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<DIV><FONT size=4>Dear f_minor</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>At the beginning of GG’s Prospects of Recording radio feature
you can hear a distinguished gentleman with a canadian accent make an ironic
comment about muzak and elderly matrons prancing with their shopping trollies to
mantovanified music they heard as young gals. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>This is the voice of Marshall McLuhan, who would have
celebrated his 100th birthday this year. Time to remind people about his
contributions and his importance in our media-driven world. McLuhan was the
first to study and probe the impact of mass media in and on our culture,
something the you just cannot ignore because even something as profane as a
lightbulb has a message (according to McLuhan). And GG was very well aware of
what McLuhan had to say about his craft as such and shared interest in how we
approach media as such.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>He did collaborate with GG on more than one occasion. There is
a taped conversation with him and GG slumbering in an archive of which only a
transcript has surfaced. Dear CBC, I would like to see that. And I would like to
see much more in terms of GG while I am at it, thank you very much.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>We all heard buzzwords like The Global Village, Digital Age,
The Medium is The Message/Massage, Hot and Cold Media etc. These concepts are
even more around us than in McLuhan’s time and his ideas are essential to
Advertising and TV programming because the execs are well aware of what McLuhan
said. And he said a lot of important things: </FONT><A
title=http://marshallmcluhan.com/mcluhanisms/
href="http://marshallmcluhan.com/mcluhanisms/"><FONT
size=4>http://marshallmcluhan.com/mcluhanisms/</FONT></A><FONT
size=4> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>CBC: </FONT><A
title=http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/media/topics/342/
href="http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/media/topics/342/"><FONT
size=4>http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/media/topics/342/</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>ubu:</FONT><A title=http://www.ubu.com/sound/mcluhan.html
href="http://www.ubu.com/sound/mcluhan.html"><FONT
size=4>http://www.ubu.com/sound/mcluhan.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>DVD: </FONT><A
title=http://www.amazon.com/Mcluhans-Wake-Marshall-McLuhan/dp/B000K7VIKY
href="http://www.amazon.com/Mcluhans-Wake-Marshall-McLuhan/dp/B000K7VIKY"><FONT
size=4>http://www.amazon.com/Mcluhans-Wake-Marshall-McLuhan/dp/B000K7VIKY</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Television is indeed dangerous, the first drug that goes
immediatly into the brain receptors and it is not important what’s on but that
the TV IS on. It is, as McLuhan claimed, an Inner Trip. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The printed book has become an endangered species, a fact that
McLuhan warned us about and I really wonder what he would have said about a
Kindle or iPad.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Yet he did not predict. He had the foresight to claim that
someday we would have something like the Internet. But he was not ethusiastic
about his “predictions”, a pessimistic conservative (catholic !) lit prof whose
ideas are abused by ad agencies and TV execs worldwide. He merely stated facts
as he onece said. Don’t blame it on him if some of his ideas have been hijacked
by the wrong people.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Therefore it is quite understandable that an artist interested
in media such as GG took a liking in McLuhan’s ideas.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>McLuhan briefly fell out of favour with the intelligenzija,
but with the introduction of the friendly soundbyte-sized news reports he’s
back. We need to cope with this “new” media ecology, McLuhan will tell you how
it works and where to take care. Not a Prophet or Messiah, just a courious
english prof from Winnipeg with a fondness for Joyce and How Stuff
Works.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Forget Sartre and Heidegger, better listen to McLuhan, the
Last Great Philospher of the 20th Century. His 100th birthday is celebrated with
tons of activities, lectures, books etc in various cities. I for one would
really, really like to see the conversation with him and GG (and much more in
terms of GG, of course).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Pat</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>