We’re informed by a gushing press that the seventh and final Harry Potter tome sold 11.4 million copies on the first day, smashing the records set by previous Potter releases to become the fastest selling book in history. Funny that – it was also the most hyped. Continue reading Harry Potter – The Magic Is In The Marketing
Category Archives: Popular Culture
We’re So Pretty, Oh So Pretty…Vacant
In my previous post, I owned up to a foolish public declaration as a teenager that Creedence Clearwater Revival “shat on” The Beatles. That was essentially an adolescent rebel yell in the face of peer authority, clumsy and misdirected, but rooted in a perception that I consider legitimate to this day – that the masses are prone to stampeding. Such was the case with The Beatles. They could do no wrong. Every single was a smash hit, every album hailed a work of genius. The adulation, the mass approbation, was overwhelming and, it seemed, indiscriminate. Lennon’s wry observation at the peak of The Beatles’ fame that they were “more popular than Jesus” sparked outrage, but it wasn’t far off the mark. Continue reading We’re So Pretty, Oh So Pretty…Vacant
A Portrait of the Iconoclast as a Young Twat
One of the refrains of my childhood was my father’s 6-syllable sing-song admonition, “you’re anti-everything.” That wasn’t quite accurate, but I do have to admit to an inbuilt contrariness that asserts itself at the faintest whiff of hype or herd approbation of – well, just about anything. Continue reading A Portrait of the Iconoclast as a Young Twat