you have not been here

one of the coolest places i hang out on the web is http://www.blogotheque.net/, be it in french there is much for anglophonia. one of my favorites is Bon Iver playing in front of the moose. their song flume is insane and i dont just say that because 1 of the three readers of this blog is from the US. i say it because bon iver is has got it- the pain the suffering the haunting all the elements of a song. i guess there i sno need to mention johnny flynn. check it out you will hammer the site day in and day out.

dont miss margaret and the nuclear so so's

good night and good luck

where are we

I find that through my daily readings that we are lost, that i am particularly lost.  I am specifically referring to economies and cultures. 

We have little to no understanding to the connection between the current state of our culture and its impact, in both directions, on the economy. Consumers are inundated with advertisements proclaiming steep markdowns. This creates a sense of urgency for the consumer. I believe that advertisers and marketing agents are attempting to create a false sense of urgency through sensory overload. The link to culture is we are in all self aggrandizing purchase and consume mode that feeds insatiable emptiness with two important commodities; information and consumer goods.

Information being relatively cheap and consumer goods appearing to be relatively cheep. The linkeage to the economy is that if not for the current state of the culture there might not be a current economic meltdown. I sense that the economic meltdown is much,much more drastic and catastrophic then current media reporting allows us to believe. understanding the derivatives market and short selling proves too daunting a task for me but just my initial forays into these areas spin off a whole host of other data points. 

There is much more to the story and i sense that the market turmoil has only just begun and the stimulus packages and bailouts might not be the best course of action. we need to understand the culture of the economy first before we offer a solution. It is difficult to support billions from my government and trillions from other governments to prop this problem up. We are doing nothing in the way of understanding the pysche of the economy. Is it possible that we need to stimulate the culture in order to stimulate the economy. think about it is it possible that motivating and stimulating 20 million culterites could solve many of the crisi facing civilization now or should we stimulate the aspect of our lives that is doing the most harm to us, that is robbing us of our communities, that are driving downwards culture and art, reducing human intellect to hours in a day, that are creating commute parents that are minimising the importance of values and ethics.

This is not to say that there are not important stimulus packages for the economy, just that we have forgotten that there is a much large problem on the horizon if we choose only to stimulate the economy.

spirit

I was asked a while back what i was a force for, in other words what do i stand for. I chose 'spirit' as it is a word with so many meanings. I had a close friend along time ago talk to me about the importance of spirit, while at the time i was a bit lost and out of touch with my own spirit what this friend said is now ringing in my ears.

The word spirit, for me , comprises both the theological and metaphysical sense. There can not just be one side to spirit. it develops over time and is influenced by early childhood learnings. Complex isn't it. Spirit in the workplace makes real all the vlaues and ethics that are perhaps a bit too plastic to chew on. it also brings forward your reason to live.

what does spirit mean to you?

manufactured landscapes

Manufactured landscapes is a movie about humanities insane ability to deconstruct our surroundings. The pictographs and its symbolism is too much for gravity. On a recent trip to Fort McMurray Alberta, Canada, I was quickly reminded of the enormity of our footprint. I witnessed earth moving machines that run 24-7-365. I viewed surveillance (how fitting) of large scissor like stone earth crushing turbines that revolve continuously. I was transported through this terrain on one of 900 buses in the booming town of Fort McMurray. While I did not get a chance to converse much with average folk, one even wonders what it means to be average in a town of transient wealth seeking individuals. I was inundated with images of destruction and uncommon violence of which I have never bore witness to. All this for the sake of fuelling a machine. Our economy and our economic future are tightly coupled to this town and there is little if any federal government presence.

The people are extremely energetic and spirited. there is a particular rhythm in town and nonsensical devotion to a singular mantra 'this has never been done before'. they appear to be correct there are no case studies on a boom of such proportions. They are 'going it alone'.

They are an ingenious crowd and one can not help but become a bit jealous of their progressive stance. I even thought about moving there as not to miss this boom, not from an economic sense but from an egotistically front. I did not want to miss out on this unique experience. A new frontier is shaping itself by its own accord and it is manufacturing a new landscape, whether or not we have the stomach for this new landscape is another question. I suspect that other parts of Canada, perhaps even sleepy Ottawa might start to take more notice.

a small portion from the book 'Propaganda Cafe'

The staircase needed painting, he knew that. But so did many other things. Where would one start. You would have to paint the entire place. No use to have some floors bright, clean and new, when others had the scuff marks of a thousand soldiers. In fact this house might have been owned by soldiers during the civil war. The middle portion of each step had been worn down to a perfect bevel. At times it was dangerous. It did, however, create character. There is a market for this type of house this type of décor – faux hippy. Or rather expensive hippy. Some would see it as hippy chic others as simply someone whose taste has not yet developed past Renovation Hardware. As if the bevel was not enough, shaker, the white paint had scuffed of the middle of each stair revealing true hardwood. This appeared almost so obvious as to make Morrison believe that someone had purposefully removed the paint in certain spots. Surely the heavy shoes of 100 years did not create this.

As he rounded the last two stairs, Morrison caught himself thinking about things ended this morning, wondered if he had been too distant. He was known to be selfish with his thoughts, only concerned of whether they were organized or not. Pushing through the screen door the familiar sound of the rubber and steel latch clicked behind him. Morrison thought to himself that he probably could not describe the sound of the door latch or even be capable of purchasing a new one if he had to.

What if the latch breaks…What size is it…how big is the rubber stopper. Should I measure it, Should I get a spare one just in case.

There it is again, damn I need to get a hold of this.

Morrison was self diagnosed years ago with a severe case of self questioning.

I am sure there is a more scientific word for what ails me, but I am sure that more scientific prognosis comes with an even more scientific drug for which we have no idea as of yet the long term effects, having said that, we have spent 30 million on advertising this year so we are fairly confident that the general public will not read the scientific literature, or even understand it for that matter. Therefore it is our duty to remove the need for science and just make money, remove the need for the average person to read a boring science journal that uses scientific words.

The sun slammed into his eyes. Turning his head down and shutting his eyes he grasped for his sunglasses. His eyes watered as he rubbed them. As Morrison fumbled with his glasses he titled his head just a bit to see if this was an ordinary sun or if North Korea had replaced it with Uranium. It was still the same sun. But North Korea was the new problem. Morrison had been working for the last 3 years studying the psychological profile of North Korean President Km Jong-il. It was contract work and in Morrison’s mind it was definitely a government funded project. Although he was not to know this and why would he it did not matter to him where he got his money from. Everything is government – either regulated or profited. His media analysis work won him some impressive accolades. Which were not important but gets you good seats at restaurants on 52^nd street. Kim Jong-il was one crazy dictator. He was so infatuated with old Hollywood movies that he had 50 military analysts watching ebay on any given day looking for memorabilia. He had amassed one of the largest movie set furniture collections outside of 20^th century studios. While interesting in a plastic- follywood way, Morrison’s media analysis was a bit more tactical than this.

In University Morrison studied computer science and English. An absurd combination that destined him to answer the phone at some information help desk. Yet somehow he found a way to make it interesting. He was always capable of that. He developed a theory that people could be manipulated more by trash media outlets than by the so called professional media sources. In 2006 this theory held no water but as the internet exploded and traditional media lost it’s hold it became apparent that it was not traditional media that lsot its hold on the public but rather the public who lost control over their perceptions of what constituted verifiable media. Millions of people had become so addicted to reality television shows that communities and housing development sprouted up all over the wold dedicated to living and preserving certain reality shows. Morrison was at the forefront of understanding this phenomenon. He understood and predicted that the future was actually being televised. So it was that Morrison was offered a substantial contract to study Jong-il’s and media matrix. A term Morrison coined that suggests that we are not influenced by just one type or form of media but rather a very complex matrix of media confluences. The backers of the contract wanted Morrison to analyze the media psyche of Jong –il so that the they could make movies that would gradually change Jong-il, make him believe that America was not so bad. It was obvious that contract was some sort front for some shadowy part of the American intelligence apparatus.

It was this morning that Morrison was presenting his preliminary findings on another subject of investigation Kathy Reichs – a 33 year old single mother of 3 small children – who apparently fell into a media induced living coma. Reichs followed the tv show ‘living to die’ – a reality tv show about the wealthy people who put their parents in old age homes so that they can be more free to spend their money and not have to look after their parents – that she opened an old age home and is convinced 15 families to give their parents to her. Morrison was asked to study Reichs case and determine what triggered the living coma

u should read this

one of the most concerning things that i have read as of late comes from Paul Van Eeden. You can read about his thoughts on the future of the financial markets at Theo's blog http://www.stokblogs.com/blog/1

Then after that wets your appetite you can go directly to Van Eeden and read more. Although for probably his most interesting and obviously profitable information you can pay him 1000 a year for access to his newsletter.

You know i have been reading alot lately about how quickly we are going to hell in a handbasket but, i have to say some of these guys come with some impressive credentials.

So what do you do tomorrow one guy says take your money out of the market keep half in cash and the other half in gold and another guy says go blow up some dams because the earth needs saving. What really makes people get out of bed these days. what makes us so blissfully unaware of the state of affairs.

If you really want to go down a path do some homework on the derivatives market and you will really get a shock, lets just loan each other some money and carry this all forward until such time that everything is back to normal -yeah that will work!