Geg Hopkins awarded Journalism recognition
October 2019: Geggyboy very recently received an award from His Royal Nibs. It was a Bahrain based award, not a Nobel Prize, but judging by the response, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the latter.
Was I ecstatic? As a mere subject, the privilege of being up there and greeted by H,R,H. is always a belter of a thrill because it doesn’t happen very often at all! In the old days of a few hundred thousand population we got to see the Rulers a little more often and security was not an issue. But with a few million packed in now and world seemingly so much more upside down, these occasions are becoming very rare. Another nicety is that the PM will often have a personal little word to some of us by name (like his late brother and Amir; Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, they have uncanny memories and recall faces and names better than elephants). That personal touch makes me feel a bit special for being recognized, because I being far from Mr. Pushy, don’t expect it or even think about it, but I do know he knows me well and was a ‘fan’ so to speak from my heydays of radio.
I assume this award reflects some of those rather open and fun days before my tenancy was cut short by insidious intimidation from those not able to compete at my level, so ganged up and lowered the standard to the lowest common denominator to feed their deluded ego. (I went to TV afterwards, which unfortunately so few watch). This is what we have now with Broadcast Media in Bahrain at such an incredibly low ebb compared to the incredible openness, content full and fun days of the 80s and early 90s, that it was. Nowadays, it is inanity, twitter fed and absolute incompetently zero with an entire generation who know no different and actually believe it to be good still, having absolutely no inkling as to what entertaining radio should sound like. This is also happening all over the world as Political Correctness dominates and humour fades or becomes illegal and blandness prevails like a blanket of thick haze. Like banning something, it all goes underground and Social Media has provided that platform.
Radio was/is my passion though and I know many think it was the hierarchy who removed me, because of my antics and humour, but trust me, far far far from it… They were totally unaware, thinking it was me who resigned. If there is a God – retribution will surely prevail, for it was vicious! Though one man will be waiting for them upstairs, ready to dish out the divine punishment they um…er… gravely deserve. Mr. Ahmed Suleiman (father of Hala Ahmed Sulaiman) built Radio Bahrain to its earlier terrific standard, a standard which among us was wrongly diagnosed as amateur at the time, so striving for better content always, we were highly critical of ourselves. It was in fact world class, give or take the odd scruple. Oh, I made some crawl under a rock beauties, but we were aware. Today, it is the blinkered blind leading the blind with no perception of how amateur they come across having no qualified guidance to relate to. Ahmed loved my style from the start and ignored immense pressure to err to safety and blandness. For sure, he will never forgive those who manipulated and endlessly fought him to have me removed and indeed himself from time to time. He well knew the implications and future demise of the platform if he allowed the dirge to overpower him. Since his (forced) retirement and subsequent death (bless) many years ago now, mediocrity has all but destroyed his legacy, but he will always be remembered with great fondness.
But broadcast, be it right up to lunch time of the day of my demise, I guess I will be still at it. TV, Radio and now Social Media or whatever, is where I am and it is too late to change (unless someone offers a fat, no refusal salary vocation change, then I will empty bins, or sweep the streets – if my legs hold out, no worries).
Am I aware of how many follow my dribbles or mini reports or even the documentaries I do. Nah! I assume some incidental notice, here and there, but there is absolutely no delusion of this pseudo pap glitterati and new-fangled word; ‘Influencer’, some of which receive millions for just pointing at a lipstick in a selfie video shot whatever. It is all pish to me and iPhone level media.
Award? One perceives the so-called ‘broadcast standard’ or one doesn’t, it is art. I just love and at the same time hate what I do because of the time it takes to reach what I feel satisfied with. So to get a general award like this, along with the others, who also very much deserve recognition, albeit a very different avenue and style… Yep! It is bang on! I’ve got it and they are NOT having it back!
But did I realize the impact of it? NO! Not at all. I was oblivious until now. If you look at our Social Media accounts, they have gone slightly bananas. Just our Facebook Whodoeswhat.tv channel has lit up. Instagram likes are growing by the second. THANK YOU ALL!! THANK YOU – THANK YOU, we have read every single message and like!
Also a personal huge spot light up for Ahdiya Ahmed who is now leading the Bahrain Journalists Association and bringing them to the fore big time, where this has never really happened before. Ahdiya has always supported me (and others who might be lesser known) and often under some severe criticism and obstruction has had the biggest balls to ignore it and give me almost free reign at TV. With integrity, one must not knowingly break that trust. Of course it is par for the course to rattle someone’s cage in this business.
Many people; names I don’t actually know, all the way up to Royalty, who have gone out of their way to congratulate me, Numerous and incredibly personal congratulations have been received with the genuine warmth of ordinary citizens who may never come into diplomatic or royal circles. In this line of work we of course do by default as we make reports etc. for the Al Hilal Media group magazines and online channels and so on. Whatsapp messages have poured in, some telephoning me or indeed calling over at functions etc. along with others, then offering up congratulations. It is becoming astounding as to how the media surrounding this award has propagated.
Admittedly, I am a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to all this Social Media lingo – and although I might have a Twitter, Instagram et al account which I DON’T use, as I said before, it was NOT me that set them up but the IT wiz and (cough….Forbes Magazine featured photographer of Who Does What.TV,) namely Svetlana Prodanova who happens to be extremely proficient at it and she informed me today that we have gone a bit ‘viral’. I hope it doesn’t hurt. Wow!
The Good Becomes a Bit Ugly
Bloggerhea Star Date 24 : 9 : 2019
I overslept big time this morning. In a panic I rushed to switch on main stream media news. “Homosexual this, Homosexual that, homosexual wipes, Lesbian this, Lesbian that, Lesbian IVF and Greta! Oh and more Greta and then the Oscars.. Oh no sorry, that was still Greta!
Thank God for that… I thought I’d missed something.. Phew!!!!
If a man says it – it is generally not!
Oblivious to their own ideology and carefully manipulated actions, dark forces controlling the so-called ‘other half’, often referred to as the ‘left’, have rendered wholly ineffective all that was acceptable about democracy.
Who doesn’t believe that humans must take care of the planet? At a wild guess, my personal attesting would put it that out of 7.5 billion inhabitants, 6.4 billion don’t have a clue and WTF you are talking about, let alone give a monkey’s banana about saving the planet, by not sh*tting in the street, slaughtering animals by the billion daily or burning whatever they can get their hands on.
The thing is…………. Who reads this anyway? Who actually listens to that bizarre young manufactured Swede? It is pretty arbitrary to suggest that the more developed a nation is, the more pollutants it produces. Not at all sure about Global Warming either, as a direct result of man’s (oops.. people’s) pig ignorance and lack of empathy for the planet. For sure, there must be considerable detriment and this old blue cannot sustain the abuse for ever, whether you believe it in or not.
The great Biased BBC World Service – Bless… just interviewed a Professor Doctor regarding the polar ice melting. (Ice caps or just polar ice?). The announcer slipped in Greenland as well. Deliberate or simple indoctrination, who knows? The Prof. came across as a knowledgeable, amicable, balanced gent as he spoke of sea levels rising. Or….. landmass sinking? Not too much study regarding the latter is there and, if sea level fluctuates, or indeed land height, then what is your reference?
Although perceived as factual without the bile and hype the snowflakes and luvvies are prone to exhibit, when asked what advice he would give dissenters, our Prof. responded with; ‘Well read this report…………”. A somewhat innocently narrow minded and not a particularly savvy media thing to say, since it is the report, the contents of which, many deny.
Before the great minority Twatteratti troll their bile, lissssun up! Either careful specific wording spread by the cult in secret – or genuinely missing a very important point or two; exactly what ice is melting? If it is coastal land based ice of which is in vast quantities the size of say France or bigger, then worry dear folk; worry a lot. Until it freezes over again – and it will. But if we are talking about floating ice, then the story is very different according to basic physics, unless dear Archimedes, Einstein and Isaac were way off.
The Antarctica is largely a land mass, but the Arctic is floating ice. A giant factor that climate change activists and deluded repeaters fail to highlight. Antarctica has rarely if ever been an issue as far as melting ice is concerned, other than on the Western Side where some very small fluctuations have been monitored by NASA. By and large, Antarctica is fairly stable and if anything, getting colder, so poo poo to sea levels rising as a result.
Without nuclear reaction, localized energy is finite and even then, we are pulling on the universe as we know it, assuming the universe is 100% of all energy.
Fed up yet? Yeah, so are non-political level headed scientists. The absolute BS and wholly fake news being spouted by activism for political gain and gross ego. It is just evil pollution in itself. The reality is so far from this pseudo fashionable activism.
Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, your mother or father, your teacher or lover nor I made this up. A ship will displace its own weight in water. FACT!!! Let’s come back to what comes out its funnel in a minute. Take a bath with Rosie O’Donnell and your bath water level will go up (rather a lot) by the weight of Rosie, plus you or how much of your bodies are unsupported by the physical sides. (Difficult to prove because most houses don’t have a big enough bath, but take Archimedes’ word for it). Likewise a floating Iceberg will displace its own weight in water and it will appear that sea levels rise accordingly as finite as that might be. But if we could somehow removed all floating icebergs into space or something, only then will the water level go down. If the iceberg melts, the water level will stay the same. So, a floating iceberg can melt as many times as it likes, but sea levels will not change. Geggyboy’s law: In theory then, no floating icebergs on earth, low water level. Sadly it doesn’t work like that does it, but it is not really a lot to do with icebergs, unless you were on the Titanic. Should Antarctica melt one day, then it would be the last of our worries, because whatever caused that would no doubt wipe us all out before we could reach for the snorkels.
Let’s get into the ‘green house’ gasses which the Professor also mentioned and here is where we need to worry. Although we don’t often hear the words ‘Green House’ any more do we? We’ve all been nobbled long ago and everything is twisted and turned into whitewash to drown and blind us. The sad part is the sheer number of people who fall for and blinkered go along with all this bollocks.
If more H2O is produced on earth in the form of rain (one assumes) by climate change or whatever, i.e. through pollution, chemical poisoning and so on, then sea levels have to rise. Of course, because there is more water and it has to go somewhere. To make more water, we deplete something else as we cannot gain elements, we can only make derivatives. More clouds, less evaporation. Ask Bangladesh! Now if we poke a great big hole in the Ozone layer and the sun comes belting through and all the water gets evaporated, where the hell does it go? It appears to disappear, but it cannot disappear, it is up there somewhere, but perhaps in a lesser form. A bit more H and less O, mixed with a bit of Carbon and we have CO2. Yum Yum said the tree! Take away the 2 and we have a very nasty poison which is being spewed out of every single combustion engine on this earth, including jets which emit a good few more pollutants 6 miles high where there is not much air to mix with it. ‘Formaldehyde’ is one emission, as does every living thing chuck the stuff out, yet just the thought is enough to scare the pants off you with visions of embalming. Formaldehyde is pretty harmless in its life span, but go for it Al, or Greta It is a riveting name so lots of milleage. The other chemicals thrown into the atmosphere from industrialization is a huge worry, because half the time, we don’t know or don’t check what is being churned up. Of course, money talks and much can very easily be suppressed, so back to the 6.4 billion who couldn’t care less. Start addressing that with your tears. Somehow me thinks you wont be doing that in a hurry because it would be..um…er…. hurtful and ‘Politically Incorrect’. The bottom line is that; not only money talks, but gross hypocrisy as well in this Twitter Snowflake blizzard world.
So let’s go electric, problem solved. No emissions. OH wait! How do we make electricity in such volumes? Ok Greta, you win! We all take a leaf out of your Christmas story and live in igloos. Hang on though! We need ice to build igloos and we cannot get ice until the earth atmosphere blocks out the sun and we ice over. Dilemma beyond! Those dinosaurs didn’t have central heating and that might have been because activists 4 million years ago didn’t want them burning coal.
So something has to give. All this rhetoric is just that! Shouting and being rude to who you don’t like politically will change absolutely nothing, because the 6.4 billion folk mentioned earlier have never heard of you, WILL never hear of you before you as a fad disappears. Furthermore they don’t understand what you are talking about. Kim Kardashean gets millions more viewers.
As this media and Fabian indoctrination has severely crippled Europe and the US, with no let up, the big issue is culture. Until the human psyche has adopted the notion of preservation and industrial cleanliness from birth, with schooling ideology as natural as nature itself, then yer Greta’s and Gores are just Hollywood. With stifled third world encroachment and population overload, without the basic education to invent or discover new technology such as ways to fly without leaving an ocean of pollution, or ‘Fusion’ to save us all, then we are on a hiding to nothing and all this Hollywood bollocks is just that. Even if we come up with fusion tomorrow, the same activism will find something to dominate the corrupt media with and pound and hound decent people who want to do something and need ideas and inventions, not steaming piles of bile air because the flock needs a hero so frequently creates one.
We don’t even remotely do enough and continuously create more toxic elements, inadvertently or indeed otherwise. It is a never ending task to make inhabitants environmentally aware, but stop demonizing developed nations with warped hate for individuals who are mere amoeba in the cycle of pollution and destruction. This is not the only audience. Hard core attacking the so far developed world with the ‘How dare you’ garbage. Nations that clean their streets, dispose of waste, attempt in parts to stem pollution. Endless activism, tainted left wing ideology, condoning and championing the third world with oooooz and Aghhhh and sympathy for stifled cultures who junk their own countries while supposedly seeking nothing more than a better life elsewhere in our own so-called polluted countries. Yawn!!!! This activism is severely missing the point and that is blatantly obvious should one visit so many other parts of world and see what pollution and filth is on display.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF SEX
Question: In this obsessive, very sick, full-on martyrdom, Politically Correct, offended ‘Millennial’ world; do over 60s (even 50s) still spend up to 15 minutes or much longer in every hour thinking about sex? Even more acute, do we still um..er… do it! Or perhaps just ‘pretend’ we do? The question begs; do we become less perverted as we get older, not that all of us were perverted or aware of being perverted during our younger years.
Who but the more extrovert among us will admit to anything? It is pointless asking really, thus pointless too blogging it really, but then it is pointless blogging in general, full stop! That is unless you want to make money, then sex is a money making commodity.
Every magazine, TV programme et al. will be including something about sex no matter what. Not all, but most men mention in jest or talk about something do with with sex every 2 minutes. Women are generally more reserved and quite possibly keep those thoughts to themselves, but again not all in the 21st Century. By all accounts Victorian times were pretty raunchy and the more clothes a women had on, the more fun it must have been getting them off.
In many societies and cultures, sex is above everything and religion above that, hence the religion is based on sexual behaviour for most.
Sex is everywhere! MTV to sport, it is what makes the world go around. There are not many trades that will never die and always make money. Food is one and sex is the other, can you think of any more?
Men by and large are disgusting beings who are more often than not driven by their urge and certainly their visual surroundings. More than a good few are pathetic in their inability to think straight if the potential of a bit sex is put before them. Women are not so different, they like it too, especially if they have gone past the stage of virginity and know what to expect, but society dictates that women are not allowed to openly act cougar and go for it. The latter has now created the victim of sexual harassment.
Think about it; most of us no doubt wish to describe ourselves as – ‘normal people’, detached from the what seems to be an inordinate number of deviants in the world. But tell a dirty joke; parody any element from paedophilia to homosexuality and this barrage of ‘simulated offence’ will often greet you. Pass on a funny picture or video, or even the ludicrous example of ‘third world hilarious folly which stifled cultures abundantly produce, often in ‘barbaric innocence’, completely unaware of the sexual element and if the narrow mind receives it, you are labelled a deviant and should be restrained from approaching. Inadvertent lavatorial shop signs, to an hilarious anti masturbation letter currently circulating the Gulf. (It looks to be a scam targeting a certain large offshore company. If so, whoever generated it is bloody funny), but those who duth protesteth scream offence. It is everywhere, yet we allow ourselves to be lobbied and forced to cower in a corner, or thought of as a dark disgusting cretin because we dared to laugh at life as it ‘really is’.
With an abundance of women and men who were ostensibly ‘innocent’ young 30 years ago, now coming out of the woodwork with their accusations has somehow started to detract from having any credible substance. The fashionably ‘offended’ among them overpowers the harsh reality. Nowadays, to be offended or devastated by a dark past, real or imaginary is an indoctrination by the PC dogooders, and pseudo evangelical swamp of deluded righteousness who insist the victims are ‘damaged goods’ and need to be nursed now, three decades or so on. Unless of course you are an actor/actress whose ego sees yet another opportunity for the limelight. Oh hush your gob Hopkins.
These are the same people who opened the stable doors and actually allow this Fabian doctrine to proliferate in the first place. The reality is that gross paedophilia, sexual aggression and abuse of all types has been around since Sodom and Gomorrah but now the perpetrators are the victims to be nurtured and real victims objectified with the so-called offended to offend everyone else.
Raped, sexually abused or assaulted, is so often a grey area with no witnesses, but it is not so difficult to profile the offender when all is said and done. Catch 22 rules on decency. The ‘offended army’ has made it an offence in itself to the offended to be profiled. That being that it infringes on their human rights to privacy. ‘Probability’ is not a legal reason to convict, but it can be pretty bloody convincing. In such cases, the offender should be surgically neutralized. What is the loss? To the sexually over active, it is worse than losing your life perhaps, since their life is sex full stop! To the few normal, me being one, I see no issues. But then, I see no issues with the death penalty either.
Oh but wait; ‘How dare you you take someone’s life – it’s not a deterrant’. Oh but wait again; ‘It certainly does stop it… um..er… dead’!
‘NO’ means NO to decent people, but by default that only applies to men, for it is men that are forever overstepping the threshold. Mistakes are made, so too are misread signals, but if you can slaughter a man psychologically because he interpreted a short-short skirt and bulging vulva with see-through bra or no bra at all as being ‘up for it’, then go for it!
Instead, we who spread humour even in dire circumstances are directly accused of being a sociopath with dark sexual obsession. Not actual said out loud always, but covertly labelled. A crime is a crime by morals and law and must be punished accordingly, but the western world are creating martyrs for just passing a compliment or making a lewd remark in fun. In truth, many of us have given up and can no longer sympathize with this constant desire for martyrdom and protest when the very same people have absolutely zero compassion or even awareness of two horrendous world wars in which tens of tens of millions were barbarically killed. Innocent civilians and so many soldiers who were ‘forced’into doing a job trembling with fear to defend these ungrateful Millennials which dominate society now.
Oh what a pig I am.. Anyone for coffee?
THE VERY LAST OLD MAN’S RANT – NOVEMBER 2017
Forward:
An explanation is now required. This is the magazine article which got me banned. I no longer write for said magazine. In the news, is the blatant obsession America currently has with sexual nuance and overtones. Plainly obvious is the relished embellishment which the media who carry the stories and the teller of, appear to almost get some sort sexual pleasure out of being the apparent victim as they reveal details, many decades after the so-called incident occurred. To top that, the credibility of an ego drenched actress is to say the least suspect. Before brandishing a poker in soaked Political Correct anger at the writer, try and drop the martyrdom first and look through the haze. A crime is a crime and sexually related crimes should see some sort of clinical retribution if proven. Rape (though often hard to prove) invariably entails violence thus the perpetrator breaks two laws – the death penalty is too good for them. Sexual harassment is a sickness no matter which way it manifests itself. Cultural backwardness, sociopathic or just vanity and desire, no matter, it must be severely dealt with. However, circumstances cannot be hearsay, those facts the affected bleat must indeed be factual and here lies the rub. Did anyone die, was violence used? Money and fame is a very coercive force, it is not criminal.
Despite the likes of the main-stream media propagating obsessive homosexuality and now working very hard to promote paedophilia and normalize it, as they indoctrinate their Millennial sheep; it is deemed thoroughly inappropriate to make say a paedophile joke. This is utter hypocrisy to protect the shady. ‘Thus duth protestuth too muchuth’. Victims are victims, it is a very sad fact of life, but the entire world is not to blame. Empathy, sympathy, compassion where it is due, but life goes on creating more victims no matter how offended some might be. The dark side of all this is that victims are being victimized by this ‘Common Purpose’ – Fabian cult who manipulate and indoctrinate and thus are perpetrators by their actions. The truth is, their manifesto champions perpetrators while diminishing all rights to the true victim. To combat critique and smoother this abominable doctrine, they create ‘the offended’. It is so hard to see through it if one grew up in it.
Having been asked to make ‘Harvey’ the subject of the month, the writing is tongue in cheek as they are all supposed to be, however it was deemed offensive by one Millennial daughter, who spoke up for ‘all those poor actresses’ who ostensibly suffered so greatly at the hand or hands of Harvey Weinstein. This is the power of Political Correctness gone absolutely mad. One deluded voice can frighten a nation if it pulls the race or offense card.
The article:
The pathetically frustrated media fruitlessly trying to destroy The Donald obviously needed a new news-worthy stool pigeon; ‘Oh hello Harvey! What a nice bathroom you have, that’s an odd-looking loofah you’re holding’, said the actress. What a filthy Shrek he turned out to be.
Call we rare, cynical reality gems old fashioned and merely sceptical, but how strange is it that all these women now coming forward are or were wanna-be famous actresses? Ostensibly in the name of ‘art’ those same moaning thespians whose distended egos are so desperately prepared to nakedly simulate a good rogering with more suspiciously accurate moaning, in full HD on our screens hourly. With obscene hypocrisy they now come out in their droves, to garner even more ego drenched publicity, by hammering Weinstein, the very man they courted to get the part. Fame without shame. Darling, how far were you prepared to go, casually flaunting your bottom cheeks with a such a tight-fitting G-string so far up the Khyber as cruelly painful as a carthorse’s mouth bit’?
Society is very sick. We now have the stalwart 1950’s BBC “RADIO” play ‘The Archers’, depicting homosexuals french kissing with gross slurpy mouth made sound effects. We have explicit language and sexual connotation in everything from the ‘Shopping Channel’ to the ‘Muppets’. We have every single twerking and writhing pop video displaying teenage debauchery. We have schools in the UK and the USA building toilets for trans and so-called latest craze ‘liquid’ gender kids, plus homosexuality utterly romanticized in the school classrooms for 5-year olds with never a mention of the unnatural messy enema. Top that with adolescent boys allowed to wear dresses in class and undecided 8-year-old girls lovingly donning strap-ons so as not to be discriminated against. And you thought smoking in the toilets at school was bad.
As it is, nobody from ‘normality’ has popped up claiming; ‘Harvey made me perform oral sex, threatening me with a blunt dildo held to my throat’. This is society as it is in the 21st Century and as always was in 20th Century Fox. Yet boisterous Harvey still lives in the 70s when ‘free love’ and penicillin came gratis and soap was something one used only for lubrication. Meanwhile Hilary Clinton still blames the Russians for Bill’s endless indiscretions. Oddly, if some guys came out screaming; ‘Harvey buggered me in the barn after promising a gay part in the follow up to “Brokeback Mountain – Homo on the Range”, it would be supressed.
Murder, violence, rape, paedophilia; none of it is remotely funny and this column has no issues permanently terminating the guilty, however, when all is said and done, jokes pertaining to it are often hilarious so lighten up – oh, unless you happen to be the victim of course, but that applies to life’s challenges full stop and no amount of forced PC will ever change cruel human nature.
Next, of the 2 million women Hugh Hefner claims to have wanged, half will claim ‘assault’. His estate must be worth a lie or two. What the hell is the difference between luvvie Hefner and Weinstein other than a red dressing gown and the size of their etchings? A brilliant pun and thoroughly hilarious, was ‘The Onion’s’ headline: ‘Officials investigating Hugh Hefner’s death suspect foreplay’. If English is your mother tongue then you are now rolling on the floor peeing yourself with absolutely no offence taken, despite speaking ill of the dead
‘I was made to watch him shower’ spews Ashley Judd. Um…er.. just how was that achieved Ash? You are the victim here, please show us the dastardly rope burns of the bondage which held you there. Then there’s the Italian actress who we have never heard of, maintaining that she was forced to perform trumpet practice on Weinstein’s chosen instrument, describing it as ‘onanistic’. My God, that’s a big word for a 21 year old, or she can’t spell ‘organ’
Sadly or deluded, we know in full denial the rich and famous and abhorrent politicians know no bounds when it comes to sexual pleasure at any age (one suspects). Sir Jimmy Saville on the other hand didn’t care if his assault victim was breathing or not and the entire hierarchy of the BBC and much of government were well aware, thus indeed complicit, so knighted him. That my friends is worthy of the death penalty, just to rid the earth of such deviance. But then the House of Lords would look a little too empty perhaps.
‘Harvey Weinstein claims it was a mistake to assault a dozen women. That’s not a mistake, that’s a whole season of “Law and Order Special Victims Unit”’ spews a comedian. A funny line, but the boilers come out the woodwork, ooooing and aaahing; with their clichéd offended diatribe as if victims themselves and the media milk it.
There are so many millions who really do suffer horrendous, heinous abuse in this warped world, which is totally appeased by the very same disingenuous lizard activists, depraved politicians and chameleon ego maniacs called showbiz
ABOUT ME – MY PET HATES – THE PRONOUN VIRUS
Growing older:
I’m actually the Master/Slave at ADmaze Media WLL studio and www.whodoeswhat.tv for most of my life. My job, as it has always been is to write, direct and produce thousands more commercials and programmes than I voice. It is not only voice-overs, but with my best mate Allan Jennings, we have written loads of original music jingles and even songs, airline music, you name it.
I ‘was’ British before circumcision and Elvis Presley’s love child. Old now, but before a gorgeous, a 2.3 metre tall, 22 year old Adonis based in Outer Mongolia with a warm ISDN machine/codec. The first and for most the ONLY one in Bahrain, being the only one who understood such technology and the need to use world wide professional voice talent with my studio live linked to other studios around the globe. All real time baby . Then came Audio TX, then Source Connect, ipDTL and no more need to DHL heavy tape reels around the world. Tommy Vance (the deep voice BBC Radio One rock show DJ and VH1 stalwart) was actually my best mate (or so I thought – he was also my girl friend’s while I was away at the time as well. Hmmmm! Shhhh!) and in the hay days, we had up to 10 tapes a week going back and forth. Add all that to a rockin’ ‘kick ass’ studio in which we did all sorts of audio and video recording and times were sooooooooooooo good!
Those discerning among the business community (and there were many then) knew what quality was and my life was delightful murder, working 48 hours a day year after year, but by God I loved it. I invented strawberries as well – what an incredible guy I am! Ok, I lied slightly. I have the perfect face for radio and a bit of voice, but the ISDN and the studio bit is true.
USUAL RULES:
If you slag me or someone/anyone, an individual or a company, you had better have your facts on your key board or shut the **** up, because we’ll be taking names and want the full gorey juice on it. If it is bollocks, don’t waste your time. Debate is fine, Political Correctness, racial harmony and all that bumf is entirely optional but we’ve all been so dumbed down that most of us will surely adhere. Why? In the worst case scenario, don’t accuse someone of being a shirt lifter if in fact they are a pillow biter for example.
Registrations are really welcome as I’d like a bit of a voice-over and advertising family, community thing going if I can. So your real name and email is preferred but not essential, eitherway, NOBODY will ever find out who you are unless you yourself, thee, the bloggee prints your name – yourself! Torture me all they like, I will never personally know as the site is administered in far off lands that have not been discovered yet.
This page is open to all and although your post has to be approved, very little if any will not be, no matter what you say and the folks at ADmaze Media will approve it (or not) as fast as possible. Behave! Be factual! Like you, I accept that creative art is wholly abstract so without patronizing you, your opinion is totally valued. But unlike every sickly IVR system in the world (except our’s) ‘your call is NOT important to US’‘ and nobody cares whether you participate or not, but it would be nice if you did.
The Juice:
So I am nearly famous: I am locally more infamous for my often direct approach to Advertising Agencies and those manipulating the media and more about that as this blog matures and I am sure it will get juicy so have no fears. I have plenty of pet media hates, but upfront ‘THE PRONOUN VIRUS’ is my biggest campaign to date. Scroll, or better read to the bottom of this particular post and you will see how much I rant about it.
Sometimes I get a little short with clients when they insist on streams of unnecessary, pointless information within a script, such as this endless patronizing clap-trap experienced these days and telephone numbers etc. YOU KNOW IT, YOU HATE IT TOO, when it is not your own service, because you think ‘you are the best’, so naively, (I would say ‘stupidly’ but it upsets people) go right out there and follow suit and do the same. “YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO US”. ‘VISIT OUR WEB SITE ON…’ ‘CALL US’ ‘ABOUT US’. It is NOTHING BUT VOMIT. Who the hell is ‘US’? It is endemic though and dreadfully lacks credibility, creativity, just everything! My bitching about it so often intimidates some clients, but surprisingly most will agree to it as being superfluous as if a light in their creative cavity within their brain got switched on. Retorts like; ‘But this is what I see and hear all the time, is that not what we should do also?’ In a word; ‘NO!’
So rather than rattle on for now – and I’ve got plenty to say and lots which will intimidate some into hate and elate others into love. Firstly, NOT ONE, NO MAJOR or even WELL READ site has ever given me credit, but the word is obviously spreading. The best I could do was some recognition and accreditation on another site and another media blog where you can read THE PRONOUN VIRUS saga and how they mentioned my comments. The site is ‘Bollix Media‘ and has a lot of visitors, it is considered radical, unlike this tribe, so good exposure from a media standpoint, but might not always be my personal viewpoint.
Me:
Just before we get into my favourite rant about the world’s infestation of the ‘PRONOUN VIRUS‘ and you being witness to my obsession, let’s get back to me! How’s that for narcissism? Who cares about me? If I had 3 eyes and 17 toes what difference would it make to the price of eggs? [I’ve actually got 4 eyes and only 15 toes]. It is probably the voice you want to hear and better still the type of product I produce. The End!
IVR – Telecom/Bank voice response systems:
More than music and radio ads, you can get the WORLD’S MOST BRILLIANT TELEPHONE & IVR SYSTEMS designed, programmed, recorded and installed. Yes! right down to; just stick ’em in your system, no conversions or changes needed. That is, unless it is a Nokia-Siemens core/network, then depending where you are, there might be some scum bag area representative managing it who will charge the telecom operator $100,000 to release a ‘special software’ which basically only changes the dot suffix. Oh yeah! Been there, experienced that. We know those old tricks, for in this little ‘ole shack, we have seen it all! Indeed, it comes as a bit of a surprise to operators using ADmaze Media for the first time, that when we attend initial briefings and we already know all the lines, the pitfalls, the work involved, the frustrations with pin-point accuracy. This is what you pay for I guess. The fact that the team can spew out a very professional system, be it Ring Tones, to Network from their heads and always to the highest standard, still doesn’t justify the price according to accountants and the uninitiated. The moral to the story; NEVER let accountants attend the project meetings!
It is sound, not the written word. Why are ADmaze Media award winning systems so good? More than good – probably the pièce de résistance of systems in the entire world – no boast! Output from ADmaze Media for telephone network and systems, be it Cisco, Avaya et al. is the aspiration level for the serious and talented and the bench-mark to beat. Unfortunately for copy-cats and opportunists it is a nightmare hoping that the client doesn’t know or notice the difference. Of course all cowboy facilities and Agencies think it is easy and profess to be experts. Absolute dirge! By and large, it seems to be all monkey see-monkey do and most clients know no better either, so blindly pay up and as cheap as they can get it with no perception of the art involved. There are very few good facilities who do this work well, very few indeed. (Are you getting the message?) . It is all in the direction and scripting and ‘Don’t bore us, get to the chorus’ flow, but so few attach importance to this work. A bad telephone or Call Centre system destroys your image instantaneously – SUBLIMINALLY and most out there are simply BAD! I actually hate this work, but I happen to be extremely good at it and few if any can beat the flow and quality, although it is extremely difficult to do if you want to do it well.
Yes, ADmaze Media WLL is your baby, but if you want a $10 system and your secretary reading the prompts, don’t come here.
Drum Millennium:
I mentioned songs and jingles above. Between Allan and I, we have not really bothered to write full songs, although Allan has written many for himself. Allan and I even wrote what many would say was the best, if not the only melodic ‘Millennium’ song of all the dirge that was put out there at the time. It was for a massive ‘live aid’ like concert to be staged in Cape Town on Dec. 31st 1999. It was called ‘Drum Millennium’ It all got rained out at the last moment and Nelson Mandela was rowed out to Robben Island in the end, from his house, since all the roads were totally flooded and the rain did not abate for days. Besides, I fell out with the ‘drum producer’ they hired at my request. His name; Cedric Samson. I am not so good with drum sequences and since this theme was heavy on drums, I thought I’d best get someone in who could play. Dear Cedric and I didn’t see eye to eye or ear to ear from the moment we met. He thought he was the ‘producer’ full stop. I didn’t like his, earring, pony tail or sari either. Cedric is quite brilliant no doubt, certainly far far more adept than me, but there are tiny nuances in vocals that to me mean everything and a singer with an incredible voice but with a strong South African accent trying to sing flat English, pronouncing all the consonants and vowels (or not) as one should my dear subjects – became a challenge. So Cedric attacked me yelling that he was going to;’Beat me’ for criticizing the man’s art (the rather very good black singer from a Cape Town township), while I was yelling to ‘stripe another tape’ and let’s get the pronunciations right. Good singers, slick production, to me is better than sex. I live it! I’d marry a hideous looking, fat hairy old lady with warts, if she had a good voice, or was musically talented. That is what turns me on. Anyway, it was fun (not so much).
Talking of sex (don’t we always?), the only assets I had with SBC studios, was the man putting up the money Jean Marie Jullienne,… Oh! And a young girl who seemed to be training or something… or something with the engineer. Well I thought she was more warm to my humour and chattiness. Obviously not, since I invited her to dinner with my family and was promptly accused of being a paedophile by the studio crew. Good game folks! No Sir! I like ’em old and mature, but it was sort of funnily sad at the time. Eventually, the recording and the event all got dropped and we are poorer for it. (You can hear the demo on the ‘production demo’ tab).
Sales and Public Relations:
What is it they say about the ‘sincerest form of flattery’? We used to hear many upstarts ‘trying to emulate’ but not so much these days as what we hear or see out there is mostly done on an iPhone. I/ADmaze Media still produce slick, professional documentary or light entertainment type video for television. Events and reports too when we get it. Maybe your company or concern has never heard of ADmaze Media doing video? If you go to www.whodoeswhat.tv you will see plenty. Or it could be because we do not have sales reps knocking on your door claiming to be the greatest! There is little point actually as those who commission need an appreciation and perceive the difference creatively, artistically and in overall standard rather than rub their hands together at a stupidly low price they might be offered. If you want one of those bouncing, thumping fast frame, jumping videos which you are led to believe is the trend, then we can do that too, but our staple is ‘Broadcast style’ and that has much more staying power.
Reputation precedes (locally in particular) and before we walk in the door many clients have already been primed by self assumed competitors with the notion that ‘ADmaze Media (especially the name Geg Hopkins) is good, but rather expensive’. One gets used to this onslaught while others are pitching for the sale, but I guess it is does get a bit annoying, but tolerated as a sort of back handed compliment. So sometimes we are a half a dollar more than the rest. What you get is noticeably superior. If an IVR system, then constant commitment and awareness of everything about your system. But if you cannot perceive the difference as a client, then you will never warrant the price so go for the cheap and kill your image.
However, as with audio, everyone with a computer and a bedroom is an instant expert these days, so sadly it is a waste of time competing at the lowest common denominator price, but that is what has happened, so ADmaze has become a little closeted itself concentrating on only in-house stuff. Maybe it is time to GET OUT THERE! Ho Ho Ho!
Clients who get on board, be it Telephone IVR systems, radio, video or even TV; once with ADmaze Media, most never leave unless they are taken over by our Lebanese friends for example, then it is normally goodbye as they appear to have their own clique and methods of spending their client’s money.
The Studio:
There are a few pictures on one of the tabs. They need updating, but what to show? Nowadays a studio is a computer. That is it. Put up some curtains in your bedroom to deaden the sound, have a good computer with professional sound interface, good studio speakers, quality mic (expensive) and a relatively expensive audio or video editing programme and you need nothing else. It is not the kit, it is the eyes and ears with a bit of creative brain.
Saying that though, if anyone is interested in the more physical studio equipment from high-end digital mixers to very old, great sounding analogue multi tracks, along with dozens of outboards racks all worth a million Dollars when new…………..then come and look in our cupboards. Bring your wallet and you can buy it. I will still make better output that you with our macs or PCs.
More on the ‘PRONOUN VIRUS’:
Needless to say, I even hate the Google search essential on pronoun requirements for the ‘ABOUT US’ tab. Ridiculous! Who is ‘Us’ – Who is ‘We’- Who is ‘Our’? But on every single advertisement or copy you will see; ‘Call Us’. Listen to your radio and hear probably the same silly, girly voice shouting out a commercial for different cars, different banks, different stores and so on, yet end each ad with ‘Call Us now on’. Even more incredulous yet abundantly swamped (tautology), is the outrageous claim by one and all companies from tiny one person operation (who just copies) to huge corporations is the tag line; only in existence for YOU!!! It is everywhere and I was lambasted and taken off stage at a conference one day because I did a skit on Hyundai when they sponsored the Olympics in 2012 (was it?), whereby I lampooned their corporate sign off. I said that my Mother was still a prostitute at 65, my eldest sister followed suit and is now terminally ill, as is my gay brother who suffers from aids. My father is in prison for robbery, my younger brother for murder. I lost my job 2 years ago and nobody will employ me. My wife sold the house without my knowledge, took all the money and left me to sleep under cardboard boxes beneath ‘Charing Cross Bridge’ and they wont let me in the soup kitchens because I smell. What the hell am I supposed to do? Pause, looking skyward, then it dawns. ‘I know, call Hyundai, ‘HERE FOR YOU’. This was their sign off absolutely everywhere you looked or listened during that period.
It is the same with IVR telephone systems. You don’t know which entity you are dealing with half the time, because it is the same voice who shouts out the Departure flights at an airport as you hear on 5 of the Telephone company Call Centre IVRs and more and more. Inexperienced, incompetent, nervous PR and marketing personnel in companies are afraid to be ‘INDIVIDUAL’. Again, who is ‘US’… Who is ‘OUR’… Who is ‘WE’. It makes no sense but these amateur (and even so called top professionals) advertising agencies are run by the Account Executives who just want your money. Even if the rare, but decent copywriter decides not to put a Pronoun in the copy, someone within will brainwash the client that; ‘Use ‘WE’, it is more personal, warmer and interacts with the reader, viewer or listener’. What a crock! It is like Fabian or ‘Common Purpose’ indoctrination. Stop it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Any professional voice actor/over should absolutely refuse to read a pronoun associated with the script. They don’t work for the company they are advertising, yet we see many famous actors mouthing; ‘Call us’, “We can help’. As of 2017 we have Morgan Freeman sitting in a Turkish Airlines jet waxing lyrical about the airline and beckoning viewers to ‘Fly with us’. Take the money Morgan honey. I know why you do it.
Using famous actors can be fun, but not for literal ‘ENDORSEMENT’, it has no credibility whatsoever. Nespresso do a good one with that luvvie clown ‘George Clooney’. Indeed Turkish used ‘Kevin Coster” whereby people thought they recognized him at airports. Yeah, that’s fun and memorable. It endorses the airline by association, but Coster is not heard to say stupid incredulous lines pertaining to him owning or working for the airline. [By the way, I suspect that wherever you are in the world, if you Google for ‘Nespresso’, which is part of the huge Nestlé network, you are automatically directed to your local Nespresso web site to the orders page. Nice touch! Nice stuff, we have two machines in the house and it saves about $600 a month from the family budget which I might have spent in Starbucks with my addition].
Yes, the ‘PRONOUN VIRUS‘ is but one phrase I have inadvertently coined in the pursuit of my passion, but apparently I’ve coined a few others as well. which I have heard people use, one being; “AUDIO MAKES VIDEO – NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND’. Again, if you cannot see or should we say ‘hear’ that, then you should NOT be considering a career in this line of work nor be interfering in its progress as a client.
If you care to ask those top names that have worked with ADmaze Media or me, I’m confident that you’ll get good feedback. When I was based in London (I’m not now), loads of well known actors with good voices (or they thought so) got to hear of me and came knocking on my apartment door asking me to voice direct them. It was quite bizarre because I am nobody, just an acquired, ‘non’ formatted radio DJ known by a few million ‘non’ main stream people. I can’t dance, can’t cook, horizontal jogging is a big iffy and I can’t sing, but I CAN stick good radio programmes together, do voice-overs for myself and have an ear to direct to near perfection if not perfection itself.
All of the crew at ADmaze Media and www.whodoeswhat.tv are dab hand at each other’s specialties, just in case. I use the camera a lot as does Svetlana Prodanova the Operations Manager (NYIP trained). I edit and well, but my strength is audio, AND TELEPHONE SYSTEMS. Julian (The third degree) is a brilliant cameraman and editor, with audio a side-line. So we are all dab-hand, well at least my mother always thought so, but I think it is true!
I like doing documentaries, but so do all voice-overs if they can get the job and they all think they are the best, so why pick me? Well it is like this; I can make even the others sound better if I was directing it and that applies to your secretary if you still want to go that way, so surely I should be able to make myself sound perfect. Cough cough!
The demise of ISDN:
ADmaze media works world wide and we now have sophisticated (not cheap) software to implement the studio to studio facilities. ISDN is still around but dead. It is a shame as it was so stupendously perfect in every way. So why mention it?
Good question I suppose. I did not consider it a vision, more technical logic, but if you search for my many blogs around the web about the demise of ISDN, due to Chinese ability to produce all singing all dancing (asynchronous) , very pretty rubbish and a great inability to fix something that is not broken, then you will be (slightly) amazed at my insight, but more shocked at the troll comments I got hit with. Professional, very well known voices in full oblivious denial telling me to ‘get off’ and that I did not know what I was talking about. Of course now, those same big-heads are boasting they were the first with ‘asynchronous’ links although none knew and still don’t know what the hell is the difference or why ISDN died.
During the transition period, several banks and brokers in Bahrain ‘who depended on ISDN disastrously went off line for a week or two and the telecom company had no idea why. Costing bucks and having to use the normal telephone lines instead of their multiplex boxes which linked them to several other banks around the world, they sat there waiting for the telecom company to sort it out. Little ‘ole Geggyboy in his studio was pulling his hair our wondering why our ISDN was off line. I had no idea, I just reported the fault. New cables were rapidly run, new routing, you name it, but still nothing. I thought that this was a bit funny, why would the telco be attentive to me, the ONLY ONE in Bahrain using ISDN for anything other than bank to bank. Eventually, one old mate who worked with me during the early days at the telco mentioned quietly in conversation that this only happened when they installed the new Huawei network a week or so earlier. DING DING DING! The light came on.
To me it was obvious. This is now what is commonly known as ADSL and not SDN. Without boring the pants of readers more than I already have, there is a thing in telecommunications and computer networks called ‘protocol’. We can all now make international calls free with ‘Whatsapp’ and the like. (See my other posts – ahead of their time). Telecom companies can not longer extort us all with high cost international calling. They are in the INTERNET just the same as we are, but using their networks.
The Chinese are a bit insular when it comes to catering for all the backend nitty-gritty elements. Nobody in the Telco could fathom why the banks or me went off line. Millions being lost. Why oh why oh why did I tell them free of charge? It ended up with me physically chasing a Chinese anorak around the huge telecom network switch and pinning him to the ground begging him to go back to Beijing immediately and send a software patch to match the European protocols for ISDN. Pretty basic when all is said and done, but nobody could believe that they installed an entire network without the correct protocol. Huawei learned and saved millions as they ooze across Africa. They saved face in Bahrain. I made nothing from the reveal. It took them a day or so to work it out and suddenly, all banks and so on came back on line.
But or course, sad for voice over or music to music studios, some more complex multiplex coding does not work with ADSL. Mpeg2 or Mpeg4 for example. This is point to point real time. The banks are OK as it is simple eight pole multiplex (now probably 64 or 128 pole who knows), but Geggyboy was stuffed. Magic software had to be developed to accommodate ADSL. We never really recovered.
Geggyboy