I received some really smart comments on yesterday’s post. It’s humbling to have so smart people on this blog. I hope you make it a habit to read the comments on the posts (they tend to be smarter than the posts themselves)!

Should Axl really be chasing Skwerl, and did Bono deserve to be ridiculed in the media worldwide? Probably not. What most of the world got is at the very best a listen to the full songs in so-so quality, more likely a short glimpse of a youtube clip they are not sure was the real thing, or even more likely a read on this blog or on the five or six digit number of other published stories across the globe about the leaks that were warp-consumed within hours.

In other words, anyone almost got their sticky fingers on the songs. An alluring almost. That almost that received an entire theme week on this blog previously, showing how not knowing for certain drives us crazy and lures us more than having it all. Either people heard the songs in almost the right quality and final version (who knows, nobody does for certain…), or they just missed them, either way, being that close keeps us on our toes. 

Testifying once again to the truth of porn, showing glimpses, strip-teasing, but not revealing it all, gives extra fuel to people’s expectations.

So why did Axl chase Skwerl? Probably because he fears the other side to the truth of porn – by revealing too much, you risk losing people’s interest as there would be nothing more to expect. This would be the case if 1) the leaked G n’ R songs were the real thing, in perfect quality and final versions (not the alluring-almost versions) that enough many people got their sticky fingers on and were convinced were indeed the actual final things, or 2) if the songs stunk so bad that people’s expectations would drop through the floor.

Seemingly, Axl’s 14-year old business model is to keep Chinese Democracy in nextopia, and now he fears that it has been evicted.

Right or wrong?

A nice tie-in between yesterday’s post about Bono and the world of any on the one hand, a previous post about Guns n’ Roses seemingly eternally forthcoming album Chinese Democracy on the other hand, and the blogarazzi-bummer list on the third hand:

Just after I finished the Bono post yesterday, 28-year old L.A. resident Kevin Cogill was nicked by the FBI. Still in his pyjamas, as the Feds knocked on his door at 6.59 am local time and cordially invited him for a ride downtown, Kevin faced the District court and charges of stealing music from the Chinese Democracy album.

As I reported previously, nine songs from the eagerly awaited, 14-years-and-counting, delayed (nextopia-shimmering) album have popped up here and there, on youtube and elsewhere, during the last year. Yesterday, the FBI finally zeroed in on the source.

How did they identify Kevin as the culprit? Well, they didn’t have to – he id:d himself. Known as the Skwerl, Kevin hosts a blog (fitttingly called antiquiet.com), where he streamlined the songs and spilled the beans on their origins. Big blogarazzi-bummer for Skwerl that the Feds read blogs just like the rest of us.

So, Guns n’ Roses frontman Axl found himself in the same seat as Bono, facing a world of any where there’s a risk that once songs are produced, they could be overheard and nicked by anybody, anywhere, anytime.

And Axl went after Skwerl. Why? Was it because he feared losing sales of the album once released? I think not. Who knows if these songs would ever actually make it to a release (history and 14 years’ delay suggest they may not)? I am sure there’s another reason.

Care to guess?

This november, Irish pride U2 are scheduled to release their new album, “No Line on The Horizon”. Can’t wait to hear the new songs?

Well, you don’t have to. 13 days ago, Bono cranked up the volume on his French beachfront villa home music system to listen to the latest takes from the recording of the album. But the U2 singer wasn’t the only one enjoying the stadium band’s latest work. It also caught the ears of a tourist just passing on the beach outside Mr. World-Conscience’s palace. That someone being equipped with a mobile phone and an ability to recognize a new U2 song when he hears it.

Not long after, clips titled “Sexy boots”, “No line on the horizon”, “Moment of surrender” and “For your love” featuring U2’s latest songs found their way to youtube.  

In the world of any, you don’t have to wait for the album release to hear U2’s latest songs. Anyone, anywhere, can listen to them anytime they want. Bono’s beachfront villa in southern France is just a click away from anyone’s sticky fingers.

Though they were quickly removed, they keep popping up here and there, anywhere. As do the five-digit number of online discussions and speculations about the songs and their release, trademarks of the Expectations society, where nothing is more interesting than what’s to come.

Though Bono has been ridiculed by the media for his blunder and his naïvité, the question remains – good or bad for business?

Even better than the real thing? Anyone can cover a U2 song:

Last week, it became official: Barack Obama opted for Joe Biden as his running mate in the race for the US presidency.

I am not sure whether my pick will make headlines across the world, but it just became official that Fredrik Wikingsson will be my side-kick at the Södra Teatern event on October 2nd.

Obviously, in the world of any, anything can happen…

For non-Swedish viewers, in the clip below, Fredrik describes what a world without any limits means…to some…

A while back I wrote about microsodes, the 5-second versions of movies that have been flooding youtube this year. They are a natural product of the world of any – even though the new millennium has bred the 43-hour day, according to consumption and media research, there is still not enough time.

As we multitask and nowcast the latest tv programs, movies, and songs in our 43-hour days, the world of any still offers more than we can handle. Anyone can watch any movie they want, anytime, anywhere, and at anytime, there’s always a new movie release urging you to watch faster, faster!

So, we edit them into microsodes to keep up the pace, but still, there isn’t any end to the world of any and all the movies available to anyone.

Until last week. That’s when German district attorney Axel Stahl announced to the national press – and of course, to the world, where news is subject to warp consumption (six-digit google hits within days) - that he will not prosecute people who download less than 3,000 movies, or 200 songs. That would be the value equivalent of 3,000 Euro according to Axel, not worth chasing after.

So, there you have it. In the world of any there isn’t any end to all the movies and songs anyone can get their sticky fingers on, anywhere, anytime. That is, until that any reaches 3,000 or 200.

Does that mark the end of the world of any?

No. Quite the opposite. It officially placed the world of any beyond any limits:

1. How will this line be drawn in practice? In practice, it will be a pretty simple case for the defence that one cannot let 2,999 go and prosecute 3,000. When this is established, it’s a simple case that one cannot let 3,000 go and prosecute 3,001. And so on. And so, we can go on into infinity…

2. Even if one would be able to draw that sharp line between 2,999 and 3,000, those numbers would certainly render themselves useless. If anyone is allowed to download 3,000 songs, what will happen to their willingness to pay for songs? Put more to the point, how likely is it that songs will continue to be valued at 1 Euro a piece? Kind of a snowball’s chance you-know-where. And so, 3,000 Euro would soon translate into an infinite number of songs…

The last word hasn’t been said about Axel’s statement, and it hasn’t been put to practice yet  -but an intended end like this to the world of any would certainly free it from any limits…

October 24th, 2007, Microsoft publicly announced that they had bought a stake of Expectations society giant Google. Valuing the entire Google company and name at a whopping 15 billion dollars, Microsoft paid 240 million for their share. Later, Bill Gates’ Microsoft boys and girls admitted that they had probably paid a premium on their Google share, suggesting they actually could have been able to pay less.

Could this be due to the fact that rumours on the deal had spread like wildfire across the globe in the preceding days, driving the price estimates upwards? Ask Brandee Barker, Google’s head of PR. When she added Microsoft’s global head of sales and marketing, Adam Sohn, as a friend on her facebook profile, people close to the companies realized what was going on, what was about to happen. Soon, anyone knew. And when Microsoft announced the deal on October 24th, hardly anyone was surprised. So, paradoxically, before Microsoft bought into Google it had already turned into a much more expensive deal since everyone expected Microsoft to buy it.

Who knows what the final price estimates would have been, and how much Microsoft should have paid for their stake in Google if Brandee hadn’t told the world about her new friend? This is impossible to know, in a world where blogarazzi tell anyone who their new friends are, in a world where your business is anyone’s business.

Gaining a new friend has always been worth gold. In the age of blogarazzi, it may be worth 240 million dollars…
 

OK, so yesterday proved that body parts don’t need to be sautéed to catch anyone’s attention (I did receive a  few emails with curious reactions to that opening of yesterday’s post), but it helps: 

A remarkably twisted sign of a mid-life crisis, Arwin Meiwes celebrated turning 40 by sautéing Bernd Jürgen Brandes’ penis with salt, vinegar and garlic and eating it on the Christmas Day of 2001. Then, he spent the following 10 months eating the rest of Bernd’s body.

Hardly surprising in the world of any, where the online dating opportunities are counted in hundreds of millions, Arwin and Bernd met on the internet, where Arwin hosted a website called “The Cannibal Café”. Like most of the thousands and thousands of blogs devoted to food and gastronomy, Arwin shared his culinary fantasies and desires – with the exception that they centered on human flesh. Anyone could share Arwin’s fantasies, and Bernd certainly did. Arwin videotaped their deadly dinner and soon anyone could watch it online.

Including the police. Arwin’s advertising for new dinner victims and the graphic illustrations of his last dinner soon caught their attention, and before long, the “Rothenburg Cannibal” was incarcerated. Whereas old-millennium cannibals could enjoy tens or even hundreds of meals before getting caught, blogarazzi-cannibal Meiwes was forced to settle for one. Bummer.

Guess what dinner Rammstein’s Mein Teil refers to…

Your body parts do not have to be sautéed with salt, vinegar and garlic by a cannibal to find their way to worldwide display. Checking in to the hospital will suffice. Just ask the patients at the Stockholm, Sweden, hospital Karolinska.

Enjoying her summer vacation, a Karolinska hospital surgery nurse checked her voicemail only to find out that she was facing police charges and would likely be fired from her job. The reason why? Her facebook profile, which had rendered the hospital headlines across the globe during this August 2008 week, and produced a major scandal. The facebook account featured photos of the operations the nurse had participated in and of the patient’s organs.

Devastated, the nurse testified that the pictures were only intended for discussion among colleagues and friends, and part of her professional progression. “They were not intended for anyone to see”. Just like the old millennium’s celebrities did not want anyone to see the contents of their garbage cans that the paparazzi dug through. But the paparazzi were nowhere near as integrity-violating and merciless as their 2.0 counterparts the blogarazzi. They can literally see inside people… 

In the beginning of 2008, first-year engineering student Chris Avenir was charged with 147 counts of academic misconduct by his Toronto, Canada, university Ryerson. Struggling to keep up with the pace of the advanced education he just started taking, Chris had turned to the world of any for help. Realizing that anyone should be able to find any answers, anytime, anywhere, he used his facebook profile to invite others to solve the academic assignments he received in his courses.

And anyone did, students at his university, and around the world, chipped in, thinking it was a brilliant idea. However, Ryerson officials did not agree, and soon notified Chris that he faced expulsion for cheating.

Fortunately for Chris, the visitors to his facebook account were members of Generation In-Charge. Used to being in charge and having their way, they saw no problem with fighting university management. Funds were gathered by selling “Chris did not cheat” t-shirts and hats on facebook, clips supporting him posted on youtube, and they were able to draw the attention of tv networks, newspapers and magazines across the globe.

A few weeks later, Ryerson University issued a statement that Chris Avenir would face a couple of slaps on the academic wrist, but not be expelled.

Tim Tackett’s bathing his way into unemployment last week made me think of the blogarazzi phenomenon I wrote about at the beginning of time (this blog). After all, he posted the clip himself.

Let’s look a little closer at the perils of being a blogarazzi. In the world of any, anyone can find out anything there is to know about anybody, anytime, anywhere. The provider of all this information? YOU.

While the end of the old millennium bred a new and despised profession called paparazzi, the Expectations society is quickly forcing the photographers and gossip-starters that have been hiding in the bushes with tele-lenses, digging through garbage cans and stalking people, out of business. The paparazzi cannot compete with their 2.0 counterparts – the blogarazzi. Struggling for a spot in the limelight, hoping to become an expectity, or at least a 15-microseconds-of-famer, we are turning our lives into next operas – continuously giving out more information about ourselves, hinting that there’s more to come next: “Stay tuned, I am interesting, wait and see what’s next!” The mantra “you are never better than your next performance” drives anyone and everyone to blog, twitter and expand their facebook and myspace profiles at a furious rate.

They are a testament to “the truth of porn”, that the more you reveal, the less naked you feel. Having become a blogarazzi, you soon forget just how private the things you reveal are, and you forget just how many people can actually take part of that information. Myspace isn’t just your space, in the world of any, it’s anybody’s space. Which can be a real bummer. A bummer so common that it deserves its own theme list. Just ask the people who have been fired after calling in sick, forgetting that their boss could learn all about their late night out the day before that they twittered and put pictures of on myspace, or those who faced divorce after their spouse found out about an affair through your facebook walls.

Or ask the people on this list. In 2005, life smiled at 39 year-old Carmen Kontur-Gronquist. She was elected the first female mayor of small town Arlington, Oregon. The newly elected mayor was both in mental and physical shape of her life. Her smarts had taken her all the way to the mayor’s office in a town previously ruled by men, and her weight-lifting and physical exercise had taken her just one step from the national fitness competition stage. However, her full-time job as a mayor kept her from realizing her fitness contest ambitions. Her full-time job also kept single mother Carmen from pursuing romantic interests. This became evident on her myspace page, that featured everything and anything but romance.

Three years into Carmen’s run as mayor, hoping to bring her romantic next opera to life, a relative posted a photograph of Carmen from her close-to-the-fitness-stage days, featuring the would-be mayor in black underwear posing in front of one of the town’s firedepartment trucks. Carmen allowed the photo on her space, intending it for a small crowd of friends. The picture was posted in January 2008, and before the month was over, everyone and anyone in Arlington, Oregon had seen it. Come February, Carmen had been relieved of her position as mayor. Bummer. But at least, she gained 15 microseconds of fame, as anyone could see her in her black lingerie on the thousands of Google hits devoted to her, the youtube clips and the major tv network newscasts. And what about her romantic life? Stay tuned to the next opera…