another million dollar idea you can have

Everybody but everybody over 35 can't get it out of their head that social media is like broadcast media, even if we understand it's controlled by an algorithm we can't get into the mindset that the algorithm works exclusively with/on us, that we are choosing things and it is serving us more of those things. So, I'm always thinking 'these crazy expose videos of nobodies filming interactions-encounters-aha moments with people who are having affairs with their partners, they're obviously so fake, why do people want to see these? I'l gain some insight into society by watching and anyway I bet this one's faker than the last, I better check' and of course I am just telling the system that I want to see more of them, the faker the better. 

So this is a real insight into my psyche. But if you want to make a million dollars all you need to do is create a tool or an app or a bot or botever that will tell people who they really are based on the shit the algorithm is already telling them. Everybody wants to know who they really are. Social media is telling us all the time.

not interesting stuff

This is the not interesting stuff that I found under the house at Lorraine. I mean, seriously, it's just not interesting. I will have to read through this sometime I guess. I don't know where this came from, except, I assume it came from last century. 

This issue of Conflict was really eye-opening for me. I could not believe that G. G. Allin existed and that the magazine took him at face value completely (as well they might). I am surprised I still have this. There is an issue of Conflict on eBay, number 38 I think, which is worth/being sold for over $200. 

This one, No Cure, with the Raincoats in it, I bought when I worked at Gaumont in the early 1980s. I tried to read it but I could give too little a fuck. 

This is slightly more interesting. The Captain's Fanzine from I guess I don't know when, the late 1980s? Not in great condition. It has some good bands in it. I was just listening to an interview with the author of the new book about The Clean. 

I will probably enjoy watching the DVD part of this Liliput double (one half a CD, one half a DVD) because I really like them - a lot. I don't remember it at all though there are some excellent clips from Swiss TV of them, maybe that stuff is on this DVD. 
 

jacana birds

A short walk with Ferdie in Jacana this morning (and Perry too who has had his photograph taken too many times). Lots of birds on the sports ovals. Got some stuff from under the house, might tell you about that later if I can be bothered getting it in from the car/ have time.

the mentalist

I have occasionally had The Mentalist on in the background. Apparently I watched it a long time ago on a weekly basis and on the face of it I apparently found it about as compelling as my grandmother's funeral. 

I really like The Mentalist. As I said in 2010, there are too many murdered women in it, particularly girls, and I feel like the murdered girl thing is a schtick we could do without, though of course, girls do get murdered, whether it happens a lot or a little I don't know. 

The main character is great because he's a kind of superhero but he avoids/runs from physical violence, in both instances somewhat like Sherlock Holmes. Some of the storylines are idiotic, resolved in foolishness that must have had many participants cringing, but many of them are pretty golden. 

The supporting cast is good too. They're sort of like Purdey and Gambit in the New Avengers or something like that although there are four of them not two. But you know, they do all the action, not that Simon Baker is old and infirm (52 or whatever) like Patrick Macnee was in the late 70s but it's not the character's style, really. 

That's what I have to say about The Mentalist. 

I uploaded the picture below by mistake but, you know, everything happens for a reason. 

portrait of a lady

This afternoon Laura and I briefly went to Port Melbourne and had a walk. They have a few signs giving you information on the economic value of the port, and this was on one of them. I'm still a bit perplexed by this drawing of a lady but I think it's some kind of augmentation of a pictogram of a container (or maybe something representing 'clothes', 'shoes' 'toys' or 'sporting goods'). Anyway I found it interesting. 
 

three dogs from last saturday's record fair

I got four albums. The first Rotary Connection album, Christie Allen's Detour, Areski et Brigite Fontaine's Je ne connais pas cet homme, and the double retrospective/odds n sods of West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Feeling pretty good about that overall. 

Update: tbh only the second LP of the WCPAEB record really hits me very hard, side 3 is the best and also the 'straightest' - could be the bones of a lost late 60s Beach Boys record (or related). Side 4 is great too except the final track, which sucks, as the young people say, ass. Only a small number of the tracks are really by WCPAEB but the material is, in the main, surprisingly consistent. Lot of fun, a bit of pain. 

The Areski/Fontaine album is a lot of fun. I have to get back to Christie's LP but it is pretty solid I think. 

yes, another friday

Another Friday, and a slightly less gruelling one than the one I previously whinged about but still, phew. The weather atm is particularly strangely warm which is not necessarily nice (unless you like that sort of thing) and so whatever I spent quite a bit of time at the Public Records Office but actually looking at things from the National Archives - a bunch of episodes of The Garry McDonald Show and the rare gem of a 3-minute interview with Pip Proud apparently from GTK in 1970. I knew it was only a short appearance from Pip but I actually assumed it was him playing a song but no, he begins the segment by putting the tonearm on his new LP and then talking about it. He comes across as an extremely winning person, thoughtful and smart. 

The Garry McDonald Show is an intriguing piece of work, very colourful, a real feast. Some of it is hilarious and brilliant, still holds up. You could make a tremendous hour-long compile out of it, and an almost as hilarious two-hour. Then there are the bits that are just NSF the 21st century. I won't go into them. I wrote about one in the wikipedia page for the show, which I have been messing with for some weeks now. 

But just look at the production values on TGMcDS:

I mean I have to assume they shot all the opening and closing segments in one go, because they surely couldn't afford to hire an elephant for that long (it's real, and alive). 

All this and Cheetah too! 

It wasn't all fun and GMcD today, I have also been doing admin, including cat admin (kitty litter 15% off down the road).