After one day of reltively heavy weather with wind and rain we awoke this morning to the Atlantic looking like a millpond. The day then begam as it has for the past three - a musical morning with Hugh. I look forward to his congeniality, his encyclopedic memory for music and his tendency to logharaeia. (Heaven knows how to spell that one. I'm already in pain from a response reminding me about improperly proof read blogs.)
Last night I endured (my friends will understand) a 3D performance of Carmen. I apologize I guess, for being unfriendly to most opera which , like last night's Carmen is actually a few wonderful arias interspersed with endless melodrama. Besides, the mezzo who sang Carmen tried far too hard to be sensuously sexy and slithery. She carressed and made faces, she slid her skirt tantlizingly up a rather too-large leg. At intermission I pleaded sleepiness and Shirley followed my, grudgingly, back to our cabin.
By now it is mid-afterboob and we have just come through our first, and heavily anticipated chamber music conert. Alas, it was more of a parade of chamber favourites than a concert. Appalingly, perhaps because the acoustics in the theatre are not made for music, the instruments were elctrically "enhanced." It made the music sound like it was telephoned in from the next room. The Adagio String Quartet played, without interruption nine selections starting with Corelli and ending with the Pizzicato Polka with stops in between for the Pachelbell Canon, Handel's Arrival of The Queen of Sheba. The four ladies stayed in their seats and the audience, tiny, appluaded a little between each selection.
Tonight we look forward to another performance by Joel Bennett, the star of Les Miz. What he does is pure Las Vegas. But it is, however heavily embellished, well done.
And a bit of redemption. Lunch today included roast prime rib. It was perfect! Cunard hs been vindicated. Did they really need my stamp of approval?
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
LETTER #2 THE QUEEN GETS CLOSER
Letter #2 – THE QUEEN GETS CLOSER
Friday August 26 and with three days to go I finally met what I had dreaded, an American with “attitude.” Sitting at a table next to us, a gangly man in his 60’s is wearing a Viet Nam Veteran peaked cap complete with the gold braid. The cap is an invitation to others of like age and mind to join him. One does. He’s a man in his 80s who trumps Viet Nam with his stories about WW2 landings in Okinawa.
The response from the Viet Nam vet was something like: “We dropped two nucular (sic) bombs on them and ten years later they were running high speed trains. I was there on R&R (from Viet Nam) and they were better off than most Americans.”
But what really got me cranked up was earlier in our conversation when he declared that “all politicians are corrupt and on the take. Name me one who isn’t. My own congressman from Arizona admitted as such.” So, instead of meeting an Ugly American, I met an Angry one. Really, not so much “angry” as completely disillusioned,
to the point that he believed American s were being “taken for a ride by
politicians.” In spite of his condemnation of politicians, he seemed to be thriving.
I didn’t dare get into things like health care or economics – I’d have had an earful of stuff like: “Too much government.”
He even declared that our old enemies made better cars than “we” did and that all American cars were not worth the money.
It was not long Ago that one of my blogs was all about how negativity has tarnished all politicians. How were have so degraded them that we are losing faith in the entire institution of politics. We do have it in Canada, but nothing like the disaffection and alienation Americans – while still believing they live in the greatest country on earth - have to endure.
I would have to be that this man votes about as far Right as you can get. Everything about him was cynicism mixed with patriotism. But what came through for me was that he had been anaesthetized by events and instead of trying to change things, simply wants no more to do with it. But I’m betting that if there were a national emergency – he’d be back volunteering, just as he had volunteered to go to Viet Nam.
It was an eye-opener. For the past couple of days my connections seem to have been to nothing but middle class Brits and their families and their eternal need to find other middle class Brits to talk to. A couple we sat next to yesterday chatted with us briefly until another couple arrived and they could talk about Blighty to each other. Do I sound cynical?
The crossing has become rather humdrum. What there is to see we have seen. What there is to do is more of the same. Last night we were treated to a show in the big theatre.
A man named Bob Arno, billed as the world’s only legal pickpocket, treated us to a hilarious evening as he literally undressed several passengers while relieving them of credit cards, watches and wallets.
Now I am sitting next to the door to the balcony. To my right the sun “glisters” (thank y0ou John Keats) off an endless ocean. Shirley is wrapped up in a book. I too have a book, appropriately “Atlantic” by one of my favourites – Simon Winchester. I have to quote him because he writes in an evocative way I can only dream off. He is still a youth and is taking his first ocean voyage – the Empress of Britain from Liverpool to Montréal.
The ship is off Newfoundland when suddenly it stops. An RCAF plane appears and drops, via parachute, a package containing a drug needed by a suddenly sick elderly woman. The engines start up and they resume the passage. Winchester writes: “There was something uncanny about the sudden silence, the emptiness, the realization of the enormous depths below us and the limitless heights above, the universal grayness of the scene, the very evident and potentially terrifying power of the rough seas and the wind, and thru fact that despite our puny human powerlessness and insignificance, invisible radio beams and Morse code signals had summoned readily offered help from far away.”
I am humbled by Winchester knowing that the best I can come up with is the clichéd “trackless ocean” which spreads itself around us.
Finally, for those who have cruised and expect groaning tables of continuous food, this transatlantic trip doesn’t have it. I am still trying to get a decent breakfast. Yesterday we tried the Britannia Room for breakfast. It started well with two small puffy triangles of French toast but quickly went downhill with corned beef hash that was so salty it would have killed anyone with high blood pressure. When I complained, I was told that it came from a can from their supplier. I told them to speak to their supplier. I didn’t get into kitchen orthodoxy which preaches that no decent chef allows food to be taken from the kitchen unless he has tasted it. Shame on Cunard for that one.
We had even tried an alternative to the wonderful dinner in the Britannia and headed for “The Carvery.” It consisted to a typical buffet “bain marie” with an assortment of pre-cooked meat dishes. The only “carved” meat was desperately overcooked pork tenderloin accompanied by soggy roast potatoes. Tonight we return to the safe haven of the Britannia.
This afternoon we’ll do a movie in the “Illuminations” room.
If these words are a bit hard to follow blame the slight rolling of the ship. Nothing is perfect – but we’re close. The slight roll and my having to concentrate on a moving computer screen is have an unwanted effect.
Friday August 26 and with three days to go I finally met what I had dreaded, an American with “attitude.” Sitting at a table next to us, a gangly man in his 60’s is wearing a Viet Nam Veteran peaked cap complete with the gold braid. The cap is an invitation to others of like age and mind to join him. One does. He’s a man in his 80s who trumps Viet Nam with his stories about WW2 landings in Okinawa.
The response from the Viet Nam vet was something like: “We dropped two nucular (sic) bombs on them and ten years later they were running high speed trains. I was there on R&R (from Viet Nam) and they were better off than most Americans.”
But what really got me cranked up was earlier in our conversation when he declared that “all politicians are corrupt and on the take. Name me one who isn’t. My own congressman from Arizona admitted as such.” So, instead of meeting an Ugly American, I met an Angry one. Really, not so much “angry” as completely disillusioned,
to the point that he believed American s were being “taken for a ride by
politicians.” In spite of his condemnation of politicians, he seemed to be thriving.
I didn’t dare get into things like health care or economics – I’d have had an earful of stuff like: “Too much government.”
He even declared that our old enemies made better cars than “we” did and that all American cars were not worth the money.
It was not long Ago that one of my blogs was all about how negativity has tarnished all politicians. How were have so degraded them that we are losing faith in the entire institution of politics. We do have it in Canada, but nothing like the disaffection and alienation Americans – while still believing they live in the greatest country on earth - have to endure.
I would have to be that this man votes about as far Right as you can get. Everything about him was cynicism mixed with patriotism. But what came through for me was that he had been anaesthetized by events and instead of trying to change things, simply wants no more to do with it. But I’m betting that if there were a national emergency – he’d be back volunteering, just as he had volunteered to go to Viet Nam.
It was an eye-opener. For the past couple of days my connections seem to have been to nothing but middle class Brits and their families and their eternal need to find other middle class Brits to talk to. A couple we sat next to yesterday chatted with us briefly until another couple arrived and they could talk about Blighty to each other. Do I sound cynical?
The crossing has become rather humdrum. What there is to see we have seen. What there is to do is more of the same. Last night we were treated to a show in the big theatre.
A man named Bob Arno, billed as the world’s only legal pickpocket, treated us to a hilarious evening as he literally undressed several passengers while relieving them of credit cards, watches and wallets.
Now I am sitting next to the door to the balcony. To my right the sun “glisters” (thank y0ou John Keats) off an endless ocean. Shirley is wrapped up in a book. I too have a book, appropriately “Atlantic” by one of my favourites – Simon Winchester. I have to quote him because he writes in an evocative way I can only dream off. He is still a youth and is taking his first ocean voyage – the Empress of Britain from Liverpool to Montréal.
The ship is off Newfoundland when suddenly it stops. An RCAF plane appears and drops, via parachute, a package containing a drug needed by a suddenly sick elderly woman. The engines start up and they resume the passage. Winchester writes: “There was something uncanny about the sudden silence, the emptiness, the realization of the enormous depths below us and the limitless heights above, the universal grayness of the scene, the very evident and potentially terrifying power of the rough seas and the wind, and thru fact that despite our puny human powerlessness and insignificance, invisible radio beams and Morse code signals had summoned readily offered help from far away.”
I am humbled by Winchester knowing that the best I can come up with is the clichéd “trackless ocean” which spreads itself around us.
Finally, for those who have cruised and expect groaning tables of continuous food, this transatlantic trip doesn’t have it. I am still trying to get a decent breakfast. Yesterday we tried the Britannia Room for breakfast. It started well with two small puffy triangles of French toast but quickly went downhill with corned beef hash that was so salty it would have killed anyone with high blood pressure. When I complained, I was told that it came from a can from their supplier. I told them to speak to their supplier. I didn’t get into kitchen orthodoxy which preaches that no decent chef allows food to be taken from the kitchen unless he has tasted it. Shame on Cunard for that one.
We had even tried an alternative to the wonderful dinner in the Britannia and headed for “The Carvery.” It consisted to a typical buffet “bain marie” with an assortment of pre-cooked meat dishes. The only “carved” meat was desperately overcooked pork tenderloin accompanied by soggy roast potatoes. Tonight we return to the safe haven of the Britannia.
This afternoon we’ll do a movie in the “Illuminations” room.
If these words are a bit hard to follow blame the slight rolling of the ship. Nothing is perfect – but we’re close. The slight roll and my having to concentrate on a moving computer screen is have an unwanted effect.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
LETTER #1 - NORTH ATLANTIC
Standing next to me in the men’s loo, a gentleman asks: Is today Tuesday?” There was a kind of wry amusement in his question, my own amusement that we had bee on board the Queen Mary Two since only last night. The sense of time will attenuate as the week goes on. But for now, everything is new, brilliant, eye-catching and seductive. It all makes the time seem to stand almost still.
Enough poetic wool-gathering. We have been on this remarkably calm and serene ocean for almost two fays. Today there is a breeze and a long ocean swell has developed a swell that this superb piece of marine engineering has conquered – so far. She is living up to all the advance billing about the engineering that reduces (but doesn’t eliminate) any sense of pitch and roll. Only a delicate swing. I worried that Shirley would find it uncomfortable, given her distaste for travel by water, Not at all.
I had hoped that I could, as in past “letters” deliver some kind o observations about the “who” and “what” of my fellow travellers. The first surprise was that the passengers, whom I had expected to belong to my own geriatric class, included hundreds of young people, young families, singles and seekers and even at least one aging but still predatory unmarried women from Arizona.
We have just come from a lecture (to a packed theatre) by famed British journalist and independent M.P. Martin Bell. He is the elder statesman among British TV journalists and he took us on a trip through the world’s past as he reported it – Bosnia, Yemen, Darfur – and points in between. He has been q witness to history. He served most recently with UNICEF. His “take” on war, is predictable and he sometimes seems more interested in amusing than enlightening his audience. But he is good at it.
Before that an unexpected breakfast treat: a conversation with Hugh Petter. He does “lecture recitals” and is one of many celebrity attractions we meet every day. I heard him yesterday in a recital with commentary. His commentaries were amusing, but then I love anything to do with music. He playing was not up to the same standard. He was, to put it simply – sloppy – missing notes, “faking” passages he couldn’t or wouldn’t handle. He trudged along through Beethoven and a very flawed “Pathetique” sonata. Then some Schubert and a musical massacre of Grieg’s Wedding at Troldhaugen. I’m exaggerating. He plays better than I do.
I saw him at breakfast and asked if I could join him. What do I say now? Your playing was slipshod? What followed was about two hours of my favourite conversation with musicians about music. We ranged from Bach thr9ough Beethoven. He is encyclopedic about chamber music and hummed parts of Schubert and Beethoven. We got into very special themes, like the repetitive theme that Sibelius used in his – I think – seventh symphony. We had a grand time chewing through Dvorak and Debussy, through the great \artists like Horowitz and Rubenstein, with a detour for Martha Argerich. I was in a state of bliss and I forgot totally about his playing.
I had hoped to be able to observe some common quality about people who tackle a sea passage and how they compare with the gluttonous “cruise” patron s who gorge themselves at very opport7unity on a 24 hour smorgasbord then troop off collectively to the next port of call where they infest the streets and jam the stores. (That is a completely unqualified observation. I have never r taken a cruise (except for two river cruises, and have only the reports of friends to base my comments on.)
I worried that the table assigned to us in the huge Britannia Room would be with an overweight couple of hard-right Republican s from somewhere in the Midwest. Instead we struck gild. A real estate man from San Francisco, twice divorced and on his way to a family wedding in Cortona. An undisguised liberal. A German couple who seem on the one hand to be concerned about how the Right has taken over managing the American economy, while at the same time bemoaning the fact that hard-working Germans are being asked to bail out a Greece, a county of lazy ne’er-do-wells. For spice we were joined by a couple of English women, one a doctoral candidate in motion picture arts, the other a ballet teacher – both with wide ranging and humourous points of view. In all, a fortuitous assembly for us. There was only one bump in the road – lunch today with a couple from London Ontario I “picked up” on the way into the dining room. She was Scottish and didn’t seem to have an “off” switch on her mouth.
I promised I wouldn’t spend a lot of time talking food. If you’
If you've cruised you know all about it. The Britannia Room food was superb, the service impeccable. I remember a few items: a gently poached piece of Boston Cod, a tenderloin that was broiled with care, and a rack of lamb pink and perfect. However, I learned again, to my dismay that breakfast buffets are all the same: rubbery eggs, cold bacon, indigestible pancakes and not even close to laky croissants.
Briefly – a note about performances. There is nightly fare in a spacious theatre. The first was a knockout cabaret performance by the star of the Los Angeles production of “Les Miz” and last night a meaningless pastiche called “Viva Italia” – a pointless, but well performed string of Italianesque songs (sung in English) and danced to with vigour but not much else. No plot. No script. No meaning. A kind of mindless “Mama Mia.”
It is already Thursday morning, and I am finishing this off on the way to a better breakfast.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
IF THEY SAY SO - IT HAS TO BE GOOD
I used to be a copywriter – a good copywriter. My partner and I won prizes for copywriting, even though I had to remind him not to write stuff like: “There’s two things etc…” told him he meant “there ARE…” but the mistake has flourished until today everyone, even educated people who actually know how to read use a singular verb with a plural subject.
I got sidetracked. This was supposed to be about the fine art of writing advertising copy.
So much “copy” has deteriorated into mindless jargon that it no longer is a question of truth or accuracy. Today I nearly fell off the chesterfield as a TV commercial announced that a special cheeseburger was made with “naturally aged Cheddar Cheese.” AS OPPOSED TO WHAT? Artificially aged and if so, by what chemical magic do you age cheese?
The other one that has my brain frying is the claim by Tim Hortons that their “Smoothie” contains a “full helping of fruit.” What pray tell is a “full” helping? It is a bowlful, a dessert-sized portion?. It is none of those. It is a mindless bit of fake hyperbole that some copywriter put down, and that some artistic director approved and that some client accepted.
Nonsense!
While I’m here doing my typically purist, elitist carping about language. On ABC News a reporter in Libya, announcing that Ghadaffi’s end may be near said: “He’S up against the ropes.” I believe we still call that a mixed metaphor. He was either: “on the ropes” or “up against the wall.” Ah me. How great it is to be perfect.
And on the same network news a story about a 13 year old named Jessica who, like Nancy Drew, was able to solve a crime the police could not. The news anchor declared: “Jessica has quite a future ahead of her.” Or did he mean a past behind her?
The other day a CBC News reporter talking about the glass falling from condominium balconies referred to “incidences.” Nice new word. Wouldn’t the original “incidents” have worked?
In the face of blood-letting in Syria, Hamas incursions into the Sinai and famine in the horn of Africa – I choose to meddle with trivialities.
Starting next week another in epic series “Letters from….” Not Paris this time, but from first – the Queen Mary Two, taking us across the Atlantic to Southampton. Then four weeks in the west country of England – Cornwall, Devon and Wales.
I’m off to see…..
Thursday, August 18, 2011
WHISTLING IN THE GRAVEYARD
President Obama is busing around Middle America there trying to buoy up his chances for re-election next year. His best friends, it may turns out, are the Republicans who seem to have a kind of bizarre death wish as they back the Bible-toting, homophobic, Obama-hating Michelle Bachman.
That’s all pretty obvious. Even more obvious is the emptiness of the Obama speeches – sounding more like a pep rally than a genuine look at what ails the country. He toured Minnesota and told them how wonderful they were. From there he went Iowa where he mouthed platitudes like: “America will come out of all this stronger than ever.” Brave words. Empty words. You can’t escape with rhetoric and fine oratory anymore. You have not made a specific statement in months. To keep on proclaiming that “America is the greatest country on earth and Americans are the hardest working people on earth, simply isn’t going to cut it. It may bolster his popularity which popped up a whole 2 percentage points in the last few days but is still under 50%.
The interesting note here has to be that his Republican wannabees accuse him of bad-mouthing America. It is not allowed. No politician who thinks he can win does it by poor-mouthing America's performance. The other point he made, and it got the applause he expected, “recovery is not something that can be done by Washington!” Pure pandering to the voters’ worst instincts. Please, if not by Washington – who? The tooth fairy.
The last few weeks the media have been full of stories about how American corporations are sitting on billions in cash – billions that they will not put to work to create jobs. The story is that they are worried by the uncertainty. They should worry – they are the authors of most of it.
Obama did, to give him some credit, talk about how much there is to be done: schools, construction projects – all labour-intensive – and all provided of course by Washington, or through Washington by the States.
There is nothing new in what Warren buffet said the other day. He, and other rich people like George Soros, have long said that they and all the rest of the billionaires should be paying their share. Buffet said that the total percentage he paid on income was less than the percentage being paid by a secretary in his company. The reason of course is that much of the Omaha tycoon’s profit comes from capital gains, and those are a sacred cow – sacred for the wealthy of course. The same could be said of mortgage interest deductibility. It is a boon to the people who can afford to own houses. It has also been part of the problem of overheating demand in the housing market.
Looking back at everything he has said, and aside from the jingoistic stuff about how great the country is, he did manage to say that construction was the biggest mover of the economy. No secret there. Construction is the biggest employer in America – and in Canada too.
The stories about the big corporations hoarding money in their treasures told another sad tale: the accumulated capital held by just four major companies would be enough to buy back all the repossessed houses in America!
As long as Michelle Backman and Texas Governor Perry are the front runners, America has a lot to fear. And it won’t heal itself because America is the greatest …blah, blah blah
That’s all pretty obvious. Even more obvious is the emptiness of the Obama speeches – sounding more like a pep rally than a genuine look at what ails the country. He toured Minnesota and told them how wonderful they were. From there he went Iowa where he mouthed platitudes like: “America will come out of all this stronger than ever.” Brave words. Empty words. You can’t escape with rhetoric and fine oratory anymore. You have not made a specific statement in months. To keep on proclaiming that “America is the greatest country on earth and Americans are the hardest working people on earth, simply isn’t going to cut it. It may bolster his popularity which popped up a whole 2 percentage points in the last few days but is still under 50%.
The interesting note here has to be that his Republican wannabees accuse him of bad-mouthing America. It is not allowed. No politician who thinks he can win does it by poor-mouthing America's performance. The other point he made, and it got the applause he expected, “recovery is not something that can be done by Washington!” Pure pandering to the voters’ worst instincts. Please, if not by Washington – who? The tooth fairy.
The last few weeks the media have been full of stories about how American corporations are sitting on billions in cash – billions that they will not put to work to create jobs. The story is that they are worried by the uncertainty. They should worry – they are the authors of most of it.
Obama did, to give him some credit, talk about how much there is to be done: schools, construction projects – all labour-intensive – and all provided of course by Washington, or through Washington by the States.
There is nothing new in what Warren buffet said the other day. He, and other rich people like George Soros, have long said that they and all the rest of the billionaires should be paying their share. Buffet said that the total percentage he paid on income was less than the percentage being paid by a secretary in his company. The reason of course is that much of the Omaha tycoon’s profit comes from capital gains, and those are a sacred cow – sacred for the wealthy of course. The same could be said of mortgage interest deductibility. It is a boon to the people who can afford to own houses. It has also been part of the problem of overheating demand in the housing market.
Looking back at everything he has said, and aside from the jingoistic stuff about how great the country is, he did manage to say that construction was the biggest mover of the economy. No secret there. Construction is the biggest employer in America – and in Canada too.
The stories about the big corporations hoarding money in their treasures told another sad tale: the accumulated capital held by just four major companies would be enough to buy back all the repossessed houses in America!
As long as Michelle Backman and Texas Governor Perry are the front runners, America has a lot to fear. And it won’t heal itself because America is the greatest …blah, blah blah
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
PARASITES AMONG US
There is certainly no simple solution to the economic crisis. Too many people and too many governments owe too much money. Pure and simple – that’s it!
Better late than never Italy is planning a massive ad campaign to persuade people to pay their taxes. Citing “parasites who live at other people’s expense,” the Italian government wants to shame Italians into paying their taxes. I’m not hopeful. Persuasion doesn’t work. Punishment, even jail, that’s what works.
As you know. I’m not an advocate for the “tough on crime” advocates who think there is nothing like threat of a prison sentence that will “send a message” to potential wrongdoers. The fact is that tougher prison sentences become a political means to tame the anger that some people live on. But when the so-called “good citizen” believes it is his right, better still – his obligation – to avoid paying taxes, we are in trouble. The whole world is in trouble, as much because people won’t or can’t pay their share as the sinister machinations of banks, investment firms, hedge funds, and mortgage lenders.
A few weeks ago the Globe and Mail, in their centerfold “Folio” section did an analysis of tax rates paid in difference countries. Canada was up there around the middle, below such countries as Denmark, but far ahead of the United States, whose citizens not only pay lower tax rates, but who insist on even lower taxes all the time. I remember Ronald Reagan of all people, the president who single-handedly raised the deficit to new heights, reminding people that there is no such thing as a “free lunch.”
Closer to home, there is an “underground” economy in this country that robs Canada of billions of dollars in revenue. There are rather sadly, hordes of immigrant women who do domestic work and do not declare earnings. That, sadly, is aided and abetted by people who hire them knowing that the money they pay them will be unencumbered by taxes, and that they, the employers, don’t have to mess around with stuff like Employment Insurance and reporting payment. It’s a cozy arrangement.
But even worse, are the thousands of people who “avoid” paying sales tax.
This is where persuasion doesn’t work. Punishment might. I have declined offers of “pay cash and we won’t charge HST” and have told the merchant or service provider that I prefer to pay my taxes. The government should set up a department that systematically goes after both the vendors who skirt the law and the buyers who are only too willing to help them. They are, like the Italian ads will say, “parasites who live at others expense.
Until we do something, including punishment, about the entire culture of aversion to paying taxes, we will continue to wallow in economic misery. And shame on every politician who gathers votes by promising lower taxes.
Mayor Ford take note.
Monday, August 8, 2011
OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF...
No one says I can’t have an opinion about marketing a product. Especially if that product has tried everything and nothing works. I remember how right I was several years ago when I guffawed at General Motors investing millions to advertise the Cadillac, the car that every market survey said was driven by people over 60. “Waste of money,” I cried. “Chasing rainbows,” I declared. “The brand deserved to be laid to rest,” I insisted. The rest is history. I was wrong. And even though GM needed a multi-billion dollar federal rescue, the one bright spot was Cadillac, now being marketed as hip, cool, and “today!” The Escalade was probably the reason. But even today, are they sending good money after bad with “It’s not just a luxury car – it’s a Cadillac?” Then they let fly all those arrows and the hottest new Caddy slips in among them all and emerges unscathed.
But How big a danger are bowmen today? Do they lurk behind every bend in the road?
Forget about General Motors. I have a new target – and what a target! Research in Motion.
For years I have watched as everyone who was anyone depended on his Blackberry. I received Email replies tagged “sent from my Blackberry.” Even President Obama and his Blackberry were inseparable. But the vagaries of marketing hi-tech electronic are so Byzantine, so unpredictable, who can depend on anything?
Getting serious. R.I.M. stock has dropped more than two thirds in the past year. (I haven’t checked since the last crash, it has to be even lower.) Because I am a baseball fan and wherever possible, tune in to Blue Jays games, I see the constant pounding by RIM of their new “pad.” They must be spending a fortune to try to sell a product that has been put in the shadows by Apple’s IPad. They are now saying that their new generations of phones will win the markets back, or at least stop the bleeding. The hubris developed by years of dominating success is hard to set aside. It’s almost like the Big Three in Detroit sneering at Japanese cars while their (Big 3) market share kept dissolving before their unbelieving eyes.
R.I.M. has tried to turn things around. They are laying off thousands to reduce costs. They continue with their current executives even though investors are howling for their removal. And the stock continues to drop. Only the contrarians are buying.
So – here’s my idea: stop promoting the new and better pad. In fact, prepare a series of mea culpa commercials in which the President, who can be made to look earnest and sincere, admits that they have fallen behind and that they owe it to their faithful to promise better days ahead. Then you announce serious price cuts to the Playbook Tablet so that it comes in at a huge bargain compared to IPad and the other Android powered “pads.” Give it away. Then announce that soon there will be pad that will surpass anything that is now on the market. When it is introduced everyone who bought a discounted Playbook Tablet will be able to turns that item in and be given a discount on the new winner.
The hitch of course is that they have to produce that winner.
But one thing is certain in my mind: the executives, who have been announcing a recovery and a stop to the shrinking of their markets, will have to produce.
The trouble with Research in Motion is that they have been coasting, living off past laurels. A little fix is not enough.
For all you marketing gurus – something to think about. But don’t blame me if I’m dead wrong.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
FORECAST - GLOOMY. FUTURE - UNCERTAIN
I have been absent for some time, partly because I can’t go on and on griping about the same stuff – American foolishness from a country that knows better. Partly because for the last two weeks I have immersed myself in glorious music at the Festival of The Sound. (More on that later)
There has been a kind of “schadenefreude” over the America gloom that has settled on world markets. I think that quietly much of the rest of the world is enjoying the American distress.Tomorrow’s big U.S. papers should carry it all: the accusations by the right wing of the Republican party, the insistence by the Democrats that they did the best they could, and a fading President trying to shore up his image and pretend that November 2012 is not the issue.
It was most interesting to me that Standard and Poors (the same people who once thought that mortgage-backed securities were triple A) has made a judgment that is at least partly political. It may only be an excuse to conjure up the image of two parties fiddling while Washington burns; of factional quibbling that became more important that economic survival; that seeing who would blink first was part of the game; and a continuing belief in their basic values.
I would keep watching with amazement and amusement at how the Republicans could continue to mouth political and economic platitudes, like buzzword realities and truisms: big government is the cause of unemployment. Or – higher taxes for the rich are job-killers. In all the debates (although I may have missed it) I have not heard any say “Mr. Boemer, exactly how does increasing taxes on the rich cause unemployment?” Just keep saying it often enough... – and the rest you know.
Even though poll after polls shows that Americans are much more concerned about unemployment than about the deficit, the pounding about deficit reduction goes on and on.
Some economists have railed against the “compromise” especially since it reduces government spending which reduces employment even further. Wall Street may be the home of an interest vested in capital success, but it is also possessed of enough wisdom to see (and perhaps Standard and Poors sees it too) that in America the public service is a huge employer. It does not make a profit at what it does, but it is essential to the survival of the country. To hear the Tea Party talkers, it is just another symptom of the evil of Big Government. (These Constitution worshipers aren’t even slightly aware that Founding Fathers were in favour of strong central government.)
Most of all, I am sorry that Obama did not use the power he has under the 14th Amendment to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling by executive order. I guess he didn’t want to carry that burden into November 2012 – especially if unemployment stays high – and it will.
The situation may have gone from desperate to hopeless. But when you are the world’s biggest economy with a population of the world’s biggest consumers – I guess you can go on hoping.
We all can.
There has been a kind of “schadenefreude” over the America gloom that has settled on world markets. I think that quietly much of the rest of the world is enjoying the American distress.Tomorrow’s big U.S. papers should carry it all: the accusations by the right wing of the Republican party, the insistence by the Democrats that they did the best they could, and a fading President trying to shore up his image and pretend that November 2012 is not the issue.
It was most interesting to me that Standard and Poors (the same people who once thought that mortgage-backed securities were triple A) has made a judgment that is at least partly political. It may only be an excuse to conjure up the image of two parties fiddling while Washington burns; of factional quibbling that became more important that economic survival; that seeing who would blink first was part of the game; and a continuing belief in their basic values.
I would keep watching with amazement and amusement at how the Republicans could continue to mouth political and economic platitudes, like buzzword realities and truisms: big government is the cause of unemployment. Or – higher taxes for the rich are job-killers. In all the debates (although I may have missed it) I have not heard any say “Mr. Boemer, exactly how does increasing taxes on the rich cause unemployment?” Just keep saying it often enough... – and the rest you know.
Even though poll after polls shows that Americans are much more concerned about unemployment than about the deficit, the pounding about deficit reduction goes on and on.
Some economists have railed against the “compromise” especially since it reduces government spending which reduces employment even further. Wall Street may be the home of an interest vested in capital success, but it is also possessed of enough wisdom to see (and perhaps Standard and Poors sees it too) that in America the public service is a huge employer. It does not make a profit at what it does, but it is essential to the survival of the country. To hear the Tea Party talkers, it is just another symptom of the evil of Big Government. (These Constitution worshipers aren’t even slightly aware that Founding Fathers were in favour of strong central government.)
Most of all, I am sorry that Obama did not use the power he has under the 14th Amendment to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling by executive order. I guess he didn’t want to carry that burden into November 2012 – especially if unemployment stays high – and it will.
The situation may have gone from desperate to hopeless. But when you are the world’s biggest economy with a population of the world’s biggest consumers – I guess you can go on hoping.
We all can.
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