Archive for June, 2009

The Greatest Band (or Brand?) in the World

Pink Floyd have had three completely different singer/songwriter leaders, and still kept their fans, becoming a worldwide phenomenon.

Coca Cola is often regarded as an extremely powerful brand, yet when they changed the formula to their drink, the public reacted against this and they swiftly reverted back to the original recipe. 

Pink Floyd however have had three different musical incarnations and despite this actually became more and more popular. Does this make Pink Floyd a more powerful brand than Coca Cola? Certainly the groups fans seem to be more loyal than Coca Cola’s customers.
1) Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd (1965 – 1968) Pink Floyd - 3 leaders copy

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Annoying Arrows on Wordpress Blog Links

In the last few days annoying arrows have appeared on all my blog links, as below;
Link arrows

Does anybody know how to ged rid of them? Thanks.

John McNally

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Stardust and Michael Jackson

The world is coming to terms with the shocking death of Michael Jackson. I can’t help thinking however that Jarvis Cocker could have saved him from his own excesses.
King of Pop

I am not a religious person, but when I saw the live 1996 BRIT awards,  I couldn’t believe my eyes. Here was a man impersonating Jesus, with a white flowing cloak, spotlights behind him, and a wind machine, so that he was both glowing and windswept.

Then unbelievably he had groups of children coming up to him to be blessed. “Suffer the little children to come unto me” said the Lord (Mark 10:13-14). And at that moment I believe that Michael Jackson thought he was some sort of diety.

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Bush and Blair; Unconvicted War Criminals

The election of President Obama has restored my faith in the USA and given hope to the world. Only now with this new positive outlook for the future do I feel able to unleash my rage about the Invasion  of Iraq.

What follows is my personal view and memory of past events, I have not checked any of the facts, but I believe all of the following;

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Maus a Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman

Maus Volume 1 - My Father Bleeds HistoryBooks are important to me, they are a guaranteed avenue of pleasure. However the first book I want to write about, is not a book at all – it’s a ‘graphic novel’; what most people think of as just a posh comic.

Graphic novels have come up in the world. They now have their own section in Waterstones book shops. If there is one graphic novel that will convince you of their artistic relevance it’s ‘Maus’. This is a personal history of Vladek Spiegelman a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, as told by his cartoonist son Art Spiegelman.

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Internet Marketing Sales & Income June 2009

Concentrated this month on my blog at www.johnmcnally54.com writing daily posts, or at least one post every 2 days. I have not started my eBook under John Thornhill’s ‘Masterclass’ course, however I’m hoping that regularly writing on my blog will get my creative juices flowing.

One side benefit I had not anticipated, was realising how much I enjoyed writing about comics. In the past I had created oil paintings on canvas of various comic scenes, and after researching the internet I realised there is a market for ‘Popart’.

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Changing Colours on Your Wordpress Blog

My blog uses the Wordpress theme ‘ProSense-Blue’ which has a dull grey background as standard. However to brighten things up a bit I changed this background colour to yellow.
Colour on Blog

I also inserted a Clickbank ad rotator as a plug-in, and changed the background colour to yellow (it’s my favourite colour :-) )
 

If you want to change the colour scheme and appearance of your blog you need to go to the Dashboard at  www.YOURBLOG.com/wp-admin

On the lefthand side go to Appearance
and underneath click on

Editor

There is a list of Theme Files; you need to click

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The Wickedest Man in the World

Aleister CrowleyMost people who know Leamington Spa in Warwickshire think of it as a beautiful Regency town – which it is.

However I was born here, and I’m rather proud of another infamous Leamingtonian, who in his time was ‘The Most Dangerous Man in Britain’.

Aleister Crowley was born on the 12th October 1875 in Leamington Spa. His parents were wealthy brewers and devout Christians who were also members of the Plymouth Brethren Sect.  

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Conspiracy Theories and Occam’s Razor

I’m a great fan of conspiracy theories. I find them fascinating, but they all break a basic philosophical principal – that of Occam’s Razor. This states that ‘when there are two theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be prefered’.Occam’s Razor is named after the medieval monk William of Occam. He believed that when looking at problems, you should strip away all the layers of complexity (using his ‘Razor‘), until finally you are left with the kernel of truth.

 

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Sunset at The North Pole

Copy of an email doing the rounds:

” This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point last week……a scene you will probably never get to see in person, so take a moment and enjoy God at work at the North Pole.

And, you also see the sun below the moon,an amazing photo and not one easily duplicated. You may want to pass it on to others so they can enjoy it. The Chinese have a saying that goes something like this: ‘When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others!’  I just did. Your turn.”
Sunset at the North Pole

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