WIGGUM DAILY

 

We’ve all seen trick pool shots, trick billiards shots, trick golf shots, tennis shots and even trick card tricks.  But until today I bet you’ve never heard or seen of trick bowling. We’ll wonder no longer, step right up and your questions WILL be answered right here with our VOTD that I’ve entitled NERD BOWLING 101. 

 

 

 

Something a little different for our MOTD. You may have heard the news that KURT VONNEGUT passed away this week on Wednesday at the age of 84 in his Manhattan home, the result of a fall some weeks earlier that caused serious brain damage.  For those not familiar with his work, the link above can do a better job filling you in than I. 

 

For those too lazy to read for themselves, Kurt Vonnegut was an American WWII soldier, turned novelist and writer. His time as an advanced forward scout for the 106th INFANTRY DIVISION saw him captured in Dec of 1944 during the BATTLE OF THE BULGE and subsequently held as a German POW in the city of DRESDEN. He was there during the ALLIED COMBING CAMPAIGN of Feb 1945, one of only seven US POW’s to survive those bombings and became a first hand witness to the horrific aftermath.

On the subject he recalled "Utter destruction… carnage unfathomable". It was these events that greatly influenced his life’s literary work.

 

One of his more famous works was the 1969 novel SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, the title being a reference to his place of detention in Dresden, an underground meat packers slaughterhouse, and the reason he and his fellow POW’s survived the Allied bombings.  Let’s move forward in time to the year 2003 and we are nearly there.  Kurt got together with Melbourne musician and composer SIMON HESELEV to work on a collaborative spoken-word project in which Kurt reads a passage from his novel Slaughterhouse Five, and Simon sets it to music, which we present for you here today in memory of Kurt Vonnegut.

 

It takes a little bit to get going, but once it takes off, the imagery created by the words is profound and the message a poignant one, from a man who was there and witnessed these events with his own eyes, ears, nose, and hands. 

 

 

The latest yawn-fest PC v Mac commercials would indicate that Apple has run out of things to say about it’s own PC hardware products ( yes - Macs are PC’s too). Instead they are continuing down the "PC’s are Evil" road.  I’m sure this approach goes down well with the zealot fan base who laugh mockingly down their noses at the poor old non-Mac computer users.  But you have to ask yourself as a PC user (which over 90% reading this will be), do you enjoy being made fun of ? Being ridiculed and made to feel stupid and small for your choice of computer hardware ?  Do these ads make you want to leave your PC out on the kerb on rubbish day and trot off to the local Apple store with a suitcase full of cash. No, they make you want to punch the crap out of the smarmy little brat playing the Mac PC.

 

Sure the early ads were clever, humorous and poked fun at the many foibles of Windows and the PC’s it runs on.  We all got a chuckle watching those.  But a monkey could have written those ads, it was like shooting fish in a barrel, even Apple would admit that.  As the campaign has progressed it’s spiralled down from the heights of witty and clever to become a little embarrassing frankly.

 

I‘m not going into a whole debate and article about the actual facts of Windows PC’s versus Mac OS.X PC’s.  We all know the score there. I’ll cover that in a future article. For now we’ll let the Apple Reality Distortion Field carry on unabated.

 

As if we needed more proof that the message has become lost along the way from initial campaign conception to the current implementation of today… What is supposed to be the "take-away" from this ?  That things never change ?  Really… that’s all you’ve got left in the ideas tank. Maybe things would have changed if Bill Gates hadn’t taken out his wallet and chipped in a lazy US$150M, back in 1997 to save Apple from sliding off into oblivion.

 

 

Time to get a new PR firm Apple.  One with a new message. One that promotes YOUR products, not simply taking pot shots at easy targets, ie: the +90% of the worlds computer users that don’t use your hardware.  I’m sure you’re paying them a tidy sum to pump out this tired boring warmed over idea. You deserve to get value for your money…