid.  Jobs were easy to find.  The middle class was healthy.  North Americans still seemed to think there was a place in the world for literacy.  It was a glorious time.  But, as all the children of privilege who end up dead from a cocaine overdose could tell you, having it too easy doesn’t always work out so well in the end.  It ends up in things like Snooki…

I think one of the biggest insults you could do to Neil Armstrong is to put his photo next to Snooki’s!  Neil was born in 1930.  I checked my facts and technically he was too young to be part of Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation.”  But that’s the thing with generations.  We are all part of one.  And will be labeled whether we like it or not.  And we will be influenced by the economy and culture into which we are born.  It is an inevitable fact of life.  But how we respond – and what we do to improve the image of whatever generations we might get lumped into – is up to us as individuals.

I am sure there will be more talk of generations.  Certainly there will be more talk of economics and culture.  There is more to be said about the “greatest generation.”  But the real lesson we should be learning is that it shouldn’t take strife, hardship and deprivation – and a lot of dead people – to make us act better.  But humans are pretty stupid animals despite our oversize brains so it does seem that we aren’t so good at doing the right thing until we are forced into a corner.

That’s what really impressed me about Neil Armstrong.  He was famous!  Possibly more famous than Prince Harry.  Prince Harry would be wise to take a few tips from him 🙂  Not too many people’s sentences are so famous random people all over the world likely know what you said verbatim.

But he cared about space, about science and engineering, about his country, about his integrity.  He didn’t sell his soul to become a pitchman to make a ton of money off his fame.  He quit signing autographs so people wouldn’t use them for the wrong purpose and gave money to charity when he made a quick buck off something stupid (and made other people do the same).  He finally had a biography published but thought long and hard about who would write it.

He used his fame when he thought it could do good, making public statements protesting the dismantling of the US space program.   It is a little sad that the United States has become such a crass, materialistic place that this level of integrity by someone who could have so easily exploited his fame (Michael Phelps, you might want to take note 🙂 is almost as impressive and rare as the first man on the moon.

Current generation – think about it.  Your generation will be defined by the collective impression left by all its various members.  The more of you who take Neil Armstrong as your role model, the better your rep.

Your parents’ generation comes off as self-indulgent, narcissistic and materialist.  So, hey, the bar is REALLY low.  I see some of you spouting off in the comments section on the internet.  Make sure you spend at least as much time in the real world, finding things you believe in, doing something important with your lives –  and learning some grammar.

The opinions of people who sound smart  and know how to put together a grammatically correct sentence that incorporates facts carry a lot more weight.  “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”  So much more impressive, inspiring and memorable than “WTF” 😉  And people even worry whether he said the “a”… one giant leap for literacy 🙂

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apparently white guys can’t run either ☺

August 12, 2012

Long ago there was a forgettable film called (I think 😉 “White Men Can’t Jump”.  Based on the results of the 2012 Olympics, it would appear they also can’t run!  But how wonderful is that for the world.  How magnificent that Africa – and tiny countries like Jamaica – can kick the butt of world superpowers?

And a kid born in Somalia whose parents came to Great Britain for a better life can be one of the great heroes of London 2012… and Olympic history.

I guess I’m not the only one that thinks “Imagine” should be the theme song of the Olympics.  What a start to the music celebration.  But, seriously, a middle-aged George Michael getting so much air time?  “Imagine” one of the greatest pop songs ever written.  “Freedom” just a catchy riff.  But Madness, Kate Bush, the Kaiser Chiefs singing The Who… better than average.  But where IS Bowie?

And The Spice Girls???  Have you lost your mind???  Did Beckham pay for this???  Not a great song – and they were one of the low points of Britpop.  I thought only 10 year old girls coming of age in the early 90’s cared.  A LOW LOW point Team GB.  You are SO much better than the Spice Girls.  Have you all gone insane???  I feel slimed.

GB, you NEED the immigrants!  Now Oasis???  The blowhards of the same period… who are kinda butchering their own song (cause only ONE brother will play?).  I saw these dudes twice in concert.  The first and second album.  Pre fame.  The first time they were OK but had no stage presence.  The second time they marched off stage around song two and getting a refund proved traumatic.  They dissed each other in the press – even though they were FAMILY.  Wankers all the way.  This is the image you want the world to have of you???

Where the hell is Danny Boyle?

But Monty Python… saving the day 🙂  But where is John Cleese?

Good job with Annie Lenox on a slave ship.  British theatre and music co-mingling in a world class way.

Speaking of world class and African guys who can run… how wonderful the marathon runners get their medals at the closing ceremonies.  And two beaming guys from Kenya.  And an upset gold medal from Uganda!  I like the underdogs and the surprises so how exciting.  A country that doesn’t medal, an unexpected winner.  In the best spirit of the Olympics.  He will never be as famous as Usain Bolt.  But he got his at least three minutes of fame.  And if you come from Uganda, that has got to be a bit surreal…  Congratulations, Stephen Kiprotich, Uganda’s second gold medal ever!

The British music party is fun.  And as a long time fan of British music who recognizes all the tunes it is lovely but what I really hope for the world is not more great pop songs – but more real Olympic spirit.

The Olympics these days are so much about cash – and the security budget for less than three weeks of non-stop coverage by the lucky networks that have the rights could power some small countries for a year.

The spectacles are fun.  And I am watching along with likely a billion other people.  But what I will take away from the 2012 Olympics games are the wins by nations or athletes who are not white or from countries with lots of bucks (or at least ones who can sustain a huge debt!)

Let’s hope that the fact that apparently white men don’t run very fast on a world scale will encourage us to all join together, mix gene pools and unite the world in some shade of brown – be it beige, tan or chocolate – that will prove that multiculturalism works… and that John Lennon wasn’t delusional after all…

“just imagine”…

it is the starting point.  And not impossible at all.  But also not easy.  So we will need a lot more than flashy spectacle.  It won’t be Twitter that changes the world – but the hard thought and planning of 18th century philosophers…

Congratulations to Team GB, the city of London and all the international athletes who made it such a spectacular show!

p.s. I am due to depart for London mid-September so will be interesting to see the mood of post-Olympics London (I will be reporting in my non-official capacity 😉

p.p.s. thank god for Roger Daltrey!  The senior citizen makes sure it doesn’t end on a lame note.  “My Generation” speaks a little bit to the Olympics.  But not at all in the same way as “Imagine”.  And where are all the myriad multimillionaires of Britpop?  Obviously they are either too greedy – or don’t care about sport?  The divide is wide.  I am one of those rare weirdos who appreciates equally a great sporting performance and a great cultural performance.  But normally the twain do not meet.  So the spectacles of the Olympics that should be celebrating a country’s culture fall flat with the likes of me.  But The Who far surpass a lame Sir Paul… and likely one of the best closing moments of an Olympics.  Brazil – whattayagot?  It might be spectacular 😉

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