conor keogh notes...

Michael Jackson - Who's Bad?

2009-07-15T03:34:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, 08 July 2009 at 11:43 | Edit note | Delete

Helen and I heard about the death of Michael Jackson in transit somewhere outside Drogheda.
The time was 11.00pm.

The next morning on my way to work I passed through Liffey Valley shopping centre and upon passing HMV I noticed that a music stand overwhelming with Michael Jackson CD's had been placed at the entrance of the door, a MJ poster prominently displayed and 'Bad' playing on the sound system.

Let's just remind ourselves that was about 12hrs after he had died in the city of Dublin, thousands of miles away from LA.

The response was so quick!

It was quicker than the international response to things such as genocide in Rwanda or Sudan!
It was quicker than the corporations response to polluting the atmosphere!

It was lightning quick the response to milk the Michael Jackson cash cow.

Somewhere right now there is a factory churning out MJ CD's and lorries that will be waiting to distribute MJ CD's all around the globe to those who have missed out on the greatness of the great entertainer.

Apparently when Elvis died the head of RCA records said 'Great career move'.
And obviously from the point of view of record companies and HMV and Amazon etc. Michael Jackson has pulled of the ultimate career move and done them all a great favour. He was going nowhere musically and suddenly the sound system in B&Q is playing 3 songs. And the royalties are pouring in.

I wonder if they are waiting for the next famous-but-going-nowhere-f

or-years musician to pop his/her clogs?
Or even band as band such as Bon Jovi to get run over by the 239.

This is confusing me as a Christian.
As a follower of Jesus I am meant to be filled with compassion and grace and love.

So lets just say that MJ was obviously a very troubled gentleman and you would need to be pretty cold hearted not to feel sorry for the way he was manipulated as a child to make money.
And yes he was a great dancer and singer, an entertainer and superstar.
We need to be full of grace and understanding etc.

But then there is some sense of rage that starts seeping up in me.

Here I am on my tea break watching the news presenter on TV3 wearing a black dress in mourning at the passing of greatness. They are having an extended news broadcast.
Never mind the heart breaking stories of the broken men and women of Ireland who have suffered as much (more?) than Michael Jackson but who have never had the support or opportunities.

The King of Pop has died and now people like me are writing about it like its the most important issue of the year.

Then they pan to a shot of an emotional Lionel Ritchie.
Apparently Mariah Carey was singing at the start. And John Mayer. But I missed those due to carpet cutting duties etc.

So I was thinking this is cheese, then I thought this is sad. We shouldn't laugh at the death of anyone, Jesus wouldn't laugh at a funeral or death.

Then some preacher type comes on and says something to the effect

'They'll never know what it was like for you Michael...to not be able to cross the street without people looking at you. Making fun of you.Pointing at you. Maybe now they'll leave you alone Michael...you'll be singing in heaven now'

And his little girl comes on the stage and breaks down and by this time I'm feeling pretty scummy for thinking bad of a dead superstar.

Then I go down on the floor and sellotape some boxes of laminate and start thinking and avoiding customers.
And it strikes me.

If Michael just wanted to be left alone without people making fun of him, if he just wanted to live a normal life then would the right thing to do not be hold a small family funeral?
Family and friends and that sort of thing?
Why the spectacle I just witnessed?

Put it this way.
If I spend my whole life complaining about how Razorlight are ruining my life, and how Razorlight everyday of my life are played on the work sound system to the detriment of my health then would the best way to pay your respects to a dead me be to play 'Watching America' at my funeral?
Probably not

So if Michael wanted to be left alone and not made fun of lead a normal life why hold a huge worldwide televised cheese fest and broadcast it to the four corners of the earth?

Probably because there is money to be made at the funeral. Television rights. More records sold. The legend made bigger and more profitable.

Perhaps I'm being cynical, but we all know I'm not.

Who's bad?
We're bad for buying into this stuff.

2009-07-15T03:31:00.000-07:00

Low Anthem - Charlie Darwin

Yesterday at 12:08 | Edit note | Delete

Over the last months I've become convinced that working for a big company is a bit like working for an army.
Sure we don't kill people in a bodily sense,but if we aim to destroy other peoples job is that much different?
And we are trying to destroy their way of making a living.Because we want to ensure that our profits are coming in we have to make sure the business from other shops is coming our way (especially in lean times.)

There is a lot of talk about 'taking market share' or 'we have to win' or 'we need to kill off our opposition' etc.
And it's justified by saying that there will be some winners and some losers, but the fact that we will win will be good for us and everybody. We need to win to keep our jobs. If we don't do everything in our power the consumers are going to shop somewhere else and Joe Bloggs across the road is going to get the business while we loose our jobs.

it's us against them.

But if I'm trying to love my neighbour as myself how can I justify trying to take his work from him?
is that the way of The Kingdom?Is that what Jesus would do?

Anyway yesterday I hadn't finished explaining myself before the library computer cut me off.

I was rambling through cyberspace and stumbled across a beautiful song by The Low Anthem 'Charlie Darwin'.
You can listen to it here.

The Low Anthem

'And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin
Fighting for a system built to fail?
Spooning water from their broken vessels
As far as I can see there is no land'

And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin
The lords of war just profit from decay
And trade their children's promise for the jingle
The way we trade our hard earned time for pay

Oh my god, the water's cold and shapeless
Oh my god, it's all around
Oh my god, life is cold and formless
Oh my god, it's all around

That just it - how much do I have to fight for system bound to fail if the most fundamental thing I believe is that its by grace we are saved?
We're not saved by earning, we're saved by unmerited grace and favour.
Then in our companies we're told 'we have to take market share' or 'kill Woodies' or else we will loose our jobs. There is very little room for grace in consumptive work.
That's Charlie Darwin talk.
I suppose thats my main problem with my present job. I don't mind hard work, but its what the ultimate aim of that work is for. Is it to serve my neighbour and love him/her?
Or is it just to consume him and the planets resources?

The Big Business

2009-07-15T03:20:00.001-07:00

For some reason I've been thinking about companies and firms and corporations recently.

Maybe its because I've time to think about this everytime I lug another box of ceramic tiles into the carpark or cut lino without cutting my fingers.

Where does the money go?
Who gets to see the profit?
Who is the owner?
Who cares?

Anyway, there I was in my pre-work stupor reading the Irish Independent when an article caught my eye.

It said that for the first time in a decade the largest company in the world was a European firm, namely Royal Dutch Shell with an annual revenue of $ 458 000 000 000.

Or 3550 Ronaldo.

So then I got to thinking
If I got a list of GDP for all the countries in the world how many countries would that be starting from the bottom up, bearing in mind that I did maths up to GCSE and never did business studies - but so what, sure what else would you do on a Saturday morning?

So Royal Dutch Shell = $ 458 000 000 000

which going by the World Bank list on Wikipedia and my amateur calculations is roughly equal to the 2008 GDP of

Bahrain,
Jamaica
Uganda
Gabon
Zambia
Honduras
Senegal
Botswana
Georgia
Nepal
Albania
Armenia
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Brunei
Republic of the Congo
Afghanistan
Mozambique
Cambodia
Republic of Macedonia
Madagascar
Mali
Mauritius
Namibia
Chad
Papua New Guinea
Burkina Faso
Malta
Haiti
The Bahamas
Benin
Nicaragua
Moldova
Bermuda
Laos
Niger
Mongolia
Tajikistan
Montenegro
Rwanda
Kyrgyzstan
Malawi
Guinea
Fiji
Zimbabwe
Barbados
Suriname
Mauritania
Togo
Swaziland
Central African Republic
Sierra Leone
Cape Verde
San Marino
Eritrea
Lesotho
Belize
Bhutan
Maldives
Antigua and Barbuda
Burundi
Guyana
Saint Lucia
Djibouti
Liberia
Seychelles
The Gambia
Solomon Islands
Grenada
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Vanuatu
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Comoros
Samoa
East Timor
Guinea-Bissau
Dominica
Tonga
Micronesia
Palau
São Tomé and Príncipe
Marshall Islands
Kiribati

There are also 7 oil companies in the Top 10 largest companies (by money).
I think that's mad, though probably very obvious when you think about it - in one way the institution with the biggest influence on our daily lives is probably the oil industry.

Maybe you could call it an Empire?

Google Earth

2009-07-04T07:06:00.001-07:00

Conor used to pray. Now he travels to Google for answers.

Google appears to answer where God is silent. When Conor prayed he got a void. He wanted answers though. Not general answers but specific targeted answers. And Google replied instantly.
Unlike God. So Conor decided to pray to Google.

Credit Monster

2009-07-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

Conor was helpless. The credit monster was eating his funds and there was nothing he could do about it.
He is sick of fighting the monster.
He wants to run away.

Bookbinding

2009-06-30T02:37:00.000-07:00

Binding Books

How to bind a book

Disappearing Acts

Soil

2009-06-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

seed on path = 'I don't want to hear it'
seed on shallow soil = 'I don't want to think about it'
seed on rocky ground = 'I don't want to get hurt'
Good soil receives without any qualms

2009-06-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

Conor is under The Plough with a furrowed brow.
He is talking to ether.
He is trying to join dots in the night sky.
He is struggling to make ends meet.

Conor doesn't know what's wrong with him...

the day the music died and the King of Pop popped his clogs..

2009-06-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

Conor was driving home when he heard rumours that Michael Jackson had passed away.
It was 11pm.

It was at 11am, a mere 12hrs later that HMV Liffey Valley celebrated the death of a pop icon with a stand of CD's strategically positioned at the entrance.

So the fans mourned and sales increased.

Supply+Demand

2009-06-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

fields empty on both sides of the motorway.

Conor watched lorries hurtle across Co Meath.
He overtook a Tesco lorry.
(Which left him worried)

With fields empty what would he eat if the lorry was empty?
And what would happen when the oil wells where empty?

He would have an empty tummy.

Speckled Things in Cooley

2009-06-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

Conor saw a dented-headed-speckled-brown-bird on top of the hawthorn with pretty melody.
He saw a fast flying boomerang butterfly on lavender.

Mini Helicopters

2009-06-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

A dragonfly on the Mill Road looks like a helicopter.
Conor's father on the moss cutting turf.
Sea King of the West Pier hacking blades in air.
Gazelle hovering over West Belfast.
Wessex landing in Eagleson's Field.

Quiet Time

2009-06-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

Conor sat in the dentist chair under threat from machines.He became aware all things decay and the best we can do is slap a sticky filling on that decay. All die,the rich merchant and the pauper.

'Do you realise that everyone you know will die?'

Wobbly Coffee Table No1

2009-06-25T04:11:00.000-07:00

Devlin Bar, City North Hotel,Drogheda.
En route to Newry.

Mouldy/Goodness?- elderflower champagne

2009-06-24T03:04:00.000-07:00

Conor went among the hedges and gathered a bag of elderflowers.
This was the June to make elderflower champagne - 15litres he bottled and stowed away in the spare room.
As time progressed he noticed a swirling mass of seaweed/mould/lemon/pollen/sugar/? in all the bottles.
Conor was confused.
'Is this the way this stuff is meant to look?It has bubbles alright, and it looks the colours and smells OK but is that mould or the natural organic goodness of the hedgerow?'

Conor wanted to share his gift of grace with his friends but he aso did not want to poison his friends with his earthly bounty.

He would probably be safer just making tea for his friends...

Bureaucrap

2009-06-23T23:26:00.000-07:00

'Life is what you make it-you get out what you put in'
So stop whinging about how the system treats you and sup it up boy.If you don't want the job there are thousands of others who would

2009-06-23T03:25:00.000-07:00

Tesco Clubcard

Conor signed up for a Tesco Clubcard.
Now they know where he lives, what he eats, what offers he goes for, what his credit is like.
And they are targeting him with laser-guided-cruise-special-offers

It'sDunn Humby the spy keeping his beady eye on Conor. This is what Dunn does.

Google Earth

2009-06-21T00:29:00.000-07:00

gatekeepers of cyberspace
dominance in online
conquer domains
fighting empire
information-gathering machine
drilling the mental space
masters of info
profits
'Don't be evil'

Power of Babel

2009-06-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

ask questions
help it help you
'What job should I do tomorrow?'
'What shall I take?'
Google doesn't need to know...

Michigan & John Spillane

2009-06-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

Flint
Ypsilanti Tahquamenon Falls
Muskegon

Conor knows why he likes Sufjan-he takes place seriously.

And John Spillane in an Irish Times interview says
'if you write a song about the world,nobody will relate to it.If you write about your own village,the whole world will relate to it'

Upon Buying Fig Rolls in Tesco

2009-06-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

200g
€1.49
50% extra free,
Made by McVities in England vs

200g
€1.89
Jacobs,made in Tallaght,Ireland.

Frugal Conor vs Supporting his Own Team the Irish Conor.

Maybe he should just buy Ginger Nuts

Coffee

2009-06-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

Coffee
Is chosen
Exceptional
Certified

By using
We help

Ethiopia
Honduras
Indonesia
Kenya
Peru and
Tanzania

It's taken
Perfect
Organic
Unique
Roasted
Real intensity
Flavour
Velvety smooth
Mastered fine balance time temperature texture

2009-06-17T10:19:00.000-07:00