Scriffles: Blockbuster closing 1000 stores in the USA. Visiting Hollywood writer/producer gives video stores five years.

I went along to hear a working Hollywood writer/producer, Paul Margolis, give a talk in Brisbane on Tuesday.

And I was shocked when he said Blockbuster in the US was closing 1000 stores: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10353762-17.html
Margolis (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0546803/), who's been working in Hollywood for 30 years predicts the demise of video stores within five years.
I believe him. I kinda been expecting it for a while. 
He compares it to newspapers. He quotes a belief that the USA will have only three newspapers in 10 years time.
The trade magazines Variety and The Hollywood Reporter announced last month the scrapping of hard copy prints.
They are publishing online only now.
Movie studios aren't green lighting projects just because there are big names like Brad Pitt or Steven Spielberg attached.
Now everyone's on an even playing ground.
He listed the obstacles writers face: self-doubt, writer's block, nervousness, rejection...
Like The Nothingness from Never Ending Story, these obstacles are afflicting whole new landscapes, whole industries ... 
I don't hear business complaining about technological change destroying jobs in the same way as they complain about carbon trading schemes and programs to address climate change.
Technological change is inevitable while climate change is optional? I don't think so.
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Scriffles: Social media active users and market penetration by country... this is really interesting.

So Australia (80.6%) has a greater internet penetration than Japan (73.8 %) Korea (76 %) US (74%) France (65.7%) Germany (67 %).
Norway (86 %) leads the world in market penetration.
BUT in terms of active users - those who blog, upload video, photos, music, social network _ Australia is behind these guys (probably because our broadband is so bad)
There are 625m approx active users in the world: leading the charge is USA, Canada, Brazil, France and Germany.

This is according to a survey of 22,729 users in 38 countries.
In the past year, the growing areas of activity are: watching video online; listening online; visiting friend's social network page; creating a social network page; commenting on blogs and then uploading photos and video.

Scriffles: A Whack on the Side of the Head. PO!

Be Foolish. Break the rules. Be impractical. Get out of your box. Look for "wrong" answers. Seek ambiguity. Make mistakes ... and set your creative self free.

These are the first words on the blurb on the back of A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech.
The book comes with a deck of cards with inspirational wisdoms to answer the question: What should I do? How do I solve this? What are my options?
This is a book I've returned to time and again when turmoil and disquiet takes over me - my mind, my life, me and I feel alone and no one can advise me.

Sure it's nice to seek out ritual and familiarity in such circumstances.
My life - like most people's existence - is dominated by ritual as rigid as a Japanese tea ceremony.
But one of the mainstays is to seek out a "Whack in the Head" inspiration when I feel like a sea snail in a desert.

When life is staid - or stayed - there's an inkling that starts whispering and ends up screaming "GET OUT of the BOX!"
It only seems sudden, when I stop - maybe in a fit of anger, maybe in a torrent of tears, maybe just numb and exhausted or depressed.
So then I ask ME - "What do you want me to do differently? This is what is. What more do you need?"
And me tells ME get me: new pair of sneakers, a new TV, an overseas trip, a new program, a new swimsuit...bla-bla-bla-bla-bla...

"NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...
Try "Po".  I learned today about Edward de Bono's idea of Po.
Po glistens in the sunlight like the sun on water where a silver fish jumps. 
It's cheeky. It's dangerous. It's so full of potential.
It's an alternative answer.  Instead of "no" and instead of "yes" - choose "Po", create a new idea.
It's the same reason, I think, that I'm now hooked on Julien Smith's blog http://inoveryourhead.net/ (In Over Your Head)

In today's blog ( http://inoveryourhead.net/becoming-child-like/ ) he writes about creativity training and developing a management concept of rewarding adaptability in employees.
He sees merit in having childlike thinking... and he thinks it's something important enough to debate. 
He thinks it would help society in so many ways if companies rewarded adaptability and creativity in employees.

I don't know much about management theory and practice but I do believe that there's a galaxy separating it from creativity and adaptability - and that is why whole industries and dare I say civilizations are struggling today. 

Was there ever a time in history when conformity was not the "normal", "expected", "rewarded" behaviour of our race?

As my father drummed into my head from birth: "Some people are followers and some people are leaders - you can't change that, it's human nature."

Take that a step further.  Leadership is about "power". 
"POWER" requires structure, structure requires conformity: hence religion, sports leagues, governments, families, gangs and companies.
This is the way I understand how society is managed - our civilization is being challenged today. And I don't think people recognise it.

Our education systems aren't adapting, families aren't adapting, companies aren't adapting... 
It's been a while since I read Bertrand Russell's "Education and the Social Order" but what I remember goes like this:

"Education" is about making good citizens: kind of like training good soldiers, follow orders, be efficient, get the job done, don't stir the pot...
The other side of "Education" pitches a flipside: reach your full potential, explore ideas and be creative... 

PO! 

Doesn't that actually require people to think for themselves, be creative and adapt?
I think we need a social compact - for everyone from the retirement home to the cradle.
For the elderly: "My Life's a 21st Century Adaptation".
For the middle aged: "Work in Progress".
For youngsters: "Evolve with me" - or something.

I firmly believe that you can not change people - people are whatever they are - you can only try to win them over or retreat.
Only they can decide to change.
So ... "Po" people ... are we Po people? I think we just dream about being Po People.
We make movies about this all the time: A Bug's Life, It's a Wonderful Life... didn't Charles Darwin base his whole thesis of evolution on it?

I love nonsensical thinking -There's improvising, there's creativity - and then there's ethics ... What's fair? It's a leadership issue.

If we're all out of our depth here then who's the Atticus? He's the wise man in the Pulitzer Prize winning book To Kill A Mockingbird.

When Scout (a little girl of 10) stands on Boo Radley's porch and sees things for the first time the way he sees things in the street where they live, tears spring to my eyes every time:

"I had never seen our neighbourhood from this angle. There was Miss Maudie's, Miss Stephanie's - there was our house...
"Daylight...in my mind, the night faded...A boy trudged down the sidewalk dragging a fishing pole behind him. A man  stood waiting with his hands on his hips. 
"Summertime, and his children played in the front yard with their friend ... 
"It was Fall, and his children fought on the sidewalk, Fall and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the day's woes and triumphs on their faces. 
"Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate silhouetted against a blazing house. . . Summer, and he watched his children's hearts break. 
"Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.
"Just standing on the Radley porch was enough. """

Everyone MUST have an Atticus in their life - every life depends upon just one person like Atticus being there for us.
If there's a community - how wonderful?
And sometimes, even a book will do.
I always feel like Scout standing on that porch seeing it for the first time... 

Scriffles: Give the 1-click mouse the flick for 10-finger touchpad.

<p>10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.</p><p>Here it is: my crazy summer project to reinvent desktop human-computer interaction. <br /><br />This video examines the benefits and limitations inherent in current mouse-based and window-oriented interfaces, the problems facing other potential solutions, and visualizes my proposal for a completely new way of interacting with desktop computers. <br /><br />There's more information at http://10gui.com .</p>

Scriffles: Leave some parking spaces for trees!

Irony: The throwaway society needs to tap renewable energy to cool the planet.
I wonder how much power was generated by the recent dust storm which turned Sydney red and Brisbane a dirty brown?
Did the man on the news just say 15,000 fires around our fair Sunshine State this month?
Consume less,  go further ... there's a slogan for Copenhagen!

I took a some photos of the tree which inspired this blog recently: http://yallamas.posterous.com/scribbles-earths-last-hope-trees

 

 

 

 

And I threw together (in 30 mins) this micro-vid about the life and death of consumers:

 

I blog about climate change a little: http://yallamas.posterous.com/tag/environment
And I'm hoping that Copenhagen turns out to be wonderful in December.
Though I fear it will just be a parking lot...

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Scriffles: Laura Hill posts tribute to Whitney Houston. Gorgeous.

So Whitney's Houston "sang herself out of her clothes" on Britain's X Factor.
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And this is Laura Hill's response...
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I think Laura is an Australian girl who sings with a band called the Tuesday Bandits:
Clever girl, Laura, she's switched on to how to get her name out there isn't she. Linking it in this way with an international entertainment event to raise her profile.
The thing is though, Laura can sing beautifully .... she's talented : http://www.myspace.com/laurahillmusic
"She's a brown piece of string with golden lining ... "
Only last week I was lamenting that we need a Joni Mitchell. I've found her.

Scriffles: Psst! Do games sell like sex sells?

I don't know but I suspect that this kind of cheap paper bag game will thrill some people.
It's a paper bag tempt in the junk mail thrown onto suburban driveways. Anyone for some Christmas shopping?
My mum tells me it's full-steam ahead in the shopping centres already - as usual Christmas starts in October.
But I've already done mine so there's no need at all. Anyone want this bag?
I just wonder whether Westfield paid anything to the cost of this campaign - I suspect its just free advertising for them.

Wish I could fit a new Mac into this bag ;)