Gone Fishin'

There has recently been an updated version of an old TV commercial running here in the UK. The old advert was one of those standout ads that stick in your mind and provide a cultural reference point for everyone who was around at the time. It has been parodied and lampooned by many comedians down the years, but they wouldn't have done that if the commercial hadn't already entered the public conciousness. Here is the original ad:



I must admit that I got goosebumps seeing this again after all these years - it was first aired back in 1983. Following the huge success of this ad, there were a number of sequels and even a real book published under the title "Fly Fishing by J.R.Hartley"! Life imitating art :)

The new version has been updated to reflect modern times - after all almost all the bookshops on the High Street have disappeared now. Have a look and then contrast and compare.



To me, it doesn't have the charm of the original ad, but then I'm just an old fuddy-duddy! lol What do you think?

Opening of a New Frontier

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been working on a couple of projects that have kept me from posting here as often as I would like.

One of those projects is actually a second blog that I have been busy creating. Entitled "The Sports Ground", it will come as no surprise to you to find that this is a sports based blog! As most of you will know, I am a bit of a “sporty spice” as Dori would say. :-) So, it seemed a natural thing to create a separate sports blog where I can ramble away to my heart’s content on all things sports related. It will also mean that those of you who aren’t sports lovers won’t have to put up with quite so much talk on the subject here on this blog!

I have actually been posting there for a little over a week now, but haven’t publicized the fact as I wanted to get the tone and appearance of the blog closer to how I would like it, before I let the world in. But I have to bite the bullet sometime, and today seems as good a day as any. So, if you are at all interested, then please visit me at “The Sports Ground” – where the turnstiles are always open!

My post over at the other blog today is partly about my views on yesterday’s Super Bowl. We both stayed up to watch the game, expecting that we would probably call it a day at half-time after watching the Black Eyed Peas. But the contest got us both so intrigued that we actually stayed awake right until the end, and the trophy presentation at some time around 3:30 a.m. It was an exciting game to watch, with the outcome liable to go either way right up until the dying seconds. Sadly we couldn’t get to see the famed Super Bowl commercials so I’ll have to leave it to those of you who could to let us know if they were any good!

I hope that all of you – football lovers and others – had a great Super Bowl weekend, and that the coming week is good to you. ‘Til next time!

Back to the Future

Well, I am glad that doing more blogging wasn’t one of my New Year’s resolutions! Apologies for the lack of updates here, but sometimes life has a habit of getting in the way of your plans. I have been working on a couple of projects this month and time has been in fairly short supply for anything else :-)

I spoke in my last post of living in interesting times. Well, those times just keep on rolling. Firstly in Tunisia, and now in Egypt, the people are making their voices heard and it looks like there may be major changes ahead in the region. It reminds me a lot of the wind of change that blew through Europe in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and which saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and the melting of the Iron Curtain. Back then millions of people were released from oppressive regimes and the world celebrated along with them. Only time will tell what will happen this time around, but I suspect that the international reaction may be a little more muted on this occasion. Instability in that part of the world would not be appreciated, and yet freedom from oppression – in whatever form it takes – is always welcome. I guess we will all just have to wait and see what happens.

An interesting aspect of this story is the prominent role that social media has had in helping the protesters to organize themselves. We really do live in a different world now. Back in 1989 when the Wall was coming down we didn’t even have an internet. Now, many millions of people manage their lives via social media platforms. It has never been easier for the people of the world to communicate with each other, and to have access to information previously hidden from them. Information technology has become a very useful tool in the fight for true freedom.

Back in the day, when I was a young boy watching the first runs of Star Trek, having a door that slid open as you approached it seemed like the height of advanced technology. Now you can get that at your local Wal-Mart! Portable communication devices, hand held tablet computers and video calls were all science fiction at its most imaginative back then, but all are now very much part of our everyday lives. It is truly amazing the advances that have come our way in the last 40 years or so, and especially in the last 20 years.

I was reminded of this just the other day when I noticed Dori watching a music video over the internet via her iPod. And all I could think was “wow, we really do live in the future!” Try explaining that picture to that small boy back in the late 60’s/early 70’s who was so amazed that you could hear music from putting a piece of plastic on a rotating plate and dropping a needle onto it! The times they are a-changing, and a-changing at an ever increasing speed it seems. Hold on tight because if the next 20 years are anything like the last 20 then we may not recognize the world that will be 2031. The journey could be fun though.