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See all posts for September2015

Who you gonna call♫…NOT the Weatherman

  • September 24, 2015
  • Entertainment/Media/Arts Life Sport
  • View all 1 Comment
Why...

Do we bother with weather forecasts? If ever a group of people would starve to death if they were paid on performance it’s the weathermen. In the UK the forecast is either… ‘Sunny with cloudy spells and occasional rain’. Well excuse me, but apart from adding a plague of locusts and blizzards that describes every kind of possible permutation you can get. That’s not a weather forecast, that’s weather hedge betting. It covers all the bases and is as much use as a rubber hammer Or You download an app with an hour by hour breakdown that changes more often than Miley Cyrus at an MTV Award ceremony. Earlier this month I was going to Goodwood for their annual three day extravaganza of classic cars and racing called the Goodwood Revival. It lasted from a Friday to Sunday. On Thursday there were dire predictions of fire and brimstone (OK rain) all day Saturday and Sunday but Friday would be fine. Needless to say it rained Friday evening but was sunny for the rest of the week-end. I would do better peering at the entrails of a chicken than use App mumbo-jumbo! How is it that a small island that could be carpeted in an afternoon has such unpredictable weather but when you go to Europe or the United States weather over vast distances can be predicted with reasonable success? Predicting weather is essential to sailors so how we ever became a seafaring nation is beyond me. Perhaps that’s why they took along a parrot to listen to what it had to say? I am told that you can convert cricket chirps to degrees Fahrenheit by counting the number of chirrups in 14 seconds then adding 40 to get the temperature! Either of those animals seem more reliable than depending on some presenter with bad hair and worse clothes pointing at a chart that will be as close to the truth as a candidate’s promises if elected President.

..and another thing (continue to read this post)

Does your hairdresser’s own hairstyle frighten you?

  • September 17, 2015
  • Fasion Health & Beauty Life
  • View all 1 Comment
Why...

Do so many of the top hairdressers have hairstyles that are better suited to Halloween Night? And who cuts and styles their hair? I used to wonder if it was students let loose on their teacher, but then would a plastic surgeon use his face as a student’s first experiment? Nope….. so it must be a conscious decision. Yikes!

On top of my blind trust that a stylist can cut hair normally, (despite the evidence on his or her head to the contrary), nearly every time my hair was cut, it was cut too short. Surely even Haircutting for Dummies must suggest hairdressers should undercut not overcut hair so the customer comes back sooner? My current salon however are perfect….. (I know they read the blog)!

For a cutter, I suppose, their job has a satisfying finality to it. It’s not like a customer can look at the reflection and go:

“Nah, I liked it better before, can you collect up all those hairs and re-attach them.” Maybe that’s why they are supremely confident.

..and another thing (continue to read this post)

Gangstas in Gucci trainers and Accountants in Aston Martins. Where’s the exclusivity in that??

  • September 10, 2015
  • Fasion Health & Beauty Finance/Law
  • View all 2 Comments
Why...

Do we not see that the greatest trick that marketing has pulled off is to convince people mass produced goods can still be an exclusive luxury brand?

You only have to go back to when these brands actually started to see they were indeed the preserve of a very select few. Up until the 1980’s Ferrari's total number of cars ever made was still less than one year’s output of Porsche's production; yet now both license everything from pens to sunglasses. Cartier jewellery and Givenchy dresses used to be hand-made and the idea that either had a mass market or off the peg line would have been laughed at. Can you imagine what Coco Chanel would have thought of her elegant logo emblazoned across T-shirts?

And yet with the democratising of these once aloof high-end brands, they still manage to preserve a strong whiff of elitism. No wonder the companies who own them like LMVH are so profitable. I mean $225, 000 for a fuchsia coloured Birkin Hermes handbag?!

The ‘lower end goods’ (which still sell at a premium) are inserted into the mass market. From this pool a client may emerge with material success and still want to be associated with the brand going up their ‘exclusivity ladder’- Armani Exchange via Emporio Armani through Georgio Armani to Armani Privé - all at a huge premium This has been one of the most brilliant pieces of marketing abracadabra I have ever witnessed.

If you look at a number of other once luxury items that have become more widely available some still cling to the aura of ‘olde worlde privilege’ in the packaging; but they don’t actually fool the general public. However most are generic goods or services that never had a branded leader; smoked salmon, cashmere, brandy, leather clothing, even fancy restaurants. Some were simply superseded by technology whose price reduction democratised a once special item (personal phones in cars, cameras and colour TVs). Some just fell out of fashion (cruising by ship to New York, white tie and tails events and wearing tiaras).

Don’t get me wrong, I applaud the general growth in people’s wealth that our capitalistic system has provided. Yes it’s flawed, but less flawed than any other methods in improving living standards.

It’s just how the aspirational brands, such as cars (Aston Martin, Ferrari, Porsche, Bentley or Maserati), clothing (Gucci, Versace, Chanel and Dior), jewellery (Cartier, Bulgari and Asprey) and accessories ( Mont Blanc, Smythson, Louis Vuitton) have all enjoyed that democratisation and therefore dilution of exclusivity, yet still sell on it!

..and another thing (continue to read this post)

Ego and vanity; brain food for aspiring politicians

  • September 3, 2015
  • Politics
  • View all 6 Comments
Why...

Do we take seriously aspiring politicians with self-delusion as to the breadth of their appeal? It’s the same question as to why do actors, writers and rock stars who are successful in one endeavour think that qualifies them for another? I don’t ask Dr. Ruth about which classic car to invest in or Stephen Hawking’s advice on writing a silly blog, so why the hell does an actress know more about diet than a dietician, a casino owner know about politics or a rock star about distribution of tax? The answer is pure ego mixed with an unhealthy dollop of sycophancy all wrapped up in the press. If the entourage around these people say “Wow you’re a genius!” They start to believe it and all drink the poisoned Kool-Aid.

Kayne West is a successful and talented rapper and producer. Despite his avowed distaste of the paparazzi and press maybe this week’s announcement he intends to run for the Presidency in 2020 was the ultimate trump card of getting news coverage at the MTV Music Awards? I mean he cannot be that self- delusional, can he?

He might like to reflect that to win any election it’s not your core acolytes you need to win over but all the rest.

Clearly he has sung out lyrics that are not exactly election friendly.

“F*ck you and your corporations, ” may well please the rapper masses but is a tad hypocritical from a man who makes his millions from corporations and is not ashamed to spend it on corporations be they Gucci, Bentley or Louis Vuiton. Referring to the mother of his child as “my perfect bitch” might not endear him to female voters. So industry and women offended in just two examples but his ego and those around him tell him to run for the highest office in the land. He has about as much chance of getting a meaningful vote as me finding a tap dancing oyster.…but again maybe that was not the point of his MTV announcement.

Bluster and ego are intoxicating but your talent has to extend beyond populist spouting. I suspect if we all took a walk through Kayne West’s deepest political thought we wouldn’t get our feet wet. Same with Russel Brand, an extremely clever man who enjoys fooling those less intelligent, at the same time as decrying anyone who can see though him. I dunno, maybe he’s just having a laugh at our expense. I wonder what his ex-wife Katie Perry might say?

..and another thing (continue to read this post)

What is rss? "rss" is about getting live web feeds
directly to your computer.