I Like Vancouver

I’m enjoying Vancouver more and more as I travel there more often for work. Here’s a shot of some of the bridges that connect downtown/west end with the rest of Vancouver. I took a bunch of shots from the float planes as well as some of architecture downtown. Hope you enjoy them. Links to flickr.

Good Business for Virgin

Richard Branson is the latest to jump on Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative train. I think it is only good business for companies like Virgin to be out ahead of important issues.

“We must not be the generation responsible for irreversibly damaging the environment,” said Branson. “We must hand it over to our children in as near pristine condition as we were lent it from our parents.

Branson is a former climate change skeptic that has been converted.

“I used to be skeptical of global warming, but now I’m absolutely convinced that the world is spiraling out of control,” Branson told the magazine. “CO2 is like a bushfire that gets bigger and bigger every year.”

Why can’t politicians lead like this? Because the current strategy in politics is to practice wedge-driving. One of the key semantic wedges right now in the US is the “blame america first” wedge, which climate change activists are always labelled with.

The world is waking up to this issue. Too bad the US government is still administering sleeping pills.

The Power of Language

This summer I have spent a lot of time with images. Today I am reminded of the power of language by a story about Ernest Hemmingway. Challenged to write a six word story he produced the following:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

I need to get back to my writing.

Dylan at #1

For my friend Jane…Bob Dylan’s new record Modern Times hit number one September 7, 2006. This is Dylan’s first number one in 30 years. In honor of this, I give you these Dylan lyrics:

It’s Alright, Ma (i’m only Bleeding)

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool’s gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.

[Read more]

How America Works

ABC is about to unleash a potent tonic for the popular consciousness of America. “The Path to 9/11″ is billed by ABC as a “dramatization” of the events that led to the horrendous attacks on New York.

Problem is, things like 9/11 don’t need to be dramatized. They are dramatic enough already. Dramatizing such an event smacks of fascism. There is a public record on 9/11 called the 9/11 Commission Report. We don’t need ABC to help “clarify” things.

It begs the question of why anyone would want to go in and push those still raw buttons. Exploitation for profit is one reason. The viewership should be huge. However, I am no longer skeptical when someone suggests bald-faced manipulation of popular consciousness. It happens all the time. It happens in many ways, including the trumping up of reasons to go to war.

From early reports, it will serve the Republicans well, putting blame for 9/11 at the feet of Clinton and Clinton administration officials. This is a travesty. With flagging support on all fronts, the GOP needs help badly, and 9/11 has always been their go-to meme.

So the current American Leni Riefenstahl - the Walt Disney Company - is brought in to the mix to set right the popular consciousness. And we have all heard the rumors about Walt.

The German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, whose documentaries in the mid-30s had helped to glorify the Nazis, claimed that “after Kristallnacht [1938], she approached every studio in Hollywood looking for work. No studio head would even screen her movies except Walt Disney. He told her he admired her work but if it became known that he was considering hiring her, it would damage his reputation.”

More people will see and talk about this series than any political debate or policy pamphlet. TV is what drives America. TV is how America works. TV is grafted into the substructure of the American Mind. It is the steering wheel. The control panel. And ABC and firends are about to take the helm for a bit.

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