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I love the beginning of this trailer. I hear the movie is good as well…

One of the funniest bits I’ve seen on there in a while.

Being in a somewhat captive audience on the subway it’s hard not to soak in the visual stimuli provided by advertising on the train. In between the blur of Budweiser and city services ads every so often an ad or a campaign stands out. A more recent series that has burned an image in the back of my brain is an entry from Dentyne to promote their gum. The ads play with the concept that internet technology and culture have wedged themselves in-between actual human contact. The ads use naturalistic photography juxtaposed with plain text representations of common internet phrases and communique. The implicit meaning is that these locutions are insufficient compared to their real-life counterparts and that one should reject the distance created by technology. The warmth of actual intimacy — while chewing gum — is apparently preferable to the sterile distance of online communication. I like the ads. Whenever I board the train and see one I find myself staring for lengthy periods of time but I also feel that I have a completely opposite reaction than the ads direct meaning.

One of the greatest tools several thousands dollars of debt and a film degree have given me is the ability to perform and obsession with imagery analysis. I like the idea that pictures carry a visual vocabulary of meaning. The Dentyne ads to me carry an emotional weight in that their imagery communicates feelings like love, friendship, communion, humanity. They are beautifully shot and really have a sort of aesthetics of the real kind of feel to them. For a while, the reason behind my fascination eluded me, I liked the images but felt off-put by the message. To me the internet is not a de-facto distancing technology, but quite the opposite. It can be used to extend and facilitate real human interaction. It is useful in its supplemental function as a way to find people who might otherwise slip through the cracks and its ability to communicate information like performances, parties, gatherings en masse. When used properly in fact the internet can be the means to an end for real-life human intimacy. It finally hit me when I saw the above image “Friend Request Accepted” and I realized what it was about the ad campaign that stood out.

For me, far from criticizing or commenting on the distance between what these words mean and the representative picture of the women hugging I think the emotional connection I associate with the image and the meaning of the words is one and the same. In a way “Friend Request Accepted” is a sort of virtual hug between two people. What’s bizarre for me is the way in which I realized I had associated emotional significance to such phrases in the same way I attributed the same feeling to imagery. In a way the sterile, unassuming phrases we are accustomed to seeing online become a snap-shot of an emotion that is both visceral and in a way hyperreal.

After all, how often are we conscious of the moments we become friends? I can name many people I would consider close friends but I can’t name the specific point at which that became the case for each relationship. I can think of instances, moments when that connection manifested and I became aware of the reality of our friendship. But, as with many people my day to day interactions are not so much a catalog of those moments of clarity but instead a deluge of taking life for granted. That is what really hits me about this campaign. The isolated clips provide a window into an untapped level of awareness. Whether they be generic computer phrases or beautiful photographs.

Ever felt like the election should be decided by a round of Mortal Kombat? Apparently someone did. FINISH HIM!

Stardolls lets you play dress up with real people (as represented by cardboard-like cut-out dolls). “Aren’t I a little old to be doing this?” you may ask Well I’ll have you know I’m one of the target age groups for the site! See? I fit squarely in group two:

(via Shroomheat)

Yes yes yes yes!! This article by yahoo news (I know! wow.) enumerates a number of issues I’ve been meaning to gather into a thoughtful, drawn-out post. Basically the public subsidy of cars is destroying any possibility for modern American cities to develop more walkable, transit-friendly neighborhoods.

Even though there is tremendous support for transit and ridership has been improving in most states (especially the west) in the last decade development patterns simply haven’t kept up. Easements on parking requirements definitely make sense especially in neighborhoods well serviced by transit. Rather than hurting property values I believe it will be a boon to development as more and more odd-lots are able to be built upon.

Think of the car issue as a running fountain. Basically the more spots you have in a neighborhood the more cars therefore the greater necessity for streets to pipe them further down the line necessitating vast freeways and on and on. The net result is a loss of usable space, robbed from people and given to traffic.

Don’t just listen to me though. Check out this video:
The City is not a Problem It’s a Solution from urbanplanningblog.com.

Basically all I’m saying is that the city is like a turtle and we don’t want to break his back.

EepyBird’s Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

Ooooo! Rainbow-tastic. With a hint of Office Space. (via hrrrthrrr)

http://view.break.com/573200 - Watch more free videos

jeepers! (via Holy Taco)

Just saw one of the best TED talk videos I’ve ever seen: Peter Hirshberg on TV and the web | Video on TED.com. Basically tells a familiar story of the convergence of web and media that was covered in so many classes I TAed at UCSC and gives a glimpse of what I’d like to study in graduate school.

It’s thesis is also compelling as it sort of posits that Tv and computers are in a sort of competition with one another (and very appropriately references Marshall Macluhan). It’s long but worth a watch.