When Hollywood makes a film based on another film, it’s called a ‘remake’ and is seen as proof that the industry is creatively bankrupt and incapable of producing original work.
When they make a movie based on a novel, it’s called an ‘adaptation’, and it’s seen as artistic, admirable, and prestigious.
I think the industry might have some self-worth issues.
England is sending our first Muslim competitor to Miss World – the really rather attractive Hammasa Kohistani, whose family came to the UK as refugees from Afghanistan. Since her presence in the competition is two fingers up to the Taleban and religious nutjobs generally, I hope she does well. But I’m still slightly disappointed we’re not going to be represented by Miss Bolton, because apart from the fact that she’s also very attractive, she has the fabulous name of Peace Blessing Oybio. So many parents would have chickened out and called her either Peace OR Blessing, but thankfully the Oybios hold themselves to higher standards.
I’m glad to see that Miss England is more attractive than Misses Scotland, Wales, Ireland or Northern Ireland. Miss Wales particularly looks like a moody cow. Though that may be the photographer’s fault.
No entrant from Iran this year, I notice.
A latex fetish mask, from Flickr.
yellow mask
Originally uploaded by Latexfan75.
Creative have launched a competitor to the video-capable iPod. It looks rather like the iPod except clumsier and uglier. But this is the bit I thought was extraordinary:
Creative are touting the Zen as a far more powerful player than Apple’s offering, with additional functions such as FM radio and a built-in mic.
“We are focused on the technology,” he said. “This is still a technology marketplace.”
“This is the key difference between a technology company and a branding company,” he said, taking a side-swipe at Apple’s successful marketing campaign for its iPod.
Firstly – the iPod does what it does very well. What makes Mr Sim think people want additional functions? But more to the point – how many millions of units do Apple have to ship, and what proportion of the market do they have to win, before their competitors come to terms with the fact that all consumer products are brand items, and bought as much because people like them as for what they can do? We’re not talking about coal-fired power stations or aircraft carriers here, we’re talking about something that people are buying for entertainment, that they carry around every day in their pocket. Car companies get it – that people want cars that look nice, have the right associations (yes, Mr Sim, that’s branding) and that they enjoy owning. If that’s true for a £20,000 car, it’s certainly true for a £200 mp3 player. That’s not much more than a pair of trainers. If the chairman of Nike suggested that branding was unimportant, we’d all assume he’d lost his marbles.
A red ‘crystal’ has joined the Red Cross and Red Crescent as an emblem for ambulances and relief workers. This is because Israel refuse to use either the Cross or the Crescent, and other Middle-Eastern nations refuse to accept a red Cross of David.
What they really ought to do, of course, is scrap the Red Cross and Red Crescent in favour of just one politically and religiously neutral symbol – the crystal, presumably. But it took them ten years to come up with the current compromise, so don’t expect that to happen any time soon.
This turned up as a link on some website or other. It’s an old favourite, but none the worse for that.