d Blog

Welcome to d blog, also known as Dan's rant. The content herein is essentially comprised of miscellaneous ramblings and random thoughts on the nature of contemporary existence.

"A New Years Blog"

A New Years Blog
Tuesday, 1 January 2008


I hail from the era of Abraham, Martin & John. I had tickets to Woodstock and Hair on Broadway! We had hope for an egalitarian society but no faith that it would come. I thought I wouldn't live to see my 30th birthday. I was not alone in this mindset.

Although there has probably never been so successful a generation financially. Out there amongst the Lexus driving Mini Mansion crowd are the lost ones. The ne'er do wells who neglected their nest eggs because they didn't think the time would come. We didn't care enough about ourselves. The contemporaries I speak with feel that they'll die in the saddle, that is to say, pass on while working.

Before Arpanet was a gleam in an MIT Engineers eye and before Jon Bromberg was in charge of staging Microsoft meetings he worked for Randolph Will at Staging Techniques and prior to that for the Incredible Slidemakers. It was during this period that I was coming up in the Multi-media (Industrial Theatre) business. At the time this meant punch tape driving Photokina type computerized, multi-projector slide shows. Doug Mesney (Mesney.com) was THE Incredible Slidemaker and he had a rep that attracted corporate business from far and wide. Doug cultivated an Iconoclastic persona which he successfully traded on. During an Association For Multi-Image conference in NYC I reveled upon happening into a brief but mesmerizing elevator ride where along with some IBM suits, the bearded and long haired Mesney wearing a fringed western suede coat was a passenger standing next to the buttoned down Les Buckland (www.lesliebuckland.com (Kodak,Charisma, Caribiner) as well as Blue Collar King Randy Will (www.stagingtechniques.com).

Tension permeated the atmosphere of the vertically exuberant cubicle. Until the question was asked to all the “players”,” could you truthfully and in detail answer a magazine interviewer’s query on the nature of business relationships in this industry? ““NO” was the universal response. The truth cannot be told. In subsequent annum’s that tidbit has in and of itself proven to be quite the universal truth.

It occurs to me that the more things change the more they stay the same. I don’t see a lot of truth being boldly and publicly spoken on any level. I had assumed that the world had learned lessons from Viet Nam and the real estate crash of 1987 as well as the other bubbles and pops these past hundred years. Upon reflection I think we have forgotten more than we have learned.

Well I never!

I never thought that Rock and Roll would provide the soundtrack to 30 second spots.

I never thought that a US Presidential Election could or would be stolen.

I never thought that a dimwit would attain the position of leader of the free world and steer global events so malevolently towards the unacceptably horrible.

I never thought that agreement and greed between those responsible for driving and monitoring our financial institutions could or would allow a fantasy bubble to evolve and proliferate long enough to do the global damage that it has.

I never thought that I’d see a world leader volunteer to be assassinated as Ms. Bhutto has.

The list of brutal truths that I had not anticipated is too long for me to comfortably complete at this time.

I never thought I’d live this long. Growing up during the era of nuclear proliferation, Viet Nam, Woodstock, Haight Ashbury, Drugs etc….I held a myopic view of the future. I did not plan to attain the age of 52. I simply never planned to be here. Because it didn;t occur to me that I would or could last that long.

When it became clear that my knowledge and expertise was best applied towards purposes of branding and marketing I did not realize that these functions could be brandished as a weapon used either in support of society’s beneficence and sustainability or against it.

The epiphany of this rude awakening has permeated the onset of my delayed maturity.

The immediate enrichment of the few is in direct opposition to the sustained survival of the many. The future will provide the wealthy few with safe haven behind cloistered walls for a time. Eventually the exploited masses will refuse to accept this policy of abandonment. Until then I can only hope and direct my energy towards initiatives that aid in the development of protocols that provide a foundation against this type of disenfranchisement.

My generation had events and causes to bind us together and around which we could and did rally. I worry about the generation that was told to go shopping when the world went to war.

Go Forth And Reproduce but remember as you go forth in life;
I go fifth !

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