Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Notes from kojak asa400
Later, on the way to the day job today, I saw a fine example of the Droitwich Fix – sweet lady waiting in the post office with glimmering silver and green purse – I comment on it, and she shows me – it’s made with old drinks can ringpulls, threaded together with green twine. I have a belt made of ringpulls too, she says. Heavy duty stiching technique – utilising second-generational-usage scrap metal to create a chainmail-style ‘fabric’. Very effective. I have become aware through theorising of an opposite principle to the Droitwich Fix. I found its name yesterday but it has slipped from my mind. More information on this when it returns.
Nb. Once on a visit to the outer rim isles (North Uist, from which St Kilda can be seen hazily out in the void, and then on to South Uist), I became aware of the ancient hand symbol supposedly of Jesus. On the catholic southern island, a stone statue of the mother and child shows the infant raising said salute: First and index finger raised, other fingers down – identical to the peace sign but with fingers together rather than apart. Yesterday I discovered the reason for this hand signal. Jesus had given up waiting on a bus, set off on foot, and was waving to passing vehicles while still holding his busfare in his hand…
For myself, the bus caught up with me some time later, and left me at desired beach location, along with two young campers, without charging me the fare.
I now recall part of the name of the anti-Droitwich Fix. It is the [something] itch. I suppose it may include the throwing away of something still of use. It is also the making and pushing of something with no actual use, its intended use being a mere charade. This would be a tactic well used by the Minnesota marketing people. It is a classic technique in the development of money generation and population-regimentation/control through the mid-20th century: must-have products, with a swift decline in any notion of what the product actually does. Often the product will do something, but not what they tell you it does. A classic result of the meeting between the marketers and the early obfuscationists…
Monday, 6 April 2009
Minnesota Marketing
Marketing teams behind the branding and creation of by-all-appearances ‘independent’ fashion labels and music acts actually generated by and owned by global corporations, have been consulted by the think tank, some actually joining the think tank. The lead singer of corporate rock act Stiltskin, an act created to sell clothing, appeared before the think tank panel, I am informed, and advised them: ‘Build your heroes as if they had built themselves. Rock and roll can start on the outside. Get the surface right – that’s where it counts; don’t keep it all inside.’ He added: ‘An illusion identical to a reality is itself a reality. Look at me, this is no mask, this is my face…’
It is thought that the think tank began to see further avenues for this approach…
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