Sunday, 26 September 2010
PN Anniversary and Prize Win!
Startling News: The PN strike that was started end of August has been put to a momentary stop today. The happy news is a result of a prize win in connection with the two year anniversary of Paradoxical News. Today PN was announced winner of the 'Still Standing Award' only given to media with exceptional staying power. The journalists welcomed the prize with a sigh of relief and have agreed to come back to work while the details of their demands are still being negotiated. The editor-in-chief of PN has nothing but gratitude in mind - for the prize, and towards the hardest working journalists in the industry.
Monday, 30 August 2010
Meta-Comment No. 26
What do you do, when everything - anything - you do is deemed wrong or out? And all attempts to pursue new directions fail? First you stop doing anything. Then you freeze to a complete stop. And then you have only one way left. To go on...
Hope In Our Time
World update: Continued wars in Afghanistan and other afar countries. US, NATO, UN, and EU troops continue their efforts to put a stop to the unrest and ensure peace in our time. The Middle East peace negociations to start this week in USA. The floods in Pakistan to diminish.
PN Strike Status
The Paradoxical News editor-in-chief has had several meetings with the striking journalists at PN this past week. The talks have been positive, but as yet with no permanent solution. The journalist claims remain the same: Permanent locations, job security, and payments in solid cash.
The editor-in-chief would continue the reportings - were it not for the solid black out of computer systems and news services. Yesterday a filed report did not manage to get through the communication barriers. The editor is sorry for any disappointments this might cause to its readers, supporters, and sponsors.
Monday, 23 August 2010
PN Update
Breaking News: The journalists at Paradoxical News have initiated a strike. Their claims are: job security, a permanent work station and job location, payments and fees for their work - and appreciation for their efforts. The editor-in-chief will revert as the situation evolves.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
PN Update
Paradoxical News once again moved HQ this week. This time to - at least! - two different locations. One for hardware, and one for software and production unit.
In addition, after the last move the computer and back-up system blacked out - this time totally, and not just as a hibernation break. The PN computers have been hacked on - and subsequently exchanged on several occasions. These new working conditions are the reason for the limited flow of paradoxical news, for which the editor-in-chief excuses.
'I feel like we are running a media centre in the middle of a train station', the editor-in-chief explains, 'but luckily I am fortunate to be surrounded by the hardest and most diligent journalists in the industry, so we well continue for as long as there is staying power,' she states.
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Paradoxical Hierarchy
Paradox of the day: A clever man puts his servant ahead of himself, if he wants to go far. A sharp man has two bosses - the one above him he chooses himself; the one below him he doesn't even know. A wise man chooses his servants well.
Nice to Know vs. Need to Know
Apart from the severe human disasters during floods in Pakistan, China and elsewhere killing hundreds of people and leaving countless people homeless - very sad events - July/August are known to be slow news periods. Because everybody is on holiday. Apparently some more than others, judging from Danish politicians being criticised for not participating in political meetings in Europe, like Danish Lene Espersen (C). Or the continuing story of opposition leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt (A) and her husband's tax case. Both subject to stories unveiled by the press as secrets exposed. Both having to stand trial in the public street court of the media.
Luckily we have the story of Chelsea Clinton marrying her love, Marc Mezvinsky, in New York. Although undoubtedly a cheerful story, also a story weighed with the same importance as a flood in Pakistan killing 800 people. In the midst of the sad loss of human lives (important), and the sensational cat fight between opposing political characters based on trustworthyness (not important in a broader perspective, since everybody makes mistakes) - paradoxically the media will give the people, what they want to know. More so than what is important to know.
For further information, please see:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/31/pakistan.flooding.deaths/index.html?hpt=T1
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/31/chelsea.wedding/index.html?hpt=C1
http://paradoxicalnews.blogspot.com/2010/06/liberal-conservative-eu-cat-fight.html
http://paradoxicalnews.blogspot.com/2010/06/to-tax-or-not-to-tax.html
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Paradoxical Diversification
Just as the print and online situation is at the lowest for Paradoxical News, this week the editor-in-chief was just offered a new position as producer for several tv features and interviews for regional tv-channels. So this week has been a slow week at PN.
The PN editor-in-chief is thrilled by the new challenges:
'It all comes as a great surprise. I've worked with television and radio before, but as a journalist. This new opening gave me the chance to explore the electronic media, to work with experienced people in the industry, and to challenge and test myself in areas that had been unexplored until now,' she explains after having produced three new tv segments for two different channels.
Until further notice, the paradoxical diversification will not change the situation for this niche publication. Paradoxical News will continue to produce news about national and international paradoxes for as long as they continue to flow - and for as long as the journalists at PN can manage to work under the strained conditions.
The PN editor-in-chief is thrilled by the new challenges:
'It all comes as a great surprise. I've worked with television and radio before, but as a journalist. This new opening gave me the chance to explore the electronic media, to work with experienced people in the industry, and to challenge and test myself in areas that had been unexplored until now,' she explains after having produced three new tv segments for two different channels.
Until further notice, the paradoxical diversification will not change the situation for this niche publication. Paradoxical News will continue to produce news about national and international paradoxes for as long as they continue to flow - and for as long as the journalists at PN can manage to work under the strained conditions.
Saturday, 17 July 2010
Aussie Election Paradox
No sooner is Paradoxical News back from a relieving hiatus, before the paradoxical news overflow with undiminished force...
In anticipation of a granted support from the electorate Australian de facto PM Julia Gillard has set a date for the next election. Welsh-born Gillard from the Australian Labour Party has announced an Australian election on 21st August. Not long ago - end of June - she took over from former PM Kevin Rudd, who stepped down. And now she will be up against opposition leader, centre-right Liberal Tony Abbott, for the upcoming election.Now, it just might be the bewilderment of the heatstruck editor-in-chief of Paradoxical News - but isn't a generally accepted practice of good governance in democracies to ask the voters before you form government? And after an election? Or have de facto PM's become the new best practice? It certainly is an entertaining ride to watch practically all world leaders and politicians shift positions within a span of a few months to a few years. PN simply couldn't survive if it weren't for this flow of fantastic news!
For further information, please see:
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Le Quatorze Juillet
'Allons Enfants de la Patrie.......' Today is Quatorze Juillet aka Bastille Day in France, to be celebrated with all of the pomp and circumstance that the French nation can offer - with parades, military show off, and fireworks. And naturally, the playing, singing, and eventually roaring of the French national anthem of La Marseillaise.An ever present image of this Fête Nationale is the figure of Marianne or Liberty Leading the People in the 1830 painting by Eugène Delacroix - a depiction of the French Revolution and the storming of the Bastille 14th July 1789.
The storming of the Bastille prison was to mark the end of the royal rule of Louis XVI and the establishment of the First Republique in France. Ever since it has been a tradition of the French President to pardon petty criminals on this very day - as per Article 17 in the French Constitution - although in 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy declined to continue the practice.
On 13th July 1989 - to mark the bicentenary of the French Revolution - the inauguration of the Bastille Opera took place. It was conceived by Canadian-Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott who won an international architect competition in 1983. And the Bastille Opera is one of former French President Francois Mitterand's so-called Grands Traveaux, which also include La Grande Arche in La Défense by Danish arcitect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen, Musée d'Orsay, and the Louvre Pyramid.
These 'Great Works' were initiated by Mittérand's Minister of Culture, Jack Lang - building on a French cultural and humanist tradition of former President De Gaulle's Minister of Culture from 1959, writer André Malreaux, who expanded the cultural ties between nations - in particular through the cultural institutes and centres of app. 30 nations in Paris. So there you have it, 200 hundred years of political and cultural history of France up to present day in one PN segment!
Today Paradoxical News sends all its best wishes for France - and for The Children of The Revolution!
Monday, 12 July 2010
Côte d'Azur - Part Three
Vue sur mer. Or ocean view. This is what you get at Côte d'Azur in more impressive amounts than you can handle. The cobalt blue sky, sun, sand and oceanic silver shimmer. This appears to be what Catalan artist (Barcelona-born) Jaume Plensa tries to capture and grasp in his sculpture Nomad. The nomad is situated on the pier of Antibes, overlooking the port, boats, and the ocean.
The 8 metre tall, 6 tonnes heavy metal sculpture and landmark takes the form of a human (male) sitting, knees folded under him, and is made up of letters from the Human Rights Declaration carved in metal plates, welded together in random alphabetical order. As Jaume Plensa explains, he imagines that the human skin is tatooed with letters as a communication form. One association could be the giant stone heads overlooking the ocean from remote and isolated Easter Island. Communicating to sea farers.
Another Côte d'Azur ocean view landmark are the residential holiday flats of Marina Baie-des-Anges. The complex consists of four seperate buildings with altogether some 1600 flats placed around the port, and is situated in Villeneuve-Loubet between Antibes and Cagnes-sur-Mer. Construced as swinging and swaying buildings, with tier-laid terraces in pyramidical form. They could ressemble the many tiers and levels of a giant cruise ship. So there, don't say that the shoe string traveller can't have great experiences!For further information, please see:
Côte d'Azur - Part Two
Scent of a Woman is not only the title of an excellent Al Pacino film, based on an Italian book Il buio e il miele (Darkness and Honey) by Giovanni Arpino. It is also the theme of another book. For those who have read the odd, but welwritten, murder mystery Das Parfum (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer) from 1985 by German author Patrick Süskind, a visit to the small town of Grasse is relevant. Or visit Grasse and read the book(s) after. The perfume town is nested in the mountain region some 20 kilometres from Cannes. Easily accessible by local buses on one euro bus rides from either Nice or Cannes.The very Gothic Süskind novel tells the tale of a man who murders a woman to guard her scent. The fragrance not lasting, he has to find a way to reproduce it. Ever after having to chase the perfume in the southern part of France. Are the notes made of vanilla, or what does the scent consist of? And how do you reproduce human bodily scents? The chase goes on for some 200 pages and the detailed description of the notes of perfume, extracted oils, etc. is amazing. This book was - also - later made into a film.
In Grasse the shoe string traveller can visit perfume factories like Galimard or Fragonard for free guided tours. PN visited the oldest of the factories. Galimard was founded in 1787 and collects flowers - jasmine, rose, lavender, orange flower - or other plants and fruits and presses them to extract the essential oils to produce perfumes. It takes 500 kilos of rose petals to produce one litre of pure rose essential oil perfume. Read the book, see the film, visit Grasse!For further information, please see:
Côte d'Azur - Part One
Paradoxical News spent a week travelling the French Riviera - or Côte d'Azur - Nice, Monaco, Cannes, Antibes, Grasse. Although several places like Nice and Monaco were revisited, new experiences were made in some of the Alpes-Maritimes towns.
PN again found that to have fun in Monaco and Cannes, you have to be loaded. The places are all about extravagant living, big boats, gambling, and fashion. This time around PN was travelling as yours truly on a shoe string budget - so looks and views were what could be brought back. And they weren't bad. A walk to the tip of the castle in Monaco to see the change of guards at noon. And a shortlived stay in the Casino to see a few euro notes disappear - fast.
One of the traditions of this southern region of France is the trompe d'oeil mural paintings, seen in Nice, Cannes, Cap d'Ail, etc. With fake windows, flowers, plants, cats and other animals painted on the house walls. The one shown here is from the Cannes bus station, with make-believe people enjoying life on fake balconies, a man hanging from a giant clock, a film crew at work, etc.
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