i am glad to be back in buffalo

i like your smile

but will we ever get past that stage of just smiling at each other?

5th annual Global Super 8 day (http://www.squeaky.org/events.html)
friday, january 30, 2004
squeaky wheel
175 elmwood avenue

goodbye phoebe. its been grand. time to start the year anew. too bad, it's only fitting, what with auspicous beginnings and good endings to bad stories.

just a few minutes to new years. it happens to be not just chinese new year, but also korean new year too. to my parents and ancestors i want to let yall know to fret not, i have cleaned house, dusted to my heart's content, and paid debts. this new year starts with double happiness, hopes for prosperity and fortune, and lots of candy treats. gung hay fat choy. gong xi fa cai. happy and prosperous new year to you. and a very happy birthday to you paul..

hello yall... its freezing in my room. turning the heat off over vacation was a bad idea, fo sho. i am so chilly willy. luckily we're handy folks and can make radiators bleed like the best of them.

its time to celebrate the new year, clean room, clear debts and buy shoes. that prolly doesn't make sense. either way, i'd like to share my new years candy with you.

cbs cries foul on peta, moveon super bowl ads (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040116/tv_nm/media_superbowl_dc_1)

according to one of their spokespeople, "We have a policy against accepting advocacy advertising,"

what the hell do they think they're airing every day?

yesterday we saw a commercial for a new schick quattro 4 blade razor that is coming out, newer and better than the three blade razors that exist for your close shaving. the news just reported that in response to this 4 blade razor, gilette is starting production of a battery-powered razor that will come out in may, and will sell for $15. (credit to kevino for predicting the razor blade wars so many many years ago) now, how the hell is that different from spending a few extra bucks on an electronic razor? a battery-powered razor? what kind of sick disposable culture are we living in? it just gets worse and worse and worse. (don't give me 'the people want it, and that's why it exists' argument, i will argue you to the ground).

meanwhile, there's this newer field of psychology (amer. psych. assoc. division 23) called consumer psychology (http://www.psichi.org/pubs/articles/article_52.asp), which in addition to studying consumer behaviors can also lead to many a profession providing consultation to companies about how to get consumers to buy and how to sell better. too bad that this ends up being a field that 'buys into' the buying selling paradigm.

lloyd dobler: i don't want to sell anything bought or processed. or buy anything sold or processed. or process anything sold, bought or processed.

anyways its pretty interesting since advertising and psychology have been tied together since their respective roots. a few years ago i saw this excellent documentary called 'the ad and the ego' in where media critics and educators argued that advertising calls for more and more products to be sold, playing on the psychology of consumers to feel that they need the newer, bigger, badder product. equating love with products, playing on human insecurities, etc. maybe it doesn't seem harmless given the isolated commercial or ad, but when you see and think about the larger message and context it's quite frightening.

and the kicker is..

and then they make the link to the impact that this will have. imagine it, if everyone in china foregoes their bicycles and had an suv instead, where would this get us in terms of global warming? (and yes, they are advertising suvs in china, and have been for a few years now). and those disposable swisher mops, i've heard so many people rave about them... all of this will keep going and going indefinitely, we will fill all of our landfills and keep finding more places to dump.

television turn-off year

since i've been home i have been getting more than my usual dose of television (usual dose = none). and i'm super annoyed by the use of music in tv commercials, especially car commercials. advertisers are using music to play on nostalgia and invoke emotions. this has bothered me for a long time. i mean everyone remembers when nike used the beatles revolution song to sell sneakers right. the list is endless, pepsi's singing rock star endorsements, tarzan boy to sell listerine, modern english to sell burger king food, you all can think of 50 examples off the top of your head, it's by no means a new thing. but the reason im so annoyed. hearing 80s music or indie songs being used in commercials, i just feel like i am that 18-35 year old they're trying to get. by applying just the right formulas of music genre, musical era, to the target demographic-- just play the music that appeals to target population to lure them in, you get the idea how it works.

modest mouse to sell a nissan car (i tell myself it's the damn record company selling them out!), forever young by alphaville for that prom night reminiscence car commercial (to appeal to all of those teenagers who knew the song when it came out and who now presumably have enough $ to buy the car they're selling, plus the young'uns who've heard the remixed dance version who might buy into the image of the cool car), the cure's pictures of you to sel
l
he

wlett packard printers. the rolling stones for shell oil (ok, i haven't heard that one, but mike's angry letter will speak volumes about the injustices about this one).

i could go on and on, but not right now. but in searching for more about psychology and advertising, my google search came across an article called salesnoise: the convergence of music and advertising which features a timeline of the intersections (http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/15/salesnoise.html). too bad the lines here are just as blurry as it was with psychology and advertising.

(ps i want to comment so badly about tv propoganda but later...)

this sign used to be outside the house we'd play at. my cousin decided one day to make the sign more realistic, and added a few brown spots coming from the dog's behind. for good measure, he added a few brown spots coming from the person's behind as well. to my 7 year old self, that was the funniest thing ever. the sign is gone, but the memory lives on.

my song of the day.. fight test by the flaming lips
"I don't know where the sunbeams end
And the starlight begins
It's all a mystery"

tomorrow dotty and i are going to see unicorns play