Haus of GaGa w/ Alexander McQueen’s Plato’s Atlantis: “Bad Romance”

Pop Music Will Never Be Low Brow. Period.

The romance may be bad, but the art is brilliant.

Watch this space: Pop done right is the perfect, seamless, organic, blend of art, advertisement, culture, society, beauty, ugly, intimate, and universal; GaGa is a one-woman renaissance.

Ad a Day: iDon’t, but Droid Does

New fave ad du jour:

iLove that Droid build an entire commercial — not around what it is – but what iPhone isn’t. Windows, take note. If only John Kerry could’ve capitalized on the “does it really matter what exactly I am, all you need to remember is I’m not that — and I think we can all live without that.”

The iPhone was unstoppable like Santogold (it went through the competition like Kobayashi on the Fourth of July — pre Chesnutt, of course) just ask G1, Pre, Storm, etc. and throw the Storm2 in there because I doubt it’ll make anything of itself. Apple’s ads were undeniable, for some reason no one could out market the iPhone — or Mac at that.

Hello Moto, so glad you stopped by. The Droid commercial is a passive-aggressive tryfest 2009. It’s like the D.O.A. mentality meets “Run This Town” branding. The iPhone was T-Paining too much — literally, because there’s an app for that. Until the last 5 seconds of the commercial, I thought I was watching an advert for the newest iPhone — one that did do all the things it doesn’t right now. The Droid ad touts the phone as being what iPhone isn’t, and it is damn proud too. That’s why I love this commercial: it’s so Kalle Lasn, so AdBusters, so subversive — but in an advertisement. By the time the commercial is over, you can’t unwatch it and the Trojan Horse is already out the stable. They don’t even show you the phone, but like “the one that got away,” — and unlike the so-easy-a-caveman-could-do-it user-intuitive iPhone, the Droid plays hard to get. Like “the one” though, isn’t that what makes the Droid so intriguing?

Watch this space: because you’re already reconsidering your non-Verizon 2 year commitment. Not me though, I’m peachy keen with AT&T and my Curve.

F.I.L.A. Pic of the Patch: October 28, 2009

I like my BlackBerry, I love my BlackBerry, I loathe my BlackBerry… if only my Curve’s curves could talk — but that’s what its lens is for: a thousand words a snap. The frequency with which I use said camera means my Curve talks 24/7, and I’ve got enough BlackBerry shots to fill a whole pasture. For now though here’s today’s pic of the BlackBerry photo patch:

I love this picture because I love the sheer connectedness of it: social media meets storytelling meets Border’s (signpost sanctuary of silent friends aka books), it all but screams engage. Border’s figures kids don’t read what traditional authors write, so maybe they’ll read each others thoughts — I like it.

Now for a little fodder to spark storytelling — backstory pondering rather …

How did the Chicken Biscuit get there? Is it even a Chicken Biscuit? Is this the cows’ attempt at getting everyone — regardless of financial means — to “Eat Mor Chikin?” In retrospect should I have nabbed it after all… no, no to the last one. Today’s Pic of the Patch, definitely worth a noggin scratch.

Watch this space: Especially you Atlanta; it’s free food, in this economy, from Chic-Fil-A — might be the only Chic-Fil-A available on Sunday if everyone’s fingers stay sticky-free. Yet another reason why F.I.L.A. [Chic(ken) F(orever) I L(ove) A(tlanta)?] … free Southern (fried) Hospitality

One of Those Days Tip: Little Acorns

Was today was one of those days…

barely keeping your head above water as it is, but the swell is coming anyway? Piece of advice a la Elephant, courtesy of The White Stripes: “Be like the squirrel girl.”

When problems overwhelm, us and sadness smothers us, where do we find the will and the courage to continue? Well, the answer may come in the caring voice of a friend, a chance encounter with a book, or from a personal faith. For Janet help came from her faith, but it also from a squirrel. Shortly after her divorce, Janet lost her father, then she lost her job. She had mounting money problems. But Janet not only survived, she worked her way out of despondency and now she says, life is good again. How could this happen? She told me that late one Autumn day when she was at her lowest she watched a squirrel storing up nuts for the winter, one at a time he would take them to the nest. And she thought, if that squirrel can take care of himself with the harsh winter coming along, then so can I. Once I broke my problems into small pieces I was able to carry them, just like those acorns, one at a time.

 

Once Upon a Time: I Told Everyone That I Knew

Persona is what you put on the record

While, often the most telling artistry happens off the record

more about “CMT : Videos : Taylor Swift and T-Pai…“, posted with vodpod

Watch this space: I love the dichotomous relationships between villains and heroes, because those titles depend so heavily upon the context. Kanye the Tween Queen Killer, the Pop Pariah on the surface, on the sidewalk. Mr. West still forever remains the artistic genius at his core,  for this generation’s creative class and culture: he is legend. Even when Ye was T-Painin too much his music — like his life — was g.o.o.d. Ye is a mainstream mockery, but true music’s monarch. As above, so below; looking at the clips above, so it seems from my POV that T-Swizzy is to the mainstream and music what Kanye isn’t. Par for the course though, everything she’s not makes him everything he is.

“I am a neo-luddite, goodbye.”

Lily Allen’s heretofore final tweet

is beginning to look like a great recap of 2009. Neo-luddism is finding a renaissance from Lily’s anti-piracy crusade, to Jay-Z “all black everything”’s anti-autotune coup. As they say, “as above so below…”

Watch this space: as the year draws to a close, it is looking more and more like the end of one era — you know, now that Woodstock, Sesame Street, and the Gap, like Jay-Z, are on their 40th run around the calendar and on their way over the hill — on the brink of the next cultural and generational frontier. Just as quickly as technology dictated the past decade — how we communicate, how we connect, with whom we connect at such immediate frequency, the vast archives of information at our fingertips, the juxtapositional ease in providing and prohibiting the flow of said information, our increased familiarity and understanding of people/places/societies until now foreign to us, our ability to create new and innovative forms of art/music/expression/science/medicine — its inundation and our dependence/preoccupation on this new media turned this miracle medium into a detriment to authenticity and basic human interaction. Now we are seeing a backlash: from the banning of Twitter in various settings, to the FCC’s blogger-centric regulatory proposals, to the general view of social media as a somewhat narcissistic, basically superficial, means of recreation; not considering that social media is a medium merely a channel that transfers content. While the medium is amazing, and is a message in its own right, Twitter for instance is a throughway for human ideas and their exchange. Just like magazines, television, offer entertainment-based programs, just as there are public broadcast, news, scientific, etc. stations, so Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr offer entertainment, news-oriented, etc. content and conversation — Twitter the medium, the tweet remains the human message. That said, we are seeing a digital coup de etat from the top down. It’s about balance and perspective, take the Mac/PC/Web 2.0 enigma off the pedestal, integrate it into culture, instead of fragment and treat it as a separate entity (a la “The Social Media” as opposed to the media — like print, like broadcast, etc.) and it won’t be a problem. This should be interesting to see how the neo-neo-luddites impact the coming year.

Watch that space: Truth is truth. At the end of the day, technology is only as powerful, useful, significant, and effective as we make it — we are the authentic soul behind the artificially intelligent cold. Drummers are born with that spirit; because, well, it’s hard to have a drum machine keep the heart of the beat.

My Two: F.I.L.A. Waffle House

It’s that time of year again, where the temperature drops and the Fall is distinctively in the air. I miss DC now more than ever, but as I bid it adieu I must admit, I’m finding more and more reasons why Forever I Love Atlanta.

Any city worth anything is a canvas of culture: streets, citizens, local staples, illustrating stories and letting the ordinary extraordinarily unfold at every moment. It’s not what you look at, it’s what you see. Atlanta bursts at the seams with effortlessly juxtaposing overtones and undertones endlessly ebbing and flowing about the red clay.

Went to Waffle House today with my little brother while our car was getting serviced over at Dekalb Tire (on Roswell. nice people, comfy chairs, free coffee and Splenda. thumbs up). If you don’t know about Waffle House, Google it. If you haven’t been inside a Waffle House , you’re probably a northern aggressor or haven’t ventured east of an In n Out Burger since your first bite. If you haven’t eaten at  a Waffle House, you’re either one of the aforementioned and/or you have ventured into a Waffle House and took its charm for borderline health violations.

Either way, WaHo is an experience. If nothing else, it’s Americana at its best

Like beam of sunlight pointing out the promised land, like a beacon of hope cutting through the storm clouds — albeit a weathered and worn beacon, more like a 30 watt beam of light gesturing in the general direction of a promised land…

Look at that: Americana right when you walk in the door

WaHo knows there’s nothing more refreshing in the morning than that red, white, blue, and a cup of joe for you (for an extra $.60 you can splurge with Splenda — should’ve gotten my condiments from DeKalb Tire)

My country ’tis of thee: Manager’s Specials as American as Apple Pie — lo siento, pastel de manzana

Waffles so good they even get their makers’ mouths to water — so to speak

Delicious.

Watch this space: Bienvenidos al “Melting Pot.” Waffle House, siempre tu vecino abajo la calle with the down home cooking…

Peachtree Speaks: Atlanta on Healthcare

As H1N1 claimed the life of its second Georgia citizen recently, it was an interesting day along Peachtree to see what the streets say about Atlanta’s take on Healthcare Reform…

Atlanta:

can’t live without Grady …

but if the government is paying for your life-saving operation there, some Atlantans would rather die (bumper sticker: Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)

Watch this space: What I see is public transportation emphasizing the importance of healthcare — the public good. While the man in this pickup truck is of a tad different ilk. Everything in the healthcare context: the driver may not be riding in a Benz, but at least 1) it’s his 2) the government doesn’t have their hands on it 3) he’s not sharing it with you … I wonder what his two cents are on Summer Rockefeller’s death of H1N1. I wonder if he’s donating any money to help her parents pay the medical bills — seeing as they both lost their jobs, health insurance, and daughter — because the government isn’t the solution to a problem like healthcare anyway…

As above, so below…

After a bit of confusion as to what to blog about, I’m going to veer off into the sociologist place for a bit, but still with the public communication slant. Every advertisement is a story, every label/bumper sticker/etc. is an advertisement, so we’ve got stories all around. Truth is stranger than fiction so why not shift focus to the people and products advertising reality…

Yeah, life is seeming very Trap-ish. Either way, Atlanta is a fascinating city that loves labels (from denim to demographics, and good gravy how many bumper stickers can one car have? Atlanta’s answer: not enough) so I’m going to take a second look at what Atlantans say about themselves without opening their mouths.

The (long) story behind the blog direction du jour…

Lately I’ve been in a writer’s rut. I’ve been trying to get some structure and focus to my blog — but to no avail. So, I stepped back and just thought about what I could write about that 1.) I could actually write about 2.) people could theoretically, and realistically, read 3.) has some value. Not that any of the aforementioned criteria are met by my conclusion, but I figured at the core I am a communicator. I am a medium — and thus a message by logic. I tell stories, I build stories and meanings from what I absorb in my day-to-day. I love the style of pop culture (clearly) but I love the authenticity of the general public. Being a Public Communications major and Sociology minor I like the dichotomy of the perceived/portrayed and the real.

That said, just as traditional advertisements are brilliant depictions of our idealized selves (that which we aspire to be, through material goods of course, etc.) manifested from hours of focus groups and market research on our actual selves (that which we are, primarily founded upon those material goods, etc. that we currently lack); so people’s clothes, homes, cars, gadgets, etc. are equally brilliant depictions of who we are, but more importantly because identity through brand loyalty is founded upon how we want people to perceive us.

Long story short: as above, so below. Highlighting, analyzing, and dissecting broadcast advertisements is like solving a puzzle: someone put that advert together after highlighting, analyzing, and dissecting a target audience, all you have to do is figure out what means what. Highlighting, analyzing, etc. people and their personal adverts (because in this hyperconsumerist world we are essentially walking billboards, whether it is a company or a cause) though  is much more interesting because it reflects the effects/influences of formal advertisements, but leaves so much more open for interpretation of what it all means because there was no marketing team in your room telling you to wear what you wore today (they were on your living room tv).

Digress, digress.

Point: Deciphering traditional ads is fun, but we live in a world of walking billboards. I figure the stories behind common people like myself are more relevant and fresh than the stories behind a corporation — why not decipher what I see in the day to day?

It’s hard to have a writer’s rut for long if you just open your eyes and say what you see. It may be similar to someone else’s view, but rarely is it identical. As Thoreau said, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see,” and we all see things differently. For the next few posts I’ll smatter a bit of traditional adverts, but mostly around town shots of people promoting themselves.

Watch this space: we’re drowning in information and starving for knowledge, I’m just trying to make sense of the deluge; even if not immediately, at least I have a record so I can rationalize it all when I come up for air. Everything’s an advertisement, there’s a million messages just waiting to be read; if the world was  Blackberry, it’d be nothing but red flashing lights.

Look Ma, no wires! Powermat cuts the cord

This commercial changed my *bleep*in life — so simple, so basic, so necessary, so overdue it’s vulgar: Powermat must be a sin

If humans can recharge by simply laying down on a surface — comfort optional — why can’t our new best friends? Powermat takes wireless to the next level with their line of cordless charging stations for Blackberries, iPhones, and Nintendo DSes.

I know what I’m getting my Curve for Christmas: matching linen (BFF roomies? Totes McGoats!)

Watch this space: You thought you were wireless before… tisk tisk. Cut the cords, they’re so two thousand and late — unless you’re this guy, in which case, you’re always in vogue