The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 29,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 11 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
While meandering around Brighton this afternoon I came across Games Workshop in Meeting House Lane. There was a bit of a stur inside so I went in to take a look. It seems that they have been running a war games campaign for the last month or so and one of the final games was taking place. A large table stood in the center of the shop laden with various science fiction themed war game paraphernalia. It seemed to me that there were around three people on each side. They discussed tactics, referred to thick manuals and measured blast radii. I hadn’t realised there was so much to it.
Games Workshop
Buy Art Photography by Nigel Chaloner
Smiling Dog
Opinionated, contrary, independent, insightful, brave, intelligent, iconoclastic. It is absurd for me to even attempt to summarise the life of Christopher Hitchens who died yesterday of oesophageal cancer. He was 62.
Christopher Hitchens
Club Euro
It’s amazing the way the narrative of the European Union has changed over the last few days. For months economists have correctly predicted each successive domino which will fall if the leaders do not take decisive action and each time European leaders have failed. Greece, then Italy an now catastrophe is knocking at the door of France.
Yet, since the EU meeting where David Cameron vetoed changes to the EU treaty, the media is reporting that Britain is now locked out of EU decisions making as if the leaders of the EU have shown themselves capable of making decisions. As if the Euro area problems had been solved and the Euro become a beacon of stability.
The agreement by the leaders of the Euro areas last week intends to limit budget deficits by imposing penalties on governments which break the rules. Yet, to quote the Financial Times on the 6th December 2011:
“..which two countries first broke the rule that deficits should not go above 3 per cent of GDP? It was France and Germany, back in 2003. What’s more, the two then united to make sure that they wouldn’t face sanctions for doing so – effectively destroying the rules (known as the “growth and stability pact”) altogether.”
It is not surprising that sanctions were not imposed and will not be imposed in future when you consider the circumstances in which a country runs an excessive deficit. When a country is short of money they are unlikely to cough up more money in fines to the EU.
Last week the Euro area stood on a precipice waiting to drag the world into oblivion. This week the UK has supposedly been snubbed by the best club in the world and the Euro crisis has evaporated into thin air.
The reality is that the press love hyperbole. It is unlikely that the Euro crisis will be the end of civilisation. Probably the saga will just drag on and on for a few years until something else becomes more important. Equally it is unlikely that Europe will power ahead leaving the British behind.
It may not make such great headlines but gloomy mundanity is a more likely prediction for the immediate future.
Artwork of Nigel Chaloner at Fine Art America
Looks like the RNLI were practising off of Hove this morning. A rib stood by while a helicopter dangled a bloke on a rope and tried to fish another out of the water. A bit chilly for such activities if you ask me.
Helicopter
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Art Photography
Black Mirror
Tags: consumerism, advertising, Science Fiction, the system, Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker, dystopia, 15 Million Merits
Black Mirror
Last Sunday (11th December 2011) I watched the second program in the series Black Mirror on Channel 4. I’d seen a bit of a buzz about Black Mirror on Twitter but refused to get lured in. Partly this may have been because it was created by Charlie Brooker and I have ambivalent opinions of Mr. Brooker. Yes, he is funny and can be quite sharp but I’ve sometimes thought his antics a bit contrived.
Sunday’s episode was entitled 15 Million Merits and portrayed a society where people are doomed to spend their lives either sitting in cubicles playing dumb video games, watching dumb TV and cycling on treadmills to produce electricity to run the videos and TV.
In this world, nothing is physical. The screens cover entire walls, floors and ceilings. People who are overweight occupy a lower class and wander around cleaning up after the game players. Each player gains credits and may use these to dismiss advertisements or collect their credits for a chance to audition for a X-factor style show and potentiality become famous and escape the treadmill. One guy decides to try and make a difference and, by threatening suicide at an audition, is allowed to rage against the machine on prime time TV. The inevitable result is that he impresses the panel with his passion and is employed to rage away twice a week on a video channel.
A pretty obvious reflection of western society as it is today. Overdone for effect but nonetheless fairly literal. Even the rebel who is absorbed into the system is a well understood phenomena and we’ve seen this again and again from Mick Jagger’s knighthood to Bryan Ferry’s adverts for Marks and Spencer.
However, I was impressed with Black Mirror, not so much for it’s originality, but because it restated the ideas in stark and contemporary terms. It’s storyline was tight and without needless decoration. It is all too easy in consumerist society to be drawn in by the hype. We consider we are being ironic but slowly slowly we start to believe the hype. Slowly we think we really NEED a 4 by 4. Slowly we start to doubt our ideals. Perhaps we’re just out of touch. Perhaps the winners of X-Factor are real artists? Perhaps Deal or No Deal is an engaging game show.
The prediction of Science Fiction are never true but what good Science Fiction does is to hold up a mirror to our civilisation and show us the absurdity of our lives. The world of Black Mirror is not in our immediate future yet it is close enough in many respects to remind us that we are all being duped. Mr. Brooker has produced a fantastic piece of television, in this episode at least, and I look froward to next Sunday’s program.
Star House
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