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Anita Cannibal: not your average lawyer

August 27, 2008

Blade has just finished reading Tim Winton’s much-admired latest novel, Breath. It explores the relationship between two teenage boys and a 36-year-old male mentor whose common bond is surfing. Sando takes his two apprentices surfing at ever more dangerous breaks until both, in their differing ways, have forever escaped the dread tag of being classified “ordinary men”. Ordinariness is equated with despair, but surfing big waves isn’t its only antidote. Extreme sex, in the form of erotic asphyxia, also rears its (coughing and spluttering?) head in a novel that, for Blade, is just a little too heavy on misery and desperation.

But being ordinary – is it so bad? One person eminently well qualified to comment might be Traci Bryant, a.k.a Anita Cannibal. Ms Bryant is a law student at the University of West Los Angeles Law School, but, as Bitter Lawyer reveals, a lot more of her will often meet the eye: “OK, so Traci Bryant, a.k.a. Anita Cannibal, isn’t exactly your typical law student. Her resume is stacked with the usual suspects for a 1L—torts and contracts classes, volunteer work at a community outreach clinic, legal research on labor and employment law issues—but it also includes recent stints at the Chicken Ranch brothel in Nevada, ’sword swallowing’ as a special skill, and starring roles in over 130 films, including Nurse Orgy 5 and Titty Titty Bang Bang. ”

Yes, Ms Bryant is a porn star and licensed prostitute as well as a putative lawyer. Hers is undoubtedly a life less ordinary, and, unlike those of the characters in Breath, it seems to be real. She is pictured here looking mercifully demure courtesy of the kind of Google search that tends to provide rather more than you bargained for

Blade will refrain from all further comment save that to say that he waits with eagerness for the next installment of Bitter Lawyer’s interview with Ms Bryant, one which will explore “How Traci got into porn… what brought her to law school… what her brothel clients and porn colleagues think of her being in law school… her favorite and least favorite parts of porn, stripping, and working in the brothels… what she wants to do with her law degree. ”

White, middle-class and male? You’ve had it

August 26, 2008

So says Jeremy Paxman, according to this story from today’s Independent. As the paper has it:

Responding to the suggestion that television had become a “man’s world”, Mr Paxman said: “The worst thing you can be in this industry is a middle-class white male. If any middle-class white male I come across says he wants to enter television, I say ‘give up all hope’. They’ve no chance.”

Paxman’s counterpart at Channel 4 news, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, said he felt “awfully sorry for white, middle-class men who went to Oxbridge,” but that he wasn’t sure “they are the ones at the greatest disadvantage”. As he put it:

“Obviously, the people who really are facing the biggest struggle to make it into television are those from working-class backgrounds and people from ethnic minorities. If they are both working class and from an ethnic minority, they really are up against it.”

Into the bargain, however, the Great Inquisitor claimed that women were increasingly being selected for TV’s top jobs. Citing the likes of BBC1 controller, Jay Hunt, and head of Channel 4 news and current affairs, Dorothy Byrne, he reportedly said: “Do I think it’s a man’s world in television? That is the most ridiculous question I have been asked all week.” This brought the ire of the broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, who rebuked Paxman with the words: “[Mr Paxman] lists five women because he couldn’t possibly name all the men in positions of power in TV because he would be there all bloody day.”

Meanwhile, Cher adopts a pose of Conradian indifference. Or something.

Wealth management embraces Web 2.0

August 26, 2008

Here at Swordplay, we’re devotees of WealthBriefing, run by the wealth industry veteran Stephen Harris. So it is with interest that we note the launch of a related venture – WealthConnect. Billed as “the only online networking community dedicated entirely to the world of wealth management”, the site went live this week and already has nearly 1,000 members. It has all the usual features you’d expect of a social networking site, plus a few potentially very powerful extras – such as the ability for members to post personal blogs on the site.

As regular readers will be aware, we’re strong believers in the value that Web 2.0 can deliver to professionals, as outlined in our new white paper – The Laity Bytes Back. So it’s no surprise that we think WealthConnect could be A Very Good Thing. While consumer social networking sites such as Facebook appear to be entering a phase of static grow, or even experiencing a downturn, business-focused sites such as LinkedIn are growing rapidly. Indeed, many analysts predict that industry-specific social networks are the next growth area, as outlined in this piece in the Wall Street Journal.

So what are the challenges for WealthConnect? Well, first is ensuring that the site is fresh enough to keep members coming back. WealthConnect will feature WealthBriefing news and features, so presumably a large proportion of WealthBriefing’s daily readers will simply use WealthConnect as a single portal – neatly solving that one.

But, crucially, is the wealth management world ready for a social networking site? How will practitioners in an industry well-known for its sense of discretion and reserve – or, perhaps more accurately, secretive nature – adjust to the open, democratic and collaborative nature of Web 2.0?

Only time will tell and we’ll be watching with interest. But if tangible benefits to members quickly become apparent and are clearly communicated, the WealthConnect team could be onto something very big indeed.

Image courtesy of Will Lion on Flickr.

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