My Stream

On Wednesday Alex and I celebrated our second anniversary by going to see “Ovo”, the insect-themed show which Cirque du Soleil are currently performing in their home town of Montréal. It was absolutely breathtaking.. Incredible feats of human skill, outlandish costumes and wonderful sets and lighting. The video barely does it justice – I recommend you see it if you can!

This video has just “gone viral” on Twitter and elsewhere. Everyone is forwarding the link around.

All you need to do these days in tell your story, and if it’s sticky enough, the world will spread it, far more effectively than any company’s PR department can.

As social networks online grow, consumer power grows. Companies that treat their customers badly need to wake up and listen, or this will happen to them too.

You can read the full story at Dave Carroll‘s site. Whatever he lost in the value of that guitar, he will soon gain back in getting his music to new audiences.

Oh, and the best bit? There’s another two songs still to come…!

I caught this very interesting interview with former PM John Major talking about how the state of the UK public debt is so much worse than we realise, and about the problems that the next government – whichever party it might be – will face. Government will have to raise taxes or cut spending, he says. He even proposes that government itself should be downsized, and mentions a very interesting idea to ensure that politicians are more in touch with “real life”. They also discuss the problems of the loss of trust in Parliament as a whole following the expenses scandal.

I don’t support Labour or Conservative myself, but I can’t help but see parallels between the media criticism of John Major that led to his downfall and the similar media attacks on Gordon Brown of late. Gordon Brown strikes me as a shrewd economist who somewhat has his hands tied by public and media pressure. I hope he doesn’t suffer the same fate John Major did, and I would like to think the British public could let people like Major and Brown do their job on their own merits. Sadly, with the media being as anti-establishment and influential to public opinion as it is, I’m not sure that can happen.

This YouTube version is viewable anywhere but stops before the end. For UK viewers the full interview is on iPlayer [43:00 minutes in]

(Found via @leisa on Twitter – Thanks!)

(Thanks Lara for forwarding this)