Technorati Tags: advertising

That’s the price to pay when you’re a hypochondriac god fearing country which makes a business out of terrifying its own citizens. The two surrealist pranksters were released on a $2500 bail and gave a brilliant press conference as soon as they were released. Watch the video, it is an excellent lesson in emergency communication. If only I had hair…

My friend Boris thought it was nice to lure me into the game called Tag You!, started last month by the infamous Jeff Pulver. It consist of linking to five people, who then have to tell five unknown facts about themselves, and then I need to tag five other bloggers who have to do the same thing. The game is completely useless, and therefore I like it. So here I go.

1. I have shoplifted twice in my life. I was eleven years old and both times I got caught. Both times I had stolen a bar of KitKat. Needless to say that I still feel guilty whenever I eat a Kitkat.

2. For many adolescent years I refused to wear glasses in public. Miraculously I never caused any traffic accidents.

3. I’ve almost finished watching Desperate Housewives Season 3.

4. I have never been to Asia.

5. When I was twelve years old, I invented Atominotera, my own imaginary country. I designed a map and wrote very progressive laws.

The five people I tag are Olivier van Beemen, ReindeR Rustema, Gabriela Hengeveld, Laurent King and Eduardo Laporte.

Thank you for your understanding.

On Thursday 11 March, French fashion designers Marithé + François Girbaud were convicted of insulting catholics by a Parisian court for an advertisement depicting a setting vaguely reminiscent to a famous 15th century painting in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan by Leonardo da Vinci, a guy now better known for some code invented by writer Dan Brown than for his paintings.

Besides the question if this advertisement is bad taste, it is foremost a reference to or a parody on a work of art, which had lukewarm reception when it was created. Contrary to what ignoramus Brown writes, The Last Supper is definitely not a fresco. Da Vinci, always looking for inventions and innovations, tried a new technique. Da Vinci experimented with a new style, tempera and oil on a dry wall. But this experiment was a disaster. Not very long after its completion, the work started to disintegrate.

The French judgment is ridiculous. Besides the fact that the photograph is very stylish, the verdict is contradictory with one of the pillars of the French Republic, the ‘laicité’, or the strict separation between church and state. The problem with blasphemy is that it only exists when you are religious. To be blasphemous one must belief in or acknowledges some kind of deity. There is no interest in insulting something or someone if it doesn’t exist. The French Court as well as the French State are explicitly non-religious. So how can they convict something that does not exist? This ruling is a very dangerous one. The Girbauds will appeal. To be continued.

The rest of my site will adopt this new look in the next couple of days. From now on content will be added on a very regular basis again. Have fun!

Prime Minister Tony Bliar will probably announce Britain should join, but ‘not yet’. It is strange that only economical criteria are used in this discussion. But what about cultural ones? Money is an important item to distinguish a national identity. Becoming a member of the Eurozone will strengthen the European identification of the Brits, and will make them maybe less hostile towards the continent (which they prefer to call ‘Europe’, as if the UK were not part of that perfid area ruled by bureaucrats in Brussels).

Ever since the UK joined the European Union (1976), they have been a bad player. Thanks to Thatcher’s big mouth, the UK is actually paid by the other member states to stay in the Union (the so-called ‘rebate’ of £2 billion, or €2.8 billion). And although the UK never joined the Schengen Area (every other member state did, even Norway and Iceland, non-EU members), they do demand to influence it. Actually, Britain’s list of bad behaviour to the EU is endless. It is therefore quite amazing that the other members of the Union still want Britain in the EU. Maybe it becomes time to start a Union-wide discussion of whether the UK should stay a member at all. I personally think that Britain should be in the EU, but only when they will play the game to the European rules. It would be a cultural, political and intellectual mistake for Britain not to focus on Europe, but to focus west, to Big Brother US. But if that’s how they want it, then they should do it. It is time however, to stop the ambivalence. My advice? Stop wining, and take the euromoney. Or run!

He was an extraordinary good old chap, who liked wine, women, art and railways. He was a cheerful art critic, a colourful member of the House of Lords, and a captain in the Scots Guards during the Second World War. Last year, at age 80, he wrote an article about his happy adventures in the world’s finest brothels. May his soul rest in pleasure.