Tag: DVD

Ads during downturn

You might think that business are spending less on advertising during the down turn. Think again. Financial, insurance and banking, all pumped more ad dollars into the system.

Meanwhile, more VC‘s are of “angel” nature (this explains why Facebook can afford taking its time before next year’s IPO), the 21st century version of Independent Film producers Model.

Just as we need to see growth, we all read about Google and ATT facing anti-trust hearings.

Maybe they should pump more dollars into PR’s and ads e.g. “we are the good guys!” But Yelp is yelling for help.

Talking about ads. Last week, we saw something so “black Friday’ish” at Target.

Its site crashed. Its stores ransacked.

Wow!

What recession?

It is to show that Costco and Target are reading the signs of the time right.

The former gives people peace of mind, in bulk.

The later, affordable clothing, in style (its demographic target: stay-at-home moms but want to get in with the action – fashion wise).

Ad has always been at the forefront (even during the time of war “Uncle Sam wants you”).

It nudges and leads the public opinion. It helps Netflix CEO draft  a written apology (e-mail blast).

It reinvents, renames companies and divisions (Netflix and Qwikster, streaming and snail-mailing) and erases (un-branding) names (remember Cingular?).

It could even handle personal “exit strategy” i.e. NYT obituary (of Mondale’s and Ted Kennedy‘s daughters).

We need copy writers. We need ad men and women.

They persuade, inform and entertain us, even during the down turn.

It’s so counter-intuitive for companies to spend more when they know consumers are spending less. When we come out of this Recession, advertising will be reaping a huge reward both on and offline. Advertising has proven to be resilient across multi-platforms : successful companies rely on ads by choice, suffering companies  rely on ads by default (can’t afford opportunities cost). Ads during the downturn.

And the band plays on

Your corporate planners booked an award trip at a remote location, complete with mixer party and Gala. Except for the entertainment part. How would you feel? Just pop in a DVD, have a few drinks? or resort to karaoke to save a few bucks?

We need artists, musicians and singers. We need actors who can portray a range of personalities.

Before music, there were words. Writers and coders who recorded human earliest attempt to leave behind and beyond death, some forms of communication. See me, hear me.

We need to acknowledge and be acknowledged.

Throw me a line, pass me the salt. Buy me a drink, show me the way.

In hard times, consumers cut spending (high gas price), hence live entertainment often is first to go.

But when music starts, we feel a surge of emotion, the affective. I did not know until recently that the Deer Hunter piece was also played by the Shadows (famous for Apache).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6gpa8nUa70&feature=related

The underlining sense of loss, of coming back to a no-longer home, because one has changed completely inside. It doesn’t matter that the same ensemble are still there. What changed was your view of the world, ill-exposed. Robert De Niro had to duck in the back of the taxi (while he never bent in war zone) urging it to drive pass the welcome home party. Shame, loss, self-alienation, self-recrimination. What on earth are we doing to ourselves. After putting a man on the moon, we could not bring him back to the welcoming arms of friends.

It’s not war that kills. It’s the shadow of war that lingers on, eating you up one cell at a time. Until you wake up one morning, and wish it were hell right then and there. He had to be back to the war zone, to get his friend out. Marines don’t leave marines behind. The choppers on the roof. The looting and shooting. Every man to himself. Baby got tossed over barbed wires at the embassy in hope of getting picked up by choppers (they must have confused between Operation Baby Lift vs Operation Frequent Wind) just to land on top of the Soviet-made tanks the next day for photo ops. Soldiers of the same side shooting civilians and each other. Commanders took their own bullets, an act viewed as coward for fear of reprisal , or bravery in the tradition of samurai.

A city under its own siege, like a three-legged stool, unable to decide which side to stand on. Money changers and side switchers.

The losing side lost their shirts. Underwent a humiliating stripping process at the camp. A coke and a sandwich, received with grace from the priest’s hand as if it were communion (not yet wading clear of the water, hence, like a forced baptism by fire and by water). Army in retreat. Democracy retrenched.

Lives got rebuilt. One toilet at a time, evacuees need to make a “janitorial decision”. Reverse social order. What’s your income level? Let’s see if you are qualified.

“Band on the run” was played over the radio while visas got processed. Temporary shelters, short-term mindset.

Life on hold. Future on pause. The sky is the limit except for turning back. “Do you know, where you’re going to” (Theme from Mahogany). ( Diana Ross)

And the band plays on. We need new tune for new times. Who needs liberal arts folks. Just let the machine synthesize.  So we got lip sync, and karaoke. One-man band and computer-generated poetry. Algorithm and outsourced blog.

Back to our corporate planners. At the end of the retreat, should you have it all out with a night of karaoke or hire professional musicians to show us “a time of your life”, when you still dream, explore possibilities and pursue “creative destruction”. Instead of urging employees to “think out of the box”, we should have never put them in one.

But if we did , the least we could do is to change the tune once in a while, knowing full well music started out with locked-in 7 notes. Yet the band plays on, each time, rendering a different interpretation. Try Catavina with different musicians: all out-of-the-box.

Digitally remastered

Pink Floyd is rushing their digitally remastered CD box set for back2school season. Its last.

End of an era. “The Wall” is coming down and we “don’t need no education”. Just download it.

News for free. Music for free. Phone calls for free. Even when you ask the butcher for a cheaper cut of meat, that saving ends up going to the gas stations, who in turn, pay a hefty fee to the credit card companies.

(or if you are still in college, the digitization of all things helps off-set some of your inflated tuition).

Our ecosystem seems a bit skewed: the bohemian life-style is forever subservient to global oil companies and their middle men (BTW, still with tax subsidies, which pay for their TV positive spin).

Pink Floyd moans a lost era when arts and artists (with photographs and snippets) could collaborate to offer the audience a fully integrated experience. A community of music lovers, who don’t mind sitting on the floor and grow their hair just like performers on stage. In short, they did what the Arab Spring folks are doing except that the Flower Generation engaged in much more than just social change: they revolutionized music-buying, concert-going experience, new economic/environment models, spiritual awareness (with a tilt toward Buddhism and Hinduism) and race/gender equality.

The look on the faces of Woodstock organizers said it all “look, this is beautiful” (as opposed to: “man, they crashed the gates and we couldn’t collect their money”).

The same is happening today with open source and digitization of all things, including music and books.

While still ” don’t need no education”, Pink Floyd is rushing against the clock to finish its project, served as a bookend to a bygone era. I know I won’t buy another box set after this any way. They know it. I know it.

After all, they were the ones who wanted to do away with their previous generation to begin with. Talking about a bygone era. See also Francois Hardy’s “Tous les garcons et les filles” (de mon age, ce promene, dans la rue”).  Now, no one wants to go out for a stroll (or a Sunday drive, given the gas price). Just log in, and tweet.

Machine and Me

Sir Chaplin showed it best in “Modern Times”.

Jacques Ellul took a step further to analyze all things “technique”. The 70’s OPEC oil embargo triggered  cost-cutting craze, starting with the elimination of gas station full-service to Smart cars and EVs.

I took a trip this past Thanksgiving. At rest area, the vending machine took my money and spit out my choice 1A6 (translation: dark coffee with cream, no sugar). With SunPass I did not have to stop and pay at the toll booth.

Of course, at rest area, the air dryer helped dry my hands. At the outlet mall, I had a massage by a chair

(only after I fed the machine my 5-dollar bill.)

I picked up something at Home Depot whose self-checkout allows me to scan my merchandise (while the cashier played loss prevention). On Halloween, they even put up a mean looking monster to stare down at home-builders.

When I got home, tired from the trip, I rented a video at Red Box. And while at it, I might as well filled my water at the machine next to the  prepaid calling card and blood-pressure machines.

I could have taken some pictures in one of those kiosks. But I saved money by using my digital camera, and print out Thanksgiving pictures ( no longer a trip to the Kodak store).

Pretty soon, they will have machine that can give you a flu shot. I already got my stamps from the post office machine.

Coffee, gas, photo, DVD , pre-paid calling card, stamps, water, highway toll, photo , car wash, water, air pump, laundry, kitchen appliances, I-pod, shaving kit. Car alarm (You stand too close to the vehicle, step back), GPS, remote control, alarm clock, unmanned aircraft, Stair Master, and IRobot to clean your house.  I am too tired to clean house, so I drop my clothes in the wash, pop in the DVD, and set my alarm. That was after I managed to check my email on the computer and warm my food in the microwave.

No wonder we don’t need people. Where have they all gone, long time passing? No wonder in Buffalo, NY, the last of the station attendants startled me when he asked if I needed to fill up. I thought that was a panhandler trying to hustle me.

The Machine Age is here. And someday, machine will make more advanced machines as they interact and evolve. Did I mention the ATM’s? My bank closes at 4PM, sending me to the machine today. I can hardly get face-time with any teller. Cherish the chat, “organic relationship” (this makes off-shored call centers heavens on Earth: “I understand what you mean” really?) . When we have a face-to-face with someone, we can read  non-verbal cues: facial expression, body language.  Tommy was left playing the pinball machine, and he moaned “See me, feel me, touch me, heal me”. Machine will stay behind in Goodwill long after we are gone. It’s those human who are close to us (and even not so close ) that matter. Family, and larger human family (social networking?), united against the machine – Trust not that which doesn’t brush its teeth, gives you poor service, yet takes your money. Try to get a refund by kicking it.

In Michael Moore’s words, “downsizing this!”.

P.S. I kept forgetting to click the ABC icon for the machine to spell check. Can’t live with or without “it” any longer.

 

New voice new vision

I browsed the DVD shelves at my local library (North Palm Beach) the other day, and saw Buffalo Boy next to Brokeback Mountain and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid.  It is by fate that the Cowboy and the Buffalo(boy) found themselves on the same DVD shelf, just like those black and white GI’s names are alphabetically listed on the same Wall (Vietnam Memorial Wall).

It was the intention of movies like  Apocalypse Now and Rambo series to move the American public forward to the next stage of grief. Yet, American are still in denial about Vietnam, thus forfeiting many valuable lessons otherwise applicable to today’s conflicts,  Iraq and Afghanistan e.g. tribal loyalty, theocracy and regional politics.

Of late, emerged a new generation of Overseas Vietnamese filmmakers with bold vision and audacious voice. I saw Powder Blue directed by a Vietnamese film maker. Or Norwegian Wood, a Beatles title, yet  screenplay is adapted from a Japanese novel.

I can’t wait to see it: Beatles’ song, Japanese story and Vietnamese film directing. What a collaboration!

(Just like  Ang Lee directed Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi).

Cowboy or Buffalo(boy), we are all on our epistemological quest (why are we here, where are we going, and how do we get there). With one exception: we are going to get there on horseback or buffalo back, not gas-guzzling Hummer.

That’s for the Chinese upper class. Weaving their Bentley’s in dense pollution.

Buffalo Boy and Cowboy don’t cause further environmental damage: they earn their living on nature and have a certain

reverence for it. Maybe the old way can teach us a thing or two. Plain old truth (have reverence for the things that feed you), just needs a new voice and new vision. Ironically the vehicle (technology) to reach and persuade us (like I Phone and broadband) themselves consume too much energy, creating a cycle of creative destruction. I have pondered about our “disposable society” for quite sometime now. How many automobiles, electronic devices, books and clothes, shoes and ties we have trashed or given to Goodwill on our lifetime! Yet Mother Earth mysteriously heals itself, like recent appearance of an Island after Japan’s Tsunami.

New world needs new worldview and other ways to lend expressions to it.