America, take a note.

08 Jul 2010, Posted by Alyssa in current events / news, lifestyle, topics, 1 Comments

These are just a few things with which I think America needs to [re]acquaint itself, and embrace to some extent or another.

1. Stoop sitting

‘Nuff said.

2. “Rent is the thing that beats us” or “self-created life”

Poppa Neutrino’s life philosophy is full of gems.

3. Siestas

Leave it to Americans to create the “power nap” instead…

4. Drinking in public

I’m not necessarily advocating public drunkenness. Just the opportunity to sit in the park with a glass of wine or a good beer and get down to people-watching. Let’s add a good piazza to the mix too.

5. Rush hour – with bikes!

6. Taking your time to end a film (and allowing yourself patience when watching a film)

Fassbinder got it right with The American Soldier.

7. Free post-secondary education

If this is too much to ask for, then let’s at least ban rankings by publications like U.S. News & World Report, which cause schools to compete for top spots via increased spending on stuff like state-of-the-art athletic facilities and dorms. We don’t need rock-climbing walls and former hotel rooms. We need more accessible educational opportunities for all.

8. Metric system

It’s the official system of measurement for all nations except Burma, Liberia, and the United States. It’s based on powers of ten. Wouldn’t it just make things a little simpler?

9. The autobahn

The facts are there: higher speed doesn’t mean more fatalities or accidents. Differences in speed are the main factors in highway accidents; more liberal speed limit laws actually improve the flow of traffic and reduce the number of accidents. Having cops lying in wait along the side of the road proves a dangerous distraction and disrupts the traffic flow as drivers attempt to quickly hit the brakes in order to avoid a ticket.

10. Extended paid parental leave

This practice is rooted in the belief that more time spent together makes for a stronger family, and stronger families mean a stronger society overall.

The Evolution of the Jingle.

26 May 2010, Posted by Alyssa in brands, current events / news, technology, 0 Comments

Back when this blog first started, I intended to have my first post address the question, “where have all the jingles gone?” Feeling nostalgic in today’s world of viral marketing, I suppose I began to mourn the loss of advertising’s earlier “simplicity,” laden with corny lyrics and imagery that have come to shape my own personality and sense of humor (much to my chagrin of course).

Realizing the limits of my expertise in the history of advertising and the research necessary to do justice to the topic, I put the post on the back burner and blogged about something else. Well I still haven’t read Steve Karmen’s Who Killed the Jingle? – How a Unique American Art Form Disappeared, but I think it’s time to at least voice some thoughts and open up a discussion on the subject.

At first I thought a virus killed the jingle: our postmodern culture required we move away from the corny to the cool, get rid of those kiddy tunes and hit today’s tuned-out consumer with clever videos and special effects, or else with the ironic distance that is so hip nowadays, then get them to disperse the ad via social media. In essence: viral marketing. I couldn’t get out of my head the inherent differences between even the words ‘jingle’ and ‘viral’. One, friendly and singsong, frank in its nature. The other, harmful and corrupting, its true workings veiled. I saw it as a hostile takeover rather than the slow socio-cultural evolution it most likely was. Then something strange happened: McCann Erickson made this spot for Verizon:

Here, my two worlds collided. In fact, so many worlds collided with this spot. First of all, we have the return of not just the jingle as a motif and a format, but of a jingle – a classic jingle for Big Red that we all know (and love?). Second, this classic jingle is being parodied, though also mined for its nostalgic gold, ushering it into today’s postmodern advertising realm. Then you factor in that Big Red’s jingle is being re-appropriated by Verizon and things get really wacky. Just when I thought the jingle was back, I realized it’s just a kitschy take on the jingle, which, of course, has gone viral. But I suppose this is the only way for the jingle to survive in today’s world.

It makes me wonder what Verizon’s commercial is doing for Big Red’s sales. And if we shall soon witness an onslaught of advertising that plays on our nostalgia while simultaneously poking fun at it. I think we’ve always had a love-hate relationship with jingles. We, to some extent, love when they come on TV, perhaps because we can sing along, but we curse them when we’re still singing on the train, and in the bathroom, and at work, and while cooking dinner, etc. So maybe the jingle wasn’t killed by the viral. Maybe the jingle was the original virus. (Think about the catch-on effect of singing something like KitKat’s “Gimme a break,” or any one of the millions of jingles that were made to get stuck in your head and then become a shared experience). It makes sense: we, as viewers, built up an immunity to the jingle, thus the mutation into the viral ad campaign. I guess Verizon/McCann Erickson has managed to tap into the ideal niche then: a viral jingle. But since remakes or revivals of classic jingles probably have a very limited lifespan, maybe it’s a matter of simply updating our idea of what a jingle is. Perhaps Toyota has the answer:

Construct a cam.

07 Dec 2009, Posted by Alyssa in art, design, do not use this category, lifestyle, 0 Comments

Corbis, the stock photo and footage resource, offers these fun pinhole camera downloads, called Readymech Cameras. Created by NYC-based design firm, Fwis, it’s difficult to choose which camera design is the coolest. Luckily, you can easily play with them all. Every camera design is meant to be printed, cut, folded, and then modified with a roll of film and some household materials.

For more info and all the downloads: Corbis Readymech Cameras
Fwis

3225 images later.

02 Dec 2009, Posted by Alyssa in art, awareness, design, 0 Comments

A charmingly creative music video that manages to be both simple and complex. The songwriter, Oren Lavie, not only acted in the video but also co-directed it with Yuval and Merav Nathan. The actress is Shir Shomron, and the photographer, Eyal Landesman. According to Oren Lavie’s MySpace page, the video was made from all stills; it took 3225 of them. As usual, it was the 4 weeks of prep that really sustained the two-day shoot. 4 weeks, 2  days, and an incredibly low budget (I’m assuming this since MySpace says everyone either worked for free or for a fraction of their usual rates) later: a more clever, more stimulating, more aesthetically-pleasing, and more imaginative product than any of the music videos I’ve seen lately. I have to admit, it’s a nice break from the scantily-clad women of mainstream music videos and the off-putting self-indulgence of many indie videos.

Here’s another stunning example of simplicity at its most effective, though obviously the subject matter is quite different:

Pretty nuts what you can do with just text, motion, and a piano.

What Bill Gates should be doing.

30 Oct 2009, Posted by Alyssa in art, 0 Comments

Thought I’d share this trailer: Monster Road – a documentary on animator Bruce Bickford (he did a lot of work with Frank Zappa). I’ve watched it a dozen times over the past few years, I think it’s about time I ordered the DVD.

I’m always fascinated with the way stop-motion animations like this elicit such a markedly different viewing experience than any traditional film. While the seamless magic of a traditional film allows you to lose yourself in the narrative, stop-motion calls attention to every frame as your mind analyzes how this clay figure comes to life in such a way – as you begin to imagine making these incremental, physical adjustments with every frame to create movement and action. It’s interesting how your attention is called to the process of filmmaking, and how sometimes it’s the process that warrants just as much, if not more, merit than the actual storytelling.