You know...I really want to blog this but I have no idea what to say about it. The strange man on the left aside, it's a sculpture in Victoria station promoting a TV show I know little about. I find it a little disconcerting actually. Gets me all worried for some reason. I'm actually going to look the other way now....
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Giving Up Pizza
"Wait!" I hear you all cry. "There's no need for such a rash decision."
Okay, so it is, as most things are in my blog, an exaggeration, but what I am giving up are any pizzas purchased from Dominos and Eagle Boys.
Dominos: Unlike the boxes, not stacked
First, Dominos. I ordered one of their cheap pizzas a few months back - the sort that cost you less than the bottle of Coke you also bought with them cos you found some ridiculous deal on the back of a supermarket receipt. Now, I realise it was cheap, but 1 piece of pepperoni per slice is taking the piss. This isn't going to bring me back to order more, no matter how cheap they are. I realise the pizza still technically qualifies it under the description of 'pepperoni' pizza but there really should be some sort of law on the amount of toppings required to justify its name.
Eagle Boys: An eagle & a boy, no pizza in sight
Then comes Eagle Boys. Now Eagle Boys have got more sneaky - their pizzas are as cheap as Dominos, but they offer a $3 deal where you can double the toppings, tacitly acknowledging that they ain't putting enough on in the first place. We ordered two - on they forgot to double our pleasure, and the other was so swamped with toppings, it was impossible to eat as most of them had failed to cook or heat properly.
So I'm giving both venues up. Style and slick marketing have over-taken the basic requirement to provide quality food, or at least quality food for the level of investment. As Dominos cuts its price over and over, and Eagle Boys match every offer and even accept the competitor coupons, the inevitable out-come is that the food will become inedible.
Both outlets are crying out for a 'premium' option. One that can be delivered to your house, or collected and is made, and priced, like a PROPER pizza. Asking the consumer to throw another $3 at a problem isn't a long term solution. 'Premiumisation' has swamped every other industry; it can't be long before the pizza fast-food industry joins the band-wagon.
I once sat on a judging panel for a student business competition with one of the marketing team from Eagle Boys, and he markered a team well for creating a 'build 'em cheap and stack 'em' new pizza flavour, something he said was successful in his industry.
I'd now question him as to whether anything in his industry WASN'T conforming to that model. It's all stacked high. None of it is boutique.
I'll sit here and wait for the flyer for the pizza company selling me premium pizzas for $20 a pop. It has to come in the end. Otherwise this is where the industry will end up...
Okay, so it is, as most things are in my blog, an exaggeration, but what I am giving up are any pizzas purchased from Dominos and Eagle Boys.
Dominos: Unlike the boxes, not stacked
First, Dominos. I ordered one of their cheap pizzas a few months back - the sort that cost you less than the bottle of Coke you also bought with them cos you found some ridiculous deal on the back of a supermarket receipt. Now, I realise it was cheap, but 1 piece of pepperoni per slice is taking the piss. This isn't going to bring me back to order more, no matter how cheap they are. I realise the pizza still technically qualifies it under the description of 'pepperoni' pizza but there really should be some sort of law on the amount of toppings required to justify its name.
Eagle Boys: An eagle & a boy, no pizza in sight
Then comes Eagle Boys. Now Eagle Boys have got more sneaky - their pizzas are as cheap as Dominos, but they offer a $3 deal where you can double the toppings, tacitly acknowledging that they ain't putting enough on in the first place. We ordered two - on they forgot to double our pleasure, and the other was so swamped with toppings, it was impossible to eat as most of them had failed to cook or heat properly.
So I'm giving both venues up. Style and slick marketing have over-taken the basic requirement to provide quality food, or at least quality food for the level of investment. As Dominos cuts its price over and over, and Eagle Boys match every offer and even accept the competitor coupons, the inevitable out-come is that the food will become inedible.
Both outlets are crying out for a 'premium' option. One that can be delivered to your house, or collected and is made, and priced, like a PROPER pizza. Asking the consumer to throw another $3 at a problem isn't a long term solution. 'Premiumisation' has swamped every other industry; it can't be long before the pizza fast-food industry joins the band-wagon.
I once sat on a judging panel for a student business competition with one of the marketing team from Eagle Boys, and he markered a team well for creating a 'build 'em cheap and stack 'em' new pizza flavour, something he said was successful in his industry.
I'd now question him as to whether anything in his industry WASN'T conforming to that model. It's all stacked high. None of it is boutique.
I'll sit here and wait for the flyer for the pizza company selling me premium pizzas for $20 a pop. It has to come in the end. Otherwise this is where the industry will end up...
Male at Parklife Festival
This guy was originally crashed out on his own when I saw him, but after a while he got up and started talking a girl who is to the left of this picture. He was pretty cool when I asked him if he'd pose, and I took about half a dozen shots. This was my favourite. The socks and the tatts...look fantastic...
Jasmine at Parklife
Found Jasmine sat on her own, having lost all her friends in the 10s of 1000s of people at Parklife. If you weren't wearing fluro at Parklife you weren't anybody. I wasn't. We did a couple of head shots too but this was easily the best photo of her.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
My Flickr Account Breaks 40,000 views
With the core 572 pictures in my Carbon Images Flickr account(www.flickr.com/photos/carbon_images), the views broke the 40,000 level over-night. The best thing with this is, unlike my personal account, the views are pretty spread out across those 572 photos. Admittedly there are a few pictures that skew the results - the top ten account for nearly 15,000 views - but that still leaves all the other picture hitting a respectable 40 views each.
Ironically the top picture was taken at random:
Butts: Top Viewing
Which either shows something about my talent as a photographer, or the numbers of butt-obsessed perverts looking through Flickr.
The hardest thing this morning was trying to work out which one of the photos I considered to be my favourite. There were a fair few of some of the girls on the beach in their bikinis with the waves crashing on the rocks behind them that I rated pretty highly, but my favourite so far would have to probably go to this one taken in Santa Barbara in California. No crop, v little adjustment - just as it was taken.
Ironically the top picture was taken at random:
Butts: Top Viewing
Which either shows something about my talent as a photographer, or the numbers of butt-obsessed perverts looking through Flickr.
The hardest thing this morning was trying to work out which one of the photos I considered to be my favourite. There were a fair few of some of the girls on the beach in their bikinis with the waves crashing on the rocks behind them that I rated pretty highly, but my favourite so far would have to probably go to this one taken in Santa Barbara in California. No crop, v little adjustment - just as it was taken.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Desperate Housewives Into Space
Well, it can be the only explanation really. The following appeared on the BBC website today:
Which is in stark comparison to the Wikipedia entry for the number of countries in the world:
Admittedly Wikipedia acknowledges 244 'entities' but some of them are of the likes of 'Christmas Island' and the 'Cook Islands'.
So who is right and who is wrong? If you care and know, please let me know!
Hit US comedy series Desperate Housewives is named the best-selling TV drama, being seen in 203 countries - wrestling the record from Baywatch.
Which is in stark comparison to the Wikipedia entry for the number of countries in the world:
193 states with general international recognition:
192 member states of the United Nations (UN).
1 state with general international recognition but not UN membership, governed by the Holy See (a UN permanent observer): Vatican City.
Admittedly Wikipedia acknowledges 244 'entities' but some of them are of the likes of 'Christmas Island' and the 'Cook Islands'.
So who is right and who is wrong? If you care and know, please let me know!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Signs Of A Struggle?
Back in 2005 Mattafix, the alternative hip-hop group from London, released their 'Signs Of A Struggle' album to critical acclaim, with the first single from the album 'Big City Life' rocketing up the charts across the globe.
The first single was so promising, and coupled with a performance at Parklife in 2006, I decided about a year ago, to go and buy the album.
I found it in HMV for the bargain price of $17.99, and didn't hesitate to take it to the counter for purchase.
Except on the way to counter I read the back of the album - and found the heavy-handed DRM warning and protection taking up half the space on the reverse CD sleeve. From a band who warned us 'don't let the system get you down', seem to have subscribed to that exact system in order to protect their music.
Mattafix: Not Iron Maiden
I don't have any problem with people protecting their music, but as Apple have finally come to realise with their DRM-free downloads, it is almost impossible to stop people copying and sharing tracks.
When I was making my own mix tapes, I had no comprehension that what I was doing was wrong, and if anyone else had pointed it out to me, I doubt I would have cared one way or another. Frankly if I want to listen to Iron Maiden, Whitesnake and Guns n'Roses tracks all alongside each other, then I've bought the music and I'll do what I want with it. (They were all available on 'Mixtape: Metal #4' - available from all good bootleggers)
Mix Tapes: Jail Time
Anyway, the point of this is that after seeing Mattafix with a new single out, I finally decided to buy Mattafix's old album some two years late via iTunes for $17.99. And of course, because it's $17.99 instead of $16.99, that means one thing - it's released DRM rights-free. I can download and copy it a hundred times to my heart's content.
Perhaps Mattafix had original had the decision made for them by 'the system'? Maybe they realised the irony that whilst they may have been perceived to be protecting their music by one section of the music society, many others thought that with their first commercial release, they had succumbed to commercial greed? Maybe they haven't even given it much thought at all?
Still, I'm $17.99 shorter, half-way through the album and trying to decide if it was money well spent...
The first single was so promising, and coupled with a performance at Parklife in 2006, I decided about a year ago, to go and buy the album.
I found it in HMV for the bargain price of $17.99, and didn't hesitate to take it to the counter for purchase.
Except on the way to counter I read the back of the album - and found the heavy-handed DRM warning and protection taking up half the space on the reverse CD sleeve. From a band who warned us 'don't let the system get you down', seem to have subscribed to that exact system in order to protect their music.
Mattafix: Not Iron Maiden
I don't have any problem with people protecting their music, but as Apple have finally come to realise with their DRM-free downloads, it is almost impossible to stop people copying and sharing tracks.
When I was making my own mix tapes, I had no comprehension that what I was doing was wrong, and if anyone else had pointed it out to me, I doubt I would have cared one way or another. Frankly if I want to listen to Iron Maiden, Whitesnake and Guns n'Roses tracks all alongside each other, then I've bought the music and I'll do what I want with it. (They were all available on 'Mixtape: Metal #4' - available from all good bootleggers)
Mix Tapes: Jail Time
Anyway, the point of this is that after seeing Mattafix with a new single out, I finally decided to buy Mattafix's old album some two years late via iTunes for $17.99. And of course, because it's $17.99 instead of $16.99, that means one thing - it's released DRM rights-free. I can download and copy it a hundred times to my heart's content.
Perhaps Mattafix had original had the decision made for them by 'the system'? Maybe they realised the irony that whilst they may have been perceived to be protecting their music by one section of the music society, many others thought that with their first commercial release, they had succumbed to commercial greed? Maybe they haven't even given it much thought at all?
Still, I'm $17.99 shorter, half-way through the album and trying to decide if it was money well spent...
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