This time, there was a little note on the receipt saying “Our Airline Rewards Program ended 2/28/10. United Mileage Plus miles are no longer earned on purchases as of 3/1/10.” I was a little taken aback as I had no warning that this program was ending. In all fairness, I’m sure they sent out a letter to notify me of this, but the address listed on my Safeway Club account is an old address.

Curious, I asked the checker why the program ended and she didn’t know. When I got home, I called United to see if they had any information and they said that Safeway simply decided to end the program. So I went to Safeway’s web site and found this juicy bit of information:

Q. Why is the Airline Mileage Rewards program ending?
A. We listen to our customers and understand that in the current economic climate there’s an overwhelming need for lower prices. To fulfill that low price need while also providing the high-quality products our customers expect, we have decided to refocus the value previously offered through our Airlines Partnership into lower prices on the items all customers need.

What does that even mean? It reads like so much corporate doublespeak. The most confounding part is the “refocus the value” bit. Products are not any cheaper for me because I’m enrolled in the Grocery Miles program. What’s more, I don’t see how this is so taxing on Safeway’s resources. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like the program is completely automated: you buy products, the computer keeps a tally of your purchases, and when you reach $250 it lets United know to credit 125 miles to your account. How much more could the program really entail? It seems like a win-win for both United and Safeway.

In addition, I can’t fathom hoards of angry customers writing and calling Safeway demanding that they end the Grocery Miles program as it is diverting resources away from cutting prices. I think there is something else going on here. I’m going to write Safeway and see if they respond – check back for a follow-up.

In the meantime, in light of the program cancellation I’ve decided to “refocus the value” of shopping at Safeway and patronize another store.

The show airs from 2am-6am GMT every Sunday morning (9pm Saturday night Central Time) and Joshua Iz’s slot is 3am-5am GMT every first Sunday of the month. The show is hosted by Galaxy FM morning show personality JoJo and her husband Jacob Kelly (Baker Street Recordings).

Reaching a broadcast audience of well over 250,000 listeners throughout the UK, the show is an eclectic mix of soul, funk, disco, hip-hop, house, rock, alternative and everything in between.

Listen to the show online on Galaxy FM every Sunday morning here: http://listen.galaxyyorkshire.co.uk/

Shows will be posted on Joshua Iz’s SoundCloud page two weeks after original air date.

http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=LHIMM_377088ad

Vizual Records presents its second release: Flower Sparks by Joshua Iz!

Get the release today from the Vizual Store or these fine outlets:

• Beatport
• Stompy
• Traxsource
• Juno
• What People Play

VIZ002 – Joshua Iz – Flower Sparks by vizual

Reviews for Flower Sparks:

These trax got bounce to it! something missing in a alot of trax nowadays. — Mike ‘Agent X’ Clark

Great EP all round but Flower Sparks sounds like it will cause a bit of madness. — Jimpster

Unmistakeable Izism! All cuts playable – full support. — Chris Duckenfield

Rydim Culture Is Rocking! — Chris Udoh

Quality stuff from Joshua as usual. Tone D is my fave of the ep. — DJ Heather

Alpha& Omega is the one for me, heavy deep house vibe. — DJ Sneak

Alpha & Omega is the shit! Loving Tone D too. Both are going to sound lovely on the late night sound systems and in the mix for more enlightened minds. Serious biz. — Mazi (Audio Soul Project)

© & (P) Vizual Records 2009. All rights reserved.

VIZ003 – Joshua Iz – Vizual Rydims #2 by vizual

In 1982 an alien ship appeared in the sky above Johannesburg and simply hovered over the city – it didn’t attack or do much of anything, but the impatient government finally broke into the ship and then imprisoned the aliens – somewhat derogatorily called “Prawns” because of their arthropod-like appearance. The aliens are brought down from the ship and are quarantined in a city slum called District 9.

While the aliens are highly intelligent (they made it to earth with their technology), they are also highly discriminated against and treated poorly – an obvious parallel with the apartheid regime in South Africa. Over the next twenty years, the conditions in District 9 have deteriorated, and the general public, incited by the government-backed discrimination, begins to riot, fed up with the aliens and demanding them to leave. For the government, the land has now become more valuable than the aliens who live on it and they decide something needs to be done.

The aliens would much rather go back on their mothership and go home, however a piece of the ship fell to the ground and without it, they cannot leave (a veiled reference to Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan where an alien civilization is waiting for earth to develop their technology enough to make a part for their ship so they can return to their planet).

Flash forward to 2010 and the South African government hatches a plan to move the aliens to a concentration camp tent city a couple hundred miles outside of Johannesburg to diffuse the tension. The security of District 9 is now maintained by a shady Blackwater-esque quasi-government corporation called Multi-National United (MNU). MNU also happens to be the second largest weapons manufacturer in the world. Their main interest in the aliens lies in their highly advanced weaponry, which works symbiotically with the Prawns and can only be operated by someone with their DNA.

Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a mid-level paper pusher at MNU, is promoted to oversee the relocation of the aliens. While on a raid of District 9, Wikus finds a canister of liquid in an alien’s shack and accidentally sprays some of the liquid on himself and then begins to fall ill. Later that night, his left arm transforms into an alien claw and MNU detains him and finds out he can now operate the alien weaponry. Wikus, now empowered with the alien strength, escapes his captors and a MNU is determined to catch him at all costs.

As it turns out, the liquid was distilled from the parts of the mothership that fell to earth by an alien named Christopher Johnson in a secret lab below his District 9 shack, and this liquid is the key to fixing the mothership. If Wikus (now in an unlikely partnership with Christopher and his alien son) can get the liquid back from MNU, the aliens can return home as well as return Wikus back to normal.

I found it hard to empathize with Wikus, an anti-hero if there ever was one, who only garners a respect for the aliens out of a self-interest to fix himself. The plot leaves many unanswered questions that also make it difficult to support the alien cause. If they are stronger and have better weapons then their captors, why haven’t they revolted? Why did they visit earth in the first place? Why did they stop over Johannesburg and not some other city?

Despite these flaws, the CGI in the movie is impressive and does help to make the fantastical story somewhat believable. The small bits of alien technology that are shown (such as the controls on the mothership) are quite cool and will definitely appeal to detail oriented sci-fi fans (like me).

Still, the movie is more drama than science fiction and ultimately doesn’t succeed on either front. The Transformer-like body suit in the third act is too rooted present-day action thrillers and is not necessary since Wikus is already augmented by his alien transformation. The transformation itself forces Wikus to sympathize with the aliens, rather than his character going through a genuine change of heart.

While the movie brings to the fore some important issues like discrimination and the treatment of refugees, we are given so little information about the aliens that it is almost impossible to form a connection with them. We need more to like about these creatures, rather than just being faced with the fact that they are being treated poorly. Part of the reason that the world demanded the end of apartheid was the fact that the oppressed found strength in their unique cultural identity, and defended that with great fervor. In the end, we don’t know enough about the culture of the aliens in District 9 to want to support their cause.