I wasn’t there at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1969. I wish I had been.
Eddie Harris and Les McCann walked onto the stage and though they had hardly rehearsed at all, launched into an adlibbed song that made history. Ironically enough, the song contained the line, "Real… compared to what?"
A million copies later, the vinyl souvenir of that live performance was a classic. Les McCann & Eddie Harris – Swiss Movement: Montreux. The vinyl LP isn’t the same as the original concert, but it’s convenient and sounds great.
Twenty years later, "perfect sound forever" brought us the CD version. There’s no pops and crackles, but to my ears, it’s just a reminder of the depth of the LP.
Then they had us move everything to MP3. Now I’ve got the CD version on my iPod. There are far fewer bits and it doesn’t sound as good, but it reminds me of the original. (if "original" means the analog recording, not the live event, where I wasn’t.)
Now, I’ve got a Monster cable for my car that lets me broadcast the MP3 version of the CD version of the vinyl version of the live event over the FM airwaves to my car radio. It sounds like Eddie’s in the Holland Tunnel. And it’s not even close to music, but it reminds me of the way I felt when I heard the album.
This is not just happening to music. The cellphone conversation I have with my friend Jonathan has content, but the tone and tenor of his voice merely remind me of the way I feel when I hear him live.
And the millions of digital photos I see online don’t look anything like the original high resolution versions, which, of course, look nothing like the thing in real life.
My dad used to tell me a joke. This guy is on a tour of the state prison with the warden. They walk into the lunchroom and see the following:
A prisoner stands up. He says, "142!"
Everyone laughs hysterically.
Another prisoner stands up. He is giggling, but manages to blurt out, "884."
The place rocks with laughter.
The tourist can’t figure out what’s going on. He asks the warden.
"Well, you see, these guys are all here for life sentences. They’ve heard every joke a million times. So, instead of retelling the jokes, they just call out the number."
"Wow," the tourist says, "Can I try that?"
The warden is dubious, but says, "sure."
"191," cries the tourist. The place is dead quiet. Like a tomb.
Humiliated, the tourist turns to the warden and asks what he did wrong.
"It’s the way you tell it," said the warden with a wry smile.
I wonder what happens when our digital culture has nothing to do but spread pale imitations of the original experiences? I wonder what happens when the media companies that depend on our attention start losing it when all we’ve got is a ringtone.
I think my books change a lot more minds than my blog does. But books don’t spread the way digital ideas do.
At the same time, the good news from sites like JamBase is that they’re using inherently low-rez digital media to sell people on showing up to hear the highest-rez live stuff.
The Brookstone catalog describes the new Panasonic nose cleaner this way:
“Panasonic’s trimmer uses bright white LED light to precisely cut unwanted nose and ear hair.”
For all the people who have been holding back on hair trimming because they didn’t want to deal with blades, this, apparently, is the nose hair trimmer for you.
Of course, LEDs can’t cut hair. What the LEDs do, we find out after the headline, is “illuminates grooming area.” So this is just like the ordinary $19 trimmers, except for $50, you get to see the hair in your ears better.
What’s the point of a gratuitous lie like this? There’s no way it’s going to make the product experience better. It’s even a silly way to trick people. Are there that many people who have a worldview of gadget-lust that they’ll grab ahold of this? Even to a neophyte, an LED cutting your hair smells sort of fishy.
In industries under siege from external change (and I count music, books, airlines, pharmaceuticals, IT, telecommunications, etc) you’ll find that the extra fees extracted by the legacy companies DO NOT go for quality. They go to prop up the status quo.
That’s why CDs cost $18 and why Jet Blue is the best airline in America.
I really enjoyed reading your post on daylight saving. I live in Queensland Australia, and about 15 years ago, we decided by referendum here not to have Daylight Savings. The big problem is that the other two states of Australia on the east coast, NSW and Victoria, both have daylight savings. [Ed. note: There’s no "s" in saving. Really. I’ll leave it in because, hey, it sounds better.]
At the time the arguments against trolled out were amazing. Bear in mind that QLD is a mostly rural state, but 75% of the population live in the Metropolitan areas of Brisbane and Surfers Paradise. Anyway, here are some of the brilliant ideas that were put forward to stop Daylight Saving.
"It would confuse the cows, they wouldn’t know what time to get milked as cows aren’t very smart" (please don’t laugh at the irony of this.) "It will fade the curtains. The Queensland sun is very harsh, and an extra hour could really do some damage" "It would be uncomfortable having dinner at 8 pm and it still being daylight"
The arguments for were:
"Sydney is the business capital of Australia and it has Daylight Savings" "Co-coordinating differences in flights, phone call rates, meetings and general business between the states will be more difficult without daylight savings than with." "The Australian population is more transient and having a shifting time difference throughout the year is going to make doing business in Queensland awkward."
As history recalls, the country folk’s faded curtains won over the city people’s pressing need to do business. 15 years on, whilst we persevere with the time difference, it still causes many problem and I would consider it a major pain in the proverbial. However, since we decided by referendum to not have daylight saving, it would take another very costly referendum to change this.
People definitely get the governments they deserve.
Have you ever been disappointed with a bowl of cereal? Every been bummed out that every flake wasn’t perfect, or that there were no perfect strawberries in the bowl?
They write “serving suggestion” on the picture on the box because they’re required to by law, but why primp it at all?
David Paull points us to Right Brain Left Field were a purported food stylist confesses the secrets of how they take the photos on the box. Here’s a juicy tidbit:
1. Dump several boxes of cereal out onto flat baking sheets.
2. Using tweezers so one doesn’t damage any pieces, root through finding the most perfectly shaped flakes (about 50-60)
3. Fill the prop bowl about 2/3 with Crisco, creating a dome at the top
4. Again using tweezers, embed the perfect flakes into the Crisco to create a pleasing arrangement and realistic volume of cereal
5. Fill in gaps and edges with Wild Root Hair Tonic to simulate milk.
I for one believe that the great pictures help tell the story of consumer satisfaction, a story that makes me like the cereal even more. And when the “real” cereal doesn’t precisely match, I don’t give it a second thought. Is that a lie? A fib?
Is this: a. someone in real need of help b. someone you should give money to c. someone who will take whatever money you give and go buy a substance that makes his problem worse d. someone you should cross the street to avoid
Hint: there is no right answer.
What’s true is this: everyone looks at the world with a different lens. Everyone has had experiences and an upbringing that makes them believe (or disbelieve) the stories they are told. Surprisingly, the worldviews that are out there are lumpy–most people fall into just a few categories for any given story.
The challenge to anyone hoping to spread an idea is this: Are there enough people with the right worldview out there? And can you reach them with your story?
History goes in cycles, over and over, to the point where it’s sort of boring.
One of the cycles is the way governments and long-lived organizations unite to fight change. It involves pronouncements in the halls of Congress, lobbying by entrenched industries, outspoken demonstrations by fringe religious groups ostensibly representing the masses, controversial court decisions and most important, pronouncements that "this changes everything", "it’s the end of the world as we know it," "this goes against God’s will," and my favorite, "sure there are cycles, but this one is different."
Here are some things worth noting about the evolution of DST:
"Invented" by Ben Franklin
but not really, because in 1444, the walled city of Basel was about to be attacked. There were infidels outside, and some had infiltrated the town. The guards caught some of the bad guys and heard that the attack was to begin precisely at noon. An alert sentry changed the clock in the square an hour. Brilliant! The insiders, unaided by their allies, started their diversion an hour early. They were all arrested.
But i digress. This book makes you do that.
Lobbying for DST started in earnest about 100 years ago. (Only 80 years after time was standardized–before trains, it didn’t really matter that the time was different in different towns.) It if hadn’t been for the need to save energy during WWI, it never would have been instituted–the forces against change refused to accept how much money would be saved (turns out it is millions and millions of dollars a year, probably billions by now) and were against it in general principle.
Sir William Christie, Astronomer Royal, called DST nothing but special legislation for late risers (ah, the moral failing card).
Sir William Napier Shaw, director of the Meteorological office said, "To alter the prsent mode of measuring time would be to kill a goose that lays a very valuable egg."
Nature magazine said, "The advance from local to the standard time of today was a step well thought out, and one that cannot be reversed by the introduction of a new and really nondescript time under the old name."
The Secretary of the London Stock Exchange, Mr. Satterthwaite said the bill would, "Create a dislocation of Stock Exchange business in the chief business centre of the world."
Of course, many reactionaries with nothing concrete to say merely mocked William Willet, the chief proponent of the change. Nature wondered if his next trick was going to be to redefine the thermometer so that in the winter it would be 42 degrees instead of 32.
The theatre owners united (RIAA flashback!) and worked hard to defeat the bill, saying that if it weren’t dark at night, their business would be completely decimated.
Year after year, the bill failed to pass in the UK. In the US the story was much the same.
The New York Times wrote, this is, "little less than an act of madness."
[more soon] later [okay, now it’s soon…]
My very favorite quote of all comes from Mississippi.
"Repeal the law and have the clocks proclaim God’s time and tell the truth!" That comes from Congressman Ezekiel Candler, Jr.
And Harry Hull of Iowa said, "When we passed the law, we tried to ‘put one over’ on Mother Nature, and when you try to improve the natural laws it usually ends in disaster."
After the law passed, there were court battles everywhere. Battles over state vs. federal jurisdiction, for example.
Just something to think about the next time an emergency over takes our culture… something that threatens the status quo that must be vanquished before it ends in disaster.
PS I’m almost done with the most astonishing book (ready for this…) it’s the history of Daylight Saving Time (yes, there’s no "s" in saving. That’s for mattresses, apparently). It has a lot of profound lessons, which I hope to cover tomorrow. Right now, though, it’s time for bed.
Four of us visited a fancy restaurant on Saturday. Imagine our geeky surprise when they brought out a Microsoft tablet instead of a wine list.
It makes perfect sense, of course. You could sort by year or by price, you could see the inventory and they could remove a wine instantly once it was sold out.
So what could be bad?
What’s bad is that the person who’s going to spend $100 or $1,000 on a bottle of wine isn’t a hyper-rational geek in search of the optimum solution (hint: we bought the cheap stuff but it was still 5x the cost of of the wine in a store). Instead, we’re looking for a buying experience (courting the sommelier, sniffing the cork) that adds a huge percentage of the value to the purchase.
In short: a cool story, but told in the wrong place to the wrong people.
At the airport the other day, I noticed that they had perhaps 20 paperback titles to choose from.
Here’s what half the rack looked like.
Now, assuming that they are rational businessfolk, why would they use this very limited space to show us lots and lots and lots of copies of just three books? After all, they get restocked at least twice a day, so it’s not to avoid an out of stock situation. The Long Tail would tell us that if they converted these three titles into, say, 50, they’d sell more.
I think I know the answer. People are more likely to buy a book (as opposed to buying nothing) if they think everyone else is reading it. And a great way to communicate that fact is with a display like this one.
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The Brookstone catalog describes the new Panasonic nose cleaner this way:
Is this:
At the airport the other day, I noticed that they had perhaps 20 paperback titles to choose from.