Dirtburg take down the Monarch

London hip hoppy superstars get it together again.

Morning campers. I've just dropped the kid off at the childminder and eaten a Pot Noodle for breakfast [the curry one] to clear my head. Out of the blue last week I get a Facebook event alert - Dirtburg are back for one night only at the Monarch in Camden. I'm there. I used to catch these guys all over north London back in the early naughties. It's all a bit of a haze but I remember seeing the Dirt rock at the Spitz, some bar in Dalston and over at the filthy 333. My old mate Arjun and his buddy JC introduced me to the Dirt. You had to be there. Was great to catch up with Arjun, Nadine, Shazzer, Ian, the quiet one, Matt and the Pip lookalike last night. Just like old times. Dirtburg rocked.

Below are a few YouTube video memories. If you like this then download Dirtburg's never released EP on MySpace. Go get it I say.

Why the head f@@@? Turns out the drummer in the band [his name is Nick] is now doing a day job at Wunderman. I like Wunderman. I'm following @WundermanUK on Twitter. It turns out the gig was bank-rolled by them. Weirder still. Someone called Shannon from Wunderman is presenting "What’s going on? Social Media" at the MeetUp I'm off to on the 14th December. What's going on indeed. Small world int-it-er-web.

Idea 4 Good: Blog Action Day 2009

Blow me. I’m doing something that might change the world, rather than blowing my own trumpet for a change. I’m actively supporting Blog Action Day 2009. This year’s good cause is climate change and it’s happening on the 15th October. Wo wo wo, the climate isn’t changing overnight but this might just make a difference and at the very least it’s a great idea 4 good. Not mine I’m sad to say. Watch this good space and I’ll try and do more good things in due course. This is just a baby step in the right direction, not necessarily a giant leap. I’m not a frog or a flea you know; I’m more of a sloth, a good but slow climber.

In the good words of BAD themselves: Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.

DISCLAIMER: I’m absolutely not responsible for the C02 you’ve just pumped off in to the blogosphere by reading this post. Maybe you better say sorry world and get off your carbon pumping backside and do something good too. Jeeeze I'm sounding more like MJ every day.

Half-life of social media trends, Michael Jackson, iPhones, and electric toothbrushes

Well in a round about sort of way it was whilst brushing my stunt pegs the other day that I stumbled upon the idea of information [or influence] half-life and electric toothbrushes. So here is a quick Oral B-analogy - not aural, what am I the speaking clock? Anyway someone else already had that idea, relatively speaking, quite a short time ago, and look, its virtually dead o’clock, way below 200 meters, already.

Shit stinks and it rots. Every can of bull shit beans on the shelves at Waitrose / Happy Shopper [delete as appropriate - according to your geographic, demographic, iPhone or toaster prefs] has a shelf life, whatever shits in it. Whatever you read on the label the crap within the tin won't ever last forever, but traces of the metal and meat within will linger like toxic waste. However Bad your shit is it’s destined to be sucked up, shit or spat out, and sometimes swallowed - [consumed one way or another]. And swallowing is bad for you - ask your dentist.

What's this electric toothbrush shit mean? There’s nothing in life better than brushing your pegs with a brand new, fully charged electric toothbrush, sporting a brand new head, for the first time. Over time, the more you brush, the more your brush gets bent, the head gets dirty, the battery fizzles and your smiles yellow. Similarly ideas, information, thoughts, trends, information, buzz, hype and absolute nonsense all get spat out, consumed, tired and less effective over time and use [call it popularity] as more and more people [aka the girlfriend / baby / crowd] uses your brush and wear away at the consumables. The same tipping-point b-analogy would naturally work for razor blades.

So what’s my worn out bristly / razor sharp point? Just like the nasty stuff we were shipping off to Brazil and Africa for recycling on the cheap, the bad press lingers, but looses potency over time, like the depleting waste's toxicness, only much faster. So, however good your brush is, however clever your trend or idea was, however popular MJ’s Thriller album was at the time, its not going to be as effective, popular, or potent tomorrow as it was when it hit the moon dancing floor the first time, and will probably be less popular / relevant / newsworthy the day after that.

Depending upon how your shit's distributed and the potency of your shit the half-life can be super short or seemingly infinate and for sure it can be re-packaged, re-shipped or re-charged [like a quickly released greatest hits album to pay for your gold coffin] but it aint never gonna feel the same as the first time and will forever taint popular culture / blow Bubbles / ruin your super-charged death hyped street cred.

Now for all of you numskulls that can’t read between the lines, here is some chatter from Twitter that I think sums it all up quite nicely, in response to a slightly different question posed by a clever guy called Justin. Probably, not definately maybe --->

• By the time something has become a trending topic, clicking on it returns 80% spam. Is there a pre-spam apex for still-relevant hashtags?
• @JustinKownacki I have a theory ---> its called information half-life, trends & electric toothbrushes. Potency depletes over time / use.
• @benferrier You may be right. Which means that (as an extreme definition) by the time anything becomes popular, it's irrelevant.
• @JustinKownacki In immediate period after conception/distribution, a short period of super-charge [hype] then irrelevance. can be re-charged.
• @benferrier At least a topic has increased (post-irrelevance) awareness to help fuel a recharge. But "improved" is never as sexy as "new."
• @JustinKownacki Absolutely - that's why its so nice to use a brand new fully charged electric toothbrush for the first time ;]

Idea # one: Bad bad bad badness - celebrity blog plot

Idea # 1: This one's inspired by the recent death of The King of Pop and soccer legend Sir Bobby Robson. And it got me thinking about which celebs going to kick the bucket next and hit the headlines. It's a bit sick and slightly wrong, the perfect ingredients for a bad idea. Basically this idea is a sweep stake with a difference. It's an online game called "Celebrity tweet stakes" and it's a pretty simple thing. Actually its so simple it's easy.

Here's how it works. Send a tweet to someone on Twitter, me for example (@benferrier) with the your nominated next dead celeb and a special tag "#nextdeadceleb". You can even have some fun and tweet the celebrity too (e.g. @wossy) so they know you've picked them, which I'm sure would be nice. Also then double your fun by adding your predicted method of deadness. Here's an example tweet - "@benferrier my #nextdeadceleb is @wossy run over by a taxi." Or if your soon to be dead celeb isn't on twitter yet (meaning they are probably quite old and you are more likely to win) you can just tweet your entry with their name e.g."@benferrier my #nextdeadceleb is Jonathan Ross - tripped at tailors and broke neck."

So if your nominated #nextdeadceleb celeb goes on to die you'll win 1st prize if you can prove you were the first to tweet the next dead celeb (and if judges decide they like you) and win a booby prize if your tie breaker death method prediction is scarily accurate or particularly funny. And of course you have to promise that you won't kill any celebs deliberately just to win, it's just for fun. Only one entry per person etc. First prize is a spin in my car and the booby prize is £5. Easy. Just to be clear only celebrities that die and make it on to the BBC news or cover of Hello count - no B listers here. Ends when all the celebs are dead or when my parents adopt twitter. Whatever you do don't ask me why but go on tweet your #nextdeadceleb today.