Life imitating art - and Web 2.0 inspires fashion

There have been many benefits of Web 2.0 and now we are starting to see the art-styles of the new media being used for old media.

Models of today are of the iShot generation and Vogue Italia decided to reflect the importance of self-image in a TwitPic/TweetPic way, allowing the models to pose and shoot themselves.

This Twitter-focus is the second major feature by Vogue Italia on Web 2.0 after they ran a webcam/YouTube issue in January 2007.

We applaud this approach. Just as new developments in cameras aided creativity, often in unexpected ways, so too has the web assisted, developed and changed our ideas of creativity and communication.

Good or bad? We think good, very good. And is the medium still the message? Well from our perspective, the medium is definitely a very large part of the message. Enjoy.

The good, the bad and the ugly of Russian "westernisation"

Before I criticise, please let me praise. I have been to a number of eastern European countries and in every one have totally enjoyed my stay - loved the people, the cities and the fun. Especially in Moscow.

Russia is a huge country, from tall and blond people in the north-west, solid and fierce in the south, to elegant and cultured in the east. As befits such a huge melting pot of DNA there are some striking beauties to behold - who we've seen dominating the tennis courts as well as the catwalks.

BUT! Too many photographers, and I guess many of them are Russian and/or eastern European, are HOPELESS. Picture 1 (right).

This photoshoot has a horrid selection of poses, which even the thumbnails reveal. The girl may or may not be named Gaby in real life but she should sue the photographer. Or at least get any money back she may have "invested" in the photoshoot.

The poses are just awful. It doesn't matter if Gaby was new to the industry or if she failed to understand. The photographer should NEVER have allowed some of these photos out of his camera (or computer or dark-room).

Let's now look at picture 2 (below left). This is a crop of number 10 from the thumbnails.

Gaby is gorgeous, with a perfectly symentrical face, bright eyes and an elegant mouth. Her breasts are small-ish and perfect, with wonderful nipples and areolae.

If Gaby was being photographed by MET-ART or Hegre then maybe we would have seen a photoset with every shot a celebration of this striking girl.

Those photographers encourage the models to pose in ways which accentuate their features, each shot crafted to show strength, innocence, attitude, athleticism, allure or plain sexiness.

Long legs, pert bum, big breasts or radiant face, the established erotic-art photographers know how to get the best from a shoot.

But now we have some truly shocking examples, which picture 3 helps explain. This is picture 4 from the set.

First, the pose is awkward for the model to hold. Her body is tense. Her face is tense. It is unkind in the way it accentuates almost a grimace of pain. Look at the cheeks.

The left arm is flopping, doing nothing - unless it's helping Gaby to balance in the awkward pose.

But the worst aspect is how the pose pushes Gaby's stomach out. I've seldom seen such an unflattering shot get published and wonder why.

Pictures 9, 15 and 16 are also atrocious, so bad I can't repost them or describe any detail.

But please, someone, track down this photographer and offer a few lessons. And Gaby, please find someone with a lot more skill for your next photoshoot (and hoping this one doesn't put you off totally).

Source: http://www.pretty4ever.com/

Brittany Flick - musician, model, merchandiser, MySpace maestro

The web is still going through enormous change but 5-minute-fame has been one massive effect of Web 2.0 and the various social media sites.

Although reality tv started a lot of the throw-them-into-the-spotlight-and-see-what-happens nonsense, modern web technologies have allowed the very obsessed to continue the exposure/drama/fandom to almost unlimited degrees.

Whether ardent fans pushing their obsessions or ardent wannabes pushing themselves, the opportunities are almost endless: website, blog, FaceBook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter can all be used, alone or in any combination.

Brittany Flickinger (photo) has used a number of methods to keep her hopes and potential-career in the spotlight. After winning season one of Paris Hilton's Best Friend Forever tv show, Britt Flick (as she is often known) is still nibbling at the edges of modelling and/or musician and/or merchandiser.

It has been reported that Hilton didn't stay friends with Brittany because, "I loved her and I trusted her, but sometimes people get too caught up and they change."

Anyone who has watched the BFF shows will know that Paris is constantly changing her own mind. Nothing wrong with that as she has a multi-million dollar business to run. So although Britt is not in that league yet, she is a very good example of a modern Web 2.0 user in the better senses of the term.

America the clear winner in Paris Hilton's British Best Friend

There were two bits of bad news in the final of Paris Hilton's reality TV series British Best Friend. Samuel and Kat. Samuel the cheat and Kat the nasty. There were also two bits of good news. That Emma was in the final and that super-fake Carrie was eliminated from the trip to LA.

Unfortunately, Paris (or the producers) had made the wrong choices with Samuel and Kat. Both had been exposed as nasty schemers behind people's back.

Reports that the reality TV series descended into chaos during a fight between Emma and Kat is easy to believe. Whether the two were screaming at each other until 4.30am and "foaming at the mouth" is true or exaggeration, that bosses had to call a psychiatrist to calm them is a great story.

A spokesperson for the show is reported as saying: "We have a psychiatrist on hand at all times.” With the nasty characters like Kat on display as examples of modern Britian, Los Angeles and Las Vegas seem 'normal' in comparison to such antics.

The remaining impression of the show was the poise and intelligence of Paris Hilton. She frequently looks stunning, equally happy beside the pool or on the main stage at a high-profile awards event. With the spotlight on the differences between USA people and UK people, the clear winner was America.

The decline of Microsoft continues - Netbooks and Appple the new winners

The numbers are remarkable given the previous growth of Microsoft - and its former stranglehold on the computer market. While Linux and Apple are increasing market share, Windows is declining.

So although Netbook sales are growing rapidly, Microsoft is missing out:

• 10 million Netbooks sold in 2008
• 20 million Netbook sales projection for 2009
• 30 percent of Netbooks run Linux

Even those Netbooks that run Windows have a significant negative impact for Microsoft as they are not able to charge full price for their OS - which is, anyway, a scandal at $200 to $400 for a laptop or desktop.

The switch to Linux and Apple is hurting Microsoft in other ways as well. Users are no longer forced to buy the over-priced Microsoft Office. They can run the free Open Office instead. So for 2008 the figures are:

• Microsoft Office sales down 23%
• Windows OS sales down 8%

Which is all good news for consumers, but bad news for the millionaire employees of Microsoft.

Trainee BBF Pets at the Farm -

As we know, Paris Hilton loves animals, especially little ones. And she is a very accomplished horse rider. As a test for the British townies she sent them to a farm. Turned out to be a bit of a horror story. Most trainee British Best Friends are so precious they can't cope being around ordinary animals - like horses, sheep and pigs. The prize was a spa treat for the ones who could cope.

Meanwhile, Paris had been receiving a fantastic therapeutic massage, which turned out to be a treat for us - even just viewing.

Next came a bit of work with Olivia to examine the BBFs real thoughts - some good old-fashioned psycho-social confrontations forced a few people out of cover. The results were very revealing, plotting the BBFs on a scale from most real to most fake:

Real <--------------------------------------------------> Fake

Samuel -- Flic -- Emma -- Ola -- Chrissie -- Meddy -- Laura -- Layla -- Carrie

We totally agree with the results at the fake end, because Carrie has annoyed us from the start. She never stops thinking about herself, never stops complaining, never stops being totally self-obsessed. Never-ending bleating is fake, and Carrie can't understand how fake that is.

Samuel received an evening treat at a sushi restaurant with Paris, one-on-one, and once again Paris looked gorgeous and is so open and outgoing.

Was intriguing to hear Paris's view on the sex tape scandal, how someone she really trusted would go behind her back and sell something so private, especially when everything occured when she was 17 and still rather naive.

If you think Paris looks great on a catwalk, in boots and leather at a firing range, with a shotgun in hand, she looks awesome. One of the strong impressions from the whole series is how intelligent and perceptive Paris is, in contrast to most of the shallow BBFs.

Photo shows Paris with sister Nicky - the British hopefuls are way off the quality needed to live alongside the stylish sisters

To add a bit more pressure on the BBFs, Paris announced that the finalists will join her in Los Angeles.

When asked why she should stay, all Carrie really said was "I want this" and this proves again she is the least worthy. We think the wrong choice was made to eliminate Layla, although Paris explained that Layla had got lost in the background and so people were not trusting her.

The biggest surprise was when Kat arrived back in the competition - the faces of the other contestants fell about a mile. Cool.

Web to take over from TV soon? Online viewing doubles in two years!

You might have thought the 13-17-year-old bracket have a preference to watch tv shows via the web. That is confirmed with the latest viewing figures for 2008. Almost 3 times more now prefer the online versions, a massive 28% increase over the 2006 figure.

What is more of a surprise is this preference has more than doubled in every age range.

percentage who access full TV programs online 2008 (2006)
13-17 years .. 28% .. (11%)
18-34 years .. 26% .. (12%)
35-49 years .. 16% .... (8%)
50-54 years .... 9% ... (1%)

Overall, for all age ranges, 21% now prefer online viewing (compared to 10% in 2006).

With up to a third of the TV audience online, no wonder Apple is reportedly working on a computer-TV combo - iViewer perhaps, or iStream?

If Apple can bring the convenience of the iPod and iTunes to the craziness that is TV programming, we'll sign up now.

Cheryl Cole tops 2008 celebrity blog - a taste of things to come?

Nadine Coyle (photo 1) has already set up shop - literally - in America. Rumours abound that Cheryl Cole (photo 2) is about to do the same. Even so, it is a pleasant surprise to see Cheryl in number one position on the list for an American celebrity blog of their top 10 girls of the year.

Along with the Girls Aloud girls, music stars are making the Top 10 lists in increasing numbers, which sees a big change in American taste. These are girls with big voices and, often, big brains. In an era when image counts for so much, these music stars are taking as much benefit from their musical DNA as their body shape - and Cheryl is a perfect example.

It is maybe not a surprise, then, that Hilary Duff (photo 3) is in the No. 2 slot. It is doubtful such a wholesome star would reach the Top 10 let alone the Top 100 in previous years. But all power to Hilary, from her Russian popstar role to her Maxim appearance - cute and sexy do go together.

And in No 4 slot is Jessica Simpson, and ongoing exposure from the part of Daisy Duke will surely have raised the chances of Jessica staying in the top 10 lists for a few more years yet.

So here is the Hollywood Tuna Top Ten Celebrities of 2008:

1. Cheryl Tweedy
2. Hilary Duff
3. Megan Fox
4. Jessica Simpson
5. Lucy Pinder
6. Miranda Kerr
7. Sophie Monk
8. Marisa Miller
9. Mila Kunis
10. Keeley Hazell

The dominance of the Playboy era is over, although there will always be the attraction of big breasts in these types of lists. For example, Lucy Pinder has zero appeal as a person, or even as an attractive face, and certainly has no talent except for her body-shape DNA.

Demographics in free fall - the credit crunch ends Gen X and Gen Y almost overnight

Just when you thought all the demographics were sweet and the marketing budget was plain sailing, along come a massive credit crunch - worldwide. But worse is that all your demographic profiles are defunct - extinct - a dead parrot.

Generation X is approximately those born between 1965 and 1979, who grew up with MTV in their teenage years and are now a key economic slice of 30-year-olds through 44-year-olds.

Their statistical significance is now suspect. Demographic profiling can cope with acceptable variations of a few percent. But when up to 20% of that profile are redundant, on reduced hours or reduced pay, or just plain hoarding money, budget forecasts are wrecked. Worldwide.

More important than this, perhaps, is the end of the Generation Y entry into the marketplace. The expected new flood of spenders from the 12-to-29 year-old range may not arrive for many years.

Further, 2008 could reliably be positioned as the end of Generation Z and so we may need to look for a new phrase. A couple spring to mind: post-bust or post-crunch or even big bang. Whatever is decided once the experts have time to address the problem, let's hope they retain a little humour in their deliverations.

Maybe, in light of the decade and the fact that so many people have been a bit astray of best practice, the newcomers could be called the naughties.

Do kids decide the future stars - The Nick Kids' Choice Awards say yes

The Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, also known as the KCAs, announced in March/April of each year, are often an early indicator of stars of the coming year or two. As most of the votes come from the nick.com website, it's reasonable to assume these are media-savvy and YouTube-aware teens and pre-teens.

Also of interest is the results cover a wide range of ages of the winners, so demonstrate the power of marketing into even the younger age groups.

Back in early 2008 the winners included:
Reality Show: American Idol
TV Actress: Miley Cyrus
Movie Actress: Jessica Alba
Female Singer: Miley Cyrus
Song: Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
Female Athlete: Danica Patrick
Wannabe Award: Cameron Diaz

The Wannabe Award is presented to the best celebrity role model or inspiration. Previous winners have included Paula Abdul, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Queen Latifah, Tia D. and Tamera Mowry (of Sister, Sister) and talk show host and actress Rosie O'Donnell.

As well as having considerable natural talent, a combination of staying fit alongside good marketing can make sure you photo stays in the news - and on the web. Our photos show Miley Cyrus in more relaxed mode (left) and Danica Patrick (right) in a promotional shoot. The 2009 nominations and voting are open, so we wait the results with interest.

Thrilling tennis at Australian Open - with teenage troubles left well behind by Dokic

The Top 10 players in the women's draw of the Australian Open are wonderful ambassadors for tennis, and it's great to see plenty of young talent snapping at their heels.

One favourite of the Aussie crowd is Jelena Dokic, who thrilled everyone as a teenager with her powerful play. Now 25 years old and over the blip of the past few years, Dokic is back as a contender, working her way up the rankings.

That journey is, however, perhaps harden than 10 years ago. The teenagers in the rankings from 10 to 50 are full of talent and confidence, attacking the top players and building great reputations. When Jelena Dokic, ranked 187, met Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, the No. 11 seed, the sets showed the importance of the mental game today.

Wozniacki, with so much talent and court skill, won the first set despite some close games and break point opportunities for Dokic. The second set showed the power and baseline dominance of Dokic, and quite a few wobbles in the Wozniacki game. That left the scores at 6-3, 1-6.

Mid-way through the third set, Dokic was tested and responded with mental strength and hitting power. With some excellent position play and even aces, Dokic sped to lead by 4 games to 2.

With a marvelous display in the 7th game, Dokic took her lead to 5-2, and that left her serving for the match. She controlled everything - her nerves, the ball, the player on the other side of the net. "Guts in life and on the court," is how one reporter described Dokic. The final score (6-3, 1-6, 2-6) was both unexpected and very welcome, even if we feel some sympathy for Wozniacki.

A standing ovation for Dokic was deserved, whether you are Australian or not. Former Australian No. 1 Alicia Molik, now a commentator, gave Dokic a hug at the end, as they were so both emotional. Jelena said she took on a point-by-point strategy after losing the first set. Asked about the past few years, Dokic said maybe she got on the tour too early, but has matured and feels helped by the crowd always, and the whole Australian nation: "I have so many feelings and emotions going on right now, so not sure how to say." As Molic said, just be proud, because everyone else is.

Pirate-friendly Island - Watch out Ibiza - Isle of Man to allow unlimited music downloads

The independent, self-governing and former Celtic-Norse island, tucked in between England and Ireland, was originally the Isle of Mann or Manx. Its own dialect of Irish and Scottish Gaelic, also known as Manx, is still being taught at schools.

Settled as far back as 10,000 BC, the island was often seen as a safe haven, but now it is famous as a tax haven with low personal taxation and zero corporate taxes. They also host 3 main music festivals and numerous other gigs and concerts.

Now, in a radical approach to the internet, they plan to allow unlimited legal music downloads. Let me repeat that, unlimited legal music downloads. The island has 100% broadband coverage, so a small annual fee will cover a necessary music licence for the whole island, and all residents and visitors. From whatever source!

"At the end of the day, we're not going to stop piracy," said a spokesperson. But this plan effectively bypasses the piracy issue. "It legalises what's already going on ... what's already going on in a big way." In other words, if the music industry had embraced channels similar to Napster years ago, digital downloads would be very different today, and possibly all 'paid for' in one way or another.

The fee may be as low as one euro a month, and if a major network like Telefonica with 120 million users signed up, then music rights companies would get all they need. Go Isle of Manx!

UK struggles against US music power - only Leona Lewis has any credibility

The new season of American Idol proves, again, the overwhelming dominance of America in chart music - whether pop, rock, soul or whatever. Idol is the number one tv show in the States, on the No. 1 tv network, and achieves an average of 30 million viewers per episode.

Even better figures help the final, which has 55 million viewers, as the results of the 97 million votes are revealed. Don't forget, these are just the USA figures and millions more watch the show worldwide. That power means only exceptional talent - and almost always a fantastic voice - will make a significant impact Stateside. For the UK there has been a severe lack of music power.


Leona Lewis is the most successful British artist to cross the Atlantic for years. Having conquered Top 10 album charts around the world, her album Spirit hit No. 1 status in the States too. With the single Bleeding Love also topping the Billboard Hot 100, Leona has proven her extraordinary talent in the most competitive market in the world.

Just for the record, Spirit achieved No. 1 all major markets: UK, USA, Canada, Australia, China, Germany, etc.

Robbie Williams arrived in America along with massive hype with The Ego Has Landed. The best the album could achieve was No. 63 on the U.S. pop charts. Follow-up Sing When You’re Winning only reached No. 110 on the U.S. charts. Escapology didn't reach Top-40, while Rudebox did not even get in the shops - it was only released digitally in America.

After winning the Mercury Prize in 2002 Ms. Dynamite was tipped as the British rapper who would win over America. The critics fell over themselves with praise for A Little Deeper but the American public was not fooled - it only reached No. 179 in the States and follow-up Judgement Day didn’t receive full release in the U.S. Ms. Dynamite is just one of many hyped UK rappers who failed to resonate, including Dizzee Rascal and Lady Sovereign.

Although the Sugababes are one of the most successful pop groups in Britain, they have very little presence in the U.S. Only Hole in the Head charted low on Billboard’s Hot 100 and Americans can only buy Sugababes on import.

Even MySpace-hyped Lily Allen could do no better than No. 49 on Billboard’s Hot 100 with Smile.

All of which shows that only real musical talent and dedication will achieve success in America. Britain's music press and gutter tv pundits need to get their heads out of lurid, non-music hype and self-promotion. Only then will they see any real British music talent.

Top Pop Artists 2008 - Girls Steal the Show

Girls stole the show for the Top Pop Artists of 2008 by taking 4 of the top 5 slots.

1. Rihanna - solo and collaborations
2. Chris Brown - especially with Jordin Sparks
3. Leona Lewis - the most beautiful voice
4. Katy Perry - sassy, sexy, classy talent
5. Jordin Sparks - heartfelf and smooth diva

Some may argue that Brown is only there because of his duet with Jordin, and that is probably correct. So maybe the girls took four-and-a-half of the top 5 slots!

For us, all of the girls are making MUSIC rather than the boys who seem locked in their big-production, multi-million-budget, metro-sexual, copycat toons. Just look at the ENERGY of Rihanna, the RANGE of Leona Lewis, the breathless CATCHYNESS of Katy Perry and the MUSICALITY of Jordin. Can't find 5 boys to equal those.

2 years of astonishing growth - YouTube and FaceBook crush MySpace

At the start of 2007, MySpace, Google and YouTube were close to level-pegging for worldwide web traffic. FaceBook was barely on the radar.

One year later, YouTube was running at twice the traffic, while FaceBook had caught up with the other two.

At the start of 2009, FaceBook has caught YouTube, while MySpace is close to declining. The success of YouTube started with a lot of fairly juvenile and fun content, but now it exceeds MySpace for great music content, and good film resources, and, well, the whole of life - almost.

YouTube probably has the market locked tight for genre and niche content - all readily available, easy to find, and with good stepping stones to similar items. FaceBook, on the other hand, has captured both the tweenies market - great networking and mesmerising apps - and the family networking crown.

Prediction for the next 12 months: Blogs will catch up with MySpace, especially if FaceBook ever work out how to get a Blogroll to work properly.
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Highest Paid Actresses 2008 - Angelina Jolie tops chart

Money may not be everything, but it certainly proves talent and popularity. The critics bleat on about their favourites, or who they have been paid to promote, but the public support has the final say. So we are happy to see one of our favourites at No 1 in the highest paid actress chart for 2008.

Angelina Jolie earned above $15 million for Wanted and may receive $20m for a sequel. The fee is not the only income, however, and the $15m for Edwin A. Salt will be boosted by healthy shares of profits. But also don't forget that Angelina (and Brad) give millions to charity, and huge amounts of time to humanitarian activities.

At No 2, Julia Roberts has returned and hit the jackpot with Duplicity, earning $15 million-plus for the thriller directed by Tony Gilroy. Roberts is also a strong supporter of charities.

Moving from rather cute child actress and coed, Reese Witherspoon has accomplished a surprising variety of roles. Her salary for Four Christmases was around $14m and total earnings put Witherspoon at No 3 for the year.

Cameron Diaz is still a high earner, with around $10m for the comedy What Happens in Vegas, and that helped toward total earnings of around $50m for the year.

Another former child and TV star is No 5, Katherine Heigl, who is leaping up the earnings list. With around $6m for The Ugly Truth and $225,000 per episode for Grey's Anatomy, our guess is her bank balance is fairly healthy.
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Top Web Charts for 2008 - Paris Hilton and Anna Kournikova still No 1

In a year of enormous turmoil in the physical world it is wonderful to see the virtual world of the web has steadfastly held to its primary concerns - girls/women and celebrities. And we love it!

So even though there is a new celebrity in the Top Women searches on Lycos - Sarah Palin - it is perhaps no surprise to see the other 4:

1. Paris Hilton
2. Sarah Palin
3. Britney Spears
4. Pamela Anderson
5. Holly Madison

Celebs also dominated the Top News Stories as well, with Heath Ledger, Clay Aiken, Paul Newman and Jennifer Hudson of more interest than earthquakes and wars.


Meanwhile, the public chose Top Sports Stars who combined attractiveness along with accomplishment - again, no great surprise:

1. Anna Kournikova
2. Danica Patrick
3. Maria Sharapova
4. Michael Phelps
5. Serena Williams

And interesting to see Anna is still such a darling of webfolk.
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Heads Up

Thanks to Jared Milgrim (photographer) for an always interesting blog. He often takes photos of gigs and concerts, even festivals, and seems to have a good eye and ear for interesting music and performances.

Recent mentions:
Rilo Kiley - from LA and including former child actors (who done good) - website

Yelle - French and provocative (almost nothing better in the world) - website

You can check Jared's great photography and comments here: blogspot

Context is not new - YouTube and FaceBook the future

Content is not king. Context is king. Unless you have a mechanism to classify or categorise in some way, content becomes a difficult mess.

Search engines helped find content on the web, but still rather inefficiently. Even now, with all the improvements to Google etc, it is still possible to receive thousands of results from a search query.

Microsoft was wrong. Internet Explorer was wrong. They were old concepts and have been totally overtaken by REAL context kings:

YouTube
easily find videos that work (rather than false or broken links in Google or Yahoo)

MySpace
easily stay in touch with friends and common interests (in contrast to clumsy and boring email software)

Facebook
easily find friends and share common interests (in contrast to clumsy and boring special interest groups)

Firefox
providing a browser with tools that work

So ignore the nay-saying of the big boys and go with what works for users. Every computer manufacturer (except Apple) and every hosting software (except Joomla) can be shown to have very fundamental usability failures.

Learn from history!

The Egyptians were smart enough to know that context was king, and used a version of XML-like descriptions for their scrolls to help describe the content. (Yes, the Roman Christians decided to destroy all that and set us back a few thousand years.)

Not the BBC News - Unhealthy dumbing down

As each year passes, the BBC News has become less relevant and more immature. Half of some recent news programmes have been full of poorly-disguised advertising for other BBC programmes.

So-called celebrity interviews are nothing more than teasers for BBC programmes.

Even the death of a 16-year-old boy was constantly referenced to a BBC soap.

Regional news slots are used to promote other radio or tv slots.

Where is there any real news coverage on the BBC? Why is our enforced licence fee money used for low-interest programmes? In fact, the BBC News is lucky to get 8% of the population watching. So how can an enforced levy on 100% of households be justified?

Perhaps the most damaging problems of the BBC are the lack of balance in their news items. For example, the attack on Kinsella is paraded as an example of Britain in trouble. Yet we have a 16-year-old out at 2am in a dangerous part of London, at or near a pub, and in a fight.

There are other questions a responsible news programme should be asking. For example: Why was he there? Who was looking after him? How did he get involved in a fight?

Instead, the BBC are more interested in adding a child abuse storyline to Eastenders, which has constantly portrayed a menu of fights, arguments, murder, incest and violence. And all that before the 9pm watershed.

There is no balance left at the BBC. No family values. No positive role models. No questioning or challenging.

And, finally, there is no real analysis in BBC news reports. No historical perspective. No statistical comparisons. Instead, there is a mish-mash of soundbites and soft opinion, knee-jerk bias and overall tone of fiddling while Rome burns.