This is a great movie! Great script; great acting; really worthwhile viewing.

The Home Page Daily site seems to be finding a really good balance of material now. Over the last couple of days every video that I have viewed there has been tremendous.

Of course this could just mean that there is an increasing level of professionalism in the content that is being made available. One of the videos that I discovered at HPD was this one from Real News.

I discovered a fantastic new online comic called Shooting War. Click here for the online version of the comic.

Here is the trailer for the book:

Danish bank Saxo makes some interesting forecasts for the coming year.

They forecast a Ron Paul presidential win in the US (which I think, in spite of the online activity, is unlikely - he is too much his own person, and frankly isn't on top of the numbers).

They forecast that three of the largest home builders in the US will go under (sounds plausible).

They also forecast big problems ahead for the Chinese stock market - but with strong buying opportunities at the back end of the roller coaster ride.

Lots of currency forecasts, but that is their business...

After I heard the song (earlier post) I thought I would try to find out about the album...

Interesting to see that John Fogerty has re-signed with Fantasy Records.

I represented Fogerty's publishing in the late 80's during the period of Eye of the Zombie. And I also ironically knew a bit about his past, when he had been signed to Saul Zaentz's Fantasy Records... Met Saul along the way through Steve Shurtz who used to run the recording facility.

And of course, everyone in the business knew that John Fogerty and Saul Zaentz had a long lasting legal action and were bitterly opposed to each other.

Then a couple of years ago Zaentz sold Fantasy to Concorde as part of his estate planning. So presumably Fantasy under its new ownership has worked out a deal with Fogerty that gives him what he wanted all along and gives Concorde a new album that is going to set the back catalogue on fire.

And by the way.... in this world of continuing complaint by the people in the record business about how bad things are because of downloads, isn't it great to see so many John Fogerty tracks on YouTube so that people like you and I can listen to them and make up our own minds about what to buy. I am going out today to buy the Revival CD. Has to be the best thing that I have heard in the last year. Oh and by the way there is a track on it called Long Shot that has to be the closest thing to AC/DC that I have heard since Angus stopped wearing short pants.

I just heard this track from John Fogerty for the first time this morning.... Absolutely sensational. Rocks like Little Richard did back in the early 60's and has a message for right now.

Wake up, people. Social networks give us the ability to communicate and to influence. First stop is to influence each other and to become active. And there are still a lot of fruitcakes out there who don't get the fact that the human race has some serious challenges ahead and they are here right now. The #1 challenge is humanity itself and its inability to deal with its own pollution.....

Enough of that - listen to the song!


I Can't Take It No More
I Can't Take It No More
I'm sick and tired of your dirty little war
I Can't Take It No More

You know you lied about the casualties
You know you lied about the WMD's
You know you lied about the detainees
All over this world

Stop talking about staying the course
You keep a-beating that old dead horse
You know you lied about how we went to war
I Can't Take It No More

I can't take it
I can't take it

I bet you never saw the old school yard
I bet you never saw the national guard
Your daddy wrote a check and there you are
Another fortunate son
I can't take it no more

So finally someone is paying attention to the fact that social networks are where the web is heading....

In this story in the Sydney Morning Herald about Googles top searches of the year...



And in news just in, (thanks Home Page Daily!) it seems that the Pres has also cottoned on to the importance of social networks in fighting the war on terror!

I can't believe its going to be Christmas in a week.

I thought it might be fun to do a quick reflection on the year and the goings on... just like they do in the mainstream media.

Big impact things of the year in Australia were:

The Chaser's War On Everything APEC stunt. I wonder how much that contributed to the downfall of Howard... if at all? It certainly was hilarious!

The Federal Election itself - after the country being in lock step with the Bush White House for years it is refreshing to think that this country can ever so tentatively take steps that are not directly in line with the US. Wonderful to see Rudd make his declaration of signing Kyoto...

The Web:

Get Up's campaign in Australia to ensure that people are vectored toward simple choices in politics was extremely interesting. Their new campaign to take back the cities is a bit weak in my opinion. We shall see.

I thought that the recent visibility of Ron Paul in the US both in fundraising and in terms of the amount of buzz that is being generated online is extremely interesting. Not sure whether someone who is clearly orthogonal to the mainstream parties could ever pull off being elected, but this may be the time to do it!

Video

Surely this year was the year of the embeddable video. Video is becoming ubiquitous and YouTube is introducing new tools all the time now. Over the next two years I think that video is going to become bigger than Ben Hur. What will be truly interesting will be to see whether the copyright owners are able to put deals in place with the ISP's to stop or monitor P2P file sharing. Of course that is only one part of the problem. Its the whole business of mash ups that will continue to be an issue for them all...

Social Networks

I thought this year really did mark the coming of age of the social network. And yet there are still loads of people that I come across who have no idea about Facebook.... So maybe its still got a year to go before it starts to make real impact.

Security

The issues associated with Social Networks of course bring up the whole matter of security - or the lack thereof. The real issue of course is that in an online world you are operating almost all the time across national borders, which makes it very hard for the cops to chase down the crims. It also makes it very lucrative for the crims that operate online and live in low cost of living parts of the world.

Predictions

This coming year is going to be the big wake up year. People are going to wake up to the fact that we are facing a whole bunch of big big problems. Water is going to be the biggest issue - rising sea waters as a result of the melting of the ice caps; and lack of fresh water in a lot of the biggest cities in the world. Back in the late 90's the CIA put out a report that predicted that the wars of the early part of this century would be fought over water. So far the wars have been about oil it seems. But that will absolutely change.

The financial crisis in the US will get worse regardless of what the Fed does. Why? Because they have reached a point where trust has been broken. Ironically I believe that real estate in Australia and New Zealand will benefit from this. I suspect that well-heeled people in the US who have cash will be trying to get it out of the country and changed into stronger currencies as quickly as possible. I think they will try to find bolt holes in English speaking countries that have strong economic structure. At the moment the UK is looking a bit shaky with the runs on banks they have had there. New Zealand and Australia look pretty good.

That's all for now. Have a great Christmas everyone!

I woke up this morning to a text message on my phone from a very dear friend, Louise Denver, to let me know that her ex, David Redom, had died yesterday.

David was one of the best rock photographers in the business in the 60's in the UK. He took pictures of every major pop and rock act in the country. And everyone who met him loved him.

We were all part of a divine madness in the UK in the 60's in the music business and I met some crazy people through David. I was thinking about David and Louise as I was writing about that period of my life and fortunately through the power of Google was able to track down first Louise and the David.

I am so glad that a few weeks ago I talked on the phone to David - after us losing contact with each other for almost twenty years. It was great to hear his voice and to reminisce about some of the crazy times we had together.

Hearing of David's passing made me realize very pointedly how important it is to spend your available time on this planet with people that you care about, doing things that are worth while and that contribute positively to your fellow man. David did a lot of that during his life. After a career in rock photography, David went into producing documentaries (with Louise). They won a swag of awards for their work. They never made any money, but they truly pursued causes that they thought were just. And they made a difference.

David you will be missed!

Here is a picture David took of Alexis Korner.

More thoughts on the Social Networking Conference, Day 2, are here.