BRANDING
The Morning Brief, Vol. III, #41 (October 9, 2000) -- The Universal Labelmaker.
CONTENTS
Buying the
Presidency
Bad Driving Season
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P/E Ratios of the Rich and Famous
Ho! Ho! Ho!
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TOOBAGE: "Dark Angel"
BOOKAGE: "American Psycho"
TOONAGE: The Twilight Singers, "Twilight"
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7 Disks
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CONCERTS
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CONTRIBUTIONS
CAVEAT EMPTOR >>> If one can close their eyes and dream real hard they can imagine the worlds our American presidential candidates wish to invent for us. In an Albert Gore incarnation, the smart folks get to make the big decisions and all of us prosper. In a George Bush universe, we all have more money because he's going to give it to us, not take it away like a Democrat.
The problem is that no one seems to be living in our world. And just as the candidates have struggled to define their utopias for us, with or without plans, statistics, or clarity, it's becoming apparent that a world led by either man won't be at all like the ones they're trying (or failing) to describe. This is because no President, no matter how Presidential, can do it all. And these guys certainly aren't exceptions.
And so we are left to piece together the shards of the debate. To create our own world with the building blocks we are given. The ideas that make sense. The images we remember.
Some of us know where we stand. Others are still sorting through what the politicians say, and what everyone else says about it. Most believe the election is up to the undecided. What ideas will they latch onto? Which brand will they choose? It's hard to know what to do when you're convinced that the outcome will still be the same.
Perhaps if we spent a little more time discussing the differences - gun control, freedom of choice, taxation, backing interests - we'd know what differences they'd make. Let's hope we find out more in the next and the next debates so our nation makes the right purchase.
BAD DRIVING SEASON >>> If the year-long extension of road construction didn't give it away, perhaps the abundance of cars sitting maddeningly at stop signs, green lights, or just plain in the middle of the street will tell you that once again it's Bad Driving Season, and the dingbats have taken over our streets.
Keep an eye out for such timely maneuvers as "Turning Without Signalling," "Stopping on Yellow," and the ever-popular, "Accelerate Only When They Try to Pass." Lots of fun, the kids learn a few new words, and there's NO UNNECESSARY STRESS!!!
Prepare to begin deep breathing. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. That's better.
P/E RATIOS OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS >>> You may not have been sure before, but now you know...the market is fucked. Well, right and wrong. It's certainly been jerked around for a bit. And there's always the possibility that it's going to get worse before it gets better. But with all of those warnings we've been hearing, a few folks have been winning against the odds.
With several "superstar" analysts pronouncing that we've hit bottom, maybe we have. After another month of pre-election jitters we just might get a post-election lift and continue the growth that's kept us all in Armani and lobster for the last three decades. While Apple (P/E of 10.93), Dell (P/E down from 80 to 37), and many more lick their wounds, and those dying to own more of Microsoft (P/E at an all-time low of 32) do so, the fans of one particular brand, er, company, might want to count their blessings. And diversify.
In what better world can companies growing like Dell, or printing money like Microsoft, get more reward for their earnings than Coca Cola (P/E of 90)? Only a year after a tainting scandal, the maker of water with varying degrees of sugar has three times the investment on its earnings than the above techno-stalwarts. Arch-rival Pepsi (P/E = 30), which just lost its CEO, knows that #2 may not suck, but there's nothing like being #1.
Have people (many of them Americans) forgotten how well U.S. tech companies perform around the world? Does anyone realize the demand for computers is growing at a significantly greater rate than the demand for cola? Then again, since when did investors (many of them Americans) let their minds rule their matters? Never underestimate the power of reflex, nor the gravity of brand.
COLOR ME STUMPED >>> We all know that Greek Olives are black, kalamata olives are brown, and green olives are green.
What color are Christmas Olives? I need it for a crossword puzzle I'm doing...
TOOBAGE: "Dark Angel" >>> She's young. She's hot. She's dressed from head to toe in skin-tight leather and just dying to kick your middle-aged ass.
From the limp mind of James Cameron comes America's latest jailbait media sensation - sexy, violent, dark and dumb. Who says the Japanese are the world's leading pedophiles?
Go Dark Angel! Spank that naughty businessman!!!
BOOKAGE: "American Psycho" >>> Thought highly of the movie, which tanked in the U.S. but was a hit overseas. Read terrible things about the book in the U.S., but figured the same critical factors might be at work, so I picked up this bad boy to find out for myself.
While I can understand why many might have hated it, and many more should probably never read it, give the devil's advocate his due. Bret Easton Ellis' novel is vivid, brutal, revolting and powerful - the absurd rantings of a psychotic capitalist turning inside out (in every conceivable way) the name-brand lunacy of eighties America. A decade that's making a comeback.
To be skipped by those turned adamantly off or unnaturally on by profound violence. For readers willing to submit themselves to a barrage of detail, propaganda, brands and graphic depictions of varietal cruelty, the feeling you'll get might be a little like uber-capitalist Patrick Bateman's Manhattan wonderland: Reagan-era materialism in a man's man's man's man's world;.
Hard to like because it's disgusting. Hard to stomach because of its truth. Easton Ellis presents the sickness and the symptoms without commentary. The cure is up to us. Not very funny. Not even pleasant. Far from pointless. And certainly not a bad book. Contrarily, a solid achievement in anti-literature.
TOONAGE: "Twilight"...as sung by The Twilight Singers >>> I'd been half looking out for this ever since reading about it in the L.A. Times. A personal favorite, groundbreaking composers Fila Brazillia, producing and mixing for The Afghan Whigs' singer Greg Dulli. Master instrumentalists, now with vocals.
In addition to their highly regarded remixes, Fila Brazillia has been making some of the best original music of the last five years. So new it's old. Danceable, listenable, energizing and smart. With "Twilight," these guys (David McSherry, Steve Cobby) may lose their status as best kept secret. This album has potential in every way. The vocals and lyrics resonate like The Verve's "Urban Hymns," while the music is beautiful, dramatic, heavily layered, lyrically Fila Brazillian.
You never know about these things...wouldn't be the first time a record company (in this case Columbia) let a great one slip through the cracks. Perhaps Nick Harcourt will grab onto "That's Just How That Bird Sings" or "King Only" and give them a lift. They've got this one up on the listening station at Tower Records -- and it's the best surprise I've ever heard there. "Twilight" has that special glow. Would love to see it catch on.
@ @ @
7 DISKS >>> Musically speaking.
1. DJ Marques Wyatt
- "Sound Design, Vol. I"
2. Super Mix: Repeatables
3. Banco de Gaia - "Iqizeh"
4. The Twilight Singers - "Twilight (as performed by The Twilight
Singers)"
5. Mojave 3 - "Excuses for Travellers"
6. Radiohead - "Kid A"
7. Planet Perfecto - "Perfecto Presents...Another World"
@ @ @
You are what you eat, so feel free to be me.
Your pal,
David.
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One week after the Olympics are over, Yugoslavia strikes gold!!!!
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The Morning Brief can be read each wwweek @ www.smmirror.com -- in the Web Stuff section.
Or you can read Briefs past et al at www.morningbrief.net if you've got the time. Load it up from www.avantgo.com and your Palm's a bloody Brief-mobile!
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DISCLAIMAGE >>> Please feel free to forward The Morning Brief to whomever you like. If you do forward, in part or in segments, or if you'd like to re-publish, please copy moi or otherwise let me know. Thanks for reading!
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Notable shows in and around Southern
California.
Highly
recommended shows this color.
Red
alert; must see!
10.10.00 - The
The w/P.J. Olsson @ House of Blues
10.10.00 -
Rickie Lee Jones @ El Rey Theatre
10.12.00 - Dave Ralph @ Vinyl
10.13.00 -
Vinyl @ Vynyl
10.14.00 -
The Radiators @ House of Blues
10.14.00 - Santana @ Hollywood Bowl
10.14.00 -
Mutabaruka @ The Roxy
10.14.00 -
Meat Puppets @ Knitting Factory Hollywoodl
10.15.00 -
Santana @ Hollywood Bowl
10.15.00 - Paul Weller @
Wiltern Theatre
-------
10.17.00 - Talvin Singh @ El Rey Theare
10.17.00 - Santana @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
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10.23.00 - King Crimson @ House of Blues
10.24.00 - King Crimson @ House of Blues
10.24.00 - Beck (acoustic) @ Wilshire Theatre
10.24.00 - Shemekia Copeland @ The Mint
10.25.00 - Beck (acoustic) @ Wilshire Theatre
10.28.00 - Pearl Jam w/Supergrass @ Blockbuster Pavilion
10.28.00 -
Beautiful South @ House of Blues
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10.29.00 -
Tom Tom Club @ Ventura Theatre
10.30.00 -
Tom Tom Club @ El Rey Theatre
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11.01.00 -
Twilight Singers (feat. Greg Dulli Afghan Whigs) @ Knitting Factory
Hollywood
11.01.00 - Sneakerpimps @ The
Troubadour
11.01.00 - BT & Hooverphonic @ The Mayan
11.02.00 -
Widespread Panic @ Wiltern Theatre
11.02.00 - NRBQ @ The
Roxy
11.03.00 - Arlo Guthrie and Family @ Royce Hall
11.07.00 - The Roots (2 shows) @ House of Blues
11.09.00 - Groove Collective @ Vinyl
11.14.00 - Elliott Smith @ Wiltern Theatre
11.15.00 - Youssou N'Dour @ House of Blues
11.16.00 - k.d. lang @ Universal Amphitheatre
11.16.00 - Paul Simon @ Wiltern Theatre
11.17.00 - k.d. lang @ Universal Amphitheatre
11.17.00 - Paul Simon @ Wiltern Theatre
11.17.00 - Tina Turner @ Staples Center
11.18.00 - Paul Simon @ Wiltern Theatre
____________________________________________________________________________________
HAVE YOU ever
reconsidered? HAVE YOU done something on the spur of a moment? HAVE
YOU eaten anything extra yummy? HAVE YOU found a haven? HAVE YOU
considered moving to a new climate? HAVE YOU got an axe to grind?
HAVE YOU taken a deep breath lately?
____________________________________________________________________________________
RE: MORE BUSHISMS >>> Bush lines from the debate:
I think what the next president ought to do is to -- is to promote a culture of life in America, is the life of the elderly and the life of those living all across the country, life of the unborn.
Surely we can work together to create a cultural life so some of these youngsters that feel like they can take a neighbor's life with a gun will understand that that's not the way America's meant to be.
Sounds like the vice president is not very right many times tonight.
Secondly, whether or not the mission was clear, whether or not it was a clear understanding as to what the mission would be.
I believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place.
But, unfortunately, a lot of schools are trapping children in schools that just won't teach, and we'll change that.
There are fewer parents of school-age children in the -- as a percentage of the voting population and there's the largest generation of students ever.
-- forwarded by Mary Zerafa.
RE: MIDDLE EAST VIOLENCE >>> Publication Date: Friday October 6, 2000 OP-ED; Page A31
Copyright 2000, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved
By Charles Krauthammer
Fighting has broken out in the Middle East, we read. This use of passive phrasing, almost universal in media reports on the violence in Israel, is a way of deliberately expressing agnosticism about the cause of the fighting. It is a scandal. It is akin to writing that on Sept. 1, 1939, war "broke out" on the German-Polish frontier.
Few wars break out spontaneously. And certainly not this one. Does anyone believe that Ehud Barak, who went to Camp David and offered the Palestinians peace terms of breathtaking generosity, would be starting a war? Does anyone believe that the most dovish government in Israeli history, feeling itself just inches away from concluding a permanent peace, would initiate gun battles?
The plain fact is that Yasser Arafat, thrown on the diplomatic defensive by rejecting Barak's offer (to the astonishment and dismay of the American mediators), has done what he has always done: resort to violence to regain the initiative and, most important, mint new underage martyrs--on world television--to regain the international sympathy he had forfeited by turning down peace at Camp David.
His pretext was that the Sept. 28 visit to the Temple Mount by Israel's leader of the opposition so offended Islam that the faithful erupted in violence. The audacity of this claim is astonishing. Yes, the Temple Mount is the third-holiest place in Islam. But it happens to be the single most holy place for Jews. Why does the Muslim claim so trump all others that Jews may not set foot on their most sacred site, their Mecca?
The war that followed was as spontaneous as a Havana demonstration. The preacher at the al-Aqsa mosque called at Friday prayers to "eradicate the Jews from Palestine." Official Palestinian television began playing over and over archival footage of the Palestinian intifada of 1987-1993 showing young people out in the streets throwing stones. In case one still didn't get the message, Voice of Palestine radio began playing patriotic war songs. Arafat then closed the schools and declared a general strike, causing everyone to go out into the street. With Arafat's chief political lieutenant on the West Bank orchestrating the militias, war then "broke out."
The doves are stunned. Avraham Burg, speaker of the Israeli parliament and one of the architects of the Labor government's bend-over-backward peace proposals, writes perplexedly, pathetically: "Do we really understand what is going on? After everything was given, there are still demands on the other side."
"Suddenly we discovered," he continues plaintively, "that what we mean by peace--which is mutual reconciliation--is not being met by the other side."
Suddenly? Where has he been for seven years? Seven years during which Arafat built his "police force" into a 40,000-man army now unleashed on Israel. Seven years during which Arafat repeatedly said that the peace process was one option and that if he did not get everything he wanted there was another.
Seven years during which his state-controlled television, radio, newspapers and now children's textbooks inculcated in his people an antisemitism and anti-Zionism so virulent that it has succeeded in producing a new generation bred on reflexive hostility to Israel. Seven years during which he repeatedly called for "jihad" for Jerusalem.
Well, it has now arrived. That is the meaning of the current fighting. This is, as the Palestinians openly call it, a war for Jerusalem. Not, as the world press has reported endlessly and fatuously, an expression of Palestinian "frustration." Frustration with what? Israeli occupation? It ended years ago; 99 percent of Palestinians live under the rule of Yasser Arafat. Over territory? Barak has conceded virtually the entire West Bank. Over political subordination? Barak offered full recognition of the first independent Palestinian state in history.
The Palestinians are less frustrated than emboldened. Emboldened by an Israeli government so desperate for peace it has given up "everything," as Burg admitted. Emboldened by the fecklessness of Burg and his colleagues, so impervious for so long to empirical evidence of Palestinian implacabilitY that in this moment of supreme crisis they admit openly to disorientation.
Emboldened by an American administration so craven that it refuses to condemn Arafat for cynically starting this war, indeed for repeatedly violating his single obligation under Oslo: the renunciation of violence.
"After everything was given," laments Burg. Yes everything, except one last thing: the Temple Mount. Why, Barak went wobbly even on that. He offered to relinquish sovereignty over Judaism's holiest site and internationalize it under the U.N. Security Council.
Arafat refused. He demands ownership--the audacity is breathtaking--of Judaism's holy of holies. Hence this war.
It is not spontaneous. And it is not without direction. Arafat knows what he wants, and he is prepared to sacrifice as many of his own people as it takes to get it. Preferably on television.
-- Forwarded by Judy Palnick.