Ramble: Bhutto & Banksy - Blather By the Fire...

Pay for positioning help or be anonymous. It's been awhile since I've rambled (not counting yesterday's real life ramble in the Sangre de Cristo foothills) and I thought about how it is so American to get image help.  Maybe it isn't the same, exactly, as a boob job... but the Radcliffe/Harvard gal, Benazir Bhutto, is smart about how to buff up to get places, politically.  Her party contracted to pay beaucoups buckaroos for help from BKSH & Associates Worldwide (integrated with parent company the pr giant Burson Martseller). She knows how to get where she wants to go.  Then there is Banksy, who is in real life an anonymous artist who produces (secretly) public art. I compare myself to neither.  And thus I ramble...

Here's what is of interest to share as my husband and I sit reading on laptops by the fireplace in Santa Fe:

• Organize Online Reading or drown with information overload!  I've been reworking my reading with three RSS news feed readers I use: Bloglines (my favorite), Google's Reader, and MyYahoo. I wrote about how to do this when I first started blogging. How to Get News and Information and Get MotherPie News by Feeds.  BBC has an article on RSS. Boomer Chronicles talks about newspaper reading and why younger people don't, linking to new stats on continuing circulation declines. I say it is because with these new technologies online, it is just more efficient to read, share, link and file reading preferences or articles.  I use del.icio.us to file all my articles and sites of interest online by subject/keyword. Plus I'm saving trees.
  

• Vital Reads -- Ah, the rabbit trails! While looking over the political blogs nominated as best by the 2007 Weblog Awards (voting ends today), looking for additions to my Blogline political reads, I found (and recommend)  Real Clear Politics for anyone of any political persuasion.  Lots of topics easily scannable.  Other best blog nominations in assorted categories: Darren Rouse's ProBlogger was nominated also and is a good blogging resource. I'm hoping my Texas blog friend Antique Mommy wins the best parenting blog award (go vote - she's in third place).  P.S. Hat tip to Jill for posting about an article I'd read about how children of helicopter parents are more satisfied with every aspect of their college life. Chatting by the fire, I was trying to recall this study.
  
• Beautiful Reads - Claude's reposting of her self-description in poetic form might yet inspire me to do the same.  I had just read Susie J's same self poem - both based on a 2005 form by another blogger. Even if you are not a blogger, it is a good writing project.
• Bhutto polished up? -It was Foreign Policy Watch, another blog up for best political blog, with the Bhutto article that caught my eye because of my background in public relations - Bhutto Recrafts Her Image. Back when I was working with Turkish people on the Turkey Curriculum Guide for the Houston International Festival, Bhutto was Pakistan's Prime Minister (she was the first female head of a Muslim-majority country).

  

  Now she wants to be the country's savior. Turkey also had a female head at that time, Tansu Çiller.  I wonder where we'd be today if Condi Rice could have a few woman-to-woman leadership chats. Or Hillary? Mark Penn, CEO of Burson-Martseller, is one of Sen. Clinton's advisors. Bhutto's photo looks like it's been buffed up, or she's had dermabrasion. Female fresh, Americany. Well, the Turkish people did brag to me about the beauty of their women so who knows -- real or not.  Well, don't you wonder about the power of a woman to shake things up?
• Banksy I'm not. (OK, a little comparison). He pops up wherever, unseen, most recently in London with the piece at left.  I pop up here, daily, in my private/public place, defacing nothing (but giving a Mona a new ephemeral face) and doing my own creative bit. But like Banksy, I'm not seen. My real persona is private.  Is Banksy's art less real because it is free?  Is it less valued?

So. The fire has died down. Not in my marriage. In the fireplace. Slow Burning Cheers.  Happily Ember After.

Comments

[Fénix (Bostonscapes)]

Hi! Thanks for visiting Bostonscapes and leaving such kind words :). It really feels good to know that my blog inspires other people to photograph their surroundings and I really hope you will give it a try. It's a very fun, rewarding and enlightening pastime. :)

[joared]

Thanks for the info on blogging organization. So much I have to learn, so little time to devote to doing it.