KEEPING IT REAL…
If it’s not about just aimlessly scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and absorbing more and more of everything that we really don’t need, and not about following trends, but actually creating what might be something of value and WORTH people following, perhaps some of us are standing at the edge of a feather and not just waiting to fly, but being given the directions where to go next?
Often, these are solo flights because they are based on your timetable and knowing where you need to go as an individual with no baggage weighing you down.
Trends, well, they have been “trending” since the beginning of time when Neanderthal man created fire and the wheel. It’s all there in so many of Gary Larson’s brilliant Far Side cartoons.
There are those who are seen as “trendsetters”, but I prefer game changers- individuals like Steve Jobs. He might not have always been correct, but he had a vision and Apple changed the game for good.
Others changed the game so that it offered viable alternatives based on consumer behaviour and/or created a new business model for new entrepreneurs.
Others might see change as a necessary evil.
and what some of us were taught from an early age that one either changes with the times or fades away. But this cannot be fake change. This can be spotted by some in a nanu second. Just ask mad man Don Draper.
During these times of being easily impressed with whatever is trending and the rise of so-called “influencers” and the importance placed on algorithms in a world in a “post pandemic malaise”, I believe the world is immune to understanding what they are and have let in the dime store grifters who spy with their little eyes soft targets.
It’s also a world where mediocrity is being allowed to reign through those hired, accepted and promoted, something that’s all there in The Peter Principle.
Because something is not right with the standards of leadership, mediocrity is at work in many governments and large institutions where there are various hiding places for those not good enough, but still surviving financially behind an impressive sounding title and no accountability.
Aware that their gigs are tenuous, one can usually see them on LinkedIn, the online home of the self promotional people and “consultants”, who, like “digital creators” and “entrepreneurs” means that they are unemployed.
Standards today have fallen to such low levels and with so little real talent available that even a mediocre flim flam person and failed businessman can become the most powerful person in the world and turn bullying and corruption and false promises into power.
The same can be said about the world buying into something that calls itself Artificial Intelligence, is shortened to be AI, which, like animation or computer generated imagery, auto tuning in music etc etc is often missing that human connection- but it’s created power plays between countries because they know all the different ways this technology can be used.
At the moment, it’s what some of us were warned about by our mentors in advertising: The technique is not the idea.
Today, these mentors would say the same thing about technology- that technology is not the idea. But it is.
Technology has become yet another example of smoke and mirrors and with some often thinking one is creating the Sistine Chapel when actually overthinking something stupidly simple to death and back.
Perhaps we’ve become too lazy or “ill equipped” or really dumbed down to stop ourselves from being bedazzled by what’s not real?
Very often, because there’s no human element involved, there’s zero emotional attachment. It’s like Marvin Gaye singing like Pat Boone.
Creativity has always been about being storytellers, but does it work if today’s storytellers use only technology and “prompting” to give their stories the human spirit and creativity they need?
Without covering old ground, but let’s, and wonder why are some of us are still so interested and invested in knowing more the unembellished purity of the songs of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Brian Wilson, Joni Mitchell and all the great music that came out of the life experiences of those writers from Tin Pan Alley?
Why? Very probably because we want to hear the stories that inspired their creations in their rawest forms and with so much genuine creativity creeping into their production of tracks completely original like “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “I Am The Walrus”, “Penny Lane”, “Stardust”, “Skylark” etc.
It’s probably why some of us keep going back to watch the realism and storytelling genius in “Godfather 1 and 2”, many of the films by David Lynch, the mysteries of Alfred Hitchcock, the childlike imagination of “E. T.” and, at least for me, constantly questioning the relevance of what calls itself “social media”.
With the latter oxymoron, I am not seeing any emotional attachment- only a detachment and a free-for-all in cynicism, which cannot be good for the human condition.
As for creativity, I am a fan of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett and their Gorillaz.
They have always brought together animation and music whereas in their ‘live’ shows there’s the human talent and artistry to create an amazing concert experience. This is something that keeps evolving.
They have remained true to their art and their beliefs and haven’t jumped ship. They march to the beat of “Clint Eastwood” and “Feel Good Inc”, start very different side projects and return as Gorillaz and take us along like on their latest life journey through India.
Yes, I like some of the work of AI, and was hugely impressed by the work of Kelly Boesch, but I also see how short-lived the interest levels are if everything starts to look the same. This is when things that were trending are here today and gone later today.
Artificial Intelligence is something that is at such an early stage of development that what many are creating with what they are still learning to use holds very little interest for me. I’m missing seeing the soul. I’m missing seeing the unfettered joy of Jessie Buckley.
After all my years in advertising and being around musical artists I feel that spending time where I don’t belong is travelling in reverse. It’s like a convenient McDonald’s takeaway which is an ironic thing for me to say given that I helped launch the Golden Arches in Hong Kong and which paved the way for the Long McMarch into China.
Would I invest my time in McDonald’s in this same way today? Of course not.
The world has changed, I have changed, the space around me is very different and that revolving door keeps revolving and I keep looking for things that inspire me and go through a thought process that only I understand and recognise and where I see doors of opportunity.
Constantly reminding myself of this somehow always leads me back to something I absolutely believe in and which must have had everything to do with being a baby boomer.
I believe that I was darn lucky, and am today out of sync with the times, especially because they hold no challenges as I have been fortunate enough to have seen and been involved with some of the best journographies and married the best for all the right reasons.
How does one explain being 14 and watching Sammy Davis Jr perform “Mister Bojangles” onstage at the Lee Theatre in Hong Kong or sitting with Quincy Jones and listening to him take me through the production of “Thriller” or learn by listening to Peter Sellers speak in riddles?
Sometimes, I get it wrong, or perhaps to be more accurate, the timing is off, because one is trying to accept that what’s not for me, and lowering expectations.
This is when I return to IT- Inspirational Therapy- and investing in what the generations to come to come will inherit.
There’s value in this for me. There’s an emotional attachment. And without this emotional attachment, nothing has any value.
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