My OpenSalon post on Content NOT Being King

Contrary to popular myth, Content is NOT "King." Completely dependent on other factors, Content is actually...a Slave.

Many times, not only is Content not King, but Content poses as a Drag Queen -- something prancing around, dancing as corporations pull its strings, pretending to be something it's not.

Content cannot be King. Dethroned, or better, usurped by Connectivity, Presentation, and Interactivity, Content is low man on the totem pole.

Often, people search for pure Content, like movies, music, news and opinions. But even then, if the content is poorly organized, badly displayed, hard to navigate, or non-interactive, it will be ignored.

Many times, when someone is consuming content they enjoy or find valuable, their first impulse is to interact with it. They want to post a comment, a question, a praise or a complaint. Some may want to enrich the content, add their own view, amplify or criticize it.

Content, to be effective and valuable, is entirely reliant upon other factors. Content is extremely important, but is not the ultimate, universally dominant entity.

To call Content a "king" is to revert to old fashioned imperialistic, phallocentric, male-dominated hierarchy. Even worse, "Content is King" is a meaningless mantra that people chant, without being able to explain it.

READ MORE:

"Content is NOT King, But Slave" at my new OpenSalon blog.

Twitter is where my main content is posted

Just a heads up to my fans and colleagues who want the most juicy and timely updates. My web usability analysis, social media insights, and anarchist political rants are to be found on Twitter. This micro-blogging platform is where I spend most of my blogging hours.

I whip out my best thinking, in easy to absorb, condensed, 140 character bursts. Late at night I tend to go really wild with it. My best thoughts, my funniest jokes, and tons of relevant links are in my tweets.

Often I let it all hang out on Twitter, then am too tired to re-package my observations and opinions in a proper "blog post" on Pluperfecter. I wish I was better at this. But with the advent of Twitter, slomo (slow motion) blogging is dying. It's because Twitter is faster, easier, and more interactive in real time.

When you say something clever or controversial on Twitter, you typically get an immediate DM (direct message) or @ (reply tweet) from one or more your Followers. This instant gratification aspect of Twitter makes it addictive.

If you gradually build a good list of Followers, by Following smart people at interacting with them so they notice you and Follow you back, you'll have a virtual advisory board of great value.

How do you assemble a valuable list of people to Follow and Followers? Start by going to blogs and websites you like, then look for their "Follow Me on Twitter" link (usually right under their "Follow Me on Facebook" link). Click on it.

In some cases, like my Pluperfecter blog, they'll have a Twitter update display widget you can read recent tweets at and click on to Follow them. But I just now added a big Twitter logo, with clickable link to my Twitter page, near the top of my sidebar.

Get hip. Get competitive advantage. Get on Twitter today.

Click here to read my profile: Steven E. Streight aka Vaspers on Twitter.

the Str8 Sounds balloon boy song

Str8 Sounds "Falcon Don't Float So High (balloon boy song)" free 250 kbps mp3 on Sony ACIDplanet.

This song was manufactured with Sony ACID acoustic guitar loops plus Loopmaster samples from Computer Music (UK) magazine, CM143 - October 2009 issue.

Visit the Computer Music website. I bought my first print issue yesterday and I have to tell you: I'm astonished at the writing, graphics, and marketing within its pages. Hip, smart, informative, funny. What more could you want? Plus: a DVD with 1,121 Loopmasters Samples and 2,000 CM Sound Effects, "Reader Music" tunes, tutorials, a bunch of metal distortion software, Avid Sibelius 6 demo, and Intelligent Devices MegaDelayMass demo.



Telegraph UK article "Balloon Boy's Father Planned Weather Balloon UFO Stunt".


Fox News "Ex-Colleague of Balloon Boy Father Says Incident Was Not an Accident".






Str8 Sounds "Falcon Don't Float So High"


--Lyrics--


THEODOR ADORNO: "The further artworks distance themselves from the childish desire to please, the more what they are in themselves prevails over what they present to even the most ideal viewer, whose reflections increasingly become a matter of indifference. In society as a whole, it is art that should introduce chaos into order rather than the reverse." [-- from Aesthetic Theory].

Danger art for evolution.

We are here to present confusion

to your brain matter

on your little step ladder

as you look into the sky

and see Balloon Boy. Will he die?

Falcon please don't float so high.

Your dad and mom will make you die

if you reveal the secret on Larry King,

the secret to Wolf Blitzer, the secret.

Falcon please don't float so high.

We know that you are not inside.

We're doing it for the show.

We're doing it to make lots of dough.

It's a hoax for the stupid folks.

We're from Wife Swap and we're obsessed with science,

but that doesn't mean that we're not good parents.

We're on Wife Swap and we love science

more than truth. I guess the reliance

on media attention is our demise.

We will use subterfuge and lies.

Our obsession with science and media attention

will bring us down to the 5th dimension

of the rapid declension of our hideous pretension.

Child endangerment is our ploy.

We don't care about our little boy.

Did you see him vomit and puke on the TV?

Did you see Falcon vomit and puke?

He's afraid of his father's rebuke.

This danger art for evolution.

We have got the viral solution.

This is danger art for evolution.

We have got the media solution.

Falcon don't float so high

in that balloon of foil in the sky.

We don't want you to die.

At least not yet --

until they come up with some kind of net.

Let's hope Al Queda forgets

that weapons of mass destruction

could be in a balloon and floated

over America the goon.

Oh balloon boy did you enjoy

the balloon as a toy?

Falcon don't float so high.

It's not yet time for you to die.

Oh Falcon don't float up so high.



+

MSM and Government Failure re Balloon Boy

A make-shift helium balloon, with a box attached to the bottom, flies over Colorado. A boy named Falcon is thought to be in it. His father claimed his son was riding in the balloon, which attained altitudes of 8,000 to 10,000 feet and speeds up to 25 mph.

Cable news networks followed the story, showing viewers the frightening flight. We all imagined a 6 year old boy, terrified, screaming in fear, destined for certain death in a crash landing.

We prayed. We Twittered. We watched. We got chumped.

No boy inside. Some said the balloon could not carry a 6 year old boy anyway. They said the box was too flimsy to contain much weight. Others guessed it was a prank and the boy, Falcon, was hiding somewhere...or a parent killed him accidentally, freaked out, and used the balloon as a diversion.

We prayed. We Twittered. We hoped. We were punked.

All in the name of a publicity event for Wife Swap TV show. On Twitter, early yesterday, while balloon was still in mid-flight, tweets were already stating that's it's probably a viral marketing stunt. Once again, the smartest speculations are in Twitter Trending Topics.







[QUOTE]

Speaking with Larry King stand-in Wolf Blitzer, an absolutely confused Falcon, explaining why he didn't come out of hiding when he heard his parents calling his name, blurted, "You guys said, that, um, we did this for the show." We assume he's referring to Wife Swap, a show upon which the family has appeared twice.

Update: Daddy dearest later said he was "appalled" by intimations the family did this all for publicity. Simply appalled!

[END QUOTE]



Let's join together and Dan Ratherize this fraud Wolf Blitzer.

Watch the second video and see Wolf Blitzer step up to the plate. He dutifully grills Falcon's dad on Falcon's remark "we did this for the show".





Don't listen to the MSM when they claim to have "high journalistic standards" and are so much smarter & more "fact-checked" than us pajama-clad bloggers.






The lessons to be gained?

(1) Our leaders cannot protect us from make-shift helium balloons. Our military and law enforcement have no X-ray scopes to peer into a box in the sky and see if it contains a small child...or weapons of mass destruction.

(2) Mainstream Media (MSM) cannot determine if a makeshift helium balloon is capable of carrying a 6 year old boy 8,000 feet in the air for 2.5 hours.

(3) Our leaders have no helicopters equipped with nets that can snatch some small object out of the sky.

(4) Wolf Blitzer, typical of all MSM, fails to really dig for the facts, and lets an incriminating comment slide by as the parents say "Nooooo...." and awkwardly attempt to cover up their scam.

(4) If this hoax can be traced to the producers of Wife Swap, the network should be fined to pay the law enforcement and rescue team expenses, and the show should be taken off the air.

(5) Twitter is the best source for breaking news and enlightened commentary, especially in Trending Topics tweets. By quickly skimming through them, you can get good at identifying silly statements vs. smart remarks.

dangers of location based status updates

Social Media experts are violating some of the most basic principles of safe blogging. They do so flippantly, with a devil-may-care attitude. This brazen disregard of wise precautions sets a lousy example for clients, women, and young people.

Due to the unprofessional behavior of Social Media experts, I state frequently that the only people who benefit from Social Media conferences are those who collect the fees. Social Media experts are basically people who promise much, ignore reality, know little about business or psychology, and expect adoration based on how popular they are. Celebrity Syndrome.

Location based status updates is a case in point.

You know, when a person tweets about what airport they're at, or what city they've just now arrived in. They get on Twitter or Plazes and proclaim to the world that they're not at home or the office. They specify sometimes in great detail exactly where they are, who they're with, and what they're doing.

Stalkers, burglars, kidnappers, rapists, angry ex-spouses, and other predators love it. You've set yourself up for an attack, and have nobody to blame but yourself.

Why do Social Media experts persist in foolish behavior? Are they too arrogant to accept critique? Do they feel impotent, all powerful? Are they just frauds altogether?

Perhaps the answer is in narcisissm, an exaggerated sense of self-importance, delusions of grandeur. "You all adore me so much, you need to know my every move and lunch menu!" This is what I suspect is the driving motivation for this stupid behavior.

"I'm a big shot. I'm in Dallas International Airport, on my way to Las Vegas for the Blogdumb Convention, at which I'm giving the boring PowerPoint keynote address! I'm very impressed with me and so are you!" seems to be the underlying semiotics, the sub-text you can read between the lines.

Ego maniacs. Self-obsessed. Full of themselves. Blinded by their own greatness, so they can't see how their actions are potentially very dangerous for others to follow. They don't care! Head in the sand! The joys of denial!

Hollywood stars love adoration, but whine like pussies about invasions of privacy...while non-celebrities share private information about their personal lives in a reckless, dangerous manner.

Alexander Vanelsas is one of the few Social Media guys who understands this topic.

Check out his well-reasoned post "The Unexpected Dangers of Social Media"


[QUOTE]

The tech community has embraced this ability and shares anything with anyone. Life streaming is the new magic word. Personally I find this concept highly overrated. Let’s face it, a lot of our daily activities aren’t interesting enough to share with the whole world.

Our lives or the things we do aren’t the same as lives of famous pop stars. It’s weird to see pop stars wishing that they’d be left alone for a while when they get harassed by press and fans. At the same time the infamous (that would be us) try to get the rest of the world to observe them as if they were pop stars by providing a life stream of things that happen.

.....

The advantage of Robert [Scoble] publishing his traveling schedule is that he might be able to hook up with friends during his traveling.

But it makes him vulnerable in a perhaps unexpected way. I told him on Friendfeed that if I were a thief, his traveling schedule would provide me with excellent information on his whereabouts. I’d know when he would be home and when not. And I sure would know his house is filled with all kinds of expensive technology (his life stream tells me that).

It reminded me of a story on the news a few weeks ago. It turns out that car thieves in the Netherlands had found a very lucrative thieving method. They would go to the long parking area of our national airport and steal expensive cars with integrated car navigation systems. Then they would choose the “home” address on the navigation system and drive to the house of the unaware owners that were obviously on vacation.

As a result, not only their expensive car was stolen, but their house was conveniently emptied too.

....

30 years ago we would probably need a private detective to find out stuff about other people. Now all we need is ... Google.

[END QUOTE]


Big tough macho geeks will scoff and claim that "it won't happen to me". They hate it when anybody suggests self-restraint and maturity when it comes to "cool technology". Dazzled by new apps, they throw caution to the wind, so they can divulge any information they wish. Self-disclosure strengthens their weak sense of self. Then again, what can we expect from people whose lives revolve around Star Wars mythology, internet porn, and violent video games?


Jeremy Toeman gets it and show a tweet by Loic Le Meur as an example of what not to do. "Lifecasting May Well Lead Us to Crime 2.0" and he states it well:


[QUOTE]

"They are basically open invitations for bad people to do bad things. Break-ins. Thievery. Identity theft. etc. I totally understand the desire to lifecast private details, and I occasionally slip myself. It’s easy, and I think the more in a rhythm you get of publicizing your information, they more you get “sucked into” doing it."

(COMMENT in response to Toeman's post:

I have absolutely no problem telling people I am away, if I am.

First off, how is any criminal reading it to know:

1. if I am telling the truth

2. where I live

3. that I haven’t fed my Rottweilers lately

4. that my family aren’t armed and dangerous

5. that there is anything of value in the house

6. how to get past the alarm

Loic’s tweet above is only any use to someone who has malicious intent against Loic specifically. I am sure there were thousands of other cars unattended in SFO airport at that time.

[END QUOTE]

See what I mean?

These techno fools are stubborn about it. They feel that nobody can harm them, or their family, or their home.

But recent Twitter Game phishing scams have proven that these Social Media experts are just as stupid as the dumbest noob.

Many of them, delirious in their passion for everything "fun" on the internet, gave criminals their mother's maiden name and other sensitive data to enable the phishers to guess their passwords. Then the bad guys use their Twitter accounts to send out spam, or they figure out how to commit identity theft and ruin them financially.

Next time you get an invitation to attend a Social Media conference, tell them "No thanks. Idiot." Since these circuses are full of foolish geeks who don't know how to be safe and intelligent on the internet.



+

Ergo Phizmiz, Dadaphone, music marketing genius

My dear friend Ergo Phizmiz, a not so delicate chap, brings you this Important Announcement, re-blogged from his recent MySpace Music blog post.

He is my marketing ideas...on stereo steroids. He pumps out more free CDs, and posts the mp3s online, than even I do! He is Off. The. Hook.

Get his new cover song LP "DADAphone" on Free Music Archives now! Before the government shuts down the Internets (there are more than one!).






Continuing in the long line of acclaimed albums of covers and reinventions of pop music by Ergo Phizmiz comes "Dadaphone", in the new incarnation of the Rock'N'Roll Machine.

In 2003 Ergo very cruelly upset the Aphex Twin fan community with his reinventions of the music of Richard D. James for acoustic and toy instruments, incidentally a record that the James in question was rather fond of.

2004 saw the release of Ergo's cover of the entirety of the Velvet Underground's "White Light / White Heat" album, into a semi-mechanical behemoth of toys, tinny synths and banjoes, to both whistles and boos across the world.

By 2005 and the album "Arff and Beef" he had turned his attention to R & B classics of the present day, wherein Beyonce, Timberlake, Missy, et al, were given the Phizmiz treatment.

After a hiatus from cover versions Ergo returned with his band The Midnight Florists in tow for the whacked-out opus "Now That's What We Pump at the Party", in which dancefloor fillers of the 90s and noughties were transformed into multilayered slabs of lo-fi rhythmic goodness gracious me.





And now ...... the Ergo Phizmiz Rock'N'Roll Machine brings you "Dadaphone"...


...a huge and savage record of booms and bangs, in which Ergo deals with the widest range of covers yet, from the intense merging of three or four different cover versions in album opener "The Bomb", to the slow and very loud rock'n'roll waltz version of the Pet Shop Boys "It's a Sin", to the intensive ludicrous funkpunk workout of "Slap My Bass Up" (a simultaneous cover of two different songs by The Prodigy, with some of the Bucketheads and Europe's "Final Countdown" thrown in).

The record is created in collaboration with Ergo's compadre The Travelling Mongoose, who grounds the record into a solid earthy lump of pop yum.

This is the most diverse and considered of all the Ergo Phizmiz covers projects so far, as much a party record as an aesthetic statement. We're quite sure that, as is par for the course with this kind of project now, some people will certainly find something to be wildly offended about and feel inclined to post aggressive messages on the internet about just what a terrible record it is and how talentless and mindless Ergo is.

However for those of you with smiles in your hearts, switch on, turn it up, put on your disco lights, and take a trip through the past 30 years or so of pop music with Ergo Phizmiz as your host.

Busy Signal, band feuds, blogocombat

Blogocombat, ferocious online debate, seems to be surging like relentless waves of confrontation and insult. Attack and deflect. Sideswipe and eject. Confession of crimes, death threats and verbal blunders, the world wilts under the unrealistic heat of the clash and catastrophic depletes.

The party of first attack is usually motivated by envy, vanity, or hostility. After their first assault, they tend to either gloat in their sadism, or retreat paradoxically to a moral highground based on peculiar lies and foolish fabrications. Feigning innocence or righteous retribution for imagined blows, the bully easily reverts into a chronic crybaby status, a moaning mode.

Claiming your defensive strike to be plum crazy, unjustified over-reaction to what was just a good-natured taunt, you are then displayed by their words to be a sensitive soul who can't take a joke or mild critique. It's not unique. They all do this, especially when they're secretly frightened by your combative response and potential future reprisals.

I have mastered, and shared with all my fans, including you, gentle reader. You won't be very gentle by the time I'm through with you. For I reach, then teach and preach, the subtle and brutal ways of blogocombat, verbal battle, and mental warfare. From esoteric trollbot squashings to fundamental oppositional tactics, you grow daily as I feed you what I receive in the trenches and the fields of titanic warrior woeful lands.

Clobbering and overwhelming, sneak attacks and frontal assaults, terrible traps and misconjunctions, all is revealed in language that only the true initiates may comprehend and subsequently put to use in actual live-fire situations.

Let's look at the musical blogocombat arena, as it happens to manifest in the feuds of Jamaican rasta hop. My man Busy Signal (gotcher bakk), is accused of making the music scene stream a "bitter" well of poisonings. Busy Signal has been a creation stepper where even a rat a cut a bottle.

My comments are [bracketed in red].

"Busy Signal: Violence and Feuds in Jamaican Dancehall" on UTNE Reader.




[QUOTE]

In Jamaica, “where music saturates everything like fluoride in tap water, the water these days has a new bitterness to it,” Edwin “Stats” Houghton writes for the Fader. That bitterness is embodied in the musician Busy Signal, part of a wave of Jamaican dancehall that has garnered worldwide attention, but has been unable to transcend the feuds endemic in the lyrics and origins of the music.

[PLUPERFECTER: Who is he to say that musicians are obligated to hurry up and put an end to nasty "feuds"? Without feuds, musical blogocombat, what would the critics and reviewers have to write about? Oh yeah: the music itself in some imaginary pure state, untarnished by human realities like strife and debate.]

A general angst permeates the Jamaican dancehall scene, according to Houghton, with feuds breaking out between musicians. And some of the fights have translated into real violence in the streets. Many believe the petty fights between the stars of Jamaican dancehall have held the music back from achieving its full potential. An industry professional confided in Houghton, off the record, that the music has, “Too much war and bun chi-chi man. Nobody outside Jamaica wan hear that!”

[PLUPERFECTER: So the same guys who love violence in sports are whining about rough and tumble disputes in the music world? The same dudes who march off to war to kill whoever their leaders tell them to, are bitching about how conflict is having a detrimental effect on the music, which, remember, is supposed to inhabit some pretty little floating cloud world where everybody's happy and cooperating and smiling all the time?]

Busy Signal began at the center of the musical feuds, trading violent lyrics and allegedly pulling a knife on stage in 2006.

[PLUPERFECTER: Big deal. Flashed a knife onstage. Wow. How soon we forget Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimi Hendrix and The Who burning and destroying their instruments in the 50s and 60s. How about the Cabaret Voltaire and the Dada poets who punctuated their recitals with revolvers firing, bullets penetrating the ceiling of the lecture hall? This was around 1930!]

He then took a hiatus from the scene in a an attempt to transcend the fights between his fellow Jamaican musicians. His new music still addresses violent themes, but he now emphasizes a unity among his fellow dancehall luminaries, choosing instead to focus on the music. He told Houghton:

Sundays to Sundays, music. By the sweat of your brow, you eat. Me wan build a museum, an me nuh want no museum built after me dead. We wan do these things before man, so if death come, whatever. Keep Drilling.

The problem, Houghton writes, is that “His voice has become so synonymous with the dark pulse of runnings in Kingston that it seems legitimate to wonder if he is part of the curse or the disease.”

[PLUPERFECTER: So there's no room for repentance, a change of heart and a new start? A man is forever defined by one chapter in his life? Reinvention of persona and mission are impossibilities? One cannot rise above the past and carve out a new identity? Mr. Critic, you're dumb as mud.]

Roman Polanski on To Catch a Predator VIDEO

7 tips on naming your music band

I think it's really hard to come up with a good name for a musical group. Here's some advice to keep in mind when naming your band. These tips are from both a creative viewpoint and a marketing angle:

(1) Use a name that has some connection with your style of music. I provided a name for a punk band: the Anarchy Enforcers. It's funny, paradoxical, and relevant.

(2) Funny names are memorable: Celibate Rifles, Soloing Over Alanis Morissette, Thomas Jefferson Airplane, Ritualistic School of Errors, Paper Airplane Pilots, Rubber 0 Cement, The Kick Me's, Courtney Cox Heroin Nightmare.

(3) One word band names are not good, in most cases, because you're increasing the chance that someone else is already using it. Two words decreases this likelihood. An odd example for you: The The.

(4) Two word band names are probably the most common, for good reasons. Pink Floyd, Foo Fighters, Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Indian Jewelry, Ergo Phizmiz, Str8 Sounds, Gun Club.

(5) One word band names run into search engine trouble. The more common the word, the less likely that anybody will find your band when they Google that word. Pink, Orb, Smiths, Bleach, Yes, Kansas, Boston.

(6) Surrealism works. Slam together two words that you wouldn't expect to see together. Vanilla Trainwreck, Velvet Davenport, Oxford Collapse, Marble Mummy, Joy Division, Soft Power, Purple Wheelchair.

(7) Mis-spellings are a bad idea, generally speaking. You have to count on fans remembering where the typo occurs. Which letter is the wrong one? Often it's a "z" instead of an "s" at the end of a name, for example. Remember, fans Google band names and if they don't spell it the correct incorrect way, your band may not be found.


+

This Was Your Life

10 ways to destroy your own band

When musicians engage in blogocombat, it can get brutal. Here are some general observations, not necessarily about any specific band, that can help you gain the advantage. If you commit any of these errors, you have vulnerabilities that enemies may exploit.

In fact, these are sure-fire ways to self-destruct. Why sabotage your own band that has rehearsed and practiced and performed so hard? Do yourself a favor and avoid these gross mistakes!

On the other hand, if you're a pussy and feel like "it's not fun anymore, all the joy in music making is gone", then by all means, do these 10 things and your band will surely collapse into oblivion.


(1) Do a song called "Start The Killing" that is about killing all the politicians. The FBI, Secret Service, and Homeland Security won't like it.

(2) Sign your band to a label that features Satanic metal. God won't like it.

(3) Constantly refer to your band as "The Most Hated Band in Peoria", then whimper and whine when other bands actually do loathe and despise you. Fans will think you're a bunch of pussy farts.

(4) Let your bass player drink beer in your van as you drive to out-of-town gigs. Cops and MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) won't like it.

(5) On your weekly live streaming video show, make fun of the Catholic church and refer to some "weird relationship" your lead singer had with his priest as a young boy, when a company that sponsors you is owned by the Catholic church and there are other dependencies on Catholic institutions. The Catholics won't like it.

(6) Call criticisms, innuendos, and advice "threats" and threaten to call an attorney to sue somebody for what you, in a deluded state of paranoia, consider to be "attacks". The judge won't like it.

(7) Refuse to perform live shows at real-world venues, due to your fear of audience reactions. Fans and your record company president won't like it.

(8) Make alliances with a bizarre demonic couple who spew filthy Hate Crimes Speech, quote Satanic song lyrics ("Satan protects me", "corpse sodomy", etc.), and make repeated death threats on a local music forum when defending you from honest, Free Speech criticisms and mild, playful teasing.

(9) Depend on someone to film your band at your rare live gigs, who then just sings along drunkenly to all your songs, and only gets 3 partial songs recorded with the palmcorder. Your band mates won't like it.

(10) Cry on the shoulder of a lunatic whenever someone hurts your super-sensitive feelings, and follow the drunken advice she gives you.