I am sitting here in my hotel room in Pristina, Kosovo at 9.30 after dinner with my good Kosovar friend Arlind and listening to the beautiful sound of the last call to prayer at the mosques dotted around the capital. It is almost like a competition. The Imans ‘sing’ at call to prayer time and at this moment I can hear the sounds of around 6 Imans all singing in a kind of competitive symmetry.
Tonight we debated the future of Kosovo. I bemoaned the fact that billions of dollars have been spent on creating stability with it seems little thought given to the fact that what gives most people stability is a job and money in their pocket. With unemployment running at 70% and with a rapidly declining inward financial contribution from Kosovars working in Germany and Switzerland it is extremely difficult to see where economic growth will come from. Nation status will make it more attractive to foreign investors and that will create jobs but not enough to make changes. I fear that too much money has been spent on job creation opportunities for Europeans with too many educational certificates who can theorise and pontificate but who lack the real Can Do mentality to do the things that really matter. This is a great place to test out whether all of that theoretical stuff you learnt between the ages of 18 and 26 mean much and I guess that many learn that these theories do not apply in places that are very different to your frame of reference. The frame of reference that is universal is a job, money in your pocket, the possibility of being entrepreneurial if you are so inclined and the wherewithal to make business work. Western values mean so much more if you can afford to have them. And to pay for them.
Europe has too many people who stayed in further education with nowhere meaningful to go and they end up working for international agencies funded by American and EU money and achieving little because they have been shielded from the real world. I am increasingly angry and frustrated by this. We have too many overly qualified people in Europe and we seem to think, in the UK at least, that 50% of our young people getting degrees is a good thing thing. I think it crazy. Where do they go? Ultimately states have to create work for them because this never-ending educational circus kills off the Can do, Will do mentality. Many of us need an element of real-world struggle to define and shape our lives. Formal education does not provide this.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Mark Higson
In 1991 I worked with a guy called Mark Higson for around 18 months. In the 1980’s Mark was in charge of the Iraqi desk at the foreign office and was in a unique position to see the reality of what went on in the Arms to Iraq scandal in which ministers such as Alan Clarke and William Waldegrave were complicit. Mark resigned on principle at the corruption he felt was taking place. He became the chief witness in the Scott Inquiry into the sale of arms to Iraq. He quickly became almost unemployable and started to drink heavily. He lost his marriage and regular contact with his children in the early 1990’s.
In what was must have been a very strange experience for him he came to work for us selling the training films we had made over the phone and became a team leader very quickly. But he was also drinking and empty vodka bottles were found in the cistern toilets. Eventually a senior manager asked him to leave. We had all known about his background. I remember coming back late from a meeting and he was being interviewed live by Channel 4 news outside our offices while the scandal was unfolding in the public eye.
I kept in touch with Mark for a while afterwards and the last time I saw him we went to a rugby match together – in 1993 I should think. I read an excellent John Sweeney book on the crisis in which Mark was clearly the primary source of information.
Mark went to live in Birmingham, living in fear of being followed by the secret services which he undoubtedly was being for a least a while. I remember him saying ‘there are more than two of us watching this game of rugby’. He ended up living in a bedsit in Birmingham on social security and he couldn’t get a job. He died in 2000 aged 40 having had, it is assumed, a seizure and cracking his head as he fell. A Cambridge high flyer, a successful early career, a happy marriage all gone in a few years.
I say all of this for several reasons.
I knew quite a bit about Mark (and the arms to Iraq realities) but didn’t know what had happened to him after 1994 (we chatted on the phone then). Thanks to Steven Jacobi’s excellent play on radio 4 about Mark recently I was able to know what became of him. Steven Jacobi was his oldest friend and closest friend. I contacted him after the broadcast and he hopes to lengthen the play and take it to the stage.
A key point here – and totally relevant to the continuing carnage in Iraq – is that we made Saddam Hussein the man he became through supporting him in the Iran-Iraq war and keeping him supplied with arms. If he ever had WMD’s, and the evidence suggests that while they had gone by 2003 he had them (or was developing them) prior to this we can all guess where he might have got them from. Decisions made 20-25 years ago are being played out in real events now. Mark didn’t live to see the current fiasco. I wonder what he might have made of it.
The final point is that Mark was a lovely, honourable man working in a ghastly, dishonourable environment. He made an appalling career choice which killed him. A highly intelligent man he could have done many things more in keeping with his personality. Mark’s story tells us the dangers of trying to be something you aren’t or are unsuited to being. A horribly sad end to the life of such a warm, friendly guy.
In what was must have been a very strange experience for him he came to work for us selling the training films we had made over the phone and became a team leader very quickly. But he was also drinking and empty vodka bottles were found in the cistern toilets. Eventually a senior manager asked him to leave. We had all known about his background. I remember coming back late from a meeting and he was being interviewed live by Channel 4 news outside our offices while the scandal was unfolding in the public eye.
I kept in touch with Mark for a while afterwards and the last time I saw him we went to a rugby match together – in 1993 I should think. I read an excellent John Sweeney book on the crisis in which Mark was clearly the primary source of information.
Mark went to live in Birmingham, living in fear of being followed by the secret services which he undoubtedly was being for a least a while. I remember him saying ‘there are more than two of us watching this game of rugby’. He ended up living in a bedsit in Birmingham on social security and he couldn’t get a job. He died in 2000 aged 40 having had, it is assumed, a seizure and cracking his head as he fell. A Cambridge high flyer, a successful early career, a happy marriage all gone in a few years.
I say all of this for several reasons.
I knew quite a bit about Mark (and the arms to Iraq realities) but didn’t know what had happened to him after 1994 (we chatted on the phone then). Thanks to Steven Jacobi’s excellent play on radio 4 about Mark recently I was able to know what became of him. Steven Jacobi was his oldest friend and closest friend. I contacted him after the broadcast and he hopes to lengthen the play and take it to the stage.
A key point here – and totally relevant to the continuing carnage in Iraq – is that we made Saddam Hussein the man he became through supporting him in the Iran-Iraq war and keeping him supplied with arms. If he ever had WMD’s, and the evidence suggests that while they had gone by 2003 he had them (or was developing them) prior to this we can all guess where he might have got them from. Decisions made 20-25 years ago are being played out in real events now. Mark didn’t live to see the current fiasco. I wonder what he might have made of it.
The final point is that Mark was a lovely, honourable man working in a ghastly, dishonourable environment. He made an appalling career choice which killed him. A highly intelligent man he could have done many things more in keeping with his personality. Mark’s story tells us the dangers of trying to be something you aren’t or are unsuited to being. A horribly sad end to the life of such a warm, friendly guy.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Chirac/Blair
This month has seen the departing of a European political dinosaur (Chirac) and the almost simultaneous departing of someone who was rapidly becoming one.
Chirac embodied for me all of the things that are going wrong with France. An adherence to old sixties Gaulist politics and a complete unwillingness - or more likely fear - to embrace the realities of the new world. Ironically many french business people were treating him as irrelevant and getting on with the job of reaching out into the real economic world. Carrefour for example is the world's second biggest supermarket chain and France has four of the biggest energy companies in the world. What france lacks is any sense of personal dynamism. As a country it seems to have no discernable charisma.
Sarkozy has made lots of positive noises and, had I had the vote there he would have got mine. He has energy and ideas. The left wing press has dubbed him some sort of neo-con or Thatcherite figure and he is neither of those things. What he has I think is a willingness to take the flak for the pain which France will now have for the next 5-7 years as it gets itself out of its moribund state.
Tony Blair goes in a few weeks (why not now?). I sense that in thirty years time history may reflect kindly on him but of course, at the moment he is defined by Iraq and the unending carnage there. What Britain has had over the last fifteen are two excellent Chancellors - Kenneth Clarke and Gordon Brown - and I think much of its economic strength has come from their strong stewardship rather than Blair excellence. I do not see Brown as a Prime Minister though.
Gordon Brown has big problems now due the dreadful lack of talent in the cabinet. Mowlam, Dewar and Cook all dead. Imaginative thinkers such as Frank Field newtered and bruisers such as John Reid opting for a 'rest'. I find Ministers such as Ruth Kelly and David Milliband (a potential 'leader' - surely not)so uninspiring and I cannot escape the feeling that they are out of their depth.
Chirac embodied for me all of the things that are going wrong with France. An adherence to old sixties Gaulist politics and a complete unwillingness - or more likely fear - to embrace the realities of the new world. Ironically many french business people were treating him as irrelevant and getting on with the job of reaching out into the real economic world. Carrefour for example is the world's second biggest supermarket chain and France has four of the biggest energy companies in the world. What france lacks is any sense of personal dynamism. As a country it seems to have no discernable charisma.
Sarkozy has made lots of positive noises and, had I had the vote there he would have got mine. He has energy and ideas. The left wing press has dubbed him some sort of neo-con or Thatcherite figure and he is neither of those things. What he has I think is a willingness to take the flak for the pain which France will now have for the next 5-7 years as it gets itself out of its moribund state.
Tony Blair goes in a few weeks (why not now?). I sense that in thirty years time history may reflect kindly on him but of course, at the moment he is defined by Iraq and the unending carnage there. What Britain has had over the last fifteen are two excellent Chancellors - Kenneth Clarke and Gordon Brown - and I think much of its economic strength has come from their strong stewardship rather than Blair excellence. I do not see Brown as a Prime Minister though.
Gordon Brown has big problems now due the dreadful lack of talent in the cabinet. Mowlam, Dewar and Cook all dead. Imaginative thinkers such as Frank Field newtered and bruisers such as John Reid opting for a 'rest'. I find Ministers such as Ruth Kelly and David Milliband (a potential 'leader' - surely not)so uninspiring and I cannot escape the feeling that they are out of their depth.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Tubby Custard
The things we do for the love of our children. I was in the UK for a couple of days and in the search for increasingly creative ways of getting the approval of my children I came across the idea of making ‘tubby’ custard – the bright pink concoction so loved by La La and Po in particular. The ingredients are simple – cochineal and custard and a saucepan. As with the non tubby version cook slowly and add only the smallest amount of colouring. My advice to wannabee tubby custard makers is to go for Bird’s powder - which has the drawback that you actually have to make the custard, as opposed to superior pre-made Ambrosia. The reason is that Ambrosia is a brighter yellow and you run the risk of the bright yellow and pink turning it into orange custard. Or rather radioactive looking custard.
Satisfied children. On the next cookery slot I will be advising on the making of tubby toast. Or perhaps not.
Music of the day: Mellow Yellow – Donovan
Satisfied children. On the next cookery slot I will be advising on the making of tubby toast. Or perhaps not.
Music of the day: Mellow Yellow – Donovan
Brazil
I believe that Brazilians are the most naturally musical people on the earth and I first started to love their music in 1989 when I bought 2 David Byrne compilations ‘Brasil Classics 1 and 2’. I thought it time that I did a recommendation of ten great brazilian albums that I believe that anyone who wants a ‘rounded’ collection should have. Brazilian music has been described as the perfect combination of ‘happy sadness’ and to my mind all of the different emotions in between. It is often melancholic but never depressing and in one incarnation the world’s best party music too. I hope you might explore one or two of the selections on this list. If you want to ‘ease’ yourself in then I do recommend the David Byrne collections.
Brasil 2mil: Various
The Belgium label ‘Ziriguiboom’ has been responsible for some of the key Brazilian releases in the last 6-7 years and this is a great compilation (from 1999) that shows where Brazilain music was, and has proved to be heading. It gives homage to the great Brazilians of the past as well as the future but the music is undoubtedly ‘now’. The standout tracks come from Chico Science, Vinicius Cantuaria (great live) and a sensational finish from Arakatuba.
Radio Sa.mba: Nacao Zumbi
I saw Nacao Zumbi live in 2003 and I (plus two friends) appeared to be the only non-Brazilians there. This is one of the best concerts I have ever been to. Nacao Zumbi are a Brazilian rock band with enough samba influences to create a sound like no other. Their guitarist, Jackson Bandeira, is to my mind one of the best guitarists out there and a track such as ‘Na Balada Do Rio Salgado’ shows exactly what he can do – you can imagine this piece being used in a contemporary spaghetti western. I choose this album just ahead of one of their others ‘CSNZ” performed with the great singer Chico Science – who died young around 2000. Both albums are great and intelligent examples of music we shut our minds off from in the west because they don’t sing in English. Or rather, the singer ‘Pixel 3000’ doesn’t.
Quarteto Novo: Quarteto Novo
Perhaps one of the most important jazz albums ever made, let alone Brazilian albums. The fabulous debut album which introduced Airto Moreira and Hermeto Pascoal to the world. These are two of the world’s great musicians and we hear them here at their absolute best. This music is sharp, clever, rhythmic and superbly played. The tightness and intricacies involved in the music showcase genius but also a band who had honed themselves perfectly – and of course owe much to the brilliant arrangements of Hermeto Pascoal. Great tracks include Misturada and Ponteio (actually a bonus track) which have become staples of many Brazilian compilations.
Seeds on the Ground: Airto Moreira
Possible his last really ground breaking work. That is not to say he did some great stuff afterwards but probably not much that really sounded like nothing done before. He made this close to the time when he appeared with Miles Davis at The Isle of Wight festival and he provided a great description of walking on stage and being confronted by a seething mass of 400,000 people waiting to hear Miles and band play. Particularly when his live gigs prior to that were more akin to 250 in a jazz club.
Airto came out of the great ‘Quarteto Novo’ with Hermeto Pascoal (who adds his brilliance to this) and he married the singer Flora Purim who also appears on this album. Every track is great, some are experimental and ever changing such as O Galho da Roseir and ‘Papo Furado’ just ‘burns’ superbly in the way only late 60’s music can. Ron Carter plays great bass too. Perhaps one of the most important things about this record is that it is one of the last statements of pure 1960’s Brazilian jazz before the sound became diluted by US jazz-fusion and US recording techniques.
Cantiga De Longe: Edu Lobo
Edu Lobo is one of the most important musicians of the post 1965 period but this is a little different from his usual orchestrated, highly arranged pieces. This album, which features Hermeto Pascoal once again is simple but stunningly played and several of the tracks – ‘Zanzibar’ for example – have become staples in western music.
This is rare indeed but it has appeared on CD and I was lucky to pick up a copy about 10 years ago. If you see it, buy it and you will not regret it. This album, along with the Quarteto Novo one formed the heartbeat of the unique Brazilian jazz sound in 1967.
San Paulo Confessions: Suba
Suba is actually Serbian (Mitar Subotic) and he won a 3 month UNICEF music scholarship to Rio and stayed. This is an absolutely breakthrough album from year 2000 that fused classic Brazilian sounds (Chico Buarque samples for example) with electronics and newer beats. But this music is undeniably Brazilian. The album introduced us to the voices of Bebel Gilberto and Cibelle and Suba was closely involved with BG’s ‘Tanto Tempo’ – reputedly the biggest selling world music album of the last ten years. A great dance album too with not a weak track. Suba was killed trying to save the master tapes for his follow up album in a studio fire. He helped kick start a renaissance in 21st century brazilian music when it had lost it’s way in the 1990’s. Being an outsider undoubtedly helped. Many great musicians pooled together to produce ‘Tributo’ in honour of him after his death.
Africa Brasil: Jorge Ben
The composer who wrote classics such as Mas Que Nada is in my opinion the best Brazilian singer-songwriter there has been. The great Caetano Veloso himself has sad that Jorge Ben is incapable of writing a bad song. This album could justify inclusion for the sensational ‘Unbarabauma’ alone – written in homage to Brazilian football but all the tracks on the superbly rhythmic album are top class. I do recommend a four CD compilation of his music which traces his career from Chove Chuva in 1963 up to 1975 and including 5 tracks from Africa-Brasil. Money well spent if you want to hear some of the best in Brazilian music from that era.
Cru: Seu Jorge
If you have seen City of God or Life Aquatic you will know the actor and singer Seu Jorge. This is his best album from 2004. It goes back to the languid cool sound of the late 1960’s but is unquestionably modern. Great tracks include Tive Razao, Bem Querer and Una Mujer. He doesn’t have the best voice in the world (as those who have heard his album of Bowie covers will know) but his music is highly charismatic and cool.
Milton Nascimento: Clube Da Esquina
Possibly THE giant of Brazilian music and certainly one of Brazil’s greatest musicians. The best of America such as Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter play with him regularly and they would be doing that if he couldn’t live in that company. A great vocalist and quality musician this album features the cream of Brazilian musicianship such as Lo Borges (who is co-credited) as well as Deodata, Beto Guedes and Toninho Horta on guitar. It’s hard to pick a standout they are all so strong but this album is probably for those who want musicianship first and standout ‘tunes’ second.
Brazuca Matraca:Wagner Pa
Friend and colleague of the superb Mano Chao, Wagner Pa is Brazilian but has chosen to make his home in Catalonia. This a marvellous modern album made with top class musicians with Wagner Pa producing a stellar vocal performance – particularly on the opening track where he raps in a way I have never heard before. Like Chao he can sing in a number of languages and does so, all to great effect. This gets better and better every time I listen to it and I prefer it to Clandestino.
Brasil 2mil: Various
The Belgium label ‘Ziriguiboom’ has been responsible for some of the key Brazilian releases in the last 6-7 years and this is a great compilation (from 1999) that shows where Brazilain music was, and has proved to be heading. It gives homage to the great Brazilians of the past as well as the future but the music is undoubtedly ‘now’. The standout tracks come from Chico Science, Vinicius Cantuaria (great live) and a sensational finish from Arakatuba.
Radio Sa.mba: Nacao Zumbi
I saw Nacao Zumbi live in 2003 and I (plus two friends) appeared to be the only non-Brazilians there. This is one of the best concerts I have ever been to. Nacao Zumbi are a Brazilian rock band with enough samba influences to create a sound like no other. Their guitarist, Jackson Bandeira, is to my mind one of the best guitarists out there and a track such as ‘Na Balada Do Rio Salgado’ shows exactly what he can do – you can imagine this piece being used in a contemporary spaghetti western. I choose this album just ahead of one of their others ‘CSNZ” performed with the great singer Chico Science – who died young around 2000. Both albums are great and intelligent examples of music we shut our minds off from in the west because they don’t sing in English. Or rather, the singer ‘Pixel 3000’ doesn’t.
Quarteto Novo: Quarteto Novo
Perhaps one of the most important jazz albums ever made, let alone Brazilian albums. The fabulous debut album which introduced Airto Moreira and Hermeto Pascoal to the world. These are two of the world’s great musicians and we hear them here at their absolute best. This music is sharp, clever, rhythmic and superbly played. The tightness and intricacies involved in the music showcase genius but also a band who had honed themselves perfectly – and of course owe much to the brilliant arrangements of Hermeto Pascoal. Great tracks include Misturada and Ponteio (actually a bonus track) which have become staples of many Brazilian compilations.
Seeds on the Ground: Airto Moreira
Possible his last really ground breaking work. That is not to say he did some great stuff afterwards but probably not much that really sounded like nothing done before. He made this close to the time when he appeared with Miles Davis at The Isle of Wight festival and he provided a great description of walking on stage and being confronted by a seething mass of 400,000 people waiting to hear Miles and band play. Particularly when his live gigs prior to that were more akin to 250 in a jazz club.
Airto came out of the great ‘Quarteto Novo’ with Hermeto Pascoal (who adds his brilliance to this) and he married the singer Flora Purim who also appears on this album. Every track is great, some are experimental and ever changing such as O Galho da Roseir and ‘Papo Furado’ just ‘burns’ superbly in the way only late 60’s music can. Ron Carter plays great bass too. Perhaps one of the most important things about this record is that it is one of the last statements of pure 1960’s Brazilian jazz before the sound became diluted by US jazz-fusion and US recording techniques.
Cantiga De Longe: Edu Lobo
Edu Lobo is one of the most important musicians of the post 1965 period but this is a little different from his usual orchestrated, highly arranged pieces. This album, which features Hermeto Pascoal once again is simple but stunningly played and several of the tracks – ‘Zanzibar’ for example – have become staples in western music.
This is rare indeed but it has appeared on CD and I was lucky to pick up a copy about 10 years ago. If you see it, buy it and you will not regret it. This album, along with the Quarteto Novo one formed the heartbeat of the unique Brazilian jazz sound in 1967.
San Paulo Confessions: Suba
Suba is actually Serbian (Mitar Subotic) and he won a 3 month UNICEF music scholarship to Rio and stayed. This is an absolutely breakthrough album from year 2000 that fused classic Brazilian sounds (Chico Buarque samples for example) with electronics and newer beats. But this music is undeniably Brazilian. The album introduced us to the voices of Bebel Gilberto and Cibelle and Suba was closely involved with BG’s ‘Tanto Tempo’ – reputedly the biggest selling world music album of the last ten years. A great dance album too with not a weak track. Suba was killed trying to save the master tapes for his follow up album in a studio fire. He helped kick start a renaissance in 21st century brazilian music when it had lost it’s way in the 1990’s. Being an outsider undoubtedly helped. Many great musicians pooled together to produce ‘Tributo’ in honour of him after his death.
Africa Brasil: Jorge Ben
The composer who wrote classics such as Mas Que Nada is in my opinion the best Brazilian singer-songwriter there has been. The great Caetano Veloso himself has sad that Jorge Ben is incapable of writing a bad song. This album could justify inclusion for the sensational ‘Unbarabauma’ alone – written in homage to Brazilian football but all the tracks on the superbly rhythmic album are top class. I do recommend a four CD compilation of his music which traces his career from Chove Chuva in 1963 up to 1975 and including 5 tracks from Africa-Brasil. Money well spent if you want to hear some of the best in Brazilian music from that era.
Cru: Seu Jorge
If you have seen City of God or Life Aquatic you will know the actor and singer Seu Jorge. This is his best album from 2004. It goes back to the languid cool sound of the late 1960’s but is unquestionably modern. Great tracks include Tive Razao, Bem Querer and Una Mujer. He doesn’t have the best voice in the world (as those who have heard his album of Bowie covers will know) but his music is highly charismatic and cool.
Milton Nascimento: Clube Da Esquina
Possibly THE giant of Brazilian music and certainly one of Brazil’s greatest musicians. The best of America such as Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter play with him regularly and they would be doing that if he couldn’t live in that company. A great vocalist and quality musician this album features the cream of Brazilian musicianship such as Lo Borges (who is co-credited) as well as Deodata, Beto Guedes and Toninho Horta on guitar. It’s hard to pick a standout they are all so strong but this album is probably for those who want musicianship first and standout ‘tunes’ second.
Brazuca Matraca:Wagner Pa
Friend and colleague of the superb Mano Chao, Wagner Pa is Brazilian but has chosen to make his home in Catalonia. This a marvellous modern album made with top class musicians with Wagner Pa producing a stellar vocal performance – particularly on the opening track where he raps in a way I have never heard before. Like Chao he can sing in a number of languages and does so, all to great effect. This gets better and better every time I listen to it and I prefer it to Clandestino.
Re-assigning Knowledge
‘The Play’ – (American) football
It is 1981 and the University of Berkeley are playing Stanford in the final of the College Bowl. 100,000 baying supporters are either hysterical or stunned when Stanford kick a field goal to take a 21-18 lead with 4 seconds to go. Some of the Stanford players are already celebrating and the Stanford marching band is already in the ‘end zone’ playing celebratory victory music as Stanford wind down the formalities with a kick-off. In normal circumstances Berkeley will try to run the ball back at Stanford with almost no-hope of achieving anything.
But these are not normal circumstances. When under pressure we can display the most remarkable creative resourcefulness. It turns out that many of the Berkeley team double up as the Berkeley rugby team. So what can they do, that might surprise Stanford? They play rugby. With brilliant ball-handling they score a touchdown with no seconds remaining, the scorer … almost decapitating the Stanford marching band’s tuba player in the process. The crowd have only just begun to compute what has happened in their collective brains, the commentators cannot speak and the Stanford players are immobile. One of the greatest sporting moments anywhere, ever has just been witnessed.
Lesson – a critical element in idea generation is to learn to apply some knowledge and/or expertise from one area to another, related or entirely unrelated area. Rugby and (American) football are related. What about strawberries and customer service?
But there is a second lesson here. Never take success for granted.
Thanks to Stuart Moran (formerly of Berkeley) for showing me the YouTube on this one night in Ohrid, Macedonia last year.
It is 1981 and the University of Berkeley are playing Stanford in the final of the College Bowl. 100,000 baying supporters are either hysterical or stunned when Stanford kick a field goal to take a 21-18 lead with 4 seconds to go. Some of the Stanford players are already celebrating and the Stanford marching band is already in the ‘end zone’ playing celebratory victory music as Stanford wind down the formalities with a kick-off. In normal circumstances Berkeley will try to run the ball back at Stanford with almost no-hope of achieving anything.
But these are not normal circumstances. When under pressure we can display the most remarkable creative resourcefulness. It turns out that many of the Berkeley team double up as the Berkeley rugby team. So what can they do, that might surprise Stanford? They play rugby. With brilliant ball-handling they score a touchdown with no seconds remaining, the scorer … almost decapitating the Stanford marching band’s tuba player in the process. The crowd have only just begun to compute what has happened in their collective brains, the commentators cannot speak and the Stanford players are immobile. One of the greatest sporting moments anywhere, ever has just been witnessed.
Lesson – a critical element in idea generation is to learn to apply some knowledge and/or expertise from one area to another, related or entirely unrelated area. Rugby and (American) football are related. What about strawberries and customer service?
But there is a second lesson here. Never take success for granted.
Thanks to Stuart Moran (formerly of Berkeley) for showing me the YouTube on this one night in Ohrid, Macedonia last year.
Play at Work
My fellow blogger Arkangel has started a good thread on the value of play at work to which I am making extensive contributions and rather than write it all here I recommend connecting to his blog at the address below:
http://aarkangel.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/webworld/#comment-825
I will however add one quote from my 'Positive Thinking, Positive Action' book:
Not many of us will say on our death-bed "I wish had spent more time at the office. But we might say 'I wish I had had more fun while I was there'.
Only you can do something about that.
http://aarkangel.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/webworld/#comment-825
I will however add one quote from my 'Positive Thinking, Positive Action' book:
Not many of us will say on our death-bed "I wish had spent more time at the office. But we might say 'I wish I had had more fun while I was there'.
Only you can do something about that.
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